Things that keep me sane

I know how lucky I am to have a wonderful daughter like Sophia. She is sweet, loving and endearing. Most of the time. Because, in case you forgot, she is also 2.5 years old. Meaning that she is the center of the universe. And she'll happily remind you if you do indeed forget.

Lately, we've had our fair share of frustrating moments. While Dave gets them here and there, she seems to save these extra special "emotions" for Mama - which I'm told that I should feel lucky, as she is comfortable enough in our relationship to do this. For everyone else, she is on best behavior. Sigh...Dave has promised that he & Theo will be living in Newport for long spurts of time come Sophia's 13th birthday.

So whether it's procrastinating at bed time (water Mama! Milk in the Minnie/Daisy Cup. Another Twinkle Twinkle) or dawdling when we're trying to get some place or insisting that everyone sit in their Sophia designated seats and heaven forbid you (or - ekk! an outsider) sit in a seat not assigned to you - I'm trying to remember patience and not hand her off to the gypsy wagon with a free pack of diapers to sweeten the deal.

I've creating a running list of things about her that make me smile and realize how amazing she is.

1) Her smile when she sees me at the end of the day.
2) Her desire to stop and smell the flowers. Literally. We stop & smell ALL of the flowers when we go walking. Even the bushes (which honestly, don't smell like much of anything.)
3) Her kisses for my boo-boos when I say ouch.
4) Her laughter when I tickle her.
5) Watching her run - limbs all over but with sheer joy and disregard for anything in her way
6) Her love of climbing. She wants to go up up up as much as she can. And takes direction really well in getting there.
7) Her taste in music. Currently, she requests to hear the following 3 songs, in this order, EVERY TIME we get in the car:
      1) The Black Key's "Gold on the Ceiling"
      2) Adele's "Rumour Has It"
      3) Old MacDonald
(she has also figured out I have 2 & 3 available to be played on my phone at any point. The Black Keys CD lives in my CD player stuck on track 3.
8) Watching her kiss and sniff her little brother. Yup, sniff. She has this thing about sniffing family lately and just loves to get in Theo's face and sniff him. The report generally is that he is "stinky."
9) That despite her outgoing, often extremely loud front, she is often shy, polite and very loving in groups.
10) Her love of animals. Any dog or cat she sees gets a pet (after letting them sniff her hand like she was taught and the pat is on the back of the dog) and she will happily walk it, hug it or whatever it will put up with.
11) Her love of cooking. She often will go to her kitchen to "cook me dinner"
12) When she sits on the couch with my boppy pillow to "feed" her stuffed animals.
13) How she sings in her cute little voice  with hand motions- either twinkle, twinkle or Caterpillar Crawling on my arm (especially the version I made up that involves the caterpillar nesting in your ear!)

I forgot...

A lot has happened since my last post - I gave birth to Theodore Joseph Ahouse, thus making Dave and I parent of 2 and Sophia a big sister.

I'll post more about the actual birth and good stuff, but right now, it's all about the "new" life. Things I totally forgot about, in terms of having a newborn, and assumptions I made:

1) A toddler is FAR more work than a newborn. Physical energy required at all times. A newborn may not sleep all that much, but once he's fed and in his swing, he has no issue if I make a phone call, jump on the computer or read a book (that doesn't have pictures.) The same is not true for toddlers.

2) I can survive on minimal amounts of sleep. I don't like it, but I can. And I have been spoiled by the fact Sophia has been an amazing sleeper for most all of her life.

3) Newborns are not breakable (well, without trying anyway) but they are still intimidating. I've gotten so used to manhandling Sophia (diaper changes, wrestling on socks & shoes, etc) that all of a sudden, this tiny, 7lb being seems so fragile. Until he's really wailing for his diaper to be changed and it's 3am. Then, common sense kicks in.

4) I forget what I was going to write...oh yes, walking into a room and forgetting why I was going there in the first place! (Thank god for Sophia reminding me to change Theo's diaper!)

5) Showering is good and necessary. A friend who is a nurse mentioned when patients don't want to shower, its a really bad sign. I have luckily managed one most every day.

6) It really does take a village - giving in to the fact I need help was a big hurdle to overcome. But between Dave, my mom, Lidiana, the neighbors and friends, we've managed to keep life fairly normal for everyone. See #7

7) The sun doesn't rise & fall completely on Theo's "schedule" - with Sophia, everything was about her sleeping & eating: at the right time, the right amount, not crying or whining. With Theo, I've quickly learned the importance of taking care of his needs but that the impatient toddler who really needs play doh also gets Mama's attention too.

8) Healing is hard work. I gave birth, it may have been quick, but it certainly isn't easy. Sleep for me is really, really important too.

9) How quickly 2 hours pass. 1 hour to eat and get diaper changed, about an hour of sleep and then rinse, repeat. Wow, the leash is short!

10) How easily Sophia would adjust to being a big sister. It wasn't looking good pre-baby. She's whine and cry and tantrum if we held someone else. Now, the first thing she wants in the morning is to see Baby Brother and give him a kiss. She makes sure to keep her voice down if he's sleeping and she's all about offering him Cherrios (happily, we've gotten the - he has no teeth but thank you for sharing -piece down really well).

11) How amazing my husband is and how he offers such great perspective. There is absolutely no way I could (on so many levels) ever do this without him.