This Guy

Things started off rough after bringing home the baby. Gavin was obviously thrown. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the baby at all and he was just in the throes of the terrible 2s. Anyway, he was honestly insufferable. Upending tables, tossing valuable and/or fragile things and throwing epic tantrums. Keeping the two boys together was something I knew I couldn't handle on my own.

I could only put off this reality for so long, though. As soon as I started keeping them by myself, it was like a light went on in Gavin. After spending weeks telling me, "Go away, Mommy," and guiding me to the door, he finally decided to have mercy on me. Now it's like my heart has opened up even wider for this little boy who I've been head over heels in love with for the last two years. I went from not being able to stand him just a few weeks ago to just attacking him in kisses every day.

He's been excellent at playing by himself in his sandbox or playroom. He'll watch a couple episodes of Blaze in a row, giving me some downtime with the baby. Sometimes he tests me, but all in all he's been good at listening and cooperating. It's incredible, and I'm so, so grateful for this turn-around.

Spending lots of time outside going on "bike rides."

...and visiting neighbors' horses

Dad multi-tasking

Towers out of pizza crust boxes

Milk drunk

Post-swim hair-dos

Still perfecting our selfie game

No wonder we have so much dirt in our house.

I think he's trying to be more like a baby...even though nobody's ever seen the baby actually take the paci

Little sweet guy.

Typical.

I was just about to say how he'd given up on naps completely. I have been making him take a "rest" for a half hour or so. When I see him try to crawl out of his crib, I'll tell him to lay down over the monitor, and he obeys right away. And today, he fell asleep! A perfect day to do so, as he'll have a late night tonight. So maybe I shouldn't consider naps a thing of the past already...

When Dylan gets home for the day, sometimes his switch will flip right back and he'll turn into a little turd immediately. He'll crawl up on the barstools and mess with all the stuff on the kitchen counter that he knows he shouldn't touch, just to push our buttons. All in all, though, he's grown up significantly over the last few weeks. Gavin knows little brother isn't going anywhere, and since I can't do much else besides hold and feed the baby, then I end up spending a lot of time with him wherever he's playing. I'm much more patient, too, since I can't be running around the house doing other things anyway, and he can sense that.

I still have yet to take both kids out somewhere in public by myself. We've had too many incidents of dragging Gavin to the car kicking and screaming and then wrestling him into his seat, and I just don't know what I would do with the baby if that happened. I actually can't physically handle this situation by myself. I really don't think we would run into this problem anymore, and once my boredom trumps my anxiety in leaving the house, we'll be on our way. Shouldn't be much longer!