Baby Business

Baby Adelyn turned 3 weeks old on Wednesday. I would like to say that we have gotten into a nice routine, but let's face it... she's still brand new. She's been a great baby and sleeps remarkably well (last night she went to bed at midnight and only woke up once before 7:30!), but a routine? Not yet.

I'm getting to that post-baby point where I'm physically feeling pretty good and starting to feel reasonably like a person again. I occasionally find myself thinking, "Okay! It's time to get back into things- to get organized and start getting things together and into a routine again." And then I actually try to do something....

Addy is not a difficult baby, but she's just not predictable. And she does have the same personality quirk that Camryn had as a baby: when she decides she wants something, she wants it NOW. She goes from being calm to screaming in a matter of 30 seconds. Now as soon as you get her what she wants she is fine again, it's just hard to finish getting anything done because I inevitably get interrupted.

But right now Adelyn is comparatively easy. The child who is tricky right now is Jackson. Jackson is his normal curious, exploratory, climbing, experimenting, almost two-year-old self. He just has a mom who has at least one- if not two- hands tied at least half of the time. Most days go like this: I decide to actually get something basic, like dishes, done. I start doing dishes. Addy starts crying so I stop, pick her up and nurse her. Jackson climbs on the counter and starts eating raisins. (If I'm lucky he won't put them in his ears like earplugs.) He climbs up to the phone and starts pressing buttons and reprogramming the answering machine. (Jackson is obsessed with buttons- he calls them "butties.") He goes to the TV and starts playing with the remote control, recording and rewinding The Price is Right. He pushes the eject button on the DVD player and puts CDs in and out, puts CDs in and out of the CD player, presses more buttons on the remote, whacks CDs on the stereo, etc.

This goes on interminably until either he does something dangerous enough or destructive enough to make me get up-- nursing or not-- and go get him. Initially it only took Jackson touching the DVD player or standing up on top of the counter to get me up. But as I get more tired (and the more he instantly goes back to whatever he was taken away from) the less things seem to matter. That probably explains why our VCR in the basement is broken (toys, DVDs or backwards VHS tapes got stuffed into it), why the ball popper toy won't work anymore (toy cars and trucks stuffed into it- they were painstakingly removed only to be stuffed in again within minutes) and why the main floor DVD player is broken. I'm fearful for the safety of the Wii or anything else with buttons that make noise or blink lights when you press them.

I may finally distract Jackson by reading "Clifford" or "Are You My Mother?" 15 times in a row- but that still doesn't allow me to get up and do dishes. I feel like I have a double-edged sword working against me: Addy's appetite and Jackson's curiousity. Between the two there is no hope of getting anything done... unless I am willing to sacrifice all of our electronic equipment as play toys for my two-year-old. Sigh.