Short and Sweet

I realize I haven't blogged in awhile, and I feel terrible for my procrastination. My life with 2 kids under 2 years of age has suddenly picked up speed. I am so busy these days, it's just exhausting. I'm having trouble finding time for myself. The days just fly by!

Danielle has been crawling for at least a month now and is now pulling up to a standing position on the furniture. She is so proud of herself and she gets so excited with her new adventures. I enjoy watching her. She is really a good baby. I've got it sooooo easy with her. She rarely fusses and she's a good sleeper for the most part. Although recently she has been waking up at least once a night due to teething pain. That part has been kinda hard on me. I spent the first few months of her life praying for the time she'd sleep through the night. And, after a few months, it finally came. Just when I'm getting back to my old sleep routine, it's all messed up again and she's back to waking up in the middle of the night. Ugh. It's hard, but I'm actually getting used to it. She's quick to fall back asleep.

I'm still nursing her and have been supplementing with Gerber Stage 3 foods, Gerber Puffs, Cheerios and most recently Gerber Yogurt Melts. She really likes those!!! I have given her some rice and she loved that too. I have a feeling she is going to be more of an adventurous eater than Carter was. He's actually kinda picky. But, he's a toddler, so I guess that is to be expected. I'm really proud that I have been able to nurse her for so long.
She loves books and really looks at all the pictures too! Carter would just flip the pages while I was mid-sentence. She studies the pages and takes it all in. She also points at the pictures. It's really cute. She also loves paper - newspaper, magazines, mail, you name it. Basically, anything crinkly. Of course I don't give it to her as I don't want her to choke on it.
As far as Danielle's speech goes, she has said 2 words so far: mama or mom and cat.

Carter is venturing into the "terrible two's" at full speed. He has REALLY kept me on my toes in the last few weeks, and not in a good way I'm afraid. He was jealous of Danielle when she first came home from the hospital, but got over it rather quickly. Now the jealousy is resurfacing and boy is it raring it's head with a vengeance! He will throw things at her, swat at her and try to kick her. It's SOOOOO not funny. It makes me so upset to see him act this way. I tell him no, give him time-outs, but nothing seems to get through to him. He just laughs. It drives me nuts. He wants the attention and he's willing to do whatever it takes to get it, including antagonizing his sister. The sad part is, he's not starved for attention by any means! We give him LOTS of attention. I just don't know what to do. My sister says it is just a phase. I hope it ends quickly. I used to be able to leave them together in a room at any given moment to take care of the dishes or chores or what not, and now I can't. It's frustrating.

On a more positive note, his vocabulary is growing immensely. He understands SO much and is now able to communicate with us better. We are getting less whining, which is awesome because there were days in the past where I just wanted to pop some ear plugs in my ears to sound it out. :-)

The last few months for me have been tiresome. These changes in Carter's behavior, coupled with Danielle's newfound adventures into crawling have really sapped me for energy. I find that the days seem too short. I can't get everything done that I need to and that leaves me frustrated. How do other stay at home mom's get all this stuff done at the end of the day? Am I just not cut out for this? Am I that terrible at time management? Do I have no resiliance? As you can see, I tend to be a bit hard on myself. Becoming a mother has basically forced me into becoming a better person. Things that I wouldn't normally worry about, such as my lack of patience, are now crucial to becoming a better parent. I need to work on that. I'm discovering that you need LOTS and lots of patience when you have children.