Baby #2 and Easton's 21 month update!

Let's do this again!!!

Dan and I are SO delighted to be expecting baby #2, due May 14th 2015! We are very very blessed to have gotten pregnant easily again and are so excited for Easton to be a big brother! He will be 2 years and 4 months older than his baby sibling! 

So I'm officially 12 weeks along, and I'm feeling pretty good! Thankfully the exhausted, need-to-have-a-nap-everyday phase is over (it lasted from about weeks 6-10) and my morning sickness is gone for the most part too! I feel a little yucky first thing in the morning but once I've had breakfast, I feel a lot better. If you remember my constant complaining of morning (HA... try all day!) sickness while I was pregnant with Easton, this is a welcome change!

We had an early ultrasound at 10 weeks and got to see the little bean and his/her strong heartbeat! Such a wonderful experience to see your baby for the first time, wiggling around inside you :)

We'll go for our comprehensive ultrasound around 20 weeks, which falls right around Christmas, so we'll be finding out the gender then and I will definitely blog about it! So far my mama's intuition is failing me, I have no feeling whatsoever whether its a boy or girl! What do you think!?

Yes, I know... it's HUGE!

I do feel like I've started showing MUCH sooner than I did with Easton! I compared my bump at 12 weeks this time around with my bump at 18 weeks with E and they're pretty much the same size! YIKES! Better slow down on the Halloween candy...

Which is a perfect segway into Easton's update! Here are some photos of the little Lion man from yesterday, in his Halloween costume!

 

Easton is 21 months (closer to 22 now, but whose counting) and I'm LOVING this age!
He says TONS of words now, and is even starting to put 2 words together. Full sentences are right around the corner! I love hearing him talk and say new words. Proud mama!

He loves to read books, make Playdoh animals, play hockey with daddy, do puzzles and play games on the ipad, go for walks, take his nap (weirdo!), watch 'Diego', 'Backyardigans' and 'Chuck and Friends' on TV, help mommy bake, sing "Old MacDonald" and "Wheels on the Bus" (with actions too!), go to Amanda's house (daycare 1-2 days a week) to play with his friends, but most of all, he loves to play with his TRUCKS! My goodness this boy is truck obsessed. Tractors, bulldozers, dump trucks ('dumpy'), big rigs, pick up trucks, monster trucks, race cars ('racey'), police cars ('peece'), you name it, he LOVES all things automobile. Such a boy.

Easton reached a big milestone last month.... transitioning to his "Big Boy Bed"! About 2 months ago, Dan and I bought him a toddler bed and put it in his room for his "friends" to sleep on, knowing that eventually we'd need the crib for baby #2. We made it up with sheets and a blanket, put a bunch of his stuffed animals on it, and told him he gets to sleep in it when he's a big boy! Well, one night, about a month ago, Easton didn't feel like going to sleep at bedtime (which is quite unlike him, we never have issues at bedtime), and he CLIMBED out of his crib! BOOM! It terrified Dan and I, so we decided it was time. The next morning we made a big production about moving his crib and putting his "Big Boy Bed" in its place, and telling him he gets to sleep there now! We tackled nap time first, and he got out and ran to his door 4 or 5 times that day, to me sitting right outside. I brought him back in each time and told him to go to sleep. Its time for a nap. Well eventually, about an hour later, he fell asleep. That night went AMAZINGLY well, he slept the entire night in his bed, not getting out at all! Even in the morning he stayed in bed and just called out to me that he was awake! Since then, he's been great about going down for naps and bedtime, and has only gotten out a handful of times! I figure if he was still in his crib and he really wanted to get out, he would, so he might as well do it from a safer spot! I'm so pleased with how smoothly it went!

Now for the boring stuff - so I remember for #2...

Easton sleeps from 8:00 pm -7:00 am (roughly) and naps for 2 hours from 12:30-2:30 ish.

He's still in a picky phase with food, even turning up his little nose at some of his past favorites! He started LOVING milk, which is so strange, because he used to not want anything to do with it. He still loves to "dip dip" his food in any sort of dip really, loves yogurt, grapes, cheerios with milk, toast with PB and honey, most kinds of soup, crackers, cheese, beans, apple sauce and pasta. Not a huge meat guy.

For a while, about a month ago, I thought  he was getting ready to potty train. He peed on the potty 4 or 5 days in a row before bath time, but then just stopped doing it. Or he'd peed on the floor or in the bath right after I'd take his diaper off! Little Monkey. Thats ok though, our initial plan was to wait until #2 is here in the spring, and the weather is nice, to start the potty training process, so that's what we'll do. He'll be about 2.5 which I think makes more sense anyways.

He's wearing 24 months or 2T clothes, size 6-7 shoes, and size 5 diapers. He hasn't grown much since 18 months I don't think. I'd say he's up to about 28 lbs now, and around 36" tall.

That's about it!

Here's a photo overload of the little dude, mainly from our trip to Mary Lake in August, and our pumpkin patch visit in October.

18 Months!

I know I say this every time, but Easton has changed so much since my last post at 15 months! I don't even know where to begin! Sorry in advance for the novel to come...

Easton is taking one nap now (for the last month or so), usually going down around 12:30 or 1:00 depending on his mood and when he woke in the morning. He sleeps for about 1.5 - 2 hours. Bedtime is at 7:30 pm and he sleeps until 7:30 am. He gets 13.5 hours of total sleep per day, which is exactly what is recommended for his age. I often wish he napped longer, but I guess a trade off between getting less night sleep and a longer nap, compared to what he’s doing now, and Dan and I both enjoy that he does down early so we get a few hours to ourselves in the evenings. Having kid-free time is sacred, something we definitely took for granted before having Easton!



He is wearing size 2T clothes, size 6 shoes, and size 5 diapers. He has 12 teeth and some eye teeth on their way... boo! At his 18 month well baby checkup yet,  he was 26 lb 4 oz and 35" tall!   

His vocabulary is slowly starting to grow, I would say he has about 15 words or so, including mama, dada, thank you, please, yes, no, that, there, juice, chi chi (cheerios), Lucy (our dog), soosie (his pacifier), shoes, truck, car, cheese, baby, hiya, hello, uh-oh. Majority of those he has only said a couple times, its just a couple he uses quite regularly. Most aren't clear, but Dan and I can understand them!  I definitely think in the next couple of months he’ll acquire many more words, as he’s only started saying most of the words above in the past few weeks.

He’s in a weird phase with food, not eating much at all at meals, besides breakfast. He’s more of a snacker at the moment. I make him a big smoothie with whole milk, yogurt, and fruit everyday, because it’s the only way I can get some fat and dairy into his diet. He still LOVES fruit, and would eat only that if given the choice, I’m sure. He also likes cheese, turkey, crackers, goldfish, raisins, hummus, chickpeas, pizza and pasta. But even his favorite foods he shuns from time to time. I cant figure him out!


In terms of toys, he is really into trucks, tractors and cars at the moment. I bought him some little matchbox cars/hot wheels last week, and he always seems to have one in his hand, zooming it around the house while “vrooomm vrooming” to himself. It’s so cute! Such a boy thing.

He loves going to the park, pushing his wagon, riding on his trike (although he doesn’t understand how to pedal yet, but loves when we push him around), playing in his sandbox, collecting rocks, swimming and just being outside in general.



We're definitely starting to see some "defiant" behavior and the verge of some terrible two temper tantrums, but all in all, Easton is a pretty chill dude. He knows what he wants, and is determined to get it, so when its not happening, we're working on explaining why, and offering him another option. He does "freak out" easily when he's tired though, so that's wonderful. Gets it from his mama for sure. We dont believe in spanking, but we really haven't had to discipline him at all yet, thankfully. We ignore the meltdown behaviour and it usually stops as quickly as it started with that tactic. We'll be starting a time out chair or something like that when we get there. Fun times!

Here is what our typical day is like (when Dan is working)...

We wake up around 7:30 and E gets a diaper change, then we come downstairs for breakfast. We sit together, and Easton has cheerios with flax seeds (another one of my sneaky ways to get fat into his diet), berries and whole milk, and some diluted apple juice.

Then he gets to watch one show, which takes about 25 mins, while I clean up the kitchen and do the dishes I was too tired to do the night before. He watches one of his favorite shows, Backyardigans, Octonauts or Curious George.

Then we go upstairs, brush our teeth, and get dressed. E usually plays with his toys (or more often, all of my products under the sink), while I have a quick shower and do my makeup.  As a mom to a busy toddler, I have mastered the shower and makeup routine, getting it down to about 15 minutes flat. I may or may not throw my hair into a bun 6 days a week, and have mascara all over my eyelids, but hey, I try!

After we’re dressed around 9:00, we usually head out for a couple hours, either to the park down the street or to the Early Years Center (which I have just recently discovered and LOVE). Something active with other kids to tire him out, so he’ll have a decent nap.

We try to get home for 11:00 ish before he gets too grumpy to eat his lunch. Around 11:30 or 12:00 we’ll have something like grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, some grapes and apple sauce, then E will play or we’ll read some books together before nap time at 12:30 ish.

He is usually up from his nap around 2:00, at which time we’ll play in the backyard, go to the park if we didn’t go in the morning, or go get some groceries, have a play date, or run other errands.

We’ll arrive back home around 4:30, and Easton will watch another 25 minute show while I prepare dinner. We eat around 5:00 and then usually crash and need to veg for a little while, while Easton plays, usually outside. I kick my legs up on our new patio furniture and watch him throw dog poop across the yard and empty the contents of his sandbox into the garden. Ok, not really. Only sometimes.

After dinner, we might take Lucy on a walk and stop by the mailbox. When he's not walking Lucy himself, E loves to push his Thomas car toy, while collecting rocks from the sidewalk and peoples drive ways. He puts them on Thomas and pushes them until we get to the mailbox, then he throws them in the sewer, to hear the splash. He also points and waves at every car, truck, bike, dog, and person that walks by.

He has a bath around 7:00, then we usually read a few books, and bedtime is at 7:30.  I put on his fan, sing, 'You are my Sunshine', lay him in his crib, give him his soother and Congo (his favorite gorilla stuffie), give him a kiss, and he’s lights out in 5 minutes. That's been our routine for ages and it works like a charm.

When Dan is off, we try to do something fun as a family, so our routine is a bit different, but we always make sure nap time is at home.  He won't sleep for long in the car anymore, and sleeping at someone else's house, HA... forget it. We really need to work on that since he’ll probably be going to a home day care a couple days a week come September, so I can work a bit more.

Ok, I think that’s enough for now!  Except, here are a bajillion photos of some summer family time, the best time! 

Here are some shots from our day trip to the beach in Port Dover this past weekend...

As kids, my brother and I used to run around on the lawn in front of the Erie Beach restaurant so it warmed my heart to see Easton having such fun doing the same!

Poor old Nelson was so tired, so Easton graciously gave up his wagon to help pull him home!