Feeding the Donkey

When it's nice outside I try to take the boys for a walk in the stroller in the afternoons. Cael usually falls right asleep and on our walk we stop up the road at the pasture where Joel's parents have their horse and donkey and visit them. Ayden has gotten braver about trying to feed them. Last summer/fall he wouldn't get very close, and now I have to warn him not to get his hand too close to their mouths when he's feeding them. Ayden had fun feeding Sally the donkey some grass.

Checking out Becky the horse and Sally the donkey.

Feeding Sally some grass.

Brothers

I found a picture of Ayden when he was a month old and compared it to a picture of Caelan at one month old. I think they look a lot alike, and you can tell they are brothers. Both of them have lots of blond hair :) It will be interesting to see what Caelan looks like as he gets older.

1 Month Old!

Caelan is one month old!

Caelan turned one month old on Sunday. I can't believe the first month went by so fast. It seems like we just brought him home from the hospital. He is eating great and growing like crazy. He's so long he is already filling out his 0-3 month clothes length-wise. It won't be much longer and he will have to go up to the next size. He is a GREAT sleeper. He normally goes to bed between 6-8 pm and usually has a 5-6 hour stretch of sleeping, although this past week he has had a few 7-7 1/2 hour stretches and even slept 8 hours straight on the eve of turning 1 month old! I definitely can't complain and am enjoying getting more sleep now. Sometimes after rocking him and putting him down he will wake up and fuss or cry for a few minutes, but he is getting pretty good at putting himself back to sleep. I have also put him down in his room after rocking him so that he is drowsy, but not asleep and then he will go to sleep on his own after a few minutes. Caelan does get pretty fussy if he is overtired. Then he has a really hard time going to sleep and staying asleep, and the only thing that will quiet him down is motion. At those times he spends a lot of time in the swing or I wear him in a carrier with his pacifier. He has gotten much better at taking the pacifier and it helps calm him down a lot. Ayden wasn't a fan of the pacifier, but I think it helps Caelan, and myself, because he doesn't use me as a pacifier when he has his fussy periods. When he is awake he's really alert and coos a lot. We've seen some half smiles from him, but not a full one yet.

Ayden loves his little brother and always has a kiss for him before nap time and going to bed at night. He also is always saying how cute he is. He's getting pretty good at ignoring the crying, and luckily has never gotten up in the middle of the night from Caelan crying. Sometimes he will run to me and say that the baby is crying. He also wants Caelan to go everywhere he does: in the car, outside to play, taking a bath, etc.

We're getting used to life with two little boys. It's crazy sometimes, but I wouldn't trade it for anything and am so glad I am able to stay home and take care of them!

Hanging out on his Boppy Lounger.



Tummy time!



He loves his baths.

Sleepy boy...

Playing under the baby gym...

Easter

For Easter we spent the weekend at my parent's house. They usually have an egg hunt for the kids and there is always tons of great food. This year both my brothers and their families were able to make it. Ayden had a ton of fun playing with his cousins, getting rides from my dad on the tractors, and playing with Aunt Angie and Uncle Jeff. (He loves playing with my sister because she does pretty much whatever he wants her to do). My brothers, sister-in-laws, and nieces and nephew also got to meet Caelan for the first time. Luckily, Caelan was a great sleeper there and I was able to catch up on a little sleep, especially since there were so many people around to hold him. The Easter Bunny left Ayden some gifts at our house, which he found after he woke up from his nap on Sunday. The Easter Bunny left him a t-ball set, some books, a bubble gun, and a stamp set like the stamps he gets at gymnastics. He also left some new toys for Cael, including some teething toys for later :)

Ayden and Madison dyed and colored Easter eggs on Saturday afternoon.

Ayden had to get closer to dye his eggs.



Coloring his egg with crayons.

On the hunt for his eggs.

There's one!

Caelan during the egg hunt.



Ayden counting his eggs.

The Easter Bunny's little helper :)

2 Week Checkup

2 weeks old

Cael turned 2 weeks old last Thursday and had his 2 week checkup with our pediatrician on Friday. He did great! I knew by how much he was eating and with his bilirubin levels being 0.0 when we left the hospital and at his 5 day appointment that he would have no trouble gaining weight. I was right. He gained back his birth weight and another 1/2 pound in addition to that so he now weighs 8 lbs 8 oz. He also is longer by 3/4 of an inch. He's 21.75 inches long now. Both the nurse and his doctor commented on what a long baby he is.

Hanging out in the swing.

He has been eating and sleeping well too. Some nights are better than others, but he "usually" sleeps 3-4 hours at night between feedings, and a few nights ago he even slept a 6 hour stretch, which I loved! The nice thing about him gaining weight so well is that he will start sleeping longer at night. I'm really looking forward to that. He has many periods during the day that he is alert, and he is pretty content unless he is hungry or tired. We have been putting him down in his crib at night and for naps so that he gets used to sleeping there. He actually sleeps longer in his crib than he does in the living room with us since Ayden is a pretty loud brother. Cael also sleeps amazing in the car, which Ayden never did. Ayden hated his car seat and traveling in the car so shopping with him was a pain. I took Ayden and Cael to the park for a mom's group meetup last week and Cael slept the whole time. Ayden had a blast playing and it was nice to get out of the house and see other adults. I also took Cael to Target with me today and he slept all the way there, through shopping, and all the way home. What a nice change from his big brother. I hope it stays that way. Ayden is also adjusting well. I think it helps that he gets to spend a lot of time with Joel, although I feel bad because I don't get to spend as much one-on-one time with him now. He wants to see his little brother a lot and wants Cael to go everywhere with him. When Cael is napping he wants to know where he is at and wants to go get him. He also says "he's cute" quite often.

These past few weeks have actually flown by and I can't believe Cael will be 3 weeks old in a few days!

Ayden loves his little brother!

Visiting the Easter Bunny

Last weekend we took Ayden to see the Easter Bunny at the mall. The past 2 years that Ayden went to see the Easter Bunny, he cried while he was sitting on his lap. On Friday I asked him if he wanted to go see the Easter Bunny, and he said yes. For the rest of the day all he asked about was when were we going to see the Easter Bunny? We decided to take him on Saturday morning so he wouldn't bug us about it the rest of the day and so that he would actually take a nap afterwards instead of being too excited about seeing him. The Easter Bunny was a hit and he has still been asking us multiple times a day when he can go see him again (in addition he also has been requesting to see Santa). :)

Checking out his egg.