I’ve been way too busy.  Hubby has done a lot of traveling this past summer and things are just settling down.  It’s hard being on my own at night with the kids — I really don’t know how single moms do it.  But in the meantime, my little girl has grown so much.  She’s now a year old.  Actually a year and one month!

She’s developed quite the little personality and I can definitely see some differences in her reactions as a little girl.  It’s strange but she is a bit more dramatic than her brother was at this age.  It’s as if we’re wired to be that way.  She’s so beautiful though.  Even when she’s thrown herself on the floor because mommy needs to take a shower.

She’s not walking yet.  I blame myself partly for that.  With Monkey, I stayed home and worked part-time his first year and half.  With Princess, we made the choice for me to go back to work so we could save up money towards a new house  — btw, we are moving soon!  All of this means she hasn’t received as much attention or teaching as he did.  But she’s getting there.  It will happen.  I’m not sweating it.

The one thing I am sweating is quitting breastfeeding.  I’m secretly holding onto this because I know she’s our last baby.  Plus, I’m lazy.  It’s so much easier to breastfeed at night instead of using bottles.  Yes, she’s not sleeping through the night either.  She gets up anywhere between 1-3 times a night.  Right now I think it’s due teething — she’s only got 2!  There’s another 2 on top trying to break through at the same time now and I’m sure that’s painful.

Princess loves her brother.  She smiles whenever he does anything.  She likes crawling over to him and giving him hugs.  And he too loves her.  Last night I was giving her a bath and she decided that she was going to try to stand up and grab something that fell out of the tub.  Bad idea.  If I hadn’t of been right there to grab her arm (which of course, where else would I be at this stage), she would have hit her head on the toilet.  But I think the shock of me grabbing her arm to pull her back really scared her.  She started crying hard and I ended up getting her out of the bath and holding her wrapped up in a towel for a long time before she calmed down.  Point of me telling you this is that Monkey came rushing in and asked if he could give her a hug.  He’s so sweet.  And his hug definitely helped!

I’m loving and dreading Princess growing up all at the same time.  It makes it harder when I think Monkey has grown so fast.  Blink and its gone.  I wish I could capture not just pictures and videos but actual memories complete with touch and smell.  Each time Princess puts her hand on my face or Monkey gives me a kiss goodbye at school — I wish I could capture that for a lifetime and relive it with each sense in place years from now.

Monkey has been paying attention closely to activities in the house recently. It’s been evident in his play and conversations of late.

Example 1

While playing with his squishy lizards ( the kind you find in the toy aisle of the grocery store sometimes), he took three of them and proceeded to tell me they were a daddy, mommy, and baby lizard. Then he put the baby lizard into one of organization trays I had laying around and said that was the crib.

I watched silently as he played and was completely amazed and amused when the mommy lizard took the baby lizard out of the crib then Monkey put the baby lizard onto the mommy lizard and made sucking noises. So observant!

Example 2

Today, the husband of our daycare provider asked Monkey “What does your mommy have now?” — meaning the baby. However, what was Monkey’s response?

“Mommy has big boobs!” — guess he’s noticed their increase in size since my milk came in!