musings on the second born

everything seems different the second time around. you sort of see your child and yourself in a whole new light. brody never missed his two naps at foster’s age right now (almost 8 months). foster’s lucky if he gets one nap a day, that is his choice. though it drives me insane that the child hates to nap i know i can’t dwell on it. there’s really only so much i can do. when brody wouldn’t nap i would hem and haw over what could ever be possibly causing such a catastrophe. worrying, praying, frantically flipping through the pages of babywise, and calling caleb to let him know that the world as we know it was going to end. thankfully, for those of you surrounding me, i am much more relaxed this time around 😉

it almost seems like foster’s life is in fast forward. how could he be 8 months old already? with the first born you are soaking in every.little.detail of their precious life. we wait and wait and wait for that first smile, first laugh, first tooth and first step. document it — in the baby book, on video and quickly email and call all your friends and family to tell them the exciting news. the months seemed a lot slower then because i was consumed by only one baby twenty-four seven. oh, the bliss. things are a little different now, eh? there isn’t one part of me that doesn’t cherish every little detail of the second born’s life but we are playing a whole new game now. survival mode kicked in upon returning from the hospital and the days of splashing cold water on your face to keep yourself alive awake while, at the same time, swatting the toddler away when your trying to nurse overcome any sense of normalcy for, oh, a good two months. now we are enjoying everything two year olds enjoy. i am letting brody be a little boy and explore this great big world. and foster is along for the ride and loving it. i can’t wait til they are going at it together! it will be here before we know it. we are going with the flow of this beautiful life and instead of waiting for those firsts to happen, i am enjoying him at every stage as it comes and goes.

we were cooking out the other night, making a little chicken on the grill. i sit down to eat with foster on my lap. not long after we pray he knocks my whole plate flying with his gigantic fist. gather everything back together and continue to eat my dinner. side note: i use the five second rule for my food as well as my children’s or else i’d go hungry, most of my food is on the floor before i eat it. a couple minutes go by, hopefully it wasn’t more than that, and someone proclaims, ‘foster has a mouth full of chicken!’ i guess i hadn’t looked at him since the food went flying. there is the first difference from the first born. brody would have had a full body check to make sure no potatoes had bruised him. so, kid you not, the toothless baby has numerous nickel sized pieces of mango chicken he is munching on and swallowing. trying to get them all down before i raked them out with my fingers. i would have been on the phone with the pediatrician’s office in no time with the first born, telling them in great detail about the meat my baby just ingested. the second born? guess the boy likes his chicken in large chunks with mango salsa.