Just a comparison of how much each of them has grown in one year.
Here is Desmond last December in the snow:
And here he is today:
And here is Eloise last December in the snow:
And here she is today:
It snowed today! I actually kept Desmond out of preschool since it was predicted to start before he got out and I didn’t want to drive in it. It started around 11am here, so I was glad I decided that. We got maybe an inch and a half total, but I still didn’t want to be out driving in it, people don’t know how to drive in the snow, and honestly I don’t have much practice at it either, so I’d rather just stay off the road.
I did dress up the two small terrors to take them out in the snow. It took about 40 minutes to get them all dressed in their snowsuits and hats, I couldn’t find mittens, I know we haven’t some but they were no where to be seen so we went without. We were out for maybe 10 minutes before Eloise decided she was done, and I was able to get them back in, after about 15 minutes, since Desmond wanted to stay out longer when Eloise was done, so I told him 2 more minutes. He got to throw 2 snowballs at me so he was happy.
Here are a couple of pictures of them in the snow.
She was not happy falling and face planting in the snow!
I know I haven’t updated in the past month or so. It has been pretty busy and I apparently just haven’t been in the mood. Anyways as for updates, my big ultrasound for newbie is on Thursday I’ll be 20 weeks 1 day then, it is weird to think I am halfway through this pregnancy already, I am feeling newbie kicking fairly often these days which is nice. Dan and I still haven’t decided if we are going to find out gender or not. We have about 7 boy’s names on our top list and about 6 girl’s names. We still aren’t really certain on any of the boy’s name but we do still have 20 weeks. I’ll let everyone know Thursday or Friday if we decided to find out gender. Knowing me we probably will, just because 20 more weeks is a long time to wait, and I’m impatient like that, but who knows maybe I will hold out.
Desmond and Eloise are doing great. Eloise is off milk again, she was having issues on it and though she is upset because she likes cheese, she is doing much better when she doesn’t have any. It does make meal planning a bit of a pain since we have a lot of things with cheese in them here. So she tends to get alternative dinners 2 to 3 times a week. Desmond is enjoying preschool, and has made some friends which is good. They are both having fun together and have recently really started playing together which is neat. They really like to sword fight with straws and glow sticks, which is really cute.
Eloise and I had fun in Atlanta for Laura’s baby shower. We had fun with everyone there, so my Mom, Laura, Nancy, Clare, Sandra, and Rona. We also enjoyed our Monday out with my Mom and Nancy before we headed to the airport that evening. Desmond had fun at home with Dan and my in-laws on Monday. We are looking forward to see everyone again in a few weeks at Thanksgiving.
Other then that it has been fairly quiet here. We celebrated Devali on Friday at my in-law’s and Desmond enjoyed the sparklers. Eloise enjoyed her glow stick. Other then that it has been fairly quiet here which is nice, it was nice to have a down weekend after a fairly busy summer and early fall.
I actually have pumpkin carving pictures, but I haven’t edited them yet, and looking at my recent history for posting, I figured I would just skip them and post the pictures from Halloween instead. Desmond was Buzz Lightyear and Eloise was a Bumble Bee. They both had a fun time, Eloise made it about 5 houses before she was done, but since she got some lollipops from one of the houses she was happy. Desmond was out for an hour and a half and according to Dan they went down 3 or 4 streets and he filled his pumpkin. He had a great time. So here is Buzz and Bumble Bee!
Getting ready to head out, you can sort of see Eloise’s pumpkin at least in these pictures.
Here is Eloise after we came back.
And here is Desmond after he and Dan got back.
And here he is out of his costume looking at his loot.
As I mentioned in the previous post there was also a straw maze at the farm. They had a toddler maze, where Eloise spent most of her time and a bigger maze. Desmond quickly decided the toddler maze was boring and moved on to the big maze with Dan. Which made sense because the toddler maze was very low key and not really mazelike. Desmond had a ton of fun wandering the big maze though I think he went through 5 times or so. Eloise went through once, she was not impressed and liked the toddler maze a lot better.
Here the two of them are in the big maze
And here are some pictures from the toddler maze.
Desmond found it fun to jump off the bales of hay onto the ground in the toddler maze.
So the weekend before Halloween we went to the pumpkin patch. We were also planning on going apple picking, but apparently the harvest was rather picked over so the orchid was closed that Sunday. We did visit the straw maze though which Desmond loved. We all had a good time, and both Desmond and Eloise picked their own pumpkins which was fun.
I’ll do the straw maze pictures in another post.
So Desmond hasn’t nursed for over a week now! So I am thinking he might be officially weaned, at 3 and 1/2 years old, okay technically he isn’t 3 1/2 till tomorrow, but I am counting it at 3 1/2. He hasn’t been nursing much since I learned I was pregnant, well actually he has been restricted to twice a day since May, but once I found out I was pregnant he was restricted even more, because my breasts have hurt and nursing 2 children while pregnant really wasn’t helping that. In the past month or so he’s been down to nursing for 10 seconds in the morning a couple of times a week. Which hasn’t been to bad, but since I did want to wean him by the time the new baby came, I’ll admit I can tandem, but I don’t think I can tandem with 3, this really is a good time for him to stop.
It is a bit bittersweet though because he is my first baby, and now he isn’t nursing anymore and soon he’ll be potty trained (please soon, pretty please soon!), and he already seemed so grown up going to preschool this fall.
I am thrilled to have made it 3.5 year though, my original thought was I’d make it to 1 hopefully. I think it made it a bit past that. I did start with small steps when we started nursing, once he was born and in my arms, 5 hours after my c-section, we tried nursing and he had a bit of trouble, but he finally latched within the 24 hours that the hospital gives you before they start supplementing. Once I got 2 of the lactation consultants in to help me with his latch, my goal was to hit 6 weeks, I figured if I made it to 6 weeks then I could probably make it to 3 months. Once I made it to 3 months then my goal to hit was 6 months and then 1 year. Once I hit a year I decided to just go with the flow, he loved nursing and seemed to need it, and I had no reason to stop. So we kept nursing, through my pregnancy with Eloise and now through Eloise’s first 18 months. I am really happy about how easy nursing him ended up being and that I didn’t need to stop before he was ready to.
So I now only have one nursling, well at least for another 6 months when I’ll have 2 again! Him weaning just makes him seem so grown up, now if only he would potty train! Changing his diaper is one thing I am so not going to miss once he finally is potty trained!
And here are the only 2 nursing pictures I think I have of him. It is really weird to think we have hit this milestone and that he is fully weaned.
So my kids are little gamers. I know TV bad, computer games bad for young children. Moving past that now. Both my kids love computer games which isn’t surprising considering their parents. Desmond adores our XBOX360 and is quite good with the controller now, he is actually better at playing Toy Story 3 then I am now. He also finally figured out how to use the mouse on the kid computer so he will open up Starfall, Reading Eggs, Playhouse Disney or PBS Kid website and play games there by himself or to entertain Eloise. Which is kind of nice. I should probably go ahead and find the controllers for the Wii to see how he does with it, since there are some games on it we have that I think he would quite like.
Anyways back to Lego Rockband. Desmond has always been a fan of the Rockband game, and we got the lego version which is nice since it has a no fail super easy mode. So here are the two small ones a few weeks ago both playing along and watching as DH played. I had a picture of Eloise rocking on the drums too, but it didn’t come out right. Anyways here are the cute ones.
So on Saturday, rather then being a good Jew and going to temple to celebrate Yom Kipper, I should really find a temple, maybe by next year, we went apple picking. 35 pounds of apples and hour or so later we were done apple picking. Now of course we need to figure out what we are doing with 35 pounds of apples, we’ve been eating them, which works, but it is a lot of apples. I do have a recipe for freezable apple pie filling that we might try this weekend.
Anyways both Desmond and Eloise had fun apple picking, Eloise mainly just ate an apple and wandered around, Desmond was big on helping us pick the apples, he was actually fairly helpful since he could get in areas that larger people couldn’t so her got some nice apples. Here are the two of them having fun apple picking.
Desmond started preschool last Tuesday. He had class Tuesday and Wednesday and then off on Thursday for Rosh Hashana. He starts back tomorrow and actually goes all three days this week, the only time this month, due to various Jewish holidays that happen this month. Anyways Dan takes him in the morning and he starts at 7am in the before preschool care program, and then I pick him up at 12:15, it works out nicely since it means I only need to put Eloise in the car once a day for a pickup and it also means she can sleep in and doesn’t have to get up to take Desmond to preschool. She is not a morning toddler!
Anyways Desmond had a lot of fun at his preschool the first two days. He knew the set up somewhat from summer camp, which I think helped some. He has really enjoyed himself so far though. Dan did comment that he was not overly happy with him in the mornings dropping him off, but since he takes his Buzz Lightyear with him he is okay after a minute or two. Which is nice.
Anyways here is his picture in the parking lot on his first day of preschool. He looks thrilled doesn’t he?
