Road Trip

The boys and I took a road trip with Grandma and Grandpa H. today. We all loaded up in the new van and headed an hour north to visit Great Aunt Carol and Al. Carol has been very busy and hadn't met Ryan yet, and you know what they say - If you can't get Carol to the baby, take the baby to Carol! We had such a nice visit. Ryan was on his best behavior, meaning he was awake and not crying! Wesley played really well and the van drove beautifully!

Not Hungry

Wesley has been on a mini hunger strike since Ryan was born. He just doesn't eat and when he does it isn't at any sort of regular time. It's fairly common for him to not want breakfast until 10:00 or later and then eat something little, lunch is the same story and if we can get him to eat dinner at all, it's nothing short of a miracle. Take today for instance. Wesley did eat breakfast at a decent time, but all he'd eat was a little dish of mandarin oranges. Lunch was also at a good time, but all he ate was a piece of turkey bologna and a slice of American cheese. He did snack on a few animal crackers around 3:00 but that's all he's had all day. When I give him his choices for dinner, he answers, "I'm not hungry right now. I had some of Fluffy's tuna." You may remember that Fluffy is his imaginary cat - so apparently my oldest son is filling up on imaginary tuna.

Ryan's One Month Check Up

Ryan had his one month appointment. I know you all want to know what the doctor said about the pacifier, but I'm going to give the vitals first.

Weight: Ryan weighs 9 pounds and 12 ounces. That's a little more than a 2 pound gain from his one week appointment and it puts him in roughly the 50th percentile for his age.

Length: Ryan's 22 and 1/2 inches long. That puts him in roughly the 80th percentile for his age.

I asked the doctor about the stink factor of the little boy, and as long as he is growing, the doctor isn't concerned. Guess Ryan's just stinky.

And now the pacifier news....well, let's just say Ryan is contentedly sucking away on one right now. Our doctor said he sees no problem at all with them for 6-9 months. If Ryan seems to want to suck, it's fine to give him one as long as we don't make it part of our nightly bedtime routine and that we get rid of it between 6-9 months (his opinion is that after that it's not a need, but a habit that turns into binky addiction). So, we're having our first peaceful dinner with Ryan awake since he came home. Guess we'll see how it goes!

Hardy Har Har

Wesley has learned his first joke.

What does a nose do on it's birthday?

It "blows" out it's candles and "picks" out it's presents.

Oh, the humor of an almost three-year-old.

How Did That Happen?

Somehow we've become a family of four with a mini-van. Just bought it this morning. I never thought I'd own a mini-van!

Hypothetical Question

Wesley had a special day out with Aunt Susan, Uncle Kirk and their niece Janna yesterday. All did not go as planned. Exactly how bad does your child have to be behaving for 1) two of his favorite people on the planet call to tell you how bad he is acting, 2) a four-year-old starts saying "Wesley is not making good choices," and 3) for Susan to say "I have a whole new respect for what you do," when she dropped Wesley off. I don't want to know all the details. I'm embarrassed enough.

Mommy's Day with the Boys

I think I've mentioned before that I'm just not cut out stay home, even when I'm on maternity leave. I HAVE to get out of the every day - even if it's just to the store - and being home with two kids isn't slowing me down too much.

Today we ventured to the park. Wesley didn't want to go anywhere today, but like I said, I needed to get out. We met up with Aunt Sam, Greg, Geoffrey and Grandma and Grandpa H. then headed to a park near their house. Wesley was not excited at all about the trip. He was tired, cranky and kind of anti-social, despite the fact that his cousins were having fun. Check out the third picture, cousin Geoffrey knows how to have fun at a park.

I think part of it was also jealously of sharing his grandparents with his cousins and Ryan. I just can't come up with any other explanation for Wesley crawling into Ryan's car seat.

His spirits lifted considerably when Grandma handed me Ryan and she went to play with Wesley though. Ryan wasn't so sure about the park, but he'll grow to love it.

After the park, Wesley, Ryan and I went to one of the libraries to try and visit some friends, but everyone was at a conference or a meeting (Wendy!) so we went to get ice cream instead. What can I say, you have to make the best of a disappointing situation and ice cream sure cheers us up!

Busy Bees

This week has been really active for us. Seriously, we've been pretty busy here, but I like it that way. I would go nuts if I didn't get out of the house each day. Here's a run down on the busy W. family.

Monday: Aunt Paula came over on her lunch hour. She brought lunch for us and gifts for the boys. It was a great way to spend an hour or two. That evening, we took Wesley for an overnight at Grandma and Grandpa P.'s. When I called to check on Wesley, he was hyped up on M&M's from Uncle Stacey, then got nipped by one of the dogs (but got over it quickly).

Tuesday: I met Grandma W. in the afternoon for a little bit of shopping, then picked Wesley and Grandpa P. up. Wesley, Ryan and I dropped Grandpa off to pick up his car. Aunt Susan dropped by in the evening to drop off an outfit for Ryan, some cake for Mommy and Daddy and helped put a screaming Ryan to bed. I didn't have the heart to tell her he woke up 5 minutes after she left.

Wednesday: I took the boys to COSI with Kate and Colin. Wesley was in rare form. He wasn't exactly throwing a fit, but he wasn't listening to me worth diddly squat. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem as I am still bigger and stronger than him (for now), but I stopped pumping this week and - TMI coming - my chest is SO SORE!!!! Moving hurts and chasing an almost three year old is out of the question! Luckily, Kate was more than willing to keep her eye on Wesley and Colin while I hung out with Ryan.

Of course, that could be because she got a sense of Ryan's true nature. I haven't posted about this, but Ryan is a stinky stinky boy. He passes gas A LOT and it's always loud and rather toxic smelling. I think Kate summed it up best when she said "Kid, you smell like a skunk crawled inside another skunk and died!" Rude, but pretty accurate! I pray he out grows that!

After dinner, the W. family headed to Grandma and Grandpa H.'s house for a visit. My step-sister Sam, her husband and their two boys are visiting from Seattle and we wanted to be sure to see them. It took a little while for Wesley to warm up to Geoffrey and Greg, but once he did they had a great time. Especially when the three of them ran around the backyard tackling each other. I was a little worried about the rough play at first, but then I realized, this is my life with boys.

We stayed until a little after Wesley's bedtime, then put him in jammies and headed home. We figured Wesley would fall asleep on the way home and we could just plunk him in bed. WRONG!! Ryan was busy throwing a fit and Wesley had no chance of sleeping. Of course, Ryan cried himself out part way home. We figured it would only be an hour or two until he wanted fed, so we decided to just leave him in his car seat and put him in his room until he woke up. Imagine our surprise when he woke up SIX HOURS LATER!!!! Seriously, he slept for SIX HOURS IN A ROW!! I know it was a fluke, but wow was it nice. I was up with him from 3:30 - 4:30. At 4:30, I woke Duane up and told him that I needed to get a little more sleep if I was going to have both boys today, and could he please take Mr. Bright Eyes for a little bit. Duane was up with him for a while, but he did manage to get more sleep too. Mind you, Ryan's been up since 6:45, but that's a small price to pay.

And what of the rest of the week? Well, we may do something with the cousins today. Wesley has a play date with Uncle Kirk, Aunt Susan and their niece Janna tomorrow. Ryan and I will need to return the pump tomorrow. Plus tomorrow night we are switching cable/internet/phone providers. Saturday will be the family trip to the grocery store and possibly the park or big library. Sunday will be church and possibly a craft show with a kids play area. Monday is Ryan's one month(!) doctor's appointment. Think we're cramming enough in?

To B(inky) or Not to B(inky)

I am asking my readers to please weigh in on the great pacifier debate that is taking place in the W. household. We have been pretty anti-pacifier in our house. We broke down once or twice with Wesley, but he had no interest in them and would spit the thing right out. Yes, he lips the tag on his Stinky Bear, but I think I prefer that to a pacifier.

Then along came Ryan. He's never had a pacifier, but this kid loves to suck! When he finishes a bottle, he often acts hungry, but if we give him a "chaser" he usually just chews contentedly on the nipple and doesn't eat. This morning I stopped a crying fit and lulled him to sleep by letting him suck on my pinky finger. Duane and I are pretty sure a pacifier would work wonders for Ryan, but we are trying to be strong and not introduce one.

Some of you may be asking why we have an aversion to pacifiers. Well, it's for a number of reasons.

• We've heard horror stories of having to have a dozen "binkies" in the house at all times, of searching the crib in the middle of the night for a binky that has fallen out, of going to the store at midnight because you can't find one of the dozen binkies.


• We've heard horror stories of breaking the child from the pacifier.


• We've both seen children we think are WAY too old for a pacifier who are totally dependant on them.

Ryan has his one month appointment coming up on Monday and I am going to talk to our pediatrician about it, but I want to hear from you all. PLEASE let me know if you used a pacifier with your child or not, why you made the decision you did, tricks that worked with you and yes, share those horror stories too. I need some mommy advice.

Too Much Olympics?

Perhaps we've been watching a bit too much of the Olympics at our house. Wesley had Ritz crackers with his lunch yesterday. He picked one up off the plate, held it in his hand and announced, "Cat wins the gold medal!"

Little Boy Blue

Kicking Myself

Wesley has a new phrase he uses to express his frustration with me. When he's annoyed at Mommy he says, "Oh Mom, go kick yourself over." What?!? I have no idea where this little phrase came from. But what kills me is the tone of voice he uses when he says it - exactly like a disgusted teenager! You can almost hear the eye-roll. Oh well, it's a lot better than many other phrases I've heard kids his age use and he does need a way to express what he's feeling.

This morning I was told to go kick myself over when I told Wesley he could not have computer time until after breakfast. I am learning the power of computer time. Wesley won't eat? No computer time until he does. Wesley won't get dressed? No computer time until he does. Wesley throws a fit about something? Lose computer time. I'm thinking about really testing the power of the computer tonight - no computer time until he takes a bite of something new. I doubt it will work, but I have to try it! The worst that can happen is I'll hear "Oh Mom, go kick yourself over!"

Rub a Dub Dub

Ryan had his first bath in the baby tub last night. The pictures below show an infant who is less than impressed, but dealing with it. The pictures are a lie. When he started screaming like mad, I stopped taking pictures and started helping Duane. Aunt Susan was there and captured the whole range of emotions (impassive to fury) and I'll post the true pictures later. In the meantime, here are the pictures I took.

BTW - I need to do another shout out to Uncle Kirk and Aunt Susan. I have a feeling there will be many of these in the future. They were over last night so Kirk could install some RAM in our computer, which we are very grateful for. Of course, we're even more grateful for the day-glo cupcakes, the laughs and the patience and love they show our children - especially our attention starved nearly three-year-old. Kirk has the patience of a saint with Wesley. I never thought I'd see the day!

Say What?

We got a book at the library for Ryan, but Wesley has claimed it. It's a very simple picture book, but just a bright picture of an object and the name of the object underneath. Wesley busied himself by telling Duane and I what each object said - you know, the train says "choo-choo," the shoes say "stomp stomp." It was pretty basic stuff until he got to the picture of the potty seat, when Wesley announced that "The potty says poop poop poop." Oh, how I wish it did at our house!

Pictures of the Boys

Aunt Susan sent me these pictures from Sunday. Aren't they great!? I think Ryan looks like his cousin Mark in these pics.

Think Someone Is Jealous?

Finally Made It

Well, it took us until 2:00 today, but Grandma H. and I finally got the boys to the "big" library downtown. We had to juggle pumping times, Ryan's bottle time, diaper changes for both boys and Wesley's stubbornness in order to get there, but by goodness we made it!

In unrelated news, I've talked before about how Wesley is suddenly interested in baby toys. Well, he has claimed Ryan's stacking rings and has determined they are donuts. He'll tell you what flavor they are and everything. In addition to being donuts, they double as floaties for the pretend swimming pool in our living room. Pretty neat invention.

Keeping Ryan safe in the pretend pool.

A moment of peace this morning.

Thank Goodness for Family

I know I have mentioned before how blessed Duane and I are to have our families living so close to us and to be emotionally close to them. Grandma H. comes down nearly every day to help me with the boys. Grandma and Grandpa P. take Wesley to do something fun at least one day a week. Aunt Melissa gives me such wonderful advice and is an angel with Wesley. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Last night Uncle Kirk and Aunt Susan surprised us by bringing dinner over. It was WONDERFUL to see them! Kirk and Wesley get along so well - I love watching them play together. Aunt Susan loves Wesley so much, but I can tell there's a super special place in her heart for Ryan since she was in the delivery room when he was born. She took a ton of pictures of Ryan - so many that Wesley started asking to have his picture taken too, and it's not like she was ignoring him. She got some terrific shots of the two of them. I promise to post some of them when she sends them to me.

It was so nice to be taken care of for an evening. If you had told me 20 years ago that my brother and I would actually enjoy spending time together and that my hubby and I would get along so well with Kirk's wife, I probably would have called you a liar. A good relationship with my brother, my in-laws and the rest of my family is truly a gift from God. We are so blessed.

Little Victories

It's been a day of little victories in the W. household. After a restless night (Ryan didn't want to sleep so he and Duane ended up downstairs and Wesley had nightmares and I had to pump several times) I decided that little victories are definitely worth celebrating! The first little victory is that I wore a pre-pregnancy dress today!!! Now, before anyone starts hating on me too much, it's a dress that was a bit too big on me before and it doesn't have any zippers or buttons. However, it's the first non-maternity item other t-shirts that I've worn in MONTHS, so I'm going to count it!

The next little victory is that we made it to church today - no small feat with sleep deprived parents, an almost three year old and a 17 day old. We had to run the gauntlet to get into the service because everyone wanted to coo over Ryan. BTW, we attend a rather gray church (there is only one other couple our age that we know of) so our boys have lots of unofficial grandparents. However, I think my favorite moment was when Johnny saw us walk in. He very abruptly stopped playing the piano and hurried over for hugs of congratulations and to coo over Ryan. He even had me present the "newest member" to the congregation during announcements!

The final little victory of the day (at least thus far) is a family walk - two blocks each way - to a small branch library near our house. I knew the library would be closed, but I had overdue books (I know, bad librarian. At least I don't pay fines) and I wanted to put them in the book drop. The boys both rode in the stroller and Wesley kept an eye out for any sharks that might be following us. Have I mentioned that Wesley has a fantastic imagination.

Now if only Wesley and Ryan would both nap at the same time so Duane and I could nap too. But since Wesley has only taken naps 3 days since Ryan has been born, I won't hold my breath. If it happened it would be a MAJOR victory!

Warning: Mommy on the Edge

It's taken two weeks, but Mommy has finally been driven to the edge. Ryan has been screaming for the last 20 minutes and isn't happy unless he's being walked around (which Duane is doing right now so I can have a few minutes to vent and drink a cup of the hard stuff - decaf with skim milk and Splenda.) I could probably handle the screaming baby better if Wesley wasn't being...well, I know he's just being an almost three year old who is dealing with a new baby brother coming into the house. I've heard nothing but "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy" all day. And Wesley's either screaming at me or wanting to be in my lap and cuddled and the bipolar toddler thing is getting old fast. Plus we're trying to plan Wesley's birthday celebration, which adds a whole other kind of stress.

To try and counteract some of the frustration I'm feeling, here are a couple of cute Wesley stories.

.... Apparently we have had plenty of visitors the last couple of weeks. Wesley keeps asking me who is coming over tonight.

... Wesley turned to me, put his hand on his forehead and announced, "I'm ready for my close-up!" Ruby on Max & Ruby says this.

... Wesley chose to have a lollipop after dinner tonight. The one I pulled out of the bag happened to be butterscotch - a flavor he's never had before. Wesley is VERY impressed with it. After loudly saying, "mmmmmm" after the first lick, he asked me what kind it was called. Then he asked me if I wanted to taste it. Then he decided that "Butterscotch is my favorite!"

OK, I'm doing a little better now. I don't feel like I'm ready to jump off the roof anymore. Who knew blogging was so therapeutic?