Category: Family

Aidan’s First Birthday Party!

Posted on by Lauren Lane

We celebrated Aidan’s first birthday uhhh….forever ago….and I have been swamped. The weather ended up being gorgeous – we totally lucked out! We were able to move the party outside for lots of running around, food, cake, and presents.

I chose a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme for our little guy, and designed the invites.

In true third child form, this party really snuck up on me, and so we did very little in the way of decorations and theme items. But Aidan didn’t seem to mind. Some balloons, a few festive garlands, and lots and lots of fruit – which is what our hungry caterpillar loves the most!

Birthday boy up from nap and ready to party!

Aidan was a little unsure of the cake. Not thrilled about the sprinkles in particular touching his hands.

I’m pretty sure Aidan alone ate 80% of the blueberries and grapes himself.

The big boys knew exactly what to do with the cake.

Lick all of the frosting off and leave the cake part…..

Aidan had lots of helpers with his presents. But in particular, it was Jonathan who was most excited about opening the play guitar that he had gotten for Aidan, and then quickly whisking it away because he actually bought it for himself. Hahahahaha

Our last first birthday is in the books! So thankful for this little one each and every day. For making our family complete.

Dear Harrison on your 6th birthday,

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Hi, buddy. Happy birthday! I asked you the other day if you were excited about turning six and why, and you said yes! Because it means you can go to first grade! You have always been so excited to get bigger. To learn new things, become more independent, do the big kid things. I look at you these days and all of the baby-ness of you is gone. You have grown into a full blown kid. And man, I just think you are the coolest kid.

I love so many things about you. You are the absolute best brother. Even though at times you’re a little stinker to them…especially Jonathan…wow, you are so protective and loving of them. You frequently tell me that Aidan is your favorite in the family. You love and care for your people so deeply. And you’re upset if you don’t get Mommy hugs before you go to sleep at night. I wish I could hold onto that for forever!

You are the BEST helper. If there is a task to be done, you are happy to roll up your sleeves and help. You love feeling involved, and working with me or Daddy on a project. I love working with you side by side.

You are fiercely competitive. As Daddy says, “If harnessed correctly, it will make you great.” And wow, I can see that already. Your desire to excel in everything you do will no doubt serve you will in life. Never willing to settle for just ok or average.

I sit here writing this, and just feel like its so inadequate to describe how amazing I think you are today. You changed my life forever when you arrived on Friday, April 13th. I had no idea the depth of love I could have for someone. That there would be no greater feeling in the world to have your son look up at you and say, “I love you, Mom.” And even though I’d love to keep you little forever, it is such an honor watching you grow up.

Happy birthday, my love.

Love always,

Mommy

Dear Aidan,

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Today is a day of celebration. But will I be sad? Yes. Does today mark the end of baby years in our house? Yes. I didn’t realize fully before I had you how close our bond would be together. You see, as your daddy had to focus on taking care of the big boys each day, it was mostly just you and me day in and day out. Late nights together. So much rocking. Begging you to please sleep for just a little bit longer. Complete exhaustion.

While you were my hardest newborn baby. I knew you were my last. And there was a sense of being able to enjoy it a bit more, because I knew if would be gone in a flash. That in no time at all I would be sitting here today writing you a letter on your first birthday. I knew I’d be longing for those evenings where you’d fall asleep on my chest, and your soft hair would brush against my chin. Where we would sneak away for a quick nap together, you nestled close to me and breathing slowly and contently.

While your nights invariably got longer, and we both got to sleep through the night, a newborn fog lifted to give way to the happiest baby. Squeals of delight are commonplace with you. The way your eyes light up when your brothers talk to you. The insistence of Sawyer not leaving the table at dinnertime because she knows you will feed her half of your food. Your absolute refusal to say “mama” or “dada” when asked. But “Ba. Ba. Ba.” over and over and over again.

Your baby year has been so fully enjoyed by this family. By grandparents who were blessed to be able to help us and care for you for three months before we could get into daycare. By big brothers who were so protective of you, and so proud. By your dad, who cherished his baby Aidan snuggles. And me. Your newborn scent. Your smile. The way you’d cling to me as your safe place. You will forever be so special to me.

I pray every night for you. That you may never doubt how much you are loved. There is no greater honor than being your mom, sweet boy. For all of the ways that you filled me and completed me, I cherish you.

Happy birthday, my Aidy baby.

Mama

What’s Up Wednesday {03.27.24}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy last Wednesday of the month! Just one day before our little Aidan surprised us a year ago with his appearance! Ahhhh…I just can’t even believe it.

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: We had a favorite of Nathan and minethis week: Chicken Tikka Masala. The boys like the naan bread. Just a complete shock, I’m sure, for all of you that have had young kids. Nothing but carbs.

We’re also having salmon this week and Sausage Vodka Pasta for Aidan’s birthday.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

I have so many feelings about our last little boy turning one. It truly doesn’t feel possible that it’s been a year with our baby Aidan. He’s just the sweetest, calmest baby.

Watching Harrison really become so protective of Aidan has been so fun, and Jonathan learning the ropes of big brotherhood – which as this point means having the patience of Job when it comes to Aidan messing up whatever you’re trying to play with.

The day Harrison and Jonathan met their little brother in the hospital will forever be one of my most favorite memories of all. How proud they were of their little bro. Just all of the heart eyes for my boys.

Read more

Pushing the Easy Button on Meal Planning

Posted on by Lauren Lane

We were out on a date night recently, and Nathan brought up meal planning. Mostly, he brought up the fact that he only gets the meals that he really likes once every six months or so. For many, many years, I was building my recipe repertoire. And now, I have a trove of recipes that I know my family loves.

But for some reason, I keep searching for new recipes. So much so that I usually try one new recipe a week.

This conversation coincided with a parallel conversation of “I have too much on my plate right now, and I feel stressed.” Anybody else feel like this conversation is continuous?! Never ending….

So Nathan said, “Listen. All I’m asking is that we get our favorite meals once quarterly.”

That next Monday I sat down and made a list. A winter/fall recipe list, and a summer/spring list. And you know what? I’m taking “trying new recipes” off of my to do list for awhile until I have more capacity. Now, I go to my spreadsheet, pick three random meals from the list, and those are the three meals we have that upcoming week.

I mark them off, and then they are off of the possibilities until we’ve made it all the way through our recipe list.

It sounds so simple…and yet, I spend so much less time meal planning now.

Tell me, do you have a list of go-to recipes and just cook from that list? How often do you try a new recipe?

My Breastfeeding Journey

Posted on by Lauren Lane

How to feed your baby always feels like a bit of a touchy subject. Somehow, in my generation, there has been engrained a sense of failure if we can’t breastfeed our babies. Or even more so, shame if we don’t WANT to breastfeed our babies. Over the course of the past five years of having little babies that I’ve been entrusted to nourish and grow, I have seen great strides made in trying to walk back this shame and sense of failure. It’s a bit like undoing the complete mental jungle gym we got wrapped up in as teenagers of having a certain body type, clothes, etc, to fit in. But I can see that progress is being made little by little.

As I approached motherhood with Harrison, I definitely fell into the category of unsure about breastfeeding, but concluded that I should try it since it was deemed to be “best” for the baby.

That journey with him was depleting to my very core. On top of dealing with undiagnosed and untreated postpartum depression, I struggled mightily to figure out breastfeeding. I had taken the classes, and I thought I was prepared, but I truly wasn’t. We struggled with latching correctly, the lactation consultant at the hospital gave us a nipple shield. It got very quickly to the point where he refused to nurse on one side without the shield, and I truly hated it. While he struggled to get enough food at the hospital and his early days at home, I was pumping after each breastfeeding session and then feeding him through a small syringe to try to get more calories into him. It was depleting, exhausting, and awful for my mental health.

Perhaps more shocking, I thought that this was just what motherhood was truly.

It wasn’t until he was a couple of weeks old that our pediatrician gave us the name of a lactation consultant that would come to our house to help work with me on training him off of the shield and attempting to fix his latch issues. I wish I had had this resource lined up for as soon as I came home from the hospital. It changed everything for my breastfeeding journey with Harrison and all of the babies after him.

I worked hard to train Harrison to nurse without the nipple shield. Again, it was sooo hard to get him to drop it after he had gotten used to it. I vowed to never use one again with any future pregnancy because this retraining was so depleting for me. But eventually, we got there.

We cruised along until four months, and his weight percentile dropped. I was asked to start supplementing him with formula, and I felt like a failure. By six months, when I returned to work, my supply dropped to almost nothing with all of the pumping, and by seven months I had given up on my breastfeeding journey with Harrison. I remember being very upset about it, because it wasn’t my choice. I felt like my body had just failed me – it just quit producing. And so that breastfeeding journey ended.

Jonathan’s journey was different. I was more confident. I knew how a good latch should feel, what the placement should look like, and it showed. He was an amazing nurser from the beginning. We sailed through his first year, and while my supply dropped again when I went back to work, I had enough of a stash and a proficient enough feeder that we were able to keep him on breast milk with a little bit of supplementing with formula for weight gain for his entire first year. I felt lucky and accomplished to have made it so long with him.

Aidan was a mix in between Harrison and Jonathan. He wasn’t an automatic great nurser. But again, I had two breastfed babies under my belt, and I felt confident. I’ve found myself considering my own needs and mental health more this time around. My attitude with breastfeeding this time around has been more of a “if it works, that’s great. If it doesn’t, he’ll be fine.” And for the most part, that has served us well. There’s been more chaos in this newborn haze. The world wasn’t stopped because of COVID this time around – there were still kids activities, two screaming and wrestling brothers that never seem to miss a chance to be the absolute most chaotic while I’m trying to nurse.

Since going back to work, though, I’ve gotten well acquainted with my pump yet again. I hated pumping. Everything about it. Over three pregnancies, though, I’ve upgraded my pump each time. It started with a “has to be plugged into the wall” pump. Absolutely hated the thing. I upgraded to Spectra S2 with Jonathan. It came with a rechargable battery, so I didn’t have to be connected to a wall plus. It felt like an absolute dream compared to the first pump, but I was still rather restrcted from doing anything but sitting or standing in one place while pumping because of the big motor.

And this time around, after hemming and hawing over the price tag, I splurged for a wearable pump and got a gently used Elvie. (I just couldn’t bring myself to pay full price!) But truly, I think it would have been worth full price. It’s completely changed how I felt about pumping. Easy, comfortable, and I can walk around and do chores while I pump. And no dang pumping bra needed.

I guess this is a bit of a chronicle through my journey of this phase of motherhood. And it’s swiftly coming to an end, as we’ll stop nursing over the next couple of months.

If I were talking to a girlfriend about to become a new mom, I guess this is what I would say about breastfeeding:

  • I wish someone had normalized earlier supplementing for babies. This idea that I could potentially choose to feed my baby in two different ways has changed my outlook on our journey together. That I could potentially choose to not be the 100% provider of his food is freeing. And maybe potentially the best of both worlds.
  • Find a lactation consultant that will come to your house after you come home from the hospital BEFORE the baby is born. And just anticipate paying for at least one visit. Especially if you’re committed to trying breastfeeding.
  • That wearable pump is amazing. If you have the means, upgrade to the wearable pump.
  • And most basically, you’re not a failure if you don’t want to breastfeed. And you’re not a failure if breastfeeding just doesn’t work. That baby is going to thrive – boob milk or not. You’re going to be a great mom, and it has nothing to do with how your baby is fed.

My Little Thankful Turkeys

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Our little turkeys have been creating their annual thankful turkeys this month. It’s so fun to see how the things they are thankful for changes year to year. Their maturity and understanding of gratitude has changed so much in a single year. Here are a few of my favorites from each boy this year…

Harrison:

Right off the bat, Harrison’s day one thankful item was Jesus & God with Day 2 followed up with hi family. I don’t think there is a more first-born answer on day one and two than that. This contrasted sharply with Jonathan’s day 1 thankful item…you’ll have to read on for that. 🙂

Aidan made it onto Harrison’s thankful turkey three times. Can you tell Aidan is the favorite? First as part of his family, loving Aidan the most. Then as part of his brothers. And finally just a flat out thankful for “Aidan.”

I know he must be learning something at school when out of nowhere he’s thankful for his “community.” Let me tell you something that we’ve never discussed with him….what the word community even means.

Jonathan:

In true second/middle child fashion, Day 1, Jonathan was thankful for Mowers & Tractors. Need I say more?

Aidan, again, made it onto Jonathan’s thankful turkey with a special call out in his family. And also, Jonathan was thankful for Aidan’s paci and loveys. I’m not sure why that is….maybe he cries too much? Maybe because Jonathan also is thankful for his own lovey? Who knows…

And I just need to point out how many yard and tractor items made this turkey. Five days. Five days of being thankful for various things related to yard work and tractors. He’s a man of simple pleasures.

I’m taking next week off from both blog world and work to focus on our family, decorate for Christmas, and hopefully have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed – because last year I had a house full of sickies for Thanksgiving.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday as well!

Naming Aidan James

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’ve written posts about naming our other two boys, and why we chose their names. Aidan is, of course, due the same about his name. Nathan and I struggled to agree on boy names. For each of the previous two boys, their names ended up being the only names we agreed on together. We’ve had a name that we liked for a girl for years. And while we can’t imagine not having three boys now, I think we were hoping that the last Lane baby would be a girl so we didn’t have to go through the name game again for a third boy.

But alas, God had bigger plans. And we were blessed with a third boy. This sweet little boy…

We agreed on his middle name first. I liked the name James as a middle name solely based on the sound of it. And that’s the whole story of why we picked James. Ha. No family history, no connection at all. Just thought it made a musical sound as a middle name.

I will never forget exactly where we were when we agreed to Aidan’s first name. We were sitting in the perinatal doctor ultrasound’s lobby waiting for our monthly sonogram of baby boy. We had some time to kill as we waited, and decided to revisit names again. I had a list of about five names I liked for the last boy on my phone, and as we took turns throwing out names, Nathan goes,

“How about Aidan?”
And I replied, “I actually have that name on my list.”
“No way,” he replied. “I don’t believe you.”

We had never both had the same name on our lists before.

I showed him my phone, where one of my options was already typed “Aidan James.”

Nathan looked up the meaning of the name Aidan. Little fire. And we both kind of liked that.

“Aidan James,” he said. “It kind of sounds like a movie star.”

It was several more days before we settled on the spelling of the name, but that didn’t take long either. It was the easiest first name we’d ever come to for the boys.

Our little fire turned out to be pretty darn cute.

7 Quick Harrison Takes (v. XIII)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

If there was ever any doubt that fall has started, it’s the first virus of the season. I apologize for the ghosting over the last few days as I took care of a sick boy, while still trying to get myself back in the swing of working full time.

From time to time, I like to gather a few things that feel unique to each kid and share them as quick takes. It’s my way of capturing a bit of their personality as they grow up. Little Harrison doesn’t mispronounce things very often now, but there is definitely things that feel so uniquely Harrison that I want to remember them for forever.

-1- Harrison is my competitve kid. He is interested in EVERY sporting event. I remember wondering in school gym class how there seemed to be children that just naturally were already so good at playing sports, when I myself had never played sports before being forced to play them in gym. And then I had a child that was interested in sports from the moment he could walk – and I got it.

He wants to know who is playing every sporting event, who each person is cheering for, and what colors each team is wearing. Every. Single. Game.

-2- Speaking of competitive, his obsession with winning extends to which team he cheers for in a game. He HATES losing, so usually will flip flop what team he’s cheering for based on who is winning.

-3- Every game he watches, he likes to build the players out of his counting blocks based on their uniform colors, and then proceeds to play the game with his players while watching the game on TV. This child could not be more different than me growing up if he tried.

-4- He’s five years old, and believes himself to be pretty much completely devoid of the need of parents. He informed us going into Kindergarten that once he was in Kindergarten that he “wouldn’t need us anymore.” Except for a ride to school…and to make his food…and do his laundry…and buy him things. But everything else, he’s got covered.

-5- Aidan is his “favorite” because he’s the “softest” member of the family. That baby skin speaks to Harrison’s love language.

-6- As if it was ever in question, Harrison’s favorite subject in school is “gym.” He has a particular fondness for all of the elementary school games he’s learning: kickball, dodgeball, and something called “toilet tag.” Sounds like a winner with the elementary school crowd if I’ve ever heard of one.

-7- His favorite shows to watch right now are Spidey and the Chiefs vs. Broncos game that’s a recording from last year’s game. He narrates this game as though it’s the first time he’s ever watched it, and that no one has seen the ending. But he’s well aware of who wins the game. 🙂

I love my little sports obsessed boy.

Dear Aidan (v. II),

Posted on by Lauren Lane

We’ve officially entered the month that you go to daycare and I go back to work. This month seemed so far away when you were born. And it was, five whole months with you already. Like any passage of time, though, lately, it’s shocking to realize the time has already come.

You’ve been such a blessing to me, little boy. For the first time, I don’t feel like I’m rushing your baby year. It took me two previous babies to really slow down. I don’t find myself eager to check off milestones. I’m so content to soak up your little-ness. Bask in the simplicity of gummy smiles and silly conversations. Enjoy the quietness of time away from the chaos, just nursing you.

I feel so fortunate to be your mommy. Nothing compares to the way your eyes search for me in a room. The way you settle when I pick you up, knowing that you’re safe and loved. Thank you for allowing me to get to experience babyhood just one more time.

Love always,

Mommy