The Beach!

Julian and I were very proud when we realized that both Josh and Sam have been to the beach every summer of their lives. Both kids are certified Beach Bums, so I think this is a tradition we will have to keep up. Julian's Mom and Stepdad have rented the same house the past few years, in Rehobeth so we were able to go for a long weekend over the 4th of July.

We left Friday afternoon so that the kids could nap in the car on the drive to the beach. It mostly worked as planned, although both kids only took about 1hr naps. Josh woke up from his nap screaming and crying, a telltale sign that he is getting sick. And his nose started running. After getting some Advil Josh settled down. Both kids were pretty good in the car, even though they were awake. We didn't hit traffic until we got close to Rehobeth, so that was good. Josh had been a bit overly whiny in the morning (another telltale sign he is getting sick), so we packed the nebulizer just incase. We had him use it right when we arrived to make sure that he wouldn't have a full on asthma attack. 

Both kids LOVED exploring the house. Sam started walking in the last week or two, and enjoyed walking all around the house. Josh remembered the beach house from the year before, and was very happy to be back. We decided to rent a pack and play and stroller for this trip, so that we would have extra room in the car to bring our bikes (and burley). The stroller was a bust because the front wheel was not adjustable, but the crib worked out well. Lesson learned to always ask about the front wheel when renting.

After settling in a bit, we all headed out to dinner at Grotto's! And to purchase beach toys for the next day :-)

Both kids had a rough night sleeping the first day. We had them sleep in the same room, which actually worked out great. Sam was a bit scared of sleeping in a new room, until he realized that Josh was there too.  Fortunately they both did really well sharing the room for the rest of the trip. Even for nap!

Both kids LOVED the beach. No shock there :-)  Josh had several shovels and toys and loved digging really big holes. Sam loved jumping in the holes and upsetting Josh, until he discovered the water...which he absolutely loved. We finally got Josh into the water on the last day, and I think we have converted him. He realized how fun it was to jump and splash. Both kids LOVED to demand buckets of water to dump out on the sand, or just to splash in.

We brought our bikes this year, and we were happy to use them a few times. We biked with the whole family and stopped to pick up some donuts to bring back to the house.  Julian also took the kids out for a bike ride while I went running, and Julian and I were able to bike out for lunch while Bobby watched the kids.

We also made it back to Funland, and they both had a great time. It was so cute to see them both sitting together on the rides. Josh would have loved to spend all day there.

We drove back home around bedtime, which worked out very well. And it was nice to get an extra beach day in by leaving late :-)

Overall we had a great trip, and can't wait to spend many more summers at the beach!

On our way to the beach!

Josh teaching Sam how to play skee ball 

Enjoying the beach!

Sam enjoying his donut!

All cleaned up after a day at the beach

Sitting with grandma

Sam's first time on the boat ride

Josh trying to get some rays

Stitches

Sadly, we now have the parenting badge of the first stitches. Back in March, we took a family trip to see the cherry blossoms, and unfortunately Josh fell off his seat on the metro and landed on a metal block on the floor and got a bad gash on his face/lip. Once I got a good look, I knew we needed to go straight to the ER. The crying and bleeding actually stopped pretty quickly, so we knew he hadn't been seriously injured. But with the location and size of the cut, I knew it would not heal well without stitches. 

We went to our usual ER, and were seen quickly by the nurse. They said because the cut crossed the lip line, it was a more difficult cut to stitch. They said we could have the nurse practitioner on call do the stitches or we could page the plastic surgeon. We decided that if Josh didn't heal well, we would always regret not waiting the extra 2 hours to see a plastic surgeon and decided to page him. Josh got to watch a movie while we waited and Sam took a short stroller nap. 

Once the plastic surgeon arrived he took a quick look at it, and then explained to Julian and I what would happen. They would strap Josh down and do it as quickly as possible, but that he would not be happy. They were very nice to Josh and let him strap monkey into the restraining device (we called it a hug machine...but it was basically a straight jacket), and then got to work. It was pretty tough to watch, but I tried to stay calm and talk to Josh. It was over in a few minutes and they gave Josh a Popsicle. He recovered quickly, and was excited to play with the toys.

The next few days were a bit rough emotionally for him, I think he was realizing that he wasn't immortal but didn't really understand the feelings. We talked about it a lot, and that seemed to help.

The plastic surgeon did a great job and the stitches healed very quickly. 3 months later Josh still has a bit of a scar, and you can feel the stiffness in his lip. We've started putting vitamin E on it at night and massaging the area slightly.

Not an experience we would like to repeat anytime soon, but we are glad everything turned out ok.

Family Selfie!

Thank goodness monkey was in the car!

Just doing some playing while we wait for the Dr.

::sad face::

All better!

He was promised a few minutes to play after they were all done :-)

Sam's 1 year stats!

Sorry we have been so slow to post, but we will try and catch up a bit. Sam had his 1 year check up a few weeks after his birthday. He is 30.75 inches tall (79th percentile for height), 21 pounds and 4 ounces (46th for weight) and 66th for head size. He is doing well over all, and was a very good boy at the doctors!

He is starting to talk, just a few words so far. Honestly, I'm not sure I would have recognized them as words when Josh was learning to talk-because they are more like sounds. He says, "ba" for ball, "mama" for me, "bo" for book, and an "m" sound for more. Around 13 months he has started saying, "Ja!" for josh. He doesn't say these things all the time, but it is noticeable when he does. We know he can say, "Dada" as well, but I haven't heard it lately.

At 12 months Sam had not taken any real steps, but was cruising on furniture and a very speedy crawler. He is now taking steps (13.5 months) and I think he will be walking pretty soon! I know I shouldn't compare my kids, but I think at this age Josh had stronger gross motor skills but Sam has stronger fine motor skills. Sam is able to play with toys that Josh wasn't at this age, but Josh was walking by 12 months. It is interesting to me to see how each kid develops so differently!

Sam has been a pretty picky eater. I talked to the pediatrician, and he basically said to keep offering him food and he will eat when he is hungry. We find that Sam will eat fruit, sometimes vegetables, most carbs, but zero protein (no cheese, no meat). I've been able to get him to eat soy beans (edamame). And I recently discovered this AMAZING soybean spread that Sam LOVES. Don't Go Nuts is the brand, and it has the flavor and consistency of peanut butter, so even Julian will eat it! Sam also will not drink whole milk. He will drink water out of a sippy cup, but shakes his head no if you try and give him whole milk (or even breast milk) in a sippy. This wouldn't bother me as much, except that he will not eat anything else with fat or protein in it. He will eat yogurt, so I give him that every day.

We also had Sam tested for allergies, and we think he does not have any! The cashew test was a light positive, so we are to feed him the other nuts first and go from there. I am supposed to try peanut butter on him, but I haven't quite figured out how to balance a nut free home with feeding him peanuts. We are doing blood work for Josh soon to see how his allergies are doing, so that will also help us decide how careful we need to be.

I'm still breastfeeding Sam, although I think my goal would be to start cutting back soon. It has been tricky to do that since he will not drink milk in a sippy cup. He also won't really take a bottle if I am around at all, so we haven't had luck putting whole milk in a bottle either. Sam seems to be both patient and stubborn, which is a dangerous combination :-P

Overall, he is such a smiley happy little guy! He loves splashing in the bathtub and during water play. And he loves anything that Josh is playing with.

Just playing with a plastic bag at the pediatricians appointment

Selfie of Mommy and Sam in Dr Kulp's chair

Where it all began!

Enjoying a birthday donut! (Krispy Kreme of course!)

Happy Birthday Sam!

Well I think it will be a tradition on Sam's birthday to do something a little foolish and out of character. Julian and I are generally very rational and follow the rules. Having a baby in the car was not at all something I thought we would do. Fortunately for all of you, our mishap for this year was caught on film. When Sam is 30 he will surely wonder how he survived his childhood....

FYI, Sam recovered very quickly and there was no permanent damage...

Video by Ruth Dayhoff....Mom's, embarrassing their kids since the beginning of time....

New bike!

We got Josh a new bike last weekend. We had planned to check him for size at a store and then order a cheap one online. The common sizes are 12" and 16", and we thought maybe he was too big for 12". We started at REI, and they had one style kids 12" bike. Josh had a horrible time trying to ride the bike. He is great with a tricycle, so we were surprised he was having so much trouble. We decided to go to performance bike to see what they had. Josh immediately wanted to try a cute little pink and purple 12" bike, and was riding it all over the store. It was night and day. The handlebars and pedals on this bike were in a better spot for Josh. We had him test a 16" bike as well, but it was too big. After seeing him struggle at REI, we were concerned about buying a cheaper bike that he couldn't test out. We suggested that he test one of the other colors (red/yellow or pale blue/yellow), which he agreed to. He spent 30 seconds on the red and yellow bike before racing back to the pink bike because it was his, "very favorite." We couldn't say no to that, so Josh is now the proud owner of a brand new bike! We hope Sam likes pink/purple by the time he gets the bike ;-)

Awkward REI bike

Gotta make sure there is air in the tires!

Loving his new bike!

40 weeks

I saw someone else post when their child hit 40 weeks, and loved the idea. I'm very behind in doing Sam's 40 week post, but better late than never. I wrote a similar post for Josh [link] and reflected on my thoughts from pregnancy through Josh's first 40 weeks, and I wanted to do the same for Sam.

Babies grow from a ball of cells to a living, breathing, moving baby in 40 weeks of pregnancy. In their first 40 weeks on the outside, babies must learn to eat, sleep, roll, crawl and experience the world. 40 weeks for Sam was the end of January, and he was just past 9 months old. He is a very physical baby, crawling and pulling up as often as possible. He loves being held and looking around. He is such a happy easy going baby, and very playful. Josh's personality has pretty much stayed the same from the get-go, but it has been great to see how it manifests as he gets older. I'm excited to see how Sam is as a toddler, considering how easy going he is as a baby.

I think one of my big fears this time around was how would I love another baby as much as I love Josh, and how would being a parent the second time be as exciting as it was the first time. Man I was totally wrong on both fronts. I sort of knew that it was common to wonder how you would be able to have space in your heart for two kids, and the practical side of me knew that I would have no problems. I fell completely in love with Sam from the get-go, and now can't picture our family without him. I also have been just as excited by the little tiny milestones this time as I was with Josh. Sam and Josh are so different, so while each milestone is similar, they both approach them differently. Plus you sort of start all over, and forget some of the milestones, so they are just as exciting :-P

Pregnancy was overall much harder the second time for me, particularly with all the illness and injury. I had really hoped that recovery from delivery would be quicker, and that I would lose the weight quicker. Sadly I was wrong. I re-injured my tailbone during delivery, darn 9+lb baby, and it is only just starting to finally feel better. It still hurts if I sit the wrong way too long, or on a particularly hard chair for too long. I'm also still struggling to lose the baby weight. I gained less weight this pregnancy (and more of the weight was Sam!) so I thought it would come off faster. By the time Josh was 9 months I was almost 10lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight, which is certainly not the case since having Sam. While I have been exercising, I have intentionally not watched what I'm eating while breastfeeding. Hopefully the weight will keep coming off slowly, otherwise I will wait until I'm done breastfeeding to get serious about it.

Overall, I have LOVED being a second time Mom. The first time was really hard for me, I had a really hard time adjusting my expectations and Josh was not an easy baby. This time I have so much more confidence, and I have been able to let go of things that would have bothered me with Josh. A friend who also just had their second said that the second time around you know that if you manage to shower and keep the kid alive, it has been a good day. I completely agree with that! I no longer have an unrealistic expectations of all the things I can get done, and I'm happy to just "be" with Sam. I really enjoyed my maternity leave with Sam, and I've been enjoying working 3 days a week and having a little extra time with him. It is rare to get so much one on one time with your second child, and I feel so lucky to have gotten the opportunity :-)  I also think because I get extra time with Sam during the week, I don't feel guilty prioritizing Josh on the weekends.

In the past 40 weeks I have also changed a lot, I've learned to face challenges and be creative in ways to care for two kids. I'm not totally sure I understand why, but I feel like a better Mom to two kids, than I was to one kid. I still loose my cool sometimes, or have a bad parenting day. I've been struggling to make time for some of my favorite hobbies, and to make time to see friends. For now I'm ok overall with the way things are, and I'm sure that I will start adding things back to my schedule at some point.

I'm not ready to admit that Sam is almost one, I want him to stay my baby forever :-)

Almost 40 weeks on the inside!

40 Weeks on the outside!

40 weeks on the outside!

Year in review

I started this post back around New Years, and I've decided to finally finish it and post it. Even if we are a bit late, I love looking back at old posts to remember what we were up to and how I was feeling about everything.

As 2015 comes to a close, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the year. As our life has gotten much more busy, we have less time to post here and even less time to post our general reflections instead of just events that are happening. It has been a very challenging, although also rewarding year.

Obviously the big news of the year was Sam's speedy arrival, and our family of three becoming four. So far we are loving being a family of four, and Sam has fit right into our lifestyle. All of my cousins were right though, after the first kid you can still pretend you have a life....but once you have two, your kids are your life. I'm not sure we would want it any other way though :-)  We have really been enjoying doing fun kid friendly things most of the time. We have lost any desire to go out to eat someplace with kids where you can't throw food on the floor, because it is just too stressful. We like to prioritize having both kids nap in the afternoon so that we can get things done, so we tend to keep our weekends low key. I hope in the next year we will get out a bit more for date nights, particularly now that Josh has been better about being left with someone.

Before Sam's arrival, we spent a lot of time fixing up the house to get ready. It has been great this winter that we have new windows, because they really keep the house much warmer. We have also loved having Josh on the main floor. I would still consider having the boys share a room once they are on the same nap schedule, so that we could get a bit of extra space on the main floor--but for now it works well to have them separate. We have a few things on our to-do list for this year, the big one being to redo our front walkway and steps. We have some drywall repair to do, and I would love to do some painting. But we have been having a hard time finding the motivation to get started on something big.

We managed to do a few fun trips this year. Atlanta before Sam was born, then the beach, Lancaster, PA and Nashville over the summer, Landsdale PA for my cousin's Bat Mitzvah, then Florida for Christmas. Traveling as a family of 4 requires much more careful packing and planning, since we have to be able to manage all our stuff. This year we are planning a trip with extended family to Costa Rica, which will be the first trip out of the country for boy boys. We have been thinking about a few other trips, but nothing planned yet. Both Julian and I wanted to get through the winter to see how much vacation time we would need for sick/snow days before planning much.

In a bit of sad news, this year we lost our cat Jeter. Julian's family rescued her as a kitten 19 years ago (we think), and she has been living with him since he graduated college. She was my first ever cat, and she was a good one! We took many many naps together :-) She had a rough last month health wise, so her death was not unexpected. I started a post about this, but never finished it-hopefully this will be a reminder to find the post.

2016 has already been very busy, and filled with snow :-)  We are excited to see Sam growing into a toddler (ahhhhhhh) and Josh growing into a preschooler. He has learned so much in the past year, and while the millions of questions gets annoying sometimes.....we love how much he is understanding and learning.

Off to Florida 1/1/15

Happy 2nd Bday Josh!

Pregnant!

Welcome Sam! 4/25/15

awww <3

Brothers!

Family fun!

Florida 12/28/15....Can't wait to see what the next year brings!