Keeping Archer's Marbles Away From Fable's Mouth

GirlsGoneChild — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:12:00 GMT

Today I caught Archer playing with his marbles at Fable's feet as she grasped for them with her chubby little hands. In .05 seconds I leapt on Archer, tackling him to the ground.

"I told you not to play with your marbles anywhere even close to Fable's vicinity!"

"Because Fable could choke on the marbles and die, right Mommy?"

"Um... What?"

"Because Fable could swallow a marble and it would choke and die and then it wouldn't be very nice at all."

"Um... Yes? Yes. So... Please don't do that anymore."

"Yeah. Because it's NOT NICE!"

Archer spent the rest of the afternoon playing marbles on the other side of the living room as Fable kicked her little legs against her bouncy seat. But it got me thinking, wondering what I'm going to do when Fable is old enough to crawl. I never childproofed the house when Archer was a baby because I didn't really need to. Because he didn't really care to try to get into anything and plus, nothing of mine was really of interest. Nothing besides my shoes and tampons (great toy, very useful) and it wasn't like he was going to choke on those. Fable on the other hand is a second child and second children, I'm finding, want nothing more than to get all up in their big brothers' bidnis.

Hooray for Archer's stuff! And while we're at it, hooray for tea parties! And leg warmers! And cute headbands and flowers and wonderfulness!

"At some point you're probably going to have to take away Archer's marbles," my mom said to me months ago, during a mother/daughter marble shopping-spree. (It's amazing how HARD it is to find marbles these days and how easy it is to find dolls that talk. So backwards and lame.)

"Yeah. I'll just take them away when she's crawling and stuff," I agreed and left it at that.

Taking away Archer's marbles seemed like a perfectly logical, obvious sollution until Archer's marbles became his greatest love and now I'm fucked. Because how the hell can I take away my darling son's greatest love? I mean... I can't. Can I?

It's true Fable's far from crawling but she does this thing where she kind of half pounces, half crashes her face into the floor and onto various objects of her affection so even though she's immobile she's still pretty damn effective in her reach. Especially when it comes to Archer and his toys.

I'm gonna get you, sucka.

So here's the stitches, bitches. I have a baby who likes grabbing for Archer's stuff and an Archer whose stuff happens to be mainly of the marble variety these days. This is a situation that is new to me as a relatively new mother of two. It's quite easy to keep one child away from dangerous objects in that you just move them out of reach. Quite another when you have older brothers with small parts all over the floor and in all reachable places all day long.

So what to do? Small house. Babes share a bedroom. Kid's favorite toys are small, round, glass beads perfect for swallowing. Baby loves grabbing Archer's stuff and putting everything in her mouth.

Hm... Not ideal.

P.S. I think I'm beginning to realize why it's so impossible to find marbles in local toy and drug stores these days. Fewer dilemmas in the sibling/safety department. Smart thinking, Rite Aid.

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I Know What We'll Do Next Summer

GirlsGoneChild — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:45:00 GMT

Okay so about the whole second baby thing. We're kind of nowhere near ready. Then again, we weren't even close to being even a tiny bit next to nowhere near ready with Archer so maybe that doesn't matter so much.

That being said, we've decided after months and a cazillion hours of contemplation that next summer seems like a good time to remove the contraceptive and Whoop! There it is! ... Or if you will/ in the words of today's TTC** couples: we're going to "try"...

Archer turns three next May, so if all goes as "planned" Archer and #2 will be four years apart, which seems like a really big gap to me but there's no way in H-E-Double Hockey Sticks we can get me pregs any sooner. I would be a walking disaster-zone with all that's going on. Shit, I'm a walking disaster-zone, anyway.

(Archer as an only child.)

I've been weighing the pros and cons against my own childhood: my brother, David and I are 2.5 years apart and it was awesome for us as kids. We were BFF for years and even though we had a love-slump in High School we're OMG totally BFF! again, now that we're adult-ish people. My sister, Rachel and I have seven years between us which is a lot. And it kind of sucks because I never really got to know her like I wish I did. I moved out when she was eleven. There was very little borrowing of clothes or bonding over boys. And that would have been nice. To have that. I want Archer to have that. I want him to have a built-in BFF or at the very least, someone to bounce ideas off. Someone to talk shit about Hal and I with when we're acting lame and annoying and "Gosh! Our parents are such tools!"

That's important. To have that.

(Archer with "Emily," a doll we picked up at Rite Aid so we could sample life as a family of four. We're weird.)

Of course, I'm totally torn between wanting Archer to have a sibling close-ish in age and being waaaaay overwhelmed by the thought of having another kid. Twenty-seven with two kids seems insane to me. And then there's the whole possibility of having twins, which run like water in my family. Triplets, too. Oy to the Vey. We'd likely have to move, pretty soon-after which means automatic $1,000 more in rent. At least. And I'd need to hire part-time help, most likely. And, yeah...

Honestly? I have no idea how people plan kids. This shit is hard and totally confusing.

But then Archer does something like offer his rice cakes to his friend, or light up when he meets a new child and I think to myself, "fuck it, let's just do this. Let's knock me up and give Archer a homie to roll with..."

(Archer sweetly observes Kennedy, whose mom is like a sister to me, which would almost make them cousins if we didn't live eight hours away... Poop.)

So we will. We are. Going to get pregnant. Soon. Summer, 2008: ~~Coming to a theatre near you~~. Or something. Ish. Yeah. Holy balls. That's, like, tomorrow.

Any words of ~~warning~~ encouragement from those versed in the two-baby thang would be much appreciated, i.e. how did you decide it was time to "go again"? What do you think is the ideal age difference? I'm all ~~fears~~ ears.

***

*heh.

**Trying to conceive

Straight from the Bottle : siblings

Keeping Archer's Marbles Away From Fable's Mouth

I Know What We'll Do Next Summer