Life updates

It's time for some random life updates.

1. I'm now (emotionally) able to leave my kids to do fun stuff!

When Dalton was 3 weeks old, I went to the new mom support group at the hospital where I delivered. I met two fellow new moms who became close friends.

Most recent playdate

When the kids were still tiny enough that we counted their age in weeks, we talked about one day, when we were ready to leave them, we would have our own mommy date, just adults.

Just under 2.5 years and two more friends later, it finally happened!

It involved amazing food, pedicures, and of course, day drinking. And do you see my bare legs? It was 70 degrees in February! To make it even better, it was bookended with a run with Lily in the morning, and yoga with Casi in the evening. 

Speaking of my mom group - the five of us pictured above all just booked trips to Punta Cana this summer! Hope, the gorgeous redhead on the far right, is getting married. Guess how many kids are going on this trip? ZERO. 

2. Here's an average Saturday night for me. 

The kids were starving and had dinner at 4pm, so my dinner ended up being a sandwich I ate like an hour later when I was "finally" hungry while spotting Royce climb up the stairs - his latest obsession. Dalton was doing his best to make sure he tested every single rule or request we had the nerve to impose on him. And then Royce started fussing, and Dalton exclaimed "oh, Royce!" and stopped what he was doing to bend down and kiss his hand over and over while saying "shh, shh". He just melts me. Then they went to bed at 7 and I went to bed at 8.

Having children totally didn't change my lifestyle.

Royce just wants to hang with big bro. Also he climbed there on his own.

3. I signed up for a race!

Motivation is hard, so I signed up for a $10 ten miler in April. I did 5.25 today and it...wasn't easy. Wish me luck.

4.While we still have some time, Royce's first birthday (May 6) is in sight. 

I can't believe it, but it's true. The other day, I took a sticker sheet away from him, and he gave me the angriest face and immediately started angry crying and trying to reach it. I was kind of taken aback for a moment, like...what are you doing? You were just born, who do you think you are being a real person, expressing actual thoughts and desires? In my mind, the first year of parenting a child, you get off relatively easy: you have one job. Keep the kid alive. After a year...the actual parenting begins. It's time to try to mold them into a non-asshole, decent member of society. And in my limited experience so far - that's a lot harder. Like, a lot.

He's now 18 pounds, climbing the entire staircase, often standing without assistance, and still the happiest sweetest little guy in the world. 

5. Sort of related to #4 - I've been working on weaning off the pump at work.

I should be thrilled beyond belief, but instead I'm weirdly sad about it. Logically, I know that we can, and hopefully will, continue to nurse for a while, but it still seems like the beginning of the end. On weekends, we are down to 4 times a day (morning, before each nap, and bedtime) and if we are not in his darkened room with the noise machine, forget it. With the nice warm weather lately, we've been hitting some of our favorite outdoor places, and it just seemed like yesterday I was there in July, trying to figure out how to keep track of Dalton while also constantly nursing a newborn. But now, I set Royce down and he's off trying to keep up with his brother. Of course, it's wonderful watching him grow up and he's so much more fun now, but it's bittersweet. For 9 months, he was literally a part of me, then for the next 6 months, he was entirely dependent on me for sustenance, and then practically overnight it feels like he's completely independent and doesn't need me. Obviously he's not ready to move to his own apartment next week or anything, but, still.

Brand new baby pic from the hospital because I can never get enough of those.

6. Toddler growth

Obviously the first year is full of changes, so it's easy for me to focus on how much Royce has grown. But when I think about how much Dalton has changed since Royce was born, it blows my mind just as much.

How I found him when I went to get him this morning.

This past summer, Dalton started early intervention speech therapy. Around when Royce was born (Dalton was 19 months), we kept a list of words for his evaluation, and he had 15 that he used consistently, 3 of which were signs, not spoken words. And, honestly, he wasn't even using most of those that consistently, enough that we recognized them but not on a daily basis or anything. He didn't say mama or dada or repeat any sounds that we made. Now, he speaks in full sentences. The other day, he said to me "I hear a firetruck outside". That really drove home just how much progress he's made. He loves fire trucks, and one of his most consistent words before beginning early intervention was yelling "fire!" whenever he heard a siren. 

His teacher now believes he is on par with his age level peers, and we could not love having conversations with him any more. I'm sure I'll get plenty sick of hearing "mommy!" but it's a pretty recent development in our house, and it's still music to my ears. 

Everything now is "I do it!!" and he becomes furious if we attempt to do anything for him, like buckle him into the carseat. He insists on choosing his own outfits, so my glory days of choosing cute things for him to wear are over for the time being. I thought I had longer. The other day, I left him watching Mickey while I went upstairs to take a quick shower. The next thing I know, he's in my bed, announcing "I eat jello, Mommy!". He found a leftover jello from when Eric got his wisdom teeth out somewhere in the fridge, opened it, got himself a spoon from the drawer (the drawer that is higher than his head and has a child lock), and climbed into bed to enjoy his jello. 

This guy.

I think I say every single age is my favorite, but seriously, 9 months and almost 2.5 are really, really fun. I'm still excited to go on our tropical vacation, though. 

Adventures in parenting: The Mickey Bed

We are flying through milestones here.

Pulled himself up on the landing and climbed the stairs. NBD.

As I've mentioned, since birth, sleeping has never quite been Dalton's forte. Now climbing - that's an area he has always excelled at. We never bothered with a ton of baby proofing, because he's too smart (#notbiased). Eric taught him to dismount feet first as a baby, and he's been found at shocking heights and places ever since. Parents of small children likely see where this is going.

We knew our time in the crib was limited, and, as selfish parents, we wanted it to last as long as humanly possible. One saving grace for us was that Dalton is on the shorter side. Even that was just a brief obstacle for him though. He started climbing out of the crib when we went in to get him in the morning, but only while we were there. Then he started climbing in and out for funsies during the day randomly. We were still hoping we had until at least the summer in the crib. Then, on Saturday, Royce was napping and Dalton was having quiet time in his crib (once in awhile he will nap, but mainly cry/play/talk to himself). Eric and I were hanging out and then we heard a huge thump, followed by screaming. Eric ran in and Dalton met him at the door - completely fine, just scared. 

At first we were like....ok, let's start looking at beds. I should mention that this was a super late "nap" time, because we'd been busy building at Home Depot and seeing the fish at the aquarium all day. 

FOCUS

Always with the hat.

By the time this all happened, it was like 4:30 pm. I did a little googling, found that the Babies R Us near our house had Mickey beds on sale and in stock and that was that. 

I ran out to pick up the bed. Dalton met me at the door yelling "bring Mickey bed?!?". He was so excited.

Trying to drag it to his room.

Meanwhile, Eric was at Dalton's door, realizing the crib wouldn't fit through the door frame. Off to a great start.

Because I am exceptionally dumb, back when I was pregnant with Dalton and even more clueless than I am now, I put a mini crib on my baby registry. I didn't even know mini cribs existed. I would go over to friend's houses and their cribs would seem so much bigger, but I was always like oh it must be how the room is arranged or the paint color or something. DUMB. It actually worked out that we moved up our second baby plan several years (#impulsebaby) because we needed another crib anyway that was big enough for a toddler. I got a free hand me down crib from a local mom exchange group. Except it was one of those drop side ones that are now right up there with crib bumpers in terms of how much you love your baby (if you own it, you don't). Eric rigged up a system of some sort of tools and duct tape so Dalton couldn't drop the side, and all was well. 

Until now. The plan was: take apart the mini crib that Royce was currently using, move the jerry rigged your parents don't love you hand me down crib into Royce's room as his new crib, and move Dalton into the Mickey bed. Immediately, if not sooner, because it was already bedtime.

Calling in reinforcements

Dalton insisted HE had to examine the directions.

Eventually Eric managed to McGuyver the crib apart, get the pieces to Royce's room, and Royce went to sleep with the original mini crib in the center of the room surrounded by new crib pieces. Dalton's bed was complete around 9pm. He was super excited to check it out. 

Will never sleep without his fishies (sea soother).

For the first night, Eric sat in the rocking chair until Dalton fell asleep, but he pretty much laid down in bed and ignored him. Of course, it was 9pm. He woke up a couple times and cried for a minute but fell back asleep on his own very quickly.

Seeing a giant Mickey on the monitor freaks me out.

It's been a week now, and so far so good - it seemed too easy! I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, truly. After our impulsive switch, I realized our timing was dumb because Eric had 3 basketball games to coach that week, so once the weekend was over I was solo for bedtime until Friday. I won't lie, I was scared. But we just kept his bedtime routine exactly the same, and everything was fine! So even if it goes downhill now once he figures out he actually CAN leave the bed on his own, basketball season is over so I have backup.

I got a little choked up looking around his room Sunday morning. I feel like he was JUST a tiny baby, but his room was now completely void of baby supplies.

Dresser no longer a changing table.

And our little Royce is now 9 months old! Less than 3 months out from his first birthday. Hold me.

COME BACK AND LOVE ME.

And that's the story of the bed.

Outside as long as in

In the blink of an eye, Royce has now been on the outside as long as he was in. 

I can't stand it.

I took this selfie less than an hour before my water broke! 

I truly can't believe how fast it's gone. He was born at exactly 39 weeks, and has now been out here, making us all smile, for exactly 39 weeks. (He will be 9 months Monday for those, like me, who don't feel like doing complicated mental math.)

Snap chatted a couple days before he arrived - my last prego pic. Can't believe he ever fit in there!

He's such a big boy. His first tooth finally popped through this week, after the most agonizingly (for me, maybe a little for him) slow movement up from his gums. 

No babies were harmed in the taking of this tooth photo.

As I've said, he's a man on the move. While I may get a couple minutes to hold him if I'm lucky, he's no longer content to just snuggle. He wants to be on the floor, crawling around, investigating his surroundings. He even climbed the entire staircase from the basement to the kitchen the other day!

Watch out world.

As I'm guessing is typical with second children, he always fools me because he seems like such a little baby. With Dalton, he is always going to seem so big, because every age he hits is a new horizon for me. And Royce has always seemed so tiny, because my basis of comparison is a two year old. I find myself shocked when I realize he's old enough to participate in reading books, or use a toy, or demonstrates that he understands what I'm saying - in my mind, he's just a brand new teeny baby! 

He will be this size forever in my mind.

And maybe he is, but he's no longer just a sleeping, eating, pooping lump - he's a real person, participating in the world he lives in.

Clapping at Wegmans, as we all do.

Example: sippy cups. We got rid of the bottles kind of early with Dalton, and just sent his milk to daycare in sippy cups once he was ready. It made the transition to cow's milk at a year pretty easy, so I hoped to do the same with Royce. We gave him one with a little water with dinner for like two months before he realized it served a purpose and was able to get the water out. I suddenly realized that if I was going to follow the same plan, I needed to switch him over entirely like, now. He still seemed so young though and I thought I must have gotten my dates wrong, and Dalton was older when we ditched the bottles. But nope, I know I packed up all the bottles when my niece was born, and Dalton was only 9.5 months then. So now - Royce is also done with bottles, and he just drinks from a cup at daycare. (Of course, I have yet to pack them all up, I was more on top of things with two kids). I'll never miss washing bottles, but it still makes me a little sad - one more mark of babyhood packed away. 

Cool story bro, right?

In other news, he's smart and crafty. As I posted on instagram, he had himself a little snack party in his crib the other night. When I woke him up to nurse before daycare today, I couldn't figure out why he smelled SO strongly of coconut oil. I brought him over to get him dressed, and found the little dish of coconut oil that we keep on the changing table upside down in his crib - almost empty. 

It was full before!

Then I figured out exactly where the smell was coming from - it was on his breath! He must have stood up in his crib in the middle of the night, got the oil, eaten it (since I couldn't find any anywhere), and gone back to sleep without ever waking us up. Tell me that's not crazy. 

Not that I should be surprised. Here's what I found after getting Royce out of his high chair (which takes - 20 seconds?) while I thought Dalton was absorbed in an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

On the counter. Note the knife right in front of him.

Speaking of Dalton, he's just chugging along with the growing as well. He will be 2 and a half next month, even though he just turned two 5 minutes ago. I want to just write down every single thing he says because he's hilarious (to his parents). When we ask him to do something, he says "sure". If he bumps into Royce, he says "sorry Royce" and gives him a hug. The other day Royce was crawling in the kitchen and he started yelling "mommy!!! Royce, oven!! Hot!!". He had to save his brother! He almost never naps anymore at home (at daycare he does, go figure), his response to us trying to do anything for him (example: dress him) is "I do it!", he's obsessed with cleaning (in fact, after he puked that night he threw up some pedialyte and just said "oh! messy!" and grabbed a baby wipe and tried to clean it up) and I don't remember the last meal I cooked that he didn't help out with.

Helping my mom with the Vegetti!

In other random news, Dalton and I got stomach flu, and he massively shamed me with his attitude. Here's the scene: it's Tuesday night around 11. I had one of those horrible moments when you wake up and sprint directly to the toilet to puke. As I'm helplessly vomiting, I hear Dalton crying downstairs, and I just knew. By the time I finally recovered enough to move, Royce was crying too. I nursed him back to sleep while Eric was attempting to clean puke from all over Dalton's room. After both having been woken up by the immediate need to vomit, Dalton and I reacted very differently.

Him: Running around the house, laughing, asking to watch Mickey, chugging Pedialyte, generally finding it wonderful and thrilling that Eric and I were both up to hang out with him (in his mind) during the night

Me: weeping in the fetal position on the couch

My kid knows how to boot and rally. He's not one to let minor inconveniences like stomach flu get him down. Me? I basically left this planet for 24 hours. It was a tough time, but the silver lining was that by the time it was all over, I was totes skinny.

It's hard to get non blurry pictures of him these days!

A few stats on my boys:

Dalton:

Weight: 28 pounds, based on my friend's scale
Clothes: 2T, although they fall off his lack of a butt
Sleep: Fights it to the death. No nap, would stay awake for 3 days straight if left to his own devices, we force him in his crib between 7-8pm, and wake him for daycare around 6:45. He does not appreciate this. He's been waking up crying at night a lot lately and ending up sleeping on the floor with Eric. No clue why.



Eats: All the things. Possibly being enrolled in Yogurt Addicts Anonymous. Enjoys spicy food, which is unexpected for a 2 year old.
Potty training: Like sleep, I hesitate to speak of this when it's going well, but after a full two months, I'm starting to suspect I may not have to pack diapers next to the shower caddy in his dorm room.
Likes: All vehicles, current favorite is trains, Mickey, his brother, Elmo, books, painting, attempting to dress himself, brushing his teeth (no clue why but I'm riding that wave as long as I can), running wind sprints (his current favorite game).
Dislikes: typical two year old stuff - basically any time an adult enforces rules/makes him do things for his own good, including, but not limited to: going to sleep, getting in the car seat, turning off the TV, personal hygiene

Royce:

Weight: 17 pounds over Christmas break
Clothes: 9-12 months, still fits in some 6 month
Sleep: 2 naps a day in the crib or sometimes the car on the weekends, goes down for the night 6:30-7. Rarely now nurses to sleep/falls asleep in my arms. Cue tears. He generally prefers being put in the crib to go to sleep on his own. I'm very superstitious about jinxing things so right now let's just say sleep doesn't suck.

Dalton always asks for Royce in his crib with him!

Eats: All the things. Obsessed with solids, like his brother, including spicy food. We've now given him everything except honey, and he just eats whatever we are eating for dinner (example: tonight white chicken chili). I put it on his tray, making sure it's in small-ish pieces, and he feeds himself. He also figured out pouches (during stomach flu 2017 crisis in our house, he was the only one eating, so I called a pouch dinner for him). He nurses before and after daycare, before bed and usually once at night, and gets 8oz of breast milk at daycare. I'm still pumping twice a day at work, but stopping at
6-7 oz hoping to slowly phase it out and use my freezer stash to make it to a year.
Potty: Diapers, you know, not much to share, he dirties them, we change them
Likes: Crawling, pulling up, attempting to eat everything on the floor, attempting to do whatever his brother is doing, toys with buttons/lights/music, peekaboo, humpty dumpty, itsy bitsy spider - basically everything makes this guy smile
Dislikes: very little - taking things away from him (generally dangerous things), when he falls and bumps his head (although even that often doesn't even make him cry), being out of food

And that's that - here's to another glorious 9 months and beyond with these cuties!