Keep things balanced

I must admit, while having 2 is really intense at times, Mike and I have made a much more concerted effort this time around to ensure we each get some "me" time. In fact, I might even go as far as to say that when you have 2, making the "me" time work is an absolute must to maintain a healthy household.

Being the solo parent with the 2 girls is actually a lot easier than I originally expected. It helps that Olivia is so interested in Fiona and has really embraced the big sister role. When Fiona fusses, Olivia is the first to help her and she will hang with her without us around for long a time before getting bored. Admittedly, our tempers are quicker than normal, but that has eased up now that Mike and I have a code word for when we see the other one going off the deep end a bit. This new tactic has made a huge difference!

All that said, Olivia still has some tough emotional stuff, but we each try and spend 1x1 time with her and that seems to help alleviate the meltdowns. They used to be quite frequent, but that is tapering off. It helps when people come over and spend a lot of time with her vs doting on the baby. It is more important to get her to a good place in my opinion and tbh, people can hang with the baby from afar since she spends a lot of her time sleeping.

I have really enjoyed the time out with the girls. At least a couple times a week I take them to the library or Seward park for a long walk. That gives Mike and opportunity to go to yoga or get a massage (2 things I have been trying to do weekly at this point and with much success). I actually think this is critical to our sanity at home. Mike likes to go to the park with the 2 of them and that gives me a nice break as well. Having a quiet house is a real treat.

The night time is the right time

I love the hour before mom and dad put me to bed. The lights are low, there is some kind of ocean sound in the background. It is nice. We all hang out in the bed together. Here are some photos from the other night...

[enter mom] Fiona is really starting to find a groove. I am sure as soon as I post this that groove will change, but it has been pretty consistent for the last couple of weeks. It is really nice to have a big baby! She typically sleeps from 10pm-3am and then sleeps until between 6 and 7. I am still eager to try and have a night where I don't get up, but in due time I suppose. She took the bottle on Friday night without much fuss, so we seem to be covered on the feeding front now.

No more diapers for me...

it's official...i am a diaper free! after 3 mornings of a dry diaper, mom and papa tried a night without a diaper and i did not wet my bed. woohoo! it feels pretty cool. i kinda wanted to stay in my diaper, but now that i don't wear one at night, i prefer to not have one on. they are so bulky and leave terrible lines in my pajama bottoms. i feel like such a big girl right now!

I did it! (dry diaper alert)

I woke up this morning and my diaper was dry! Mom and Dad have been talking about this for some time now and Ijust wasn't ready yet. Last night they said if I woke up with a dry diaper, then we would have pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes are my favorite! And guess what?!?!? My diaper was dry this morning. Mom and Dad were so happy. And I feel like a really big girl now. I wonder when I can start going to bed without a diaper. Maybe I should see how many mornings I can go with a dry diaper first. Yeah me!

Picnics at the Sculpture Park are cool

Mom and Dad came and picked me up from daycare kinda early yesterday. I was pretty excited. They said we were going to go for a picnic downtown. Mom had a touch up trim at Vain and Dad, Fiona and I waited for her. Once she was finished, we headed towards the water. Mom pointed out a big structure and said we were heading over there.

We walked around a for a bit. There was this weird, red metal structure that looked kinda like a spider. Then Mom and I went down the hill a bit and saw a washing machine and console with turntables. They were made out of wood and sitting in the middle of the grassy hill. Pretty strange. Our washing machine sits in our house and is made of metal. It is safe to say I was confused.

Dad and Fiona found a great spot on the grass and we went and sat with them. It was too sunny, but I borrowed Dad's iPhone and took a bunch of pictures. I will make sure to post some.

Our picnic was yummy. We had cole slaw, greek salad, cheese and crackers and pigeon poop (that's an inside joke with me and my family).

Unfortunately, the grass was quite wet, but the big blanket was still nice.

I hope we do that again.

My Belly vs. Me

I must say, my re-entry back into the world of getting fit has been interesting. After watching my belly shake during a laughing spell, I thought, that's it...I am officially waging a war against you. You and me, Mr. Belly, are going to have words.

Last week, I did my first long walk around Seward Park. My sister was in town and I thought it would be a good spot to show the fam as well as double as my first test drive of walking almost 3 miles. It felt great, but I cannot believe how tired I was that night. In true form, I went back to walk it again the next day. Hey, it's starting to get a little easier, but I was huffin' and puffin' for sure.

Once I realized the walking thing was doing me right, I thought I would take on a level 2 yoga class at Samadhi. Ummmm...wow. I was astonished by how weak my muscles were. I was unable to do things like plank or chaturanga. My arm strength is essentially non-existent. Looks like I have a long road ahead of me on that front. It felt amazing, though. It was a wow class for me in that I fell into the groove of the breathwork and movement, but just struggled a lot with poses that required a lot of upper body strength.

Buddha Baby

Come rub my belly for good luck!

The Children's Museum rocks

I had so much fun today. Mom, Aunt Susan and my cousin Joe took me to the children's museum this morning. I was playing hookie from daycare which was really fun! I love the children's museum so much. I was particularly obsessed with the kitchens in the different countries today. I made everyone a meal in like 3 different countries. I also ran a lot. There was so much to look at and so little time.

[enter mom] This was a tough trip for me...I was feeling particularly sleep-deprived and when Fiona started to fire it up, I found a quiet place to breastfeed. Unfortunately, Fiona chose to have a blow out and by the time we were leaving, I was at my wit's end. Lesson learned...when you are exhausted, just stay home. Even if you have family visiting...better to keep a sane head than lose it. Oh, and the heat did not help.

Going out in my slippers

Not sure how to tell my parents that wearing slippers out in public is not ok. And the fact that they are ducks is even more tragic. I understand that it was cold out, but won't socks do? I managed to kick one of them off in the car and that managed to get the message through. Mom took both of them off and tbh, I have not seen them since.

And can we talk about the pants OVER my onesie? This particularly fashion feature is icing on the cake. Slippers, pants that expose a front butt, what's next Mom/Dad? Seriously.

Rainforest Cafe...scary or fun

Mom and dad took me to run some errands in Renton and told me they had a big surprise waiting for me. I was very excited. I saw we were pulling into the mall parking lot and thought...they are going to take me shopping! But, oh no no no...we went to the rainforest cafe. It was pretty cool, but I must admit, the gorillas freaked me out. And that is where they sat us! Every few minutes, the gorillas would start dancing around and making loud noises. I had mom sit between them and me. I was so gobsmacked by all the stuff around me that I did not eat. And I think mom was totally overwhelmed. Dad got a beer and maybe mom should have as well....

Towards the end of the meal,mom stopped the balloon-making man. I got to look through a picture book and picked all of them, but ended up with the dog. Go figure. I love my dog, but don't understand why it is the size of my hand now. Makes me sad.

The Movies with Mom

I like the movies. It is nice and cool (oh and quite dark) in the cinema. Mom took me on Tuesday afternoon to see The Kids Are Alright. I think she liked it a lot. There were a couple of sniffles and I even heard her laugh out loud twice.

[enter mom] Yes, I went in to the movie with some skepticism because I find Annette Benning to be quite the arrogant tossrod, but the movie was excellent. I felt like I was dropped into someone else's living room/life for 90 minutes. Nice escape. And Fiona just slept on my shoulder. I made the mistake of getting her out of her carseat prematurely so spent a good chunk of the time rocking her. Yeah for cry baby tuesdays at the columbia city cinema!

Life of a working father

Here is a picture of the bags under my eyes, resulting from working a 9-5er and being a father of two at the same time. My day typically begins around 6:30 or 7am and doesn't really end until after 10:30 most nights. And then there is all the time being awake at night too. Super!

The quality of my work is suffering - I sent an email to a lot of customers last week and it didn't make a lot of sense. EWSD - emailing while sleep deprived - guilty as charged. Luckily my boss and workmates are pretty understanding.

And at home I'm completely outnumbered now. My poor single Y chromosome is up against 7 Xs. Not to worry, I've always fancied myself as a bit of a ladies man.

4 weeks going on 13...

Life is hard for me right now. I have terrible acne, dry skin in the most uncomfortable places, a painful rash on my bum and my hair is falling out in such a way that it looks like a half moon on the crown of my head (think grossman in tropic thunder). poor me, right? i feel like a pre-teen. i sure hope it gets easier from here onwards. oh, and i am really gassy. thankfully mom and dad took me to an osteopath to help get my system back in order, but it still needs a lot of work.

Snuggles with my baby sister

I just woke up from my nap and came in to mom and dad's room to see fiona sleeping. I wanted to snuggle with her so mom and dad set me up on the bed with a pillow. I love getting my photo taken with her. My parents call it "hamming it up" for the camera. I just like to get a bit "emo" with it all.

i am 10 lbs...and 3 weeks old

yes, that's right. i am 10 lbs today. dad says i have put on 28% of my birth weight. yowzers! my onesies are fitting more snugly than i like. i hope mom and dad start getting me bigger ones. i don't want to be that kid whose clothes look like crop tops and high waters.

on another note...i like that mom does not always swaddle me. i am trying to show her that i can sleep without being swaddled since it can get kinda hot in this heat. i keep hearing her talk about how crap the weather is...like it is as bad as louisville summers. it definitely feels humid and stuffy.

i heart manhattan, and i don't mean the city

it has been roughly 10 months since i had my favorite cocktail in the whole world, the manhattan. yes, i know i am a walking cliche being from kentucky and all (and bourbon being my preferred spirit), but the manhattan is the perfect mix of sweet and bitter. tonight, i had a very small one (with basil hayden's bourbon - thanks mark) in celebration of mike handing in his final dissertation and officially being done with the academic world and it was like a little slice of heaven.

thank you bourbon country and ole wise alcoholic sage who came up with this magical cocktail.

now, back to mom duty where sleep is always just out of reach and a hungry baby is always up in my grill.

sleep deprivation strikes

Wow and wow. How quickly we forget the lack of sleep one gets with a newborn at home. Now throw a toddler into the mix and subtract even more hours from your daily sleep regimen. Olivia is up between 7-730 every day and that is usually when we want to have that 3rd jag of sleep from our night feedings. I'd say the mornings are the hardest because Fiona chooses not to sleep well from 430 onwards. Am I selling anybody on the whole have a baby thing yet?

Thankfully, I sleep when Fiona sleeps, but it is never good sleep since I always have an ear and eye open. I am not a caffeine drinker, but I might have to start if I want to see any semblance of normalcy in my life. Otherwise, I will be in my robe until the afternoon for 5 months.

Let's see...more what i've learned moments:
1. Mom needs to proactively spend time with the toddler every day. This could be an outing to the farmer's market or supermarket or reading a bunch of books in bed or something where attention is solely devoted to the toddler. (can't remember if i already called this out)

2. If you have a toddler, then Mom must always sleep when baby sleeps. Otherwise, Mom is cranky and toddler time is not as fun.

3. Toddler should help soothe the crying newborn and engage with the baby whenever the baby is awake. I have found that Fiona loves Olivia's voice so we encourage a lot of interaction between them when she is awake. Last night we put the baby in Olivia's bed while she was getting her bedtime book read to her and she loved that.

4. Take large injections of patience every morning. Since parents are already on edge from lack of sleep, the toddler feels the brunt of it. Try and put yourself in her shoes and recognize that the change is actually much bigger for her. We are learning that slowly and actually remind each other of that when we notice one of us is getting to the quick temper place.

OK....baby is asleep on my chest which is my cue to start winding down and try and get some rest. Maybe if we are feeling bold we will go for a walk today. Though, given my brain function at the moment, I would probably get lost in my own neighborhood.