Adventures With Baby

Motor Skills

2011-01-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

So when does your toddler finally master their Motor skills? Mine seems to have a clumsy streak that he hasn't outgrown yet. I'm still waiting for that to happen but in the meantime he almost needs a hockey helmet to wear, especially when he's tired. It's like his legs don't work when he's almost ready for sleeptime.
Last night after dinner our little guy decided it would be fun to climb around the coffee table, of course he slipped and smacked his head on the table (which i'm ready to toss at this point) and then scratched himself in the forehead and while in the tub smacked the back of his head on the tub spout! Phew, and he also had an odd hive reaction I think to the tomatoes in his spagetti...ugh what a crazy night. I was happy when he finally fell asleep and got some rest.

I'm still waiting for the clumsy phase to pass but until then we will continue to keep the ice packs in the freezer for the bumps and bruises along the way. :)

Liz

Walking and Talking

2010-09-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

Well it's been awhile since I last wrote, and Kaelan is now 14 months old! He is doing great, he's walking on his own pretty much since his first birthday and is now chatting up a storm. We really have to watch what we say to him because he copies us all the time. :)

My husband asked him to "sit down" while he was standing in the bath and of course he said "sit down" right back to him. So funny, and he also said "thank you" after I said it to him. Even this week he said "me" and "Wow" when I asked him to say it. He seems to understand when I ask him to say things...and when I ask him to point to things...he's so smart!

I have also had him involved with the WLU child math lab research they are doing with respect to if toddlers know and recognize numbers and it's amazing that they can actually understand numbers at the age of 1. Awesome!

Well i'm just so impressed everyday with the amount of information a toddler can take in and retain, it's amazing.

He is also going through a growth spurt of sorts, seems to be his feet have been growing so fast. His size 4 shoes that were big on him a month ago no longer fit, he has his new 5 1/2 shoes on today and they seem to fit great. Amazing how fast his feet grow!

Well that's about it for today, I hope to write more soon.

ttyl,
Liz

It's been awhile...

2010-03-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

I thought i'd write a bit since it's been awhile. Life has been pretty busy and I just didn't have much time to write. But since i've been having some issues with sleeping I figured i'd put out a new post.

Life is good with the lil man, he's doing lots of cute things lately, he mimics you when you say things to him and he occassionally repeats them back to you. He has said DaDa, MaMa, Bopbopbop or pop pop pop lol, and even Poo Poo, and tonight Tee Tee. He also says a whole lot of stuff only he understands lol.

Kaelan is also trying to get up on his knees to crawl a bit...he really prefers to roll rather than crawl but he is great at running around in his walker. Shhhh don't tell anyone we have one. I got it 2nd hand off Kijiji and he loves it. I must say that it's his favorite thing, and keeps us busy chasing after him.

I look forward to all the new adventures with him and walking, crawling and talking. He is also getting pretty great at eating solids, but he doesn't seem to do well with cheese and dairy still...sigh, oh well we will see how he does as his tummy matures.

We are working on sleep training with him and it's hit and miss most nights, he does seem to do well with going to bed at 7-8 pm but staying asleep is the issue. And we seemed to have reversed our progress of nursing only once through the night but alas, it's bonding time we will never have again so I enjoy it (even though it's trough on my sleep schedule). :)

But we do have a pretty awesome schedule in the day time that includes 2 naps for the most part...some days are disrupted by appointments and outings but we try to get our two naps in when we can.

Well we are off to baby and me class tomorrow to sing song, he really likes it and it's fun to hang out with all the other moms. It's just good to get out of the house and have some baby fun.

Well I think i'll sign off for now, looking forward to all the fun adventures to come. :)

Liz

Time

2010-02-23T21:32:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go?
I've been going through our baby's videos and I can't even believe how fast 7 months has passed. He was so tiny and now he's growing more every day. I am excited for him to meet all his new milestones like talking and walking so I don't reminice much but it was a reminder to enjoy every minute with him.
Another thing about time when you are on mat leave is how much of it you have and don't have. To go out takes about an hour to get the baby ready, the dogs fed or let out, get myself ready, it's crazy. Then the rare moments I have to myself I have to decide is it worth doing something like shower or sleep. Sleep usually wins.
Which leads me to why can't I sleep lately? What's up with that? We just went through a 3 week cold and teething period with Kaelan and I was back to sleeping for an hour then up with him and now that the cold is gone and the teething subsided I can't seem to get any good rest. Ugh so frustrating, then I lie in bed thinking of my to do list and then it's no use to sleep. So here I sit typing about it. lol
I think tomorrow I will try and get some exercise so I tucker myself out by night time and see if that helps.
Now if this silly cold I have will just go away! :)

Ciao
Liz

Britax Advocate Car Seat

2010-01-29T06:41:00.000-08:00

So we have been researching the best car seats for our growing son (he's gained 2 lbs in 2 wks and 6 new teeth) he's been a busy little man in his 6 month growth spurt. Thankfully our current car seat is good for up to 32 lbs but he will outgrow it in length before weight. He is over 27" tall now and is still growing...all his 6 mth sleepers are on their way out, say hello to 12 month sleepers. :)

Well on to the car seat research, we found the Britax Advance has everything we are looking for:

True Side Impact Protection
Rear and forward facing
lots of cushioning for baby
a great 5 point harness system that requires no re-threading when they grow, a front harness adjuster, harness holders to keep those annoying straps out of the way when putting your child into the seat, and keeps your childs head safe from moving around too much in an accident
small base so it fits into our vehicle

Well that is just some of the wonderful things this car seat has, we have been looking for it to go on sale but no go anywhere yet. Baby's R Us says they never go on sale so we are waiting for the Bay to have a sale so we can use our HBC points towards it (I've been saving for something big and have over $100 in points) woowoo.

So this is our first choice in car seats so if you see them anywhere in your travels on sale let me know lol.

ttyl,

Liz

PS Free Britax Advocate Giveaway at: www.growingyourbaby.com

Car Seat Mania!!

2010-01-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

Wow who knew how hard it would be to choose a car seat! We have been having a tough time choosing one from all the great ones out there. We are thinking of getting a 3 in 1 since our little guy isn't quite out of his old one yet but will be in about 2 inches and 5 lbs. :)

I've been soliciting advice from all parents and so far the consenses is the following:

Britax
Radian
Graco My Ride 65
EvenFlow
Eddie Bauer

We are still deciding and i'm not done my research but I thought i'd document our journey into the next step of car seat shopping. :)

I'll post an update once we choose the seat.

Liz

Car Seats ugh

2010-01-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

So our little guy is now officially 6 months old and is growing like crazy...we need to find a new car seat soon for him. I've been looking and researching the best ones but wow they are expensive, i've been waiting for the fancy Britax ones at the Bay go on sale...I can then use my HBC points for more than $100 off it...but that doesn't mean much when the car seat is still $400 before tax. Sooo i'll keep looking for sales and hope a good one comes up.

Kaelan is now 27 inches long and weighs 20.6 lbs, he fits in 12 mth sleepers and even has his 4 front teeth in now...there is one slowly making its way down but it will be here any day.

I can say that I can't wait for this teething thing to be over with, he will sleep much better and be back to his regular non-cranky self. And all the puking! No one told me they would puke so much when they teethe...ugh, i'm sure I change my top 3-4 times a day, thankfully we have a lot of recieving blankets and bibs to catch the extra puke.

Well i'm off to make supper while he blissfully sleeps for a nap...poor guy, wish the teething didn't bother him so much.

ttyl,

Liz

Front Teeth!!!

2010-01-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

Well Happy New Year!

I was checking out my son's teeth last night and noticed why he's been teething like crazy this month, his top two front teeth have made an appearance! They have just broken the skin and you can feel the teeth ridge but they are there.

Kaelan was about 4 mths old when he got his first two bottom front teeth, I was amazed that he got teeth so early but now he is about a week away from being 6 mths old and now he will have 4 teeth once they come all the way down, amazing!

As a nursing mom, this kind of worries me that he will now have two top and two bottom teeth to bite me with (nervous laugh). :)
I read somewhere that teeth are based on genetics for when they come in so I wonder which one of us (my husband or me) was the early teether to pass on this wonderful gene to our son. :)

I do have a wonderful ace in my pocket for teething that i'm happy to pass along. It's called "Camilla" made by Borion and you can purchase this little bit of magic from Walmart for $13.99 or from Zehrs for $15.99 or from the Old Kitchen Cupboard for $19.99. It's a capsule of clear liquid that has not much taste, that you squirt in your baby's mouth (they have to swallow it). You give it 15 minutes to work and if your baby is still upset you can give them another round or two every 15 minutes. You can't overdose your baby and it works so fast! No more tears and red cheeks! Amazing!

I also have Camilla pellets from my Naturopatic doctor that work as well, the liquid Camilla is still my favorite as I can just squirt it in my baby's mouth, pellets can be a bit tricky to get in the baby's mouth sometime.

I have also tried the Hylands Teething Tablets that work in a pinch but not as effective as the Camilla. As for baby Tylenol or Motrin, I've tried even these before I discovered Camilla and they didn't seem to work with my baby very well, plus i'm not interested in feeding him chemicals when there is a natural alternative.

Well that's my blurb about teething and Camilla, a magic wonderful thing for teething babies! :)

Good luck to all who have a teething baby.

Liz

First and last play date of 2009

2009-12-31T16:45:00.001-08:00

Well Happy New Year to all!

We spent the afternoon with my friend, her son (who is 3 weeks older than my son) and some of her work friends with babies for our first and last play date of 2009!

It was a great way to spend the afternoon, even if all of the babies there were really too young to actually play. Our son Kaelan did have fun looking and checking out the the other kids. It was interesting to see how they all interacted at such a young age, everything seemed very interesting to our little guy.

I'm thinking in the new year i'll try to have a few play dates with the other mom's I know with babies around my guy's age, I think once they can all sit up they will enjoy themselves lol.

Well to all have a wonderful night and wishing you much happiness and many blessings in the new year!

Liz

Too Good to be true.

2009-12-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

Well that lasted about what, 20 minutes? LOL, the baby woke up fussing, my hubby went in to check on him, picked him up, got puked on, and tried to put the less gassy baby back to bed.

We are now sitting in the living room hoping that he will fall asleep to the lull of the well used lullably cd playing that I got as a gift in a card when he was born (hmm that's probably where the word lullaby came from lull to sleep) :).

This cd is our Godsend, it works magic I'm sure of it...ohhh what's that sound...silence...hmm maybe he will go back to sleep, who knows...sure sounds quiet in there now. :)

We have been having some excellent success with the baby sleeping through the night for almost 2 weeks now... only a few nights of interrupted sleep but it's amazing to finally sleep for more than 3 hours at a time.

We were one of the (un)lucky ones who had a baby who woke every hour or two to eat for about the first 3 months...that time is a sleep deprived haze, on top of all the other new things to learn the sleep deprivation was the biggest on the list. Everyone tells you how you will miss sleep but my mantra became "sleep trumps everything", and I meant it! I would rather sleep than eat, pee, drink, shower, get dressed, you name it...it was amazing to me that I could still walk around in the zombie state I was in.

But now it's been two glorious weeks of 6-8 hours of sleep and it took about a week for my body to realize that I didn't have to wake up every 3 hours, but last night was pretty great, I think I only woke about 4 times but went right back to sleep. Here's hoping to another wonderous sleep night, I pray for a good one.

Goodnight (hopefully).
:)

First Post

2009-12-30T19:58:00.000-08:00

Well this is my first post, I just put the baby to bed (hopefully for the night) and thought i'd get started. I wanted to write this blog to document all my adventures of being a first time mom and the knowledge and advice i've learned along the way from other parents.

There is so much to learn the first few months i'm just glad I now have time to write down some of the things i've experienced since my son was born in July.

If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to comment, I welcome any advice and knowledge others are willing to send my way.

Thanks,
Liz