maia's brain has a glimmer of smarts

ok - I have a moment during the day to write BECAUSE BOTH KIDS ARE NAPPING IN THEIR ROOM!!!
I didn't think this could happen. Jeff encouraged me to make it work. I guess Sophia had a MELTDOWN with my mom last night when I was at work, and she (sophia, not my mom) fell asleep face down on her rug after the fit. I am sure that some of it was being low blood sugar, but obviously she needed a nap... just not at 6pm.
Anyway, I am trying to revise our day. It's primarily how I approach it that needs revising. I know I know - I have said this over and over again... and indeed I have to revise our day over and over again because they are changing all the time!
I am trying to get my brain to understand how to better approach potential problem spots with Sophia, because I am just a dunce when it comes to re-directing her, or maknig something dull seem fun. I am of the school that believes in LET'S JUST GET THIS DONE instead of let's make this fun. What a yucky school to be from!
So this morning we had to go to Whole Foods AGAIN (we were there yesterday) because I bought ground coffee instead of whole bean (duh) and instead of feeling tortured by it all I decided to make it a short and fun trip, with Sophia on her own feet instead of trapped in a shopping cart (and Stella in the bjorn - my other great discovery is that I can actually shop if I put her in there, as opposed to leaving her in the car seat). We exchanged the coffee and bought 2 bananas and I had her pick a treat from the bakery (she picked bagel - a "Zen" bagel which unbeknownst to me was SPICY!! poor kid). She was great - and when we got into a line and she had to wait she was wonderful and I was trying really hard to engage her to keep her amused and a woman ahead of us first said, "What a beautiful family," and when she left she said, "You are a really good mom" (which makes me choke up thinking about it). Of course all I could think about were all the other times when I was not such a good mom, being impatient or tired or stressed and how sad it was that I let myself get in the not-so-good-mom place. I have to admit that having 2 kids definitely highlights how hard it can be to be that great mom, always patient and making even the banal interesting and fun. It seemed hard when it was just Sophia, but man oh man that was EASY compared to having the 2. But having the 2 is so amazing. I love watching them interact, how Stella's face just lights up with the biggest smile when she sees Sophia and how Sophia loves to play with her in the "swing" (Jumperoo). There's no way I would not choose to have the 2, though of course I miss having one on one time. More incentive than ever to encourage naps.

Still struggling with the menu planning, especially now that Wednesdays and Thursdays require planned snacks AND dinners - for my mom to administer so they need to be simple to cook (gotta make it as easy as possible since dinnertime can be meltdown time) as well as planning my meals to bring to work. Ugh. In fact, i think I need to start a notebook for it all!

OK gotta go slug more water to get my milk production up, and we have Stella's six month check up in an hour... shots, yuck.

(and she's getting better and better at sitting alone, and she's starting to learn how to launch herself forward from being on hands and knees, the precursor to crawling - GO STELLA!)