Still Here, Barely

I'm still here, but oy vey! we are busy.

Our carpenter Dave has transferred the contents of the kitchen into the dining room while he levels all the cabinets & installs cherry butcher block counter tops.  Next he's going to build and install shelving on the walls for our glassware.  Then, hopefully, he'll move into the pantry and make all the built-ins I've been dreaming of for six years.  In order to hang one shelf, he's going to have to take apart the drywall, shave down the studs and then replace the drywall, because it is that out of plumb.  Super drywall job our original guys did, eh?  Regardless, Dave is working magic and the kitchen is looking better than ever.  The 14' stretch of counter along one wall has a 1.75" rise from one end to the other - it was very out of level, but Dave tweaked it into place.  This makes it higher than standard at counter level, and renders the higher end of the counter right about boob height for Homestead Mama, who is 5'1".   Since she is 5'10" or so in her mind, though, it is not a problem for her unless she tries to cook with the huge lobster pot.

At the same time, our contractor Roy is installing new windows in the house we own across the street.  The original 40 year old windows are aging, and three were cracked enough to replace.  He'll also do some work on our house, stuff that takes two or more folks to complete (like removing and replacing the offending lead-rich clawfoot tub upstairs).  Dave cannot do that by himself.

With all this going on, and managing the design & decisions, I'm also managing to keep Monito alive, which with his new found crawling skills is no small feat.  I lost him for a few minutes today, and found him under the dining room table reaching up to pull up to a stand with his hand on the utensil drawer from the kitchen.  Eight hundred pounds of stainless steel with a few chopsticks thrown in for good measure.  Good lord but Monito is quick.  Pequita is also very active right now, but is focusing on wearing our shoes all over the house, stacking everything (I caught her today with the contents of the recycling bin stacked in a loose tower in front of her smiling broadly), and prancing up and down the staircase with reckless abandon.  She has never yet fallen off the stairs, but we have just been lucky.  We do have gates, but she begs to climb and then turns to us and waves her hand in front of us and says, "Baaa, Baaa."  That is her telling us to 'back off' just like we do to the dogs.  Nice, eh? 

I start obedience classes with the new dog next Thursday, and none too soon.  He is getting friskier as the weather warms up.  He and Luna play very hard & aggressively together, and we need to socialize him with other dogs so he acclimates to a wide variety of play styles and personalities. 

We also have house guests arriving in two weekends.  The house will still be under construction, but the kitchen should be mostly back to rights.  Dave is extremely conscientious and does all his sawing outside and is sweet to the kids.  He and I have had some rollicking good discussions while we haul 12' slabs of butcher block around the kitchen. 

All this, and I've been feeling quite bad at my job lately.  The advent of Monito crawling has stretched my time and energy to such a thin wire that I am tired all the time and really doubting my ability to give each kid all that they need.  PMS right now isn't helping.  Pequita has always been able to absorb every last second of attention we have and still want more, and Monito is generally so easy going it is easy to let him amuse himself more of the time than I am comfortable with.  Now that he is crawling, he requires a lot more attention so he doesn't hurt himself and to quell the loud distress sound he honks out when thwarted by gravity or a too-high table, or his sister takes his toys and runs away.  [Do not think that Monito has been neglected, but he has received less attention than he would have if he were the first-born or a higher maintenance child, and this weighs heavily on my brain many days.]  This, along with normal developmental jumps - and the usual sibling stuff - has made Pequita have a mock-regression.  She now crawls instead of walking sometimes, wants to be carried all over, wants to be cradled like a baby, and has been really snuggly; none of these are her usual behavior.  It is all likely quite normal, but it is a lot of change and so very demanding of me all day long.  And I don't talk about it much, because who wants to hear, "Yeah, yeah, poor me.  I can't get over how much time and energy my two beautiful, healthy, much-wanted babies suck from my busy and fulfilling life." 

Bah. 

I'll post pictures when Blogger stops crashing on me mid-post (which is another reason you haven't heard from me in days.  If I actually take the time to write something and the damn thing gets lost due to some programming glitch it takes me a couple days to get over my fit of pique and try to write again.  This was written in an email so it was saved all along the way.)

Oh- if anyone knows a good source of info/ support for two lactating partners who are approaching night weaning, please let me know!