six months in and we're doing fine

Well, hi.

I have been itching to get an update on the blog about the two little ones that keep me from having time to blog. Ha. (I don't really blame them...entirely!)

It's been a couple of months, and I have to agree it's mostly true about what they say how the second child is not quite as "well-documented." I do give myself some credit because I believe I have taken nearly the same amount of photos as Maisy so far. But her baby book is looking quite scarce, and we can all see the amount of time since I last blogged about her. I don't feel too bad about this because I am instead pouring all of my time and energy and brain power into spending time with her and her brother all day, every day, and then using my last bit of energy and coherence at the end of those days to hang out with their father. 

So, when you look at my blog one day, Maisy Kate, I am sorry you may not read as much about yourself when you were a baby. When you were a baby, Mommy gave up blogging most of the time because she was trying to rest and sleep instead. That way, when you were awake and it was impossible to blog entirely, I could play with you and Graeme and we could have lots of fun. I do love you so. And you were a super cute and fun baby.

My best girl

To try to make up for it a little bit, here's some updates about our Maisy girl...

She's almost seven months old now! I remember when I was very early on in my pregnancy with Maisy, a lady at PDQ (a restaurant kind of like Chick-fil-a for those who don't know) with kids similar in age difference to what we would have told us, "Just get to six months. It's all going to get much easier after six months." I don't even remember why we talked to her or how it came up that I was pregnant.

We've received much advice as we have embarked on this "two young children thing," but for some reason I've remembered random PDQ lady's words. Maybe it's not true for everyone, but for me, YES. I can't even really say the first six months were bad or anything, but in the past month since Maisy has turned six-months-old, everything just seems better. I'm sure it's due to many reasons.

• I'm getting more sleep now. This is probably the main cause of my fog being lifted. Ha. Both kids are in their beds asleep for 11 hours every night. Praise to God.
• She's on a four-hour schedule now. She eats breakfast and lunch at the same time as us. Her dinner time is earlier but then she's happy to eat puffs or Cheerios while we eat. And she still takes three naps. One of her naps coincides with Graeme's nap. Hooray. The four-hour schedule is like a billion times better than a three-hour schedule as long as they're ready for it! The hard part is being patient enough to wait to switch to it!
• She's eating several foods now and the pediatrician's all like, "She can try almost anything. The allergy people are wrong again." (Still no honey, or milk, or choking hazards, obviously.) So I'm not panicking about her accidentally eating something she shouldn't as much as I was with Graeme. She's had peanut butter several times already and it's one of her favorite things! She loves food and is way more interested in what we are eating than Graeme ever seemed to be at her age. 
• She can sit up on her own and play which makes her so much happier. She wants to get moving, so we will see how much longer before she does. I have a feeling it won't be long!
• Graeme finally acknowledges her existence! He even tries to play with her sometimes! And I think he is really starting to like having her around. It makes my heart so happy! He tries to get her to say "Da-Da" and "Bye-Bye." She says those sounds often, but we don't think she associates them as what they are yet. And he also loves to get her to clap.
• She "talks" and laughs and her personality is really adorable. And dramatic. She might be a bit more like her Daddy... She has always been a joy, but there's something about six months going by and now she is at a stage that's so. much. fun. 

Since Maisy is able to follow along more with Graeme's schedule now, we are getting back to a routine that doesn't require us to split in half all of the time. For the first six months, they never ate at the same time, never took a bath at the same time, never went to bed at the same time, etc. The bedtime routine was especially not very fun because we had to split them up to get everything done. Now, we can all sit down for dinner together and it's not as rushed as it was before. They play and take a bath together (we are even conserving more water!) before pajamas. And then Maisy can have her bedtime bottle while we all sit for some books together. Aaron and Graeme read a few more books while I put Maisy in her bed. Then Graeme gets one more potty break before he goes to bed. It's still a lot of work, and it's definitely still more of a two-person job, but I can verify that it's a lot more fun than it was before!

And the firstborn...

Graeme is getting close to being 2.5 years now! Crazy! He is still our little talker and he is hilarious. I can't even keep track of all of the funny stuff he says everyday and I know it's probably only funny to us because he's our kid. His imagination is growing too. The other day he was playing with his Disney castle and using a giraffe and a dinosaur who were "best friends." Graeme, playing with the giraffe, kept saying, "Where's my best friend dinosaur?" So, obviously, he cracks us up.

He loves reading books and we have made a point to use the brand new library by our house quite often. We have found lots of books he likes and we check them out when they are on the shelf. He memorizes books after hearing them a few times and helps us "read" them.

He still loves trucks, but has in the past couple of months taken an extreme interest in trains. Namely Thomas and Friends, much to Aaron's initial horror. Aaron very much disliked the idea of Thomas "because he's creepy-looking", but he was out-ruled seeing as Graeme loved watching it and his Mimi kept buying him different Thomas engines. Aaron has come around to Thomas, and you can often find him playing at the train table with Graeme. Graeme's train vocabulary is also hysterical as it consists of phrases like "Oh, the indignity!," "Sir Topham Hatt was very cross!," and "The troublesome trucks pushed Thomas into the buffer!"

We are also still big Disney/Pixar Cars fans too. But not so much sports. Seeing as Graeme yesterday saw his soccer ball outside and said, "Here's my basketball!" Haha.

Graeme is a pretty picky eater. I am hoping he outgrows it. Some days he surprises me like when he devoured broccoli last week. But of course when I made broccoli on Monday he refused to even put it on his fork. Good grief. He finally has all four two-year molars in and he loves brushing his teeth with his "brush teeth."

I am loving this stage we are in right now. Yes, I'm definitely tired, and no, there's not much time for sitting and blogging. But I would highly recommend this "two children" thing. It's double the work to get out the door, double the tears and crying, double the dishes, double the laundry, double the worrying about something and checking the internet to scare myself further, double the tired-feeling. But overshadowing all of those things is double the laughs, double the hugs and kisses, double the snuggles and books, double the cuteness, double the smiles, double our hearts loving them each so much, double the fun, double the thankfulness that we have these two little humans entrusted to us.