I was the perfect parent.... before I had children.

Before I had a baby, I had all these visions of how I would do things when it comes to parenting.... mostly looking at others, and thinking "Ohhh, I am going to do that with my baby when I have kids" or, "I am NEVER going to do that with my children..."  And then you actually have a baby, and reality hits you... and those visions or ideas you had about parenting all went out the window...  here are just a few:

1. S T Y L E

I am not going to lie.  When I was first pregnant with Silas, and people would ask, "Are you hoping for a girl or a boy?" you know the answer would always be, "It doesn't matter as long as I have a healthy, happy baby!" ...but secretly I was kind of hoping for a girl.  There were a lot of boys in the family already, and girl clothes are WAY cuter, amiright?  Obviously, those reasons are not super important at all (and I am totally loving having a little man).  When I did in fact find out I was having a boy, I decided that I would dress him like such a little dapper stud-muffin, and found images like these on Pinterest for his style inspiration....

HAHAHA.  I laugh in the face of those pictures now....  most days I am lucky if Silas' outfit even matches, or he is not wearing sweatpants.  A couple of things:  cute STYLISH clothes can be expensive, and they are just going to get dirty, and the kid is going to grow out of them in about 30 seconds.  Why bother?  Also... I mean, does your one year old really need a sports jacket, or a cardigan?  Heck no.  And those shoes?  Can he even walk in those?  Don't even get me started on Silas wearing hats...

2. T E C H N O L O G Y :

Pre-Silas, often times when Jordan and I were out at a restaurant etc. I would see parents with young children sticking an iPad or a cell phone in a child's face immediately after being seated to keep them entertained. Really? I was almost disgusted by this.  Have we done this since having Silas?  YOU BET.  We don't don't do it all the time, and we never do it right off the bat, but if he is getting antsy and he wants to get up or starts whining, it has been such a lifesaver.  You learn you would rather have him quiet and sitting still than causing a raucous and disrupting the whole place, annoying other patrons.  Maybe there are better ways to do that, but we find this to be very helpful.  And.... everything we do show is educational (or nursery rhymes) and we DO limit his "tech-time".  He uses the phone and iPad at home as well (mostly ABCs, numbers, and other word apps - he actually has learned a lot from these). 

3. P U B L I C   A P P E A R A N C E :

We have all seen it.  That snotty, yet crusted nose kid out at the grocery store with stains all over his clothes.  Well, maybe not that extreme, but y'all know what I am talking about.  Gross, I would think... I would never let my cute kid look like that out in public.  But ya know what?  Kids get dirty.  They don't care if something is on their face or they have some pasta sauce on their shirt... in fact they actually like to rub that sauce, or grease, or banana goo into their shirt and pants at every meal.  I know there are moms out there that DO make sure their child looks perfect out in public...with the most adorable, pristine outfits with immaculately clean faces.  Me?  I gave up on that at about month 4 or 5.  If things are REAL bad I never leave the house before an outfit change or a wipe down, but if Silas has a little smudge of something on his shirt, or if he got some gunk around his mouth from eating snack in the car, I really don't bother with it much.  And he has definitely been at the grocery store with a crusty nose before... and I just don't really care that much.

I am sure there are other things as well in which I had previous intentions of how things would happen, and things changed, but that is life.

Hence why I am not the perfect parent, and never will be.  Maybe I thought I was going to be before I had children, but you never know what you will do until that child actually comes along, and you change your mind, because kids are not easy.  I don't think it is being lazy or not trying, I think it is just realizing what makes your kid happy, while keeping you sane and not worrying too much about every little thing.

Oh, and I am probably going to have to read this book....  because, yeah.....

Natural Born Chiller

Silas is officially a year and a half!

I would not say he is "talking" much more per say, but his speech is developing more and more.

Currently, he loves to say Matt.  Matt Matt Matt (two of my friends are dating guys named Matt).

He babbles a lot and is using consonants more often... sometimes you can ask him to say a word and he will try to repeat it.  Sometimes.  And when he says "Bye Daddy" in the morning when Jordan leaves for work, it's pretty much the cutest thing in the world.

He has begun the "toddler picky eating stage" where one day he will like something, the next day he will not.  When you put food on his tray he won't eat it, but if you feed it to him he will.  When you try to feed him something he knows he does not want he squints really hard.  Blueberries are still probably his favorite, but who knows.....maybe next week he won't touch them.

I really am not sure when he will kick the ripping paper phase because he still LOVES it. I don't get it.  It's a win lose situation for us parents because it will keep him busy for a good 10-20 minutes if we need it, but then we have to clean up the hundreds of small shreds of magazine spread across our floors.  Another negative coming out of this situation is he does not know what paper is okay to tear, and what is not okay.... which means just board books for us as of now and you better not leave and dollar bills or important paperwork lying around.

Silas has also been getting up way too early for his own good (throw in some 18 month sleep regression as well which entails middle-of-the-night SCREAM crying).  He usually goes to bed around the same time give or take a half-hour.  For the longest time, he was getting up between 8-9... then it changed to between 7-8 for a few months, now it is between 6-7.  This morning I woke up on my own around 6:15, just lying there HOPING he would sleep a little longer.  I got a half hour more sleep before I heard him.  And I know it's not that early, but you best BELIEVE I like to get my 8 hours of sleep if I can, so it just means an earlier bed time for myself.

When Silas is not whining, he is a pretty cool dude... a natural born chiller.

 "Please mum, NO MORE PICTURES!!"

Sesame Street: I Can Remember

Now that Silas is a little older, he is tuning into the television more and more while it is on during the day. I figured I should probably have him watch something somewhat educational rather than stick to my favorites which are the TODAY show and The Price is Right :/ Our new line-up includes Curious George, Daniel the Tiger, and of course, Sesame Street.  

The other day, while watching Sesame Street, there was a clip where a young girl goes to the store to get a few things for her mother... "a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter". The clip is about remembering.  I thought nothing of it at the time, but when in repeated later that week, it resonated with me....  "Was that a clip from when I watched Sesame Street when I was little?" It seemed so familiar....  So I of course turned to Google to look it up.  Turns out, the clip "I can Remember" was recently remade from an older version.  I knew it!  

I remembered.

And here is the original for your viewing pleasure....

A warm and fuzzy Christmas

16 months

Silas turned 16 months this past Saturday!!  Time is sure flying by...

At 16 months:

Silas can say the words UP, MORE, HI, MOM, DADDY, HOT, EYE, TIA, OUT and BALL.. he is working on "I love you" ;) and sometimes it sounds like he says "yeah" in agreement with something you might say.

He still loves to shred paper and annoy the cats.

He gives kisses and blows kisses.

He has certain walks that he does including "mummy walk" and "sneaky walk".

His latest thing is spinning around until he is dizzy and falling over.

He has almost all his teeth (other than the two-year molars).

He loves bathtime...  especially splashing and getting mom and dad VERY wet.

He sleeps through the night 98% of the time (Hallelujah!)  His GlowWorm is his new bestie.

He does not do well out at restaurants etc... it can be hit or miss, but usually he is saying "up" within 5 minutes and wants to run around and explore... snacks and LOTS of attention are a must.

The kid can CRUSH some dried cranberries... give him some Craisins and he is a happy camper... he also really loves any pasta I make, mandarin oranges, grapes and cheese... OH the cheese (he is his mothers-son on that one for sure).  He also does well on the liquids... milk and juice all day long.

Other favorite activities include emptying his toy box (he does this about 10 times a day), going through my purse, playing with his megablocks, being tickled, standing on furniture, crawling through his tunnel, leaning his head way back when we hold him (the kid is going to break something soon, I swear..), bringing us things (shoes in particular), flushing the toilet, having daddy play with his vintage spinning top, and generally getting into things he is not supposed to.




Oh, and we can check falling down the stairs off the list of things to do as a baby.
Don't worry, he is okay.. just a small bruise on his leg. He is a pretty tough cookie.

Fall turned to Winter / Lately

What a difference a month has made (at least weather-wise).  I am currently looking out my window to see blustery gusts of snow - blizzard like conditions.  We have probably gotten at least 23 inches of snow since it started falling last week Thursday.... and it just keeps coming (darn lake effect stuff - I guess I should at least be glad I do not live in Buffalo).  If I have no where to go, I don't mind.  Silas and I can stay cozy inside watching it fall - although it would be nice for a break from it soon... it isn't even Thanksgiving yet after all!  

Some pictures!!!  (starting from most current, working backwards in time....)

My little blue snow monster.

The start of the snow....

South Haven with Lillian!

Visiting daddy at work!!

Silas' first sucker!!

Anyone in need of a paper shredder?

  

Leaf playing, pumpkin picking, and doughnut eating!!

We can't wait for Thanksgiving next week!!  

Language

Silas is not saying too much yet (at least things that make sense), but the other week I was amazed to realize how much language he actually understands.  A couple things I already knew he understood.... when I say "bananas" he looks up and points to the bananas in the basket.  He knows "kisses" because he gives a good one when you tell him too.  And he says "up" like a champ.  But the other day I asked him to find certain things in the living room.  I said "Silas can you bring me a block?" and he found a block and brought it to me!!  He did the same thing with a sock, a book, and a ball!  I have been trying to teach him words, but because he hasn't been actually speaking the words I just assumed he didn't know yet.  But he does, and he knows words that I haven't even been working on that much!  It's the little things, but such proud mama over here!

So far we are having a great Fall!  Last weekend I worked a craft show at a festival and Silas came to visit with daddy.  They had alpacas there and Silas loved them... he growled and tried to grab their ears ;)  The weather was beautiful and there was lots of pumpkins and Autumny (I might have made that word up) things everywhere!  This weekend we are going to try to make it to an orchard/pumpkin patch.  Can't wait for Silas to actually enjoy it this year, as last year he was still too little to know what was going on.