Two weeks, two days, and two kids

I'm still in shock when I look in the rearview mirror and see two little people bundled in their respective car seats, or when I'm nursing Reni and Ani leans in to kiss her little brother's head and then giggle infectiously, or when both kids are wailing at the top of their lungs in a kind of unison misery that makes my head hurt, my anger boil, and my heart ache.

Little Reni is now more than two weeks old, and he has already grown and changed in leaps and bounds since we first held him close in the delivery room. His newborn diapers and newborn sized onesies are suddenly too snug, and his chubby, ruddy cheeks are a bit thinner and more grown-up looking. He is a sweet, mellow and snuggly little guy, and I treasure the moments when Anika is in her bed, Armando is snoring on the couch, and Reni and I can enjoy the 3 a.m. silence. He loves the early morning light that comes into our bedroom window, and he's already discovered the mobile hanging above his crib. He tries to hold his head up (and is successful enough that he pretty much emulates a bobble-head toy on a dashboard) and looks around at everything with his wide gray eyes going, ah, cool, wonder what that is.

Grandma and Grandpa have been visiting, and just returned to Wisconsin this afternoon. It was an absolute godsend to have them here helping, and I'm not sure how I'm going to raise these two kids without the virtual village of wisdom, patience, and diversion that they were able to provide. At least we have Pua here visiting for the next week or so. When she leaves, I'm going to have to clone myself.

If I did have a clone, she would be better at blogging than I am. She would actually have posts that make sense and post photos on time. Since it's just little old exhausted me, here are a few of my favorites taken over the past week or so.