It's the little things...

The last few months have been pretty hectic (as you can probably guess from my lack of posts!).  Between parenting, work and enjoying the last of summer, I sometimes feel like I'm constantly running around.  I often need to remind myself to slow down and enjoy the moments as they pass by rather then always thinking about what needs to be done and planning what's next.  It's in these moments of reflection that I realize that it really is the little things in life that make me happy.  Some of these aren't things I would (usually) admit to others, because I confess they are silly but none the less, here I go anyways.  Hopefully you can relate to some of these and I'm not the only crazy mom out there!

1) When you make it home in time for nap and baby doesn't fall asleep in the car on the way home (which would ruin any chance at that nap at home).

2) When you finish your to-do list before nap time is over and you have time to do something for you!  These days I've been pretty hooked to my sewing machine.

3) When you catch your baby doing something incredibly cute.  Like trying to dress themselves.

4) When you wake up before baby in the morning and you have time to pee and scan Facebook before hearing that first peep from the nursery.  Although this one hasn't been happening much lately!

5) When your husband gets up with the baby and you get to sleep in!  Sometimes he even makes me breakfast when I wake up (I know, I'm pretty lucky!)

6) When all your diapers are clean, stuffed and organized by colour.  The only one missing is the one that's currently on the bum. (I told you I was a little crazy! But other moms that use cloth diapers will probably share my excitement.)

7) Drinking a whole coffee in one sitting without it going cold or having to microwave it.  Really the same goes for meals...

8) FLUFF MAIL!  Whether it's new diapers, a new baby carrier or some new fabric.  It's always an exciting moment for me.  Really, any mail that isn't bills is pretty fun!

And finally the most important one is those quiet moments where you get to just unplug and enjoy friends and family!

I hope you all got to enjoy the little things on this long weekend!

Julie

Music Man

We love music!  We always have it playing in the house.  We are huge Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, Mumford and Sons, Of Monsters and Men, etc. fans.  That kind of stuff.  I can't say that K listens to much children's music, but he is exposed to a wide variety of artists and genres.  On top of always having iTunes going in our home, my very talented and artistic husband is playing the ukulele, piano or guitar for K, any chance he gets.  K bounces and gives standing ovations for his daddy when he plays!  It's the sweetest thing.

K has now become obsessed with the instruments we have in our house and we fully encourage him playing with them and exploring how they work.  Of course, this requires some supervision, as K likes to bash the ukuleles on the floor if we are not watching him.  He now crawls over to the piano, stands up and plays us some tunes, with a big smile on his face the entire time.  He even sings sometimes, as well!  I have very limited knowledge of chords on the guitar and ukulele and I can play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the piano.  So, let's just say that I'm no musical prodigy.  But, I don't have to be for K to be able to play around with the instruments and to enjoy and appreciate creating music.

To all of the parents out there who are like me - a little afraid of musical instruments, as I don't know quite how to play them - just let your child explore and play with them.  No need for lessons on how to use them, although lessons when they're older can be fun!  Explore WITH them as well!  I swear, they'll get a kick out of watching you "play" the piano, the guitar, the bongos, heck, even the recorder (I know, those can get quite annoying)!

Research shows the music can improve our spatial reasoning skills.  When you listening to music, our brains are prepared to solve all kinds of puzzles and complete tasks.  Check out the following links for information on even more benefits go exposing children to music!

http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/Articles/building_babys_brain.htm
http://www.raisesmartkid.com/all-ages/1-articles/16-the-effect-of-music-on-childrens-intelligence

You don't need musical instruments in your house to expose you child to music!  Here are some ideas on what to do/use to make music in your home!

- Use empty cans and cover the top with a balloon to make a drum OR add some rice or beans inside to make a shaker.
- Use an empty tissue box and rubber bands to make your own guitar.
- SPOONS!
- Use Tupperware or metal bowls, and sticks or utensils to make a drum set.
- Put rice, noodles or beans in just about ant container.
- For older kids: Use glasses or jars with different amounts of water in each to make different sounds.

I could go one forever!  You can make music with just about anything!

If your child is constantly listening to music AND creating it, think of all the skills he or she is developing as such a young age, all the while having fun and exploring with mommy and daddy!

S

I'm a Good Parent, I Swear!

You may think my techniques are odd, but sometimes, s**t's gotta get done!

Please note that none of these are performed against our child's will.  This was all voluntary.

1.  The laundry hamper method.  Sometimes, I like to only fold my clean clothes once.

2.  The cardboard box method.  When I vacuum, I don't want you chewing on the power cord.

Sometimes, when I'm feeling wild, it's a plastic box! 

3.  The toy bin.  He's just so happy in there!

4.  The Tupperware drawer.  Mommy has to make dinner!

5.  The remote control.  Just take out the batteries and let them play with it, man!

6.  The kitchen appliance method.  

7.  The DVD shelf.  Yes, sometimes I want to finish my episode of Suits on Netflix.

S

Just go with it: life after work

I have been back to work for 6 weeks now and we are finally starting to get into a good routine.  Sure, there are still days where I'm running around trying to figure out what I can make for dinner in 10 minutes, that's considered somewhat healthy.  But for the most part,  I've got this.  However, if you would have asked me a month ago how I liked being back at work, I might have crawled into the fetal position on the floor and ignored your question.  It's not work itself that was the problem.  In fact, I'm really enjoying being back at work.  The problem was the sh*t storm that happened at the same time as my return to work.  It just seemed to be one thing after another.

First, my husband got an infection in his elbow that was so bad it required him to be on IV antibiotics for 4 days!  Of course if they stick a needle in your arm and attach a pump to your waist and they expect you to visit the hospital on a daily basis.  So that was fairly exhausting in itself.  The swollen elbow and IV also meant that my husband couldn't help much with J.  But to make matters worse, I got a bad flu at the same time.  Anyone who has had to parent when all they want to do is curl up in a ball and die will understand how awful this was.  And of course, all of this happened over the 4 days before I was returning to work after my mat leave!

Luckily, by Sunday evening, things were looking up.  I was feeling better and hubby's IV was coming out Monday morning.  We had survived!  But the universe had other plans... I managed to get through my first work day and actually enjoyed it.  J on the other hand, had an awful day at daycare and it was clear by Tuesday morning that he was sick.  Off to the emergency room we went, where the kind doctor informed me that I was to keep him home and stay home with him for the rest of the week.  You can imagine how good I felt about calling my boss with that news!  Luckily, she is amazing and totally understood.

So we got through the week and things were looking up by the weekend... So I thought.  The following week we got strep throat (all 3 of us).  The week after that J got an ear infection that was so bad that his ear drum ruptured!  By this point, I kept thinking things couldn't possibly get any worse, but it just kept piling on.  I got to a point where I had to just go with it.  Roll with the punches as they say.  Amongst the doctor and hospital visits we continued with life and work.  We even managed to celebrate J's first birthday.

Luckily, after the ear infection, things started looking up.  J received antibiotics that not only made him feel better, but it seemed to help with his appetite, which was something that we had been struggling with for months!  My baby was finally eating!

By my 4th week back from mat leave, I was finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  My husband and I fell into a pretty good morning routine and I finally felt like I could do this working mom thing.

So if you are about to return to work after baby, know that the first few weeks might be tough.  Hopefully you won't have to face too many issues but I think it's fair to expect some bumps along the way.  Just know that it does get better.  It still isn't always easy but as things come up, I've learned to just go with it.

J

How Having a Baby is Like Having a Dog

Sometimes, having a child is like having a dog.

10. Come! Come here!  Common!!!

9. Attempting to drink from the dog's water bowl. 

8. Sit! Sit down! 

7. Stepping on poop inside the house.  (Diaper changes can get a little rowdy.) 

6. Fetch is a popular game.

5. Farts really smell, whether they come from a dog or a baby.  They both can clear a room. 

4. Petting babies on the head.

3. Brushing teeth and cutting nails require wrestling a wild animal and are usually a two-person effort. 

2. At bath time, everybody gets wet.

1. Unconditional love.

~S

Make it yourself: change table storage

I used to keep my cloth diapers in one of those cube type shelves, and while that worked great at first, it wasn't cutting it anymore.  J is now tall enough to reach the top shelf and one of his favourite games was pulling every single diaper off the shelf about 2 billion times a day.  So I started looking for a creative storage solution.

Browsing through Micheals one day I found these beautiful baskets and I thought they would make perfect "shelves" for my diapers.  I got both baskets for about $50.  Of course once I got them home my husband mumbled and groaned because I couldn't simply screw a basket into the wall and expect it to hold weight (who knew?!).

However, he came up with a solution.  I originally wanted to place the baskets horizontally but our wall studs were too far apart for that.  So we placed them side by side vertically.  My husband measured the baskets and cut 2 pieces of 1x3 lumber to place inside.  This helped distribute the weight as well as insured that the screw wouldn't slip out through the basket weave.  Finally, he found the wall studs and screwed the baskets to the wall and voilà!  

The whole project took about 20 minutes and I'm loving the look, as well as the convenience of having this storage above the change table.

Julie

"I don't need you anymore, mommy"

Yesterday was a big day for K and I.  I worked extremely hard to be able to breastfeed K when he was first born (see another new post entitled "A Nipple What?").  He is now great at nursing AND at eating the entire content of our fridge.  He's a bottomless pit. Up to yesterday, he was still nursing three times a day: first thing in the morning, afternoon as a snack and right before bed.  That is what I planned on doing until mid August.  Then, my plan was to start introducing afternoon snack, so that when I returned to work, no pumping and no bottles would necessary.

Well, yesterday afternoon, he decided he didn't want to nurse.  I was heart broken and felt rejected.  I was warned by my mother-in-law that weaning  is "very traumatic for the mom." I believe it!  I teared up and then realized that he would have to start drinking cow's milk, as breast milk twice a day wasn't enough.  So my lovely husband and K went off to the store to get homo milk.  Based on other mom's experiences, I was expecting for this process to be long and difficult.  I was expecting K to refuse the milk, and that we would have mom-baby arguments about drinking the not-so-sweet type of milk.  The thought of him giving me a hard time about this actually made me feel good.  It made me feel like he still needed me and preferred my milk.

WELL, my kid chugged the cow's milk right up.  All 4oz of it.  So there I am, watching him down it and I find myself crying AND cheering for him at the same time.  I'm so proud of him for being such an easy-going baby with new foods, milk, changes in his routine, etc.  But, he doesn't seem like a baby so much anymore.  He's a big boy, who drinks cow's milk and who doesn't need mommy to pump or even BE there in order to eat anymore.

Is this what motherhood feels like?  So much pride AND heart break at the same time?

S