G'n'R Out West

Simon is already two months old.  Too much too fast as far as I am concerned.  He is already in 3-6 months clothes, it is like he just can’t wait to grow up.  It is so hard to be a mum.

Sleep:
Yep, yep, yep, still great.  He goes to bed at the same time as us (around 10).  He usually wakes up at around 2 and 6 to eat.  The 2am feeding is really short and mostly he just wants to snuggle.  He never cries at night.  She just snorts and grunts and snergels around until we wake up.  He is very silent when he is sleeping well, and only gets a touch upset when he wants to eat or needs to burp or puke in the night.

During the day he usually has one or two big sleeps.  He likes to cuddle, but at least once a day he has a good long sleep on his own either in the bassinet or in the swing.

At night he sleeps in our bed.  He loves snuggling.  We try to keep him up at our heads between our pillows…but after he wakes at 2am he usually needs a good long snuggle and ends up all tucked in right next to me.  I really love snuggling with him at night.

Eating:
He is still a great efficient nurser and knows enough to get it done fast during the day, and linger during the times when Adelle isn’t around.  He is a big puker.  Sometimes I wonder how much is staying in there.  He is certainly fattening up, so obviously he is getting enough, but he lets out a few good soakers ever day.

We still have never tried the bottle.  We did attempt to give him a soother once, when we were in a car and he was mad, but he wasn’t too interested and we haven’t tried again.  He doesn’t cry often, but the car is a particularly painful experience for him lately.  We have considered trying the soother on a few occasions, but I haven’t done so.  The idea of soother weaning scares me, and so I would be nervous if he took it and then we’d have to deal with the dilemma of giving it to him or not. 

Nursing if finally going really well.  Something just clicked with us this month and it is no longer painful.  I am so relieved.

Hair:
His hair is growing longer, and it is still quite dark.  When we give him a bath he gets all fuzzy headed…. it is all soft and so touchable. 

Eyes:
They are a dark grey…I think they will end up being quite dark.

Personality:
He is still so peaceful.  He is getting more smiley by the day.  Sometimes when I am holding him in my arms, but playing with Adelle, he’ll make a cute little gurgling noise to get my attention, when I look down he is giving me the most loving smiles. 

He loves it when I gurgle at him, it makes him smile and gurgle back. 

Stuff that happened this month:
- He spent a whole weekend with my brother and Amy…they really bonded.
- He really started smiling lots at us
- I started taking him to playgroup…he spends most of the time in a sling.
- He puked….alot

So tired at exactly 2 months old

 
So Grown Up 
 

My brother was here this weekend with his girlfriend Amy…they left this afternoon and we are all SAD.

From the moment Adelle laid eyes on Alec and Amy she was in heaven.  They goofed off from morning until night and she hardly ever glanced my way…well occasionally she did, but usually it was to tell me to leave them alone.

There was an endless supply of fun to be had with Uncle Al and Amy…the first thing Adelle asked each morning was if she could go down and wake them up.  They pretended to love her early morning visits…but they didn’t always make it upstairs all that promptly!

Greg and I were also spoiled by having them here.  Basically we had full time babysitters that were about 100x more fun then we were.  We had no clue what was going on half the time, but from the shrieks of laughter flowing down from upstairs we gather it was fun.  Alec and Simon also spent lots of time bonding…and with Simon, that also means lots of time being puked on.  Alec was a good sport about it all.

When I told Adelle that Amy and Alec were leaving, she told me she needed a break and she went upstairs.  Ten minutes later I found her upstairs snuggling a blanket in the rocking chair…poor thing…she was so sad.  Goodbyes are terrible.  She did end up pulling it all together and had a great day with her Uncle Al and Amy, but the airport goodbye was nothing short of terrible…for both of us.  I hate living so far from family!

Al with the kids…Adelle loves how goofy he is.

Amy and Adelle reading her ‘things that go’ book.  I think they read it about 30 times a day.  Amy is a patient woman.

So, we have a book where junk food is called sugary junk. We have adopted that term in our house. The other day Adelle and I were playing (she was the mum and I was the Adelle). I was being put to bed and this was what she said to me. ‘You go to sleep now. I love you, I am going to go and eat some sugary junk now.’ Hmmm…so…does she really know me that well?

Here are a few other little things she can be found saying:

“I can show you, big sisters know how to do it” – she usually says this when I tell her she can’t do something because she isn’t allowed to.

“It’s not naptime” – she will typically say this in tears just before she falls asleep.

“Oh, sorry ’bout that” – this is said after she has been ignoring me when I finally get her attention and she decides (in her own time), that she is going to listen to me.

“I’m running a program” – ok, she only said this one once, but it was sooooo cute. We go to a playgroup once a week and the big kids go in one room and the babies in the other.  She isn’t sold on the playgroup or hanging out in the big kid room when I am not there. After we got back last week she lined up all her babies, told them they were in the baby room and that she had a program for them. She then started telling them what her program consisted of…mostly it was a really good snack.

As for Simon, he continues to be a model baby. He has recently started enjoying hanging out in a chair or the swing. He loves it when you put him in there and then talk to him and goof around with him. He will even let you make dinner while he hangs out as long as you include him in your conversations.

Well, Simon has been smiling for days now, but we hadn’t caught it on camera until today.  We had a great smiling session today, it was so wonderful to see so many smiles.  Although, I must say his biggest smiles to date have been for Adelle’s little friend Paityn.  I’m not sure what exactly she was doing, or if, he just loves her so much he couldn’t help himself, but he sure did have some serious smiles for her, I wish I could have got those on camera!  Lucky girl.
 

Adelle got a toboggan for Christmas this year from Santa Clause.  She and Greg tried it out a few weeks ago…it was terrifying.  But last weekend we had Blake over and the two of them had an amazing time together.  I think we are going to go out again this weekend.
 

Today we were at a playplace with Adelle’s little friend Corra.  Greg and I are pretty fun, but nothing matches the squeals of delight we get to hear when Adelle gets together with her friends.  It is so fun, I can’t help myself but to fill our days with playdates!  Adelle and Corra had tons of fun.  I took this terrible picture of the two of them all dressed up.  I mostly kept the picture (and am now telling the story) because of how hard it was to get this picture.  I was trying to take a picture of the two girls, but a third girl saw the camera from across the room and ran over to try to make it in the shot as well.  We don’t know her and I didn’t want to creep out her parents by taking a picture of her as well, so it was a bit of a feat trying to get this shot while she wasn’t paying attention to us.  She was very determined and would not take no for an answer.  She was quite persist ant.  The whole situation was made even more hilarious as the entire time she was in our presence she had her finger up her nose…kids crack me up.

They tell me time goes by even faster with the second and I can believe it.  I simultaneously feel like he has been a part of our family forever, and he was born just yesterday.

Since Simon is very likely our last baby, I am having a particularly hard time dealing with him growing up.  I keep thinking about how old he is already and how I’ll never have a tiny little baby again.  Everywhere we go people keep commenting on how small he is, and it just reminds me of how small he isn’t anymore.  That being said, I am loving every second with this little easy going dude.

Sleep:
Sleeping is a dream come true in our house.  The little dude sleeps with us.  Often cuddled in the crook of one of our arms or on our bellies.  Sometimes he sleeps independently in the space between our pillows…but he really does prefer to cuddle…hmmm…he might be a lot like Greg, but there is a little of me in there too! 

There have been a few nights when he has really wanted some serious committment from me and will not sleep unless he is practically being suffocated by my boob. 

Apart from the particularities of his sleep position he is a great sleeper.  He usually lies perfectly still and if he fusses at all you just need to upgrade his sleeping position (the more cuddled in the better) and occasionally feed him. Although he does like to snack a bit at night, he doesn’t usually eat for long.

I am not 100% sure how often he eats at night since he is right there and never makes much of a production – he hardly ever cries.  If I had to take a guess i’d say he eats until about midnight, then gets up once to eat in the middle of the night, then snacks from 4 or 5 am until Adelle gets up at 6am.  After a good night of serious cuddling he is usually feeling VERY independent and I can leave him from about 6-7:30 or so while Adelle and I get dressed and eat. 

Eating:
As per his weight gain (he’s pushing 11 lbs already), the little man is a terrific eater…and most importantly he is efficient and opportunistic about it.  As I mentioned above, he eats only a little in the night (but seems to try his hardest not to impose on my sleep).  He has a longish feed very early in the morning and by about 6am is done eating.  He usually doesn’t eat again for 3 hours.  In the day he typically eats in 3 hour increments.  Although, if I need him to eat because we are driving somewhere or I am otherwise unavailable, I can usually convince him to eat early.  If we get stuck in a situation where he is hungry and I am not able to feed him, he can usually be held off by some energetic parenting techniques that Greg and I perfected as the parents of our first baby!

By the time Greg gets home at 6pm I think Simon realizes I am no longer outnumbered and he steps it up a bit.  I usually get 1 hour breaks between feeds in the early evening, and this gap slowly gets smaller.  After Adelle is in bed the all evening banquet opens up and Simon hardly leaves my side until bedtime. 

I find him very accommodating and I appreciate his consideration for my needs and the needs of his sister. 

We have never given him a bottle or a soother, as we are still working on getting breastfeeding perfected.  We have been told he has a short tongue and a high palate which makes things a little more complicated.  For the first few weeks he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) even stick his tongue out over his gums.  We’ve been working on it and things are going much better, but I still feel like it could be improved. 

Hair:
Strangers often comment that he has lots of hair, but when they say this I am certain they never met his sister at this age…to me he is virtually bald.  He has a light dusting of dark brown hair.  It is quite short and very even looking. 

Eyes:
His eyes are new born baby grey, but they seem much darker to me then Adelle’s looked.   Hers ended up being hazel, Greg’s are brown and mine are grey-blue, so if I had to guess he’ll end up dark like Greg. 

Stuff that happened this month:
- we met him, and he entered into our lives in the most non-intrusive manner possible
- he met his Grandma Sue, Grandma Fran, Grandpa Ron, Grandpa Gary, Uncle Alec and Amy, Aunt Celeste, and Nana ….he has yet to meet my sister and her family, although my sister and her kids spent a lot of hours with him in the days before he was born, so to me it feels as if they know each other.  
- he learned how to smile and loves to be kissed on the face
- he took his first plane ride, all the way to Halifax and he was easier than we could have imagined he’d be

I think this pictures speaks volumes about Simon…he just sort of goes with the flow

Well, we managed to do it again.  3 years ago…and while pregnant, we did the Thunder Bay-Ottawa-Halifax-Sydney circuit and after that we vowed to never travel at Christmas again…well, we broke down and did it again.   We had fewer stops, but two extra people, so it was as complex!

Somehow we managed to avoid all major storms and airport delays.  All our flights were slightly delayed, but an hour and a half delay (or an unwanted extra stop in Toronto) is nothing compared to what some people had to do this holiday season).  Our kids hardly complained during our long travelling days and we had a great time!  Nobody even got sick, despite finding out upon our return  home that almost everybody we had spent Christmas Eve with spent the better part of the holidays puking their guts out.

Our first planned stop was in Ottawa.  Originally we were only scheduled to be there for 2 hours, but because of the flight cancellations in the days before, our itinerary changed at the last moment and we ended up with 5 hours in the airport.  After the itinerary change we were not looking forward to our really long travel day…but my dad, brother and brother’s girlfriend Amy gave us a big surprise at the Ottawa Airport.  We showed up to a little tent and Christmas tree with all our gifts under it.  It was so fun.  The tent gave us a nice little home (and Adelle LOVES tents), plus the little Christmas tree added just the cheery touch to our ridiculous day of travelling.  It is always fun to have a little bit of silly…it was so thoughtful, and greatly appreciated.  It was wonderful to see my family, and introduce them to Simon…although Airport security was not as excited about the tent as we were and after an hour or so they demanded we take it down.

When we finally arrived in Halifax around midnight, the Forgerons were all so excited that we stayed up into the wee hours of the night and opened up all our gifts.   That evening was a total blur, but it was really fun.  They were very generous and we all had a really fun time enjoying a VERY LATE night present opening.  Much to Adelle’s delight Santa managed to visit her at our house, at our friend Lisa’s on Christmas Eve (he actually showed up to see us), AND to Greg’s parents house.

We had lots of fun in Halifax, although, I must say, Grandma Fran seem to put Adelle to work doing dishes or cleaning a little more often than I think is fair for a two year old!
 

We made an over night trip to Wolfeville to attend Greg’s friend Drew’s wedding.  It was a beautiful affair.  Grandma Fran came with us to babysit.  The reception was at an Inn and so we got a room in the Inn and I was able to run up and feed Simon and then Grandma watched him while the rest of us were at the party.  Grandma had offered to look after Adelle as well, but she was too excited about hanging out with all her ‘friends’ at the party to be pent up in a little room with Grandma.  She had a fabulous time and we let her stay up way too late and the night ended in a ridiculous meltdown, but I think it was worth it for all the fun she had.  In the end it is a good thing Adelle was with us, as Simon really made Grandma Fran work hard.  Apparently, he cried most of the evening, which is a bit of a shock, given how relaxed he normally is.

The night we returned from Wolfeville Greg’s Aunt and all of her family came over for a visit…once again, our kids got spoiled rotten with Christmas presents!

The day after we returned from Wolfeville we packed the car back up and drove to Sydney to visit Greg’s Nana, who Adelle fondly calls Nana-Cookie (I am sure you can all imagine where the nickname comes from!).  We had a great visit in Syndey with all the Forgeron clan and they were as hospitable as ever.  It is always so much fun to be a part of such a large friendly family.  Both the kids took to Nana-Cookie and we had a nice visit with her.
 

The day after we returned to Halifax there was a huge storm.  It was cold, and very windy.  The city pretty much shut down as they were requesting people not drive on the streets and most if not all flights were cancelled into and out of the airport!  If that storm had hit the day before or the day after it would have seriously messed up our plans for either driving back from Sydney or flying home.  Luck was certainly on our side this entire trip.

On the way home, we had another quick stop in Ottawa to visit with my Mum and Fred.  The stop was meant to be a few hours, but with various delays we ended up only having the time it took to walk out of security and then back in with my mum.  A short visit is better than no visit at all!

It was wonderful being out east and visiting everybody…but I think it is everybody’s turn to come and see us for Christmas now!