If Only You Could Have the Second One First

The second child makes you wonder what you thought was so hard about the first one. It's the combination of the two that gets you the second time. I look at my second child, my beatiful Baby Anna, and think "how wonderful she is, how precious, how EASY!"
Unfortunately, the first baby rocks your world, it turns your life upside down and changes it forever. The second child doesn't get to do that to you, it just fits in where it can.
Don't get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to Carson, I love him just as much as I ever did, but the second child is well...so enjoyable. Moments are so much easier to treasure. It's not shadowed with the stress of the newness of it, you don't have to learn how to change a diaper, when to feed her, what each cry means. You don't stay up at night just staring at her in wonderment, pure wonderment of what you have created or wondering if she's breathing, if she's hungry, or needs a change. You just sleep and if she cries to loud then you get up and tend to her and go back to sleep.
She still makes you tired, she still screams in the carseat when you are driving down the road or poops right as you are loading her into the car but the second time it's just not as big of a deal. You're over it already. You don't pull over on the road to feed her, you just let her go until you get where you are going, because let's face it, there's another kid in the other carseat who will scream much louder if you do stop and prevent him from going where HE wants to go.
You don't care if people see your boobs that much this time, you prefer to feed her at a playdate because then you have other people to watch the first child instead of risking the inevitable mishchief your first child will get into while you are nursing and he knows you are rendered helpless for at least a few moments.
This baby, this baby girl of mine makes me very happy, as did my baby boy, but I just don't worry as much this time and for that I am greatful.

A Toddler and a Baby

I have been having a twinge of guilt that seems to be a normal phenomenan with the second child. I haven't been as good at taking pictures, documenting milestones, or communicating with friends and family, so I am reviving my efforts and will try my best to do this again for Anna and all of you.
All during my pregnancy I was wondering how I was going to handle a BABY with a TODDLER. What I really should have been worrying about was how I was going to handle a TODDLER with a BABY! The adjustment period has been rough and Carson was not happy at first. He seemed to like Anna enough, but he was very aggressive towards his poor parents. He decided that his new place in the family was with his father and began to soak up all his daddy's time and attention, never letting him out of his sight. When his father went back to work, he seemed to stablize some, but would sneak up on me when I wasn't looking or was busy and hit me, bite me or throw something. It seems as the poor guy was just trying to figure out his place in his new world. Now, 6 weeks later, he seems to be mellowing out, he doesn't cry out for dad in his sleep every night, he looks forward to him coming home. We still get out the lawn chairs and wait for him on the sidewalk at 5:00 everynight, but he seems to be finding some normalcy again.
Now he says he loves "baby Anna," he pats her on the head and kisses her (except for when he tries to hit her with his toys) and he likes to hold her every morning in his dad's lay and he lays down with her on her playmat everynight before bedtime. I'm pretty sure he's gonna be ok!

Here is my effort at cathcing up at milestones:
First Smile - 5 weeks old - she has done it about 5 times since
First Bottle - 3 weeks old
11 lbs at 6 weeks old (not sure on lenghth)
outgrown newborn clothes at 4 weeks and now solidly in 0-3month clothes
We all leave the house pretty much every day (except when I send Carson with a babysitter :)

Runnin'

Here's a brief running update for my fans on my half marathon progress. I am now up to 6 miles on the weekend and 5 during the week, 4 miles is now easy for me, believe it or not, I don't half to walk at all anymore. My time is not great I run about a 12 minute mile. HOWEVER, I recently ran a 4 mile run with Andy and was able to keep up at a pace of a 10 minute mile (give or take) when I suddenly realize that big old stroller I push is actually getting me in shape faster. I spent all this time thinking I was so slow but now I realize I run much faster without a 24 lb weight in a sailboat on wheels. I'm going for 7 on Sunday...wish me luck...we'll be at the beach house!

Pulling up - 10 Months

Carson has been fussy for a few days and he’s been waking up at night more and then one morning he surprised me. He crawled over to his little music table put one arm up and then the other and pulled himself to his knees and then to his feet. He has done this on occasion, mostly in his crib, but this time was different. I sat there and watched him as he was lost in concentration, he pulled himself up, sat back down, pulled back up and sat down again. He spent about 10 straight minutes doing this, the dog licked him, the door slammed shut and the phone rang. None of it even registered, he must have done it 30 times in a row. I would have video taped it if I hadn’t been watching so intently. Then as suddenly as he started, he stopped and looked at me, grinned as if to say “ok, I got it” and crawled right over to the couch, pulled himself up and then sat back down. Then on he went to each bookcase we own as well as the coffee table and anything else relatively within reach.

I find is so interesting to watch these kinds of things take place. My pediatrician tells me that babies regress before a milestone like this, which explains the bad sleep and the clinginess, but I wonder about the other part. Will this be how he learns everything? Is this a budding personality trait? Will he be a person who focuses so hard on something until he gets it and then never have to learn it again? Or do all babies learn like this? I’m sure time will tell, but its fun to wonder.

Run, Kelly, Run

I have been jogging, not running, but jogging. Not to sell myself short, I am pushing 25 lbs of baby in a baby jogger while I do it, and I am getting out there and doing it. I have been tinkering with the idea of running a half marathon. Before you even ask, yes, I am crazy. My husband is a runner and five years ago, he convinced me to run a half marathon. I haven’t done one since, but I was in the best shape of my life. Now, I am faced with a choice; get my pre-baby body back – or don’t. I’d like to give it a shot. I know this method, painful as it may be, is fast and it works. So for the past month I’ve been running here and there, I’ve lost a few pounds, but nothing to write home about. Like I said, I was tinkering.

Then my husband called. He had signed me up for a half marathon on January 24th which happens to be on Carson’s birthday. I silently swore to myself, but I was done tinkering, this meant business. I have a schedule now, I run three times a week adding a mile each week until I can run (gasp) thirteen of those bad babies. I’m up to 4 and the road looks long, but I’m doing it, so please cheer me on. Comment on this post, send me an email, a postcard, whatever, just join my fan club, I’m gonna need all the encouragement I can get and hopefully, just hopefully, Carson will get one Fit Mama for his birthday.

Crawling and My Mixed Emotions

About a week ago, my life changed; again. Carson started crawling and I started chasing. Chasing and yelling “no, baby, no!” as he pulled on cords, chewed on cords, ate dog food, splashed water out of the dog food bowl, ate anything that happened to be dropped on the carpet and moved dangerously close to the top of the stairs. The cords are the biggest problem as we are a pretty high tech household, there’s phone chargers, laptop chargers, baby monitor chargers, cable cords, router cords, you name it, and it can be pulled over or chewed on. The chewing part really freaks me out, especially when he manages to find the extension cord piece with all the things plugged into it. Great now there are three things that could electrocute him all coming together in one place. So as he gets faster, so do I. My habits are changing and I clean up after myself a lot faster. If I’m done using the computer, away it goes, cord and all. If the dog has been fed, her bowls are on the counter and she gets to drink out of the toilet. Sorry Lily, that’s the way its gotta be.

He also goes straight for the dog. He likes to pull her tail, her cheeks or just grab a handful of fur and so far Lily has been pretty patient with this. I think she knows that Carson is her secondary food source as she gets to clean up after his mealtime. However, she has lost her patience with him twice and that’s just enough for me to want to keep them apart. Two little barks, but still, I don’t really want them turning into bites. So now, I chase after that problem too.

I haven’t managed to get to the store to buy a baby gate yet, but in light of the developing dog problem, I think its coming in the next few days. Carson gets faster every day. I keep saying our house is so small, it seems silly to put him in a fenced in area, but I tell you, I think it will save me some sanity, because between the dog and the baby, I think my patience just can’t take it anymore.

So that is the truth about crawling. It’s adorable, its fun to watch him learn and grow and he sleeps a lot longer during his naps. It must take more energy to crawl rather than just lay there and flail around, which is what he was doing, so for every moment I spend chasing, I get a few more moments of nap time to myself.

Along with this new motor skill, a few more have developed that make the crawling more tolerable. The cuteness factor of these skills seems to equalize the difficulty of the crawling. Carson can copy me. He makes noises and then looks at me to see if I can make the same noise and when I do, he does it again, and again and again. This game can last as long as I think its fun to do. He can also waive in response to me, which is really just putting his arm up and shaking it about, but other people think it’s a waive and therefore it's cute. During dinner he likes to put his hands in the air and wavie ‘em like he just don’t care. Then he waits for you to do it. Its really pretty funny. So the moral of my story is this, for everything that gets harder, there is something else that get more enjoyable. So I try to take it in stride and press my internal reset button so I can adapt once again.

Babyfood, Diapers and Other Things that Might Surpise You

In the last couple of months I have made a few changes in the way we do business around here. The first one is I make my own babyfood and the second is I use cloth diapers. Hello? Hello? Have I lost you? I know you are probably speachless. Please, let me explain. The homemade babyfood is a no brainer. It easy, its cheap and it tastes better. Steam, blend, done. End of story.

BUT, since the cloth diapering is probably the one that got you, I'll spend some time on that. First off, cloth diapers are not what they used to be. You don't care you say? You still have to touch poo and pee, you say. Not so, my friends, not so, but more about that in a minute.

How did this moderate Republican end up going down this very green path? you might ask. Here's how: at least a year ago, maybe two, I watched a documentary called the Human Footprint. I believe it was on the Discovery Channel, but that really doesn't matter, it was all about how much "stuff" we use in our daily lives and how it adds up in the average lifespan of an ordinary person. The biggest shocker to me was the diapers. They piled up the number of diapers one baby uses in his diapering career and it would literally fill the whole bottom of my house. It was amazing. Taking into consideration that they do not decompose, EVER, I just couldn't get this piece of information out of my mind. (in my book 550 years is pretty much NEVER).Everytime I changed Carson's diaper, I had mildly nagging thoughts. In the middle of the day, when I changed his diaper only to find it minimally dirty, I would think "what a waste", briefly consider putting it back on him, sigh, and throw it away. I justified,thinking "Well , San Diego is on water rationing, it still takes energy to wash them, it probably all equals out." Yeah right. Not even close.

THEN we introduced solid food, and for those of you who know what I'm talking about already, things changed. For those of you who don't, by all means, let me explain! Poop is less gross now. Want more detail? Ok well, I'm happy to appease your dying curiousity. Solid food equals solid poop, simply put. The days of the blowout are over.


I recently went to a friend's party. I noticed her baby crawling around in orange diapers. What is he wearing? I asked. She told me a cloth diaper and pulled one out to show me. I was shocked at how different it was than I thought. I had diaper prejudice and she had cured my ignorance. These little diapers have snaps, they have velcro and they have inserts. They go on like normal diapers and they come in all kinds of colors. The snaps allow the diaper to grow with the child, the velcro is like the tab in disposable diapers and the inserts are removable from the back, so you just pull them out (the back part hardly ever gets dirty and if it does that is simply your own fault for waiting so long) and toss them in the wash. Ok, so the poopy ones are are a little different, you just take the diaper to the toilet, open it up an the poo just falls out. Flush as directed. Anyway, when they get out of the washer they are pretty much dry, but you can finish them off in the dryer if your heart desires. So thats it, my little contribution to Mother Earth. I hope you are proud of me. It's really no big deal, for those of you who know me - I wouldn't do it if was hard OR Gross. Here's a picture of a cloth diaper, just in case this little article has gotten you thinking about making the switch.

http://www.bumgenius.com/

http://behealthyandrelax.com/2007/11/how-long-does-it-take-to-decompose/

In all fairness, I do not use these when we travel, or when I have to leave the house for an extended period of time. I'm just not that good.

Until next time,
Kelly

Milstones and Achievements-Carson AND Andy!

Andy ran the America's Finest City Half Marathon this August

He trained during his lunch hour at work all without impacting our weekends!

Very Impressive Goal - Baby- check

Half Marathon - check

Turn 40 - check

Hands and Knees, no crawling yet, mostly face planting

Sitting well, limited face planting

mastered during trip to Los Alamos at 7mos

Super Man!

Almost Sitting at 6 mos (accomplished in first picture)

New Mexico Trip Pictures

Great Uncle Bob and Great Aunt Karen

Baptism

A little water never hurt anyone

Grandpa Karl

Carson goes to New Mexico

We made our first trip outside of California last week and it went very well. The journey to visit Andy's family in Los Alamos was better than we could have hoped for while traveling with a baby. Getting to the airport and thru security was the hardest part, but it always is, right? Anyhow, Carson slept on the plane on they way there and on the way back. On the way back we lucked out and got an empty seat next to us so he could sleep in his carseat and we didn't have to hold him.
Karl and Vilma were very excited to see him (and us) and it was nice to have someone that wanted to hold him a lot. A very nice break for Andy and me. While we were there we got Carson baptised in the Lutheran church which is the church Andy's dad is a member of. Because we don't have a church that we are affiliated with here, we thought it would be nice to get him baptised somewhere that we could be with family and have some sort of attachment to. Finding a church here will be somewhat of a mission as neither Andy or I are regular church goers. Sadly, I think we might have been twice since we've known each other.
On the day of baptism, Carson was soo good! He slept a little in church while I rocked him in back and then I woke him right before. We had to stand up in front of the baptismal fountain and the chruch gatehered around. The pastor -I think that's what the Lutherans call him ;) oured some water on his head from a seashell a couple times and Carson just laughed, w hich of course made the church laugh. At the end, all people had to touch the shoulder of the person next to them and then all the kids put their hands on Carson, which I was certain would freak him out. There were so many hands covering him he literally could not see anything above him. He didn't seem to mind at all, to my great relief. At the end they presented us with a really cool hand made wooden box, that will be just the right size for a toybox.

Until our next trip - See you in Dallas
Kelly