Month Eight With Little m

Month eight was smooth sailing for you, Little m. We enjoyed the most beautiful weather that I can ever remember a March or April having and spent as much time as possible at the parks in our area. You had a field trip to the zoo and conservatory with your baby friends and also had your first lunch date with daddy downtown.

By the end of your eighth month, you mastered sitting up by yourself, but still have the occasional wobble. You have a new trick! Playing peekaboo. I'm not really sure how this came about because I didn't really try to teach it to you, but one day I noticed you were covering your face and wanted to play! It's super cute.

You have a very strong core from you daily pilates practice and constant head and leg lifts while laying on your back. You and your monkey feet make us laugh and you always try to hold toys with your toes. Mama bought you an excersaucer, which you are not particularly fond of. This month you met Peter Rabbit at the Pottery Barn and tried to eat his whiskers!

We spent a lot of time with Grandma this month and had a girls' week while your daddy traveled to the UK for business. She spoiled you rotten for your first Easter and bought you a basket, two new books, and a squeaky bunny toy. Your Nanny and Grampie also bought you a beautiful Easter dress. You're one lucky kid.

You've been an excellent napper this month but I'm convinced you will never sleep through the night. You still get up once to nurse but thankfully go back to sleep quickly. You started babbling this month! Here's what you say: baba, lala, dada, and mama. You had your first tastes of veggie burger, hummus, cheese, and dried mango this month. You still put everything in your mouth and as much as I try to read books to you, you prefer to eat them.

One of my favourite things to do during the day is to take you to music classes. We have found all of the free spots to go to in the city and take full advantage of them. You absolutely love music and bounce and kick your legs non-stop for the entire thirty minutes. Your hair is getting blonder and longer and sometime your bedhead is out of control.

We love you so much. You are a joy and the best thing that's ever happened to us. 

Munchkin Meals (Volume 1.)

As Little m is getting older she is also becoming pickier with what she wants to eat. I used to be able to feed her ANYTHING and it would be gone in minutes. Now, she karate chops me when she sees me coming with a spoon. She spits her purees out. Her once beloved fruits like blueberries and mangoes are tossed overboard for the doggie. Her pediatrician told me, "Food before one is just for fun." I agree, BUT things can become frustrating when the wee babe sits in her highchair screaming and swatting at the foods she used to like but no longer does, for reasons unknown. That's not fun for me or her.

What I need are ideas. It was perfect timing when Brittany at A Healthy Slice of Life came up with the Munchkin Meals link up. Mama bloggers are showing what they're feeding their babies and from this I am hoping to find several ideas for future meals!

For breakfast, I recently found Little m's new fave - pancakes! I make a big batch of wholewheat pancakes and add the frozen pureed fruit that Little m no longer wants to eat. So far I've tried blueberry and banana and both were a hit. She loves being independent and feeding herself like a big girl, so now I just give her a whole pancake instead of bite size pieces. I do my best at every meal to include some proteins and carbs and fruits or veggies, but well, it's a work in progress.

After finding out that she wasn't allergic to them, another hit at breakfast time has been eggs. I made a spinach and feta omelet for her one day, which she wasn't a huge fan of, but she devours eggs when they're hard boiled, scrambled, or fried over-medium.

Some days I feed Little m lunch but most days it's more like a snack before her afternoon nap. And it's almost always babybel cheese. She can't get enough. When she sees the little red package she can't contain her excitement. These are great as snacks on the go as well and I'll just toss one into a little cooler bag before I leave the house if I know she'll get hungry while we're out. Other favourite snacks include hummus, Aussie Bites (from Costco), and dried mango (from Trader Joe's), which is awesome because it keeps her occupied for at least 20 minutes.

For dinner, I basically feed her exactly what we are having. She loves most meats, rice, and one of her favourite dinners is chicken tortellini covered in tomato sauce, as shown below. Some of the veggies I can get her to eat are peas, broccoli, and edamame.

So there you have it, Little m's mealtime eating at 9-10 months of age! I'm lucky I have a fairly good eater!

Month Seven With Little m

I dropped the ball the last few months and forgot to take the usual monthly pictures of Little m. Boourns. The good thing is that I have no shortage of iPhone pictures, as I take one almost every day to send to M at work and also her grandparents.

Little m, in your seventh month you started drinking playing with a sippy cup. You love eating mostly any fruit or vegetable in pureed form but your favourites include bananas, pears, and sweet potatoes. You also like trying whole foods such as peas. You do have trouble picking up such tiny pieces, but your pincer grasp is getting better the more you practice. You are enjoying swimming class more and more every week and are getting used to being fully submerged. You tried swinging on swings for the first time this month and were a huge fan. Both sets of grandparents visited you this month which was tons of fun, as usual! Your daddy and I love trying to make you laugh and have such fun when you break into a fit of giggles.

You already have such a funny personality and so many people tell me that you're the smiliest baby they've ever seen. Besides smiling all the time, you also like sticking your tongue out! You weigh around thirteen and a half pounds. You were never the most cuddly infant, but that is slowly changing. You'll now lay your head on our shoulders, like a sweet little munchkin should.

Month seven was probably the most amazing month for naps that we will ever experience. I'm talking two two-hour naps every day like clockwork. Oh, you make mommy so happy with these naps.

My favourite time of the day is when I nurse you to sleep at bedtime. Every night I look down at you and I still can't believe you're perfect and you're mine. At this time of the day you are so peaceful and content and often I want to stay sitting in our rocking chair extra-long, just holding you, because I know these days won't last forever. I'm trying to cherish each and every one of them.

Month Six With Little m

Considering Little m is turning double digits months old this week, I'd say I'm a bit behind on her monthly updates. It's a good thing I took notes! Here's what she was up to:

Little m, you spent the first week of your sixth month in Florida. You had such a fun time and it was great to get away from the wintry weather in Chicago.

You officially doubled your birth weight this month and are now close to 12 pounds. You had fallen off of the percentile charts last month but are now back on! Your favourite meal is bananas mixed with oatmeal cereal, with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. You would enjoy that for both breakfast and dinner every singe day if I let you. I made apples for you one day but you thought they were way too sour. The video I took of you trying them is priceless.

You're the happiest during naked bum time. You love to kick, kick, kick your legs and move both of your arms up and down at the same time. You try to sit up but are still unsteady and will fall over if we let go. You love snuggling with mom and dad every morning in bed. You absolutely love taking baths and this month was your first swimming lesson too! You hated it. You are a very cultured girl and took your first trip to a museum, the Chicago Art Institute, with you friend Juniper. This month you started to giggle a lot more and we try to make you laugh by kissing your stomach and toes and by making weird noises. Grandma likes to bark at you like a dog to get you to giggle. She is funny, just like you. Bama also makes you laugh when he yawns loudly or wags his tail and creates wind in your face.

Slowly but surely, you are behaving better in the car seat and stroller. What I mean by this is that you don't start screaming right away when we put you down into one of them. You last a good ten minutes before that happens now :)  Actually, for the first time ever, we were able to go out for a family dinner and you stayed content in your stroller the entire time! 

Sleep training is really paying off and you slept an eight hour stretch. That only happened once, but it still made mama very happy. Mostly you sleep in 4-6 hour chunks during the night.


We cannot believe that you are a half of a year old! Time flies when you're having fun! 

A Mother's Love

This Mother's Day, I'm working with Clever Girls in support of Macy's Heart of Haiti to shine a light on the "trade, not aid" program, which provides sustainable income to Haitian artisans struggling to rebuild their lives and support their families after the 2010 earthquake. 



This morning I heard the wonderful news that a friend of mine gave birth to a baby girl. My heart is overflowing with happiness for her. Welcome to the dark side. She is about to embark on a journey that will be unforgettable, to say the least. I remember, almost nine months ago, holding Little m for the first time and at that moment, everything was right in the world.

A mother's love is an amazing, beautiful thing. It's rather impossible to describe. No matter how frustrated that baby girl makes me, one second later I'm swooning over her sweetness. I truly cannot get enough of her. I never knew I could love someone so much. Of course I love my husband, family members, and friends but the love I have for this child is so different. All encompassing. Unconditional. To the moon and back. Twice.

Is this really how our mothers love each of us? I have so much more respect for my mom after becoming a mother myself and my goodness, to think that there's someone out in the world who loves me this much is a pretty great feeling!

This will be my first mother's day and my biggest wish is to spend the day together as a family. Because really, what more do I need other than to be surrounded by the ones I love? And maybe breakfast in bread :)

How will you be celebrating this special day?


What is Macy’s Heart of Haiti? Heart of Haiti is a “Trade, Not Aid” initiative launched by artist and social entrepreneur, Willa Shalit, The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and Macy’s. Already, Heart of Haiti has led to employment of 750 artists in Haiti, providing financial benefits for an estimated 8,500 people in the country. Each item is a one-of-a-kind design and handmade by a Haitian master artisan from raw materials such as recycled oil drums, wrought iron, papier-mâché and stone. The collection features more than 40 home decor items including quilts, metalwork, ceramics, jewelry and paintings and is made almost entirely from recycled and sustainable items such as old cement bags, cardboard, oil drums and local gommier wood. Heart of Haiti products are available online at Macy’s.com. 


Thank you to Macy's Heart of Haiti for sponsoring my participation in this “Share Your Heart" promotion. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Cloth Diapering

Let's talk about diapers.

...Oh no, did I lose you already?

Let me begin by stating that I couldn't care less what others choose, cloth or disposables, I just want to share my experiences with cloth diapering thus far.

(One of the few pictures of Little m in her cloth dipes. Must take more!)

While I was pregnant I did a whole lot of research on cloth diapers. I knew right away that I wanted to use cloth because of one reason - saving moolah. Yes, cloth is better for the environment, even when you factor in the water and electricity used to wash them. Yes, cloth is softer, gentler, and free of the yucky chemicals you can find in disposables. Yes, fluffy butts are freakin' adorable. Leaks and blowouts almost never occur. There are a variety of compelling reasons why some may choose cloth over disposables, but for me, what really swayed me were the dollar signs I saw flashing in front of my eyes.

I've kept a handy dandy spreadsheet to record my cloth diapering costs and to date, my grand total is $439. That covers diapers from newborn to potty training. And remember that for my next child/ren I won't have to buy another diaper. Ever. Isn't that awesome? I have easily covered my costs and then some.

Now a few things... the diapers I have for the newborn stage were all bought used. Gross? Well, no, not to me, but to some, perhaps. They were in EEUC (excellent excellent used condition - I can now speak diaper talk with the best of them) and looked brand new. I bought most of the others online during Black Friday sales or on clearance. I lucked out.

I rotate through 15 diapers and do laundry every other day. I have never run out of diapers but I do have a few back up prefolds with covers (similar to something our parents would have used) just in case. I actually bought three additional diapers which USPS lost and won't refund me for (don't even get me started) but I'm more than happy with the 15 that I have.

This is turning into a novel, sorry.

Everything was going swell for months and months and if anyone asked, I recommended cloth diapers 110%. Then around Christmastime, the stank began. Which in turn, is when my love/hate relationship developed.

For a few weeks, the diapers were just incredibly stinky. They smelled clean after washing but as soon as Little m peed, they reeked to high heavens. Got stinkier every day. I couldn't figure it out. Then the most awful thing happened. Little m got burned by the build up of ammonia in the diapers. Awful, awful rash. Bad mommy. Tears. Frustration. Hours spent googling how to defunkify cloth diapers. A solid month of battling ammonia buildup caused from too much detergent being used. Repeated washings turning into all day laundry. It was terrible. Finally, just when I was about to give up and throw the diapers away, I figured out a washing routine that got rid of the funk for good.

But, now I am totally getting burned out on laundry. It eats up about half a day, every other day of my life. What makes laundry difficult is that I share a washer and dryer with 3 other units and therefore, it's not always available when I want it. Also, one of my neighbours is bat shit crazy, so that doesn't help matters much when I have to deal with her. The laundry's located in the basement which is a number of flights of stairs down. Because I am scared to death of ammonia buildup occurring again, here is my crazy laundry routine: light cold water wash (first trip up and down), heavy hot wash (second trip up and down), warm rinse (third trip up and down), another warm rinse (fourth trip up and down), low heat dry (fifth trip up and down). And because one cycle in the dryer isn't quite long enough, I hang the diaper inserts to dry overnight in our apartment. Plus, the washer is horrible and gets off balance so I have to do extra spins all the time. Wow. I am tired just thinking about it.

So yeah, cloth is great.. most of the time. Even with the funk and the excessive laundry, the pros outweigh the cons and I love Little m's fluffy butt. I'm still very happy with our decision to use cloth. I love talking cloth diapers, so if you have any questions, just ask!

Baby Necessities: 0-6 Months

Now that I'm a pro at this whole mom thing (HA!) I thought I'd share a few baby items that have become necessities in our household.

1) Sound Machine

City living with a baby has caused me to dislike many things including Tuesdays (garbage day), car alarms, loud college kids, honking horns, traffic in general, and anything else that threatens to wake my baby up during her nap time. Having some type of white noise machine is essential. I really liked the features on the Graco Sound Machine but unfortunately it wasn't loud enough. We now use this Marpac Sound Conditioner and it works well. I don't travel without it.

(find it on Amazon)

2) Cooshee Changer

This is the best product ever. No change pad cover means no extra laundry. It stays warm to the touch and easily wipes clean. Little m loves naked bum time and she plays in the Cooshee changer a few times a day while her bum bum airs out. I lay an extra cloth diaper down in case she pees and don't have to worry about her making a mess everywhere. It's most definitely worth the cost.

(find it on Amazon)

3) Play Mat

I was gifted the Tiny Love Activity Gym and it quickly became a favourite for me and baby. Whatever you do, make sure you have some place to lay your baby down. Play mats are great because they provide effortless entertainment. Get one for the sake of your mental health.

(find it on Amazon)

4) Night Light

I recently ordered this cute Kinderglo night light and have quickly grown to love it. It would have made things much easier if I had it from the very beginning! It's bright enough to allow me to see what I'm doing during night feedings but not bright enough to disturb Little m's sleep. Plus, it's a moose and reminds me of my home and native land!

(find it on Amazon)

5) Aden + Anais Swaddle Blankets

Wow, there are so many uses for these blankets. We used them as swaddles in the very beginning but now I always carry one in my diaper bag to use as a nursing cover if needed. They are so light and breathable. Have you ever tried nursing with a real blanket? Schwetty.

(find it on Amazon)

6) Baby Connect App

I have used this app pretty much everyday since Little m was born. At first I used it to track her feedings, now I use it to track her sleeping and weight. It costs $4.99 and is so worth it, and that's coming from a lady who refuses to pay for apps!

(find it on iTunes)

I hope this little list of my most loved items helps someone out there!