The differences from having one child, to two children (or more) amazes me. I consider myself a pretty great mom. However, MCO's birthday is around the corner, and I still don't have invites to send out. With Buggy, the invites would have been sent out a month in advance. I had all of her party plans/ideas finalized by the time invites hit the mailbox. Tonight I am making them darn it! At least I have a theme and a special birthday shirt (I'm having made) for her. Buggy didn't have a custom shirt.
Poor MCO. This isn't the first time I slacked on stuff for her. She still doesn't, and will never have birth announcements sent out to family and friends. I feel I made up for it by sending out baptism invites with her picture on them. Buggy did have the traditional birth announcement, but no picture with her baptism invites. Buggy also had everything new. To babies, this doesn't matter. It only matters to us parents.
My feelings on this---
1. If I have it, why waste money for something I already have.
2. I'm not going to junk up my house with more stuff that they will out grow or out use
3. Sharing is good. It's a good skill to learn and use.
And you know with the first one, you always get the monthly/special holiday pictures done. With MCO that isn't the case. She hasn't even set foot inside a studio. I can honestly say I didn't have time for this one. MCO had colic very bad as a baby and wasn't really happy till she was 4 mos. I'm not going to pay for pics with her crying in all of them. Then, we had to fly to Illinois to take care of my mother on hospice. But don't think she doesn't have just as many pictures, if not more, as Buggy. (I take tons on my camera.) I do think it's important for her to have her 1st birthday ones done at the studio just like Buggy. We already have an appt to do so.
Is it that parents don't have the time like they did with the first? Maybe I had more focus on just Buggy, and now that I have two my focus has to be split? It's not a who-do-you-like-more thing because I love both of my girls the same, but different! Whatever the answer may be, I know my parents didn't do the even-steven thing either. (Well, sometimes my dad at Christmas would make sure we had the same number of gifts, but never the same things.) It's great not doing the same things for both of them. I don't want my girls to grow up having even-steven everything. I think that events/things should be special to them and shouldn't be even-steven. And I hope Buggy and MCO won't grow up and compare what I have and haven't done for them.
You ARE a great mom, first of all. This is the quandary of every parent of more than one child. Your attention is split, your older child has things going on, and you just don't have as much time or energy as you had with the first one. Plus, as mean as this might sound, though I don't intend it to be mean, the novelty has kind of gone away. First babies are magical...second and third are still magical, but in a different way. My mom made sure we had stuff even, but that was because my "battle cry" as she put it was "No fair!" By the way, I saw the coolest cake idea (I know you already have an awesome plan) for your theme. I wish I had known about the invitations, because I would have totally helped you with them. I love that kind of thing. Next time let me know!
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