a dream

(Backdated and posted to the date it was written)


February 8, 2011

Last night I dreamt that we were at a party in a random backyard somewhere.  A lot of people we knew were there, but mostly I remember being there with Isaac and the kids.  (And it might have been my grandparent's backyard...I think)

So, somehow, it turned into the kids at the party playing a game of sorts, kind of putting on a play on a stage in the backyard.  Isaac sent Aaron up to play with the other kids, even though he was one of the youngest there.

At one point, we were sitting in our seats on the deck, and I looked over into the yard next to us and realized there were several wild animals hanging from harnesses above the ground.  One of them was a lion, who was not happy to be hanging in the air.  So he broke his harness and escaped into the yard.  

I remember everyone else thinking that it was okay because there was a fence between the two yards.  But it was NOT okay with me that there was a lion loose and my baby was by himself somewhere in the crowd.  So I ran up onto the stage, in the middle of the play, and pushed my way through the crowd to where Aaron was standing backstage.  I grabbed him up in my arms and ran to find Isaac and Sam to get into the house asap.

Then I woke up.  

And I thought to myself...We are NOT sending him to preschool. 

And at 3am, that made perfect sense. 


(I have zero recollection of this dream...but I still feel mildly nauseous when I think of sending Aaron into large groups of people without me.  First born syndrome?  Maybe.)

six weeks

Poor Sam.  He's six weeks old...with a lot less photographic evidence than his brother to prove it.  I really am going to try harder to stay on top of his documentation.  I'm sure the photos will pick up once he's a smiley, happy dude who sits still for the camera.  Oooh, I can't wait to have a non-mobile subject again!

Anyway, the lack of pictures does not mean that I can't try to keep a better written record of Sam's early days.  So here's some info on the man.

Most important - he slept for six hours straight on the eve of his 6 week birthday!  Big props from his mama for that one.  He didn't have a repeat performance last night, but he did sleep a five hour stretch, so I'm not complaining.  

Sam had his one month appointment last week (a week late because of his vaccination schedule getting a bit delayed) and he weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs 14 oz.  For those of you keeping track, he was 7lbs 8oz at birth, which was in the 32% for new babies (still pretty impressive since he was four weeks early)  At this appointment, his new weight has him in the 66% for babies his age.  Sweet growing bud.  He also grew another 1.5 inches to bring him to 21.5" tall.  Kind of makes me shudder to think what size he would have been if he'd been growing that month on the inside.  Monster baby.

He's started tentatively smiling at friendly faces, although he's still pretty stingy with the smiles.  Especially for his mommy.  Tough crowd.  I seem to remember Aaron being fairly stingy with the smiles at first as well, so I'm not concerned, since he turned into a pretty happy guy in the end.  

Other than that, we're still pretty much in the eat, sleep, poo days.  Sam is starting to have longer stretches of wanting to be awake, but for the most part he's a GREAT sleeper, with many naps during the day and good stretches at night.  He's pretty consistent about wanting to eat around every three hours during the day, but he's more than willing to let us know if he gets hungry earlier than that.  He's got a loud shrieking cry when he's annoyed, but he's usually easily consoled.  He does have some gas issues (tmi) that we are hoping are just something he'll outgrow as his digestive system continues to grow and develop.

Truthfully, I was really terrified that I was going to have a really difficult second baby, since Aaron was so easy.  But, so far, it seems like we've been blessed again with a good eating and sleeping baby.  We're so grateful!  The transition from no kids to one kid definitely rocked our world much more than this new transition from one to two.  Maybe it's knowing what to expect...or knowing that the tough stuff is only temporary.  I'm really looking forward to all the milestones I know will be coming up in the next few months and watching these two boys grow together as brothers and best buds.  Two little guys seems pretty perfect to me right now, but check back in with me when Sam actually starts moving!  Ha!

samuel walter

He's here!

Samuel Walter Greenslade

born on December 27, 2010

at 4:37 in the afternoon

7 lbs 8 oz, 20 inches

We're pleased to introduce our second son, Sam, who arrived four weeks early this past Monday, surprising all of us in the middle of the night during a snowstorm!  

We'll be back in the next few days with more details and more pictures (!) but for now, we're just enjoying our newest family member and adjusting to life as a family of four!

Welcome Sam!

my little big boy

Write this date down.  Last night Aaron slept in a big boy bed for the entire night.  On his first try.  Which would be an accomplishment, except it really feels like he's trying to emotionally slay me.

To fill you in, basically, we knew we were going to have to "transition" Aaron into a big boy bed sometime before the new baby arrives, since we're not buying another crib.  We chose to go with a toddler bed, bought it a few months ago and it's been hanging out in the basement since then, waiting for a new mattress.  Isaac's mom sent us the new mattress this week (Thank you Dee Dee!) and we opened it up last night.  

Being me, I obsessively carefully overthought fashioned this long range master plan, based on all of the stories we've heard from parents who have already gone through this transition.  Our plan was to set the new bed up in Aaron's room for the next few weeks, alongside the crib, so he could get used to the idea of it without feeling any pressure to sleep in it right away.  Then I thought we could slowly start taking naps in it, and hopefully transition to spending the night there over Christmas break.  We chose Christmas break because we figured there would be a few long nights of transition, and so it would be better to do it when we (read:Isaac) didn't have anywhere to be early in the morning.  Long range, well thought out plan, eh?  I thought so too.

Turns out Aaron had a plan too.  His plan : Sleep in big boy bed.

Cut to last night.  We set up the bed in his room, he climbed right up and pretended to snore.  Then, he and Isaac read some bedtime books in his new bed after which he laid down and went to sleep.  And stayed in there until this morning.

Oh, okay.  Speed warp to being a big boy, why don't you?  

True confession: When I went in to his room to check on him before I went to bed, he was sleeping in his big boy bed and looking like a teenager.  My life flashed before my eyes.  And I cried.  Let's blame pregnancy hormones, okay?  But seriously, why is my baby totally okay with being a big boy?  Stop it right this instant, mister! 

I should mention this is the same kid that, two weeks before his second birthday, handed Isaac his pacifier at bedtime and said "No Binky."  And never took one again.  I didn't even have a plan for that transition!  I wasn't ready!  As you can see, I'm not really over that yet.

Moral of this long, drawn out story:  Transitions are for Mommy, not baby.  Apparently Aaron is just fine with change.  

And a necessary disclaimer:  I fully expect potty training to be the epic battle of my parenting career.  It seems only fair.

a glimpse into our daily life

I came down from taking a shower today to find my mom being lectured by the Professor.

So, obviously, Tutu and I made him start over and videotaped the proceedings so everyone can see what we do everyday.  All day.  Seriously, all.day.


It's a good 10 minutes of video (split into several videos...because apparently point and shoots only allow you 3 minutes at a time...) so if you make it all the way through the lesson, you get a gold star for the day.

Just a quick glimpse into our daily lives!

where are we going? to the beach!

Another blast from the past...in my attempts to catch up with the neglect the blog suffered over the summer, here is another post that I never finished.  From June.  Sweet.

Over Father's Day weekend, we took our first trip of the summer to the beach.  We weren't sure if Aaron would remember the beach from last year's trip to NC.  We also weren't sure how well he'd like it, since he's grown a bit...fussier...in the past year.


As you'll see from the photos, he liked the sand (surprisingly) but he was NOT a fan of the water.  Unsurprising is the face that Phoebe felt exactly opposite.  Those two do their best to be completely contrary to one another at all times.  Yin and yang, right?

 Sat right down, ready to play.

Then Daddy had the audacity to go in the water.

You really should click on these to make them bigger so you can get the full effect of his pouty face.

I like all the people in the background staring at him in this one.  He was for real SOBBING.  And I was taking his picture.  Maybe they were concerned...for good reason.  

Once we assured him that he did NOT have to go in the water, all was well again.

Back to building sandcastles.

Sorry, the photos aren't the best.  My camera battery died after this point...but you get the picture.  He doesn't like swimming in the ocean.  Specifically, just the ocean.  We found out later in the summer that LOVED swimming in the pool so it's definitely the ocean.  Maybe it's the waves?  The vastness?  The thought of sharks?  You know, I really can't blame him.  In fact, I think he's pretty wise.  But I was a weird kid too, so you know, takes one to know one.

it's that time of year...

Ahhh, the holiday season.  I have such fond memories of this time of year as a child.  My birthday, Thanksgiving, Hannukah and Christmas were all rolled up into one lovely month of family, friends, food and presents.  I am so excited that Aaron is starting to get to an age where he can get excited about all the hubbub and festivities.

A key part of the holidays, for our family, was our holiday picture.  My dear father, the avid photographer, would assign a day (usually somewhere around Thanksgiving), have my mom get Josh and I all gussied up, and then pose us for what seemed like an interminable number of photos.  Remember, this was back in the days of film and manual photo settings, so getting the perfect shot wasn't always easy.  Of course, even with digital cameras, unwilling subjects still exist.  But I digress.

Anyway, we'd get the several rolls developed and pore through the shots, looking for the perfect picture.  Undoubtedly, every year, there were many, many, many unusable options for one reason or another...tears glistening in eyes from a recent meltdown, unsmiling teenagers, awkward poses, loss of focus.  Oh the joy of the season was definitely upon us.  After we'd select the ONE, we'd take it down the drugstore and get it made into some ridiculous number of holiday cards (my poor mother would address and write a note on each of the 200 some cards) and send them on their way, carrying news of our family and holiday wishes.


As much as my brother and I complained about these special "moments" (some of us more so than others ahem...Joshua...ahem**), there were so many long distance friends and family that cherished these photo cards as one of the only means for keeping up with our lives.  Throughout the years, I've had several of my parents' friends say that they've kept their card from every single year - starting with my parents wedding card - and that they knew their holiday season truly started when they received that card.  Despite awkward teenage years and forced smiles, these cards were bigger than us.


And so, with that in mind, I've been unscrupulously subjecting my own son to the joy of Christmas card photos.  Even in this day and age of Facebook, blogs and email, when most anyone anywhere in the world can catch a quick glimpse of his cute little face while he grows, I think the photo Christmas cards are still such a sweet way to send holiday greetings.


We'll see if Aaron shares my sentiments when he sees these photos at age thirteen.  Ha!

Christmas 2008

You may remember 2008 as the year of the Happiest Elf.

My heart just melted.

 Then,

Christmas 2009

When we played our little Reindeer games.

Safety in numbers...

Christmas 2010

????

As you can see, I haven't taken my pictures for this year's Christmas card yet, but you can bet I'm already thinking about how to eek out one last year of adorableness before the kid can really resist me.  (Good thing I'll have a new victim baby next year.)  

While I ponder my prop options, I've also been looking into which cards I'd like to choose as a background for these (now) iconic photos.  As you can see below, we've come a VERY long way from the old CVS standards of a white background with a photo icon and some text.


Here are some of my favorites from Shutterfly.* 

Faith Hope Family Card

 I just love the sentiment of this card.  It's definitely my first choice, although it would require getting several quality photos which is HARD WORK with a two year old.

O Holy Night Card

 If we're only able to score ONE quality photo of Aaron, I would go with this card because I really like the simplicity and message.  But I think it'd have to be a really killer picture to make this one work. 

Mod Ornaments Card

 Another option if there is only one good picture but it's a bit more playful and whimsical.  So really, it depends on whether I can convince Aaron to wear some ridiculous Christmas-themed head gear again.  Cross your fingers!

Merry Plaid Card

Finally, a plaid option.  Because it's Isaac's favorite color.  And I love him.  And he helps me, even though he doesn't agree 100% with torturing our son and making public documentation of it.  So, in his honor, I'll consider it.

So, it's that time of year again!  I can't wait to get started!




*In the interest of full disclosure, I am writing this post as a promotion from Shutterfly to receive 50 free Christmas cards in return.  But I really do like these cards, and while I haven't purchased their Christmas card photos before, I have used Shutterfly to print our photos and make calendars before with great results.  If you have a blog and you are interested in the promotion, go to http://bit.ly/sfly2010 to get your free photo cards!

**While I have your attention, I would also like to fully disclose the fact that instead of an age limit for participation in these photos (which Joshua so desperately tried to enact), my mom promised that once Josh had his own child, he could use that child to replace himself in our family holiday card photos.  As we learned last year, she lied.  But Josh, doesn't this make you see how VITAL your presence in our family photo is?  It's a TRADITION.  Right?