Lots of random updates

We have been super busy around here!  Too busy to blog, clearly.  That is my excuse for the following completely random collection of updates on our goings on.
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I am finally starting to feel better.  I have been struck with illness after illness since my sweet LBZ was born, so this healthy feeling has been a long-time coming.  I caught a virus from BBZ that turned into bronchitis that has been hanging on for about a month.  I'm finally able to go a few hours without coughing my head off and my bruised rib is finally healing.  Whew, that was a long sickness!
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I did end up going to the concert last week after all, and I am so glad I did.  N's sister and her family came over to watch the boys and they both did just fine.  The show was absolutely incredible.  It was held in a newly remodled venue downtown that I hadn't been to before.  The band hasn't been to our city in 4 years, so as I stood in this amazing place, looking around at so many strangers with familiar faces (the world for this type of music is very small) I felt the amazing energy of everyone being in the same place for the same party.  There were a few thousand people there, but I felt like I knew everyone.  The music was incredible, and I got to feel my most favorite emotion with regard to music...the minute or so between songs when you wonder what song they are going to play next.  Is it the one song you hoped you'd hear this show?  The one that brings back memories from my first show 10 years ago?  Oh, the anticiaption.  There is nothing in the world like it.

So needless to say, we had an incredible time.  And both boys survived.  I am so glad I went.
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LBZ could be competing for the worst sleeper on the planet.  He still has his super fussy time, right at the end of my day when I want nothing but to crawl in bed and go to sleep.  I am in the middle of a caffeine experiment.  I had been allowing myself 1 caffeinated soda per day, like I did when I was pregnant, but I began to wonder if it was affecting LBZ more than I realized.  I keep moving the time up...it was no later than 4pm, then no later than noon, this am I drank it first thing around 8am and will see if it changes things.  His awake time yesterday was more around 5pm and he was asleep for the night at 9pm.  So maybe this is it??  If it seems to help but isn't perfect, I think I will be giving up the caffeine all together.  Sad, but worth it if my sweet boy sleeps.  His longest stretch is 4.5 hours, which is usually the first one.  He's up about every 1.5-3 hours after that.  This mama is sleepy, but surviving.
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I am back into my jeans!  The jeans that I wore first after BBZ was born anyway.  My little-bit-bigger jeans, but whatever.  They button and zip and don't have an elastic waist band, so I'm happy.  It's so nice to be able to wear normal clothes.  I have abotu 10 pounds to go to be where I was when I got pregnant, but I hope to lose another 5 since I put on about 5 the month or so before I got pregnant.  I feel good and am happy that the pounds are just falling off the way they did with BBZ.  Hooray for breastfeeding!
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Speaking of breastfeeding, it is going wonderfully!  And LBZ is taking a bottle about every other day from daddy very well.  I can't believe how much freedom him having that bottle gives me.  I missed that with BBZ and didn't even realize it.  I have been able to spend more with with BBZ and not have to worry about being gane a little longer since daddy can feed LBZ.  It's awesome.

I went to a breastfeeding and parenting seminar hosted by our local LLL a few weekends ago and took LBZ with me.  It was so great to be surrounded by like-minded nursing moms and be able to provide for LBZ whatever he needed whenever he needed it without worrying about covering up or being judged.  It was great practice in confidence, which has carried over to outside the seminar.  I am already much more confident about nursing in public that I was ith BBZ, and this just added to it.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday.
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I cut all of my hair off!  I was going back and forth about it, and when I went to my hairdresser and told her I couldn't decide, she told me to go for it, and I'm so glad she did!  I've always had a wave to my hair, but this haircut made my hair straight-up curly!  It's awesome because I can just scrunch some product in it and go, or straighten it for a sleeker look.  I seriously love it and plan to keep it this length for a while.  Somehting about this last pregnancy messed up my hair.  It felt so unhealthy.  It really needed to go.  It was the best decision!

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I'm sure that I have mentioned on here that BBZ stutters sometimes.  He has stopped for the most part, which is a relief.  He is starting to learn his letters, so now when we talk he'll start sounding out the first letter to a word and say what letter it is.  It sounds so much like when he stuttered, but it's intentional.  It is s-s-s-s-s-o cute!!
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LBZ has been smiling since 10/6/11.  I need to write that in his baby book.  Well, I finally caught it on camera!

Little cutie pie.  I could just eat him up!
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BBZ has an obsession with Spiderman.  It's super cute.  He actually likes all of the Marvel superheros, but Spiderman seems to be his ultimate favorite.  He'll call me a superhero name (usually Wasp) and I'm supposed to call him whatever superhero name he has given himself right then.  It's so cute.  He has 1 pair of Spiderman jammies that he wears almost every single night.  He'll go a day without them because he understands that they need to be washed, but that's about it.  I better have them washed or else!

We knew he wanted to be a superhero for Halloween, but he needed to narrow it down and choose just one, because once we bought the costume, he was not changing his mind.  Of course, he chose Spiderman.  Which is awesome because I found a costume in his size for $12 at Target...score!

At first he said that the costume was "a little weird" because of the puffy muscles, but then he liked it again.  Now, he wears the mask from the costume with his jammies every night.  I just love this little superhero so much!

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I can't believe it, but I only have 4.5 weeks of my maternity leave left.  While I am sad to see this time come to an end, I feel much better baout my return to work than I did with BBZ.  I'll miss my sweet littlest man like crazy, especially for those first couple of weeks back, but I am much for sure of my decision to be a working mom than I htink I have ever been.  I know this is the right decision for our family and I know LBZ will like his school, hopefully as much as BBZ does.  I hate the cost of it all, but love that they will be at the same place.  I love the school and trust the system, which is so important.  I'll post more about this another time.

Well, I know I'm forgetting something, but those are my updates for now.  I hope all is well in everyone's little parts of the world!

Little Brother Z is One Month Old!

Stats (added after 1-month appointment on 10.11.11)
10lbs, 4oz
21.5 inches long
(50th Percentile in all areas)

Holy cow, it's already been a month.  Then again, I really can't remember life without you, my sweet littlest man.  You are growing so much and changing everyday.  You are a stinker about sleep and almost never go more than 3 hours without eating.  I can't wait for your 1-month appointment tomorrow so I can see how much weight you have actually put on!  None of your newborn clothes fit anymore, and your little rolls are too cute for words!  All the milk is filling you out nicely.

This was a month of firsts...

Your first bath...

And of course your big brother had to help.

He washed your toes :)

You only cried a little...not anything like your brother who screamed the whole time.  You seem to really love bath time.  You did crash right afterwards though.  Sleepy little sweetie pie :) 

You met Auntie E for the first time...

And Papa for the first time, too.

And also Great Grandma H and Great Grandpa J

You have some baby acne, but it is fading fast.

I really have to keep up with your nails because they grow so fast!  When I can't get to them fast enough, you wear the same spider man socks on your hands that BBZ did.  They are awesome.

This was the first time you fell asleep all on your own too!  It may have also been the last :)

And you had your first bottle.  I was so nervous about this, but you did great!  I had all kinds of mixed feelings about it.  You see, I love being the only one who provides my milk for you.  That fact prevented me from introducing a bottle to your brother until he was 3 months old.  It made for a really hard transition.  As much as I would like to be the only one to provide for you, you having a bottle eventually is inevitable, so we introduced it now to make it easier on you.  You did great!

BBZ had to help too.  He just loves helping you and talking to you.  He always says the same thing "don't worry, little brother, everything is going to be alright".  Just like in Three Little Birds.  You boys are so precious!

You are not a fabulous sleeper, but I am getting used to it.  A stretch longer than 3 hours would be nice, but I'll take what I can get.  You have a terrible fussy time between 8pm and 10 or 11pm every night.  I hope to go to a concert this Wednesday, but I think I might have to miss it because of your choice in fussy times.  I wouldn't be able to stand knowing that you were screaming the way you do with no relief from me.  I've seen this band over 50 times, so missing them for you would be totally worth it.

You have turned our lives upside down, and we couldn't be happier.  You are sweet and laid back and I can't wait to see what is to come.  I love you, sweet LBZ.

Love,
Mommy

Lots of 3s

3 Weeks Old

3 Years Old

A 3-Day Weekend

With just the 3 of us!!

I was so nervous about being alone with the boys this weekend, but everything went great!  N left early Friday morning and our adventure began.  N's sister came over and brought us lunch on Friday, which was really nice.  She also played outside with BBZ for a while so he could run around a bit.  I finally got him to nap afterwards then we went to our favorite resale shop.  It was a nice afternoon.

The hardest part of the whole weekend was night time.  We are a very attached household and I prefer to provide my children with whatever they need at night.  I don't do sleep training and usually lay down with BBZ until he drifts off to sleep.  It has proven to be much more difficult to provide for BBZ at night since LBZ came along.

It seems that LBZ needs me at exactly the same time BBZ is going to bed.  It never fails.  As soon as BBZ and I are cuddling, LBZ starts fussing and is soon in full-blown freak out mode.  I nursed LBZ in bed with BBZ, which worked for a minute, but BBZ was much too distracted with his sweet baby brother to go to sleep with us in there.  So I said to BBZ "do not leave this bed, I will be back in a minute".  I left and settled LBZ down and went back in.  Proud as he could be, BBZ exclaimed "mommy, I did not leave this bed!".  I sure was proud of him.

I was even more proud because when I had to leave yet again because LBZ was fussing, but the time I went back in there BBZ was asleep.  He had fallen asleep on his own for the first time ever.  I was so proud!  He did the same thing Saturday night, except I made it back in just as he was drifting off.  He said again to me "mommy, I did not leave this bed!", and off to sleep he went.  Sweet boy.

LBZ is eating every 3 hours like clockwork again and a little more often during the day.  9pm-12am still seems to be a hard time for him, but he's doing ok.  Daytime was ok as we could all play and hang out together just fine, as long as LBZ wasn't nursing.

On Saturday, N's sister and family picked BBZ up for a few hours in the morning and took him to a cool park and out to lunch.  It was so nice for him to hang with them and have some time to run around.  Our brother-in-law took some amazing photos of him while there.



Saturday afternoon was really fun.  We just hung around the house, but watching BBZ invent things to play was so much fun.  He wanted to to leave the room and when I game back I saw this...

As I walked into the room he yelled "Surprise!!!"  Apparently, it was my birthday and all of these cushions were my birthday presents.  I had to tear open each one and yell out what they were.  I got a princess dress and some Lego's and a new watch.  Then, it was his turn.  I had to set up the presents and yell surprise.  It was so fun!

On Sunday we had a quiet morning and anxiously waited for N to get home.  We snuggled and played and napped and before we knew it, it was 4pm and N was finally home.  What a long weekend!

It was hard, but definitely precious time that I had to spend with my boys.  We are all figuring out our new routines and just when we get something set, I'm sure it will change.  Going more than 3 hours at night would be nice, but having done this before I know it won't last forever.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!