Portrait of Play, Week 7

This has been a hell of a week. I’m going completely 3rd trimester pregnant crazy, and I’m bringing the whole family with me. Due to winter break, I found myself with 3 days of nearly no extra childcare responsibilities (beyond my own children) and no photography need-to-do-nows. So, I made some calls to arrange for some help, I fought off James the ultimate naysayer and crusher of my somewhat impractical and physically backbreaking timeline for accomplishment, and we worked without much sleep all weekend. The living room has now been mostly repainted and the kitchen backsplash is mostly done. Something about the idea of adding more chaos to what already feels like chaos is clearly frightening me, and the only way I can feel like I have any control over the situation is to make my living areas feel less chaotic. The gutted and newly drywalled playroom can stay behind closed doors, but the paint in the living room that I was hoping to have repainted before Charlotte’s birth was going to be surrounding me and taunting me in the early days of being stuck under a newborn on the couch. We have had the tiles for the kitchen backsplash since before Charlotte was born, and it all had to be done now (cause nesting and hormones). We seized the opportunity, and it worked. Monday came around forcing a break, which was needed, especially since Winnie has been on a sleep strike and Charlotte has been very whiny and needy. I’ve been trying to set some boundaries around Winnie’s pacifier use, which has been going not well at all (I’m also a little reluctant because I know that I’m going to give in on those boundaries as soon as the baby comes). But, I noticed her chewing on her pacifier today instead of sucking on it, and I asked her to open her mouth. Sure enough, a new molar was popping through. I wish I didn’t need any sort of evidence to give my children more empathy for their challenging behaviors…but it always helps.

So here we are, trying to get ready for Valentine’s Day. Charlotte and I had cut a bunch of hearts out of old paintings we were going to recycle, and she wanted to hang them all up. We got started, and Winnie was looking through photo albums. Then the girls saw Daddy coming home, and we all just ended up on the couch together. The girls and I looked through the Chuck and Fred photo book I made for the girls for Christmas of snapshots celebrating the time they’ve had as just the two of them. No more hearts got hung up, but we just sat and snuggled instead. Sitting there next to the people who are driving me crazy these days, but who I have an endless amount of love for I realized that was all I really needed to do to prepare for Valentine’s Day anyways.