...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.