A little update

So life has been a little crazy the last few months. Andrea, Declan and I are happy to announce the safe arrival of Rhys Michael Davies into our family. He was born on August 4th and is a gorgeous little boy. Declan has been amazing with him thus far and I am so incredibly proud of how he has handled the massive changes in his life. He no longer is the only little one in our family and we were slightly worried how this would go over. I am happy to report that he has taken it all in stride and has also taken to his big brother duties very well. He gets blankets and diapers when we ask and tries to show his baby brother everything!

Rhys is having some issues with being a little yellow. He is now 7 weeks old and is still jaundiced but the doctors don’t seem to be too concerned with it. He also is colicky which has not been fun for Andrea. I think that we were spoiled with how easy it was with Declan. Other than a couple of nights that were really tough he was very laid back and chill. Rhys does not take a soother so he suckles Andrea for comfort which must be awful after a while. Andrea has been wonderful throughout all of this. I have said if before and it bears repeating; the capacity for love, understanding and patience that I see in her during difficult times is superhuman. The grace in which she deals with both of our sons and their needs is saintly. We are truly lucky.

Declan is now sleeping in his big-boy bed. He stays in pretty much all night and has only fallen out of bed once. He still tosses a lot in his sleep so I generally check on him before I go to bed to make sure he still in a position that is safe for the night. He has also been getting much better at using the toilet which is great! We were out for dinner a few weeks ago and he told us that he had to go pee so he and I rushed to the bathroom. In all honesty I expected him to have gone since we had a bit of a walk to get there but once I put him on the toilet we waited about half a minute and he went! He was so happy and I was so proud of him! Once he finished and washed up he gave me a high five and we went to tell Mummy. A very successful day.

Last week we went as a family to Eli’s hockey game. It was Declan’s first game and all he wanted to see was the “hockey guys”. He and I sat in the arena while Andrea and Rhys sat in the warm area with Aunt Sara. He loved it! He cheered and clapped and learned the term “uncle Eli is on the bench” which made me laugh. All in all it was a great night and I am looking forward to doing it again.

That’s it for now. I am going to try and be more diligent in updating in the future.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes!

We have had an early arrival! Rhys Michael Carroll was born on August 4th and 1:29am. He weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz and was almost 2 weeks early. He is a gorgeous little gorgeous little guy and I am convinced that he looks a little like me this time. We are going through the normal sleep deprived nights that we had with Declan but Rhys seems to be a bit better adjusted to sleeping which is nice. He gives us 3 to 4 hours at a time which is wonderful!

The big difference now is that we have a 2 year old as well as a newborn. I could not be any more proud of how Declan has handled this massive change to his world. He is now sleeping in a big boy bed, which we call the Spider Man bed because of his sheets, and has been great at going up without much fuss.

Because of the band, I am out quite a bit at night and one of the things that I have always loved doing before I leave is putting Declan to bed. We have had to modify it a bit now and I go to bed with him for a while and sing with him or read him a story, but mainly we just lay there. This week I still had a full beard and while he was going off to sleep he was gently rubbing my beard which was so relaxing I almost fell asleep.

Last night when I got in I went to check on him and he was curled up in his bed with his teddy close to his face. He was actually rubbing his teddy’s ear against his nose. I noticed he does that when he is sleepy or when he is just waking up. It is possibly one of the cutest things I have seen him do (other than kissing his baby brother and telling him that he loves him).

We are definitely changing gears as a family now as we try and juggle bringing up two little guys. I am looking forward to all of the things that we did with Declan and I am sure some new adventures. I am also so excited to see how this helps Declan’s development as he continues to grow. He is such a well adjusted little guy. More to come!

Lawn Work

I got home yesterday from a long day at work and realized that I had to tackle the lawn. It had been almost two weeks since the grass had been cut and it was looking pretty shaggy. I have to admit that I am being generous in the description of the frontage of my house as grass; more like broad leafed weeds with a smattering of blades where they can squeeze through. Anyway…it had to get done so I dug in.

I surveyed the backyard and realized that it has been overwhelmed by a variety of weeds and I thought to myself, “Self, that’s it! No more. Time to get rid of this rubbish.”. I got on the gloves and started pulling weeds, got the saw and began cutting back small trees that had taken root in various places and also trimmed back the lilac bush beside the house.

I cut the grass in the back and had filled our green bin with the bits and pieces that I had pulled. I moved on the front and side of the house and realized that our Birch tree has taken over. I can’t mow the lawn underneath because of the hanging branches that actually touch the ground. So I took the route of hacking away at what I could. It looks much better now!

Once I put the mower away I also noticed a hint of red at the fence in the backyard. I had discovered an unseen cache of ripe raspberries which was a great reward for the mess that I had created! When I brought them in Declan was sitting on the couch with Andrea devouring a freezie, saw the berries and proceeded to eat most of the them. No berries for Daddy.

Great.

What a weekend! This is supposed to be the unofficial start of summer and it was rubbish. I went to open the cottage on the weekend and ended up getting a chip in my windshield after some silly girl stopped paying attention to the road. She drifted onto the newly graded soft shoulder and kicked up big stones. One nailed the windshield and I was convinced it was going to shatter. Luckily for me it is just chipped! Great. Then Highway 86 was closed in one of the small towns that I have to drive through so I had the pleasure of a 30 minute detour to get back on track which was just great.

I decided to come home the same day because it was cold and I wanted to sleep in my own house with my family. I got home to find out that Union Gas had been around and changed out our gas meter. In doing so they shut the gas off and I had to call them to get someone back over to the house to turn it back on and switch on the pilots. When he arrived he was kind enough to tell me that my boiler and my chimney are both now illegal thanks to changes in the law in the last couple of years. Great. So now we have a boiler that is not able to be used and will need to be replaced before winter. Great.

Declan has been found to have asthma which kinda sucks as well. Unfortunately for the little guy he also has chronic ear infections which create coughs and runny noses for him. Last night he woke up around midnight hacking his brains out and coughed for about 3 hours. Great. I brought him into bed with us to try and comfort him and ended up with his feet in my back for the rest of the night while he finally slept.

I was really looking forward to this first long weekend and I can honestly say that up until last night it really sucked. Then, Andrea and Declan got home from her parents house while I was cutting the grass and they helped out with some yard work. Apart from Declan trying to run into traffic on Dundurn it was awesome. He helped me cut the grass by pulling the cord behind me and then helped Andrea with weeding the garden, which looks beautiful. I am really proud of the work that Andrea did on that patch last year. It is coming up gorgeous now! Those 30 minutes or so came really close to zeroing out all the other garbage that happened this weekend. It is incredible how something so small or seemingly insignificant can bring such joy.

Bed Time

One of the most wonderful opportunities that I have as Dad is to put my son to bed every night. As it currently stands, Declan falls asleep while cuddling with Andrea almost every night. It is so cute to watch him snuggle up and eventually drift off. Once he is asleep I have the job of getting him off of the couch and up to bed.

Normally when I pick him up he stirs slightly and then burrows into my shoulder with his face, his hands tuck up into my chest and he sighs. It gives me goosebumps thinking about it because it is such a precious feeling. I walk him upstairs and turn his Ocean Wonders on and gently place him in bed. Sometimes he sighs and hugs his bear tighter, sometimes he just rolls onto his side and I cover him with his blanket. I always take a moment just to stare at him. He is such a blessing and such a wonderful little guy.

Friday Afternoon

I had a blast on Friday. Wanted to share this one because it blew me away. Declan has had a really bad cold lately so I had to take him to the GP to get checked out. Turns out he has another ear infection. We are patiently waiting for him to get in to see an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist as soon as possible as this is getting ridiculous. I am not sure if he is just getting used to the pain or what but he was in an amazing mood. I decided that after the Doc we had some time to kill so we went to Dundas park.

It was glorious outside; the sun was out and there was just a gentle breeze. It felt like it was 25 Celsius even though it was probably only 18 or so. We got to the park and he saw the playground and went nuts. He loves slides right now and so curious about the equipment. All he wants to do is climb everything which is awesome. We must have run around that playground for about 45 minutes and then he noticed some teenagers on skateboards in the newly paved portion of the park. He walked over and just stood in amazement as these kids did kick-flips and ollies in an effort to impress the girls that were with them. He laughed when they jumped and laughed harder when they fell, which made me laugh inside.

Then it was back to the playground and saying hi to all the other little kids playing there. You can tell that some have not done the daycare thing because they really have not figured out how to socialize quite as well. They seemed terrified of him when he came up to them. I felt bad for Declan because he just wants to play and some of these kids really have no idea how to do that. We stayed for a bout another half-hour and then I asked him if he was thirsty. We went back to the car and he sat in the back with me while he drank an apple juice drink box.

Another day of running around was done and he was totally spent and content. Like I said, I had a blast!

Easter

Easter is a funny holiday. The most holy day in the entire Christian Calendar is celebrated with baskets of chocolate delivered by a rabbit. It definitely tops the absurdity of Christmas. We had an extended Easter weekend this year. It began around 6:45am on Friday when the alarm went off so that we could get up and out to Dundas for the annual Easter Egg hunt. I honestly was not looking forward to it because I had been asleep for a grand total of maybe 3 hours at this point, but this year is the first one that Declan is able to run around for so I thought that I should go.

We also had the pleasure of the presence of Andrea’s cousin Jacob for the hunt and Declan adores him so that made it a bit more exciting. Once we arrived we went to the Caution Taped area for children up to 3 years old and Jake made his way over to the area for the kids his age. At the stroke of 8:00am we were off and running… well maybe not so much running, but Declan was picking up eggs in the immediate vicinity. Within 5 minutes were done. The various Stalkerazzi taking photos of their precious snowflakes in the cold Spring morning were furiously trying to get as many good shots as they could, while we just wanted the goods.

Once done we made our way over to Jake and found out that he had suffered an Easter tragedy. Against all good sense the organizing committee decided that his age group would climb a 100 foot 60 degree slope to get to their eggs. Jacob thought that his best option would be to get as high up as possible and get the harder to snatch eggs before everyone else. The problem was that once he got up there and filled his basket, he slipped and fell down. His eggs all fell out and he ripped his jacket. Poor kid… he looked miserable and I honestly think that he was crushed. We offered him some of Declan’s eggs because God knows the kid does not need them. He politely refused and just sulked. It was kinda heartbreaking.

Later that day he described his ordeal as the worst Easter ever to my parents. He had totally ignored the fact that he got more presents and candy from my folks and he knew that there would be more on Easter morning.

On an unrelated aside, I had a wonderful moment of discovery on Friday evening. We were headed to my parents for dinner and Jake was in the back with Declan. They were playing and singing together and Andrea looked over at me and said, “you know this is what it is going to be like in about 2 years.”. I looked over at her and smiled and said, “Funny, I was just thinking the exact same thing.”. It was a great feeling. Declan has a great model on how to be a big brother in Jake.

So really….What happened? I swore that I would get better at this whole blogging thing! Time to be realistic. I am going to have to try and do this as often as possible instead of twice weekly since it is obvious that I can’t commit to this. Where to start…? Oh yeah… I am gonna be a dad again! I found out recently that Andrea is going to have another baby, and it’s a boy! Awesome. We are incredibly excited about the August arrival of baby number 2. Things have been hectic and both Andrea and Declan have been pretty ill over the past few months which has not been easy.

The recession has hit our family finally. My sister’s boyfriend lost his job and it seems like my Dad’s is going to be a week by week affair for the foreseeable future. I can remember what it was like when we were kids and Dad’s job would go due to the economy. It happens every 10 to 15 years and it is pretty rough. At least now my folks don’t have to worry about supporting us kids. That’s probably a load off. I am sure that it will get better sooner rather than later but it is gonna be a lean few months for a lot of people.

There is always some hesitation to talk about jobs and the like when things are not going well because you don’t want anyone to dwell too much on the problems that they are having or get too upset about. By the same token I feel bad not discussing it because I worry that my Dad is not talking to my Mom about it which can be hard.

Luckily for us we have a little man running around the house that helps keep everyone’s minds off the troubles that they are having, even if it is just for a little while. Declan is such a happy little guy it makes my heart swell. He cuddles at just the right time and falls asleep on Andrea every night. He loves to give kisses and is insanely ticklish…which has been hilarious! He is a little boy in every way. He is curious, precocious, and exciting. Everything is new to him and fun. He plays cars and runs around with the soccer ball. I love it. I really can’t wait until the new one arrives and they can grow up together. I always wanted a brother and I think that he will be a wonderful big brother.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I will honestly try and update a bit more frequently.