another family update (and more apologies)

i think sometimes i lose my writing mojo. or my precious baby decides to sleep 12 hours a night and reminds me what 8+ hours of consecutive sleep feel like and i capitalize on that shiz. one or the other. either way, sorry for the hiatus. i’m back now with a vengeance! and here’s a song for you.

that’s fort atlantic with their amazing ‘let your heart hold fast’ from my favorite episode of how i met your mother. yum.

so, what’s new in our lives?

p and i are now the proud owners of a TODDLER. and whoever coined the phrase ‘the terrible TWOS’ is a dirty, dirty liar. that crap starts as soon as your baby realizes that there is a world outside of the buggy. i swore to myself i would never be THAT MOM (ie. my mom …i wasn’t a very good baby) but this product is on the to-buy list at the moment. sometimes you just need a leash.

s is officially a social butterfly. over the past month and a bit we’ve had more than a few houseguests (p’s sister and her family, s’s godparents and their four kids, s’s other godmummy and my best friend, and my sister…not including the house full for her birthday party!) and s has had an amazing time dancing, playing, laughing, eating chocolate, blowing bubbles, dining out, and shopping.

and a few other things, in brief:

s is addicted to chocolate.

p and i saw the dalai lama.

s had not one, but TWO babysitters, and appeared to behave to some extent.

never go to the natural history museum (or any other free london attraction) during the school holidays. especially with a sick baby.

my baby rocks out to bruno mars, psy, and macklemore. i’m a bad mommy.

this summer is going to be epic. plane tickets booked to america, holiday in wales with s’s godparents paid in full, and s and i get to join p on the choir trip to germany AND on another weeklong program in london. i should probably talk to my boss.

‘no’ is the new ‘yeah’. and i do not like it.

i bought baby crocs and i don’t feel guilty.

some mummy friends and i started a book club and so far we’ve read one whole book! up next? this one! (thanks e for the inspiration!)

that’s all for now, but stay tuned for a post on the party of the year…it was a good one.

christmas baby swag

after a week of coughs, stuffy noses, a trip to the doctor for (ugh) an inhaler, and lots of rest, s is feeling pretty good right now. she’s moving all over the shop and leaving me with zero time to do anything other than wince at her less than graceful falls to the floor from her permanent position of standing. so, since the presents are FINALLY wrapped (thank you to amazon for allowing me to send most of my gifts and forego the relative present wrapping fiasco that normally ensues but NOT to my mother who has decided s needs not one but 12 days of presents, all of which i have to wrap myself!!! ;)) and the pepperkaker dough is chilling in the fridge, it’s time to let you know what our spoiled little angel is getting for christmas. and no, it’s not ruining anything because a. she’s too young to read this and b. she’ll probably be more excited by the wrapping paper than anything else.

the best of the best:

usborne touchy feely nativity book

this book was actually a pre-christmas gift (ie. spur of the moment purchase) by us for s, mostly because it was half price and i can’t resist a good deal. but seriously, she is absolutely obsessed with this book. there are tons of different fabrics to feel inside the book and she spends tons of time every night before bed flipping back and forth between the pages and kissing the baby jesus. p is beside himself with pride at his little catholic baby (he wishes!). i love that it’s so interactive and tells the real story of christmas.

elc sensory discovery balls

this is officially a santa gift, and his elves whispered to me that s was getting these awesome discovery balls in her stocking this year. she doesn’t really play with balls yet and i’m all about her having toys that are appropriate to her developmental stage, whatever that is right now.

wheelybug bee

this is the BIG gift from s’s gram and poppa. personally, i want one for myself. i know she’s not really ready to ride on anything yet, but a lot of her christmas wishlist included 1+ toys so that they can grow with her. i can see the dents in the walls already. LOVE it.

hape eco my second book

during one of my many walks around the floors of john lewis i saw this adorable wooden book. s likes a good book and she will be able to happily chew away at this while learning numbers (i know, a little early!) and hopefully turning the pages a little more easily.

run dmc top

this is my favorite personal purchase. i seriously can’t wait for her to wear it. every day. that’s all.

bickiepegs doidy cup

we’ve been working on drinking out of a cup lately, and have just stopped giving a bottle at night, since apparently it’s bad for babies’ teeth to suck on bottles after one year, although i can’t really see much difference between bottles and sippy cups. s loves to ‘drink’ out of my cup but usually spills water all over herself in the process. this cup is designed for tiny hands (seriously, the handles are so small and cute) and is tilted so babies can see exactly what is in the cup without having their heads straight over the top of the cup, which usually leads to spillage. we’ll see how it goes.

little jellycat pet’s tails

this gift is from aunt kelsey (sorry, the amazon package came the other day and i just had to see what it was! don’t worry, it’s all re wrapped now) and is pretty much the cutest thing ever. s can also meow like a cat, so she will love it.

manhattan toy lanky cats: ziggie

continuing the cat theme, this toy is another of gram and poppa’s twelve days of christmas gifts. it looks exactly like our cat jet. the eyes are a little creepy, though!

this is only a very small percentage of s’s gifts for her first christmas. luckily we were very restrained with our purchases this year, since friends and family (and santa) didn’t hold back. we know that this time of year isn’t about the things we have or give to each other and try to spend most of our time celebrating the real holiday and giving to people who don’t have as much as we do, too. but who doesn’t love a bit of swag? 😉

if i don’t get the time to post again, merry christmas! holiday pictures and updates to follow soon.

(even more) retail therapy

since apparently i can’t go a week without buying something for s (i have no self control when it comes to this baby) i made a little purchase on the mamas and papas website last night. ok, so it was three things, not just one. but shhhhhh it’s all in the name of free delivery.

 

Source: mamasandpapas.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

we’ve had our eye on this activity centre for quite awhile now but since i’m just as indecisive as i was at nine months pregnant i couldn’t commit to this being the ADD maker we bought for our baby. i have mixed feelings about this sort of product anyway, but i’ve recently come to the conclusion that sometimes mommy needs to be able to be more than a foot away from baby, for both of our sanity. also, i really want to get back into baking, which is just not possible with a rolling and almost crawling seven month old. we really liked this particular activity centre because it is NOT a walker…i can’t get my head around the idea of s cruising around the room in a giant plastic car, and it would probably defeat the purpose of putting her in it in the first place. we also like that it has some toys that aren’t plastic…i know that bright, plastic toys can’t really be avoided with babies, but it’s nice to have a little variety. also, fabric toys are less likely to cause goose eggs and fat lips (s is currently suffering from her first fat lip from falling onto a stacking cup…cue the bad mommy music). most importantly, the price is right. most of the activity centres/jumperoos/walkers out there cost £2938562 and we cannot afford another ridiculously priced piece of kit right now. seriously though, £110 for a piece of plastic? no thank you.

so last night i bit the bullet. fingers crossed it comes before s is too big to use it (it was one of those ‘order now for delivery in late october’ things, so if it’s not here by the end of the month i’m opening a can on mamas and papas). thank the baby gods for online shopping!

also, i bought this buggy book (s’s favorite story at the moment) and these shoes (if she will ever fit into them…i had her feet measured yesterday and she’s only a 1.5!!!). seriously, no restraint.

ps. sorry for the lame links earlier…think it’s an issue with the mamas and papas site being uk based and generally silly with links. hope these show up better!

Source: mamasandpapas.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

 

Source: mamasandpapas.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

retail therapy

remember those few weeks were i was all, yeahhh my baby sleeps through the night and it’s awesome and being a mom is so easy? yeah, they’re over. s has returned to getting up at 10, and 2, and 6 most nights. yay for never sleeping through multiple sleep cycles! anyway, today i got up and was feeling generally pretty crap about things and not looking forward to a day of eat, play, sleep, repeat all by ourselves.

so we went shopping.

and this is what we bought! (i know that sometimes window shopping is *almost* as good as the real thing, so i’ll let you peek at my purchases…also, when did retail therapy become all about my baby and not about me at all? the only thing i bought myself was an iced tea.)

my first taggies book – who do you see?

frill swimsuit – john lewis baby

spot sleeping bag – john lewis baby

tunic and legging set – next

chevron dress – next

yellow fishermans hat – next

i seriously need to find a money tree.