Time is not my Friend

Time is not my friend! There is never enough Time in the day to do all that I want or need to do. The babies never sleep long enough; the teenagers sleep too long; vacations end too quickly, dentist visits take too long. I can't control Time and for that, I hate it!

I gave myself a big kick in the derriere this morning for not blogging more regularly because two things occurred to me: 

1. Baby Girl is graduating this year and this will be her last year "at home". 

2. Baby Girl is turning two months old this week!

I am so blessed to have been given two baby girls and so, as confusing as it may be, I refer to them both as Baby Girl. I also call them Missy Moo and Miss Moo, but Baby Girl is much more endearing. Derrick calls them his bookends, with an emphasis on end . . . tee hee! 

So, yeah, time is quickly flying past and it hurts. With each passing day, I know I am one day closer to having my babies grow up, but I refuse to let Time win. I may not be able to stop it, or to slow it down, or to speed it up, but I can steal a tiny sliver of it and pocket it for the future by writing about it. Each time I capture a moment of our life here on the blog, or in my journal or in a photo, I feel triumphant! It is my way of giving Time the finger and saying "this one's mine, thank you very much". In all honesty, I am not the thief, Time is the thief and I am simply taking back what is rightfully mine.

Let's begin:

The first two weeks after Harriet was born were two of the most wonderful weeks of my life. Yes, I hurt. Yes, I was tired. Yes, life was chaotic, but those two weeks were filled with some of the most touching and most beautiful moments of my life. In those two weeks, Derrick and the kids all showed me what a remarkable family we are. Zoe took right over and became mom to all the boys. She slept with Leif while I was in the hospital, she kept the house clean and tidy, she fed us, she drove the boys to their activities, and she made sure Leif did something fun each day so that he would not miss me too much. Meanwhile, Derrick took care of me, while I took care of the newest member of our family. It was tough, but it was beautiful to see everyone taking care of each other.

After 48 hours of being in the hospital, I asked to go home. I have always been blessed with an uncanny ability to heal, which is awesome since I need to have c-sections to bring all these sweet munchkins into the world. I knew once I got home, life would be crazy and there would be moments that would make me question my decision to have five babies, but I wanted to get back to my people. I wanted to be back amidst the chaos, the dirt, the clutter, the fights and all those things that make Shenanigans Inc. our home. 

One of my sweetest memories of those first two weeks was having Derrick by my side to help me with the morning shift. I had decided early on in my pregnancy to tandem nurse both babies, and although Leif no longer nurses through the night, he does wake up at 5am each morning to nurse. Of course, this is also the time Harriet wakes up, not to nurse but rather to grunt and groan as she passes all the gas that builds up from her night of nursing. So, each morning at 5am Leif would crawl into our bed from his crib which is attached to our bed and I would nurse him, while Derrick would lay Harriet on his chest and pat her back. As tired as we were, Derrick and I would always smile at one another and one of us would inevitably say: "we are getting too old for this" and then we would all fall back to sleep. 

These past 8 weeks have taught me many things; yes, we ARE getting too old for babies, but more importantly, the hardest things we do in our life are often the most worthwhile, they will be those times that we treasure the most, and they will be those moments we desperately crave to have back once they are gone.

So, even though my house is constantly in various stages of catastrophe, our sheets are always covered in baby spit-up, pee and yes, even poop, someone is either crying or fighting at any moment of the day, and we are living off of barbecue hamburgers and hotdogs because I can never seem to remember that we all want to eat at the end of the day, I do not want to let Time snatch any of this away from me.These moments, as ugly and as difficult as they can be, are mine and I am determined to tuck them safely away here on the ol' blog once again.

Welcome to Shenanigans Inc, Miss Harriet!