Dollars and Sense

Evanie has an excellent vocabulary for such a smidgen of a person but regardless, she makes up a good 40% of what comes out of her mouth. Maybe more than that. The first part of a sentence is what she actually wants to say and the last half is pure gibberish. I think she thinks this is what everyone does.

It'll be something like this: Mama, I go see daddy at work-er aflather tipoijs smooga. And we can bring him treats-er a stabitt plaber flibberly.

I think I'm most confused by the addition of "er" at the end of a perfectly good word.

But then I remember how often I say things like, "nappy napperton, chubby chubs, slobbery slobberton, roly roller..." ...hmmm... hmmmm..... yeaaah, maybe her gibberish is a learned behaviour now that I think of it.

Moving on.

The other evening Justin had just come home from work and Evanie was bombarding him with stories of her day. In her excitement, her conversation turned into complete gibberish, no English whatsoever.

Justin: "Evanie, you're not making any sense."

Evanie: "I have no sense?"

Justin: "Exactly, you have no sense!"

With that Evanie sped out of the room and we forgot about her. Five minutes later she reappeared with a handful of $20s and declared, "Daddy, now I have cents!"

Silly, silly girl.

And in case you're wondering why she had access to a handful of $20s...Justin and I have always used the envelope system for budgeting and apparently this has not been lost on Evanie. She knew exactly where to find the cash. It has since found a much higher home.

The Bathrobe

Justin and I are not highly motivated types. We talk about things a loooooong time before we ever get around to doing anything.

I sometimes get annoyed by us and I'm sure others get annoyed a lot. But as I get older and wiser (and older....and older...) I'm beginning to see value in it; to embrace it. Not ALL of it - for instance being late is hardly a valuable habit - but relaxing together, wasting time together can be a good thing.

I feel we're surrounded by a mentality that often preaches, "Busyness makes you valuable!"

Yeeaaaahh.....I don't think so. It makes you tired and grouchy.

A friend of mine said that at a certain point in their evening, anything that hasn't been accomplished WON'T be accomplished because they make relaxing together a priority.

In the first 3 1/2 months of our new family of 4, our evenings were largely chaos. Many were spent endlessly bouncing a crying Marlowe and training a grouchy Evanie and calming a weeping mommy. (poor Justin) There were virtually no moments of time to waste together as a couple. And you know what we found? We fought. We constantly misunderstood each other. We frequently went to bed grouchy and too tired to work it out and I began to realize that "wasting time" together is actually a high priority.

Today I read this excerpt from The Book of Idle Pleasures (thanks, Tianna!):

The Bathrobe

"There is no more apt uniform of sloth than the bathrobe. Merely owning one is a sign of hope. A signal of slovenly intent. Bathrobes accompany the state of doing nothing, but what are you actually doing when you're doing nothing? Thinking, that's what you're doing. Society fears the population with time to think. Populations like that have been known to change things. This is why the bathrobe is the true uniform of revolution. In some far distant point in the future, women and men will marvel at the day the seats of global power were finally overwhelmed - by an army of people in bathrobes."

I want to personally give each of you permission to waste time today. Don your bathrobe, put your gnarly, calloused heels up on the coffee table, and twiddle your thumbs.

And this week?

Say "no" to one thing.

Drop one (maybe a tiny one) ball.

Take one nap.

We'll be better for it.

Momma Said There'd be Days Like These...

Yesterday Evanie was overtired, over hungry, and just plain whiny. We were trying to have lunch and eeeeeeverything was wrong.

Wrong glass.

Wrong food.

Wrong seat.

Wrong spoon.

Wrong drink.

(Are you thinking about chopsticks now because 'wrong' is starting to look like a Chinese word? Me too.)

I kept getting after her - you know the drill: "Eat your food. Stop whining. Water is good for you. You're not using a fancy glass this time. Take a bite. It's yummy. Stop whining. Can you ask nicely. Please use your manners. Stop whining...please stop whining....please....for the love....stop....whining...etc."

Suddenly the whining turned to sobbing. She put her hands over her face and cried, "Mommy, I NEED something. I need something...make feel me better!"

Well said. Some days we just need something to make feel us better.

So I held her on my lap and fed her until her tummy was full and a smile found its way back onto her sticky little face.

And we both felt better.

Let Me Guess, We're About to go Over a Huge Waterfall....

This has been harder than I thought it would be.

Mothering two.

I'm quite ashamed to admit it because practically everyone I know has more than two children and they sing and smile and are out and about and make it all look so easy while in this house the transition has not been easy. Many days I've felt quite certain I'm not cut out to be a mother...kind of late for this revelation, I know.

But seriously. Holy. Cow.

My delightful little two year old hit the Terrible Twos right on schedule...about a week before Marlowe joined us (screaming). I'm sure much of it has had to do with the four sharp molars slicing through her gums but still, most days my patience ran out long before the day was over.

My 4 month old has been mostly a mystery to me. She has this obsessive need to suck but refuses anything 'mainstream.' She blazes her own trail, this one. No soothers will do but mom's hairy trucker arm, that is something TASTY! I am currently sporting 3 hickeys from my baby.

Did you just say "gross?" I'm not gonna argue with you.

She won't fall asleep in the swing but she'll doze in the bumbo. She hates swaddling but likes getting her diaper changed. She gets frustrated with toys but likes playing with blankets. Her favorite thing is a good conversation. Especially with her big sister who has no respect for personal space and gets so close while talking that they both end up cross eyed.

Sleep has been a bigger issue in the past few months than ever before. Evanie has always been a good sleeper except when she's teething and then it's madness. So little sleeping, so much crying!

Marlowe's sleeping has improved dramatically but it has been tough going up to now. For the first 5 weeks of her life I rarely got more than maybe 2 to 4 hours a night. When her tummy issues resolved she immediately got better at night and about 80% of nights she now will sleep somewhere around 9-12 hours which is totally awesome. Naps have been another issue entirely. Up until a week ago, I spent many hours putting her to sleep over and over again. We tried just having her cry it out but this kid can go indefinitely so it was way outside of my comfort zone and I ended up just holding and bouncing and bouncing and bouncing until I literally put my back out.

Anyway, the summation of all this moaning is that now, 4 months into having two girls I finally feel like I've come up for a breath of air and we're all going to make it. We have half a molar left with Evanie so she is napping and waking only once or twice at night. And Marlowe has had at least 7 (not consecutive) days of decent naps which means we've had a few dinners on time and I've cleaned my house once. We pretty much don't leave the house but I'm willing to make that sacrifice for now to create some good sleeping habits.

I've taken up crafting in my many days at home. Maybe someday I'll post a few pictures of stuff I've been working on.

Oh...and I have no pictures...