"Just a Second"

I sometimes feel like the most repeated phrase in our house is "just a second", closely followed by "just a minute". (I'm not really helping my children's warped concept of time, admittedly)

The kids always want my attention. A cup of milk, a snack, a book read to them, "look at my dance/my picture/me."

It's simple. I can't always stop what I'm doing. And these kids seem to know exactly when the most inconvenient moment to demand my attention is.

We are surrounded nowadays, I feel, by people and advice telling us to stop and give children time. They won't be young forever. They won't ask for us to look at their pretty pictures forever.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

I know this and I dread the day the demands for attention will stop. On those rare occasions when Adam falls asleep on me, I will stop and take it in for as long as possible. When Emily needs an extra long cuddle after school, she will eagerly get it,

BUT.

I also don't want my kids to grow up (in a world that has no time for them) thinking that anyone will stop and give them a minute whenever they demand it.

I don't want my kids to think they are the centre of anyone's world. It's not always all about them, They need to learn to wait; learn patience.

They won't be kids forever, no. But if I make my bladder wait any longer, it may very well explode. If the pasta doesn't get drained right now, dinner will be mush. If I don't keep my eyes on the road, we won't make it there alive. And bloody hell, if I don't sometimes zone out and check my phone for what may well be a mind-numbing Facebook update, I might just lose my mind.

They do of course get my attention - a lot of the time. Just not every second of every day. They can learn to wait. They can learn that they're not the only ones who need me. They are two siblings who need to share me, their father also sometimes needs me, I sometimes need me.

So enough feeling guilty for not spending every moment of my day giving them my undivided attention. Out with the guilt when I hear Emily tell Adam to "wait a second" before she goes over to help him. (LOL!)

So be it. They are loved. Deeply and desperately. I would do anything for them. It just doesn't always have to be right now. 

Cast & Crew, Adam's Take

It was by complete coincidence that I thought of writing this now, when Adam is 13 months old, so it is quite amusing comparing the list to Emily's 13 month list. Amusing, and so very similar! They are completely different characters, and yet at this specific age, there are certain toys they have both been drawn to. Of course, there are some differences. Here is Adam's Cast & Crew list:

Wheels
Anything with wheels is right up there in Adam's books. And I literally mean anything. He will turn doll buggies upside down to inspect their wheels. He will whine and whine to touch car wheels (real, big, dirty-wheeled cars, not toy ones). But it's not cars he's crazy about, it's specifically wheels. He is happy to sit for ages inspecting his ELC Motor Town cars (which sadly don't seem to be available any longer!), spinning, spinning, spinning the wheels. He now also pushes little cars around the room, especially around the dining room - he likes circling the table. But "wheels" also extends to steering wheels. He has a Little Tikes roadster which he loves to be pushed around in - but it's that steering wheel that's most important. He even holds it like he's been driving for years!

Bop and Go Alien
Look who it is!! A little worse for wear, but still going strong, and I've only changed his batteries once since I last wrote about him! But I am quite heartbroken to report he is no longer available to buy (not unless you find some old stock still available anyway). Adam LOVES Bop the Alien, slams his head to make him move, and then chases him around the floor like it's going out of fashion. Might hold on to this one for the grandkids! Ha!

ELC Activity Triangle and IKEA Bead Roller Coaster
He seems to have a technical mind. Have I already mentioned this? He loves playing with these little beads and spinning things.

Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Activity Table
This toy makes a comeback! Adam is so much taller than Emily was at his age and it was due to this table that I really began to appreciate that! The main attraction of the table for Adam is the spinning "bowl" in the middle of the table, because it doubles as a steering wheel and we've already established that he loves wheels. So yeah. Plus it's got a NANA on it, which makes him very happy. He hasn't yet tried to eat it.

Mickey Mouse and several soft toys!
Adam is a snuggler. He adores soft toys and anything cuddly. But give him an option and Mickey Mouse will win every time. He is thrilled to bits when he so much as lays eyes on Mickey, and has this week begun snuggling him at night. We are already at a stage where, if Mickey isn't in Adam's cot at bedtime, David and I run all over looking for him!


Adam is also very happy leafing through books quietly, and organising. He is a good organiser. He loves reorganising toy tubs, or moving things from one bowl to another (I handed him a bag of oranges and a bowl the other day which kept him busy for ages!) He will readily pick up toys once he's ready from playing with them, and if he doesn't then I can ask him to and he will. He will often get everything back out again once he's done, but we have time to work on that!!

Cast & Crew: The New Team

This post was written in February 2012, but for some reason, never published. I suspect it is unfinished, but I have just written a Cast & Crew post about Adam's 13-month favourites and it seems a pity to waste this. So here is Emily's. Tomorrow, Adam's.


Some of you may remember my original Cast & Crew post back in September. I really enjoyed putting that together and recently enjoyed reading through it (and it seemed to be enjoyed by a few of you too!). Six months later, now aged 13 months, Emily has changed a lot. Even looking at that picture of her in September's post feels like I'm looking at an entirely different child! Time for an update!


Fisher Price Activity Table
All I knew when we decided to buy an activity table was that I didn't want to get the Leapfrog one. Nothing against Leapfrog in the least - we own a good amount of their 0-24 months range! - but I've had enough of Leapfrog tunes. We needed fresh sounds. If not for Emily, then for me. So we found this one, it's very colourful and a little bit different from all the others and we went for it. No regrets: Emily loves having something she can play with while standing up, as well as another thing to use to pull herself up with. And best of all, she loves the songs (or so her swaying bottom tells me)!



Megabloks
She has two bags of these, one large, one small. When she wants to play, she'll hand me the small bag to unzip. And then it begins. She'll sit there taking each piece out and flinging it somewhere around her. If two blocks are joined, she will take them apart and fling separately. The extent to which these blocks are used for building things at this point is this: I build, she destroys. However I have noticed that over the last couple of days she has taken a certain interest in the way I build things, just this morning she was even handing me blocks to add on to my towers. Either way, she spends ages happily entertained by these blocks, and I have no doubt that they will continue to entertain for months to come once she finally works out what they're actually for.




Bop and Go Alien
Oh this alien! Both Emily and Gabriella own one and he is loved equally by them both. You press his head down and off he goes, sliding around, making alien noises and lighting up. He is meant to encourage babies to crawl and move after him. Emily loves hitting his head to get him to make his funny sounds over and over. She has now even realised that he doesn't work on carpet as well as on the floor. Fantastic fun.




Baby Picture Books!
They tell us that babies love looking at pictures of other babies and that's all well and good, but just watching her scan her bookshelf specifically for these three books is amazing. They are almost always the first she'll choose, she recognises them by their (well-creased) spines. Then she'll sit herself down and smile at the babies and talk to them. I'd recommend these - or any books with big, clear pictures of babies' faces - to anyone.




Happyland Family
They get chewed, poked and investigated, banged against each other and hidden under the sofa (of course). But they'll go far together!
(Note from 2014: Her love for her "people" is s till going strong!)

Again, the list could go on and on really. Those stacking cups are certainly moving up in her list of favourites!

Slowing Down

If there's one thing I know about myself it's that I am extremely self-aware. I'm not the sort of person to accept things that I'm not happy about (apart from my weight, it would appear). I strive to make things better, to get to the root of the problem if there is one, and possibly fix it.

I knew things with myself and Adam weren't great. I knew it but I wasn't sure what to do about it for the longest time. As always, it wasn't a clear black and white issue. Even if I knew what I needed to do, I often didn't have the energy to do anything because of how bad nights had become. He was that baby that slept through by the time he was two months old. We enjoyed that for about three months, then when he reached five months, it all began to fall apart. We put it down to development, but then it kept getting worse and we weren't too sure it was just that any longer. It had become a bad, bad habit. He would wake up just to be held, and he wanted us to stand up while we held him. There were a scary amount of desperate hours of no sleep. And I felt hopeless and useless. I couldn't crack it, I needed to get to the bottom of it - for all our sakes - and I just couldn't work out what was wrong.

This was the point at which we began some sleep training. Now before any of you out there very anti sleep-training pounce on me, I do it very humanely. There's no Crying It Out in this house. No way. But there is an element of Controlled Crying. But take the recommended time gaps, and shrink them drastically. What we needed to make clear to Adam was that we were there, we loved him, but we wouldn't be picking him up and walking around with him for hours on end every night. It was about being firm and consistent.

It took a week, and he got it. We had full nights of sleep again and we were ALL the happier for it.

It was at this point that I suddenly saw the light: I needed to give more time to him. Now that any resentment was out of the way (judge me if you wish to, I'm no saint and yes I resented him for the endless nights of unrest), it was easier to enjoy him. It was easier to make the effort to play with him, entertain him. As a result of his better sleep, his daytime naps also fell into a better pattern so I was more able to work with and around them for outings.

So after I wrote that blogpost that day, about how I needed to do things for him, and not just have him tag along, I didn't sit on it. It was very basic, almost laughable, but our first outing was to the supermarket. I'd taken him with me before, but he was usually in the ergo, and I'd get on with whatever stuff I needed to do, and carry on, quickly, to my next task.

I realised that I never stop to show him anything, point things out to him, explain, tell him the names of things around him - as I used to do with Emily. And then I realised that the key isn't actually doing things for him, it's just about slowing down, living the moment. If I'm at the supermarket, why not point out the colours in the veggie section? (He loved that). Why not tell him what I'm doing, what I'm buying, why I'm buying it? I did this on a daily basis when Emily was young (I never stopped talking to her!), and yet with him, he just seems to be caught in a whirlwind of never enough time.

So I've slowed down. And I'm happier, he's happier, Emily is happier! I'm funnier (apparently). They laugh more. We do silly things, we dance, we make animal noises for no particular reason, we have random puppet shows from behind the sofa, we learn about things that are around us. And we breathe.

But on top of that, there have also been outings just for him. We now don't only go to the park when Emily is around. We go for walks, we run errands together still, but we stop to take in our surroundings.

A friend of mine posted a quote that same day I wrote that blogpost, which really hit home:

It is not enough that you love them, they must know they are loved. (Don Bosco)

And that's what it's all about.

We've met cousins and friends and he's enjoyed roaming around on the grass.

We've even been out for cafe dates together :)

Toasting (the end of) 2013

I hate to say it because it saw the arrival of my adorable boy, but 2013 was quite disappointing and very difficult. Between leaving the UK (tears), struggling to settle down in Malta (more tears), the battle with the Maltese gynae system (so many tears), learning to cope with two kids (tears), facing up to the fact that we are still struggling to settle down and not completely happy here (you know it... more tears), it's been a somewhat emotional year.

However, there have also been positives. A fantastic summer, relationships with my little brother and sisters have absolutely blossomed, I've gotten to know David's parents better, our parents have gotten to know the children, I've come to respect myself as a mother in the face of a lot of adversity, David and I have been reminded how to have fun together, and what our priorities are. All precious positives that will stay with me for a long time to come.

Some pictures of the best moments of 2013, because this is the way I'd rather remember it:

Emily's 2nd Birthday

Revisiting old childhood places

Adam's birth, and the beautiful moment when Emily met her brother

Family time

Fantastic summer moments

Visits from best friends in the UK

and cousins

and more great friends!

Emily starting school and meeting her first proper best friend

Watching these two bond

Getting to know this little monkey

Time away with my best friend

 Adam's first Christmas

And Emily's first Christmas that she truly understood. Magical. 

2014 doesn't promise to be a quiet one either, but hopefully it'll be a better, happier one. 

Happy New Year dear reader.

Weaning Adam

Adam is now seven months old. He has been eating solids for just over a month. The boy LOVES his grub. And I love how much more relaxed I am this time round.

I knew I'd be doing pretty much exclusively BLW from when I got pregnant this time round. I think some innate part of me knew this boy would be open to it.

He won't have it any other way. If he realises that the food he's eating isn't what's on my plate, he will very specifically tear his food to shreds (never once touching it to his lips) and then throw it on the floor. He will then look at me with a look that's very hard to misinterpret: "Give me your food."

So I give him some of my food and I get squeals of excitement.

He's even gotten better at handling and eating it recently. There's by far less food on the floor than there was two weeks ago. He is even handling gagging much better. I still need to fish things out of his mouth sometimes, but very often, he will sort it out himself.

I only wish I had the time to make better meals the way I used to with Emily. We were so very conscious of everything we ate when we started baby-led weaning with her... but now it seems like quick meals are all I can manage. Because of this, he really loves pasta, pizza* and toast!

He does also love tomatoes, and as he is so fond of toast I take the opportunity to spread anything on that toast. Avocado, bigilla, coconut oil, mashed banana (my nerves just can't take handing him a chunk of banana any longer - far too much mess), anything remotely spreadable that is on my plate.

Whatever I cook, he is happy (read: will demand) to try. So whenever I get my act together and find some more time in the day to cook something different, he won't be fussy about it and refuse to eat it.

There are days when he won't feel like eating, and that's absolutely fine. He's still seven months old and I am fully aware that milk should be his main nutrient until he is around twelve months old. Gone are the Emily days when I tore my hair out because she didn't eat dinner one day here or there.

Everyone did tell me I'd be more relaxed with the second, and I knew it made sense - but I am loving the feeling of being so laid back and just enjoying the weaning experience this time round.

(* home-cooked, and without salt of course)

For more BLW posts, see here.

Dear Adam (Six Months of You)

Dear Adam

My sweet, sweet boy. How did I ever get this lucky?

It feels like much longer than six months since you joined our little family. I can't remember a day without your smile, or your snuggles. You really are so very snuggly. You lean in for cuddles, you wrap yourself around us, I could almost swear you're already trying to hug us back. If only you weren't so big and so heavy already, I'd probably never put you down.

I can never quite get over just how patient you are. So calm and happy to just be. You take everything in with a huge amount of enthusiasm and you rarely sit still (unless it's for cuddles), always trying to do more than you're yet able to do.

You now roll over like a pro - although you haven't entirely worked out how to roll back yet (but you can do it in your sleep!) You are desperately trying to sit up - I'm sure you have a core of steel. Your balance is getting better by the day and you now seem to think it's time to start practicing standing.

Slow down, sweet boy. You're already the size of a nine month old. Let me enjoy you as a baby for as long as possible.

I think you might always be a snuggler. You'll always be the caring soul. I hope, too, you'll always love your sister as much as you do right now. I also hope you'll always be as ready to smile as you are now.

You love baths, and splashing. You do prefer bathtime with a toy, though. Which you then throw all over the place and look glum until we return it to you. And repeat.

Mickey Mouse is an absolute favourite. We picked up on this and got you your own Mickey toy - you especially love chewing on his feet. You also adore any sort of ball, but especially one particular squashy ball of Emily's. She's not too crazy about you covering it in dribble, but we convince her to let you play with it when we can ;)

You have two teeth already. They both cut through on the same day a couple of weeks ago. Gone are your days of gummy smiles, already. You are quite thrilled with these two teeth and have realised that they allow you to make new noises. Noises that create even more dribble than there already was! Noises that you practice into my shoulder or neck as you snuggle or fall asleep.

You sleep well, often through the night. But I could listen to you falling asleep forever. You've never been one to resist sleep, you welcome it eagerly and with sounds of pure bliss. It makes me want to pick you back up and snuggle you some more.

Your other great love is food. At five months, I gave in and offered you some food off my plate, which you devoured while giving me a look that said, "Well, you finally figured that out!" I try, sometimes, to offer you baby snacks, but more often than not, they are very specifically discarded and you wait, looking from me to my plate and back, longingly, until I hand you something off it, and then you make it well known that Adam is happy again.

There is no problem understanding you. You're clear and communicative, and I can often read you like a book - it keeps us both happy.

Emily will start school next week. And while my heart breaks a little bit over spending less time with her than I ever have, I can't wait to be able to focus on you a little bit more for a few hours every day. I am excited to get to know you more than I already do, and enjoy your calm company.

You've made me a better person, sweet boy.

I love you so very much.

Mummy x

Hold That Baby

I couldn't not post this.

From New Mamas Get Nothing Done (and other untruths)

"...As much as you need and want a break now... no mother has ever looked back on this time and thought, “I wish I had held my baby less.” You will not remember the dishes that didn't get done, the vacuuming that you just couldn't make happen, or the dirty clothes you wore more often than you’d like to admit. You will remember the first smile, the first belly laugh, the first words, the first steps. You will remember the way you looked at your baby, and the way your baby looked at you.

So the next time you find yourself wondering how another day is gone and nothing is done, stop. Hold your baby - feel the way that tiny body strains to contain this giant soul - complete, and full of potential all at the same time."

I wish so many people would stop telling me (and other new mothers) to hold my baby less. You can spoil a toddler, you can't spoil a baby. A baby needs its mother, love, affection and touch. Please, baby carers, don't ever forget that. Hold that baby close to your heart.

[Loosely related article]

[image copyright P.Warrington]

The Littlest One

Adam is almost twelve weeks old now and things have changed dramatically since I wrote Save as Draft. The resentment is long gone. Things have happily fallen into place, just like everyone told me they would - just like I knew they would. It's just so difficult to see through the fog sometimes.

Now, I take both kids out most mornings. We meet friends or grandparents and do fun things together. I'm even slowly learning how to ask for help, which unsurprisingly comes in very handy.

Often, both children nap at the same time which, as any mum of two or more will know, is a very, very big thing. And so difficult to get right... And so frustrating when it doesn't happen. 

Adam is a lovely baby. So easygoing and happy. And so "eager" to follow a routine. Evenings started out quite tricky with him. We weren't able to work out what he wanted, and when. He was very unsettled over Emily's dinner, bath and bedtime most days, which was frustrating because it meant Emily didn't get a peaceful bedtime for a long time. Very often, Adam was screaming in the background with David while I read Emily a story and tried not to show my agitation. 

Having said that, Emily is now used to his crying. She used to cry when he did but that thankfully stopped weeks ago, although she can sometimes lose her cool and be heard angrily muttering "Shut up, Adam!" under her breath. Oops.

However, over the past two weeks we've come very far and despite my trying to push for a 7:30pm bedtime for Adam (for selfish reasons - with summer coming, I wanted the option of a longer afternoon), he has decided he wants to be asleep by 6:30pm. Who am I to argue? It was after all Emily's bedtime when she was little too. It worked for her, as it obviously works for Adam. 

So although it may prove to be harder during the summer months (we'll just deal with it then), it also means that we get two solid hours with Emily before it's time for her to sleep too. Since this came in to play, things have gotten easier. She obviously loves the extra attention, so our relationship has improved. We spend the time snuggling in front of TV, or doing puzzles together, or reading stories. 

After he sleeps at 6:30pm, Adam will then wake up around 3am, and again just before 7am. On a few occasions he has slept through the night. I have become one of those mothers I almost despised when Emily was a baby. At his age, she still woke up 4 to 5 times a night. Maybe karma does exist! Having said that, when David is away, Adam thinks it's acceptable to get up every hour. It's happened over two work trips now and David came back to an exhausted me both times - only for Adam to snap back to his normal, settled nights once David is back.

I am loving life as a family of four. Things are becoming fun now - it's not all hard work and not much reward any longer. A chuckle from Adam is enough to make my entire day feel worthwhile and with so many exciting things in the pipeline, it's mostly all good at the moment :)

Quest for Comfort

For the past six or seven weeks (actually, probably even more), I've been trying to get Adam to take a dummy. I am very aware that he needs the comfort and know that it would help him settle. I remember Emily refusing her dummy to start with, we tried Tommee Tippee and then realised Avent was the teat she preferred and she has used them ever since. For the past year and a half she has only used a dummy to sleep. I am keen for her to stop using one now but considering it's only used at night, am not currently too fussed.

So when Adam didn't take to a dummy right away, I thought it was a similar story. I bought both Tommee Tippee and Avent dummies from the get go this time, I thought I was prepared. Both make him gag and retch. I kept trying and eventually stopped, thinking that maybe he's just a baby who doesn't need a dummy.

Then last week, things suddenly changed. He began desperately sucking on his wrist in order to settle and get to sleep. He thrashes about looking for a teat, but rejects milk. It got to a point where he took an empty bottle and sucked on that for dear life. Not ideal considering all the air he was swallowing, so I didn't do it again - but it told me one thing: he does want a dummy, and he wants one that has a teat that is similar to his bottle teats.

Simple, right?

It would be if only such dummies were easy to find! A shout out on Facebook and a bit more research got me some info. What I'd need are Avent Soothies (which are typically an American dummy), Gumdrops, or a dummy with a plush toy attached called a WubbaNub. I've ordered the last two but Soothies (which are the main ones I want) remain out of reach, with a number of friends now trying to source them in the UK. It seems that they just don't exist in Malta.

So as I wait, the situation is rapidly getting worse. Adam won't sleep unless we hold him, and even then he is often screaming and thrashing about wanting to suck on something. I actually offered him a breast yesterday, I was desperate, but that obviously didn't work either (I guess he has no clue what to do with that anymore).

He is developing a very bad habit of taking a bit more milk to get him off to sleep - the only thing that works now that he's realised it's the only way he'll get something so suck on. But of course that starts a vicious cycle of milk, wind, wake up, need more comfort (read: milk), wind, wake up, etc. I am so frustrated to not be able to offer him the comfort he needs. And so angry at Malta for its limited stock availability.

I am pinning all my hopes on a few dummies that are slowly making their way to me in the post. If these don't work, I don't know what else I can do.

My Daily Obstacle Course (or The One About Maltese Pavements)

People are constantly asking me how I'm settling back in to life in Malta. And the truth is I'm doing very well, all things considered. I'm even adjusting to the ridiculous price tags on things I'm used to paying peanuts for (well, realistically, I just buy everything online now). But there's one thing that is proving far more difficult to adjust to than anything else. Something that affects my every day, every errand I need to run, every outing I treat the kids to... every. little. bloody. thing.

The pavements.

And you'll recall that I've already mentioned these wretched pavements ("I miss pavements that don't have telephone poles and trees growing out of the middle of them. I miss ramps. I miss a society that acknowledges children and buggies. I miss not having to get into the car to go just about anywhere.")

But just in case anyone doesn't believe me, and to demonstrate exactly how bad they are, I was the weirdo walking around the streets of Attard* taking random street pictures the other day. Most of these pictures were taken in ONE street, Triq Sant' Anton.

Needless to say, a situation that is bad is further aggravated by stupid people...

(The truck and car are parked right over the two ramps I can use to get the buggy into the supermarket. )

Now look at these and imagine attempting to push a buggy along a pavement. What a joke. Then imagine being a person confined to a wheelchair. Because I know that in a few years time, a buggy won't be an issue for me any longer. But if there were something wrong with my legs, it wouldn't be that simple at all.

These pictures are quite simply evidence of a society that disregards anyone who chooses not to use a car to get further than 3 metres away from their home. And it's absolutely disgusting.

* These pavements are in no way limited to Attard. It just happened to be the place I took the pictures that day. Some places are (a little bit) better, most are similar or sadly, even worse.

Sigh.

Dear Adam

My dearest Smiling Boy

Two months old already. I have no idea how we got here so fast, it seems like yesterday I held you in my arms for the first time and fell in love all over again. Since then, we've been through a lot together, it's not always been the smoothest ride but we've pulled through, you and me, and we're good buddies now.

You are so easygoing and happy, so ready to smile - even when you're crying. I can see you being one of those people to always try and see the good in everything, the peacemaker, that person everyone loves to have around. You already have the ability to make anyone smile. One look into your big, big eyes that are so desperately trying to talk to us - it's hard to look away.

You especially love it when anyone wriggles their eyebrows at you. You've found this hilarious for weeks. And recently you've begun rewarding us with babbles and chuckles. Nappy changes are some of your most sociable times. You watch me intently as I clean you up, trying to hold your chubby legs in one place (unsuccessfully... I knew the strength of your arms and legs even before you were born), and then you treat me to a huge gummy smile. It makes my day every time.

Watching you and Emily together fills my heart with joy. Your eyes take in everything, you track her across a room as she sings to you and tries to entertain you. Then she wanders over to kiss and hug you - often clumsily - and yet you smile patiently. "It's Emily, it's alright," your eyes seem to be saying. I am so excited to know a time will come where you will actively be able to play together. I hope you'll be the best of friends.

Keep smiling, my beautiful boy. And don't grow too fast. Give me chance to savour every little moment of you.

With love always,
Mummy x

Living a New Reality

[he is quite perfect]

[it's amazing how long a handful of birthday cards can be used for entertainment]

These two are inspirational. They adore each other. They calm each other. They're already inseparable 12 days in.

Emily
She is still very insecure about us disappearing again, still cries out at night for seemingly no reason. She is struggling slightly with the new division of attention but has also recently become very affectionate with us. We are getting some amazingly tight hugs. She loves Adam more than she can begin to comprehend, he is her first port of call every morning, and she finds it difficult to not smother him in kisses every waking moment. 

Adam
He is an amazing baby. We thought Emily was a good baby but he's gone and properly shown her up! He sleeps well, he's happy and is becoming very attentive and alert. He adores Emily and is calmed by the sound of her voice. He is a very cuddly baby, loves being swaddled (as long as he is given access to his hands), he appears to possibly be a thumb-sucker, and already seems very ticklish.

Us
David and I expected that the arrival of a newborn would take our relationship a few steps back but it hasn't. Instead, it's reaffirmed everything and made us closer. There's more affection, more "wow we've done this again," and overall, we're doing good. Having more than 3 hours of sleep a night also helps.

Personally, baby blues haven't hit as badly this time round. I suspect the sunshine has had a lot to do with that. Recovery was longer, all of 10 days of feeling like a wreck as opposed to about 5 after Emily. But we're finally past that. 

Now, if only I can make myself realize that we're barely two weeks in, and I cannot expect to have everything under control quite yet, everything would be perfect. But as usual I'm busy being hard on myself and forgetting how new this family dynamic is, expecting to have perfected every aspect of it already. One of these days I'll cut myself some slack. Maybe.