We went to the doctor last week for his 4 week checkup. He weighed 11 pounds and was 22.5 inches long. Pretty much all of his stats are around the 85th percentile. Except for his head, which is around the 95th. Quite similar to brother Axel!
Nowadays, I am so thankful that Johan is on paternity leave. He's been home with me now for four weeks and gets five weeks paid from his work. He is also amazing because he's made it his mission to live up to my mom's amazingness, and he enjoys it. He also takes a night shift with Magnus in that he gives him a bottle and puts him to bed to let me sleep. Then he wakes up at around 6:30 with Axel and makes breakfast, packs his school lunch, makes coffee, and lets me sleep in until around 7:45. Then after sending Axel off to school, he starts cleaning. He runs the Roomba, washes the floors, cleans the kitchen, bathrooms, and does a load of laundry pretty much every day. He's pretty much super human and defies most male stereotypes. If my Mom came to live with us, between the two of them, I'd never have to do anything for myself ever again.
Magnus is doing great. He is the sweetest thing ever. He is very chill and easy. Pretty much from day one we put him on a day/night schedule. During the day, we wake him up after 2 hours of sleep to nurse and to help him establish a daytime routine. He has started becoming more awake during the days, but just long enough to change a diaper, nurse, and look around for a bit. Then he’s out again. I remember at this age, Axel started waking up, but it was harder to put him to sleep. We’d have to move, walk, or bounce him to get to sleep, and he slept best when he was held. Magnus is pretty similar during the day. But at night, he usually falls asleep pretty quickly after nursing, then will sleep in his bassinet for up to 3 hours at a time. During the night (after 8:00 pm or so), we put him to bed and don't dare wake him up. He only nurses if he wakes up.
It's worked out pretty well. So well, in fact, that Johan and I have felt so well rested that we decided to start getting out and exploring the city during the days with Magnus to take full advantage of our maternity/paternity leaves. We've started becoming Toronto foodies. At lunch, we venture off to a different part of the city to try out a new restaurant and type of food. I've been even more inspired to do this because we started watching a Netflix documentary called Ugly Delicious. It stars a Toronto chef named Dave Chang. He's the head chef of Momofuku, a very popular innovative Asian restaurant that is in several of the world's largest cities.
So far, we've been to Momofuku's Noodle Bar, Mean Bao, Campo, The Drake Commisary, Dong Gia (Viet/Thai food), and Honest Weight. All of the food, so far, has been amazing. But we also live in Toronto, where there are immigrants from all over the world. So ethnic foods here are plentiful and have a lot of good competition to be amazing.
Back to maternity leave. There is quite a luxury in being able to choose to stay in your pajamas until 3:00 p.m. without fear of judgement. It is so nice to wake up and not have to put on work clothes and do my hair and makeup. However, at some point I force myself to take a shower and get myself together or else I just feel like an oaf that smells like sour milk. The best parts of these days are sitting with Magnus, watching him look around with curiosity, or fall asleep. Newborns falling asleep must be the funniest, most precious sight ever. They go from rolling their eyes backwards, to laughing, to pouting out their lips, and maybe sucking on a pretend nipple. It will never get old.
Axel is still in love with his little brother. He kisses him every chance he gets, and wants him in the bed with him at night when we read books and falls asleep. He will do everything to help with the baby by bringing a blanket, his pacifier, etc. He has even started sleeping in Magnus' room. Although, after they're both asleep, I then sneak Magnus into our room because it's easier to nurse him in the middle of the night if he's in the bassinet next to me. That way, I can lay in bed half asleep with my body under the covers while one hand keeps the pacifier from falling out of his mouth and my outer toe rocks the cradle. We've all been playing musical beds lately, I don't even know who sleeps where anymore. Some nights Axel is in Magnus' room, Magnus is in our room, I'm in our room, or sometimes Axel is asleep at the foot of our bed and has kicked Johan out, so Johan sleeps in Axel's room. And I don't even know where Leia sleeps anymore. She's been completely forgotten.
Since Magnus has been so portable, he’s already become a regular at the hockey rink at Axel’s games, has been to a plethora of restaurants around town (as previously mentioned), he loves picking Axel up from school, and has even been seen back at church. Granted, he’s pretty much slept through everything, so he won't recall anything if you ask him. The most uncomfortable part of getting out with a newborn (for me) has to be nursing. I have to constantly think about my clothes and if they’re conducive to nursing in public, or plan when and where I’ll nurse, especially because it's pretty much still winter in Toronto, so both Magnus and I are wearing winter clothing. Usually, we time Magnus’ nursing with getting out of the house. In general, I feel like my body is getting slowly back to normal. I started back at the gym last week, which felt great. It is still hard to find clothes that fit this weird body shape during this in between time, but I’m learning to give myself some slack and not be too critical. It would be easier, though, if I didn’t have the appetite of a herd of teenage boys. I can eat like it’s nobody’s business. Hopefully baby Moose and I continue this symbiotic relationship in that he keeps nursing enough for me to burn enough calories to allow me to eat my way through a week's worth of Costco groceries and not think twice.
Axel is in the throws of the age of 6. He has somehow learned snarky sarcasm that I wouldn't have even dared as a teenager. Where are they learning it from? It can't be from us parents, can it?! It must be from school, right? He is also an absolute master negotiator. We recently started a complaining chart with him. If he doesn't complain about what he eats, about going to bed, or going to school, he gets a happy face for that day. After seven days of happy faces, he'll get a reward. Probably a Pokemon card. The other day, he told us he had almost reached seven days. I asked him how he had counted that, since he had complained the day prior. He said "Well, you never said the days had to be in a row". Crap, kid, you're right. I quickly tried to add "days in sequence" as a requirement for receiving his reward, but he told me that wasn't part of the conditions from the beginning, and it's my fault for not making that clear and unfair if I add it in now. If you tell him he has to turn the tv off in 5 minutes, he will always negotiate 5 extra minutes. Or if you say he can't have any more dessert, he'll convince you that he skipped a snack in the afternoon to be able to save up for that extra serving of dessert. If you tell him a straight out "no" (which we do quite often), you must be prepared for all hell to break loose, which is his tactic to break you down and make you cave. He has the skills to wear down even the most stubborn (such as myself), until you have no willpower left. We have to remind each other to stay strong, don't loose your cool, don't give in to his master manipulation, and for everything that is sacred and holy, don't be beguiled by the 6 year old, for crying out loud! In the end, we typically result to negotiating. Negotiating = peace and life skills. We tell ourselves that we are allowing him to hone his skills to one day be a world leader, yet somehow without letting him lead our household. Hopefully our little world leader will learn to do so while being humble, loving, and following Jesus....we hope. All we know is that this kid is amazing, determined, and extremely talented, and needs us to lead him into the great things God has planned for him. So we follow the mantra of our former pastor Aaron Henderson, who used to say "my job as a parent is to minimize the time my kids will spend in therapy as adults". Which basically means no parent is perfect and can do a perfect job. We're all doing our best!
