Birthdays, Baby Steps, and Babysitting

We had a busy weekend and already our week seems to be packed. Thus I haven't been very good about blog posts, but I will attempt to catch you up.

This weekend we had two birthday parties. On Saturday, we went out to the sea coast for a surprise 30th birthday party for a colleague of Sean's. It was a bbq outside and it was so beautiful. Finn had a great time socializing, but we had a very tired little guy afterwards. He slept all the way home. We got home at 7:00pm and then of course Finn wouldn't sleep after that and Sean and I were so tired. So much for party animals. On Sunday, we celebrated our niece, Libby's 5th birthday. It was another gorgeous day and we enjoyed being outside, visiting with family and watching the pinata festivities. Finn was dressed in his hawaiian party garb that Bubbles and Babou sent him (they just returned from a trip to the islands). Don't you just love those chubby legs?
Since he stayed up for the whole party on Saturday, he realized sometimes it is best to nap in the middle of a party:
There were also two other babies at the party and they were all so cute together:

On Monday, Finn and I went to Baby Steps, a seminar program to help new moms navigate the first year. This week the topic was breastfeeding and the moderator was from the La Leche League. They are getting more active in Concord and they are having monthly meetings. I was really excited about this. I tried to contact them when I was struggling with breast feeding, but they weren't meeting regularly. Finn was the oldest baby at the seminar. It was amazing to hear new moms talk about the challenges of breast feeding and to reflect back and realize how far we have come. Those first two months were so tough, I just prayed to get through each day and I couldn't even fathom making it to 7+ months. And now we are still going strong. At the seminar, I was actually in a position to talk about my experiences and offer advice. One girl was battling thrush and I talked in length about my remedies with her. There were also so many women who spoke about nipple pain and worry over whether baby was eating often enough, or too often, etc. I so wish I had been able to talk to women in my same situation at 6 weeks post pardum. It made me realize how important support in breast feeding is. We have really lost it in our society. Breast feeding is not instinct. It is a learned behavior in a social group. Women need to be around breast feeding women. We need to see it and talk about it and experience it to understand it and get it right. I think there are many circumstances in which women need to feed babies formula. There is nothing wrong with formula (it is not poison, but wonderful nutrition) and it is fantastic that there is such an option. But, I also think that there are so many cases where women opt for formula because they find breast feeding too hard initially and there is no support for them. They want to breast feed, but give up because they don't know how to move on from where they are. I was so close to that point so many times. I am excited to begin going to the LLL meetings and to become part of a support group. Okay, I could go on and on about this subject and I am sorry I went off on a bit of a rant already, I shall move on for now...

Also on Monday, I was able to spend some time with my niece and nephew while their mom was at work. This meant that I was the sole adult in charge of a 7-month-old, a 2-year-old, and a 5-year-old. Wow. Let me just say, I don't know where the "sitting" in babysitting came from. There is no sitting whatsoever. And I actually had a very easy time of it. It was only 3 hours and Liam (age 2) napped for 1 1/2 hours of it and I was still completely out of my element. I could barely keep track of what everyone was doing. I realized I am totally ignorant of the abilities of children of different ages. I don't know how to describe it, but I just wasn't sure about their independence level. I am so used to Finn and needing to keep an eye on him all the time, that I panicked every time one of the kids was out of my sight. In retrospect, that wasn't necessary as Libby (age 5) was perfectly capable of doing many things by herself, I just didn't know at what level I needed to be watchful and that was stressful. I think I learned a lot and will do better next time.

Okay, I am also ready to "come out" about our house-buying on the blog. Many of you know the scoop as I have done some venting on Facebook (side note, if you are on, Friend me!), but I have been hesitant to blog about it as we have had so many housing deals fall through and it is that much more disappointing when I have had to tell everyone after getting all excited, that we didn't get the house. But, I really think the 5th time is the charm. We are on schedule to purchase a beautiful antique cape built in 1830. We have had to jump through a bunch of hoops, but it looks like we are on schedule to purchase our first home on the 30th! Keep your fingers crossed and I will post more about it as the process moves forward.

And I will close with some random cute photos: