The First Month

Everyone who has kids close together likes to tell me that "things will get better!" I take this to mean that it's ridiculously difficult at first, and progressively gets easier as you adapt/become better at managing two, and that as your kids become more self-sufficient it's easier as well. I really hope that's true, because it seems a bit too easy right now.

Don't get me wrong. It's hard. Like the times when both babies are crying. Or not napping. Or waking each other up. But it's a lot easier than I imagined it would be. As I tell most everyone, I imagined extreme ultimate chaos, and anything below that is a welcome surprise. So, pretty much I will declare it a bad day based on these conditions all occurring at the same time: 1. Sammy is crying 2. Harmon is crying 3. I am crying. Thus far we have managed only two crying at the same time, not all three of us, though we have come close. Most of the crying is done by the kids, but I've done my fair share but that's probably mostly because I'm a wussy baby by nature.

Probably much of my success in not feeling like a complete failure comes from Sammy liking to sleep in the car (and subsequently in the grocery store) Aaron being home between jobs a fair amount, and my mom coming over to provide adult conversation on a weekly basis.

The biggest problem besides both of the babies needing something at the same time is my lack of sleep. This is a combination problem: I hate going to bed and stay up too late (yeah, 11pm is pretty late, I know) and the kids have a magical talent of never napping at the same time.

So all in all, it's been a great and pretty easy first month. Now get back to me when I have two babies that can crawl/run/move in different directions. I imagine that will be pretty ridiculous.

Car Trip

Because Aaron is starting a new job on Monday, we decided last week that we would take a trip to Montana to visit his family. We then were stuck with the decision of how to get there. Options included train (24ish hours), car (8hrs without kids), flying (1.5hrs in the air). Of course these options were not only factors of time, but of money too. Aaron managed to buy himself a truck and so we decided that was the way to go. But I was scared. Real scared.

But as it turns out, I had nothing to be afraid of (this time). Baby Peanut slept pretty much the whole time both ways. There were a few peeps and crying, but mostly silence from her end. Harmon was an angel. Going over he napped pretty well, and was content to play with toys and chat with us. Near the end of the trip when we had to turn around to go rescue Aaron's parents traveling the opposite direction I knew it was time to bust out the DVD player. I mean come on, he had been in the car for over 8 hours at that point, it was totally justified. (I am really only trying to convince myself it's ok.) Going home was a bit more difficult, but he was still practically perfect. This time aided by juice boxes and candy and about 45 minutes before home a DVD.

So, in sum: 1 month old baby plus almost 15 month old baby plus bribery and stopping a bunch = good car trip. I really should call it great, as it was about 100 times better than expected, but I don't like riding in the car that much either, so we'll just call it good for now.