Logan and Maddie

Ha! Where do I even begin with these two!!!  Trouble, trouble, trouble.

I guess I'll start at the beginning.

Sam and I always knew that we wanted our children to be close in age.  So, when Logan was about 9 months old we began talking about having another baby.  Almost exactly a year later, Maddie May entered our lives.  And what an entrance she made....

My pregnancy with Maddie was stressful.  Why?  Because I was so, unbelievably scared that something would go wrong.  See, when I was pregnant with Logan, I was blissfully happy.  I was pregnant with many of my girlfriends, which was awesome, and every night I went to bed dreaming about my beautiful, perfect baby and every morning I woke up with a smile on my face.  Even labor with Logan was wonderful.  I LOVED it!!!

Until they took him away from me in the delivery room, blowing oxygen in his face, and worried looks on theirs.  That's when things changed for me.

I went from being blissfully happy to, ummmm, cautiously skeptical?  Yeah, I guess that's a good way to put it. Which is why I decided to have another baby, despite being scared, we went for it, cautiously, skeptically.

So, scared during my pregnancy with Maddie, and, consequently, a little grumpy (according to Sam and my mom) and, literally, terrified during her birth, which lasted an excruciating 18 hours.  Excruciating because I was FREAKING out!!!  So, so, so scared of what was going to happen.  I think I even told Sam that I didn't want to "go through with it" I wanted to go home...lol.

Anyway, Mads popped out at 11:23 p.m. and was totally fine...sort of.  She cried A LOT!!!  I mean A LOT. All the time.  ALLLLL the time.  Get the point?

It makes me laugh now, I mean really laugh.  She was a trip, and she still is.  She's a feisty, sassy, spunky, incredibly smart little peanut.  I love her to death, but man-oh-man she drives me crazy sometimes.

She also drives Logan crazy, A LOT.  But, you know what, they are truly best buds (most of the time).  They cause a lot of trouble between the two of 'em.  One's a little devil and one's a little angel.  Depends on the day which is which.  I know most of you are thinking Logan's probably, usually, the angel, but that is NOT true.  Maddie's a loud child.  When she does something bad, everyone knows about it.  Logan's the silent, mischievous one who constantly eggs her on, causing her to get in trouble while he smiles his sweet little smile and escapes punishment. 

Today, we were having a picnic outside.  A breakfast picnic, and Logan polished off his pancakes pretty fast, then started eying Maddie's.   She's very slow and deliberate about how she eats, she doesn't just shove it all in like her brother.  She notices that he's looking for seconds and she flat out tells him "Do NOT take my pancake Logan."  "Okay," he says.   So he's looking around, acting all nonchalant, then gasps and screams, "A bunny!!!"  Maddie turns her head to look, he grabs the pancake and takes off in the opposite direction.  a.)there was NO bunny b.)  he should have been a little more stealth about it, but running was NOT the way to go.  She takes off after him, and is much, much faster than he is, grabs him by the shirt, pulls him down and grabs the pancake.  He, of course, starts pretend-crying.  She feels bad so, bless her heart, she say's "okay Logan, how about you can have half of mine?"  He says, "okay" and off they go, holding hands, back to the blanket.

This is the nature of their relationship.  They fight, hard, but they love each other harder.  They're definitely worst enemies a lot of times, but most of the time, they're best friends.  I love watching them play together and I pray they'll always love each other this much.

Someone recently asked me if I thought Maddie knew Logan had Down syndrome.  I don't think she knows and, truthfully, I don't think she'll care when she does find out.  To her, Logan is everything a big brother should be.  He irritates her, he picks on her, he loves her, he protects her and he takes care of her.  To Maddie, Logan is just her big brother, but also her hero and I have a feeling he always will be.