Life updates

It's time for some random life updates.

1. I'm now (emotionally) able to leave my kids to do fun stuff!

When Dalton was 3 weeks old, I went to the new mom support group at the hospital where I delivered. I met two fellow new moms who became close friends.

Most recent playdate

When the kids were still tiny enough that we counted their age in weeks, we talked about one day, when we were ready to leave them, we would have our own mommy date, just adults.

Just under 2.5 years and two more friends later, it finally happened!

It involved amazing food, pedicures, and of course, day drinking. And do you see my bare legs? It was 70 degrees in February! To make it even better, it was bookended with a run with Lily in the morning, and yoga with Casi in the evening. 

Speaking of my mom group - the five of us pictured above all just booked trips to Punta Cana this summer! Hope, the gorgeous redhead on the far right, is getting married. Guess how many kids are going on this trip? ZERO. 

2. Here's an average Saturday night for me. 

The kids were starving and had dinner at 4pm, so my dinner ended up being a sandwich I ate like an hour later when I was "finally" hungry while spotting Royce climb up the stairs - his latest obsession. Dalton was doing his best to make sure he tested every single rule or request we had the nerve to impose on him. And then Royce started fussing, and Dalton exclaimed "oh, Royce!" and stopped what he was doing to bend down and kiss his hand over and over while saying "shh, shh". He just melts me. Then they went to bed at 7 and I went to bed at 8.

Having children totally didn't change my lifestyle.

Royce just wants to hang with big bro. Also he climbed there on his own.

3. I signed up for a race!

Motivation is hard, so I signed up for a $10 ten miler in April. I did 5.25 today and it...wasn't easy. Wish me luck.

4.While we still have some time, Royce's first birthday (May 6) is in sight. 

I can't believe it, but it's true. The other day, I took a sticker sheet away from him, and he gave me the angriest face and immediately started angry crying and trying to reach it. I was kind of taken aback for a moment, like...what are you doing? You were just born, who do you think you are being a real person, expressing actual thoughts and desires? In my mind, the first year of parenting a child, you get off relatively easy: you have one job. Keep the kid alive. After a year...the actual parenting begins. It's time to try to mold them into a non-asshole, decent member of society. And in my limited experience so far - that's a lot harder. Like, a lot.

He's now 18 pounds, climbing the entire staircase, often standing without assistance, and still the happiest sweetest little guy in the world. 

5. Sort of related to #4 - I've been working on weaning off the pump at work.

I should be thrilled beyond belief, but instead I'm weirdly sad about it. Logically, I know that we can, and hopefully will, continue to nurse for a while, but it still seems like the beginning of the end. On weekends, we are down to 4 times a day (morning, before each nap, and bedtime) and if we are not in his darkened room with the noise machine, forget it. With the nice warm weather lately, we've been hitting some of our favorite outdoor places, and it just seemed like yesterday I was there in July, trying to figure out how to keep track of Dalton while also constantly nursing a newborn. But now, I set Royce down and he's off trying to keep up with his brother. Of course, it's wonderful watching him grow up and he's so much more fun now, but it's bittersweet. For 9 months, he was literally a part of me, then for the next 6 months, he was entirely dependent on me for sustenance, and then practically overnight it feels like he's completely independent and doesn't need me. Obviously he's not ready to move to his own apartment next week or anything, but, still.

Brand new baby pic from the hospital because I can never get enough of those.

6. Toddler growth

Obviously the first year is full of changes, so it's easy for me to focus on how much Royce has grown. But when I think about how much Dalton has changed since Royce was born, it blows my mind just as much.

How I found him when I went to get him this morning.

This past summer, Dalton started early intervention speech therapy. Around when Royce was born (Dalton was 19 months), we kept a list of words for his evaluation, and he had 15 that he used consistently, 3 of which were signs, not spoken words. And, honestly, he wasn't even using most of those that consistently, enough that we recognized them but not on a daily basis or anything. He didn't say mama or dada or repeat any sounds that we made. Now, he speaks in full sentences. The other day, he said to me "I hear a firetruck outside". That really drove home just how much progress he's made. He loves fire trucks, and one of his most consistent words before beginning early intervention was yelling "fire!" whenever he heard a siren. 

His teacher now believes he is on par with his age level peers, and we could not love having conversations with him any more. I'm sure I'll get plenty sick of hearing "mommy!" but it's a pretty recent development in our house, and it's still music to my ears. 

Everything now is "I do it!!" and he becomes furious if we attempt to do anything for him, like buckle him into the carseat. He insists on choosing his own outfits, so my glory days of choosing cute things for him to wear are over for the time being. I thought I had longer. The other day, I left him watching Mickey while I went upstairs to take a quick shower. The next thing I know, he's in my bed, announcing "I eat jello, Mommy!". He found a leftover jello from when Eric got his wisdom teeth out somewhere in the fridge, opened it, got himself a spoon from the drawer (the drawer that is higher than his head and has a child lock), and climbed into bed to enjoy his jello. 

This guy.

I think I say every single age is my favorite, but seriously, 9 months and almost 2.5 are really, really fun. I'm still excited to go on our tropical vacation, though.