Newone

Sleep. I finally got some last night. I could still use more but I can't complain, not after the past few weeks. Let's go back a bit and talk about the newone -Odin that is.

It's amazing how soon babies show their distinct personalities and how much they can differ from one another. Asa, as I have mentioned in the past, was a very easy baby. Pretty much all you had to do was feed him, change his diapers and put him in his swing where he would sleep all day. At night he would go to bed with ease. No fuss, no muss. Hence the desire for a second, oh but the jokes on us. Odin, well it's a good thing he's cute and smiley! You see my Oz Myster is a bit of a needy baby. Hold me, entertain me sorta deal. It could be worse he could have been colic, so I should be counting my blessings but it's hard to count when you're blowing on a tummy to stop the crying. Ha. I truly believe it all has to do with nursing. I am so thankful I can and quite successfully at that, however I think it lends itself to the "must be mom as need to be close to my food source at all times" syndrome or mbmantbctmfsaat for short. I do miss passing the baby off for a feeding or two as it's all on me, everyday, 24/7. I wouldn't change it, it just gets tiring is all.

Now getting back to their differences. Asa was easy and content, an all around happy baby. But he was hard to amuse. A belly blow may get a laugh the first time, a smile the second, but the third would result in a stare that you know meant "is that all you got?" With Odin, well, this kid is all laughs. In fact he could be mid scream and all you have to do is make faces, or nibble his toes, pretty much anything silly and his cry will turn to a belly laugh. He is also pretty easy going when it comes to being happy, the problem lies in that he is happiest when you hold him. Admittedly it is hard to be angry with a wide awake baby at 3am when he giggles and coes when he sees you. And I love that while he is nursing, all I have to do is smile at him and he cannot resist stopping his meal for a moment to smile back. It cracks me up!

For a while there his sleep habits were pretty good, that is until Texas when his 4:30am feeding turned to feeding every two hours from the time he went to bed. It's been a bit all over the place since. Some times 2am, sometimes he'll sleep all night. This past week however he has decided he wants to go to bed late and then play when he wakes up to nurse. I have been up for 2-3 hours with him. And since he is now sharing a room with Asa, we are all up. I need Odin to learn that night is night and that meant a lot of crying and fussing but standing my ground. On the bright side, it also meant snuggling with Asa while we waited for him to settle. Asa was so sweet about it too. One night around 5am after almost 3 hours of Odin fussing and finally falling asleep, I bent down to kiss Asa goodnight.

"I'm so sorry you were kept awake sweety. Thank you for being such a good boy, mommy loves you so much. I know you're tired so if you want you can sleep in in the morning, ok?"

"Ok," he said with a nod and a smile "nigh momma." (he doesn't say t's, p, s, f, or l's yet) followed by a "Mmmmwuh!" blow kiss. Hehehe. I love my boys!

So last night, although going to bed later than I would have liked, Odin actually fell asleep on his own, without any crying and went right back to sleep after his 5am feeding. Asa woke at 8:30 and Odie woke at 9. Aaaaaaahhhh. It was wonderful!

It's funny that they showed their personalities in the womb. Asa was mellow and Odin was hell. Always moving, kicking, squirming. I just new what I was in for. I was right. He may be a bit needy but I look at it this way, in a few years he won't want to sit on my lap and snuggle at all. Nor will he think it's funny when I eat his eww pew toes. So hey, if he'd rather I blow on his belly then sit in his jumperoo then so be it. Just not at 3am, I don't care how cute you are, momma don't play dat.

Odin

Tonight I put Odin to bed in the crib for the first time. We'll see how it goes. Until now he has been sleeping in a pack and play bassinet in my scrap room. He has had a couple unpredictable feedings the past couple of nights so I have no idea how this will play out with him waking up in the night and possibly waking Asa also. Then there is the fact that Asa moans in his sleep. I have been using two monitors and have, for over a year, kept Asa's monitor just loud enough to hear him start crying or else his moaning would wake me. And yes sleeping in the same room with him in TX was not fun when he moaned...LOL. Crazy kid! Anyway, we'll just play the whole "sharing a room" idea by ear and see how it goes. It may be something we ease into. Not to mention 8pm is a bit early for Odie to pass out tonight so luck will have him awake at midnight I'm sure.

So as it turns out the second kid really does get shafted when it comes to pictures. Odin is so over due for a photo shoot! It's not that I haven't taken any pictures of him, but I can honestly say I haven't taken as much as I did with Asa. Regardless, here is one cute picture I snapped on the bed just before leaving grandmas house for the trip home. I can't believe how big he's getting already!

**Well that was short lived. I heard Asa start talking and then realized Odin was also squawking and thus I had to go get him. Now he is wide awake -Odie that is. But I am going to try and put him back in the crib when he tuckers out tonight. He usually goes down between 9-10. Here's hoping for good night full of sleep for everyone.

Two, Texas & Time

Wow, am I slackin' with this blog! Having two wee ones sure sucks up time! Things seem to be getting into a better groove around here so I am hoping to get back to blogging on a more regular basis. I am also working on a photography blog so look for that coming soon. It will have sneak peeks of client photos, specials etc. Yay!

I took the boys to Texas for a couple weeks while daddy stayed home and worked. It was a great and yet somewhat stressful trip. I love that we got to spend time with both my brother/sister in laws and we got to meet Ian for the first time. He's Asa and Odin's 15 month old cousin, and Asa adored him! They were staying with mom and dad until they could move into their house, so we were one big happy family. Unfortunately Asa got home sick for daddy, picked up some bad habits and virtually became a child that at times I didn't even recognize. He had tantrums and crying fits, regressed to expressing his wants with grunts, whines, crying and other noises. We never allowed that pointing with grunting and whining -as Jeff calls it "monkey noises" with Asa. If he wanted something he could point and nod and we would help him figure out what he was telling us, he learned "peess" (please) around 1 year. Crying "tantrums" are also unacceptable so this was beyond normal for him. These were a couple of monkey see monkey dos that drove me nuts. Thankfully his last attempt at using this way of expressing his wants was at the airport and after a stern reminder that it was not acceptable, he has not done it since. Thank goodness!

He did however have a few night time melt downs. They started two nights before coming home. He slept in a big boy bed the whole trip and I was so proud of him. The last two nights, knowing he was so home sick, my heart broke seeing him that sad, so I laid in bed with him until he fell asleep. Maybe not such a good idea? The morning after we got home, Jeff found him straddling the side of his crib and stuck in that position. I feared the head plant straight down fall. He can climb, but my child- bless his heart- is not very graceful. Quite clumsy really. I've witnessed him fall while just standing still! So we went that day and bought him a twin bed. It took a few more nights of bedtime meltdowns and now, after two peaceful nights, I can say my boy is back! He's eating(even stopped that in Texas) he's obeying, no tantrums, no whining, and I, once again, love my easy going child. Not that I had stopped but you know what I mean. I'm sure Chris and Jana think I'm lying about how chill Asa really is but "mama" aka Grandma knows the truth and backed me up. Hehehe.

I have lots of stories to share and will try and post them over the next few days. Maybe that will be easier time wise then one long post? So here are a few quick pictures of Asa and Sadie, she's maba aka grandpa and mama aka grandma's puppy. Asa was a bit over whelmed by her "in your face" approach to lovin' and kissing but he warmed up after a few days. I taught him to put his hands up and tell her no. It was cute to see him put both his hands out and sternly say "No, adie, NO!" Uh ya, he still can't say s, p, l, t, and I am sure there's more. He also loved playing ball with her. Only problem was getting the ball FROM her. Then of course Asa's over hand technique really sucks and the ball -being flat not helping any -would only land 2 feet away. Not a big chase for such a lively pup, but then again she was always happy to play!

Pull, Asa Pull!

Maybe if you try to take her mouth off the ball?

If that fails, try some sweet kisses.

Alright Maba, maybe you can help out here.

Hehehe, love this next shot!

This last is a favorite of mine as Sadie finally noticed me and was curious of the camera. I believe that to be the ball in the bottom right corner...LOL.

Don't be deceived by the lack of sunshine in these shots, it was 100+ on this day also...and humid as all get out!

August 8th

Happy Birthday
to my big little man!

Gosh I cant believe he is TWO already. And yet strangely look how much has happened in two years! Asa is still asleep and so is daddy. Odie and I are just chillin'- waiting for them to wake up. We have Asa's gifts all piled up on the coffee table so I am sure he'll be excited when he sees them!

Oh, there he is now, banging his bedroom door to get out. Gotta run, but first...

Here are a few pictures I took of him last week in Texas. It was 100 degrees so I rushed him outside and snapped these right away before he flushed, which he does in less then ten minutes... so I was speedy. This kid runs hot. ;)

Yikes!

I missed the WHOLE month of June!

Happy 4th Of July!

Quick Update

Sitting here at 1:45am. Just waiting to see if kiddo will fall asleep or wake up with another burp which he often does about 5 minutes after putting him in his crib.

Mom goes home today, I can't believe it's been 3 weeks already! Asa has loved having his gramma here and I'm going to miss the extra help, not to mention having someone to hand the kiddos to when I need a nap...haha.

We missed the annual Watsonville Airshow this year due to the foggy weather. We go every year so that was a bummer! We did however go to the SF Zoo for the first time. Asa LOVES the Penguins Of Madagascar cartoon and thus, the penguin exhibit was a huge hit. Plus gramma bought him some plastic penguins and he plays with them constantly. We ended up buying a membership which really pays for itself with all the passes and such, so I imagine we will be spending many a time at the zoo this summer!

Ok, I think baby is officially out and thus I am back to bed. But here's a quick photo courtesy of "Mamah" from the zoo.

I don't care what anyone says, those leashes...ahem, I mean harnesses, are fantastic!

Time Flies When You're Sleep Deprived!

Wow, has it been a while since I last updated!

My MIL has gone home and my mom has filled her place. They have both been a great help and Asa loves the grandma attention! Odin has been pretty good with the occasional long, hard, someone else take him because I don't know what else to do with him and I'm exhausted, nights! He's growing like a weed and I can't believe he is a month already! Sigh.

Not a whole lot else happening right now. I did do some product shots for an eBay seller so I'll share some pictures. Sara also made me the cutest hats but I am using them for Odin's birth announcements and thus I am not going to share until the announcements are in the mail. I am so excited to get them as I created them myself using a couple Pinkle Toes templates. Can I just say that membership was money well spent!

I tried 4 times to do Odin's newborn shots with the hat props, but every time I would get him asleep, he would wake up screaming as soon as I pulled the camera out! But finally one day when I tried working around his cries and "awakeness" I finally tired him out and managed to get some of those cute chin on arm shots...yay!

So here are some shots of my babe.

This is one of my favorite hats and I just ordered it with some pink stripes. :)

My Odie bear!

Ha!

I am back down to my starting weight! Kinda crazy since my bra jumped up two sizes(I'm lovin' it, but these puppies are much heavier!), I feel like I drink 4 gallons of water a day(every time kiddo latches I get an insatiable thirst) and I still have that uber sexy extra baby belly flab, or should I say fold haha... either way, not so pretty.

Now if I could only lose another 25lbs. Hehe. Maybe since baby is nursing like a champ, I'll be able to. Don't they say nursing burns extra calories?

Two weeks ago today...

Odin Zain was born.

Since then, everyday I have intended to update this blog. I have a "The First Week" entry planned, but with lack of sleep and steady nursing my computer time is limited. When I do get to the comp it is while nursing at 1am and I'm one handed so not much typing is capable. I can't believe it's been two weeks already! It's funny because when Asa was this small I wanted him to stay this way, but seeing and enjoying how interactive Asa is now, I am excited and anxious to see Odie get to a playful stage. Not to mention a regular routine would be great too!

Asa is doing well with adjusting to the baby. I haven't noticed any behavior change, but then again "mama" AKA grandma or g-ma is here to keep him entertained...lol. Jeff and I are also making extra one on one time with him so he has no reason to feel left out. Earlier I placed Odin on the couch beside me. Asa grabbed his little quilt from the love seat and headed towards me saying "Baby, night night" then tried to place the blanket around the baby. I helped him, he stood back looking for a moment then said "Nah." grabbed the blanket and walked off. Not quite ready to share his stuff yet...hehe. Odin wants to know when his quilt is coming gramma?

I have some cute videos to share, but again, those still have to be downloaded and time is limited. Maybe later this week.

Sunday I pumped for the first time in a week and it was also the first time Asa had witnessed this. Mom and I were going to get our nails done so I needed some back up milk for daddy to use just in case. Anyway, Asa came over and was staring at the pump attached to my breast. I explained that it was momma's milk for the baby. With one hand swiggin' his juice, he gently placed his other of the back of the pump I was holding. He was helping hold it for me. He continued to help and watch the bottle fill. "Malk" he said a few times. "Yes, milk." I repeated. After a few moments of concentration he smiled, raised his sippy cup to the still attached to my boob plastic bottle, gave it a clunk and said "Deers!" "Cheers!" I said back laughing. Ya gotta love this kid.

Ok, so I am waiting for some props to arrive this week so I can do a photo shoot with Odin. Last week I snapped a couple of test shots to see if this kid would be pose-able. Since he wasn't actually asleep, I'm pretty sure my answer is yes, so I'm pretty excited to try some new poses with him. Here are the shots:

Then of course there is Asa pointing out the baby parts. This was "Toes." Much better than his attempt at "Eye" which had all three of us suddenly yelling "NO!" then calmly adding "Gentle." LOL.

What's in a Name?

Danea's DH again. All is well with mother and baby and it's looking like both will be coming home Thursday. Baby's name has been chosen. It's a name that has been on the list for some time. Every time we thought we had a name that could be it, a day or two later we just weren't sure anymore. Some names fell off the list completely and others faded to the background. One name though always stuck around near the top. We waited for baby to tell us his name and felt we hadn't gotten an answer, but after long consideration and recalling the names we had been through and passed up, we realized that baby told us his name long ago! It was right there on our first list, boldly screaming at us, "Here I am!" So without ignoring all the signs pointing the way, his name will be Odin Zain Burleson. It's a strong boy's name that I hope will guide our son through a long life, giving him the strength, courage and fortitude to navigate the challenges that accompany the gift of life. I love my babies!