First Birthday Planning

In about five weeks, Noah is turning 1. My pregnancy and the first year of his life went by so quickly, I'm not even sure how the time has gone by this fast. We will be celebrating with a tiny, informal gathering at our house and I can't wait!

I want to properly celebrate my Small Human by making it as cute and fun as possible! Baby parties only last 1-2 hours tops, so I wanna make it count. I had started gathering party supplies and ideas months ago, and it's a good thing I did because I forgot about us being away over the holidays.

So far, I've got red and white chevron paper straws, blue Mason jars, mini Mason jars, daisy lids for said jars, a pretty blue cake stand, invitations with picture postage, a birthday bunting banner, mustache napkins (of course), cookie cutters, and favour bags and favours for the babies! The menu is roughly sketched out too.

I'm kinda disappointed though, because I thought I was super on the ball with the cake, but the awesome cake company I was in touch with decided to close it's doors! Nooooooo! So it's back to the drawing board. I might have to make it myself as originally planned, which means that it will be significantly less cute.

Now I've just got to schedule a cake smash photo shoot, find a cute table cloth and we should be all set!

As you may have guessed, yes, his birthday outfit is all ready to go, complete with bow tie à la 11th Doctor.

Birthday sneak peek!

Fashion is Fun

I admit that I have a really fun time dressing my Small Human. A few people have mentioned that dressing up boys isn't nearly as fun as dressing up girls, but I beg to differ! Girls clothes can be a little too frilly, fluffy, and cutesy for my taste, but boys clothes seem to fall into a more tasteful and normal category.

Teeny tiny sweaters and boots just slay me, I am obsessed with them, so I'm relishing Noah's winter wardrobe before he outgrows it all. He doesn't actually have a lot of clothing, but it's easy to mix and match and feel like he's got a ton of different outfits.

I also have a thing for dressing him like us. At first it was all accidental. I'd dress him and then choose an outfit for myself, unconsciously choosing the exact thing I just put my son in. Now, however, it's totally on purpose. Case in point:

Argyle cuties

Mommy & Baby Minnetonkas

I don't go 100% matchy-matchy (except for our matching navy blue pea coats), but I do like to compliment each other when I can. It's the silly little things that you need to take pleasure in day to day. Happy Monday, folks!

Small Human's First Concert!

Do you guys remember a band from the 90s called The Presidents of The United States of America? Well, they were from Seattle and sang a very catchy tune called "Peaches". Much like the rest of us, those dudes grew up and now one of the members goes by Caspar Babypants, a children's performer.

Noah and I had the pleasure of going to one of his concerts this morning! Of course the babe loved it. He danced and clapped and waved his hands. At one point, he decided he needed to be on stage. (Uh oh!) We had a great ol' time!

It was also really nice because the concert was in the hospital where I gave birth to him. It was fun to walk there from our house with my big boy baby. I'm really glad I didn't have to waddle there this time!

Here are some pics from our morning. Have a wonderful weekend, friends & fam. :)

Enjoying the music, so well-behaved.

Getting on stage to crowd surf?

Full Swing, Baby

I think Christmas officially went into full swing when Noah started rocking out to Jingle Bells in his high chair this morning. I also finally caught him dancing to Christmas music on camera! He totally could have been a Christmas baby, but I'm glad he wasn't. It must royally suck to consolidate presents when you're an 8 year old.

It's so cold here, I bet you we'll see some snow in the city. I've got my Christmasy candles lit, fuzzy socks on, and a cute guy to snorgle and watch Christmas movies with! Anyway, this is what Christmas is looking like in our house so far:

I think we need some green garland action on the mantle still

Where I will be snuggling up in a sec with some mini quiche and salad

Like, Woah

I just had one of those moments where you think about your life and it makes you feel kinda trippy. I realized that in my head, I have two lives. One in Seattle, where I am wife and mommy Lilibeth. Another in Toronto, where I am single girl in the city Lilibeth. In less than two weeks those two lives are going to converge, and I'm not sure I can wrap my mind around it for some reason.

I certainly can't imagine what it must be like for our friends and family who haven't seen us since Noah was born. We left with a barely perceptible baby bump and are coming back with a toddler. WTF. It's just bananas.

Or maybe it's just me and I'm thinking too much, like I always do.

Either way, I AM EXCITED. Our bed is completely covered in what looks like detritus, but is actually a carefully laid out smorgasbord of what we will need over the Christmas break. Packing was a lot easier before I had a little man plucking things out of the suitcase that I had just placed there 30 seconds before. It drives me crazy but it's just so darned cute!

Also, I apologize in advance to everyone who gets a crappy Christmas present from us. I tried, but it's hard to find really small, light things that are also amazing.

Today, we practiced for our Canada trip by walking around in the freezing cold. Seattle is getting us ready by showing Noah frost and cold, dry air. I think he likes it!

Random gratuitous photo of Small Human (Eliza Truitt Photography)

Mom Shaming

There really is no other sin greater than mommy shaming among other mommies. Being a mom is hard enough without having to deal with judgement from others. As mothers we worry, we struggle to make the right choices, and we do the best that we can while life is hurling things at us from all directions.

I was on the receiving end of some mom shaming yesterday, and it made me feel bad for the whole day. I try really hard to be kind and considerate of people's feelings, so when someone is thoughtless towards me, it hurts double.

There are obviously two sides to every story, so there is the chance that this other mommy was genuinely concerned (as my husband, Pollyanna Sunshine pointed out), but perhaps her good intentions lacked graceful execution.

As I have mentioned several times now, my Small Human doesn't enjoy the texture of solid food. He usually has no problems with small bites of my meal. We had enchiladas the other night and he ate some beans, rice, chicken and a bit of tortilla and was fine. He's also usually ok with cheese, but during snack time in class on Monday, the cheese made him gag and he puked on himself a little.

While I tried to clean him off, my poor baby cried from the discomfort of the acid in his throat no doubt, I was bombarded with questions like, "Does he always throw up when he eats solids?" "He can't eat any solid food?" "Have you spoken to your pediatrician? What did they have to say about this?" These all seem like harmless questions, but I think that for me, the malice was in the delivery. I felt attacked, and like I was being told that my son was a freak.

Clearly, nothing is wrong with Small Human. He's been walking since he was 9 1/2 months old, is in the 75th percentile for weight, 90th percentile for height, has fat, healthy cheeks, and loves exploring the world and getting into trouble.

I think that many parents focus too much on the short term and need to remember that all of us were babies at one point, yet we're all pretty much on even footing now. My husband had trouble with solids when he was a baby too, and last I checked he just ate two plates of my spaghetti at dinner, as I'm sure Noah will when he's good and ready.

The moral of my story is: Don't be a jerk to other moms, you could ruin someone's day. The end.

What Noah does when I raise my arms in the air and say, "Winner!"

The Hunt For Santa Claus

Sunday was supposed to be the day that we went downtown to see Santa Claus. While we actually did go downtown and get in line to see him at Nordstrom, Noah did not get to sit on his lap. May I just say that Nordstrom Santa was the fanciest one I had ever seen. He was old, very jolly, and had a deep, beautiful actor's voice. I knew this because his room was miked so that the crowd outside waiting for him could hear the action inside. Yes, seriously. Their Santa's Village was so pretty, not cheesy, very beautiful and tasteful, and had an almost two hour wait. A TWO HOUR WAIT. Do you know what it's like to make a 10 month old sit happily in his stroller without moving for even ten minutes? Ya, it wasn't going to happen.

I still wanted to do something fun, so we decided to hop on the Monorail to Seattle City Center and go up the Space Needle! I guess Noah enjoyed it? He liked looking out the window of the Monorail and seeing buildings go by. He seemed rather nonplussed in the elevator and at the awesome view, but mommy and daddy definitely enjoyed themselves. It's a pretty fun place to hang out and people watch.

You know what though? I forgot that there was a Santa in the Space Needle! So Noah got to hang out with Santa after all, and he was fittingly a Space Santa, which was all kinds of awesome hilariousness.

He wasn't scared, he was just bored and squirmy. He may have also been confused about the spaceship vs. sleigh situation. ;)

Here are some pictures from our day, and happy December!

Riding the Monorail in good spirits

Enjoying the view with dada

Toddling around the Space Needle observation deck