Update Time
9 days ago, on my husband's birthday no less, we welcomed our second child, another boy, into the world. He was born 2 days before his due date, something I never expected to happen. I'm not going to give an elaborate birth story, but I will tell you that we had another successful home water birth and after 4 or 5 hours of labour and 2 pushes, Mathijs Louw was born weighing a whopping 6 lbs14oz. and with a head full of black hair... which surprisingly comes from me.
We have been adjusting fairly well to being a family of 4. This coming week is my first full week of just myself and the boys and I feel like I am living out the movie Groundhog Day. Remember that one? I pick up all the scattered toys, change a poopy diaper, clean a spill, kiss a bumped head and repeat that cycle over and over.
Hans loves his baby brother, constantly wants to play with him, and carry him and shake his hand saying "hello". We are working on being more gentle. He loves to help by bringing diapers and wipes and blankets and loves to help "carry" the car seat with me. We also thought for a while that he was getting a bit out of sorts with a new baby in the house, but all the whining, snotty noses, runny eyes and late nights were due to the first of the second year molars! Hooray! 1 down 3 to go! Bad timing on Hans' part though.
We also bought a van. We are now the owners of a blue Dodge Grand Caravan. I really had no choice. I wanted an SUV crossover, but anything practical was not affordable, and anything affordable was not practical. But the minivan has grown on me, all though I couldn't park it to save my life! It was much easier to park my tiny hatchback!
Today I had to bring that same van back to the dealership to get a couple little things fixed while we could get it done for free, and I had to leave the lot in a less than nice looking older van. I managed to get myself, and both boys there, keep them together at the sales counter, swap the car seats from our van to the courtesy vehicle, get us lunch at Tim's and get us all home. I would have gone through the drive through but one of the boys decided that it was a good time to poop. So I had to haul everyone out of the van and squeeze through the lunchtime crowd into the bathroom. I think this was a good test and I also think I passed.
Last night we swapped our Phil&Teds stroller for a Contours Options in twilight. It's not the newest contours so I can't fold it with both seats, but I do love that my kids can face each other. It was a difficult decision, and I remained indecisive about the swap until the very end. I really like both of these strollers equally for different reasons.
Throughout all this busy-ness, I still managed a couple small projects. The first is a fall update to my mantel involving a DIY framed fall leaf set, painted mason jars filled with sticks from the backyard, and a simple bunting on my old window frame.
The second is a simple bath toy organizer, courtesy of Pinterest. It involves a shower curtain rod, a couple of baskets and shower curtain rings. Thank-you Pinterest for helping me organize!
