Life with Suzy is wonderful. I can say that because Mike is still home on Summer break. The breastfeeding is finally going well, and I'm starting to appreciate the benefits of not fixing bottles more than the nervousness of not knowing if she's eating enough and all that. We called a realtor today. We finally finished all our home improvement projects yesterday, so that's only fitting. He's coming on Monday, so that gives us 2 days to clean the house. The more children we have, the more I revert back to my natural state of sloppiness. As an adult, I have managed to create a facade of order to my home, but this order takes time and I prefer to use what little energy I have these days on my kids. The hard thing is trying to tell your kids to clean up after themselves when 1/2 the mess is from the adults. At least cleaning is a family affair. The funny thing is that Ali and I work quite well in this environment. I remember quite clearly my father saying to me as a child "how can you find anything in here?"- refering to my room. Today I saw Ali say to Jilli, "We need to get the babies' blankets" and promptly crawl under her bed and retrieve two "blankets" (scarves) from the mass of items which have been stuffed under there. It was like looking in a little mirror. We just have a different type of organization.
Our talk about keeping her room clean (which I imagine will be as futile as my mother's talk with me) will at least not contain the phrase "how can you find anything in here", but probably more of "you need to have a path to walk" or "this is your side of the room, keep your stuff off your sister's".
