Eyes eyes baby

Neither of my children have been good sleepers as infants.  Eli would nurse all.night.long every.single.night until he was about 14 months.  Charlotte doesn't stay latched on all night, but she DOES wake every 30-45 minutes during the night to nurse.  Night time sucks, nap time sucks harder.

The kids and I go to work until 12:30 every weekday; Charlotte usually takes her first 25-45 minute nap some time while we are at the office, and her next in mid-afternoon.  Today we had the pleasure of meeting up with my husband and his brother for lunch at Pollo Tropical, thus getting home a bit later than usual.  Actually it was PERFECT timing.  Charlotte was tired enough to go to sleep without fighting it, but not overtired to the point of refusing to nap.  15 minutes of nursing and she was O-U-T.  I decided to get a little bit of work done preparing my craft room, but 20 minutes into it I was over it and wanted to join the baby for her nap.  Eli was occupied with cleaning his room so I crawled in bed  with the baby and closed my eyes for 5 minutes...5 fucking minutes.  Then, just like every day, Eli barged in the room to tell me he loves me.

You know,  I love him too.  I love him more than I could ever put into words.  But I fucking HATE the fact that the baby never gets a nap.  I mouthed "I love you" and waved my crazy mom arms and pointed my finger for him to GTFO and close the door.  Too late.  Charlotte was up.  Charlotte's a funny one.  When she wakes, you better get your party dress on because it's time to celebrate.  She stands in bed and claps her hands and says, "Heeeeeeeeeyyyyy!" followed by a barrage of kisses being blown through the air and that cute face she makes where she scrunches up her nose and smiles. I was still laying there, pretending to sleep in hopes that she would get the picture and lay back down (note:  that NEVER works yet I continue to try that tactic every single time).  Then I hear, "Eyes. Eyes. Baby."  Charlotte's a smart one, I would even say she's probably gifted, but how the hell does she know about Vanilla Ice and why is she baby rapping songs from the early 90s?  I look over and see she has picked up my glasses and is saying "eyes.  eyes."  She sees herself in the reflection and this is where the "baby" comes in.  I decide that resistance is futile, put on my party dress, and celebrate the simple beauty that is being an 11 month old with her.  That is not to say that I put on a Fuzzi Bunz and filled it up with black beans and yellow rice from Pollo Tropical, rather we sang a song, rolled around, and relieved Eli of his cleaning duties so that we could all spend a moment together, laughing and playing, in the family bed.

I did it...

I know I'm probably the last person to enter the realm of blogging, but I've made it.  HERE I AM WORLD!  I plan on using this space to detail projects and recipes, stories about my hilariously awesome kids, and the occasional political or sociocultural rant.

Today Charlotte has been with us for 11 months.  This little girl is awesome!  To be honest, it took a while to warm up to her, but we're glad we let her stick around.

Eli is 6 years and 8 months today.  Feels weird to be the parent of a close to 7 year old.  He's incredibly kind and caring, intelligent...and quite often obnoxious (but have you met his mother?).