Summer Days with my California Baby!

Summer is coming to an end and I'm kinda excited for fall and winter. I love the cool weather and warm clothes after a summer full over 110 degree heat. This summer was so fun though. Compared to last summer when Taelyn was a newborn and we spent much of our time cooped up inside, this summer she was able to enjoy the beach, the swimming pools, the park and so much more! She is defiantly a water baby. I was apprehensive about the beach but she absolutely loves it and isn't scared of the waves at all...it can be a little scary for mama at times when she bolts running towards them! I love watching her play in the water and her face really does light up. Weather its the bath, beach, pool or dad spraying her with the hose she loves it all!

Tubby Time.

Paying in her pool in the backyard.

                                              

She was the flower girl.

After Josh and Julies wedding (trash the dress photo session)

Beach Baby

We were also able to make lots of new friends this summer and meet so many other new moms. I have a great support group of mommy friends here and feel so blessed to have them. We all need support as moms on those tough days and I couldn't do it without them. We try and get together at least once a week . We have Winey moms play dates where we go to different wineries in the area that are baby friendly and enjoy a nice glass of wine and conversation while the babies play with each other ( I love these days). We do moms nights out and play dates at the park or other friends houses. It is so great to see Taelyn interacting with other babies her age and she gains so much from it. We recently went to Orange County to see one of my friends from High Schools little girl and she is just too cute! We have known each other since 7th grade and it was so cool to see our daughters together. It was a full circle moment.

Play date at Taelyn's Boyfriend Sawyers house (hes the blonde boy inside the house with her) ha.

Winey Moms Playdate

Gwen, Taelyn and Little Ella at the Beach!

It was a great summer and I cant wait for the holidays to start. Now if I could only figure out what to make little Miss for Halloween, hmmmmmm...

Temper Tantrums...Oh boy!

!&*$ !!!!!!!!!!!! That's my four letter word for what I think about these sudden outbursts of crying,screaming,kicking and arching of the back that have just recently become some of Taelyn's many ways of expressing her dislike about...well...just about anything! I knew this phase was coming and I'm using the word phase because I can only hope this is just a "phase" other moms warned me, I had seen it first hand being a nanny and working with children. I guess I always thought it would be something short lived and I could do all the disciplinary techniques I have heard work and be consistent. That all is great and I still am planing on doing all those things but I had also heard this
"phase" that some call the "terrible two's " starts when they are TWO!!!!! So what gives?? I try my best to be patient and walk away and ignore the behavior. Its hard and it wears on you after awhile, especially after a long day when you are trying to get dinner in the oven. Don't get me wrong I would do just about anything to avoid the melt down but it seems they come on at any time without any warning....
She has such a sweet disposition and I should never complain, I have had a really happy, easy baby and am so grateful for that. I just wonder is this a normal behavior and why did it come so early? I was hoping to enjoy one more year before the time outs and discipline started full force. Lets face it you can't really discipline a one year old any how...she has no concept of right and wrong for the most part,so its constant re-direction. Some days I feel like maybe I just want one child. I cant possibly imagine doing this all over again, then I look at her little face and that all goes right out the window and I immediately jump from having NO more to having 10 more! Don't judge but the only solution I have found that works for me is just a little vino to top off the long day :) Just wanted to vent a little and feel free to give any advice on what you may have done...I'm all ears!

ps No pictures on this post, however it would be pretty hysterical to post a video of her next melt down...or maybe not...haha!

We are off to see Grandma...

Its been awhile since my last post. We have been so busy this summer we just got back from Indiana visiting my parents. We took Taelyn a bunch of places while we were there. My parents only live about half an hour outside Chicago so when we are in town we are usually in the city at least 2 or 3 times while we are there. I love Chicago! Its probably my favorite city out off all the ones I've been to so far. Its so clean and there is so much culture and who could complain about the shopping! We couldn't have asked for better weather this day, its wasn't too humid as Chicago often is and it was just perfect!

Sears Tower behind us...(well Willis Tower now)

 It was just us girls on this trip (me, Mom/Nana and Miss. Tae) The boys were on a 10 day fishing trip in Canada. We took Taelyn to the Shedd Aquarium downtown and she liked it but it wasn't as exciting for her as say; Sea World. It was more informational than anything. She did enjoy the giant fish tanks and the penguin exhibit and spending time with her grandma of course. At the penguin exhibit they have a little mock penguin island type thing with a slide and penguin outfits for the kids to try on. I think that was her favorite part of the day, go figure.

Miss. Tae the Penguin

After the aquarium we went to The American Girl Doll store. I had these when I was growing up and had become a little obsessed with getting Taelyn one. Especially since they had just launched a red haired itty bitty baby!!!! YAY! You would not believe how hard it is to find red haired dolls :( Turns out they had just gotten a shipment in that day after being sold out for a while! This is such a cool place to go for little girls! Its 3 sorties of dolls and clothes and everything you could think of for your doll! I cant wait to take her back when she is older. I wish I would have thought to get my camera out and take pictures of her holding the doll inside the store...Mommy was a little more excited than she was I think. Maybe someone should have taken a picture of me holding the doll.

We also drove to Galena a small town about 3 hours outside of Chicago to see one of my Best Friends daughters baptism. The service was so pretty and I was so glad we got to be there. We had great Italian food after and spent time with our very dear friends. This is one of my Best Friends Melissa and her daughter Annalyse at the luncheon after the service.

All in all it was a great trip and It's so hard to leave. Every time I leave I think...Maybe we should move closer to my parents I just love having them there for Taelyn and me too. Maybe some day we will all live in the same zip code again.

Swim Lessons!

We stared Taelyn in swim lessons. She LOVES her bath time and always has. So why wouldn't she love swimming! I think its because I started making that a part of her nightly routine so early on. Now she almost needs a bath every night before bed to relax and calm her. Which is totally fine with me because that's my favorite time of day when she is all clean and smelling good and we read stories or cuddle.
 I love to swim also and love the water and want her to be as comfortable around it as possible. The Babies Splash swim program at the school we go to teaches life saving skills at this age. How to float, be underwater and hold onto the edge of the pool.  She has done very well so far and last week was her 1st time going under the water!! It was a little nerve wrecking for me but she did great and came up smiling! Here are just a few pictures I had someone take for me.

Blowing Bubbles...we are still working on that!

                                                    Look at the those chubby legs!!

                                             Coming up from going under! YAY Tae!!

                                          Crab walking along the side...she holds on tight

                                                        This is her favortie!!!

I hope we can keep going to swim for awhile so at least she has the basics down for next summer and we dont have to start all over again. The nice thing about the swim school is its all indoors so you can come year round! It also nice for us white girls too (Tae and I). Nick and I had so hope she would have his skin but oh well! SPF 50 it is!

Cloth Mama...

So, since I started cloth diapering I have had so many friends and family ask me what its all about? Why on earth would I do it ? Do you use safety pins? Do you have a diaper service? Doesn't it smell, get everywhere, and all around just suck? finally my favorite question.... WHERE DOES THE POOP GO?

I thought I would break in down for everyone in this weeks blog. First off I haven't always cloth diapered. In fact I'm I guess what you called a new be. I started when Taelyn was about 9 1//2 months old, some of my cd'ing (cloth diapering) mama friends might say I took the easier route. Having not done it with a newborn...because as I'm sure most of you know, newborns poop on the hour every hour. In any case it had never even crossed my mind to cloth diaper when I was pregnant. I know my mom did it with me and that was the thing to do back then but I never thought to myself "oh, yes sign me up for that!"
It all started when one of my moms group friends was explaining the whole process to another one of moms group friends. She started by showing her all the diapers, how to clean them etc. I asked her why she used cloth and she began to tell me just some of the reasons and that I should really look into and research it for myself. I was really stunned to find out what I did. It was enough for me to want to make a change. Not to mention the financial aspect, Nick and I are always trying to save a buck and since I'm a stay at home mom and would like to keep it that way for as long as we can manage it was nice to know the money we would be saving.
It was a daunting task at first and I felt very overwhelmed with all the different products and brands of diapers and how to clean them properly. It would seem pretty elementary but it can be confusing at first. So, far I am very happy with my choice and I feel it works for us for right now. I would urge anyone who is interested to read up on it and see if its something that might fit into their life style. Cause I'm in no way here to preach about cd'ing or try and convert you moms out there! Just wanted to clear up a few questions. So......
1st question: I think I explained the why part and here are some links to some websites I found helpful when thinking of making the switch.
 http://www.thenewparentsguide.com/diapers.htm
http://www.realdiaperassociation.org/diaperfacts.php
www.livestrong.org

2nd question: Cloth diapers have come such a long long long way from the days of prefolds, safety pins and plastic diaper covers, all of which are still around but not necessary. There are adorable prints and best of all the diapers I buy are one size fits all with adjustable snaps. So that means no buying diapers for the next kid either, assuming this one is out of diapers when the next one comes along. Which is also an added bonus, research shows that cloth diapered babies potty train way faster too.

3rd question:I wash all the diapers myself its as easy as throwing in a load of regular laundry and hanging them out to dry. You do have to buy special detergent and wash them in a hot cycle but its not bad at all. I store the diapers in a diaper pail lined with a anti bacterial liner outside in my garage and wash the diapers every other day.

4th question: I don't hardly notice a smell and too me it not any worse than having a diaper pail in her room and having to smell that. If it did smell at least its outside and not in my daughters room. It doesn't get anywhere I have had less blow outs  and leaks since she has been in cloth. If you wash the cloth the right way and find the right size and fit of diaper for your little one its prefect!

5th question: WHERE DOES THE POOP GO??? Well where else would it go??? down the toilet....duh!  I have a diaper sprayer also which hooks up the the back of your toilet tank and you simply hold the diaper over the toilet and spray off and remains throw it in the pail outside and your golden!

 Hope I have satisfied your quest for knowledge about my experiences as a cloth mama! I really do like it and think its worked out to be a lot better for Tae and for our wallets. :)

1st Post!

Okay, So first things first. I should warn all who are about to read and will hopefully continue to read my blog that I'm in NO way, shape or form any type of writer. I have always enjoyed it but never felt I was very good at it. So laugh if you must at my punctuation, spelling, grammar etc. its okay, I laugh at it too. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way we can get to why I finally decided to write a blog.

I had started one when I first became pregnant to keep my family that's scattered all over the country up to speed with my pregnancy and post pictures of my growing belly, nursery etc. I was doing pretty well until about the 8th month and then I just gave up! So now with some incentive to eventually turn this into a book for Taelyn to look back at I feel I am up for the task.

Now for the hard part...What to write about? Taelyn is a sweet, outgoing and albeit a strong willed little girl (not sure where she gets that from). We have enjoyed the first year of her life so much and I just cant say enough about being a mother. My whole life I knew I always wanted to be a mother and felt I would be a great one. I have an amazing mother myself and she always made it look so easy. She is patient, understanding and kind and you feel her love for you always. I wanted nothing more than to show that kind of love to my child. Taelyn has made me a better person, she has made me feel deeper, love stronger and live better. She is my whole world and I wouldn't have it any other way.

We try and keep ourselves pretty busy now that leaving the house is a much simpler task. When she was a newborn it just all seemed too much to leave the house and expose her to all the germs. Inevitably I would forget something I needed in the diaper bag (or should I say suitcase) and I always felt the need to cover her carrier up with a blanket even though she wasn't sleeping to protect her from everything. As if a paper thin receiving blanket was going to shield her from anything ( a little neurotic wouldn't you say?)

Now a days she is my little shopping partner and I think I have successfully figure out a way to keep her entertained while we are out. (Give here whatever she wants, phone, wallet, keys etc.) hahaha j/k :). She tends to get a little restless now that she is mobile. She also loves to walk around in the backyard and chase the dogs, look at the plants, play with the rocks we have and totally freak mom out when she tries to eat them!! We have play dates with her other little friends. Her BFF is Gwenny Rose! That's my Best Friend Kristen's baby and they play together the most. Kristen and I were pregnant at the same time and our girls our just 5 months apart. They both have red/strawberry blonde/brunette hair! Its so cute to see them interact together now that they are close to the same developmental stages.

Taelyn seems very advanced for her age and I know what your thinking...every mother thinks their child is the smartest, but I assure you that she really does do things I don't see other one year olds doing. For example: She knows her body parts and she wont just point to them she will walk right up to you and point to your eye and say "eye" point to your nose and say "nose" and ears and say "ears" you get the drift... She also walks around with my cell phone held up to her ear and babbles on it making facial expressions and squealing with delight as if she is talking to some on the other end. It's the funniest thing. I just know she is destined for greatness and I can't help but brag.

I hope to do a new post about every week or so and keep everyone posted on all that is Taelyn!