Nana, Papa, & Paternity Leave

The past 2 weeks have been surreal. 

From the moment that I picked my parents up from the airport, it seems like I haven't had to worry about a thing. Yes, even though I did have a baby, it was kind of a mini vacation from responsibility. 

The day after my parents arrived, Dan started Paternity leave, and had two weeks off! A lot happened over the course of two weeks, and so I thought I better get all these pictures on the blog. 

The moment we saw my parents, June was pretty glued to Nana's hip. Her and my mom have a special little relationship, and I love it. As you know from my previous post, June was well taken care of by my parents, and not just while we were in the hospital. 

Here is what happened over the past two weeks. 

Enjoying the beautiful Texas weather before we headed to the hospital

From the moment June woke up, They were up and active. My parents would send me pictures through the day of their activities... It was great to see June so happy and knowing she wasn't too sad that we weren't there. 

I, for some reason, lost the pictures of June at our Ward Trunk or Treat. They dressed her up and brought her to the hospital for us to see her and then they were off to our ward Halloween Party. 

They bought June a Doc McStuffins ride around car for her birthday, which has a little compartment in the seat and makes all sorts of Doc McStuffins sounds. June loves hiding all of Ranger's toys in there. She hasn't taken a break from riding it since they gave it to her. 

We came home on a Saturday, and my parents thought we would want some quite time, and adjust being home with Owen, so they took June down to "Boo at the Zoo". June looked like she loved it, and I'm happy she was getting to do some halloween activities. 

Over the next few days we did a lot of sleeping and laying around. 

Giving Owen his first bath. Bathing a newborn is always fun and tricky. June wanted to be all apart of the action. she was giving Owen a good scrub down, and his umbilical cord really bugged her. She kept telling us to take it off, and that it was poop. We had fun bathing him as a little family. 

We spent an evening carving pumpkins and cooking the seeds. Well my mom cooked the seeds.
  She has always been a multitasker, rocking Owen and cleaning the junk off of the pumpkin seeds.

One of my favorite pictures. June is just so happy, and she looks so grown up and this pictures just melts my heart. 

It took June time to warm up to Owen. In the hospital, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, but as time has gone on, she has gotten more and more attached to him. She really is so gentle with him, and is always trying to bounce him in the bouncer, which sometimes she launches him, but for the most part she does great being around him.

The last day that my parents were here, My mom and dad spent the morning packing and getting as much love as they could from June and Owen. 

We went to Owen's Doctor appointment before my parents left. June stayed at the house with them, so we were able to not have to worry about 2 kids at the doctors office. 

Little Boys are great at peeing...especially all over you. I have been peed on more times these past two weeks than I ever have been with June. As soon as I got him undressed to go get weighed, the little man peed out, and somehow managed to pee out the sides all over me. Leaving me with two nice wet marks on my pants. Good thing I am madly in love with this little boy. 

It was really hard to see them go. June and I went and dropped them off at the airport and said our goodbyes. Like I said REALLY HARD! My parents did so much for us the week that they were here, that I honestly don't know how I will ever be able to repay them. Between my mom keeping us stuffed full of delicious food, and keeping my house clean, to my dad playing mister fix it with Dan, and doing a bunch of house repairs that have been on our list forever! That includes fixing our fence!! They made having a newborn in the house so much easier. June was always dressed and fed and playing some crazy game my dad made up. She stayed happy and that was my biggest concern. It was so nice to come home from the hospital to a warm clean home that smelled like fresh rolls. I truly have amazing parents and I am so grateful that they made the trip to come meet their grandson and babysit June. I love them dearly and June and Owen are so lucky to have them as their Nana and Papa. 

After many tears were shed, and a hundred goodbyes, June and I came home, and it was just the four of us, plus Range. It really helped knowing that Dan was still going to be with me for the next week, and help me adjust all that much more to two kids. 

The next week was so much fun. It isn't everyday that your hubs gets two weeks off without going somewhere, so we really enjoyed just spending time in our home, and running small simple errands that we could take a newborn along. Here is the thing with Dan and I. And not to get all sappy and mushy, but we genuinely like to do everything together. I mean I won't even go to Costco without him, because we have way more fun when we are together. So we spent 99% of the time together. It was great and June was in Heaven having her Daddy around all day. 

With a newborn, you are limited to what and where you can go, and it can get a little hard staying inside all day everyday. You start to get a little stir crazy and wanting to get out. We definitiely didn't want June to feel cooped up, so we took her to the play place a couple of times through out the week.

We also made a few trips to the Library. Really any place that Owen would stay warm and covered up.

Halloween night was really fun. We lit our pumpkins outside and got ready to go trick or treating. It was fun getting June and Owen all dressed up. June went as TinkerBell and Owen went as Peter Pan.  With Owen strapped to my chest and wrapped in a bunch of blankets we headed out the door. I was sweating so bad from all of the blankets and body heat, but he stayed all nice and toasty. We went around the block and hit up every house we could. June was ADORABLE!! She would go up say "Trick or Treat" and then say "Thank you" without even being told to say it. People were loving her!

We spent a lot of time walking the trails and going to the park. Daddy and June went up and down the slide countless times.

Patiently waiting for dinner.

The pile next to her is cornflakes. There is one cupboard that she is allowed to get into that has a box of Cornflakes that is open. She can help herself as much as she wants to that box. She will just grab a little handful at a time and snack on those for a while. It's great and it's something she can't get full on, or that's bad for her. 

Loved when the umbilical cord fell off! It's so gross and it's nice to not have to be so gentle when changing his diaper, and to be able to give him full baths. Plus we got to start tummy time! June always wants to take part in tummy time. 

 

We had our usual movie nights. Our favorite night of the week! This past Friday was Monster's University! It's super duper cute and I recommend watching it. 

Of course we have some quite time with June's I-pad. 

This was not staged and we didn't prompt her to go lay by him, she just went and laid next to him and started holding his hand. I about died of a a heart melting moment! I lOVE THESE TWO! 

More of our entertainment. Who could catch the sock first when Daddy dropped it. This came lasted a while. 

Dan's friends from work got this awesome dinosaur cave that has a bunch of stuffed dinosaurs in it. June and Daddy had fun pulling all of them out and lining them up. (Yes, that is a picture of June, in Owen's room. haha, just haven't gotten it replaced yet!) 

June has really stepped it up in the imagination department. She has TinkerBell doing all sorts of tricks!

All good things must come to an end, and that includes Paternity leave. Dan went back to work on Thursday and we now have managed 2 full days of being back to normal life. Things are going rather well. We have gotten out of the house quite a few times, and I am grateful for that, for the sake of my sanity. We have managed to still have somewhat of a routine and keep some balance in the home. It feels good to get back to normal life. Owen hasn't thrown to much of a kink in things, but he's a newborn and sleeps the majority of the time, so things aren't too tough.

I am even still getting some one on one time with this little cutie. I'm not sure how long it will last, so I am taking full advantage while I can. We are loving all of our holiday crafts and are getting really excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

June gave Owen this little teddy bear, and she is always giving it to him. If it ever falls on the floor, she runs and picks it up, gives it a hug, and then gives it back to Owen. I'm not sure where she learned it from, but she always wants Owen to have it. I simply love it. 

Life is so good and I am so grateful for that.