Thursday, January 31, 2008

What is it about Elmo...

...that has my daughter so enamored? She will sit and watch Elmo's World for 50 minutes at a time, and it blows my mind. She has memorized the DVDs that we have, often calling out who or what comes next, and she still loves them. In fact, the only specific thing that we can get her to tell us she wants for her birthday (coming up in a couple of weeks) is a chocolate Elmo cake with pink icing. Every night, after we say prayers and give kisses, she reminds us about her birthday cake wishes. Seriously. I think she is afraid we will forget!

On another, unrelated note, the Babywise philosophy is consuming my world these days. In an effort to get Cole on a more regular schedule that will hopefully lend itself to sleeping through the night in 6 weeks or so, I am re-reading the book On Becoming Babywise. The biggest challenge is the eat-wake-sleep cycle - namely, the wake portion. My little man wants to snooze after each meal. I have resorted to stripping him down and playing with his toes. Even that doesn't always work. I was reading in a parenting mag that babies often willfully fall asleep in an attempt to ignore annoying stimuli. So, it is really a lose-lose situation for me.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

So, I have been a lurker for quite awhile now. I read many of my friends' blogs and enjoy keeping up with them that way. And then I decided that it must be therapeutic to blog...and since I am in a new stage of my life, here I go!

My son, Cole, was born on January 19, 2008. And let me just say that having a son has more than exceeded my expectations. I have a daughter, Mia, and she will be two in a couple of weeks. I still remember when our doctor told us that this baby was a boy. I couldn't really feel the excitement. In fact, I was a little concerned to be honest. How could I deal with a boy? I had the girl figured out (well, sort of), but a wild, dirty, rowdy boy? As the pregnancy progressed, I found myself becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of a boy. We got his room (mostly) ready and bought boy clothes. And then I met him...and fell in love! His little, boyish face that looks like the perfect combination of his sister and daddy was impossible to resist. And now I know that I am supposed to have one of each...and it is incredible...

and hard. Being a new mommy is hard enough, but a new mommy and a two year old's mommy is something else entirely. It is something that I am just beginning to figure out. In fact, I have hardly been alone with the two kiddos since Cole and I came home from the hospital. I am a little scared I will not be able to handle it! So, with lots of help from my mom, we are getting through the days while Daddy is at work. And the newborn nights are a shared effort for Mommy and Daddy, except that Daddy can't nurse the boy. :)

So here I am - blessed and exhausted, thrilled and terrified, excited and nervous, hopeful and paranoid. I would say those are all typical of a new Mommy, right?