Cold chillin'

Have you ever noticed how in movies or TV shows, the sound effect most often used to indicate "squalor" is a screaming baby? Well, that or my personal favorite, the crash of a garbage can lid followed by a cat screeching. I often wonder if people see me in public shoving my tantruming toddler into his car seat while my newborn screams and strains on my chest in his carrier and think, "ugh!" Much the way I used to see misbehaving kids in public and think, "that's why I don't want kids." But like so many things that happen while parenting, this scenario - the simultaneously wailing newborn and acting out two year old - happens so often that you don't even think about it. If that freaked me out, how would I handle the daily toddler poop explosions, the sticky fingers on everything, the bed I just made that immediately gets torn apart? At a certain point, you just have to let some shit go.

I remember thinking about having a second child and picturing myself driving with the cacophony of two screaming children in back, and how awful that would be. You know what? It's no big deal. I just crank the AC/DC louder, and next thing you know Bumpus is chanting along with the "oi oi oi" chorus in "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap".

I'm not trying to justify any of this. I'm just sincerely saying that a lot of this every day parenting stuff that looks so awful from the outside really isn't. At least, not for me. Those tantrums blow over completely within minutes, and babies cry all the time; it's how they communicate. No big whoop.

It's been an odd week of canceled plans and missed opportunities, but so far we've made it work. Theo is doing great - coming up on six weeks, he has suddenly become a lot more "present"; a lot more awake/alert time, he's filled out a bit, and I'm just itching for that first smile, which I can tell is coming any minute now.

Bumpus insists on holding "the bebess" every day. Until of course the bebess starts crying, then he hands him right over. Typical dude *sigh*