Sunday, February 17, 2013

A year already

I'm not sure how it happened so quickly, but Maggie had her first birthday this week.  To celebrate, she started walking.  She's been cruising and taking as many as 12 steps at a time for several weeks now, but the day before her birthday, she started toddling around without looking for her next handhold.  It was as if a switch had been flipped.  No more crawling here.  We had to break out Charlotte's smallest snow boots, which are a size-and-a-half too big, so we could all play in the snow.

Being our second child, poor Maggie lost out on a big celebration.  I had to work on her birthday, which fell on a Thursday.  We hung a banner and sang "Happy Birthday" to her about a dozen times throughout the day, but there was no big party with a guest list to rival our wedding.  I plan to make her a cake on Monday (we have a baby shower to attend tomorrow)- apple-banana-cherry, per Charlotte's request.  C and I haven't settled on a perfect gift for her, so we haven't even given Maggie a birthday present.  I feel awful about all that, but she's happy and doesn't need anything.  I want to make her a tutu, like I did for Charlotte, and may still do that.

Speaking of tutus...  Charlotte does a series of "dance moves" every time she goes to bed.  Maggie has seen this a few times when Charlotte goes down for a nap before Maggie does.  Maggie has started doing arabesques when Charlotte does now, and she often taps her toe on the floor while saying, "tap, tap, tap."  It's adorable.  I'll try to catch a photo of the two of them in their tutus, dancing, when I make one for Maggie.

Maggie is still our easy baby- eats anything we put in front of her, sleeps when we put her in her bed, almost never cries, and is wonderfully healthy.  She'll have her 12-month ped visit at the end of March, on the same day as Charlotte's 3-year.  She has three teeth now, with the first having surfaced on 1/21, so both girls will also go to the dentist at the end of March too.

I have been having some issues with sleep, which is why I am still awake at 3:30am.  I seem to function fine on almost no sleep, but then I fall asleep at the drop of a hat all day long.  Then I fall asleep on the couch after the girls go to bed, when I enjoy my only alone time of the day, and have to clean the house when I wake up or else the messes will linger until the next night.  It's a vicious cycle that I manage to break out of a few nights a week, but I haven't been consistent since Maggie was born.  My back aches when I sleep on my back.  My shoulders and hips ache, and my hand falls asleep, when I sleep on my side.  Sleep just isn't the bliss it used to be and I don't sleep for more than three hours at a stretch.  I'm hoping the efforts of my new chiropractor will have an effect on my sleep.  We'll see.  I think my next post might be more about life with two kids and less focused on what my darlings are up to.  Now, I'm going to grab some shut-eye before the girls wake up.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

It's been a while

Just chugging along here.  The girls are fantastic, especially when their nap schedule is respected.  When it isn't, look out!  Maggie is always mellow, but an overtired Charlotte is not a pleasant sight.  She argues, debates, attempts to negotiate, or completely ignores me.  After lengthy protestations, she finally passes out in her bed (she always makes it to her bed before falling asleep- I've never seen her sleep on the floor or in a chair), then wakes up her usual cheery and amazing self.  That would be fine if she didn't have a little sister, but her shenanigans usually wake up Maggie, who both needs her sleep and hates when it is interrupted.

Maggie finally dropped her twice-a-week midnight snacks and consistently sleeps from 7 until around 6:15.  She naps easily twice each day, usually 90 minutes at 9am and then another hour or two at 1:30.  She has preferences- favorite books, favorite toys, preferred foods (bananas!)- and is very good at voicing them.  Maggie signs sleep, frog, clean, shoes, banana, book, baby, hat, cold, bird, and perhaps a few other words that I either forgot or failed to recognize.  She has taken as many as 12 steps independently, and walks confidently holding just one finger on an accomplice's hand.  We're still nursing- new territory as I'd stopped nursing Charlotte by this age.  Maggie eats, and enjoys, pretty much any food we're willing to give her.  I think she eats more than Charlotte does.  She'll have her 12-month ped appointment at the end of March, when Charlotte goes in for her 3-year visit  Both will visit the dentist that day too, now that Maggie has a tooth (broke through on 1/21).  She wears 12-month clothing, size 3 diapers, size 3.5 shoes, and she has a lot to say.  Maggie loves to give hugs and kisses (she presses her face against whatever or whomever she's "kissing"), especially to her big sister and to the sleeping babies in her favorite book.

Charlotte... Oh, my, what a girl!  She has an imagination ("Imagination is when I read a book with no pictures, but I see pictures in my mind"- her definition) and enjoys telling me all about it.  She loves to talk- tells stories and makes up songs all the time.  She's about 3-feet tall, wears size 3T and size 7 1/2 shoes, and dancing is her favorite thing in the world.  She has dance class every Saturday and a recital scheduled for June.  Everywhere we go, she looks for her "friends," anyone she can talk to or play with no matter how old they happen to be.  I've seen her charm uninterested tweens into sliding down playground slides with her.  We love books, and now that her collection fills all the shelves in her room, we're not buying any more so weekly trips to the library are a must.  Charlotte always finds friends there who join her in lining up all the cube chairs into a train or stacking the blocks until their tower is taller than any of us.  In some situations, Charlotte acts far older than her not-quite-3-years.  She's compassionate and smart and confident and curious.  At home, though, when she's a little overtired, she's all toddler.  She can scream and rattle a door with the best of them.  At night, though, she goes down without a fight at 7:45, with just a bit of creative stalling, and falls right to sleep.  She's very good about staying in her room, quietly, until her clock turns yellow (it's blue when she should be sleeping) at 6:30.  Charlotte is my hiking buddy, my baking partner, my craft pal.  She's never been a terribly picky eater, but has been kind of reluctant to try anything new.  Lately, though, she's begun trying new things willingly, sometimes pursuing something new without anyone asking her to.  And most of the time, she likes what she tries.  I've been a horrible slacker when it comes to potty training.  Charlotte almost never poops in a diaper, and she uses the potty 3-4 times every day, but that's as far as we've gone.  I still hope to have her out of diapers before her birthday in March.

I've been working a p/t retail job twice a week since June.  Luckily, my parents are very willing babysitters since my paycheck would never cover any kind of childcare.  I recently applied for a "supervisor" position, which may involve a small pay raise but will certainly add a shift or two each week.  I held the same position with the same company 9 years ago, but I don't think I'm a shoe-in.  Three other folks applied too.  I think I've decided to stop pumping and just let nature take its course as far as breastfeeding goes.  I have a sizable stash of b-milk in the freezer.  Maggie nurses 4 times each day, but only her first morning feed lasts longer than 10 minutes.  I'm more than ready to wear a normal bra and to get dressed without worrying about boob access.  Maggie eats everything, so breastmilk is kind of an afterthought at this point.  AF returned for the first time on 1/1/13... Hello, New Year.