This is real life

Caleb is going to be a month old on Tuesday. I'm really not sure how we got here. Time flies when you're in love which is exactly how we're living right now.

We spend most of our days holding this new baby and playing fort and pirate ship with the big sister. I'm learning the new two-kid routine of getting out the door for preschool, running errands and finding time for a nap. Because no matter what, mama's gotta nap.

So far the transition has not been as bad as I thought. Based on people's warnings of going from one to two kids, I was preparing myself for the seventh circle of hell. So maybe the adjustment has been good based on my incredibly low and fearful expectations but I'll take it either way.

It probably also helps that my recovery is about 40,000 times easier than my recovery with Madeline. I remember not wanting to move or laugh for all of May, June and July 2007.

But whether it's because of the c-section, my second kid, looking forward to "Friday Nights Lights" every evening or because I felt so awful for the last trimester, this recovery has been a walk in the park and I will be forever grateful for that.

Madeline has a little brother and sometimes I want to pinch myself to make sure this is real life. And it is. This is real life for us.

She loves to "babysit" Caleb when I'm in the shower or in another room. She coos over him and thinks every inch of him is cute.

One time she walked into the room and whimpered, "Ooohhh, look at his cute little armpits." True story.

Who says that? My daughter, that's who.

Madeline is in love with "knock, knock" jokes right now. She is surprisingly good at making them up. She tells them all the time and wants to hear them from Joe and I too.

A Madeline original:

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Soap.
Soap who?
Soap aren't you glad you don't have to wash Santa's sleigh?

Joe and I are awful at making them up. Which is why Joe googled jokes earlier today during a marathon session.

We aren't doing much these days other than being a family. And that is just fine with me.

All of these photos were taken by my sister-in-law Jenny who runs Junebug Images. That's why they're all so pretty. She also got me a subscription to People magazine for Christmas which is just the final proof that she rocks.