twenty-one months

In the last month I've been thinking a lot about the twenty-one month age gap between Winston and Violet. Having a baby when your other baby is not quite two is hard. And then it seems to only get harder for the next two years. After the smallest baby is two, it's easy. So much more so because for two years, two babies has been your life and you didn't fully realize the extent to which taking care of them took over your life. It's like high altitude training. If you only ever train above 7,000 feet, then when you go for a run a sea level, you can't believe the difference oxygen in the air can make.

Now that Winston is 2.3 months and Violet is 4, our world has changed dramatically. Violet stayed home sick last week and I needed to run some errands at Ikea. Taking Winston and Violet with me I braced myself for epic disaster. Instead it was really fun. I went to all the stops on my list: Ikea, Muji, Cotton On and we were doing so well on time, we stopped for Carls Jr. for fun. I took my two youngest children to a restaurant not out of desperation--this was revolutionary.

This past week Eliot and Violet have had midterm break. I talked to one mom who mentioned she had activities planned for her daughter every afternoon but still needed to fill up her mornings. I realized I hadn't planned a single activity for Violet. I had just assumed she be thrilled at the prospect of getting to play with her younger brother and sister. I decided to plan her at least one outing. Then I got sick and she spent the week playing with Winston, and loved it.

Though I don't think I would ever choose to do the twenty-one month age gap again, I'm enjoying it now.

 I did buy both these stuffed horses. It may have been the pay off for promised good behavior.

 Winston wakes up from his nap every day and the first words he says are, 'car track."