help

They say that the hardest part about having a second kid is figuring out what to do with the older one. I don't know who "they" are, but they are totally right. I was struggling to eke out enough patience and energy to deal with Alex alone, never mind when I'm operating on a few hours of sleep, have two sets of poopy diapers to change every day (yes, Alex is still refusing to poop in the potty), have twice as many mouths to feed and twice as much laundry to do.

Thankfully, I have an awesome family who were willing to drop everything to come stay with us and help keep the chaos to a minimum. My mom got here on Memorial Day weekend, and while the plan was for her to stay until June 19th so she'd have a week with Isaac, he didn't show until the 17th so those plans had to be readjusted. She ended up staying until the following week and tagged out when my sister Rachel flew in from Colorado and stayed for a few days.

And boy did Alex love the attention. While I tended to his little brother, Alex and B did fun things like built forts in the living room, visited the airplane museum, and did fun art projects in the backyard.

It did work out pretty well that Mom and Rachel both got to hang out with us for a couple of days.

These two pictures totally crack me up. Notice Alex's hand and Rachel's face. This pretty much sums up my life these days.

Needless to say, Alex was bummed to see his B go, but having Aunt Rachel there definitely softened the blow. As we waved goodbye to Mom and walked back toward the house, Alex was a few feet in front of me and I heard him say to himself, very matter-of-factly, "That was a good day with B".

He had many good days with Rachel, too, although I really didn't get any pictures of the two of them together. I did get a couple of her and Isaac, though.

Rachel went home eventually and YIKES, we were on our own. But while I missed the help, I was ready to start establishing a routine, which we are still attempting to do. We're getting there, slowly but surely. Well, slowly, at least...