Better late than never!

The Anchorage LaVoies are finally logged in and ready to blog!

We've been pretty busy, and well, mostly tired the last month. We welcomed Tobias Christopher LaVoie (Toby) to the family on September 8 and have been adjusting to life with a new one just fine. Xavier loves his little brother, but occasionally lets us know he should remain our top priority. Scott had the first two weeks of Toby's life off from work, which was great. He helped out a lot and was able to take Xavier to his usual toddler activities. Scott headed back to work the 3rd week and then out of state to Houston for a week. I was really worried about how hard it was going to be with both boys all by myself, but it wasn't as challenging as I thought. The most challenging thing so far, which I am sure you all understand, is getting a baby and a toddler ready, out the door and in the car when it's time to leave the house. Wow. I am sure it will get easier, but right now I feel like it takes us an hour just to get clean clothes on everyone, gather up all the gear we will need while we are out, and make sure all that gets in the car before someone spits up, or needs to potty, or does something to make us start the process over. I really do love it though. So much maybe I will convince Scott to do it by himself a day next weekend.... hmmm. Stay tuned.

Toby seems to adjusting to the outside world just fine too. He is already a bigger eater than Xavier and loves his naptimes in the baby swing. We bought the swing for Xavier, but he hated it and we used it maybe a handful of times with him. I felt like it was such a waste of money! That's why I am so so happy Toby likes it. In fact, the first couple of nights, it was the only thing we could get him to sleep in. Now he's in his bassinet and we are starting to figure out some sort of schedule. At least we hope!

Xavier for the most part ignores Toby unless his playmates are over. Then he gets possessive and says, "that's MY baby brother." Xavier also likes it when Toby matches him. They have matching dinosaur jammies and dinosaur Halloween costumes Xavier insists they wear at all times. Of course, that's not going to happen, so I've resorted to hiding them when they are not clean. I feel so sneaky sometimes. I am spelling things out so he doesn't understand, tricking him (OK, lying to him) so he eats something nutritious, and using the art of distraction to keep him from doing things he shouldn't. Sometimes being a parent means being deceptive I guess. When he learns to spell, I will just have to resort to the old, "because I said so" parenting technique.

We've enjoyed reading up on what everyone else is up to! Thank you to Amber and Trevor for getting this set up for us. It will be a great way to keep in touch. And we've enjoyed what we've read so far!