June 2011

Here's another month of miscellaneous photos from our happy/random
life and getting settled into having two kids at home. I don't particularly
remember why we had our pans all over our living room floor
(possibly sorting through donations to see if we could match lids/sort sizes.
But Jaren got a kick out of this (who needs expensive toys).
It looks like he's ready to go into the oven.       

Varian likes to rough-it and grow a beard when he's home from work.
He works for the government here and gets a week paternity leave
and then took an extra week off to help me recover from my c-section.
I wanted to get a picture of it before he shaved and just caught him mid-act.

My sweet sister-in-law Felicity came and stayed over night
with us to help on the way to visit her family. Here's her
cuddling Reid.



We had all these sealed juice bottles that Jaren would pull off this
open shelf and I never would stop him because it would entertain
him while I was busy in the kitchen. But one night Varian opened
a bottle of vegetable oil and left it down there with the rest, and
Jaren soon learned how to open it. So I don't know if you can
quite tell but there was oil all over our kitchen floor, it was pretty
nasty to clean up.

A family hike up by Mount Cootha. It ended up not
being as stroller friendly as we thought and I was
still pretty sore from recovering so poor Varian
ended up carrying both the babies up the big hill.

I walked into the kitchen on our anniversary and saw these
flowers from Varian. He had hid them in the garage over the
weekend so that he could surprise me Monday morning with them.
This was our 3rd year anniversary. (3 years, 2 kids - not too shabby).
I made us a nice dinner that night and we later on went to a yummy
African restaurant. Random, but a fun experience.

I never let Jaren sleep in his swing, but I found myself often using it with Reid.
He just loved to be snuggled ALL the time, and balancing in taking care of him
and Jaren and the house and preparing to move, he did get some extra swing time.



The only down side was Jaren often liked to come and play with sleeping-swing Reid.
So I don't think I mentioned it before but Reid was born with adorable little elf ears,
particularly his left ear. I have a heart shaped uterus so my poor babies are always
squashed on one side (at times when I'm pregnant you can tell I totally look lopsided).
So perhaps because of that or just because, his ear was squished down and looked
like a little Legolas ear for a few months. I remember being worried about it when
he was born, but then I grew fond of how cute he looked and was a little sad to see
it go away on it's own. But for boys who don't have the hair cover like a girl- it
was probably for the best that his ears didn't stay looking like an elf.



I found the boys got along really well, other than Jaren
was just still so little and still so rough. I think Reid was
probably six months old before I could leave the room
if Jaren was in there with him. He just wanted to wrestle
all the time with his little newborn brother and I had
to be constantly vigilant to keep Reid from getting
squashed, or rolled on or sat on. Even then, he still got
a few bonks, poor kid. But they are so cute together and
I think they've been a really good influence on each other.
Jaren loves having someone to play with and it's been good
for him to learn to be more gentle. Reid is such a little
tender-heartand I think Jaren has definitely helped him
come out of his shell and be more social and adventurous.
They are so wonderful, I love them dearly!




This lovely group of women (Families for Families I believe is
what they were called but I can't find their facebook page anymore.
They may have disbanded after all the flood disaster was over)
donated piles and piles of baby supplies, clothes, furniture...etc.
to help us after the floods. They even showed up nearly a year
later and brought us piles of Christmas presents to help us. They
were amazing! This adorable little chair and piano were just some
of so many of their wonderful donations. Oh my heart goes out to
them and all those that helped us during that crazy time! (If it
wasn't for that the poor kid would only have cardboard boxes
to play in. :) )



I am somewhat reticent to include this in my blog, but I think
I'll appreciate having it in my history when I look back on my
days in our Windsor House. It was a great place for us to live
after we lost our home and I'm so thankful for it. One challenging
part of the house however was it's itty-bitty kitchen. It was so
small with minimal preparation space and no dishwasher so it
seemed like it was always cluttered with dirty or clean dishes.
(Oh I'm a new woman with a dishwasher! I will never willingly
go back, it saves me so much time every day!)



Anyway, so I thought I would include some pictures of our
post cooking kitchen chaos for a family party, and then the
after shots.Luckily our guests couldn't see it from our dining
table (which with a kitchen that small was in our living room).
I can't remember why there were newspapers all over the floor
(had Jaren gotten into the recycling?) but he would sit in there
and "play" under our feet as we'd cook to add to the confusion
and limited space. :)

So I realize this has been a long post of random moments
but I wanted to get the whole month in to help with my
progress in getting caught up. Let me just end with this
photo of me snuggling baby Reid. Oh how I loved having
a new baby. My heart felt so full.

Miscellaneous May Part II (2011)

Just thought I'd wrap up May 2011. I couldn't decide which of these two photos was cuter and as they're slightly different and this is my blog I can use both of them. :)

 

Now that Jaren had to compete for attention he decided to start walking. Here are some photos of him trying. He thought it was so hilarious and would laugh so hard he would tip over. He is such a happy kid, I love it!

 
 

We tested out our new limousine stroller (courtesy of "Connected" a flood donation group) outside our house one day. This Brisbane house was surrounded by hills and it was quite the feat making it around the block.

I am obsessed with cheese, and am sad not to be able to eat soft cheese while pregnant so Varian made me this cheese tray to help me celebrate. And in the recovery process we were still having to go make checks on our house and meet with the builders.



This was the first time Varian's mum got to meet little Reid.

 

The strange thing about blogging two years in the past is how much things could have changed. I mentioned in an earlier post that our dear Oma has passed away (Nov 2012). She loved our babies and loved to hold them. We and they miss her so much!

Luckily we got a 3-generational shot after Reid was born.

I have such a wonderful husband. He is so good to me and is such a loving father to our children. 

 And here are two last shots of my two cute-funny-faced boys. It was a lovely month of May.

 

Welcome Home Reid (May 2011)

It was lovely taking my baby home. Really I think having the 2nd baby was so much easier than having your first. I was so much more calm and relaxed and confident. Like I mentioned in my last post, I was in this bubble euphoria at having a baby and it never really popped. It was lovely having a newborn in the house again. 

It was exciting to have Jaren meet his baby brother -this is the same day we got home from the hospital. I love this picture of them because it looks like Reid is even smiling. :) Jaren seemed to like him, although he was unintentionally rough with him a lot. Jaren has always been a big rough and tumble kid and he was just so young when Reid came along (16 months) that it took a long time for him to grow out of that. Hmm...not that he doesn't still hurt Reid now and then, but Reid can hold his own a lot more. His favorite game is to now come and sit on Jaren or wrestle with him. It's nice now that they're both bigger, but it's a bit too adventurous for Reid who still will end up getting hurt if I don't intervene at times.

But they've have become such close buddies and it warms my heart. I think of it as having twins but a lot easier, because I still have a head start learning curve with Jaren being older, and he can help out with a lot with things.

Reid was a lovely baby. He was so great at falling asleep and very quickly settled into a routine. Even from the beginning he was just waking up around 3ish and then 7 ish am to eat. Not too shabby for a newborn. He was healthy and strong and I was recovering well. Varian had a lot of time off work, and family and friends helped us those first few weeks. Things just went smoothly.

It was a bit tricky trying to balance having two babies still, and I did find that Reid was less content not to be held, which was hard and not always possible as I still had to look after Jaren. He was such a tender, sweet and sensitive baby. He loved being snuggled and having a very active Jaren, that was nice to have a baby who would just want to cuddle all day long if I let him.

He was tender hearted. If Jaren would make too loud of a noise or if the phone would ring and I'd reach too suddenly to get it his little lip would quiver and he would burst into tears. He was very shy around strangers and strangers meaning really anyone who wasn't Varian, Jaren or I. If people wanted to hold him as he got older he would get so upset. He was definitely a little mama's boy and it was lovely, at times exhausting, but mostly just sweet.

Even when he was up and crawling he still was so clingy. If I would so much as leave the room, he would throw himself face down on the floor and just sob like the whole world had abandoned him. Varian would always say, "hey, I'm still here..." but to no avail, at least not for a few months. Even now (22 months) it's hard to leave him with a babysitter because he will scream and scream at having to say goodbye. Nursery has not been pretty as you can imagine, but little by little he's getting better at it.

It's interesting to see how babies really come with their own spirits and personalities. This shy tender side was a big contrast to Jaren who was always laughing and hugging strangers and bouncing off the walls. They both are just so delightful though.

Reid has the most darling smile and in the last 6 months or so has really come out of his shell a lot and has developed a bit of a cheeky side, but in an adorable way. He's such a smart kid is so fun to have around. I'm getting ahead of myself I know, I just wanted to give a little insight into Reid now. I should save the rest for later.