Happy First Birthday Ethan!

Our little boy is officially 1 today (well...at 4:26pm he will be!)  What a fun, but fast year that went by I tell ya!

We had his birthday party yesterday and it was a success.  He did fantastic and did not freak out or cry at all!  He got some fun toys and cute clothes and, I'm sure, and overwhelming feeling of love from everybody that came to celebrate!  And to finish it off he slept from 8pm - 6am.  How wonderful is that?!??!!  He must have been super wiped!

Over this past year, I am amazed at how much he has learned.  By one year, he:

• Learned to walk by 10 months
• Started to communicate with us by 8 months (sign language, pointing, words)
• Figures out toys that even I don't know how to use!
• Waves "bye"
• Answers a phone (it may be backwards and he may use anything - even remote controls) but regardless, he knows how to answer :) 

 Who am I kidding.... he has learned so much it would take an entire day to write everything out!

Happy Birthday Ethan - we love you and can't wait to watch you grow into the little man you are meant to be :)

They Change So Fast!

It has been 3 weeks since my last post and Ethan has changed so much. I am amazed at how fast he grows and changes and learns in such a short period of time.

He is full force with the sign language right now.  Whatever I show him he picks up within a day or two.

At eating time, he signs when he is "all done" by clapping his hands and bringing them outward like he is swooshing his plate away.  And I know he knows what it means because when I offer more food (if I am spoon feeding him) he refuses.

Now that he is walking (and trying to run now), he had his first major accident.  He got his first fat lip and let me tell you, there was blood everywhere! Here he is showing me his boo boo.

Talking about boo boo's when he hurts himself, he cries and points to where it hurts.  As sad as it is that he hurts himself on a regular basis, I think it's so cute that he points ;) It definitely helps me out to know where he hurt himself so I can make it better!  We are lucky though, because he only cries for about 15 - 20 seconds and then he is ready to move on.  I couldn't even tell you when he was upset for more than that long on any account.

We have adopted an "Elf on the Shelf".  Her name is Claudine and she will officially be joining us on December 1st.  of course Ethan is too young to understand what she is about, but I'm sure he will have fun "spotting" her on a daily basis until Christmas :)   (Really, I am more excited about it than he probably ever will be!  But it will be fun and it will be a cute tradition for us to start!) If you are interested in Elf on the Shelf, you can click HERE and read all about it!

His birthday party is in less than two weeks, and I think it's all pretty much organized.  We will be having a few photoshoots next week with him - His Cake Smash, 1 year photos (done on the same day) and then his Christmas photoshoot as well.  I'm pretty excited for them.

11 Months

Ethan will be 11 months in just a couple days....I cannot believe my little boy is going to be less than a month away from being ONE YEAR OLD! He is going to be a toddler!

There has been SO MUCH going on this last month, I don't even know if I will be able to write it all down!  I will do my best to write what I can.

WALKING
As of today, Ethan is officially walking.  He can walk all around the house.  If he loses balance, he doesn't fall on his bum, he just bends over, gets his stance and picks right back up.  It is bitter sweet.  It's nice that now we will be able to go play outside, and he can explore, but I am constantly watching and worrying that he's going to smack into something lol.  I guess in a few weeks it will be better since he will only get better at it.

NURSING
He is weaning.  Instead of 8 times a day, we are down to 3 or 4.  And even those 3-4 times are getting shorter and shorter.  I do not feel sad that he is weaning.  It is time.  We will definitely make it one year of breastfeeding, probably a bit longer.  When I go back to work, I would rather it not be a shock to his system that I am not around at his disposal...

I have incorporated homo milk (half homo, half breastmilk) in his night time bottle....oh yeah, we give him a bottle before bed now instead of nursing because when I go back to work he will not be able to be nursed to sleep....and that's just a bad habit anyway!  Why homo milk do you ask?  Well, I tried to give him some formula (silly mama) and he took about half a swig and threw the bottle down.  'Nuff said".  I do not have enough stock in my freezer to last us a month, so I mix half and half.  For one bottle a day, I'm ok with him having homo milk.  He's a great eater, he still nurses, and he's doing well.

PERSONALITY
He most definitely has a personality now.  He is sweet and loving, and so very talkative.  Baby talk of course.  He loves giving hugs and kisses, and he's really starting to just hang out and chill with me a few times a day.

He also does not like when he doesn't get what he wants, and proceeds to throw a bit of a tantrum.  It is SO HARD not to react, but I just ignore his behaviour and offer something else he can play with.  They do not last long, but they last long enough for me to question "What the BLEEP am I going to do" lol.

NIGHT TIME SLEEPING
Well this one is not on my favorite list, but we are getting better.  He is still waking at around 3:30 or 4am, and then again at 7am.  We got rid of the 12;30 wake up, but we really need to work on these other two.  I think this will be the worst to wean him from - not so much the 7am one (because it's done for selfish reasons so I can get an extra hour or so of sleep - so I nurse him) but the 3:30 one has to go.  Although the last couple nights it's been later and he nurses about half the amount that he usually does - so maybe, just maybe he will be weaning!  (Oh do I hope so!)

GROWTH
He is still in the 50 percentile.  He's a bitty baby.  He's still wearing 9 month clothing lol.  12 months is waaaay too big on him.  He is eating a lot more now, so maybe he will pack on some pounds and height :D

EATING
This kid eats everything....we share our dinner altogether every night.  It is wonderful.  A typical day is like this:

Breakfast:  Fruit puree and cheerios (this is all I can get in him in the morning - he's just like his dad - doesn't care to eat one bit in the morning).  So I just do the baby food puree because at this point, I am not whipping out the blender when it's easier to just open a jar  -  oh the crunchy mama I am lol - at least they are organic!

Lunch:  crackers, cheese, fruit - all cut in cubes.  I have done this for lunch for a long time.  He just loves it.  Sometimes we change it up and have leftovers from the night before, but mostly this is what he will eat.

Dinner:  Whatever we have.  He eats lentil loaf, chicken, soup, etc..... whatever we eat he eats.  This definitely forces me to cook healthy and salt free....and that's ok!

Snacks: Baby cookie, fruit, cheese, breastmilk,netc.... we are not picky about this.  Usually whatever I snack on he will have a bite.

We are starting to let him eat from a (plastic) bowl.  He does very well - eats from it and leaves it on the tray.  But when he is done eating, he will play with the bowl, look at me and tip it - so I know the queues and remove it when he starts lol.  Next will be a spoon.... I'm just not ready for the mess yet!  He will take the spoon if I preload it and put it on his highchair tray - and gets it in his mouth 90% of the time.

He drinks from a straw now.  It's neat to see him learn all these new ways of drinking.  His main drink in the sippy is water, but sometimes I will put milk in it and he is not a fan.  But he's getting used to it :D

Sorry no eating photos - so here is one in the kitchen ;0)

PLAY

He is bored of his toys.  Now he plays with boxes, toys that are too old for him, paper, etc.... you get the point.  He is more interested in walking and exploring, learning how to open and close doors and drawers and helping me with laundry (aka throwing the clothes all over the floor).

He enjoys the early year centres, but right now I'm paranoid about sickness - I know croup is going around and I don't want to have him deal with that if he doesn't have to.  So in a few weeks we will resume.

He likes to climb in the box - that's his form of play. Then throws the toys everywhere!

His birthday is coming up soon, and so I am in high gear for planning.  It's pretty much all sorted out, just have to mail the invites tomorrow and wait for the responses.  We are pretty sure most people that are invited will be attending.  It should be fun, I'm excited to see his face when we bring the cake out!  I will be sure to post photos (that will probably be my next post lol)

Enjoy the photos and learning what's new with our little (big) boy.    Here he is in his Halloween Costume.  A cute little skeleton!

10 Months

Wow it's been awhile since I have blogged.  There has been SO MUCH going on that I am so busy during the day I don't have time to blog, and by the time night rolls around, I am so exhausted (from house duties way after Ethan goes to bed) that I don't have time to blog!  Tonight I have time though....

Let's start off with me - I WENT OUT TONIGHT AFTER ETHAN WENT TO BED!  Sure, I was only gone for an hour and a half but wow was it a magical hour and a half!  I met a friend for coffee.  She texted me saying she didn't want to go home yet (has a baby too) and asked if I wanted to meet.  I said sure and she thought I was joking...nope.  So 9pm, I headed out to meet her for coffee (well tea actually!)  It was great.

Ok back to little Ethan.  He amazes me in soooo many ways.  When he was younger, I of course loved to hang out with him, but he was so demanding that I looked forward to his nap times.  When he woke, I would kinda slump and then go get him.  NOW, when he goes for a nap, I have my routine down pat, get it done, have time for myself (because he sleeps 2.5 hours on most days now!) and when he's up, I am excited :D  He is SO MUCH FUN.  He is learning to walk - he uses a walker or walks on furniture, but crawling is very scarce these days.  He only crawls to someplace he can walk along lol.

He is very interactive now.  He plays with me.  We throw a ball back and forth, he climbs all over me, he crawls towards me then lays down with his back towards me so I can tickle him and he lets out the biggest belly laughs ever!

He says a few "words" if you want to call it that.  In our eyes, he is talking and communicates with words and sign language.  What does he say you ask?  He says"  Mama, Dada, Doggie, Hi, Ya.  He signs "More", "Milk", "Doggie".  We are working on "eat", "poop" and "hi".  Tomorrow we start Baby Signing at the Library so maybe we can learn some more!

We also joined "Mother Goose" but it's at 1pm and it is smack dab in the middle of his nap and that boy needs his sleep, so I don't think it's going to work out for us!  I am also planning to take him to the Early Years Centre more often now because he is at a good age where he can interact with the kids now and get involved.  Plus I can get out and talk to other moms too.

When I'm in the kitchen, which is a lot, he is always there.  Of course, if it's unsafe for him to hang out with me in there, he goes in his playpen for a minute or two (ie, taking something out of the oven).  He sorts my pantry out - all over the floor ;)   He's trying to figure out the door locks on the cabinets....soon enough he will be handing them back to me!

We are done with purees.  If he does get a puree, he sucks it out of the pouch.  I'm done making them though.  He pretty much just eats what we are having for that meal.  Todays menu went like this:

BREAKFAST - Oatmeal mixed with prunes (ok so he gets purees, but this boy needs his prunes!)
LUNCH - roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, cottage cheese
SNACK - grapes and a baby cookie
DINNER - chicken and kale casserole

It's fantastic and he eats pretty much all that I give him.  I'd say he eats at least a 1/4 cup of food a day.  On top of that, he still nurses 5-6 times per day.  Yeah, we are working on getting it down, especially throughout the night, but that warrants a completely different post!

I have been lacking very badly on photos these days......I did manage to take a few yesterday but I did not manage to put them on the computer.  Sorry - there will be some to come, I promise.  He is quite darling these days :)

My days are FULL now.  We are up by 8:30 (the latest).  I breastfeed him, and then we get changed and go downstairs to play for a bit.  Then we have breakfast, and then play some more.

He goes down for a nap around 11:30 and sleeps these days for 2.5 hours.  Sometimes it's less, but the average is 2.5.  This means he takes only one nap a day.....arrgh!  At least he sleeps right!

After his nap we are up again and I make lunch.  We sit and eat and then we do errands afterwards.  We are usually home by 4 and then I prep dinner, play, eat, play some more, let him run around naked for 20 minutes, give him his bath, then bed.

He is still waking during the night at least 2 times.  It's exhausting and I'm ready for him to be done, but unfortunately, he is not ready to be done, so we must stick it out a bit longer!  I think when Ryan is on afternoons, we will try to wean him from night feedings.  Two weeks away......please pray for us!

It's time for me to hit the sack before my night shift starts, but here is a photo of Ethan that I took yesterday of him walking.  Don't you just LOVE that puffy diaper bum!  :)

We made it!

Ethan has finally overcome his cold.  He still has a bit of a booger face but he is better!  That was a rough 5 days - poor kid.  I got a touch of it but I seemed to have fought it off in a day (thank god!).

Since it's been a while, I thought I'd update on the new things that Ethan is doing!

1.  He walks along furniture

2.  He thinks EVERYTHING is a car and drags it around the house.... when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING!  His Pack 'n' Play (yeah, seriously), the dining room chairs,  and every single toy.  He just makes me laugh!

3.  He is throwing things now.  I gave him a little box of empty raisins and we were throwing it back and forth to each other - priceless.

4.  He mimics the tones that we make.  I always say "hiiii" to him in a funny way and he now does it back.

5.  He is refusing his second nap, and taking his first nap later.  I assume he is trying to do one nap during the day (hopefully he takes a long nap soon).

6.  Stopped peeing when naked (LOL).  I know this is a funny one, but it's true.  We always give him naked  time before his bath for about 20 minutes, and he has not peed in about 2 months.  I consider this a personal victory :0D .

7.  He's a pro at eating finger foods.  It's nice that I can give him what we are eating at dinner (as long as it's suitable for a baby).

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that come to mind.  He's so awesome - I could just "eat him up" lol. (Yep that one is for you dad).

On Grandparent's Day - this is his "Dr. Evil" look :) 

His usual self - eating whatever he can get his cute little lips on.

Playing with anything that is NOT a toy!

Hiding from mom in his "fort"

Sad "sickie" face :( 

Sick Baby :(

Ethan has gotten his second cold in his short little life :(  The first was at 4 months old and 5 months later, he has his second.  This one seems a bit better than the first time.  He is still a pretty happy baby but both of us did not get our much needed sleep last night.  He was up till about 11.  He did go down at his normal time but only slept an hour, so he is now taking a well deserved nap.  I just hope he gets a good quality nap in.  I am running the vaporizer with some vicks in it, and he cleared up pretty good.

No pictures today - I don't think you want to see a booger face baby :) Thankfully he is letting me wipe under his nose now - only when absolutely needed of course!

Poor bug - I hope he gets better very very soon!

Our First Overnight Trip

We decided to go to London this past Thursday and see how Ethan did with an overnight trip.  I'm happy to say it went well.  He pretty much stayed on schedule.  We went to London to visit Uncle Matt & Aunt Krista and we all had a good time!

Ethan slept in his Pack & Play.  I bought a mattress pad for specifically for the Pack & Play and a cute sheet to go overtop of it (sorry no photos).

Since Ethan always gets a bath and we didn't really have an option to give him a bath, we decided to put him in the sink :)

The next day we went to the Covent Garden Market and fell in love.  It is such an amazing market (at least compared to what we have here!) and we got some good finds.

Ethan also enjoyed the sight seeing!  He enjoyed it so much he pretty much passed out the entire way home!

And on the way home, I bought myself a yummy (aquired taste) Kombocha tea - yummmmm-o!

Our next trip will be to Toronto where we will stay more than one night.  Now that we know he will do fine, we are more confident in the visit - just have to work on the car ride as a simple 1.5 hour trip to London is like hell on fire!  

Nothing new really

There is nothing really new going on.  Ethan stood by himself tonight, not holding onto anything.  I missed it, but dad saw it.

Since I have nothing new to talk about, enjoy some cute photos below :)

Nothing like some yummy pasta to make a DISASTEROUS mess out of :D 

And then.... we topped it off with a nice juicy steak bone.  Your welcome Ethan.  ;0)

Our baby is 8 months old tomorrow!

Every day, Ethan seems to learn something new.  He works on something the day before and then the next day, boom, he's up and doing it.  Forget, crawling, now he is standing and trying to walk along furniture. He is 8 months tomorrow, and within this last month he has learned to crawl, sit from crawling, stand up on things, sit back down from standing up, mimics what we do.  It's amazing.  Absolutely amazing.

I think we are now done with purees.  He is eating pretty much what we eat.  Tonight we had fish and quinoa, so I put some quinoa on his tray with some steamed carrot pieces and he ate it.  He loves the baby puffs...and although not very nutritious, it keeps him busy.  I still make our main focus to be breast milk for another 4 months, but he is doing well with cut up finger foods.

Sleeping is going well.  It has changed from a couple months ago.  He now sleeps until about 8am, and then goes down for an hour and 45 minute nap about 3 hours after he wakes.  Then again in the afternoon.  He has been going to bed around 8:30pm, which is nice because we can take our time with dinner, or when we go out somewhere. He no longer need to be rocked to sleep.  He goes to bed awake.  When he does wake up, he occupies himself for a while.  It's nice.

He is such a happy baby.  Full of life and so fun to be around.  It's such a blessing to have a little guy like him around in our lives.  Makes you really appreciate the simple things in life.  He is still pretty cuddly.  Even though he is very independent and wants to do things on his own, there is always room for a little cuddle here and there.  Or moments to just chill with him outside on my lap, watching nature, or the dogs.

Product Update

I may have mentioned before, but we battle eczema and very dry skin with Ethan.  I have tried numerous products, including Hydrocortisone cream, and nothing works.

I was using Dimpleskins Sweet Cheeks Body Balm, and, although it really helps, its darn expensive!  A little tin for $13 doesn't go a long way, and in my opinion, wasteful.  I use it on his cheeks and the bad spots, but for an all-over moisturizer, it just doesn't float my boat.  Plus it's a bit on the greasy side, so I don't like staining his clothes with it either.

So I was using the Bare Organics Healing Balm for a moisturizer.  Again, a bit greasy, but does soak into the skin within 5 minutes, but we don't always have 5 minutes when the Little Mister is tired and hungry lol.

Well we went states side yesterday at good 'ol Target, and I found the brand Shea Moisture.  She has a line for babies.  It's organic, pure, natural and formulated for Eczema prone skin.  SO we have been using it and I love it.  I have the soap bar and the body butter moisturizer.  It smells wonderful too and has some good essential oils - along with Argan oil.   And not very greasy.  Rubs right into the skin.

During baths, we still do the warm, not hot bath, and I wash him every 2-3 days.  His hands and knees always get a wash now due to the constant crawling.

For his bum, I am still using Bare Organics Baby Balm, but only for night time.  During the day I have added Gro-Via Magic Stick.  It smells soooo good and it's organic and provides a very thin coverage.  He is not left long enough in a wet diaper to even think about getting a rash, but I still like to be on the safe side!

Other than that, I don't use much else on him.  I think the less the better, but due to his Eczema, we need to take a few extra precautions.

What my days are like these days...

Ethan is 7.5 months old.  He is a busy baby!  He is so happy and curious, it's fantastic.  But by 8pm, I am WIPED OUT!  Here is what a typical day of ours looks like:

7:10am - Rise and Shine! I hear little squeals and babble and peak into Ethan's bedroom to find him playing with his soother, toy or toes.  When he sees me he give me a huge grin, then scrambles to find his soother so he can put it in his mouth and look at me.  I'm not sure why he needs to do that, but I let him :0)

7:15am - I feed him and change his diaper, and then we go downstairs to start our day.  He goes in his Exersaucer while I brush my teeth, put my contacts in and grab something quick to eat.

(sorry no photos this month of him in the Exersaucer...sad face) 

7:45am - Floor time.  Ethan crawls around the house while I chase him.  He plays with his Fisher Price Sing Along Stage toy, plus various other toys.

9:00am - Nap Time.  He gets another diaper change, I nurse him, and he goes down for a nap.  These days, he sleeps for a minimum of 1.75 hours.  It's great....really great.

During this time, I clean the house, fix something proper to eat, shower, and go on the computer.

11:45am - Wake Up - Nurse - Diaper Change - Lunch (usually some fruit and a Mum-Mum).  If I have to go out, this is the time we go do errands or visits.  If not, we just play again.

2:30pm - Nap Time.  Same routine as the 9:00am section ;0).

During this break nap, I usually prepare dinner, tidy up a bit more, have a snack, and do some scrapbooking, if I have time.

4:15pm - Wake up - Nurse - Diaper Change.  Play time.  Usually at this time, dad comes home and takes over for a bit so I can head to the gym, or go shopping alone, or whatever.  

6:00pm - Nurse - Dinner.  I always nurse before giving solids since milk is his main source of nutrition. He is now finally eating the foods I made for him - we are over the texture thing.  So he gets a vegetable and sometimes meat (chicken).  

6:30pm - Play time.  We have quiet play time to wind him down before bed.  Ryan cleans the kitchen and I play with Ethan.

7:00pm - Bath Time.

7:20pm - Nurse - Bedtime.  If possible, I try to fit in a book to read, but he is so tired at this point, he just wants milk and his bed.

7:30pm  - I usually do laundry, diapers, clean up the toys, shower, relax.

10:00pm - Pumping.  I have been pumping every night for the last month at 10pm.  I finally have a nice little stock pile of milk in the freezer.  I was really running low, and then wasn't responding to the pump, but finally, it's taken charge and I can pump one feeding every night to store.

11:00pm - Bed

2:30am - Up for a feed.  Thankfully these last a maximum of 7 minutes.  So the extra 3 I use the washroom, get a drink and go back to bed.

5:30am - Sometimes he wakes at this time.  I'm sure I can start working on eliminating this feeding because it doesn't really take much.  It's just the effort that is required to eliminate it :0|.

And 7:30am comes again, and we start all over again.... :0)

So that is my day.  It's very busy, very tiring, and soooo rewarding.  Being a mom is the best gift that I could ever receive and I wouldn't change a single thing about it or Ethan.

xoxo

A Day at the Winery

Today we headed out to Viewpoint Winery.  Ethan is pretty good on the drives out to the county so we decided to go for lunch.  It's a good 40 minute drive, but he got pretty fussy during the last 10 minutes because he was hungry.  He didn't nurse before we left so I was expecting it.  But after he ate, he was happier than a bug in a rug :D

 Always so happy...

 Look at that view!

 Mama & Baby

 Cheers - we found 2 wonderful wines and bought 2 bottles to bring home!

 Ethan now loves water and is learning how to swallow it better every day.  He always has to have what I'm having, but he slobbers in it, so I always tend to bring one of his own glasses to share my drink with :)

Big boy glass.... no he just won't drink out of a sippy cup so the glasses will have to do.

 Gone are the days where he's contented to just sit with us.  Now we have to bounce him, or let him jump and do many things to keep him occupied.

 Our lovely perch lunch

Ethan's exciting Mum-Mum

On the way home, he fell asleep, but only got about a half hour nap, so we sure did have a cranky baby that just wanted to go to sleep at about 6pm.  I managed to keep him up until 7:15 but it was definitely not easy!

That was pretty much our day in a nutshell.  It was fun but it's definitely tiring.