Having 2 little kids

A lot of people have been asking me what it’s like to be the mother of 2, and most of them are surprised when I say that it is easier than I thought it would be!

There are a few reasons for this. Most of it has to do with the different personalities of my two girlios.
As a baby Esther could never really play by herself. She always needed some sort of personal interaction in order to be content to play (this is still the case for the most part!). But Sylvia can just sit next to a box or basket full of toys and just play by herself contentedly for like a half an hour.

Esther never liked riding in the stroller or sitting in the bouncy chair (again, lack of human interaction could have been the problem there too). Sylvia likes both of these things very much!

Esther was always a very picky eater. Sylvia has so far eaten everything we have given her! In fact, Esther has even tried stuff again now that she sees Sylvia eating it.

Esther could never really play by herself in the big room upstairs (same problem again). But if Sylvia is up there with her, she can play up there for 30-45 minutes! And I can get other stuff done!

Don’t get me wrong, having 2 kids isn’t a piece of cake. It is somehow more than twice as messy. And somehow more than twice as loud. And it somehow takes more than twice as long to get everyone packed into the car and ready to go somewhere. So the mathematics of it doesn’t make much sense.

And traveling in the car with two little ones is tough, especially when Esther purposefully meows, barks or coughs loudly whenever she sees Sylvia start to fall asleep, or informs me in her Loud Voice that “Mamma! Sylvia is SLEEPING, right now??!?!?!?!?!!”

And it drives me ABSOLUTELY BONKERS when Esther tries to mimic Sylvia’s hunger-whine or tired-whine so that they are both doing it at the same time and I am about to bang my head up against the wall.

Or when Sylvia has accidentally fallen backwards and hit her head, and I scoop her up and comfort her and Esther gets jealous and purposefully bangs her head onto the arm of the sofa for the attention.

And it can be hard when I am changing Sylvia’s diaper at the same time that Esther needs help going potty (though I must say that it has helped immensely that Esther is (for the most part) potty trained!).

And it helps that Esther doesn’t want a bottle anymore, and sleeps through the night, and doesn’t wake up when Sylvia drinks a bottle twice, sometimes three times each night.

And of course I realize that it will be even more challenging once Sylvia is mobile and can crawl all over the place and get into things.

But for now I am enjoying having 2 kids immensely. They are so funny together at mealtimes, where they sit next to each other and cause each other to laugh. Esther can be very sweet to her sister sometimes, but is mostly a clown, and I love watching Sylvia laugh at her. I think they are already forming some sort of secretive sister bond, because they both think certain games are so hilarious, including the one where Esther licks Sylvia’s forehead (???).

I am thankful for my girlios!