Single Parenting

First things first, Jon and I spent a really nice night out last night with a number of our friends to celebrate Jenn's upcoming birthday. We stuffed ourselves silly at Straits before heading to see Valentine's Day (I enjoyed it, but wasn't expecting much to begin with). Logan's Aunt Catherine drove down to babysit Logan for the evening and the two of them had a wonderful time playing and eating ice cream and staying up late, reading 10 more bedtime stories than usual. :) Thank you again Catherine! We are so glad you were able to come down and spend some time with Loganito (and allow us some time off!).

So, today. Day 1 of single parenting week is now done. WHEW! :)

After we dropped Jon off at the airport, Logan and I hung around for a little bit to watch several of the airplanes take off and/or land. He was VERY mad at me when we finally had to leave. So, what to do? Onto our favorite donut shop, since I can't very well screw up the weekend tradition that Jon has started, now can I? ;-)

After a tasty donut and milk, we headed over to the hospital for Logan's Sibling Preparation class. I had orginally thought I wouldn't bother signing up for one of these, but a co-worker of mine talked me into it. The class is built for older children, about 3-8 yrs is the range, so I was afraid it would all be over Logan's head and not worth the time nor money. But, my co-worker said she still took her daughter (and then son) to the class when they were about 2-2.5 yrs old and felt it was still worth it. She mentioned a few things that they did that sounded pretty cool (mind you, her experience was up at a hospital in Redmond, but I figured the classes were all pretty similar in content and structure) - like learning to hold a baby (with dolls), swaddle a baby, keep the babies safe, ways the siblings can "help" and that it's OKAY if a baby is still crying, even after being changed, fed, burped, etc.

In addition to all that, we watched a short video, which Logan was only half interested in, sat and listened to a story, which Logan was only half interested in, and made the baby's first birthday card, which Logan LOVED.



He was also extremely interested in holding the baby (doll), but would NOT let me help him swaddle or show him how to hold the baby (at one point he got up to run away from me, dangling the baby by one arm), and thought it was REALLY funny to touch and poke at the baby's eyes.

I guess we have some work cut out for us. ;-)

At the end, he got his own "I'm a Big Brother" t-shirt and diploma for completing the class (with coloring book). He was by far the youngest kid there but I'm still glad we went. My only regret was that the maternity ward tour portion of the class did not happen due to the current H1N1 concerns. :( They said that we won't be able to bring the kids to visit once the baby is born as well - although when I called the hospital to book the class, I actually spoke to the lady about that and she said as long as we have proof of his vaccine, then he'd be allowed in to visit his baby brother. So, hopefully the lady on the phone was right rather than the teacher today! We'll see....

Logan was pretty beat (as was I!) after the class, so we headed straight home and got ready for nap time. He really fought me but finally fell asleep and slept a good 3.5 hours. Which was WONDERFUL because I got to rest myself, catching up on a few TV shows and even sneaking in an hour nap in the end (thank goodness, I was really beat!).

After nap time the two of us played and cuddled on my/Jon's bed while Toy Story ran in the background. Once it was over, we took off to the grocery store to get some much needed supplies for the week. It was pretty late in the evening since his nap ran so long but I risked it anyway, and I'm glad we did. He was a champ and "helped" me pick out groceries (he was VERY insistent on fresh strawberries and Goldfish crackers) and even helped me carry a few into the house once we got home.

We fixed up dinner (where he ate an ENORMOUS amount of food) and watched a few clips of the Winter Olympics that I'm severely behind in. He was especially interested in the Men's Snowboarding competition - exclaiming, "He's FLYING!" And he was totally right - those guys are ridiculous on the slopes!