We had a highly successful visit with the Kingwell grandparents this past weekend. Justin is inherently shy, even with people he knows well, but he warmed up to Grandma and Grandpa pretty fast once they offered to play ball with him. Brayden flirted with stranger anxiety a couple months ago but seems to be OK with just about anybody these days, so all was well. The grandparents swore they enjoyed their time here but admitted they looked forward to going home to a quiet house where they could get lots of rest — I don’t know if it would be any different if we had girls, but our boys seem to be always on the go (particularly Brayden, who never ever ever stops moving). Both kids had some unsettled nights while our guests were here, but last night they both crashed for upwards of 11 straight hours — you gotta love that.

Part of why Brayden had such a good snooze is probably the fact that he had his first swimming lessons last night. I wasn’t there, but Chris tells me the little guy had a blast splashing around in the pool. Justin still likes to play in the water, but he stopped enjoying swim lessons about a year ago. I guess he’ll learn to swim when he’s ready.

I do enjoy being a stay-at-home mom. Really. But it’s not like every day is a bed of roses. Take today: my dishwasher’s broken, it rained all morning, Brayden skipped his morning nap and Justin refused to eat lunch. Both boys had better have a good snooze this afternoon or Mommy will go ballistic.

We didn’t do much in the way of Halloween celebrations. We originally thought we’d take Justin to the mall to do some trick-or-treating (we didn’t really have a costume for him, but he has a spider thing he likes to wear on his head, so that would’ve been OK) but the timing didn’t work. He didn’t seem all that interested in the kids coming to the door either. One of my pet peeves: why do all the dress-up holidays (Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s) have to happen in the winter? Growing up in Saskatoon, I remember so many Halloweens when our choice of costume was dictated by what would fit over our snowsuits.

It’s such a cliche, but it’s true: the second child just doesn’t cause the same level of anxiety. I’ve started leaving Brayden with the babysitting service at the rec centre while Justin has his play group there, and it’s working out really well. With the first baby, I was extremely reluctant to leave him with anyone, certain that he would be forever traumatized by being without his mommy for more than half an hour. With the second kid, I didn’t so much as get the name of the babysitter. I just dropped him off and fled. And you know what? He didn’t care.

Justin has recently become amenable to learning some of the things I’ve been trying to teach him for months: how to use a fork, how to drink from a real cup, even how to use the potty (we’ve got a long way to go on that one, but hey, one step at a time). I guess all toddlers do eventually grow up, although I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever miss the stage when they need Mom so much. It seems like a lot of work now, but I know a time will come when they won’t want me around at all — and that thought makes me hold them tight whenever I can.

After more than two years as a stay-at-home mom, I’ve been feeling the need to prove I still have marketable skills. Note that I didn’t say I want to get a job. What I really want is for someone to want to give me a job — it’s a validation thing. To that end, I’ve applied for a couple positions that look interesting, not really expecting anything. But then tonight I got a call about one of them, and now I’ve got a phone interview on Friday, and I don’t really know what to do. I wouldn’t actually take the job even if it was offered to me, so maybe the right thing to do is bow out. It’s enough for my ego that I got the interview. I’ll have to ponder this for a bit.

Jogging on the treadmill six days a week is finally starting to pay off: I can now fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes! (They’re tighter than they should be, but at least I can zip them up.) I actually reached this milestone a couple weeks ago and celebrated by packing away all my maternity wear. For reasons passing understanding, I haven’t actually lost any weight since I started jogging three months ago, but the tummy has shrunk considerably, so that’s OK. I still have plenty of lifeless skin, and after two c-sections I’m fairly sure the muscle tone won’t ever come back. But hey, I’ve got two adorable little boys to show for it, so I can live with that.

I keep hoping to get Justin started on potty training, mainly because I’d like to be able to put him in preschool next year. But he has absolutely no interest in the process yet, and his timetable is the only one that counts, so I guess we wait. I’m also trying to teach him how to drink from a real cup (as opposed to a sippy cup) but he hasn’t been real receptive to that either. Sometimes it feels like he’s going to be a toddler forever. Sigh.

Brayden can sit without support for brief periods now and he’s getting so big that it won’t be long before we have to get a new car seat. We can’t figure out if his eyes are going to stay blue like mine or turn brown like Chris’s; his hair looks like it’ll be blond, but that could change too. Justin, of course, is blond and blue-eyed, and Chris is really hoping that at least one kid inherits his supposedly-dominant brown eyes and hair, but we’ll see.

Both boys are napping, which makes this my favorite time of day. Maybe I’ll curl up with a book…

Family life is humming along these days. We’re astounded at how quickly Justin is picking up new words. He’s become a total parrot, repeating everything he hears — yes, everything. Yay. Chris and I are going to have to develop some sort of code.

Brayden is ever-so-close to being able to sit up by himself, which is cool. He’s obviously not crawling yet (he’s only five months old) but he does roll around everywhere, so nothing is safe anymore. I haven’t quite figured out how to keep him away from his big brother’s toddler toys. Gotta work on that.

Now that both kids are in bed, it’s time to relax. Ahhh…

It’s amazing how quickly things can change. I was in Toronto this past weekend visiting some friends from college, and in the three days that I was gone Justin picked up dozens of new words and started speaking in two- and three-word phrases. Also, both kids came down with a nasty cold, so it was a good time to be out of town. Brayden is proving to have quite a different temperament than his brother — as in a lot more attitude and a lot less patience — so life around here could get pretty challenging. Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Kingwell for being here to help Chris with the child care!

Another big change: the day before I left, Chris lost his job. We knew it was coming, but it still left a bad taste in the mouth. He’s busy with his consulting company and we certainly aren’t suffering, but it’ll be interesting to see what the future will hold.

It took almost two and a half years, but we’ve finally reached one of the most significant milestones of parenthood: Justin calls me “mama”!

Trust me, this is a big deal. Justin was very slow to talk at all, and even once he got started he just never got around to having a name for me. He’s been calling Chris “dada” for months, but he would just go silent when someone asked him who I was. But this past Saturday (a date I will remember until I die) he looked at me and said “mama” like it was so obvious it hardly needed to be said. I almost fell over. Now he says it all the time, and every time I hear it my heart just sings. I’m a mama!

Justin doesn’t generally pay a lot of attention to his baby brother, but every once in a while he surprises us by going over to Brayden and giving him a little kiss. It’s one of those parenting moments that make your heart swell. I’m sure they’ll do their share of fighting over the years, but I’m crossing my fingers that maybe, just maybe, they’ll grow up with a real affection for each other. These days, every time I start playing patty-cake with Brayden or singing songs to him, Justin comes along and wants to join in the fun, and when I see both my sons together smiling and giggling I swear I hear angels sing. This is what life’s all about.

I’m beyond exhausted, which is weird considering I’ve been getting plenty of sleep. I think it’s the result of too many late nights, too much caffeine and many, many days of playing hostess. The kids have been a little out of sorts too, which obviously doesn’t help, but now that all our company is gone things should settle down.

We enjoyed the visit with Dave but at the next-to-last minute we realized we’d taken almost zero pictures, so we had a rush of photo ops last night. Check ‘em out in the photo gallery (in the Family Pictures album) — I especially like the one of Dave and his nephews.