2 Under 2 [Featuring Zutano Giveaway]

If you follow me on Instagram you may have picked up lately on some of the struggles we’ve had with our daughter Maddie Grace (who turned 21 months the day her brother was born) and her adjusting to having a baby brother in the house. I’ve also been surprised how many comments I’ve gotten on these posts thanking me for being real and honest – no point in sugarcoating things. 21 months is a hard age in general. Add in their whole world being turned upside down and them not being the centre of attention anymore? Well that’s something.

We had high hopes for how Maddie Grace would handle becoming a big sister, and she had a great start. When she met Tripp in the hospital it was love at first sight. I mean it was all “awww baby cute! MY baby” and hugs and kisses. The first week at home was smooth sailing as long as Tom or I were giving her attention.

Then Tom went back to work an there were a lot of emotional breakdowns and tantrums in between the hugging and kissing of baby brother. Then she figured out baby was here to stay and Maddie Grace became… well rather violent. Sometimes she is sweet and will hug and kiss Tripp, but then when she is close enough to scratch or hit him she flips and does so which lands her in time out and me very angrily yelling “why would you do that?” But then she will look at me from time out and say “I sorry baby I sorry mommy love you” with her big blue eyes and all I see is my baby girl who doesn’t fully understand what she’s doing or what’s going on and my heart breaks for her. Parenting is hard. And I’ve never wished more that I could have handbook to tell me what to do in these situations.

I’ve been focusing on having more one on one time with Maddie Grace but it’s so, so hard. I’m always nursing Tripp it seems and he really doesn’t like being put down ever. I can typically put him down for 15 minutes to give her all my attention but it almost seems that’s just enough time for her to get attached to me and then be super clingy when he gets fussy and I go to pick him up. And of course between the two of them I struggle to get any housework done (blogging is possible by typing one handed while holding a baby). Thank goodness Tripp really is an easy baby and is so laid back – we would be struggling if we had another Maddie Grace. Today I picked up Maddie Grace from school and her teacher told me she scratched every kid in the class. This is my sweet baby girl who has never had any behavior issues before. I’m at a complete loss at what to do with her to get that sweet girl back!

I know that one day Maddie Grace and Tripp will be best friends and I’ll be glad that they are this close together. Several friends of mine with siblings that are around 21 months apart from them have told me how much they loved having a sibling that distance apart and how close they are with that sibling, even when the opposite gender. Because of this I look forward to watching their relationship grow and hopefully improve over the years. Just now she gave him the sweetest hug and kiss and said “aw baby” and then kicked him in the face. And until they’re best friends I will dress the in matching outfits because I can.

I actually learned about Zutano when we were given an outfit as a gift for MG and instantly became a fan because it was the most adorable little outfit and so soft! Their pieces are fun, colourful, cute, and ridiculously soft. Zutano has unique prints that you won’t find anywhere else and I love that I’m able to put the cute elephants on both Maddie Grace and Tripp because they are just adorable. And the flower print for Maddie Grace is going to carry us into spring perfectly.  I took a quick peek at the Zutano website at the baby girl elephant print clothing and really wanted to order all of those too to give to friends.