Sandal Wars: Chaco vs. Teva

Abby displaying the winner of the Great Sandal Debate of 2009--the winner? Chacos! (If you've never worn them, I highly recommend trying some on, they are great. Dave needed a new pair of sandals, so we went on a family trip to REI tonight. I just hope Dave likes them or I'll feel guilty that he heeded my advice and got the Chacos instead of purchasing his oh-so-reliable Tevas).

Dave just went out for the evening, so I thought I'd do him a favor and finish the blog tonight. I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge though--it's been a long week.

Today marks the end of my second week as a summertime stay-at-home mom. So far I am enjoying it more than I anticipated. Not that I wasn't looking forward to the opportunity, I have been, but I've also been a bit nervous about it. The last time I was a full-time stay-at-home mom was when these two were just a couple of months old and I was deathly afraid of being alone with both of them at the same time.

Why was I afraid of being with my own children? It more or less came down to my being unsure of how to handle it if both of them got upset at the same time (a pretty frequent occurrence for two two-month olds). Even though that fear is long gone, the memory of the fear has always lingered in the back of my mind and it had started to seep into my excitement for this summer with the girls. Fortunately, the past two weeks have eradicated that fear altogether.

So why am I over it? It might sound harsh, but now I know that sometimes one of them just has to cry. The big question is no longer how to comfort them simultaneously when they are both upset at the same time, the question now is who is more upset and/or more legitimately upset, and that is the one that I comfort first. For the past week, this has mainly been Abby. Her horrible diaper rash is worse than Lily's and therefore bothering her more, she's teething like crazy, and she's had a fever for the past day and a half. So she has needed more comforting than Lily. Not to be outdone though, Lily has been doing her best to warrant some parental comfort as well. She even resorted to falling off the couch yesterday and cutting her mouth--I'm not sure what she did exactly, I only know that there was a lot of blood. I was at a loss of how to make her feel better and started to panic that she's never stop crying (and if you've ever heard her before, you know that girl has quite the set of pipes) when luckily, I remembered the healing power of Popsicles. Worked like a charm. Unfortunately, they don't work for Abby--she prefers good old-fashioned cuddling.

So although I have fully enjoyed my time staying at home so far, I am exhausted from all the comfort-juggling. I was hoping it will get easier when they are both feeling fine, but I'm smarter than that now. With the two of them, my odds of them both being perfectly healthy at the same time for any real length of time are pretty bad. Oh well, I'll take what I can get. Even with the I'm cranky and not feeling well; I'm bleeding and need to be held NOW; I'm itchy and cranky--it is totally worth it to get to spend this time with them. And when I just can't take it anymore and I think my head is going to explode, it's time for Dave to come home from work and it is no longer two against one, at least for a few hours.

Day one hundred and something something (how does Dave keep track of that?)

Abby and Dave post-REI tonight. It was finally cool enough to hang outside comfortably, so we hung out in the front yard (you might remember an early spring-time post by Dave when he was extolling the virtues of hanging out in your front yard versus the back--he was right).

Lily and Olly checking out something in the grass together (plus my feet--in my Chacos).

Me: Hello there. I think you're someone special.

Abby: Hello there. I'm using you to help me stand up.