We’ve been a busy bunch lately. Many different things have come up that have required us to travel away from home overnight. Historically, my little one has not been a fan of riding in her car seat, we would have to schedule the driving during her naps.
My husband and I would go to some rather great lengths to avoid waking her up, like communicating without words, rolling up to stoplights to avoid stopping the car, or holding out on bathroom breaks as long as humanly possible. She also didn’t seem to settle well in a different place, even when she was younger.
Her level of fussiness would increase and you can forget sleeping …
With Benjamin getting older and a new baby on the way, one thing is clear: I’m going to have to make way for a mountain of all new baby gear.
Matt and I were smart enough to keep everything of Ben’s after he outgrew it. Clothes, bouncers, baby swings, you name it, we kept it. We figured that we could use it for the next baby, and we were right. But some things you just can’t get around.
For example, we will, without a doubt, need a new car seat. The question was what kind of car seat to get: another rear-facing infant seat, or go ahead and get a forward-facing one …
If Ben could talk, I’m pretty sure that’s what he would have been saying this weekend. I’ve been talking about taking another trip up to the aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores for months now, and finally, we actually went.
Last time we went to the aquarium, Ben was about five months old, and he liked it as much as he could have at that age. He was interested in the big shark tank, but beyond that, he showed little to no interest in much else. I felt pretty confident that this time around, he’d be much more interested in everything.
And I was thankfully right. He still loved the shark tank the …
Since my husband has been home he has really taken to being a dad. It’s great to watch them play together and have her realize who he is. It’s like he never left.
Of course some areas are drastically different. Such as waking up in the middle of the night to give Abigail a bottle and realizing someone is in bed with you. Or not getting any sleep because someone else is in bed with you and therefore waking up in the middle of the night is miserable.
It’s hard to transition from sleeping alone to sharing your bed. The other night I thought I was dreaming when Abi woke up and my husband asked if I wanted him …
Being a mom is made up of lots of little moments. The first smile, the first laugh, the first time they slept through the night or stood up on wobbly legs… it is moments like these that make the incredibly difficult job of parenting worth it. On nights when Benjamin doesn’t want to go to sleep, even though he is so tired his eyes are red, I look at pictures of him smiling his big, beautiful smile and it makes me smile again. When he cries and cries and cries, I think of how excited he gets when I walk into a room, and it gets me through it.
We had …
How do you know when it is appropriate to start correcting your children? Is one year old too young to correct when they are doing something wrong? I swear that Abigail likes to do things I specifically tell her not to and remove her from. Are they able to distinguish right and wrong when they are so young?
An example being playing in the dogs water dish. I say her name loudly and as I’m walking towards her she laughs and runs to something else as if pretending she wasn’t doing it. I pick her up and bring her somewhere else and she goes right back and repeats.
Is she too young …
