3 plus 1

Before the Meatball came along, I planned to be generous and give myself 6 months to adjust to life with two kids before jumping back into any games.

That's funny that I thought 6 months was generous enough.

In the weeks before my scheduled C-section, I lay in bed wide awake worrying about how we were going to handle two kids.  I'd sigh loudly and rub my belly.  The hubs would assure me we'd figure it out as we went along, but I couldn't be convinced.  I'd get short of breath and wish I could have a stiff drink to settle my nerves.

And just like after we had Red I couldn't even remember what life without a baby was like, I now can't remember what life with just 1 kid was like.  I mean, I DO remember what that freedom felt like of course.  It's funny how I used to complain about taking her food shopping with me, and now I say to the hubs, "Can I please just take ONE of them??"

Life had other plans in store for me these past 10 months (ten months!?) that caused me to fall off the blogosphere, and that's actually cool with me.  The Meatball came along, and my focus was on breastfeeding him successfully for as long as I could (7 months proud!).  Then I blinked and it was the holidays and my focus was on making it magical for Red.  Sprinkled in there was a family staycation, learning to organize my new day-to-day schedule, and keeping both kids on track to meet their own individual milestones.  The baby developed a flat head because I was afraid for a while to put him on the floor where his big sis could trample him, so I had to work on rounding that out.  Red had to be potty trained, and while she was actually a very ready and willing student and pretty easy to train, learning how to navigate public bathrooms with a preschooler while towing a new baby has been interesting to say the least.  I'm keeping a running list in my head of all my favorite hot spots.  Because, hey popular discount clothing store- do you know what doesn't make me feel like a "fashionista"?  When I have to hold my 3 year old over the sink to pee in your "family friendly" bathroom because the toilet seat and surrounding floor is sprinkled with urine and excrement, that's what.

Baby # 2 simply does not sleep as well as his big sister did.  Red started sleeping through the night at 4 months and has always taken solid naps.  But these last 10 months (ten months!?) have been unlike anything I've ever experienced.  Sleep deprivation makes you crazy, yo.  And I do mean craaaaaaazy.  He's just starting to fall into a sort of schedule, and I use that term loosely.  I spend all week dreaming of Friday night when Dave's on weekend time and I can finally have a stretch of REM at night while he takes the on-call overnight shift.

I did miss writing, but I was also going through a sort of Maslowian Hierarchy of Needs where sleep was a huge chunk at the top of the pyramid, followed closely by food and, somewhere midway down, was showering and brushing my hair.... after that was vacuuming and cleaning my bathrooms.... making sure my family was eating dinner.... well, let's just say blogging was somewhere at the bottom along with diet and exercise.  Now here I am planning the Meatball's first birthday party already and I'm finally finding myself again. I could have churned out some crap for you to read in these past 10 months (ten months!?)  but I have standards, people.

Anywho... thanks for your patience, and for coming back now that I've found me again.