Two weeks with two kids

Two weeks ago at this exact moment I was going to bed and hoping that I would not still be pregnant at breakfast.

I wasn't. And for the past two weeks we have been figuring out what life with two little boys looks like.

Eric gets enormous credit that things are as good as they are. No matter how late one sleeps, one does not wake up the next morning physically recovered from pregnancy and labor and Eric has picked up a lot of the slack while I have been recuperating. This in turn has helped me heal more quickly and I have been feeling pretty good.

We have been doing so well, in fact, that we may have gotten a little over-confident: today we went to IKEA, which everyone knows is the K2 of retail.

I carried Ethan in a wrap and Emerson rode in the cart. Things actually went remarkably well until the very end. In spite of taking shortcuts and being very focused, we spent longer than we had intended to wandering around IKEA and Ethan got hungry. This was fine - I am adept at nursing while walking, so that's what I was doing when Emerson tragically dumped his much-needed snack on the floor and then became very sad about it. We recovered and made our way to the check-out.

Because it was IKEA at any time of any day, the lines were epic. Among the impulse buys near the check-out was a huge bin of plush soccer balls. Emerson helped himself to a ball and then proceeded to make a break for the store exit. I, with baby to breast, tried to go after him ineffectively while Eric, trying to steer two unwieldy carts as the line moved up made frustrated noises directed at the carts, Emerson and me.

Emerson's escape route got cut off by two carts pulling out of the checkout and, because he couldn't think of anything better to do, he laid down on the floor in the fetal position, hugging the soccer ball.

"Don't we all want to do that right now?" one of the women next to us in line commented.

Indeed.