You know you have 2 under 2 when...

1. You feel badly for your firstborn because she no longer gets as much of your time and attention as she used to when she was an only child.

2. You feel badly for your second born because he will never get to experience being an only child.

3. It feels like you've experienced nothing short of a miracle when both children take a nap at the same time.

4. You know that taking a few minutes to perform a simple personal hygiene task (like say brushing your teeth) might result in two children crying.

5. You wear make-up fewer than five times a year.

6. You know the names of all the VeggieTale characters and what time Sesame Street airs on PBS.

7. You will go grocery shopping at whatever time of day or day of the week enables you to be able to take only one child with you.

8. You take your toddler with you when you need to use the bathroom in order to keep your baby safe.

9. You've been heard saying things such as, "Don't step on your brother's head!"

10. Going from the parking lot into the church feels like a major accomplishment now that it involves at the minimum carrying your purse, a diaper bag, Bible, and your baby in his car seat while holding your toddler's hand. At times it also involves carrying in a flute, piccolo, music, and/or food that you're bringing for the "fellowship tea" after the morning worship service.

11. You usually don't change your clothes even after they've become drenched in spit-up.

12. Mealtime typically involves simultaneously holding or nursing a baby, feeding a toddler, and feeding yourself.

13. You've let your toddler watch far more tv than she ever did before her brother came home.

14. You've learned that the sleep deprivation stage is much harder the second time around because you usually can't nap while baby naps like you did the first time around.

15. You have two cribs upstairs, two car seats in your car, and a double stroller in your garage.

16. Two of your kids are in diapers.

17. Seeing your toddler take the initiative to give her baby brother a kiss melts your heart.

18. You're hoping that some day your children will love playing together and will be best of friends.

Yesterday the kids both took really long naps. Ian slept in his Nap Nanny (on top of the washing machine in the laundry room) from 8:30-11:00am. Since we'll be at church at that time today, I'm going to try to get him to take an afternoon nap in his Nap Nanny. I've found that having him sleep in his snowsuit works just as well as sleep blanket + swaddle blanket. Nadia was in the pack n play for 3 hours yesterday (12:30-3:30). She never cried or fussed during that entire time. Since we didn't bring the video monitor, I don't know when she fell asleep, but I'm confident she took a long nap up in my parent's bedroom.

Last night Paul & I put 4 children age 3 and under to bed as my mom attended Wendy's concert. I put Rachel down, then Paul put Nadia down, then I put Adam down, and then after I put Ian down I went to bed myself. Ian's first stretch was 4.75 hours long (8:45pm - 1:30am). At 3:00am I put Paul in charge of putting his pacifier back in so I am not sure exactly when he went back to sleep. Thankfully this is no longer the norm. At 2:30 he was just giving me the most adorable smiles. I wanted to go back to bed, but it was hard to be too upset about the fact I was still up when he was giving me those huge smiles. He got up for the day at 5:40am. He spent about 7.75 hours in the Nap Nanny. YAY! Nadia slept until 6:25am so I am definitely going to buy some room darkening curtains to see if that will help when she's sleeping in her room at home.

On the way down here Nadia was listening to 2 new VeggieTales CDs for the first time. One of them has many of the songs that are on the DVDs she watches. One episode is called Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly. When one of the songs from that episode started to play on the CD on Friday night, she immediately started saying "Jiggle" over and over again. Paul didn't understand why. I was amazed that she recognized the song. I then sang "Joshua fought the battle of " and stopped to see what she'd do. She said "Jericho." I can't wait to hear her start singing songs. So far she only sings a word here and there such as "so" in Jesus Loves Me and "aeiou" in the vowel song. I think she has an excellent memory!

Today we're going to church and Sunday School with my family. Yvonne and her family are in Virginia today, but we'll be with Wendy, two of her kids, Maurice, and my parents. My dad has insanely busy day today: church, then he's teaching a Sunday School class, then after a little break has a deacon's meeting, then he's doing a funeral, and then he's preaching at the evening service. Whew. Yvonne and the kids were here all day yesterday, and then Joe joined us for a couple of hours. At the dinner table last night we were ALL there except for Wendy's hubby and oldest daughter (16 of 18). Wendy, Adam, Rachel, and Maurice met Ian for the first time. Wendy took did a little photo shoot with Ian. I asked her to focus on hand and feet photos. I think little babies have such cute fingers and toes! After she sends me some of them, I'll share them here. :-) Today if possible we'll have her take some pics of the four of us together.