Rolling over

A little sibling love

Not a whole lot to say from last week. It was uneventful overall. Nolan had his first haircut a couple weeks ago. Jeremiah is getting some practice in with the clippers. He did a good job. Nolan looks much better in our opinion without the scraggly mop on top of his head.

baby’s first hair cut

Nolan also started rolling over about two weeks ago. He can go from back to front and front to back now and is fast. I find him sleeping on his belly every time I go to get him after a nap or the night. He’s doing well during the night too. He sleeps anywhere from 8pm to until somewhere between 4am and 6:30am every day. Obviously, I’m more a fan of the later wake up, but I can’t complain. That’s pretty darn good for his age. He is still spitting up constantly though. That is the only thing that drives me a little crazy with him. He eats and then just spits up huge mouthfuls of milk or half digested milk for the next hour. It always seems to end up on me no matter where I put the burp cloth. Jeremiah has a habit of sweetly offering me Nolan after he feeds him a bottle. “Honey, do you want to put him down. He looks so cute” Hmmp. How about NO!.  I constantly smell like bad milk as it is. The kid seriously spits up a lot.

Jeremiah even collected his spit up as his ‘signature’ on my mother’s day card.

And yes, that is dried gross spit up beside the arrow for (Cephas).

Confused about the Moses/Cephas thing? Anyone who knows us has gotten used to Jeremiah introducing Nathaniel as Moses and Nolan as Cephas. Those were the names that he wanted to legally call them, but was denied by his wife, me. Seriously, Cephas? and Moses sounds like the name of an old black man to me. It was not happening.

He is stubborn though. The kids respond to it for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nolan has stopped being such a grumpy pants and is smiling a lot more now. He loves to look at his big brother and always breaks into massive grins whenever anyone makes eye contact with him.

Nathan has now graduated from the air mattress on the floor to the actual bed. We pulled the trundle out and now he can easily crawl up and out of bed as he wants. The trundle also means if he were to roll off the bed he’d just hit another mattress. We’ve had no problems thus far. He loves the bottom corner of the double bed and curls up next to all his colourful pillows. We got lucky with such good sleepers. Well as long as their not overtired. It has helped immensely to stick to schedules with both kids.

Of course, once in a while my little bundle of energy tuckers himself out early playing so hard in the superyard aka cage.

They really do look so sweet when their sleeping. You’d never know he’s really a hurricane of messiness.

I also started learning how to ride a dirtbike last week. Jeremiah borrowed it from our neighbors. Now that was an adventure and a lot of fun. The second day I got a bit overconfident and boom, first wipe out. I went over the handlebars and to the side. I thought I was pulling in the clutch to slow down, but pulled the brake instead hard. Ouch! My thigh was bruised up! Now that hurt. The rest were just minor scrapes here and there. I don’t think I’ll be ready for the road anytime soon.

It was an uneventful week I suppose, but with little kids around, there does seem to always be something new happening all the time. They learn and grow so fast.

Potty training?

He walked away from the water table and peed on the shoe rack, then walked back and continued playing. That’s fairly decisive I’d say!

Nathan is about 14.5 months now and is doing pretty well at waking up from naps dry. I’ve been going back and forth on when to start potty training with him as 1) he’s a little tycoon on the changing table and its a bloody nightmare sometimes 2) grabbing his own poop when changing him makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit 3) Nathan seems able to decisively pee at times aka walk to a tree and pee on it like the dog. True Story!! 4) Nolan is getting bigger fast and before I know it he’ll be out of the small/medium cloth diapers and onto the one sized snaps full time and as much as I love cloth diapers and their the cutest things ever on their little behinds I don’t want to buy a whole new set.

I wonder how long it’ll take him to ‘get’ it. I’m sure it will be a bit of a process with Nathan, but we’ll see how it goes. They say if you cloth diaper you can potty train by 18 months as their more aware of it all and feel the wetness. May as well try right? To be honest, I’m not sure if I really want him out of cloth before the end of summer seeing as how that’s all I have them wear these next few months. Folding baby/kid clothes is so much more work then the quick sorting the diapers take. However that will take him to just around that 18 month mark which is perfect. Anyway, just ordered the Planet Potty from amazon and we’ll be starting next week. I haven’t read up on it or anything but was going to play it by ear for now. See how he does sitting on it, and maybe do a few days letting him roam around naked while taking him to the potty every 15-30 min. or so… I’m not doing the food/gummi bear/skittle reward system though. He’s just not old enough to understand that quite yet.

Any tips? Suggestions? Experiences? Anyone remember how they were potty trained?

He’s is so grown up already. Having his first lollipop here. This was followed by him chasing me around screaming for my lollipop, hence why I don’t think he’ll understand using sweets as a reward system yet. Not that I want to associate food as a reward either.

Chasing Shadows

You know what’s awesome about a 14 month old?

They can be amused for a while the day they find their shadow. Nathan found his shadow yesterday and spent quite a bit of time following it around, watching it disappear and reappear as he walked, and trying to grab it. Funny!

This week has seen a lot of movement on our end. Nathan transitioned into the ‘big boy Dr. Seuss’ room two days ago, while Nolan went to the nursery. Nolan had outgrown the bassinet about a week ago, as we found him able to kick and move his way into very awkward, uncomfortable, positions in there. We still wanted to wait until after the baptism and family had headed home before making the transition. We stuck the air mattress on the floor of Nathan’s room and with the amazing black out curtains my mil made, it’s been very easy for him to sleep there and get accustomed to not being in a crib. No fuss at all. The darkness keeps him from exploring or trying to get into closets and the airmattress is solid but not so solid he feels he can walk on it. Very safe. In about a week, we’ll move the air mattress out and get him in the trundle bed under the bunk bed unit and after that? Well we’ll see how it goes. He may try climbing onto the actual bed, but no harm with the trundle right there in case he falls. The next step is barricading the staircase to the top bunk before our little adventurer takes a hankering for exploring. He’s been napping with no issues there for now and when he’s done, I hear a little bang bang on the door. Very cute!

Nolan is on his way to rolling over. You forget how single minded little ones get with new skills. He spends long periods of time swinging his legs around, arching his back, and getting an arm under trying to roll. He’s been close a few times, but not yet. Both Nathan and Nolan rolled over easily around 6 -8 weeks when they were on their belly on the sofa, but that is very different then the controlled roll from back to stomach.

As well as the baptism went, I had a bit of a scare the following few days when I realized my milk supply had taken a major hit. I’d only pumped a *few* times that weekend and nolan had mostly been bottle fed the entire time. I understand everyone wants to feed baby, and I welcomed the break with so much else to do, but next time I’ll certainly be more careful over all. The bottle is just too easy for my little chunky monkey and as greedy as he gets, he just didn’t want to go back to the breast after. Not to mention I could only seem to pump an 1oz from both sides for a day or two. We’ve spent the last few days in a bit of a struggle. By we, I mean me. Nolan was crying, angry, kicking and upset any time I tried breastfeeding him, but guzzled breastmilk from a bottle like a fiend. I’ve been guzzling down water and the mother’s milk tea and trying to either breastfeed or pump every 1-2 hours during the day. I’ll be eating oatmeal everyday for a while now. Anyway, it’s worked. I’m about back to normal now and Nolan has mostly stopped the fight and is nursing like normal. phewwww. Breastfeeding sucks. It’s such a mental worry, especially since no one else but you really do ‘the work’.

The baptism was amazing and it was so so so nice to see so many of our close family and friends. We’ve been very blessed and its amazing to see how loved the boys are.

Photo bomb time!

Nolan in his rare moments when he stops his usual pouting face to smile

First time using the double stroller! They did so well. (I think i used a stroller with nathan maybe 3x in his life before)

And after 2 hours of errands and shopping with Nanny Lee. we got one passed out baby and a sleepy toddler

Our trip to the zoo with Simi Aunty. Feeding the giraffes was certainly a highlight.

Simi Aunty working and playing with a baby. Already multitasking so well.

The ducks are all grown up

The usual pouty face. So cute though. I could kiss him all day long.

Liliana and Nolan hanging out. She is such a doll. A feisty doll, but still a doll

A 3 month, 7 month, and 14 month old that stayed still for this???!!??

I loved the 6-9 month age b/c their not quite mobile but so interactive and cute. Liliana grabbed the napkin and made a hat here.

Love this picture! What a bunch of sillies. I think Jer would do quite well with a little girl

Going to the beach with Sibin Uncle in his new wheels.

Nathan was so confused about the sand at first

The call of the water was too much for him. This is him watching the tiny far away parasailing that is Sibin.

Nolan’s first time at the beach

He ended up sleeping the entire time in the stroller after 5 minute of baby wearing and walking the waves.

Nathan had a blast! He loved running into the waves and then running back. It was all we could do to keep him from jumping face first past the point he could walk.

My little chubby cheeks!

Pheww

We have had one heck of a week and a half. Drove the last family member and Nathan’s new godfather to the airport this morning and spent the last few hours spending a little one on one time with Nathan and then cuddling and feeding baby Nolan like normal.

I had almost forgotten how lovely it is to have a baby fall asleep on you and breathe in those little sighs and happy stirs.

Ahhhhh… heaven

Sick Babies and burned hands

It had to happen eventually. Nathan has never had so much as a sniffle since he was born- One heck of a happy, healthy, little boy.

We were thrown off as he had badly burned his hand last week on our bbq. Oh boy was that a little scary. We had friends over for dinner and as Jeremiah brought the steaks in, Nathan found his way through the screen door and went straight to the still very hot bbq, made his way under it, and stuck his palm and fingertips on the underside of it. Poor kiddo started screaming immediately. It looks horrible but is healing well (as per doctor Tuesday and it happened the Tuesday night prior). He’s learned quickly not to use it and still maneuver around pretty well.

Here’s what threw us off though. He got a fever Saturday, it spiked on Sunday, and then he started getting a rash Monday. We’d never seen him so listless and just not himself. Obviously due to timing, we both assumed it was his body fighting off infection from the burn until the rash started on his face.

To the doctor we go.

He barely looked at the hand, just long enough to say the fever and rash were unrelated, did the rest of the check up, and stated he had Roseola. Nothing to worry about apparently and pretty common as its contagious.

When I went home and read that the incubation period was about 12 days until the fever hit, and then the rash comes on 2-3 days later, I realized he must have caught it from the church nursery. What funny timing! The kid is barely ever exposed to anything being at home with me mostly, playdates with friends that also don’t have kids in daycare, and the minute I put him in that kind of setting he catches something. Bah. I’m just thankful it’s not associated with the burn.

I hope he feels better soon and that Nolan doesn’t catch it. Not sure how’d I feel with a sick 2.5 month old- A lot more anxious I imagine.

It’s been a tiring week thus far. Poor Nathan is unhappy and incredibly clingy, which doesn’t work that well with the baby and trying to get his needs met as well. Along with cleaning and getting all the little projects done for the baptism party and weekend visits. The rash is subsiding now, and I’m very much hoping I get my happy, independent, joy of a little boy back soon. Also, a bit vainly, really wanting the rash to be gone before the baptism next week and everyone’s visits.

I have just about everything done for the baptism. Just got to get a pair of shoes for Nathan and his haircut today and we are about done. I went with a simple baby blue and white theme for the event. Mrs. Kelly has been over a lot the last few weeks helping immensely with favors, centerpieces, stripping wallpaper, checking sizes for chair covers, and so much more.

Mrs. Kelly aka Nanny Lee also gave me this awesome idea for centerpieces. I got the kids baby pictures printed off in 8×10′s and made ‘fans’ with them. They each have Nathan on one side and Nolan’s comparative picture on the other. My mom had sent down a ton of lace and tulle, so I got them all trimmed out and ribboned up. Hail the glue gun! Tag teaming the kids with another person means projects actually get done!

Not sure if I can explain this well, but I laughed until I cried. When Jeremiah saw them (the picture fans), he asked if we were bringing them to the church. Ya know, to wave them as each child gets the holy water on them. He said we could switch to all Nolan pictures when its his turn and then flip them when its Nathan’s. It cracked me up imagining that. I can just see the priest wondering what the hell was going on during such a formal catholic mass. Can you imagine the looks from the rest of the congregation?!!?? Ha! I’m still laughing now. Whoooooo As if its some kind of sporting event.

Anyway, I’m going to make a chocolate fudge cross shaped cake and a round layered vanilla one and freeze them in a few days. It’ll be easy to take them out the Saturday morning, whip up some butter cream and decorate then. Not sure why but I just feel like I should be making the cakes for all the boy’s big events, at least until they request otherwise.  And of course each boy needs his own cake! Right??!!? . Their so not even going to remember or care. My bet is by the time we get back from church they’ll be a hot mess, cranky as heck, and need to go to bed immediately.

Simi, my cousin, and Nathan’s godmother is flying in tomorrow to spend the next week with us. Again, the tag teaming means I might actually be able to do some good cleaning and organizing this coming week, though to be honest, I was also really hoping for a night out with her too. I’d wanted to do a girl’s weekend in Miami but decided fast against that a couple weeks ago. It’s too far and too long for me to be away from Nolan. (Could have made a dent in all that frozen breastmilk though) Anyway, not sure a night out is going to happen if the babies are sick or not feeling well. As much as I trust Jer with them, he gets frustrated a bit too fast for my liking.

Either way it’ll be so nice to see so many of our family and friends all in one place. The kids are going to love all the endless attention they get. I’m hoping the party ends with two babies sleeping peacefully, a couple grandma’s and great aunt’s having had their fill of baby fever, and then a fire out in the backyard. So much fun!

2 months

Straitjacketed – He’s about too big for the velcro swaddlers now.

Nolan had his 2 month appointment on monday and boy has he grown. He’s 13 pounds! That’s from a birth weight of 8 lbs, 9 oz. His length of 22.5 and head circumference of 15inches is smaller then Nathan’s at the same age but he certainly looks like a big boy. I’d delayed Nathan’s shots until 6 months but decided to go mostly on schedule with Nolan, except for the rotavirus. We are sticklers for washing our hands and boiling bottles. Nathan’s had no reactions to any shots at all and it looks to be about the same for Nolan. But boy did I feel bad holding him down as they poked each shoulder and thigh. 4 shots and 6 vaccines later he was inconsolable and exhausted. This was also following the normal appointment and another attempt to check his hearing. They still can’t seem to get a read on his one ear as he moves around too much.

Nolan is strong though. He’s getting to that really cute age where he reacts and interacts a lot more. I’m a bit in awe over him. He is such a good baby. He hangs out in the swing and playmat no problem, cuddles so sweetly, eats well, and sleeps awesome! Since last friday he’s been sleeping through the night, every night, except for Sunday when he got up at 4:30 for a real quick feeding. His bedtime is usually between 7-8pm and then I wake him up right before I go to bed, pump and give him 4 more oz (usually 10:30pm). He’ll then wake up around 7am. We’ve settled into a good routine and schedule and its working well for him. 90 minutes max. of awake time no matter how long his last nap was and the swaddle is the main cue so he knows its time to sleep. He barely even uses a pacifier. I was trying to only feed immediately following a nap so he’s not nursing all the time or associating food with a soothing method to sleep. So far so good! But we all know with babies, once you figure anything out they’ll throw a wrench in there.

He is really such a sweet baby. I was really anticipating this whole two babies under a year apart thing to be a lot harder then it is. Don’t get me wrong the first few weeks I was on my own were rough, but now that Nolan’s on a schedule and learned to self soothe to sleep, and Nathan’s used to more independent play, along with the entire house baby proofed, I’m not as overwhelmed. Besides laundry – I think I might be doing 12-14 loads of laundry a week average, not including Jeremiah’s. I’m not sure how I got so lucky with two happy, healthy, and fairly easy boys. We’ve been blessed.

Rocking his baby. No really. He rocks the swing back and forth when Nolan is in it. So sweet.

Nathan is getting to be a sweetheart with Nolan as well. We still watch him like a hawk around the little guy. Mostly because Nathan really really really wants to touch an eyeball. However, he is starting to listen and understand to be easy with the baby mostly. He did come over today while I was nursing and smack Nolan a few times on the head pretty hard before I could stop him. They were def. not attempts to pat him, but frustration hits. He’ll get his from Nolan soon enough I’m sure. The funny thing I’ve realized watching him grow is how ingrained certain things are. We have 2 orchids on the living room table and Nathan knows not to touch them, but if he comes over while I’m sitting and I don’t give him the attention he wants or don’t pick him up, he’ll start screaming ‘na, na, na, na, na’ and turn around and smack the orchids while looking at me. It’s like he gets mad at me and takes it out on the flowers since he knows I don’t want him to touch them. It is so hard not to crack a smile and laugh when he does it though… Ha!

On another note, I’d had cake on the brain for the last week. I saw this cake and felt I just had to try it out but in a three tiered version. I ended up not using her cake or icing recipe as 1) cake is easy to make whichever way you usually do it and 2) Jeremiah likes plain buttercream, is not a fan of meringue, and I wasn’t about to put lemon extract in this and have him not eat any like he did with my Easter champagne cupcakes (I loved them – so light and airy, but they also ended up in garbage for fear I might consume them all).

Anyway, this was a project and took the better part of an entire afternoon to make all 18 layers. I did learn I needed more batter since the cakes were too thin and I couldn’t level them well. Nicole and Danell came over and it really was worth it to see Nicole’s face when she cut open the cake and saw the coloured layers. So cute!

If anyone tries this though, it’s easier to pick up the cake with cake rounds on either side or paper plates and roll it (press down, rotate, press down, rotate, and so on) sideways in a pan of sprinkles then trying to pat them on. The bottom layer was patted and the top two rolled, which came out much better.

I’ll end this post with a picture of Nathan eating breakfast. The child loves Shakira’s music video ‘Hips Don’t Lie’. He will not move an inch or break a glance away when I put it on. He simply opens and closes his mouth as the food is presented to him.I guess it starts young huh? Her dancing is quite riveting.

The Name of the Game Is Sleep

We are finally starting to get into the groove here at the house. It was a tough transition after all the grandmothers/great aunts/aunt left. I was at high anxiety and with the night wakings, my patience was shot. After a few days of Nolan being a terror to get down for naps, I did some reading and realized he really shouldn’t be up more then 90 minutes. It’s funny how quickly you forget things and I only just went through this all with Nathan less then a year ago!

So this was the resource I used to refresh my memory on infant sleep patterns, needs, etc.

Nolan usually shows signs of sleepiness somewhere around 1 hour after waking. If I catch the right period, he is easy to get down for a nap with minimal to no fussing. If we miss the window it’s tough. Jeremiah gets him down with the patting/rubbing him down into a drowsy state in the bassinet then we’d leave him. We would let him fuss at that point for up to 5-6 minutes, and then reenter and soothe back down, rinse, and repeat. It works fairly well as long as he is not way overtired. We got another little one that rarely falls asleep in your arms. I also don’t believe in nursing to sleep and try not to do it, though I’ve given in a few times over the last few weeks and tried that. It doesn’t do the trick for him anyway, so that is probably a blessing in disguise. Overall, I have noticed his night sleep has gotten better since we’ve let him cry/fuss a bit to sleep during the day. It could just be he is getting older or maybe it does have to do with him learning slowly how to self soothe.

We also moved the bassinet out of our room last week and into Nathan’s “Big Boy Dr. Seuss” room. As long as Nolan can stay in the bassinet (another month), we’ll probably stick with keeping Nathan in the crib/nursery. Most likely after the baptism, it’ll be time to try transitioning Nathan into the other room and a mattress and moving Nolan to the crib.

I’ve had a lot of ppl offer to help/watch Nathan/etc, but the most frustrating part of taking care of the two kids is the mornings- As in first thing in the morning. Having broken sleep, and waking up to hearing crying just makes me mad right away. I simply don’t feel like I can breathe until I’ve brushed my teeth, changed, and coffee. Until those three things happen, I’m basically a very pissed off person. Sometimes these things are easy to do, sometimes it’s an hour or two before I can accomplish what is seemingly a 5 minute total set of things. Kids…

It’s always different so you just never know either. For example, yesterday morning sucked. Nolan was up at 3am and didn’t go back down till 5ish – highly unusual and highly frustrating. After the 4th time I got up, walked to the room to burp and soothe him, came back to bed just for him to start wailing 10 minutes later, I was upset and let out a scream in bed. Jeremiah’s response to calm down and let the child cry it out certainly did little to help. Unfortunately, we see things a bit different in regard to crying it out. I don’t mind letting a baby fuss and cry for a period of time, and generally you can tell the difference between their wails by this point, but I’m never going to be OK with letting them scream bloody murder to a point of panting or getting hysterical, especially so young. However, crying does not hurt them, nor do I think it will make them unable to bond, or turn them into psychopaths later . Nathan was sleeping through the night at 6 weeks, so I think Jer thinks Nolan should be as well. Kids are different though and their needs will also differ. Anyway, Nolan finally fell asleep and so did I. Jeremiah was very quiet in the morning so as not to wake anybody and hopefully let me sleep in a bit.

This didn’t quite work out as planned. Usually Nathaniel wakes up when he hears Jeremiah and Jeremiah has been amazing about taking on all the morning stuff with Nathan since I was pregnant. Monday to Thursday, he generally makes the bottle (sippy cup now – he’s on sippy cups 100% of the time now – yay!), changes him, and makes sure he is happy in the playyard before going to work around 7:15. And makes coffee! -can’t forget that. So this morning Nathan slept in. I opened my eyes around 7:45 wondering what was going on and why the house was so quiet. Immediately I hear Nolan start to cry. I get up to head to get him and hear Nathan in the crib making noises. Ok, I’m thinking maybe Nathan will play in there for 15minutes while I feed the baby. I grab Nolan, stick him on the boob. In that 1 minute, Nathan starts screaming. I’m thinking no problem, he can wait, no big deal. Nathan’s crying starts turning into furious wailing. After about 5 minutes I’m getting upset, so put Nolan down thinking maybe he’s had enough to keep it together 5 minutes and I can grab Nathan. Nolan starts screaming. I race to get milk, grab nathan, and shove him the bottle. He’s so upset by now, he pitches it across the room, and keeps wailing. I’m starting to get at the end of my wits by now with all the screaming in the house, having to pee, feeling overwhelmed, and think I need to move faster. I hold Nathan down to change his diaper and he’d pooped (not usual until midmorning). He’s still bawling and now I’m pissed cleaning him off, still hearing the baby crying in the background. Nathan’s getting so mad he’s grabbing down there and obviously gets a handful of poop. OMG. I about lost it. I changed him, grabbed the sippy cup from the floor, went back to the living room, put Nathan in the playyard, grabbed Nolan and started breastfeeding again. Not even 3 minutes later, Nathan had sucked down all the milk, throws the bottle at me and starts crying his head off again. I start crying. I put Nolan down to him starting up wailing again, grab the sippy cup and get more milk for Nathan. Hand it to him as he’s standing up screaming at me. He flings it and continues crying. I lost it. I screamed. Poor Nathan went silent and that little bottom lip starting trembling and he starting gasping as he attempted to hold in his crys. Lord, did I feel bad. I hopped in the playyard, grabbed the sippy and gave it to him and he starting drinking it while sniffling so sadly. I sat down and started feeding Nolan again. About 10 minutes in, Nathan’s little face peaked up with a massive smile on his face. I smiled back and he started laughing hysterically. SMH The rest of the day was fine and manageable. Nolan can be put in the swing happily after eating and a diaper change so I got it together. I’d been working on Nolan for the last few weeks, getting him used to not being held 24-7. He really is such a good baby. Mrs. Kelly (neighbor) came over around 11am and we easily tag teamed the boys in the afternoon, getting some wallpaper stripped and the poor plants watered finally.

So that was yesterday morning and it sucked, but then we have days like today. I’d woken Nolan up to eat yesterday around 9 and he’d gone right down after a diaper change and burp easy peasy. He slept the entire night! I feel like a new human being now. I woke up at 6am when Nolan woke up. Jeremiah was up and brought him to me so I could nurse him and maybe snooze off a little. Nathan woke up and Jeremiah got him up and ready to go while I changed the little one. Nathan woke up in a whiny and bad mood, but I was able to change, brush my teeth, make the coffee and pump all before 7:30am! Amazing. Nolan’s been going down for naps like a champ today and Nathan’s been in a hysterically good mood after an impromptu catnap this morning. We had our friends Katie and little Garrison over. I can’t believe how funny Nathan thinks Garrison is and spent a good 1/2 hour just laughing his head off when they got here.

Oh yes, and there are plenty of sweet moments that occur even on the worst days. Yesterday, aka, morning of hell, after I’d put Nolan in the swing, Nathan would go over to say hi quite a bit (We’ve been working with him to understand the words ‘easy’ and ‘gentle’, as he has a tendency to want to poke the baby in the eye or bop him on the head really hard). I looked over to tell him to be easy as he went over for the 10th time and I see Nolan break into a massive grin looking straight at his big brother. Too cute.

Then today, I took Nolan into the playyard with Nathan and was lightly burping him when Nathan came and started to try to burp the baby as well. He was being really gentle too. So sweet.

As I think about the last few weeks, it’s been quite hard … and frustrating.

Jeremiah told me yesterday that Nathan was like him, always happy go lucky, while Nolan is like me, a bit sour faced. I was pretty quick to retort back that I’ve always been happy and optimistic if he remember back to before we had kids. As he told me it didn’t seem that way anymore, I again reminded him that 90% of the kid’s care taking is on me and being sleep deprived is not usually conducive to a happy demeanor. How odd though. I would never have ever dreamed I’d be termed as pessimistic or unhappy. Something to thing about anyway.

Mind you, though I couldn’t fall asleep until 12 last night, getting 6 straight hours of sleep has me in a very very VERY good mood today. Nathan slept through the night starting around 6 weeks and i certainly didn’t expect to get so lucky twice around. However, if Nolan can go all night from 9pm to 6am on his own without eating once, he can certainly do it again. I can only hope and maybe we’ll be sleep training a bit earlier then expected since he’s capable.

A day at a time.

How we ended up with so many toys, I’ll never figure out.

Happy Easter!

Not much to say. Nolan is sleeping well and doing better during the day. He’s down usually around 1o-11pm, up at 3ish, and then again 6:30 for a bit. Nathan is doing his thing being a busy bee, getting into everything. He is starting to really express frustration when toys or things don’t go his way, but all in all part of the learning process. Me? I’m tired. Nothing new. Jeremiah seems to be doing well- Happy, content, busy, SLEEPING WELL. Ya, I might be a bit bitter.

Big boy on our hands

Hellloooo Ladies (ahem ahem Elsa and Liliana )

The duckies are now out of the house and in the new caged in play pen Jeremiah built. Notice we somehow got 2 more in the process.

I feel like both boys look more like jeremiah then me

Kissy kissy face

Nathan’s new favorite activity, eating and tearing up paper towels/paper

Mommy gets some lovin too.I realized with Nathan I had so few pics with him (feeling all gross and postpartum and such, then preggo again) and am trying to make sure I get some at each stage with Nolan now.

The boys at lunch, following Easter Sunday church, at the Kelly’s

Nolan’s gonna kill Nathan later for all these bops to the head

Hey silly goose

My first attempt at getting a happy birthday pic for my dad

Followed by…

Finally got a decent one, but Nolan had to be in charge of the sign.

My little booger of a boy

Nathan had his first haircut before his 1st birthday, but since it was getting a bit long.

I thought Jeremiah was only trimming the bangs…

Lord help me. He ruined my son’s hair.

Well that’s a week in our life. Exciting stuff huh?

Oh how babies grow

This post has about a million pics, but i’ve tried to caption each one.

Nolan- all wrapped up and looking gorgeous (in my bias opinion) He is so cuter then Nathan was at the same age.

ammachi (grandma) giving his first bath

Nathan trying out his old swing

Already giving the world the bird

but still giving mommy some sweet smiles early on

The entire visit, Nathaniel was with Aunt Ellie and Nolan in Aunt Marsha’s arms

One of the few times Aunt Marsha let Grandma hold him

By the end of the week, it was Mommy Marsha! The child lived in her arms

but Nathaniel got lots of grandma lovin

The closest Nathan has ever gotten to giving a kiss

Nolan was still enjoying his naps all day long

Nathan’s first time eating cake
(more like icing)

We had appacha visiting just for someone’s big birthday party!

attention and love 100% of the time

Nathan at his first friend’s birthday party. Garrison is 1!

Wearing his new clothes from his Grandpap Walter

Checking out the new orange trees

Hanging out with Aunty Alicia

Some lovin from daddy

Daddy brought home baby ducklings as an early Easter present

Nathan can’t touch them but he loves to bang on the cage and scare them into a frenzy. Poor things.

1 week later. These things really do grow like weeds

Little guys smiling big now

Nathan tuckered out from being ignored in the cage

Hanging out at the pond/beach with Mrs. Kelly

Nolan’s lounging like a champ

Loving the heavy equipment to check out at the Kelly’s

Wheels!

The smiles seem to only happen after breakfast so far.

Heading over to eat gravel

Learning to drive the jeep

Boxes are for playing, toys are for watching mommy clean.

I love milk!

Irish Twins

In honour of St Patrick’s Day, a day that no longer passes with alcohol, friends or fun (thanks husband and kids!), and their Irish heritage…

You know your a mom of Irish Twins when…

1) Date squares brought over by a neighbor. Breakfast Of CHAMPIONS!

2) You may actually shit your pants. Guaranteed any time you go to the bathroom one child will start screaming or wake up. GUARANTEED.

3) You find yourself so desperate to pump in the morning, you stand up by the bassinet, nightgown lifted, stretched out patting the baby with one hand, and pumping a boob with the other.

4) Your 1 year old gets a macaroon tossed into their playpen in the morning for breakfast.

5) Your 1 year old has spent up to an hour and a half in the high chair waiting to be spoon fed or given something besides puffs thrown down every now and again.

6) Go to a birthday party, take pictures of all the kids with your phone, proceed to put the phone back in the zippered compartment of the diaper bag, not realize it, and then have everyone at the end of the party look through the trash, your car, the parking lot, the gifts, everything, looking for the ‘lost’ iphone. Come home without phone and your husband feels you up in case your so out of it, its actually in a pocket. Husband then finds said phone in the diaper bag. The same diaper bag which you emptied out numerous times to check at the party. Apologize to one year old’s mom profusely. Awesome!

7) Your one year old will be teething, in pain, irritable, and generally difficult as soon as all the help is gone.

8) Your husband asks what that smell is. Then leans over and sniffs the bedsheets. Sour milk, spit up, and your one year old’s bottled milk remnants anyone?

9) Your so hormonal the first while you bawl constantly, because this, this is not fun.

10) Your new born will always wake up when your one year old goes down for a nap. EVERYTIME.

11) Your newborn will go down for a nap minutes before the one year old wakes up, giving you no alone time or nap time.

12) The breast pump might be talking to you, ‘one more ounce, one more ounce, one more ounce’

13) Speaking of which, you were so scared of not having enough breastmilk for the new baby, the freezer is filled to the brim with the more then 300 ounces of frozen milk and you now feed the one year old breast milk again. Regression and guilt much? (Though it is through a bottle and is cheaper then goat milk or formula).

14) Secretly think that things will really never change, even though YOU KNOW they will.

15) Beat your husband up so bad over 14), he wants to kill himself.

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Funny huh?

Nolan thinks so too