Garden Gnomes!

We are finally getting some garden planted!!!  Chris was awesome and got the panels set up as trellises and we acquired   some of Granddaddy's extra tomatoes (including red and yellow 'Garland Mountain Tomatoes!).  I'm so excited to see the start of our first real garden together!  Of course it wouldn't be planting a garden if we weren't racing the rain.  While we only got the tomatoes in today we hope to get the rest in tomorrow, before it rains.

It wouldn't be garden if the whole family weren't involved, and since we were playing in the dirt I don't think we could have kept Eb away!

The long and short

I have been contemplating cutting my hair again for awhile.  While I have thoroughly enjoyed my long hair (and discovering fun new ways to fix it) I'm concerned about upkeep once Evie arrives and I have toddler to chase plus a newborn, especially since my hair gets 'messy bunned' far more often than I like already!  In addition to this I think short hair would make coping with the great hair loss postpartum easier (at least the hair on the shower floor won't be as obvious, and the baby's blanket, and on the pillow, my husband's shirt, the chair, the.... Well everywhere).

So last week I set up an appointment, settled on what I wanted and went to pay way too much for a haircut because I knew the gal would do what I wanted.

I loved the cut in the salon, but it seemed to get shorter and shorter on the drive home!  I'm not too stressed because I know just an inch or two of quick pregnancy hair growth will make it just right, but for now it feels a little too tomboyish.  Chris and Eb don't seem to mind though!

Here it is!

My Samurai in Training!

Ebenezer found his Daddy's practice sword!  He is mastering some of Chris's form with a few new ones of his own!

Weaning - The Great Seperation

As you might remember we decided to go ahead and wean Eb before Evie comes along, hoping to make the transition simpler and because I don't think I'm ready to tandem nurse (at least not with the changes of going from one to two littles, maybe further down the road).  This is such a bittersweet thing for me.  I love nursing Eb.  I love the one on one snuggle opportunities, the dependency, my ability to directly provide for his needs, the continued health benefits... I'm rambling.  So losing all of that is the bitter.  The sweet is him learning to accept more comfort from Chris, not needing to be the only one who can put him to sleep (since that's really the only time he nursed) and this being one more step of him growing up.  Mostly for my own memory I wanted to document what we did and how it worked, maybe you can find something helpful along the way too!

DISCLAIMER!

As this is mainly for my own documentation their may be parts you find too informative about me (TMI is the phrase my siblings love!).  Feel free to skip this post if you're concerned, I won't tell ;) If you do proceed don't say I didn't warn ya'!

Sleeping with snuggly puppy...

Before we actually started cutting nursing sessions Chris made the great suggestion of introducing alternative comfort sources so he had a chance to get used to them and maybe even associate them with the comfort of nursing.  We took the shotgun approach and introduced several hoping one would stick.  We gave him a snuggly puppy, started playing music in addition to the already established singing (thinking this would be good when it came time to go straight to bed without rocking) and a few sleepy books (Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, and Time For Bed are the most popular right now, unfortunately his other favorite - The Big Red Barn - is missing).

We let him get used to these for almost two weeks then employed the more unorthodox part of the plan, the moon signs.  Bear with me here!  My parents, grandparents and Great grandparents (maybe further back, I don't know) have always weaned cattle by the signs.  Granddaddy swears that it makes a huge difference on the stress of Momma and baby.  When he weans in the right sign it doesn't seem to phase them much, but in the wrong sign both cow and calf bawl for days and often both lose weight.  Yes, I know I keep using cow analogies.  Yes, I know I'm not a cow.  But the crossovers can sometimes apply!  We thought it worth a try anyway and scheduled to cut out his afternoon nursing while the signs was below the knees.

He did great!  He already slept well for that nap and is usually good and tired so it was an ideal one to start with.  He was sad at first but didn't fuss long, almost every time the first week he would ask for milk but seemed fine with the response of 'later'.  After about three weeks we cut out morning nap nursing, again he was kind of sad but still did great.  

We were going to wait a couple weeks before cutting early morning or bed time, but after only a week of not doing morning nap I starting having rather severe cramps and contractions during his early morning nurse.  Not wanting that to happen again we decided to cut the remaining nursings that day (May 6th).  Fortunately it was the last day in the feet (signs again), and he was a trooper!

So he seemed to transition well, the next concern was me!  A lot of Moms struggle with mastitis when weaning, which is another reason we tried to wean gradually rather than stop cold turkey - I did NOT want mastitis again!  After some quick research I found suggestions of avoiding hot showers/stimulation, binding (or just and snug sports bra) and cabbage leaves. Cabbage leaves!?!  I don't know why they work but they were everywhere and supposed to help your milk finish drying up.  Even our OB recommended them.  And yes, you wear them just like you imagine, like you lost your coconuts at the loua and had to sub with cabbage!  Whether we stopped slowly enough, I just wasn't making much milk, or the cabbage leaves worked their magic, everything went very smoothly.  Only a little itchy and tender, but no other issues.

I think I only used the cabbage leaves for five days or so and kept them on all the time.

Here we are almost a month later and still doing good.  Eb still asks on occasion, but seems content with the 'not right now' answer and the alternative suggestion of snuggles.  I only hope it can go this smoothly with every baby!

Baby steps to becoming a big helper!

I was just marveling to Chris how much easier caring for Eb has become lately.  I know this hasn’t happened overnight, but the realization was exciting!  Chris and I have always talked about how we want our children to be contributors to our family, to feel like they are needed, not just consumers.  As such I try to be conscious about opportunities to involve Eb where I can.  For obvious reasons that involvement has been almost non-existent, until recently!  There are lots of ways he has taken baby steps, sometimes literally, to becoming a contributor in the family – some of which aren’t obvious at first.

Eb is completely switched to table food now and can (mostly) feed himself.  This has saved me lots of time in making baby food and made meal time a more enjoyable family event.  We can now eat together instead of in shifts as we take turns feeding Eb!

He loves to ‘help’ with the laundry and dishes!  Obviously he’s not actually washing dishes, but my Papaw once pointed out its better to teach kids when they are interested and willing – even if it means a little more work for you – than to wait until they no longer want to be involved.  So following that advice, Eb rinses spoons, measuring cups, plastic cows and other safe objects before they go into the wash water.  For him its just fun wet play right now, but I know this is the prelude to him really helping down the road.

He also loves to sort and help me fold laundry by bringing me articles of clothes (or throwing them on the floor!), and he especially loves riding to the laundry room in the basket!

Now that he can walk and take basic instructions he has also started carrying things to the car for me. How cool is that?!?! He has gone from being the one I need to carry to helping me carry things! Granted I keep it within reason, his lunch box or even just his sippy or a toy, as long as he has something almost every time we go back and forth I’m happy.  I feel like this is both helping him feel involved (he loves the praise) and teaching him a bit of chivalry at the same time (boys should help girls carry things, even if the girl is their Momma) before he has any clue what chivalry means – that’s how something becomes second nature, right?  You’ve just always made a practice of it.  

He also loves helping me gather the things needed to go outside – because of course that means he gets to go out!  He fetches his shoes and hat and knows the difference between my shoes and Chris’, he even brings them when we haven’t said anything about going out just in case its an option!

Before you ask, no, I don’t think of him as a pet I am training, nor do I think of him as my little (current or future) slave.  Training is something we all do and need, especially little people who are just learning to navigate life.  By training and directing early and at a level he can grasp, life will be much easier for him and our whole family down the road.  Isn’t life (your job, school, or interactions with other, even driving on the road) easier and better when you know the expectation and boundaries?  That’s what we are doing for our son.  Showing him the expectations and boundaries of operating in our home and family, with the hope that we are equipping him to succeed once he leaves our home too.

I love this new stage of life!  Because of the reasons above and a dozen others I can see my little man growing up, and I couldn’t be more proud!  Yes I’m a little sad at how quickly this has come, but his independence has actually grown my affection for him rather than decreased it.  We are growing in our relationship and he is able to reciprocate the love I’ve been pouring into him all this time.  It’s a little intimidating thinking about starting all over with Evie, but I am hopeful the lessons and discipline I have learned from training Eb will help me to be equipped and faithful with her and however many more blessings are sent our way!

"Hey Mom, this is kinda fun!"

"Gasp! Did those words just come out of my mouth!?!"

Memorial Day

We were able to get together with Chris' family over Memorial Day weekend.  This is always a tricky venture since not all past wounds have healed, but we are all on the mend and had a good time in spite of a little tension!  Eb had fun playing with his cousins, especially when the bubble gun was involved!  He also got practice seeing Momma hold another baby, and did wonderfully - though that's not a guarantee of long term reactions!

Playing catch with Papoo!

Trying to get the bubbles out faster!

Bubble shower with cousins!

Playing water balloon bomb...

Not too sure about the bomb going off on him!

Practicing with our tiny niece!

The Smoothie King

 I love the eating habits I see developing in my little man!  Ever since he mastered a straw he has wanted some of our morning smoothies.  Once I realized how much he really liked them I started fixing him his very own glass (the mason jelly jar is just the right size for a little stomach and little hands - plus the lid helps keep spills down!).  Boy is he big stuff!  He loves doing what Mom and Dad do, and they drink smoothies!

At first I was worried that he wouldn't like all of the extra 'boosts' I put in (yougurt, spinach, kale, spirulina, kefir, beet juice, etc. - not all at the same time, but I try to put at least two 'boosts' in every smoothies), but so far he hasn't rejected a single one!  Possibly because I ate these while he was nursing, but more likely because he sees Chris and I eat them.  

We have been slow to introduce him to the raw milk and kefir, and I was honestly hesitant to do it at all yet since he is still so young.  However now that the cows have been on full grass for a few weeks and their systems are up to optimal we decided to start introducing them slowly - and smoothies were the perfect place to incorporate them.  Now that he has time for his tummy to get used to the new good bugs (and he has never had a problem with his stomach the whole time!) we have dispensed with store bought yogurt for our smoothies and are able to completely use our raw milk kefir, and Eb is now enjoying "cow milk" on a regular basis!

In addition to the smoothies, Eb loves fruit of all kinds, probably his favorite being blueberries or strawberries.  His favorite food ever is still cheese and he is a champ when trying new table food!  While I don't have him enjoying as many vegetables as I would like, I fel like we are off to a good start for a healthy eater!

Of course everything is better at Grandma's!

Awesome Nap Hair!

Eb has hair!  Sometimes its kind of hard to notice how much, and how long, it really is because it is still so baby fine, but after nap time he shows it all off!

32 Weeks and the disappearing toes!

When the kids saw me taking pictures for this week's update they were curious if I could still see my toes...

...A quick check confirmed that is a negative!

I'm not sure when that happened, but the eventuality has arrived!  I still don't feel huge, but I do feel bigger every day, as I should since we are just 8 weeks from Evie's due date!  Ahh!

(Oh, and just for the record, my toes are still there - See?  And they are still surprisingly thankfully unswollen at the end of most days!)

Simple pleasures...

It's so easy for me to get caught up in over thinking my food.  I love using my sour dough and kefir, incorporating their goodness where I can.  I love packing as much nutrition into my smoothies as possible - sometimes (okay, often) I go overboard and they lose their appeal (maybe aloe, spirulina, kale, spinach, protein powder and kefir are a few too many add ins all at once :) ).  This week though, I rediscovered one of my simplest food loves - fresh strawberries on toast!

I can thank Evie for rediscovering this enjoyable slow down.  While with Eb I craved Turtles and Ruffles with Chive and onion dip, with Evie I've been craving Snickers and strawberries (just about any way I can get them!  On toast, with fruit dip, in smoothies, on cheesecake, on salads... You get the picture!).

My Granny introduced us kids to this treat when we were small.  It was often a simple breakfast on one of the hot mornings after spending the night at her house.  Definitely not complicated, quite quick and easy, but still tries my patience at times just because I can't wait to get it in my mouth!  So many things make this a delightful combination, cutting up the strawberries ahead of time so that they are syrupy enough to soak into the toast, super buttery toast, the contrast between cool strawberries and warm toast, and of course, strawberry juice running down your chin and all over you clothes!  My favorite thing about this combination though, is the memories it rekindles of sitting at Granny's table in the summer, enjoying a tasty treat and time with Granny.  Memories of slow mornings, with the prospect of a walk and maybe some baking project ahead.  Simple memories.  Sweet memories.

16 Month Pool Party!

We didn't actually plan for Eb to get a pool party for his birthday, but Granddad found a baby pool he was itching to get him in, and it just happened to be the perfect, hot, Spring day!

Testing the water...

Are you sure about this Granddad?

Freaking Grandma out by drinking the water!  Yum!

Gotta stretch my legs!

Throwing it off the porch just so Aunt Hannah will throw  it back!

It's a race!

Strong arms!

Love his little wet footprints!

Throwing so high!

Eb is continuing to grow at a voracious rate!  He is almost 34" tall and about 28 pounds (we think!).  He has out grown all of his 12 months clothes and most of his 18 months clothes (especially pants paired with a cloth diaper!), I have a bunch of 24 month summer clothes, but while its still cool he is stuck with high waders for long pants!

He is officially weaned and transitioned to table food!  I'm excited to see him mature, but also a little sad at the passing if those dependent seasons.  He loves having big people food and trying to feed himself with a fork or spoon!  He also loves smoothies - which is great because we have them several times a week and I pack a lot of goodies into them (spirulina, kefir, spinach, kale, and of course fruit and juice!).

Ebenezer's love of all things with an engine continues to develop.  He loves to be around, or when possible, on the tractors, RTV, lawn mower and trucks at Grandma and Granddad's!  He has a great motor and refers to anything with a motor using it's special sound.  Even his book selection reflects his love - he has almost worn out or construction, truck and train books and his tractors remain his favorite toys!  It is amazing to me that the noise of the equipment doesn't bother him.  We were watching the big bale wrapper work the other day and every time it stopped to load another bale he would sign for more, and then watch, completely engrossed, when it went back to work.

He has added two new signs of his own making to his vocabulary - "outside" and "sing"!  Outside is him patting his head, because we always used to make him wear a hat to go out.  Sing is him wiggling his fingers like he is trying to snap - this one came from a song he loved for his aunts to sing to him that included snapping!

I love seeing his personality grow as he does and can't wait to watch what God is going to do in his life and future!