(no subject)
I had a really good day with my kids, so it seems like as good a time as any to post an update. There are just so many things happening in my life that are so, so good right now and I never want to forget them.
Eliza
I just don't know how I ever got so lucky. That kid is, simply put, the light of my life. She is the biggest gift I have ever received and I just can't believe how fortunate we are. She is really, really smart. I love hearing her talk and how she has her own thoughts and ideas now, instead of just regurgitating things she hears other people say. She speaks really well, but still says hilarious things- "be furcle" instead of "be careful", where the sewer pipes come into our basement is officially "the poop hole" and I will never call it anything else. When she hears that someone is having a birthday, she bursts into song "happy bur-fee!!!" and does a little dance.
She loves her family and talks about Hazel, Alice, Aunt Purcle, and Uncle Jong all the time. She has toddlery days but is pretty easy to talk down off the ledge. She loves Walter. So, so much. And it warms my heart every single day to see them interact. She has started to not like being in the dark, so I got her this adorable little nightlight that she calls Squishy Bear and she is completely obsessed. She asks a lot of questions - including "WHY?!" about 346 times a day. She loves her daddy- I am currently stalking them on the monitor while he puts her to bed. He loves playing along to all her little games and reading her an endless number of books. He just adores her and we talk constantly about how lucky we are.
Walter
He is getting so happy and he is just a lovely little boy. I feel bad because I spent most of his first year sort of resenting him because he was so difficult. He cried constantly, slept like shit, and was just not that fun to be around. About 2 weeks before he turned one, he completely and abruptly weaned himself- literally from one day to the next- and *mostly* started completely sleeping through the night. He got so, so, so bad before he got better. In the weeks before his birthday he would be up screaming for hours some nights. Mike and I were starting to wonder if it was the nursing that was doing it, but I suppose there is no way to figure it out.
He is starting to walk, which I think has been helpful for his happiness. I think he was getting bored and frustrated for awhile, so fingers crossed this new happy kid is here to stay. I was getting to the point where I just dreaded being around him and I absolutely hate feeling that way about my own child. I am not one of those people who feels that you should enjoy every minute of your kid's life, but I really felt sad about how I was starting to feel about him.
Life in general
We had a pretty good summer. A mix of beach, pool, playgrounds, walks to the new ice cream store. The weather was mostly decent, aside from a few weeks where it rained every damn afternoon.
We traveled a lot- spent a week in June in Tallahassee with Angela's family and my parents. It was really, really lovely. We did it last summer, too. Just a week with no real plans or events, hanging out at their house. They love having the kids there and the 4 of them get along so well. The three girls are just such delights.
We took a somewhat disastrous trip to the Finger Lakes with Mike's family in June. His parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, so the whole family went for a week. It was.....awful. All the other kids are so much older than ours, so they were doing a bunch of fun stuff we just couldn't swing. And Walter literally did not sleep while we were there. One night, it was 4 hours straight of SCREAMING. We eat early- at the time, Walter would lose his mind if he didn't eat by about 6pm. So we would try to make dinner plans and everyone would just dick around forever and we wouldn't get food for hours, so I would be outside in the parking lot with a hollering baby. Dennis had the nerve to offer me parenting advice at dinner one night and I literally ran out in tears. It was just a very stressful time for me and I was happy to be home.
We were home for 2 days before heading to Singer Island with my family, where Walter continued his streak of not sleeping. By the time we got home, I was so sick of the screaming and not sleeping. It was really tough. Eliza, of course, had the Best Time Ever. It is hard with kid #2 to keep up with both of them and make sure they are all happy, while still trying to enjoy it yourself.
We capped off the summer with a visit from Angela's family for the week, my parents for most of the week, and a long weekend from Alan's family for Walter's birthday party. It was really nice to have Angela's family here for so long. Again, our kids are obsessed with each other. Dad is still feeling down in the dumps most of the time, but I guess it's a positive thing he could come at all? I felt bad, he spent most of Walter's actual party laying down because he wasn't feeling well. Sigh. When will life get easier?
Overall, not much to complain about.