toddler outfits are fantastic…
and yes the binoculars are backwards
"Silas, what are you doing?" He is sitting on the potty going "toot" and I walk in to see he is doing something to the wall. He quickly covers it over. So I ask again (Isaac is asleep on me). " I am putting boogers on the wall" followed by the biggest, cheesiest grin. "EWWW!! Silas we don't wipe boogers on the wall!!" Silas " We don't put boogers on the wall?" (As if he didn't know that…or did he not?) "They go in tissues! We blow our noses in tissues, we don't pick our nose and wipe it on the wall." Silas is now learning and testing EVERY social norm and bound. Conversations like these are a daily occurrence. Its so conflicting for us because on the one hand he seems to be purposely pushing on everything we know to be gross, weird or inappropriate….he is actually pushing our bounds. On the other hand he truly doesn't know all of our social norms nor WHY they continue to exist. He continually tells me each day the things he should or shouldn't do because they are this, that or the other. As if reminding himself of what he has learned.
With all of this "testing" comes an insane amount of energy!! Running in circles, screaming, singing, yelling…loud…loud…loud. Did I mention toddlers are loud? To quote Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation "I love being a father, but there are a few things I miss, silence, the absence of noise, one single moment undisturbed by the sound of a children's tv program called doc mcstuffins. There is no quiet anymore. There is only doc mcstuffins." To remedy the insanity that four walls can induce, we take Silas outside where unlimited space for exploration…and loud noises may ensue.
Sometimes we even ride our bikes to the elementary school park 1.5 miles away.
The pool is and has been our other mode of exercising the crazy out of Silas (and ourselves sometimes). It is the one thing we have desperately missed since moving from Charlotte. We finally found an in door pool "near by" 45 minutes away at Pipestem National Park. It is fantastic and has completed our lives in this new place.
Isaac, my mild mannered baby, just goes along for the ride right now. He is absorbing, sleeping and growing. When we are outside or ready for a long nap I throw him in my favorite wrap (Didymos Day Owls). He has learned the wrap means good things and has enough head control now he doesn't get angry if I put him in it while he is awake. When he is awake he loves to be held so he can stand up and look around. I think this comes with being the second child and seeing the older one running around like a banshee. Isaac watches Silas all of the time. My favorite mommy of two moment right now is when I put them in the bath tub together. Isaac sits in a little froggy seat we used with Si Si and Silas pours water on his belly. They then both look at each other and giggle. Isaac gets the biggest grin across his face as Silas makes eye contact with him, it literally melts my heart. I love this time I have with my boys.
Love
Sometimes babies sleep like this
My first time with Silas at
the park alone since Isaac was born
Boys like playing with hair too
Best wrap ever
I found the best pediatric care for our boys after a couple of interviews at the clinic next to the osteopathic medical school in Lewisburg. Shannon Bashlor is a nurse practitioner who raised and breastfed five babies of her own and is the perfect blend of laid back and put together for our family. We began vaccines for Isaac at his two month visit and Silas came for a well visit and a few straggling vaccines including the flu vaccine. I slowed down the vaccine train with Si after his four month vaccine round and am slowing it down with Isaac from day one. I prefer not to hit immature immune systems ( and everything else immature and vulnerable) with six vaccines at once. I have found doing two vaccines at a time and just increasing the nurse visits to fall within the CDC recommended ranges for vaccine completion has worked well for my children and helped us avoid more dramatic physical responses. I also think if the genetic propensity exists, testing a new system while its establishing its self could activate some of those genes and they may not always be so desirable. Anyway, Shannon rocks. She was able to woo my toddler, which is no easy feat sometimes and she handles Isaac amazingly. With Silas I always nursed him immediately after receiving a shot. This time I am insisting I get to nurse Isaac while he receives the shot. My sweet baby hardly cries because he has immediate comfort and a pain killer on board, making it a less stressful event for all of us. Quick data point: Si is around 3 feet tall and around 32 lbs. Isaac was around 10 lbs at two months and the calmest heart rate. We predict he will be a long distant runner.
The sign above him says " do not let children play with gloves"
Halloween has come and gone since we last spoke. I know some consider it sacrilege to re-use a halloween costume, but we did it! Silas wore his puppy outfit from last year only because we told him it was an intricate part of attaining candy! He was definitely timid and required Andrew or I to walk up with him to houses, but he had a blast. Isaac was dressed in the little giraffe onsie Si wore as a baby and wrapped up on me napping the entire time. It was a successful run and no worries, the baby received no candy despite some people's best efforts!!
My dad and Yvonne came to visit us just recently and met our new little man cub for the first time!! It was a great visit that entailed lots of smiles from the baby, Silas tackling grandpa on the trampoline and lots of presents being opened. We are staying close to home for the holidays this year to protect Isaac from getting sick at such a young age. So this was our christmas with them.
yes that is a drum set!!
Finally, Silas has taken a major step in the growing up process. After three years of nursing we have weaned. It was not an easy decision on my part, but I ultimately had to trust my instincts and the signals he was sending me. His latch had become lazy and painful no matter the position I put him in. He also would nurse only briefly most of the time before being distracted and nursing had become far less important when going to sleep. This wasn't the quintessential version of "child-led" weaning since after months of me trying to set bounds on the relationship, he had not reduced his requests to nurse. But it made sense in our relationship and a very good friend of mine and an IBCLC said that "child-led" is a deceiving term. First and foremost it is a relationship and secondly children send signals they are done in different ways. So we are five days out since weaning began and it has been going great. He has handled it really well and I am extremely proud knowing that I was able to give him the best nutrients and comfort during a time in which his brain was growing the fastest it ever will in his life.
What a different ride this go round. Different baby, different parents, more integrated family. Having our second baby has been..well..easy! Granted Isaac is one chill little being, which makes his nook within our family juuusst right. But man, having played this game before sure helps! For starters, my milk came in within 1.5 days. Compared to the 4 excruciating days my poor Silas had to wait, that made for a much more content baby right off the bat. The third night with Silas was awful. He was ravenous and we were up all night with a screaming newborn. As if to redeem a night I would say scarred our very souls from helplessness, Isaac was not only completely happy, but slept in 3-4 hour stints just for that night. As if the universe was kissing us on the cheek and saying everything was ok. First borns just have to be tough from the beginning I guess.
start 'em early
The first few weeks were a little emotionally rough for Silas. He loves his brother and has shown nothing but affection for him. However, towards us, the temper tantrums became longer, more intense and harder to quell. A little potty regression ensued as well. By the end of three weeks with Isaac it all started to peter off and Si became whatever an almost 3 year old is…crazy. He actually is at an awesome, hilarious, intense age. It makes us just as emotional sometimes! I'm glad long term memory is still a hazy matter because negotiating this age warrants responses I'm not always proud of. Silas is in the cross hairs of animal like instincts mixed with cerebral, emotional and social awareness. You never know when one is dominating the other. Although as we creep up to three years old, the latter is becoming more prominent. So when I say I don't like it when he does something simply because it annoys me, he recognizes that now and tries to adjust fire. Thats a pretty complex notion, recognizing something as abstract as considering another person's emotions and specifically the idea of annoyance.
cuddles
trampoline!!
collecting acorns
first time going roller blading
Si and Dustin
Isaac is on newborn time and is too cute for words. After all of the complexity a toddler introduces, a newborn feels so basic and sweet. He nurses in a completely different way from how Si did. Si would nurse for 30-45 min straight, wait thirty minutes and start again. He would never let go unless he was choking because I produce milk like a cow and could probably feed five children! Isaac , on the other hand, likes to pop on and off, think about it, wait for the let down to happen and then pop back on. I learn a lot about each boy from our nursing relationships. He coos and startles a lot more than I remember Silas doing and he grunts his way through the day. No real crying unless I really push his newborn instincts, like not holding him for a length of time. We only had a few nights where his little circadian rhythm was so nonexistent that he kept me up for a few hours early in the night (9-12am). By 3-4 weeks he started consistently passing out by 9pm, so I guess the fresh air, daylight and melatonin from breast milk did the trick! The witching hours strike even this gentle little boy and I move around trying to making him comfy. Physically he is starting to lift his head more and I can't believe he is already old enough to get bored. I pulled out the mat we used for Si and that really seems to entertain him. Some quick one month stats: length 21.12 in, weight 9lb 12oz. So far both my boys gained a little over 3 lbs at this point. However Isaac has already grown an extra inch compared to Si.
mush face
cuddles
Left Si, Right Izzy
We've had some family come to visit and help. My mom and Gma came on a Saturday to cook food, entertain Silas and hold the baby.
Andrew's mom, Nancy came for two days during Isaac's third week and helped out. Si loved it!
very serious episode of curious george
Finally Rob (uncle bob) and Jane (aunt jane) came to hang out on my birthday weekend (31 years old!!). Love them so much!! Jane is 19 weeks deep in pregnancy and its a girl!!!
