We’ve had two kids for 11 months now – the Bean is trying to walk already – and it’s been a wild ride. Running a business from home while two kids run wild has been… challenging, shall we say.

2014 is going to be a crazy year – my sister is getting married, we’re taking a big family vacation in August and we’ll hopefully be spending our fifth anniversary somewhere great. And while 2013 was rough, it was also wonderful and I learned something very important: two is better than one.

And this is my favorite page…”I’ll stand down whole armies defending your name.”

Kids, man, I don’t know.*

*I am completely unable to articulate due to exhaustion.

September, 2012: My parents did the final move up north. I picked up my Mom and sister at the airport at 8PM and headed up to her new place, reaching our hotel by midnight. The next day we visited the new place and cleaned like crazy (the previous owners had not cleaned as they left – oy veh) late into the night. The movers arrived the next day. Then my parents’ good friends arrived to help for a couple of days. The whole ordeal was, quite frankly, a shitshow and I was so happy to head home. The Peanut had missed me.

October, 2012: We went to Mexico with my family. It was awesome, the Peanut loved it, but the day we came home he got sick. And proceeded to hurl on me in the plane – after he demanded I carry him through the airport in Dallas and through customs (while six months pregnant). The flight from Dallas was a nightmare, but then he got sick in the car on the ride home… and I got stopped for speeding (of course I did), with my mother, father, husband and sick child in the car. The state trooper chastised me (I was crying on the way home, hello hormones) for being a bad mother (essentially), but nicely gave me just a warning. The Peanut’s birthday (which was supposed to be the day after we got back) was postponed, and then canceled. Poor guy was sick for almost two weeks.

November, 2012: I turned 30. Wow. And got to celebrate by being pregnant, lol. The pregnancy was really kicking my ass – itchy and exhausted were the two main issues.

December, 2012: My Mom came down for the weekend and watched the Peanut while the Chop and I spent two nights away for our anniversary. The first night we slept from midnight until 3PM the next afternoon – yeah, sleep deprivation is a killer. We spent Christmas up north with my parents and sister and her boyfriend – it was fun, but terribly exhausting and stressful. My Mom is not loving living up north and the Peanut didn’t sleep well… and neither did I. Ugh, pregnancy.

January, 2013: My due date came and went, but three days later we induced when my blood pressure rose slightly. January 29 brought the Bean into our lives and as with the Peanut, the months of pregnancy were completely, utterly worth it.

February, 2013: The first month of being the parents of two was monumental for us. My Mom and sister came out to help us (thankfully) and had a wonderful time with the Peanut, playing with him, taking him out and introducing him to children’s CDs in the car. They cooked, cleaned and held the Bean, and when they left we were bereft. My Mom came back (she was supposed to be here the full month, but went home after two weeks to see my Dad and got sick – she ended up staying up there for a week instead of two days), but then left again to go back west for two weeks. She’ll be back mid-March for a few days, which we’ll love for the extra sleep, but then she’s heading back home indefinitely. Oy.

I managed to keep my second pregnancy under wraps for almost six months, with only our family and closest friends knowing about it. It proved wise and stupid, as most things are.

I delivered Bean on January 29, 2013, and she is a most perfect bundle of joy. I had forgotten a lot about the first few months after the Peanut was born and reliving it again makes me so glad we decided to have another. We’re sleep deprived, but somehow less so than when we first had the Peanut – perhaps it’s because we’re used to it? I’m not sure, but it’s better. The hormones, while still crazy, didn’t affect me nearly as bad as they did the first time and it’s so much less stressful to have a second, once you’ve had the first. We aren’t as terrified and we’re enjoying this baby stage more. It’s fleeting – the Peanut is almost two and a half and he seems huge compared to her.

It’s been seven and a half months since I’ve blogged, a lifetime in blog years, but the blink of an eye for me.

Incidentally the Peanut has taken to poking her in the eyes (and she lets him – wtf), so I think she’ll be more than happy to get some outside time away from his grubby paws.

I’m unduly excited to go shopping for girl clothes.

Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld
Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld, who has died aged 88, escaped from Occupied France to join the Special Operations Executive (SOE); parachuted back on sabotage missions, he twice faced execution, only to escape on both occasions, once dressed as a Nazi guard.

The Chop’s youngest sister called this evening, loaded with baby questions. I embargoed a post about this back in March (and just realized I never published it). She’s a peach and we’re so excited that the Peanut gets a cousin near his age! Particularly since I’m not sure my sister is ever going to get crackin’ in that department.

Except he got one Yo Gabba Gabba episode this evening before bed and when it was over, he stood up, looked at me and asked for “more.” Unprompted.

So yeah, he’s watching a second episode now. I’m such a pushover.

He’s progressed a lot – is eating new foods and trying out new words – but what shocked us the most is that he picked up saying “more” (sign language and the word) in the hour she was here. We’ve been working on it for a few weeks, but for some reason it all clicked today.

I love days like that.