Emerging from the Fog

This is the term someone used recently in describing what it’s like about a month after the second baby is born and you start to return to reality and normal life.  I have to be honest, we are not even close to emerging from the fog.  We are in the midst of it with close to zero visibility.  I am tired, can’t think straight and haven’t washed my hair in 5 days.  Can’t believe I just admitted that.  This is life with two kids under two!  But it’s only temporary.  At least that’s what people keep telling me.

At the moment I am writing this sweet Betsy is fast asleep (something I don’t think will last much longer) and Carson is eating lunch which consists of chicken nuggets, strawberries, cheese and fritos…and ketchup of course.  Here he is finishing it up.  The kid loves ketchup.  He even dips his strawberries in it and asked for it when I told him we were having chicken nuggets for lunch.

He also loves french fries.  We drove through a Starbucks on Sunday and he started saying, “Fries? Fries?”.  Does that mean I’m a bad mom?  Sometimes we base our restaurant decision on whether or not they have fries…

Carson has been a great big brother so far.  As much as any 2 year old can be, I guess.  We are still learning what “gentle” means.  There have been a few times where he starts out really sweetly touching her feet or patting her head and then right when I kind of relax he’ll do something that is less than gentle.  When I’m nursing he wants to climb all over us.  But nothing he’s done has been at all mean.  He thinks she’s funny (even when she’s crying) and calls her cute.  He gives her kisses on the head which totally warms my heart.  He tries to give her “five”.  I know he’ll be excited when she can actually do it!  When she cries he gets this concerned look and says “Baby crying.”  and then goes to check on her.

They both have those Aden and Anais blankets and at first he would try to pull hers off of her, but we have now established that some blankets are Betsy’s and some are Carson’s.  I just have to make sure we’ve remembered to bring one of his blankets downstairs so that he’ll have one of his own.  If he doesn’t have one he gets a little upset and continues to ask for a blanket (which sounds like he’s saying “bacon”) until he gets one.  At first I tried to keep his boy blankets (monkey, elephant, etc.) just for him and her pink blankets just for her, but there have been times when Carson is carrying around a pink polka dot blanket and that is just fine with me.  If no one is crying, almost anything is just fine with me.

He is my comedic relief on hard days and provides some consistency in the middle of an inconsistent life.  I have no clue what Betsy is going to do each day.  Cry all day, sleep all day, sleep for 5 hours at night, wake up every 3 hours at night, go through 3 outfits or 1 in one day, take a pacifier, not take a pacifier?  Carson wakes at 7 (or so) eats breakfast, plays, has a snack around 10:30, plays, lunch around 12, plays, naps at 1, wakes up around 4, play, dinner at 5, bath, milk and umizoomi, sleep around 7.  He is hilarious.  His vocabulary is growing every day and it’s so fun to see him learn.  This is a really fun time with him.

This picture just makes me happy.

 One of the great things about our neighborhood is the parks.  There are 2 that are both really close to us.  Since the weather is cooling off a little we’re going more often.  It’s so good for Carson to get out some energy and good for me to get some exercise!

On the slide with Daddy. 

 On the playground. 

Stealing cokes.

Being silly.  

He was actually very sad about this door being locked.  He kept saying, “Open!” and then would get this sad look on his face, shake his head and say, “No. Locked.”

Loves water puddles.

He likes to help clean.

Loves all things with wheels.

Eats breakfast at his “tablechairs”.  Yes, all one word.

I love these sweet moments.  He won’t always be willing to sit and hold my hand, so I want to make sure I take the opportunities to do it even when it means I don’t get a chance to empty the dishwasher or fold that load of laundry.