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<\/a><\/p>\nI hardly know where I fit in with other moms.\u00a0 When I hang out with the moms who have kids my girls’ ages, they tend to be a decade plus younger than me and they haven’t even remotely thought of the fact that one of these days they’re going to wake up and find themselves buying shaving cream for their KID.\u00a0 Yet this year, an enormous amount of mom friends my age posted facebook statuses in August lamenting the fact that their baby went off to first grade.\u00a0 My Braxton Hicks consumed self can’t even imagine.<\/p>\n
We’re just over here running one stretched out life and most of the time it’s crazy and beautiful simultaneously.<\/p>\n
(I keep saying it feels as though I’ve lost my brain, and sure enough one day it showed up in the frig!)<\/p>\n As a young mom, it felt as though so many people talked about “those teenage years” as though they were a thing to be dreaded.\u00a0 I was pretty sure I wouldn’t, and oh my goodness, I feel as though I finally hit my sweet spot in motherhood.\u00a0 It’s sooooo much fun having older kids!\u00a0 The little ones are adorable and sweet and precious (except for the temper tantrums and even then, sometimes they’re funny), but there’s something about older kids that leaves my insides going, yes, this comes naturally.<\/p>\n They are capable, intelligent, ambitious, and fun!\u00a0 I think what surprised me most was how much they make me laugh!\u00a0 Both boys are witty and punny, and Adam can pull out some sarcasm among the typical “boy humor” that goes with the territory.\u00a0 The other night I was standing in the kitchen breathing through a harder than normal contraction.\u00a0 Liam glanced up from where he was picking cilantro leaves off the stems and took it all in when he saw my pursed lips.\u00a0 “Don’t worry, Mom, I can’t whistle either.”\u00a0 Ten minutes later I was swaying at the kitchen counter and moaning (man, those things get earlier and earlier and more and more annoying the more babies you have.\u00a0 David says I have eternal labors.\u00a0 They go on for fifteen weeks.) next to Adam who was washing lettuce.\u00a0 “Making up a new song?” he said dryly.\u00a0 And then he put squeezing contractions lyrics to a simple ditty.\u00a0 For real.\u00a0 I laughed so hard at both of them, but thank goodness, they aren’t my labor coaches!<\/p>\n They have picked up so much slack around here during this pregnancy it’s unbelievable.\u00a0 Sometimes I hate that I am so incapable and they have to do so much; especially because it’s not the line of work they’d choose.\u00a0 But most of the time, I am in awe at the way they are naturally learning so many incredible life skills.\u00a0 Adam cooks breakfast 98% of the time and is getting better at foods for dinner all the time.\u00a0 Liam is an absolute pro with the girls when it comes to getting them to eat their food (seeeeeeeerrrrrrrriously, how do people birth kids who sit down at the table and eat their food at mealtime?\u00a0 Haven’t had one of those since Adam.) or playing with them until they’re nearly oozing happiness.\u00a0 And both of them can help knock out some cleaning and laundry like nobody’s business.\u00a0 Even aside from the fact that they should probably earn a school credit in home ec and pregnancy knowledge, they’re learning so many general life skills.\u00a0 How to play with kids who are much younger.\u00a0 How to pull your weight in a group and work for the general good of the group instead of only for your own needs.\u00a0 How to work hard and with a good attitude even when it’s not a job you like doing.\u00a0 What it’s really like to grow a baby.\u00a0 They are so respectful and kind of my limitations and sometimes I flash forward far ahead to the day thirty-seven blinks from now when they might get to become dads themselves and how much they will already know and understand.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n