Motherhood x 2

My friend recently sent me a card that said, "Welcome to Motherhood x 2!" This really resonated with me, as I am currently surviving my first week (without help here) in my role as a stay-at-home mom of 2 children. My "new normal" has included several milestones for me, which I am proud to document, and may elicit a chuckle from any mom who has been there:

1) Yesterday was my first full day alone with both children, and I didn't send out an S.O.S. call to Mark until 11:45 a.m. to "please come home for lunch a few minutes early because your son is a terrorist and has been in time-out for most of the morning, and I can't deal with him anymore." After a brief mid-day Daddy intervention, we were all much more pleasant, disciplined, and fed. I managed to get both children down for naps at the same time in the afternoon, AND I showered before Mark came home from work in the evening = HUGE accomplishments for Day #1, in my opinion.

2) Today, I actually left the house with both children, something that I feared that I would never be able to do. Granted, I did build in an hour of extra time before leaving for Kindermusik (which is approximately 7 minutes away), just in case someone spit up, needed to be fed, had a blow-out poopy diaper, protested getting in his/her car seat, had a tantrum, etc. We made it to class in plenty of time, and although Leah didn't sit quietly in her infant carrier as I had hoped, Luke didn't seem to mind that his baby sister needed to be held and he shared his instruments with her nicely during music class. I figured out the logistics of getting everyone loaded in and out of the car, and was feeling rather victorious on our drive back home this morning. We pulled our car into the garage, and I unbuckled both children and took a screaming Leah inside to be fed, since she was apparently starving. I plopped on the couch and called out to Luke to take off his shoes and come inside, and breathed a sigh of relief that we were home. Then all was quiet as my infant hungrily nursed.

"Luke," I called a few moments later.

"Yes?!" came his reply.

"What are you doing?" I responded, since it had been unusually silent for a few minutes, and he hadn't emerged from the laundry room/garage yet.

"Just coloring, Mommy," I heard.

Coloring?! Uh-oh, I thought. I immediately picked up Leah, as she continued to feed, and walked into the laundry room to find Luke still sitting on the steps going out to the garage (where he takes off his shoes), where an enormous new piece of "artwork" now adorned our house. The brick garage steps and cement floor were covered in lovely pastel-colored sidewalk chalk drawings, and my 2 1/2 year old was also decorated with chalk dust from head to toe. Luke proudly grinned up at me as I stood above him, open mouthed and astonished at how quickly he was able to create this "masterpiece". At that exact moment, the garage door opened as Mark pulled in for lunch, to find me, (half topless and still nursing a baby- now in front of the entire neighborhood), gaping at my chalk-covered son and garage.

And to think that moments earlier, I was almost gloating about "how easy it was" to take both children out in public, and how I successfully handled all the transitions that it entailed...

So, if anyone has any ideas as to how to remove chalk from concrete or brick indoors (without hosing everything down), let me know. The damp rag and dry cloth that we used resulted in beautiful, colorful smears everywhere. At least, as my mom pointed out, it's not crayon on the walls.... YET. We'll save that for next time I attempt to leave the house with both children.