I was in the throes of planning a party (that tanked due to uncontrollable circumstances), we had the pleasure of a new daily houseguest, and we experienced, for the first time, taking one of our kids to the Children's Hospital emergency room. What follows is the first slice of what is going to be my 3-part missive detailing our busy October.
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As part of our How-To-Make-It-On-One-Income scheme, we decided in favor of taking on an additional child in our home versus me working part-time nights at a call center. The decision was swayed by several factors, but the two biggest deciders were me being able to be present for our family dinners and the kid's bedtime routines, coupled with the incredible luck we had in finding a couple who we knew very well in need of our services for their sweet nine-month-old daughter. It seemed to be a perfect fit, and although we were in the middle of planning for the twin's birthday, it wasn't too big of a change to our routine. My girls enjoyed her company and it was funny watching my nearly 2-year-old son get all wound up with the extra estrogen addition in the room. His antics were turned up a notch or two, as if having a wider audience demanded more stellar performances. It's both notable and hilarious to watch the usual family dynamic flip with an extra baby thrown into the mix. While our routine may not have changed much, our goals certainly did.
Our girls learned a lot from Emma, who at the tender young age of 9 months has the physical agility of a 12-15 month-old. She pulls up, she stands up, and she started cruising literally days before joining our little circus. Watching your child watch another child is amazing. It gives you an interesting dashboard view of what they strive to be capable of. It was quite apparent that Samantha fiercely desired to join Emma in the Land of the Bipeds as she worked her otherwise lax little butt off trying to stand alongside her at the activity table. Sophia greedily coveted her lung capacity and mimicked the volume of her screams, squeals and baby vocals. In BabyVille, time is warped to the point where leaps and bounds literally transpire by leaps and bounds. The first week in her company, Samantha started trying to pull up. New sounds emitted from the usually-silent Sophia, and she turned her volume up a few decibels. My son Adler, an unwilling participant in what I fondly referred to as the Hen Party, asserted his male dominance and imagined superiority in typical rooster fashion, taking every opportunity to show off and act out. He very briefly reverted to infantile whining as a means to ask for things he wanted, but I'm almost certain that the behavior is typical of almost-2-year-olds who are still struggling to fully verbally communicate their needs.
Although the first week went by quickly, with only a few minor naptime routine hiccups and no major disasters, we found ourselves once again a party of three kids when week two was interrupted by a not-so-minor illness that had us quarantining our children from visitors. More detail to come in a later post, but that short break warranted a do-over of our "get to know each other" acclimation period when the childcare resumed after we all got better. Small children have a very limited recollection, and although Emma wasn't a complete newbie to our kids, it was almost like they just picked up right where they left off. Fortunately for me, her parents are the cool, mellow sort who have the great sense of humor to tolerate the silliness in our household, and wasn't at all opposed to the myriad of crazy photo-ops, videos and shenanigans we partake in around here. There were so many opportunities to don the three girls in silly hats, costumes and situations that I nearly filled up my iPhone with pictures of just the Hens At Play. Emma's mother even provided some of the props (faerie wings, tutus and girly skull caps) for our fiascos!
I was and still am grateful to have had the opportunity to socialize my babies for that short period, as I learned a great wealth of information on where their shortcomings were, where their strengths lied, and what we would strive to work on developmentally. I look forward to watching them grow up surrounded by other kids as they get older and to take note of how they interact with each other as they mature. They'll be learning to be moral animals with the human advantage, and the behaviors and social skills they pick up along the way will no doubt shape how they fit into society. Siblings interacting with one another is interesting, but throw in another child outside of their *pack* and you begin to notice new personalities emerging, new behaviors forming, and even new goals that they seem to set for themselves as far as "catching on" goes. If, as they say, there is always an underlying competition present in children, I can testify that there is also a camaraderie and benevolence that is subtle and unspoken, but definitely there. Our little people already have empathy and cooperation hard-wired into their brains, so it stands to reason that it's important to nurture and guide them while you purposefully surround them with their peers.
We look forward to future playdates and more socialization as our schedule allows!
