TODDLER LIFE | 26 MONTHS

I learned that the fastest way to see a little boy grow up is to bring home a newborn.  When Conner came to visit me in the hospital he was no longer my little bear that I left at home as we headed to the hospital.  I realized just how much he really has grown physically and developmentally. 

Conner, you really surprised your dad and me about how easy you made this transition from one boy to two.  We've watched you take on this big brother role flawlessly over the past 2+ weeks.  You never once got mad at us for holding another little boy instead of you.  Instead, you constantly run up to him to kiss his head, peek over the pack and play as we change his diaper and give him protective hugs.  You love giving him his blankets and try so hard to put his paci in his mouth.  You even try lifting my shirt up at random times shouting, "Baby, heat! (eat)"... not too thrilled on having that much help.  You have been a perfect big brother.

Toddler Talks

Every months keeps bringing more improvements on his language skills, but this month has been crazy with how his sentences have grown.  Most of what he says now is in short sentences.  The other communication is a bunch of rambling with the last word being what he is talking about.  I have no clue what he's saying during these times, but it's hilarious listening to him rambling on until he get to the last word.

He can now say all but 5 or 6 letters of the alphabet.  When he gets to the letter 'K' he always.always.always blows a kiss rather than saying the letter.  I don't even try correcting him anymore because he's eventually going to figure it out, and I'm going to miss the kisses.

Toddler Play

Playtime has ramped up around here.  With Joe being home for the two weeks after Linden was born, Conner really had non-stop playtime with his favorite person.  For me that means that Conner's energy level goes from a 10 to a 15 on a scale from 1 to 10.  He has been constantly climbing everything, running his Tonka around the house every other minute, and throwing toys has become a fun new game for him.  [Insert stern look on my face here.]

His favorite toy this month has been the remote controlled helicopter.  Every five minutes all we hear is "wan ot" which we know means you want the helicopter.  He loves having Joe fly it around the house while he climbs up Joe's back to sit on his shoulders. It's his thing now to kneel on Joe's shoulders.
 

Toddler Eats

We made some improvement on the protein front this month.  This past week alone he ate sloppy joes made with venison, half a brat, and turkey.  We had to get creative with the turkey and hide it under chunks of avocado, but he ate it.

Other than the excitement of watching him eat meat, it's the usual favorites for him - raisins, fruits, nuts, veggies (he even ate pieces of raw onion with no problem), bread, oatmeal and yogurt.

This month he even had syrup with his pancakes and ketchup with his hotdogs and fries - something he was never willing to try before.

 

Toddler Sleep

This mama is already in a zombie state with having a newborn around, but for whatever reason Conner has decided that sleep is not his jam anymore.  He was always an awesome sleeper going to bed at 8pm and waking up around 6:30am plus a 2-3 hour afternoon nap. Ugh... Now it's the ultimate struggle to get him to fall asleep between 9 and 10pm and he's usually waiting for Joe to wake up by the time 5am rolls around.  I feel I need to mention that his energy level is full throttle the minute he wakes up which leads to him jumping on my bed while I'm trying to feed Linden in the morning.  I need a coffee pot on my nightstand to handle his energy first thing in the day.  And it takes multiple attempts to get him down for an afternoon nap. So there's that.

What happened to my awesome little sleeper??  I'm thinking that since he sees Linden up with me when it's his bedtime, that he naturally wants to be awake too. I'm hoping this changes back to normal fast!

26 Month Photo Dump:

 

 

LINDEN'S NURSERY

So it only took me two and half weeks to post pictures of Linden's nursery.  Not bad, right? Okay, it's bad.  I'm still dragging at posting stuff here, but man, naps are so nice to squeeze in especially when both your boys take good afternoon naps at the same time.

When we moved into our house, Linden's room was green, and Joe and I were in no mood to paint it any other color during my pregnancy, so green it stays.  I admit, if you look at the ceiling, the previous owner must've had a girl because there is glitter spray glued all over it.  I admit again, the glitter is still there.  Sorry, Linden, we'll get around to removing it someday. And by someday, that will be when you're old enough to realize there's glitter on your ceiling.

Since green was our base color for the nursery, I went with a beige, white, mint green and navy blue theme for the colors.  I don't think Joe was completely sold on it until I told him that it would be a deer and arrow theme too.  I'm pretty sure he likes it now.

I'm not a huge fan of dropping hundreds of dollars on decorating a room, so pretty much everything we made ourselves or received as hand-me-downs from family and friends.  In the end with everything that I made, it was about $50. Not too shabby.

No need to keep talking, here are some pictures of the little boy's room. Enjoy!

 The floor pillow (bottom right) was made out of leftover material from the crib sheet and Caron Simply Soft Dark Country Blue yarn crocheted on the top and bottom.  I thought Conner needed a seat in Linden's room to hang out on.

 Linden's name sign was made out of wooden letters from Joann's glued on pallet wood and the fabric is once again leftover from other projects just tied to jute. Great way to use up extra fabric instead of pitching it.

I found this awesome faux fur at Joann Fabrics for half off so I cut out a deer skin rug to go with our deer theme.  Conner loves this rug. He runs around Linden's room and slides onto the rug.

 We were fortunate enough to be given a crib from my brother and his wife when we were pregnant with Conner.  This crib has been through six boys now. Talk about getting use out of this thing!

 This is my pride and joy.  I liked the look of the buck silhouette that is pretty popular right now, but I wanted something more than the painted outline on a wood background.  I set out to try and crochet it and I have to say, for not having anything but a picture online to look off of, it turned out pretty awesome.

For the arrows, Joe bought me a wooden dowel and cut it down into smaller lengths.  From there, I painted them white with blue and mint stripes with grey tips.  I bought the fins (I'm sure that's not the right term) from MC Sports and painted them as well and hot glued them onto the arrows.  To hang them, I simply used double sided tape to stick them to the wall.

I also made the crib sheet and skirt which was surprisingly simple.  I found the crib sheet fabric (which is incredibly soft) from Joann (do you see a theme here? - way too much time at Joann Fabrics).  The bed skirt is made out of natural muslin that my mom got a hold of from work that they were planning to toss.

Here is the blanket I made for Linden.  Both sides are incredibly soft with one side matching his bedding and the other side with a furry, soft brown.  I found a mint green silk edging to sew the two together.  I love it!

 

And for anyone that needs a Linden fix, here are a few pictures of the handsome little man.

 Linden is a tummy sleeper! He loves to sleep on his little belly and crawl his way up into my neck as far as he can get before falling asleep.  I let him sleep on his tummy for his afternoon nap so after I put him in his pack and play on his belly yesterday, I found that he rolled over to his side on his own!  Two weeks old and he already knows how to roll from his tummy to his side.  Exciting and very scary at the same time.  (I'm constantly paranoid about SIDS, so now I feel like when he starts sleeping in his crib he's going to roll from his back to his tummy.)  But he has incredibly good head/neck control, so I know I can only control and do so much and just trust that he will be okay.

 Nana has her hands full with these boys while Face Timing Papa back home.

This little boy.  It's only been two weeks, but I feel like he's so grown up already and been a part of our family for so much longer.  If you notice his blanket, it matches the navy blue for his room.  My mom makes custom blankets for her grandbabies because we are obsessed with them in our family.  They are perfect custom baby blankets!

 

Do you see this pile of diapers and wipes?! Joe's coworkers got together and bought all this for Linden.  Talk about some really great people that he works with!

WEEKEND CATCH UP

I've been itching to get back on here.  This week has been a choice of writing or sleeping.  Sleeping wins out every time.

 

We had another great weekend with weather, and we picked up Nana from the airport on Friday to spend this week with us.  Two great wins.  

 

Friday morning Joe and I took the boys grocery shopping.  First time out grocery shopping as a family and we nailed it.  Everyone survived the trip to Home Depot, Walmart and Sam's Club.  I got to practice with nursing in the back seat of my car.  Not.Fun.  Really not fun with two car seats in the back either, but everyone lived.

 

This boy is going to have the cutest smile.

 



 

Afterwards, we got to the airport just as Nana was walking out.  Talk about perfect timing and a very excited two year old to see his grandma.  The rest of Friday was filled with baby and Nana snuggles as it should have been.

  

We are still having unseasonably warm weather (like 50 degrees and sunny).  So Saturday we loaded up the boys and headed downtown for an afternoon walk.  Perfect day for that!  We got my mom hooked on Cherry Republic and finished the afternoon downtown with burgers from Slabtown.

 First time out to eat and Linden sat quietly looking around before falling asleep.

 

 

 

Sunday just seemed to slip by.  Somehow between all the feedings and taking care of laundry and timing naps, we only managed to get one thing done and that was our family picture for Christmas cards.  That's it.  Not much else, but after two days of running around with a toddler and newborn, I was completely okay with this kind of day.

  We have a tummy-lover on our hands.  Now if only he slept that good on his back at night.

 

Another ornament off the tree



FIRST WEEK HOME

We survived the first week home.  Frankly, I'm trying to figure out how this week flew by so fast.  Honestly. 

 

 

Ande couldn't resist scoping out the newest family member

 

Our transition home has been so surprisingly good.  Conner has seemed to fully accept his little brother.  For the most part he has been attached to Joe's hip since he's been home with us.  The moments that Conner does notice the new little life, he's really interested in giving him kisses on the head and sharing his blanket with Linden.  This is a huge deal.  Conner does not allow any other kid touch his blanket so sharing it with his brother just puts a huge smile on my face.

 

It's fun and at some points frustrating learning this little boy.  We've been learning what he loves and what he doesn't.  It will be an ongoing process, but we're getting it - day by day we're learning each other.  We've learned that he loves his paci, burying his head as deep as possible into my neck, and his swing.

 

 

We've been staying really busy around here.  (If you ask Joe, he feels the opposite, but that's because the man gets antsy being at home this long.)  Since we were home for Thanksgiving, we got to spend it with Joe's family.  Conner ate a roll and brownie for his turkey dinner.  That's it.  And Linden was a dream baby.  He slept in his carseat the whole time.  I am not used to having a baby that doesn't scream and cry every minute he's in his carseat, but I love it.

 

Thanksgiving with the boys

 

That following morning we took Linden to his first doctor appointment.  Once again, the child was a dream there too.  Everything was looking great with this little boy. The doctor told us we can schedule his next appointment for when he's a month old.  This was a whole new concept for us.  We were so used to taking Conner into the doctor every week the first month! 

 

 

Birth Weight: 8 lbs

Current Weight: 7 lbs 14 oz

 

Birth Length: 20.5"

Current Length: 21"

 

Saturday and Sunday were laid back days.  We napped. We ate.  (This hunger is real! - I eat all day and night and so does Linden)  Sunday was the first taste of sleep deprivation.  Linden kept waking up every hour, but after every feeding he seemed more and more upset, and that made me more and more tired.

 

Late night with those precious cheeks

The boys keeping it chill

"Six quiet dogs" We love Sandra Boynton books!

 

Monday morning we had a nice visit with the home nurse/lactation consultant.  Even two years after Conner was born, she remembered us and immediately asked if this time around with breastfeeding was going better. How does she remember?? Her and I talked for quite a while and I asked her every question I could possibly think of at the time.  The big question was about Sunday night's cluster feedings. 

 

Turns out, this little boy was eating more than he could handle and it was making him uncomfortable.  We quickly checked his weight on her scale and when we saw his weight has already jumped to 8lb 6 oz, she was comfortable with us trying to feed him less often since he was obviously efficient at nursing.  She suggested that instead of waking him every 2-3 hours, let him be the guide and feed him when he's ready.  So, Monday night went a lot better.  He only woke up around 10pm, 2am and 6am.  Awesome for this mama!!  Linden slept more comfortably and I actually got some sleep.

 

We also went out and picked out our Christmas tree on Monday!  I love being out here in the country where we only have to drive 2 miles down to our neighbor's farm to pick out our tree.  I ultimately picked out the tree and it turns out that I picked out a very untrimmed tree.  Oops. Oh well. I'll make Joe pick out the next one.

 

 

Tuesday was the first taste of dramatically changing hormones for me, and I couldn't handle the events that came with that day.  Conner was super energized all.day.long.  Joe must've taken that kid to play outside four times and that still didn't burn off all of his energy.  Even decorating the Christmas tree didn't wear off any energy.  The cherry on top was that he refused to nap which compounded the problem that evening.  It's not that he was being bad or disobedient, but I couldn't handle the energy and neither could Linden because he seemed over stimulated by it all making him pretty upset.

 

Decorating a tree with a 2 year old is counter-productive

 

 

Joe left the house to pick up some pizza and within the first 60 seconds of him being gone, Conner fell off the countertop and Linden was screaming with all his might.  Fail.  Conner gets over injuries incredibly fast, but I must have checked that little boy's pupils a hundred times making sure he wasn't showing any signs of a head injury.  We're good though.  It was rough evening.  I cried.  Checked Conner's head.  Cried some more.  Fed Linden.  Cried. Joe came home.  I cried more.  Went to bed.

 

Again, we let Linden be the guide for when he wanted to eat throughout the night.  This was the result:  8pm feeding.  1:30am - I wake up in a panic thinking he died because we went that long without him making a sound.  I try waking him up to nurse. Nope. That little boy refused to wake up so I gave up. 2:30am - I'm getting antsy because this kid won't wake up to eat so we try it again.  He ate for 10 minutes.  6am - I am lying in bed wondering what is wrong with this little kid and why he's not hungry.  I wake him up and make him eat.

 

I love the little reflexes that look like smiles

 

So, I'm not good at letting this boy be the guide for when he's ready to wake up to eat.  I get too anxious and worry that something's wrong when I should have just enjoyed the sleep while I could.  I'm going to keep trying at letting him be the guide as to when he eats and get his weight checked next week to make sure this setup is working and he's still healthy.

 

Since the weather for early December has been absurdly warm, we took the boys outside to play this morning for about an hour.  I got to use my new Ergo carrier.  Hello! Where has this gem been my whole life?  I love this carrier and so does Linden!  Conner had a chance to chase his chickens around while Joe and I had a chance to go over future projects that we want to do around our property.  (Our list is huge!) 

 

Getting the chores done

Fresh northern air.  It gets the best of us.