Baby Brother

Yesterday Abby and I had a conversation about her baby brother who is coming soon.  She likes to rub and hug and kiss my belly and HOLLER “Hi BABY!” into my belly button.  I pretty sure she thinks that my belly button is the portal through which we can communicate with the baby (she kisses, pokes and even zerbets my belly button all in the name of loving on her brother).   Here are some of the highlights of our conversation this morning. 

We talked about how she could be such a good helper and pick out clothes for the baby and help with diapers.  She was most interested in knowing if she could help feed the baby with a bottle (she recently helped her Teta bottle-feed some new puppies.  It was the highlight of her week).  I’m planning to nurse but I will also pump so I’m sure she’ll get a chance to help with the bottle.  She also asked a bunch of times about holding the baby on her lap, on her knees, or on her chest.  Apparently, this is of great importance to her.

We talked about how she could help give the baby a pacifier (she calls a pacifier a “bah…” dunno why).  She no longer uses a pacifier but a few children in her nursery at church still do so we talked about who still has a bah and who is all done with theirs.  She asked if “Grandpa all done with bah?”  Yep!  “Grandma all done with bah?”  Yep!  Her response: “Grandma a big boy!” (close enough).

She wanted to know if she should “share potty the baby?”  I told her that the baby wouldn’t be ready for the potty for a while but she could help change his diapers.  She seemed to understand and said that he would have to wait til he is a “big girl” to use the potty (yeah, she hasn’t quite grasped the gender thing yet).

My favorite part was when she asked “baby coming soon?”  We’ve been telling her for a few weeks that he would be here soon but seeing as a week probably feels like an eternity to her I don’t think she really believes us anymore.  I told her he should be here in about 4 Sundays, or 4 weeks.  Then she adopted her best bartering tone, the one she uses when negotiating how many bedtime stories we should read her at night and said “One week!” (I guess that’s her final offer).  Sorry kiddo, 4 weeks or I’ll be answering to Grandma who wants to be here for the delivery.  

Living with a two year old.

You know how some days you just have a really good day?  Well, yesterday I had a really good day.  Abby was delightful, chatty, cuddly, and patient.  I vacuumed just about every vacuum-able surface in my home (whoa, nesting!).  Abby and I danced in the living room to some Gershwin in the morning, played pretend with her baby doll after I finished most of the vacuuming, did a little craft after lunch, and generally had a good time.  I still had energy by her nap time to finish some household chores and make a strawberry cake (seriously!).  Supper was almost on time.  It was a healthy salad and Jeremy enjoyed it.  And we got Abigail to bed on time.  I really needed a day that wasn't filled with exhaustion, temper tantrums (from Abby, not me), and mini crisis. Last week was so friggin exhausting and was filled with blood, bruises, and tears from the little one (I'm not beating her!  She has just suddenly become remarkably clumsy.  Growth spurt maybe?).  Jeremy is working 10 days straight this "week" for his job so to have a day where the pieces all just came together (yesterday was day 7) really gave me the boost I needed.  I mentioned to several people at church on Sunday that I would appreciate prayers for the rest of this week and I guess some people got on their knees on my behalf.  Thank you!

TODAY on the other hand is a different story (so, ummm, yeah keep praying for us)

We've only been up an hour and so far these are the things that have caused Abby to melt down into tears and wailing:

• her door wouldn't close
• she couldn't put her sock on
• she wanted me to hold her
• I held her
• she wanted to bring a bulky toy down the stairs and I told her no (she brought it anyway when I wasn't looking)
• she wanted oatmeal for breakfast
• I gave her oatmeal for breakfast
• it was too hot
• I blew on the oatmeal
• I offered her some juice
• she wanted to watch the garbage truck instead of eat breakfast
• she wanted to watch sesame street
• sesame street took too long to set up on Netflix
• no reason whatsoever

I guess she's making up for being so delightful and fun yesterday. Hoping the day goes uphill from here.