Happy Sunday, blogosphere. I am currently sitting at my table drinking a mug of (decaf (ha!)) tea and wishing it was (caffeinated) coffee. My son is using cardboard to cut up purple play-doh next to me, the baby is napping in her swing and Ryan is simultaneously waging a war against the pipes under our kitchen sink while also cooking us lunch. Life is good, lol.
Our sink has chosen today to start leaking (and to especially start leaking while the garbage disposal runs so now I'm not allowed to turn that on for several days until Ryan fixes it...that will be great). The batteries in Cassie's swing have also decided to start to die and the song that plays while she swings has gone from an upbeat children's lullaby to something that sounds like deranged circus music.
Truly, non-parents beware and make sure that once you have a kid you always have batteries on hand - there is nothing more frightening than a child's toy whose batteries are dying. Especially if, lord save you, you have a talking toy. Once, Henry's stuffed animal Scout started to run out of batteries and I literally had nightmares of it's terrifying little voice all slow and deep saying "Hi Henry" like it was possessed by Satan.
Weekends are different now that we have two kids. Instead of a chance to relax and watch a movie, Ryan and I find ourselves competing in a dual juggling act - trying to make sure both kids are happy, fed and taken care of all while simultaneously keeping the house from falling in on itself or exploding in a cloud of laundry and home projects. It's been an interesting adjustment.
During the week not much of my routine has changed - I just juggle my household tasks with two kids instead of one. I nurse a baby while playing blocks with Henry or I strap her into the moby wrap while we run our errands. It's been a fairly seamless transition. The weekends though are really where I see the difference.
I think weekends used to be a place where we could hand off responsibility to the other person for a while and each get a chance to get something done. I could run errands solo, for example. Or I could shower by myself. Ryan got to actually do whatever he wanted to do for a few hours. Now it's different though, now we're handing off one kid in exchange for another and usually one of them is crying at the time. There is little to be found in the way of us doing whatever it is we had planned to do. And I think that's the root of parenting, isn't it? Either suspending your own plans or figuring out a way to incorporate your kids into those plans.
I think I'm making more headway with this than Ryan at the moment because, frankly, it's harder to come from a world of working in an office to basically living in a preschool on the weekends. For me, I'm used to it now and I've just come to the realization that we are living in a different universe now than the one we lived in when we just had one kid. And LOL to think about how many universes away we are from life before any kids.
But truthfully, those are Universes that I don't miss and I don't want to be in anymore. I'm grateful for the one I'm in at the moment thankyouverymuch. Although I will say this, if there's another one exactly like that only I'm excessively wealthy - I'd love to transport ourselves there immediately. Just putting it out there!
Rich as Lannisters.
