Fun Stuff We Did This Summer...

It's been so long since I've posted, we've been busy bees this summer! I think I will make this a "story in pictures" post, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words :)
Garden starting...

Camping...

Puddle-Playing...

Side-Walk Chalk Drawing (and Eating)...

Crabbing with Daddy...

Beach Swimming...

Daddy's Cake Decorating...

Freezie-Pop Eating...

Car-Riding...

Baby-Goat Feeding...

...and the fun continues!

...And On...

I was just thinking that I hadn't updated my blog in a while...when I logged back in to read my last post I realized Adam wasn't even walking yet when I wrote it!!! Shame on me, Bad Mommy! I wish I had some deep, reflective thoughts on life to post, but I'm so busy these days, I don't have the time or energy to be deep or reflective...I'll work on that after a nice long vacation (yeah right!). Anyway, for anyone who's interested, here's the latest and greatest at our house:

• Adam began walking at the beginning of April, and boy is he movin' and groovin'! He's practically running now, and he has all of the zest and impulsiveness that Emily lacked when she began walking, and he has his first "shiner" to prove it! (Right Eye Meets Play Kitchen at school...didn't end well for the eye).
• Emily continues to entertain us with her tunes, and she's really developed a love for music. I dug out the "Busy Band" instruments yesterday after Emily demanded a drum to play along with Daddy to "Old McDonald", and that girl can actually keep a beat!
• Adam is talking more and more, and unfortunately his favorite word right now is "No!". However, he couples his "No!" with adorable head shaking and hand waving, so it's hard not to laugh and hug him when he's protesting :)
• Sydney is on an upswing this week, and is walking around on her own (with boots!). She's even accompainied the family to the park and me on a walk through the neighborhood. Yeah Syd!!!
• Adam turned one in mid-March, and Emily turned three at the beginning of May. I think we are offically past the "Baby" stage with both kids and now have a Little Girl and Toddler...and we are enjoying all of the freedom (not to mention increased sleep!) that this brings with it :)

That's pretty much it here right now, just enjoying the beautiful spring weather with the kids and looking forward to some R&R this summer! I'll close with one of my latest video's of the kiddos...

And Life Marches On...

I've been hesitant to blog lately, because it seems in the daily scheme of things that we don't really have much going on these days. However, today I looked around and realized that while I wasn't paying attention, my munchkins just continued to grow and grow and do new and amazing things every day! Just some of the highlights:

• Emily is really "finding her voice" when it comes to singing, and she is treating us to her concerts almost constantly. I can't even tell you how many songs she knows, but I know for sure that she knows more of then than I know :)
• Adam is not only crusing the furniture, but is starting to let go more often when standing, and is so proud of himself!
• Both Em and Adam are having great fun at school, and learning all kinds of new things. Emily has even been slipping in some spanish here and there! (Hard to tell if this is influenced by school, Dora, or both :)
• Adam is sporting new teeth, and is beginning to talk more himself. He can now say "mama", "dada", "baby", "more", "hi", and I even heard him say "Emmy" the other day, much to Em's excitement.

Both Em and Adam have been growing, learning, and maturing so fast lately, I can hardly believe it. I'm going to try to make sure to document all of this carefully both here and in my scrapbooks so I can be sure to remember, 50 years from now, how precious they were and what a good time I was having with them. I guess I'll let Emmy have the last word on this post...

Long Time, No Blog

A wise man (or woman) once said that "time flies when you are having fun". This was quite an astute observation, this person must certainly have had small children entertaining him or her, for we have been having a lot of fun over here at the Herron household lately! So much fun, in fact, that I hadn't realized how long it has been since I updated this blog. So much has happened since my last post, that I'll just give a few highlights (and try and be better about updating more often :)

1. We had such a great time at Christmas this year! Last year, Em made it halfway through her presents, then threw up her hands and pleaded "No more!", it was so overwhelming for her. Not this year though! She would barely tear the last bit of paper off of a gift, when she would be exclaiming "Another Present!". She's already stating almost every day "Another Christmas is coming mama!", where by I answer "It sure is, but it's a LONG time from now...after Easter, after your birthday, after Halloween, after Thanksgiving...". This does not seem to dampen her excitement in the slightest. Oh, to be young again!
2. Baby Adam is turning into Toddler Adam right before our very eyes. He is now sporting six teeth, is crawling up a storm, standing up, cruising furniture, and trying to climb onto and over everything he possibly can (including Emily, much to her panic and dismay). This sudden catapult into almost-toddlerdom has led me to prematurely grieve the loss of my "baby", and to occasionally muse that a third child might not be so bad...(which, in turn, has led me to pawn off all of our baby gear to my sister as quickly as humanly possible, as if the absence of baby gear will keep me from having another baby...hey, it sounds good in theory, right?)
3. This growing up of my "baby" and the maturing of Emily from toddler into little girl has made it possible for us to actually start doing things together, as in out of the house, and it has been so much fun! We have thus far made trips to the Detroit Science Center (Emily had a blast at their "Kids Town"), the Children's Museum in Flint (where even Baby Adam had great fun, and got to meet others of his own kind), and we are scheduled for a trip to the DIA for some storytime this weekend. In the meantime, I'm going to try and make sure that all of this FUN doesn't keep me from updating more often!
   

The Truth About Two

I'll admit it, the process of having a second baby was a much more stressful, and in ways less enjoyable than the first. When we became pregnant with Emily, it was almost pure joy. Sure, I worried about the baby. Would she come out normal? Would I be a good mom? How would I handle being a parent and working outside the home? But for the most part, the worries were few, and the happiness was plentiful. When we decided to have a second, there were many more worries. We were having such a good time with Emily, how would another child affect her? Would she be jealous? Hate the new baby? Could we POSSIBLY love another baby as much as we loved Emily? How could we? My heart would almost burst with love whenever I looked at her. This miracle of such intense, pure love could not feasibly happen twice. Not only that, we were having a boy. A BOY. What on earth would I do with a BOY? I always pictured myself having all girls. With Adam, there were a whole new set of worries to consider, and I fretted much more than I had with Em. I will even admit this...when I was leaving for work the morning of Adam's birth, I actually burst into tears. I wasn't ready for another baby yet! I wanted more time to enjoy my sweet Emily, have her all to myself, and not have to share myself with another child. I actually thought, "Oh no! What have we done!"

Then, approximately eight hours later, my baby boy came into the world, and I had an experience I did not have straight away when Emily was born. I fell instantly in love. With Emily, the whole experience of having a newborn was wonderful, but also the most stressful thing I had ever experienced, and it took a little while for the really intense love to blossom. With Adam, it was literally love at first sight. I couldn't believe it. I really COULD love another child as much as I loved Emily. Everyone told me that no matter how wonderful your first child was, you would love the second (and third, and fourth...) just as much, although maybe differently. It took the actual birth of my second child for me to really see how this could be true. We have had our challenges of course. Adam is not the same baby that Emily was, and it takes a while to learn all about the new one, their personality, their likes and dislikes, and how to fit them into the family. In some ways, I feel a little bad for Adam in that he does not get near the same one-on-one attention that Emily received as a newborn. How could he, we already have a two year old running around to care for! However, he does have the experience of an extremely entertaining big sister to watch, which he does almost constantly, and really seems to enjoy her. For Emily's part, she loves to "mother" baby Adam, and is always bringing him toys, blankets, pacifiers (even though he hates them!), and insisting on particularities of his care ("Hey momma, pick baby Adam up!", "Hey momma, I think baby Adam needs a new diaper!", "Hey momma, bring baby Adam a blanket!"). They study each other with such intensity. Amazingly, they already seem to love each other. Just as amazingly, my capacity to love seems to grow as my family does. And that's the truth about having two.

Sydney the Wonderdog

This week, Sydney had a brush with death. She went into an unexplained seizure episode in the middle of the night last weekend, and she seized for over an hour. After a 30 hour stay at the emergency vet, followed by a full day of observation at our own vet, she came home to recuperate. I have learned two important things from this whole episode.

1. Pets are really, really good friends, and part of the family.

2. Their absence is felt so much more than their presence.

I had dropped her off at family's home for the week, as we were preparing to leave for a camping trip. I stopped to pick up a carry-out on the way home, and as I was trekking back and forth from the kitchen to the living room with the plates and food, I was unconsciously looking around for Sydney. She is almost ALWAYS underfoot, and if you're not careful, you'll step on her 50 times a day. I actually had the conscious thought "Oh, that's right, Sydney isn't here. Gee, I miss her already." Then, when I got that phone call at 4:00 am and I was standing over my beloved friend, begging her to wake up and really thinking that she was not going to, I had the follow-up thought: "Oh my god, I'm going to be missing her like that every day". And it made me realize what an important and yet sometimes invisible part she plays in our lives. I can't describe the joy and relief that I felt when she finally opened her eyes and lifted her head off the table. I thought, "I'm going to make sure Sydney knows how much we love her, every day". And then I realized, I should let EVERYONE I love know how much I love them every day. There are so many people who would leave a tangible hole in my life if they were suddenly gone, but I don't very often really stop to think about it. This is the lesson that my good friend Sydney taught me this week. So thank you, Sydney. And to everyone who cares enough about me to be reading this post, I love you too. And I would miss you terribly if you were gone.

Emmy the Explorer

Lately Emily has become obsessed with all things Dora. Our typical day starts something like this...

Me: (opening Emmy's door in the morning) "Good Morning Emmy!"

Emily: (rolling over and leaping up) "Hey Momma...I'm awake!"

Me: (scooping her up) "Yes, I can see that...come see me!"

Emily: "I want to watch Dora!"

From here we proceed into the living room where I set Emmy up with breakfast and put on a Dora episode. Generally, she becomes so entranced with Dora that she forgets to eat, and doesn't even acknowledge my prompts to get her to eat until I pause the Dora, when she immediately looks at me and states "more Dora". We repeat this cycle several times until she has eaten all of her breakfast or it has gotten so late that it is time for mid-morning snack. Emily is so enthralled with Dora that she has been known to go about spouting "Dora-isms" frequently...here are a few of the latest:

Down at the park throwing rocks in the water: "I'm gonna need YOUR help!"

In the bathtub: "I want to be a starcatcher! Reach up and catch them, catch them!"

Swinging on the swings: "Buckle up so I can be safe!"

Getting dressed on her changing table: "I wanna go to Play Park!"

And, my personal favorite: "Oh Man!"

During our second episode of Dora the other morning, Emily expressed her wish for a backpack like Dora. How could I resist, right? I managed to find one small enough for her this afternoon, and Emily was thrilled with her new gift...taking it off, putting it on, putting things in it, how great is that! If only she will always be this easily amused.

First Day of School

Last week I sent my second baby off to their first day of school. I have to say, this time went much more smoothly than the first time around. Emily was in the throes of some freakishly-early separation anxiety when she started school, and I was so afraid that she would cry when we left her there or be traumatized in some way. Turned out she loved it. Adam is such a laid-back little dude that I wasn't worried about him at all, and he seems to be getting along just fine. Emily has graduated to the "Big-girl Room" (i.e. Toddler Room) next door to her old room, and she gets to visit Adam in the "Baby Room" daily. Now comes the real mommy challenge for me...exactly how to get not one, but TWO kids dressed, fed, out the door and to school in time to start my day when I head back to work next week!

So This Is Why

Amidst my postpartum hormone crash, random nightwakings from our almost three-month old son, eating issues, gas issues, nighttime crying spells and refusal to be put down after falling asleep, I have started to wonder "Why on God's Green Earth did we decide to do this baby thing AGAIN?!?" I really think that some sort of amnesia falls over parents after their children become a little older, more manageable, more interactive, and more fun, and it makes you somehow forget all of the really miserable things about caring for a baby. This in turn leads you to think..."hey, the kid we have is fun...why not do it again?". And so we did. And here we are.
*Sigh*.
So, where were we. Ah yes, "why did we do this again?". The answer came to me this week in the form of my dear Emily. As I was having one of my crazy moments that I wasn't sure just how I was going to make it through the day, my darling daughter came up to me (out of the blue), put her little arms around me, put her little hands on either side of my face, looked into my eyes and said "I love you mama". Tears sprang to my eyes. I hugged her back, thanked God for my two beautiful children, whispered "I love you too, Emily", and recognized that THIS is exactly why I would do it all over again.

The Word of the Day

I swear it seems like Emily is coming at us with new words and phrases every day. Being a first time mom to a toddler, I didn't realize what little sponges they are, picking up everything and spitting it back at you when you least expect it. We have learned this lesson the hard way when Emily repeats less-than-choice phrases when we have forgotten to watch our language around her. I'm finding that she is learning so many new things that I can't even keep up with her, I don't even know how much she knows. Today, for instance, she was putting some costume jewelery in a little purse, narrating her actions as she did them; "Emmy puts her necklaces and her rings in her purse for safekeeping.". SAFEKEEPING??? Seriously, did she just say SAFEKEEPING??? Where on God's Green Earth did she learn that one? It seems that she says at least one or two things a day that procure that reaction from me. Emily's word of the day never fails to raise the question of the day...what on earth will she come up with next?

Whoo-Hoo She's Two! ...and Adam's first smiles

I can't believe it, but somehow my baby turned two years old this month. And such a milestone called for not one, but two birthday parties! Emily thrououghly enjoyed every minute of both of them, and the best part about two parties was (of course) two cakes! She was so enamored of her birthday cake that I went into her room to get her the next morning and the first words out of her mouth were "birthday cake!". She insisted that she be allowed to have some for breakfast (AFTER she finished her cereal), and she demanded that I sing Happy Birthday to her first, reciting her newly learned Birthday rule:"Emmy not eat the candles". How could I resist :)

Books are always a favorite, especially the pop up kind!


Glasses and jewlery from Aunt Gina were a big hit.


Cake....YUMMY!!


Now that's a big one!


Much better than drawing on the walls...thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

In other news, Baby Adam has been growing by leaps and bounds, and has even started smiling and "talking" to us. Six weeks at home alone with a newborn baby and the stinker decides to flash his first smiles (awake smiles, that is) while his mom was at a 12 hour crop. Luckily, my mom thought fast and was able to catch them on camera for me. Thanks Mom!

He's Here!

After nine (ten!) months of preparation and anticipation, our little boy Adam Michael Herron arrived on March 14th. Labor and delivery went smoothly again (thankfully!), and we got to meet our baby boy a scant 50 minutes after arriving at the hospital. He weighed in at 7lbs, 5oz at birth, and measured 19.5 inches long.

Now four weeks old, Adam is growing seemingly right before our very eyes. He eats (and eats, and eats...) like a champ, and he weighed over 9lbs at our Dr.'s appointment last week! Big sister Emily is taking nicely to her new role as older sibling, and wants to hold and help feed and burp baby Adam, and even insisted that he be included in a family walk we took the other day ("Bring baby Adam too!" she exclaimed). Now that the excitement of the birth and the newness of the baby is wearing off a bit, we are all settling into being a family of four. It's amazing how fast they change and grow, and even more amazing how quickly you forget all that is involved in caring for a newborn! However, baby Adam is taking it fairly easy on us. He is generally only up once or twice a night to eat, and usually settles back into sleep upon finishing his meal. So far, he seems pretty laid back, and we're hoping that he has more than a little of Emily's temperment in him! Now, if I can only be as laid back as he is trying to manage being mommy of two! I've had a lot of help so far, Greg was able to take two weeks of paternity leave, and my mom and sister have been here quite a bit helping out with the kids so we've been able to ease into things slowly. So far, so good!

"Baby Boy...Come Out!"

I've been wondering exactly how much of this "new baby on the way" thing Emily has been picking up on. I had actually been thinking that she was not really aware that something is brewing, but I decided to test this theory out in the last few weeks, and our interaction went something like this -

Me: "Hey Emily, what's this?" (pointing to my belly)

Emily: "Baby!"

Me: "Yes, there's a baby in there!"

Emily: (after thinking for a moment) "Baby Boy, come out! Want to see him!"

Me: (laughing hysterically) "Yes sweetie, Mommy wants to see him too!"

Emily: "Da-da too!"

So, I guess she understands a bit more than I have been giving her credit for. Reflecting on this myself, I came to realize that, oh my gosh, Baby Boy IS going to come out, and in the not-so-distant future. This Lightbulb Moment has spurred several bouts of nesting in the Herron household...a portion of the basement has been cleaned, the former "guest room" has been cleared of nearly five years worth of crap to make way for Emily's new room, and this said room has been painted and is awaiting the application of wallpaper border so its new tenant can move in. Emily herself got to apply the first brush-strokes of "geen" (green!) paint to the walls of her "cool new room", and after the assembly of her "cool new bed" today, she is anxiously awaiting the time she can start playing and sleeping in there. So..."Baby Boy, Come Out!" (...but not for another six weeks or so, please!)

Merry Christmas

And what a Christmas it was for us, too. I went in to this holiday fully expecting my excitement to far overshadow the excitement exhibited by Emily. After all, she's only one and a half, and up until recently she has been just as thrilled about tupperware as she has been about anything else. So, even though we had some cool stuff for her, I was prepared for what I thought could be a big letdown when she decided to pass by the new toys for the box they came in. Well, I guess those days might be over, because she brought me a neatly wrapped present delivered by the neighbors on Christmas Eve and said "open, please!". She opened it almost all by herself, and was delighted with her new toy. She must have remembered this experience Christmas morning, because she shouted "Presents! Presents! Open, open!". She is old enough now to have some imagination in her play, and she was delighted by everything. She kept going strong until suddenly she was exhausted and overstimulated by all of the new things, and pleaded "no more!", and went down for a morning nap. Once she was refreshed by some sleep, she was ready to go back at it. While I received some wonderful gifts myself, seeing my little girl so excited by new and interesting things was by far the most priceless gift of all.

'Tis the Season

In the Herron household, generally we wait until Christmas is almost upon us to start decorating, celebrating, and generally getting into all things Christmas. In fact, I distinctly remember a Christmas not-so-past that we were putting up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. However, we (ok, I...) decided to kick off the Christmas season a little bit early this year. Emily and I joined Santa, Elves, and some friends from work at "Cookies and Milk with Santa" sponsored by Beaumont Hospice (yes, my office. Hey, it was convenient, and I personally know the santa :) We got to put together crafts of Christmas ornaments and holiday picture frames (ok, so I did the craft too...however Emily just loved making piles of the colored foam), chow down on almost every type of cookie you could imagine, (ok, so I did most of the cookie eating too...this is what you get for having a preggo around cookies at 10 o' clock in the morning having had no breakfast! Emily did however devour the largest sugar cookie I had ever seen), listen to Elves read Christmas stories, and meet the Jolly Bearded Man himself. I must say, I wasn't expecting Emily to react very well to Santa, given her stranger anxiety and all. But she was very, very curious about the Man in Red, even tentatively approaching him to accept a candy cane (I thought having her sit on his lap might just be asking a bit too much from her!). The candy cane was the greatest discovery, direct quote from Emily : "YUMMY!" Emily had the greatest time running around, staring in awe at the elves and other kids, and playing "peekaboo!" with the office ladies. I had a great time too, just watching my little girl have fun and remembering how cool Christmas was when you were a kid and you believed in Santa, Rudolph, and magic, and didn't have to put up and take down all the Christmas decorations yourself :) What a great way to kick off the Christmas season...bring on the holidays!

Every Bunny Needs Some Bunny to Love

Somehow Emily has become obsessed with bunnies. We think this may be due to the real-live bunny they happen to have at Emily's school. His name is Hunny-Bunny, and they will put a diaper on him and let him hop around the room at times. The kids love him. But, I digress. Emily...fascination... bunnies...there we go. She has this stuffed bunny she has to take EVERYWHERE, she sleeps with him and the first word out of her mouth in the morning (replacing the former, "shoes") is "...bunny!" So we thought it would be fitting to dress her as a bunny for Halloween. And what a bunny she was. I'm not sure if she really "got it" or not, but she did not mind wearing the costume at all, and obligingly "hopped" around the front patio while kids streamed up during Trick-or-Treat time, alternatively running in circles and stuffing her mouth with candy. Oh, the enthusiasm. She even got to meet a little girl dressed as Elmo, and we were treated to a very bizarre "Bunny-Meets-Elmo" moment, very cute though! We had a great time just hanging out and watching all of the kids in the neighborhood, and Emily developed a taste for Smarties. Discerning palate, that's my girl.

IT'S A BOY!

I was fairly convinced from early on in this pregnancy that the baby was another girl. That is, until a couple of weeks ago. I started dreaming about boys. A boy name that I actually LIKED just came to me out of nowhere. The night before our big ultrasound, I dreamed that not only was the baby a boy, it was TWIN boys (I had had an early ultrasound that showed only one little baby-blob, but anxiety provoking nonetheless!!). Then came the kicker. While viewing our wiggly, squiggly baby on the ultrasound screen, the baby flashed us the "hang loose" sign. 'Oh my gosh', I thought, 'this baby really IS a boy. A girl just wouldn't do that'. Sure enough, several hours later when we opened the envelope, it was confirmed. It's a BOY! Oh my gosh, a BOY!! So, commence with the boy-name negotiations, buying blue clothes, and generally preparing for our first son to join the family. Here we go!

"Yay...BEER!"

I really can't believe we have reached this point already, but it appears that we have. I am referring to the ability of your child to spontaneously say things that embarrass you. In public.
I should preface this whole story by saying that Emily is a real chatterbox. She talks, sings, and babbles almost incessantly. It is very cute. She also will repeat almost anything you say to her (not always perfectly, but she's not shy about trying). This can be a fun game with her, especially if she doesn't know what she is really saying. Or if you THINK that she doesn't know what she is saying. For example, Greg thought it was funny to teach her how to say "Yay...BEER!". And it was. She is very exuberant when she says anything prefixed by a "Yay!", it's like she knows it's exciting. Couple the "yay!" with "beer!" coming out of a 17 month old's mouth and it's endearing. That is, unless it's in public.
I am home with Emily every Thursday, and it has become part of our Thursday morning routine to do our weekly grocery shopping right after breakfast. So here we are, like any other Thursday morning, strolling innocently down the aisles of Meijer. I take a shortcut towards the greeting cards down the soda aisle. Which is right next to the beer aisle. Emily spies the familiar blue-and-silver logo of the ever-present Busch box (so we're on a budget, OK?) and without missing a beat yells "BEER!". As she points. Oh dear.
I actually broke out laughing and thought it was just the cutest thing (in a dysfunctional-family sort of way), that is until I saw the strange looks the old lady at the cheese cooler was giving me. I just kind of giggled and high-tailed it towards the cards, expecting this slightly embarrassing yet still funny incident to be behind me as soon as the beer was out of sight. Not so. Emily continued to yell "BEER! BEER!" pretty much all the way across Meijer until we finally entered a checkout lane, when she became distracted by a familiar Doggy book that she has at home, and suddenly "BEER!" was replaced by "DOGGY!".
*Sigh* This incident made me examine my own history and look back on all of the highly embarrassing things I myself said in public as a child, and I am amazed that my mom didn't give me up for adoption at some point. I guess that it's moments like these that, while embarrassing, are in fact the spice of life. Kids really do say the darndest things. Oh yeah, and "YAY BEER!!"

Make way for Number Two...

Here we go, Herron baby number two is on the way. While we planned this pregnancy and want this baby very much, I think I spent the first trimester in a bit of denial about another baby actually making it's way into our family. Now that I have a bit of a noticeable belly, and people are starting to throw around congratulations and ask about the due date, reality is starting to set in. Holy crap, we are going to have TWO children, at ONE time. This really seemed like a good idea at one point, but the fear is starting to hit me. With Emily, although everyone and their brother told me how much having a baby would "change my life forever", I still really didn't get it until she was here, I brought her home, and oh yes, she really WAS my responsibility. I love her like I never thought I could love another human being, and I wouldn't give her up for the world. But now I KNOW what having a baby is like, and we decided to do it AGAIN??? I guess my problem is that this time, my fears are specific. Can I be candid with you, my family and friends? If so, I will share exactly what it is that is starting to make me a bit nervous about doing this baby thing all over again.

1. I am afraid of having a newborn again. I was lucky enough that I had friends that were completely honest with me about what having a newborn was like. I knew it wouldn't be all sweetness and light, I expected to be miserable some of the time. Still, I watched A Baby Story like it was going out of style when I was pregnant with Emily. Have you seen this show, folks? It tracks a couples story through the last days of pregnancy, through labor and childbirth, and ends with a few scenes a couple of weeks after the happy couple brings their new baby home. These women are smiling. They look well rested. They are wearing makeup and look like they have eaten three square meals a day since their baby has arrived. Try as they might have to prepare me for the reality of having a newborn, I somehow still believed that maybe, just maybe, my experience would be like one of those women on A Baby Story. Yea, right. My Baby Story??? I had breastfeeding issues like you would not believe. I didn't shower for days. I spent weeks in my pajamas, most of them stained with breastmilk. I slept very little. I didn't feel functional enough to leave the house, even for a walk around the neighborhood, for at least a month after my little bundle of joy arrived. Makeup, HAH! I felt like a princess if I could even squeeze in a shower here and there. Three square meals?? I was lucky if I could find the time to chow down on a granola bar between feedings. People will tell you how wonderful it is to have a baby, and yes, there are certainly wonderful things about it. But lets face it folks, there are some things about having a newborn that just plain suck. And I would be completely happy if I could find a way to somehow give birth to a six month old. Via C-section, of course. Which brings me to fear number two...

2. I am afraid of going through childbirth again. Those friends who tried faithfully to prepare me for life-with-newborn also tried to prepare me for what childbirth would be like. Again, enter A Baby Story. Yes these women moaned. Some screamed. Most had an epidural. Almost all of them ended their journey smiling and looking pretty holding their beautiful babies. I thought, women have been doing this for centuries, really, how bad could it be? I was even looking forward to it, in a weird way. I was not expecting two hours, two nurses, two anesthesiologists and eighteen pokes to start an IV. I was not expecting the pain to be as intense as it was. I was not expecting the pushing part to be as highly unpleasant as it was (for any boys reading this, think "watermelon through a toilet paper roll" and you'll have some idea of what this is like). However, first moments with new baby, priceless. Pretty, I was not. Smiling, I've never felt such accomplishment or such happiness and pride until that moment. Was it worth it, definitely. Do I want to do it again? Not particularly, but unless they devise a better way to get babies out in the next six months, I guess I'll be going to. Can I have my epidural now, please?

3. I am afraid of never sleeping again. This fear also dovetails off of fear number one. However, I am not just referring to newborn land, here. I fully expect to be sleep deprived to the extreme for several months. However, we really scored the jackpot with Emily. She always has been, and still is, a champion sleeper. This kid will sleep 12-13 hours a night and take a two hour nap in the afternoon. She rarely wakes up. My fear of never sleeping again is not borne so much from experience as it is from horror-stories from family, friends, complete strangers in the grocery store, etc: it seems everyone knows someone who has a child that "still isn't sleeping through the night" and the child is three. I guess this may be a rational fear to have, and I'll just have to pray that I pop out a kid that is a sleeper like Emily.

4. I'm afraid of having a boy. Please do not mistake this fear for my not wanting to have a boy. On the contrary, I think I would like to have a boy, at some point. But if I may be honest, the thought of having a boy really scares me. I really have very little experience with boys, we simply don't have many in my family. Boys are foreign territory to me. They are rowdy. They wrestle. They have penises. What on the earth would I DO with a boy?? This fear, I suppose, like most fears, is really a fear of the unknown. Calling all moms of boys out there. If we have a boy, anyone volunteering to give me a crash course in Boys 101???

5. I'm afraid of having TWO. This seems pretty obvious. We decided to have another baby, OBVIOUSLY one plus one equals two. But I already know that it is not that simple. It won't be like bringing home another Emily all over again. We already have Emily, and she has needs of her own. We now have to think about how we satisfy the needs of Emily AND juggle the all-consuming demands of a newborn. (Again, WHY did we think this was a good idea??) It seems simple enough if both parents are around, one for each child. But I am already thinking ahead to nights Greg has school, or an estimate, or is stuck late at work. I'm going to have to feed, bathe, and prepare TWO children for bedtime, AND get them to actually go to sleep? And don't even get me started on my fear of random errands...how on earth does one go grocery shopping with two small children?? Only one child fits in the cart. Why, oh why has someone not designed a shopping cart for two?? As with my other fears, I assume this one will just work itself out on it's own, like everything always seems to. This brings me to my last fear (at least those I have been able to identify so far), and it is a big one...

6. I am afraid that I won't like the second one as much. I may be a terrible mother for even thinking this, but honestly, it is a real fear of mine. I know that everyone says that "you will love the new baby just as much, you just will", and I know that I will love him or her. But will I LIKE them as much?? Simply put, Emily is so cool, so easy, so pleasant, so happy, so good natured, so sweet, so smart, so funny, so cute, and so PERFECT (OK, I know some of this is just mom-inspired bias here) that I am just wondering how it will be possible for me to genuinely like another child as much as I like her. I'm going to have to take it on faith here that I will get to know this new little one for the special little human being that he or she is going to be, and that I will love and appreciate him or her for all that they are, and that yes, I really will like him or her as much.

Well guys, that is it. My big Fear List so far. For you moms of more than one (or two or three for that matter), anything to add?? As riddled with apprehension and nervousness as my feelings are regarding this new baby to be, I am also very excited. I look at my beautiful daughter and feel the love I have for her and I know it grows every day as I get to know her more and more for the special person that she is. And now that I've been through it once, I know I will have a great time getting to know this next one. Baby Herron Number Two, we're waiting for you!

The Shoe Gene

It seems that some women just have an inherent sense of style. My friend Heather is one of these women. She ALWAYS looks fabulously put-together, and most of, if not all of, her clothes are brand-name and this season's fashion. She also seems to have the perfect pair of shoes to match every one of her tastefully paired outfits. They are all stylish. Most look terribly uncomfortable. Yet, I am jealous.

I, on the other hand, borderline on the frumpy. I probably have 20 pairs of shoes to my name (Greg would probably argue that I have more, but I just cleaned my closet so I have a pretty good idea of what was in there). Probably only five of these have been purchased in the past three or four years. Three of these five are variations of the exact same shoe, just in different colors to compliment black, brown, or in-between. I own more than this because I am the worst type of pack-rat that can't bear to throw anything away, including my incredibly cheaply made and terribly old shoes that I will most likely never wear again but just have to hang on to in case I am suddenly struck with the desire to wear those plasticy lace-up sandals I purchased at Payless a full decade and a half ago. I have not seemed to inherit "the shoe gene". This is the gene that many women seem to have that allows them to constantly appear as if they have stepped directly out of a clothing catalogue. This same gene directs them to the perfect pair of shoes that tops off each carefully selected outfit. I can appreciate this trait in others, but regretfully for me, it is all about comfort and function.

Try as I might to dress tastefully, I am just not lucky enough to have inherited the shoe gene. However, I am starting to believe that Emily may have. She has developed an appreciation for shoes that I have not yet witnessed in another 16-month old. She loves shoes with an intensity previously reserved only for Greg and her blankie. Literally, twice this week the first words out of her mouth as she was plucked from her crib were "a shoes, a shoes. On, on on!!". She says this frantically while pointing to her closet, and then will not settle down until she is taken to the closet to assess her shoes. She has to pick out her own pair to wear each day, the pair I select for her will simply not do. She even has a favorite pair. They are brown leather Osh Kosh's, Mary-Jane style, with three little flowers stitched onto the toes of each, the center flower topped with a rhinestone. They are by far the least practical pair of shoes that she owns, yet unless I am able to hide them from view before she spies them, they are always the pair that she wants to wear. She then proudly stomps around in her favorite shoes, every once in a while making sure to point them out, just in case I haven't noticed - "shoes!". *Sigh*. I am already seeing dollar signs as I think ahead to the school and teenage years. I have a sneaking suspicion that plasticy lace-up sandals from Payless will not be acceptable for Emily. And inevitably she is going to want to have the perfect pair to compliment each outfit. I can only hope that some of Emily's sense of style will rub off on me eventually. Wishful thinking.