Number two

Ella-Anne has a singular distinction in our household:  She is the only one of the four of us who is not the older or oldest sibling in the family. 

One of the consequences of being number two, as Ella-Anne is, is that most of what we're doing right now is stuff we've been through before.  For me, it's like Groundhog Day three years (and nine days) later.  I had that epiphany last night, as I was feeding her at about 11 p.m.  Jane and I have quickly fallen into the same routine we worked out with Alex when she was The Wee One -- I take all of the pre-midnight feedings (since Jane almost always falls asleep well before I do), and Jane takes the middle-of-the-night ones.  Just as I did with Alex three years back, last night Ella-Anne and I walked the hallways upstairs, so that I could give her a guided tour of what the various rooms were ("This is the guest room, where Nana and Papa stay when they visit.  This is your sister's room; she's asleep in her bed now, see?  Let's turn off all of her lights that she left on.  This is the bathroom that you share with your sister.  This is your room; you'll sleep in that crib when you're just a little bit older.  And this is Mommy's office."). 

Of course, another thing about number two is that Jane and I feel more comfortable that we know what we're doing.  Jane even tried to jinx us a few days ago by remarking that "it hasn't seemed too bad so far."  There's probably some truth to that, especially since with Alex, we were completely making it up as we went along.  It's not unlike the difference between a bunch of jazz artists getting together for an impromptu jam session (Alex), and Duke Ellington playing "Take the A Train" for the thousandth time (Ella-Anne). 

In fact, I didn't even panic when, after feeding her, I put Ella-Anne down in her bassinet, took off her soggy diaper, and saw that there were no more infant nappies in the box.  I just took a nearby dishtowel (clean), folded it up, and put it under her little butt while I headed downstairs to get reinforcements.  Sure enough, she had peed right on the dishcloth before I got back, but it was No Big Deal.  Had this challenge happened with Alex, I almost certainly would have picked her up, run through the house to find a new diaper -- and gotten myself peed on.

These are the rewards of experience.  Not getting urinated upon.

Speaking of bodily functions, some of you undoubtedly thought that the title of this post referred to "number two," not to being a second child.  Well, it turns out that you were right after all.  Today has been a big day for that, and it's not quite 10 a.m. as I write this. 

For Alex, today's excitement came when she locked herself into the bathroom.  Apparenty, she knows how to lock the door, but unlocking it (even with Daddy standing outside giving instructions) is another story entirely.  Good thing I remembered where one of those "keys" they gave us when we built this house was located; it will now reside permanently on the transom of the window high over the door of that bathroom.  But Alex was too traumatized to actually use the toilet while locked in there, so she made a deposit in her pull-up right before bath time.  (Alex is almost done with pull-ups -- she wears "big girl undies" during the day, and by "big girl undies" I mean underpants decorated with Disney Princesses or Disney Fairies.)

Ella-Anne suffers from the occasional constipation, just like Alex did at her age.  Just like Alex did, Ella-Anne got some Karo syrup in her bottle this morning.  Just like her big sister today, Ella-Anne had a pre-bath blowout, which I learned about when Jane yelled "Splashdown!" from upstairs.  (Fortunately, it wasn't an actual "splashdown" in the bathtub, but a more metaphorical one.)

Today, we're off to the annual Gladney Family Association picnic, from which I'll be leaving directly from the airport for a business trip to Houston.  I'll be gone for just a bit over a day, and I won't even get a chance to visit our office in Houston while I'm there.  But, as I think about it, this will be my first trip away since Ella-Anne's arrival.  And (for me, anyway -- you'll have to ask Jane about her views on the subject) it's not nearly as big a deal as my first overnight trip away from Alex.  Having been there and done that three years ago, an overnight trip seems just fine.

But make no mistake:  My (our) confidence, so far, with respect to raising Ella-Anne should not be confused with being nonplussed or blase about our second child.  Sure, it's a different experience -- you can only be a completely inexperienced and clueless Dad once -- but it's no less special, and I have no less awe and wonderment about what must be going on in this little girl's mind than I did about Alex.