Second Child Syndrome

Dedicated to Fletcher. And only to Fletcher.

Sydney gets a lot of attention. She requires a lot of attention. Fletcher is quickly falling ill to the Second-Child-Syndrome. That has become increasingly evident as I prepare for an important project.

I realized after 6 months, I should probably get started on Fletcher's baby book. It's amazing how quickly you forget the details and important milestones of the first few months. Especially for the second child.

For me this baby book thing is a little more complicated than filling out some pre-printed form in a bound book. And even that is tough to do when you have multiple kids. But this complication is entirely of my own creation. When Sydney was born, I couldn't find any baby books that I really liked or included everything I wanted to record and chart. So I decided to make my own - I proclaimed I would scrapbook the first year of her life! That was when I was feeling all hormonal and motherly and nesting and not considering there would be more children (hence more baby books) to follow. Then reality struck. I am not creative in a crafty sort of way, nor do I have patience for crafts, nor had I ever scrapbooked. What was I thinking?

It is only due to the persistence, craftiness and scrapbooking supply mecca of my good friend Lauren Stuckey that Sydney's first year is, in fact, recorded. I finished it just a week before Fletcher was born. The process was long and arduous and very frustrating at times. But also totally worth it. Sydney's book is beautiful.

But now that Sydney has a very personalized book, I feel the self-imposed pressure do the same for Fletcher.

As I began organizing my things, it only took a quick glance to realize poor Fletcher's book had a lot to live up to.

And another quick glance through my iPhoto albums to realize this was going to be extra challenging.

Most photos of him include his sister or are simply of him hanging out in his carseat/stroller tolerating whatever adventure it is Sydney is enjoying to the fullest.

The zoo

The rodeo

Crawfish boil

Ice cream Friday

If these photos weren't book ended by pictures of Sydney having all the fun, I wouldn't be able to identify where he was in that moment. At this point I'm thinking I could create a page of the day of his birth and then a collage of stroller shots and be done. Nice.

Sadly, Fletcher's second-child-syndrome isn't just evident in photos. He is regularly hanging out on on his playmat, in his bouncy seat, exersaucer or (insert any other baby contraption into this sentence) while life happens around him. He is partly to blame. He is my chill baby! Just happy to be here. He'll give you a big smile simply for being in the same room. He has a great smile. And if you smile back, he'll probably bust out laughing. He laughs a lot. It's infectious.

Plus he weighs a ton! It's not easy to carry him around for long. Think I'm kidding? Go grab a 20lb bag of cat litter or dog food. Carry it on your hip for a few minutes and you'll begin to get the idea.

I am convinced this is why he refuses to even try to hold his own bottle. Because when he's eating, someone HAS to hold him. Unless we let Sydney help. Notice him looking at daddy behind the camera as if to say "help me."

Second (and third and so on) kids always get the short end of the stick. There are albums full of me (the oldest) as a baby. A few of my sister, Ashley (2nd child). But without the memory of her actual birth, we might think Jami (3rd child) didn't join our family until roughly age 3. I'm determined not to allow that to happen but photos of Fletcher in the car seat are just not going to cut it.

Here and now I'm vowing to pull him out of that stroller more often for a better shot! And to get creative on my own and fill up that baby book even bigger than Sydney's.

Uh. Ok. Maybe that's going a little far.