A Return to Normalcy
Tonight, I gave the girls a bath in the tub together.
"Big deal!" you say with a yawn. Well, it is. Really.
Party Girl has this way of leaning and falling and trying to swim and snarfing up all the water, while Sass looks on with annoyance and dumps water on top of PG's head whenever she feels it's safe to get away with it, wily thing. Then there's the whole getting them out of the tub. They are both shivery cold and one or the other really isn't ready to quit playing and it's just usually a huge, soggy, crying mess. Which is why I've been bathing them separately, always when M. is home for reinforcements.
But tonight they really needed a bath, and he was working late. I took a deep breath, and dove in (no pun intended), and it went swimmingly (ok, pun intended). Sass loves her bath, and decided it was her job to wash up Party Girl, and took to her with a wash cloth. For her part, PG did really well too, and kept the lurching and submarine dives to a minimum.
At one point, Sass started drinking bathwater, and spitting it out, spout style, at Party Girl. PG just utterly lost her mind at this, laughing, shrieking, and throwing bubbles all over the tub. (Of course, Sass could have been shooting mini-marshmellows out her nose and had the same effect. Party Girl is pretty easy to please, especially if her big sister is actually paying attention to her.) After a few minutes, Sass decided that she should actually spit the water in PG's face, much to PG's now completely crazed delight. I almost stopped her, figuring it really wasn't a very polite thing to do, but they were having so much sisterly fun, I let it go. Who, in the under 3 set, really cares about manners anyway?
Really, a good, if slightly damp time was had by all. I fed the baby while Sass moaned in her bed about it being bedtime (not an unusual thing), then cuddled up with Sass until she was snoring.
....................
We are a family of four, and four feels like a complete number to me. Which is to say I've given away my maternity clothes. Get my drift? Since I got pregnant with Sass, almost 4 years ago, life around here has been pretty much constantly in transition. First we were new parents, then we were learning how to raise a toddler, then we discovered we were pregnant again, then we were adjusting to life as a family of four. In between there was nursing and weaning, learning to sleep, dealing with not sleeping, post-partum hormones, and all the other things that happen when a family is fresh and new in the world.
But though our kids are still very tiny and very new, I'm seeing more an more that we are getting this. Life around here is ripe with all the things small children bring: laughter, amazement, temper tantrums, drool, but when nights like tonight happen (and they've been happening more and more lately), a sort of growing, changing, fitting in better together, it makes me feel like life around here is returning to normal. Not pre-children normal, but a new, wonderful, different kind of normal.
Which is why it really just feels like the perfect time to get off my size 20 behind and make this diet work. I've had excuses for years:
I'm trying to get pregnant.
I am pregnant.
I'm recovering from childbirth.
I'm nursing.
Oops, I'm pregnant again.
You see a pattern?
But now, my family is whole. My babies are weaned, and for the first time in a very long time, my body is my own again. What better time to say, "No more excuses," and really do it this time? Why not make part of our "new-normal" be that I am healthy, and strong, and at my best. I deserve it, and so does my family.
"Big deal!" you say with a yawn. Well, it is. Really.
Party Girl has this way of leaning and falling and trying to swim and snarfing up all the water, while Sass looks on with annoyance and dumps water on top of PG's head whenever she feels it's safe to get away with it, wily thing. Then there's the whole getting them out of the tub. They are both shivery cold and one or the other really isn't ready to quit playing and it's just usually a huge, soggy, crying mess. Which is why I've been bathing them separately, always when M. is home for reinforcements.
But tonight they really needed a bath, and he was working late. I took a deep breath, and dove in (no pun intended), and it went swimmingly (ok, pun intended). Sass loves her bath, and decided it was her job to wash up Party Girl, and took to her with a wash cloth. For her part, PG did really well too, and kept the lurching and submarine dives to a minimum.
At one point, Sass started drinking bathwater, and spitting it out, spout style, at Party Girl. PG just utterly lost her mind at this, laughing, shrieking, and throwing bubbles all over the tub. (Of course, Sass could have been shooting mini-marshmellows out her nose and had the same effect. Party Girl is pretty easy to please, especially if her big sister is actually paying attention to her.) After a few minutes, Sass decided that she should actually spit the water in PG's face, much to PG's now completely crazed delight. I almost stopped her, figuring it really wasn't a very polite thing to do, but they were having so much sisterly fun, I let it go. Who, in the under 3 set, really cares about manners anyway?
Really, a good, if slightly damp time was had by all. I fed the baby while Sass moaned in her bed about it being bedtime (not an unusual thing), then cuddled up with Sass until she was snoring.
....................
We are a family of four, and four feels like a complete number to me. Which is to say I've given away my maternity clothes. Get my drift? Since I got pregnant with Sass, almost 4 years ago, life around here has been pretty much constantly in transition. First we were new parents, then we were learning how to raise a toddler, then we discovered we were pregnant again, then we were adjusting to life as a family of four. In between there was nursing and weaning, learning to sleep, dealing with not sleeping, post-partum hormones, and all the other things that happen when a family is fresh and new in the world.
But though our kids are still very tiny and very new, I'm seeing more an more that we are getting this. Life around here is ripe with all the things small children bring: laughter, amazement, temper tantrums, drool, but when nights like tonight happen (and they've been happening more and more lately), a sort of growing, changing, fitting in better together, it makes me feel like life around here is returning to normal. Not pre-children normal, but a new, wonderful, different kind of normal.
Which is why it really just feels like the perfect time to get off my size 20 behind and make this diet work. I've had excuses for years:
I'm trying to get pregnant.
I am pregnant.
I'm recovering from childbirth.
I'm nursing.
Oops, I'm pregnant again.
You see a pattern?
But now, my family is whole. My babies are weaned, and for the first time in a very long time, my body is my own again. What better time to say, "No more excuses," and really do it this time? Why not make part of our "new-normal" be that I am healthy, and strong, and at my best. I deserve it, and so does my family.
posted by Her Grace at
7:49 PM
3 Comments:
Just think... by the time Sass and PG are playing soccer (or softball, basketball, jai alai... whatever floats their collective boat) you'll be the only mom able to run from one side of the field to the other to watch the action!
You go girl. You can do it! Counting calories has always worked really well for me.
This story makes me want to have another baby. But right now, I'm wayyyy too tired...
Margaret-
Thanks for the visual, it really helps!! By the way, I'm thinking of changing PG's nickname to Heavy Metal. You should see the head banging action around here!
Lucinda-
I hear you. When I found out I was preggers with PG, I was actually sleeping on one of those small futons next to Sass's crib, because she would not sleep any other way. I thought, NO WAY can we handle another baby. But here we are, and doing great! Thanks for commenting. I crack up every time I visit your blog!
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