I Am The Proud Owner Of A Toddler

I don’t really own my child, don’t worry… I know that. More importantly though is that he is a walking child. My walking child. Last night BabyA took his first independent steps. It was only a matter of days away with the growing amount of confidence he had in standing. He had gotten to where he could go up and down from sitting to standing without help, and while standing he could clap and dance. So last night, he was standing next to me and I handed him a book (Little Mouse, The Big Hungry Bear, and the Red Ripe Strawberry )while he was holding the book he took three wobbly baby-godzilla steps toward me. I immediately grabbed him and ran into the kitchen to get hubs so he could see, and we took him back to his room and made him walk to each of us over and over for the next ten minutes. He was taking steps! He was walking! I still need to get a video of this amazingness but haven’t yet. 

In other new BabyA news… we have been wearing fewer bibs. The drooling is finally under control (mostly) and he no longer needs a bib 24/7. It only took a year and 12 teeth. BabyA knows some tricks now… or I guess he has learned some skills because he isn’t a puppy. He can sign for ‘more’ and ‘all done.’ He can clap, and wave, and blow kisses, and dance on command if he likes you. He knows what his binky is if I ask him to find it. He looks for daddy if I ask where he is. He puts a ball into the hole in the toy when he is playing. He knows the quickest way to get mama’s attention during Independent Playtime is to unplug the camera or his night light (he is not allowed to touch those and knows it). He makes the ‘uh uh” sound when he does things he knows are off limits and tries to speed do them before he gets caught. He can make it look like a tornado went through his room in about 5 minutes.  He can open the front door by himself, which was terrifying the first time.

He went to the circus on Valentines Weekend with Hubs and I as our treat and sat for the two hour show happily. He clapped along with the audience and stood on one of our laps to see the whole time. It was pretty adorable and the people around us thought so too. He also tried cotton candy while we were there and was enthusiastic about the sugar in his mouth but not quite about the sticky hands.

We attended a friends son’s first bday and he got his face painted (hated) and played in a bounce house (hated) and tried all sorts of foods (loved) and rode a train around a track (loved.) 

In Holly news: I have BabyFever. Everyone in my church is pregnant. It's everywhere and it is contagious.  Though I will not be doing anything about it for a while. I have a timeline I am sticking to.

 I have never hated somewhere as much as I hated Hollywood. I would have though that my name being in there would give it some grace... but no. Traffic is the worst. I get so frustrated in traffic and want to just plow through all the cars on the road or buy a helicopter.  The only neat thing about our day in Hollywood was seeing where the Oscars will be and watching them set up the red carpet and all that jazz. BabyA wasn't a fan of the car ride so I will be chalking him up to a 'kill me before making me go again' too.

BabyA has been having a couple weeks of digestive issues (read poop problems) and I think it is from Milk. So we are cutting that out. But he loves yogurt so I will see if just cutting out drinking milk will help. Poor lamb.

I am filling up my weeks with social things- which is uncharacteristic of me. I am getting in on the church-group-love and scheduling play dates, walks, and storytimes with other moms from church and LOVE having a full week and things for BabyA to do. And me having adult time. And exercise. In a related not my job is getting harder and harder to do with a baby. The clock is ticking on that.

Baby is napping and my house has been hit by a Babynado. (See above picture and multiply that by every room)

Happy 2nd Birthday Max

My second baby is crying to himself in his room right now, protesting nap time with all the umph his two foot frame can muster…I pray that my first baby is in there with him, watching over and comforting him always. Tuesday was Max’s second birthday. The day that marked 760 days away from earth and away from my arms. My 27 week old first born went to heaven before I met him… and that isn’t right. I remind myself that if I hadn’t lost Max, I would never have met BabyA. But that is comparing apples to oranges… if I had Max I would have never known BabyA and therefore wouldn’t miss him.  The comparison only works in hindsight and let’s face it… there is nothing you can actually change with ‘if only’, and ‘but.’ 

For Max’s second birthday we got a big cupcake and shared it as a family. I had been emotional all day remembering my first little man, and really struggled to keep it together in public while we quietly celebrated. BabyA ended up with more of the cupcake than he probably should have, but it was a special occasion and we don’t make a practice of eating cupcakes for dinner. I felt really alone that day… It feels like Hubby isn’t affected anymore. I know that isn’t fair or true… but I still feel it. He didn’t even remember it was Max’s birthday. I feel that I will be carrying the burden of remembering for the rest of my life. 

I am sitting here drinking coffee, listening to the two songs that got me through that 2 month hell after Max died, crying. Will there ever be a day that I can think of the boy I lost and smile as I remember instead of cry? 

I have had too much death surround me the last two years. I pray 2014 leaves my family intact.

ONE YEAR!

Weight: 20.2 lbs
Length: 29.65 inches
Number of Teeth: 12 teeth for 12 months!! four molars. The molars all came within the last two weeks! 
Words He Says: Yeah! Mama. Dada. Uh uh.

Likes: Asparagus. Playing with his friends at small group and ladies group. Being in the church nursery. The roast part of pot-roast. His new latches and locks sensory board. Books. Pulling books down. His baby gate. Opening and closing the door in the baby gate. Vegging out with his binky. Being carried over being in the stroller. Anything Mama and Dada are eating. Birthday cake. Actual milk. And his owl straw cup. Waving. Walking along furtiture. Climbing on things. Fuzzy things, he will put his face on and  lay down on anything fuzzy or soft.

Dislikes: Drinking milk from a real sippy cup. Sitting still when we go to storytime. Having to crawl to get to me (when I won’t come pick him up). When I am holding other babies. Being stuck in the carseat longer than 20 minutes. Being abandoned at nap time.

Eye Color: Dark grey blue

Hair Color: Blonde

New Skills: Standing! Waving like a real person. Being dedicated in church (not a skill, but still…) chewing. Feeding himself finger foods. Drinking from his very one Camelback cup. Repeating some sounds back at us.

My Favorite Thing: When he wakes up, for the first two minutes or so he will cuddle and lay against me. This is SO rare. And when I say ‘mama’ to get him to repeat it he says back ‘dada.’ Everytime.

Things I Call Him: LittleBear, Babybear, Squats, honey, sweetheart, Bearheart

The Asparagus Gene

Wow I am really getting terrible about this whole blog thing. Life is getting ahead of me! My little man turns ONE on Saturday and I cannot believe we have spent a year together. It went way too fast. Family is coming into town for his bday party and I am really excited to go overboard on the decorations and bday party supplies. He only turns ONE once. To reminisce I am going through the last years worth of pictures and videos and getting sad looking at how tiny he was and how cuddly he was. It makes me want baby#2 (3). Buuuuuuut not yet. 

Now onto the title for this post. BabyA loves asparagus. Weird. He eats it plain. Unmixed with applesauce like peas have to be. Anyways. Last night after he went down I snuck in to give him his bedtime kiss like I do every night. I have really been honing my ninja skills in making it to the crib without waking him up by accident (creaky wood floors). I go to kiss him and smell…something. Something  is not right. Did he poop? Will I have to change him (he will LOVE that)? Luckily he sleeps with his bottom up in the air and so I could get close enough to sniff. Something smelled. Sooooo I go get hubs. We both ninja in and smell.. what is that? While we were debating waking him he saw us.  Being mature adults we hit the deck. Maybe he will only think he saw us… no chance. We are facedown on the carpet and he is standing at the rail looking down at us and crying (probably wondering why we were pretending to be the floor.) I am giggling at us lying on the floor while he is watching us. So we stand up and pull him out the check his diaper. No poop. My child inherited the Asparagus gene from me. Due to some medical enzyme breakdown that you can look up if you google “asparagus pee” …for some people (like 22%) pee has an odd smell for a while after eating asparagus. Hubs doesn’t have it. Everyone in my fam does though. I thought everyone did until hubs was like… “what? No.” buuut Little man does! 

Other than that weirdly proud discovery (I passed on a gene!) nothing big has been going on. BabyA got his second haircut last weekend, and sat pretty still while we played "what does the fox say" for him on the iphone...our secret weapon to get him to sit still. Works every time. He and I go to baby sign language story time at the local library on Mondays, and mommy’s play group on Fridays at the park. It has been in the 70s-80s weather wise this month and it has been awesome. We are dedicating BabyA on Sunday at our church now that he has reached a year and I am so excited to be able to show him off as a ‘church member’ and as a Holly-success-story.

Hubs and I get to GO TO HAWAII in April with his work for free(without the baby!) for 4 days and relax and do whatever we want. SO STOKED. It will be the first time away from the baby ever. But hubs parents are going to come and watch him for us! And I ordered my bridesmaid dress for one of the most awesome ladies I know's wedding in May!!!! She is the one responsible for me meeting and starting to date my husband :)

Pictures Again...And Bullet Points.

I know. It has been forever since I have last done any updating and the thought of trying to catch up writing while my book is calling my name (The Casual Vaccancy- JK Rowling) is a no-contest. Bullet points it is. 

-He quit breastfeeding all by himself about a month ago. Went on strike and that was that. :(
                -I am heartbroken over it and jealous when I see other mamas nursing

- We went to PA for the holidays and that was fantastic. BabyA had room to crawl and family to fawn over him

-It was really weird going through my brother’s things to sort with my mom. I can’t believe it still. 

(I did nab some socks and a tee shirt that I am keeping of his. Even after washing them they still smell like him...)

-Cards Against Humanity is hilarious. Even playing with your mother.

-My husband is a pretty good snowboarder. It look me 5 years to learn that. 

-I hate skiing etc so I stayed home when he went.

-First period just ended. My last period was June 2010. Bam. Suuuucks. I had forgotten how much it sucks. 

-Because I am not nursing I can take regular birth control. My skin cleared up in 2 weeks. I missed that. 

-We baby proofed half-assedly… we will get around to it eventually. 

 

-My baby turns 1 in a couple weeks... where did the time go?!

- His party will be awesome. and outside. So stay warm weather!

-We spend waaaaaaay too much money at Amazon.

-Mommy play groups save the sanity of stay at home moms. adult convo!!!!

-I am nearing the end of where I can work part time and still bring babyA... He gets into everything... I have to go when he naps. Which means I get 0 freetime.

- I want a Seaworld pass- I will not be watching that documentary because i love Seaworld and don't want to hate it.

-I will be taking BabyA to weekly Baby Sign times at the local library. He may pick some up and *see reasons for mommy groups. 

-I weigh 105lbs. I started BabyA's pregnancy at 122. 

-Flying with a baby succcccccks. Red eye really sucks.

-I suck because I fell asleep on the plane too. thanks hubby for picking up my slack. 

-I have a personal vendetta against United Air. They are the worst.  They turned an 8 hour trip into 30. And stole 350$ worth of stuff from our checked bags. 

-The plus side is we love the new Motorola baby monitor we got to replace the stolen Snuza.

-We bought the Chicco Nextfit for BabyA and so far we are reserving judgement until we figure out the strap situation.