Now don’t get me wrong, as I love my daughter and I love my new son, and I am glad they are here— but as I mentioned before, having a second child is not twice the work, it is more like three-times the work. And I hate to publicly admit this, but I don’t enjoy taking care of both of them at the same time.

When my wife is feeding the baby, I just love dolls with my daughter. And when she asks me to “weed a tory,” just how can I resist? I even look forward to putting her to bed as we get to talk about her day while we listen to a little music. And there is nothing more heart-warming than to see her sleeping face and feel her tiny breath on my cheek.

When my wife is bathing my daughter, then it is my time to play with my son. We play games like catch-the-hand and what-a-funny-face. Sometimes I’ll put on some music and have him play air-guitar… he laughs and laughs until he gets the hiccups. You see, I really enjoy taking care of my children— one at a time.

When my wife leaves for her daily walk, things are different. Sure, I take care of them fine, but it isn’t fun. I find that I am just putting out fires. Just as soon as I get one of them to stop crying, the other one starts. When my daughter asks to play “hoo hoo chains,” I try, but how do you move trains around while bouncing an infant? I am definitely good and getting food and filling sippy cups with one hand, but it stressful.

I try to keep in mind that this time will pass and soon the children will be old enough to help care for themselves and play with each other… and someday I’ll be able to play with both of them at the same time.

However, getting any “personal time” is a treasured occurrence… but no, I’m not trading in this time.