MV's Stache

Wordless Wednesday ;)

Projectile ...

Vomit.

Disgusting and horrifying vomit.

I think MV may be allergic to bananas. There have been two occasions where hours after eating bananas he violently projectile vomits. I have been with him whenever it's happened which is good because he was laying on his back and after shooting straight up it comes back and chokes him.
It's terrifying.

It's been a few months since he's had banana so today I gave him a few pieces of my banana bread, not much just a little for taste. I thought we were in the clear but once again it happened. Again I was with him (I was rocking him to sleep and was covered eww), this time he clearly was chocking on it as it was coming up and was struggling to breath. I honestly thought I was going to have to call for help, luckily he spewed what looked like bucket loads and regained his composure after having a good little cry (which broke my heart he was so upset). 15 minutes afterwards he was playing with his toys but still looking a little green in the face, by the time 30 minutes had passed he was laughing and completely normal.
Me not so much.

I have never felt so helpless, I couldn't do anything in that moment to help and of course like any crisis it's all slow motion so plenty of time for panic.

It must be the banana, but what I don't understand is why is it do delayed. It happens 6-8 hours later each time. Aside from the banana bread he did try mango today so that will no be put aside for a while. No new foods here for the rest of the week I guess, and I should probably call my doctor.

I'm still nervous, nervous he will be sick in his crib tonight and I won't be there. So I'm considering sleeping on his floor, hubby does not want him in our bed anymore and I don't think I can leave him alone.

Whatever this is I really hope he outgrows it, I know firsthand how much a food allergy sucks and I really don't want that for MV :(

Oh ya and as of today he is now 9 months! I will post his update tomorrow, hopefully it will be a less eventful day.

Happy Monday everyone

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I am very excited for my very first Christmas. My mommy and daddy told me you would bring me presents if I am a good boy. Sometimes I do things my mommy tells me not too, I think it's funny, but I try to be good most of the time. They tell me you like milk and cookies, so I will make sure we leave plenty of snacks since I'm sure you will be hungry.

I made you a list Santa, that way you will know what I want for Christmas.
If you could bring me a few of these things I would be so happy!

Your friend,
MV

We passed!

MV had his final swim lesson as a Starfish today! I can't believe a month of lessons has gone by so quick! My little man is now ready to be a duck :)

We will take a month off, December is way too busy to commit to lessons and resume either January or February.

To celebrate the teacher turned on the fountain in the kiddie pool (we warm up and play in the kiddie pool at the end of each lesson). MV was frightened but his buddies R and N loved it!

I want a ball pitt, and trucks, and....

Today we braved the mall and took MV to see Santa for the first time :) I was soo nervous that MV would cry and we would shamefully be getting our money back after a failed attempt at a picture but all went well! No smiles but no crying or trying to escape from Santa's lap either.
And afterwards in the grocery store MV was smiling and pointing at the giant mug shots of Santa that were hanging from the ceiling :).

On a side note, I don't know how people do the black Friday shopping in the states, our mall was crazy packed today and I couldn't stand it. Most the stores around town and in the mall had sales to try and keep people shopping here instead of hoping the border. We actually got a great deal on a giant baby gate (one gate down only one more to go!) :)

Nap cuddles

There are dishes in the sink,
Toys all over the floor,
Laundry is ready for the dryer,
and crumbs on the floor.

So many things I should be doing right now but all I want to do is sit here and cherish this moment. <3 There are less and less of these moments these days.

I can't believe this little guy will be 9 months in a couple days :( this year is going by so fast.

Lefty?

I'm not sure at what age babies/children show hand dominance but I've been thinking for a while that MV might be a lefty.

We're sitting here enjoying some post dinner Cheerios and he's eaten all but one with his left hand. Now that he's doing finger foods I'm noticing more and more how frequent he uses his left. When he does use his right he is not nearly a coordinated.

Hubby and I are both right handed so we shall see :)

Oh and on a side note yesterday MV figured out how to master the 90 degree turn in our stair case and climbed all the way to the top!

I'm seriously in trouble now

Our first week

I've been meaning to post for a few days now, but I'm just so tired.

This may be a scattered and random post, it's 5am for some reason MV thinks its a good time to wake up.

So we survived our first week, just MV and I. In a few ways I think this was much more challenging now that he's older. That caught me a little by surprise.

I was not as productive as I had hoped but I did manage a few tasks off my list, my house however is a mess. Aside from the bed incident we survived bump free.

Hubby's mood is a little better now too, he is still a little worried about a lay off but they seem to like him enough to offer him overtime. He'll be working 6 days a week until Christmas which is 2 weeks pay per week :) we would be caught up and back on track in no time.

My mood still sucks, But I'm suspecting a certain someone may be finally making her return into my life, it's been a nice 18 months without her ;)

Oh and it's frustrating to be without a car again. I think it's making me a little stir crazy to not have the option to just get up and go. I plan on taking hubby to work today so I can get things done and get out.

And speaking of taking him to work, I hear hubby up and about so I guess it's time for me to get out of this rocking chair and start our day. I'm thinking a nap is on our agenda later, fingers crossed MV approves of that plan.

Hope everyone had a great week/ weekend :)

Horrible

Today MV fell head first off my bed.
My giant king sized sleigh bed.
...

He seems to be fine, just a bump.
...

I can't even put in words how I'm feeling today.
...

Wordless Wednesday

...

Mondays...

How can you hate Mondays when you don't even work? lol
Today was a pretty "blah" kinda day, for no particular reason really.

Now tomorrow, tomorrow will be completely different. I have been looking forward to tomorrow since Friday. Never have I wanted a weekend to end so quickly. The reason is Hubby is FINALLY going back to work! I can't wait to have him out of the house! I can wake up and do whatever I want, my own schedule, my routine.

I have high hopes for tomorrow, and hopefully MV will cooperate but I plan on doing a major clean sweep. Have you ever tried to clean when someone is sitting on the couch in front of you? Or moving around room to room just as you want to do something in that room. Our house really is not that big and even with the three floors we practically were tripping on each other.

And he is working here in town. Bonus. Friday morning we were very stressed because it was looking like he would be packing for Edmonton this week since work here has been scarce but a few hours after deciding he needed to go we got the call. Even though I'm ready to have him out of the house I am not ready to play single mom while he's out West working.

So today has sorta just been about waiting for tomorrow.

Fingers crossed its as good as I'm hoping :)


ps hope everyone had a great weekend!

Starfish

Last week MV started his swim lessons :) He is a starfish!

He goes every Tuesday and Saturday until the end of the month. He loved the pool in the summer so we wanted to keep him comfortable with the water, plus he is in the class with his cousin and their friend so it's great social time (and it's free because hubby's uncle owns the gym)

This Saturday I am going to bring my good camera but here are a couple pictures hubby took with his phone :)

A Yes Parent

Now that MV is officially mobile he is getting into everything. Full on discovery mode is happening here, my kid is full of curiosity.

Hubby and I really do not want MV to turn into one of those toddlers whose favourite word is No, so we're trying hard not to say it...

Now of course we don't allow him to do just anything he wants, but within reason he is free to explore and when it's time to discourage something he is given an explanation ie "that is dirty don't put it in your mouth".

I know some other parents might be laughing right now, maybe even shaking their heads at this foolish first time mom; but so far this IS working. If said in the right tone MV will stop what he's doing... either that or get a devilish grin on his face and do it again which leads to said object being taken or him relocated.

My theory is this. I want him to be curious, to explore, problem solve, discover his surroundings and encourage learning.

I also want to encourage language development. Recently we were in the company of friends and family who each have an almost 2 year old child. These kids were actually only a week apart in age but it was amazing the difference in the language development and overall maturity for lack of a better word. The one spoke simple words like "no" and "ma" and "up" where as the other one spoke almost sentences. I noticed the difference in the way the parents each spoke to their child and I really think that has a lot to do with it. The one who spoke more fluently was spoken to by his parents in full sentences, and not in baby talk or simple commands. Hence our approach was influenced by this.

Have you seen this blog? Play at Home Mom; I found it when looking for resources for a friend and fell in love. The whole blog is about learning through play and discovery, encouraging independent thinking in your child. There are so many awesome ideas on how to encourage learning and imagination in your child.

Anyways, there are some days when saying no is needed but we are really trying hard to avoid it. I have already received some skeptical "good luck with that" responses from people about this, but I figure he's my first child and your supposed to learn with them right? ;) lol

Harder than I thought.

This parenting thing is difficult.
Much more difficult than I ever thought it would be. Sometimes I feel like I was completely unprepared.

Sometimes I worry if how I'm feeling is normal, if I'm the only one to deal with this life. Every now and then someone validates my feelings and tells me how they feel or felt the same. It's nice to hear that, nice to know its not only you.

When I was pregnant I had this vision of what it would be like to have a baby. I imagined having a perfect, well kept, organized house. Plenty of time to do crafts, and take tons of photographs of my baby most of which would be inspired by my pinterest finds. Of course dinner would be made ever night and our life would be full of nothing but rainbows and unicorns.
Of course in this dream world I would also look fabulous because I would drop the baby weight quickly and buy a chic and stylish new wardrobe. We would be oh so happy.

Ok reality check time...

I spent the first 6 months postpartum covered in baby puke.
I've lost too much weight to wear my maternity clothes but not near enough to wear my regular clothes.
I feel like a slob, My self image is crap. And buying a stylish new wardrobe is out of the question while on maternity leave.
My baby cries and whines a lot. He's very happy but also very emotional in general.
He relies on me for everything. Duh obviously right? Ya I knew this but I didn't anticipate how mentally exhausting it would be to be relied on like this. Sometimes I need/want a break.
I'm probably more emotional and easier to anger now than while pregnant. My hormones are out of control and my hair is still falling out.
I am ashamed and disappointed in my lack of photographs of my child.
I don't have any spare time. What you might consider spare time is usually taken by my own need to nap. No matter how much I nap I am still tired.
It's surprising how well I can function on so little sleep. It's even more surprising when all of a sudden my body realizes its exhausted and can no longer function properly.
I cook dinner maybe twice a week. The rest of the week we eat cereal, or left overs, or pancakes etc.
My marriage is strained, and at moments at risk of failing. I struggle daily with finding the balance of my roles as mother and wife.

I'm jealous of moms who have "easy" babies, moms who somehow have a life.

So that's how it is. Don't get me wrong I love my baby, my husband, my life. I just wanted to be honest and put that out there because I know that the few honest posts like this have really helped me feel better on those tougher days.

oxo

Just do what works

Yesterday MV and I went to Ottawa to visit my moms family. Hubby has been sick so we hitched a ride with my brother who was driving home from Toronto, we just had him pick us up on his way.

We don't visit too often as it makes for a long day since we always drive there and back in the same day. Most visits we spend more time traveling than visiting.

Yesterday we actually were there for a nice long stretch of time. MV was fairly well behaved, slightly tired and fussy. There were bucket loads of drool coming out of his mouth, quite obvious he was teething.

Despite this I attempted to feed him solids (he doesn't like to eat when his teeth hurt). We happened to be sitting beside my youngest uncle and his wife (my uncle is only six years older than me and his wife only two), they have two young children aged three and two so we were discussing child related things. I was mentioning MV's general disliking for eating solids and told them I feed him most successfully while he is in his exersaucer and said that I don't really know if that's the right thing to do.

Their response was the best and most simple piece of advice or encouragement I have received yet.

"there is no right thing, just do what works"

It was sincere, and empathetic and just the reassurance I needed.

Too big

I posted this on instagram last week but forgot to post here ....

On the left is the sleeper he wears now at 8 months (size 12m) and the right is a sleeper he fit in when he came home from the hospital.

My baby is growing way too fast :(