Summer Lee

This is SO cute! Meet Summer Lee; she is 2 weeks old and is the new baby of some of our friends. She almost makes me want another baby! How precious. I spent a few hours with this little bundle today and relived all the new-mommy experiences. It is so completely different to have a newborn vs. a toddler; I cannot say I like one over the other, as they both have advantages and disadvantages.

Newborns sleep an amazingly large amount of time. Although it does not seem like it to a new mom, if mom napped when baby napped, she would be caught up on her sleep for sure! Toddlers do not sleep. Mine doesn't, anyway. Ever. Except at night and after a struggle. And then he wakes up like a rooster at the crack of dawn ready to go.

Newborns eat a little all the time. In fact, when they are not sleeping or looking around for very brief periods of time, they are eating. Toddlers eat a slightly larger meals and then run around for a million hours, and then come back for lunch after a proper interval. The problem with feeding toddlers is that they can be so picky that one must travel to the farthest ends of the earth and retrieve the Ambrosia of the Gods before they will eat, whereas a newborn is satisfied with breast milk, or even that super nasty formula stuff (which Paul happily gulped for 13 months)

Newborns cry a lot, but it is a sweet, little cry. I know it sounds loud to a new mommy, but it is nothing compared to a toddler throwing a tantrum. My toddler does not cry very often, but when he does, he makes a giant show of it and I would rather listen to a newborn cry all day than my son for ten minutes.

Newborns will lay on their backs for extended periods of time and stare at everything, making sweet cooing sounds. Toddlers run and run and run and run and make really loud "outside voice" sounds inside; they can also kick and throw a ball, play in sprinklers, dance, sing, pretend to read books and talk to you when you are bored. A mommy is entertainment for a newborn; a toddler is entertainment for a mommy.

These are just a few of the distinctions between newborns and toddlers; both are wonderful, and as much as I love watching my tiny man grow up, I would not mind starting all over again with another newborn.

Daddy is trying to put Pauly to sleep and Pauly is crying for his mommy, so I must go! See ya!