Week 4 Con't: Alan wins again!

It is so amazing to me that we are already finishing up week 4 of Nathan's life! Our first week with both kids and no help has gone surprisingly smooth. Mostly thanks to our wonderful Sunday school class who gave us a huge amount of food from Panera. We didn't have to worry about what we would eat all week!!! That was exactly what we needed to transition back to reality.

On Friday, I had my first ever parent/teacher conference with Helen's preschool teacher. On the drive to the school, I starting wondering how I would handle it if the teacher had something negative to say. Would I fight back, would I feel wounded, would I completely turn off? I am definitely not known to be a sensitive person. I have no problem handling any kind of criticism myself, but I guess my mothering instinct kicked into overdrive thanks to little sleep for the past 4 weeks. The funny thing is that the teacher had nothing but positive and glowing remarks (do preschool teachers really give anything else), and I was the one who brought up Helen's less than stellar side. Naturally, Helen reserves her difficult side just for Mommy and Daddy!

In Nathan news, it took exactly 3 weeks and 2 days for him to turn into the living image of Alan. Apparently, Alan's genes needed a few more weeks to cook before they took over! Everyone who has come over this week says almost immediately, "Wow, he looks just like Alan." Did we need more proof that Alan's genes are superior to mine?? I've developed the theory that the more quiet and unobtrusive you are the more potent are your genes.


I'm starting to see the development of Nathan's personality. Naturally, I can only compare to Helen (2nd kids really don't stand a chance do they?) Nathan is definitely not nearly as flexible as Helen is and needs a lot more holding and coddling, too. He's smart in that if he didn't demand attention he more than likely wouldn't get it, but the demanding is starting to get a little wearing. It takes about 5 hours to produce one blog entry as I only get about 5 minutes at a stretch to type as I have not yet mastered the art of typing with one hand. Last night, our wonderful neighbors hosted us for fondue. Helen has always been up for a party since birth, but Nathan had enough at 9pm and started letting loose from his lungs and his diaper (naturally, I had nothing to remedy the diaper situation, except to remind myself that the days of newborn diapers are OVER!) I finally had to leave with Nathan while Alan and Helen continued the celebration of Nathan's birth without the guest of honor. I think there was just too much stimulus for him. Once we got home in the quiet and the dark, he settled down and was quite happy. It will definitely be a change to have an inflexible child. Even though Helen can be the biggest boss in the universe, she is always willing to go at whatever time of the day...nap or no nap and the later she gets to stay up the happier she is.

I've also observed that since Nathan has made his entrance Alan and I are far more productive (case in point, I now update the blog.) We usually spend our weekends not doing much and then being frantic on Sunday afternoons to catch up. Now, since we have limited time to do things, we try to get everything done first before we relax. Alan raked the leaves and fixed our oven. I did laundry and made bread. Before long, our house will be spic and span all the time :)


We are looking forward to week 5 and celebrating Nathan's first month of life. I'm really excited to find out how much he weighs at his doctor's appt on Friday. He went from being super tiny to hurting my back when I carry him in the moby wrap. He has to be over 9 pounds now!