2013 in Review

For the most part 2013 was fairly laid back, the biggest occurrences probably being buying a house and welcoming Phoebe into our family.  It’s always fun to take a quick look back and see what was happening, though… if anything at all. 😉

January started out rough with Josh still recovering from hernia surgery and both Enzo and myself coming down with one thing after another.  Definitely not my favorite way to start the year.

In February, Enzo and I traveled to Colorado Springs to stay with my sister, brother-in-law and their two kiddos and my mom also flew out and my brother and sister-in-law drove to be there as well. It was the first time Enzo and I had flown without Josh, and was… interesting.  Enzo was a bit cranky and my nerves were completely frazzled.

March was uneventful aside from some snow, and oh yeah, finding out we were having a baby!

April was spent doing a lot of worrying about our housing situation. We put our townhouse on the market and were worried about finding a buyer at the price we needed, and then once we sold, it was a rush to find a house to move into, however, we managed to find the perfect place and then celebrated our little boy turning 1!

May was a big month because we officially moved into our new house – hooray!

In June we mostly stayed around home, but did go see Bill Cosby and took Enzo around the block on his new tricycle. Come Spring, he’ll actually be able to reach the pedals… good grief, this boy is growing up.  Oh yeah, and he got his very first haircut.

July was a pretty eventful month for us because not only did we find out that we were having a girl, but we also took Enzo camping for the first time (where we were eaten alive by mosquitoes). We also celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary, took Enzo to his first aquarium and made use of our zoo membership.

August was a bit more low-key, but we did continue to try and get out. We took Enzo swimming and to the zoo, and then we started the process of getting our upstairs painted on one of the hottest days of the year so far – go figure.

In September we took Enzo to the State Fair for the first time because I had a photo that was accepted, and I was reminded just how much I hate crowds. We also went to an apple orchard and Enzo helped Josh put together a couch for the sitting… er play room. I also turned 31 and we had family photos taken, which I just realized I’ve never even posted on the blog – just Facebook.  Ha ha.

October was very slow. We did more work on Baby Girl’s room, but aside from a trip to a pumpkin patch, we didn’t do much. Enzo did enjoy Halloween and the trick-or-treaters, however, and was very excited whenever anyone came to the door.

November was definitely our biggest month of the year.  Enzo started us off right by getting tubes put in his ears and then on 11/12/13 Miss Phoebe decided to join the family!

And now here we are in December.  My maternity leave is over and time has never passed more quickly.  I don’t know what this new year will bring, but I have a feeling it’s going to be over in a blink.

Brrr

I think the one bad thing about having a baby in the winter is that it makes going outside even less desirable than usual.  It’s easy enough to bundle up Phoebe with her warm car seat cover, but we also want to avoid exposing her to the many ickies that are making their rounds.  Thankfully she’s just had normal baby congestion, but we need to get the humidifier on the furnace looked at as it isn’t working and would make a huge difference if it was.  In the meantime, the kids and I stay inside a lot, and make Josh do lame Winter maintenance. 😉

While Enzo’s growing independence can be somewhat difficult at times, it’s also great to see him more able to play on his own now. He spends more time in his bedroom, and he’s really getting into his puzzles and reading.  Often at night he falls asleep reading after we’ve said “Night Night.”  Keeping this in mind, we cracked open a reuseable sticker pad, and he’s been enjoying it.  He doesn’t fully understand that you can create scenes with the stickers, but loves to pull it out and generally wants to see the Choo-Choo page.

Mostly his creations end up being of tragic train crashes and carnage, but eventually that might change… or not, if he’s his father’s son. 😉

We’re finally at a point where we’ve gotten the downstairs better arranged, so we’ll move some of Enzo’s bulkier toys down there that way there’s more room to play and offer him a change of scenery during the winter months when we’re indoors more.  Plus, Phoebe needs room for her bouncy chair and blanket and eventually other bulky infant toys that we’ll have to split between the upstairs and down. If anything, Enzo will just be glad to see his kitties more often… too bad Ziggy is never excited to see him. Oh well, she’ll have to learn.

Just about over…

And just like that, almost 6 weeks is gone and it’s back to work I go on Monday morning. As you can probably guess, I’m not super excited about going back.  I know Phoebe will be well looked after at day care, but still… she’s so tiny and I know she won’t be held as often as I hold her during the day and I’ll miss those sleepy baby smiles.  Unlike Enzo, she’s a hard one to catch smiling on camera. 😉  Sassy little miss.

Most often she’s quite seriously taking in everything around her, or… sleeping.  It’s kind of nice that babies sleep so often at this age, especially since I’ve caught Enzo’s cold and have been rather tired and under the weather for about almost a week now.  I’m just glad it’s now rather than right as I start work, and I’m hoping that since Phoebe isn’t showing signs of illness yet, she won’t at all.  I’d hate for her to get sick so young, though, I know sending her to day care during the winter is risking it… not that we really have a choice in the matter.

 

I am hoping that things will settle down once we’re back into our old routine, or rather start a new routine. I know Enzo has always done better when things are done the same way each day, so hopefully over the next few weeks he’ll get back to his old happy self… or this is the terrible 2’s we’re entering and there’s simply no going back.  Don’t let this happy face fool you – he’s been a bit of a terror lately.

He’s still very attached to his pacifier and demands it all the time – as well as a number of things or else he melts into a crying puddle on the ground.  Offer him a sippy when he doesn’t want it?  Melt-down.  It’s tiresome, that’s for sure.  We’ve been trying to get him to bed earlier because we thought he might be sleep-deprived, but despite our best intentions he simply sits awake in bed until the usual time, so maybe sleep has nothing to do with it.  We’re also trying to have Josh take care of Phoebe a bit more giving me the chance to get Enzo ready in the morning or evening, but he often cries for Daddy and pushes me away at first.  Last night, I put my foot down and told him Daddy was feeding Phoebe so he was stuck with me, and he cried a bit at first, but I just stayed out of his reach and eventually he acted like nothing happened and was happy I was there.  Toddlers are exhausting.  I suppose we should have expected this since Enzo was such a easy and happy baby… we were bound to have a super emotional toddler.  We have discovered that he’s just really trying to be very independent right now, so we’ve been doing what we can to allow him to do things on his own – a stool so he can climb into his chair, and letting him walk down the stairs and out to the car on his own two feet.  I just hope these tantrums relax a bit in the future.

Pretty In Pink

Who would have thought we’d be surrounded by so much pink and that it would actually grow on me?  While we didn’t use much pink in Phoebe’s room decor, most little girl items are pink, and while at first we tried to avoid it, I have willingly given in.

When we found out we were expecting #2, I admit I really wanted a second boy.  Boys were familiar and I figured it would be easier to just have boys and nice for Enzo to have a brother, but I should have known better.  Josh and I had talked about our future family long before it was an actual thing, and we had always talked about having a boy and a girl – not that you can really choose these things, but that’s what we saw in our future. So, it really wasn’t a surprise when we found out Phoebe was a girl, and we had her name picked out since before we knew Enzo was a boy… it had just been waiting for it’s recipient.

Our lovely little girl.  It’s a strange feeling that probably only a mother can understand, but as soon as I saw her I felt like I already knew her… and to an extent I did – I had carried her for 9 months after all.  I love watching her every day, though, and wondering how she will change.  The physical differences are already apparent when comparing her to Enzo’s baby photos, so I’m curious to see how much more she’ll change and who she’ll favor.  I’m also wondering if she’ll be as happy of a baby as Enzo was and whether or not she’ll follow in her rowdy brother’s footsteps or be more of the quiet mouse I imagined.

Either way, I’m glad these two will have each other.  I was lucky to have both a sister and a brother, and I can already see how much Enzo loves his baby sister.  He gives her sweet little kisses and always wants to know where she is and what she’s doing.  The other night he insisted that we all sit in his room together for stories before bed… even “Bee Bee,” which warmed my heart.  He normally just wants Mommy and Daddy, so last night when he specifically requested her when Josh tried to come in without her, it was a nice moment, and I got a glimpse of the nights to come as they grow older.  I know they won’t always get along, but at least I’ll always have these moments to remind them of. 😉

3 Weeks

It’s amazing how quickly three weeks can pass.  The first week passes so fast simply because a couple of those days are spent in the hospital and then you have the various doctors appointments, then the second week we had my mom here, which was a big help especially with Enzo being home for a great deal of that time since day care was closed for Thanksgiving.

We’re so happy to have Miss Phoebe here, but it’s amazing how different having a baby is when you already have a toddler under the age of 2. While Enzo loves to give his baby sister kisses and bring her nuk whenever she cries, he is also very much going through a bit of a regression.  He takes her bottles, has become very dependent on his nuk lately, wants to be held almost constantly, and has been throwing more tantrums than usual.  He hasn’t been very happy with me lately – probably because I’m the main person feeding her and for the first few weeks my time was mostly spent nursing, supplementing and pumping for the baby, so there has been some jealousy.  At the very least, he’s attached to Josh for the most part, but that isn’t always a good thing if Josh needs to step away.

Hopefully over the next couple of weeks things will settle down and Enzo will get used to our new addition.  With luck we can come up with some kind of new routine by the time I head back to work so that we can both spend more equal amounts of time with him as well (if he wants to that is).  I admit it’s hard when he cries and I go to hold him and he says, “No, Daddy.” I guess I can’t blame him, though… his world has been turned upside down and Mama does spend a tad more time with the new gal rather than her little boy.

That being said, I’m also still trying to get our little miss used to taking naps in her crib.  So far she really only sleeps well when being held or nuzzled up against me at night.  Obviously not something we can keep up long term since she’ll be in day care in three weeks, though.