Mommy Is Spent

Wednesday was a tough day for us. I barely slept, and Noah was having some digestive troubles. I think the teething has caused him to have some diarrhea. Nothing severe, and it isn't accompanied by fever or vomiting or anything.

The toughest part of the last few days is that he has been so unbelievably clingy! He just wants to be held or snuggled and be near mommy or daddy. It's so sweet, but I can't get anything done. Seriously, I can barely go get a glass of water or wash my hands after a diaper change, without Noah freaking out like I'd left him by the roadside.

He's kinda been off his game too, cause he even face planted on Tuesday and gave himself a huge goose egg of a bump. Today it's all purple and pink, and probably tender, and of course my son decided he would smack his already tender forehead into the table leg. Twice. Then he fell face first into the side table. I'm scared to leave the house now because I'm sure people will think I'm a neglectful parent, but he's just a boisterous boy.

The last two days have been full of diarrhea, head injuries, clingyness, whinyness, bludgeoning mommy with books, biting, no sleep, and... walking! My baby walked today. He was so steady, and took several deliberate steps all day today. It was like a glass of water at the end of a long journey through the desert.

No matter how tough it can be, the greatest part about parenthood is that there is always a silver lining at the end of a stormy, tumultous day. As long as everyone's healthy and alive, you can look back at the day's events and see that it was full of activity and living life with everything you've got.

I am so damn tired, but I am freaking happy. I wouldn't mind a gigantic cup of hot chocolate right now. And maybe some cake. Yeahhhh cake!

xoxo

All The Organic Baby Food

Noah has been really packing in the baby food. I'm not sure where he puts it all, cause he's a wiry and muscular little baby. I guess it explains his super active and squirmy baby lifestyle!

He's still most comfortable with the pureed baby food, but he's starting to get the hang of his puffs and Mum-Mums, cheese and eggs. When I feed him tiny pieces of what I'm eating, he'll eat it, but if I put a selection of food pieces in front of him, he just likes to touch it and smash it. Very little actually makes it into his mouth, let alone enough to count as nutrition.

I guess we're doing it the old school baby way, which I am fine with. It's how we were both raised, and neither one of us has a problem with eating whatever we want now!

We are not going the homemade baby food route, simply because I feel like our storage needs can't be met. We've got a crappy apartment box freezer above our fridge, and its ability to keep things properly frozen is questionable. I just wouldn't feel comfortable making a batch of food for Noah and freezing the rest for later, only to find out it went bad because of improper storage temperature. Food poison = bad.

I am not even a little bit ashamed to say that I buy Noah's baby food. Instead of buying single packets at the grocery store, I finally decided to buy it directly from the company. We chose to go with Ella's Kitchen Organic Baby Food.

Ella's Kitchen was born out of one family's need to provide their kids with healthy, organic, delicious food. They're constantly coming up with new and fun food combinations, and my baby loves their stuff, which was priority number one for me.

Excited about his huge food haul!

Mmm spinach and rutabaga

Small Human knows what these packets are, so when I was opening up the boxes on the floor, he was going nuts, trying to carry as many as he could at once and run away! Silly banana. I'm glad he's as excited as mommy is!

Noah's First Halloween

Remember when you were little and you would get over the moon excited about dressing up for Halloween, or counting down the days 'til Christmas? As an adult, you kinda forget about those things, or they at least fall a few notches on your priority list. That was the case for me, anyway.

Well, when you have a kid, you get to have those things again! It's even more fun this time around, because you have the privilege of watching a new little person see it with fresh eyes. Noah's still very little, so he doesn't really get it yet, but all his new experiences are accumulating and registering in his quickly growing mind. It's beautiful to behold.

I wanted Noah to be a painting elephant this year (see what I mean on youtube), except he loves putting the paintbrush in his mouth, so I think he'll just be an elephant, which is just as cute and also, safer.

At Monday's class, we dressed up the little beans for Halloween, and thankfully, Noah liked wearing his costume. He wasn't a big fan of the suit when I tried it on him for the first time a month ago, but maybe it was too warm out and mommy was just annoying by stuffing him into a fleece elephant outfit.

We'll be taking him out on Halloween, not to go trick or treating, but just to walk around the neighbourhood to see all the big kids dressed up, and to get a feel for the festivities. (And so mommy & daddy can relive Halloween, yay!)

Why The Honest Company Rocks

I have spoken of my love for the Honest Co. on several occasions now, I thought it was time to finally dedicate a post to them.

I LOVE that I don't have to worry about any of the surfaces of our house being potentially toxic to Noah because of the cleaning products I use. I not only feel like a responsible parent, but a responsible citizen of the Earth, since their products are also eco-friendly.

For cleaning the house, we use their Multi-Surface Cleaner, Floor Cleaner, Bathroom Cleaner, Scrubber Sponges, Laundry Pods, Stain Remover, and Glass & Window Cleaner. The best part is that yes, all of these products actually work and clean very well! They only use natural, biodegradable, and non-toxic ingredients, so even the sprays never smell like chemicals, just like fresh essential oils.

We use Honest products in the bathroom too! Our family is a fan of their hand soaps, both regular and foaming. They even have a selection of scents: lemon grass, mandarin, and lavender. Noah uses their Shampoo + Body Wash (it smells like creamsicles), and mommy likes their Face + Body Lotion (unscented). I keep one of their Lavender Soy Candles in my bathroom too, for that nice spa smell.

All in all, I think the star of Honest's product line is their amazing diapers. You'll have to experiment and try them to see if they work for your baby, but for us, Honest diapers have been the best hands down. No blowouts, less leaks, no irritation. The only time he's pooped out of them is when he's ready to graduate to a bigger size. The times he's leaked out of the diapers have generally been my fault for not changing him in time after a huge bottle.

A testament of their absorbency? The other night, Noah slept for 12 hours straight, and there as a small spot of pee leakage. However, upon changing him, we discovered that the diaper was completely saturated end to end with pee. It could've been a total disaster, but it was pretty well contained. Impressive! We will never use anything else.

To top it all off, these diapers are the cutest diapers I have ever seen in my life. Noah's been wearing the skull pattern since he was a teeny weeny newborn, and our current favourites are the comic book pattern and the anchors. It seems silly, but having cute diapers makes diaper changing a bit more fun and less of a yucky chore. I can't recommend them enough!

If you are interested, this is my referral link. You don't have to use it, but you should give Honest a try regardless!

**My friend Meagan just let me know of a Groupon deal for the Honest Company!

Stinky Monkey Update

I have truly crossed the line into that ridiculous world called Parenthood. It is a world where you will do whatever it takes to get the job done, while keeping your child safe, happy, and healthy.

I decided to mix it up today by bathing Noah in the late morning instead of the evening. Then I prepared a short medley of songs to play that was no longer than ten minutes: Sweet Child 'O Mine, Ain't No Mountain High Enough, and Baby Love. (I can't believe I did that either)

All the bath toys that we owned got lined up on the tub, the heat lamp was on, the bath was running, and I eased the baby into the routine by playing with the toys and reciting some of his favourite books that I already know by heart. It looked promising!

Then I undressed him and he started to panic, so I told him mama would take a bath with him. That baby clung to me for dear life as we entered the bath water, like a terrified little koala.

There was whimpering, but no crying! And after a few minutes, he was totally playing, while I manically recited "Moo Baa La La La" and "I Love You Through and Through". But then I found myself having fun too, and we were two happy Wilsons, getting clean without screaming or tears.

I started to do some pedicure prep in the bath since he was calm, and he lifted his little feet in the air too, wanting his own feet scrubbed! I laughed so hard, but obliged, which made him giggle with joy.

Great, did I just start a "I will only bathe with mama" thing? Maybe I should just embrace this opportunity while I can. :)

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! xoxo

Why he needs a bath every day

Stinky Monkey

We have a bit of a smelly baby crisis going on. For some unknown reason, Noah is mortally afraid of bath time. He went from being a happy water monkey, to a terrified of water monkey.

I don't know what to do.

It all began when we stopped using his infant bathtub, and started using a larger inflatable tub. But even without it in the big bathtub, he acts like we're about to murder him. We've made the room warm with the heat lamp, we've sung to him, played music to him, given him all the fun toys. Murder victim crying. We've tried bubbles, getting in the bath with him, repeating his favourite words that he thinks are hilarious ordinarily. Nothing, just full blown panic attack and tears.

It's really weird, he loves playing with all his bath toys, as long as he's not in the bathtub. Today I resorted to sponge bathing him and washing his hair in the sink, just because I can't take any more screaming. It's getting a bit ridiculous. I think he just doesn't like to be wet. He freaks out if I wash his hands or wipe his face with a wet cloth too.

I AM DESPERATE, WHAT DO I DO? Brendan thinks we just need to keep bathing him every day until he understands that nothing bad will ever happen to him. But it honestly feels like I'm just stressing out my baby and torturing him.

He's fine as soon as his bath is done and he's wrapped up in a towel in my arms. It breaks my heart that he thinks I'm subjecting him to this awful routine that he hates, over and over again.

I really hope he grows out of it and that it doesn't become some weird phobia.

Look at this greasy monkey!

Sweet Haul

I love finding deals on adorable and stylish baby clothes for Small Human. In the beginning, it's really great because people give you so many cute things. Noah had the best little outfits in his first 8 months of life from doting family and friends alone. Now I've got to actually buy things, which is fine by me because it's so fun.

So many people told me that it wasn't as fun to buy boys clothes. While baby boy clothes are not quite as extravagant or intricate as baby girl clothes, I still think they are super stinkin' adorble. It turns out that I am a pretty preppy mommy, who often dresses her son like herself, but little boy version. Dorks!

I get a daily email from a neighborhood mom group, and I managed to score a really great haul for baby boys 12-18 month clothing. It was $35 for some chinos, pants, jeans, hoodies, a jacket, and tops. There were a couple designer pieces in there too, all really soft, worn in, and in good condition.

Mom Tip: If you ever stumble upon a deal like this, someone selling or giving away their baby clothes, JUMP ON IT. Babies grow so quickly that they rarely ruin anything, especially things like jackets and tops.

What's kinda freaking me out though, is that he can fit into some of these things already. Jeepers, Noah, what are mommy and daddy feeding you?

I love love love this jacket cause his Lolo Noe has one just like it!

Mommy & Baby Class

Every Monday, Noah and I attend a class at the local college. It's right in walking distance of our house too, which is really nice. As you can imagine, the scene is pretty cute: A dozen or so babies aged 7 months to a year, all crawling/walking and playing with each other in a big, kid-friendly room.

It's a bit tricky because the class falls within Noah's cranky nap time zone, so it has the potential to go sour. Mostly we've been alright, because I try to get him to nap right before we go.

The class structure is very basic, there's "arrival time", parent discussion time, snack time, then music time and goodbyes. Noah gets so excited by all the new toys he gets to play with. Last class, he strayed from the group and wandered over to a toy bin, spilled its contents, and giggled like crazy over his discoveries for ten minutes. This pretty much made mommy's day!

Every week, a different family is assigned snack duty, and this was our week to bring something. I was at a total loss for what to bring because Noah's only into pureed foods right now and only a very limited number of actual solid food (egg, cheese, cereal puffs, blueberries). So I decided to get some sliced cheese to cut into shapes, and some Plum Organics Puffs.

Check out my lame-o hearts

I thought my snack was kinda stupid at first, but the mommies and babes seemed to really like them, which was a relief. Also, Noah makes the best faces when he's eating solids, I love it so much!

The class is mainly for socializing our babies, and it's also a nice place to meet other Seattle mommies. Noah loves the teachers, which makes me happy because maybe this means he'll like school in the future. He seriously just forgets all about me when we're there, until he's hungry or needs a fresh diaper, and then Maba to the rescue!

He loves it so much, he barely looks at me

Outerwear Is Serious Business

Having been born and raised in Montreal, I am a pro at shopping for outerwear. I have my mother to credit for that, because she always looked for the best value, durability and longevity, as well as the warmest. Montreal winters are cold, hard, and miserable. Think Minnesota.

Noah's windbreaker/rain jacket

Luckily, the Pacific Northwest is more temperate, but still cold! Some winter days feel like London, England to me, a bone-chillingly wet cold. This now brings me to my conundrum:

What do I get to keep my little creature warm?Noah's outerwear right now consists mainly of a wind breaker/rain jacket, and a letterman jacket (so stinkin' cute!). They are both for 12-18 months at least, so unless he has some crazy monster growth spurt, we should be good for the whole winter.

The only thing is, I'd like him to have one really warm coat that is waterproof or water resistant and has a bit of down in it. That's the Canadian in me talking! The problem with baby coats and jackets is that they are so bloody expensive but most are mainly decorative, and ugly. I need warm and stylish!

I'm not sure if people realize this but I only buy Noah's clothes if they are crazy on sale and also cute. So if you happen to see something we have, like say, a twenty dollar cardigan, you can bet that I got it for about half that price, or even cheaper. 

In an ideal world, I would have all the money to spend on $50 Ugg boots for my baby that he will wear for 3 months, but that just isn't a reality. (If you find a sweet deal though, you better let me know!)

The GAP, Old Navy, Carters, and OshKosh B'gosh all have some variation of percentage discount sales going on right now. So if there's something you want to get, now is a good time to shop for your munchkina or munchkino!

By the time I finished writing this post, I finally decided, and ended up with this:

Warmest Puff Peacoat from The GAP

xoxo

Holiday Decorating?!

Don't worry, I don't mean Christmas. I've never really been one to decorate for every random holiday. I always viewed it as a waste of time, and where the heck do you store all your decorations after the festivities are done? There are so many too: Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Canada Day, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, seriously, who has the time?!

Now that Noah is older and more aware of his surroundings though, I feel compelled to seasonally decorate. I'm starting off slow, nothing too garish or cheesy (yet), but I have discovered that it's pretty fun!

It may be because I have a compulsion to get anything that is in miniature form (sliders, mini cupcakes, et al), but I saw a bag of adorable mini pumpkins at the grocery store and just had to get them! Look how cute:

If they last, I'll be able to keep them 'til Thanksgiving, and since they're real I don't have to find room for them in storage. The piece de resistance will be the pumpkin(s) that we are going to carve on Saturday, and maybe a little ghostie or ghoul!

Now my mission in life is to find cute turkey garlands. Is that a thing? Surely it must be, this is America. To the Holiday Mobile, Mommy!

Mommy & Baby Schedule

At our favourite Starbucks with the best baristas in town!

Being at home with a baby is exhausting, but it's not impossible, especially if you and your baby are both healthy! The difficulty factor ramps up significantly if you and/or your babe is sick.

My little man just happens to be a whirling dervish. He likes opening and closing drawers and cupboard doors (yes we are in baby proofing mode), speed-crawling down the hall, spinning the toilet paper roll, eating books, dancing while holding onto things, turning the Xbox on and off, and standing and swinging his toys around. He also loves to bite mommy and climb daddy, and wave to people. He says Dada and Maba now, and presumably, I am Maba.

By the time it's 7pm, I am exhausted and ready for Noah to go to sleep for the night.

We do fun activities like reading, peek-a-boo, mommy the tickle monster, singing children's songs and pop songs, I perform Shakespeare for him, which he thinks is hilarious and stupid, I am sure, and we go for a walk every single day during the week. Mr. Noah does not like to be cooped up in the house all day!

On Mondays we have a mommy & baby class that we go to with our friends Robyn & Carmen, and on Wednesdays we have mommy & baby play dates. I just love watching my Small Human interact with other small humans! It makes my day, and also makes for hilarious email updates for his daddy.

Noah and I also like to go on city jaunts, to either walk and see the city, or to go shopping. My baby is very used to clothing store dressing rooms. ;) However, on Friday we're going to a pumpkin patch and I am so excited!

Our schedule loosely goes something like this:

Swinging at the playground!

7-8am: Noah wakes up and eats breakfast with daddy while mommy sleeps

9-10am: mommy gets up and ready so daddy can go to work

10-11am: bottle, change into outfit for the day, reading, playing with toys and bunnies, and singing. Popular songs with my son are the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Head Shoulders Knees & Toes. Anything interactive. Mostly I end up chasing Noah, stopping catastrophes, teaching him about discipline, while simultaneously organizing the house.

11-1: Noah naps while mommy cleans up the house and herself (laundry, bathrooms, kitchen, dusting, whatever needs to get done)

12 or 1pm: solid food lunch and small bottle

1-2:30pm: mommy has lunch and Noah plays by himself, usually exploring the room, playing with boxes and toys, throwing all the books off the coffee table, laughing and talking, getting up to no good, etc.

2:30-3:30pm: During nap time, mommy writes out a grocery list and makes necessary appointments for the family. Also do some product research, and blog posts.

3:30pm: bottle, then walking time! We go to the grocery store, drugstore, Starbucks, and go for a walk around our neighborhood and to the big park nearby to play and watch the animals!

6pm: solid food dinner, tooth brushing, bath, and winding down play for the day

7pm: bottle with rice cereal, reading and sleep time. He goes down without a fuss now if he is not teething.

At 7pm I start dinner for Brendan and I, and we usually have a nice quiet night, unless Noah decides to wake up in the middle of the night.

Sleep. Repeat.

"My mommy is weird"

Today I taught him about maple trees

Brushing his teeth

Unexpected Perk to Formula Feeding

I went through a lot of mommy guilt when I decided to stop breast feeding Noah. I felt like I was being a selfish jerk, putting my needs before my child's, but six months was about as long as I could stand. In hindsight, I'm a much better mommy now that I am not in pain.

Nursing did not come as easily to me as it does to others. It took about a day or two longer than it should have for my milk to come in, and it may have been due to my having a C-section. Noah lost a scary amount of weight and we had to sneakily supplement with formula via a tube and syringe while he was nursing. It was a two man job, and I am so thankful that Brendan was with me for every single feeding in those early days.

I loved that I could naturally provide my son with vital nutrients, but I was prone to plugged ducts. Plugged milk ducts were the most painful thing I have experienced in my entire life thus far. They were even more painful than my c-section, and eventually led to my stopping nursing altogether.

Everything that you could find on the internet to help, I tried. Some of the things I had to do still make me cringe to think about! In the end, the only thing that seemed to work was taking lecithin supplements (thanks Rachel G!), but by then I had already made up my mind. I was tired of feeling like I had been hit in the chest with a speeding baseball, time and time again.

Anyway, my point is, now that Noah is on formula and solid food, I actually get a few minutes of free time to rush around and do things! He has been holding his own bottle for months now, so while he's happily busy drinking, I can do a few things like:

• go pee (I do this regardless, fear not)
• take out the garbage
• put on a load of laundry
• fold/put away laundry
• sit and drink tea or coffee while it's still hot
• water my orchids
• dust what I can

Of course, there are still about 700 other things to do, but dude, you gotta celebrate the little victories too. ;) 

Noah in the zone

And the SleepSack Goes To!

Ilse Padilla!

Congratulations Ilse, check your email! Thank you all for continuing to read my blog, Noah and I (especially me), really appreciate it. :)

Last Full Day in SFO

Our family trip would not be complete without a family bike ride! The plan for the the day was to rent a couple of bikes with a trailer for Noah, so we could bike by the water and across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito.

This was extremely exciting for me, because I can now cross that off my bucket list.

Back when we lived in Toronto, Brendan and I were both avid cyclists, and Brendan still is, but I've sadly stopped because I'm too chicken to take on Seattle's hills. I should get into it again cause my legs are killing me, what a great workout!

Our Small Human didn't enjoy riding in the trailer. So we gave him a bottle and put an extra jacket on him. It still didn't work, but what can you do? Most of the way across the Golden Gate Bridge, we just had to endure looks from all the people we passed. We were already used to the looks we got when we were changing his diaper, so it's all good!

Golden Gate Bridge was so epically beautiful, and Sausalito is lovely. I still can't believe I finally got to go to San Francisco. I'm deliciously happy! It wasn't all sightseeing though, I got to have dinner and dessert with Ate Pipps too which was so fun. xoxo

Until next time, San Fran! The plane ride home was downright easy. I'm really proud of us!

There's just a few more hours left to enter my Halo SleepSack Giveaway! Looks like the odds of your winning are pretty good! 

San Francisco Continued!

I had had enough of Noah's public restroom temper tantrums, so I asked Brendan if he would take over for me at least once. It was a scream fest from the moment they walked into the men's bathroom. The interesting part was while I waited outside for the boys to finish up, five separate women stood outside the bathroom door concernedly, worried for the baby who sounded like he was either being murdered or neglected inside the men's restroom. I assured each one that it was just my overly dramatic son, the public restroom snob. I'm pretty sure that if I wasn't there to reassure everyone that everything was fine, someone would have called the police!

We decided to take it easy with the hills today, since yesterday we walked up Lombard, then down Lombard, and back up again. For those of you who don't know, Lombard is pretty freaking steep (although not the steepest).

There was still plenty of walking though! We explored the Mission District, ate delicious food at La Taqueria, and Mission Pies, saw the Potrero District, Mission Bay for Philz Coffee, and sought shelter from the evening cold at the awesome Ferry Building full of pretty and delicious things. Oh and we saw the Bay Bridge too, no biggie, just a teeny tiny bridge, whatevs.

Playing with the magnets at Mission Pies

Lion King-ing at Noah's Bagels

Putting our feet up at Phillz

Bay Bridge

How the Wilsons Do It

There are people who like relaxing, resort vacations with a splash of sightseeing, and people who like to immerse themselves in the places they visit and live like locals. I like both varieties of vacationing because I am thankful to be going anywhere at all!

The way we've been doing it in the last few years however, has been living in a VRBO (vacation rental by owner) or AirBnB (bed & breakfast by owner). Then we try to live like the locals do, to try to get a good feel for the city we're visiting. It's fun, and I feel like less of a tourist with a giant camera around my neck, wielding a map, with a confused look on my face.

It's hard to cram living like a local into one week though. We were lucky enough to get the lowdown on a lot of places because of amazing friends who have both lived and visited San Francisco. It's a relief to take some of the guesswork out of it, but we still left a lot of the exploration up to ourselves, cause that's fun too.

On Wednesday we got to see City Hall, the Symphony, Hayes Valley, Russian Hill, Nob Hill, and Chinatown. We were so exhausted from walking all day, but we were also very well fed and happy, so it all equaled out. 

I felt like such a rock star mom for keeping Noah on schedule feeding and changing-wise. But at the end of the day, I got pulled back down to earth when my baby leaked poopy pee on me while in a high end boutique. Thanks for keeping me humble, baby man.

Some picture highlights of our day:

At Chantal Guillon on Hayes St, the best macarons I have ever tasted in my life

Noah and daddy at Blue Bottle Coffee

Getting pooped on by my baby in Louis Vuitton

Sickies on Vacation

Sick baby clinging to mama

Tuesday was our sickest day so far as a family. Noah had a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep, which meant that Brendan and I sleeping off our colds was out of the question. But we weren't about to stay in on a gorgeous, sunny California morning, so instead, we walked all over San Francisco!

We took the Muni, which is this super cool subway/streetcar train. It literally transforms from a regular subway to a streetcar with steps when it goes to street level. We found this out when the floor that Brendan was standing on began to convert into a little flight of stairs. Amazing. I am easily impressed.

Anyway, we took it straight over to the water so we could see the Pacific Ocean, and then turned back and walked through Golden Gate Park. So beautiful! My proudest moment of the trip was when we were mistaken for locals. Woohoo, score!

Then I got to do more touristy things like go see the "Painted Ladies" in Postcard Row in front of Alamo Square Park, aka the houses in the opening credits of Full House.

The only obstacle we have encountered is changing Noah's diapers. It has proven to be quite a huge feat. This kid has some kind of serious aversion to public diaper changes. We're talking screaming, twisting, kicking and thrashing. It has honestly become a job for two. Almost every public diaper change has resulted in a baby meltdown and a mommy nervous breakdown.

We've still had tons of fun, regardless. We are falling deeply in love with this lovely city!

Postcard Row, across from Alamo Square Park

After a diaper debacle. This picture sums up the force of nature that is my son.

Wow, San Francisco

This is my very first time in San Francisco, and I already love the city. I have jealousy and hatred for everyone that lives here. Okay not really, but I do think San Franciscans are hella lucky. You better appreciate this gorgeous city that you live in!

We got a place in the "Tender Nob" which is the border of Nob Hill and the Tenderloin. It's close to a lot of fun, walkable things. We seriously walked everywhere, sickies and all! Impressive, but probably not very good for a speedy recovery from this nasty cold.

Noah did so well! He only got cranky towards the late afternoon, cause he just wanted to get out of his stroller and play. My husband is wonderful because he lets me do touristy things like visit the house from Mrs. Doubtfire, eat In-N-Out burgers, and see the Sea Lions on Pier 39 (which I think kinda scared Noah)! Here are a few pics from our adventures.

At the Mrs. Doubtfire house "Hellooooo!"

The Transamerica Pyramid

Our sea lion doppelgangers 

My tired baby sea lion

Livin' & Learnin'

Relieved that Small Human is napping

I can now cross "flying with a baby" off my list of things that terrify me. I also learned a few key things, like: change your baby's diaper before you board the plane, Virgin Airlines is a fun airline, and my baby hates public changing tables with a passion.

We boarded the plane for San Francisco, only to realize that we probably should've changed the baby before we did this. Fifteen minutes before take off, I swept him off to the bathroom for a quick change that turned into an epic one because he pooped all the poops and refused to stay put on the changing table. Not only did my crazy baby scream the entire time, but he kept trying to stand up while mommy cleaned his poop-covered hindquarters. My ears were ringing from his powerful screeching in that tiny airplane bathroom. The kid inherited my lungs.

Noah was fine for most of the flight, because we managed to get him to sleep, but the first twenty minutes were a nightmare. He was squirmy and cranky and overexcited, and I was getting increasingly embarrassed and stressed out. It all worked out in the end, but I'm happy that experience is now behind us.

The next morning, Brendan and I both woke up, sick as dogs. Boo!! It wasn't that fun getting woken up at 7am by Monsieur Crankypants, but ah-may-zing to be waking up in San Francisco!

OH THANK GOD WE'VE LANDED

We Have Standage

Noah has finally figured out that he doesn't need to hold on to anything in order to stand up on his own. It's really incredible. He slowly and deliberately gets up from either a kneeling or seated position, and stands. He isn't even wobbly, he looks like such a big boy, and I am a very proud mommy!

So far, he can't do anything else but grin at us while he stands, but I know that we will really be in for it soon. Just when I was starting to get used to Racer McCrawley, small human decides to move on to the next new thing. Go figure.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this super fun news with you. Happy Monday!

Don't forget to enter my Halo SleepSack Giveaway via the widget, only one week left. ;)

First Time Moms Are Annoying

I am actually talking about myself, so please excuse the generalization. :) The reason why I think I am annoying is because I treat every little thing like a huge medical emergency. Noah's got the sniffles because of me presumably, and it was all I could do to stop myself from running out and buying a humidifier and vapourizer today. I did, however pick up some grape scented Boogie Wipes, travel packs of Kleenex, and I also made sure we were well stocked with saline nose drops and Nosefrida Snot Sucker filters. I. Am. Crazy.

Now you know who to bring with you in case of a zombie apocalypse, cause I am always prepared.

My little man is so sweet and good-natured though, that you would never know he had a cold. He's still smiley and playful and quite happy! Sleep is a different story, however. He's been sleeping 10 to 12 hours a night for the last week and a half (YESSS), but now he's having more fitful sleep due to the congestion. Hmm, maybe I should've gotten that vapourizer after all.

If he's anything like his daddy, he'll kick this cold in a day. I'm sure it's natural for me to want to monitor his temperature constantly, and check that he can breathe properly, but I'm starting to feel like an insane person. I checked on him like, 87 times in the last 4 hours. RELAX, LILIBETH.

There doesn't seem to be anything that I can actively do, other than keep him comfortable and warm, and just ride it out. Just thanking my lucky stars that he doesn't have a stomach bug or something scary.

Do you guys have any tips on how to care for a babe with a cold? I'd love to hear some real-life mommy experiences!

xoxo