Judge Not

Before having kids, it's easy to judge the parenting you see in action around you. The kid screaming in the shopping cart, the mom at the pediatrician with a toddler wearing only a diaper, the 3 year-old fast food junkies that don't know the name of a single vegetable. "Our kid will never be like that," you think or say to your spouse.

And then you have a kid...
Suddenly your eyes are open to a new world--you're the one with the kiddo screaming in the milk aisle because your trip is too close to nap time. With Reese, I came to understand many parenting situations I didn't before. Yes, I cried the first time she ate a french fry at Chickfila (convinced the American Academy of Pediatrics would hunt me down for such an infraction), and I did with-hold TV viewing until 18mos, but we've had our share of "I-thought-I'd-never" moments.

And then you have a second kid...all bets are off. You realize it's impossible to manage things that were common place just months before. For example:

* Getting both children "appropriately" clothed. My definition of appropriate is on the slide. Reese throws a fit when it's time to wear two matching socks? Who cares if one's pink and one's green. There has been more than one occasion since Paige's birth that she's left the house in her Pajamas, just b/c I don't have the time or energy to fight the battle of changing clothes.

* Dinner is still a family event in our house that we haven't given up on. Unless Daddy's at work late, we sit down for dinner together every night. The change has come in Reese's meals and appetite. She doesn't' eat her veggies? Oh well--I'm not going to cajole and bribe. If she's hungry she'll eat. Daddy's not home tonight and we're eating as a two-some and she wants waffles and bananas for dinner? Sure, coming right up.

* With Paige around, there are definitely more opportunities for Reese to play independently. While it's taken almost 2 months, Reese is finally getting used to this fact. And with this comes more opportunities to get into trouble. I'd heard stories about toddlers attacking furniture with Sharpies, or swallowing something inedible, and thought, "How does that happen?" Well, folks, the answer is "quickly." In the few minutes it takes to swaddle Paige, change a diaper, or God-forbid FEED her, Reese is finding all new ways to entertain herself. Examples so far include: scribbling all over her stomach with pens she dug out of a drawer in the kitchen, covering our freezer in the reward stickers we've been using for her potty chart, pulling all the books off of Mommy and Daddy's book shelf, rearranging the ornaments on the Christmas tree (and moving half a dozen GLASS ones to Annie's bed), unwinding half of a spool of thread etc etc. Let's not forget last night when she got out of bed, wandered into Paige's room, and dumped EVERYTHING from the changing table (including Paige's pacifier and medicine) into the Diaper Genie.

And so, I vow not to judge other parents...it's all about survival.