Sammy is 11 months old!

Sammy is 11 months old.  It's amazing that she is so happy in these pictures given that she had a 102 fever and a blazing ear infection.  

Winding Down Breastfeeding

I went back to work when Sammy was roughly 4 months old.  I've been pumping twice a day during the work week now for 7 months.  SEVEN months!  Oof.  I'm tired.  It's been harder this time around than with Ian because I had a shorter maternity leave with Sammy (and so had to pump for 2 more months) and I had much less of a milk supply (although I'm not necessarily complaining about that - it was too much with Ian).

At the end of last week, I noticed that I would pump 7 ounces in the morning and only 2 ounces in the afternoon.  And given that Sammy was nearing 11 months of age, I decided to test out what would happen if I dropped one of my pumps.  So instead of pumping at 10 am and 3 pm, I decided to just do one pump at 12 pm.  And guess what, I produced 9 ounces!  So there was no reason to keep going with the 2 pumps.  So hooray.  It was AMAZING this week to only have to pump once a day.  Sammy is still drinking 15 ounces during the day and so I've been supplementing with the milk that I have in the freezer.  My goal is to make it 2 more weeks, using up my freezer supply as I go.  And then, when Sammy is 11.5 months old, I will start mixing her bottles so that she gets used to cow's milk.  Ian had no issues with this transition and so I'm hoping neither will Sammy.

I plan to continue nursing Sammy in the morning and at night until it seems natural to give it up.  I didn't get that chance with Ian.  I stopped nursing abruptly around 11 months so that I could get my period and try to have baby #2.  There is no forced stopping this time around.  And I certainly wouldn't mind holding off my menstrual cycles for as long as possible!

Ian's First Trip to the Dentist

Now that Ian is 3, we figured it was time for him to go to the dentist.  So we went to our family dentist.  Ian is the 4th generation to go there!  Right now, this dentist sees Nana (paternal grandfather's mother), Baba and Gramps (paternal grandparents), Daddy, Mommy and now Ian!  He was pretty willing to cooperate although whimpered a bit when the dental hygienist and dentist were wearing masks.  They removed them so that they didn't seem so scary to him.  They put sunglasses on him, polished his teeth, counted his teeth and then painted fluoride on them.  And he had no issues.  Hooray.

And oh happy day, the dentist gave him stickers, a pencil and a Cars-themed toothbrush for being such a cooperating little boy.  I'm very proud.  :-)

Sammy is Taking Steps - 10.5 months!

Sammy can walk!  She still can't stand up on her own without something on which to pull up.  But if you stand her up, she'll take steps.  She'll even let go of whatever she is holding onto for support to take steps.  Here's the proof!

She first started at Ian's birthday party.

And here she was a couple of days later:

I'm so impressed with my little girl.  She's walking so early!  She crawled 2 months later than Ian but is walking more than 1 month before he did.  

Ian is Three!

Ian turned three a week ago.  I can't believe I'm the mother of a THREE year old!  It is crazy how time passes.  I remember every single minute of my time with him on maternity leave and it seemed to pass sooo slowly, especially since I was so sleep deprived.  But then time sped up and he's a little man now!

He loves to play with his Thomas the Train set and other vehicles.  He ADORES books and would let you read to him for hours and hours.  He easily recognizes all upper and lower case letters and wants to start reading.  He asks me what signs say and remembers what they say.  He is fully potty-trained during the day and likes to sink cheerios in the toilet when peeing (while standing up).   He is still in a pull-up at night but recently, has been waking up dry.  He is chatty and always wants to "tell us something" instead of letting my husband and I talk at dinner time.  He loves playing outside, especially riding his big wheel bike.  It's hard to get him to do things he doesn't want to do (like take off his shoes when he comes in from inside).  If he's not too hungry when he wakes up in the morning, he will snuggle in our bed for 5 minutes. He is gentle with Sammy and is learning (slowly) to share his toys with her.  He likes to give her hugs when she is upset.  I am so happy to be watching him grow up.  I love it!

It's hard to take a decent picture of him these days because he doesn't want to sit still, look at the camera or smile on command.  This was taken the day before he turned 3 and pretty much sums him up!

Here is a picture of him on his actual birthday in his new Cars shirt.

And here are some super cute pictures from his Cars-themed birthday party at Gymboree, the day after his birthday:

We got this super cute cake at BJs and it was surprisingly delicious for a store-bought cake - chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and the frosting was so good - a nice butter cream without being sugary sweet.  Yum!

My Little Girl is Standing!

Sammy has been pulling up for quite some time now but tonight I watched her letting go of the things she was holding onto for support.  So I decided to stand her up in the middle of the room and see how she did and she stood for over 30 seconds and only came down because she wanted to sit, not because she fell down.  I'm so proud of her!

We also did some new things this weekend.  I figured Sammy might like to get out of her car seat and so when we went to BJs, we put her in the shopping cart.  And we also broke out the second seat for our stroller and she had a blast while we went for a long walk.

And the weather was so beautiful today (it was 74 degrees!) that my husband and I both left work a little early to spend some time outside with the kids.  We walked 2 laps around our neighborhood while Ian rode his bike.  He was so psyched to wear his new Lightning McQueen helmet!

I think I've grown into motherhood as Ian has grown up a bit.  He was a really difficult infant and toddler for me, but now that he's a preschooler and almost 3 (!), it is pure joy to be around him.  He is so bright and curious about everything.  He remembers things I told him months and months ago even though I only said it once.  He holds my hand when we walk in parking lots and gives me hugs for no reason.  He wrote his name last week after learning to trace letters and is 100% potty trained.  Tonight after he already went to bed, I heard him get up and go to the bathroom on his own!  Amazing.  Let's hope he will do that in the middle of the night too because he's been waking us up around 2 or 3 am each night for the last 3 weeks so that we can help him go to the bathroom.  

It's amazing to watch my children grow up into such wonderful little beings!  And I leave on this note - Sammy was so incredibly wiped out tonight.  She didn't nap that much at daycare and by 6:45 pm, was really ready for bed.  She was sighing and putting her head down on our shoulders.  It felt sooo good.  I wanted to hold her like that forever.  Here is my husband's lucky time with her.

Proud Mama

I'm so proud of my big boy.  He did AMAZING this week with the potty training having only 1 or 2 accidents ALL week.  And instead of having to hound him about having to go, we can now let him take the lead and he lets us know when he needs to go.  He even called out from bed tonight to go poop on the potty.  Hooray!  We put all of his extra size 5 diapers into Sammy's closet because no more diapers for Ian!  We are still putting him in a pull up at night because it's touch and go whether or not he wakes up dry.  More often than not, he wakes in the middle of the night to have us take him to the bathroom.  And if he does that, he usually wakes up dry.  

I thought he looked extra adorable tonight and so took a picture of him riding his Plasma Car - a.k.a. the "wiggle wiggle."

I can't believe he'll be 3 in only two more weeks!