- I realized today that I get more timeouts than my toddler. And I don’t mean the good “calgon take me away timeouts either”. I’m talking about the Mommy timeout, or the times that I take out of my day to stop what I’m doing for myself and do something for someone else instead. I’m talking about when you’re getting dressed and stop in the middle of the process to pick up and feed a crying baby. I’m talking about when you’re doing some task and stop to teach a valuable lesson along the way. I’m talking about today when I halted my make-up application to sop up a river of urine. Chloe’s tiny potty also serves as a step stool when the lid is closed. I now realize she chose to take her first pee of the morning in that potty. She later chose to use it as a step stool, half way across the house, in her room. When a 2 year old carries a pot full of pee across the house, it spills. When it’s full of pungent and abundant, early morning pee, it’s a lot of smelly mess. So we have a new rule. It can either be a potty or a step stool, but not both.
- I don’t want to count my chickens before they’re hatched, but I think something magical is occurring at the Gowen house. I’ve noticed little signs of an opening in my toddlers heart, a doorway to let her little sister inside. This morning she asked me “where’s Bailey?” I told her asleep in her room, and she seemed kinda sad, stating, “I wanted to see her.” Lately she’s been acknowledging her existence by talking to her, kissing her, and playing with her. This is leaps and bounds away from previous requests for me to “put her away” or even “accidental” knocks to the baby’s head while I was paying her more attention than Chloe. Don’t get me wrong. She’s still jealous as ever of anything that takes my attention away from her, but I’m seeing small changes that are making me hopeful. When I found out I was having another girl, I was excited to be able to make my little girl a best friend for life. I think I’m beginning to see the budding start of just such a relationship.
- Today was like all Mondays are for me, just wonderful. I love them as being the one day we are all together as a family. I tried to sleep in a bit, but my precious infant daughter had other plans. I cannot tell a lie. When we first got up together, after I fed her and changed her diaper; I then placed her in her bassinet and put her in front of the television and dozed off on the couch beside her. No, it’s not the best parenting style, but Momma was tired! As it turned out, I only napped for another 30 minutes because she began to talk so loudly to the characters on TV, that I couldn’t sleep anyway. We spent a lot of time today running errands, but even that seems more fun when I have my best friend, my husband, by my side. We ate out for lunch, indulged in ice cream (despite the chilly weather), and visited Chloe’s favorite department store at her request (Walmart). She specifically requested the blue Walmart, not the brown one. I recently took her to a newer built Walmart than the one we have in Corinth. It seems old Walmart design is a blue building, while the newer ones are brown. Naturally, she finds the blue paint much more soothing. I’m sure you will all be stunned to know she somehow convinced Ben and I that she needed a very large Sponge Bob stuffed animal. Yes, we are suckers for that cute little face. When Bailey learns to talk, we’re gonna be broke for sure!
That is all 🙂