But it's such a great place to be, I swear.
Life with two boys is definitely more than twice the work, particularly since my older son, who was formerly practically angelic, has now resorted to acting up more often, I assume because he gets attention away from his brother that way. I feel bad that I have to make him wait for things more often now, but really, he has handled the adjustment with a lot of grace for a two-and-a-half year old. He still tries to give his brother kisses on his hands and helps me burp him. He has never once complained about him at all.
The thing I have found the most challenging is traveling with both children. We were invited to a family reunion for my husband's family a few weeks ago, and we agreed to come although I was dreading the 2 1/2 hour flight to get there. I made sure to select a flight that did not make any stops, at least. Unfortunately Murphy's Law was in full effect for the flight out, however. First, the flight was delayed for at least a half hour before we were even called to board, making it about 10:30PM. Then, after getting on the plane (no small feat with a large toddler car seat, toddler, and infant) and leaving the gate, the pilot came on the PA and announced that we had a malfunctioning computer so we were going back to the gate to switch to a different plane. Terrific. After all was said and done, we didn't get in to the reunion city until 3:30AM (the hotel was an hour from our airport). The cherry on top was that the key reader to let us into the hotel was not working properly, and we could not get the night clerk to answer the buzzer to let us in. Finally some woman who was staying at the hotel had to go out to her car and we got in that way, but my father in law gave that clerk a piece of his mind when he finally got him to come out from their break room or wherever he was. The rest of the trip was mercifully uneventful, and it was great to introduce our newest addition to his great-grandfather, but I am glad we don't have to truck both children on a plane again until Christmas, when my mom has supplied us with accommodations to stay in Orlando for the week.
A typical day now consists of at least one period in which both children are shrieking and/or crying, a long walk, sometimes punctuated by a trip to the park to tire out the toddler, and a nap for everyone in the house. Ideally these naps line up so Mom can get one too. Once the baby sleeps for a long stretch at night (we got 7.5 hours last night, hooray!!) on a regular basis, Mom will replace her nap in the day with when she will run on her treadmill to hopefully get back to her fighting weight a little faster than she did with her older son. I had actually hoped to run a 5k in a few weeks, but I am not sure if that is such a good idea anymore...we shall see if I can get a few trial runs in first. It isn't very far so if I can get a few in, I will still do it. My big goal is to train for the 2011 Chicago Marathon and run it with my brother, who is running it for at least the third time next weekend.
Well, that about sums it up for now. I will post the Poetry Challenge as a separate post shortly.
