Two Kids...Attempt #1

Chris and I are keeping McKenzie this weekend so Kelli can go to a bachelorette party in New Orleans. This is the first time she has gotten to do anything alone since the baby was born. Kelli left at 6 this morning and Chris left the house at 5:15 to catch a flight to Oklahoma City for work. Of course Connor woke up at 5:15 when he heard his dad walking around and refused to go to sleep. And so began my first day taking care of two children.

For the most part we did fine. About 4:30 everyone hit their limit and started breaking down. Connor was whining about wanting another snack and wanting to watch a show. McKenzie was inconsolable. I have no idea why. That is one thing about infants I forgot. And I was tired from taking care of a two year old, a two month old and an 8 month in utero.

I used today as a trial run to see what my daily life is going to be like in two months. Here are the things I learned:

1. Connor does not know how to entertain himself very well. This is mostly my fault because I have always let him dictate what we do most of the day. I didnt realize this until today. He plays with something for two minutes and then wants me to come play with him. IMPOSSIBLE with a baby. His lack of self entertainment led me to allow him to watch way more television than usual. That leads me to number two.

2. I need to accept the fact that when I have two children they will watch more than the recommended allowable one hour that all the pediatric experts recommend and I need to come to terms with this. It is just not going to be possible for me to devote my complete attention to two kids at once and that is all right.

3. This is going to be harder than I thought. I always imagined that it would be twice as much work to have two children as it is having one. WRONG! It is ten times harder! I am going to attribute some of this to the fact that this was my first day. Just like a first day at a new job, it takes some getting used to and figuring out how things work.

4. I am going to have a lot of guilt about not spending as much time with each child as I would like to. I felt so bad all day when Connor was acting jealous. I wish I had extra arms. I am still having a hard time figuring out how you can love two babies equally. I guess I will find out soon.