Feeding Time

Rayne and I had a very hard time with breastfeeding. She'd had a bottle by the time we left the hospital and there were times, sometimes even a whole day, when I just couldn't get her to eat with me and she had to have a bottle. In some ways it was nice, especially when we were out or in the car, we could give her a bottle or Jeff could feed her.

With Caius, I've felt determined to breastfeed. Perhaps I feel like I'm "making up" for what I wasn't able to do with Rayne, like I'm fixing my mistake or something. Perhaps it's an intuition that this is important for him.

Jeff has often encouraged me to give Caius a bottle too. I'm not up for pumping, so this would mean feeding him formula and I just haven't been able to get past a gut feeling of "no." I'd like to think that Jeff's motive is purely out of wanting to help or making things easier for me but I think a lot of it was that he wanted to go to a movie and we couldn't leave Caius with anyone, especially at the beginning, for any length of time if they couldn't feed him.

But finally we've made it to a milestone. Caius recently started eating baby food.
This is a picture of Caius' very first bite of baby cereal. A picture's worth a thousand words! Haha. Actually, I think he likes eating quite a bit and is doing well. He has had rice, oatmeal, prunes, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, pears and bananas.

Caius eating "real food" has eased Jeff's concern a bit. He now knows someone else could take care of Caius if we wanted or needed them to. I too have relaxed a bit and finally let Daddy feed him. This is what happened:
I think I'll keep following my intuitions!

Mama's Boy

Caius gets so excited just because I walk in the room. He jumps up and down in his play thing and raises his arms above his head just wanting me to pick him up.

The other day I was getting him to laugh just by doing silly things. We've played this way before but this time it just seemed less like an involuntary reaction and like he was truly enjoying himself... and me.

I don't think anyone has ever looked at me the way Caius does. Pure and complete love in his eyes. Almost an infatuation. It makes me feel so good, so sure about what I'm doing, and like I want to be more and better. I want to be everything to this little guy. I want to show him everything that is good and beautiful about the feminine and motherhood.

I read in the Relief Society book a quote from Joseph F. Smith (or was it Joseph Fielding Smith?) about how when things were hard or he felt tempted he would think of all his mother had done for him. It was her love that gave him strength to be who he was and do the right things.

Remember the love of your mother my boy! Nobody loves you more.

Just a cute pic

Trick or Treat

Decorating cupcakes

As you can imagine, one cupcake ended up with A LOT of sprinkles :)

Proof Caius had some happy times in all this!

Learning the joys of licking the beaters when baking!

Caius has been having a hard time. Teething and six month shots all in the same week!

She finally got frustrated with the hat and quit wearing it.

I can't decide which is the cutest picture!

"Aaarrr!"

This felt like our first real Halloween. On Saturday, the grocery store around the corner posted signs that they would be doing trick or treating, cookie decorating and a witch walk. I wasn't sure what to expect; perhaps in a small town, it would be something or maybe the store was just trying to get people in. But, we went over anyway. Turned out to not be much, but Rayne did get one treat and that was plenty to make her happy.

Saturday afternoon, the Kelsey grandparents and Aunt Nini came over. I made some beef stew and biscuits thing. Yes, I said beef stew. Funny what pregnancy and being hungry teaches you is okay to like. We also made cupcakes.

Rayne wanted to be a red princess. Of course, we had to wait until the payday (ie. Thursday) before Halloween to get her costume and we shop at Walmart where we get an employee discount. They didn't have too much to offer in her size. We found this cute pirate princess outfit and went with it. She was happy with it. When I first put it on her, she ran through the house saying "aaarrrr!" It was really cute. Caius' ghost costume was what Rayne wore her first Halloween. He looked really cute. The happy ghost seemed to match his happy personality.

Proof

I really do have the cutest kids in the world!

And some "after" shots

This is the front bathroom. I don't know why I so loved this fish shower curtain. Well, I do. Because it's colorful and I like the patterns and the movement as well as the organized way the fish are swimming ;) I'm not really a big fan of fish.

This is Rayne's room. Her great grandma gave her a twin bed when we moved. I thought she was a bit young for that and that it would take ages for her to sleep alone (she was used to sleeping in the bed with me most nights!) but she has done amazingly well. She still wakes up often at night, but she just as often sleeps all night in her own room in her own bed!

This is Caius' room. I love sitting in here and rocking my baby. Even when I'm sleep deprived, I try to enjoy that. It makes me wonder how better off Rayne would have been if our living conditions would have been different in her little life. Oh well..

My room with the familiar gamer husband :)

I am really enjoying being domestic and I really do try to keep things neat and cleaned up and organized. But I am also enjoying our space- being able to let the kids play and leave stuff on the floor etc. It's home and it feels SO good!

More pics of home

This was taken from the top of the stairs. This is the same view we have out our living room and kitchen windows. I quite like it!

Another pic of my bathroom (can you tell it's my favorite room in the house?). And yes, that's our closet!
We were very excited to get the playground. It wasn't here when we moved in. The top left window is Rayne's room and the right one is Caius'. Can you imagine our anticipation the week they were putting the playground together??? We just kept waiting to go play!!!!!!!!
Our front door!