Welcome to Parenthood

Having two kids really makes you seem, well, like a parent. We are now that couple, you know, the one with a family. You can kind of get away with still being a couple with just one kid. You can hang out with your couple friends and only need one car and it's pretty easy to find a babysitter for one kid. But with two...well you're in it now.

That's what Aaron and I said the first time all four of us were in the car together. Two carseats in the backseat, on our way to our daughter's school Christmas program, we looked at each other and said, "we're in this now, here we go." Life has changed again. As my mom would say to us, "Welcome to Parenthood."

Actually that's usually what my mom says when I tell her about something Montana did or a situation I might be having about being a mom.

For example, last week or so, Montana wasn't taking a nap, so Aaron and I told her that she could get up, but she had to have quiet time in her room. After awhile, we were amazed by how quietly she was playing and thinking that this quiet time thing is gonna work out great. Then a few moments later she emerged from her bedroom. She had colored her face, her hands, her stomach, and the carpet. She put stickers on her wall and colored it too. We both had to try not to laugh. This was a moment to teach our daughter important life lessons like, you can color on paper ONLY and the difference between owning and renting, we had to bring out our parent A-game. But she was just too darn cute. When we reprimanded her, she started to whimper and said quietly, "I was just trying to make things beautiful". Oh, my heart.


I told my mom this story, and she chuckled and replied... "Welcome to Parenthood."

And then there was the evening when Aaron was at a meeting. I had done 6 or 7 loads of laundry that day. All of the clean clothes were piled on the couch. There was also a pile of dishes in the sink. I put Montana down early with great intentions of tackling both piles of housework before Aaron got home. Well, I feel asleep with Montana and when I woke up I jumped up to get the dishes started. It was about that time that Amos started crying. The dishes weren't going anywhere, so I resigned myself to sit by the pile of laundry with a glass of wine, my crying child and my current favorite tv show. This is about the time Aaron walked in the door...

Welcome to parenthood...this is our life...we are now IN it!!

Bellingham Christmas

We are definitely in a new season of life. I think we officially realized this on the 2nd night of Emily, Heath, and Bloom's visit when after the kids took a bath together, Aaron spent the next 30 minutes in the bathroom with Montana because she refused to put her pajamas on. After about 30 minutes of crying and who knows what else, Montana emerged with her pj's on and a sad face and just about then Bloom (who was sleeping) started crying. And no joke, when he got settled again, Amos started crying. By this point we had nothing to do but laugh and look at each other and acknowledge that holidays and times together will be very different from here on out!