Has it really been 17 weeks?

Time really flies by with your second (and 3rd) child. With your first child, it seems time moves but slower. You have time to soak up every new and exciting thing your baby does, from first smiles to rolling over for the first time. Maybe with your first child you just get caught up in the moment and time just seems to proceed like an old slide show that is preserving all the timeless memories. Then you have your second child, and life does not have time to stand still and capture the moments. It feels more like a roller coaster ride, where it is over in a flash but a lot of laughs along the way. The girls will be 4 months on August 9th and they are 17 weeks in two days. They both are smiling, cooing, and more alert. Molly can flip from back to belly and sucks her thumb. Anna can roll on her side and is sucking her fingers, but still takes a pacifier. They are both adorable and melting our hearts daily. But, where did the time go?? They are not newborns anymore. Before I know it, they are going to be sitting up and even crawling. As much as I don’t like the newborn phase, I am going to miss them as tiny little babies. I feel like I missed out on soaking them up like I did with Cooper. We don’t have nearly as many pictures of the girls as newborns as we did of Cooper. I did not have time to just sit on the couch and stair into their little eyes. Maybe because it was different because I had a toddler to take care of too, or maybe it was different because I had TWO newborns to take care of. Not sure. I still cannot believe that we are finally out of the newborn phase.

Cooper has changed a ton in these 17 weeks. He is talking a ton. He is able to put two words phrases and simple sentences together. “Mama sit”, “Cooper eat”, “Baby cry”, “blue car”, “cold water”. He has learned his to recognize all of the letters in the alphabet from a DVD called “Meet the Letters” by the Preschool Prep Company. He knows all his colors too. He can count 2,3,4. For some reason he refuses to say the number one, haha. He does occasionally count 5,6, and then skips to 9. His potty training is coming along well. He is finally starting to ask to pee in the potty and he is still pooping in the potty. I am so proud of him. He never regressed with the potty training when the babies were born. He is also a big help to me now. He will bring me a burp rag or a diaper. If one of the babies cries, he will go over to one of them and say, “it’s okay” and put a hand on them or try to make them smile. He is such a good big brother. He loves his sisters (most of the time).

I wanted to also publicly thank my in-laws, Ken and Margie Foley. Without them, I am not sure I would have made it through these first 17 weeks. They took Cooper for a day, a night, or a weekend here and there to give me a much needed break after sleepless nights and illnesses. Thanks you Ken and Margie! I am so glad to have at least some of my family near by. It would be even better if my father, step-mom, and sister were close by too because I know they would help out like that too, but I am grateful that I at least have Chris’s parents so close. They are only 10 minutes from us. Thanks Ken and Margie!!