We’ve been a bit obsessive with the Olympics lately. Since China is exactly across the globe from us, the networks keep trying to show morning events live, and we watch them in the evening. This has led to us staying up WAY too late watching Michael Phelps and the US gymnastics teams. That has led to us being exhausted the next day. I can barely do the momming thing lately, much less get on here and be coherent! But as I told a friend recently, “coherent thoughts are overrated!” I’ll try and update you.
As if choosing international competition over sleep wasn’t bad enough, our babies are so active that it is exhausting. E-X-H-A-U-S-T-I-N-G. As in, I need extra sleep just to manage around here and I’m not only NOT getting extra, I’m not getting enough! I can’t blame anything except my own poor decision making with the Olympics. In the last 2 months, these babies went from sitting quietly and throwing their toys from one location to being everywhere at once. I mean everywhere. Our back room/soon-to-be-playroom isn’t ready for them yet, so for now, I build barriers around our sectional sofa so they are somewhat contained within a given space. Barriers schmarriers! Rissa climbs over the Pack n Play and we find her going through their diaper bag on the other side. She actually climbs over everything… I laughed so hard when she climbed over their toy basket and got stuck in the middle… arms and legs waving and squawking with frustration that she couldn’t touch down anywhere with her belly smack in the middle of the toy basket. I rescued her and she set off on some new adventure. Zach is even more daring. We used the exersaucers to block the large archway between our living room and dining room and that worked for about a week. Then Zach decided to climb through the exersaucers, using the spinning base to squirt himself around and out the other side with lightning quick precision. Matt actually waited for Zach to get in the base of the saucer once and then spun it to point him right back where he came from, but Zach figured it out, rotated, and still shot out the other side. Rissa doesn’t like being left alone in the room with Zach off and roaming around the dining room, pulling books off of shelves and chasing Hoochie, so she learned to crawl through the exersaucers too.
Lest you feel too sorry for me in dealing with these active little firecrackers, let me share a secret. All moms think their kid(s) is/are the most active one(s) out there! This is actually false. I fully realize that my babies are no more active than any other kids their age. Babies are active and that’s the way it is. But you get lulled into this false sense of security that as a parent, you are in control of this little blob (or little blobs in my case) who can’t move without your say so and can’t sit and can’t play with a toy and can’t really do anything. And over time, they acquire all these skills and become more independent, but really, they still need you to help them do it. And then the rude awakening of fast crawling comes (fast crawling is VERY different from initial crawling) and they can suddenly not only do things by themselves, but they can choose to do things you don’t want them to do! I spent the first 10 months teaching them to do stuff and I thought eventually they’d have the independence to do those things. Just those things. I was NOT planning for the thinking involved in their behavior… that all along, they have been masterminds just waiting until they could control their limbs and now can finally fulfill all their diabolical schemes! The intellectual component of babies is a huge blind spot for parents. As a result, I stand back agape with amazement and wonder if I don’t have the most active babies ever, just as every other mom has done when they reach this point. But in actuality, my babies are just the most active they have ever been, just like every other baby out there makes a giant jump in activity from what they used to do. Now granted, I have 2 active babies, so I suppose that compared to moms of one baby, I come out ahead on the total amount of scheme-thwarting I spend my time doing. We are currently using their new carseats (still in the box) to block off the archway and that is working great because they are too heavy to push aside. Hopefully, we can get the playroom done before we need to take those carseats out of the boxes and start using them! Matt and I are looking forward to not having to climb a pile of boxes just to get from room to room.
Crawling is quite the feat… Zach went from his one-knee crawl and dragging his other limbs along like dead weight to a two-knee crawl to a fast crawl. Rissa skipped the one-knee crawl, waited a bit longer to start until she was sure she had it, and used an expert two-knee crawl on her first few tries. That worked well for awhile, but then she began using a one-knee/one-foot crawl as if she was going to stand up and walk at any moment! This provides the most flexibility in movement positioning… she can get from crawling to sitting just by sweeping that little leg around like an oar! Now they pull up on everything and cruise around our knees and the couch (I define cruising as taking steps with the support of inanimate objects like furniture). Zach tries to climb onto the couch and once I put him up there, he tries to launch himself off the back of the couch by climbing the cushion. Rissa wants to get to paper so she can shred it. We’ve seen alot of falls and bruises recently, but we’re thankful that babies have squishy, diapered bottoms and a great sense for trying again, even when it hurts!
Accompanying all this activity has been my favorite thing thus far. The babies are very oriented toward me right now. I could claim that it’s slightly annoying because they prefer that I am in the room with them every second and I have to peel myself away to get anything done, but I’ll admit that I love it! If I sit on the floor, they climb into my lap or climb all over me (they sometimes get stuck going across my legs if my ankles are crossed). They pull up on my shoulder just to snuggle for a moment, then run off to play, then come back and check with me, then play again. They scream bloody murder if they can’t see me (that part gets old really quick). They both give kisses/chomps to me and they even kiss each other! (yesterday I was changing Rissa on the floor and Zach came over and snuggled her and they spent a minute smiling at each other and talking. It was so precious!). It has been such a gift that during this time of exponentially increased independence, they still want to be with me and check in and get loved up on between their diabolical schemes. I’m so grateful for however long this lasts! And despite their preference of me, Da-Da still gets the special smiles and extra giggles. They have room in their hearts to love both of us!
