Reese is 15 Months Old!

Last week my baby girl went and turned 15 months on me.  I've finally purchased a baby book for my poor child so it's been fun going back and filling it in.  So for posterity's sake, here is what 15 months is looking like for Reese.

Stats:
Weight: 21 lbs. 2 oz. (49th percentile)
Height: 30 and 1/2 inches (49th percentile)
Teeth: 12 and number 13 is on it's way.  Her most recent three teeth have all been molars and seem to be super painful :(

Sleeping: 12 hours at night (approx 7pm-7am) and about 2 hours during the day (morning and afternoon nap)

Eating: Still a bit of everything.  She currently likes (and I say currently because she changes all the time!) eggs, fruit, graham crackers, goldfish, raisins, Aidell's Chicken and Apple Sausage, pasta, turkey sandwiches, and peanut butter.  Over the last couple of months meals have become a wee battle.  Reese is very independent and wanting to feed herself, or wants me to feed her a certain way, and most times the majority of her food ends up on the floor after she excitedly and/or angrily threw it across the kitchen.  What can I say, we're working on it :)

Drinking: Organic Whole Milk and Water

Playing: We still love reading books, dancing, clapping, swinging, and more recently Reese has really loved playing with her cozy coupe outside.  We try to make it to the park at least a couple times a week and Reese loves climbing on the toddler playground.  She is currently OB-SESSED with Taylor  Swift's 'Shake it Off'.  I really don't know how much more I can take of the song...but it makes her so happy. She has really taken to playing with her baby doll and loves hugging her, putting her in the toy stroller, and pushing her around the house.  And, of course, playing with Lily is at the top of her list.

Likes: Library Babies Class, playing with other toddlers,  reading books, music, owl straw cup, playing with mom's make up bag and wallet, anything having to do with animals (particularly DOGGGGGIES), fruit and goldfish crackers.  Riding in shopping carts is tops and she and she loves waving to passerby's as though she is Duchess Kate.  She makes friends everywhere we go!

Dislikes:  Car seat (but overall this improving), diaper changes, having something taken away from her, mom leaving for work, and generally being told something is off limits.  Pretty typical toddler stuff.

Says: She mimics words and phrases that we say to her and really picks up on anything said to her repetitively. Currently she is saying Mama, Dada, Doggy, Down, There You Go, Thank you, Do Do Do (means I want that or do that), Love You

Milestones:  The big one is Reese is walking!  Right around her 14 month birthday she started getting more confident taking a few steps here and there.  About a week after her 14 month birthday, she put it all together and just took off. Naturally this was a day I was gone for a training and missed it all, but luckily Tom was with her to witness and record it.  In just a few weeks she practically runs now...and you can tell she really loves it.  After discovering her deep love of her belly button, we are working on identifying her eyes, nose, mouth, etc.

In addition to speech gains she is really becoming more and more independent.  And my mama heart is a little sad about this one.  Don't get me wrong, I know it is all age appropriate and shows that she feels secure enough to begin exploring her world...but sometimes I just want my baby to sleep on my chest.  But, she still treats me to the occasional resting of her head on my shoulder and my favorite thing right now is how she walks over to me and folds herself into my lap with a book.  Nothing better than that.

Not to sound like every other parent in the world, but it really goes by in the blink of an eye.

Folly Beach and Charleston, South Carolina

Last week Reese and I had the opportunity to skip town for a few days and join my in-laws for a mini getaway to South Carolina.  Unfortunately this is a very busy time for Tom at work so he was unable to join.  I was a bit nervous about taking a 13 month old on her first flight alone, but she did just great.  I spent an embarrassing amount of time reading tips and tricks for traveling with a toddler to make sure I was as prepared as I could be and it was as easy on Reese as possible.  Overall, aside from Delta continuing to be my least favorite airline, everything went as smoothly as I could have hoped for.

Ergo carrier and golfish...required for a successful jaunt through security.

 While the mini and I flew, my in-laws drove down separately (I drew the line at a 10 hour car ride with my car seat detesting child...no fun for anyone) and they were able to take the car seat and a few other items that were too big of a pain to travel with.  This helped immensely!!  Our condo was in Folly Beach, about 20 minutes outside of Charleston.  I had never been to the area before and just loved it.  Here are some pictures from our travels, if you'd like to see.

Early morning walk on the pier...perks to traveling with children is you're up for the sun rise!

Our morning coffee stop...Black Magic

If you're ever in Folly go to Taco Boy...and eat ALL the tacos!  I heard their margs were worth writing home about too.

One thing I have learned in my 13 months as a parent is that whatever expectations you have, just throw them out the window.  I really thought Reese would go nuts over the beach considering how much she loves anything having to do with water.  So as soon as she woke up on our first morning we made our way to a foggy and windy beach for a little picnic breakfast (Lara bar and banana...so fancy!).   I carried Reese along the sand and stopped to lower her feet.  No go.  She practically hiked her little knees up to her ears.  This shouldn't be too surprising considering her love/hate relationship with grass but it was entertaining at least.  She had a similar sentiment toward the ocean....no thanks guys.   But as long as she could admire it safely perched in her mama's arms she did just fine!

                  

Not one to be deterred (all I wanted was ONE picture of my baby enjoying the beach), we headed back to the beach on our last morning, determined to get a few good pics on the beach.  At least I can say I got a few and she seemed to tolerate it (maybe even enjoy it?) a bit more.

my sweet girl

The rest of our brief trip was spent eating seafood, taking long walks, going for dips in the pool, and doing a little shopping and sightseeing in Charleston.  I haven't been one to mess with our daily routine too much (hello....first time mom) but I was so proud of Reese and how she just rolled with it every day.  She handled restaurants as well as could be expected and overall continued to be nothing but a joy.   Although we only spent a day in Charleston I would absolutely love to go back with Tom and spend some time there.  I feel like most of my time and attention was keeping my toddler entertained/safe/fed/happy/cool/contained, etc...so I didn't get to absorb too much of the city...not to mention it was crazy hot and crowded.  Charleston is definitely on my list of cities to visit again after this.

collage images via

One lesson learned on this trip was that a vacation with a toddler is not actually a vacation...who knew?!   All kidding aside, we missed Tom like crazy and although we enjoyed the new experience we were happy to be home.  Not happy to have brought a cold back with us, but what can you do.

One thing I will definitely do differently next time is take a buffer day off in between travel and going back to work.  We got home Wednesday night just in time to hug Tom and put the munchkin to bed and the sitter came bright and early the next day so I could go to work.  Not my best idea, but it was the only way I could fit it all in.  Now where to go on our next adventure?  

Thank You, Friday

I'm so happy it's Friday and I'm on the heels of a fun weekend with my little family.  This week was a bit of a doozy with Monday being a holiday, baby being sick and general stressful happenings at work.  BUT, the week is winding down and it's supposed to be in the low 70's this weekend...who can complain about that?  In the midst of an otherwise kind of yuck week, Reese and I made it to the park for a picnic on Wednesday.  We soaked up the mild weather (which was nice because it is now as hot as the face of the sun) and enjoyed a relatively free reign of the playground.  This kiddo has no fear...something she definitely got from her dad.

Although my work only takes me away from home about 25 hours a week, I almost work full time when you add in all of the work I do from home and the size and complexity of my caseload.  I'm unbelievably grateful for the arrangement we've worked out and I'm keenly aware that it would not work without the support of Tom, our families, and a great babysitter.  And for the most part I find I'm able to manage it all fairly smoothly with organization and proper time management (particularly during R's sleeping hours!)  But this week I definitely felt the pull a little more.  R has been having a hard time when I leave for work (she calms down within a few minutes of my departure), but after while the pulls of her arms clenched around my neck and those tears of hers can get to me.  I definitely cried for the better part of my drive into work this morning, even though I KNOW the pros of me working far outweigh the cons for our family.  I probably haven't done that since the months following my maternity leave, but sometimes the guilt gets the better of me.  There are plenty of moms that have it much harder than I do, but from time to time I worry about how it might affect R.  But on the flip side, I don't think I'm cut out to stay home full time either (big props to SAHMs!)  I worked hard from my degrees and professional licensures and I'm hopeful that these sacrifices that we're making now mean I will be able to continue my place in the workforce once R , and her <hypothetical> future sibling, are school age.

ANYWAY...that went off on a whole other tangent than planned :)  

Sunday is DAY 30...WOO HOO...of my Whole30.   I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking to the commitment I made last month.  Weight aside, I feel like I've re-evaluated my relationship with food and have explored many of the emotions around why I ate the things I ate.  That in and of itself is a success to me, but the changes I have seen in my body are just icing on the cake (pun intended...mmmm cake.)  I plan to do a recap of my experience and thoughts on incorporating this into my life from now on.

Until then, enjoy these pics of my big kid!

Labor Day Weekend and Kicking off September!

We had a very laid back weekend that was just what the doctor ordered.  Unfortunately it wrapped up with R getting sick but overall we had a lot of time together so there's not much to complain about.  Fridays are one of my long days in the office so by Friday night we pretty much collapse on the couch after we put R to bed and I log on to work and try to wrap everything up that I couldn't get to during the day.  Tom had an early morning run planned so we hit the hay pretty early.

Tom's aunt and uncle were visiting from DC this weekend so we spent most of Saturday hanging out with them at my in-law's house watching the Michigan season opener.  Wouldn't you know I have zero pictures of this?  Fail.   After R's afternoon nap we ran to the mall to take advantage of the Labor Day sales while Tom watched a bit of football.

Aunt Jill requested a pic of R so we obliged...from the Gap dressing room.

Later that night I met up with some girlfriends for dinner and had some much needed adult/girl talk.  And most importantly...I had dinner out and stuck to Whole30...go me.   I opted for Kobe beef skewers and mushrooms and just asked for them to omit the butter...easy.   I'm sure I raised a few "is she pregnant?" eye brows with my water sipping but I assure you, I'm not.

Sunday started off with brunch with R and a couple of my girlfriends (again, no pictures) and Tom spent some more time with his visiting family.  I was pretty proud of myself for sticking to Whole30 again (veggie frittata, hold the cheese) when the smell of toast of pancakes almost made me cave!  We regrouped later in the day and ran some errands.

R's favorite way to grocery shop.

Monday was the official start of September (woohoo!) but I gotta say, this is the first summer in a long time that I haven't been pining for fall.  Maybe it's because we've had a fairly mild summer and we were actually able to enjoy being outside, but I'm pleasantly content with it not quite being fall yet.  And can we just put a moratorium on the pumpkin spice lattes until it's at least below 80 degrees outside?

Anyway, R woke up with a slight fever on Monday so we scraped brunch plans with my parents in lieu of them coming over with Chipotle.  We had a fun visit and I'm so grateful that R gets to see both sets of grandparents so often.  After her afternoon nap she seemed on the mend so we hit a few more Labor Day sales and were able to stock up on some work wardrobe essentials in record time.

Do you see a theme here?  No wonder she hates riding in her stroller when it is just the two of us!

R woke up on Tuesday with a bit of a higher fever so I cancelled my morning and stayed home with her.  Her fever was gone by late morning so her sitter came over and I headed into work for a few hours.  I have a feeling this is Hand Foot Mouth, yet again, but we'll know for sure by the end of the day I suppose.

When you don't feel good mom's "30 minutes of screen time" rule goes out the window.

Here's to a short work week, my last week of Whole30, and the unofficial start of fall!

Case of the Mondays

Monday is one of my two full days home with the kiddo (Thursday is a half day) and how we spend the day all depends on how much work I need to do, what chores around the house need to be done, and what errands in general I need to run.  Not to mention what kind of mood Reese is in when she wakes up :)  Luckily I didn't have too much of the non-fun stuff to do this past Monday so the day was jam packed (well, as jam packed as you can get with a 12 month old) with fun.  After she woke up from her morning nap we went to story time at a local book store around the corner.  We regularly hit up the library for the baby class on Wednesdays but I had high hopes we could add this to our rotation of Monday activities.  We got there about 10 minutes before story time started and it was PACKED!  R was definitely one of the younger kids there but she had a great time.

After story time ended we played there for a bit and headed home for lunch and nap time.  After she woke up we made our way downtown to play at Washington Park in the beloved fountains.  I had hoped that with schools starting this week that we'd have the place to ourselves but I was wrong...there were kids everywhere.  We had a great time despite me being a Debbie Downer cutting in on the fun to re-apply sunblock a thousand times (it was HOT).

I am no fan of summer but our first real summer together will forever be my most favorite.  I'll always cherish this time with my little buddy.

12 Months: The Rundown

Before Reese goes and turns 13 months on me {sob} I want to have all of her 12 months stats documented for posterity.  That, and I have yet to purchase a baby book for my ONE year old.  So this will have to do until I find one that I deem non-cheesy enough for purchase that is not $150 on Etsy.

As of R's one year well check her stats are:

Weight: 19 lbs   (39th percentile)

Height: 29 ins.  (42nd percentile)

Teeth: 8

Sleeping: 11-12 hours at night, 2-3 hours during the day

Eating: A little bit of everything!  Three meals a day with snacks in between.  Loves all kinds of fruit.

Drinking: Cow's milk and water

Playing: Loves books, music, dancing, clapping, playing "chase", swinging at the park, and anything with water.

Likes: 'On the Night You were Born', 'Dog ABC's' book,  her lovies, Lily, dogs, Mickey Mouse, owl straw cup, story time at the library, swimming, and going on walks.

Dislikes: Car seat, diaper changes, and mom leaving for work.  No bueno.

Says: Up, Mama, Dada...and a whole bunch of other adorable gibberish.

Milestones:  Doing everything close to walking but not yet able to walk unassisted.  R can climb stairs, cruise along furniture, and walk holding your hand.  Take your time munchkin.

One year well check, with snacks of course.

Standing on her own.



Playing her drums...thanks Uncle Adam.

The wild woman dance.

Giving Minnie some lovin' at the store.

Washington Park: Cincinnati, Ohio

If you would have told me five years ago that I would be taking my baby, by myself, to Washington Park to play I would have promptly responded that you were smoking crack (which you likely picked up at Washington Park).  Fast forward a few years and thanks to an amazing renovation, Washington Park  is flourishing amid what seems to be a renaissance in central Cincinnati.  Since 2008 several phases of development in Over-The-Rhine have taken place, making it one happenin' spot in 2014.  Now don't get too disillusioned, there are a several very nice and highly developed blocks bursting with restaurants, bars, and condos....all of which are surrounded by an area filled with crippling poverty and violence.  So, ya know, be careful where you park and such.  BUT, where it's nice, it's really nice!  Anywhoo.

Last week, on one of my days off, I felt the itch to get out and do something different with Reese.  Our pool doesn't open until 2:30, which tends to fly a little too close to the "in-between-naps meltdown" sun.  I packed a lunch, towels, all the necessary "water sport" items we require and after her morning nap we headed downtown.

One of the HUGE benefits of not yet moving to 'burbs is that we are centrally located to pretty much everything in Cincinnati.  We may pay a stupid amount of taxes for schools we'll never use and plummet in to potholes every 5 feet...but damn if we aren't in a great location.   I figured what the hell...if it was a bust we were only giving up about 30 minutes of our day.   Well.....we had a blast. 

Reese is still quite little so I was a little worried that she would be terrified or completely uninterested, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  Being the water bug that she is, she was lovvvvving it (mental pat on the back, mama).  She braved the big kids and made her way right into the middle of the foutains.  My kid is awesome.

We had so much fun we came back over the weekend with Tom.  After the usual and very sad carseat-screaming-drama and unexpected parking snafu's we had a blast, yet again.

It should be noted that Washington Park has tons of events going on all the time so check the website for details.  I know there is a huge city flea market, fitness and yoga classes on the grass and even concerts and parties.  If you're in the area check it out!

One Year

Dear R,

Reese,

Last week, on July 29th, you turned one year old.  Did I know this day was coming?  Surely.  I was cautioned by moms who have walked before me that this birthday would come tumbling toward us, fast and furiously, and boy they were right.  I've tried to articulate the experience that your first year of life has been like for me but words tend to fail me.  Bliss.  Magic. Chaos. Exhaustion. Joy. Love. Love. Love.   The year has been all of those things, and then some.  From the moment I knew you were on our way to us I have cherished, prayed for, and celebrated you.  I don't need a date on a calendar to remind me to celebrate how wonderful you are and how you have made us a family.  I hope you always know that I put you first and that your happiness and well-being are at the core of every decision I make.   We have all learned together this year and figured it out as we went along.  Some months were clouded in a fog of sheer exhaustion (particularly months 1-5...OY VEY CHILD.)  Others...endless joy that I didn't even know was possible.  No matter how hard or easy things are, it never changes the way we feel about you.  You're like Christmas morning every day.

 

We've had quiet a year, you and me.  We've spent endless hours snuggling, reading, soothing you while nestled tightly in your baby wrap, and exploring our city together.  We celebrated all of your "firsts" and I'm still surprised at how bittersweet they are.  You are such a fun loving and curious little girl that you can make any ordinary outing fantastical (groceries! library! walks!).  Your personality continues to come bursting through and your fiesty and independent streak is something your dad and I applaud and try to foster every day.  It can make things challenging at times (as in....you want what you want and you want it NOW!) but I know it is a trait that is inherent to you and will serve you well as you grow into a strong and assertive woman.

 

I look back on this time last year and remember myself feverishly researching every parenting topic and coming up with a plan for how I was going to do things.  Sleep training?  Check.  Breastfeeding? Duh. Co-Sleeping?  You know it.  Do you know how funny this is to me now?  Things did not go according to plan.  Not one little bit.  Some things went way better than I could have hoped for. Others...not so much.  But the good stuff is in all those little details.  Like how you would get up every 2-3 hours for months and months when everyone told me you "should" be sleeping through the night.  I knew in those quiet moments, as I was rocking you that this too would pass whether I liked it or not.  And despite my bleary exhaustion, I clung to those moments because I knew that they would be over in the blink of an eye.  That eventually you would sleep through the night (thank you) and before I knew it you would be launching yourself out of my arms, ready to play and take on the world.   Even on the weekends when your dad would take over the middle of the night wake ups, I would be sad that I missed out on that special time with you.  

On your birthday eve I soaked you in, just like I did in our first days together.  I shed a few tears after we laid you down in your crib that night, knowing that in the morning our world will have shifted just the tiniest bit.  Maybe it's because of the long and crooked road it took to reach you, but you have healed holes in my heart that I didn't know were there.  You've become my most important contribution to this world and I couldn't be more grateful.

Happy Birthday my sweet little monkey monkey!

Love,
Mama