snuggle bunnies

Parenting a newborn and a two year old is nothing less than a roller coaster ride. And I don't mean one of those smooth-moving sleek new 21st century roller coasters, I'm talkin' about the Cyclone at Coney Island, a ricky, wooden, neck-jerking up and down ride on a wooden great-grandma that's simultaneously exhilarating and life-threatening.

And let me preface this by saying that I have two good kids (knock on wood). Alexandra has always been such a good girl and Nico, swear to god, has yet to cry ONCE in the night, even last night as he sniffed, coughed, sneezed, and wheezed with this cold he's contracted from Alexandra and her daycare of germs. But they still work me.

Last night Alexandra was in full force two year old mode. She spit her chewed up dinner on the floor, was doing circus acrobatics in her Stokke high chair, had a full-blown meltdown after she threw a Play-Dough toy at me and I promptly removed it, her meltdown caused Nico to cry...She threw all the refrigerator magnets on the floor, pretty much screamed all though dinner (when not spitting food)...It was a shitstorm of two year old behavior. By the time Adam came home I was about to turn to heavy drinking.

Then she woke this morning at 5am. As selfish as I am, I laid in bed and let Adam deal, because he's on morning duty with her b/c I was nursing Nico (btw, Adam is the best dad and husband ever). I could hear him taming the wild beast (since our apt is only 800 square feet) and I turned on the white noise machine to ignore them. Then Alexandra burst into our bedroom yelling,

"Mommy, I want tickies!"

She climbed into the bed, snuggled down in the covers, and I tickied her arms. I could tell she was tired, so I thankfully remembered a random pacifier in Nico's cosleeper. I popped it into her mouth, and we all woke up over an hour later when Adam nudged us to say that it was time for her to go to daycare. I was snuggled between my two babies, and it was glorious.

I haven't snuggled/napped with Alexandra since I don't know when. It was pure bliss and made me love her even more than I already do. I needed that reminder.

Now I'm recharged for another afternoon of insanity.