Monday, October 22, 2012

Life is new and wonderful

I am officially in week three of stay-at-home-momhood and after a little bit of a transition period, I am absolutely loving it. The kids are too, and have rewarded me with impeccable behavior and great little attitudes for the past two weeks straight. We have found a daily routine and a rhythm and are finally catching up from what felt like months of exhaustion.

Finn has started preschool two mornings a week and is thriving. So much so that I am considering extending one of his days so he can have lunch and more social playtime with his friends. He is getting more mellow by the minute and is clearly being given the right tools to manage life (and his emotions). Our routine, although it changes in content, is pretty consistent and he does really, really well with the structure.

Another little change we have made with Finn is completely giving up on a strict sleep situation. He wants to sleep with us, so we let him. And for the first time in his life, he is sleeping 10 hours solid. Poppie is sleeping 13 hours solid. And if we weren't so desperate to spend some alone time together, Nick and I would be sleeping 8 hours solid too. (Instead we stay up too late talking or working on a project together or combing Redfin for a new house that we can't even afford).

Poppie is starting to talk and is in that phase where she learns 5-10 new words a day. She is a lot like her brother, who was also an early talker. I think it has something to do with being extroverted. These kiddos need their voices because they have a lot of socializing to do. Poppie will charm a bus load of silent-riders or collect a crowd of Asian women to our cart at Goodwill within less than a minute. And then Finn will swoop in for the finale: That's my baby sister. Her name is Poppie. I'm Finn and I am almost three and Papa's going to take me golfing when I get younger. Meanwhile Poppie nods and looks at him adoringly and then back to the crowd and waves and coos and I get a million compliments.

I used to be an extrovert. I used to think I was an extrovert. But after being out with my extroverted children all day, who collect old and young friends by the hundreds, I suddenly need to be alone and quiet at the end of the day. Nick (another extrovert) laughs at how easily I get overwhelmed by it all and lets me go be alone for a few minutes while he plays extroverted games with the extroverted children of ours.


Sorry for the long absence. I am re-learning how to 'do it all'. Turns out being a busy working mom became my second nature and now I have new props, new rules and new projects that I have to balance (one of which is a new blog that will be launching soon!).


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Twins

The other day while at BJ's farm, I got some quick snaps of Daddy and Poppie sporting some uncannily similar facial expressions: