Week in Review: Tired Mother

Last week just flew by - unfortunately, not many pictures. I think I've been too busy wiping up puddles around the house to even remember where I put down my camera. I thought waking up for night feedings was exhausting but I've decided that dealing with a non-napping, nudist not-yet-potty-trained 2-year-old who likes to randomly shriek at the top of his lungs throughout the day is way more draining.....by far. Waking up at 3-hour intervals during the night to nurse a baby seems like a piece of cake right now. This week I spent the better part of 2 days following the potty-training advice of friends and neighbors before I decided that Noah just isn't ready for it yet. So we are now resorting to duct tape - and apparently several loops around the waist are required because he already figured out how to pull off the diaper with just one loop of tape. By the end of these long days, I find myself saying the craziest things that I know are completely nonsensical and not good parenting: "Noah, if you pull that diaper off one more time, ALL your toys are going to time out." This of course will not happen - if for no other reason than that I don't have time to collect all of his toys and then find a place to store them. Plus it's a consequence that really makes no sense at all. Despite all the challenges of daily life with a spirited 2-year-old and a 6 month old, I can still look back at a week with many smiles and mostly pleasant memories:

**Fun at Music Class - Noah has really developed so much over the past 2 years of music, it has been fun to watch. He's gone from sitting in my lap as an infant, to racing around the room for the full 45 minutes once he learned how to walk, to actually dancing, playing the instruments and singing along. He always has suggestions to offer when Miss Robin needs ideas to sing about and likes to request favorite songs. We're so sad that Miss Robin has decided to take a break after this semester!

** Exercise - I finally started going back to the YMCA to get some much needed exercise. It's really amazing what wonders it does for your body and mind. Fortunately, Noah absolutely loves the day care at the Y and Kai seems pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. The day care is extremely busy and loud in the mornings, but around mid-afternoon it is very quiet, so that is when I have been going. It is incredibly nice to have that hour to myself!

**"School" - Noah still loves to go to mom's day out on Tuesdays and his teachers really seem to be enjoying him (and I don't think they are just being polite!). And apparently, undressing is something he for now just feels the need to do at home so it has not been an issue there - I guess that is something to be thankful for.

**Fun playdates - we had 15 moms and kids here on Friday and had a wild and fun time. Noah was very good about having all the children playing with his toys, even his most prized possessions (cars and trains). Kai had fun staring at a same-aged peer and with whom he also participated in a drooling and spit-up contest. We had another play date/Lucia practice with our Swedish Moms which was also a lot of fun. Noah actually paraded with us during our Lucia practice instead of running around wildly - I'm still not convinced that he'll participate at the actual event, we'll see! On the way home from the Swedish playdate I stopped with the boys at IKEA and Noah got to enjoy one of his favorite things - their meatballs. An elderly lady was sitting across the table from us and she said the speed with which he devoured his 6 meatballs was impressive.

**Some cute comments from Noah this week: "It was a wonderful day." "Mamma wants to read this to Noah (while shoving a book at me)." "I can not resist (while sneaking up the staircase at our Swedish playdate)."