SISTA SISTA

WARNING - NAKED BABY PICTURES AHEAD. I SWEAR I DRESS FINLEY AT LEAST 200 TIMES A DAY BUT SHE INSISTS ON NAKEDNESS 95% OF THE TIME. I'M LUCKY IF I CAN KEEP A DIAPER ONE HER.

So I am starting to adjust to life with two children. And not just two children. But two girls! Can you believe it? Me, the one who said she was going to have five boys. Which I guess is still possible - but someone rescue my soul if I have seven children. YIKES. Anyway. I always knew deep down that I was going to have at least a few girls. So I'm not really surprised to be in the land of pink and princesses. Just know, I throw in my fair share of gender neutral and even outright "boy" things as well. Who cares anyway? I'm completely convinced children come with a heaping dose of opinions that you have absolutely no control over. And since Finley is two going on seventeen I can already see the rough road I have ahead for myself. At least she's giving me a heads up for the teenage years. Right now her favorite thing to do is cover her ears when she knows she's about to get in trouble. She's already shutting me out! She's actually doing a preemptive strike against her impending punishment. Which totally goes to show she knows exactly when she's doing something wrong. Rascal!

Our pediatrician warned us that it would be a good 6-8 weeks for the "old Finley" to come back after Reagan was born. Meaning that would be the normal adjustment time for a two year old. We were worried it would be double or triple that with everything that we've thrown at her the last few months. But actually I think within the last week she has finally calmed down and gotten used to her new life. Which is right on cue. The first three weeks after Reagan was born were the absolute worst - I really thought she had turned into a monster overnight. Sorry! It's true. There were multiple crazy meltdowns everyday. She stopped sleeping at night. She stopped taking daytime naps. She was above and beyond her normal unruliness. Now she's just her plain old normal unruly. Now that she has adjusted I can see that there is a potential for a great sisterhood between these two. Which is my big hope. They are only two years apart. And they'll be sharing a lot for the next sixteen years and beyond. Let's just hope she won't be teaching Reagan any of her tricks. I can already tell that Finley really wants to play with her and wants to love on her as much as I do. Which can prove disastrous. But mostly it's a good thing.

Today she spent a good thirty minutes playing peek-a-boo (or as she says,"Bo-Bo") with her and when I stopped her when she graduated to actually putting a blanket over Reagan's head she gave me a totally dirty look like I had ruined their special play time. 

She tries to hand her things all the time hoping Reagan will accept her offers. The other day Finley handed Reagan a sticker and then she got so excited when it stuck to her hand and it appeared she had finally taken something from her. She smiled really big and said, "You're welcome!"

 

In the car when Reagan gets upset we've taught Finley to say, "Oh, Reagan!" And we are working on, "Don't be sad." Right now she'll just frown and say, "Sad."

 She LOVES giving her kisses and has started demanding to give her a good night kiss before bed.

And she can't actually say her name so she calls her "Reagah." 

Often Finley demands to "Hold her!" over and over again. And she likes to have Reagan lay on her belly, which is what I do with her for tummy time. 

I'm hoping these are just the first of some fun exchanged between these two. And just so everyone knows I'm not naive. I'm complete aware that sometimes it will be like WWIII between these two, but my hope is that at least ultimately they will be two scheming confidants together.