Friday, September 23, 2011

bullet points

Yeah - same song over here I'm afraid.  Busy busy, no time, blah blah blah.  So - a bullet list is the best I can put together at the moment.  Let's go!

*  Elizabeth is on formula now.  I'm still nursing her once or twice a day, but all of her real meals now come from a can.  This was really kinda hard on me.  I'd worked pretty darn hard to turn us around from pumping all the time in the beginning to nursing all the time.  But, once I went back to work - I just didn't have it in me to work as hard as I would have had to work to keep it up.  I am happy that we are still able to nurse at least once a day for the time being.  When I went to go buy our first can of formula - I stood in the aisle for too long trying not to cry.  I wish I could end nursing on my terms instead of struggling with supply issues and underweight kiddos, but alas.  Cognitively, I know it's for the better - but emotionally?  It's hard to admit to yourself that you're just not enough anymore.

*  Related.  Elizabeth is no longer a little underweight string bean.  Well, I mean, she's still really long - but as soon as we started, she rounded right out.  Her cheeks are round now and her little belly sticks out so that it's not quite as easy for her to chew on her toes as it used to be.  Our doctor told us we could bring her in for a weight check anytime we wanted - but it is so obvious that she's a little chunk now - that I'm not at all worried.  Shocker - you feed your kid more food and they get bigger.

*  Elizabeth is doing well.  I feel like I don't blog about her very often.  Mostly because she still doesn't *DO* a ton yet - but she's getting more fun.  Her head control is pretty good now, she can grab things and put them to her mouth, she can roll from tummy to back - although she prefers to roll 1/2 over and just stay on her side.  She laughs and giggles and GRINS.  Oh, she's got such a grin.  It is her single best defense.  No matter how little sleep I got, no matter how bitter I am about it - when she looks at me and does that sparkly-eye grin.  I can't help but smile back and pretend to eat her. Gah.

*  Sleep. Really, E is doing fine.  She generally wakes up once a night.  Sometimes twice.  The problem is when the timing is such that she wakes up close to 5 and wants to be up for the day.  E is not sleeping as well as Abby did at this age by a LONG shot.  But, you know what?  I feel like her sleep is directly proportional to the amount of effort that WE put into it.  With Abby?  Kyle and I had a very strict bedtime routine.  She was down by 7sharp - and she did great.  With E?  She goes down at 6, or 6:30, or 7, or 7:15, or 8:20ish....  It just depends.  So, I mean, how can I expect her to be consistent when we're not?  We're working on it, but....well...news flash - two kids are different than one.

*  Work.  Work is cool.  Going back was not hard and I think that me being a working mom is good for my mental well being and general mood.  I think being a stay at home mom is way harder than me working at the high school.  But, with one caveat.  When I was staying home - I managed to do the mom thing and the house thing most of the time.  I mean, I had time to sweep periodically, fold lanudry, that kind of thing.  I didn't always DO it - but that's just because I'm laaaaaaazy, not because I didn't have time.  But now??  I am constantly amazed that I run out of minutes at the end of everyday.  I need a rollover plan for life.

I mean, I get up at 4am at some point and go to work, then I come home and play with the kids and take Kyle to school and (sometimes) cook dinner, and (occasionally) run errands, and I try to at least tidy things every night before it's time to put the kids to bed and then I either veg out or go to the gym....both of those are followed shortly by me passing out.  I mean, when am I supposed to clean the tub?  It took me 2 days to do a load of laundry, another 3 days to get it folded, a day to get the folded stuff upstairs and then, like, I dunno, 2 weeks to put it away?  I have not yet figured out how to juggle mom + work + errands + house.

Maybe it doesn't even matter.

* Neenee.  This is what Abby calls Brittany.  It's cute, and I've found myself calling her that pretty often.  The girls looooooove her.  I feel very blessed that she's taken on the job of watching them while I'm off at the day job.  I know I don't have to worry about them and Abby always has such good days with her.  And Neenee has handled it all so well and so gracefully.  It's not the easiest transition to make - young and childless to instant-mother-of-two.  Just add coffee!  Anyway, it's been great having her around to take care of my wee loves.  Not to mention, it's fun having family around too!  Yay :)

* Yesterday was our 5 year engagement anniversary.

* I like that song 1000 ships that's out now.

* The other day I put some shorts on Abby and she said "These are my shorts, they are Soooooo Stylish."  Funny girl.  None of us know where she picked that up.  She also got a hold of some eye shadow and came up to me with brown streaks all over her face and said "Look mommy! My eyes are just so beautiful"

* We had a fantastic trip to Martha's Vineyard last weekend.  I really do have pictures.  No, really, I do!   Promise. I'll put them up here soon....soonish?  Sometime soon? Maybe?  ....we'll see.

*  Happy Fall!

All right - I hope that will catch me up a tiny bit.  I can already tell that this chapter of my life will be titled "the blur"  It's more important than ever that I take the time to document and remember the details of our days....but sometimes I just get so caught up in living them :)

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