Life.Is.Good.: The First Month!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

The First Month!

We are nearly 4 weeks into having 2 little ones at home, and what a month it has been! Carter is doing great - feedings are going really well, and at his one week check-up, he had already passed his birth weight, after getting down to 7.8 lbs at the hospital while patiently waiting on my milk to come in. We have his official one month check-up next Monday November 5th, and we hope that he has continued to grow over the past several weeks! Hard to believe that four weeks have already flown by, but we have such a wonderful time of year coming up in the next several weeks - Halloween this coming Wednesday, and then Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner - all made so much sweeter this year because of our new arrival!

And not only do we have a 4 week old, but we have a BIG GIRL in the house too! As tired as I was, I decided to make a very concerted effort towards potty training Kinsley at home during my 2nd week of Maternity Leave. I knew we weren't leaving the house, so I put her in big girl panties on a Sunday and placed her princess potty in the den, and we "trained" Sunday through Wednesday. It was tiring and frustrating at moments, but the end result? She was potty trained by the time she went back to school that Thursday! No accidents! It's now Sunday October 28th, and her last accident was back on Wednesday October 17th! She is doing amazing - even crawling over the baby gate in the basement playroom and coming upstairs by herself to go potty one day last week. We are still doing pull-ups at night and at naptime, but she is waking up more often than not with a dry diaper. We are SO, SO proud of her. She just needed to be "ready" to do it. We tried earlier in the summer, and she just wasn't ready. I think having several days of at-home training (and a new baby brother in little diapers) helped. She also seemed to "get-it" when we Skyped with her cousins and she saw Lilly in her big girl panties. Kinsley is now full-fledged "big-girl." I look at her and I feel like there is no "baby" left in her. No paci's, no crib, no diapers. Wow. She is growing up so fast. Also in the past month, she has nailed down the entire Alphabet Song - no more skipping letters here and there - she's got the whole song down pat. And she sings it ALL the time. To Carter. In the car. While playing. All the time, and I love it! :) She talks non-stop with a vocabulary that seems to grow by the day. A few of her new favorite sayings:

"Mommy, pweese make me some bread and buttah?" (with a real Southern draw on "buttah,"when referring to her new favorite thing to eat: a slice of bread with a little butter spread on top).
"Mommy / Daddy, I wuvsh you." (translation: I "love" you.)
"Mommy, pweeese make a swoopie?" (swoopie = smoothie)
"Grad-u-way-shons Mommy!" (Translation: "Congratulations," which I think she got from all of the different people congratulating us on a new baby).

Having a new baby around hasn't been all positive - Kinsley is having a bit more whining episodes, a few more 2-yr-old tantrums (resulting in more time in "time-out"), and has discovered the use of the words "mine" and "my." But after a few days of having a new brother at home, it's like she just got used to the idea of having a new baby on the house and is now so, so sweet to him. She is constantly asking where he is, giving him kisses, touching his head, talking/singing to him, and "introducing" everyone to her new baby brother...(who she sometimes still calls her baby sister...the concept of little brother and big sister seems to get a little confusing sometimes).

It's been a great first month together as a family of four, and we are looking forward to the months ahead!