Smiley Birthday

Someone celebrated his 3 week birthday with happy awake smiles!

Whenever I pulled out my phone to try to catch a picture of it he got mesmerized by the design on my case so I haven't captured the cuteness quite yet...

I spent the day in bed with mastitis. I have no idea how it came about other than Logan being such a sleepy nurser. He must not have emptied out lefty very well the past couple of days or something. Ayden spent the morning at my parents' house and David's mom came during the afternoon. I had it twice with Ayden and was able to treat it both times without antibiotics so I'm following that same regimine again. As I write this evening I am *better* than I was this morning but definitely not 100%. 

The upside is that I got to spend the day soaking in my newborn though I missed his brother. 

We also harvested our Fall honey this evening. And by we I mean David and our dads. 

I am hoping to wake up at 100% tomorrow. I know this was probably my body's way of telling me to slow down a bit but honestly I just can't afford to do that for very long. 

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Growing Independence"

And two years ago today: "Fairy Princess Party"

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Play Group Pumpkin Party!

The hens seem to be less than thrilled about the new arrangement...

It makes us a little sad but we were finding ourselves staying inside instead of enjoying this beautiful Fall weather because their poop is everywhere. That's not a good thing...  Also, their fence provides enough square footage for them to still be considered "free range" and the coop can be moved so that they always have fresh pasture. I'm sure they would beg to differ though.

During play group today we had a pumpkin painting party. It was really fun!

The host family had a big garden this year and those pumpkins were picked right from there. It was so nice of them to share with all of us!

The rest of the day was pretty standard.

David stayed home and had some quality time with Ayden while I cleaned up around here which was awesome for us all. We also had some big Logan news. David was making Ayden laugh at dinner and was making funny faces and sounds at. Logan and he smiled a little!  It was so cute. Of course I didn't have a camera ready but it gave us a glimpse of the sweet smile that we will be seeing all the time soon enough. 

So much happens in the first year and we are excited to be witnessing him working on that first big milestone!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "The Little Things"

And two years ago today: "Oh A Hiking We Will Go"

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Busy Daddy

Today was a much slower day for the kids and me. It pretty much just consisted of movies, house work and a walk. 

Haha.

Our house looks like this about an hour after we clean it.

We just haven't figured out how to work maintenance back in.
Feedings have taken that time out of my day...

I did get the kitchen cleaned up and FINALLY got caught up on putting all of our clean laundry away.  

I also did a lot of sleeping baby holding and toddler snuggling.

Today's life saver was an old toy Ayden hadn't seen in a while.

David kept busy weed eating our overgrown chicken yard, mowing over at the building site and robbing our hives of the Fall honey!

No longer sky scrapers.
We'll close them up for Winter in about a month.

Looks like we'll be having another honey harvest tomorrow!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "The Best Research"

And two years ago today: "Mr. Social"

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Farmer's Market and Beyond!

Guess who gave us 4 hour stretches of sleep last night!

This guy!
Whoohoo!

Morning chat time.

Today's nursing time life saver.
Color Magic markers/paper and Melissa and Doug space sticker sheet.

To infinity and beyond!

...or maybe just to the farmer's market and beyond.  Ayden fell asleep on the way home from the farmer's market which was awesome because my niece's birthday party was from 1-3 today which is usually right when Ayden takes his nap.  He couldn't have chosen a better day for an early nap!

Daddy and Logan snuggles!
This was right before Logan spit up on David's chin.
Almost in his mouth because he had given him a kiss seconds before.
Ha! (I may have laughed just a little bit...)

It was a Sophia the First party.
My sister rocked the homemade cupcake cake!

We had a great time at the party.  There were a lot of folks there who had not yet met Logan so we were pretty proud parents as we showed him off to everyone. 

He slept the party away...

Ayden was delighted that a couple of people brought little gifts for him too!  He had a blast playing with all of the kids.

When we got home a friend of ours who owns a pet store came to show us how to clip our chicken's wings.  We finally decided to bite the bullet and do it since there is chicken poop all over the place around here.  Now hopefully they will stay in their fence and we can have a nice clean sidewalk and porch!  I had some quiet time with Logan while David and Ayden went to Lowes for some house related stuff and we ended the evening with a family movie night.  We watched Ratatouille and Ayden loved it!  We are hoping for another great night but not betting on it.  We have found that if you don't hold your expectations too high you are better equipped to handle things when they don't go "as planned" and enjoy it that much more when they do!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Compromising"

And two years ago today: "While They Are Sleeping"

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Logan Meets the Ladies

We filled our day up today!  Play group was moved to today this week so Logan got to meet all of the little ladies for the first time!

I kept him in the Moby wrap or under the nursing cover most of the time. I feel like it is a little early to have Logan around a lot of young kids at once yet Ayden has been more than ready to get out and PLAY. I suppose that is a predicament parents of multiple kids have to deal with...

Ayden fell asleep on the way home so lunch and nap time got swapped for the day. 

About 5 minutes before I took this photo he said,
I'm not tired, I'm just sleepy." Ha!

After nap we headed to Logan's first pediatrician appointment:

8lbs, 21.5" long.  Growing boy!!

Ayden was just glad to not be getting shots!

He did great and their doctor was very pleased with him. He thought Logan looked a lot like Ayden and commented on how easy going he seemed. The only time he fussed was while they were stretching him out to measure him. David met us there for the appointment and Ayden got SO excited when he walked in the door. I hadn't told him Daddy was coming so it was a very pleasant surprise for him. He ran up to David and gave him the biggest hug!

The rest of the day was just dinner and a visit to my parents house before coming home and putting Ayden to bed. The downfall of being so busy is that the house is somehow a complete wreck again, even after all that cleaning I did last night.  Oh well, at least we were able to enjoy it for a few hours last night.  We have another busy day tomorrow so we are hoping for a slow Sunday!

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Celebrate"

And two years ago today: "We All Need Support"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

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Show And Tell

Snuggly nursing baby.
Moments to hold onto forever!

Morning brother time.

The proud big brother got to show Logan off at story time today!!

Parachute time!

Safe to say Ayden was having fun.

Our favorite children's librarian was pretty smitten.

It was SOOO nice to get out of the house!  We were at the library for 2 hours. 

We came home for lunch and nap and when I laid down with Logan I tried reading some of my book on my Kindle.  Before I knew it I woke up 45 minutes later...  I guess I was a little more tired than I thought!

When Ayden woke up we went for a walk. 

David's parents are out of town for the weekend so Ayden and I had David at home this evening. He took Ayden to the farm to water the orchard and then they went to a nearby creek to throw rocks. They brought me back a shell souvinier. While they were gone Logan slept and I cleaned the kitchen, tidied and vacuumed like a mad woman. It was pretty amazing to be able to do all of that without being interrupted. Now we get to relax and enjoy a clean house for the evening!  

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Expectations"

And two years ago today: "Dance, Dance, Dance"

When Stars Align

I had an appointment with my doula this morning. It was great to chat with her about the birth and our adjustment with everything thus far. I sent her home with a huge jar of honey since I really believe we couldn't have succeeded without her (which reminds me that I really need to take time to sit down and write out our birth story!). 

When she left I took care of a few things around the house and then headed to my parent's house for a few hours. My sister and her kids came and my cousin came by with her great nieces, nephew and two little dogs and it was just what Ayden needed to help him keep it together for the rest of the day. He really thrives on getting out and seeing people and doing things and I can see a HUGE difference in his behavior when those needs have been met for the day. I think my need to take it easy and heal, which had kept us from doing a lot of things for the passed couple of weeks, has been the most difficult part of this transition for him. 

Our night was only a *little* better than the night before but we went to bed earlier so I had a much better day today as well. Logan slept well until about 3:30am so that means I got a couple of solid 3 hour stretches before the grunting began and then a couple more solid hours before getting up for the day. 

Both boys took really long naps which helped a lot too. I was able to get about a 30 minute nap in (before Maverick woke me up. His needs feel like that of a newborn sometimes...) and then I had some quiet time to wrap my head around some things I need to catch up on. I even made my first to do list in two weeks which felt good. 

David's employer got us a pretty amazing gift!  It was a gift card for a week's worth of meals from a local meal service place. We got 4 this week and will get the remaining 3 next week. The meals have been delicious but they are portioned out to make a perfect dinner for us with no leftovers for lunch. I decided to take a chance and make some dinner so David would have a lunch for tomorrow. 

Spaghetti Squash With Meat Sauce
Nice and easy!

I got some meat out to thaw before nap and put the squash in the oven to roast when I woke up. I knew that I needed to start cooking the veggies and meat at 5 so I woke Logan up to change and feed him at about 4:45. Ayden just so happened to be in the mood to play independently (for the first time in days it seems like) and Logan went right back to sleep so I was able to pull it all off. Not sure how often things will fall into place like that but it gave me a glimpse of what our new normal might be like in a couple of weeks or so.

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "5 Happy Things: Heart Melting Cuteness"

And two years ago today: "Feeling Girly"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

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Not Always Easy

We had a rough morning this morning.  I try to focus on the positive aspects of our days when I write posts for this blog because 1) It really helps me keep a positive outlook on my life in general and 2) I know I'll want to remember all of the good stuff when looking back on this time in my life.  That being said, things are not always easy.  We have a whole new member of the family to incorporate and a whole new normal to find.  So far we have lucked out a bit with some ease with this transition but I do not want to paint some perfect picture of having a newborn and seamlessly going on with our lives as we knew it.  This is real life and though I like to focus on the positive, it's not always easy or smooth.

Typically after a day like today I would write a "5 Happy Things" post but today I'm going to document the rough patch.  Last night, both kids woke us up a lot.  For the most part Ayden sleeps all night, even through any sounds that Logan may be make.  Last night Logan was very grunty.  He never cried but was just grunting and grunting.  He'd stop just long enough for me to drift back to sleep and then he'd start up again.  I would try and burp him, change his diaper, pat his bottom, nurse him, take him off the breast, put him skin to skin lying down, skin to skin sitting up... This went on from probably around 2:30 or 3 and continued on until I finally got up and moved to a different room with him.  I changed his diaper which was just a little wet, covered us up with a warm, fuzzy blanket and sat up to nurse him via cradle hold.  He fell right to sleep and slept for another couple of hours.  I have no idea what did the trick but something worked.  I, of course, could not join him for those couple of hours because by the time he was sound asleep, Ayden was up for the day and David had to leave for work.  

I put a smile on my face and a pep in my step and thought I'd fake it until I could make it but it quickly caught up to me.  I starting having familiar feelings of  the "floating head" syndrome I remembered from being exhausted with newborn Ayden.  Then my mood quickly went from positive to, "This is going to be a long day" which was a total self-fulfilling prophecy.  I was a grumpy mom to poor Ayden and I felt tired and stressed all morning.  My kids, naturally, fed off of my energy and in turn were both grumpy and fussy.  I knew what was happening but I couldn't stop it. Finally, I knew something needed to change if we were going to turn the day around so we got outside to enjoy the beautiful Fall morning.  It was just the ticket!

A change of scenery has rescued us on many occasions and today was no exception.  Ayden even said, "Outside will make me better" when I suggested that we go for a walk and it really did.  When we got back inside we all felt better. 

Ayden was able to keep himself entertained
so I could nurse Logan without being a jungle gym.

I even had time to sit and stare at my little one for a bit.
Milk coma in action!

Ayden took a super long nap to make up for the poor quality sleep he got last night.  Logan slept in the wrap during our whole walk, in his rock and play sleeper while we had lunch and then joined me for a nap on the couch during Ayden's nap.  I am hoping that after all of us getting some good mid-day rest we'll be able to enjoy the rest of our day together because that is what life is all about.  

And we did!  There were still a few rough patches before David got home.
He took the evening off building and we went foraging for paw paws!
Another change of scenery saves the day.
Ayden LOVES paw paws, by the way.

It is frustrating when we can't power through and enjoy ourselves no matter what but the reality is that our bodies need sleep.  It's not fair to expect ourselves to function normally, and with limitless patience, when we don't get enough.  Taking care of kids all day everyday is hard work, especially a "tenacious" two year old.  I just needed to remind myself to take a deep breath, give myself some grace, and to keep changing the scenery until we could make it to nap time.  Even though last night and this morning were rough, I still consider today a success because I was able to make the decision to turn it all around.  I am learning how to be a mom of two and as with any new skill, it's going to take some time to master (if that is ever even possible).  Every day is a new day and every hour is a new hour.  There is always time to turn things around!

What is your saving grace when things start spiraling to the negative side? Fresh air and sunshine always work at our house.  (Here's hoping for nice weather all Fall!)

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today : "Meetings And Deadlines"
And two years ago today: "Into The Woods"

Thank you for stopping by Life With the Ladniers!

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