It's getting easier!

With the weather turning warmer and the need for excessive layers of clothing having ended, life seems to be getting a little easier with two little ones less than one year apart.

I think it is more than that though. I think it is their ages too. My youngest is 2 1/2 now and she is eating less things in the house. She and my older daughter, who is 3 1/2, are playing together now and not just fighting or playing only side by side.

The two girls are also much more confident and steady on their feet and tend to be very independent by nature. While this has been a bit painful to allow to develop due to all the messes that have been created by their desire to do things "myself," I can see the payoffs. DD#1 actually cut up a banana and divided it into two bowls of cereal the other day for she and her sister! Later in the day, she poured her own milk from a half gallon jug while I stood ready for a terrible mess that didn't happen (I think this one was luck). But, wow, it is amazing what these two can do already.

I still think early potty training is overrated. DD#2 potty-trained a whole year earlier than DD#1 because she simply was not going to be the only one left in diapers. But with the two girls out of diapers, the bathroom just gets soooo messy. DD#2 is capable but much messier than DD#1 in the bathroom, so that gets a bit old. But I guess I am saving money on diapers, although I still buy them for nighttime and they are still costly!

The best part of having two children close in age like this has been that they have been able to build a friendship and I don't have to arrange play dates for them to have fun with another little one during the days.

But then I also loved raising my son for eight years before they were born and I totally enjoyed the ease with which he and I could hook up with other mothers and their kids .... and I adored the daily one-on-one with him too for all those years. That was pretty special in and of itself and something much, much harder to accomplish with two little ones close in age.

My youngest dd is my cuddle bundle. I guess I am especially thankful for her because she is my little hug baby. DD#1 is 3 1/2 but she thinks she is as old as my DS, who is 11. She doesn't tend to be a cuddle type by nature so if DD#2 had not come along, I might be missing the cuddles big time.

Do you find traits in your different children that tend to be more like you or more like other family members? I find this particularly fascinating. DD#1 tends to be a lot like me by nature. This has been interesting to watch develop. My DS tends to be a blend of both my husband and myself. But I think he tends to be most like my dad, his grandfather, for whom he was named. That makes me smile.

DD#2 is a combination of her dad and her Nana, my mother. This little spirited child is full of energy and will not be left behind. She is active and unafraid of most anything, full of bounce and physical activity. Yet, lovable and cuddly at the same time ... an odd thing to say about someone who never stops moving, ya know? Both of my two girls have traits of their other grandma, my MIL also.

Anyway, I am totally glad that I had these two younger ones so close in age. It has been harder than raising only one child so far. Much, much harder. They do fight and that is hard for me too as I tend to like a more peaceful household. But, they also play and are the best of friends too. And they play with their older brother quite a bit too which really makes me smile.

Probably the hardest thing of all though is having the wide age spacing while also having the close in age spacing between my kids. This makes thinking about being at home with them all for the entire Summer more difficult. It would be easier to plan activities around either an older age child or younger age children. It is hard to plan things for the wider range in ages and makes the Summers much more difficult to plan.

But, Summer is coming soon, so we will see how it goes this year. The nice thing is that everyone shares a love for the pool and we do have one in our backyard. I hope that continues for many years, although DS doesn't tend to enjoy swimming with just anybody in the pool. He prefers to swim with just our family members in there or if he has a friend over, he enjoys it. But he tends to want to go inside when the pool is full of others who are friends of mine or friends of the girls ... so this might be a challenge as well .... ahhh kids .... it can be tough even when it gets easier!