I can’t believe it’s been a month and a half since I’ve blogged about my life! Oona is already seven weeks! There is just so little time for anything. I’d be asleep right now if I could fall asleep, but I fell asleep and was awakened by a screaming baby enough times in the past hour that now that everyone is asleep (Martin included), and it’s only 8 p.m., I can’t fall asleep at all. A chance to catch up on some blogging, among other things on my list (TOO many other things on my list.) Thank you to my friend Elaine for bringing dinner tonight so at least I don’t have to worry about that!
Oona is fussier than she was those first blissful three weeks, and life is harder. She no longer sleeps all day, and when she’s awake she’s either nursing or crying. Only if I’m talking to her with her on my lap is she content, or sometimes for a few minutes in the bouncy seat or on the play mat, but she doesn’t just sit in a seat and look around without crying. These are the weeks that make you wonder how you’re going to make it to three months, when babies tend to get easier.
My sister was here this past week. She came out to help with Oona and although she was a tremendous help and I got a ton of things done that I wouldn’t have otherwise, I still feel very very tired – mostly because I used my free time to work instead of sleep while she was here. But we had fun. We went to the river for the weekend and saw paragliders at the beach. (I did that back in India, and it was terrifying stepping off a cliff for the first time, but so much fun once I was flying.) We walked in the redwoods and skipped rocks in the creek and ate good food and lounged in the hot tub – all the best things to be had at the river (I love it so much up there, and it’s such a refreshing change from Berkeley.) When we returned, one night we went out to dinner for Martin’s mom’s birthday, and another Martin and I went out on a much-needed date to the renovated Hotsy Totsy (I love the Hotsy Totsy!) and saw The Informant. Another day, my sister and I trekked to the European Bookstore in the city to buy Shea more French books, and then had lunch at a playground by the harbor in the Embarcadero. The weather was perfect. What a great day. Wednesday, my sister and Martin’s mom spent the day pulling weeds in our garden while the nanny watched the kids, and I edited and paid bills – how wonderful to have all that help! I got some editing done, balanced accounts, put decals up on Oona’s wall, started a photo album for Shea (finally!), learned to cook a pork roast, and even went to the gym! I got more exercise this past week than I have in months.
Now that she’s gone, there are dishes to do and laundry to be put away, and I don’t have the energy to get up off the couch. I wish I could extend this little moment of peace long enough to get the house cleaned up, work on the photo album, upload photos, blog, Twitter, run, work on my book, do some more editing and prepare for tutoring an SAT test tomorrow … but all I want to do is sleep.
I haven’t had time to process how I “feel” about having two kids. I love both of them to death and have a great time with both of them. Shea is at the cutest age and is talking like crazy (He repeats everything we say and remembers a good deal of it.) Oona is tiny and cute, and I appreciate that small baby stage more now that I’ve seen how fast they grow up. I thought I’d be ready to return to the Grotto after two months this time (I took three months off after Shea was born), but that’s just a week away and I’m not at all ready to go back. I feel like I just got out of the hospital, it’s gone so fast!
I think the biggest thing that’s suffered is the time I spend with Martin. We so rarely are both free and awake at the same time. One of us is always catching up on sleep, trying to calm Oona or feeding and changing Shea. And the laundry. Don’t get me started on the laundry! It’s neverending with two kids in diapers. NEVERENDING. But I’m enjoying my time with the kids, and we’ve done a lot of fun things, like:
French playgroup every week
Fairyland (fun!)
Ardenwood pumpkin patch and farm (fun!)
Aratas Pumpkin farm (really fun!) – haunted house, hayride, petting zoo, mini train, AWESOME haystack labyrinthe, pumpkin patch, etc. My only complaint: a little pricey.
Tomorrow we go to a costume birthday party, and next weekend we have the Piedmont Avenue Halloween Parade and pumpkin patch, trick-or-treating on our street, a Halloween party at our friends’ house, and a BBQ on Sunday. BUSY!
Now if I could just get a little more sleep …
