The Good and The Bad

We had a really great weekend over here in Seattle. The weather was nice (it usually rains every Sunday but not this weekend), we got to have a Saturday date night, relax at home, and had a fun and yummy family dinner out on Sunday. Everything looked good on paper. The reality however, is less than perfect, only because we thought parenting would get easier as time went on, not harder. We still enjoy life, it's just enjoyed on a much more exhausted level on mine and Brendan's part.

Our Small Human, who has so far always been an easy going and relatively low maintenance child, is starting to become a divo. No, he has not become a pop opera singer, but he is suddenly much more high maintenance. We can deal with the need for constant activities and mind stimulation, that we expected. We were also prepared to deal with a highly energetic little boy who needs to run and jump and explore on a daily basis. We were not however, prepared to deal with night time wakings every night for three months straight; nor were we prepared for his extremely short attention span and inability to sit still in social situations.

Perhaps we are asking too much of our two year old by going out to restaurants and expecting him to sit still and behave for a quick meal. Fine, we accept that that's on us. The nightly wake ups though, are quite possibly, slowly killing us and we just don't know what else to do. He wakes up once or twice a night and always ends up in our bed at some point in the very early morning. It doesn't seem to affect him one bit, but definitely hasn't been good for his dad and I.

Brendan bears the brunt of the wakings, because Small Human often wants daddy, but then daddy has to go to work in the morning. I at least, can attempt to recuperate by napping when the baby naps. I honestly don't know what to do. Are there sleep specialists we can see? Do we just grin and bear it? It's been three solid months of this, and I am incapable of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

I feel terrible for complaining because life is truly good right now, except for the not sleeping and somehow keeping up with our son while completely exhausted part. How does he have so much energy?! We are really big fans of Stumptown coffee in this house. Happy Monday friends. :)

What a Great Day!

It makes the hugest difference in the world when it's sunny, and you have good friends who kindly take your toddler off your hands for the whole morning. Small Human was out and about today from 9 til 1, frolicking on the beach with friends. Now he is peacefully napping in his bed.

The superhuman amount of things I can get done without my son around is astounding. How did I not accomplish more in life before baby?! I enjoyed a lovely, wrangle-free, admonishment-free morning with my husband, and now I'm reading in the sunshine (READING) with a cup of tea. To most people, that is a normal part of their day, but for me it feels like I'm some lady of leisure in a fancy soap opera.

Life feels grand and I'm totally full of gratitude for all of it. Ahhhhh. May you all have a happy Thursday everyone! (It's 21 degrees Celsius, 70F here!)

15 Random Facts About Me

Every so often, I get tagged in one of those "fun facts about you" posts and I always give in. Mostly because it's fun, can be an ice breaker, and makes me feel like I'm 16 and filling out a YM magazine quiz with my friends in the school library again.

It's just something silly and vapid, which we all need once in awhile. So here are some totes rando facts about Lilibeth:

1. I love lots of different kinds of jewelry, but I have one tiny gold and diamond bracelet that I never, ever take off. For about two years now.

2. I find the Game of Thrones TV series really crappy. I bet I'd like the books better. 

3. I have a dozen pairs of identical jeggings. 

4. I have a terrible, terrible potty mouth when I'm driving. Like, maybe worse than Chelsea Handler.

5. I love cleaning and all housework.

6. Except ironing, I hate ironing, it sucks.

7.  I am always late for everything.

8. My husband calls me Minou, and I call him Mokey.

9. We have nicknamed our son "Noma" or "Mini".

10. I am obsessed with Doctor Who and think about the show at least once a day, every day.

11. I love coffee so much, and try very hard to only have one cup a day. Since moving to Seattle, I can no longer consume crappy coffee.

12. I have very little patience. Becoming a mother has been a real lesson in patience.

13. I have a lip balm addiction because I'm allergic to most lip products, so when I find something that works, I roll with it. There are at least 3 lips balms in every room of the house, and maybe two dozen in my bathroom, and 3 in my purse. (many are unopened backups)

14. My middle name is Victoria.

15. My favourite guilty pleasure are Doritos, which I know are filled with unhealthy chemicals but I just can't seem to resist them for longer than a couple months.


Thanks for reading, I hope I didn't bore you to death, have a great day! ;)

Nervous Breakdown Day

Friday was the first day of spring, a solar eclipse and the super moon. Oh and it was allegedly "Happiness Day" whatever the hell that means. If I sound a little jaded and cynical, that's because Friday really, truly, royally sucked for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for the health of my family, among other things, but sometimes there are just crappy days and you learn to live with them.

All my bad days happen to fall on rainy days, which I know is no coincidence. Anyway, today's a new (sunny) day, but here are a few things that happened yesterday that nearly caused me to lose my marbles.

1. Small Human and I had a fight about watching tv. There was an epic tantrum but I won, and he ended up happy afterwards.

2. I had five loads of laundry to tackle (I thought it was seven!) because I've been tired and lazy, and also taking my son out on more adventures because of his boundless energy. Laundry is sneaky.

3. After getting the third load washed and dried, I started the washer up for another load, went to get the load, and discovered a boy putting all the freshly dried laundry back into the water filled washer. Aaargh!!!

4. There was time out punishment in his room and many loud tears. When I finally went to get him, his room was a total disaster zone, with everything turned on its side, and the printer that lives in his bedroom ripped apart with the paper thrown everywhere. More aaarrgh!

5. This crabby mommy now had a crabby baby. To fix things, I thought I'd make chicken nuggets and watch a movie with my boy. After a few minutes I detected a strange smell, looked over at my oven and saw little black bits floating around in the air. I got up to look at the oven and there were flames in it, growing by the second! After the situation was under control, I discovered several charred, owl sticker remains in the bottom of our oven. I wonder who put them there? Also, who knew little stickers could burst into such huge flames?

6. By this point I was at my wits end and thoroughly exhausted. My toddler only wanted to whine and howl and hang off me, and all I wanted was to sleep, not see his face, and hear silence. I called the restaurant by my house that makes poutine so I could order some takeout and save what was left of my sanity. I was put on hold, and they hung up on me.

7. I broke down in tears.

8. My very kind and understanding mama friends Postmated me over, a ton of poutine. (You have my heart forever, btw)

9. Brendan came home. I fell asleep. Spent the whole night getting kicked in the spine by my toddler.

10. Wrote a blog post about it on Saturday morning.

11. Will be escaping my toddler to go for a relaxing, pampering facial in the afternoon.

12. Will hopefully enjoy a nice, spring weekend.

Crabby Start

This morning got off to a crabby start, for me anyway. All Small Human wanted to do was watch tv, which makes me so bonkers. I put my foot down though, and eventually he started to play on his own, using that beautiful imagination I know he's got.

I'm not against watching television like some parents. It can be a tool that saves a family's sanity and I'm not foolish enough not to take advantage of it. Then again, this is mine and Brendan's choice for our son, and may not be right for everyone. So far, we've tried not to make any extreme parenting choices and we haven't regretted anything.

However, I don't like when he just sits there like a mindless blob, transfixed on the screen like a zombie. Most of the time he talks to the tv, and to me about what's happening. He doesn't speak in clear, full sentences yet but he tries his best to communicate, which is what I like.

I think Momie won this morning's tv battle, cause now Small Human is building things out of boxes, chatting away to himself, pretending to cook and taste things while wearing his Fire Chief hat, all while eating a sandwich. I'm just trying to do my best, like everybody else. Someone pour me some coffee, please.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy official spring! Also, happy birthday to my sweet Bear-bear Eleni who turns three today!!!

Summer Camp

My baby is going to toddler summer camp for the months of July and August! I don't know what I'm more excited for; the fact that he will probably have a blast, or that I will get three, four hour mornings off a week for two whole months.

What really hooked me were their different themes that change every two weeks. The first two weeks they'll be focusing on a "chef series" complete with aprons, and some hilarious toddler cooking that Small Human is sure to love. He loves cooking in the kitchen with me and getting to use tools, so the first series will be right up his alley. They've also got an art series, beach series, and lastly an Eric Carl/circus series, where they get to ride ponies on the last day of camp. Did they even have anything this cool when we were two years old?!

This will be our first taste of drop off school, so it will be both exciting and bittersweet. I'm probably going to show up early at pickup so I can spy on him having fun. I'm totally that mom, and I don't care.

A big, big thank you to Robyn who told us about this awesome summer camp! I'm glad he'll get to be with a friend there, that's always a comforting thought. They can beat up on each other at camp and scandalize the other toddlers with their rough-housing. I can't believe we've reached this stage, Robyn! *tear*

Love Me a Sale

On Sunday, I made a super score. I got several fancy organic kid pajamas that are usually $42 each, for ten bucks a pajama! That is more than 75% off, I couldn't believe it. I went on the site because my friend told me about a swim sale and discovered they were also having a super clearance sale to make way for the new spring collection. Sadly, the major deal was one day only, and most things were sold out anyway by the end of the day.

But seriously, look how cute these are, Small Human pretty much lost it over the Santa's elf pajamas, because Buddy from the movie Elf, is his idol. It's honestly one of the things I love best about living in the States, the deals are truly good deals and not just max 30% off an already super marked up item.

Also, I get excited over pajamas now. Happy almost spring!

#1 and #2

On Sunday, Small Human peed in the potty. I think it was a bit of a surprise and caught him off guard, because he was whining and crying while sitting on his little blue potty chair before bath time, and was immediately silenced when the pee came out. So obvi, we danced, and high fived, and yayed our faces off at him.

Maybe something clicked that night, because on Tuesday afternoon, he came up to me to tell me he needed to poo. He kept squatting in front of me and looked quite desperate, so I brought him to the potty. As soon as I had his diaper off, he sat down and immediately pooped. I threw the kid a huge parade! I whooped for joy, I marched around happily clapping and sang "Yayyy, poo poo in the potty like a big boy!" As if I wasn't completely grossed out by the fact that I had to clean smelly, human feces from a hard, white, plastic bucket very shortly.

I never thought I'd ever be reduced to such absurdity, but I don't care, I was so proud! So I guess this is it, the beginning of the terrifying world of Potty Training. God help me.

Glutton for Punishment

Every single week I go out for lunch at our favourite Greek restaurant in Capitol Hill, invite a friend or two or three and their babes, and try to have a civilized time. Now, however, I think I'm just a glutton for punishment, because I always end up stressed out, cranky, and suffering from mild indigestion afterwards. I think I'm going to have to stop going until Small Human learns to listen to me better.

This restaurant has a cute little play area for kids, which is great, if your kid actually stays there and plays. Mine, does not. He would rather try to sneak into the office, or supply closet, wander into the kitchen, disturb the display of glass jars at the front of the restaurant, try to escape through the front doors, or sneak into the bathroom to play with toilet water or turn on the sink for some water play. Today there were also tears, twice, and lots of consoling and French fry eating.

He is a very kind and sweet little boy, but he's super energetic and curious. I am in no way blaming him, I just think I have to admit to myself that restaurant lunch dates are not something I want to continue to do. Admitting defeat is hard. I think I feel like it's especially hard because all my friends have little girls who will just sit and play/read/eat quietly in one spot. Are you freaking kidding me?! I'd rather not deal with it anymore, unless his daddy is with us. Tag teaming is always so much more manageable.

I hear the east coast is enjoying some nicer weather, so get out there and breathe the fresh air!

Meh, It's Monday

It's a bit of a cranky Monday for me even though we had a really nice and relaxing weekend, but that one hour time change really got to me. We didn't make it to the toddler class because of my extreme exhaustion and crappy parking karma, so we ended up going to the park instead.

It was still fun, and we managed to make it out unscathed even though Small Human was being extra adventurous. It is such a gorgeous, sunny day in Seattle that we had fun walking around and exploring, we even went on a hunt for mini M&M's. We failed to find M&M's but I did manage to tire out the little monkey in the process. His favourite thing to do now is wave and say hi to each and every single person we pass. He's such a people person!

I see more gallivanting in our future this afternoon, perhaps even in a summer dress? (Avec jean jacket probably) Hooray for spring!

The Hilarity of Potty Training

We're not quite there yet, but we have Small Human sit on the potty every day after a drink or meal, should the urge to go strike him, but so far we haven't had any luck. I try to make a big deal out of it, like I'm super proud and supportive of him, which is what I have read a parent should do in all the potty training guides. I had hoped this would encourage him, but so far the only thing I have achieved is a big fan fare every time I go to the bathroom successfully. While it's nice to to be surrounded by positivity, I'm not really the one that needs any help.

Basically I think I'm teaching my son that everyone in our culture must be thrown a parade every time they potty. Oops. I wonder how long I can keep up the charade? Buwahahahaha! Have a great weekend, I'm excited for daylight savings time!

Wearing Auntie Natalie's hat, backwards:)

Adventures in Motherhood

This week has been a big adventure for me, because Brendan has been away at a conference in San Francisco. I have to admit that I was terrified to be without my partner in crime for a whole week, so I caved and enlisted the help of a part time nanny. This young lady is like a magic toddler whisperer. Small Human loves her so much!

They have been playing Monday, Wednesday, and will be again today. As a result, I have definitely felt less stressed out, even though this morning was extremely irritating. My sweet boy woke up at 4:30am, climbed into bed with me, and proceeded to squirm and kick non stop until 7am. Then he ran into the hall, ripped the baby gate down (!!!), threw my plant and orchid off their shelf, and ransacked my bathroom drawer. He didn't hurt himself, which is the most important thing, but when I got out of bed at 7:20, I was an angry, groggy ogre of a mommy.

Thankfully, we got a nice visit from some friendly faces (The Other Wilsons!), and went out for a Frappuccio run, and now things are much better. I knew his sleep Monday to Wednesday had to be too good to be true. He had been joining me in the big bed at 5am every day and just lying quietly with me until I woke up. Even toddlers have their limits I suppose.

Counting down the minutes until my husband comes back! COME BACK, BABE.

pajama party

climbing the rope ladder like a boss

Preschool in The Fall

It's official, my little boy will be going to preschool in September. His spot is secured and he and I actually cheered when I got the confirmation. It's not the hugest deal in the world, just the gradual progression of life, but I feel good about it!

Small Human loves this preschool understandably, because they've got everything he likes. There's a mini post office for the toddlers, a small play structure and mats, little cars and trikes, a sand table, a train table, a library nook, different art projects, and a whole bunch of musical instruments that he can play with freely.

He will have a great time, learning, playing, and making new friends, and mommy will love watching it, while also getting some time for herself. YES. Everybody wins! I had my doubts at first, because he's a baby, so why isn't being with his mom good enough? But the thing is that he is just so bright and curious and eager, that it would be cruel not to let him grow and develop beyond what just I can provide for him.

When I told him we got into preschool he punched the air and said, "Yayyy!". Ah I love him.

Happy Monday!