Life with two kids and no help...

Tonight, I am blogging while sitting at the dinner table finishing our Red Baron personal pizzas, Adam's favorite dinner. This week has been my first week at home alone with both boys withOUT Nana. It's been quite an adjustment! It also doesn't help either that Ben has been home late every night this week........that's overwhelming! But we're managing, and I thought I'd share a few thoughts about what we've experienced this week.

TYLER

1. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to keep a pacifier in a five-week-old's mouth?? He loves to suck on it, but good gracious, he can't keep it in his mouth to save his life! My back is killing me from leaning over to put it back in all the time when he cries.

2. He's going through a growth spurt today, I just know it! I'll say that every time he seems to want to nurse every hour...it's always a growth spurt, right? But then again, it's times like this that I'm afraid I don't make enough milk for him to feel full and then I stress myself out too much. But he's had two good weight checks this week, so I've got to get those thoughts out of my head. (Reminder: I never produced enough milk for Adam and only nursed for 3 months with a supplemental bottle at EVERY feeding. Nursing is going much better this time around...Tyler's last bottle was a week ago).

3. Despite keeping us up after his middle-of-the-night feeding, he's still an adorable, precious, lovable, darling little baby boy. He melts my heart every time I look at him. :)

ADAM

1. Oh boy, this week has been an eye-opener! A friend of mine gave me a book titled "1-2-3 Magic for Disciplining your Children" and I'll be cracking that sucker open tonight. Adam has been defiant, stubborn, resistant, you name it this week. He's been in time-out a couple of times, where this requires me to physically restrain him in the leather chair in our room. It's not fun, and I just don't think he's understanding why I'm putting him there until he cries his heart out. I guess we're getting into the terrible twos, but I hate to use that term because my child can't possibly be terrible.

2. I hate having to tell Adam that I can't do something with him or for him because I'm tending to Tyler. I feel awful because I know he doesn't understand that I have to console Tyler's crying or use both hands and arms to nurse Tyler. It breaks my heart when he looks at me like his feelings are hurt. Tonight, we did attempt to read books while I nursed Tyler. That seemed to work out alright.

3. Why does Adam feel the need to turn on Tyler's portable swing when Tyler isn't in it??

4. Any suggestions on what to do with Adam while I'm nursing Tyler? I've resorted to lots of TV this week, and I think that's why he's somewhat lashing out a lot. Luckily, he doesn't try to crawl all over Tyler and me while we are feeding. I'm waiting for that to start.

5. On the positive side, Adam is such a BIG help! He will bring me Tyler's burp cloth or pacifier when I ask. He's now standing on a stool to "help" me change Tyler's diaper on the changing table. He loves to kiss Tyler's forehead and give him hugs. It's adorable!

A cute picture of the boys to share......

Baby Dedication

On November 10th, our church held it's fall Baby Dedication ceremony. We dedicated Adam and Tyler's lives to the following of Christ. Our church does baptism by submission later in life when a child or adult decides to accept Christ, but as babies, they have a very special ceremony where we, as parents, dedicate them to Christ, and we dedicate ourselves to raising our children as Christians. It was a great occasion, although Tyler got pretty fussy during the ceremony. But he wasn't the only child crying, so we weren't too embarrassed.

This was also the first time I got to dress the boys in the same shirt........adorable!! :)

Halloween - Do we really need costumes?

Halloween was fun this year........but as you'll see in the pictures, Adam refused to wear his pumpkin costume. But did it really matter when he showed up at our neighbors' front doors? Not really, as Mommy was right there next to him holding the torturous costume to prove he actually did have one. Adam collected handfuls of candy, which he proceeded to eat almost all the chocolate that night at our neighborhood block party! I believe he was still on a sugar high the next morning when he woke up.
















Tyler, on the other hand, slept right through all the festivities, as usual. Not complaining though as new parents of our second son.........it's been nice that he's a good sleeper already. What were all those comments about the second child being the total opposite from the first? Not the case with us..........YET!