The Chaos during the 30th Olympiad

What a fun weekend for the Yaraschefski family.  Kristy and Jason came in town for a visit to meet Luke and introduce Bowen to the Indy crew.  We spent the majority of the weekend hanging out with family, and it was so great to just hang out with the kids and spend time as a family.  Bowen is literally the cutest little boy I've ever seen.  

 

It's crazy how much these family reunions have changed...I remember when I was a kid and we spent a lot of time with aunts and uncles and cousins, but those visits stopped when I was in high school and it's really been all adults since.  This weekend there were kids everywhere!!  I had a blast not only spending time with Luke, but hanging out with some older kids to get a glimpse of what is to come.  I really came away from the experience incredibly excited about whats ahead for Kara and I and our small little family. 

As far as how things are going now that Luke is a seasoned 16 days old- I have to say that really they are going really well.  He is already on a relatively good pattern, and eats every 3ish hours almost like clockwork.  We're trying for the Eat/Wake/Nap pattern, and he's excellent except that during the day he likes to skip the wake part, and during the night he likes to skip the nap part.  

Babies Everywhere!!

Breastfeeding has been a bit challenging, for several reasons, but even that is beginning to calm down.  Getting Luke to eat hasn't been that tough, but the emotional part of it, as well as the sheer amount of time that Kara has had to spend on it has been really tough for her.  I try to help as much as possible, but it's tough for me to do much, so I've been trying to do everything else around the house and give her the chance to nap whenever she has the chance.  It will get a bit tougher here tomorrow as that's when I go back to work, so we will just have to continue to work through things as they come up and figure out our pattern.  

Speaking of that, I think we have done a really great job of working together and talking through things that seem frustrating or difficult.  Kara and I have always been good at that, but it gets tougher (especially for me) when I get really tired and stressed, and so we have consciously tried to spend time talking, and I think it's been super helpful.  Mostly, that's because Kara is just an incredible wife and mother.  Not only is she great at being the most helpful and giving person ever, she is just naturally amazing with Luke.  My new favorite thing to do is watch her and Luke interact, because she is so natural at it and you can tell how much he loves her and feels comforted by her.  He feels the same way I do when I'm with her.  :)   

I'll sign off by letting all you future parents out there know my two favorite things about being a parent.  First - everything we own, including both cars and all of our clothes, smell like 1.5 to 2 day old milk.  I am an obsessively clean person, and it makes no difference...there's no getting around it.  It's everywhere, like I all of the sudden live in a milk galaxy.    Two - as soon we had a kid, simple household chores became impossible.  I'll stay up for 4 hours in the middle of the night trying to get Luke to stop crying and do whatever I have to comfort Kara, but I'll be DAMNED if I'm walking all the way out to the mailbox to check the mail.  I'll burn that mailbox down for all I care.

Finally, just so I don't forget - having the Summer Olympics during these past two weeks has been awesome.  Kara and I know EVERYTHING about this Olympics, seriously, ridiculous information that no one should have.  

Til next time.  :)