I've had a lot of friends and readers ask, "What's life like with two kids as opposed to just one?" Mike jokes that we're "real parents" now because we have two, but I don't think that's really the case. The challenges and enjoyable moments with two kids are different from one, for sure, but it's all parenting.
Having two kids feels like triage - you look around and see who needs attention more right now and you help them now. Is anyone bleeding or damaged? If so, they're first. After that it's kind of "the one who makes the most noise wins." Because face it - with two kids (almost three and 7 months) there's a lot of noise to be made. I don't know about you, but for me constant noise ups my anxiety level exponentially. So if you continue to make noise (and it's not a happy playing noise) you'll get help from me super quick. Daddy for some reason can block it out.
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| Getting so big |
There's always something going on. I think they've both napped at the same time once. As they both get older there's different challenges. For example, Sage is trying to crawl and has his first tooth poking out. There's lots of frustrated crawling crying and pain crying. But when he's not crying he's a smiley and sweet little boy. He's almost there with the crawling...almost there. I think he still needs to work on his upper arm strength. We played on our hands and knees last night for about 10 minutes and by the end he was wobbly. And that tooth, man. It's poking out to the point where you can feel a point but it's just a little above flush with his gums.
I think as a younger brother he's learned quickly that a big smile will get you attention. If he's playing in his Exersaucer and you pass by he'll give you a big smile and see if he can attract your attention to pick him up. He especially loves Silas. Si gets the biggest smiles and the most "cat calls" from Sage. Sage REALLY wants to be his friend. The sad part is Silas ignores him. But when Si does smile back at Sage, Sage's smile gets that much bigger.
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| Don't let the smile fool you... |
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Silas, being almost three, is all about helping me ("I help you Mommy!") by bringing laundry to the washer (one sock and one blanket), picking up his toys, stirring brother's formula, and trying to pour his own milk (which freaks me out). As someone who usually tries to control everything, it's hard to give up some control to him, but I'm making myself do it because he needs to learn how to put on his own socks and wash his own hands. It's hard to predict now what he can and can't do by himself. I generally just ask, "Hey can you do X?" and observe from a distance. If he's having trouble I'll offer some help. Otherwise I just marvel at what he can do. He can identify all of his colors (except pink for some reason), most of his shapes, can sing songs he's heard often (we heard pieces of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Rain Rain Go Away" the other day on the way home from school, and I heard him singing bits of "When she loved me" from Toystory 2 today), and he can say his numbers 1-10 (and sometimes higher). He will repeat almost everything you say (sometimes creepily similarly to how you said it) and remember most of what you've said. The other day Daddy hid Si's favorite blanket (Blue) and told Si he needed to say "The Magic Word" to get it back. He said, "Abre." Daddy just looked at me, confused. I tried to not spit out my water. "Just give it to him," I said. "What did he say?" Daddy asked. "Open in Spanish." Toddler parents will probably recognize that my son's a Dora fan.
While I may feel overwhelmed some days (and feel relieved when the kids go back to school on Monday) I would not miss everything they're doing for anything. There's nothing better than when someone comes up to you on the couch with Blue and says, "I sit you Mommy" and cuddles up to you. Sure buddy. Cuddle all you want.
"You're right Prospector, I can't stop Andy from growing up. But I wouldn't miss it for the world."
