ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

haha yeah, welcome to that club. unbelievable looking back.

idk where else to put this so I'm putting it here:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7OF4Q_IcAEHqlH.jpg

lol

haha yeah, welcome to that club. unbelievable looking back.

this week has been good -- the 3-year-old, who's slept pretty poorly most of his life, has been having good nights! but wow wow wow...I thought I knew fatigue with kid #1. no. I did not even know the beginning of it.

K took 1.5 hours to fall asleep last night, with me lying on the mat next to her.

yes. 1 + 1 ≠ 2 ; 1 + 1 = 200. it's exponential. and I say this as Euler, the Mastur of Us All

toilet training has begun. Had our first no-accident day yesterday (unless you count Ella standing up mid-pee to see what the admittedly unusually loud sloshing noise in the potty was).

A monster?

Heh. I don't see how that could backfire at all.

http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/my-2-month-old-son-wont-stop-demanding-soda-grown--1721?utm_campaign=default&utm_medium=ShareTools&utm_source=twitter

crying with laughter at this

very helpful considering our kids are STILL in the hospital

they're doing much better, but still

Definitely LOLing at my desk here. jesus...

When do they think the boys can go home?

no idea, depends on when they can go a while without spiking fevers and when they start eating regularly again

I was hoping for tomorrow but I think Monday is more likely

Objectively that's not too long, I guess, but it feels like freaking forever. I hope you and Ms. P are getting rest, too.

well, we are sleeping on uncomfortable fold-out chairs in the hospital rather than in our bed 10 minutes away, so not really

last night I got more than 7 hours of sleep for the first time in 2015 largely because we left the hospital to eat and I had two beers at dinner

*jealous*

(about the 7 hours of sleep)

i can't count that high in hours of sleep.

7 hours of sleep because you're in the hospital and someone is sucking mucus out of your kids' lungs isn't primo sleep

Those fold out chairs are hideous torture devices, too. I wish I lived in Boston so I could bring you a casserole.

no, sleeping in the hospital is actually negative sleep. hope you and yr kids can go home sooner than later.

i hope the boys get better soon djp!
thinking of u guys

How are things, DJP?

Wuah

shit like that would make me update my resume

Wrong thread zing touch!!!

The boys came home last night (on my birthday!) they still have coughs but are doing SO MUCH better than they were a week ago.

man that was a LONG stay DJP. happy birthday and here's to better days ahead!

DITTO! Welcome back home, boys!

Enjoy sleeping in a real bed, DJP!

My mother-in-law is complaining that the son who was sicker and who we were told probably wouldn't eat food right away isn't eating his food. (She was in the room when we were given this information.)

I'm not sure how to handle this

Lol I imagine her complaining to the son, "hey, why aren't you eating????"

You can rise above this DJP, you can do this, she is just anxious and expressing that in a probably suboptimal way

Remind her that they said it would take awhile for him to get his appetite back and that if he isn't eating in a couple of days, you will definitely check in with the doctor immediately.

xp yes, Tracer OTM. Also none of you are well rested or at your best rn.

I'm glad you're all home and the babies are getting better!
I like carl's advice. Ha my bf saw this on a friend's fb: "Outside of the baby times, other parents are straight up the most difficult part of parenting." Which I think extends to one's own parents and in-laws...

Except hopefully one's own parents and in-laws are simply acting out of uncontrollable love and just need reassurance

I can think of like 20 things harder about being a parent than dealing with other parents.

That's kind of what I said to my bf, knowing what other parents have told me, but then my kid is still a baby and I haven't had to deal with too many parents that aren't friends so...

I feel like the hardest thing about parenting a near-three-year-old, or mine anyway, is the constant attention they require when you're around -- requests every five seconds, look at this, tell me about this, etc. That's the most draining thing imo.

attention is & remains the most precious commodity. this goes up and up with each kid of course, but even with one it's a big deal.

feel like I should write something about the economy of attention and parenthood, maybe talk to some economists, pitch it somewhere and make no bucks for it

I always get annoyed when I see those complaints about "parents who are looking at the smartphone while pushing the stroller" who are "not interacting with their kids" or whatever, because whoever makes that complaint obviously has no conception of how much attention any non-negligent parent gives a child in the course of the entire day, and how mentally draining it is (assuming the stroller-pusher is not actually putting the child in danger or inconveniencing other pedestrians).

We spent some time with NA and his family (including their new two month old!) and the two times I was holding the little one, Ivy made a beeline for me, immediately climbing up my leg, like HEY WTF IS THIS TINY BABY BULLSHIT??!?!?!??

I mean, I generally don't look at my phone while pushing the stroller and maybe that's not the best example, but just people who get self-righteous about "parents not paying attention to their kids" because you have no idea how many times that day the tired parent has already re-told the story about the time a friend went to the dentist and found out he had cavities.

as my kids grow up I see my giving them my full attention as more or less = my chief manifestation of my love for them, day to day. like what is needed when they're tiny, holding them and feeding them and carrying them, all that recedes, and when it does, you can fill that gap in different ways. but they're going to ask for your attention and you can fill that gap by giving it to them.

and yeah it's exhausting. when the kids aren't in bed or reading quietly by 9pm I'm a mess.

Oh I mean I'm all for giving them full attention as much of the time as possible, I just can't stand hand-wringing over seeing someone checking their smartphone while with their kids, as though you can tell by the five non-attention-giving minutes you witness that the parent is "inattentive"

totally

otoh I am still judging the woman who pushed her stroller onto the tram last week with two kids walking alongside her, while she left her earbuds in the whole time.

Oh yeah, I saw a woman looking at her phone while pushing a stroller and holding a child's hand IN THE STREET on a crosstown street in Midtown Manhattan the other day, judged the shit out of her.

Having one of those lunchtimes when every darn piece of food is getting flung on the floor without even tasting. SO INFURIATING. Silly baby.

He has also started squirting water from his mouth like a cowboy aiming for a spittoon.

Why do babies not realise that food and sleep are two of the absolute greatest things in life argh.

"HEY WTF IS THIS TINY BABY BULLSHIT??!?!?!??"

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Otm

I'm guessing that's pretty common for that age, but I've decided to take it as proof that Ivy will make an excellent only child.

Also one of my coworkers got accidentally pregnant shortly after having her first child, so that her first born was about 16 months when the second came along and I need to remember to be extra nice to her.