life lately

My maternity leave is coming to a close so I've been updating my office space, and I think it's finally finished. It really flew by this time around.

One thing I made an effort with was stressing less about breastfeeding/pumping. After I gave birth to Gabriel, I was pumping multiple times a day after we came home from the hospital. I'd use an app to track my production; I'd eat oats with ever meal in hopes of boosting my supply; I'd count the number of bags in the freezer! In hindsight, I think it was a minor case of postpartum anxiety rearing it's head. This time around? I didn't really pump unless I was feeling to full or engorged. At most, I'd pump twice a day - usually only once. Some days I don't even pump at all. 

The funny thing is, I've got more milk in the freezer than I have room for. I've started storing some in my mom's freezer to make space for actual food in ours. Maybe since I'm stressing less I'm producing more? This kid eats like he's training for an Iron Man, and somehow my body always have more than enough to satisfy his appetite. A woman's body is legit amazing.

Speaking of kids, these boys have been such a treat these last few months. 

Christian is such an easy baby. He goes to sleep on his own and loves watching his big brother, and Gabriel loves being a big brother (as I knew he would). If I'm busy and Christian starts crying, I tell Gabriel to help brother. He'll pat his tummy and say "it's okay" (which still mostly sounds like gibberish at this point, but I know that's what he's trying to say), and it melts my heart.

And speaking of Gabriel, yesterday was his birthday! We've officially entered the terrific twos, and I've officially made it on the other side of being a mom of 2 under 2. J had to work, so we got up early for church, then picked up Gran for a little park outing, then went over to the station so he could hang with Dad for a bit. The fire alarm went off not long after we got there, so we couldn't stay long, but Gabriel loved playing in the driver's seat of the fire engine. He even learned how to turn on the lights!

Other than keeping up with Thing 1 and Thing 2 (as we've started calling them), I've been going to the gym (yay, vaccines!), playing video games, watching lots of youtube, reading lots of articles during late night feeds, trying my hand at a few new recipes. The homemade everything bagels in the air fryer were a 10 out of 10.

"It Takes Two" was our couples activity for pretty much all of April, and it's such a cute and fun game. After Thing 1 would go to bed at 7pm, I'd aim to put Thing 2 down by 9pm so we could get a few hours of playing time in. Some nights we'd completely lose track of time and play until like 2am.

Oh! And our six year(!!!) wedding anniversary was this past Saturday. SIX YEARS! We celebrated with an afternoon of tacos and axe throwing at a local brewery. Then we went for a romantic dinner later that evening. It's a miracle we were even able to coordinate multiple activities, but I'm so thankful to have a "village" that always offers to watch the little ones.

Okay, that's all for now. It's going on 5pm and I've got to wake Thing 1 from his late nap, or else he won't go down at bedtime. Please excuse any and all typos in this post.