I Know I'm Not Alone

I am so thankful when I see that other moms experience what I experience. Thank you, Clover Lane!

G (12 months) is giving me a run for my money and I'm glad to know that Janey must be doing something similar. Maybe G is teething, too, but we've had some challenging days!

Here I was, thinking it was just me who can't seem to get a string of those "skating through" days. I'm happy with one/month! Those days that just feel like all the important things got done and there was even a little time to breathe and look around for a few seconds.

G started walking last month (thanks to his enthusiastic trainers siblings). This month is CRAZY. He's super fast and can go from the fireplace (his favorite place to sit, with or without ashes... and there are always ashes) to the bathroom (favorite place to find water and rolls of paper) to the kitchen (favorite place to dump out garlic, throw onions on the floor, displace all of the lids, and open and shut drawers) before I've even made a dent in the first mess he made.

And he's a bit of a daredevil. He climbs up into our chair and then over the arm and around the back. He stands on the footboard of our bed to reach into the pack-n-play. He pushes the kick-step around the kitchen for his personal use. He is undetered by the dining room chairs we've positioned to block the fireplace (new decorating that doesn't work well during meal times or school time, which is all the time it seems!). G can rearrange them, climb through them, or mount them and squirrel his way back into the ashes before I can shout, "Somebody grab the baby!"

Nights aren't much better as he's been waking up often (every 2 hours or so) for the past week. I've longed for a nap more days than not and by 2 pm I remember the feeling of those newborn days when I just had to close my eyes for 15 minutes while the kids rested. At least we have a bit of a morning and an afternoon nap when we can enjoy a brief respite from G duty.

But our tree is still standing. (It did fall twice last year!) And he's awfully cute and really not trying to be difficult. (Except that he screams and that is really vexing for me.) When he jabbers away we all crack up and he's especially pleased with himself when we affirm his help with the cleaning up or turning off of lights. We do love him to death. But, goodness!