+1 and the Lies of Omission

As I sit here 2 days post the birth of my second child, and scanning the paper for holiday offers of 2-for-1 vasectomies and hoping the offer is good for me to use them both, I am reflecting on the lies of omission committed in the name of polite, social celebration of second children.

Take greeting cards, for instance.  Greeting cards come laden with words like "sweet," "adorable," "bundle of joy" and "precious."  While aptly describing the baby in the singular and in it's more serene moments, I feel the cards need a bit of updating:

• Enjoy you're new little vampire that drinks your sleep instead of human blood! (OK, maybe that can work for the first child as well.)
• Congratulations, it's WAAAYY harder with two!
• Child #2:  This time, you don't get naps!
• Man, put down the beer and get off the couch, it's man-to-man coverage now!
• It's not child*2 = work^2 = sleep/child^2, enjoy! (For you math types.)
• THIS time when you swear, there is an older child to repeat it.
• Two words: Alternating sleep.

For those nifty Mylar balloons, perhaps instead of a baby buggy, or teddy bear, or flowery bassinet; a huge, floating, bloodshot eye with the words "THIS IS YOU!" would be more appropriate, or a coffee cup with the words "Your new best friend," or any of the above greeting card slogans in helium form.

I know, I know, this is just a phase, and this, too, will pass.  Think of how great the older one is (or was before this one came along,) etc., etc, blah, blah, blah.  Look, writing is my catharsis, to shut up and LET ME HAVE THIS!!  (As I told my wife as she was doubting she could get through the labor, "Honey, I am going out for a beer."  I mean, "You can do this, and you don't really have a choice.")

Oh, and for you parents up with your first child, you have my sympathy, but let me be the first to tell you as I hand you a giant, blood-shot eye balloon, "It's waaayy harder with two!"  (And for my friends with 4-7 children, you are saints!)

And now, please be distracted with some pictures:

"OK Erica, ready to destroy these fools?"

"Mommy and Daddy, I OWN you!!"

"Daddy, I got this virus just for you!"

Fleck's Room

We're ready anytime, Fleck. 

ABCs with Dancing Baby

Waiting for Fleck

Things we did while waiting for Fleck: 

Wash baby dolly in the sink.

Help daddy make coffee, in a diaper and moose slippers of course.

Hang Christmas lights

Be orange.

 Get wet.

 Watch Daddy put our compressed wood product away...

...with Fleck.

Amelia's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Amelia's second birthday last week with friends and family so on her actual birthday we had a quiet day with just us. Rob and I gave Amelia a play kitchen from Ikea that she absolutely loves. It's so fun to see her imitate us in her own cooking. 

Then she had to do some real cooking to help daddy make her birthday pancakes.

 And of course there was cake. 

 This picture makes her look really old, must be the funny smile. 

We also finally flipped her carseat so she is facing forward now. She thinks it's great to be able to see out the front and is constantly pointing out cars, houses, trees, buildings, and such to me. She looks like such a big girl now! 

Some 2-year-old stats:  26lbs, 34.5 inches. Her hair has grown a ton in the past few months and she keeps telling me that she needs a haircut. Her vocabulary is ever expanding and her sentence structure and grammar are often better than mine. This morning she said, "Mommy, after you change my diaper, I would like to go downstairs and have some milk in my blue sippy cup. [pause] Okay!". Just like that. Her exact words. She has been adding "Okay!" after she makes a request, as though she is answering it for us. Makes it hard to say no (and I think she knows that). Also, her ability to transfer concepts from one situation to the next never ceases to amaze me. Once we started talking about opposites (see video from a few days ago), she figured out what it meant and with a little thought, can tell you the opposite to almost anything. She also compares things, "This yogurt is cold like the raspberries and blueberries" (because she eats frozen berries) or "A is for Amelia like L is for Lily!"  SAT analogies? No problem. 

One of her favorite activities is to play in her crib after her nap when we go upstairs to get her. She doesn't want to come out, she just wants to run around her crib, fall down, play with her animals, and be crazy. A few days ago, she was doing this and decided to play a game with prepositions in relation to her pillow. She grabbed her pillow and said "I'm sitting next to my pillow, I'm crawling on my pillow, Amelia is under her pillow [holding it above her head]..." etc. Then she did the same with the relationship between her Bear and Pillow. What two-year-old does that? 

I think Amelia is starting to understand the idea that a baby is going to come live at our house. She knows "Fleck" is in mommy's ever expanding belly and when I say "these diapers are for Fleck" she used to come try to put a diaper on my belly but now she says "We can put those on Fleck after he is born". When we were adjusting the infant carseat to fit a newborn, she said "when Fleck cries I can do this *rocks the carseat* and say, 'ssssshhhhh, Fleck, it's ok, sweetheart'".  

I'm sure Amelia will be an awesome big sister. She is super affectionate and loves giving "a kiss and a hug" to just about anyone and anything. Hopefully we'll find out soon.

Year Two

Long, but worth it.

Opposites

A Bee and a Cow go Trick-or-Treating