Milo is 3 and Dayton is 2, and I really like this stage of parenting. Last weekend we were at Lake LBJ with a friend and his teenage children, and I kept having flash-forwards (is that a thing?) to the not-so-distant future when we’ll have two teenage boys. (!!!) And I know that every stage will be special, but I’m really loving this brief blip in time when I have a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old! 
Sometimes Nate and I are watching the boys be absolute hoodlums, wrestling and running around and causing all sorts of mischief, and I’ll look at him and say, “can you even believe we made two of them?!” and just kind of laugh at the whole thing. I stumbled upon this blog post recapping 2016, and holy moly…It was full of solo trips and 100 books and napping and dinner dates. I was living a different life!
The boys have obviously drastically changed my life. Those first few years are especially exhausting. I mean, really really sweet. But I also have this sense of relief that those 81 weeks of pregnancy (ugh!) are over and the childbirth and recovery and the 2 years of breastfeeding are done, and we can now pack up for a weekend trip without bringing our SNOO with us. Haha. Ages 2 and 3 aren’t low maintenance, but there’s some sense of ease now that we’re out of the 12-diapers-a-day and 8-feeding-sessions-a-day and 2-naps-a-day and all the other things that very young babies entail. (Btw, I loved those years too…but I’m just REALLY loving this exact moment!)
Ever since I latched onto these four words to describe parenting, the entire thing has felt a lot easier. I don’t stress as much about the rough parts and I definitely don’t make those eruptions take the joy away from the sweet parts. It’s all supposed to be there.
Anyway, while we were at the lake, the boys and I went outside for a little happy hour with a can of “spicy” (aka Waterloo sparkling water.) They were just so cute and funny! I took a little video that I’ll put on instagram today.
The boys are starting to play together as friends now, which is what I want most. I hope they’re best friends for life. Dayton is starting to talk, and he repeats everything Milo says. His first words when he wakes up from his nap are, “where Mimo?”
I mean, they’re normal children and drive me insane and usually can’t go longer than about 3 1/2 minutes without needing some conflict management (there is no “scroll through my phone and relax” while I’m hanging out with them) but they’re SO much fun.
I really love this stage of parenting. XO.
