Friday, August 31, 2012

Toddler Times: No Potty for Krew

When I showed up to pick up Krew from daycare yesterday, Eileen looked at me sternly and said, "Okay, we need to talk."

"Okay," I replied, slightly concerned, "What's up?"

"Today I tried to get him to go potty in the toilet.  And do you know what he told me?"

"What?"

"He said he couldn't because Mommy told him she doesn't want him to."

Oh good grief child.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

My Other Child Doesn't Talk a Lot

But he does hold his head up. :)

And, um, please excuse the face plant parenting mishap at the beginning. :)

My Child Talks a Lot

Whenever we are around other people, Krewson tends to go mute. He is simply a shy individual, and I can respect that because I have a tendency to be the same way.

I like tell people how much he talks, and then when they see him he utters like two words.

I swear I'm not a liar.

So...as proof...here is a video example of a typical daily car ride home from Eileen's house. Watch as much as you can handle, but be forewarned, it's over 7 minutes long and may not be of interest to those of you who don't find him as fascinating as I do. :)

And a few notes before you begin:
1. I was holding my phone in my right hand as I drove, not looking at what I was recording other than a glance here or there, so no, I was not being a crazy unsafe mother while driving with my two children in the car. :)
2. When he starts talking about the frog, he's referring to one of those small sticky toys that have the long sticky end that you pull to ricochet the toy across the room. Piper, Eileen's granddaughter, had shot one onto the ceiling that day and it had stuck to the ceiling.
3. I had no idea the sun was in his eyes. When I watched the video later, all the sunny sunshine talk made a lot more sense. :) Sorry buddy!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

How I'm Doing (Answer: Amazing!)

Anyone who's been an active reader on my blog for some time knows that I struggled immensely with postpartum depression after our son Krewson was born, and that a return of depression was one of my biggest fears in having another child.

Transitioning from my self-centered life with just me and Dave into a life with a child was hard. HARD. Hardest thing I've ever gone through. I had no idea what was coming, the overhaul on my life and emotions that was going to take place. I struggled so much that I questioned whether I'd ever have another child.

But then time worked its magic. Or maybe I should say God worked His magic. I healed. The depression left me. I adjusted to my new life. And discovered that I loved it immensely despite the sleepless nights, lack of schedule freedom, spit up, messes, and stinky diapers.

Two and a half years later, enter Greyden Roy.

My second little bundle of baby boy joy.

You guys, wow, does God answer prayers.

I haven't had any depression. None. Not an ounce. In Dave's words, I am a polar opposite compared to after Krew was born. I didn't even have the typical baby blues this time. Granted I started depression medication two hours after Grey's birth, but I knew things were different this time long before any medication would have had an effect. My mom said she could see a big difference compared to after Krew's birth even at the hospital. And she was right. With Krewson, I felt numb after his birth. I felt lost, bewildered, overwhelmed at my new life. Even at the hospital. And this time? Totally different. I couldn't take my eyes off of Greyden from the moment he was born. My heart absolutely swelled. I felt that amazing instant love for my newborn, that love I'd read about but had yet to ever experience. I've seriously been happy and excited to have another baby nearly every moment since his birth. Some nights I haven't even been able to fall asleep because I lay there thinking about how incredibly blessed I am.

Isn't God amazing??

I wish so, so badly I had felt this way after Krew's birth. Oh how much more I would have enjoyed his early days. It absolutely KILLS me to think about how I felt after his birth. The mommy guilt that pours through my soul is overwhelming. That little boy is so, so dear to my heart now. I would do anything for him. I could never, ever put into words the love that I feel for him and how amazingly blessed I feel to call him my son. I just wish I hadn't had a horrible, giant wall of postpartum depression clouding my life during his first days, weeks, and months. How different things would have been.

But we can't hold onto the past, can we? I just thank God that He pulled me through and that Krew was young enough to never remember how I acted. All he'll ever know is the momma who smiles and laughs with him daily, who knows and recognizes the incredible joy that is her life.

So for those of you who have been wondering...I am doing amazingly well. Thank you so much to all of you who sent up prayers for me. They worked. God listened and answered. :)

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Greyden - 1 Month Photo

Today our littlest man is one month old!!

And now start the monthly pictures with the frisbee. :)


One Month

In case you'd like a comparison to when he was one week old:


He definitely wouldn't be able to lay on the frisbee anymore.

Love this boy. And his new crazy double hairline. :)


Monday, August 20, 2012

Babyhood Weeks 1 through 3, and a 3 Week Picture

Well Greyden boy, you have now been in our lives for three whole weeks! Funny how your presence in our family already feels normal, like you've been there all along. Boy do we love you. :)

Here's a run down of how the first three weeks went:

You were born on Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 5:44am, about a week early. You weighed 8lb 6oz and were 21 1/4 inches long. I must be honest - especially since you came out big and healthy - that I was super thrilled about your early arrival. :) Your momma's body was wearing down!!




Some quirky things we noticed right away about you are that you have a birth mark on your eyelid, another birth mark on the back of your head (that ironically matches your brother's!), and that you love to stretch your legs out straight (which you always did in the womb). Oh, and that you have webbed toes. That's right the second and third toe on both of your feet are webbed halfway up. At first it threw me off, but now I think it's cute. :)


You've really been an easy baby so far. The first week you were an absolute angel baby. When you were awake, you'd happily sit in a swing or bouncy seat and just look around. Then you'd doze off, wake up to eat, and gladly do it all over again. Obviously you were held a lot, because everyone wanted to love on you, but you didn't need to be. You were content all on your own.

Once you hit a week old, your real personality started to shine through. No more sitting in the bouncy seat or swing. You wanted to be held - ALL THE TIME. I've since then been able to tame you a bit, and you'll sit in some type of baby station occasionally throughout the day, but for the most part you want to be held when you're awake. As long as you're being held, you don't fuss much. There have been some evenings (such as this current one) where you're crabby and we can't seem to make you happy, but for the most part you're content as long as you're in someone's arms being held in the position you want.



Speaking of being held, you hate to be picked up under the armpits (you always squawk at me when I do it) and prefer to be held upright most of the time. Your favorite position is way up high over someone's shoulder, with your armpits at shoulder height and your arms draped over their back. Then you like to practice holding up your little head and look around.


I tried letting you sleep in our room at night at first, but just like with your brother I couldn't handle it. Every grunt, hiccup, and squeak woke me up. And I needed my sleep! So on Sunday of the second week, when you were 8 days old, you went into your own room. You've slept in there every night since. Sometimes you sleep in your Moses basket and sometimes in your rocker. I always swaddle you to keep your arms snug against your body. I did the same thing with your brother - swaddling works wonders!


Nursing is going well. We had some latching issues at first, and I was getting super duper sore, but my friends told me to buy a shield and it solved all our issues. Now you latch well about 90% of the time. You eat about twice as fast as your brother did, which is such a time saver for me. You're usually full within 10 to 20 minutes. We also use a pacifier with you, just like we did with your brother. It works pretty well at soothing you when you get in a funk. :)

You nap during the day much better than your brother did. Sometimes you'll sleep two hours or more. During the day you eat every 2 to 3 hours. In the evenings you often want to cluster feed and eat every hour and a half. For the first two weeks I woke you up during the night once it had been four hours since your last feeding. At your two-week checkup I got the pediatrician's approval to let you sleep as long as you want at night, and since then you've been going up to five hours between feedings. That means I can get some four-hour chunks of sleep, which sure is nice!

Lately you've really loved your mobiles. I'd say it started when you were about two weeks old. I can lay you on your changing table and turn on the mobile, and you'll just lay there and look at all the fishes for quite a while. It's very sweet. And it's great to know that you can see, too. :)


Some people say you look a lot like your brother, others say you look totally different. I think you look similar to how he did as a baby, but not the same. I can definitely tell your baby pictures apart. But you have a lot of resemblances, especially through the eyes. In fact, yesterday your big brother was watching a video of himself as an infant, and he thought it was you. So apparently he thinks you look alike!


A friend of mine took newborn pictures when you were six days old, and although I've only seen portion of them, I already know she did a great job. I'm so excited to get them back and hang up pictures of you on the wall next to your brother. I also took a few of my own, so maybe I'll frame some of those too. :)

The jury's out on whether or not you like baths. You absolutely hate sponge baths, just like your brother. You lost your umbilical stump on Tuesday of the third week (when you were 2 1/2 weeks old) and after that we began regular baths. You seemed to enjoy the first two but screamed through the most recent one. So who knows.


You grew out of all your newborn clothes by the time you were 11 days old, which was somewhat depressing for your mommy here. Newborn clothes are soooooo cute! At your two-week appointment, when you were 16 days old, you measured 23 inches long (98th percentile), 10lb 1/2oz (81st percentile), and your head was 14.5 inches around (41st percentile). You had been down to 7lb 15oz by the time we left the hospital, so that means you gained over 2 pounds and almost 2 inches in two weeks. Crazy!!





And to finish up, here is your Week 3 photo with a frisbee. Such a growing boy!




Looking forward to all the weeks ahead baby boy!

Love,
Your Momma

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Toddler Times - Just a Normal Conversation

On the way home from daycare Thursday, Krew informed me that Grandma Eileen was sad because she missed all of them (the daycare kids) when they went home. (Very cute.) Then, when I told him that he was going to hang out with his daddy and Uncle Danny while I went to see my friends that night, he explained that he and I were both going to be sad because we'd miss each other. (Also very cute.) Then the conversation took an interesting spin I wasn't quite expecting...

Krew: "And Daddy."
Me: "Daddy will be sad too?"
Krew: "Uh huh. And Gweyden."
Me: "Greyden will be sad? Why will Greyden be sad?"
Krew: "'Cause, 'cause your neckwace."
Me: "My necklace?"
Krew: "Uh huh."
Me: "Oh, because he bonked his head on my necklace?" [This happened the previous day.]
Krew: "Uh huh, he bonked his head. He need fire."
Me: "He needs fire??"
Krew: "Uh huh."
Me: "Why does Greyden need fire?"
Krew: "'Cause, 'cause fire on TV."
Me: "There's fire on TV?"
Krew: "No, SNAKES!!!"
Me: "There's snakes?"
Krew: "LOTS OF SNAKES!!!!"

And that's how the conversation ended. We then pulled into our driveway and he was on his way inside to see Daddy.

Gotta love those toddler minds. :)

Who's Who? - Belly Button Pics

Time for another game of Who's Who!

I took pictures of both boys on the changing table the day they acquired their belly buttons. So which one is which?



The answer is below.













Greyden is on the top, Krewson is on the bottom. :)

I'm having so much fun seeing their similarities and differences!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

A Few Photos of the Latest Addition

I decided to put the photography skills I've gained in the past year or two to use and take a few newborn pictures of Greyden. I had a sweet friend take some of him for me, also, but I thought it'd be fun to give it a shot myself.

Enjoy. :)























Saturday, August 11, 2012

Greyden - 2 Week Picture

I thought for the first month or so I'd take a picture every week, since I feel like babies change so quickly in the beginning. :)

So here is week 2 for our little Grey:


Week 1 vs Week 2:


What do you think, any changes?? :)

Friday, August 10, 2012

Baby Pool Results

Now that Greyden is born, I put his actual birth stats into the baby pool I created months ago. (bebepool.com/snokes).

I know you're all dying to hear who the winner was, so here are the results:

#1 Mica (you go girl!)
#2 Kait
#3 Christie
#4 Katie (you craft club girls apparently know your stuff!)
#5 my dad
#6 my dad-in-law
#7 Erica
#8 Sarah
#9 Kristin
#10 Erin
#11 Vanessa
#12 my step-mom-in-law
#13 my mom
#14 Debbie
#15 Amy
#16 my step-dad-in-law

Yaaaaaaaaaaay Mica!  I'll try to think of a good prize to bring you at our next craft club night. :)

If you'd like to see people's entries and how the scoring was done, you can check it all out at the baby pool link: bebepool.com/snokes.

Thanks for playing everyone! :)

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Greyden - 1 Week Picture

I decided I'm going to take a monthly picture of Greyden with a frisbee to see how he grows.  I thought I'd start with a one-week picture as a point of reference.  So here is Greyden at one week old (yesterday) with one of his daddy's frisbees. :)

Krew - 29 Month Update!

Well Krewson boy, today you are 29 months old!! Your mommy hasn't done too well at keeping up with the monthly updates lately. :( But at least I'm sitting down to the computer now...better late than never!

You are turning into quite the little boy. You are a total chatterbox these days. Oftentimes your daddy and I can't get you to be quiet...you just love, love, love to talk. Usually in full sentences, although we don't always understand all your words. Just in the last week or so you've started using pronouns like "he," "she," "him," and "her." It's so fun to hear your vocabulary developing and to know what's on your mind. (And boy, do you let us know what's on your mind!)



You still love music, and you now make up your own songs on-the-go all the time. In the car, while eating, while playing...you like to sing, sing, sing. You went through a phase about a month and a half ago where you loved the Jason Mraz song on your Elmo DVD. You would strum along on your guitar and sing while watching the song over and over. You would even perform for people if they wanted to watch. It was awesome. :)


Your favorite things to play with are trucks and cars, water (in the pool or spray bottles), paint or coloring, and anything sports-related. You love, love lakes and pools and will spend all day in them if we let you. You play all kinds of sports with your daddy - golf, tennis, basketball, soccer, baseball, and frisbee. Sometimes Mommy joins in too, but it's usually your daddy because he's the sporty parent. :) You're also learning to play pretend.


Even though Mommy doesn't like playing sports, you're very happy to help me do things around the house. You help me water the plants, make coffee, pull weeds, pick up dog poop in the backyard, put stuff in the trash, cook and bake, and do laundry. And you seem to think it is all exciting and fun, which is totally not true wonderful!!


You weigh around 30 lbs and you're about 34 inches tall. You're wearing mostly 2T shorts, 24 months shirts, size 8 shoes, and size 5 diapers. No, we haven't really approached potty training with you yet. You just haven't seemed ready, and we also figured it'd be better to wait until after you've adjusted to having your little brother at home.

Speaking of little brother, your baby bro Greyden joined our family last Saturday on July 28th. You seemed pretty ok with him for the first day or so, but then you started acting up a bit. You've been crying more than normal, struggling to go down for naptime and bedtime, and also sometimes you avoid your mommy and won't let me hold you or play with you. You've also started wanting to do things that Greyden does, like sucking on a pacifier, getting your diaper changed on the changing table, and sleeping in the crib. It's been a hard adjustment for all of us, but I know you'll be so happy to have Grey once he's a little older. Until then, Mommy and Daddy are doing a lot of praying and trying to let you know that you're still our special little boy.




We love you little man!
Your Momma