Well Another Year Has Gone By... Dang it!

Yup, it's been over a year since I've posted anything on our blog.  But I think I'll try to keep up this year?  We'll see...
News from this past year...
1. Raiden has begun the lovely terrible 2 ;-)  We're really enjoying that and learning lots.  But he is still lots of fun.  He is learning his ABC's and knows his numbers, just not all in the right order.  But he's doing awesome on pronouncing his words right and making sentences.  Sadly our favorite friend Caden moved in June, but they are coming back to visit in November.  But Raiden is a good little boy who listens and is very sweet.  We're still into Cars and I'm guessing Planes will be the next big thing.

2. Meilee Asaye Woodland was born on June 17th, 6 lbs 7 oz, 19 1/2 inches.  It was awesome in every way!  I love epidurals and I'm so glad that I was induced.  She's our sweetest little girl and she is a great sleeper.  Her brother loves her and is finally over the randomly hit her stage.  So we're doing great!

3. Brandon and I are doing great!  Brandon has lots of homework and projects, but that's nothing new.  We hope that he will be able to write a great proposal and get more funding for his projects.  Things are going well in the academia life.  I'm just trying to stay on my toes with 2 little ones and I look forward to the day when I can cook at a more leisurely pace and go back to aerobics and institute. 

4. Mom and Dad came in April to bring us the Beige Whale (the Honda Odyssey).  It was awesome to have them come and visit and for Dad to fix the house.  Mom was awesome and made us the best food ever.  We were so happy that they came.

5. For Halloween Raiden was a Bumblebee and Meilee a flower.  While Brandon and I did our best to look like gardeners.  The kids were way cuter.  Raiden love the concept of getting candy and ask to "trunk or treat again" when we put him to bed that night.

6. Thanksgiving is coming up and we're excited for Christmas in Utah!  Yea!  We're going to have a blast!  Can't wait!

Well there a recap of the year since our last post.  Pictures will be soon to follow, I hope?  I think I'm still trying to do this blog for my benefit now.  Since I'm not great at keeping a journal, but I can type faster than write, so hey, why not try to do it on a blog and we'll hopefully let people know about what's going on at the same time.  I doubt anyone will read this, but if you are reading, thanks, hope it helps to hear about us and not be in the dark about us dang Woodlands.

Up, Out, Ite, & Walking

It's been a while again.  But this time Raiden has taken some pretty big strides.  Raiden is now 13 months old.  At the end of September Raiden said his first 2 words!  Up & Out!!!  It was pretty cute to see him pushing his little tray saying up up up and then out out out.  Although a few days later he mixed the two words together into the new word ite.  Ite is his word for everything, but we still get a few distinctive ups and outs out of him.  He also likes to call all his stuff animals dodo or doda or dado or dada.  It just depends on the day. 

Though Raiden took his first steps by himself in September, he finally started to walk by himself!!  Oct. 13th!  What a wonderful day!  It was a Wednesday and I forgot to tell Brandon that he was walking by himself.  He just about had a heart attack when Raiden stepped away from the fridge and proceeded to walk to our dining room table.  It was great!  I love that I don't have to bend and help him as much.  He still likes to walk with help in unfamiliar places and uneven surfaces, but it's so wonderful seeing him walking so fast!  This is the beginning of a really fun stage!

Far Too Long

Okay, So I let time and the craziness of life get to me.  Here's a picture recap from our lives, since Raiden's 6 Weeks.
Raiden at 2 months!

Raiden learning the fine motor skills of combing his hair.   Just Kidding, his hands were always in fist, so we wanted to see if he could hang on to it.

Raiden in his bunting from Great Grandma Tseu.  He's so cute!! Like a teddy bear!

Just a cute picture of Raiden in his bib from Aunty Ally.

Raiden and friends!  Rarrr, Caw Caw, and Mr. Froggy.

3 months and hard at work with dad.

Raiden's First Christmas Picture with Santa Claus!!  He wasn't exactly into it.  But at least he didn't cry.

Dad's idea of fun or funny!  Don't worry we were very careful.  Plastic bags and babies never mix.

On the plane to Utah!!  Yea Christmas Vacation!!  Raiden was 3 months old!! He was really good on all the plane rides!!  He slept through most of them!!

Obachan and Raiden on Christmas Day!!

Great Grandma Tseu and Raiden on Christmas day!!

Grandpa and Raiden on Christmas Day! He got spoiled being held so much!

Ally and Jared with Raiden.  Back then they were engaged.

At Raiden's baby blessing.

Back in Indiana and learning to slide down dad's back during a shoulder ride.  Look at those cheeks!

The Preliminary steps to helping Raiden sit up on his own.  Lots of pillows and padding.

Happy on his tummy, finally!  It took a while but Raiden learned to roll and be happy on his tummy!  Yea!

 






The only great part of bath time was getting out of the tub and the occasional hairdo by dad.  Raiden loved to chew his towel. 4 months

Learning to be mobile and get around.  Raiden figured out how to push himself up.  Look at that long hair! 



 Lazy Sunday with Dad.  Go BYU!

Raiden's First solid foods!!  He was pretty happy about it!!  Pretty good at it too! 6 months

 
At Ally and Jared's Wedding.  It was fun and Ally was so beautiful and Jared very tall.

He finally learned to sit all by himself!!

Loving to eat solid food finally!! That's a happy messy face.

Abuelon came to visit us!!  Yea, it was a short visit, but fun!  7 months.

Trying to help unpack the boxes in our new house.

Learning to crawl!!  Raiden on the move!!  Can't believe how fast it was. 8 Months

Raiden's first hair cut.  These are the before pictures.

These are the After pictures.  No too bad, considering that mom did it.  Oh, I just love those chubby arms and tummy!!

Raiden got eaten by the laundry monster!  Well he decided that he wanted to help me.

Raiden's first hat!  What a looker!

Just a cute picture.

Rubber Pants Head!  When you run out of toys, you got to be creative to have fun!  Such a cutie! 8 1/2 months.

Well that's about all the picture of our little boy.  We love every minute with him.  Now to Brandon and I.  After finally getting used to not getting a full nights sleep, things have fallen into a routine.  Brandon helps Raiden in the morning before he's off to school and I get to be entertainer, chef, and pacifier all day.  Sometimes we can persuade Brandon to come home early.  Brandon and I were in Utah for Christmas, as you could probably tell.  We went back to Utah in March for Ally and Jared Wedding, which as soo wonderful.  During that time, we bought a house and once we get our house completely together then we'll take pictures.  So stay tuned.  Sorry this has been forever in the making.  We'll try harder to keep it updated, but no promises.  Brandon's Mom, Dad, and Robbie will be visiting us next week for a few day!!  We're extremely excited to have Grandparents and Uncle Robbie coming to visit.  We'll take pictures and write about it soon.  Love to you all!!
The Woodlands!

4 WEEKS!! Can you believe it!!

It's officially 4 weeks!! I can't believe we've come this far, and yet it almost seems like forever.  I guess that's what happens when you're learning about babies.  Things are going soo much better!  Raiden has been gaining weight and he's pretty much breastfeeding only (with a bottle about once a day, just to give mom a break).  We've been pretty lucky that things are going so well.  We feel extremely grateful to both our moms for all the help and support that they've given us.  They have taught and relieved us from the initial fears and anxieties of being new parents.

Well Raiden has now moved up a notch in his car seat!  Ever since his double chin has appeared, I kept asking Brandon to make sure that his car seat straps were at the right level.  He's getting to be a big boy!

We had about a week of fussiness that we weren't sure exactly what was going on.  With books and people giving their opinions about growth spurts, colic, and just plain fussiness, I was pretty concerned that Raiden was just going to be a pretty fussy baby.  Well turns out that mostly Raiden just gets tired.  Unlike his first 2 weeks where he could just eat and sleep and poop as he liked, now Raiden needs some pacifying before he gets to bed.  We've learned to notice the yawns and the fussy behavior, and sometimes rocking and swaying him will keep him calm, but nothing can compare to his bottle/pacifier... that's me.  Yup, it takes less than 5 minutes and his eyes are getting heavy and then suddenly he's pretty much out.  After that it's only a matter of rocking him until he's limp and then into the crib he goes!  It's a pretty neat trick, but it only works some of the time. But I guess Heavenly Father is looking out for Brandon and I and our sleep!  It's been pretty nice!  Plus with both Moms help we've had so much more time to do things.  We are soo spoiled and we know it, but we're infinitely grateful.

We wanted to share a few funny stories about Raiden that definitely make him pretty cute.

Diaper Change:
Since the first few days of Raiden's life outside the womb, he's been pretty consistent about 1 thing... Pooping is much easier when the diaper is off.  It was probably the 2nd or 3rd day of Raiden's life and we were changing his diaper in the hospital, when suddenly he decided that he wanted to keep going. Luckily we caught the poop before it hit the sheets.  I'm not sure why we didn't reflect on that experience before.  Since then we've had to be sure not to change his dirty diaper too quickly.  You have to give him time to finish. It's pretty funny to watch Raiden grunt and get a very focused look on his face as we change his diaper.  You just have to be sure to make sure he's able to squirm a little before you put the new diaper on. When Obachan was here, we went through 4 diapers before he stopped.  4 diapers!  Now that Abuelita is here she taught us to put a rag over his little boy part, since he also likes to go shishi (Japanese for pee) after he poops.  She has a lot of experience after 4 little boys!  So now we don't get a fountain of shishi all over us after he poops ;-)

Pacifying:
Well as we explained above Raiden likes to use me as his pacifier.  However he doesn't like to get the milk that comes with pacifying at the breast.  It's so funny, because once I have a let down of milk, I can almost always expect a very frustrated cry that sounds a lot like "Ooohhh! That's not what I wanted!"  It's pretty funny, but it's also sad at the same time, for Raiden's sake.

Well to wrap things up, Raiden went for his first stroller ride.  We decided to accompany Brandon to the dumpsters.  It was pretty cold out and Raiden liked the change of environment at first, but then it was pretty clear that it wasn't fun anymore and that it was too cold!

Raiden got his most recent toy!  It's a swing!  A rain forest swing!  I don't know if the type of swing even makes a difference to him.  But it seems to keep him stimulated enough.  Although I don't think that Raiden's ready to fall asleep in it.  Oh well, but at least we'll see if he likes it enough to give me more time to do other things, other than just hold him. 

Things are going pretty dang well in our cozy woodland home.  Thanks to all for your love and support!  Stay tuned...

Finally Here!

Well it was a long 9 months but we finally have our little boy! Raiden Robert Jay Woodland! Born on September 20th 2009 at 10:48pm. It was a grueling 12 hour labor, but worth it all! He was 6lbs 9oz and 18.75 inches. As the first grand baby on both sides of our families he's the definitely the center of attention right now! We'll see though as Ally and Jared get married. We can't wait for our kids to have cousins ;-).

We've been lucky enough to have a full month of grandma's to help. Obachan (Christine's Mom) came the first 2 weeks. She got the full on postpartum experience with Christine's anxieties and little Raiden being so little. Now we have Abeulita (I don't think I spelled that right, and we're still figuring out what Grandma Woodland wants to be called, so right now it's temporary). She's here with us for another 2 weeks or so. It's been a real blessing to have such wonderful moms on both sides of our families. I don't know how Brandon and I could have made it through. Being a new mom is something that no one can prepare you for. There's tons of emotions and worries that you don't expect to feel. Lucky for me I had my moms and they've been the biggest support and help. I recommend mom month for anyone that's having a baby!

Well back to our little guy... We initially thought that breastfeeding was going to be great and was the perfect option for our new family. Well, we ran into some obstacles along the way. Raiden over the first 4 days lost about 13oz, which made his weight 5lbs 12oz. After Dr. Thomas our pediatrician saw how much weight Raiden lost, he recommended that we start supplementing with formula. Poor Raiden! He was sucking but not really getting anything out. Fortunately we saw a lactation consultant, who recognized Raiden had difficulty sucking. Because he wasn't able to suck efficiently my milk wasn't coming in and so he was pretty hungry. Well, over the course of another week, I pumped and gave Raiden breast milk, formula, and breastfed him. That was an exhausting week--I'm sure my mom recalls that. Finally it was just so hard to get Raiden to latch on and suck that we started to just give him the bottle. I pumped and fed him my milk with bottles, not my idea of breastfeeding. I felt pretty bad giving up and I had quite a few meltdowns, but really I was just afraid of trying to give him the breast, since it hadn't gone so well in the past. Well after Day 16, I just couldn't fully give up without trying one more time. Brandon stayed with me during every feeding and we tried really hard to give him the breast. This time it was working. Now we're still making formula as a back up, but I'm not really pumping-Raiden keeps me busy enough, and he's mostly just eating from the breast. This has been a crazy and hard experience but I'm so glad that we're getting through it.

So that is what has happened these past few weeks. Life is definitely changed, going out to do errands and even house work is just kind of on the back burner until Raiden gets a little older. He's pretty fussy when he's tired and it's a big job to get him to sleep sometimes, but once he's worn out, he's a goner. We're still figuring out what his cries mean, but I definitely know when he's hungry, his sucking is a lot more frantic. Anyways I hope this give a little insight into our lives for now. Stay tuned and we'll give updates as we learn to live as 3 Woodlands instead of just 2. Love you all!