Thank Heaven All Kids are Good (at least some times)

So, I about lost it tonight. For about half an hour, I had been spending my time alternating between cooking dinner, nursing and calming Mabel, and trying to get Frances to pick up her things. John finally decides to help me on my mission to get Frances to clean up her things. I don't know exactly what happens, but after a couple of minutes Frances proceeds to have the biggest tantrum I've ever heard. I mean Academy Award material, asthma attack inducing, huddled in the corner of the room arms around knees, full-on, all-out tantrum. Of course Mabel is affected by all this and starts crying again. And dinner is about to burn. So just when I'm feeling like the most unlucky, under appreciated housewife that ever was, Noah comes in to the kitchen and asks if he can help me get dinner ready. So, in spite of the frustrations of life with children, it is so unbelievably touching to see an early-pubescent, violence-obsessed, Metallica-loving 13 year boy have the sensitivity to know just when his step-step-mom has finally had enough.

Mabel on a bad day

Just so you don't all think she's totally perfect, click here

Mabel's First Bottle

Mabel at 2 months

Smiling and Cooing

It is so crazy how, as a mom to a 2-month old, the thing I look forward to most in life is those couple of minutes a day that Mabel smiles and coos at me. It's so fleeting and unpredictable, but it can make hours of fussing seem well worth it. I find myself hunched over in weird positions, but unwilling to move because for whatever reason, Mabel has decided at that moment to grin at me and tell me, in her in own baby way, that she really loves me. Unfortunately, because it is so hard to predict when, and her mood is so changing, it's extremely difficult to capture on video. Besides, I'm generally so excited to see it, I can't be bothered with finding the camera. Here are a few of my attempts. (Photos courtesy of John and my mom, as I have yet to catch a good one).

Mabel Working Out