October Family Time

What a great weekend! We took advantage of the gorgeous day on Saturday and headed out early for brunch on the Danforth. We don't have much experience with Rory in busy restaurants (with the exception of our anniversary weekend) so we headed out with some trepidation and ended up by chance meeting up with good friends of ours and their two kids (who live around the corner but we never see). The kids were angels!

We then headed out to a pumpkin patch to do some of the requisite fall family activities. Hay wagon ride - check, corn maze - check, pumpkin patch - check, soft serve ice cream and gingerbread - check!

 Since we were already out of the city we decided to do what is one of my favourite things about Almonte and "drop in" on great friends of ours in Newmarket who we also rarely get to see. It ended up turning into such an enjoyable evening of dinner, great chats and lots of laughs. Thanks Cedar, Vanessa, Seth & Angus!

As Peter and I drove home to Toronto on Saturday at 10pm we realized we had literally been out of the house since 10am in the morning. 12 spontaneous hours out and about with Rory and he was as good as gold. Lots of smiles, laughs and naps! We have ourselves a good baby. I will say it again, not sure if it is something we're doing right or if this kid comes by this honestly all on his own, but there is lots to smile about despite the rain this Monday morning.

xo

FORE!!!!!!

Or in this case, 4. Four months that is. Time flies when you're growing.
Gosh I love this child.

Baby its cold outside

It was 1 freaking degree when we woke up this morning. A frosty Toronto morning indeed. Especially since mommy has a horrible cold. Thank god it’s Friday. 

So, the cold weather has been on my mind since a walk I took earlier this week with Rory. It was a sunny but colder than average day, I had him in a fleece sweat suit and in his bassinette with a blanket over him. He loves being outside and didn’t complain once while we were out. So, I went to change his diaper when we got home, and I will be honest to my shock… the poor baby was FROZEN. His little hands and legs and arms were so cold. This week, I totally deserve the bad mom award. Clearly the memo on weather appropriate gear got deleted from my inbox.

Never one to complain about needing to shop, I immediately began a search for appropriate seasonal clothing for a 4 month old. I have seen snowsuits practically everywhere, but I have had this warning my dad gave me about snowsuits being unsafe in car seats in the back of my head which has prevented me from really doing anything about it.

So what do you wear on a child if they can’t be in a snowsuit?  Another piece of honesty...ever since I was told to do keegals and didn’t (and now am suffering the consequences), I heed professional recommendations. And the ministry of transportation has a lot to say on the matter.

So basically Transport Canada describes the issue as;

“ bulky coats, snowsuits and bunting bags cause safety issues ranging from inducing slack in the shoulder harness system to adding compressible material behind the child, which during a crash will allow for slackness in the harness system. The resulting slack in the harness may cause the child to be either partially or fully ejected from the restraint system, in the event of a crash or sudden stop.”

So, how am I supposed to know if the gear I have bought my child is safe?   Here is a trick that has been shared with me to show you how thick your coat is and how much the coat will compress during a crash.

1. Take the car seat into the house.
2. Put the winter coat or snowsuit on the child.
3. Put the child in the car seat and buckle the harnesses as you normally would before car travel. Adjust the straps to the appropriate fit for your child.
4. Take the child out of the car seat without loosening the straps at all.
5. Take the coat off your child.
6. Put the child back in the car seat and buckle the harnesses again, but do not tighten the straps.
7. If you can fit more than two fingers under the harness at the child's shoulder bone, the coat is too thick and is not safe for use with the car seat.

So… this super rad jacket from H&M – is a no go. Darn.

This, not so rad but warm bunting bag from MEC, is a go.

So we’re ready. Let the snow fly.

Mom & Baby Milestones

So, today was our last mommy/baby class, well the one organized by Toronto Public Health. I can't believe 6 weeks has gone by so quickly. Well I can't believe almost 4 months has gone by, but I will save that for another post.   I remember being so worried about the first class, and to be honest, just getting out the door back then was still a challenge.  All in all, I am really glad I went. It has been so great connecting with other moms who have babies of a similar age, finding out about resources in my neighborhood and also getting answers to my endless list of mommy questions. Or at the very least hearing what other moms have done/are doing in similar situations.  I think the best part has been just getting out to something regular each week. Wednesdays have had a structure/activity, which has been more helpful than I think I have even realized. So, I think I am going to keep in touch with a few of the moms. We all exchanged a master contact list but I am sure the group will break off into individual smaller groups. So today was graduation day. We celebrated with foot prints, certificates, and cheese/crackers and juice.

The moms I will likely keep in touch with are the group who mentioned it was too bad we forgot the wine.

So now what?  Well... we're starting a music class, that's what.  Peter and I signed Rory up for a music program for babies called Musical Munchkins. Music is supposed to be good for a child's emotional. social and intellectual growth. And, the program sort of promises your kid will be a little Beethoven upon completion, so whats to lose?  kidding.  But it's something to do until xmas, and then we start Diaper Fit in January which is the baby/caregiver swimming class I have been dying to start.

So the final topic today in our group was childcare.  The mention of childcare makes my stomach turn for numerous reasons.  Living in a city without grandparents sucks. Plain and simple. And so does endless wait lists at Toronto's limited and expensive day cares. Ugh. Would someone just hire one of us in Ottawa already?

Rory has gone through a stroller graduation too. Bye Bye baby-basinette, hello world in my big boy seat.

Tear.

Happy Birthday Gramma

We love you.

The Wonder Weeks

So I know I already wrote a happy shining family post today, but I am seizing this rare evening opportunity to tell you about my rather intense day with Rory.

So in Rory's defense off the top, I will share that me sleeping for only a few hours (read - maybe 2 at the most) last night was not his fault. I haven't slept well in two or three weeks. Murphy's Law - My child starts sleeping through the night and I develop some weird sort of mommy-insomnia. Perfect.

So yes, it's not Rory's fault, but it is directly influencing my ability to cope with a very cranky baby (so relevant to this post).   Last night Rory went to bed at 7pm, got up at 330am for 20 minutes and went back down until 630am. This little boy has become a dream sleeper. Apparently I was a really good sleeper when I was Rory's age, so we seem to be winning the sleep battle.  What we're currently trailing in, is daytime playtime. I am not sure what has happened in the last week or two but Rory will not let me out of his sight!  If I put him down to play, he either screams immediately, or he cries within 5 minutes. It's exhausting. Here's the thing... Before this last little while, Rory hardly ever cried hard. If he cries at all, it's always for a reason and Peter and I have it down to a few minutes to settling him. I know. I know. My dad has already told me that I deserved a MUCH more difficult baby.  Peter's amiable personality clearly won the DNA battle in this case. Thank God.

So back to the crankiness. What does a mom do?  I sang, I danced, I rocked, I rolled, I bathed, I fed. And tears. Lots of tears.  Aside from cracking a beer once Rory was in bed, I really was beside myself with answers as to what the change has been?

So I started google-ing.  Honestly, how did people parent before the internet?
 
So here is what I found.  The Wonder Weeks.  Eight predictable, age-linked leaps in a baby's mental development. And apparently we're right in the middle of a biggie.BINGO.

Here is the publisher's description:"The Wonder Weeks. How to stimulate your baby's mental development and help him turn his 8 predictable, great, fussy phases into magical leaps forward" described in easy-to-understand terms the incredible developmental changes that all babies go through during the first 60 weeks of their lives.

The book is based on the discovery of a little known phenomenon: all normal, healthy babies appear to be more tearful, troublesome, demanding and clingy at very nearly the same ages.

These age-related fluctuations in need for body contact and attention are related to major and quite dramatic changes in the brains of the children. These changes enable a baby to enter a whole new perceptual world and, as a consequence, to learn many new skills. This should be a reason for celebration, but as far as the baby is concerned these changes are bewildering. He's taken aback-everything has changed overnight. It is as if he has woken up on a strange planet"


Again, what did mothers do before the internet? So, the 4 month mark appears to be a big one in many development areas, not to mention more needles on Thursday of this week. So... the plan is just for Rory and I to continue to hug it out over the next couple of weeks and hope his daytime fussy periods come to the same dramatic conclusion as they began.

Until then, I am amazons new favourite customer.

Bed.Time.

The Wonder/Wander - First Anniversary

One year... in many ways it seems like much longer than a year (like this morning when I am sure I only slept a few hours last night). But in so many other ways, it feels like the quickest (and busiest) year of my life. In any case, we had a wonderful first anniversary, wandering the city as a family and soaking up as much of this amazing fall weather as possible.

Saturday we had family pictures taken here at our house and down the street at a park by photographer/friend Heather Lynch. It will be fun to compare pictures taken EXACTLY one year apart once we get to see them! We then ventured out for our very first experiment with Rory in a restaurant at dinner time (read - his fussy time).  To our enjoyment, and let's be honest... to our SHOCK, Rory was a total dream at dinner. Maybe we tuckered the little guy out taking pictures all afternoon... whatever the case, he drank a bottle and then we sat him in his stroller and turned around minutes later and he was SLEEPING!!  And it didn't end there, we came home, bathed him and he slept from 8pm to 6am and then got up and ate and cuddled back in our bed to sleep until 930am!  I truly believe it was his anniversary present to us.

My camera was without batteries for most of the weekend so we didn't get any pictures from yesterday, but I did charge it in time to grab some shots of our late evening dinner celebration last night. It took us one year to start (mistakeningly) dressing alike, so we're calling it our plaid anniversary.

I recently have been wondering what my intention is with this blog. Should I continue, should I end it now?  I don't really have a theme or a point other than to ramble about my life and my little family, but given my hits, some of you apparently find that interesting.  Anyway, I found my solution! You can make a blog into a book! On Rory's first birthday, I am going to bind up this blog  into a little book of memories and give it to him as a keepsake.  Maybe then, I will have figured out my mat leave million dollar idea to take up all my extra time.

XO
K

What a year can make....

One year ago today Peter and I were up in Prince Edward County at the little cottage we had rented with my family freezing our asses off (the furnace wasn't working haha).  We were beyond excited for the arrival of the rest of our loved ones, and of course for our wedding day.   I remember carefully choosing the play list for the road trip to the county, and taking pictures like this one...

so I could look back and fondly remember those moments, and also remember the way Peter held my hand while he drove for almost the entire trip up there.  Looking back, there is not a single thing I would have changed about our wedding weekend. It was perfect.

What a year it has been... a wedding, a honeymoon, a pregnancy, a first house purchase, a first house renovation, a move (not a first), and then the arrival of Rory and the beginning of our family. If you blinked this year, you missed something major in our lives.

So what hasn't changed in a year?
Well really the only important ones are; how much I love my husband hasn't changed, and the commitment that I will give my time to him and our family for as long as I have never will.

Our first dance on our wedding night, was to a song written by a wonderful lifetime friend of ours who stood for us on our wedding day, and now a year later, is Rory's god father. Adam Puddington.

As he so poetically has written, All I have is time.

Have a listen.

XO
K

So much to be thankful for

We have just returned from a wonderful extended long thanksgiving weekend in the valley. As usual it was a whirlwind of activity, visits, parties, and food! We never fit in all the stuff we want to when we're home. Truth be told, we never come close... but we feel fortunate to be able to spend any time we can with our family and friends so no complaining here.  There is always our next visit!

We're tired... but this quiet Monday night has me thankful for so many things this year in particular.

I am thankful for my beautiful and happy little boy who makes our lives brighter in so many ways, and today especially because he was so good in brutal holiday traffic and barely fussed at all during our 7 hour trip home. 

I am thankful for the family and friends who helped us celebrate Rory and Eve's baptism's this long weekend.

I am thankful for Father Bill, my sister, my mom and my Aunt Patricia who went to so much trouble to help my cousin Angela and I plan the baptism from afar and prepare such a wonderful spread of food and drink.

I am thankful for Stephanie and Adam who stood beside Peter and I this weekend and promised to help us guide Rory as he grows into the amazing young man we know he is going to be. 

I am thankful for the girlfriends who I get to see sometimes by plan or sometimes by chance when I am home in Almonte. No matter how short or sweet, even brief moments are wonderful in our busy lives.

And finally I am thankful for my parents who are so supportive and give so much unconditional love to my little family.

And of course, I am so thankful for my incredible husband who makes everything easy and special in our lives.

And I would also be incredibly thankful if Rory slept through the night tonight. Too greedy?
I hope you had a great long weekend too. xo

Finding the holy grail of new parenting

All new parents learn quickly that getting their baby to sleep through the night is the holy grail of parenthood. The briefer the pursuit, the sooner apparently, you find some sort of sanity and regularity following you child's arrival on the scene (maybe).  Last week in my mom's group the topic of choice was just that, sleep. Not enough, how much, when, duration, coping with lack of, and most importantly what we can do to help our child sleep longer or through the night.  Every mom & baby had a different situation, with many variables that made each one of us unique. The one thing that seemed to be consistent in every shared story of what has helped,  has been routine. 

So, a bedtime routine is something we started early on with Rory. Never a schedule (strict to a timetable), but a normal way in which we regularly prepare him for bed. A warm bath every night, fresh warm jammies, singing/soft lights/rocking, and his bedtime feeding. And in the last month, whether he's fully asleep or not (but drowsy), we put him into his bed with his favourite blanket, his sleep sheep, and we hit play on the cd player which plays 45 minutes of soft lullabies.

So something has changed... Something is working. KNOCK-ON-WOOD.

Or maybe Rory understood the discussion last week... Whatever it is, since Thursday night of last week Rory has been sleeping between 9 AND 10 HOURS A NIGHT!  I know!   I say it out loud, and I almost tell myself to "GET-OUT-OF-TOWN". Or some variation of that saying. Anyway, for the last four nights straight... we have all slept, all night. It's been magic. And that's the part that worries me. Because we all know that just like magic, P-O-O-F, it can be gone. Babies schedules change. Over night. Anyway, until then, I am super proud of my little guy, but also in a way Peter and I rarely do... we would like to think we have done even a few things right to get us to here.

Maybe not, but that's what we're telling people.  Yay for sleep!!!!

Oh... and just to set your expectations. 4 days of 10 hours of consistent sleep, still has done nothing to bring back the vocabulary that disappeared from my brain once I gave birth. 

We're heading home to the valley this weekend for our first thanksgiving there in two years and of course as a new family. I can't wait to see all the fall colours on the drive up. It's hands down my favourite trip home of the year.  

Happy Fall!

XO

Roll on Rory!

After two weeks of tummy time boot camp, we have ourselves a roller! I was determined to get Rory to love being on his tummy before he turned 3 months old, so we have been working hard at it. I read on-line for tummy-time haters that you should try putting them on their tummy every time you change their diaper (even if just for 2 minutes). Well... Rory goes through A LOT of diapers, so clearly that did the trick! Rory rolled for his first time yesterday, twice in a row! The first time I was convinced it was a total fluke, so I immediately put him back down and he did it again right away! This morning the little monkey was all smiles so we put him down on his mat and he rolled for his dad just before Peter headed out the door. I don't know who was beaming bigger, Rory or Peter!  Today it was non-stop rolls. Honestly, getting him to STAY on his stomach will now be our challenge. I think he has perfected his roll to make sure he can permanently graduate from our school of tummy time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4D-RoT2l_c

This little guy is becoming more fun every single day we spend together now.  Along with rolling his has perfected his laugh and giggle, which makes me laugh, and then he laughs harder, and then it quickly spirals out of control and ends with hiccups and spit up.  And then we change his clothes. again. And I love it.

I never thought I would be so happy to see a roll (more on losing my baby weight in a future post).

 

"I need no nap mom"

Reminiscing

Recently I had 800 prints made from a collection of digital photos we have taken in the last 2 ½ years. I have seriously neglected this task over the years and upon being asked to bring photos of Rory into my office (and being ashamed I had not printed a single one) I officially had my motivation to sort our photos and get it done. Included in the mix of prints were candid shots from our wedding and our honeymoon pictures. Today I completed our honeymoon album as the last of my prints arrived by post and it totally has me reminiscing and also longing for a holiday. Peter and I took an incredible three week honeymoon in Portugal and the South of Spain and flipping through these pictures has reminded me just how much fun we had on that trip together.  God we laughed. We were ridiculous. We had inside jokes, we were silly… we were very silly. We weren’t on a schedule… and we were spontaneous. I am sure these will forever be some of the happiest moments of my life.   As we approach our one year anniversary next month, it amazes me everything we have been through in such a short time. It also makes me thankful for the man I married and the relationship we have.  

 As we come through the haze of “newbornness”, I am excited to see where the adventure of being parents takes us. I am also excited for our first over-night trip alone together we’re planning to celebrate our anniversary. Excited and nervous but more on that later.   

Anyway, today’s reminiscing reminded me that we all need moments like this. Moments to laugh, and to love, and to take the weight of the day to day off a bit. Maybe not a three week one… but an over-night will do just fine.  We took a lot of pictures, it's impossible to show you all my favourites. But this will give you a flavour.