Guess who's Smiling?

Christmas 2010 in Pictures

Christmas Eve was spent eating, drinking, and of course playing at our house.

There were also some Christmas snuggles while watching 'Cartoon Grinch'.


And presents of course!



Christmas morning started at 6am with a brand new kitchen set for both boys. One enjoyed it more than the other :)


Then we moved the party over to Nana's house for breakfast and more presents!

Grady got a lot of gifts....

Cooper did pretty well too!

Cooper did a lot of sleeping on Mom.

And Dad.

Grady did a lot of playing with anyone who was willing.


We also made some time to play dress up. Thanks for the cute outfit Kandis!


The aftermath of Christmas 2010.


Santa spoiled us and the boys rotten and a great time was had by all. The biggest question now is where to put all the new stuff!

We enjoyed Christmas with both Grady and Cooper this year. Grady was just so excited to open presents and it was so special to celebrate Cooper's first Christmas. I can only imagine how much fun next Christmas will be!

Merry Christmas

From our family..

to yours...



Merry Christmas...

and all the best in 2011!

Santa comes to visit

For as long as I can remember, Santa always stopped to visit on Christmas Eve. Each and every person, young and old, sat on Santa's knee to get his/her present and then kissed Santa on the cheek before the next person's name was called. This was always my favorite Christmas tradition.

This year proved to be no different......

Cooper's name was called out and even though he was drinking a bottle, he quickly hopped on Santa's lapped.

Then Grady's name was called. Grady was not so eager to sit on Santa's lap but was very eager to get his hands on the present!!

I think Grady thinks he hit the jackpot this year... between all the gifts he got for himself, he was also in charge of opening Cooper's presents!

All in all it was a great 'Christmas' with my side of the family. We can't wait to redo the whole thing on Christmas morning.

What a joy it is to have kids at Christmas!

Why Can't we Just be Friends?

Don't you hate it when you try so hard to be friends with someone and they just don't like you? I have tried everything to get along with her and she just doesn't like me. She doesn't cooperate, won't do what I want her to, and has really let me down.

What am I talking about you ask? Breastfeeding.

I wanted so badly to exclusively breastfeed Cooper and Grady and on both accounts, despite many efforts, it has not worked as I hoped. With Grady, the doctors figured out I had low milk supply when Grady 'failed to thrive'. It took him close to 4 weeks and many formula supplements to get back to his birth weight. I went on the motillium to increase my milk around the same time and it didn't have enough kick to drop the bottle feeds. So for 6 months I nursed Grady for 30 minutes and then gave him a bottle that was more than half of the milk he needed. Looking back, I realize I did this for so long because I wanted to breastfeed so bad. No one prepared me for the fact that it wasn't always easy and that not everyone who wanted to breastfeed actually could.

Fast forward over 2 years. I was ready to fight for the opportunity to breastfeed exclusively. And if I lost that fight, the plan was to stop at 6 weeks. This was the plan I was sticking to. I told everyone the plan thinking it would make the decision to stop breastfeeding at 6 weeks easier.... Unfortunately that is not the case.

I spoke many times with my doctor before Cooper was born about my experience with breastfeeding Grady. I asked for the prescription for motillium before he was born and planned to see a lactation consultant immediately. I blamed my low milk supply on Grady being a lazy eater that always fell asleep, the public health nurse who never followed up, the nurse in the hospital who didn't show me how to breastfeed, the doctor who didn't recognize the problem at my one week checkup, I blamed it on everything and everyone except accepting that i just wasn't meant to breastfeed.

When Cooper was born we tried BF'ing before even leaving the delivery room. Cooper ate like a champ. He was far from being a lazy eater. He literally ate up my nipples. Too much information I know. There is just no other way to explain it. I saw a lactation consultant who agreed that Cooper's latch was just not great and that I should take 24 to 48 hours to let myself heal. So I did. For the first 2 days Cooper was at home. I would pump while James fed Cooper a bottle of formula. It was exhausting.

I waited and waited and waited for my milk to come in. We did everything right this time it just had to come in... right? Wrong. I took all the right precautions to help my milk come in and mother nature let me down. Again. After seeing several lactation consultants over the first 2 weeks of Coopers life, they all agreed that he was only getting 1 ounce from the breast and 2 ounces from the bottle.

How long could I possibly do the 30 minute nursing session followed by a bottle. Each. And. Every. Feed? I turned back to my initial plan before Cooper was even born. The goal was 6 weeks and that is what we decided to stick with. Cooper was 6 weeks yesterday and we have started the weening process.

I really did expect it to be an easier decision this time. Don't get me wrong, there are pros to bottle feeding and that is what I am trying to focus on. The freedom of being able to leave the house without Cooper for more than 2 hours, the ability for James to take a night feed here and there, having a feed that takes less than 45 minutes... just to name a few. But will Cooper miss out on nutrients, immunity, and bonding that others get from being nursed for longer? I don't know. I'll never know.

I have talked to many friends about this. Some that have breast fed exclusively for 6 months to a year and others that went straight to a bottle for various reasons. The outcome of these talks is always the same. Each and every one of them felt judged for the decision they made. People either questioned why you were supplementing, why you weren't breastfeeding at all, or why you were still breastfeeding. It just seems that us moms can't win. The choice to or not to breastfeed is a personal one and not always a choice.

I chose to write this post to educate that breastfeeding isn't easy for everyone. I wish someone would have told me how hard it was to breastfeed. Maybe then I wouldn't have set expectations so high for myself and then been disappointed.

Now that I have that off my chest I am off to make a bottle to feed to my son :)

O Christmas Tree!

I love Christmas. Most of all I love my Christmas tree. Since I was little, decorating the tree has always been my favorite tradition and now one that I will pass on to my boys. Here is our tree this year.

Notice we do not have a 'matching' tree. You know, the tree where all the ornaments match and are carefully placed. Our tree is full of decorations that hold memories for me and/or James and/or the boys. Both James and I grew up with trees like this so it was inevitable thats our own tree share the same characteristics. We each have our special ornaments that we like to put one the tree. One year I put up James 'special ornament' and I haven't heard the end of it since!

I wanted to share some of our (aka my) favorite ornaments that we have accumulated over the 8 years we have been together and I have been in Calgary. Here they are in no particular order.

My Mom bought me this ornament the first Christmas that I didn't come home. Hearts come home for Christmas. It was Christmas 2005, the year James and I got married. Both our families and Christmas traditions were important to each of us so we decided not to spend Christmas together until we were married. It is nice that we have been able to incorporate traditions from both sides of the family.

Another one from my mom.... my aunt gave my brother and I frosted ornaments when we were kids and they quickly became our special ornaments that were place just so on the tree by each of us. When I moved out, my Mom claimed they were hers and wanted to keep them. This is obviously my version of the story. We are still not sure who the true owners of the ornaments are. In lieu of me taking my ornament with me to Calgary, she replaced it with this frosted 'mom and child' ornament that I now proudly display on my own tree.



This kissing ornament I bought for James our first Christmas together. We started dating in January 2002, so it was that December that this ornament appeared first on his parents tree and now on ours.

James' Mom bought us this ornament in 2008, the year Grady was born. It is so special as it was our first Christmas with Grady.

My mom bought us this ornament when we moved into our house. I think it was Jan 2004. It matches the ornament above.


This palm tree was purchased in Maui when we went in May 2007. Our last vacation pre kids.

This Christmas bear was purchased when we were in Maui in May 2010.


Here is our updated 2010 family ornament from Nana. It is currently my favorite ornament on the tree. I just love seeing Cooper's name in print and all of our name's together!

This one is from Grady's 1st Christmas. The picture was taken before we even left the hospital.

This ornament was given to us by Nana and purchased for ourselves. Great minds think alike... It was December 2007, the Christmas we announced we were pregnant with #1, aka Grady.

Here is another one we got the year we got married. I looked and looked for a wedding ornament and this is the best I came up with.

I put this one in for James' sake. It is his favorite. It is Peter Griffin from the Family Guy. We bought it in Jasper over thanksgiving 2007 a mere week before we got pregnant with Grady.

Each year as we put up the tree I retell the story of each ornament and take a moment to cherish the memory. Every year James asks me if I am going to get emotional... Some things never change and I would never want them to.

Grady the BIG Brother!

In the big brother department, Grady is doing much better than expected. I am not going to lie, I was a little scared of what an addition to the family would do to Grady. He has been the apple of our eye for almost 2.5 years now and the center of our universe. How would this huge change affect him when the baby arrived?

I am proud to report that Grady has accepted his little brother into our family with open arms... most days. From the moment they were introduced at the hospital he has been such a proud big brother. James' mom had told us stories about how James reacted to his brother coming home from the hospital and they were not good. So I was a little apprehensive if Daddy's 'little me' would react the same way. Thankfully he seems to have had the opposite reaction and has been quite gentle with his little brother.

Grady has helped with bathing Cooper, making bottles, bringing me things (especially remotes and phones) when I am feeding Cooper.

Grady loves to tickle Cooper and tell him he loves him. When he wakes up in the morning if James or I go to get him and we don't have Cooper in our arms he asks where he is.

I have so many pictures of the boys laying on the floor together. Most times Grady has a goofy smile and Cooper is trying to sleep. That is one thing we have to work on... leaving Cooper alone when his eyes are closed! If that is my biggest problem - I will gladly take it!

I would be naive to say that it hasn't had some impact on Grady. Obviously there is another little person around stealing attention and also demanding my and James' time. I have noticed that he does not want me to feed Cooper and that he doesn't want me to talk on the phone. When I tell him it is time to feed Cooper, he often says 'no'. He knows that it will entail me sitting on the couch cuddling Cooper and a movie for him. When I am on the phone, I am not paying full attention to him.

I think it is only natural that Grady does not like any activity that takes away time he once had with me. So for the next little while, Grandma may have to settle for 2 calls a day instead of 3!

In the past week or so Grady has been trying to recoup some attention by acting out. There has been some throwing, some tantrums, and just general bad behavior that we haven't seen before. I think this is normal and now we just have to figure out how to work through it.

Grady, like everyone else, has good days and bad days so our goal is to have more good days than bad days. So far that has been the case!

I hope that Grady's love for his little brother continues when Cooper starts playing with his toys, reading his books, and eating his food. Should be an interesting year!

Cars and Truks

Do you think Grady has enough cars? This isn't even half of them!

Cooper - 1 Month

Dear Cooper,

Today you are one month. I feel like I blinked and a month went by. Literally. After only a month I can not imagine what our lives would be like without you. I love the newborn snuggles, seeing your brother give you a big hug, and watching our family evolve into a family a 4.

What have you been up to you ask? Well let me give you a few details.

• You have been eating every 2 to 3 hours. You breastfeed and need to be supplemented by a bottle after every feed just like your brother.
• You are my little chunky monkey! You weighted 10 pounds 9 ounces yesterday and were 10.5 inches at your 2 week, 3 day check up. Grady only weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces at 4 weeks!!!
• You are not a good burper. It takes a lot to get even a little one out of you.
• You have already outgrown your newborn diapers and wear a size 1 diaper. You have also outgrown some of the newborn sleepers. Looks like we may have a big boy on our hands!
• You love bath time. Grady has been great at 'helping' during bath time by putting face cloths on your belly and pouring warm water over them.
• You are very alert. You either stay up between feeds or sleep between feeds. Rarely do you do a little of both.
• At night you give us one longer 4-5 hour stretch but usually this is from 8pm to 1am so we only get about 3 hours of consecutive hours of sleep. After that, you are up every 2 to 3 hours to eat.
• You like your vibrating bouncy chair and your swing more than your brother ever did! You will sleep for hours at a time in either one. I really hope this keeps up and will eventually move into the crib... easier said than done I am sure.
• You suffered from your first cold passed on to you by your big brother. You had adult sized boogers coming out your nose!
• You love to watch your brother which is a good thing since Grady loves to give you hugs and kiss you like crazy.
• We've had lots of visitors in your first month and now the whole family except Aunty Blaire has met you. We hope she will be here to meet you soon.
• We put up your first Christmas tree at the end of November. You watched from your bouncy chair as the rest of us decorated the tree.
• We had our first meal out at McDonalds! You slept through the entire meal!
• You met Santa
• Your hair has started to lighten up from jet black (and lots of it) to a dark brown (and still lots of it).

As your first month as a member of our family draws to a close it is bittersweet. Although I am excited to see what the next day, week, month, year will bring, there is a small part of me that wants to keep you as a newborn forever. No matter how old you are, you will always be my youngest, my baby.

I love you,

Mommy

Grady and Cooper Visit Santa

Today was James' work children's Christmas party at the zoo. Even though Grady did not have a nap today, went to bed at 9:30pm last night, and got up through the night, it turned out to be a mostly nice afternoon.

We had been talking Santa up all week in hopes that Grady would sit on his knee to get his gift. All week he would say no. This morning when asked if he would sit on Santa's knee to get a gift Grady replied quickly NO WAY! We really weren't sure how he would react when Santa called his name. It turned out that both kids were in the last quarter of the kids called so the wait was long and Grady was starting to act up. I was nervous. I had been allocated Grady and James was manning Cooper. Finally Grady's name was called and we approached Santa. Grady did sit on Santa's knee to get his gift....

But I had to sit on his knee first!

Cooper's name was called immediately after Grady's and Cooper met Santa for the very first time.



At the end we got a great family shot courtesy of Marla who was also at the party.

It had been a long while since James and I had sat on Santa's knee. Something tells me I may get to sit on his knee again next year!

What did Santa bring Grady you ask? Cars and Trucks!

After a busy afternoon of meeting Santa, seeing the giraffes, hippos, zebras, and fish, the day ended with 2 sleeping boys in the car.

I love sleeping boys... until you have to wake your 2 year old up because they have fallen asleep in the car at 4pm. We then witnessed the biggest and longest tantrum to date. What a great way to end an otherwise terrific afternoon.

Bring on Christmas!

Gingerbread House Making 101

This is the starting product. A plain gingerbread house purchased at Safeway, glued together by uncle James. Less than 30 minutes later, Grady and Madison got home from tobogganing and were ready to start the decorating!

Here is Uncle James giving directions and opening the candy. Notice Grady is already eating the candy. Took him a while to grasp the concept of decorating vs. eating.

Here they are getting a little more hands on explanation. Notice they are all business. This gingerbread house decorating is serious stuff!

Grady finishing of the trees he was allocated to decorate.

And finally the finished product.


About 10 minutes after this picture was taken, the roof split, the candies fell in, and one side of the house fell in. I like to think of this as a practice run. Moral of the story is to let the icing dry longer than the 15 minutes it said on the box.

And the winner is....

This cute little man wanted to let you know that the winner of the baby pool is.....

SARA!

She won by a landslide with the right gender (BOY) and the closest to November 8, 2010 (November 5). You can check out how you faired by going back to the baby pool link on the side. I would like to point out that I cam in 25th out of 30.

Come on over and collect your gift of newborn baby cuddles!

Cooper's Newborn Photos

We had Cooper's newborn photo's taken the Sunday after he was born at 6 days old. We used the same photographer as we did with Grady and again think the pictures turned out great!

Here are a few of my faves....

Little Cooper with his eyes closed. Surprisingly he wanted to be awake through most of the photo shoot.

Here is a full body shot in his little model pose. He is laying on the same blanket Grady did for his photos over 2 years ago! Cooper was a little more cooperative and allowed us to remove his diaper. Grady was not so cooperative.

Daddy and Cooper.

Grady and Cooper. Love this one.

Mommy and Cooper

Here is a side by side comparison of Cooper and Grady.

In real life I think they look a lot alike. In the picture... not so much. I think it looks like they have the same nose in the picture but that is about it. I hope they grow up to look like brothers, but that would mean they both look like their Dad. I'd be lying if I said I didn't hope Cooper ends up looking just a little like me :)

All in all the photo shoot went well and we are thrilled with how the photos turned out.

To see more photos from the newborn photo shoot, click on the Picasa link on the right or go to this link.