The Days are Long, But the Years Fly By

As we were driving yesterday the song "Cinderella" by Steve Curtis Chapman came on. Before we had Emma we would have changed the station in a heartbeat but now lyrics like that have significance. Emma heard the name Cinderella and immediately perked up. Matt told her how he wanted to dance with her to this song when she gets married (I know, he's such a sap! He's so sentimental- once I found a pile of all the movie, concert, show, etc. tickets that we had ever been to together. How cute is that!? Anywho...). Emma started saying, "Cindawewwa? Cindawewwa is dancing with her daddy?" It was pretty sweet and it made me realize just how fast this time goes. Em's going to be going to school and dances and her first date and before we know it, Matt will be walking her down the aisle. Okay, so we have a little bit of time before that happens- but still- it goes by so quickly.

It's so easy for me to wish away this time. I love this age with Em, but having a newborn... eeee... there's just so many times when I catch myself thinking, "I can't wait until he's older. I can't wait for this newborn stage to pass." The time is so fleeting though. I want to appreciate how he cuddles in to my neck when he gets sleepy and how great it is when he looks up at me and smiles. And how good he smells after a bath. I want to remember how Emma looks over at him in the car and starts cracking up just because he's looking in her direction. I want to cherish every moment I have with my kids and live in the moment with them. I want to focus on today, as long as it's called today.

Help! Our Daughter's Scared of Jesus!

So... we seem to have a problem. Tonight Em kept waking up crying. When Matt finally went in to see what was wrong she told him that Jesus was scaring her and that Jesus won't leave her alone. Then I went in again later when she was still crying and saying something else about Jesus that I couldn't understand. Evidently something she's heard about Jesus is freaking her out. Can't say I've ever known a kid to be scared of Jesus. I mean, what could we have possibly said that would make her scared?? And how do we fix it??

Milestones

We had a weekend of milestones...

Milestone #1

Emma pooped on the potty for the first time! She's sat on it many, many times but just yells, "All done!" about 3 seconds after sitting down. I think she would be a lot closer to potty-trained, but I've been putting it off with Jax around. All I need right now is more pee-pee and poo-poo to clean up off the floor. We'll keep working on it though. I'm thinking Sept. is go time.

Nice hair, Em.

Milestone #2

I had my 4 week checkup on Friday and was given the green light to resume normal activity, so Sat. morning I was back at the gym- yeeaaay. Saturday mornings are always a little strange though; I've only been a couple times. It's not the familiar crowd that I'm used to. The Saturday before I had Jax I went and there was this guy I named Labor Man (very creative, I know) that seemed normal enough. One minute he was chatting with me about how his wife and I had the same OB, and the next minute, well, he sounded like he was having a baby himself. I mean, really, if you have to make those kind of noises to workout, maybe you're putting a little too much strain on yourself. I felt very awkward for him, and then I got nervous that people thought that it was me, the only ridiculously pregnant person in the room, going into labor. Then I just started feeling nervous about giving birth. Blast. All these thoughts just because some man didn't follow the clearly posted rule that states no obnoxious noises (or something along that line). Then this Saturday there was a guy that sounded like he was blowing raspberries on a baby's belly with every rep. Except this was so loud that if he were to actually do this on a baby's belly I'm pretty sure the child would fear for his life. Creeeepy.

Milestone #3

Ok- so this one wasn't in our family BUT- one of Emma's little buddies celebrated his 2nd birthday. They had a super fun party which included a blow-up water slide large enough for both kids and adults to enjoy. I suppose that's a milestone for Emma though. Can't say she's ever been on a big, blow-up water slide before. Of course, she loved it. As did I. I'm pretty sure all the daddies had the best time though. Boys and their toys. Plus, there were Kool-Aid flavored cupcakes- mmmm. They've set high expectations for children's birthday parties. We're thinking there will be ponies for the next one. :)

Milestone #4

Matt, Jenna, and I took Emma to see Toy Story 3. Though it wasn't her first movie experience, it was the first movie that she saw at the theater that she actually sat through the whole thing. She loved it as did the rest of us. Matt and I missed a few parts though, trading Jax back and forth as he complained about the movie.

I guess Em wanted to pretend that we were seeing it in 3D.

The Male Anatamy and Other Strange Things

Even though I had four nieces and nephews before my own kids came along, I've never been the best diaper-changer. However, since Em didn't come out potty-trained, I had to step up my game. After two years of intense training, I can say I've mastered the art of changing diapers.

Changing a girl's diaper at least.

Changing a boy's diaper is a whole new ball game in which I am quite an amateur. It's not just wiping and throwing on a diaper anymore. Oh no, this requires strategy. There's time constraints as well. If I don't get in, get out there's going to be trouble. We're talking pee pee all over- clothes, carpets, corneas. There isn't an object (or person) within three feet of my boy that hasn't been christened. You would think I would learn after the first...second...twelfth time, but no. Yesterday he did it three times in ONE change! It felt like a cheap attempt for a laugh in a Will Ferrell movie. Which makes me think that my son is going to be an awesomely funny little dude. But anyways, first shot got him square in the face, poor little guy. As I was cleaning up that mess, his range improved and he shot clear over his shoulder... and left me with a nice little poo as an extra gift. Thanks, Jax. As Matt and I were scrambling to take care of that disgustingness, he continued his shooting spree. Uuuuggg...three diapers and one soaking onesie later, he was in the bath. However, he learned his first lesson in karma today. As we were walking from our car to the park a flock of birds passed overhead. Poor little Jax got pooped on. Ahahaha. Ok, I'm not really a horrible mother laughing at my 3.5 week old getting pooed on. It was disgusting, but thankfully it only landed on his leg. But maybe next time he'll think twice before pottying all over his parents. :)

What's Happening

Welp, it's only week 3 and I already failed to meet my 5 times o' blogging/week goal...two weeks ago. Whoops. Lucky for me, it was just a personal goal, and I have no one (apart from maybe my husband and mother) breathing down my throat to actually meet it. In my defense of myself, (to myself... since I'm my only accountability) I was in West Palm all last week without Internet...and was sick...and my parents were here. All good reasons to forgive myself for my failure. So there.

What's been going on....

My parents came to town two weeks ago. I can't say I remember much about the first week, apart from feeding the boy often and taking daily smoothie runs. Good thing my parents weren't expecting a fun Florida vacation because I certainly didn't provide that. They were content to hang out with their grandchildren and help me keep my sanity. In fact, my mom somehow even convinced Jax to sleep between 5-6 hours every night that week. Whoa- I felt like a new woman after all that shut-eye. The following week Jax realized that it's much more fun to hang out with Mommy every 2-3 hours during the night again though. He's such a party animal.

Our week in West Palm was pretty uneventful too. I got sick, which meant a lot of time hangin' at the condo. Em really appreciated that. For something to do she decided to experiment with just how naughty a 2 year-old can be. Um, pretty naughty. The combination of being in a new place with a sick mommy, new baby, and no daddy proved too much for my normally good-natured daughter. Devil. Child. She did enjoy seeing Mummi and Marja though. She's been talking about them since we were there in the beginning of April. At the end of the week my parents drove us back and headed out for their cruise. It's always difficult when my family leaves, but this was especially difficult this time, even though we'll be up in NY in just a few short weeks.

The day after my parents left, we headed to Long Boat Key with Matt's family for the holiday weekend. It wasn't the best weather, which worked out well for little Jax. Being at the beach in extreme heat and sunshine with a newborn is not my idea of a good time. Being at the beach with chilly, overcast skies and some rain is. Woo hoo! Everyone else enjoyed themselves too. :) Em loooves the beach. She could spend hours playing in the sand and waves. She even boogy-boarded for the first time. What a champ! With the help of a little daddy discipline she had also thrown off her attitude by the weekend too, thank goodness.

And now here we are. Jax is a gassy mess who hasn't slept hardly at all in the past 24 hours. If he's not feeding he's grunting. Or pooping. Or grunting and pooping. Rarely sleeping though. Neither are his mommy and daddy. I'm having trouble thinking clearly, and looking forward to the day when the newborn sleep deprivation fog clears.

Welp- my parents are in town and my mom has Jax until his next feeding. I'm going to bed. :)

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming...

My wise husband realized last night that he would get a lot more sleep if I got a little more sleep, so he took an earlier-than-in-the-mid-middle-night-holding-screaming-Jax shift (I think it shaved my heavy sighs for the night in half- I know, I sound like a huge brat...and I'm sure I am, but it's really hard to not be running on no sleep). Julie also soothed him for a while so both of us could sleep. Both of these things definitely made all the difference in me not losing my sanity completely. It's amazing how a couple hours of sleep can keep you from going nuts. :) Plus, it's 3 in the afternoon and I just woke up from an hour long nap, and both kids are still sleeping. I don't even have to worry about attempting to blog later on. Life is good.

Things I need to remember-

- Patience with my daughter. She's only two. She's a nurturer and wants to help me. Even if it's annoying, let her as much as possible. Speak kindly to her and give lots of hugs.

- It's okay that I can't get out of the house before 11:00. This just means that the day goes by that much faster. Isn't that what I want for the next several weeks!? Running errands will take longer too until I get in the groove. I knew that this would be a big adjustment because I remember how much I had to adjust with just having one kiddo.

- Everything will get easier. Really. I know it will. I feel like such a wuss even saying that it's anything but easy since I have so many helping hands. That's just silly to think though. I just had a baby, have a very sore body still, and raging hormones. Give myself a break, right? Now I feel bad saying that. Geez. I'm such a woman.

- Be sure to show my husband how much I love him and appreciate him. It's easy to just go about all the baby business and ignore him. I know this will get better in the coming weeks as things calm down, but I really don't want to just shove him in the background. He's been pretty great. And I sure feel a lot better when we get to have some cuddle time. :)

- My friends will still be my friends, even if it takes days to answer phone calls, texts, facebook messages, etc. They've all been here before. I never felt bad when they didn't get back to me after they had babies, and I'm sure no one else feels bad either.

- Play loud music in the car- it helps. It's also so fun to listen to Emma try to sing along. Ha- it always brightens my day!

Aaahhh...and just keep swimming. Dory is so wise.

Uuuugggg

Jax has been up until 5:30 in the morning the last two nights, and it's looking like it may go that way again tonight. Emma has an ear infection. My mind is jello. Matt went back to work yesterday, so wasn't much of a help last night. He endured heavy sighs and updates from me about how I was still awake each hour though, so I'm not sure he got much more sleep either. Whoops.

Oh- and I keep breaking out in hives on my legs and now my arms. What's that all about?

On a brighter note- my parents come tomorrow. Woo hoo!

As of Late

While Matt was changing Em's diaper today she said to him, "Oh man, I had to pee so bad!" Ahhhahaha. I'm guessing she picked that one up from her water guzzling momma.


In other news...


Jackson was born a week ago today, which means...we've survived our first week! Success! And we're even relatively sane still! Since being on Zantac his sleeping has improved so much. He's a pretty content little guy, and mostly reserves his screaming for his daily blowouts. Seriously, these newborn diapers just aren't keeping it in on his scrawny lil bod.


We went to the design studio today to pick out new carpeting, laminate, and paint colors for our house. Yeeay! Since our house was an inventory house, we weren't able to pick out any of these things, so it's really nice being able to make a few changes. Oh- I got my white blinds too! I can't wait to see everything together. Hopefully we'll like it.


I'm pretty exhausted today, and really hoping that Matt and I will be able to just chill out a bit and watch a chick flick tonight. A couple nights ago, our movie night didn't turn out quite the way I was hoping. We watched The Book of Eli. Not really what I had in mind. I mean, I love weird, blood-bath movies as much as the next girl buuuut...come on now. I could handle it all of ten minutes before I realized I'd much rather read...or sleep...or do laundry. Heck, I'd even watch Man vs. Food. Tonight I pick the movie though. There's been way too much testosterone flowing through the t.v. between the World Cup and the NBA finals. I'm thinking maybe When in Rome or Dear John. Though today I saw a cute little chubby girl wearing a sequined shirt today that made me want to watch Little Miss Sunshine. :) We shall see.

My Girl

Ok I just finished nursing and looked down at my chest and for a split second thought, "AAAHHH my nipple's missing!!" Then I realized that I had just snapped up my nude-colored nursing bra.

Phew.

Anywho...

I was told several times that one of the hardest things about having a second child is dealing with all the feelings of change for the first child. We knew that we were probably going to have to deal with behavior issues and hurt feelings with the transition from only chid to big sister. What I didn't realize was that hurting your two-year old's feelings because they don't feel completely loved by you is one of the worst feelings in the world.

Overall, Emma's done a great job adjusting to this new little squirt that's in the house. Of course it helps a ton that she has lots of people around to pay attention to her, so she doesn't always notice that her parents are a little distracted. When she first came to the hospital to meet Jackson she looked like she was about to cry. She warmed up quickly though and reluctantly planted a kiss on him after some coaxing from Daddy. She even held him for a good three seconds before yelling, "All done!" and started running around the hospital room showing off for all of us. She was not going to be shown up by this little goober. She wasn't quite sure about how felt about me though. She came into bed with me a couple times but wouldn't stay long. When we got home from the hospital she wanted nothing to do with me. She spent lots of time with her daddy, but stayed away from me unless Matt made her go to me. Just stab me in the postpartum heart. Good thing for my emotional well-being her cold-shoulder only lasted a day or two.

She quickly warmed up to her little brother though. Our second day in the hospital she was much more comfortable and constantly wanted to kiss and play with "Sackson". It was the same way when he came home. She payed close attention to everything he did and kept telling us how cute he was. In fact, she wanted to touch him all the time. I mean, all the time. And push on his head. And nose. And eyes. And well, you get the point. She was very excited, which was great. Mildly annoying but great. I think she realized that she would get a reaction from mommy and daddy when she would poke and prod at him. I guess when you're two and suddenly have to share your parents' attention, you'll do what you can to keep as much of it as you can, regardless of the consequences. We've tried to balance the fine line between being gentle with her little feelings and being firm about obeying and not causing her baby brother bodily harm.

It all came to a head last night around bed time. She kept waking up fitfully and crying out for us. We just had to pop in and give her a quick pat for her to stop crying. At one point though I was with Jackson and Matt had run out for a few minutes, so Grandpa tried to calm her down. As soon as Matt went in to get her she took one look at him and her little chin started trembling and she started crying one of those sweet, pathetic cries. So we held her and cuddled her for a while. She was just so sad, and we knew she didn't even understand why. We both laid in bed with her, rubbing her head. Again, just stab me in the postpartum heart. I just wanted to keep holding her, and just make her know without any doubt how very loved she is and how that will never change, no matter how our lives change.

Today we ventured out to swim and run some errands together as a family of four. I really liked it. Hopefully my baby girl did too.