I think I’m finally enjoying this!

I think I am finally enjoying being a mom to 2 kids! Oscar’s 2 and Evelyn is 4 and you’re probably thinking, “Um, Karen, what you mean finally? Haven’t you loved your kids their whole lives?” Well yes … but…

Pretty much since Oscar was born we’ve been going from one crisis to another. Seriously, moving across the country, leaving my job & career without knowing whether I was accepted to school, having Oscar by C-section 6 weeks before the move … I guess we don’t go easy on ourselves, do we? Well once we were settled in Edmonton Oscar’s sleep troubles began and lasted until he was about 8 months old. I’ve never been so exhausted and short-tempered in my whole life. I remember losing it one night with Oscar’s non-stop crying and neediness and hitting the bed screaming “leave me alone”!. Not my best moment as a parent. During this time we continued to struggle getting Evelyn to eat anything other than cereal and crackers and experienced some terrible, stressful mealtimes. Oh and my kids HATED each other. We used to call it “clash of the titans”. Like when I would set Oscar down at the table he’d immediately start screaming which would get Evelyn screaming which would make him scream more. They took a long time to learn how to play “together” or at least play separate toys in the same room. At times I’d say under my breath “Tell me why WHY I ever thought to have 2 kids!”

This past winter was horribly long, cold and drawn out. The kids were cooped up together in our place with nowhere to go (when it was warm enough to play outside, Oscar would refuse, throwing himself on the ground). To make matters worse, Oscar would get into a ton of trouble at home and anywhere we would go, including our only refuge, the library. Summary = this winter sucked.

But slowly, things have become better. Oscar sleeps through the night (he occasionally wakes up for a drink of water, which I practically do sleepwalking now). Oscar is now talking (Oscar, I love love love your talking, I could listen to your talking all day!). Just today Oscar told me he saw a “big truck” and “a big digger” and he wasn’t just saying those words because he likes trucks and diggers but because he really did see them on the way home from picking up Evelyn at school. He can copy pretty much any simple word we use now and has simple sentences (my favourtite: “I made coffee. Yummy!”). And yes, he’s even started pretending things and making stories.

Evelyn has grown into a beautiful girl who is intelligent and sensitive. She’s always so kind and patient around other kids and has an amazing imagination. For example, when we had some storm clouds came through recently Dan mentioned in passing they looked “angry”. Evelyn asked me: “Mommy, what does it mean for clouds to be angry?” and I explained about how storms can have a lot of energy and break things. She came up with her own explanation: “The baby clouds have a lot of energy and act silly. The mommy clouds get irritated and cranky and that’s what a storm is.” Too funny.

My kids actually hugged each other this week. This has never happened! Evelyn tried to hug Oscar a few times when he was little but he always thought she was going to hurt him and would fight to get away. It just about broke my heart to pieces when I saw them hugging for this first time. I feel like we’ve come through the worst of times with our kids and that our life is getting back to normal.

I’m done school and I am working for the summer, so my typical day looks something like this:

• 6:00 wake up
• 7:30 breakfast
• 8:00 work
• 5:00 supper
• 6:00 trip to local park in the beautiful evening sunset
• 7:00 get kids ready for bed

So I don’t think I want summer to end, ever. I feel like I’ve fallen in love with my kids as a family and that I can finally handle the trials and tribulations of parenthood without getting knocked on my ass.

Keep hugging, kids.