Some Firsts Today

Julian giggled for the first time today on command by someone talking to him and making him do it. I had heard it twice before but a long time ago and he wasn't really laughing, just by reflex making the noise. Today, a friend and I were talking to him while I was holding him and he was grinning and grinning and then proceeded to giggle. It was so cute! I'm sure I'll have to get it on video when it gets more regular and predictable so for now, you just have to take my word for it.....it was PRECIOUS!

Another "first" for today was that Julian took a bottle of breastmilk and he took it like a champ. This was a big deal for me too because Matthew never did take a bottle. It was never offered to him. He went straight from the breast to a sippy cup. I was kinda proud of that fact, not that a bottle is really bad or anything, but that I had given him his EVERY meal and was always there for him and I don't know, it just made me feel good. Well, we decided to introduce the bottle to Julian for a couple of reasons. One is the obvious, so we can leave him for longer periods of time and not be so worried about going to dinner at the beach which is 45 minutes away and we can really enjoy ourselves. Not have to check our watch every 15 minutes to see how much time we have left and worry if our poor little guy is hungry. In fact, while he's nursing, which will hopefully be at least a year, we would probably just have taken him with us which kinda defeats the purpose of a date night out. Also, every so often, Julian gets hungry earlier than expected and then he just has to suffer and so does the person taking care of him and it's just really sad. I still plan to only use the bottle whenever we'll be gone too long but I'm happy it's an option.

The other "first" today was Dani, Matthew, Julian and I all going to the sports complex and doing some exercise around the track in the afternoon. It was a really fun time. Matthew had his bicycle with training wheels, I had Julian in the stroller and Dani was just running around keeping up with Matthew because he was going REALLY fast. I did a bit of jogging myself trying to keep up and it was really a blast.

Can't wait to share all the many other "firsts" we'll have as they come along, fun!

Pre-K Update & Julian Sleeping

Matthew is doing SO well at pre-K now. He walks in so big and tall saying bye to me like it's nothing. I'm so happy about that. The teacher has a routine that he has to leave his parent/teacher communication notebook at the table by the door when he comes in. This is a notebook that I can send notes with any kind of communication that I want the teacher to know about and this is also where she writes in his homework (oh yes, there IS homework, hahahaha) or when there is a parent/teacher meeting or event or anything else she wants to tell me. After he leaves the notebook by the door, he has to go put his backpack in his cubby with his name on it and then he goes and sits down with the group. This is the most punctual group I've ever seen in Costa Rica considering Costa Ricans are known for their laidback attitude about time. I get there at five till eight sometimes (it starts at 8am) and there are already 8 of the 12 kids in the class sitting there in a semi-circle with the teacher standing in front of them teaching them to say "Buenos dias" and other greetings. Today, we arrived at 8:04am (yep, the gringa was late!) and they weren't even in the room, they were outside across the playground sitting under a big shady tree.  How embarrassing was that, having to take him all the way over there for others to see us. I won't be late again and I need to double check my watch but I'm sure it is correct. Oh well, we can bring them as early as 7:45 so I will just start shooting for EARLY in order to not be late:)

Julian, after sleeping the 8 hours straight that one time, took two days to relapse into his old ways and then slept 8 1/2 hours the next time. That was a day or two ago so we're waiting for it to happen again. I'm sure it'll get more and more frequent and before I know it, it'll be all night, yippee!!!!

I found this great website at www.wholesometoddlerfood.com and I've decided I want to make some healthy stuff that Matthew will love to eat. He's always been good about food and mostly eating what we eat which sure makes it easy. I just want to try some new recipes and especially some healthy new snacks. I made homemade applesauce the other day and it's pretty darn good. I also made these muffins that are mainly made from shredded carrots, potatoes and zucchini that are pretty good. They've got a little cheddar cheese and egg in them as well. They were supposed to be pancakes but I used the batter in the muffin pan in the oven instead of frying them in oil in a skillet and I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. I want to make them with other veggies too. I'm going to try my hand at making homemade chicken fingers with chicken breast strips in the oven and also these yogurt bar snacks that I found. I really like making fresh healthy foods for my kids and not frozen, canned or processed. I had a blast with Matthew's baby food and I'll get to do it again in about 4 months.

Jumping the Gun?

As most of you know, Julian turned 8 weeks old on Monday. On Tuesday morning, I was thinking about the night before, about how many hours of sleep I got (or rather, didn`t get) and I was trying to think about what time Julian had woken up after the initial 12:30am wakeup and I couldn't think what time the next time had been. In fact, I couldn't remember feeding him again during the night. I thought, wow, I must REALLY be lacking sleep if I can't even remember what time or how many times I have been woken up during a night to nurse my baby back to sleep. I thought, is it possible that he only woke up just the once and not twice like the usual? and then I thought, no, that's not possible because that would mean that he slept 6 hours straight, from 12:30am until 6:30am when Matthew walked in our room and he's never done that before. Then, last night, the baby fell asleep at 7pm and I thought, OK, so he'll be waking up to eat around the time I'm going to bed about 11pm or a little before. When I was going to bed at 11pm, I thought to myself, I guess I'll be up in a bit as soon as he wakes me up to nurse. Well, he didn't wake up until 4 HOURS LATER at 3:15am. That was a record 8 hours straight that he slept, woo-hoo!!!!! Things are looking up for sleep around here, thank goodness!!! I hope I'm not jumping the gun by blogging this and talking about it but I'm pretty excited.

It's funny because I remember the first time Matthew slept through the night and it was exactly when he turned 8 weeks old too. Interesting how they seem to be following the same pattern. Eight weeks is pretty good. Lots of babies don't sleep through the night even at 4 or 5 or even 6 months or longer sometimes so I feel so blessed. And to have it happen TWICE? Wow, am I lucky or what?!?!?!?? Again, I hope I'm not jumping the gun here and that was just a one time thing, so keep your fingers crossed!

After a Rough Start

After a rough start at school this year, Matthew has made a comeback today. The first day he was OK, meaning getting his uniform on and getting there was fine but then he started crying and didn't want us to leave when we were leaving. The second day, I was alone and I couldn't even get his uniform on because he was crying (sobbing in the corner is more like it) and whenever I tried, he kicked off and just cried harder. I decided that without Dani, I wasn't going to fight it because I don't know how I could, so he didn't go the second day. The third day, Dani was with me and with some verbal convincing, he decided to "let" mommy put on his uniform (as opposed to daddy). He cried when we were leaving but it was better. The teacher said that the first and third day, he only cried for maybe 5 minutes. Today, the fourth day, I was alone again and with some co-ercing and one time out, we got his uniform on and out the door and in the car with very minor problems. Seems like that psychology degree I got really came in handy today. It's all about your approach with a three year old, I really believe. We got there and started walking in and I just kept talking about all the fun he was going to have and what he was going to do to distract him from the fact that we were almost to his classroom and that I was going to leave him. Right when we walked in, he saw his teacher and walked right up to her and she grabbed his hand and he seemed pretty good. I said "give me a kiss" and he kissed me and as I turned around to walk out, this mother asked me in Spanish if Matthew spoke English. I told her yes and she told me that she was dropping off this little boy for the first time at school and he only spoke English. I looked over and told Matthew that the little boy spoke English but then I realized that I don't even think Matthew knows what it's called when he's speaking English vs. Spanish. For him it's speaking, not necessarily different languages. We never really label it saying OK, this is English when you say "apple" and this is Spanish when you say "manzana". Oh well, I hope he'll be able to make that kid feel better by speaking English but I don't know how to tell him to do that. We had a conversation about it later because when I went to pick up Matthew, I could tell that that boy had had a rough day. His eyes looked like he had been crying the whole time. I asked Matthew if the boy had cried a lot or a little and he said, A LOT. The teacher said he never cried even once today and he participated in everything. Apparently he has already shown his dancing talents to the class during some of their song and dance time, lol. I'm so proud of him. He has really had to do some growing up in the last few months and he's done wonderfully. He's such a big boy now and you can really reason with him.

Busy Weekend

We had a pretty funfilled weekend this weekend. We woke up Saturday morning and decided to go to visit our friends at the beach. Dani was working a 24 hour shift so we wanted to do something fun with our day so I asked our niece Sara to go with us so I didn't drive alone with the two kids and the four of us were on the road by about 10:30am. We got to our friends Lisa and Brookie's house, hung out for a bit, ate some lunch and then headed to the beach. It was a beautiful day and Matthew had fun playing in the water and sand. He even got pulled along on the boogie board a little which was fun until he got splashed in the face with saltwater and then decided he didn't like it. It was fun for me but a little tiring and I've decided we have to invest in some beach chairs or something to make things more comfortable. Now that we have kids, sometimes it would be nice to have place to sit where it wasn't so sandy. Nursing, especially, sitting in the sand, just is NOT comfortable AT ALL. The snow cone vendor (copos) came by and we got a couple of them. They were so good! They are so much better than "snow cones" you'd get in the states. It's shaved ice with the typical syrup poured on but they also layer it with powdered milk in the middle and on top so when it starts melting it makes just a sweet milky milkshake type drink and plus they add sweetened condensed milk on the top it just turns into this major desert shake type thing, yum!

Today, we went to Matthew's Uncle Juan Rolando's farm and he made homemade teriyaki sauce and sushi (sounds weird to go to a farm for that but Juan Rolando has been working with a renowned Japanese chef) for us. I baked some cookies so we could have them with coffee later in the afternoon. It was a wonderful day. I layed in the hammock, Julian got passed around getting love from all the family members, Matthew has been to the farm so many times that he gave me the tour and showed me where all the different animals was. He walked in those pens and stalls like owned the place. I saw baby pigs, turkeys, hens and roosters, ducks, calves and their mamas, rabbits, baby chicks and more. There were about 12-15 of us and it was just a nice relaxed afternoon. Although I'm a tired mama, still up a couple times a night, this was a very nice weekend for sure!

First Act of Agression :(

We had our first act of agression between Matthew and Julian tonight. Of course it was Matthew hurting Julian and I know it's only the first of many but OOOOOOOHHHHH how mad it made me. I had gone to the kitchen for something and left Julian on my bed and Matthew was there playing around him like he always does. All of the sudden I heard a cry come from Julian which was one that I've only heard when he's in severe pain (like his reflux pains that he used to have in the first few weeks which he doesn't get anymore thank goodness). I ran back to the bedroom and Matthew was there with the guiltiest look on his face. Julian was screaming/crying so hard that he was losing his breath and his face was beet red.  I asked him calmly if he hurt Julian and he told me yes. Then I asked him what he did and after asking several times he finally told me that he hit Julian with his own head really hard in the abdomen/groin area. I immediately took him to timeout but of course he fought me on it and tried to run away and it was hard for me to do much with Julian in my arms. After I calmed Julian down, I laid him on the bed again and went to the living room after Matthew. He tried and tried to get away and I told him that if he didn't go to timeout, he wouldn't watch any "bb's" (Disney videos on youtube) before we went to bed like I always let him do. He still said "no" and so I told him no bb's and then forced him into timeout. Aaaaahhhhh, what a night. Poor Julian. It made me so sad and I told Matthew that later. I said I didn't want anyone to hurt him OR Julian and that if someone hurt him, I would be just as mad. I explained that Julian was just a little baby and he was much bigger and stronger than him and he had to be careful. I think he'll think twice about hurting the baby but I know it'll happen again. It just will. I just hope I'm around every time to do what I can to protect the innocent baby who can't do anything to protect himself. Brothers will be brothers though and I know they'll hurt each other a lot when they get older too but at least then Julian can do more to defend himself.

First Day Back to School

Matthew's first day back to school (3-4 pre-K program) was today to start the new year in his new classroom. He did fairly well but when we left he was screaming NO and starting to cry a bit. Apparently he only cried for a short time and then was pretty much OK. That's pretty good compared to last year when I found him in one of the teacher's arms looking like a zombie as if he had cried the whole time (which he basically had) and had been severely traumatized. I had to stay home with the baby when it was time to pick him up so Dani went and said that he was sitting at a table playing when he arrived. 

Unfortunately the baby did not sleep much in the morning so I didn't get any sleep while Matthew was gone. I was really hoping for that since I got maybe 4 hours of sleep last night. Oh well, hoping for a naptime for Matthew soon so I can try to at least get an hour nap in. That is if Julian cooperates.

I Forgot to Mention

Um, I think I forgot (on here, but I posted it on FB) to mention that our little man Julian gained almost 4.5 pounds at his one month checkup. This baby is getting so big!!!! At Matthew´s first one month check up, he had just gained about a pound and a half and I thought that was a lot back then. I thought Matthew being born at almost 8.5 pounds was big too and THEN......came Julian at a little over 9.5 pounds. I don´t understand why I have such big babies. The Costa Ricans here say, "wow, you must have REALLY big people in your family" but I really don't think we do. I mean, we're just average for the American race. I don't think we're all THAT big. Oh well, good thing we're not having anymore children because the next one would be upwards of 10 or so pounds at birth at the rate we're going! I wonder what you do with a baby who is purely breastfed who gains too much weight? You can't exactly put him on a diet or restrict his intake. Supposedly God and my body know what they're doing and he will be ok and slim down later. He is just a tad over the line on the charts for being overweight but the pediatrician doesn't seem too concerned so I guess I'm not either.

Speaking of Julian, he's starting to smile a lot more and especially when you talk to him a lot. He's only 6 1/2 weeks but I feel like all these smiles are not just gassy smiles, lol. He's such a sweet little (ok, really big) baby and I totally adore him. Matthew is just so sweet with him too. He's always trying to hold Julian's hand or pat his tummy or kiss his head. Whenever Julian is laying in the middle of my bed or on the sofa or something, Matthew always wants to lay next to him and hold his hand. Julian has really started trying to look over at Matthew whenever he hears him nearby. Julian is VERY interested in his big brother and Matthew feels the same about him. It's really cute. I could not be more pleased at the way Matthew has grown and developed in the last 6 weeks and how well he has done with his new little bro. My family here keeping him busy and entertained has DEFINITELY made the transition easier especially with his favorite Aunt Carolina (Tia Ina) in town. At first I thought it was huge mistake having a new baby while Matthew was on his Summer vacation (not that I could be exact in planning the pregnancy) but it turned out that it was the perfect time. Tia Ina was here from San Jose almost the whole time (since she's a school teacher and was on vacation too) which was a huge blessing and the fact that Matthew wasn't in school was probably for the best during Julian's first 6 weeks of life to not be bringing home every little illness that was going on in his class. I just recently read that up to the first 4-6 weeks of life are the most susceptible times for newborns to get sick since not until about that time does their immune system really start maturing and being able to defend the body. Things are going great for us and especially between the two brothers. I can't wait till they can really play together. It's going to be so fun!

This Morning

Julian woke up this morning around 5:45am (a few other times before that but I'm just talking about this particular time:) and he didn't want to nurse, he just wanted to be awake and to be held. So, we sat down in the rocking chair and looked at each other. Just staring and making flirty eye gestures and little grins at me and it was so cute. He was so calm and curious, just wanting to look at me. I talked to him and he made his little noises letting me know that he too was involved in the conversation. It was a really nice, peaceful time in the morning and we enjoyed it so much. By about 6:15am, he was dozing off again and I got to go back to sleep until a little after 7am when Matthew woke up. Julian kept on snoozing.

Matthew is getting excited (so it seems, but we'll see) about starting back to school. He starts again on February 15th. He seems to be ok knowing that he won't be in the same class. He tells me that he'll have a new teacher, new classroom and new toys....BIG toys, he says. He tells me all this with great excitement in his voice like he's going to this amazing place and is going to be with all these amazing people. Let's hope he's this excited on the first day of school!

The Summer (because it's Summer here in February in Costa Rica) fair has arrived here in Nicoya and we went tonight. It was a lot of fun. We left Julian with his grandmother and went out for two hours, just the three of us and our nephew Jose. Matthew LOVED it and even went on his first roller coaster. I don't have any pictures of that because we were all on it but it went pretty fast and he really liked it. He also went on the Haunted House Train which at one point, he got pretty scared but then he calmed down. Here are a couple of pictures of other rides that Matthew went on.