Auntie Meg's Visit

This past weekend, my sister came to visit and to meet Baby Chase:

 

 

We had SO much fun! Cole especially loved having her undivided attention to play and read books.

We love you, Auntie Meg! Thanks for coming down!

Firsts

Chase had his first trip to our favorite spot, Touvelle Park.

 

Many more fun family "firsts" ahead for our littlest man!

Love

Cole simply adores his little brother:

 

I can tell that watching these two interact is going to be a lifetime of joy for us!

Science Works Museum

Chris had a week off for paternity leave when Chase was a few weeks old, so we took advantage to do some things we've always wanted to do - top of my list was the Science Works children's museum in Ashland.

Cole LOVED it.  It was so cool.  To be honest, I think Chris had just as much fun as Cole did - total hands-on, fun experimental learning. 

 

 

 Biggest hit? The water table, of course.  The kid is drawn to water like moths to a flame.

 

 

 

 

 Chase thoroughly enjoyed his experience of the museum... he slept in the moby the entire time!

 

 The bubble room was a blast, for Cole and Chris alike!

 

 Standing inside a bubble!

 

 

 

 

 

We will definitely be back!

Breastfeeding Chase

Anyone who has any idea about my history with breastfeeding Cole asks two questions about Chase: "How was your birth?" and then, "How is breastfeeding going?"

Breastfeeding.  Hoo-boy, this was my nemesis.   The one I was most anxious about.  The pain of trying to breastfeed Cole is the most overwhelming and stressful memory of the first months of his little life.  I vividly remember holding onto the arms of the chair for dear life while Chris helped Cole latch on so that I wouldn't instinctively shove him away because it was so painful.  This time, I felt as though breastfeeding just HAD to work.  I was trying so hard not to put pressure on myself (after all, it takes two to have a breastfeeding relationship), but I just knew it would be borderline impossible to pump every two hours around the clock like I did last time with a newborn AND a preschooler.

The goal of successful breastfeeding was one of the reasons I wanted to birth at Trillium Birth Center - to get as much knowledgeable breastfeeding help from the first day as possible. And it was one of the best decisions I could have made.  You see, with a hospital birth, you have a lot of help from various nurses (who may or may not have lactation training; and who DEFINITELY have different opinions), but once you leave the hospital, you are pretty much on your own.  The pediatrician you take your child to will do weight checks, but are pretty clueless when it comes to all the nitty gritty details of breastfeeding.  However, with Trillium, my ONE midwife was with me the whole journey of pregnancy - she knew my breastfeeding history from the day I met her and she was just as eager as I was to get it right this time.  She made house calls several times in the first few days of Chase's life to make sure things were going well and fix any nursing problems that cropped up.  It was amazing - and it was SO empowering to know that she had complete faith in my ability to do it.

And thanks to all that, I am thrilled to be able to say that I am SUPER successfully nursing Chase (he gained a pound a week his first month!!), with almost zero pain.  NO bleeding, NO cracks - it is amazing to be able to feed my child so conveniently and painlessly.

I can even say now that I'm grateful for my first breastfeeding experience with Cole, because now I am even more thankful each time I nurse Chase.  What an amazing experience it is to sustain a life with my body!

Frisbee-ing

I absolutely LOVE that Cole can take the simplest item and make a wonderful, fun game out of it.

The day before I had Chase, we took a little time as a family of three to go to the park.  Cole chose a couple Frisbees to bring along, and he and Chris had a blast throwing them and chasing after them!

Of course he wasn't playing the game "right" (he made up some rules about how to play), but it was so much about the experience of playing and not the end result - and he had so much FUN!

Also? The "rules" he invented for the game involved him and Chris throwing the Frisbees, then Cole running after them and bringing the back.  Yup, a game of fetch.  It was awesome - and I'm pretty sure that was the quickest Cole has EVER fallen asleep that night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Things

5 hilarious and adorable things about Cole:

1. On our very first day of me parenting both kiddos solo (between my mom and dad being here, and then Chris had some lovely paternity leave time off), I was holding Chase in the Moby while I was getting ready and Cole was "getting ready" in the bathroom with me.  He helps Chris get ready every morning, so he was going through Chris' morning routine - brushing his teeth, putting gel in his hair, putting on Daddy's deodorant (LOL), and "shaving".  Well...I was distracted... and Cole was pretending with Daddy's electric razor... and he wanted to shave his sideburns like Daddy does... and, well, this happened:

As my sister said, at least he's a boy so it's not quite as noticeable, right?

2. Cole has proved himself time and time again to be the SWEETEST and most helpful big brother ever.  Case in point:  every night during dinner, Chase is usually having his fussy time so I hold him or nurse him while trying to eat.  Cole always asks, so sincerely,  "Mama, I can hold Chase so you can finish eating?"  He loves to help out with Chase in any way possible (getting binks, picking out clothes, changing his diaper, holding him as much as I'll let him) and I'm trying really hard to foster that helpfulness - hopefully it will transfer to a lifelong loving relationship!

3. Last night, Cole came downstairs to read his bedtime story with me while Chase hung out in his swing.  He hugged and kissed me goodnight... then, completely unprompted, walked over to Chase and tenderly kissed him good night too! "GOODNIGHT BABY CHASE! SLEEP WELL, CHASE, SLEEP WELL!"

4. Chase tends to have a VERY fussy time in the evenings. Inconsolable crying for an hour or more. It's just as fun as it sounds. So anyway, during one of those fussy periods, I was starting to get a bit irritated and tired and in exasperation I said, "Come ON Chase, just go to sleep already!", and Cole looked up at me and said, "You just have to be patient, Mama." Oh, such words echoed back at me from my three year old, just when I needed to hear them!

5. While doing laundry yesterday (sidenote: why did the amount of laundry I need to do TRIPLE when we added just ONE small member to our family??), I did a load of jeans.  Every single pair of Chris' jeans had the left pant leg right side out, but the right pant leg inside out.  Every single one.  And then I got down to Cole's jeans... yup, every single pair had the left leg right side out but the right pant leg inside out.  Like father, like son, I guess!