I don't know if I made an official announcement on this blog, but my youngest turned 1 last month. Having your second-- or kind of second-- grow older is a bit stranger than having your first--or firsts-- grow up. In my head my youngest was the baby, and the twins were the toddlers. Now my baby is getting to the toddler stage, and that just seems crazy.
I keep thinking, "Are you old enough for that?" Than I think, "I guess the twins were doing that at his age."
But when it was the twins it didn't seem so strange. In fact I think I tried harder, and expected more, with them. But with my youngest I just have it my head, "He's the baby! He's not ready for that yet."
Luckily the child is persistent, and a very fast learner.
The year began sort of strange. I remember when they delivered the baby. He had the most awful, angry cry you ever heard. It actually kind of shocked me. I was thinking, "Oh my gosh! Put him back! He doesn't want to be here."
My husband and I joked about how he just didn't seem to want to be in the family. I think it was when he was about 3 weeks old we decided, that he had decided, we were OK.
Back to the cry. I kid you not, it was awful. When I finally started to just let him cry(after weeks of indigestion, formula switching and random feedings)he would escalate so fast. Luckily he would only cry for 20 minutes or so, most of the time.
My nephew was over one night and he said, "I don't like the way that baby cries. It's scary!"
Yes the child has a way of crying. It has improved, but there are still days. One day he kept following me around, wanting me to pick him up.
"I'm sorry," I said, "But I'm not going to just hold you all morning."
Finally I just ignored him and tried to let him cry it out. Well, One cry would feed the next. It was an all around pity party, with my baby boy as the main guest.
* * *
On to different subjects, don't you just love this age? I mean they are down right adorable that's for sure. Nothing beats a little baby waddle. That cute little way they have of walking, that soon disappears. And it is just so cute, at this age, when they mimic you. I wouldn't say it's because it's rare, even though it can be. The twins mimic me non-stop--from talking to scolding to cleaning and sorting-- and I have to say it's pretty darn cute. I think it is just because it's new and fun, and they're still chubby and babyish.
Of course, this age brings on some not so fun issues. Welcome to the busy stage! And busy was already busy before it got to this stage. That child is a walking catastrophe, that makes an appearance 3-4 times a day. He has no interest in toys. He doesn't like things to be on top of tables. And this one Halloween decoration we have-- a sticky, type, skeleton thing stuck to our china cabinet-- has become a main target. I've told him, "No!" I've let him play with it, in hopes he'll loose interest. I've even smacked his hand. Nothing can keep that poor skeletons bones stuck to the glass.
I remember when the twins turned one and I thought, "If only I had known this was in our future."
Daily they would pull things out of drawers. Play with a tool their dad had left out, I'd take it away and then they would cry-- sometimes I would let them keep it just because I didn't want to deal with the crying. I'd clean up, they'd pull it back out. I would get them away from something, they would crawl right back. And that thing that people always talked about, about how they would both take off in different directions, really happened. I remember having to decided which one was in more danger,-- that one is almost to the road, but this one is by the irrigation ditch-- and chasing after him first. And would they leave my stuff alone to play with toys? No sir! Not a single toy would interest them. And if I found one, they would play it for five seconds and go right back to wreaking havoc. And they were my easy going ones.
We now have decided to wait until 18 months to see if, or when, we want to plan for the next baby.
I have to say had I waited until 18 months with the twins things probably would have gone more differently. Well, that's what I say at least. I would probably still be pining for a baby. But part of me thinks I would have waited even longer. Maybe 3-4 years. Given the twins a good amount of time on their own. Let it just be us for a while.
Part of me wonders if that would have been better for the oldest of the twins-- he's incredibly jealous of the baby and is incredibly mean to him. But than I also think he came a long way, in a good way, since the baby was born.
At first he wouldn't even look at him. But, after a month, he would pat his head when he cried, rock his car seat and give him a pacifier if he needed one. It was really neat to see that change. But that change changed once 6 months hit and the baby started grabbing for his toys.
Even the youngest, who was such a natural big brother, has given into the sibling rivalry. They even try to block the TV so the baby can't watch their show.
"It's my Thomas!" They yell.
They do this to each other sometimes too. I'm not too worried about it. I think things will change when the baby gets more on their level. Plus he can already tackle them to the ground-- even before he could even walk. I keep telling them he'll be able to fight back, and he's strong and has extremely fine motor skills.
The year was an interesting one. Full of learning and growing, stress and tears, happiness and grief. Now that I have had a year to recover, from pregnancy, I really don't think I want to go back. Partly because it feels so good to have lost all my pregnancy weight. Partly because I'm enjoying getting into shape, and having my body back. But probably the biggest reason is because there really is no time, in the foreseeable future, that a baby would make sense for us. Can that change? I'm sure it can, and probably will. But for now I'm happy, just me and my boys.
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