A little bit trickier

My life has gotten a little bit trickier.

Crawling has done one thing in our house. Less fussing. Elijah seems so happy to be able to get where he wants. He seems so at peace with his new freedom.

He follows Isaac everywhere and can move quite fast. Isaac has also regressed to crawling a lot again so he can be on the same level and operating at the same speed as his little brother. Sometimes Elijah uses the lunge and flop method but he can also crawl like a "regular" baby as well. He'll crawl from the Tupperware cabinet, to the computer, back to the nursery, under the kitchen table . . . basically, everywhere. He can pull up pretty regularly now but sometimes doesn't know how to sit back down. Today I found him in the nursery standing up, feet flat on the ground, with his hands flat on a basket, and his butt straight up in the air. He was completely stuck. Couldn't stand up any farther, didn't know how to sit down. And Isaac trying to figure out how to move this little guy so he could continue to roll his cars on the basket.

While I am happy that he is more content, I feel like I am having a little trouble adjusting to this stage in our home. Suddenly I have two little babies going everywhere. If I close all the doors in the hallway except the door to Isaac's nursery and shut the gate to the kitchen, the entire area is childproof. This works pretty well. I can also shut the door to the nursery if I want them even more contained.

However, Isaac is able to handle a lack of containment. He knows the rules and boundaries. So he wants more freedom. He wants to be able to go into the kitchen and see Scrubs. He likes to play by himself in his room.

Elijah however doesn't understand boundaries and is at that age where saying "no" might as well be saying "I love you." It means nothing to him. Of course, I keep saying it, keep moving him away from the item off limits, and keep knowing that one day it will register. But for now, it doesn't. He loves to grab onto the vertical blinds and rip them out -- we've lost three already. He will touch any outlet he can get to. Of course they are covered, but we still go with a firm "no" for those. Today I must not have shut the bathroom door all the way. I thought he was in the nursery and found him in the bathroom! Not good at all. Ugh.

Scrubs complicates things as well. Actually it isn't Scrubs as much as it is the boys tormenting him. If I let him out with the boys, then I have to watch three "people." If I shut him in the kitchen, one of the boys inevitably comes up to the gate, begging to get in to see Scrubs. If I go into the kitchen to get anything, they come to the gate, begging to be let in. Isaac has limited signs and vocabulary so he likes to show me things. If he wants to show me something in the kitchen that he wants to eat, I need to open the gate. Where do I put Scrubs? Where do I put Elijah? The other day I scooped up Elijah and went into the kitchen. Scrubs was on the inside and Isaac on the outside. I must not have shut the gate all the way because when I turned around, they had switched sides. There was Scrubs on the outside and Isaac on the inside. Sneaky little guys!

In addition, big brother, while exhibiting great patience with little brother nearly all the time, sometimes loses that patience. Isaac grows tired of Elijah following him everywhere and wanting to play with everything he is playing with. He looks at me as if to say, "Mom, are you going to do something about this leech or what?!" He very rarely does anything about it except a few cries and sometimes a very light push to back Elijah up.

Isaac also seems to want whatever Elijah is playing with. Today I was reading to Isaac on the couch. Elijah crawled over to Isaac's big car. Suddenly Isaac was crawling off of my lap midbook (something he never does) to get to that car. If Elijah had it, he wanted it.

I feel bad because Isaac can understand "gentle", "wait", "be nice", "share" while Elijah can't. So I keep having to tell Isaac to be gentle, to wait, to be nice, to share, while Elijah grabs at anything and everything he can.

I know that like all other stages we have entered into, I will soon find my groove. I know that Elijah will start understanding "no" and being able to comprehend punishments like Isaac can. (Although our mellow Isaac very rarely needs any consequences -- so far, he's a great listener.) I also know that they will learn to work together. They will become best friends. As JB has told me, they'll be the best of friends and the worst of enemies all wrapped into one.

We weighed the boys today. They both weigh exactly 26.5 pounds. When they are moving around they look like twins. However, if they were twins, they'd be at the same stage. They'd understand the same things. They'd both be able to push each other around. But they aren't twins. They are just a bit apart. And that bit seems to be where the complications are arising.

For now, a few extra prayers muttered in our direction would be fantastic. Just pray that I have wisdom, that I continue to practice playing offense instead of defense, that Scrubs figures out a way to avoid the grasps of two little boys, you know, those types of things.

Don't get me wrong. We are doing fantastic. It isn't totally chaotic all the time. Okay, well maybe it is, but I have a good system, and it is working. I just need to catch onto this stage a little bit more. I feel like I am playing catch up all day long. I'll get there. We'll get there.

And the adventures will continue.