day 2: disaster

For as great as day 1 was with me and the kids, day 2 was 180 degrees in the opposite direction...bad. Just bad. I woke up at 2 AM with a fever and the worst stomach ache. And it just didn't get better. When I woke up for good in the morning, my fever was even higher and my energy level was zero. Every bone and muscle in my body ached...to the point where I had to muster every fiber of my being just to pick The Mayor up from his crib and get him changed. How was I going to get through the day with 2 little ones feeling like this?

Luckily, the movie "Cars" kept us entertained until my relief arrived. Thank the Good Lord my husband was able to leave work early and he was home before noon. After a nice nap this afternoon, I am feeling a little bit better. Praying for a great night and that tomorrow morning I am 100%. What a time to not feel well...why couldn't I have been sick when I had a house full of people here ready to help me?

yippee! we survived!

YAY! Day 1 was a success! It really was a great day. Both kids slept in so I was able to get dressed and eat breakfast. The Mayor woke up first so I got him dressed and his breakfast started and then I was able to get Bear up and dressed and feed her while The Mayor ate his breakfast. We were all fed and dressed early enough that I had plenty of time to get diaper bags packed, car loaded up and us to the park where we were exactly on time.

The Mayor had a great time at the Easter egg hunt. He didn't quite get the concept of the hunt...he would pick up an egg and just carry it around. He didn't get that the egg should go in the basket and then you hunt for more. But he was adorable carrying around his eggs...and I did get him to put some eggs in his basket. That's ok...this was good practice for the Easter egg hunt we will have on Easter Sunday.

I treated us to lunch out at one of our favorite sandwich shops to celebrate such a great day. Bear slept while The Mayor and I ate. It was nice having some time with my sweet boy. After lunch it was nap time for him which allowed me some time with my sweet girl. All in all it was a great day. Glad my first day wasn't scary and now I have some confidence to get through the rest of the week. Each day will get better and easier and that is a nice feeling.

carrying around the Easter eggs

finally convinced him to put some eggs in the basket

decorating his cookie

back to reality

Today is the end of my blissful avoidance of what reality is going to be. Tomorrow, I am on my own with both kids. Bear is 2 1/2 weeks old...so that is pretty impressive that I have gone this long with at least one extra set of hands on deck. And in typical fashion, I have something planned for us tomorrow. It is either brilliant or stupid to have planned something, I guess that answer will be evident when we return from our planned adventure. Tomorrow we are going to a local park with my MOM's club for an Easter Egg Hunt. Not only is it an event, but it is an event where The Mayor will be free. Free to roam and run and play. And I will have a 2 1/2 week old strapped to my chest in the Baby Bjorn (which I am going to quickly learn will be my new best friend). She will be contained and happy and I will have both hands free to help The Mayor find his eggs, decorate cookies and play on the playground. And I am almost 100% certain that tomorrow is going to go just as planned...smoothly. I know, I laughed while I wrote it.

Oh well, gotta pull the band-aid off at some point and dive right in. Life can't stop because I have a newborn...The Mayor needs to get out and play and burn off that 2 year old energy. And if tomorrow goes smoothly, then I am a trooper for just diving in...and if it is an absolute nightmare, then I can be proud that I will have survived. So I guess, either way, it is a win-win for me. At least I will keep telling myself that while I am trying to hold back the tears...

my sweet little lady

the way we were

Finally, life is back to normal. And by life, I mean The Mayor. Last week, we were seriously worried we had lost our sweet boy forever. But once our house cleared out and it was just the 4 of us, The Mayor finally settled in and became his old sweet self again. What a relief. And it is making this week with daddy home that much more enjoyable.

Today we had Bear's newborn pictures taken. I can not wait to see the proofs. Our awesome photographer was here for an hour and a half, and Bear was so well behaved. She slept through almost the entire session. It made it a lot easier for our photographer because she just moved Bear into all of these sweet little poses...and I am really eager to see the pictures she got of Bear with The Mayor. He was kissing on her and hugging her...so cute! Love my sweet little babies!

Looking forward to the rest of our week. Hanging out as our family of 4. If the weather is nice on Friday, we are going to venture to the zoo with our two little monkeys. Gonna be a great rest of the week...

normal?

Life is finally getting back to normal. We have been an official family of 4 for the past 24 hours...the in-laws left yesterday afternoon. No more help. If you asked us last night, we would have said we were crazy to have our children 2 years apart. Oh, man...The Mayor. I love that kid more than life itself, but between normal 2 year old behavior and acting out a bit because he isn't getting all of the attention...yikes. Last night we looked at each other and asked, should we have had them closer together or farther apart? Because 2 years seems to be crazy. He doesn't quite get it and he can't verbalize his emotions so we are getting a lot of screaming. Just screaming. He will be happy or mad...and be standing in the middle of the room and just yell until we look at him. And the more you say "inside voice please" the more he screams. So we started ignoring him when he yells and then he stops. But waiting until he stops...geez. Last night we were wondering if our sweet boy would ever return to us...or have we lost him forever?

But today our sweet Mayor returned. He was his normal self all day today (with the 30 minute exception when a friend dropped off dinner, then he started acting out for some attention). But other than that 30 minutes, our sweet boy had returned. Praying so hard he has returned for good! Hopefully with the house quiet and no guests, life can return to normal and we can find our groove. At least daddy is off all week so we can just hang out together as a family of 4 and spend the week spoiling both of our sweet babies with lots of love and attention.

daddy and his girl

too much

In an effort to keep The Mayor's life as normal as possible, I signed him up for a sports class designed for 2 year olds. It is a 9 week program that meets one day a week for 30 minutes. They spend 2-3 weeks on different sports (football, t-ball, basketball and soccer). They don't have any games; it is just a chance for them to learn about equipment, some fundamentals regarding the sport and to listen/follow instructions. Of course the first class falls 1 week after his sister was born. I think it is too much. This past week has been a whirlwind for him from staying at PopPop and Mamie's for 3 1/2 days to having a house full of people here for the weekend and MeMe and Big Daddy here for the week. Plus having a baby in the house and parents who are learning to balance between two children.

He was fine for the first 25 seconds we left him in the gym for his class. Then a little boy started crying so The Mayor started. I could see his little fingers grasping for me through the little slit of the gym door and his cry for "momma". The coach asked me to join them and he finally calmed down. But The Mayor was kind of "that kid" today. While the other 2 year olds did a pretty good job at listening and following instructions (like "sit in a circle" or "stand on the red line") my sweet boy was wanting to play with the basketball and run around. It took awhile to get him to follow the coach's instructions. I quickly realized my child is great at home one-on-one, but get him in a classroom environment with distractions and all bets are off. Of course I do realize he is two years old and has never been left in a day care (or even with anyone other than family) so he does not know what structure is in that sense...but we will definitely be working on our listening skills!

After the class, we took him to an indoor playground for some mommy/daddy/Mayor time. We took advantage of Bear being at home with MeMe and Big Daddy and had another day with The Mayor. He was worn out! And it felt good to have another morning with our boy. Looking forward to next week when it is the 4 of us and we can have the entire week to really bond as a family since daddy will be off from work!

Tonight ended on a sweet note. For the first time, The Mayor held his baby sister. He loved it. In fact, he pitched a fit when we tried to take her away. So he ended up having her in his lap for about 20 minutes. He finally agreed to let her go when friends of ours came over and delivered dinner. It was precious to see him kissing her and trying to hold her hand. It is amazing to see how much he loves her. He does have his two year old moments when he gets a little jealous if he can't get our attention, but I am so thankful that he loves his baby sister.

the one and only picture I got of him in his class...this was about 10 seconds before the meltdown started

playing with daddy at the playground

so excited to be holding his sister

loves to kiss her

adjusting

We are adjusting. Life with two is different. Of course we knew it would be, but you still do not know quite what to expect. And to be honest, we still don't know. We have family still in town, so the extra set of hands is so helpful. Once they leave next weekend then we will be hit with reality. And once daddy goes back to work, I will really be hit with reality. Stay-at-home mommy with 2 kiddos. Yikes!

The Mayor is adjusting too. We really could not ask for better from him. He loves his sister. But he is 2 years old, so he has his moments where he gets jealous and wants the attention. We are really trying to let him know how loved he is. He is our first born...our original baby...and it is important that he is comfortable and loved. So today we left Bear with the in-laws and took The Mayor out for some one-on-one time with mommy and daddy. We went to an indoor bouncy house playground and then out to lunch. Just the 3 of us. We all had the best time. In fact, I think we had more fun being with him than he had. We are so blessed to have such wonderful children. I am soaking up every single second of this time in my life.

Bear is doing great as well. She is such a little cuddle bug. At night, she loves to sleep, but while being held. And I am ok with that. This time goes by so quickly so if she wants to sleep on me, I am going to let her! In a couple of weeks, I will push for her sleeping in the bassinet, but for now my chest is a perfect crib for her. I will take all of the cuddle time I can get.

getting ready to leave the hospital

proud big brother

daddy and The Mayor going down the big slide

love at first sight

Yesterday, we welcomed our daughter into the world. And just like the day her sweet brother was born, it was love at first sight. How we have been doubly blessed with such beautiful, sweet, wonderful children, I will never know. But God has been so good.

Her entrance into the world wasn't what we expected, but we are so glad she is here. Thankfully, her labor was a lot shorter than her brother's and after only 4 pushes, we saw her angelic face. She entered the world so quickly, the nurses that were supposed to be in the room to tend to her after she was born weren't in there yet. So I got to have her on my chest for her first 15 minutes of life. What a way to spend time with my baby girl. And just as I thought, her daddy was immediately hooked. She already has him wrapped around her teeny tiny finger.

She was born Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 12:50 PM. She weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and was 20 inches in length. No one in that room thought she weighed that much. Our midwife guessed she was 6 pounds 10 ounces because she is so tiny. She weighs one ounce more than The Mayor did, but she is so much smaller...weird.

She has a precious little cry. So dainty...just like her. And just like her brother, she loves to sleep. She is my little cuddle bug. I will enjoy it since this will probably be our last and it goes by so quickly. Need to soak up all the cuddling with my babies while I can!

The Mayor came to see us today at the hospital. It was so good to see him. I have missed him so much. We can not wait to get home tomorrow so we can all be together. Our family...finally complete.

it's time

So yesterday was the countdown and today the countdown was shot down. I had my 38 week checkup this afternoon to be told my blood pressure was up. It was so elevated my midwife told me to not pass go, do not collect $200, to go straight to the hospital. So I went home, packed a bag for The Mayor, took him to PopPop and Mamie's house and headed to the hospital. We have been here ever since. They are inducing me and tomorrow, we will be meeting our baby girl.

Apparently my children love to enter the world dramatically. This is so similar to The Mayor's birth. In fact, I am in the exact same birthing room where I had The Mayor. And the same midwife who delivered him, will be delivering her. It could not be more perfect. This isn't how I envisioned her birth being but this is obviously God's plan. And I am ok with that.

For now, The Mayor is asleep at PopPop and Mamie's and Meega and my husband are here entertaining me. Aunt Nat is also on her way from South Georgia. Going to be a long night but so excited for tomorrow.

the countdown is on

We are 13 days away from Bear's official due date, 8 days away from my induction date and 20 hours 49 minutes until my last OB appointment. But seriously, who is counting?

I am ready, I am beyond ready. I am ready to meet our little girl. I am ready to have my body back and start getting some sleep. I am ready for The Mayor to be a big brother and meet his little sister. I am ready for our family to be complete.

In the meantime, we are enjoying our last moments as a family of 3. It was weird this weekend, thinking about how this could be the last weekend it is just the 3 of us. And if it isn't, then next weekend will definitely be. It is wild how quickly your life changes when you have children. One day it is just the two of you and literally the next day, you have a baby and everything changes. You don't even remember what your life was like before that sweet being was in your life.

The weather is gorgeous today. High 60s, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. We spent all morning outside with our playgroup. Even lunch was eaten outside. And after nap, we are going back to the park. Soaking up all of this beautiful sunshine in because sadly, the rain is coming in tomorrow and lasting all week.

i jinxed myself

You would think I would have learned my lesson by now...but apparently I have not. When things are going well with a toddler, you just don't talk about it. You just leave it alone. But not me, I was talking about how The Mayor must be going through a growth spurt since he has been taking 4 hour naps the past couple of days and I had to wake him up this morning at 9:30. And you know what happened today during nap time?? NOTHING. That's right...well, MAYBE 30 minutes of sleep occurred up there, but no more. He has been talking to himself for the past 45 minutes and now he is starting to get mad. I hear the cries for "momma" as I type and I want to go hide in a bedroom closet. Looks like no downtime for mommy today and very little for my boy.

Thankfully the weather is beautiful today, so it looks like we will get out for a little walk. Better than being cooped up in the house!

simplicity

Life is so easy with a 2 year old. And I mean that in the sense of only the simple things make The Mayor happy (or mad). The big things are lost on him, but those little things make all the difference. It really makes this time so precious and memorable. Considering in a few short years it will be iPods, video game consoles and who knows what else that will make our kids happy. But for now, I will relish the fact that only the little things make the differences.

We woke up this morning to a beautiful snowfall. The Mayor kept looking out the window with such excitement in his voice and saying "SNOW"! After breakfast, Bennett and Meega came over, again such excitement came over The Mayor when they walked through the door. The Mayor could not get enough of his little cousin. He had to hug him, kiss him and touch him.

Today was a low-key day, something we have not had in a long time. The Mayor's social calendar has been jammed packed lately. And I think we both appreciated the quiet play day we had in our own home. I didn't even mind that we had the TV on all morning. The Mayor was thrilled to be watching Sesame Street, Curious George and Super Why. Shows he hasn't seen in a long time. We played with his trains, read books, cuddled and enjoyed the day. The simple things. These days are more enjoyable than any other and the ones I will miss the most as he gets older.

giving his cousin some kisses

they get a kick out of each other

tickling Bennett's feet