Imagination and Discovery

What an incredible time this is in my life.  I really am seeing the world as something new again.  It has brought a sense of peace and calm to my life (as crazy as that sounds with a newborn and a two year old).  I no longer stress the importance of $75,000 boardroom table as much as I do the importance of Naomi touching a new texture or Jackson exploring a new pretend character.  If I didn't say it clearly enough in my last post, I am thoroughly enjoying my time off work with my children and really hope I can find plenty of time away from work in the future to spend with them.

Last Wednesday was a rude awakening for all of us.  Madison was working leaving the house around 6:00 each morning.  I had been called in to the office (gasp!) for an interview with a potential new client.  The kids and I had to leave the house by 7 to meet Meme so they could go spend the day with Meme and 'Ammy.  Smart ladies. They decided to keep the kids together.  This was the first time Naomi and I were away from each other.  That morning (well really the night before getting ready for that morning) felt like utter chaos.  It made me so afraid to go back to work.  But I'm learning I can cope with difficult situations much easier now.  Kids cry.  That's just part of it.  My amazing sister-in-law, mother of three, imparted her wisdom to me that at any given time someone's needs are not going to be met and most of the time it is your own.  I have found that to be so true.  Usually two of our needs are not met because I have come to terms with the fact that I'm really not the Superwoman I imagine I am in my head and can only meet one of our needs at a time.  So, when I have to put in a dvd for Jacky, Naomi is usually crying ready to eat or sleep.  When Naomi is eating, Jacky needs to be prompted to go to the bathroom before he decides to go pee in her closet (true story).  Naomi has a radar that any time I am planning to sit down, well truthfully stand up, to eat or go to the bathroom she decides to cry for attention for any number of reasons.  Just this week I have finally started eating dinner with other people again instead of cold, two hours later.  As I said, that's just part of it.  So the morning was chaotic.  I had 7 bags with us in the front seat of my car (I have found we have a 3 bag minimum everywhere we go).  Jacky fell apart on me.  "NO, MOMMY NO WORK!  NO, MOMMY NO WORK!"  Over and over again on the way to meet Meme.  Jackson has always been happy to go anywhere.  He used to cheer "Yay School!" every time we pulled into the parking lot.  His first day of daycare when he was 3 months old, no tears.  He has always made it easy on me.  It was heart wrenching to listen to his protest for 20 minutes until he realized he was going to go see his wonderful grandmothers that he adores.  However, the harder part was the day after, when he woke up saying "No, Mommy no work".  I assured him I was staying home with him, however it occurred to me that one day soon I won't be able to say that.  Let's hope he is cheering "Yay School" again at the new school so it won't be a concern.

Jackson has spent his days entrenched in an imaginary world of dinosaurs, pirates, Mommy and Baby giraffes, and playing animals of all kinds... lions and zebras from "ah-rica", doggies, jaguars, chinchillas.  It is SO MUCH FUN to listen to him when he is playing pretend.  It also makes me understand the phrases I say too much.  Those poor stuffed animals spend so much time in time out.  I feel I need to rescue them from their strict care giver.  He was in pirate world on Friday night when we had cousin Sarah and Anna, Uncle Jordan and Aunt Kim over for dinner.  He went around the room to each person announcing "Arrrrggg, I'm a pirate" with his pirate patch on.  He was so tough until Jordan's dog Barley gently snapped at him and poor little guy had tears seeping out from under that dang pirate patch.  He has Piratitude even when he's crying.  Piratitude is a song that I cannot get out of my head most days from Backyardigans.  Ya gotta have Piratitude... that's the pirate attitude... show me show me what cha got ... and well that's enough to get it stuck in my head again.  I definitely have Piratitude these days.  If you are around Jacky at all lately, you've heard the song and seen the dance.  It's quite a performance that is performed anywhere for anyone, Mom and Dad, Naomi, friends while on playdates, the lady we don't know relaxing in her lounge chair at the pool. Yep, everywhere.

Little Miss N is mesmerized by these performances.  She watches everything her brother does.  And so it begins.  Her little world is full of discovery these days.  I love watching the little girl take a bath.  It is the funniest, cutest little nekid thing I have ever seen.  Man, that girl gets with it.  She's a mover and a shaker, a splisher and a splasher.  But then she screams bloody murder when I take her out.  Still haven't figured that one out.  I thought maybe she is cold, maybe she instantly gets hungry cause she gulps a gallon out of the ol' boob once the fit is over, or maybe she's just really mad I took her out of her beloved bathtub.  Who knows, but she's a water baby.  She's smiling and interacting with us.  Her second favorite to the tub is just to lay in her floor on the quilt, or in the window seat, or on the sofa looking at the tree prints and kick kick kick.  She is so close to holding her head up on her own.  I can't believe she is two months already.  It's going too fast y'all.

That's all I can say is it's all just going too fast.  I never felt that way with Jacky when he was newborn but it's all different with the second one when you are fairly, pretty positively, almost certain there will be no more babies after this. ;)

My work that brings in a paycheck is not a 9 to 5 gig, does not fill my heart with joy at the end of every day, and does not allow me to sleep well at night. So you can imagine my summer playing stay at home mom has been a treat. Naomi was born on June 7 (she was due on June 1). She was born on her own time, which doesn't surprise me since she is Madison's daughter. Let's just say Madison marches to the beat of his own drum. I march to the beat of the drum I am told to follow with little hesitation and repressed questioning. Our son Jackson, whom I refer to fondly as Jacky (or Jacky Drew when I'm frustrated), is about 2 3/4 years old. We have all spent a lot of time together this summer. My overwhelming feeling is that it has been a wonderful summer and I really wish we could live like this forever and that the babies would stay this age. Alas the summer will end. I will go back to work, Madison will hopefully go back to steady work set dressing on a tv show that is about to start shooting here, Jacky will go to a new school, and Naomi will be staying with my best friend Sara and her little boy Oliver that we all fondly refer to as Oli. I picture this hot sun setting on our horizon and it is bittersweet.

I am incredibly excited for Jacky to start his new school. You will have to forgive me for being a proud mother. {Let's step aside for a moment. Any mother that creates a blog with a focus on her children is a proud mother and you can expect a fair amount of bragging to go along with that. If you aren't interested in proud mother tales then move right along. Doesn't hurt me. Really.} With that said, Jackson is a bright child. If he weren't my child (and I've thought about this before now) I would say the same thing about him. I call him spirited when I describe him based on The Baby Whisperer's description of children like him. I like that. Spirited. It's a positive spin on what generations past would have viewed as a trouble child. I would love to be described as spirited. Jackson possesses many qualities that I didn't even know to dream that my child would have. He is adventurous, determined, imaginative, fearless, capable, self-assured, self-aware, and sensitive. Now don't get me wrong. It may sound like bragging on my son, however if you think about it, not all of those qualities are desirable at every age, like... say... two years old with a newborn at home. Regardless he's precious and I love ever fiber of his being. Jackson started a non-accredited montessori program at 20 months old when we were what I like to call "laid off" from his first care giver. We found a wonderful lady that kept about six children out of her home that were all pre- pre-school age. I think my son wore her out. She came to us one day and said she was down sizing the number of children she would be keeping and that we had two weeks to find a new care giver for Jackson. In a panic we found an opening with a daycare that had this montessori program that made me feel better about leaving him in a traditional daycare. We really did love his teachers with exception of one that kept him the latter part of the day in the latter part of the year he was there. Jackson has always had a lot of accident reports. Even with Jeannette the lady who kept him as an infant. This goes back to that fearless quality. The child is like a freight train the majority of the day with boundless energy. Madison has taught him to exercise a great deal of caution in hopes of preventing some of the many injuries he had as a small child like playing superman and crashing out of a second story window. Jackson knows that we do not hit the glass now. I expect accidents with Jackson. He face plants multiple times per day and gets up and keeps on going. It's preventable accidents that adults have control over that I have a problem with. The first reoccurring accident is now I fear two permanent scars on his left cheek. There was an old file cabinet with very sharp corners in the classroom right next to the bathroom. Jackson ran into it one day. I asked if the file cabinet could be moved. Came in the next day and they had taped foam corners on it. A few days later, repeat of the same accident and the same mark a few centimeters below on the same cheek. The straw that broke my back though was the blasted scissors. Picking him up one day, the teacher I did not care for explained he had gotten into the scissors and cut himself. I asked where the scissors were and how he "got into them". They were out in a jar on a shelf that was about his eye level. I asked if they could be moved. They reluctantly said yes but that they were part of their work and that was the work shelf. After discussing this with my dear friend,child educator and child counselor, Sara, we agreed that scissors are not age appropriate work for 18mo to 3yr olds. I am a very flexible, forgiving parent, but this sent me through the roof. Of course a few days later, I pick him up with an accident report that he had cut himself with scissors again. So this was all after my mother and mother-in-law had already been looking for a new school for him all along knowing this was not the right place for him. Madison had been expressing disappointment for months due to picking him up multiple times to find that they were treating Jackson to giant bag fulls of chocolate and candy at 5:30 right before mom and dad come to take him home and try to feed him dinner and put him to bed. Brilliant. We are not health food Nazi's but Jackson by nature was not that interested in sweets so we went along with that and his treats are fruit. We had wanted to keep it that way as long as possible. We found an accredited montessori program that feeds the children fruits and veggies from the school garden that the children maintain. Where do we sign? We'll apparently pay whatever you want whether we can afford it or not. I cannot wait for him to start this new school. I hope it lives up to all I have built it up to be in my mind.

Reality is that I don't know Naomi yet. I know her better than anyone else. I know when she's hungry, tired, pissed because she is cold after her bath, happy when she has just woken up, and when she just needs to be set down to kick around for a while. I can tell you that I'm very excited and anxious to find out who this little girl is going to be. She is an angel baby by Baby Whisperer's definition. She is 7 weeks old and she is sleeping through the night. She only cries when she really needs something or her dang stomach hurts. Bless her heart she is such a little trouper. The news said it was 106 degrees today. This little girl lets me carry her around in a sling in this blessed Texas heat and she is perfectly happy and goes sound asleep. She is quite the opposite of her brother right now which leads to my curiosity about who she will be.

So with all this time on my hands (ha! as I sit here at midnight skipping sleep to blog - started out as an activity to finish my glass of wine), I decided I need to share some of the chaos and precious stories. Something noteworthy happens daily around here like Jackson pulling my Ipod Nano out of his diaper tonight to answer a "phone call". As long as he doesn't pee on it I guess. Well, wine is gone. Cheers to new hobbies we know we don't have time for. I'll let you know what happens next.