First Birthday!

We just celebrated our baby girl's first birthday, can you believe it?!  Yikes!  Love her!  We're still so thankful for her everyday.  We often just stop and say..."Can you believe we're parents?!" 

We made a cake to match her dress.  It was tasty and pretty, we're so happy about how everything turned out.  We had a little party at our house, mostly family and a few friends.  Fun!  I didn't want to go overboard on a one year old's birthday party.  But birthday cakes are very important to DH and I (it's always a big deal what kind of cake you will choose for your bday), so we put a lot of effort into her cake. 

I did also end up making some whole-wheat sourdough bread and kefir-cultured butter for the party.  :)

Eating:
Still good.   We're lucky she's such a good eater!  I did end up giving her the sourdough bread I've been making this month to ready myself for the party.  I think her fav food right now are still mangoes.  I really try to make sure she eats a lot of veggies at every meal, but that can be tough.  She loves chicken as well.

We generally feed her what we're eating - but not if it's too salty.

Cloth Diapering:
Still am so happy we're doing it.  Our dryer is working again, so I've moved back to drying them in the dryer.  Also it's (finally!) getting warmer out, meaning our basement isn't quite so dry, so hanging them inside isn't as good an option any more.  Soon they can go outside!

I kind of don't understand why people (who having washers and dryers in their homes) don't cloth diaper.  I've been thinking about this a lot.  It's cheaper, much more environmentally friendly, good for babes bums...win-win-win.  I think it seems hard, but if you tried it for a week you'd see it's no big shakes.  There needs to be more diaper trial places out there, so you can see for yourself.

Milestones:
Walking!  She's just about there.  Can take 4-5 steps on her own.  Right now she still prefers if you hold her hand while she walks, but every day she gets a bit better!  You should see her in singing class, she's all over the room!  (She's the aggressive kid, visiting every baby/Mom pair)

Her first actual steps on her own were maybe 2 weeks ago.  Both DH and I were there to see it.  We were like "Did you see that?!  She just walked!  Woohoo!"

Fav Songs:
Hrmm...I think "Mr Duck went for a walk".  At Church on Easter it was pretty cute, she was clapping along as the choir sang a song.   A lady in the choir who sits behind me pointed it out, and we both pretty much had a cute-attack.

Baby Health:
Some teething trouble this month, we had a few rough days, but then she was ok. She has 4 teeth coming in on top - two are mostly through already.  We both got colds, and are both over them.  I actually think it was worse for me, I had a fever, she had no fever (good!).  She still hasn't had a fever yet - knock on wood!

My Health:
Still no AF.  A few weeks ago we were visiting friends, and it turns out they have #3 in the oven!  We got to talking about AFs, and she says she hasn't had an AF in 4 years (due to baby baking and milking)!  NICE, right?!  Another friend and I made those ridiculous plans that fertile people make, that if we got pg she'd get pg too so we could be on mat leave together.  Ridiculous.  But I'd LOVE that.  My IF brains says "ha!  It's probably not going to be so easy!"... but one can hope.  She's only giving me I think 5-6 months to get pg, then they'll probably go for it.  Hahaha.  Fertile people!  I was inspired by all of this fertility that maybe I was pg already...but BFN.  AF really just isn't back yet. 

I nurse far less than I used to, so maybe she'll be back...I suppose when I start work (planning on nursing still 2x a day then).  The good thing (besides the obvious) about her being gone are that at least we're not worrying about #2 not arriving yet.  For I do want another baby in my belly pronto!  It would have been nice to go back to work pg, but it looks like that's not going to happen.  Which is ok and all.  I mean, if we don't end up having another we'll still be happy with our adorable baby.  But I'd like another (at least.  truth be told we're hoping for 3).  They are cute.  And the diaper are then even cheaper because they will work for the next baby, should we be so blessed.

Sleeping:
Still a champ!  Still about 12 hrs + 2 naps.  2 or 3 bad days while sick/teething, then back to her normal self.  :)  I think she secretly loves sleeping, or her crib toys or something, she normally doesn't kick up too much fuss when she goes down.  Good girl!

11 months!

Like, a few days late.  Sorry!  I feel like I write these in my head all month, but when it gets down to it I haven't had much computer time lately.

That's not her "official" 11 month photo (it's a few days before) - but dang if it just doesn't tug at my heart strings every time I see it! 

Eating
She generally eats everything now.  I haven't given her wheat (besides the 'floor toast' incident at play group).  I think I will wait until her first birthday, she'll get to have a bit of her birthday cake.  Also, I'm starting a huge kefir kick, and did you know you can make kefir sourdough bread?  Like, for reals.  Coolio.  So she may get some of that.  (I am aiming to have some homemade kefir-sourdough bread and butter for her birthday.  Neat, right?  If I was super fancy I'd make some kefir-cultured butter too.  Woah.)

She doesn't like avocado!  She's like, the only person ever to not like avocado, right?  hahah.  She seems to like everything else.  Well, besides some of the packet babyfood.  But in all fairness, some of them sort of are icky.  We mostly only eat those in a pinch.

Cloth Diapering
Still good!  Our dryer broke several weeks ago.  I thought this was going to slay me, but it turns out I just have to be a wee bit less lazy and a tiny bit more creative, and we're good to go!  Diapers take ~24hr to dry (in our basement in the current weather), so I have to plan for an extra day of diapers.  It just means I use covers once in a while.  And I gave up our fancy inserts for a while, I was worried about them drying too slowly.  I use prefolds as inserts, size 2.  They can hold like 5000 cups of liquid.  :)  I may never go back.

Milestones
She seems like she 'gets' more communication with us now.  Like if I say "Come here, Mommy will read you a book." she knows what's up, and she comes on over.

Speaking of "up" - she can totally say "up" and she knows what it means.  :)  First "real" word, I would call it.  She says "hi" appropriately too, come to think of it.

She is very solid on the 'milk' babysign now.  We babysign lots of foods at her, but none are coming back yet.  Many are a bit tricksy to do, I wouldn't expect them for a few months.  I would think maybe 'cheese' would come next?  (Still an excellent hi-fiver and bye-byer)

She's not walking yet, but getting there.  A very good cruiser.  We can play "walk to Mommy" game, but that's mostly her falling at me and getting cuddles.

Favourite Songs
This french song a friend taught us.  Very fun.  Pirouette Cacaheaute.  We sing a slightly different tune though, haven't found it on youtube yet.

'Mr Bears says Hello' (cutest name ever for a class, right?) starts this week, so I'm sure we'll be learning new songs soon.  Any good advice on a days of the week song?

Baby Health
Fantastic.  Nothing to see here.  ;)
Seriously, super good all month.  She still has just her two little bottom teeth, so no teething even.

My Health
Remember I said you should go see a Pelvic Floor Physio?  Yes.  Do.  She fixed my lady problems.  I am going to cancel the gyno appt.  (Don't need any more peeps up in my lady parts, you know?)

Still no sign of AF.  I plan to return to work on May 20th.

Sleeping
She is lately a sleeping CHAMPION.  This is a really great phase for us.  She now sleeps from about 7:30pm to about ~6am.  She'll feed, and then go down again until 8-9am.  :)  AND, she takes two 2hr naps in the day.  Without much fussing usually.

Magic.  I am almost afraid to speak of it lest it disappear.  I know babies go in phases and this won't last forever, but we're enjoying it for now.

$20 well spent

A very lovely thing happened today, so I thought I'd share.

____________________________________________________

Pips and I were out for a walk this afternoon.  As we were walking by a subway station, an old woman approached us and asked for a token or change.  I did my usual jerky "sorry, don't have any" and made to move on, but she was rather persistant.

So, I looked for a token to give her.  As I was looking for a token, she told me her pension had stopped because she hadn't filed her taxes, but she had just filed them and it would be starting back soon, but she was just in a bad place.  She also showed me this massive bag of broccoli that she got for $1 (it was starting to turn).  She said she's cook it with butter and maybe a potato and she'd be fine.

I didn't have a token, but I gave her what I had - and that was like $0.40.  Not much.  She said thank you and we parted ways.

But as I was about to turn the corner, something made me pause and look back.  A thought went through my head - drug addicts don't buy broccoli!  Now, I know there is a whole school of thought that says it isn't your business what someone does with any money you give them, but it rubs me the wrong way to give someone money for drugs or booze when they have addiction problems.

And I started to feel guilty.  I did have my bonus $20 in another part of my wallet afterall.  You know the $20 you keep because you run on very little cash and there are times you need a bit of cash money?

So I went after her and handed her the $20.  And lo!  I think she was overwhelmed for a bit.  She said "PRAISE JESUS!  Jesus brought you to me!" - and I have to wonder - maybe He did.  She said Jesus would bless me for this, and I replied that He already had, giving me my baby.

Really, I would probably waste $20 in the blink of an eye, it's not that big a deal - I don't want this to come across as me thinking I'm so generous or anything.  At church you always talk about helping others, and here was an easy opportunity for me to do so.  She clearly needed a little bit of help to get by.  She even said "It's not for drugs!" at one point, and I was like "I know!"

We hugged.  And I tell you, I had the BIGGEST smile on my face the whole way home.  It was really moving, her response.  And it kind of makes you wonder - what did make me pause and turn back to her?

All in all, I think I got my money's worth!  Nice way to start lent!  :)

10 months!

Our little Pipster is 10 months old (yesterday)!  Can you believe how time flies?

I have to give my boss a definite date to return....probably I should email her this weekend.  It's a busy weekend what with the gold medal hockey game and all - we're having a party.  Canadians take Olympic men's and women's hockey very seriously, yo.  Otherwise I can't imagine people showing up at our house at 7am!

Oh, and speaking of returning to work - looks like DH will be a stay at home Dad.  He's been doing some freelance, but hasn't got a full time job yet, so he'll stay at home.  This is good.  Someone needs to be home with her, and while I'm jealous it's not me, I think this will be a good thing.

Since I'll be back to work soon (only 2 or 3 months left! sad face.) once Olympics are over DH is going to start our renovation projects we have left.  Next on the docket - built in bookcases in the living room.  Wish us luck!  ;)

[Seriously, we are a big Olympics household.  Normally we don't watch TV until she's gone to bed, but it's on steadily for most of the day now!  DH is a huge sports fan.  We've been super Olympics lazy lately!]

Eating:
Have started giving her grains - steel-cut oatmeal, hulled barley, buckwheat.  All prepared in accordance with ma hippies.  You know, soaked overnight with a bit of vinegar.  For the buckwheat, I made it with butter and broth - very tasty!  I am a bit wary of grains (just started reading "Grain Brain")...but they do help her sleep better, I think!  I pray for grain discernment.  Really.  Scourge of mankind or nice thing that helps her sleep and put on weight?  I canna decide.

We do a mixture of her self-feeding and we helping a bit with the spoon.  We're on a good kick right now where every morning I make a blended veggie drink (it is SO pretty before I blend it I keep instagramming it!), and she drinks her portion throughout the day.  I am very pleased she likes it - I don't add any fruit, and I often throw a raw clove of garlic in there, but she's down.   And I really like that she's getting her veggies fresh instead of sitting in a jar for a few months.  I think my in-laws are not jazzed that the food is raw, but....I think it's fine (better, actually).

Breastfeeding is backing off a bit (more on that in the 'sleep' section).

Oh, and we've started her on MILK (full fat).  Like, from a goat or cow, not just from Mommy.  She seems to like goat milk more, and to like it more if it's not super cold.  We didn't even have a milk pitcher, we had to go out and buy one!  (Canadians drink milk from bags.  It's seriously better.  I was pretty surprised when I lived in the US to find they don't sell milk in bags.  It just makes more sense, y'all).  She's drinking about 6-7 oz a day, which I am amazed at (we were previously having a lot of trouble to even drink like 1/2 oz).  She can use a straw in a sippy cup - this seems to be the way she drinks the most.  The doctor said she can drink up to 2-3 cups a day, so I knew we had to get some drinking going.

I went out and bought some fancy organic milk in bags, and we freeze the bags we're not using yet.  This way the milk is cheaper than buying by the litre, so I can buy the fanciest milk around.  I think I saw some organic un-homogenized cow milk at the store, I will buy that after we finish the frozen bags of regular organic homo cow milk (Canadians also refer to full fat milk as "homo", and we don't even giggle.  I know this doesn't make sense sine 2% and 1% milks are also homogenized, but we call those "2%" and "1%").  Hippies are not down with homogenization, yo - although the jury is still out.

My current plan is to alternate cow and goat milk (by the bag).  They have different amounts of vitamins and minerals, I figure it's good to cover all the bases (cow has lower calcium but higher folic aicd, goat is the reverse, for example.  Although goat tends to be fortified with folic acid, depending on the dairy.).

Infant pottying:
Um.  I kind of have given up.  Sad, right?  What can you do!  She was starting to resist sitting on the toilet, and if she did sit there she didn't seem to pee as much as she used to.  Like, hardly ever.  Just this week I decided to throw in the towel and move her change station back to her bedroom.  She's also stopped being quite so squirmy, so you can get a diaper on her without doing gymnastics anymore.  It helps if I give her a shoe to munch on - she LOVES eating her shoes.

Cloth Diapering:
So good!  A friend of mine just had #2, and they're cloth diapering her!  We handed down our prefolds to them.  Isn't that nice that now they can handle a whole 'nother child without blinking?  And she'll give them back if we are so blessed with a number two of our own.  :)  I plan on doing some diaper reviews soon, since we have about 4 billions different brands now, and I have some opinions.

Milestones:
Pretty darn good cruiser now.  Can now stand a few seconds on her own, but this is still pretty shaky.  Can climb stairs (with adult supervision!) very fast.

She's pretty solid on the baby sign 'all done', and I swear I've seen 'milk' in there a few times.  She can point at the milk when she wants it, which is new.  I'm adding more signs in every day or two for different foods, she's watching me, but so far she's not dexterous enough to do them.  Or just doesn't want to.  ;)

She's sort of chatty, and she might have a few words.  She definitely says "Dada"/"Dad" type words, and "Nay nay nay" (for no), sometimes "ma ma" type words, but that is less linked to me.  She can kinda say a baby version of "hug", and can say "baby" but I don't think she means it.

She can high-five, kiss, come to Mommy/Daddy on command.  So she kind of already meets her minimum 12 month milestones.  Good girl.  She will also laugh if you are laughing - very cute.  DH will sometimes fake laugh, and she'll join in, which is funny and cute.

Favourite Songs:
I'm still not doing much singing.  Need to get back into a class.  She likes this clapping song I made up.  OH, and here is the best second verse to the "Itsy-bitsy spider" I've ever heard!  Y'all northern ladies will be feelin' this!

The Winter Itsy-bitsy Spider

The Itsy-Bitsy spider climbed up the water spout

Down came the snow and froze the spider out!

Out came the sun and it didn't do a thing,

so the Itsy-Bitsy spider had to wait for spring!

Baby Health:
Good!  We're over all those colds.  :)  Her weight was good at the doctors at our nine month well baby group - she's still on that 15% for weight.  Height (50%), head circumference still fine.

My Health:
Am over all those colds too, thank Goodness!  So sign of AF yet.  I was at the doc's for my own checkup, and they asked when my last menstrual period was, and I was like "um...about July 15th-ish....2012".  hahhaa.  I like that.  I still feel so blessed.

I do have a Gyno appt booked for the end of March to see about my lady parts.  The doc suggested in the meantime I see a Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist.  Did you know that was a thing?  I had no idea.  So I went to see one yesterday.  She recommends all ladies go after birth.  Interesting, right?

Also, they can help with endo pain!  Who knew?

Sleeping:
Much progress has been made - she's down to waking up 2-3 times a night (and now we call 'night' 7pm-7am).  I don't think due to any magical sleep training, but I think the extra carbs in the day plus WHITE NOISE have been helping a lot.  We bought a white noise track on iTunes, and play it when she sleeps her naps and overnight - this helps to cancel out some of our creaky house and busy street noises, I think.

We still are on a path to cut down how much nursing she has a night.  We have a whole timer system going.  I sort of keep messing it up.  We're right now allowing 1.5 min per side after the letdown (which can take ~2 min).  BUT, this relies on me telling DH to start the timer at the letdown...well, last night I swear I was sleeping, I totally forgot, DH was not pleased.

He also doesn't feed her every time she wakes.  If its up to me I feed pretty much right away, her crying tears at my heart.  So he's in charge.  It's hard! But it's the right thing to do.

All done!

~9 months old

Well, one day after I had posted that Pippa wasn't doing any baby signs yet - she started doing "all done"!  :)

It is very cute.  I will try to catch it on video.  It is like a new world, she can tell us at least this one thing!  Sometimes we don't like it ("are you sure you're all done your carrots?"), but we're trying to respect it.  I think we don't do "all done" the most common way, because I just tried to google for a picture of it and found all sorts of pics of how we don't do it.  Oh well!

In health news, Pips has a bit of a vomit/diarrhea combo deal going on.  The doc says it is going around.  Poot!  Should be done by tomorrow.  The real question is whether or not DH and I will get it!  Chinese New Year is coming up, it would be a shame to not be able to partake of the big family meal!

We're also planning on sleeping over at his parents, so DH can ring in the new year with family, and everyone can eat breakfast together (if we eat the first meal together we'll be together all year).  We're also madly cleaning up today - it's a luck thing, no cleaning on New Years day, so it's a good reason to 'spring' clean before CNYE.  Until DH and I were married, I had no idea what a big deal Chinese New Year is!

Oh, and a word about banana baby food - I will say, I think I have been shopping at 'Bananas R Us'!  On a weekend trip to America (to visit a friend who has a baby due soon!  super fun!) we found lots more veggie options in packets (I was limited to packets when buying cruise food).  I brought home a few so they'd be around if I ever was in a fix and needed some food pronto.

9 months

Our baby girl is 3/4 of a year old!  Man, how time flies!

 Our little baby girl is even bigger now!  Can't believe it!

Eating:
Still mixing purees/mooshed food and a bit of her feeding herself.  She really loves gnawing down on a carrot or piece of apple.  Still haven't fed her any grains - gave her a bit of buckwheat yesterday, she wasn't too jazzed by it.  I will try again later.

She loves greek yoghurt!  So I give her that with an egg yolk for breakfast some days - helps her to eat the egg yolk.  I had to throw out all my nicely prepared beef liver after the power outage (we were out ~60+ hrs), I'm just now getting around to preparing another beef liver.

On the cruise she ate the baby food I brought for her, and we fed her off our plates when appropriate.  So...store bought baby food is like, mostly bananas? I'm not super impressed.  Even the fancy organic ones are mostly bananas and apples.  Um...babies need veggies and protein too, ja?  They would have kale or broccoli on the front and in the name, but if you tasted it...bananas.

I did like the lentils we brought, and gave her some lentil curry that I made this week - she likes!  :)

Still breastfeeding like mad.

Speaking of cruise - here is our baby girl on a beach in the Cayman Islands!  That was a fun day.  DH, Pippa, my Dad (heretoknown as G-Dad) and I hung out at the beach.

Infant Pottying:
I think the cruise week has put us off track a bit.  She was in disposables all week, we hardly pottyed her at all.  She really protests when we put her on the toilet.  But once on, she settles down and pees if she needs to.  I'm hoping this is just a stage and she'll be back to it soon.

Her poos have gotten less gucky, so I can just flip them into the toilet, it's not too much fuss.

Cloth Diapering:
Yes, still on it - except for the cruise week.  My little Pipster is a VERY squirmy baby.  It is now super hard to put prefolds on her - she just won't stay still!  Even with the 'leg over' technique.  So I've ordered a few more velcro diapers (yes, yes, I'm a diaper hog!).  I can put the velcro ones on her while she's standing up - which is what she loves to do in the bathroom, just stand and hold on to the edge of the tub.

Milestones:
Sort of the same as last month.  Is better at standing.  Does some cruising but not very often.  We're trying to teach her to 'high five', but it's in the early stages still.  Meets all her 9 month milestones.  Hasn't done any baby signing back to me yet.

Favourite Songs:
Um...haven't been doing too much singing!  I need to sign up for another baby signing class, so I keep my head in the game!  We're old enough now for 'Mr Bear Says Hello'.

Baby Health:
She did get a cold this month, and has a bit of a cough still.  Otherwise good.

My Health:
I did come down with the same sickness that she had.  I developed quite the chest cough on the cruise, which I am terming "cruise cough".

My lady parts did not quite heal as I would have liked after the birth, I will make an appt to see about this soon.  Still no sign of AF.

Sleeping:
Here is our focus for the next month.  She's still feeding about the same number of times a night as ever.  DH and I have decided to bite the bullet and sleep-train her next week (we're planning to go visit some friends on the weekend, we'll start after that.  When we're 'done' we'll go to my hometown to visit Pippa's new born cousin!).  I think it will be rough.  But hopefully it will work, and will have been worth it.

We're planning on reducing her night feedings by one minute a night - to theoretically shift her eating from night into day.  She's still feeding like 3-4 times a night, and that's not going to be cool when I go back to work. I have a friend who this worked for, so hopefully it will work for us!  :)

8 months!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Thoughts are with you all this holiday season!  :)
I can't believe I have an 8 month old baby!  In my head this is the transition from little baby to big baby, and here we are!

Eating:
We're still on mostly purees, with some pincher practise (organic peas).  I've given her sheep and cow yogourt, she seems fine with it.  She still hasn't refused anything yet, but she's now keeping her mouth shut to indicate she's done.  We're lucky she's so far such an easy girl!  I'm not sure she knows that she can refuse food.  :)  I suspect this time might be over soon.

She eats twice a day, I'm thinking of adding a 'snack' in the morning as well.  Also, I've given her some coconut cream this week - fat good for the baby!

We go away on a cruise next month, I think I will bring store bought food to cover the week.  Customs won't allow homemade food through, so I think this will be our best bet.  If there is some food I can give her that we're eating I will, but I will have baby food as backup.  I'm thinking the packets will travel well.  Any mommy tips about travelling with food?

Breastfeeding still the rest of the time.  Really, it hasn't slowed down at all.  Tried giving her formula once, but she was having none of it.

Infant Potting:
We've moved to changing her diaper on the bathroom floor since she's such a squirmykins (in the middle of a diaper change she can pull a fast roll and suddenly be on her tummy - yikes!).  Way safer.  And I can use the 'leg over' technique if I have to! 

This bring pottying to the next level - she goes right on the toilet.  Cleanup is a DREAM.   She poos about half the time in the toilet now.  EXCELLENT.  Every poo in the toilet is waaaaaay less work for me.  Scraping the poo from the diaper into the toilet is fine, but often poo seems to get everywhere still.  Blech.  Even with gloves, still...it's a bit of a mess at times.  So I much prefer the poo directly into the potty!  :)

Cloth diapering:
Yes, we still are.  It's going great!  With the change of soap (to Tide free and clear) all my diapers are working fine now.  I've had to start stuffing them with more liners since Pips is peeing more since she's bigger.

My 'China cheapies' came and they're fine.  A bit on the big side.  I'm going to buy my friend who is expecting a whack load of them (like I think I'll be able to get ~21 for ~$100).  Exciting and fun!  Feel a bit guilty....but 21 pocket diapers is pretty much all you need!  Another friend and I will split it - we were kind of a threesome in university, it's great we're still close.

How I deal with grown up poop?  I have a scraper that I keep in a bucket next to the toilet with gloves.  I scrape the poopey diaper in, and rinse the scraper in the toilet, then put the diaper in the pail.  It's ok to have a bit of poop on the diaper, just not loads of it.  It all comes off in the wash.  :)

Milestones:
Super duper awesome crawler now.  Twice now she's actually crawled over other babies lying on the ground.  Pulls herself to standing pretty easily now.  She's really a physical kid, she's tough!  She's still not super keen on sitting.  She can, but she's not all that into it.  Likes playing at climbing a mound of pillows, although she doesn't actually climb yet.

Lots of babbling!  Says "da da" type of words often, but I don't think she's quite connecting it to DH yet, but we're trying to reinforce that.  Waves "bye-bye" with one arm - that's my favourite!  :)

Still hasn't been sick yet, knock on wood!

Favourite songs:
Alas, no automatic song smiles anymore.  Seems to like "Hello Pippa, and how are you?" the best right now.  Also likes "Let the fall leaves fall".

Sleeping:
No real change.  She still is generally up 2-3 times in the night for breastfeeding.  It can be a bit rough.  Sometimes its 4 times.

She's sleeping her own room now, so DH gets up and brings her to me.  I'm a super lucky lady!  I sometimes bring her back, sometimes DH does.  She does generally go right back to sleep, so that part is good - it's the being woken up out of a dead sleep that can be hard if it happens a few times in a night.  I do wish she'd go a bit longer between feeds, am trying to feed her more in the day, but not seeing much of a change.  Again, if it really bothered me we'd do some fancy protocol to reduce night feeds, but I'm not there yet.

Last night she did sleep from 11:30pm right to 5:30am - awesome, right?!!!