Life – Before 2 Become 3

Believe it or not, life seems to be getting easier.  Or maybe it isn’t, but the Lord has decided to give me the patience and the grace to make it seem like it is.  Nevertheless, I really and truly feel that despite the ups and downs of pregnancy, our little family is bonding and growing together more and more which makes everything else work itself out.  So our days are more often than not, more fun than difficult.

It could also be that the girls are getting older and starting to enjoy each other’s company and actually play well together.  It really is a beautiful thing to watch them play together, my heart melts every time.  Granted that it doesn’t last long before they end up pulling out clumps of the other one’s hair or scratching each other’s face, but those brief moments of peace and fun are really beautiful to witness.

I say things are getting easier, but it is still hectic in terms of how much needs to be done.  I keep thinking that when I think back on this phase of life in a few years time, I will take it for granted that 2 was so “easy”, which I suppose it will be in comparison to 3…  So to always remember, this is our fairly regular daily routine:

In the mornings we get up ideally at 6am, but more commonly anything from 6.30 to 7.30.  We change nappies and make sure that Kyla goes to the toilet, before packing in clothes, shoes and socks to keep at Ga’s house.  We creep through traffic, generally arriving at Ga’s house at anywhere from 8 to 8.30 (sometimes even 9 on particularly bad days).  Thankfully Ga then sorts them out for the rest of the day.  Seth then drives me to work before he gets in – which means that he arrives at 9 or 9.30 everyday.  (This may sound great, but because Seth has to work 8 full hours, do the math and see what time he comes home).

At roughly 2pm, I get a lift with Seth’s Dad who is currently working at the Waterfront to Ga’s house where we chill for about 30 minutes with tea and catching up on the day.  Then Seth’s Mom or Dad drives us home.  Then we are stuck there for the rest of the day as we do not have a second car.  So I try and entertain my children in our house, which often leads to cabin fever since Kyla loves being outside.

The girls don’t sleep during the day.  Because if they do, they will only go to sleep at 9.30pm, and as you can imagine, that does not work for me at all.  But unfortunately, this comes with its own problems, in that by 4pm they start going a bit crazy, fighting over nothing, crying because the light is on, or crying because it is off…  You get the picture.  I like to bath them at this point, giving them a time to just chill and play in relative calm.

Bathing is a mission in itself.  I plonk them both in the bath to play with their toys and then obviously bath them one at a time.  Then I get them out, wrap them up in their towels and get them to run to their bedroom, where I have already taken out their pajama’s, put on the heater and heated their vests (I like to do this cos I would totally love it if this was done for me every time I got dressed).  Often I have to clean up wee off the floor because Riya hasn’t quite mastered the art of holding it in.  Kyla jumps into bed and keeps warm while I clean Riya off again and get her dressed first to avoid any other accidents.  Then it’s Kyla’s turn.  This whole process takes about 30 – 45 minutes.

Then at roughly 5/5.30 it’s supper time and sometimes my Mom or brother pop by to help entertain the girls.  By this point I nearly always want to kick myself for having bathed them before they want to feed themselves their supper, which is not always “finger food”.  And also, I normally have not prepared anything to eat unless I managed to do it when we just got home, which nearly always never happens.  And so the “emergency” Woolies food gets taken out and heated.  Embarrassingly the girls already know that when the microwave pings, the food is “weady” and they start shouting “weady, weady, weady”.   I need to work on that.  Anyhowziepoo…  In order to get them to eat “peacefully” we watch TV while they eat, it really works as they just shove food into their mouths without much thought.

Then by 6.15pm it’s time for bed.  So I get the bottles ready at about 6.10pm.  Can you tell that I am super strict about this?  Well, it’s because if you miss this window they get overtired and it’s almost impossible to get them to sleep but at 6.15 it takes about 15 minutes.  We get into bed (with me settled in between them) and read a story, pray and then I sing them to sleep.  I think they go to sleep just so that they don’t have to listen to my singing anymore, but either way it works out.  Unfortunately, due to the time that Seth got into work, this means that he doesn’t get to see them.  It sucks.

So that’s our day.  Some days (mostly Tuesdays and Thursdays) we are lucky and get to stay at Ga’s house for supper.  This is a huge relief for me in my current pregnant state as I don’t to do everything on my own and I am so super grateful for Ga and her involvement in the girls life.  I don’t know what we would do without her – love you lots and lots Ga!!