This is Finn with Katelyn, my friend’s gorgeous little girl. They were born 5 days apart and both have the same explosive hair to match their chubby cheeks. We don’t do much matchmaking these days but if we did, this would be like a match made in heaven.
They’re probably going to grow up and be all “ew, no way…I saw him eat his booger as a baby.”
But then life has a funny way of working out and just in case they do end up together, this would make the coolest wedding montage photo.
I’m really enjoying this phase that Truett and Kirsten are in. They’re adorably inquisitive, somewhat self-sufficient and really great company.
But there’s one thing about kids this age: they just do stuff. Sometimes good stuff, sometimes bad stuff, mostly crazy stuff. In other words, they’re uncontrollably compulsive.
Like they go to the beach and start flinging sand all over themselves, even though they’re going to regret it when the sand ends up in their eyes and other body parts that sand should not be in.
Or they see an anthill and feel the need to stick their fingers in it, even though they’ll feel the wrath of a thousand angry ants descending upon their tiny fingers.
Or they’ll compulsively twirl a dangling wire around their fingers, even though that wire is attached to an iron that’s waiting to fall on them.
Which explains why parents of preschoolers are so naggy and prone to episodes of seemingly random outbursts. We have to tell them “don’t do this, don’t do that…STOP POKING THE CAT IN THE EYE and PICK UP YOUR LEGO PIECES and HEY TURN OFF THE TAP I CAN HEAR YOU PLAYING WITH WATER IN THERE” like eleventy-thousand times on any given day.
Last weekend, we were out shopping with the kids and Tru was fiddling with his water bottle while walking when he dropped and broke it. Mildly annoying, but no biggie because clearly he didn’t mean for it to happen. A little later, we got a cup of Coke to share and Tru insisted on holding it while we walked. It was like an accident waiting to happen but he was all “please, please, let me hold it.”
“Ok, fine, just be careful with it.”
We took several steps out of the shop and sure enough, he dropped the cup, spilling the Coke everywhere. Again, it wasn’t a big deal in the scheme of things but just annoying enough to warrant a sharp word.
“Tru, I just told you to be careful. If you can’t hold on to a cup of coke properly, then you won’t be allowed to hold it anymore, understand?”
He nodded quietly.
On the way home in the car, he turned to us and said “I wasn’t a good boy today, right? I did two wrong things. I broke the bottle and spilled the Coke.”
OUCH. That was like a solid hadouken of mommy guilt to the gut.
“Sweetheart, listen to me, YOU ARE A VERY GOOD BOY. It was an accident and we love you no matter what, ok.”
I hope he knows that.
It finally happened.
We all went to bed at 12.05 last night and the next time I opened my eyes to check the clock, it was 6.38 am. I couldn’t believe it, so I put on my specs, drew the curtains and it was true. I could see the faint streaks of daybreak making its way across the morning sky.
I thought maybe the lack of sleep was getting to me. That maybe I did wake up in the middle of the night for a feed and forgot about it. But then again, having to haul my ass out of bed in the middle of the night is the kind of wretched feeling I’m not likely to forget.
So I guess that means one thing: Finn has made it through his first night without waking up for a feed.
Oh, what’s that sound? It’s my sleep-deprived mommy brain doing a victory dance after sleeping 6 hours and 33 minutes.
UNINTERRUPTED, y’all!
And right on cue too, because he turns 8 weeks old today. Not that we’re having a competition or anything, but Kirsten did start sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old so it’s the record to beat around here.
Suddenly my life seems so much more beautiful.
PS. From experience, I fully expect him to regress over the next couple of weeks, but there is finally light at the end of my dark and sleepless tunnel.
PPS. Hang on, I’m going to pour myself a glass bubbly to celebrate.
PPPS. A glass of bubbly bubble tea, I mean.
