Nathan's First Stroller Ride

I was such a classic 'first-time Mom' with Matthew and Kayla, carefully trying to document and photograph every single first I could possibly think of.  Little did I know that I, who always vowed to try to be as fair as possible to all children, was setting myself up for a difficult task.  Now, I have to try and remember which 'firsts' of Matthew and Kayla's I recorded so that I can also do the same for Nathan.  I'm afraid he's probably already missing a few.  Oh well, all I can do is try my best.

Up until today, whenever I went on a walk with the kids I would put Matthew and Kayla in the stroller (we have a BOB Duallie) and I would wear Nathan in the Baby Bjorn.  Lately, this has become quite the chore.  About a month ago, I went on a walk through Tynehead with the kids (with a couple friends from work).  At the end of our walk, about 45 minutes later, I was exhausted.  Pushing a stroller with 60lbs of kid in it, plus wearing another 17lbs (at the time) when you are not in shape is hard work.  Since then, I've been on the lookout for a single stroller.  If I'm with my Mom on a walk, she can push one stroller and I the other.  Or, if I'm by myself, Matthew and Kayla could walk and I could push just Nathan.  The last thing I wanted to do was push a double stroller around with only one kid in it.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my BOB...but it is quite wide and the basket isn't as accessible as I would like.

I found (what I think is) a great deal on my swap, so now I'm the proud owner of two strollers.  I never would have thought I would own more than one stroller!  Thank goodness for a garage to store them in

Jon and I took the kids on a walk after dinner, and it was SO NICE.  It was so enjoyable not having to wear 19lbs.  I felt like I could have run the entire walk.  Not that I could have...but I felt like I could have :).

This was also Nathan's very first time in a stroller...and so here are the pictures to document it :)

(Matthew and Kayla take the worst photos right now!  They say 'cheese', but Kayla always looks away, as if she doesn't have time for the photo, and Matthew always squints his eyes almost closed and raises his chin up.  SO ANNOYING!  But cute, I guess?  Just makes getting a 'good' photo of them a little more challenging.  Thank goodness for digital cameras!

Playing the Piano

Matthew loves playing my parents' piano.  Kayla enjoys it too, but Matthew is always the first to play, and he often asks me to play for him, while he's sitting on my lap or beside me.

Today, while I was grocery shopping with my Mom, Jon sat at the piano with Matthew and Kayla.  Matthew pulled some sheet music out of the piano bench (the music I always play for him) and asked Jon to play it.  When Jon said that he didn't know how to, Kayla looked him straight in the eye and said, "Well then get off."

Too cute.

Oh, the Mind of a Toddler

Most evenings after dinner, Matthew and Kayla take a bath in our ensuite bath.  While they play in the bathtub, I sit on the bed and spend time waste time on the internet, while listening to their conversations.

Tonight, Kayla yelled to me, "Mom!  I have to go poo!"

I got up and lifted her out of the bath and onto the toilet.  "Kayla, you should have gone before you climbed in the bath.  That's why I asked you before you went in!"

"It was going on, off, on, off, on, and then I listened to it," she replied.

"Listened to what?  Your bum?"  I asked.

"Yes" was her response.

Too funny.  I love how their minds work at this age.  

God Knows Best

It's so easy to think, and say, that "God knows best" when others are going through tough times, but it just dawned on me that it's so true, for my life too.

Jon and I had hoped to have kids in 2008.  After numerous tests and then going through in-vitro, our twins, Matthew and Kayla, were born in 2011.  That's three years later than the plan we had for ourselves.  And you know what, it's taken me another three years to realize that God knew exactly what he was doing.  I'm actually a little embarrassed that it didn't dawn on me sooner.

Had we gotten pregnant right away, Jon would have still had a couple years of schooling left, and so we would have been living on a maternity leave income that first year.  We would have still been renting our basement suite.  I would have had to return to work full-time, just to support our family.  I would have had to pay for day-care for some of the time.  Wow.

Because we didn't have kids until three years later, Jon was (almost) done school, and I had been working for those three years, full-time.  We still rented the top-floor of a house for a couple years, but we were able to save during that time so that we would have a down payment for a house of our own, which we bought in 2013.  I was able to only return to work part-time in 2012 and had free day-care for the times I was working (thanks, Mom!), and so I was able to spend a lot of time with Matthew and Kayla during that time.
And that's only thinking of it from a financial point-of-view.  I think I would have been ready to have kids in 2008...but would Jon have been ready?  Especially with the financial sacrifices we would have had to have taken then.

Anyways, God definitely knew what was best for us.  And I'm ashamed to admit it took me three years to realize that.  I hope that it's something that I don't forget...who knows what curveball to my plan for our life will be sent our way next!

The Backyardigans

I won four tickets to see The Backyardigans through www.momentsinmommyland.com.  I think that's one of the first contests/giveaways I've ever won!  Well, except that I won a bike through McDonald's Monopoly back in 2002 or 2003 (yes, people actually do win the bigger prizes!).  Anyways, Jon opted to stay home with Nathan (he didn't even know who The Backyardigans were!), so my Mom and I took Matthew and Kayla to the first-ever live performance.  It was at the Orpheum, so we decided to take the skytrain.

That was also a first for Matthew and Kayla - they had never been on the skytrain before!  They loved looking out the window and pointing out passing skytrains.

The show itself was okay.  I never would have spent the $30+ our tickets would have cost, but it was free, so I'm not complaining!  Matthew and Kayla managed to stay focused for the entire show.  Matthew even got into clapping when the audience clapped.

4 Months Old! (And some recent pictures, too!)

I feel like over this past month Nathan has lost any newborn quality he had.  He has grown up so much.  I feel like saying he's no longer a baby...but of course, he is.

At four months old, Nathan weighs 18 lb 5 oz.  He easily wears his 9-12 months clothes and I'm squeezing him into size 2 disposables until my box is finished.  His once-blue eyes are slowly changing to a blue-gray-brown colour.

Nathan has discovered toys.  If you hold out a toy to him he's able to bring his hands together to grab it from you, and then tries to bring it to his mouth.  The toys hanging on his playmat get hit at, pulled on, and sucked.  He loves his playmat still.  Nathan also loves his exersaucer.  He's getting the hang of those toys, and has started jumping in it.  This past month, Nathan was also introduced to the jolly jumper, which he also loves.  It only took a couple times before he mastered the art of rhythmic jumping.  I don't think he jumps as well as Matthew did, but definitely better than Kayla!  It's nice having different stations/activities for him to do, because he's not content to just be left anywhere, and I can't possibly play with him all the time.

Nathan has fallen deeply in love with me.  He doesn't show strange to others, but he definitely loves me the most.  Even if Jon is holding him at night, he will often just ignore Jon and stare at me.  I love it.  He also loves Matthew and Kayla, watching their every move.  Matthew and Kayla also love him.  Yesterday, I caught them piling tons of stuffed animals on him while I was busy cleaning our shower.  When I saw it I freaked out, and when I removed them from Nathan's head he was smiling.  Kayla has really taken an interest in Nathan this past month.  She talks to him and likes to try and carry him.

He still loves to suck on his thumb/a finger/all fingers/whole fist all day long.  He gags himself every other day because he's shoved a finger too far in his mouth.

I'd say he's getting better at lasting longer than two hours between feeds during the day, but he seldom goes longer than three hours.  He likes to hold the pinky and thumb of my bottle feeding (right) hand while drinking his bottle.

Nathan loves to hear his own voice.  He started 'talking' on February 5th (3.5 months old), and hasn't stopped.  I call it 'squaking'.  It's pretty funny.  Matthew has picked up on me calling Nathan 'noisy boy' when Nathan's talking a lot, and so you'll often hear Matthew referring to Nathan as 'noisy boy' too.  I think I had a giggle from him on February 15th, but haven't really heard it since to I'm not sure.

Although Nathan has rolled twice now, I think it was more a coincidence now because it's not something he's doing daily.

Nathan's sleeping habits have definitely regressed over the past month.  He was down to only one bottle during the night, but for the past month it's been two bottles a night.  I would love for him to at least drop one feed during the night.  Especially since I don't like to go to bed early and so I'm often only getting six hours of sleep a night.

Anyways, Nathan (as well as Matthew and Kayla, of course) is still such a blessing to us.  So often I find myself just smiling at him while he's staring up at me, just thinking how incredibly lucky we are to have him.  He survived being grown in the petri dish to be a day five embryo when the others didn't...and then he survived being frozen for two and a half years and then thawed and implanted.  He's such a miracle.

And...some pictures from Jan 18-Feb 18:

Nathan's first time in the exersaucer.

Matthew and Kayla's very first shower.

Nathan's first time in the jolly jumper.

Bad Dreams

For as long as I can remember, I have been a vivid dreamer.  And most of these dreams are actually nightmares, ones that leave me paralyzed in fear laying in bed.  It's horrible.  Last night was another rough night, where I could barely move when I woke up.  I managed to turn on my bedside light and pull out my crossword puzzle work and puzzle away until the memory of the dream lessened.  Most of the time I am able to fall asleep again within an hour, but definitely with my bedside light on.

Last night, Kayla came crying to my room.  When I asked her what was wrong, she said that Matthew had been splashing her and she was all wet.  LOL.  I believed her at first, but then quickly realized that it was the middle of the night and it had probably just been a dream.  Back to bed she went.  I hope her dreams stay as simple as being splashed.  Mine definitely aren't like that.