week 5 - Austin's week at Tima's house

This week was a big week for us, as it was Austin's last week in daycare at Pratima's house.  I think he was only about 15 weeks old when he first started at Pratima's daycare, so it has certainly been like his second home.  We're all excited for the kids to move on to a more preschool like setting, but the goodbyes didn't come without a few tears and heartfelt thanks for 2+ wonderful years. 

 We decided to celebrate the last day by making cookies to share with the kids. Austin has been quite the helper in the kitchen these days and was excited to make cookies Thursday night!

We came a bit early to pick him up, share cookies, and watch all of the kids play together on their last day.  Of course, they didn't really understand that it was the last day but I'm pretty sure they sensed something was up when the parents showed up and stuck around for a while.  We're definitely going to miss Tima's house and the gang of close friends, but are really excited that Austin and his buddy Langston are going to be going to 'preschool' together.  We're hopeful that makes for a bit of a smooth transition.

Before arriving at Pratima's on Friday, Mike took a half day and we went out to Harper's Ferry to meet up with Aunt Anita for lunch.  It was a beautiful day to sit outside and take in the view.  Tyler slept nearly the entire way to and from and during lunch, making for quite the easy day trip!

Over the weekend the weather was amazingly cool for this time of year, so we packed up and headed to the DC Zoo.  We enjoyed the baby lions and tigers (for a while we thought we might not be able to pull Austin away from the lions), the biggest hit is really the huge waterfall by the Lemurs.  Somebody is obsessed!

Austin was even a trooper when it came time to feed Tyler.  Definitely not fun waiting at the zoo for 30 min while mommy feeds Tyler, but Austin enjoyed jumping over and over again on the bench we had taken over.  What a good big brother!

Its been amazing to watch Austin grow these past few months - his independent play and pretending has taken on a whole new level.  Perfect timing for a new sibling because Austin can entertain himself so much these days.  I cracked up this weekend when he was playing 'monster truck'.  He's never even seen a real monster truck, but inherited several toy ones from a friend recently.  For at least 30 minutes he had then rolling on top of each other, rolling over, crashing, etc.  We decided to show him youtube videos of real monster trucks - huge hit. Although possibly a bad idea - instead of watching a PBS cartoon, Austin started requesting monster truck videos the other night.

Monday was a big day for us, Austin's first day at Colesville Learning Center for Children.  Originally we had him signed up at a different daycare along with his friend Langston, but after a few 'playdates', I had mixed feelings about it and frantically started a new search in hopes of finding something better.  We're super optimistic about CCLC - the classroom is smaller (12 kids) and only 2s and 3s, the teachers seem more loving and educated in eary childhood development, and best of all - we convinced Langston's parents to switch him too so that the boys will be together.  We've been talking about Tima's house closing for a while and also talking up the new school. We visited twice this week, and while Austin wouldn't let me leave his side, he seemed to warm up to it.  I prepped him by introducing him to his new backpack weeks prior, showing him his new lunchbox at a trial run in the park,and talking about what a big boy he is.  The good news - he's obsessed with his backpack and lunchbox.  I've been having fun packing lunches bento style - perfect small servings with lots of choices is exactly what our picky eater needs!

Austin was all smiles on his first day:

well, until he realized that daddy was not going to stay.  He erupted in tears screaming 'my daddy' for quite some time.  We're not sure how long exactly since Mike left quickly.  At home all day we were so curious how he was doing, but were quite busy with our little guy:

He's settled into a nice routine of eat, play, nap, repeat.  He's definitely tracking objects really well and we're starting to see more hints of genuine smiles.  He's been sleeping 3-5hrs at a time at night and still doesn't fuss much during the day - except for when he's gassy and needs to poop.

At the end of the day, we pulled up to CLCC and saw langston and Austin happily playing in the huge sandbox.  He was happy to see us and happy to leave, but generally was chatty and happy and the teachers told us that he had a great day, ate all of his lunch, and napped 2 hrs.  Not bad for day 1!

The week continued on a good path.  Day 2 and 3 Austin cried when Mike left, but the teachers said he calmed down after about 5 minutes.  He resisted going in the morning and even had to take binky and puppy on day 3...but thats to be expected with such a big transition.

 Austin has also been pretty adorable at times with Tyler.  He asks where he is if he can't see him, and the other day even tried to share puppy with him!

Perhaps the best part of the week (other than ice cream after his first day of school) was getting to watch a tow truck come to our house and tow away daddy's truck!  We were going to sell the Blazer, and of course the day that it was going to be sold, the engine had troubles and we had to get it towed to a garage for a look.  Lucky for Austin, the tow truck came before naptime and he got the excitement of watching it load and haul the truck away!

Of course, the best part of the week for mommy and daddy is that we're still getting tons of help from Grandma - making Austin's transition much less stressful.  She's loving watching little Tyler grow!

With all of these changes at home, we've had our moments of frustration and exhaustion.  But we're having a blast!

week 4

Well, our little guy has started to turn into quite a chunk!  I weighed him this week and he was 12.3 lbs!  Holy cow...thats alot of weight to put on in a few short weeks!  He is definitely much better at holding his head up (although not so much when on his tummy on the playmat) and he feels much more solid.  Its made breastfeeding a little more challenging.  Here I was bragging in the beginning that I could feed him cradled in one arm and could even walk around while feeding him.  Not so much anymore...for the first time I started using my breastfeeding pillow to hold him so that it wasn't so awkward.

Tyler surprised us this week by having several nights in a row (I think 4 so far) where he slept from 8 or 8:30pm to 2 or 2:30am straight!  It was quite a treat getting that much sleep at a time.  Of course, all good things must be balanced by challenges, right?  The down side is that his gassiness has persisted and at times has been much worse than last week.  A few nights have been hard to get him back to sleep and a few days he's cried and grunted with out much progress getting the gas out.  Thankfully our neighbor's daughter gave me some massage tips to help him and they often seem to work.  Its extremely satisfying to work on the massage techniques and help him relieve his pain...but its really frustrating when it doesn't work and you can tell he's super uncomfortable.  Hopefully he'll grow out of in in the next few weeks as his digestive system matures.  At the moment, its the major cause of my lack of sleep and I'm looking forward to him growing out of it!  That being said, his non gassy moments have really not been fussy at all.  He's such a relaxed baby and really has enjoyed his playmat and swing.  He hasn't really taken to a pacifier much, which I suppose can be a good thing in the long run although its prompted me to go out and buy every brand to see if we can find something he takes.  It seems to help him calm and fall asleep but he can't keep it in himself making stroller rides and the swing not very effective in helping put him to sleep!  So far we've remarked that its been pretty easy to still get out and about, and its already seeming normal to be a family of four.  

We've really been enjoying having Grandma in town still.  Its great to have another set of eyes and arms for Tyler so that Mike and I can get in some well needed time just with Austin.  Even time to enjoy the simple things, like Austin running down the hill in our back yard over and over again and telling us when to watch and when to run with him.  

He's been adjusting really well, and while still crazy clingy to Mike, he's started to show a bit more interest in baby Tyler.  He dangled a few toys for him this week (despite the fact that he's usually sleeping and far too young to actually interact).  We took both kids over to Austin's friend Langston's house this weekend for a bbq.  The kids haven't gotten to play too much outside of daycare, and really have enjoyed the few weekend gatherings that we've planned.  Next week is their last week at Pratima's house, and its definitely a little bittersweet.  We're glad to be moving him on to a more preschool like setting where he'll be around more kids and have a more structured day, but we'll miss the loving small daycare environment that they've all shared as they've grown up.  Its so cute to see our little guy with his buddies!

Austin seems to really like Tyler's 'new toy' swing, and often walks over and swings it gently or talks about the animals dangling above.  Earlier this week he decided to buckle one of his stuffed animals into the swing, it was pretty cute.

As with the previous weeks, we've still been trying to get out and about and do some normal things.  This weekend we went to ride the train at the park. Tyler and I didn't ride since he was fast asleep,but Austin and daddy had a great time!

We put together a picnic lunch, and as a trial I packed it in Austin's new lunchbox for school.  He still doesn't really know that he's going to 'school' in a week but I wanted to start introducing him to some of his new things before he starts.  A big change for us is that we're going to have to pack lunches, so I am going to experiment with the 'bento box' style lunch box where you can pack small servings of various items.  Austin seemed to really like his new lunchbox and as we were leaving checked a few times to make sure that I was still carrying it back to the car for him.

We've got a pretty good weekday routine going on (with the exception of figuring out who takes Austin to daycare and how to get out the door on time!).  Tyler's been eating, awake for about an hour, and then sleeps until his next feeding.  We bounce around from swing to playmat and are finally trying to get him to nap in the bouncy seat instead of our arms.  With the exception of his gassy fits, the days go by quickly and haven't been too stressful.

And at the end of every day, we get to be entertained by our amazing big boy.  Austin certainly has his moments, but lately has been so much fun.  He is independently playing often and 'pretending' all sorts of things.  I can't wait to see these boys grow up together!

3 weeks - party time!

This week was quite fun, but definitely busy.  While we certainly kept up the routine of eat, play, sleep - tyler definitely had more awake time than he has had the past few weeks.  We had a few afternoons where he happily played on the playmat for 20-30 minutes cooing and reaching for the dangling toys.  In fact, he actually caught the stars dangling from the playmat (although probably not purposefully yet).

My parents arrived late in the week to stay for a long weekend, so we definitely had a full house.  Austin really enjoyed having 2 grandma's in the house which he dubbed 'new grandma and old grandma'.  He was also pretty fascinated by 'Pop', who clearly was the favorite grandparent.  Austin frequently would check on him and offer him toys.  We all piled in the van on Saturday to drive out to Austin's cousin Zoe's first birthday party.  We hadn't seen them in a few months, and for the first time the two kiddos could actually interact a bit!

After tiring ourselves out at Zoe's party, what better than to have another party the next day at our house!  Robin and Aleigh threw us a 'welcome baby Tyler' party instead of a 2nd baby shower.  Tyler slept the entire time, but everyone loved seeing him.  I think Austin thought it was a party for him because there were plenty of kids his age to play with all day.  The house looked like a toy tornado hit it after everyone left, but we all had a great time and were so thankful that our friends and family could come visit and celebrate our newest addition!

The cousins!

Most of the nights were still 3 hours stretches of sleep - although he surprised us a few times with a 4-5 hour sleep.  The biggest annoyance of the week was thrush.  Again.  We noticed Tyler's tongue was a bit white and at first didn't think anything of it.  But after 2 days of that I realized that like Austin, Tyler had gotten thrush.  We got a prescription from the pediatrician and are working on clearing it up.  He doesn't seem to be too bothered by it, other than some fussiness while feeding.  The second annoyance of the week has been his gasiness.  Mostly at night, the poor kiddo gets bright red in the face and kicks and cries.  The pediatrician says its normal and probably not related to my diet, but I did decide to cut down on dairy and caffeine and see if that helps him.  Without the gassy fits, he's a pretty happy chill little guy!

Who, by the way, isn't so little anymore.  Where did that cubby face come from?

Thankfully, the day before my parents left we remembered to get a photo with the grandparents and grandchildren.

Again, we are so thankful to have had so much help all week, and are happy to continue to host 'old grandma'.  Its been really nice to get a break throughout the day and have some company now that Mike's gone back to work.  Tyler seems to like having her around too!