The Darbys: Who Did It?

Fess up. You know who you are. You read my last stressed-out post and thought, "Oh, you poor little thing. You're having such a hard time. I need to put you on my Women's Bible Study prayer list." I know you did it because I didn't do it. I never pray for myself, and it's not intentional. I know I don't talk about my Christianity much on here, but I do make time to talk to God and pray for others. But I can't even remember to put on deodorant and mascara half the time much less remember to pray for myself, and now that I think about it maybe I have needed a little prayer lately. I don't have cancer or anything, but I guess everyone's "problems" are relative. Basically, I don't feel like I've been myself for a while, and I'm just now comfortable admitting that.

The move to Chicago, adding a second child to the family, quitting my job and then returning to work, yada, yada, yada, and I guess it all got to me and I didn't know how chill out. My husband probably thinks I'm a walking time bomb that can be set off by any little thing, and that is not who I have ever been. But I had definitely been a little moody for a while. Let me explain. Of course I had all the emotions and anxiety that goes along with pregnancy and having a baby, but mine continued. About four months after having both Mimi and Mack, I developed post-partum hyperthyroiditis. Post-partum-who? Basically, my thyroid went into overdrive. When it happened the first time I thought I had mono or the flu, but after many tests and a visit to a nutso endocrinologist, I found out my anxiousness, fatigue, heart palpitations, hair loss, weight loss, and overall craziness could all be blamed on my thyroid. At the beginning of this January, I immediately knew it had returned. Just when I began to feel comfortable and confident about being a working mom of two I suddenly felt frazzled and crazy. My first sign was the day that I felt like I had drunk too much coffee only to remember I had actually forgotten to get any coffee that morning. I had to catch my breath after walking up a flight of stairs. I was on edge and couldn't keep my thoughts straight when having a discussion with a doctor. Hair was covering my car seat and wool coat. I know that a lot of this can be mistaken for some normal things that can happen after having a baby, but they were a little extreme. The endocrinologist told me that probably about 1 in 10 women has thyroid issues a few months after having a baby but write it off as normal hormone wackiness. Thankfully I have always been good at knowing when something is a little "off" with my health, or I would have just dealt with this and never seen the doctor.

So anyway, I feel like the thyroid issue cleared up by the end of February, but I have still felt a little out of control. I kept telling myself it's because I have too much on my plate and this is normal, but that hasn't been a good enough answer for me. Then suddenly I woke up about a week ago and felt at peace. Life began feeling a lot easier and a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I have done absolutely nothing to get to this point, so what I want to know is who has been praying for me? The change is so significant that I swear you must have gotten Beth Moore herself to talk to God about my attitude. Well, whoever you are, keep up the good work. Life feels easy-peasy right now, and I would love to keep it that way. I don't believe in jinxes, so I'll say it again. Life. Is. Good.

So on to some randomness since I have lots of catching up to do. Mimi's last ballet class was a couple of weeks ago (tear), and I took her a little early in hopes of getting a beautiful, blown-up-frame-worthy kind of photo. And this is the silliness I got instead :)

Yes, this one is my favorite.

Can I tell you how much I love Baby Take a Bow? Each week has a theme, so they play a little game at the end of class incorporating some positions or dance moves they learned that day. They've had princess week, butterfly week, animal week, and some others, but last week was "Hollywood Week." Fun stuff.

Tomorrow we are beginning Hip Hop classes, and you better believe I have the outfit ready. Can't wait to post those in, oh, two or three months. But I'm not stressing because it will get done and God is in control. I always get annoyed at overused, general statements like "God is in control" or "He won't give you more than you can handle" or "If it's meant to be, God will make it happen." But I'm feeling it now, so can I get a witness? He he. Anyway, this is Mimi and the owner Miss Kristen. We heart her.

And I'm rewinding a little to the last post because I am too lazy to add to it. I uploaded some photos from my phone and found this little guy on his first flight. Are you kissing your screen because I am. Sweetness. The girls in front of us were playing peek-a-boo with him and people passing us to go to the bathroom were stopping to say hi to him because he smiled the whole time. Except when he slept. Smiles, eats, and sleeps. What a great example to live by.

And Mimi mesmerized by the fluffy clouds.

I'm thinking of installing this airport carpet in our next house . . . what do you think?

So back to life being easy-peasy and F-U-N. Mack has hit the easy stage. He's sitting up and content with a couple of toys, and he's not quite rolling or scooting too far away yet. He goes to bed around 7:45 and is up by 6:30, so he's a little more on my early-to-bed schedule unlike my night-owl daughter. He and Mimi take baths together occasionally (sorry for the crappy photo), which cuts bath time in half AND is really, really funny.

He eats a ton of baby food, some of which I'm actually making myself (I am so not that kind of mom), so he's only nursing 3-4 times a day. Can you believe I'm still nursing (sorry guys, you can stop reading if you're uncomfortable)? With Mimi, she and I were both over it (the thyroid craziness made it worse) at four months, and I didn't feel one bit guilty about not sticking it out the full year. So I never realized that they actually don't need as much after they start eating baby food. Duh. Now I'm going to be that psycho mom who continues to nurse until he starts kindergarten because it's gotten easy and I'm too lazy to stop. Let's hope not. So he's a fantastic eater, sleeper, and sitter-upper. Other than a little bit of teething, I barely ever hear a whimper out of him, but I do hear lots of squeals. Mimi thinks they're pretty funny and she imitates them . . . which makes him squeal even more.

Mimi has even gotten easier. I thought Clint was going to cry today he was so happy that he asked Mimi to get a pillow for him and she actually did it. She is slowly beginning to listen to us and follow some directions. We still have a long way to go, but this is a huge breakthrough. She likes to take toys from Mack, and now when I tell her to give it back so they can play together or she won't play with it at all she pauses to think about the consequences for a minute before setting the toy down between them. But occasionally she still yells to me, "Mommy, baby Mack isn't sharing!"

But I did have a scare with her yesterday when we were leaving the Y. We joined a couple of months ago but other than Mimi's swim class we haven't been at all. That all changed this week with my newly found strength and energy, and I have been twice. This is HUGE for me because I despise gyms. Basically my routine has consisted of walking about 3/4 of a mile to the Y, checking the kids in, fumbling through my IPOD and Pandora for the perfect work-out background music, piddling on the treadmill and looking over the class schedule spreadsheet, and then stopping by Walgreen's for a Snicker's on the walk home. Anyway, yesterday as I was trying to get Mack situated in the stroller so we could leave I was letting Mimi dance around me with another little girl. I saw her run into the coat closet but then when I went to get her she wasn't there. I didn't panic because she absolutely loves to hide from me, so I assumed she was behind somebody's puffy, long coat. I continued bundling up Mack for another few seconds before I realized she's gone.

I glanced in the play area and didn't see her. I ran outside and immediately looked left toward a very crowded Lincoln Ave and began to panic. Then I realized I'd just left Mack alone also and before I could cry I heard, "Dere you are! I found you!" and my little Mimi who had on no coat and no shoes on a 32 degree day was to my right surrounded by a couple of worried moms. She ran into my arms and said, "Oh Mommy, I so sorry I run away. I was so scared. I sorry, Mommy." The whole way home she apologized and asked me if I was okay and if I was also scared. Yes, of course I was scared. I still want to vomit every time I think about it.

But back to some fun stuff which is Mimi and Clint. Daddy's girl. Mimi may have a perfect mixture of our facial features, but her personality is all Clint. She's dramatic and animated and likes to sort things and is sympathetic and honest. They were having a dance party downstairs at 10:00 last night while Mack and I were upstairs asleep.

My dramatic ballerina.

And back to the swim class I mentioned early. Mimi started this class a few weeks ago, and I'm so sad we didn't start it sooner. It seems to be the "dad class," and they sing silly songs and play with rubber duckies and watering cans and play games, and Miss Mimi has a blast. She was a little nervous at the first class and kept yelling, "I need to poo poo in the potty!" which is her way of getting out of an uncomfortable situation. And poor Clint got her out of the pool at least half a dozen times and peeled off her sticky, wet swimsuit only for her to tell him, "Nah, I not potty. I jump in the pool!"