It has been a while since I blogged...well, 6 months to be exact. Since my last blog, I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl, Harper Rylee. She was born on February 22nd @8:53am, weighing a whopping 8lbs 15oz! She was a big one, but she sure is adorable and it's hard to believe she almost 2 months already. Time sure does fly!
Over the last several months, things have been really challenging. Relationships have been tested, committing to a workout routine, staying on task, keeping the house cleaned...I could go on and on. But, nothing is as challenging as raising 2 kids under 2. WAIT...raising a single child is challenging enough!
Cooper has really tested his waters since his little "sissy" came home. We put him in a toddler bed 2 weeks before Harper arrived. He was crawling out of his crib, sometimes he would fall out and hurt himself, so we decided to make that transition. I really wasn't ready for him to go in a "big boy" bed, because I had this feeling he would be coming out his room whenever he wanted. He started off great, until Harper came home. It started with the night wakings then banning naps and getting up 5am. It was very hard to keep him in his bed. That came to an end real quick when he was sleeping with me and pitching fits. Crib went back up with a crib tent over it. He loves it and feels secure. Mommy and Daddy love it too! It was a $70 purchase, but has been well worth it. He feels secure again and is back to his normal sleep pattern.
Now, Cooper is starting to show some jealousy towards his sissy and has REALLY entered the TERRIBLE TWO's! His tantrums and fits have been awful. I feel like I am pretty stern parent and to let him know "momma don't play"(haha). It is so hard, because you can't really reason with an almost 2 year old who cant communicate with you. His form of communication is whining, crying and throwing himself on the floor when he doesn't get his way. He has been spanked and put in time out more this past week than he has in the last 22 months. I can honestly say I was one of those people (with out kids), who would see other kids "acting out" in restaurants, mall, walmart, etc...and I would think to myself "geez, parents handle your kids". YEAH, well, it's not so easy! We don't go to restaurants right now and I rarely take Cooper with me to do major grocery shopping. It doesn't matter how you raise them, kids are going to have their own temperament. They will always go through a terrible two's stage and so on. I try not to be one of those parents who say "my kid won't ...." because you never know how you will handle a situation until it occurs. I just laugh at the non parents who say it now. It is quite funny, because parenting is not easy. It is definitely something that you have to take one day at a time and face the challenges as they come. Each day brings something different.
Besides Cooper being quite challenging, I am very happy to finally have my sweet little girl in my arms! She is definitely a snuggler. I even invested in a sling to "wear" her so I can get stuff done around the house. She is the first Johnson girl in 32 years. My MIL is over the moon about having girl in the family. She has had 3 boys of her own and ALL grandsons. So, having a little girl to smock for is quite refreshing for her.
Today, she is 7 weeks old and finally smiled. I almost forgot how exciting the milestones are. She has stretched out her sleeping from 8pm to 4am (with a feeding) and then again to 7am. This is exactly what Cooper did about the same time. So, I am hoping she follow in his foot steps and stretches it out to 7am in the next couple weeks.
Everyone keeps asking me if she and Cooper are alike. I guess it's too early to tell. But, I will keep everyone updated as she gets older. I am sure they will have tons of differences.
