The First Few Days

It's been a couple of weeks watching Kylie so I thought I'd take some time to react.

The experience, overall, has been incredible. Not always easy, necessarily, but definitely a wonderful, fun, and rewarding way to spend my days. I've had several moments where I actually stop, and ask myself- are people really paying me for this? I feel lucky to be able to do this. Even if Kayla was in school, I think I would love to do this. Brian might have something different to say about that last statement, but if I'm being honest with myself and what I love, this is it for me.

Even as I write this, I'm getting paid to do this. Kayla is mesmerized by Barney, Kylie is falling soundly asleep in the bouncy-seat after being well-fed and entertained. I've leisurely enjoyed my coffee this morning, and have even been able to do some housework. It's not always so quiet, especially with Kayla going through her 'terrible-twos', but for the time being, we're happy. I'm lucky enough to have found a baby that is wonderfully-tempered and very content to observe the room, smile at you, and cuddle contentedly. The only problem so far as been her battle with the bottle, but we've settled on the Playtex Drop-Ins and she's been drinking like a pro.

Kayla has been pretty fantastic with the baby. I think she has her moments of jealousy, as I see her climbing into the swing or the bouncy seat after I take the baby out of them. But other than those small signs, she seems to be happy to see the baby and tolerant when she's crying or I have to feed her. I'm not sure she understands sharing yet, and sometimes when I try to show Kylie a rattle or book, Kayla tries to grab it away. But then she always brings it back withing a few seconds and shows the baby herself. She's learning. I don't trust her alone with Kylie, though, because she's a klutz and accidentally stumbles over things, throws things backwards over her head, knocks things over, hugs things really hard, or other things that might be totally innocent but still can cause harm. So Kylie doesn't leave my sight. I might take her into the kitchen to prepare a bottle, while leaving Kayla in the living room to play. When they're both a little older, maybe I'll be less paranoid. All in all, however, Kayla is handling this sudden change very well. She didn't even have the months of preparation children normally get for a younger baby being around, there was just a tiny baby here one day. I'm very proud of her.

Now, if I could only just get her to nap during the day. That would be fantastic!

My next goal with this is to make a more deliberate effort to get outside every single day. I have been slow to continue my preparations for outside because our landlords don't really want things on the lawn permanently. Once done playing, we're supposed to pick everything up. That becomes a time-consuming hassle. I have a Superyard gate, with some added panels outside that I intend to open in a large circle for a play area. It's quite long and after playing, I was simply pulling it closer to the house instead of leaving it set up in a large circle. That was also a pain, because it's not meant to always bend backwards. For now it's folded up again as I figure out what to do with a large, family-sized inflatable pool I bought for us. I'm planning to put it against the house since they don't mow there anyway, and I hope it doesn't cause any problems for the landlord. If I do that, I'll have the gate block off the pool from the rest of the yard, and have to figure out a new set-up for back there. I need it to be enough room for Kayla to run and play, without having to worry too much about her wandering off too fast for me to catch her with the baby in tow. I'm rambling. I'll update with a post specifically on the backyard.

Right now, the baby is at a phase where she simply needs basic care and cuddling, while being exposed to different things to help developmentally. I've got that covered. It'll be a whole different game once she starts to actually play and learn more actively. For now, I'm quite proud of the way things are going and feel confident that the family does, too.