New Skills

I have been honing some new skills over the past 7 weeks. These include:

1. Standing while eating while bouncing a fussy baby. (Somewhat similar to the old skill of patting your head while rubbing your stomach.)
2. Picking up a wide variety of items from the floor with my toes. The other day while holding Israel I picked up about 20 Tupperware lids off the kitchen floor after Gabe had whirled through with the use of my mighty piggies. Those babies can get things DONE around here!
3. Squatting repeatedly throughout the day to pick up items off the floor while balancing a 15 pound heavy weight champion against your shoulder. Good for the glutes.
4. Doing a multitude of activities one-armed. (ie. lifting Gabe in/out of crib while holding Israel, typing (slowly) with a finger while nursing Israel, putting laundry in the wash while holding Israel)

I gots mad skills, bro.

One thing I'm still trying to perfect is the skill of NOT MAKING PLANS. This is one of the hardest things for me to learn about having two small children. For instance, one would think, that when Baby 1 is asleep by 9 PM, and sleepy-eyed Baby 2 is in bed by 9:45 PM, one would have nice evening of whatever one wants to do stretching out ahead of them in long luxurious minutes. NOT SO. One should realize that approximately 30 seconds before placing Baby 2 in his crib, Baby 1 will wake up, and after having a little snack, will gaze up at you with bright little awake eyes. No sleep for him. So, you trudge back out with Baby 2 for the lengthy process of getting him back to sleep. Then, when Baby 2 enters dreamland, you realize that Baby 1 is still awake, and cranky talk is coming from his crib. It is now 10:45 PM. Precious evening is flying by. At 11:30 you give up and get Baby 1 out of his crib and sit him in front of the magically sleep-inducing Woo Woo Kie Kie Movie (otherwise known as Doggie Kitty Movie, otherwise known as Milo and Otis). (Note to the frowning concerned: I do not normally lull my child to sleep with television. But sometimes you just gotta do what works. He is sick and a little off his rocker.) Seriously. This has been one of the more frustrating aspects of having babies. Time to do your own thing is so scarce, and you sort of make plans for it, and then life happens. They just don't schedule their lives around my plans. :) Yet I keep forgetting this, for some reason...