To say I was deflated is an understatement. I cried. I lit-ruhlly cried. I'm sure the crying has nothing to do with a lack of sleep or my being crazy. But you guys, it was super funny (of course) and had all kinds of metaphors comparing Avery to weather. The violent, crazy kind of weather. Plus, it took me days to have the time to slowly cobble the post together during times I was feeding Owen and Avery was napping. (And it's taken me just as many days to put this one together the same way.) Because as you'll see in the first video, getting anything accomplished when both are awake is unlikely.
My lap. And yes, Marti is burrowing.
We're adjusting to being a house of four and a Marti. Things can get crazy, like when Owen is crying, Avery decides to test out her scream while intermittently crying, Marti is barking, my shirt is half off, my nose is running and the toilet starts making an obnoxious high-pitched whining noise. Here's an 8-second sample of my days:
Looks fun, right? It actually is fun, and surprisingly, there are moments of calm between bouts of chaos. Avery is adjusting to big sisterhood. It's interesting that she got the big sister title right as she was hitting the Show My Independence Stage. The "I'm having trouble controlling MY EMOTIONS" phase. She will have moments when she's a holy terror and I think I'd be less afraid of staring down the barrel of a gun. Like when I was at the library and I started seeing little flashes of the fits she's thrown at home. Luckily this time, she only laid on the ground, refusing to walk, listen or cooperate. At home sometimes she'll just sca-ream for fun, so I was glad she didn't break out her vocals at the library. She's thrown herself violently to the ground several times, but after hitting her head twice she learned that the point is to get to the ground to actively tantrum, so she now charts a much safer and slower journey to get there. It's not the drama she hopes for, but it's the comedy her parents enjoy.
Luckily for us, these bouts of The Crazy are mixed with The Sweet and The Adorable and The Smart and The Funny.
The sweet? She'll come up and say "hug" to get hugs. She'll say please, thank you and "Bless you, Owen." She'll shove a pacifier in Owen's face. (Or rip it out, but whatever.) And give him extra jammies. And bounce him. Hard. Sometimes it works.
The adorable? She'll feed her dolly and take great pains to wrap her in a blanket.
The smart? Out of almost nowhere, she counted Alan's fingers to five and shortly after went to 10. And she started singing the ABCs and a song I made up for her. She's also reading which is a mix of The Adorable and The Smart. Smorable? She gestures, which is a total mommy move; I gesture a lot and am quite expressive if you've never noticed.
As for Owen, he's good. Really freaking adorable, actually. He's stopped screaming bloody murder for every diaper change; now it's just screaming bloody murder when I put him down. And boy, does he like to be held nonstop, which is great for the heart but not for the to-do list. I stopped even trying to get anything done during the day, as I even struggle to keep up the house with the two needy humans. I swear, I'm often better off if I accept the state of the house, as Avery destroys and unloads anything and everything if my attention is diverted even for a second. I've enlisted help, a sitter to come in twice a week to allow me to get a few work things done. Unlike some of the help we've gotten through Alan's work program, she showed up almost on time and is a normal human. I hope she keeps coming back.
But how could these two scare you away? (Just don't show her that first video...)
More to come soon, I swear. I will have two hands again some day.
