Flotsam

As I've mentioned, I also write for BabyFit. Here, I ramble on about fertility worship and Photoshop to explain why women should feel good about their pregnant bodies. In this one, I admit books can't teach you everything, especially when it comes to parenting. This article lists the things I did to get myself ready for The Lad's arrival, while this one goes over the successes and failures of trying to prepare The Boy for his little brother.

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Someone asked today how old The Lad is, and I quickly told her 2 months.

He's 12 weeks old Friday. With The Boy, I always rounded his age up. I always was ready to move on to the next phase. When The Boy was as old as The Lad is now, I was mashing up over-ripe bananas for him "just to try." I was thinking this week I have another month before we need to worry about solids for The Lad. I'm in no rush.

"Wow," the husband said, having just asked me what I was posting. "Time flies with your second one."

That's why I'm in no rush.

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Do your kids watch Rolie Polie Olie? The Boy discovered it at school and loves it. Rolie Olie is a robot or an alien or maybe an alien-robot, and he and all the other robot/alien things have an antenna on their heads. Unprompted the other day, The Boy took a look at The Lad's hair, where a single curl was standing straight up on his crown as it often does, and said, "Look! He's Rolie Polie Lad!"

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The daycare ladies asked if they could give The Lad a pacifier for his naps. I said yes, though we don't use it. I'm regretting that decision. He's struggled against bedtime the last few nights, sucking madly on his fingers. I thought about just giving him the pacifier, but right now, he only gets it at school and in the car and I think -- after seeing Michelle's struggle to get Peanut to kick the paci habit -- it's best to keep The Lad's use limited.

Of course, the trade-off is multiple trips into his room to shush him to sleep.

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Between the extra shushings and The Boy's staying up a bit later because of daylight savings, my reading time is being cut to shreds. I went from reading a half dozen books or more for the last six months to just two measly books so far in March. Sigh. I miss reading.

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And now, the husband and I are off to fill out March Madness brackets. I always just guess, but even the husband is resorting to that tactic this year thanks to our lack of free time. How many of you are filling out brackets? Got any tips? Who should I root for?