The second baby is much easier and much more fun.
Not that I didn't have fun with ZJ or we were really THAT high strung, but Evie is WAY more fun. We are so much more relaxed as parents. We don't stress out if shes crying, and really we can deal with it much easier because we have a fair idea what is actually WRONG with her to make her cry in the first place. Milestones are more fluid and enjoyed and less 'omg why is she not hitting it yet!?' and you don't feel like anywhere near as much of a dork as you did with your first child talking to them in a high pitched voice at the supermarket.
You don't always like the people you are 'meant' to like.
This can go for any of the following: Family, your friends of friends, your best friend's other best friend, and, of course, without a doubt... co-workers.
Facebook, at least for now, is here to stay and its time to embrace it.
And on it is your mama, ex boyfriend, ex best friend that left you for dirt when you got depressed and went crazy, a of course 10 friends from primary school who you haven't seen since 1995. Really there is a whole new level of etiquette that comes with this too. Embrace it people, i certainly have to.
Breastfeeding is something to be proud of, and formula feeding makes you a bad lazy mama.
Lets face it y'all. There is no getting past it anymore. You don't see the mothers in my due date community saying '100% formula juice baby!' like all the 'boob feeding' mothers out there who always end that statement with a smiley face because they are proud of themselves and there achievements. In fact if you see a statement where someone says they formula feed, its usually followed by a 500 word paragraph as to WHY they don't breastfeed and all the problems they had and why it was all so terribly hard and why you SHOULD NOT JUDGE THEM... but you secretly do anyway.
This depresses me for more reasons I can probably write down here right now.
1. Im a formula feeding mother who constantly beats herself up over her choices so directly i feel like shit about it.
2. If breastfeeding is such a huge thing to be proud of in today's age... will it ever become NORMAL and EVERYDAY like again? Do you know what I mean? Like I just want it to be normal and the normal thing to do, no big deal, no huge fanfare if you suceed, just normal - so that people can do it freely and for as long as they want to.
3. I fear for the future of formula and for those of us who NEED it.
anyway, that is a rant for another day.
"God doesn't give you more than what you can handle".
Ok, so I don't believe in god. I wish i had that much faith in something but, lets face it, I don't. But anyone who watches big Bang Theory will probably recognize that quote - Sheldon's mum said it when she was asked how she deals with having a kid like Sheldon and she replied with "Leonard, the Lord never gives us more than we can handle. Thankfully he blessed me with two other children who are dumb as soup."
Its a wee thing im trying to live buy, but replace 'God' with 'Universe'. Some much shit has happened to us this year, but everytime something has happened we often have found a way to climb our way out of the gaping hole resonably unscathed despite by hours of bawling my eyes out and Simon looking stressed. Financially its been tough. It feels as if once we are going good and starting to make progress then it all goes to the poo and something big breaks on us. Like cars (I've spent over 3k on cars and repairs in the last year) and teeth (4k down the gurgler ...but I needed to eat apparently). Also its been a shit year emotionally.. for loosing family members and we lost 3 in quick sucession. Sure, one kinda disowned me but it was still bloody hard to deal with.
But, we have to just get up and shake ourselves off and enjoy the little things that are going well and balance it all out in the end (and prepare for the next major onsluaght).
Bring on 2011.