Two kids

People often say how after you have a new baby, your older child suddenly seems huge and older than before. I was prepared for this, but it didn't happen to me. Maybe because I was SO prepared? I spent the month before the baby was born watching Meg as much as I could and trying to memorize everything about her. I held her and thought about how little she seemed. I was sad about her turning into my big girl overnight. But when she came to visit after the baby was born, she seemed the same to me. She still does. Everyone else had talked about how big she suddenly seems, but she still looks little to me. Occasionally I'll pick her up after holding the baby for awhile and be surprised at how much bigger she is, but most of the time she seems the same as she's always been. She's my dainty little girl and I love her so much.

The only differene I've noticed is that suddenly she seems so precocious and advanced. Obviously the baby doesn't say anything and she's only two years older and speaks in full sentences. She says please and thank you. (When I put the baby's pacifier back in his mouth, she says "Thank you, mommy" on his behalf.) She knows all her colors and can count to ten, say the alphabet, and identify all of the letters (most of the time). She knows Meg starts with "M" and points out M's whenever she sees them. She knows "J" stands for Jessica (mommy!) and "T" stands for Thomas (daddy!). She plays independently. She puts her shoes on without help. She feeds herself. She even climbs into her booster chair and puts on her bib by herself. When compared to a newborn it suddenly seems like she's completely self-sufficient.

She loves to read to herself. "You my mother?" "No!" "You my mother?" "No!" "You my mother?" "I not you mother! I dog!"

That book is admittedly an easy one to memorize, but she has most of her books memorized - and she has a lot of them. Her favorite thing to do right now is to repeat every line of a book as we read it to her. Then she reads it to herself.

Right now I'm loving spending each day focusing on the best parts of newbornhood and tooddlerhood. I feel like I'm in some sort of charmed transition period and keep waiting for the hellish transition period to show up. I know it will (probably soon!), but for now things are great. I have a snuggly newborn who is a champion breasfeeder and a happy, sweet two-year-old who I love to be around. I don't think life could get any better. (Although some more sleep wouldn't hurt.)

As I said, I fully expect things to get really hard any day now - if nothing else, I'm sure my mounting sleep deficit will make each day harder to get through - so I wanted to make sure I noted, for the record, that life with two kids was pretty awesome for at least the first week.

P.S. I do have to note I never would have made it this far without a lot of help from family.