While I was pregnant with Keaton, it always scared me a little when people told me, "Oh, when you have your second one, you realize how easy life was with just one." This always bothered me because I thought, "Life's not easy with one! I'll never think life was easy with just Cale". But last night after I had bathed Cale, dressed him in his jammies, handed him off to Carl to be put to bed, then bathed Keaton, got him dressed for bed, and sat in the rocking chair, desperately trying to get my little guy to go to sleep (It took almost an hour)...I thought to myself, "It was so easy when we just had Cale to bathe and get to sleep. It was so easy when it was just Cale we had to watch running around the house like crazy in the evening." After that thought entered my mind, I suddenly thought back to the way I felt a month ago, when it was just Cale. I felt like, as fun as it was, it wasn't easy.

It's funny how something or in this case, someone can come along and completely change your life and the way you look at things. What seemed hard at the time, suddenly seemed so easy in comparison. I can imagine if we had three kids, two would seem like a breeze. But, we will NEVER know about that...because having three kids is not in our future!

Now, we love our life with two kids, don't get me wrong. But, it is definitely harder. It's like Keaton is great most of the day, but decides to start getting high maintenance about the time that Cale comes home from the babysitter. And he gets even higher-maintenance as the night goes on. And he's at his most high maintenance when we're trying to get him to go to sleep for the night...and stay asleep! At least this time around I can more easily see things as just small moments in time. This too shall pass. With Cale it seemed like every bad thing...not sleeping at night...teething...earaches...was going to last forever. But looking back I realize how quickly those moments passed, as trying as they may have been.

As I look at Keaton it's almost a little sad thinking that we will never again get to enjoy this newborn phase once he gets older. He's our last baby to have, and as much as I look forward to him getting bigger, less fragile, and developing a personality, it's also a little sad. But hopefully this will make me enjoy Keaton a little more at each phase of his life, instead of always looking forward to the next phase to come as I was guilty of doing with Cale.

On a side note, Cale has actually been sleeping pretty well in his toddler bed. Carl hasn't even had to use his new "tool" at night yet. His new tool being a spatula. He said he wanted something that would sting without having to hit too hard when we spank Cale. Carl was all pumped that this would do the trick. Even though he hasn't had to use the spatula at night because Cale's been staying in his bed, he did have to test it the other evening. Cale kept trying to draw with chalk on the floor, instead of on his easel. We told him 'no' several times, after which he just ignored us and kept right on drawing. So, Carl grabbed his spatula and spatted Cale's leg. Cale turned around, gave Carl the strangest look like, "What in the world was that?"...and then said, "Do it again, Daddy!". I had to hide my face I was laughing so hard. Not because our son can be so disobedient, because I know that's probably not a laughing matter. But, because Carl really thought he had a magic tool with that spatula and the look of defeat on his face after it failed...was priceless!

I'm not sure there's a tool out there that can tame our wild animal. But, we'll keep on trying...