Saturday 23 May 2009

A Big Week - Lots of Firsts

Wow, so much has happened this week;
- Baby's First Birthday Party
- My first evening outing without Baby (My first time drinking since Baby)
- Baby's First Birthday 
- Baby's first time walking by himself
- Baby registered for Daycare
- Baby is starting to eat real food

The birthday party was great, it was a small gathering of family sharing their love for my little one.  Baby received lots of lovely gifts, nice clothes, fun toys that he really likes.  The best thing by far was his first cake.  We had both chocolate and vanilla - his first time having cake, why assume that he would prefer one over the other - and he loved it.  His face was hilarious, kind of like 'this is the best thing in the world ever, Mom, Dad, why have you not given this to me before????'.  I did miss a lot of it as I was in the kitchen dishing out cake for others, but it was awesome.

Husband & Girlfriend made arrangements for a night out for me, the first one since I became pregnant.   I wasn't nervous about Baby, although was nervous for Husband, this was the first time Baby was going to be without the Boob for bed-time.  The thing I was most nervous about was over-doing it, I knew that Husband was telling Girlfriend to get me drunk and to bring me home very late.  Instead we had a great time, went to 3 different bars, had dinner and talked for hours.  I did drink but did not get out of control.  It was a great night for me.  I don't think Husband's night was so great, but he did a great job.

Baby's actual birthday was a quiet day - I was pretty tired from being out on the town the night before.  I did tell him the story of his birth and the days after until he came home from the hospital.  I explained how much we loved him and were so happy that we had him.  I  also sang happy birthday while he ate his sweet potatoes.

The day after his birthday, Baby walked.  Baby has been standing & pulling himself into a stand forever.  Before he started to really crawl, he would take steps if you held his hands but as soon as he was crawling, he refused.  (He is very independent and would prefer to crawl on his own then walk with help.)  He has been cruising for about two months and for about the last month lots of people have been saying 'oh he is going to be walking any day now' but he didn't.  Then suddenly he just took two steps by himself.  I couldn't believe it, I made all kinds of exclamations and did a little happy dance.  I grabbed the camera and kept asking him to do it again, and he did, he took about 5 steps across the kitchen and I managed to get it on video. The funniest thing was that Baby's expression was 'why is Mom so excited? I am just walking'. Husband was very sad that he missed it, but Baby did walk for him 2 days later.  It reminds me that for all the crap stuff that Husband misses, he also misses good stuff.  Seeing how sad Husband was, makes me think about how sad I will be when I miss stuff once I am back at work.

So one of the day-cares that we were wait-listed for called and advised they had a spot opening next month.  Although this day-care is not in the perfect location for us, they do have a really good rating with the city and I did like the place a lot so I jumped on the opening and we are now registered for day-care and will have a few weeks to transition Baby in.  One less thing for Husband to worry about.

Up until this week Baby has only eaten pureed foods, except for cereal and cake.  Every once in a while I would give him other stuff but he wouldn't even put it in his mouth.  This week for both his lunch and dinner I gave him solids.  Finally today, he started eating it, he didn't have a lot and most of it ended up in his bib or on the floor (he feeds the dog).  

So, lots of new stuff.  I was thinking how as adults our world doesn't change constantly, things are pretty stable especially compared to how quickly a baby's world changes.  Even when the surroundings don't change the baby's perspective changes since their own bodies are constantly changing and growing.  Baby's seem to deal with change so much better than adults, I hope that Baby will always handle change so nonchalantly as he handled his first steps.

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Profile Pic - the Week-end Brother & I Bonded as Adults

My new profile picture is one I just love.  It was taken by my brother of me walking on the Brooklyn Bridge.  I love it for many reasons;   It is a cool picture, and  I looked really cute that day.  Mostly though it is because that was a really special week-end.

At the time I was traveling a lot for work (about 75% of the time), I loved it but did not spend much time with loved ones.  My brother was going through a rough time with his family and really needed a break, so I took him to New York for the week-end.  

It was great in so many ways, I felt like I was doing a good thing helping my brother briefly get away from his troubles, it gave my brother some space & fun, and it was really the first time that we bonded as adults.

Growing up we had a love/hate relationship.  We used to fight like cats and dogs, I thought he was lazy, selfish, rude, self-centered, he thought I was a little witch (his word was actually not that nice).  At the same time,  we relied on each other a huge amount and would always back each other up to Mom or Dad.  I think that this dynamic is pretty common for children of divorce, your sibling is going through the same thing you are and  is a constant in the back and forth between parents.

For years prior to this trip we had been getting along fine,  but in general we didn't hang out together, just family occasions.

On this trip we were together for a whole week-end and it was good.  We did touristy stuff  (Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square), we shopped (normally I shop shoes, but we shopped a lot of sports stores), ate at diners, we walked and walked and walked. My Brother is a huge basketball guy and we were able to get tickets into a March Madness game in Madison Square Gardens.

It was fun, but the best part was seeing my Brother happy & excited.  He called our Dad from the Brooklyn Bridge to say Hey - I am smoking a stogie on the Brooklyn Bridge and called his buddies from the game, even though you couldn't hear a thing.    

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Baby is on Twitter

Children are so much more technologically advanced than their parents.  Baby set himself up on Twitter before I set myself up.  His tweets are pretty funny, and interesting as I sometimes have a different point of view about the same event.  Also a bit scary knowing that he is following Stewie Griffin from Family Guy.

Here is one of his tweets:
"I'm freakin hilarious.  During diaper change got poop on my foot, wiped it off on Mom's arm, dog helped - tried to steal dirty diaper, hahaha"

That diaper change was not hilarious, I got poop on my arm and the dog almost took off with the dirty diaper, Baby was squirming like crazy trying to escape.

He does seem to think that the whole poop on Mom thing is much funnier than I do, he puts up lots of tweets regarding this topic.

Also interesting that he seems to think that taking the books and movies off the shelves is helping Husband & I re-organize, whereas to me it is just a pain in the butt where things get destroyed and I need to put stuff away.

Just hoping that his techno-savvy pays off and he finds a legitimate way to make tons of money on the internet while sleeping.

Monday 11 May 2009

Beautiful Jewelry


This is not a paid advertisement.

The jewelry from Loophole Jewelry is beautiful.  I have a few pieces myself and always receive tons of comments & compliments when I wear them.  The pieces  are unique and wonderful.

This is an excerpt from her bio:
Her ultimate goal is evoking humor, whimsy and rare imagination through the use of striking color and inventive design in each of her pieces, which is what gives Cheray her signature look.

Check out the site:

http://www.loopholelilu.com/

Friday 8 May 2009

Daycare Should Not Be This Hard to Find

I am supposed to be back at work in 7 weeks and we don't have day care for Baby yet.  I should be panicking but I am pretty relaxed about it, Husband however is not relaxed at all.

When I was pregnant a couple of people made comments about getting the unborn Baby on waiting lists for day care.  I thought they were joking.  They were not.  For the first bunch of months after Baby, there was no way I was doing anything other than keeping him alive so no day care searching.  The next bunch of months I was in denial about having to ever leave Baby, so of course I didn't do anything about day care.  

Reality finally did settle in and I started searching.  I went to the Provincial web site for child services and searched for licensed day care in our area.  I then created a spreadsheet to track the information and started calling.  Everywhere I called had waiting lists of one to two years.  I asked to be placed on the waiting lists.  I then started waiting.  Meanwhile, Husband kept bringing me names & phone numbers of home care givers that he was picking off of bulletin boards.  I didn't call any of them - I really wanted Baby in a Day Care, not in home care.  

A mom at the library group we go to advised me to visit/call frequently as she believed that if the Director likes you and has you top of mind, you might get bumped up the list.  So, I started re-calling all the places, checking our status on the list and requesting tours/interviews.  Bunches of places will only give tours once you have a placement otherwise they are spending all their time giving tours.  I did go to my number two choice day care and fell in love with them.  Baby was on his best behavior and was flirty and charming with the Director & staff and did not hit or bite any of the other babies as requested by me (I was thinking maybe they would love Baby so much that they would want him to have the next spot).

It is still looking like a long shot for the day cares, so I started to call agencies that manage home care providers.  It is a compromise, in that the agencies are licensed by the government and oversee the care providers, checking on them once a month plus doing things like background checks.   After my first visit/interview with a possible home care provider, I am thinking about trying to bribe the day care Director.  The lady was very nice, but I just feel that a day care will be a better option for Baby.  

We have another interview this afternoon, and regardless of what I think of this one, it will probably not be a valid option.  Husband is very uncomfortable with the neighborhood and doesn't want me and Baby in that area, especially at night.

Hopefully something will happen, hopefully I am feeling calm about this as some sort of omen that everything will work out to the best.  Maybe the calmness is a premonition that we will win the lottery this week-end and I won't need to go back to work, and Baby can stay home with mom where he really belongs.

Below are links to articles about the sorry state of day care in Canada:

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/02/06/f-daycare.html

http://www.todaysparent.com/behaviordevelopment/schoolage/article.jsp?content=20080215_115053_4716&page=1

On the 4th Day Everything Changes

It seems like whenever Baby is on a good run, it lasts for 3 days and then on the 4th everything changes.  This has happened numerous times over the past 50 weeks, and this week was one of them.

For the first 3 days this week, Baby has napped twice a day for a total of 3.5-4.5 hours and has slept pretty well at night.  I was starting to think that we were getting somewhere.  A lot of the naps were not in my arms, which was great because  I needed phone time to follow up on all the day care waiting lists we are on.  I was still going to sleep too late to take real advantage of his better night sleeping, but was feeling more energized nonetheless.  

Yesterday - Day 4 - the naps were much shorter.  The dog woke Baby up with useless barking (why does the dog need to bark when mail/flyers are dropped off) and I was not able to get him back down even though I was pretty sure he was still tired.  So, during the evening he was cranky and clingy but I was able to get him off to bed before 8pm.  

Up again at 12:08am, I managed to crawl back into bed about 1:30, but was up again at 2:30.  I then spent the rest of the night sitting up in Baby's room with both of us in and out of sleep until 5:40 when he was up for good.  Interesting that he seemed to be really feeding a lot during the night (most nights he seems to be sucking while not really feeding).  I am wondering if I am not feeding him enough during the day even though he is getting 3 solid meals a day.  (Cannot wait until he can communicate hunger separate from everything else).

So of course, since he was up at 5:40 am, he ended up going down for a nap at 9:30 am the morning we have 'Ready for Reading' at the library.  We did not make it.  Probably sadder for me since this is the one time a week I get to interact with other moms.

He is currently sleeping in his stroller, hopefully for another hour or two.

I wonder if this means that 2 days from now he will be sleeping well again........