Category Archives: baby

8 Months

Another month come and gone and Phoebe turned 8 months old. While a lot of milestones happen in the first couple of years, I can’t say that a lot has happened in the last month. If anything, she just continues to improve upon the skills she’s already learned and her personality has started to shine even more.

Right now it’s really interesting just watching the differences between Enzo when he was a baby and Phoebe now. They have some similarities, of course, but we seem to notice those less. Right now one of the major differences is that by 8 months old, Enzo was scooting and starting to get around pretty good that way. Phoebe isn’t quite there yet, although we do wonder if the difference is partially due to the fact that we have carpeting here and Enzo spent most of his time on a hard floor. That being said, Enzo was always more interested in being mobile and going, and Phoebe (while greatly enjoying jumping) is better about sitting by herself and really playing and exploring a toy than Enzo at this age. Sometimes she’ll stare at her hands and play with her toes, and Enzo didn’t really do that very often.

When it comes to sleeping, Phoebe definitely prefers her stomach. We always start her on her back, but without fail she will always end up on her belly. Enzo has always slept on his stomach on and off, but never really favored one or the other. One thing we’ve gotten better about this time around is teaching Phoebe how to self-soothe and put herself to sleep. With Enzo I think we went in a lot more often and helped rock him to sleep when he was younger or depended on a bottle to help him doze off. Phoebe does often fall asleep after her last bottle, but just as frequently I’ll put her to bed still kind of awake and let her hang out while listening to some soothing ocean waves or nature sounds and generally she’ll doze off in about 10 minutes. There are times when I have to go in to give her a nuk to help aid the process, but I think we’re on a path to a much better sleeper than Enzo.

Baby girl still has no teeth, but hopefully those will come in soon! She’s always very interested in what people are eating, but alas, with no teeth some things are just a no go, or have to be altered a bit, so it’ll be nice when she can more easily nom on strawberry or other things that are difficult at this stage due to size and consistency. Otherwise, she’s growing a lot and is starting to outgrow some of her 9 month clothes. She’s at that odd stage where some things fit, but others don’t, so onesies in this size are often too tight, but she can still fit in the separate tops and bottoms. We are going to have one heck of a big garage sale in terms of baby/kid stuff next year, let me tell ya.

Little lady, slow down, would ya?

Weekend Away at the Company Cabin

One of the very nice perks about Josh’s new job is that the company has cabins that are available for employees to use. Because of Josh only being recently hired we didn’t think it was something we’d get to take advantage of this year, but lo and behold a free weekend came up, he put his name into the lottery and his name was chosen!

“Cabin” we discovered was an understatement, so we invited Josh’ sister and brother-in-law and their kiddos to join us. There was plenty of room for all of us to spread out and it had plenty of amenities. We knew a lot of things were already provided, but still brought more than we needed to ensure our bases were covered (and now we know for next time what we don’t need). I wasn’t sure whether or not to bring Phoebe’s jumper at first, but in the end I’m glad we brought it because Lady likes to jump.

While lots of space is nice, I could never live in a place that big long-term. You know how sometimes at night when you want a glass of water, but it feels like such a long walk and you don’t want to (even though the walk really isn’t that far)? Well, in this house, the walk really was that far. Plus, you have to yell to be heard and I could hardly see Phoebe from the kitchen if she was in the living room and I didn’t have my contacts in. Yeah, yeah, first world problems.

It really was a nice place, located in a quiet community on a lake with a nearby restaurant and playground for the boys. One of the really nice things were all the dragon flies during the day keeping the mosquitoes away. I don’t know if they’re always there, or if we just came at the perfect time, but it was so nice not having to worry about being eaten alive.

We did get some rain on and off, so it was a little hard to plan any day trips. The cabin was located near Brainerd, so it was tempting to go visit Paul Bunyan Land, especially since we stopped there on our mini-moon after we got married, but instead we stuck around and played outside and in. There were plenty of cars and trains and books and movies for the boys to keep them busy when we weren’t outside.

Overall both kiddos did well in our home away from home, and I think we’re going to see about switching Enzo’s toddler bed out for a full-size bed one of these days considering how well he did in a regular bed. It was also nice being able to lay down in bed with him when it was time to read books. He didn’t typically want to go bed while on vacation, and for the most part we let him stay up later than his normal bedtime, but even he started to realize that he did actually want to sleep – he just didn’t want to be left out of any fun. Considering both of our kids wake up at 6:00-6:30 during the week so we can leave the house by 7:00-7:15, they don’t typically sleep in on the weekend, so the lack of sleep and lax routine started to take their toll a bit by the time Monday morning rolled around.

It was nice to have a lazy weekend, though, and even Josh and I got a nap in each. It was a very nice luxury, even if Enzo doesn’t always realize right away how lovely they are. I’m kind of glad we can count on naps for at least another year. 😉 Toots is also starting to fall into a more regular nap schedule, which day care will probably help with as she gets even older. She naturally seems to nap around 9:00-9:30 and then again in the afternoon, sometimes even three naps if they’re short.

Anyhoo, it was a nice family getaway. Enzo got to play with his cousin every day (which made him very, very happy), Josh got to go fishing with his brother-in-law at least one time, and I even stayed up late (way past my bedtime) one or two nights having some nice chats with my sister-in-law. I’m hoping that one day I’ll have more to chat about than kids and parenting, but probably not. Ha ha. Nah, one day I’ll have more time and energy, but watching a baby grow into a person is just fascinating. You learn so much about yourself and your entire perspective changes at times. That, however, is discussion for another day since this post is probably much longer than it should be.

Munchkin Meals – 8 Months & 2 Years

Linking up this week for Munchkin Meals again!

Nothing too exciting when it comes to food in the past month. We’re continuing doing a combination of purees and actual solid food with Phoebe. Alas, I’m still struggling to find time (and let’s be honest, motivation) to make her baby food, so we give her organic food pouches. I think we’ll be able to cut back on the food pouches a bit, though.

In the beginning she didn’t want to drink as much formula and just wanted to eat food, but since she doesn’t have teeth when she gums food half of it ends up on her bib because she pushes it back out with her tongue, which is why she was getting so much pureed food. Now she seems to be interested in drinking more bottles and is less interested in purees, so time for me to step it up a notch and keep our fridge and pantry stocked with things we can safely give her to nom on.

So far that hasn’t been anything that Phoebe won’t eat. She’ll try everything, which is a big switch from her big brother, who even as a baby could be very particular about his food. It looks like this girl will take after her mama who will eat just about anything. Give me all the food!

Enzo has been doing pretty good as far as meals go. There is often a delicate balance between snacks and actual meals and timing, though. While we don’t want him to be hungry, he is so much more willing to try everything on his plate when he is, so we have to very carefully time snacks and make sure we communicate who gave him what and when. He’s been a little more adventurous lately when it comes to trying different things (he was on a meat strike for a while). We obviously don’t want to force him to eat things, but we do encourage him to have at least one bite of everything and then we’ll consider offering him an equally healthy (less fancy and quick) alternative.

The kiddo does have his favorites, though, including frozen waffles (whatever is healthy and generally whole wheat and organic). He’s been a little picky lately about what kinds of fruits and veggies he wants, so we try to keep some variety on hand. It’s hard to know if he’s going to like grapes one week or strawberries, and then out of the blue he’ll eat a pint of blueberries. I get it, I get bored with certain foods sometimes too.

I figure it’s just a normal toddler phase to be somewhat picky, which maybe has something to do with creating some kind of control in their lives (also understandable). As long as we can get him to eat a minimum of healthy things either stealthily (green smoothie) or by randomly hitting upon something he wants then I’m sure he’ll be just fine. It’s just temporary, right? If anything maybe Phoebe will be a good influence on him and encourage him to try new things. 😉

Mommyhood

Every once in a while there are those moments when I miss being responsible only for myself. Usually when a new movie comes out that I really want to see, or when after a long day at work I’d really just like to go to happy hour and not cook or clean or do anything. It’s funny thinking about how much our lives have changed in just a few years, and in some ways it seems like such a long time ago. I wonder what I’d be doing if we didn’t have kids, and while I’m sure I’d fill my time with things, it’s hard to imagine myself as someone who isn’t a mom now that I am one.

I’ve embraced being a mom, and I like it. Sure, my life is crazier, noisier, and messier than it once was, but I’m adjusting. Being a family isn’t always easy since we all have our “off” days, but the good days more than make it all worthwhile. I used to sleep in as late as I wanted to, but now I get to wake up to at least one happy, smiley face every morning. (Enzo and Josh are not always morning people). I used to read A LOT, and while I do still read every day, it’s just more of a Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton variety now. I used to have time to be bored, but now? I don’t even know what boredom is… there is always something to do, and if I’m getting cabin fever, chances are the kids are too. It’s amazing how fast an entire day can go by when you try to get your entire family out the door for just a few hours.

Josh and I may have had more time to ourselves and together before kids, but now I think we appreciate those quiet times and dates even more. I don’t really miss going out as often as one would think either. I don’t mind waiting for movies to leave the theater so we can rent them, plus, whenever we miss bedtime (which isn’t often) I feel like I’m just missing something terribly important when I don’t get my hugs and kisses before the kids are asleep.

While I sometimes miss my old self, I wouldn’t trade the new me for anything. Sometimes I look in the mirror and feel frumpy and too “mom-like” but I usually don’t have time to dwell on it for long… often because I have a toddler using my makeup brush to wipe down the sink or a baby bouncing in a jumper in the doorway who has clearly pooped. I don’t even mind that we’re having conversations about buying a minivan because it would be so much easier for road trips and to fit more people. It’s funny because sometimes I feel like I can’t possibly be in my thirties, and then there are days when I feel so much older and “kids” in their twenties seem so ridiculously young.

I’ll just have to hope our kids are okay with their rarely cool mom who is usually in the middle of some sort of identity crisis. I’ll do my best not to embarrass. 😉

Overnight Trip with the Kiddos

Two weekends ago we decided to take the kids out of town to see a friend of Josh’s get married. We really had no expectations since we knew anything could happen on the kids’ first hotel stay, and first long car ride. The trip actually went much better than we had hoped all things considered, but we also didn’t get that many photos either.

Thanks to the Kindle, the drive wasn’t bad at all since Enzo was able to watch ‘Frozen’ and “Jack Frost” (aka ‘Rise of the Guardians). It was a 4.5 hour drive, so we stopped once to feed Phoebe and let Enzo run around a bit and the rest of the time he napped. When Phoebe wasn’t sleeping, she was happy just playing and looking around, although close to the end she did start to get more vocal, which was her way of showing us she wanted out. Ha ha.

When we got to the hotel we were glad to see there was a microwave and a fridge (both really helpful with kids), but the AC didn’t work all that well and as far as cleanliness goes… yeah, not really that great. Both of the kids were in good spirits, however, and really just wanted to get all of the wiggles out. We got to the hotel right before dinner, and decided to just order in since we figured neither kid would want to get back in the car again.

Not surprisingly, bedtime was pushed back a tad, but Phoebe went down with little difficulty. Rather than bringing the pack n’ play we decided to just each sleep with on the of the kiddos and use pillows to keep them from rolling out. Enzo was thrilled to get to hang out with Daddy, and I only got feet in my back half the night. 😉 Unfortunately, though, Little Miss did not sleep the best and woke up early with a nasty cough, which also meant that everyone was up at 5:30.

We gave in and let Enzo watch TV, and despite the lack of sleep he was ready to run around. We were the first at breakfast, which was helpful with the munchkins. Enzo was all too happy to greet everyone as they came down to eat, but soon got a bit too rambunctious and Josh took him upstairs while I finished with Phoebe, who then decided it was time for a nap.

We had a few hours to get ready, and now that I think about it we probably should have planned to do more out of the hotel room, but with Phoebe needing bottles on a regular basis and eating mostly purees… the food part of things can be tricky. We had a car bottle warmer and a thermos of hot water, but making bottles in the car and then feeding a very easily distracted baby is just not fun.

Thankfully the ceremony and reception was held in a nice location in a large park that had plenty to drive around and see, so we were hoping Enzo could get some wiggles out before the ceremony.

There were several other families out enjoying the day and Enzo desperately wanted to interact and play, but… how do I put it… most of the families were not there to interact with anyone else, so I told Enzo there would probably be other kids for him to play with at the wedding. (Thankfully I was right).

The wedding itself was lovely and Enzo had a ball. We were that family, though. You know the one – the one with the toddler running around and not really sitting still during the meal. We knew we were toeing the line on a potential meltdown, though, since he was missing his nap and had been up early. We did our best to keep him from getting in the way and just let him run around like a crazy toddler. Phoebe was exhausted as well and literally fell asleep while I was feeding her, so she snoozed in the Ergo while I ate and Josh kept an eye on Enzo who was making friends left and right.

I think our first little road trip was a success, and we definitely know what we’ll do the same and what we’ll do differently next time around. Honestly, it’ll just be easier when Phoebe is eating more solids and we don’t have to worry about bottles, so we probably won’t do too many hotel stays until then, but really that’s not that many months away. I think we’ve got some good travelers in the making.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures