No diet for Nolan

No diet for Nolan! He spent first few weeks of his life struggling to gain weight and then exploded...at least that's what TJ and I thought. But at his 2 month appointment doc said he's totally healthy and that its great he's such a good eater. Nolan's only "to do" from the appointment is to sleep through the night. Doctor's orders! He must have been listening because he slept for 11 hours straight last night in his crib.  Unfortunately I was up quite often checking the baby monitor to make sure he was still breathing!  Keaton was never affected by shots but they must have made Nolan very sleepy since he has never slept for more than 5.5 hours prior to last night.

2 month stats:
52nd percentile height
86th percentile weight (13lb, 14oz)
90th percentile head size
Pretty similar to Keaton. Short, chubby with a big head!!

Here he is right after he peed all over the floor/wall/table at the doctor's:

 

Here's his 2 month picture.  Good thing he's moved from the monkey chair to the crib since I don't know how much longer he will fit in it.

 

Where did all our "free" time go?

• When you are married you think about all the "free" time you had when you were single.
• When you get a dog you think about all the "free" time you had when it was just you and your spouse.
• When you have a child you think about all the "free" time you had when it was just you, your spouse and the dog.
• When you have a second child you think about all the "free" time you had when you only had one child.

I have no idea what people do with more than two children.  When you have one there are two adults so one of you is often getting a break (break to do things like dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, etc). When there are two adults and two kids each has one to be responsible for and little to no time for anything else. 
With three you our out numbered and I'd imagine things are totally out of control!  Since there are more kids than adults so I guess they are the ones in control (although the truth is with only one you have lost control).  Add a few more pet into the mix and total chaos!

I'm enjoying a moment where both are sleeping (Nolan in his crib for last 2.5 hours, this is the first time I've tried to get him to sleep in it and total success for the moment!). Now that I have some "free" time I'm not even sure what to do with it.  I can daydream back to the glorious years when I was single (all through my 20's) and had nothing but "free" time to do what I pleased (but few significant memories to show for it).  Even though "free" time is pretty sparse right now, it is very much appreciated!  But not nearly as much as the time I'm spending with my family creating memories more valuable than I could have ever imagined. 

Now time to....Go check on Nolan, feed him, change him.  Get Keaton up from his nap. Pack them all into the stroller to walk the dog.  Bring a snack and toy for Keaton on the walk.  Unpack everyone.  Feed the dog. Play with the dog.  Pack up the kids to go to the store to buy milk since we are out.  Maybe something for dinner too since last night we ate pancakes.  Cross fingers that dad will be home soon.  Feed/diaper change again for Nolan.  Probably change of clothes too since he will have spit up many times.  Fold some unfolded laundry.  Make dinner.  Deal with a few temper tantrums in between the above.  Take baths.  Read books.  Find a toy for Keaton to sleep with since he has to have one now.  Walk dog again.  Remind self and TJ that being a parent is better than all the "free" time in the world, but still exhausting.  Remember that it's Friday and TJ will be around tomorrow morning to deal with our early risers.  Remember that the days may go by slow but the years go by fast and before we know it we'll be back to a life full of "free" time where our kids want nothing to do with us....good thing we will still have Manny!

Having Fun

A few nights ago Keaton and Nolan were going for a ride on Keaton's sleeping bag and we got a smile out of Nolan!  Keaton gets really excited when he gets to "play" with his brother and is really looking forward to him getting bigger so they can play all the time.  And Nolan is pretty lucky to get to do such fun stuff at such a young age...the first child never gets to be towed on a sleeping bag through the house at 6 weeks old!  The benefit of being the second!

 

Oops...didn't mean to publish this....so going to quickly add a few more pics. Trying to do too much at once....watch Seahawks...hold crying Nolan...help Keaton with his video game....talk to Brian...seems to be the way of life with two kids. Always multi-tasking!

 

Go Seahawks!!!! 

 

 

Started celebrating early

Christmas felt like it started on November 22nd when Nolan was born.  That's when we got our favorite gift and Keaton got gifts very regularly from then through Christmas.

We were able to do a lot more holiday activities than I expected with baby Nolan thanks to dad being home and helping out a ton.

Keaton was very happy to sit on Santa's lap this year since he knew he'd get a candy cane after.  He REALLY likes candy canes!  His friend, Camden, wasn't as excited about Santa and the candy canes.

 

Here are some more of the fun things we did to celebrate the holidays: Visiting Swanson's nursery, ice skating, Seattle Center train, professional gingerbread houses downtown, making our own gingerbread house, checking out neighborhood light displays with visiting cousins Crystal/Emerald.

 

 

We had a great time on Christmas day opening gifts and having family over.  It was hard to get Keaton to open presents because he'd get so excited over what he just opened that he would want to play with it instead of opening more presents.  I don't think we will have this issue next year!  Keaton sure did get a lot of cars/trucks and related type items.  Even a car map shirt for daddy!  Manny seemed to think every gift was for him and was very excited about the ones that were.  Keaton said his favorite gift was the Lincoln Log train set...but I think it was playing with Aunt Claudia on Christmas Day.

 

 

Nolan was very festive in his Santa outfit.  Next year he'll be much more aware of what's going on and ready to enjoy the fun.

 

 

Some of Santa's gifts must have got lost on his way to our house since a package from Grandpa/Nana/Steve/Eileen/Wyatt arrived a few days later.  This was a good thing because Keaton (and Manny) were ready to open gifts again since it had been a few days with nothing new. They are going to be disappointed when we don't continue to get presents daily.

 

 

Here's the best gift!!!!!!!

 



 

 

 

Guess the Baby

Can you guess which one is Keaton and which one is Nolan?

 

 

There are some similarities between the two boys as newborn babies.  It will be interesting to see how Nolan changes over time since Keaton looks quite a bit different now.  It will also be very exciting to see how their personalities are similar and different.  So far Nolan is a good sleeper, which is similar to Keaton.  Hopefully he doesn't get as frustrated as quickly as Keaton does...but develops Keaton's charming personality! 

 

Keaton's doing so great with his brother.  The latest thing he says is "I love you too brother" implying that his brother just told him that he loves him. 

 

Here are a few more picture's from Nolan's photo shoot last night with the bear where he was very awake and alert.  Perhaps placing a tiny baby next to a giant bear is what it takes to wake them up!

 



AND Nolan

This blog started out all about Manny.  Then we added Keaton. Today I added Nolan.  Our family sure has grown since I started the blog in 2009. 

Nolan Edward Tarr joined this world on November 22, 2013.  He was due on Nov 28 so he was about a week early, the same as Keaton.  He came into this world very quickly.  Labor pains started around 2:30am, the little guy was here by 6:22am.  And would have been here closer to 4:30am if I hadn't been so lucky to get an epidural.  I was 10 cm when we arrived at hospital and that's usually when it's time to push...but I made it pretty clear to everyone that I wasn't moving forward without the epidural.

Aunt Claudia was a lifesaver to come to our house in the middle of the night to stay with Keaton.  And then papa came the next day to keep him entertained too.  It was so nice to know he was with two of his favorite people. 

Keaton loves his brother.  So far he has transitioned very well!  He certainly is doing a great job of being a "Big Brother."  And speaking of big, I remember when I brought Keaton home from the hospital and suddenly thought the dog looked huge.  Well now I think Keaton looks so big and he also really has grown up a lot in this past week. 

TJ is home from work through Christmas, thank goodness!  I have no idea how I'm going to do this by myself when he goes back to work.  But for now it has been awesome since he is so hands on.  Daddy watched Nolan for a few hours yesterday while Keaton and I went to play trains at Barnes & Noble. 

Everyone is doing great and we have had so many people so involved in our new family these past few days.  Thank you for all the food and gifts (especially for Keaton to keep him busy) and visitors!

Here are a few pictures:

Fixing Papa

Keaton went to visit papa in the hospital quite a bit when he had knee surgery a few weeks ago.  We thought it would be a good experience since he will be visiting mommy in the hospital soon.  But I'm not sure he will connect the two experiences.  There won't be a bridge with stairs that he gets to walk over with a cane (over and over and over).  And he probably won't be totally obsessed with his blower and bring it with him to the hospital.  He will get to take advantage of the endless supply of food that can be ordered from Swedish (Mommy also plans on ordering as much as she can because once she gets home room service is over).

 

Once papa was home he was also a good helper. He made papa some foot cookies to help him walk better. 

 

Keaton brought his blower over to papa's house to help him with a giant tree that fell over...and was surprised to find that a neighbor was nice enough to cut it up a few days later.

 

 

We are glad that papa is moving around quite a bit better and seems to be recovering quickly.  We keep hoping he follows doctor's orders so that this is the last time he has to have this surgery.  "Dr. Keaton" did leave his doctor's orders at the hospital and is ready at any time with his doctor tools to help fix papa.  And his tools are quite appropriate (hammer, nails, etc.) given the giant incision of stapes papa has down his leg.  The traditional things like stethoscope, blood pressure pump, shot, etc. that came in his doctor kit won't work on his crazy papa!