"Taumafai": A Few Firsts for Aaron

First Bottle
During Aaron's first week home, my mom enjoyed the honors of giving Aaron his first bottle. She was excited to be able to help out in that way, especially since Aiyana was being such a stinker about letting Khun Yai help her. He took to it great! But I didn't want him to take to it too well, so I haven't started giving him a bottle a day until this week, when Aaron is now three weeks old!

I'd rather nurse than pump, but it is helpful to have the flexibility of utilizing a bottle if I need to be out at meetings, or even be out of the house and not try and nurse while chasing Aiyana around. My goal is to keep up with the bottle because I don't want a repeat of Aiyana boycotting her bottles at three months when I became lazy in offering them to her. What a pain that was!

First Bath
My mom also gave Aaron his first tub bath when his cord fell off after a week. This was just a couple days before his circumcision so we wanted him to be nice and clean before he would be denied baths for a week again. (Speaking of which, his circumcision went pretty well when Aaron was 9 days old. The Dr. said he didn't even cry during the procedure, which was great to hear. . . until they left the room and I tried to nurse Aaron. Then he seemed to "wake up" and cried longer than he's cried before -- which was only a couple minutes but his cry is like a screeching eagle and made me so sad to think he was in pain! He healed quickly though and didn't seem uncomfortable after the first day.)

Back to his bath: He didn't like the water at first and cried until my mom laid a wash cloth on him. He instantly relaxed and seemed to enjoy the warm water.

Meeting His Cousins

Lila and Jake came to visit last week! Lila was very excited to meet her new little cousin and was so cute with him. She loved taking turns holding him for a few minutes at a time. When she needed a break, she'd pass him off to me and say things like, "You can hold him for now and then I'll hold him again later. . . " And my favorite, "He's not bugging me or anything," she said sweetly to me. "I'm just going to take a break for now." It wasn't long before she'd come back for more cousin love! She was also really patient with Aiya.We miss this girl and her family!

Due to a local conference, Rusty was scheduled to come into town this week. Since Jen is less than a month away from her due date, she and the kids came along over the weekend just in case. Nothing worse than being alone with two kids and an hours-drive from the hospital! Plus, my mom was able to spend a few days with the Fidlers before she took off for Utah. The kids got along great the first day or two. After that, there were a lot of tears following frequent antagonizing from Aiyana, whether it was taking her toys back or repeatedly turning off the TV! She is such a teaser and she knows it. I also realize she was desperately needing some one-on-one attention so that's been in the works lately.