Not a Happy Mommy

So after three afternoon nap-less days I think he may have officially given it up. Wow, that sucks. A little first birthday present from Will to Mommy. Lucky me.

One

Will turned one today and I really and truly cannot believe it. A year ago today I was sitting in the hospital getting acquainted with the new little man in my life. Everything was so new and scary but also so exciting. And the complete lack of sleep and recovery from labor just didn't seem to matter at all. (Now if he even gets me up once at night for 15 minutes I bitch and moan. Ha!) It seems like an eternity ago but somehow feels like it has gone so fast. I am continually amazed at how much he has grown and changed during just a year. He has gone from a helpless tiny little thing to a little person who is mobile and has his own little personality (and a mind of his own, for sure).

It makes me so sad to think about how fast it is going, and I really try to stop and savor each little stage that he goes through. I've tried to do that all along, though, and at 12 months I can hardly remember what he was like at 4 months. And it really freaks me out that I feel like I'm going to blink and all of the sudden he'll be going to kindergarten. I'm always so excited for him to take the next step and grow and learn. And I love watching him grow up. I just wish it wouldn't go so fast :-(

I can't help but think about how this is also my one year anniversary of being a mother. Wow, have I come a long way. When I think back to how nervous I was at the beginning about every little thing it's actually pretty funny. I used to get so flustered about even taking him out to the store. A trip to Target gave me way more anxiety than the biggest presentation at work ever did. Now I just throw him in the car and go without a second thought. It has definitely been a big learning process to figure out how to be a good mom to him but also how to integrate him into my life seamlessly enough that I can still have a life. A year in I feel like I've been pretty successful.

1 Year Stats:

Teeth: 7 - 4 on top and 3 on bottom. The bottom side left tooth (his right) is MIA.

Mobility: He's crawling all over the place and walking around by pushing anything he can get to move. He's very scared to do it on his own, though. We definitely need to build up more confidence before he starts to walk.

Words: He says "Da" or "Da Da" very clearly and within the correct contexts. He says it while reaching for Tim or when Tim walks into a room. He says "Ma Ma" but not directly to me. He mostly just babbles it over and over when he's pissed off, which is nice. He also says "Hi", usually while waving (or at least his version of a wave).

Misc: He likes to watch me play Pat-a-Cake but is not really interested in participating himself. He loves to clap, though. He claps at himself all the time and smiles. He claps when the cats come into the room, he claps when he gets a hold of something he shouldn't be playing with... you get the idea. We're working on waving bye-bye and blowing kisses but haven't made much progress. He LOVES blowing raspberries and will mimic that almost every time.

Favorite Toys: Pretty much anything he's not supposed to have. We need to get a serious move on child-proofing this place better. He REALLY loves getting into cabinets and pulling everything out. I let him do this with the tupperware cabinet. It keeps him occupied but, man, is it a pain to keep cleaning what feels like 500 old butter containers. He has a little green and yellow crocheted lovey-blanket that he is particularly fond of. He sleeps with it and whenever we are playing in his room he crawls over to his bed and pulls it out and hugs on it. Very sweet.


Side note: I am not thrilled with how this month's bear picture came out. It's not his cutest picture. Getting him to sit still for pictures is becoming increasingly difficult, though. Most of the attempts were along the lines of this pic but in varying degrees of blurriness.

Opening Presents

I'm such a lucky boy to get so many fun birthday presents!

Assessing the loot :-)













Hmmmm... what's in here?













Reading my cards













These cars are pretty cool













A gift from across the pond













Another card













Choo choo!

Calgon Take Me Away

Ever have one of those days where your toilet gets clogged, the baby is cranky, your cat pukes on the carpet, the baby won't nap, and you're running late for an appointment? Yeah, me too.

And to top it all off you get to do all of it against the soundtrack of a tiny, sweet kitten (which is a stray you found in your yard) that is locked in a carrier in your mud room crying because it is lonely. And then you get to take it to the pound later (because you just don't have the capacity to keep it) where it will most likely be put to sleep. And cry the whole time so that the people at the shelter think you're crazy. Good times.

Now, HERE'S how to have fun!!!‏

This one is care of Grandma Carol.

If your summer's getting boring here's an idea on how to have some REAL fun! Get your Aunt Rachel and Uncle Andy to get you one of these rockin' lion walker toys, push it's nose so it plays some crazy music and race around the house like a wild child!! Be sure to take off your shoes and have your mommy put you in a comfy onesie first and then, wooohoo, let the drool run free!!!!

A True Kentuckian

Will does not enjoy wearing shoes

Will: The European Tour 2010 - Part II France

We spent a week in Amboise exploring the Loire valley. We rented an apartment which was a 2 minute walk from the Amboise city center and the Loire river. Tim's mom arrived the day after we did and spent two nights with us. Then Rich, Helen, and Alex joined us for the rest of the trip. We took a lot of day trips to visit chateaux in the area including:
Chenanceau,



Chambord,




Chaumont,





and Chateau d'Amboise (which was right outside our apartment window).











Our apartment was on the top floor of the cream building with green shutters. This is a view of it from the grounds of the chateau.













The inside of the apartment













A view of the chateau from inside our apartment













Double trouble













Abusing Uncle Rich













Wine tasting in Vouvray













Playing with Grandma Gee













Tours













Will was not a fan of the french baby food, unfortunately, although I'm not sure if part of that was due to him being sick. The vegetable meals were really thick and gelatinous (although they got a bit better once you mixed them up well). Anyway, one evening we went out to dinner and Will refused to eat the dinner I brought for him. As I'm trying to get him transitioned to table food we always try to feed him bits of things off of our plates now. I had ordered duck (one of my favs which I mostly only eat in France) and offered Will some of it. I didn't expect much as whenever I try to feed him similar bits of chicken at home he acts like I'm trying to poison him. He loved it, though! He kept opening his little baby bird mouth and wanting some more. He probably ate a quarter of my duck! He did the same thing with goat cheese a few days later. Apparently he has very high-brow tastes.

Will and Alex seemed to have a good time playing with one another. They followed each other around, stole toys from one another, etc. Will did, unfortunately, have an interest in beating Alex on the head with his toy cell phone but other than that they played nicely. There wasn't a walker in the apartment in France (obviously) so Will decided to use the kitchen table chairs instead. He pushed them all around and practically mowed poor Alex over several times!

The day before we flew home we drove back to Paris and walked around for a bit. Paris is one of my favorite cities in the world and it was good to stop in if just for a bit. Still not sure if it was worth it, though, as it took us 2 hours to battle traffic and get to our hotel at the airport that night. Ugh! Here is Will in front of Notre Dame.

The flight home was fairly uneventful. Nine straight hours of trying to entertain Will in a small area. Pretty much what you would expect. Thankfully, he did nap for almost 2 hours in the middle of it. Trying to successfully eat an airplane meal in a tiny seat on a tiny tray while juggling a grabby baby is probably in the top 10 of most challenging feats I've attempted. He did well, though, and had all of the flight attendants and old women on the plan in love with him by the time we landed.




Playing in the bassinet on the plane on our way home

Will: The European Tour 2010 - Part I London

So now that Will has finally been sleeping through the night (for the most part) and back on a normal schedule for 5 days or so and I'm caught up on everything (for the most part) I'm ready to tackle the trip post.

We left on a Wednesday afternoon on an overnight flight to London with a connection through Detroit (because the a-holes at Delta decided to cancel our direct CVG to London flight just as we had a baby and needed it most). The irony of the whole connection is that Tim changed our tickets a few weeks before we left to the earlier of the 2 afternoon flights to Detroit as he was worried about us making our connection (we had been on a later CVG to Detroit flight). Also, we wanted to get to the gate in Detroit as early as possible so that we could try to get the bulkhead seats to use the bassinet for Will. Anyway, our flight out of CVG ended up being delayed and the later flight we were originally on actually left earlier than we did. SO IRRITATING! We had to run through the Detroit airport to make our connection and we didn't get to the gate until half of the flight was already boarded. They had already given away the bulkhead seats. Luckily, once we were on the plane the flight attendants were able to talk the bulkhead people into switching seats with us and it all turned out fine in the end. Will did pretty well on the flight. He was tired and fussy for the first few hours as it took a long time for them to serve dinner and get the lights turned out because of turbulence. When everyone did finally settle down, though, he slept in the bassinet for the last 4 hours of the flight. Tim and I didn't really sleep, though, unfortunately. I never really sleep well on those flights, but I was worried about Will so couldn't really sleep at all this time.

Anyway, once we got to London my sister-in-law made the trek to the airport to pick us up so that we wouldn't have to navigate trains with all of our luggage and the baby (which would not have been fun, especially when you feel like it's 3am and you haven't slept).

We spent 6 days in St. Albans visiting with Tim's mom, brother, sister-in-law, and our niece, Alex, who is 1 week younger than Will. Mostly we just relaxed, visited, let the babies play, and hung around St. Albans.

Overall, Will did fairly well (or at least as well as can be expected of him). He was happy and cooperative during the day. He just didn't adjust to the time change well. AT ALL. For the first several nights he would wake up from what we thought was bed (he thought was an afternoon nap) at 9pm and refuse to go back to sleep until 1am. But he would still get up at normal time in the morning. And he didn't sleep well at night. His whole clock was just totally screwed up. Then he and Alex both got sick once we went our separate ways to France so he was really fussy, had a fever for a day or so, didn't sleep well or eat well, etc. He was just really exhausting for me.

Alex in the "paddling pool"













The boys and their little ones outside the local pub

















Bathtime













Will wasn't so sure about the weird British swings













Reading my favorite book with Grandma Gee



We also went to Alex's christening and a little reception afterwards on Sunday which was very nice. We also got to catch up with a lot of Rich and Helen's friends that we hadn't seen since their wedding 3 years ago. Our friends Matt and Vix Grey were also there with their little guy, Felix. We hadn't seen them in a very long time as they just returned from living in New Zealand for a few years. I could absolutely kick myself as we didn't get any pictures of them! Here's a pic of us at the christening. Will looked very cute in his little button-down and khakis. Unfortunately, it was in the 90's that day so I changed him into shorts pretty quickly after the service. My cousin says Will is channeling his inner Zoolander in this picture. Ha!














On Tuesday we took the Eurostar train to Paris, picked up a rental car, and (after navigating rush-hour traffic in Paris for over an hour) headed to Amboise in the Loire valley.

Will's first taxi ride to the train station

The Cincinnati Chili Tour Continues...

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on here before, but over the last year and a half or so Tim and I have been trying all of the one-off Cincinnati chili restaurants around town. There's been an ongoing debate between the two of us about chili as he is a Skyline fan and I prefer Dixie Chili (as any self-respecting northern Kentuckian should). Anyway, at some point Tim started hearing about some other non-chain restaurants and decided he wanted to try them all. We started the process last year when I was pregant (post morning sickness phase, thank god) and got through most of them. There were still a few on our list that we didn't have a chance to try before Will came, though, so now that he's a bit more "portable" we've decided to get back on track. As a side note, in the midst of our chili tour "Cincinnati" magazine put out an issue in which the cover story was where their reporters had done just what we were doing - tried all of the one-offs and rated them. Tim was NOT PLEASED as he was certain they had stolen his idea. Anyway, their assessments of the restaurants were crap anyway.

So today we tried Park Chili Parlor in Northside. I was a bit nervous about this one as Northside, while very hip and home lots of great restaurants and bars, is not the most kid-friendly place. Also, it is not really the best part of town. As we walked into the place it looked kind of shady and we didn't exactly fit in with the clientele. Everyone was so nice, though! All of the employees were chatting with us and playing with Will. They were trying to find food that he would like to eat (they wanted to give him some jello but it turned out they were out of it). The chili wasn't half bad either. The buns and cheese on the coneys left something to be desired, but I would put them in the top half of the list at least. Overall, it was a fun little outing for a Saturday afternoon.

My heart will always lie with Dixie, though.

Garden Vent

I really think I'm cursed when it comes to my vegetable garden. I must have done some bad vegetable-related stuff in a prior life because veggie karma has it out for me. This is the 5th summer I have attempted to grow a little 6 ft by 6 ft patch of herbs and vegetables and the 5th year that, due to events out of my control, it has been an epic failure. Most years these failures center on animals eating the plants or stealing the veggies (it has gotten so bad that I've even been known to drop everything and charge out of the house in PJs and slippers up to the back of the yard where the garden is to scare a squirrel or rabbit off of my tomatoes). Last year it was the weather. We had a cool, wet summer which meant that my tomatoes did not ripen well. Notice that I'm focusing on tomatoes here. Tomatoes are the main reason I bother with the garden because there are few things in the world that I love more than fresh, ripe tomatoes which are literally impossible to get at the grocery store and seem to be becoming more and more elusive even at farmer's markets. The rest of the things that I throw in the garden are just fluff. The herbs are nice to have so I don't have to spend a lot of $ on them at the store. Tim likes bell peppers. But it's really the tomatoes that I love. Which is why it was so heartbreaking when this year, about a week after I planted my tomatoes and they had really started to take root and start growing well, some asshole that Tim hired to mow our yard while our mower was in the shop mowed the whole goddamn garden down. I mean, how do you not notice a huge patch of dirt with 3 foot tall plants growing out of it? Why would it seem like an OK idea to just mow over it? Like they're just weeds. Like I'm cultivating a huge patch of weeds. He's either a) an idiot b)unbelievably lazy or c) just a mean asshole. Any way you slice it it's inexcusable. Can you tell that I continue to be really irritated by this? Anyway, about a month later all of the herbs have come back, the stupid bell pepper plant is alive but weak, the cucumber plant (which is a new attempt for me this year) has taken over the whole damn garden and has two cucumbers almost ready to be picked, but the tomatoes have not come back. Wouldn't have expected anything less. Vegetable karma's a bitch.

11 Months 11 Days Late

Will reached the 11 month mark while we were in England so I wasn't able to take his bear picture or add my post until today. We got back 2 days ago and I have spent the last days doing laundry, getting caught up on house work, running errands, paying bills, etc. All of the things that one must do after being gone for 2 full weeks. Combine that with jet lag and trying to deal with a jet-lagged baby and you're in for one hell of a good time, let me tell you. I have lots of fun pictures, videos, and stories from the trip but, to be honest, that post is going to have to wait until I can get a little distance from the trip itself because I'm not really feeling all that peachy about it right now. I'm totally exhausted and really need a vacation to recover from my 'vacation' at this point.

Anyway, the little man is now less than 3 weeks away from turning 1, which I CANNOT believe. I need to hurry up and get his little birthday party planned. He's at such a fun age right now where he's learning new things every day and he's getting more independent and his personality is really showing. He's crawling, pulling up, and cruising like mad. He uses anything that moves as a walker including kitchen chairs, laundry baskets, etc. He's into EVERYTHING and is quite a handful. He babbles all the time and has started saying a few words, albeit not consistently, including Mama, Dada, and Hi. He claps a lot, especially when he's gotten hold of something he really wants but shouldn't have :-). We're still working on the waving thing. He does it sometimes, but it looks more like a Nazi salute than a wave...