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.
]]>I laughed, but didn’t respond re: the “still blogging” comment. Am I still blogging? Would I be considered a blogger? I want to write – at least twice a day I think of something I want to expound on – but by the time we get the kids to bed, I’m exhausted and I have to do dishes and then work for at least four hours. Nine times out of ten I completely forget that I wanted to write in the first place and the odds are good that if I did remember, I would’ve forgotten what I wanted to write about.
I adore having two kids. I’m glad the Peanut will have a sibling and that we had them relatively close together. Half the time I want to have another (but then the Chop shakes sense into me), but I wasn’t prepared for how hard it would be to have two kids and run a business. When you run a business, it doesn’t matter that you just had a baby – you don’t get maternity leave. Our type of business means we’re always on call and we have hard deadlines – even though some of our clients sent me really nice notes and gifts, they still expect their work to get done right away.
And I get that, completely. I chose this type of work and I’m really glad I did – I actually love it – but there are some days that I really wish I had a regular job where I could leave at five and forget about every night. Where I actually had a vacation with no work at all and where I received 10-12 weeks of maternity leave – and no one called me to do or fix something the day after I gave birth. Where I wasn’t trying to work with two kids wanting attention in the same room, and I feel guilty ignoring them… which means that my best working hours are when they’re asleep.
It’s nine on Sunday night and I just finally sat down. We all got up around 6 (the Bean first, the Peanut an hour later), then I napped for two more hours while the Chop took them both (the only way I’m surviving the nights). Then he napped for two hours while I took them both (a weekend treat)… then the Peanut and I went out to play and for a walk while the Chop stayed with the Bean who’d finally gone down for a nap. The Peanut fell asleep on the walk for fifteen minutes, which somehow negated his two hour nap for the day (ugh). So then there was playing, reading, dinner and a bath. During his bath I made dinner for us (and burned part of it because the Bean got hungry), then the Bean went down for her first long nap at 8. The Peanut went to bed around 830, I washed dishes and bottles and sat down to begin working. The Chop is currently folding laundry, but will start working as soon as he’s done.
But damn, they’re cute.
And this is my favorite page…”I’ll stand down whole armies defending your name.”
Kids, man, I don’t know.*
]]>The day we came home with the Bean, it was “D-da do” and it hasn’t stopped since. D-da has to put him to bed. He has to read to him. He has to feed him. I’ve suddenly become persona non grata and it’s half sad/half annoying. According to books (and everyone), he thinks I’m the Bean’s property now – and he’s mad at me for it. I’m not sure if that’s the case or not, but it’s made life very interesting.
]]>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.
]]>Apparently Adele, who announced she was pregnant a week ago, is seven months along. What. the. hell. With her celebrity, I am shocked she kept it quiet for that long. But if she can, hell, why can’t I?
]]>With that and the baby, I’ve felt like death all day. I took a nap at 1 and didn’t get up until almost 4. And I still feel like I’m sleepwalking.
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