Brotherly love

Before having kids I would never have imagined that at 7 weeks and 19 months there could already be sibling interaction and brotherly love between brothers. But my boys have proven to me that there is! Judah continues to be interested in Levi sporadically throughout his days and Levi basks in any attention Judah will send his way. When Judah pays attention to Levi, it is usually in one of the following ways:

1. Levi is crying in his car seat once it has been put on the ground somewhere, and Judah goes to rock it back and forth while saying "ya, ya, ya" (Spanish version of "there, there, there")

2. Levi has lost his pacifier (when he decides to take it) and Judah rushes to put it back in his mouth. However if Levi does not take it in 2.5 seconds flat, it becomes property of Judah and goes straight into his mouth full of teeth where he enjoys chewing on it.

3. Whenever I have Levi in my moby wrap, Judah notices and loves to point out his body parts that are showing through the moby wrap-he especially likes to pull on Levi's legs as they hang.

4. The minute I put Levi on the play mat to play, Judah is right there with him. He lays down and joins in on the fun. As you can see from the picture below, he also likes to hold Levi's hand.

5. Not all of Judah's interactions with Levi are exactly positive however. When Levi cries in the car, sometimes it makes Judah sad. He sticks out his lower lip and whimper somes.

6. Judah thinks it is OK to throw some of his toys to Levi when he is in the swing. Not safe and not appropriate! We are working on this lesson right now...

7. And as you can see from the picture below, Judah feels the need to sit on Levi's lap when he is in the bouncy seat. This, although also not safe or appropriate cracks me up for two reasons. For one, Levi looks almost as big as Judah when he does this and two, Levi doesn't seem to mind! But we are also working on getting to Judah to stop this as well!

Levi, on the other hand, may already have picked up something from his big brother to my surprise. As many of you know, Judah LOVES Mickey Mouse (see the pictures below). Lately, he has decided that his stuffed Mickey needs to go most places with him. He goes on our walks with us in the stroller (not sure how Judah will handle it once Levi is ready to occupy his spot in the stroller) and he also naps and goes to bed with Judah. He wanted him to take a bath with him the other night but Mickey is not waterproof!

We discovered the beauty of Mickey Mouse last summer when we had to start giving Judah regular hair cuts. We needed a way to easily distract him and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse did the trick. Well little did we know what we started. We now use Mickey for other hygiene related rituals as well, such as nail trimming. If it weren't for Mickey Mouse I swear Judah would have hair to his waist and nails so long you'd want to paint them. Well, although I am not a big proponent of television, I do admit I use it for my own sanity at times as well. Since I am at home many nights during that hard to deal with "witching hour" I sometimes put Mickey on if Judah is irritable and Levi is inconsolable and I need a way to distract Judah for a few minutes. Well, last night I did just that. I put Levi down for a moment on the Boppy lounger so I could readjust and get ready to do some more walking around the living room with him. He was crying when I put him down but as soon as he turned his head towards the TV and saw Mickey, he stopped crying. I know it sounds crazy but he stopped crying and didn't start up again until after it was over with and I picked him back up.

Just like big brother!

Busy Busy Busy

So it has been a while since I have posted. Chalk it up to the "two children under two" adjustment phase. Once Levi has a schedule, I think my schedule will start to feel much more manageable as well. But I figured I should post something to let everyone know we are alive here in the Martinez house! Here are some recent pics:

Stevie and I at a wedding-our first official evening outing alone without the boys! Thanks mom for watching them!

Judah has been getting into all kinds of things in order to keep himself entertained these days...the fireplace is one of those.

And he loves to climb up on the kitchen table-not safe of course! And somehow it usually occurs to him to do this when I am nursing his little brother and can't do much about it!

Levi has started cooing and smiling-I LOVE IT!

Both boys like to play on the playmat-Judah can get pretty rambunctious about it but Levi usually just smiles at him and even laughs at times!

The Biggest Loser

I think they need a Biggest Loser show for women who are trying to lose baby weight. They have a couples one and if I'm not mistaken the next one is a family thing (I could be wrong-I only catch blurbs of words on the television in between a toddler who gets a kick out of screaming and an infant who does what infants do-cries)!
If they had a special edition of Biggest Loser for postpartum women, I would totally sign up. I mean, that would be the easiest way to lose all of this weight-devote myself full time to the process with constant help from personal trainers, chefs, and of course, the motivation of having all of America watch my journey on television each week. I wouldn't want to deal with the embarassment of NOT losing the weight then. Too bad that that is more motivating to me in my mind that the pure joy it will bring me personally to lose all of this weight!
Today I had my six week check up and so officially got the go ahead to return to all normal physical activity. Up to this point the most exercise I have been getting besides chasing after Judah and wearing Levi in a sling has been my walks around the neighborhood that I take the boys on. So as soon as I left the doctor's office today I went to the gym for my first official postpartum workout. Only, my time was limited because Levi eats every 2 hours or so and by that point I had been gone for 4 hours and well...those of you with experience nursing can imagine the discomfort. So all I got in was a 30 minute cardio blast BUT I will be back for more.

I'm committed to this. I HAVE to lose the weight! Two years of being pregnant, having babies, and working has not been good for my body. I know many of you reading this can identify so please, any encouraging words or advice would be greatly appreciated! Work never ends for us mommies does it:)

Uncle Love

Judah

Levi

If you are wondering what you are looking at, let me explain. Although it may seem strange to some of you reading this, my brother, in an expression of love for his nephews went and made his feelings apparent in a permanent way! He got Judah and Levi's names tatooed on his arms in Hebrew (both of their names are Hebrew and come from the Bible-they were two of the twelve sons of Jacob from the Old Testament). I couldn't believe he did that! And they are his first tatooes. Some may knock it, and I personally am not a tatoo fan, BUT it made me feel so special that he thought enough of me and my boys to show it to the world in this way. We love you uncle Michael!

Confessions of a real mom

A few nights ago I was watching a talk show on the Catholic television station (while rocking Levi during his "witching hour" fussiness). The featured guest was a mom of 9 who is an author and publishes a blog for Christian women. I loved one major point she brought up about blogging. She told the hostess how she has actually known women who had to stop reading blogs because it made them feel bad about themselves. She then went on to remind viewers that when they read blogs they are only getting a piece of the blogger's life and even then, it is the piece of their life that they choose to share with the world. So take heart and try not to compare your life, or in many of our cases, your mothering, with that of others.

So for those of you continuing to read....here are my confessions of a real mom today-what a day!

1) Woke up earlier than usual this morning because my bed partner (Levi) decided it was time to get up. I had spit up all over me and soaked breast pads. I was feeling sexy! (That's ok though since Stevie wasn't home since he worked last night!)
2) While attempting to feed Judah breakfast, Levi became fussy and I had to put him in the Moby Wrap and bounce up and down continually. Judah continues to eat, Levi decides he wants to eat as well so I sit down in the living room to breastfeed him. For whatever reason I also decide it is a good time to return a phone call. While I am on the phone with that person, I'm shooting off milk everywhere as Levi pulls off the breast, my cell phone line is beeping, my house phone is ringing, Levi spits up on me and Judah decides to not only dump his bowl of cereal over but he also thinks it is great fun to see how far he can throw each piece of cantaloupe I have given him to eat. My friend Taylor reminded me at this moment (I was on the phone with her) that we sometimes have to just laugh because that is all we can do to keep from going crazy!
3) All day long Levi insists on being carried in the Moby Wrap.
4) I left Judah in his pajamas until bath time this evening.
5) Judah didn't have lunch until 4:00 (when he got up from his nap) because I let him snack to much before his nap and he wasn't hungry.
6) Judah fell numerous times today as he decided TODAY to start climbing on top of the kitchen table as well as the coffee table in the living room.
7) I never took a shower or put makeup on.
8) I let Judah watch too much TV today-I was tired and gave up on entertaining.
9) I had a lunchable for lunch-super healthy huh?!
10) Judah and I had pizza for dinner. Another healthy choice.

So as you can see, being the "perfect" mom just doesn't always work out. I'm still trying to figure it all out as Levi is just barely 4 weeks old and Stevie, bless his heart, works nights. So you can really imagine for me it gets pretty hairy on the nights he is at work from about 6:00 until almost midnight some nights-depending on Levi's temperament that day.

Thank God for my husband and good friends like Taylor who reminded me that we just have to laugh sometimes. And Stevie sent me a text today telling me to give myself some credit and that I am doing a good job. He always knows how to bring me up. Because by the end of today, I was feeling like a pretty crappy mom. So I had to stop and think about the good things that happened today:

1) I have a 19 month old who has a great sleep schedule-partly because that's just the way he is and partly because his dad and I have worked to make it that way. He went to bed at 8:30 last night and woke up a quarter till 9 this morning. That gave me from 7:00 till 8:45 to spend time with just Levi.
2) Although Levi wanted to be held all day long it works out better for me than for most since I have a Moby Wrap. He falls asleep in it and it leaves me hands free. And, I know from experience with Judah that those days are few and that one day he will be running all over the place. So I got to stare at his sweet little face all day long since it was right underneath me!
3) When Levi cried today, Judah tried to help out. He tried giving him the pacifier several times, handing me a blanket and handing me the burp cloth.
4) Although we stayed inside almost all day long, Judah did a great job of playing and creating fun wherever he could, even when mommy was busy with little brother.
5) Judah took a 2 1/2 hour nap and so I took one with Levi too (we napped for an hour and 1/2)
6) Even though we were inside most of the time, I finally did take the boys on a walk for my own sanity mainly. So we did get to get out for a little while and who knows, maybe I burned some calories!
7) Although Judah was in his pajamas most the day, I still managed to give him his bath tonight as well as give Levi his. (I still haven't been able to get one for myself though!)
8) Judah went to bed easily as usual at 8:45.
9) Levi is asleep now in the Moby Wrap as I write this and hopefully will transfer ok to the bed.

But if he doesn't, that's alright. It's just another hard night's work for a mommy. And I know these days are numbered so I better enjoy them. One day, I will be lying on the couch waiting for them to get home from the high school dance...or waiting for them to call me and let me know they got back home to their dorm room ok. And as I am waiting I will at some point probably be thinking back to these days when they were so tiny and I was everything to them. And it didn't matter to them that I wasn't "perfect", whatever that means. The fact that I have some days where we eat pizza for dinner and stay in our pajamas until evening bath time won't in the grand scheme of things affect the most important aspects of my children's lives-their ability to love God and love others, to dream, to live their lives to the fullest.

So, if you are still reading this entry (sorry it's so long!), I encourage those of you in the same life stage as me to let go of that perfect mom idea if you haven't already. And for the sake of the other mommies reading your blog, I challenge you to write your own "confessions" if you haven't already-all of us, including yourself, will feel better because of it!