No longer 2 under 2

Well, yesterday was Evie's second birthday.

I am still sort of in shock. Or denial. Probably a healthy dosing of both.

But I'm also a little sad. Evie's growing up so fast!

And I'm also excited. Hooray for getting the "baby years" behind us. Or at least being a little closer. Of course, we're stepping fully into the world of the terrible twos. Ugh.

And maybe a little bummed about the fact that I can no longer say I have "two under two." Though of course I will always qualify as a baby buncher. And I don't have any desire to reclaim my "two under two" status by also becoming someone with "three under three." The notion is quite terrifying!

So, adios to that title. And all the stress and work that went with it.

While I'm glad to say adieu to that period of my life (honestly, the first few months was HELL!) I will certainly look back on the time with a sense of accomplishment because hey, we did all survive. But it's relief to have it behind me. There were a lot of tears. A lot of yelling. A lot of missed sleep and stressed out days. And I'm not sure I will ever forget the terrifying days spent in the hospital with a 10-day-old infant. Though I wish I could.

I have learned a lot. Grown a lot. Calmed down a lot. Matured a whole lot. I think I am a much better parent after having survived the last six months. And while I'm happy with where we are as a family and I wouldn't do it any other way, I don't think I would recommend the two under two route to any one else.

Being infatuated

Okay. This doesn't really have anything to do with anything going on in my life right now. But I have felt pretty anti-writing for the last couple of days and this is the first thing I have actually felt like writing about. So here it is.

I was reminded today how much I love Anderson Cooper. And how much I miss getting to watch AC360. Unfortunately for me it's on at 8 p.m. which is during my evening commute and although I'm subscribed to his podcast through iTunes, I never plug my iPad up to sync. So the new episodes are never on my playlist for me to actually watch. Bummer.

Anyways, Anderson made the news today for cracking up on his show last night. And I have languished in  watching him laugh not once but twice today. Yeah, it's weird. I'm sure in person he's no where near as cool as he is on television. But he is the only television journalist that I actually like. Having met t.v. reporters before when I was myself a newspaper reporter, I generally dislike the whole lot of them. Television journalism is much more cut throat and vicious and as a result most of the t.v. people are...well, hateful to use a PG adjective.

But I just love Anderson Cooper. Maybe it's the blue eyes. I am a documented sucker for blue eyes. Check out my husband and beautiful babies. Or maybe it's the hair. Not many guys can pull off white hair while still looking youthful and energetic.

And looks aside, I really admire his reporting style. I like his jumping-in-the-fray, standing-in-the-path-of-the-tornado, crashing-through-the-desert-in-a-flak-jacket, hoo-rah attitude. It might just be a publicity thing, rigged up for the cameras, but he seems to be a tireless wanna-know kinda guy. He NEEDS that story. He's GOING to get that juicy news. And he reports it.

And watching him crack up on camera is hilarious.

If you want to check it out here's a link:

The Ridiculist : Gerard Depardieu

Potty training...check.

So I don't know what point exactly you classify your kid as potty trained. But I think Evie is potty trained. I mean, she still has accidents from time to time. But those are pretty rare. And I'm still putting her in a pull up at night because, honestly, I don't want to deal with changing sheets more than once a week. Let alone possibly a few times a night. Uninterrupted sleep is just too vital to our family's functioning right now. And two-year-olds are tough enough without adding a lack of rest to the mix.

So yay. One of the first true challenges of parenthood is kinda under-the-belt. I don't look forward to doing it again here in a few months. Though the thought of not buying anymore diapers sounds AWESOME. Nearly six months of two in diapers is more than long enough.

Potty training is a challenge.

And washing your daughter's big girl undies is kinda sad.

But not buying diapers for her..FABULOUS!

Days go by

Wow. So yesterday Elly turned 6 months old. Like, officially. Really. Six months.

Please keep any smart comments to yourself about how it's time for me to be pregnant again. It's not funny. And I'm getting a little tired of people saying it.

So when I realized yesterday that Elly was officially 6 months old I wasn't really sure how to feel about it. But mostly I think I'm in shock. And a little apprehensive about the future. With Evie the 6 month mark was kind of the turning point. It was when she stopped being a useless squab and started playing with toys and interacting and pulling up on the furniture. Then one day she started crawling. It seemed like the day after she started walking. Then running.

Six months was the beginning of her not being a "baby" anymore.

Elly is definitely, probably, more than likely my last baby. And while I don't particularly love the squab phase, since this is the last time I will get to experience it, it makes me sad to think that it is ending. I just love little chubby legs and the soft baby smells and snoring babies sleeping on me. I will really miss those things. Far too soon, Elly will be crawling and walking and running all over. Then she will lose all the sweet baby rolls and sweet baby smells. She will be a toddler. Then a preschooler.

What I'm trying to say is it's all going by too fast.

I'm dismayed. Disoriented. Discontented. Disgusted. I'm running out of "dis" words...

Evie's going to be 2 in a week and Elly will be 1 far too soon. And before I have time to take a breath they're probably going to be teenagers. What on earth can I do?

Well, of course nothing.

Elly is sitting up completely solo now. Not even having to use her hands and "frog sit" anymore. She still needs a boppy around her or else she gets excited and throws herself backwards. This morning for the first time I left Elly sitting in her Boppy in the living room and came back and she was lying on her back about 6 inches away from where I left her. Gooing, kicking and incredibly proud of herself. I'm pretty sure she leaned forward and got onto her tummy, army crawled a few inches and then rolled over. It's not very impressive progress. Nonetheless, it is movement. And with babies it seems like one week they are completely incapable of doing something. The next they are doing it as if they were born able. It's amazing. Babies are amazing little critters.

Evie is saying new words every day. Now I have to carry on conversation with her in the car. Which is cool. But also new and different and a lot of pressure. I'm used to just listening to my music or catching up on my phone calls during car rides. But no more! But it's neat. Evie actually talking and stuff.

It is just blowing my mind how quick it all happens. Days turn into weeks turn into years. I could just cry.