We have a tooth!

There is one thing my 2 kids are exactly alike in: when they teethe, they are exactly alike.

After one night of Lukey waking up 4 times, and the next night Lukey waking up every 20 minutes-1 hour and only sleeping if being held, we woke up Saturday morning (December 7) to a tooth. It was a beautiful tooth.

Teething is the worst. Seriously.

Aryn's 3rd Birthday - The Ice Cream Party!

*DISCLAIMER: Aryn's birthday was in September. It is now December. I am fully aware that I am 3 months late writing this blog. But better late than never, right? RIGHT??

Aryn loves ice cream. Ok... who am I kidding... she loves all sweets. There's not much in the junk food 'food group' that she doesn't love. But ice cream... ohhh this kid loves ice cream.

Her party was a toss up between a strawberry theme and an ice cream theme... and ice cream seemed much more fun. The kid loves her some strawberries... but if she had to choose between an ice cream cone and a bowl of strawberries... ok, I don't exactly know what she'd choose but I would suspect she'd go with ice cream.

So I set off looking for ice cream theme ideas. Pinterest is my new best friend, and many of my ideas were taken from there. I am partially hoping to find some of these photos on Pinterest!

First, the invitation. I made it in photoshop, from scratch, taking ideas from a few other invitations I found on Google. It took a few weeks to make, and I was extremely happy with it!

We had water bottles with flavour water squirts available for everyone. We decided not to buy pop or make punch for many reasons (extra expense, would need too much variety, takes too much time to make punch, punch is really messy, etc.) and this way I got to use up some of the flavour squirts in our pantry!

Instead of giving kids a bag with breakable toys and loud whistles (which all kids love, but let's face it - parents do not haha!), we decided to give ice cream cookies that I had made by a lady here in town (Out of Chaos Comes Cookies). They were $1.25 each, which I thought was good considering anything from the dollar store would end up being more. They were 2 cookies baked together, with icing made to look like an ice cream cone, the 'waffle cone' was icing as well, and a number 3 in icing. There were 4 different colours of ice cream cone, and they were seriously delicious.

Frames from Target. 4 for $1!!

We had an ice cream toppings centre. Unfortunately, it was really warm that day and the chocolate chips melted, but everything else worked great! They were a huge hit.

Again, this frame is one of the 4 for $1 at Target!

We had bowls, ice cream cones, and waffle bowls for the ice cream. The waffle bowls were apparently disgusting... I didn't taste test them first. Whoops!

One very happy 3 year old!!
Hair clip & tutu made by my amazing friend at AnnaLuv Designs.
I made the shirt... just a regular white shirt, green tule made into ice cream, and fabric paint making the cone.

Borrowed a bouncy house from a friend. Yay!

Lots of toys for the kids outside to play with.

The very interesting ladybugs came free... there were a billion of them, and really stole the show.

Ok... please keep in mind that I had just had a baby... this is not my best look. Seriously... 

And for the birthday girls' birthday cake, we took ice cream cones, baked cake mix in them, topped them with icing, and a Smartie on top. We had vanilla and chocolate cake, and they really were delicious.

I forgot to grab a "before" photo! 

Then it was present time. All the kids helped Aryn open her many gifts. She was so spoiled by so many people who love her. It made my heart happy. 

We had messages left after the party saying it was one of the most fun birthday parties they'd ever been to. That made my day! That's all we ever want - for people to come, celebrate our little girl, and have a great time. It really was an extremely fun day. Aryn zonked out quickly afterwards! We were so grateful that her great grandma, grandma, aunt and 3 cousins were able to make the trek out as well for the party! More people to celebrate our special girl!!

Lukey's birthday is in 5.5 months... I'd better start planning... ;)

Lukey update & kid comparison

As Lucas gets older, I find myself going through every old post on this blog from when Aryn was the same age and reading up on what we were going through at that time. And with every post I read, I am left with 2 prominent thoughts:

1. How different both of my kids are.

2. How I have written down NOTHING about Lucas.

With Aryn, we knew we'd have another kid, and I wanted to document everything about her growth for reference purposes, and to one day make a little book for her that wrote out everything she did as she grew up.

I haven't done the book yet. And I haven't written down (hardly) anything about Lucas. So... here we go.

As of today, Lucas is 6 months and (almost) 3 weeks old. Last week he got his 6 month shots, and he weighs 16 lbs 13 oz and is 27" long.

Both kids at roughly 6 months... wearing the same shirt... in the same chair!

For those of you keeping track, Aryn was 17 lbs 11 3/4oz and 26" at 6 months. So Aryn was about 1 full pound and 1 inch shorter than Lucas at the same age.

Lukey is pretty much the exact opposite of a baby as Aryn was.

Aryn loved to eat - both milk and solids.
Lucas needs to be forced to eat sometimes. He does not particularly like solids, and he'll shut his mouth tight after a couple spoonfuls. You cannot shove more food into his little mouth. When those lips close, you're done. Even if it's only after 1 small bite. This is strange because he's constantly reaching for food. He just doesn't seem to want 'baby' food. He wants grown-up food. But I'm just too nervous that he'll choke or react to it so I keep trying to give him puréed food!

Aryn loved bananas.
Lukey HATES bananas. He even gives me the ol' fake gagging face.

Aryn had a little eczema at this age, and I rushed her to the pediatrician to get it looked at and taken care of. She was given minor steroids and I remember being so frustrated that the doctor said that "it was nothing to be worried about."
Lukey has the worst case of eczema the one doctor I took him to has ever seen. Ever. I don't know what sets it off, but as of today, he has been off grains for a couple of weeks (no oatmeal or rice cereal) and I still don't know if that's the culprit. I am waiting to see a pediatrician.

 

Aryn didn't really "roll". She rolled from her stomach to back, and she spun around to get closer to things. Like... she'd be on her stomach and she'd spin... on her stomach... to slowly reach things. She did this for months.
Lukey rolls. He rolls like a crazy rolling machine. He goes from one end of the room to the other. It's insane watching him. Nothing is safe. He never stops moving.

Aryn was a hilarious character. She was giving us the cheesy grin at 6 months.
Lukey is very serious, despite his constant smiles. He has an "old soul." He smiles for everyone, seemingly all day, but it's a sweet loving smile. Not a joker trying-to-make-you-laugh smile.

Aryn was solid. Rolls, chunk, solid.
Lukey is slim. And extremely long, with short little legs.

Aryn had a bright red mohawk.
Lukey has a full head of very light blonde hair.

Aryn needed a bib all day to keep her clothes dry.
Lukey gnaws on things, but no drool yet!

Aryn got her first tooth at 6.5 months.
Lukey HAS to be getting one soon, because he's been sleeping nonstop, his cheeks are bright red, and he is miserable.

Aryn was happy. She was just generally happy. She was a very happy little girl. Especially in public - strangers would come to us and tell me how sweet and smiley she was everywhere we went.
Lukey is very smiley. He will smile for anyone. But after his afternoon nap, he whines. And he doesn't stop whining until he goes to sleep. I even knocked his bedtime up an hour because the whining got too much haha!! He doesn't cry - he just frets and whines, like he's annoyed that he's awake or not being taken care of the way he really thinks he should be!

Aryn slept. She went down at 7pm, I dream fed her at 11pm, and she slept until 7am the next morning.
Lukey doesn't sleep as fantastic. He wakes up anywhere from 1-3 times a night. Which really isn't bad. Sometimes he wakes up once at 1:30am. Sometimes he wakes up at 11pm, then 4am. He really hated being dream fed, so that didn't last longer than the week I allotted.

When Aryn was this age, she had gotten hives from a few things already. We had even been to the hospital like a dozen times by now!
Lukey doesn't *seem* to be allergic to as much, except for whatever is causing the eczema (if that's an allergy...). And we've only had 1 trip to the hospital for croup. Turns out both of my kids are susceptible to croup! (Aryn got it a total of 4 times in her little life!)

Lukey has already had a surgical procedure done!! After 5 months of painful and frustrating nursing, it was discovered (by a friend of mine) that Lukey had a lip tie. Upon further investigation, it turns out he had a tongue tie too! We saw a specialist in Calgary who has been doing this procedure for 35+ years, and she was amazed that we were nursing as well and for as long as we were. The procedure took 5 minutes, and she cut both his tongue and lip (the lip was classified as "prominent"). He cried a lot, but fell asleep about 10 minutes after the procedure and it didn't seem to bother him again after. A month later, he's a nursing champ, and really put on more weight since getting it done.

Before

Aryn was sitting up on her own at 6 months on the dot.
At 6 months and almost 3 weeks, Lukey has just started sitting up... and is very wobbly! Obviously every child does things at their own time, and Lukey

What else... Lukey seems to want to crawl right away. Aryn didn't start crawling until 10 months, and Lukey is already getting up on all 4's! Aryn was very cautious about things - Lukey is constantly kicking his toys over, opening doors, rolling under the Christmas tree... he's going to keep us on our toes!!

We have thoroughly enjoyed the last 6.5 months of little Lucas' life. He's ridiculously sweet, always holding my face in his hands and snuggling his face in my neck. He is definitely a mamas boy, whereas Aryn has always been a daddy's girl. You know those pictures of kids with food everywhere, on their face, their hair, all over the high chair? That's going to be Lucas. He's an animal and definitely much more adventurous than his older sister.

One thing they have in common? They both love each other. Ohh how they love each other. The first thing Aryn wants to do every morning is to "say hi to Lukey Pookie Man!" and whenever he sees his big sister - he gets so excited and squeals with delight. It's my favourite thing in the world.

Quick story: on Saturday, Ryan and I went shopping (with Lukey). Aryn stayed with my parents, and stayed over night at their place. We went to their place on Sunday at lunch to get Aryn and have brunch there. Well, when Lukey saw his sister for the first time in over a day, he reached out for her, gave her a big hug, and squealed with delight. He was so excited! This went on for about 5 minutes, of him just giving her hugs and snuggles and her giving him little hugs and kisses. I regret not videotaping it! But I hope that image is engrained in my brain forever.

And that's about the life of Lukey as of today...

Sleep, School, and Blow Up Cats

It gets darker earlier now.

All summer, we never once went for after-supper walks. Neither myself nor Ryan even knows why - we ask ourselves every night WHY we waited until we had to bundle up to start going for evening walks. But it's become our ritual - Aryn with her popsicle (yes... a popsicle with gloves and winter coat...) and Lukey in 3 layers - we head out for a twilight walk. Every day it gets darker earlier and earlier.

One of the main reasons we've been going for walks is because of the Halloween decorations out there. Aryn loooooves those big blow up cats. She pets them, hugs them, talks to them. It's too bad she doesn't have a pet of her own to show that love to.

Oh wait. She does. He's just a big jerk and doesn't want anything to do with her.

But I digress.

At Walmart yesterday I saw a blowup cat for $20. I was thisclose to buying it so we could blow it up in front of our house and Aryn could love it to pieces. But then I wondered if our evening walks would get less frequent because she wouldn't want to go see the "big kitty cats" so I put it back on the shelf. Yet every evening, when these darn cats aren't blown up because the owners have actual lives that don't revolve around my 3-year old's obsessive compulsive disorder, I contemplate again running to Walmart to grab that big 4-foot tall blow up cat for $20.

Anything to make that little ginger snap happy.

When Lukey was 3 months old, I had spent about 3 months bragging about what an amazing sleeper he was. I never knocked on wood because he'd always been really good! He went to bed at 8pm, woke up once at around 4am, ate, and then slept until 9am. Every single night, without fail. It was glorious. He was a light eater, and just all around a really great, easy baby.

Then...  he turned 4 months.

I talked about the 4 Month Sleep Regression in my last blog post, and now that we're in Lucas' 5th month, things seem to be "improving". I use that term extremely lightly.

Mind you, he is upstairs extremely pissed off at me right now because I won't come get him after his joke of a 40 minute nap. I'm leaving you until you sleep longer, mister! (FYI, I most definitely lost that battle. I don't win a lot of battles with this kid.)

... seriously, should I go buy Aryn that blow up cat??

It's been a fairly uneventful month, because I am up at the crack of dawn, then go to bed at about 9pm after both kids are asleep and am up anywhere from 2-15 times a night, with one or both of the kids. It's been fun. The zombie apocalypse is upon us in our household.

Every once in awhile, I get a clear realisation that things will be ok and we can handle this. In those moments, I stand here in the ray of the beauty that is my life and just soak it in.

Then one of them wakes up.

Despite our regular battles with sleep, Lukey really is a fantastic little bear. He smiles at anyone and everyone, he rolls around like a champ (except whenever he rolls onto his stomach, he gets seriously pissed off and just flops around like a fish out of water until I flip him over. Never mind that he can roll over from front to back all the time on his own; , holding himself up, getting his bum in the air (I am certain that within the month he will be crawling of some form), and has even begun eating a few kinds of food like rice cereal and random things that we're eating. I know, I know - he's not 6 months yet. But he takes my arm and shoves whatever I have in my hand into his mouth, and eyes up whatever I'm eating. So I'm taking his cues and letting him try it out. Nothing enough to fill up his tummy but enough for him to test it.

We did go through Lucas' first ever cold. It wasn't fun. He had a tough time breathing through his nose and he was coughing a lot. I am chalking it up to the fact that he has no hair so his head gets cold. Oh and Aryn started school so there's germs galore in our house.

Yes. Aryn started school.

It's preschool. She goes Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-11:30.

In my sleep deprived state, I have both forgotten to take her to school and forgotten to pick her up. On more than one occasion. But somehow, we are there around 9am and I somehow make it to pick her up around 11:30am. All in all, it's been a success. She is thriving - and doing remarkably well. She loves everything. She has friends, she is a little teacher pleaser, and she is known in class as the "class mommy" - meaning she is always looking out for everyone.

Yes... Woody... from Toy Story...

"Mrs. Ericson, Jacob needs help opening his lunch."
"Mrs. Ericson, Carys needs help putting her shoes on."
"Mrs. Ericson, someone pooped and is stinky."

Never mind that no one asks her for help. But she's there to offer it.

And this kid is funny.

Like, hilarious. She makes us laugh every day.

Her latest hilarious comment?

"I no want bacon, mommy. Bacon isn't good for me."

Whoever taught her that - you will suffer my wrath!

And obsessed with ladybugs. If there is a ladybug in the vicinity of her field of vision, two of two things will happen:

1. That ladybug WILL get caught.
2. That ladybug WILL die.

She doesn't murder them on purpose. It's purely by accident. She just loves them to death. Either way, those little ladybugs experienced a love like no other before they were squished.

RIP, ladybugs. And run. And hide.

Life is good. 

Aaaaaand we're back!

I know, I know. I've seriously been slacking in the blogging department.

It's been like 2 months since I updated my blog. I hope you can forgive me. Life with 2 kids, a needy dog, a job, and a book for sale have really all taken over my life.

When Aryn was a baby, I blogged about everything - when she first smiled, rolled over, bad nights, good nights - everything. Poor Lucas... I haven't written anything down, no blogging, barely any photos (my camera broke a couple of weeks ago at a photoshoot and I need to bring it in to get fixed... however it's going to cost more to fix than the lens is worth so...). I haven't taken many photos lately except with my cell phone! Whoops!

I have written and deleted the next part of this blog post about 7 times now. Nothing seems right. We are in the midst of the 4-month regression phase... where babies scream all night, refuse to sleep, roll over and wake themselves up, don't nap, cry for no reason, and all around make you question why you decided to do this again.

Right when I thought something has to be wrong for Lucas to be the way he's been the last few weeks, I decided to read my blog posts from when Aryn was the same age. Yeah... babies are just terrors at 4 months. They're all the same.

I believe that the 4-month stage is God's way of getting you ready for the rest of parenthood. If you can make it through this phase - without ending up in a mental institute - you are set for life. Parenthood can only get better after that 4-months. I'll take fits and temper tantrums in a crowded mall over the 4-month age any day.

Reading my blog from when Aryn was this age, things started getting better at about 5/5.5 months. So I have a couple of weeks to go. We can do this.

I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. 

Strangely enough, I feel better knowing Aryn was this way... even though I seriously don't remember. She's a great sleeper. She's a sweet, sweet little girl. She's hilarious, and kind, and compassionate, and has never thrown a bona fide 'temper tantrum'. There's hope left for Lucas.

I have been referring him to being "5 months old" lately... because he's 4 months, 4 weeks. But he's not 5 months for another week and a half. But I have found myself comparing these 2 quite regularly.

For instance...

Aryn on February 14 (5 months): 16 lbs 1.75 oz, 26"
Lucas on September 30 (4 months, 2 weeks): 14 lbs 15 oz, 25.5"

See how they're wearing the same shirt?

I'll do a better comparison on the 16th, but for the most part, these 2 are pretty much identical in weight and length. However, Aryn always seemed "solid", and Lucas just seems so "small". Maybe his 2 chins weigh more than his skinny little legs.

Tonight, we start a wee bit of sleep training. Mama is exhausted; last night I got up with Lukey every 2 hours. I didn't check the clock but I realized this morning every time he made a fuss, I fed him to knock him back out. Bad mommy! So tonight, the monitor is getting shut off. He's going to be put to bed on his back (he needs to learn that if he rolls onto his back while sleeping, he doesn't need me to roll him back over).

Oh yeah... he sleeps on his stomach... Bad Mommy #2...

I am pretty sure tonight is going to suck. I am expecting we wake Aryn up. I am preparing for a tired husband (although, I don't really have much sympathy for him!). I am planning on being a zombie for another week until we get this figured out. I'm all for feeding him 1-3 times a night. It's the 6 times that needs to be canned. Tonight begins that process.

Wish us luck. Wish me luck.

Once we get this sleep thing figured out, I'll come back with a funny post about all the craziness we encounter in our day. I'll talk about how Aryn has just become the sweetest, most tender little girl - no more toddler tornado for her. I'll talk about how Aryn started pre-school, how Lukey tasted rice cereal last night (and did not like it), about how Aryn's 100% potty trained, how Lukey rolls like a maniac, how Aryn loves playing, how Lukey laughs - like real, true belly laughs - at his sister, about how Aryn loves Doc McStuffins and has become our family doctor, etc. etc. etc.

Just you wait. Once we get this settled and I'm getting more than 2 hours of sleep in a matter of a week, I'll blow your socks off with the most awesomest blog post ever. Just you wait. And keep waiting. Because it may be awhile.

In the meantime, please buy my book.