Goodbye to Breastfeeding

We have officially weaning David....after only 19 months. If you would have told me a few years ago that I would breastfeed David for almost two years, I would have laughed at the thought. I remember reading articles and watching videos when I was pregnant about women who breastfed for years and thinking what an odd thing to do. Matt and I took the breastfeeding class offered by the hospital and, as most new moms these days, I planned to breastfeed for at least six months and would try to do so for a year. Then David was born and, after a few struggles, breastfeeding seemed so natural. It was also easy and super convenient, especially for getting David back to sleep in the middle of the night. When I went back to work, I complained about pumping (it is not exactly a glamorous process), but I secretly welcomed the break from work every few hours and enjoyed the conversations that Matt and I would have on the phone as I killed time during pumping sessions. I always tried to pretend I was just calling to say hi, but despite hiding the pump in my desk drawer, he always seemed to know what was going on.

As David got older, I cut out the pumping and only fed him when I got home from work, at night and in the mornings. It was such a nice way to reconnect after being separated all day and it served as the basis for our own special routine at bedtime and a good way to start the day. As much as I thought it would be weird to continue to breastfeed, as time passed, it just seemed natural. Even when he starting talking and would ask to nurse, it was cute rather than creepy. As a working mother, there are so many things that you miss in your child's life. Nursing was a great way to focus my attention entirely on David and to spend some quality time together.  As he got older, it became much less about nutrition and more about comfort and bonding.

I probably would not have weaned David without some encourage (i.e. Matt made me and rightfully so). I originally said I would do so after a year, which turned into 18 months, which turned into two years. The week before last, I had to go out of town overnight leaving Matt to handle bedtime. This was, by far, the most difficult part of weaning as David was in the habit of using nursing to put himself to sleep. That night was rough and, from what I hear, Matt didn't get much sleep. When I got back, Matt figured he was already through the worst part...or so he thought.. and he banished me to the guest bedroom for a few nights. Within a few days, David had a new bedtime routine (which included sleeping with Monkey- the stuffed animal he got while on vacation this past December) and he only occasionally asks to nurse. Even when he does want to nurse, he is easily satisfied with a quick explanation about how the milk is "all gone".

I know that only family and friends read this blog, but being that it serves as David's baby book, I thought it appropriate to document and properly lament the end of our breastfeeding times.

Memorial Day - Lots of Catching Up to Do

We had a nice long 4 day weekend and spent it making up for lost time with David. Here are some pictures to catch everyone up on recent David developments.



We are still "working on" potty training. Until now, it has been a casual "working on" but, because David is starting school in August, we are going to get focused this week. His school uses a true Montessori style teaching method, meaning that use of the potty (and thus being potty trained) is a key requirement of the independent learning process. In layman's terms, this means the kids that are not potty trained have to wear cloth diapers and can not wear pants (for ease of changing the wet diapers) until they learn to go in the potty. It is actually pretty cute to see the toddlers in the classroom as they wear things called baby legs that look like decorated thigh highs to protect their knees during play (since they don't get to wear pants).

Speaking of school, we went to David's open house for his new school on Friday. He was a little skeptical of the classroom at first, but he saw one of this friends from little gym (as well as the class fish) and was all in. He played in the room and on the play ground and was actually upset when we had to leave. I think it will be an adjustment, but we are really excited for him to interact with kids, etc. Plus, we LOVE the teacher and her assistant as well as the staff at St. James. It is also located very close to our house- another plus.

Here is David working on his potty skills.

David has become really independent. He wants to do everything himself and I do mean everything. On Friday, Matt and I were laying in bed having coffee and heard David go into the kitchen. He took out the cereal, got a bowl from the cabinet and poured himself a bowl of cereal. We were really impressed with the numbers of steps in making his own bowl of cereal (and too busy grabbing the camera) to stop him before he poured a little more than he needed.

Over the holiday weekend, Matt's roommate from college (he had the same roommate all four years and they remain good friends- for those of you that remember, he was the one in the wedding from Chicago) was in town and we got to meet his new baby- Anna Marie. She is adorable and such a good baby. David was a big fan --well, at least until he was not the center of attention, then not so much.  This did not last long, however, as baby Anna was super sweet and fell asleep in my arms. David spent the entire weekend asking about "Baby Anna."

We have transitioned David to his toddler bed now and he has gotten into a nice routine of falling asleep with a story and some slight tickling of his tummy. He is getting so big that his legs usually hang out the bed.  He also,as you can see, insists on sleeping with Monkey.

On Sunday, we got up early and went to the zoo. Lots of fun and David even got to feed a giraffe (which is pretty darn cool) and a goat.

Here is David ready to head out again after his post-zoo nap. We made a trip to the furniture store where mom and dad picked out a nice new king size bed and new dining room table. It should be delivered sometime in the next few weeks, so I will post pictures. The most exciting part is the new mattress we picked out is awesome. Plus the bigger bed will be a nice upgrade - especially when we have to share with both Emma and David.

David at dinner wearing daddy's sunglasses. He says "cool dude" when he puts these on.

On Monday, we drove up to Pump It Up, Jr. in Plano to let David jump off some energy. It is basically a large room with lots of different bounce house type things (slide, obstacle course, etc.).

Just like Dad

David has a new habit of resting his hand in the top of his diaper. We have no idea how this started, but he looks just like Al Bundy lounging around with his hand rested in his shorts. He even fell asleep yesterday this way with Granny D, so she got a picture. It is just too cute not to share...

Happy Mother's Day

It has been busy around the Waterman house and I find myself, once again, behind on blogging. To summarize events of late, Granny D has been here a few weeks now and it is AWESOME. She has been such a life saver and her and David are quite the buds.Matt and I even had a few date nights. I have some pictures to upload to show all the good times Granny D and David have been having, but I don't have them uploaded yet. So... until then, here are the pictures from our mother's day celebration (taken with my new camera that a certain great husband and little boy got me for mother's day). We went down to Corsicana to Grandma Gil's house and met up with my family for a super fun pinic. David really enjoyed playing with his counsins and it was nice to visit with everyone.

Happy Easter

Two cupcakes, One Cookie and a Bounce House Later

This weekend David went to a birthday party for his friend Lila and had a terrific time. David was the only boy among the guests and seemed to enjoy chasing the ladies (especially the older ones.. there were a few 3 and 4 years old). Lila's mom got a bounce house for some of the older kids to play in, but David and Lila ended up bouncing most of the party. We stayed a little after all the guest left (since we live right across the cul-de-sac) just to sit out back and visit while David and Lila continued to play in the bounce house and consume cupcakes and cookies. Lila's parents are like us with limiting candy, so it was a treat for both of them. I didn't take my camera, but Matt got these pictures on his i-phone of the kids sharing a cookie. Thanks to Lila for inviting us to her awesome birthday party!!

 

R.I.P.

In an unexpected twist of fate, Red Fish made it through the night and seems to be thriving in his little home. Blue Fish, unfortunately, had a tragic incident with the filter (i.e. he got stuck to it) resulting in his early demise. Looks like the Watermans will have their first pet funeral tonight. Until then, Blue Fish in sleeping. Not sure if filter related deaths are covered by the Petco 30-day guarantee.

Granny D to the Rescue...Red Fish, Blue Fish

It has been a few weeks and things have really been happening at the Waterman house. As most of you know, Isabel, our nanny that has cared for David since I went back to work, is leaving us. She was originally planning on staying through the next to last week of March to give us time to find a new nanny. After a ton of interviews, we hired someone who was going to shadow Isabel during her last two weeks. The shadowing went well, and due to Isabel being sick one day, the new nanny had her first day the week before last.  For a number of reasons, that was her first and last day... Thankfully, Granny D, Matt's mom, had previously offered to come down for the summer to watch David. Although we were not sure if she was serious in her offer or just being nice, we quickly called and begged to take her up on it. So we are super excited (and grateful) to say that Granny D will be here the week after next to hang out with David for the summer. I think they will become quite the buds!

In other news, David got his real illness last week. Up until now, we have been so lucky as he has never been sick (other than some allergy issues). The past week, however, he started running fever on Tuesday and then had some cold symptons that lasted for a few days. Even when his fever went away, he still seemed to feel bad and on Thursday night, he kept pointing to his head  and saying "hurt". After a quick trip to the pediatrician, we found out he had a sinus/ear infection. After a few round of antibiotics, he is back to his old self today.

Here are some recent pictures:

David loves, and I mean absolutely LOVES, to sweep. We bought him a little broom and he just carries it around everyone. When you pull out the actual broom, however, he wants to trade with you.

The one-day nanny made David a clubhouse out of a box..which was pretty cool.

 Every weekend we go to Whole Foods to get the next week's lunches and dinners. David thinks it is quite neat that they have carts with cars and wheels. He also likes the samples (who doesn't - they are awesome).

I stayed home with David most of last week because he was sick. He has started carrying his monkey around with him everywhere. Here, he is feeding the money goldfish. He also insisted on taking the monkey's temperature and trying to give him medicine. Very cute...

On Thursday, I had to go into the office to get some documents out. I signed David up for the day care that is across the street and he did well for an hour or so in the morning. I went over and got him during their nap time because all the kids in the daycare get the concept of laying quietly for 2 hours on their cots. David doesn't..so he hung out in my office and napped on the floor.

Finally, the big news of the day. The Waterman house has expaned by two members - Red Fish and Blue Fish. Some background, we walked to the park today and in the grass, Matt noticed there were some sort of bugs (chiggers is what he called them). When we got home from the park, he ran up to the pet store to get Emma's flea treatment because we were out and he was worried that she might get said bugs from the park. He came back with flea treatmetnt, but also super excited that the new pet store (just a Petco near our house) he went to had fish. (currently David's favorite book is red fish, blue fish). So we all loaded up and went back to the pet store to see the fish (and the ferrets)...and being as you would expect, we can home with two beta fish- one red and one blue - conveniently named Red Fish and Blue Fish. We originally put the tank on David's table to get it set up, but moved it to a more stable location. David goes over to check on the fish quite frenqently and talks to them in his normal babble. He even tried to open the spot where you feed them and talk directly into it (I am assuming so they could hear him better).

Red fish is not hndling the transition as well as Blue Fish. He has been pretty much in shock since we poured him in there. Petco said that they have a 30-day policy (i.e. if the fish dies within 30 days they will give you another fish) which I can't decide is good (their way of saying the fish is healthy) or bad (so many fish die they had to put the policy in place). Either way, we are relly hoping he pulls through..so keep Red Fish in your thoughts and prayers.