Oh Hey 10-Month-Old!

This little sunshine is 10 months old. I can’t even believe it. Babyhood goes by so quickly and before I know it this smoosh is going to be a toddler. She just still seems so little to me. 

Lily has always been tall for her age and with all that hair she just always seemed older than she was. Mila is my little baby. She is still 75th percentile for height, but for us that is little. She still has wispy baby hair and absolutely NO TEETH! Unfortunately for everyone, she has four teeth trying to come in at the same time, so my previously rock star sleeper has been a bit of a nighttime nightmare for the past week or so. Luckily she’s so adorable.

She has also been very clingy and mom-centric the past couple of weeks, as in she must be touching me at all times or she is pissed. I basically love it, though it does make it a bit difficult to get anything done. Mila is still a stationary baby (no complaints here!) and is super content to sit and have her sister bring her ALL THE THINGS. Now I see why second kids sometimes crawl later, because they don’t have to! Lily crawled at 10 months, so we will see if Mila follows suit. She has made a few head-fakes while reaching for toys, but pretty much just wants to chill. I like her style.

She babbles a lot, says Mamamamamama and Dadadadadada, as well as what sounds like “Hey Baby”, but the jury is still out on that one. She reaches for us, which is my favorite thing that babies do. She just basically smiles all the time, even when she is cranky, she cranky-smiles. Love this girl.

March for Babies 2013

This past weekend I walked in the March of Dimes March for Babies along with our team full of amazing women, their kids, their spouses, oh and like my whole family. (FYI: here we are last year!)

Have I mentioned that I have made some of the greatest friends through blogging? I was one of the first of my friends to get married and start popping out wee ones, so blogging is the way that I have met other moms with kids the same ages as mine. They are seriously some of the greatest people I know. This year we raised over $6800 and we marched in style because Ergobaby donated a new carrier to each baby wearing mom on our team and on top of that, a mini ergo for each toddler. Guys. A huge thank you to Ergobaby, and to our team captain Mandy for making all the magic happen. I’m already excited for next year!

PNW Blogger Meet-up

A few weeks ago I attended the PNW Blogger meet-up in Seattle and now that the lovely Linnea from Linnea Paulina Photography has given us the use of her beautiful photographs, I thought I would post some here.

This is the third meet-up I have attended and, as always, I had a great time. We met at Von Trapp’s in Seattle for some beer and brats (or in my case wine and pretzels). Every time I go to one of these things I have a bad habit of just talking to the people I already know. To be fair, most of us have small children and rarely get to see each other. Even when we do see each other, we can only half participate in conversations while managing toddler disagreements over whose seat this is and baby disagreements over whether it is truly time to nurse right this second. So to be honest, I mostly go to these to hang out with my friends. I am of course excited to meet new people and I usually do make a few new friends, but I am not into awkwardly trying to get people to read my blog and stuff like that. Hopefully I don’t come off as rude, I’m mostly just lazy.

It also happened to be the day after my birthday, so when the event ended at 8pm, Ryan, my sister, and a few friends met up with us and we had a mini celebration. It was great to see some of my favorite people and stay up a teeny bit past my bedtime (thanks Mom and Dad!).

Brace Face!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

 

Recently I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a blogger event hosted by the lovely Kat of Mama’s Losin' It. 

Isn't she gorgeous? She always looks like this.

We met with two orthodontists from Seattle, the lovely husband and wife team from Leone& Vaughn Orthodontics, and learned all about Invisalign. Dr. Leone and Dr. Vaughn were awesome. I am not being paid to specifically endorse them I swear, but when the time comes I will definitely be taking my kids to their office. 

Reliving my youth with Mandy.

I was genuinely impressed by all of the information we received about Invisalign and how they are just as effective as traditional braces. I think back to the years (I mean YEARS) I spent in lovely metal brackets, applying gummy white wax to spare my shredded cheeks, and it makes me a little mad that Insvisalign wasn’t an option for me then. Not only would it have spared some of my adolescent awkwardness (only some, let’s be honest), it would also have spared my poor cheeks!

Just being creepy.

My girls have a 50/50 chance of having perfect teeth like their father (I don’t really know what their chances are, I mean, I’m not a geneticist people!), but they also have a good chance of having truly messed up teeth like their mama. I had all kinds of issues: small mouth, full on MISSING permanent teeth (ok tooth, but one is enough), and gaps galore. I’ve had teeth pulled, lots of braces, an implant, and now I have my very own Invisalign retainer (yay!). If my girls don’t win the genetic lottery, at least I know their teeth-straightening experience doesn’t have to be as socially traumatic as mine. Removable aligners, like Invisalign & Invisalign Teen, are becoming more and more popular with orthodontists and their patients alike. The system uses a series of clear aligners made of lightweight plastic that sit smoothly on the teeth allowing for a more comfortable fit and they work as effectively as traditional metal braces. They can even be taken out to eat, which means you don’t have to worry about everyone knowing precisely what you ate for lunch!

 Just my dentures.

If you aren’t sure whether or not you or your child would qualify for this kind of treatment, you should visit their website and take the Smile Assessment. More than 2 million people worldwide have used or are using Invisalign to get straight teeth. Invisalign offers a full spectrum of clear straightening treatments for most types of orthodontic issues both simple and complex. Go check it out!

This was a really fun event and it was great to meet some awesome women. I even won a DVD of Pretty in Pink, saweeeet! I feel like this new innovation has completely changed the future of middle-schoolers everywhere. How different would we all be if we hadn’t paid our dues as the class brace face? Have you or someone you know used Invisalign? If so, what was your experience?

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Cinco de Lily

Lily turned 3 on Cinco de Mayo. That can’t be right, didn’t I just bring her home from the hospital? Well, she says she is three, so I’ll just go with it. Instead of a big party this year, Ryan and I took her out for a day of fun and left Miss Mila to be doted on by her Nani and Papa. 

We started off the day with a trip to Walmart, you know, like you do. Basically we had 15 minutes to kill before Red Robin opened and girlfriend scored a new T-Rex. Everyone wins!

Next we were off to every three-year-olds favorite restaurant to fuel up for a big day. 

We could not have ordered more perfect weather. In fact, I told Lily that I DID order nice weather for her birthday, she was very appreciative. Our big adventure for the day was Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. I’m sure I’ve been before, but I didn’t remember anything, so it felt like the first time for all of us. It was rad. Like the best. It is funny to see things at the pace of a three-year-old. She sees one cool thing, looks at it, exclaims something adorable and is off to the next thing. Favorites included the Elephants, which she searched for the entire time we were there, the sharks (after we decided to have Rexi the T-Rex RAR at them so she wasn’t scared), and the tiny splash park where she would have spent the entire day. 

By the time we left she was soaked to the bone (from a second trip to the splash park) and exhausted, so a naked car nap was in order.

Don't tell Lily, but we may have gone through the McD's drive through for some french fries while she slept. We finally woke her up the best way we could think of... with the promise of a cupcake!

After the cupcake she said "I want to go see my Nani and my Papa and my Mila, my family!" so we made our way home full and sleepy. It was a great day.  

The following weekend was Mother's Day and since we were celebrating with family (including Lily's almost-three-year-old cousins), we decided to turn it into a small birthday party. When you are 3 (or 31) you get a birthday week right? The weather cooperated again and she had a blast. No kid has ever slept harder.

Oh also, suddenly she is potty trained. *fist bump* (More on that later.)

Three

This kid turned three on Sunday.

Three. Take a moment to process that.

I promise to come back and write about how we celebrated, but for now just sdgjbdljkgdljkrgnkjdnvk WHAT IS LIFE?! Time is a b word.

Shy

My shy girl. 

Lily has always been shy, or perhaps the best way to describe her is wary. Wary of new people and new situations. Once she warms up she is all in, but somehow something is ingrained in her to be careful, cautious, perhaps even suspicious of the unknown. I have struggled a bit with whether I should push her or let her find her own way into things. I didn’t have to wonder for long because besides being cautious, this kid is also very strong willed. There will be no pushing allowed, maybe some gentle nudging, but that is as far as I get. It is tough as a parent, I don’t want her to be a weenie who never tries anything new or cries over seemingly inconsequential things. At the same time, she often surprises me. She is the first one to go up to other kids at the park and ask them to play. Fortunately she is blissfully unaware that putting yourself out there can backfire. I hope it stays that way.

But, I worry. I worry because sometimes she plays happily for an hour and a half at the gym daycare, and sometimes she makes it 10 minutes before she is inconsolable. When I ask her what is wrong she pretends that she hurt herself or she doesn’t feel good. I don’t want her to feel like she has to hide the fact that she just missed me or was scared to be on her own. I worry because she is starting preschool in September and OMGWHATIFSHECRIES!? I know that she will change and someday grow out of it. I want that to happen and at the same time I don’t. Part of me loves how much she needs me and maybe I’m not ready for her to grow up and get over it. The rest of me is not insane and knows it is good for her and part of becoming an independent tiny person.

As I was searching my files for this draft post, I came across an old blog post by my friend Sarah. Sarah was my English teacher in high school back when she was just a baby, but now I gratefully call her my friend. Her blog is hilarious and I am sure that, once her book is published, it will be magnificent. It was this post however that gave me what I needed today. I read this post back when it was first published, but at the time I had no context for it in my own life. I thought it was sweet and funny and smart, but then it got lost in the jumbles of my cluttered mind. Going back today it was like a light bulb lit right over my head. Actually, it was like that wall of light bulbs in the movie Chicago, the one Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones shoot at, popping all the bulbs? That, but before the bulb-shooting. Lots of light bulbs, I digress.

Go read the post, I’ll wait.

... 

THIS.IS.ME.

I need to step back and look at this from a different angle. So what if my kid cries easily, she’s passionate. Her heart is so big that her tiny body can’t handle all of her emotions and they must come streaming out of her face in liquid form. So what if she is wary of new situations, she is cautious, she thinks before she acts, she is deliberate. These are not traits I should try to control or hide or change. I need to embrace my kid as she is, because what she is is awesome.

I’m going to do my best to learn how to mother her through this, whether it is a stage or just her personality. I will do my best not to apologize or explain away her behavior to other parents because WHO CARES? Yes, my kid cries when she hears loud noises, but YOUR kid pushes people off of the monkey bars! Let’s go have a giant martini because parenting is hard and we are just doing the best we can.

My philosophy is this: as long as I come from a place of loving the sh*t out of my kids, a place of the best intentions, that is all that I can do. Yes I put thought into my parenting, yes I seek out advice and look to women I trust for help, but sometimes I just have to give myself a break.

To me she seems so big, but really, she is still very little. I am always fighting the urge to miss my girls being smaller, or looking forward to when they are bigger. They are only this age for this moment and I must force myself to see them and say this, THIS is my favorite age. Right this very second. And it is.

Sometimes I just stop and look at her, at this little person she is becoming, and I am so proud. This little thing that loves so very big.

 Linking up with Mandy over at A Sorta Fairytale