I feel like the words are filling me up.
They’re all the way to the top of my throat, wanting to come out, but there just isn’t time. I’m here and I’m here, and if you haven’t heard, I HAVE TWO CHILDREN NOW OMG WHOSE IDEA WAS THAT?
We’re busy. You are, too, aren’t you? The holidays [...]

The Poo adores her baby brother, despite some rather pointed comments about his ability to interfere with her activities—like, say, her absolutely urgent need to watch “Imagination Movers” at precisely the moment when I am placing the almost-sleeping boy in his crib.
She never misses an opportunity to lavish him with physical affection, most of it [...]

Shaggy Boy has reached that perfect state of babyhood. His little body isn’t floppy anymore, he smiles and giggles, and just last night he grabbed a toy from me with a ferocious growl and stuffed it in his mouth.
He is delicious, and I can’t get enough of him. Laying him on his changing table for [...]

I fed Shaggy Boy last night, all freshly bathed and smelling exactly as a baby should.
His body is growing so fast I can practically hear it as his legs get longer and his neck gets stronger. His wee jammies—blue with red stripes, and a zipper—fit him perfectly. I held him high on my chest, kissing [...]

I don’t believe in a God that rejects newborn babies from heaven because they aren’t baptized.
In fact, despite being a practicing Catholic, I don’t believe in a God that rejects any good soul from the garden of Eden. I believe my (baptized) dad is up there, hanging with George Harrison and John Lennon, playing guitar [...]

The Poo is making me crazy right now.
It is as if she finally realized that her baby brother is a permanent fixture, and her jealousy has been out of control. She gets my attention in any way she can, chattering incessantly, asking ridiculous questions that have no answers, looming over Shaggy and attacking him with [...]

I’m beginning to believe The Poo dropped on our doorstep fully formed, able to sleep, eat and poop all by her own self.
That’s what it feels like, ya’ll. Like I am a first-time mother for the second time. What’s THAT all about? Huh? Huh?
I can’t remember how to get him on a schedule. I can’t [...]

Yesterday was a bad day, yo.
I didn’t get a shower and I freaked out because the baby slept too much (I know, someone, please give me a Valium), and the only clean underpants I had were those huge, stretchy ones that reach my ribcage and dude, I was not in the MOOD for those panties.
Can [...]

Been there, done that.
Just like riding a bicycle.
Deja vu all over again.
Everything old is new again.
***
I was cocky going in, that’s for sure. I’ve done this before, remember? I have a thriving three-year-old, whose current fascinations are choosing chapter books from the library and adding words she knows to a list we keep on the [...]

There is a dead fly on my window sill.
I noticed it Saturday, before I answered the phone to hear the pediatrician’s nurse telling me to bundle Shaggy up and get him to the office right now.
I knew the fly was there, even as I packed the diaper bag frantically for the hospital stay. That fly [...]