Life Tossed Together: January 2015

As a second time mom, I take great comfort in the certainty that with children, nothing is certain. Everything, both good and bad, is a phase. This makes a lot of my experiences both easier to savor or endure, depending on which end of the spectrum they fall.

With Lincoln, our current phase includes the refusal to nap anywhere during the day for more than ten minutes unless he is laying in our arms or strapped to my chest in the Beco Soleil (highly recommended and saves my sanity on a daily basis!). Since I lack the mental and emotional fortitude for cry it out, I simply acknowledge the phase and the snuggles, and we wait.

Luckily, his transition into his crib and out of his Rock and Play bassinet (another highly recommended sanity saver) is going much better. If he weren't struggling to get over a leftover cough, I think he'd be ready to stay in there all night. As it is, we've had two nights where he's stayed in from 9pm until nearly 5am! In the back of my mind are Lucas's sleep patterns at the same age - twelve hours straight in the crib until he hit four months, at which point it all went to hell for the next year. So we wait to see if these good sleep habits are a longer phase or shorter one, and keep our fingers crossed for the former.

Lucas's current phase is a lot less fun. We already deal with pretty spectacular tantrums on the regular from our spirited Biggest, and he's finally hit the point where he decided that being mad is not enough, he needs to also hit and kick Mama and Dada (and baby brother too, when he can get to him fast enough!) to get his displeasure across. It is insanely frustrating and hopefully a phase that will pass quickly, as Brandon and I have a hard time keeping our tempers in check when we're being pursued across the house and abused, and even more so when he goes after the baby.

But there are always good things. Having conquered all the gross motor skills he can think of, Lucas is finally turning his attentions toward developing his fine motor skills and verbal skills. Lots of building blocks and chatter around here. The chatter can be hard to decipher but it's kind of a fun game also. Today I finally figured out that when Lucas was asking for "Star Wars," he actually meant "Dinosaurs," or the PBS cartoon Dinosaur Train.

As for myself, I am moving into a phase where hopefully I can be a runner again! Belonging to the YMCA and having access to free childcare for two hours every day has been an amazing gift for my life as a stay at home mom, and is allowing me to regain one of my favorite hobbies: running! I'm up to running 3.5 miles without a walk break, and hope to complete a 10K in the spring, and possibly a half marathon in the fall if I can fit in the training schedule. Hooray for new phases of life!

And a few photos of the boys: