Parenthood Adventures: What Does 82, 30, 2, and 1 Have in Common?

Hey Everyone,

Did anyone guess? Those are the represented ages living under our roof.

The 82 Year Old:
Yep, my Grandma recently moved in with us. She is living in our basement for the summer until her new senior apartment is finished being built. She can pretty much do anything she wants in our basement without needing anything. We have requested that she comes up and eats dinner with us though. It's kind of great because it forces me to prepare dinner daily. I'm not sure I will think that in three months, but for now it is great. I also love that Ruby and Stella get to see her more often. They both LOVE going downstairs and seeing Grandma Pat. Grandma Pat is pretty smitten by them as well.

The 30 Year Olds:
Ben and I are trudging along this crazy thing called parenthood. Ben is almost done teaching for the school year. Can I get an Amen? Although, he doesn't catch much of a break as he leaves the very next day for Pine Ridge, South Dakota for his annual mission trip. He will be gone for a week. He will also be teaching 2 weeks of summer school along with drivers ed this summer. I'm hoping to go camping with my mom and the girls while he is in Pine Ridge if the weather cooperates. I have been busy keeping two humans alive. Sometimes that is just enough. My days usually go by pretty fast even though the last 30 minutes before Ben gets home seems to last about 4 hours. Stella usually wakes up first, then she usually wakes Ruby somehow by banging on something. Ruby gets up and we all eat breakfast and I'm typically on my second cup of coffee. I like to work out during Stella's morning nap. That is when Ruby gets to watch PBS. That way I don't have Ruby climbing in between my legs. Stella wakes up and we play/do laundry/unload dishwasher/start preparing lunch. We eat lunch and both girls go down for a nap by 12/13:30. When they are napping I shower and prepare as much as I can for dinner, so I don't have to when witching hour happens. They wake up and we play and I clean and do whatever else. We make it until Ben gets home. Now that the weather will hopefully get warmer we will be spending a lot of time outside! Anyway, as you can see, I keep little people alive and love every. single. minute. Ok, I lied, I don't love every single minute, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

The 2 Year Old:
Holy Buckets. The amount of development that has happened with Ruby in the last month is astounding! Her language has sky rocketed. People besides Ben and I are starting to understand her. The sentences she says, the words she says and remembers, unfortunately the things she repeats from mommy and daddy's lips. Some good and some quite embarrassing. She is just starting to enter one of my favorite ages. She is so curious about the world around her, she takes everything in and you can see her process everything. She is very sensitive, yet has a very outgoing personality. At our last ECFE class we were talking about potty training. I said, I'm just going to wait until she initiates it because lets be honest, I do NOT want to worry about that right now. Lone and behold, the very next day she decided she wasn't going to wear her diaper. Not only was she not going to wear her diaper, she wasn't going to wear pants either, and guess what. NO ACCIDENTS. You guy's, I actually have to do this. Ruby has yet to have an accident as long as she isn't wearing anything from the waist down. If I put undies on...well, I haven't been brave enough truthfully to put undies on for very long. But, if she is wearing a diaper while out and about she never mentions anything about having to go potty and is always wet when we change her. So, who knows. Unfortunately, Ruby has also become obsessed with wanting to hold Stella's hand and pulling her around places. Even if Stella is screaming. Ugh. My sister in law just pulled out one of my gray hairs. #parenthood. She can be super sweet to Stella and she can also have no boundaries with her. It drives me bonkers. Ruby is a social butterfly and we are excited to start ECFE pretty soon. I'm also excited for park dates this summer with MOMS club. I can't go to a lot right now because it's when Stella is napping. When Ben is home, hopefully I can leave Stella with Ben and just take Ruby. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Ruby got the stomach flu while we were visiting some family in Jamestown. Big time bummer.

The 1 Year Old:
Stella is so much fun. She is busy just like Ruby, but she is super content playing with whatever. It's probably a second child type thing. She doesn't have to have me nearby at all times like Ruby. For instance, Stella had no problem throwing the tv remote in the toilet as I was out probably getting Ruby down from the kitchen table. Stella is walking pretty well right now. She has 3 teeth trying to come in at the same time, which has made her a little more clingy. She picked up a slight fever for a couple of days, probably the same bug Ruby had without the vomiting thank God. She is starting to hold her ground a little more with Ruby. If Ruby comes and takes her toy she will walk over and get it back. She usually tries to pull Ruby's hair. A very small part of me says, "You go girl!" Then I have to remind we don't pull hair. Stella still has mommy separation anxiety. If we are somewhere different and she sees me leave she will cry and cry. If I'm out of sight I'm kind of out of her mind. She does find at church when we drop her off at the nursery. She cries for a little bit, but we have yet to be called out of church for her. She has started doing a fake laugh and loves to play peek a boo. She always folds her hands when we say it's time to pray and when we say Amen she will say ama. Close enough baby girl, close enough. She says mama and dada, but doesn't say much else yet. She will wave and do different actions for songs. She understands everything we tell her to do. This comes in handy when we want her to throw something away for us, or get us our shoes, or you know anything that we are too lazy to do at the moment. Stella is such a great baby and gives us so much joy!