Berend Turns Two!

May 2, 2021 nk330Leave a comment

I’m sorry, B, but I really did not blog much in 2019 or 2020. Turns out that two kids are a lot more work that just one, haha! Here is a short and sweet recap of your life from 18 months up to your 2nd birthday.

Age: 2 years on 15 May 2020
Weight: 26.5 lbs
Height: 35 inches
Teeth: 17 teeth with another molar close to coming through
Clothing Size: 24 months & 2T
Diaper Size: size 4 and one size in cloth

Well, since I’m writing this almost a year later, I honestly can’t remember milestones, exactly how Berend was doing in terms of eating and sleeping, or any basic details. I do know that he hit a major language burst before turning two, and it was crazy how much he could say! He was fairly easy to understand too, which surprised me. I know he was counting up to ten and a bit beyond (maybe up to 13?) as well as knowing most basic colors and shapes. I feel like he knew so much of what he knew because of Gerrit!

Sleep… all I can say looking back is that I know he wasn’t sleeping through the night and that he was probably still up every 2 hours a lot of the time. He was taking naps every day, although I’m sure the length varied.

Eating… by 2 Berend was definitely doing well with eating. He’s not very picky, and he normally eats a good amount at meals. He was still nursing around the clock. I know I had planned to night wean him when Andrew got back from his deployment, but when he turned 2, I was still letting him nurse anytime he woke at night.

In terms of memorable events? Well, from November until early March, things were pretty normal. We had Christmas activities at home and on base. We went to Missouri after Christmas to get together with my family… and brought my sister Becki back with us! It was really nice to have that extra time with her, and of course the boys loved it. We made a weekend trip up to Tucumcari, NM to visit a dinosaur museum and explore the town in January. In February we got snow! The boys and our neighbors had so much fun sledding down our driveway. At the end of the month, we made a weekend trip to Amarillo to do another dinosaur outing.

Our trip to Amarillo was kind of a pre-deployment family fun trip for us. Following that weekend, Andrew’s parents came to visit to see Andrew before he left and visit with the rest of us too. It started out as a very normal trip, but by the end of it, COVID-19 was becoming more and more of a concern. I touched on our experience with the pandemic of 2020 here, but basically nothing changed for Berend. He just didn’t get to run errands with me! The last few months before he turned 2 were just spent doing things around home.

I think part of me was hopeful that 1) Andrew would be home for Berend’s 2nd birthday, and 2) things would be normal enough for my mom to visit. Neither happened. Since it was looking like we would have to keep the guest list very short, I went a little over on decorations! Sadly, I don’t have much photo evidence of Berend’s “Two the Moon” birthday because of technological failure, but I have this:

I bought an inexpensive space shower curtain to use as a backdrop in our window, made a little balloon arch, and made a birthday banner. Then I did some moon and star confetti with my Cricut and made some cookies ‘n’ cream cupcakes with galaxy sprinkles. Other than that, I just set up a little moon rock hunt in the backyard (filled Easter eggs covered in aluminum foil) for the kids. It was short and sweet, but in the midst of a pandemic, it was pretty perfect for our little guy.

And since Berend was speaking so well at his birthday, I did a little interview:

What’s your name? Berend

How old are you? 3

What makes you happy? Mama

What’s your favorite color? purple

What’s your favorite animal? penguins

What’s your favorite thing to eat? oranges

What do you like to watch on TV? Monster Machines (“Blaze & the Monster Machines”)

Who do you like to play with? Miah (Nehemiah across the street)

What was your favorite part of your birthday? Happy birthday to me!

Happy 2nd birthday, Berend! We are so proud of the little guy you are. You’re smart, sweet, stubborn, and the best little snuggler. We love you to the moon and back, B!

Daily living

Berend: 18 Months

May 1, 2021 nk330Leave a comment

As you will see, I thought I was bad getting this published a year late… and here we are just before Berend’s 3rd birthday with me catching up on all of these old drafts!

Oh Berend, I’m so sorry this is getting published more than a YEAR late… thankfully most of it was already written, because there’s no way I’d remember it all at this point.

Age: 18 months on 15 November 2019
Weight: 24 lbs 11 oz
Height: 33.5 inches
Teeth: 16
Clothing Size: 18 months and 18-24 months
Diaper Size: size 4 and one size in cloth

Milestones: saying more words, knows all common body parts, shakes head no & nods yes (plus says “no” ALL the time), can throw & catch a ball, shows affection & empathy (gives hugs or pats back if he thinks you’re sad), scribbles with crayons & markers, connection to a lovey (Bear)

Berend has started saying a few 2-syllable non-repetitive words (“bubble” vs “Mama”). He’s not putting words together yet, but he definitely gets his points across.

Likes: balls (especially throwing), being outside (playing in the dirt, playing in the snow, getting pushed on his tricycle), helping around the house (unloading the dishwasher, putting dirty clothes away, wiping up spills), baths, nursing

Dislikes: not getting his way, diaper changes, car rides, not being held, having his teeth brushed

Sleep: Berend’s one nap a day ranges from 45 minutes to 2 hours long. It’s not often that it’s a 2 hour nap though. Sometimes, if it’s a short nap, I can get him back to sleep, but if the nap has been over an hour, that probably won’t happen.

In terms of night sleep? More of the same. Berend is generally up every 2 hours or less throughout the night. I bring him to bed with me around 2am most nights. He usually goes to bed around 8:30 and is up for the day by 7:30. I continue to try to catch up on sleep on weekends or mornings Andrew is home.

Eating: Berend continues to nurse around the clock. I feel like even if he is eating well that day, he still wants to nurse all the time! I don’t feel like he drinks much though, so I feel like he nurses when he’s thirsty, bored, or sleepy.

Berend is not a big eater. I mean, if it’s something he likes, he’s more likely to eat a fair amount of it.

Curse of the second child, Berend… Mama was just too busy to blog. I know that from 14-16 months, Dada was gone on his first deployment, and I was definitely feeling overwhelmed. Right after he got home, Gramps & Gram came to visit and we went to Carlsbad Caverns with them. And then we had Gerrit’s 5th birthday, you turned 18 months, and the stress and busy-ness of the holidays began!

Just the Three of Us: Week 1

May 1, 2021 nk330Leave a comment

In trying to get back into blogging, I pulled up my old blog post drafts and came across this one from early August 2018:

So in the last 5 months, we’ve moved from Texas to Little Rock, had a baby, then moved from Little Rock to New Mexico. All so we could be together when I had Berend. I didn’t want to be in the delivery room without Andrew. I couldn’t imagine him not being there. It was probably the most complicated way to do this whole thing (moving Gerrit and myself to Little Rock with Andrew for just a few months), but I think it was worth it.

Anyways! Berend was born in the middle of May, in the middle of Andrew’s C130 training. Andrew was basically told to take 2 weeks off after the birth and drop back a class. I was hoping he wouldn’t have to do that (even though I wanted him home to help) because it landed us in this situation: him leaving me and our two kids in a new house at a new base for a month of training out of state because he couldn’t get dates changed.

Had he not dropped back a class, we would have had two extra weeks to get settled here before he left. Thankfully, my mom agreed to drive from Arkansas to New Mexico with us, and she stayed for a week after Andrew left to help out.

But now it’s just me, a 3-1/2 year old, and a 2 month old in a house on an unfamiliar base with a LOT of unpacked boxes.

Day 1: I was ambitious and agreed to go to a play date meet-up at a park on base to get out of the house. We arrived late since Berend was napping, but I made sure we got out of the house. I enjoyed chatting with a few other moms, but Gerrit was being shy and didn’t want to play with the other kids. He told me he missed his old friends. Break my heart! 😦 The day was long because Berend refused to nap longer than 15-30 minutes at a time, so I was constantly trying to get him to sleep, get him back to sleep, or keep him relatively happy before I tried again with the naps. When I put Gerrit to bed, he told me he didn’t want to play outside the next day. When I asked why, he said, “So I don’t get dirty, and I won’t need a bath.” I told him I thought he liked baths, and he said, “But I want Dada to give me a bath.” Seriously, this kid is trying to make me cry! And cry I did. It was dark, and I was rubbing his back while he fell asleep, so he didn’t know I was crying. I just felt alone and overwhelmed. And I wondered how in the world I would ever survive an actual deployment.

Day 2: My only goal for today was to get to the commissary. So I had to write up a menu, write my grocery list, and get us out the door. With basically only myself to feed, it was a pretty short list. I feel like the day went better because Berend actually took some good naps! I didn’t feel so defeated at the end of the day, but I was definitely exhausted.

Days 3 & 4: The weekend! Although the weekend is like every other day when you’re alone with your kids. We went on some walks to the splash pad/playground in our neighborhood to get out of the house. Berend is not a big fan of the car seat/stroller right now. I thought he’d be okay with it since he can see me (vs the car seat in the car), but he’s almost always screaming on our walk back to the house. I can’t imagine what the neighbors think of us…

Day 5: Gerrit continues his binge watching of “Transformers: Rescue Bots” on Netflix. Berend thinks he just needs cat naps until early afternoon. I needed two large cups of coffee today. But I remembered to get the garbage out for trash collection! Accidentally left B screaming in his bassinet while I got Gerrit to bed (white noise machines work very well to cover baby screams) and felt like a crappy mom. Berend continued waking frequently until he had a large blow out poopy diaper at 3am… then finally slept 2 hours straight. He and I snuggled together from 6-8am so I could get some more sleep.

Day 6: More cat naps. More “Rescue Bots.” Trying to get a Crock Pot meal on the table tonight.

I’m so glad I didn’t delete this! It was less than 3 years ago, but it seems so long ago. Last month was Month of the Military Child, and this post illustrates how hard this life can be not only for the adults but also for the little ones. I’m so proud of my resilient boys!