Feeling Almost Normal

Thank you for your well wishes and encouragement. I'm doing better. We're all getting better, actually. It occurred to me this morning that my sour mood might be contributing to Alice's recent (and uncharacteristic) crabbiness. When I'm grumpy, she's grumpy/whiny, and that makes me more grumpy. It's been getting worse over the last few days, which proved to me that it has less to do with physical health than I thought. I'm actually getting better physically. So, I decided to "fake it 'till you make it" today and plaster on a grin despite my irritation. I joked around a bit, gave her hugs, made lots of eye contact, and things completely turned around in 30 minutes. Seeing her happy and sweet again suddenly made me feel better as a mom and, strangely, as a person. The day only got better from there. Both of us were happier, more independent, more secure, and WAY less needy. Turns out we're more connected to each other than I thought.

Robert did better today, too. He wanted lots and lots of snuggles. He even snuggled my head while he was sitting on my shoulders. He craves face-to-face contact, too. Such a physical little guy! I'll be sitting on the floor playing and he'll waddle over to me and lunge into my arms. He'll get up chest-to-chest with me, wrap one arm around the back of my neck, and rest his head on my shoulder. It melts my insides every time. If I lie on the floor, he squeals and puts his big, drooly, open mouth on my nose, my chin, my cheek, my eye, my hair, etc. until my head is covered in baby slime. The secretions totally gross me out, but that expression of love is worth the mess. He doesn't express it any other way yet.

By the way, remember that Valentine's Day idea that just popped into Alice's head? We totally did it as soon as she got out of quiet time:

 

Waiting for the treats to cool!

And here's the Babe enjoying the fruits of our labors. The dialogue is unscripted, I swear:

The buttons on the table are from a craft we had started earlier. We had intended to make a necklace, but the buttons were so varied and "beauty" as Alice calls it, that she got distracted from the task at hand. We ended up sorting them and rhyming nonsense words (much more fun in my humble opinion).