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When we discovered that The Surprise (I should probably come up with a new nickname!) was going to be joining our family we realized that our current car situation was probably not going to cut it. My little Rav 4 wasn’t going to be big enough to lug around my expanding brood. So, the search began for our new family vehicle, my new mom mobile.
I knew from the start of this search that it was going to end with my driving a minivan. Given how much I have protested such an occurrence in the past it was inevitable that eventually I would find myself behind the wheel of my very own minivan. Lorne set to work figuring out what our options were and then determining what was the best fit for us. I sure am glad he loves to obsess over research things because the few times I sat in front of the computer with him going over number of seats, gas mileage, towing capacity, etc was enough to drive my insane.
After all the research was complete the results were in and this now takes up the space in my garage where my little red Rav 4 used to reside.
I miss my Rav but I have to admit that I am enjoying the minivan. It drives well and the sliding doors are awesome. Mama’s new ride may not be my top pick for cars I’d like to be behind the wheel of, but since we now need the space it’ll do.
Now I just need to sign one of my kids up for soccer and my soccer mom transformation will be complete 
When Maya was little I used to have so much fun getting her dressed in the morning. I loved picking out the perfect little outfit. My favorite was always a cute pair of jeans (I love baby jeans!) and one of her many adorable shirts. I loved shopping for new clothes for her, finding more adorable little pieces to add to her wardrobe. As I shopped for those new pieces and as I put together cute little outfits for her, I would daydream about how much fun it would be to shop for outfits when she was a bit bigger. I’d look at the clothes in the kid section and imagine what she might wear.
I knew early on that she was going to be opinionated about clothing. She was probably 2 the first time she voiced her opinion at the store as I was picking something out. I had fun with it once she started to show her inner fashionista. I’d let her choose what color shirt we would buy, or which pants. It was fun. Eventually it led to her wanting to pick out her outfits too. And, I was okay with that, it was fun to see what she would pair together. If the outfit was beginning to look a little too crazy I would steer her carefully towards something a little less fashion forward. For a while we went on, peacefully, this way. Me buying new things, with her input of course, and her pretty much picking what she wore each day.
As time went on her opinions grew stronger and I lost all hope of getting to pick out those cute big kid outfits I had dreamed about. I was okay with that. I missed those cute little jeans that I used to love to dress her in, but the dresses she just HAD to wear were pretty darn cute too.
I never would have imagined this happening, but somewhere along the line Maya developed this weird disdain for wearing clothing. She still loves clothing, especially frilly dresses and skirts, but she hates wearing clothing for any length of time and Lord help us if she has to wear pants (which is a good portion of the time since she has to wear them for school). If we are home she is in nothing but her underwear. There is always a pile of clothing at my front door because the second to steps over the threshold she begins stripping down. This has been going on for 2 years now. For a little while, last winter, I got her back into the swing of wearing clothing all the time again, but she has reverted back to her old ways again.
Lately, it has become a big problem, this disdain for clothing. Every time she has to get dressed a battle of epic proportions ensues. I mean, serious epic battles complete with hysterics, yelling screaming (on both our parts) and lots of crying. And, since she insists on stripping down to her underwear every time we come home we can end up having these battles several times a day.
The other day we hit a breaking point. We were trying to get ready for a quick trip over to the park to play for a little bit before dinner. I was working on getting Anna ready so Lorne was helping Maya. I heard the freak out begin when he told her she had to pick out pants and a long sleeve shirt (her two least favorite items). It escalated when he tried to help her get dressed, she only wanted mommy to help so down the stairs she came. At this point Anna was all ready to go complete with coat, hat and mitts. I helped Maya get her clothing on and she had a complete meltdown over the way her pants felt. She was in complete hysterics, screaming right in my face. It ended with her being sent to her room and our trip to the park being canceled.
It was one of her worst meltdowns over clothing, which is saying a lot given how crazy her daily freak outs over clothing can be. Lorne and I talked about it and decided enough was enough, and we started the clothing challenge. Now, she has to wear clothing all day, every day, even when we are home. The hope is that by having to wear clothing every day she will again get used to the way clothing feels on her body and her freak outs will begin to stop. Fingers crossed.
I don’t even care anymore that all she wants to wear are sundresses, even in the middle of winter. I don’t care anymore about the cute jeans and adorable shirts that she absolutely won’t wear. At this point I just want my mornings to not involve any more epic battles over clothing. I just want her to pick out something she will wear and wear it, all day, with no fussing.
So, one week into the clothing challenge and things are…going ok. She will wear her clothes all day, although if she has been wearing pants out she changes into a dress the second we walk in the door. But, every morning is still a huge battle to get her dressed, especially if she has to wear pants. Sometimes I wish I lived somewhere where she could get away with wearing sundresses every single day because then maybe she wouldn’t fight with me every morning.
When I was breastfeeding my first daughter I had all the time in the world to give her when it was time to nurse. If she wanted to spend 20 or 30 minutes nursing it was fine because there was nothing else more important or that needed my attention more. We spent a lot of peaceful, uninterrupted time together while she nursed.
Before my second daughter was born I fretted over how breastfeeding would go given that I would now have a 4 year old who also needed my attention. Sitting down to quietly and calmly breastfeed seemed impossible to me when there was a rambunctious little girl running around who would need help going potty or help getting a snack or would want to play, etc. etc.
When Anna was born I was determined for our breastfeeding relationship to be as calm, peaceful and enjoyable as it was with Maya. It was important to me because I felt she deserved it even though she was our second and life was more chaotic now. I set my mind to it and did everything I could to make it so. A few things I did to make this possible were:
- I set the precedent from the beginning that I would sit quietly and nurse her whenever possible.
- I prepared Maya before I sat down to nurse Anna. I would ask her if she had to go potty or needed a snack because I was about to feed her sister and wouldn’t be able to help her for a little bit.
- Whenever possible I nurse Anna in the quiet of her bedroom before naps and bedtime. Of course, that only works when my husband is home to watch Maya.
- I try hard not to be distracted while nursing. I focus as much attention on Anna as I can just as I did with Maya when I had all the time in the world.
- I talked to Maya before Anna was even born about breastfeeding and what it would entail.
- I make sure Maya has something fun to do while I’m nursing Anna either something to play, or a show to watch.
12 months in and I’m happy to say I feel as though I’ve been able to give Anna pretty close to the same attention and quiet during our nursing sessions as I did when I nursed my first child. It wasn’t easy and it took dedication but I made it work.
It is so easy to get distracted in the day to day chaos of raising children. I enjoy the peace and quiet of sitting down to cuddle my baby while she nurses and I’m glad I as able to make it happen even with so many other distractions around.
Turns out life with two kids, especially when one of those kiddos is a 4 year old in all sorts of activities, is pretty busy. Between school, trips to the library, dance class, t-ball and swimming lessons I feel like we are hardly ever home. We always either on our way to or on our home from one activity or another. Maya is loving all her little classes so it makes the business worth it.
Unfortunately, all this craziness has meant I haven’t found a lot of time in my day to update this little old blog. I’m going to return to writing posts at night after the kids go to bed so I can get back into a better, more frequent post, groove.
Anna has been busy too, growing and trying with all her might to figure out this crawling thing She can get up on all fours and rock but hasn’t figured out moving her hands and knees once she is up on them. Today she even got herself up on her hands and feet!! Perhaps she’ll just go straight from pushing herself backwards and rolling to get where she wants to go to walking. I really can’t believe how big my little baby is getting.
She enjoys our busy schedule, well at least the opportunity it presents to watch a bunch of 4 year olds running around. I’m guessing she could probably do without the constant nap interruptions, but she handles it well. She watches her sister partaking in all her little activities in style
Anna is three quarters of a year old. 9 whole months have passed since her birth, how is that possible!
Weight: 17lbs 5oz (22nd precentile)
Height: 27.5 inches (48th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 inches (27th percentile)
As you can see from her stats Anna is still my little peanut. At nine months she is only just reaching Maya’s 7 month stats. She may be tiny but she is strong and super healthy. Her appointment today with her pediatrician went wonderfully. Anna was babbling up a storm and show off her great verbal skills. After a once over from the doctor she was declared to be “absolutely perfect” (her exact words).
A lot has changed since I did her 8 month write up including the fact that she has become quite mobile. She isn’t crawling yet but has figured out how to push herself backwards, army style, in order to get around. So between rolling, scooting and pushing backwards she is into all sorts of trouble. A few times I’ve caught her up on her hands and knees rocking a bit so I’m guessing full on crawling is probably in her pretty near future. If I stand her up next to the couch or a table she will hold on and stand for several minutes and can lower herself down slowly onto her bottom. She looks so little stand there, but oh so cute
Another big change for Miss Anna is that she now has 2 little teeth. Her bottom 2 teeth popped through a couple of weeks ago. In true Anna fashion she breezed through teething and I didn’t even know she was working on any teeth until it poked through her gums. Given the ridiculous amount of drool she is currently producing I’m guessing she may be working on the top two now. She shows her little teefers off all the time when she makes her new favorite silly face
Anna is such a doll. She is so silly and sweet and lovable. She has become a lot more vocal lately and is babbling up a storm saying “mama”, “dada” and “yaya” (which I’m pretty sure is her way of saying Maya) all the time along with lots of other babbles. She’ll be talking and talking away, full of smiles and I can’t help but wonder what she is thinking. Each day with her is filled with sweet little moments, soft snuggles and lots of smiles and giggles. We all love her to pieces. Maya, especially, can’t seem to get enough of her little sister. She plays so well with her and talks and giggles with her all day. These two have such a special bond, it is even sweeter than I ever could have imagined before Anna was born.
Love you to pieces sweet baby girl. Can’t wait to see what this month has in store for you, what little 9 month old adventures you will have. Watching you grow sure is something special. My heart is full to the brim with love.
