Life in the land of two

Time for a little catch up, apparently having two kids means less free time for blogging. Who would have thunk? It's been a good kind of busy though, a hectic yet manageable time suck. As we enter into this third week of fourdom I am starting to feel a little more in control of things.

The breastfeeding/pumping thing does not hang like a lead weight over my head anymore. We resolved to use formula when necessary and I scaled back my pumping sessions so that I didn't feel like I was hooked to the machine round the clock. Surprisingly this still means that Mason only receives one small formula bottle a day, if that. As his appetite grows this likely will change, but I am comfortable with this balance. It leaves me feeling a lot more sane and has allowed me to enjoy this time much, much more.

Skyler has become a tantrum throwing toddler tornado. Not sure if he possessed all this energy prior to Mason and it just simply wasn't as noticeable until thrown into comparison with a slug-baby newborn...but now it seems like he is all over the place. He is still sweet and completely wonderful with his new baby brother, but he also seems to have a much shorter fuse than before his arrival. We used to see tantrums every couple of days, a really bad meltdown once a week or so. Now, we are enjoying tantrums regularly throughout the day, at little or no instigation, and there have been some epic meltdowns. This has been pretty trying, but then again I suppose they call these the terrible twos for a reason. And he did just get a new brother thrown at him, so I am going to cut him some slack...for now.

Mason continues to be a very mellow baby, we so don't deserve this. Skyler was a pretty easy baby too, but Mason seems even more laidback than his older brother. This may be in part to his being the second baby and our feeling more relaxed about the situation. Generally though, I think we just got a very sweet baby boy. He sleeps away the majority of the day, and up to this point I have been waking him up to feed him during the night. Since we went in for his two week check up today and found that he is a nice healthy ten pounder (13oz over his birthweight!) I will now be following his lead for feedings overnight. He only cries when he is hungry, or getting his bum wiped. I am feeling pretty blessed with this one.

Here's some recent photos as well:

Skyler getting in some morning snuggles with Mason man

Encountering pop-its for the first time. He was encouraged to throw!

Daddy smooches

Mama and Mason

Blue eyes

A Christmas Story moment on Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Skyler really enjoyed the holiday this year, which seems to be the trend with holidays as he gets older. He still has no idea why these days are different than any other, but he definitely enjoys the presents and treats that come with it. Having his birthday the day prior only added to the confusion, on the way home from Pa and Nana's house he started chanting "Skyla's Der-day!". Guess he thinks egg hunts are a birthday ritual now.

He did a great job both making and finding eggs. He actually managed to maneuver the funny little wire dipper for the egg dying all on his own. A few eggs got dropped, but these are details. One part of today that he didn't enjoy, initially, was being forced to play the role of resident Easter bunny. Back around Halloween his Nana picked up a bunny costume for him along with his dinosaur outfit. It had been hanging in his closet ever since, just waiting for today. It took some tears and a good deal of struggle, but once he was in it he actually enjoyed it enough to not want out of it for a bit. It also helped keep him warm outside in the bluster, so there was a practical tone to our lunacy. It also made for some adorable photos. I suppose he can make up for it one day by dressing us up when we are to senile to protest.

Oh tannebaum

It's definitely time for things to start looking, and feeling, like Christmas around here. BL has many (regretful) memories of his father procrastinating to the last minute for getting their tree. As a consequence he has always been very insistent that we go out and get ours as soon as possible, once Thanksgiving passes of course. So we went out this weekend and picked ours up. This little holiday outing went WAY better than our pumpkin picking experience. MR has come miles from where he was (or wasn't) in the hand holding department, and was very mindful when I asked him to stay near me or hold my hand when walking through the trees. He also loved the experience, the combination of which made it all much more enjoyable for me. I also didn't have to be the one cutting or carrying away the tree, so that helped.

Just his size
Looking for the perfect fir

Making sure it's baby proof

Helping Daddy do boy stuff

Never wanting to be left out of the fun

Fixed

Sorry for the lovely negative post previous, I just so rarely have time and/or energy to post lately and when I finally sat down to remedy that... well Blogger poo'd on it. Bleh. Anways, things seem to be in working order now, so I have resolved to get over it.

Thanksgiving around here went really well, we had my parents over to our house and BL cooked. Have I ever mentioned that he is a fabulous cook, and he makes me yummy dinners every night? I am a lucky lady, especially since I am not very culinarily inclined. Anyways, he had the honor of cooking up the bird this year and it turned out great, see:

So that went well, though the kiddo was a little overwhelmed from the big day and didn't have much of an appetite for the fare we put in front of him. Guess he is more a chicken guy.

Also, to update from a few posts ago: the doctor's appointment went well. I didn't get to hear the heartbeat as it was mostly a history appointment and they generally don't like to use the doppler until after ten weeks or so. I was a little disappointed by this, but the rest of the appointment went really well and I ended up leaving feeling reassured. Since we moved I had to find a new OB-GYN down here, thus far I am pretty pleased with my selection. I will be going back for another appointment in a little less than two weeks and am actually looking forward to that. Things have been going relatively smooth in the baby-brewing, my nausea really only seems to rear around certain foods (and smells) and the exhaustion has really toned down. All in all I can't ask for much more.

Nervous

For likely no reason whatsoever I am nervous about my doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. I think, no I know, it is just due to this whole pregnancy being so new and early in the process. Of course I have certainly felt pregnant for a while now (hello huge sore boobs, morning sickness, and exhaustion), but before you really see that little face on a regular basis or even feel their little kicks and hits... it all seems so hard to believe. And how ridiculous that the other reason I am nervous is because I have been feeling better lately. The exhaustion seems to have lifted, and my nausea has become manageable if not really all that bad. I should be grateful, not worried, but still. Before the heartbeats and the ultrasounds these are the things that remind me, oh so regularly, that something is going on in there. Perhaps I am just totally crazy? Tomorrow's visit is really just a routine history visit but I am hoping to at least hear the heartbeat, which would do so much to put me at ease. I forgot just how nerve-wracking this whole process can be sometimes.

To dispel the general crazy bent of this post, here's some cuteness from this past weekend. We took the kiddo to see Santa for the first time and miracle upon miracles there was no line! This was likely due in part to it being before Thanksgiving and also a Sunday morning. I am not one to complain though. The MR was really much more interested in Santa's surroundings (fake snow, gingerbread men) than Santa himself but he did consent to being held on Santa's lap. We even managed to get a precursor to a smile, at least he wasn't crying.

Then from later in the day, the MR decided that what's good for the goose is good for the gosling. BL was having a chocolate sucker and the little bug wanted to "share". I think this was the first time he had ever had a sucker, he managed to make a mess of himself. Cute nonetheless.

Making a Jack-O-Lantern

It suddenly occurred to us, on the eve of Halloween no less, that we needed to actually carve our pumpkin. It was getting on towards the mister's bedtime, but we figured that such an occasion is worthy of staying up just a little bit longer. We were right, that extra half hour was so worth it. It is incredible just how different the experience of Halloween is this year is compared to last. For one thing, the kiddo was SO much more interactive with the different elements of it all. This included the pumpkin carving. He wanted to touch, smell, and really process what the pumpkin was. And he certainly wanted to be a part of the carving process, though he was good enough to stand back while mommy did the actual cutting.

Dada Day

So BL now officially has two Father's days under his belt. This one was significantly different from the one last year, but I think he enjoyed it nonetheless. This time last year the kiddo was still a wee worm of a baby, and I am pretty sure BL just spent the day reveling in the pure freedom of not dealing with a newborn and/or pants. Seeing as we currently live with my parents he had to wear pants this year. But I digress.

We had to split the day up a bit since we had not just BL to celebrate, but our two fathers as well. BL took the some time earlier this past week for himself so that he could have his own "Father's" day where he just got to veg out and eat junk while playing his video games. So having to share today wasn't too bad.

We spent the first half of the day with my family, going out to lunch at a restaurant on the Columbia River. Fortunately we had another gorgeous day here, so it was lovely to have a view of the water and some sunny skies to take a walk out under after our meal. We have been trying to encourage our kiddo to walk as much as possible now when we are out in public spaces, especially since he now has a proper fitting pair of shoes. Can you believe the kiddo wears a 6 1/2 wide shoe? He really is a big boy.

Lunch was good with a our little patron, we are pretty fortunate that all it takes for a good visit is his own share of grub and free access to a cup of water. There was also a little two year old boy sitting behind us, so he was happy to share some toys with his new friend as well.

The second half of the day was spent with BL's family, where we went and caught a movie and then had Mexican food for dinner. MR missed the movie but caught up with us for dinner. Again a very good little boy, and all it took was some beans and chips. We'll see what that looks like later.

I am glad we got to have a day to pamper BL because in the midst of everything crazy in our lives he always manages to take care of me and the kiddo. It's nice to return the favor. He is everything and more than what MR and I could ask for in his father. A great husband and a daddy to boot, Happy Father's day indeed.

Bunnies don't lay eggs

It's true, they don't, but as a small child those Cadbury commercials had me believing the contrary for longer than I would like to admit. Don't worry, I will make sure MR is not similarly misled.

Happy Easter to everyone, we here enjoyed our day with some traditional activities and plenty of candy (Reese's why are you so delicious?). We dyed eggs and then made MR "search" for them. He has a little Dino Drop and Roar we hid the eggs in, there are lots of little hidey-holes in that thing, so it worked pretty well. It didn't last long, no big surprise, as each egg quickly met and vicious, crunchy death. We thought he would at least try to put one of the eggs in his mouth but he is in a new stage where he likes to throw things...the eggs were no different. All in all lots of fun for our MR's first Easter, the rest can be said with pictures:

One of the few times in his life he will be able to pull off pastel

Clearly intrigued, but not enough to drop his Mum Mum

Happy, shiny eggs...they never saw it coming

Come out, come out

About to deliver the final blow

Erin go bragh

Happy St. Paddy's day everyone, though really this holiday doesn't seem to mean much in my world any more. I am old enough to not have to worry about being pinched for not wearing green, and my lifestyle isn't really conducive to me going out and downing some green pints. So I satisfied my holiday hunger by dressing up MR in green instead. His Nana had already picked him up the outfit, so really minimal effort on my part.

Funny story about one of MR's nicknames. We had THE worst time EVER picking out a name for our little guy. We argued for months over what to call him, we differed quite strongly on what could be considered a unique name and what wandered over the line to damaging/stupid. I will let you imagine which side I thought I landed on. Anyways, around six months pg I told BL that this weekend would be the weekend that we chose a name, I was tired of arguing.

So we returned to all of our compromise names and happened upon the name that graces our child today. One of the selling points, for BL, was that his full name could be shortened to a name also shared with a set of islands off of the Irish coast. Note that this was at a time when both a)BL's family thought they were largely Irish in heritage, and b)I mistakenly claimed the islands were off the Irish coast. Weeel, come to find that his family is only a pinch Irish and more so Scottish and those islands? They are off the Scottish coast, erm, not the Irish. So you see, things all worked out in the end, but BL did not thank me for allowing him to go several months under the mistaken assumption that those isles were Irish. How was I to know he would share that "fact" with so many people.

Here comes trouble