After the first week, Grandma Lude headed home and left us to get into our new normal. Joe was off of work for another week. That week went quickly then it was time for me to manage at home on my own. I can hardly remember what it was like to just have Bran, less busy I'd imagine! Luckily he has still been going to Jennifer's a couple days a week. The little break is good for all of us! Mama gets a little more time to relax, and Bran gets out of the house to burn some energy. I feel like it is so much harder to just live in the moment this time. I feel like there is a never ending to do list, and it's bed time again before I know it. Amelia isn't a newborn anymore and it makes me a little sad, except for the sleeping more part of course! But she sure does get the easy baby award. Great eater, great sleeper, and just generally a very pleasant little girl.
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| Bran has wanted nothing to do with posing with the blocks for months. But ya know jealousy does crazy things... |
Jennifer, Maddie, and Frankie stopped by to meet Amelia. They are going to get to spend the summer with her! We decided to push back starting at the daycare until September so both of the kids will go there when Mama goes back to work.
Val, Josh, Gabe, and Rylee also came to Columbus for the day and were able to spend a little time with Amelia, and of course "bucket head". Yes Bran danced around with a bucket on his head while everyone chanted "bucket head" and loved every minute. He's such a goofball!
Oh the stroller, now that has been an interesting saga. We went to take our first family walk with the dogs and decided to just put Amelia in her car seat to click into the single stroller figuring Bran would want to walk like he had been doing. Oh boy were we wrong! He got so incredibly jealous when Amelia was going to ride in "his" stroller and kept trying to get in the stroller himself. So 20ish minutes and a massive meltdown later I have Amelia riding on me in a baby carrier and I am pushing Bran in the single stroller. We got the double stroller out that night, now both kids ride when we take the dogs for a walk, and everyone is happy! You live and you learn.
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| I have a picture of Bran in the same hat in the stroller. They look identical! Only funny thing is she is the one with a binky in the picture and she never actually uses one. |
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| I LOVE this stroller. Can't wait until Amelia is big enough and we can all go for a run. Although I suspect it will be very tiring, this thing gets heavy quick with two kids. |
Amelia still spends the vast majority of the day sleeping. She really is such a good baby and will sleep about anywhere at this point. We also try to soak up the snuggles as much as we can because we know now how short lived they will be.
Bran has really taken to the big brother role. I am not sure he even remembers life without her anymore. He is always making sure she is "okay honey" and giving her lots of hugs and kisses. We just have to remind him a lot he needs to be gentle and save the big squeezies for Mom and Dad.
Getting out of the house now is always an adventure. It takes so much more time to get two kids ready and out the door. But we are trying and it helps that the weather is getting nice. Now I just need to find more toddler friendly activities where I can wear Amelia in a carrier and not be too worried about Bran (my dare devil) running off or hurting himself trying to do something meant for the big kids.
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| Off Road Scootering |
Grandma Roelle spent the weekend with us for Joe's first call weekend post Amelia and boy were we all thankful for the extra set of hands. We enjoyed the time together.
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| Showing Grandma the toys at the library. |
Well I can't believe it but I think we have a potty trained 2 year old! (At least during the day, night time we will figure out with time). It really caught on at about 27 months. I can always count on Jennifer not only for a great picture (haha), but also for a step in the right direction. She put Bran in a pair of Frankie's underwear one day and I think that made all the difference in his commitment to taking on potty training. He really did not enjoy the feeling of being wet in underwear (vs. naked) when he had an accident. He also decided he wanted to use his little froggy potty at home. So peeing on the potty really became quite easy fairly quickly. We used stickers as incentives and all was well. Pooping on the other hand was a complete nightmare! If he hadn't being doing so well with pee I probably would have completely bailed on potty training. He kept pooping right in his underwear and it was a huge mess and would cause tears and frustration for everyone involved. So then he kept trying to hold it, which just made for more massive messy blowouts in his underwear. He even pooped on the rug right next to me at the dinner table while I was feeding dinner one night. When I caught him in the act he started running towards the bathroom which just left me a trail of poop to clean up, it was terrible! Miraculously one day we got one tiny little turd on the potty, and we rewarded Bran with m&m's, or as Bran says "two m's!". That made the light turn on and he never looked back on pooping on the potty again! I am not sure how long he's going to decide he needs rewarded with m&m's but hey whatever works! I think the other motivating factor was Bran figured out very quickly that he could get mama to jump up from whatever she was doing (feeding Amelia, etc) to help him in the bathroom. I never knew how much time I could spend in a bathroom breastfeeding a baby! (haha!). So now we are working on independently getting his underwear and shorts off. He is already improving and insists on doing it "myself!". We keep a watchful eye but it's nice to be able to trust him more. We are so proud of Bran!!
Photo Ops
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| Bran's (and Grandma Lude's) first sushi. |
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| So many goofy faces already. |
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| "LeBRAN James" |
