First Nights

You know what’s awesome about having two kids?…It provides a whole new set of opportunities for first experiences.

Jenn and I were discussing this the other night and we both felt lucky that we would be able to enjoy all the milestones and stages with Grace. While Nolin was experiencing these events we were beyond excited, but we were also eagerly anticipating the next thing. This time we can simply enjoy them because we know what comes next.

Saturday night, we experienced two firsts. Grace’s first bath, and Nolin’s first sleepover. We’ll start with the sleepover.

As we were saying goodbye to Grammy & Pap Pap, Nolin hoped into their car and said I wanna go too. Pap Pap…ecstatic. Mom and Dad sensing a little responsibility relief…ecstatic. Grammy…more realistic, not quite as ecstatic. She knew that this would turn into a wild play date between the two guys and Nolin would never go to sleep at their house. Well Pap Pap and Nolin won.

About 45 minutes of enjoying peace and quiet, we called to check in and found that Grammy and Pap Pap were not enjoying peace and quiet. You could hear Nolin in the background (loudly) having a good time.

Grammy said they were going to try to put him to bed, but if they couldn’t within 30 minutes, then we would need to come pick him up…we secretly prayed this would work.

40 minutes later, we received a call…good news? Yes, it was good news, if you consider good news the fact that we would not have to drive over and pick Nolin up because Pap Pap was already on his way to our house. Oh well…Nolin went down pretty easily that night.

It may not have been a 100% successful first sleepover, but that is ok.

Grace’s first bath hit the other end of the success spectrum. She loved it. We just set up a large bowl bath in the sink for this first bath, and she couldn’t have been happier. Getting out of the bathtub, well that wasn’t quite as much fun, but once she was wrapped up in a blanket all was right with the world again.

On Monday we had Grace’s first official update visit at two weeks. The doctor said everything was perfect and she was very impressed with how alert Grace was (may have something to do with the fact she always has to have at least one eye on a certain two-year old). She had gained almost one pound since leaving the hospital (8 lbs. 0.5 oz.) and she had grown almost an inch (20 inches).

On Monday night, we moved Nolin into his new room for the first night. This event was pushed up as we realized that he was waking up when he heard us feeding Grace in the early morning. For a kid who has quit taking naps…5am is way too early to wake up.

So we finally had motivation to get the room straightened up and move his bed in. After a short (well it didn’t really seem too short at the time) little meltdown about not wanting sheets on his bed (for a reason that he couldn’t explain), he was excited to show everyone “his new room”. I have to admit it may be my favorite room in the house.

I really wasn’t expecting a good night sleep with this room change, but it worked out fantastic and he slept through the night.

Finally Tuesday morning at about 4am we had two more firsts. My first trip away from both our kids, and Jenn’s first attempt at overnight single parenting. Let’s just say I think my situation was a little easier.

Thankfully Jenn’s parents have been able to help out, but I have been anxiously checking in on them and so far everything seems to be going alright. Grace even slept for almost 5 hours for the first time last night.

Yep, it is really cool to be experiencing firsts all over again.