Happy

I just wanted to say that I have been so happy this week. I'm really enjoying taking care of Gracie and Simon so much, and even though Gracie's perfect sleeping schedule hasn't returned and I think I've got two teething children (yeah! she's only 10 weeks old!)I'm having a lot of fun with being a mother. Sometime last week I seemed to figure out how to stay calm and be really firm and loving with Simon, and it's working beautifully. He's done so well this week, after a few days of getting used to mom saying no a whole lot more. I feel really proud of myself. And really proud of him too.

Two days ago I took Simon and Gracie for a walk to the river where Simon and I hoped to build roads in the sand while Gracie had her morning nap. Simon wanted to bring all his diggers and tractors along with us so we did. When we arrived two boys came up, grabbed some of his equipment and began to play. Simon seemed a little worried but kindly shared with them. Soon 3 or 4 more boys his age appeared and joined us. The mums in mother's group that meet at the park were elated to have free entertainment for an hour as all the boys were thrilled with Simon's toys. I was really really proud of Simon for how well he coped and shared with them. So happy that we had a little outing to McD's for an ice cream cone and the toy shop for a car mat that he liked. I know not good to reward with presents, but this boy was truly amazing and I liked the car mat! So we have had fun playing with that. And Simon was beaming after the 3 hour outing - and I was too, as I felt very proud of myself for managing so well for the three hour walking adventure.

What else is Simon up to these days? Peeing on the potty! YES! He's doing great. Thanks to my sis-in-law's great idea to reward wees with candy, he's quickly potty training himself. But we might have a problem with all the sugar soon! He has yet to do a pooh, but yesterday, when I was putting Grace to sleep he ran into the room and told me he had done a pooh. He led me to a corner in the living room, behind a big tall lamp where yes, there was his pooh! No candy for that one but it shows he is on his way. Again, I'm very proud of my boy.

This morning he ran into our room, jumped on the bed and said very loudly, "I love you Mamma!" Ah, what is better than that?

And Grace is just as beautiful as ever. She's so delicious I just want to eat her. She always wakes up after 45 minutes of sleep, but I just read in a book that this indicates (around this age) that she may still be hungry- so I tried feeding her after 45 min and she gulped down her milk for 30 minutes. Hmmm... I got her up for another half hour play and tummy time and then put her back down, and wow, she's still asleep almost 1 and a half hours later! I think I'm on to something.... I hope I am as it's been hard putting her to sleep 10 times a day. She cries some, which is hard for me, but I find that after about 5 minutes or so she doesn't cry any more. She's teaching me so much about being a mother and I feel I've grown so much since she came into our lives. Ahhh, so thankful for her. And when she smiles at me, I couldn't be more thrilled. She's so alert... she looks around at everything all the time and is fascinated by it all. I love it when we connect and she smiles and gets excited - so much of the time, she's enjoying herself in the bouncer and I'm busy with house stuff and Simon. She's happy as, but it's hard for me because I give her so much less attention than I did with Simon. But I think it's good she's happy and good I'm learning to relax about that.

Well, lots to do before her next feed - Simon is at day care today (I love day care!) so it's my day with Grace and to catch up on things around the house. I'm so thankful Simon's doing so well at "school" - again, how proud are we of our little boy and girl!