Mom of Two: Five Months In

That cute little chunker is five months old today! Every day is a little easier with her, since every day she becomes a little more independent. 

She's starting to be able to sit up on her own. I haven't started solid food yet, but it'll probably happen in the next couple weeks. I'm not as on top of things with her as I was with her sister.

No teeth yet, but lots of drool!

She's still sleeping in our room, but she's getting pretty good at finding her pacifier on her own and sticking it in her own mouth. As soon as we buy a few more of her favorite kind, I'm going to try to have her sleep in Daisy's room. I want to get extra paci's (since she has rejected her thumb) to spread around the crib in case one or two fall through the slats.

This past month was a struggle against the mundane. 

Before Daisy, during my season of infertility, I scowled (online) at mothers who (I thought) complained about their lives being mundane. What I would give for the mundane life of a stay at home mother! With that in mind, I will always be grateful and downright GLAD for my life and the blessing that I can do what I'm doing right now by staying at home. 

However, those things that wear mothers down exist in my home too: no mommy breaks from dawn to dusk, endless toddler chatter and questions, toddler discipline, constant maintenance of my household. Much of it is boiled down to poor perspective or sleep deprivation. Usually these frustrating things are blown out of proportion, because, for instance, I am obviously getting a mommy break as I write this. 

It seems like now that I'm in a groove with both girls, I am noticing the day-to-day struggle a little bit more. The best moment of the day is definitely when Daddy comes home. I do not know how single moms do it. 

Amidst the mundane of maintaining life with a toddler and baby, we had lots of fun and achieved new goals. Good things that happened this month include:

1. Several play dates with friends, which helps tire my toddler out, gives me a chance to develop new friendships and cultivate existing ones, and it breaks up my day.

2. Amy rolling over both ways! I didn't even see it happen for several days. I'd just lay her down one way and look over to see her the other way. Now I'll look over, and she's on the other side of the room.

3. Daisy beginning to read sight words. She knows her name, "dog," and "mommy." Pretty impressive for a 2.5 year old. Today she told me "S starts with 'school'!" She might have said it backwards, but I was still impressed by her knowledge of letter sounds.

4. Family trips to the Renaissance Faire, Strawberry Festival, splash pad, and beach. All were fun and memorable. There was a time when I would have blogged about each one. This is not that time.

5. Zane gave me a morning all to myself. It was wonderful. My creative brain came up with tons of creative projects and ideas. As soon as I got home, my creative brain shrunk back down to its usual walnut size, and I said to it, "Seasons of life, okay? One day you will do all those projects and cry that your girls aren't around as much." The good thing is that Zane said we could make "mom's morning out" a more regular thing. 

Life is good right now. I don't need time for creativity, because I have time with two daughters, which are more valuable to me than sewing projects. Everyone says it goes fast. I believe them. It's going fast before my very eyes. Another month is gone, and Amy's one step closer to growing up!

What doesn't go fast are those two hours between nap time and dinner time.