Lots of “exciting” things going on at our house lately. Sylas is having a good time at school. He is learning to read color words right now and so far they know how to read and write red. They also go over the alphabet a couple letters at a time to freshen up since preschool. I think they’re up to K now. He comes home pretty excited in the afternoons. He never has given me any fits about getting on the bus. Javier overslept one day this week and ended up missing the bus. Thank goodness he was able to drive him to school instead. Sylas is really into tornadoes at the moment, and I have no idea why. Its not even tornado season here. He also loves battlebots. He has already requested a battlebot birthday party, asking daily if his birthday is close.

We are still potty training Ivan. He does pretty well – some day she shocks me at how well he does, going potty all by himself, and other days he has nothing but accidents. The accident days are – thankfully – few and far between. I did have to strip his car seat the other day and wash it which was a pain. He has a hard time keeping track when he is busy playing. His accidents tend to happen when he is busy. I think that having Sylas in school has helped because he has more one-on-one time and I can ask him more often if he needs to go. He is getting there, its just taking longer than it did with Sylas, and that’s okay.

I made the decision to buckle down on weaning Amalia. She will be 15 months this Friday. This is the longest I have nursed a baby. Sylas was about 10 months, Ivan was just past his birthday. She is taking it hard. I started a couple weeks ago, taking out the afternoon feeding. She wanted the boob as soon as I walked in the door from work every day. So I started redirecting with sippy cups and snacks instead. She cried a lot, had some tantrums in my lap, pulling at my shirt wanting to nurse. But it only took about three days or so before she stopped that. Then I took out the before bedtime feed. That one was a little harder. The hardest by far, has been the night time feeds. I started making her take her pacifier instead of letting her sleep nurse when I joined her in bed. She loves her pacy, but would much rather have momma. She cried a lot and didn’t sleep well through the night, very restless and coming back to me to nurse, each time meeting the pacifier and being disappointed. She would cry until she was wide awake and truly upset. One night I had to resort to sleeping on the couch because she could sense me there and all she wanted was to nurse. She slept so poorly those first five nights or so. Its getting better, and she has started waking at 6am now instead of 7:30 and her morning nap has moved from 10-10:30 to 9am. It has been rough on my heart seeing her so sad that I won’t let her have the thing that brings her the most comfort. But it has gotten to the point that I do not enjoy it anymore. It sounds really bad, and mean – like, I’m a mean mom – but I promise that so many moms feel the same way at some point in their nursing journey. She will no longer lay in my lap and gaze at me, instead its acrobats and feet in my face, all while somehow still having my nipple in her mouth. Let me tell you, she’s not at all graceful when she does it either, sometimes her teeth graze me as she is turning around and it is so painful. She is constantly unlatching to look around and then latching again, which is also not comfortable. It takes forever for her to get done because she just won’t sit still. She doesn’t need to nurse either. She is on a full solid food diet, she can eat virtually anything, as long as its cut up into pieces. It is really bittersweet because nursing does bring me joy, and the bond it creates is amazing, but I really feel like it is our time to let it go and move on to the next stage of toddler-hood.

Another exciting venture that is coming up is for Javier. His last day of work is today. I never in a million years would have guessed that this day would come. He is going to move to a new restaurant. The manager he has worked under for the last six years is opening his own place. He is so excited. It really surprised me when he first brought it up because he has never had a love/hate relationship with his old job. He has always been so happy there. He decided to change jobs because he would be working under a different manager, but his current manager is the whole reason he loved his job. Several other members of the staff will be following suit and joining the new place. He was offered two weeks paid vacation before the new place opens, higher wage as he will be in a higher position and a yearly bonus – a small cut of the profits. Someday, he may even have the option to buy in and become partner, which would make his dreams come true. I’m so happy for him and so proud of how hard he works for us. With his new job, I may be able to cut my hours from 40 to 36 which has been something I’ve wanted to do since Ivan was born. I would love to spend more time at home with my babies while I can.

This coming weekend we have planned a family getaway since Javier is off work. I am working the holiday this week so I’ll have a day to take off. I decided to take Friday off so that I could stay home and pack for our trip. Its not a huge trip by any means, but we don’t get to spend a lot of time as a family and I wanted to make the most of these two weeks that Javier will be off. We have a couple adventures planned for the kids, and will be staying over two nights which will be fun too. We haven’t told the kids yet because I wanted to surprise Sylas when he gets off the bus Friday afternoon. I’m so excited!