two and a half

 (Another that is backdated and posted for posterity.  I'm guessing it wasn't exactly written on Aaron's 2.5 birthday, but I've posted it to that date, just to keep everything in order.)


Aaron is two and a half.

Again, I say...How?  When?  I'm so confused.

We've been going back through a ton of pictures and videos from when Aaron was Sam's age as we are remembering all of the fun milestones and experiences.  Which makes it even more surreal that Aaron is now closer to THREE than he is to TWO.  And everyone knows, two year olds are still babies.  Three year olds are little boys.  No, thank you, I'll keep my baby, if it's all the same to you.

But alas, he must grow.  Even if I drag my heels, kicking and screaming, he will still grow.  And he is.  He's been moving in leaps and bounds over the past six months.

Some highlights:

1.  Full, creative, independent-though sentences.  He thinks 'em.  Then he says 'em.  Then (most of the time) we understand 'em.  Crazy.  People, he is thinking his own thoughts!  Making connections, drawing conclusions, asserting opinions (overrated).  He's a PERSON.  Kind of all of a sudden.  It's amazing to watch.  (And incredibly frustrating...see above mention of asserting opinions.  Still overrated.)

2.  He's a smart cookie.  He's been obsessed with letters since about 15 months (as previously well-documented) and so it's only logical that he's obsession would lead to spelling words, spelling sentences, learning to write and learning to read.  He's memorized a LOT of words, including all the basics like CAT, DOG, BALL and some of the harder, random ones like MONSTER TRUCK (thanks Isaac).  For about two months around the birth of Sam, I almost went insane answering his constant question "What we gonna spell next Mommy?"  He wanted to spell all day, every day.  All day, every day.  Have I conveyed that to you yet?  ALL.DAY.EVERY.DAY. Thankfully, as he started to branch out into some other toys (puzzles!) the intensity of the spelling has lessened, but boy, were those some rough weeks.  So he spells, he sounds out words and he's tentatively starting to read some of his Dr. Seuss and Curious George books.


3.  He's a techie.  He had developed a pretty deep love for my mom (Tutu)'s iPad since she got it last summer.  So, we decided to get him an iPod Touch for Christmas, which is basically just a tinier iPad.  He's got a bunch of cool apps that help him write his letters, spell words and read books.  He can also watch some seriously sweet old school Sesame Street songs on there.  Capital I is a perennial favorite.


4. He's a big brother.  Um, duh.  But I mean it more in the sense that he's really embraced being a big brother.  He loves Baby Sam.  A lot.  Probably more than Sam is comfortable with, just now.  He always wants to know where Sam is, what he's doing, what he's thinking.  He wakes up from his naps and says "Let's go see Baby Sam".  He gives kisses, hugs and the occasional forceful poke.  We're trying to walk the very fine line of allowing him full access to Sam, in the hopes of fueling his sibling-love fest and trying to protect Sam from bodily injury and annoyances.  I've said it before, but we weren't too optimistic about Aaron's capabilities as a big brother but he has, once again, proved us wrong for underestimating him.  He's a better big brother than I could have imagined or hoped for.  Minus the screaming...


5.  Speaking of screaming, he's quickly nudging over the line between delightful toddler and THE TERRIBLE TWO's.  I don't really like that term, since a) he's not terrible and b) I hear it's not just the twos that can be "terrible" (hold me) but you know what I mean.  He's realizing that he can make decisions for himself, he's completely lacking any kind of self control and he's stubborn.  So we have moments each day, some days more than others, of hmmm...less than delightful behavior.  




(And there it ended, abruptly.  I'm laughing at myself, because my current recollection is that Aaron was, by comparison, a DELIGHTFUL two year old.  Three got harder.  Four was harder than three.  Five has been the hardest so far, which I now know, means that while I'm laughing at the mama of this two year old, the mama of the fifteen year old will be laughing at current me.  None of it seems as hard in retrospect.  I'm still working on the meaning of life...stay tuned.)

a glimpse

And so it begins...

These are the conversations in our house these days...


"Baby Sam, dis is the yetter "D".  "D" is for dance.  Do da Hot Dog Dance, Baby Sam."
"Baby Sam, dis is the yetter "M".  "M" is for milk.  You drink milk, Baby Sam."
"Baby Sam, M-I-L-K.  Sound it out, Baby Sam.  Muh, ILK.  That spells milk!  Gweat job, Baby Sam!"

"Oh Mommy, is dat Baby Sam?  Baby Sam is so cute.  He so cute.  How sweet."

"Baby Sam wanna play toys wit Aaron?  Play toys, Baby Sam, play toys with Aaron!"

"Mommy, Baby Sam is CWYING.  Baby Sam is CWYING, Mommy.  He cwying.  He is REAWWY HUNGWY.  Baby Sam is REAWWY HUNGWY, Mommy."  (Note: Sam is usually asleep while this is being proclaimed.)


No wonder Baby Sam sleeps so much.  But how sweet that his brother loves him so.

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!