G'n'R Out West

Just a few days short of 4 weeks and the dude is giving us his first smiles.

Simon was getting checked over by our midwife (by the way he is now 10 lbs 9 ounces).  He gave his first smile to Kimberly, then the next day Adelle got one, and now we’ve all had some.  They aren’t easy to get, but we are having lots of fun trying to convince him to share more with us!

So far we haven’t figured out how to get a picture of him smiling…but hopefully we’ll get one soon.

Well, Greg pulled a few strings and managed to convince Santa to come a few days early.  Adelle wasn’t really sure what to think of Christmas, she knows who Santa is…and had heard some rumours…but wasn’t certain what all the fuss was about.

The night before our fake Christmas we were at a party with a number of other kids (mostly older than Adelle).  They were very loud, and Adelle was torn between hanging out with the safety of the adults and being with the kids.  Each time we went up to check on her she was usually observing, and generally decided to come back down with us…but then 10 minutes of listening to the giggles and screams and she’d be back upstairs with the kids again. 

I find it so cool to be somewhere with kids and adults now that Adelle is older.  I still have pretty vivid memories of being the kid at those kinds of events and wondering why the adults were having such boring conversations and then having to deal with the injustice of being in a room with no adults to witness the older kids picking on me.  Now I am the adult having the boring conversation….and Adelle the little kid scared and facinated by the big kids.

Simon, of course, was his regular high needs self, all cuddling and watching people quietly.  He is so easy…he makes me feel like the best parent ever. 

Christmas morning everybody was very tired.  Adelle woke up just around 6am…but came into bed with the rest of us and all four of us slept all snuggled up until 8am.  It was such a dream.  It is so wonderful to wake up to your whole snugly family all well rested and happy.  I can’t think of a better start to a family day. 

Adelle was really excited when we told her we thought Santa had come.  She was very keen to get downstairs and couldn’t believe all the gifts under the tree.  She had such a great time opening everything up.  It is so fun to give her little treats and surprises now, she just can’t contain her excitement. 

After our present opening, we went over to see Adelle’s friend Blake (and his family) for brunch.  The kids goofed off while adults visited again, it was lovely.  In the evening we had my cousins over for a family dinner.  Aidan is just a year old now, and Adelle just adores him….so she was thrilled to have yet another playmate.  I think she’s had a good couple of days.

Simon is doing really well, he was substantially less intrigued by Christmas, but he does enjoy looking at the tree.  We are having lots of fun with him now.  It seems as though he is really starting to see us finally.  He seems to know me now and so will rarely root on Greg…which makes it much more difficult to know when he is hungry, unless I am the one holding him.  He can tell me from others…but so far can’t discriminate between my nose and my boob….So he’s advanced…but perhaps it is a little too early to declare him a genius.

Adelle in her new glasses…we broke a few this summer, and the last time she broke a pair I decided she’d be waiting until Christmas for a new pair…hopefully she will be a little more careful with these.

A few days ago Simon had a terrible morning, I never did figure out what his problem was.  He screamed at me for a good hour…and then fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.  He was all floppy and it was impossible to wake him up once he finally gave in…he looked so miffed at me while he slept that I just had to take a picture.

The temperature really dropped this weekend.  We went from near zero…to below -20.   And lucky for us, our furnace broke!  Saturday morning I woke up and noticed it was a little chilly. I check the thermostat and it was reading 14.5.  Now I know as well as the next person that my husband is cheap - but last I checked even he didn’t turn the heat down that much at night!

After making a few calls Greg finally found somebody that was able to come and help us out.  We had the privilege of paying this person 150$ just to ring our doorbell on Saturday morning.  10 hours, lots of consultation, a few new furnace parts, and 1600$ later - we have a working furnace. 

Good times!

Anyway, the kids and I spent most of the day out while Greg tried to keep warm and encourage the work to get done quickly, while doing lots of Internet searching trying to ensure we weren’t getting too overcharged. 

We had a fun day out full of dance class, a lazy lunch with dance friends and finally going to our friend Shannon’s house where a few of our friends got together to celebrate little Simon’s arrival.  It was fun to show off our little dude…We arrived home Saturday night to find a toasty warm house…we were so happy.  Greg says he is returning everybody’s Christmas presents to pay for the new furnace.

Here is the little dude, as stressed out as ever – just after a delicious snack.  Everybody at the party yesterday agreed that hanging out with Simon makes you feel like a super star of a parent since he is always so happy.

Our little girl in her fancy snowsuit that makes her look like she is ready to summit Everest.  We did some shoveling together this week…the little guy was all tucked away in a sling under my jacket…as per usual he was very agreeable to the situation.

…or at least packing on the pound.

Today we took Simon to the lactation consultant (I’m still having nursing issues). They weighed him and he is 1 entire pound heavier than when we first met him. He is one day shy of two weeks old and the milestone they look for at two weeks is that baby is back to their birth weight. Simon is a star.

I had also been noticing that he seemed much less interested in nursing then Adelle was. She would often nurse for an entire hour, and it would be near impossible to hold her off for more than an hour in between feedings. With Simon, I feel like I hardly nurse him. At the appointment Simon got weighed both before and after his feeding. He nursed for only 7 minutes, and only took one side before giving VERY clear signs he was done. In that 7 min he had gotten 100 grams of milk…this is considered a full serving and the doctor told me it often takes infants an hour to get this quantity. So there is no wonder he is putting on weight so fast.

After having one baby it is easy to think you are an expert…obviously I have no clue what I am doing, as this baby is NOTHING like Adelle. It is so fun to see how different they are.

Adelle seemed to recover very quickly from her illness.  We had a quiet few days and then got back into the swing of things and had a fabulous weekend…Greg had Friday off, so we got to spend three whole days together as a family.  It was wonderful.

However, yesterday morning she reported to us that she had a sore stomach…and an hour later she puked.  She perked up after an hour and there have been no signs of illness since.

In between her two ill days we’ve had loads of fun. On Saturday morning Adelle was thrilled to discover a Christmas Tree right there in her very own house.  I think she might like Christmas even more than her dad does!

The little guy is doing as fabulous as ever.   He seems to have recovered from his little illness and is just as easy as the day we met him.  Last night he slept for 6 hours straight…and I found myself waking him to eat again.  I’m not a big proponent of that, but you get to a point where it just feels so wrong to let them sleep.  I think he is the baby they wrote all the books about.  Every parenting tip I have ever heard of to stop a baby from crying works on him.  He has started to have more awake time and makes some fun faces.  We are all just so taken with him.  He is so wonderful.

Adelle is still adoring him.  She has really found a place in this family as a big sister.   The doctor recently asked her what her name was.  Her response was:  ’the big sister’.  She cracks me up.  Of course, she doesn’t always understand everything that people ask her.  Just the other day I asked her what her favorite colour was.  Her response: ‘a hippopotamus’…so unless I’ve missed something and she is so sophisticated that she is talking about a unique shade of grey, I am sure she still occasionally has no clue what adults are talking about!

Last night at midnight Adelle puked.  The little man is also sick (although, even sick he is pretty easy to take care of), my mum left and I am officially tired.

Adelle had one little puke today (unfortunately it was in the car)…so that was fun.  But other than that I think she is on the mend.  Simon is doing well, but he was just a bit needy today.  His neediness coupled with Adelle’s extra neediness meant that we spent most of the day in the rocking chair.  One kid nursing, the other cuddling.  Simon got a bit squished in the deal, but he didn’t seem to complain. 

Hopefully tomorrow everybody will start feeling better.

Same old sleeping habits, another good night’s sleep under my belt. This is really ridiculous. I can’t help but think he and Adelle are conspiring for a double assault on me. He is just such a calming presence in our house. When Greg is out all day it is nice to have somebody around who doesn’t over react to everything.

Adelle continues to be such a great little helper. After having a snack of his own, Simon hung out in the bouncy chair while Adelle and I ate our breakfast. After breakfast Adelle insisted on washing Simon’s face and then giving him a doll to cuddle. He was totally unfazed by her and even cuddled in with the doll once it was next to him. He is too cute.

Adelle and Grandma Sue have been cooking dinner for everybody each night.  It has been such a nice help to have my mum cook dinner each night for us…although, truth be told, I think Adelle has been doing most of the real work!

Simon had his first bath tonight…Adelle helped out, of course. He wasn’t terribly impressed with the water, but he had a speedy recovery post bath. The water might not have been warm enough for him, but Adelle was in there with him and she likes the water to be just above freezing! We might have to try him in there alone next time so we can keep the water temperature a bit warmer.

Simon nursed pretty seriously from about 8ish until around midnight when I decided to kick him off. He wasn’t terribly impressed…but I really needed a break. Greg took him to calm him, and I fell into a very deep sleep. Greg said he was awake a little bit with him throughout the night (but decided not to wake me as Simon didn’t seem hungry and was easy to calm). I slept soundly until 6am when I awoke to the noise of our little boy smacking his lips. I can’t even believe he went 6 hours without nursing. It was nice for me. I quickly got myself all prepared and then woke him up to eat. I’m not one to wake a sleeping baby, but 6 hours seemed a little excessive. I was well rested (Greg was a little tired), but we decided to keep the plans we’d made for the day.

We went over to Lisa and Andrew’s house for breakfast and Adelle and Blake had a really great time playing. They even spent lots of time playing together in Blake room so us adults had a pretty easy go of things, it was nice as Lisa’s parents were visiting so we had a good chance to catch up with them. Then we came home and visited with a really good friend of my mums, and her daughter (and newish baby)…and finally off to our company’s kids Christmas party.

The party was held at a leisure centre and there was no shortage of activities. Adelle had a really great time, skipped her nap, then crashed in the car ride home. It was a pretty terrible evening with her…on account of the napping disruption…but I think it was worth it for all the fun she had.

Adelle having super huge amounts of fun (with very scarey red eyes).

Simon…I think he was having fun, or at the very least content enough not to be crying!