Changes!

I'm spending a good amount of time mediating between Trixie and Mattias lately.

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Mattias hasn't really figured out how to play in Trixie-safe places with Trixie-safe things (i.e., not the floor with legos). And Trixie's abilities are changing so quickly, it's hard to keep up. The 3 year-old is a little panicked. The 9 month-old is ecstatic.

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She loves to play under the table. Loves to pull up on the chairs. Loves to find pieces of food. (Ah-hem.) And then, there was this discovery the other day:

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Today I barricaded the bottom of the stairs and installed a baby gate at the top of the stairs. Mattias had broken our previous baby gate. It pained me a little bit to RE-install a baby gate. I can't be sure how long we used our last baby gate, but it wasn't too long before I felt that teaching Mattias how to properly crawl up and down the stairs was more important than keeping him off the stairs. For now, Trixie protests when we try to have Stair Transversing Lessons, so I guess she's not ready yet. Maybe tomorrow.

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In the meantime, I'll be working on teaching Mattias and Trixie how to play together. It's kind of exciting. Between nursing and being at home, there's been so much mother-baby-mother-baby-mother-baby relationship in the first six months. It can be a little overwhelming, even for me, the third time around. BUT NOW, it's changing. I feel both a relief and excitement to see Trixie expand her social circle and increase her interactions with others. And I'm really happy to facilitate as much as possible.