Hard Things
9 years ago
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
I was just showing Jackson how to play Here Is the Church and Here Is the Steeple, Open the Doors and See All the People...
He said, "Uh, Mommy...Do they run away in cars?"
We had Jonah's 4 month appointment yesterday. He measured 26.5 inches long and 18 pounds, 1 ounce. That makes his 90% for weight and 86% for height, or in other words, the little one. He's been sitting up more. He can sit for a couple of minutes now, but you have to be nearby because he could tumble over at any moment. He hadn't rolled over since his first month of life. I guess he got too chunky and couldn't do it anymore. Yesterday, he was playing super baby and did roll. I think it was an accident, because he looked really surprised. I think he'll get the idea and start rolling again very soon.
He said, "Uh, Mommy...Do they run away in cars?"
We had Jonah's 4 month appointment yesterday. He measured 26.5 inches long and 18 pounds, 1 ounce. That makes his 90% for weight and 86% for height, or in other words, the little one. He's been sitting up more. He can sit for a couple of minutes now, but you have to be nearby because he could tumble over at any moment. He hadn't rolled over since his first month of life. I guess he got too chunky and couldn't do it anymore. Yesterday, he was playing super baby and did roll. I think it was an accident, because he looked really surprised. I think he'll get the idea and start rolling again very soon.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
One Sunday
It's 9:15 on a Sunday. Both boys are upstairs sleeping. This is a small, but big feeling victory. Evenings have been rough lately with 2 kids and 1 parent, and poor Jackson hasn't been asleep before 11:00 in many nights. I carried his blinky sleepy body upstairs and laid down with him for a few minutes to get him to sleep. I was watching his sweet sleeping face and reflecting that today had been a pretty good day. That's not what I'd thought at 11:30 this morning, or at 7 or 8 this evening, those times were a bit more stressful, but the day was also full of many perfect moments. I guess that's why I chose this hectic life with the busy but fulfilling job, the longish commute to the country, and the 2 little boys that fill every waking moment with activity and make working opposite hours from my husband a necessity. Mixed in with all the chaos is a little bit of perfection.
This morning, I got up with the boys and changed diapers, got dressed, and made breakfast. Simple breakfast with chocolate milk and pb&j--the breakfast Jackson most requests, and the one he rarely eats the solid portion of. Nothing special today. Jackson didn't put enough chocolate in the milk, and when I told him to hurry and put the chocolate in, he thought I meant to put it away and returned it to the refrigerator. Then he complained that I hadn't shaken his glass up, and I explained what had happened, so he brought out the chocolate and we tried again with more success. After guzzling the milk, he took a tiny nibble of his sandwich. Then he took too big a bite, and had to spit that out. He took another tiny nibble, but that was it for the sandwich.
I decided to take the boys for a walk today since its finally cooled down enough to go outside. After much fussing on poor over tired Jonah's part and much complaining about which shoes I told him to put on on Jackson's part, I managed to tuck Jonah into the ergo carrier and head out the door. Once we were out, Jackson (who has been pretty obnoxious and attention seeking since Jonah arrived) calmed right down. He held my hand almost the entire trip. He told me he was glad we'd left the stroller home and he said, "Mom, I like having walks with you.". Jonah fell asleep almost immediately (Cheers! This is the first time he's really liked being in the ergo, being big enough to stick his legs out helps, I guess). We only saw 1 biker on our walk today, the birds were out singing en mass, and we found some blackberries on the trail.
Back home an hour later, Jonah and I were hanging out on the futon. I was lying on my back, and Jonah was sitting on my belly lying against my bent legs. Jack came in with this pull along alligator xylophone we have. He was making a terribly commotion on the xylo-gator, then turning around and using his plastic saw on the coffee table to make a rasping noise--back and forth between the two. Every couple of minutes, he'd stop and with a giant grin ask me, "Was that good?" I would tell him what a terrific musician he was. First time, he said, "I'm not a musician, I'm a music player." So I explained how they were the same thing. He'd ask about his performance, I'd praise him, we'd pound it. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Then it was 11:30, and Jonah got overtired (again), and I tried to get him asleep. Jack kept coming in and turning on the lights and finding the noisiest toys he could get his hands on: xylo-gator, click-clack crocodile, elephant sorter with extra crank noises. Add the ringing phone. It was my mom asking about my trip out next week. The phone woke Jason, and I dumped the crying baby on his chest so I could talk to my mom.
When I made it back to the bedroom, Jason had one boy giggling, and the other squeeling delightedly. There's a picture of this and if I extract it from Jason's phone, I'll post it here. Then Jason was getting Jonah to sleep. He gave him a binky (Yay! he takes one now) and was talking to him in a whisper. I took noisy Jack down the hall.
After Jonah was down, we went downstairs for lunch/breakfast. Jason had cocoa puffs, I had an Amy's burrito with cheese and salsa, and Jack had crackers cheese and raisins. It occurred to me that Jackson's lunch was a variation on a luchables theme, but the crackers were low salt and whole grain and cheese and raisins balanced out the meal--maybe lunchables aren't so bad. After lunch, I was hit by a narcoleptic wave of fatigue. Chose to sleep with my baby over pulling weeds. Jonah and I slept until 4. I woke to feed him, then had Jason take him away so I could sleep more, and would've if the phone hadn't rung and startled me awake.
Jason left at 4:30 or 5, and the rest of us went into typical hectic evening mode. Try to keep two boys happy, feed Jonah hourly, make dinner for myself and Jackson, feed dogs, get everyone tucked into bed and asleep. I started some tortellini, put Jonah down, let Jackson wear his moonboots to visit the garden for fresh basil. Made a quick pesto sauce. Jackson had a few nibbles, then when I wasn't looking I guess he took too big a bite and spit it back into the bowl. Had to scrape slobbery pesto off the top, Jonah started to fuss more fervently, drain pasta, mix with pesto, put food on coffee table and nurse a baby through dinner. Jack complained that he just wanted pesto sauce, no noodles. I tried to cut a noodle into pieces so he could take a little bite, and ended up dumping my plate over onto the floor where it shattered. Clean up, fussy baby, attention seeking preschooler...Settled back in. Got myself and the baby fed. Sliced up some garlic bagette for Jack and spread it with new pesto (dried basil this time around). We're out of milk, again.
Took Jonah up to change him, tuck him into his sleep sack, and put him down. Saw dog throwup on the floor and chose to leave it for 10 minutes to put Jonah down. Jack stepped in it 5 minutes later, so I had to pull Jonah off the breast and leave him fussing, carry Jack to the tub where he refused to get in (I sprayed milk all over the place on the way), ran water in tub, cleaned up dog vomit, washed Jack's feet and hands and dried him off, came back to finish feeding Jonah and get him to sleep, Jackson went back downstairs to finish eating. When I came back down, Jack said he was hungry and cold and I noticed his rapidly blinking sleepy eyes. So I got him a glass of milk, carried him up to bed, and rolled him up into his fuzzy blanket. I brought him his stool so he could put his 1/2 full and then empty milk glass on it. Then I laid down with him and watched his eyes blink closed.
I'm having a little bit of "me time" now. Quick blog post, load the dishwasher, put a couple of work hours in to make up for time I missed earlier in the week. Today was a pretty good day. Goodnight.
This morning, I got up with the boys and changed diapers, got dressed, and made breakfast. Simple breakfast with chocolate milk and pb&j--the breakfast Jackson most requests, and the one he rarely eats the solid portion of. Nothing special today. Jackson didn't put enough chocolate in the milk, and when I told him to hurry and put the chocolate in, he thought I meant to put it away and returned it to the refrigerator. Then he complained that I hadn't shaken his glass up, and I explained what had happened, so he brought out the chocolate and we tried again with more success. After guzzling the milk, he took a tiny nibble of his sandwich. Then he took too big a bite, and had to spit that out. He took another tiny nibble, but that was it for the sandwich.
I decided to take the boys for a walk today since its finally cooled down enough to go outside. After much fussing on poor over tired Jonah's part and much complaining about which shoes I told him to put on on Jackson's part, I managed to tuck Jonah into the ergo carrier and head out the door. Once we were out, Jackson (who has been pretty obnoxious and attention seeking since Jonah arrived) calmed right down. He held my hand almost the entire trip. He told me he was glad we'd left the stroller home and he said, "Mom, I like having walks with you.". Jonah fell asleep almost immediately (Cheers! This is the first time he's really liked being in the ergo, being big enough to stick his legs out helps, I guess). We only saw 1 biker on our walk today, the birds were out singing en mass, and we found some blackberries on the trail.
Back home an hour later, Jonah and I were hanging out on the futon. I was lying on my back, and Jonah was sitting on my belly lying against my bent legs. Jack came in with this pull along alligator xylophone we have. He was making a terribly commotion on the xylo-gator, then turning around and using his plastic saw on the coffee table to make a rasping noise--back and forth between the two. Every couple of minutes, he'd stop and with a giant grin ask me, "Was that good?" I would tell him what a terrific musician he was. First time, he said, "I'm not a musician, I'm a music player." So I explained how they were the same thing. He'd ask about his performance, I'd praise him, we'd pound it. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Then it was 11:30, and Jonah got overtired (again), and I tried to get him asleep. Jack kept coming in and turning on the lights and finding the noisiest toys he could get his hands on: xylo-gator, click-clack crocodile, elephant sorter with extra crank noises. Add the ringing phone. It was my mom asking about my trip out next week. The phone woke Jason, and I dumped the crying baby on his chest so I could talk to my mom.
When I made it back to the bedroom, Jason had one boy giggling, and the other squeeling delightedly. There's a picture of this and if I extract it from Jason's phone, I'll post it here. Then Jason was getting Jonah to sleep. He gave him a binky (Yay! he takes one now) and was talking to him in a whisper. I took noisy Jack down the hall.
After Jonah was down, we went downstairs for lunch/breakfast. Jason had cocoa puffs, I had an Amy's burrito with cheese and salsa, and Jack had crackers cheese and raisins. It occurred to me that Jackson's lunch was a variation on a luchables theme, but the crackers were low salt and whole grain and cheese and raisins balanced out the meal--maybe lunchables aren't so bad. After lunch, I was hit by a narcoleptic wave of fatigue. Chose to sleep with my baby over pulling weeds. Jonah and I slept until 4. I woke to feed him, then had Jason take him away so I could sleep more, and would've if the phone hadn't rung and startled me awake.
Jason left at 4:30 or 5, and the rest of us went into typical hectic evening mode. Try to keep two boys happy, feed Jonah hourly, make dinner for myself and Jackson, feed dogs, get everyone tucked into bed and asleep. I started some tortellini, put Jonah down, let Jackson wear his moonboots to visit the garden for fresh basil. Made a quick pesto sauce. Jackson had a few nibbles, then when I wasn't looking I guess he took too big a bite and spit it back into the bowl. Had to scrape slobbery pesto off the top, Jonah started to fuss more fervently, drain pasta, mix with pesto, put food on coffee table and nurse a baby through dinner. Jack complained that he just wanted pesto sauce, no noodles. I tried to cut a noodle into pieces so he could take a little bite, and ended up dumping my plate over onto the floor where it shattered. Clean up, fussy baby, attention seeking preschooler...Settled back in. Got myself and the baby fed. Sliced up some garlic bagette for Jack and spread it with new pesto (dried basil this time around). We're out of milk, again.
Took Jonah up to change him, tuck him into his sleep sack, and put him down. Saw dog throwup on the floor and chose to leave it for 10 minutes to put Jonah down. Jack stepped in it 5 minutes later, so I had to pull Jonah off the breast and leave him fussing, carry Jack to the tub where he refused to get in (I sprayed milk all over the place on the way), ran water in tub, cleaned up dog vomit, washed Jack's feet and hands and dried him off, came back to finish feeding Jonah and get him to sleep, Jackson went back downstairs to finish eating. When I came back down, Jack said he was hungry and cold and I noticed his rapidly blinking sleepy eyes. So I got him a glass of milk, carried him up to bed, and rolled him up into his fuzzy blanket. I brought him his stool so he could put his 1/2 full and then empty milk glass on it. Then I laid down with him and watched his eyes blink closed.
I'm having a little bit of "me time" now. Quick blog post, load the dishwasher, put a couple of work hours in to make up for time I missed earlier in the week. Today was a pretty good day. Goodnight.
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