Browsing Tag

2 kids in my lap

Daily Life

My Stage 5 Clinger

My sweet baby girl! It’s a beautiful burden having such an attached baby. We laugh because we had to put up the baby gate the minute Katie started crawling and we left it up until she was 18 months old. We have never put the baby gate up for Isabelle because she is never not touching me. Some days it drives me crazy. When I’m using the bathroom, when I’m trying to put on my shoes, when I’m trying to do literally anything that requires body autonomy…

When I’m using the bathroom, when I’m trying to put on my shoes, when I’m trying to do literally anything that requires body autonomy…

And it doesn’t make for an enjoyable start to the day when you’re trying to pack your kids’ lunches so you can go somewhere fun and there’s a baby screaming at your feet and tugging on your pants because you had to set them down for 5 minutes. There are times Jason holds her so I can have a break and she stares at me and cries the whole time. Does not feel like a break.

It’s sweet, it’s exhausting. Some days I want to melt, some days I want to pull my hair out.

But she’s also the snuggliest baby I’ve ever met. On the rare occasions she does walk away to play on her own, she comes back every couple minutes to climb up on my lap, lie her head on my chest, and suck her thumb for a minute before getting back down to play. (And rinse and repeat every 3 minutes until she’s done playing…) She is constantly bringing me books and curling up next to me so I can read to her and she holds on so tight when I carry her. It’s sweet, it’s exhausting. Some days I want to melt, some days I want to pull my hair out. I know it won’t last forever, but it’s definitely a different experience than when K was a baby. It’s funny how different siblings can be.

Daily Life

Meal Times with Kids

How every meal time inevitably ends up: 2 kids on my lap, food that fell out of mouths all over me, scrambling to get both girls fed at the same time, and then when it’s all over I get a couple bites of cold mac and cheese and half a chicken tender (if I’m lucky!)

Meal times these days reminds me of fight scenes in old cartoons where limbs and dust clouds are flying all over the place and there’s crying and animal noises and then it’s over as soon as it started and the dust settles and life goes back to normal. But when you’re in the middle of it…. oh man. Dinners are easier because Jason is around to help but feeding the two of them at the same time, especially with the amount Isabelle eats, it’s no easy task.