Before Cole was born, it seemed that when one of our kiddos went through a period of growth and change, the other was making big jumps in development as well.
And now that Cole is here and is developing at exponential rates in his first weeks of life, Ethan and Kelsey are going through big changes as well.
As Ethan sneaks up on his fourth birthday, his mind and body are growing rapidly. We have noticed lately that his questions, comments and jokes are getting more mature and he is expressing his emotions and thoughts better than he ever has. As we watch his body grow taller, we can also see his coordination and speed improve.
Just a few months past two, Kels is in a huge growth spurt. People who see her only once a week comment on much bigger she is each time they see her. As she grows, her coordination is improving. She loves to practice her balance, jumping and running. Each week she is better and better at keeping up with her older brother as they tumble together. As her mind is growing and we see her learning and repeating from everything around her, we also see her funny and spunky personality getting stronger and stronger.
Besides normal development growth, everyone in the house is also going through a transition period as we adjust to being a family of five. There is lots of excitement, lots of sweet tender moments and a bit of growing pains happening right now.
Kelsey has such a sweet nurturing side to her personality, which is coming out strong as she dotes and cares for Cole. But she is also showing signs of jealousy as he takes up more of Mom's time than she wants. Luckily she is a pretty easy going two year old, so the times when she shows her need of more attention aren't bad. If only her regression on potty training were as easy to get through...
Ethan has been needing more cuddle time with Mom these days and isn't a huge fan of having a constant stream of visitors in our house, but other than that hasn't shown much of a hard time with the adjustment of a new brother. He seems to genuinely be having a great time showing Cole his toys, reading and singing to him and telling him really funny jokes.
The best part of the change our family is going through right now is how Ethan and Kelsey's relationship has gotten closer. They have always liked to play together and showed affection to each other, but in the last few weeks they really have become best buds.
They make up games together, laugh hysterically at each other's jokes, only want to play with each other at the park, and best of all want to entertain themselves for periods of time.
The kids got a lot of Daddy time the last few weeks, giving me a chance to recover and just be with the baby. E & Kels loved the adventures and games he created for them. Kelsey more than Ethan tended to rely more on Mom for most things and it has been fun watching her become a daddy's girl. And it was only a little painful for me the first time she only wanted Daddy to hold her and not Mama...
Even Malley is going through a period of adjustment. She has no interest at all in Cole, I think she might have sniffed him one time as she walked by. All she cares about is that I went through a period where I didn't go for walks and didn't have extra energy for her. Aaron was a champ on picking up my slack with the kids and got Malley out for runs on the weekend and loved on her, but it wasn't enough for our girl who pouted for a few weeks. Lucky for her, my energy is back up and we have had lots of sunshine so her world is coming back to normal.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and thankfully for us our whole village showed up to support us as we brought our third child into this world and grew into a family of five.
From our parents, siblings and local friends coming to hold Cole, play with E & Kels, cook and clean for us, and pamper us with gifts, to family and friends around the country calling and sending gifts and showering us with love, we couldn't have made this transition in our family as smoothly without all the support.
This is such an amazing time for our family and we are so thankful to have so many people to share it with and help us have time and energy to enjoy all the little moments.
Aaron and I may have a lot less downtime lately, but I feel so lucky I have time to:
play with my E,
and soak up these first precious days of my baby Cole.
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