Delightfully Domestic

First weekend get-away as a family of four

 

 

We escaped to our favourite little piece of paradise last weekend, the cabins where my in-laws live, to spend time with family and share baby snuggles. The cabins were full so we ended up sleeping in my sister-in-law's camper trailer, so it was sort of an unintentional first camping trip with Sully -but if you get to enjoy my mother-in-law's delicious cooking in her cozy cabin during the day I don't think you can call that camping. Not even "glamping" haha, we were pretty spoiled! We spent most of the weekend relaxing, passing Sullivan around and watching the cousins play. We got out canoeing one afternoon while my sister-in-law baby sat Sully. The boat was at max capacity with three adults, two two-year-olds and two kids! 

 

^^ a little portage mid-trip. Emery "helping" Grandma pull the canoe along the shore ^^

 

^^ we learnt that Juno is a bit of a (reluctant) water dog after all! She doesn't show much interest in water at home in our yard, but couldn't stay behind at the cabins so she followed along the shore as we paddled and even jumped in and swam a fair ways! ^^ 

 

^^ Sullivan's set-up for the weekend. The ninja turtles pillow served as my nursing station and the portable railing my sister-in-law has set up in the trailer for her youngest eased my mind - even though Sully obviously doesn't move around at all yet^^

I noticed some definite differences this weekend between travelling with a first baby and travelling with a second. Although their first trips were at similar ages (we took Emery to Edmonton at 6 weeks old, and Sully was 5 weeks old this past weekend) we were a lot more "prepared" with Emery. We had brought her a pack-n-play, a whole suitcase of "essentials" and even the change pad from the change table in her nursery. Sully had some clothes and diapers shoved into his sister's suitcase and on the drive out my husband and I said to each other that we'll "find something for him to sleep in when we get there". I guess we've relaxed into this whole parenting thing! We didn't get much sleep the first night because our little chatter-box two year old took a looong time to fall asleep, and once she did Sullivan was starting his nightly wakings, so on the second night when there was some more room in the cabin my husband and Emery moved inside to sleep. I thought this was a great idea so that Emery and Sullivan wouldn't keep waking each other up, and it wasn't until I was in the camper nursing him to sleep for the first stretch of the night that I realized camping alone for a night with Emery at 5 weeks old would have seemed like a really big deal, but with the second baby it just seemed like nothing - like the easiest possible option, ha! 

I look forward to many more weekend get-aways together during the school year, and am excited for longer family holidays to come! 

 

xo.

 

 

Our Family Has Grown

 

 

I've been busy mailing and delivering baby announcement cards. I have always loved making cards of all kinds, but using Shutterfly to create beautiful cards from our favourite photos has really taken it up a level! My sister in law came over to our house when Sullivan was just 6 days old to snap some family photos for us and my husband also captured a few of just the kiddos that we put together into an announcement card for our Sully. These are the photos that we used :)

I wrote "our family has grown" on the cards and we took most of them in the garden, which is fitting since with a newborn we have been spending most of the Summer enjoying our own yard and garden instead of traveling around as we usually do. 

 

My sister in law worked miracles with these family photos, let me tell you! The first few days home with Sullivan and Emery were.. interesting, to say the least haha, as I am sure all parents bringing home a newborn to a toddler have experienced. Emery fell instantly in love with Sully, but found it hard to adjust to less of Mom's attention, which she took out on Dad since he was the other person stealing the attention away. So I had all these pose ideas in my head that involved my husband holding Emery and I holding Sully, since I still wasn't allowed to hold anything heavier than Sully, but Emery was not having it! The whole photoshoot she tried to not even touch her dad, but you can't tell at all in the photos because, as I said, my sister in law worked miracles. Since then things have really simmered down and we have settled into being a family of four, Emery has even become quite the Daddy's girl, so that's now all just a funny memory that I'm glad these photos hold :)

 

xo.

 

A love like no other

 

 

My friend gave me the most amazing gift, a mother-daughter maternity photoshoot with Kikadoodle Photography a month before Sullivan was born!

The images she captured are so special to me.  

 

 

 The mother-daughter bond is an incredible thing. It truly is a love like no other. But I'm learning that there is something pretty magical about a mama's boy as well ;) 

 

xo.

 

One Month

 

 

I've had these photos ready to post for almost a week now but wanted to document Sullivan's first year similar to how I did Emery's monthly birthdays, which meant coming up with a long, lovely list of all the adorable things Sully has been doing this month. However, at this point of sleep deprivation, coming up with words is a real challenge, ha! I contemplated just writing "at one month old Sullivan does all the typical newborn things that all babies do - but cuter". Which is true, in my opinion ;), but since I'm at that awkward in-between time in the morning, having just gotten Sully back to sleep but there's not enough time for me to crawl back into bed before Emery wakes up, I've poured myself a cup of hot coffee and am ready to attempt using words!

At one month old, Sullivan is:

• so sweet! "sweet" is definitely the number one word I would use to describe him
• in between newborn and 0-3 month size clothes
• an amazing nurser, like his sister, and willing to take a pumped bottle from dad 
• chubbing up! he's got some serious cheeks and chins happening already
• having most of his morning and evening naps in the Ergo baby carrier either at the park or out on the trails for a walk
• very focused on trying to reach the toys dangling from his baby play mat. the other day he actually got ahold of the parrot and Emery had the sweetest big-sister moment, running around cheering that Sully "grabbed the parrot! MAMA! DADDY! SULLY GRABBED THE PARROT!" 
• sleeping a solid 2 hour stretch at the beginning of the night, then waking every 45 minutes - 1.5 hours the rest of the night 
• so grunty, like oh my goodness there is an insane amount of noise coming from his bassinet I don't know how his grunting doesn't wake himself up. or maybe that IS what's waking him up.. hmm..
• just starting to smile and I. can. not. WAIT for it! 
• enjoying all the little baby things we have in the house, like his swing and chair and play mat, which is good because Emery constantly has me rotating him through them throughout the day. she understands that she can't pick up the baby (praise God) but is definitely still the boss of where he goes, I just take orders ;) 
• calmest in his baby bath (could we have another water baby on our hands??)
• living a very full and social life. he attended my best friends wedding at just 3 days old, has been to a few birthday parties and bible studies and hasn't missed a Sunday at church
• quickly calmed by stepping outside during an evening fussy period (which honestly doesn't happen very often, it hasn't been a nightly thing like it was for Emery). when I run through the typical list of things to soothe a baby and don't have any success, I just take him out on to the front porch and it works every time
• so adorable, and adored!

 

xo.

 

 

 

We have some extremely exciting news. Just check out Emery's face to see how extremely exciting it is :D

One month ago we welcomed our son Sullivan Charles into the world, and today I would like to formally welcome him to this blog. This blog which has been collecting dust the past ten months, basically since I found out that we were expecting Sullivan (who was just a little bean in my belly at the time). I'm not sure how it happened, that these past ten months slipped by.

The last time I posted was right before flying to Ontario for cross country running nationals with the college team. It was during that trip that I became increasingly suspicious of my pregnancy. I wasn't running well, I wasn't feeling well, and I was very late. I texted my husband from across the country to tell him just how many days late I was and he replied with a row of those emoji's with the huge eyeballs haha. This - Sullivan - had been very unexpected.

The team arrived home late in the evening the day before my third-year teaching practicum began. I immediately took a pregnancy test, confirmed my suspicions, and went straight into focusing on my practicum. I was very sick at the time, on top of the morning sickness, so the rest of 2016 is a bit of a blur. I never picked blogging up again in the new year after announcing our pregnancy, and I'm really not sure why, but nevertheless I'm back now. And with another adorable model in tow ;) 

This last month transitioning from mother-of-one to mother-of-many has been a wild and amazing ride, and I can't wait to share about it!

 

^^ I'm just so stoked to have a baby using our bassinet again (even if it means no sleep ;) ) ^^

 

xo.