Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Two under two

Today I took on the task of two toddlers under two. I was babysitting my best friend's daughter, Autumn, and I had Hayden. The two have a wonderful friendship to be so young, even with all the whining, hitting, and taking that goes on, they love dancing with one another and are always happy to see each other. They hug, hold hands, kiss each other, Autumn will even try to instruct Hayden or get him to do something that I tell him to do. (Today, Hayden tried to touch a laptop that he wasn't supposed to touch and she promptly let him know in toddlerese that he shouldn't touch it as she pointed her finger the laptop, babbled, then pointed at him and said "No, NO").
But the major milestone of today was getting them to sleep... ... wait for it... ... at the same time! YES! Absolute peace. I have babysat before two under two and have always expressed the hardship of getting two toddlers to sleep at the same time, everything else besides separating fights every other five minutes is easy peasy. But today I saw some signs early on that a nap was in order without much thought besides separating the two. I put Autumn on the couch covered in a blanket turning on her favorite show: Dora the Explorer (Thank you Netflix!) while I banished Hayden to his room. The sleep situation with Hayden has been improving: he is in bed every night and on most nights he will sleep through the night. I told him that it was nap time, he needed rest and to get into his bed. This is all routine the only thing I did different this time was I told him to stay in bed and I left the room. Got this: he stayed in his bed. No crying, no trying to sneak out, nothing he stayed. I began collecting blocks off my living room floor, Autumn stayed on the couch and Hayden called me. I went in to see what he wanted, comforted him and left. After he did stand in the crib a few times, calling me, I comforted him, and left. I did do this countless times but it was peaceful and super easy. He fell asleep in less than 15 minutes. No fuss at all. I eventually stole one of Hayden's stuffed animals gave it to Autumn laid her down as she watched Dora and before I crossed into my kitchen, I heard her lightly snoring and thought maybe I would be a cool Mom of two after all. P.S. I still haven't did a pregnancy test, I am SUPER nervous but alas I know I will have to but I'm thinking of at least waiting another week at most. But I am sure about 80% that I will be having another, hopefully after Hayden is 2 preferably between 3 and 5. Why so long? Hmm, mainly Hayden is growing up now in leaps and bounds, I don't want to miss anything. I mean when he is 2 if he is potty trained (going well actually) he can go to preschool and by 3 he will be in preschool, 5 Kindergarden, these things are milestones too, unavoidable. At these he will be in school some hours I can totally swing having a baby then because s/he will have one on one time with me while Hayden is in school, which I think is so important. I don't want to have to divide my time with two kids, I want my second born to get some time with me alone too just as Hayden had. I don't want to miss things going on with Hayden attending to baby #2 or Baby #2 missing things attending to Hayden. I think that Potty training with Hayden is going so well because I don't have a little one to look after right now. I would have been up a creek potty training and caring for an infant- I fear potty training as it is can't imagine that. I'm telling Hayden what the potty is while B#2 is wet. (I really want to have him trained before any baby comes.)
Bottom line: Hayden has so much more growing to do, he has some personality now but when he is 2 it will be even more defined.
Never in a million years did I think that being a parent I would have to so many decisions- big and small- everyday, every week, every month. It is broad and never ending. I really want a baby right now no one knows exactly how much but I know it wouldn't be the right thing to do right now. I know if I am pregnant I will be excited and overjoyed. If not I am totally tanking up on more and other birth control than just protection.

2 comments:

jess; [the bottle chronicles] said...

Aww! I'm glad that you all had a good day!

Nolan is friendly with the 3 year old girl I watch 4 days a week, but she would rather not play with him. :( I wish Nolan had a little friend his exact age and a friendship like that! It sounds beautiful!

Mommy P said...

Ah, Netflix instant streaming is such a wonderful tool for mothers.