My wife recently gave birth to a second, healthy baby daughter named Clare Elizabeth. Our whole world has changed, maybe not as much as it did two and a half years ago when our daughter Lena was born, but the change has been incredible, even over two weeks.

How so? Well, first, I believe that memory protects us. I did not fully recall the effects of sleep deprivation brought on by a hungry newborn. I'm suprised I'm even coherent enough to write this.

Second, it is very hard of either of us to take a break. Someone has to be attending to Clare, and Lena is an energetic two-year old who we can't ignore (she won't let us).

Third, though nothing's new, everything's new. Clare, even at two weeks old, is nothing like her sister. She's a better eater, not as good a sleeper. She rarely gets truly grumpy, while Lena would wail like a banshee when she was hungry. And Lena made little monkey noises, while Clare's grunts sound more like a pterodactyl (though I don't really know what pterodactyls sounded like, but I imagine it's something like the sounds she makes).

And lastly, splitting attention between the two children is strange. For the last 2+ years, everything was about Lena, ensuring her happiness, and trying our best not to screw her up. Now we have to spread the love, and it honestly feels kind of strange. I'm one of seven siblings, so this shouldn't be so weird, but it is.

So we will continue striking that balance, and like probably everyone reading this, hope we're doing a good job.

Like many of you have discovered, kids can say the cutest things. Our two-year old Lena is constantly making us laugh.

Often I play a game with Lena where I 'steal her nose', grabbing it and then pretending its my thumb (wedged between two fingers). So she has started 'grabbing' almost anything from your face or body and then eating it. Like TBS, very funny.

So one night we were talking about the baby in mommy's belly (my wife is due with our second daughter in January). Lena looked at mom, pointed and said, "Baby belly?" We said yes. She then grabbed at my wife's belly then touched her own belly and said, "Baby Lena belly." If only it were that easy.

Anyone else have good 'I can't believe they said that' stories?

This past Saturday my wife was at a women's conference for our church, so it was a daddy-daughter day.

My original plan was to take her to the local children's museum (we have a season pass), but she had a little cold, and I didn't want to infect the place.

So I headed out to do errands (and infect those places instead), but my two year-old Lena wasn't really that jazzed about picking out a new snowblower, so I had planned on taking her to McDonalds (slimy apple dippers = yummy) as the prize at the end of our trip.

But we came out of Home Depot a little after ten with time to kill (and a snowblower in the back of our Buick). In the same parking lot is Petsmart, which we never go into because we don't have any pets. But Lena loves fish, so I thought we could spend 10-15 minutes and give me time to think about our next stop.

Instead we spent an hour and she cried when we left. She loved the colorful fish, the noisy birds, the cuddly kittens, and her favorite: guinea pigs. They moved constantly, reacting as Lena touched the glass.

So pet store = zoo, except it's free and closer to our house. So next time my wife's gone and it's just Lena and I, we may make another trip to the 'zoo.'