Expert Parenting

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 I've been reading all these parenting books lately.  As you know from past posts, things are not totally smooth on the parenting front and I'm struggling.  Struggling to figure out how to be a loving, calm parent when my Jewish instincts make me want to rant and rave for all sorts of non-emergent reasons. I am not a naturally very patient person (no doubt, a surprise to everyone) and Harvey is testing the absolute limits of my sanity.  Plus, June is needing a little more from her parents right now - it seems kids cycle through this, doesn't it? - where she is more emotional, friable, and easily frazzled (shit, have I done this??).

So, in my spare time, I've been devouring tips and tools - from every expert in the field to our next door neighbors.  Here is what I am learning:

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Seconds

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The second child thing is funny.  In some ways, they have it better - you’ve learned something from the first go-round, and now, you have two, so you have less time to hover anxiously and disinfect pacifiers.

The second one gets to watch Broad City while nursing, suck on tortilla chips before they have teeth and be held by any number of kind strangers offering to help as you try to help your toddler-aged first child in a public bathroom while dripping an Ergo baby carrier off your aching shoulders (not sure this last one is an upside for the kid, but it helped me out tremendously). 

Plus, you’ve done this before – now you’re an old hand at it – so Second Kid gets the way-less-stressed-much-cooler version of the parent you were with the first (case in point: Harvey ate shit the other day.  Like, literally put some dog shit in his mouth.  The kids were playing outside and I was sort of spacing out - something I never did when overseeing June as a toddler.  At first, I thought it was a rock so I just casually sauntered over to him and told him to spit it out.  When he did, and I realized what it was, I scooped him up frantically hollering at June to bring in the sidewalk chalk ‘cause I was going to have to cart him inside to bleach out his mouth.  Did I call Poison Control?  Maybe…).

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Punkins

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So, Tygh and I have officially – and permanently – decided we are done having kids.  Two is it for us.  I maybe would have considered 3, but then likely he or she would have had to be raised by wolves, because Tygh and I are already stretched to the max for child-rearing time.

I was a little sniffly at first (how can this part of my life already be over?) but then I woke up from 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep and thought, nah, good decision.

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Bastille Day 2014

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Bonjour Billy,

I was thinking so much about France last week (as I mentally prepared for Bastille day) and I was remembering how, when we lived there, so many French people literally couldn’t say “Libby” so it always came out “Billy.”  It still makes me laugh.

I know you were traveling home from Montana on Bastille Day, so my guess is you didn’t do too much to commemorate.  I, however, missed the Fourth of July since I was working.  But, since Tygh and I were both off this past Monday, I decided to make up for it in spades by celebrating the French Day of Independence with gusto.  Really, it just means I made and ate a lot of food.  But it did have a French theme.

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