Things lately

Brushing Levi's teeth is hilarious. He leans back and closes his eyes and lets me just brush away. Then he takes the toothbrush and looks in the mirror at himself as he brushes.

This morning as I was cooking us some eggs Levi was in his high chair and all at once just yelled "Dah" at the top of his lungs. I almost jumped out of my skin.

Levi's favorite thing is to go outside. He goes and gets his shoes, comes and sits on my lap and lets me put them on him. I have an amazing little boy.

Today as I was wiping him up after breakfast he took the washcloth from me and started wiping his face. He is so smart.

The best part is when he says something "blah dah, baba..." and has the most intent look on his face as he is telling me this important thing. I SO wish I could understand these little deep thoughts he is thinking. I love it.

I never knew being a mom could be this amazing.

A Funny Story

Sometimes Levi just amazes me with the way he picks up on things.

And sometimes it just makes me laugh.

Last night Ben went out to get a movie for us. I was getting Levi ready for bed and was taking my time getting his clothes on him after his bath. I like to let him run around without a diaper for a little while. He has recently learned the word "no" and says it in a very deliberate way. I was changing his crib sheets, thinking, "I really need to get a diaper on him, he's probably about to have an accident." I got distracted and was doing something in the hall bathroom when I heard him saying "No no no." I thought, oh no, he's probably tee tee-ed on the floor. I came into his room where he was and looked all around. He was getting something off his shelf as he was saying "No no no." He got a cloth diaper (which I usually get when he has peed on the floor) off the shelf and was toddling into our room, still saying "No no no." Then it became clear to me what he was doing and I followed him into our bathroom where he got down on the floor and started wiping up the place where he had peed. The poor little fella was trying to clean up his own mess! He was telling himself no, I just couldn't stop laughing. Maybe this is counted as one of the joys of EC'ing your child. :)

I have a precious little boy. All the ups and downs and silliness. I'm sure we're going to have to have our carpets steam-cleaned someday, but I don't care, he's way better than any stupid carpet. :)

Oh yes, and he has been peeing on the potty occasionally. I'll be interested to see if I have totally ruined him for potty training or not. Who knows. I'll love him either way though.

Weaning

My goal for breastfeeding was a year. I wanted to make it that far at least. From there I would decide if we needed to continue. I must say, I have loved it. It was best in the winter time when we could snuggle and keep warm together. I also felt like my immunities we protecting him from getting too sick during those winter months.

He's now 15 months and the weather is warmer. I had once thought that maybe we could make it to 18 months, but I think I'm about done. I want to be able to go on an overnight camping trip, I want to not have to wake up at 5:30 for a feeding, I would like not to have to wear a nursing bra. Too much information, I know. The problem is that Levi is not done. Several times a day he asks to nurse and often cries when he doesn't get to. Depending on the time and moment sometimes I give in. I realize that weaning is not a cold turkey thing, it's a process.

The Dr said that we would just drop down to fewer feedings (less than three a day) we do about two or three and then one day he would reject me. So far this has not been the case. He also said that I would be sad. I don't think I will be though. A lot of moms have told me that they miss nursing their child and for sure I enjoyed it very much and I am thankful we were able to... I don't take that for granted at all. But I think I am ready to move on to the next phase of life. :)

How is it that I thought weaning would be this easy, care-free process? I sort of had a picture that one day my supply would go down to nothing and Levi would just be okay with that and we would move on with our lives? Did anyone else have problems weaning? What was your experience with all of this? Some moms say they ran out of their supply too early? What happened with you? Does anyone have any tips in this area?

Levi is sick and nothing is right.

The good side to sickness is that he just wants to be held all the time. This is also the bad side. He also wants to nurse for what feels like FOREVER to me. It feels like he ALWAYS wants to nurse. I'm thankful that we are still doing it because it allows me to pass on immunities to him. Yes, he is 14 months and I'm still nursing, but I'm planning on weaning him soon. After he gets over this coughing and cold mess I think we will begin the weaning process.

He has been peeing on the potty quite a bit lately and I'm pretty amazed at how often he's been able to keep himself dry. With the sickness, however, he has been less of an EC'er as we all would if we were in his shoes. :)

a new trick

Here's something I have learned this week. I don't know if this is okay or not, but when I put Levi on his potty I have his little space heater blowing hot air on him as hard as possible. He almost always pees when I do this. It's like the warmth helps him or something. This afternoon his diaper was almost completely dry when I took it off of him. Then he peed a lot.

Still don't know what to do about the poops though.

Yeah. That's my story

And we are back on the saddle

I've been meaning to post this week. I thought EC was done. Or maybe we were taking a long break. Then, last week I put Levi on his potty and praised him just for SITTING STILL. I was like, "Yeah Levi! Good job!" and then we sat there for a minute and he peed.

He's done it a few more times. He always pees while watching the bath fill. (Ben and I laugh that it's probably the excitement and the sound of the water combined, he just can't help himself and he makes a little puddle in front of the tub. At least it's not IN the tub). So this week I got a brain and put him on his potty while it filled and he, amazingly, peed. We haven't had any poops yet, but sometimes he lets loose of gas when he's sitting on it, so I think that helps.

It's a continual learning and growing process. These past 14 months have gone by so quickly, I thought the potty training process would feel longer. But I think because of all the changes he's gone through: sitting up, scooting, crawling, walking, and a million other things, that potty training hasn't felt like a big deal.

So there's my story for this week. Just watch, next week will be NOTHING. :) But such are the ups and downs of parenting, am I right or am I right?

I started a new blog about my life. I just thought My EC Experience is soon coming to an end. Now that Levi is 14 months, he's not that into the potty. He's very distracted by his new ability to walk and all the things in our house that he can discover. I have a feeling he will be an outdoors man because he LOVES to be outside. He will literally go and stand at the door and scream for us to let him out. I tell him he needs to put on his shoes first, and a coat, so he is very agreeable as I put those on (because he knows what's coming) and I let him out.

Anyways, we still have potties throughout the house, and I will continue to talk to him about going on the potty, but right now he is anything but interested. Maybe I need to pick up my book again. Maybe I have lost hope? I'm not sure.

I will update if anything happens. :) Thank you to all my faithful readers.

My other blog if you would like to "follow" is www.new-mercies-jody.blogspot.com