Life is settling in with two children. Those who have made the transition from 1 child to 2 know the tiredness, pain, frustration and moments of glee and hilarity Chris and I are going through. Jamisen remains 95% loving and curious and 5% mischievous when it comes to his little sister.
Like, is he helping in this photo? It certainly would appear but …
Lily remains a textbook baby (thank goodness, since Jamisen was definitely NOT) and is able to come to work with me every day. I get about 4 hours of work done in an 8 hour day but I’m just happy to have her with me. On days I need to concentrate, the entire team pitches in to keep her calm. She is quite the little office mascot and is comfortable with the smells and sounds of the Bramble Berry offices. Lily is a full 6 weeks old now and is sleeping 4 hours at a time most nights. I feel like a new woman, capable of coherent speech and patience (a miracle!) if I get a stretch of 4 hours of sleep per night. I’m still tired (!!!) but it’s manageable now.
We had a fun (busy, exhausting) weekend with Grandma and Grandpa here. It is always a blessing, and such a relief to have extra hands to help wrangle the children and give Chris and I a moment to ourselves every so often. It’s nice to get quiet time to remind each other that we do indeed, like each other and catch up on the news of the week.
With their help, we ventured out onto a good old-fashioned train ride – emphasis on the OLD. The trains that we took were over 100 years old and never would pass safety inspection today. Thankfully, they never traveled over 5 miles per hour, making a very short trip last and last and last. Jamisen’s first handcart ride was a success (though the same can’t be said for the next group that took it. Their handcart jumped the tracks, leaving us all very thankful that Jamisen wasn’t on that particular handcart ride. Thankfully no one was hurt).
His sister was less excited about the train trip and did not delight and amaze our cabin. She screamed and screamed for 85% of the ride. I tried to walk her around each train car to give equal opportunity screaming to each train car. Sometimes, she just likes to remind us she is indeed, a baby. =)
Jamisen is obsessed (OBSESSED) with trains. This trip was epic for him and he was awake over 2 hours past his naptime, running on pure happy adrenalin. I see many more train trips in our future this summer.
We had lots of play time this weekend, including three different parks. It was wonderful to have Grandma and Grandpa there to help with both kids. Jamisen is developing an amazing relationship with them, especially Grandma who comes to spend entire weeks with us. Both Chris and I feel thankful, blessed and exceedingly grateful to have such a strong support network.
Jamisen and I even got some one-on-one time this weekend and I really enjoyed it. I’ve missed my little guy while Lily has integrated into our lives (since I’m often comforting or feeding her while Jamisen plays with Daddy). It was a relief to just focus on him and laugh and laugh. The weekend went far too quickly but, there’s always next weekend!
