Gavin, on the eve of bing one

OMG, people say. He's almost one? And she's almost three?

Wow, that happened fast.

They repeat it a few times, shaking their head and pondering how time has just flown by over the last year. Well, here's a counter point.

Nu-uh.

Time didn't fly for us. In the last year, we didn't sleep a lot. Here's a list of the reasons we didn't sleep:

Gavin needs food. The lack of sleep comes with a new baby. We knew this. It wasn't news. Like all little babies, he woke up every night looking for food for about the first three months. Then, just when he started sleeping a bit, along came potty training.

Autumn learning to be potty trained. this sounds wonderful, right? No more diapers, no more smelly bums. But wait. Autumn was still in her crib, so she couldn't go potty on her onesie. She needed help. "Maaaaaaaaam, I gotttttttta goooooooo potttttttyyyyyy!". Which would inevitable wake up Gavin and remind him that his belly wasn't filled to the absolute maximum and it required food.

Gavin needing to be held. It should be noted here, for the record, that two is way more than one. With Autumn, we were good about not bringing her to our bed. We held firm, and it didn't take Autumn long to be a good sleeper. but with Gavin, we weren't as good. That's because for the most part, we were dead tired. So he slept in our bed a lot. Snuggling. So it's no surprise really that he quite liked snuggling in our bed, and if we moved him into his crib, he would let us know that rather liked the other better. And since the manner he would let us know is crying, he did that.

A lot.

Throughout this last year, Rhona and I have held that we just needed to make it through it. By Gavin's first birthday, Autumn would be in a bed, and getting up to pee whenever the heck she wanted (she is).

Gavin would be a better sleeper, having learned to get himself back to sleep and no longer nervous if his belly wasn't overflowing (he is).

But the suggestion that this has all happened so fast, as if we're sitting around wondering where did the time go, is a load of hooey.

Thank heavens we friggin made it.

(All of this should not be read to think last year was complete hell. We had many, many fun times. It's just that none of them came between the hours of midnight and 5:00AM.)