Same!

For the past 7-8 weeks Thomas has been very into “same.”    He picks someone and something and points out how they are the same.  He and Grandpa McConachie and Laschen would be same with “short pants” on.  He and Daddy are same every day with either their hats, sun glasses, shoes, clothes or what they are doing/eating.  He and I are the same when his Daddy or Grandpas are not around.   This morning same took on a whole new meaning.  He crawled out of bed, took off his diaper, said “Mama naked same like Stella.”  Then crawled up next to her on the couch until Stella got off the couch to go outside to go potty.  Thomas was right behind proclaiming he must be “same” as Stella.  Sure enough he went outside stood there stark naked and peed.  He then told me “Same Stella Mama pee outside.”  What a nut!

Maybe I am the nut too for letting my naked little guy outside.  It was a gorgeous sunny morning so what the heck.  Your only little once…

He continues to navigate the potty and also had a success making a poo on the big toilet this morning too.   No rushing though, with busy lives, trips scheduled and mama not having the energy to rush to potties while we are out and about we will try to keep him in diapers while we are out and let him do what he wants when we are here.  He is not ready (we are not ready) for a boy in big undies yet!

Busy weekend

Friday night kicked off by our adventure at the locks.  Then Saturday morning we were off to Edmonds, which is directly north of our house.   There is an off leash area for Stella to play in Puget Sound and a park that Thomas was able to explore.  After both of the “older” kids got their energy out we were headed home. 

Saturday night we headed over to Bellevue to meet Max and Amy for dinner.  We stopped at another park to kill sometime before we met up with them.  We  watched and fed the ducks and played hide and seek.  Then Thomas had a blast running around and continuing his game of hide and seek with a couple other unwilling 8-9 year old participants.  Like his dad said “some day those girls will love a guy that young chasing them.”   We then headed to our dinner and after eating and wrangling our 2 year old we were all ready for bed. 

Saturday morning we got up and took off to see the animals at Kelsey Creek Farm.   Thomas ran around and looked at, imitated, and pet the animals that were close enough to reach, all while Elin did what she does best slept.   

Sunday afternoon we made a family trip to see Madagascar 3.  Thomas was so excited about seeing the big movie that when we were at the park with Stella all he wanted to do was come home to get Mike and Elin to leave.   Thomas made it through all but the last 5 minutes of the movie enjoying his kiddy pack of popcorn and fun fruits.  Mike and I also enjoyed our family movie date and all the adult humor in the movie.  After the movie we grabbed some sushi to end our weekend of family fun. 

Unique trip to the Locks

After dinner on Friday night we headed back down to the locks to check out the salmon.  As we were watching the 2 biggest boats that we have ever seen go through the locks the boat captain of the Stacey Foss threw Thomas a hat.  He immediately put it on and thought he was pretty cool.   You can see Mike and Thomas standing in front of the boat, while the Captain looks out the window. 

This was also Elin’s first trip to the locks where she was awake for part of the trip.  She looked around at the boats and trees and then was back fast asleep.  Mike also was excited because there were quite a few salmon for us to see in the locks.  It was a great start to our weekend. 

Garden Tots

Thomas and I headed up for a fun new learning experience called Garden Tots.  It is put on by a local botanical gardens/nursery and this mornings theme was “piggy back plants.”  So they gave us a little lesson in plants that grow on other things and don’t need to grow in the dirt.  Then we went on an adventure to find more “piggy back plants” and ran around the gardens for about 30 minutes with a couple other little boys before going to create his creature.  Thomas loved using the magnifying glass to look at the different plants he found.  He also really liked following a couple month older boy, Kyle, around as he was talking about what he saw.  After a few minutes of Kyle leading the adventure, it would switch to Thomas, then back to Kyle.  It was so much fun to watch him meet his new buddy and then lead each other on adventures. Elin was a happy little gardener too, sleeping away the entire morning. 

Freckles

Thomas has a few of the unmistakable brown spots on his nose and cheeks.  With both Mike and I having freckles we thought that he would at some point too. 

A few of our favorite things…

Thomas’ current favorite thing to do is to take something with him on a walk.  Our walks have been lately things with wheels be it the wheel barrel, lawn mower, his truck, bike, or his suit case.  He has also been enjoying walking Stella and holding Elin.  He is such a big helper around the house too.  Helping to vaccuum, do laundry and washing (read playing in water making a mess) the dishes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elin has been enjoying a few new things too.  She loves to lay on her changing table and talk to her toys, particularly the yellow duck.  She also likes when her brother talks to her, or anyone talks with her, her swing and laying on her activity mat.  

Smiles…

Elin’s smiles are getting bigger and bigger by the day.  I can’t get enough of them. 

Zoo with my Buddy Max

Thomas and his buddy “Little Max” had a zoo play date together.  It was not a great morning to be at the zoo with scattered showers.  In between the rain the boys ran around and showed each other what they saw.  When the rain got to be a little too hard we headed inside to the zoomasium so that they could continue to play.  Thomas was even brave enough to touch a skink, that looked a little something like the picture to the right.  It was a fun way to spend a rainy morning. 

Low Tide at the Beach

Golden Gardens is so close to our house that we decided to check out low tide on a whim.  After checking the tide chart, peak low tide was at 10:35 and we got there about 11.  We found a bunch of stuff, dead crabs, 2 star fish, a jelly fish, mussels and SAND!  Each time Mike would lift a rock and ask Thomas what he found he was proudly exclaim “sand!”  He was right that was all we found under the rocks.

Our fun at the beach ended when Thomas tripped on a rock and cut his hand.  It was his first cut on his hand that he was really upset about.  He kept looking at it and just wanted to be held after.  So we wrapped it up and headed home for lunch and naptime. 

Returning to homeostasis….

To say the last few weeks have been and adjustment is an understatement.  We were all feeling a little roughed up after Elin’s hospital stay and coming off of having more help with family in town.  So we needed to get back to a good place as a family.  We all needed to catch up on sleep and snuggle time.  Memorial Day weekend was a good start and then we continued into this past week and weekend.  I can finally say I think we have returned to homeostasis and what a great place that is to be.

So what did we learn??? 

First we learned that it was going to be man on man defense now.  At night we have always been able to tag team and now we have to pick and then switch if our “defense” isn’t working.    Thomas seemed to wake up every time she did.  Boo…it was tough keeping them both happy and sleeping.   I can finally say we have passed that stage now.  Thomas and Mike usually too sleep through her 3-4 wake ups.  Which helps everyone out. The cutest thing has been Thomas wanting to hear about when he was a baby again. 

Thomas is also back to knowing that he can’t nurse all the time and is gently being weaned.  I wasn’t willing to rock the boat before Elin came for a few reasons: 1-we both enjoy the time together, 2- it is so good for his immunity and health (his pediatrician actually recommends prolonged nursing for as long as possible into toddler years ) 3- we both liked to and still do take naps and this is usually an easy way to get him to sleep  4-I didn’t want to wean him and then have it all come back after having a new baby.   So he is now back on his only nursing to sleep and 1 time in the morning.  Then I have started to shorten the time for him nursing to sleep and he now falls asleep by himself every night not nursing.    I have to admit I never thought I would nurse a 2 year old, 2 children and I could go on and on.  Yet it is where we are and I am so thankful that my body and breasts have been able to do so much for Thomas and now Elin.  Nutrition, immunities, closeness, and comfort are so priceless to me in this very short period of life.  It was a little daunting to nurse him the first time again after Elin was born, my little nugget all of a sudden felt and seemed like a giant!   I can only continue to hope that the research continues to support breastfeeding and continued breastfeeding.  As anyone who has breast fed for any amount of time will tell you it is not always easy regardless of how much you believe in it. 

After a particularly stressful and quite disastrous experience at a climbing gym and lunch Mike and I talked and decided that Thomas, Elin, and I needed some time to click.  The lunch went something like me trying to get Thomas to eat his lunch, while nursing Elin, people staring and a few melt downs later we were all exhausted.  Thank goodness I had a friend with me to help out!  So we stuck to the 3 of us and Stella joined in too.  We hung out around the house and painted, cleaned together (Thomas chooses to do this and I am not going to complain), went to the aquarium and park.    His listening ears turned back on, which led to two very happy parents.  He will still test us but he is not down right naughty all the time like he was after Elin’s initially came into our world.  After this he was also having a really hard time being around children and he was starting to act out.  He started to do things he had seen but had never done before and that for me was a big warning that his little mind was spinning.  He was also trying to boss around his puppy and cats.  His poor little brain was trying to “boss” someone and organize himself and his world.  He is figuring it out and as I write this a week late he has had a few GREAT days, even around other kids!

Homeostasis feels good.  The new normal feels good.  There are things that remain challenging which are trying to help when both need me/us.  This is obviously much easier on the weekends when Mike is here.  Trying to be out and about and nurse Elin while also keeping my very active by entertained and safe is also tricky.  I have found that the best way to do this alone is to let Thomas “drive the car to Minnesota” while I sit in the passenger seat and nurse Elin.  Other than that there is a lot more laundry but I think until Elin starts to move and demand more attention we have made it over this hump.