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Hello! I'm back to blogging after a short leave during the last phases of pregnancy and then birth and recovery. I'm back and I'm feeling great! I'm so glad that the good Lord gave me back my energy because keeping up with a 2-year-old with miniscule amounts of sleep is a very challenging feat. My 2-year-old daughter (we'll call her L) has adjusted well to the newcomer in our family, our son (we'll call him S), who's now 2 1/2 months old.

If you have children of your own then you totally understand what I mean when I speak of those "childhood development experts" who can share their never-ending advice on topics ranging from childbirth to children's clothing. It has totally amazed me from the very beginning how being pregnant can invite the most obscure comments from complete strangers. During my first pregnancy, this onslaught of childhood commentaries overwhelmed me. I guess I was trying very hard to take it all in, process it, and sift through the good and not-so-good advice. Such as, "Put socks on that baby before she catches pneumonia!" Nevermind that it was 90-degrees in the shade on that particular day. But with my second pregnancy, I quickly learned to simply nod, smile, and keep pushing my grocery cart.

But recently, my husband and I received the funniest advice. We were at our favorite eatery placing our orders at the counter when the lady behind the counter commented how cute our little girl was and how sweet our little boy was. Then, without a moment's notice out came the advice: "Great! You have a boy and a girl so now you can stop having kids! There's no need to have more since you now have both!" I was stunned. I guess it was not so much the comment that she made as it was the way in which she said it. We've heard that comment before so it was no surprise, but it sounded so ugly when she said it. Almost like she could not see why anyone would dare to bring anymore misery on oneself by having more than two children. I usually have some nice response ready in the wings, but this time I was caught completely off guard. I just looked at my husband who was also very short on words - and this does not happen very often! I guess the strange looks that he and I exhanged prompted the lady to quickly reply, "Oh, do you have more? Are they at school?" If I had been smart I would've said, "Yes, we have six more. These two are our youngest." Now I'll be prepared for the next comment because trust me, there will be more.

My husband's uncle also made a similar comment when we first found out by ultrasound that our second baby was going to be a boy. He informed my husband that we could stop having kids since now we had one of each. My hubby replied that we may in fact have more children in the future. His uncle then laughed and said, "When God said 'Go and fill the earth' he did not mean just you and E!" At least I got a good laugh out of that one!