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queencimmy and I use to quote it to each other all the time. I gave up hope of ever finding it on the web. And then I randomly look for it and there it is! I'm actually bouncing in my seat. 
Last night after we put him in his pajamas, Little Prince started running around the bedroom yelling, “Go Sproles, Go Sproles.” When I told him to run into the bathroom to brush his teeth, he ran in with a, “Go Sproles, Go Sproles,” and then yelled, “Touchdown,” when he got to the sink.
I believe this is called raising him right.
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
We have a Star Wars group costume this year. When asked two months ago, what he wanted to be for Halloween, Little Prince said, “I be Darth Vader. Daddy be Stormtrooper. Mommy be Batman.” Some gentle persuasion convinced him to let mommy be Princess Leia.
Here we are at my company’s Fall Festival last week.
Of course we also dressed up today. LP was the only villain in his class. I was so proud.
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
lordaerith met us there. The doctor at the hospital said I was just banged up and would be sore the next day and recommend acupuncture and chiropractic care. byskwik’s wedding before it was fixed. :( 
After I stopped pumping at work, we took a few steps back and now Little Prince wants to breastfeed generally as soon as he sees me after daycare/work. But it’s short sessions and then he’s happy to play.
However, we are making more slow progress. A little over a month ago we were at Firehouse Subs for sandwiches before going to our weekly Dungeons & Dragons game. The food was almost ready and Little Prince asked to nurse. I really just wanted to get to game, so I told him that since we were out he could “Touch the milk” (aka reach his hand down my shirt) but he had to wait to “drink the milk” (aka breastfeed) until we got to our GMs house. I meant it for only that one time, but apparently it had an effect on him. Now, especially when we are out, he’ll sometimes ask to touch the milk instead of drink it. When he touches it, we tease and I ask him if it’s still there or he’ll tell me that it’s still there. I use this at home too when we’re going to daycare/work in the morning and it’s too late to nurse him (I have a no nursing after 7am on weekdays rule, except for in special circumstances, or we’ll never get out the door). I like that I can still give him the comfort of my breasts without it turning into a nursing session every time.
This is what breastfeeding a toddler looks like. He said “Lie down mommy. On the floor.” And then “More milk” and latched on.
He still does like to breastfeed a lot, which is fine. But there are times where he just starts bouncing back and forth between “other-side, other-side, other-side” or when he declared he was finished and then wants to start up again a minute or two later. At that point, I usually give him a slow count to finish up, somewhere between 5-10. He almost always pops off at least two numbers before the end of the count and then goes along his merry way.
So we’re probably down to about 4-6 times in 24 hours during the week and a bit more on the weekends. Still don’t see an end date, but I’m glad that I’m able to enforce a few limits around when, where, and for how long we feed and that he is fine with that (most of the time).
A few days ago when he was “naked baby” he pulled at his own nipples and tried to see about getting milk out of them. One day he’ll figure it out, but until then, it amuses me greatly.
Oh, and last weekend I gave away the rest of my “stash” to mothers of adopted twins, since when I went on a three day trip he never once asked Darius for mommy-milk. So that makes five families I donated milk to in the course of two years, giving Little Prince a total of seven milk siblings. 
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
I keep wanting to write a “Little Prince is two and here’s everything he’s doing” post, but he’s doing so much and keeping us so busy, that I don’t have the time. For the record, at his two year check in, he weighed in at 21.8 lbs and was 31.75″ tall. Both numbers are in the single percentiles, but he’s still growing, following his chart, and blowing the major milestones out of the water.
Ok, now that that’s out of the way I can write about our last weekend.
On Saturday we got up late. We were going to go out to the splash pad, but we got moving so late that it wouldn’t have been worth it. So we go our grocery shopping done early instead. Then we came home, ate lunch and went down for a nap. I fell asleep with Little Prince for the first hour or so. Then he woke me up to switch sides. He fell back asleep nursing and then popped off still asleep after half an hour and stayed asleep for over an hour more. He slept a good 2½ hours, which is unusual because his normal weekend naps are about an hour and a half (maybe two if we are lucky).
When he got up, we headed out to his friend from daycare’s birthday party. It was at Inflatable Wonderland at the Mall. We’d never been there before but it was basically a big room with tons of bounce houses. Little Prince took to it like he was born to jump (he’s really into jumping on everything these days). He went right into a bounce area that was supposedly for “bigger kids.” All the other parents were like, “my kid is afraid to go in” and we had to say “well, this is his third time around these things so he gets them now.” He had a total blast at the party, he even got some of the older kids to help him climb up the ladders so he could go down the big bouncy slides. The only things he didn’t like was when the music was too loud and the shark head at the beginning of the Finding Nemo bouncescape.
Here he is with his friends B and A. They are not even related, but they look so much alike that after two years of seeing them I still have trouble telling them apart sometimes.
It was really great to chat with the other parents of LPs friends. Most of these kids have been together since they were really little (some since they were all about three months old), so they know each other so well that it’s great to see them play. And it’s nice to talk to their parents too. So I started an online group for us so we can post about playdates and stuff. Yay for connecting. Also I know that LP is very verbally advanced, but after seeing him with his peers, yeah…wow. Even some of the other parents commented on how smart LP is. 
After the party was over, we got mall food (cause it was getting late) and headed home.
This morning we got moving somewhat faster and we did make it out to the awesome Splash Pad where we had a great time.
We remembered a ball and cups this time and Little Prince got right under the water without any hesitation. After about an hour in the water he wanted to go to the swings at the playground that’s right there. So we snacked a bit and headed over.
We grabbed food on our way home, ate, and showered. Then it seemed like LP was about to nap, but he nursed for a bit and then wanted to go downstairs. Then Ms. G and Mr. D showed up for a visit. He was so excited to show off. So guess who, after napping so well yesterday, didn’t nap at all today? But we had some downtime after our guests left by watching Wreck-It Ralph as a family. Then we played for a bit, FaceTime’d with Grandma R, and had dinner.
After dinner we played outside with the neighbors and I got to see our newest neighbor who was only 4 days old! So cute! Then inside for quick bath and after that we had meltdown I-didn’t-nap toddler time, so we skipped teeth brushing, went straight to nursing and LP fell asleep super quickly, which gave Darius and I a little bit of extra hangout time.
I should also mention that LP peed in the potty quite a few times over the weekend and has started asking for diaper changes more often. So we’re moving in the right direction, but nice and slowly, at his own pace.
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
Over the winter we decided that we were going to take Little Prince to New Orleans to visit Grandma R and Tante and have his second birthday party there. This gave our families time to plan for the trip. Pawpaw and Grandma A from my side and Aunt B2 and Cousin T were also able to make it in.
We drove in on Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. I was a little (a lot) nervous about doing a road trip with a toddler. But it went pretty well. In order to keep Little Prince occupied, I went to Target and got a few things from the dollar section (a plastic ring, Batman stickers, etc) and I put them into plastic Easter eggs. Whenever he started to get restless, we gave him a new egg with a prize. I also got him a Thomas book that has buttons that make noise. I knew that book would drive us nuts in about 5 minutes, and it did, but it also kept him happy for over half an hour, so that was totally worth it. He also slept for a good long while after lunch. We made the drive in about 10 hours, which wasn’t bad. Got in in time for a late dinner and then put Little Prince to bed.
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
lordaerith shuts off the water (as much as he can) to it and the gas. I call the Home Warranty company, since we have one (hey, the sellers had to pay for it, so why not) and they put in a service call. Saturday afternoon...still haven't heard from plumber. Call plumbing company from email, no response. 
Little Prince in his car seat, from a few months ago.
Well, it looks like we’re actually on the path to a nice natural slow baby-led weaning.
6 months or so ago Little Prince was still breastfeeding/taking milk at daycare a good 8-10 times a day. I’d say 3 months ago it was still 6-8 times a day. Now we seem to be down to about 5 times a day. He’s also eating more, which is probably partially just growing up and partially getting in his molars with canines not that far behind (oh our night times are fun these days!).
About six months ago Darius and I encouraged a bit of night weaning using the Jay Gordon Method (modified). Instead of picking a middle of the night 7 hour stretch, we picked from when he fell asleep (usually around 8:30-9) until 2am to be the time that “milk was asleep.” It hasn’t always been easy. Sometimes, like when he’s sick or teething, we add a few more sessions back in. But most of the time this gives Darius and I a bit of evening time to ourselves and at least a few hours for me of uninterrupted sleep (before we started this, Little Prince was waking up every 2-3 hours to nurse… the joys of reverse-cycling). Sometime around the holidays I noticed that sometimes 2am was more like 3am, occasionally even 4am. But there would be a long long feed or three before it was time to get up for the day. Just recently I realized that the number of feeds overnight has seemed to drop to a 2 or 3am feed and then a 5 or 6 am feed. We’ve generally dropped a night session. I was going to start encouraging this in April (after the March craziness died down), but it looks like LP is starting to do this on his own.
Back in late January or early February, Little Prince’s awesome daycare teacher informed me that he was not drinking all the milk I was sending with him each day; he was starting to ask for water instead. So I started sending about 6oz instead of 8oz. Yesterday I found out that he’s not even drinking all of that. So now I’m going to start sending about 4-5oz. It was funny because she seemed so remorseful when she told me, but I was super excited that he was making this choice on his own. I think next month I’m going to ask them to always offer him water first instead of milk, because I plan on stopping pumping at work around LP’s second birthday. While we still have some freezer stash left, it’s not what it once was and I’m definitely pumping less milk than I was three months ago.
A few weeks ago I noticed that over the weekend (when Little Prince use to nurse about five times from when he woke up until when I put him to sleep), he had dropped the mid-morning and mid-afternoon nurse.
Ever since I started work, when Little Prince was 11 weeks old, we (almost) always had a reconnecting nursing session when we saw each other again. When he was a little, little one, this was a 45-60min nurse-nap session. As he’s gotten older, it’s been more like 10-15 minutes. In the past few months it’s been “Couch, mommy, more milk…more milk, other side.” He says it “meelk” which is super cute. But in the past week or so he mostly hasn’t asked for milk when I’ve gotten home. It’s kind of bittersweet for me, because I liked that reconnecting moment. That time where I could put aside my work day, relax, and become mommy again. But I’ve been getting a huge hug from him instead, so it isn’t all sad.
Of course I still breastfeed him when he gets hurt or surprise-hurt. Sometimes he even says “hurt, ouch, milk” through his tears. I guess I’m doing (mostly) don’t offer, (mostly) don’t refuse. I still offer at bedtime and weekend nap time. And sometimes I’ll try distraction/other food/water push off to see if he’s more interested in that.
As for going to bed at night, I still offer every night and he still nurses in bed, but sometimes he doesn’t fall asleep from it. Lately he’ll alternate asking for milk and for water. Sometimes I think water is a distraction/I don’t want to go to bed technique. And the whole daylight savings time thing really threw us off. Still, I guess it’s time to start figuring out how to get him to fall asleep on his bed and without milk, other than walking him, which always works but I really don’t want that to be the only way he’ll ever fall asleep.
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
This morning when my Little Prince woke up, we did our normal weekday routine of him asking for “more milk” and me gently letting him know that it was time to get up and go to daycare and he could have milk there. Then I scooped him up and brought him to the bathroom where I took off his pajamas and overnight diaper and sat him on the little potty in there.
We’ve been doing the “sit on the potty” thing for a little while now. They do it at daycare twice a day just to get the kids use to it. So we started doing it at home right after he wakes up and right before his evening bath. He sits for a bit and sometimes reads a book. One time he stood up and peed on the floor right in front of it.
However, this morning when I took his diaper off of him, I noticed that it felt rather dry. This has been happening on and off for a little over a month now. Sometime mornings it’s full and some mornings it’s not. Anyway, we were sitting for a bit and he started holding with his penis, saying “penis, penis*” then all of a sudden he let it go and started peeing right into the potty. I was so excited for him. When he was done he seemed a little freaked out by the whole thing and wanted to cling to me a bit. I praised him and told him how proud I was of him for peeing in the potty. As I got a new diaper on him, I started wondering what I was to do with the urine in the potty. I hadn’t expected anything like this to happen for a little while still, so I was still somewhat unprepared. I ended up bringing him back into the bathroom and showed him how the urine goes in the big toilet to be flushed and then I rinsed out the potty.
So I have no idea if it’ll happen again soon or happen with any degree of regularity, but it’s a start and that makes mommy really excited.
* After saying “penis” at home for a while now, he finally said at it daycare earlier this week. His teachers informed me of this the next day. I let them know that I knew he knew the word and I was just glad he wasn’t calling it “belly” anymore.
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
The other week a mother in Houston was harassed when breastfeeding her child while shopping at Hollister. A ton of moms got together and staged nurse-ins all around the country. Some moms at a mall in Delaware were harassed by mall security at the nurse-in!
I took my Little Prince to a local one. There were only three of us moms there, but that’s okay. We just sat around in the chairs at the entrance to the store and breastfed our children. Man, the music they play there is LOUD. The only thing that happened was that a store manager came out and told us we couldn’t take pictures (after I took one of another mom – it’s picture #12 here) due to it being their storefront or something. Whatever.
We were there for about half an hour, but it’s nice to know that we were part of something bigger.
Maybe by the time my son is an adult we’ll all get over this crazy hang-up our society has about breastfeeding and see it as a normal thing. Until then I’ll continue to do my part to help normalize breastfeeding wherever I can and to give thumbs-ups to moms I see nursing in public (which I’ve done at the outlet mall and at the Houston airport).
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
lordaerith and I went with a High Deductible Health Plan (with a HSA), otherwise known as the "either we can't get sick or we need to get really really sick and hope the money is there" plan. I'm not a huge fan of it. We've always been on either PPOs or HMOs before. I'm not a big fan of private health insurance in general. I pretty much believe in this bizarre concept called "universal healthcare." But that's not really here or there.
Although I was sick on Yule, we had our Yule celebration (somewhat muted) anyway. We got our Little Prince his very own R2D2, which made him very happy, and a few other toys and books. He also got some Duplo from us and from his West Cost Grandparents.
We had some friends come and help us wrangle LP so we could prepare for our very first plane trip with our little prince. On Christmas Eve we flew to Massachusetts to visit with Darius’s family and some of our college friends. LP handled the first leg of the trip just fine. His ears didn’t even bother him. Half way through the second (and much longer) leg, he started saying “all done airplane.” It’s very hard to explain to a toddler that we can’t really stop and get off of the airplane right then. At least he fell asleep for the rest of the ride soon after that.
First time on an airplane. This is his “cheese” face.
Originally published at my baby blog. Please leave any comments there.
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