At some point late at night, or early in the morning Ethan will wake up. Sometimes it’s a 2am, at the latest it’s 6:00am. Either way it’s before I’m ready to get up in the morning. Sometimes he just cries, other times he asked directly for me. His room is right next door. In our room, in a mini-crib Lucas sleeps, and we don’t want to wake him up, so I hurry out of bed to comfort Ethan so he doesn’t wake up Lucas.
I carry Ethan into bed with me and I place him on the left side of my body. As I pull him close, I tuck his right arm down against his side. If i I didn’t that arm would be reaching up and grabbing at the skin at my neck, as he slept which is not a good time at all. His right goes up to his mouth and he simultaneously sucks him thumb and grabs my shirt color with his hand.
Around 7:00, I usually get out of bed. Some days, Ollie has gotten up and is cuddling in bed with us, other times he’s still asleep. If I can convince Ethan to go cuddle with Diana, he remains quiet and in a good mood. Other times he protests in disbelief that I will not cuddle with him anymore. While I get Ethan and Ollie downstairs, Diana gets a little bit more sleep. She takes care of Lucas and nurses him in the night or early morning, so this is a time that she can get some sleep. At some point when I make breakfast for the other boys, Lucas will get up, and Diana will take care of him and nurse him.
For Ollie breakfast is easy. I reheat a Belgium waffle. I make batches of them once a week, and then just toast them to head them up. Ollie usually wants to follow-up the waffle with a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, one Ollie’s favorite snacks.
Breakfast for Ethan is more of a challenge. Sometime he’s very hungry and need food immediately, usually in the form of Animal Crackers. Other times he will eat happily, especially if he sees Ollie eating. Lately however, Ethan will got downstairs and play with some toys. This is great because it keeps him engaged while I get breakfast ready. The downside is that it’s hard for me to get him to eat breakfast when he’s in playtime mode. So there ends up on the table a variety of food on the table that I gave him that is mostly uneaten.
On the good days, I sit with my sons as they eat. Ethan and Ollie have a great time eating breakfast together. They don’t really have conversations but there’s a lot of smiling, giggling and gestures. Some of this distracts Ethan from eating, but more often than not I let it go.
Ollie almost always finish his breakfast. After eating he will lie down on the couch under a blanket, which is often the first thing he does when he comes downstairs. During this time is usually when I eat. I play him a podcast during this time or one of his favorite musical soundtracks. Sometimes he stays under the blanket and listen, other times music inspires him to get up and dance and sing.
Ethan combines his food when he’s done eating pouring his milk onto his plate or sticking scraps of food in his drinking cup. It’s often a struggle to get him off his seat as he enjoys making a mess.
I’ll remind Ollie to go upstairs and change clothes for the day, which he does willingly as I help Ethan get dressed. Around this time, Diana comes downstairs and takes over so I can get dressed and ready for the day. She deals with the post-breakfast fights that periodically happen between Ollie and Ethan, while she eats. Lucas usually is laying on the floor in a blanket, fascinated by his brother’s, watching them as they play.
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