One Amazing Year

Why hello blog world. We're still here and we have some exciting news...Will turned 1 today!!!!

I really have no clue where the time has gone but my tiny, little, 3-week early peanut is one. I've been a basket of emotions today which is very unlike me. The past year has been full of so many new, exciting, terrifying and amazing things - sometimes all at once - that I guess I shouldn't be surprised I was a little emotional.

Will is growing into a very curious, active, imaginative and (said with a mother's bias) adorable little boy. He's not walking yet, but can furniture walk and army crawl like it's his job. He chatters all the time, although we can only decipher Mama, Dada and Dexter (the cat's name) which sounds like Ecker. He doesn't stop moving and wants to be wherever we are. He is a true water baby and would stay in the pool or ocean all day long if we let him. He still has a fabulous appetite and eats most everything that I give to him. Sleeping...well, that's a post for another day. It's hit or miss depending on his mood.

Because we don't live within a reasonable distance to our family, Will gets TWO birthday parties. We're having one in the city this weekend for his friends and our friends and then we're driving home to Ohio for Labor Day weekend to celebrate with family. Twice the cakes, twice the fun, twice the sugar crash. Oh boy...

Hanging out on the fire trick ride in Central Park

The birthday boy!

We're still here!

Um, wow...it's been a very long time since I've blogged. What can I say, life has taken over!

Will turned 10-months old today and I don't want to miss yet another monthly update so here goes (bullet point style, what else?).

• Will was 19lbs, 12oz and 29" long at his 9-month doc appointment. I suspect he's up about a pound and has grown (what seems like) a foot since then. This kid is growing like a weed (I sound like my Grandmother, don't I?). He loves his food, except peas and kiwi, so I'm not surprised he's growing the way he is.

• He's been crawling for about a month now, or at least doing his version of crawling. He won't get up on his knees but opts to do an army crawl instead. I swear he can move faster that way and he doesn't seem to care that he's not crawling like the other babies. He pulls himself up on his knees and has just started to go all the way to standing. He'll walk if he's on my feet, and occasionally takes a few steps while holding my hands. I'm convinced he's never going to knee-crawl and go straight to walking. We'll see...

• My child is very independent (I shouldn't be surprised). He prefers to read books to me as opposed to me reading to him and he doesn't like me to help him with anything. He doesn't really get upset when he can't figure something out, instead choosing to move on to something else. It's fascinating to watch him concentrate and see how proud he is when he does figure something out.

• We had a little bit of separation anxiety for a couple weeks around 9-months, but he seems to be over that and is back to his flirty personality. He's such a happy baby around people he knows. He's a little hesitant around strangers, which is fine with me!

• Grandma and Grandpa have visited a few times and spent full days with Will. He's an active baby and typically wears them out by the end of the day. Hubby and I are leaving next week for a 5-day anniversary get away to Brazil and Grandma will be here with Will. If she thinks she was tired after one day, I'm a little nervous to see how she feels after 5 days!

• My life is nuts -  work is super busy and I'm still training for the NYC tri in 2 weeks. Hopefully some sense of sanity will return after the race, just in time for me to start planning Will's birthday parties. Yes, plural! We'll be having one here in NYC for all of his (and my) friends and then traveling back to Ohio on Labor Day weekend for a family party. It's going to be exhausting but there isn't anything I wouldn't do for my baby dude:)

On that sentiment, I'll leave you with a couple pics...

10-months old!

He loves the camera and makes silly faces when I take his picture!

7 months, I think?

Somewhere in the craziness of my life I think I forgot to do a 6-month blog post. I swear I had one written in my head, but it never made it to my computer. Ah well, such is my life these days. And because things are so crazy, this is going to be bullet points—again.

• Will turned 7-months old yesterday (Really? Where the hell has the time gone?). We weighed him and measured him at home since he doesn't go back to the doctor until 9-months. He was around 18lbs. 12oz. and 27.5" long. He definitely has some chub on him now. His thighs are simply edible!

• He has 4 teeth now. The bottom two came in a while ago, but the top two poked through this past week while I was out of town (girls weekend in Costa Rica—more on that shortly). Let me tell you, these chompers are sharp! I can no longer put my finger near his mouth. With his obsession with chewing on everything and the sharp teeth, I'm in serious danger of losing a finger.

• I think we may have finally lost the swaddle for good. He's been napping unswaddled for a couple weeks, but the last 4 nights have been unswaddled as well. The key? The boy likes to sleep on his tummy. He still refuses to roll from tummy to back but has mastered the back to tummy. In the past he would roll onto his tummy and then get frustrated because he couldn't roll back which would keep him awake. I guess he finally decided to try sleeping on his tummy and decided he liked it. So we now have a tummy sleeper who goes without his swaddle!

• Will has mastered sitting up and occasionally tries to scoot backwards when he's on his tummy. I'm not ready for mobility yet. I'd prefer he stays in the sitting-up stage for a little while longer. He looks like such a big boy when he sits up!

• He's a great eater. We've tried lots of fruits and veggies and some of his favorites are sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cantaloupe, mango and zucchini. He definitely did not like peas and surprisingly wasn't a big fan of apples. I've tried to let him feed pieces of banana to himself but he isn't too interested in that, yet. He is getting better at holding his own bottle, though. Correction, he's getting better at holding the bottle and actually getting the formula out of it. He's been able to hold it for a while, but never really understood he needed to lift it up to get anything. I think he's starting to realize that now.

• Will has always been a very happy, smiley baby at home. But the minute we would walk out the door he turned into Mr. Serious. Over the last week he's starting to come out of his shell. He'll smile and flirt with the ladies in the park or in the store, but still clams up with the doormen to our building. I guess I have a ladies man on my hands.

• We took him to the park a couple weeks ago to see if he liked the swings. Like most things in his life, he was indifferent at first, but after the third time he really started to love them. So much so, he cried when I had to take him out to head home for a nap.

• I spent my first night away from Will. When I was 8-months pregnant and waddling around in 90-degree July heat, a friend asked me if I wanted to go away on a girls weekend to Costa Rica (she'd found an amazing deal!). I figured Will would be 7-months old so it would be OK. Well, I went on the trip and Will was OK, but I missed my baby so much more than I ever thought I would. I definitely needed the break and the rest (working 65+ hour weeks for the past month and starting triathlon training again has been draining) but I would have been happier at home. The trip did make me realize that I need to take/make some time for myself.

• Grandma (my mother-in-law) came to help Hubby while I was out of town. She had such a great time with Will that she suggested Hubby and I take a long weekend for our 5-year anniversary this summer and her and Grandpa would come into town and stay with Will. Hubby wasted no time and booked a long weekend to Rio de Janiero for the end of June. Because we'll only be one time zone away and we're taking overnight flights we are able to maximize our time in Rio without being away from Will for too long.

• As excited as I am for our anniversary trip, I'm also feeling guilty for leaving Will. Before Hubby and I had kids we had agreed to find a good balance between "our" time and "family" time when we did have a family. I know this is an important part of that balance, but it's so hard to leave my baby. I feel like I miss so much when I'm away from him for more than a couple hours at a time. That boy has consumed my love, my heart and my life in a way I never imagined!

It's so difficult to get a non-blurry picture because this boy just 

won't sit still!

5 months...a week late

Wow, this whole working mom thing (even part time), is really taking up my computer/blogging time. I know I shouldn't complain because I'm so fortunate to have worked out my current situation, but I miss my computer time!

Anyway, Will had his 5-month checkup last Monday. All went well and the boy is doing great. He weighs 15lbs, 12oz and is 26.75" long! He definitely had a growth spurt from his 4-month checkup. The doctor told us it was time to start solids, so guess what we're doing tonight?!?! I'm excited to see how he does with it. I'm skipping the rice cereal and starting with oatmeal because it has more nutritional value and then we'll move on to either carrots or butternut squash.

Will is still being stubborn with his rolling over. He's so close to rolling onto his back but just can't quite get there (or rather he won't get there, because I'm convinced he can). What he can do is sit up. The doctor was a little surprised at how well he's able to sit up. He tripods a little but can sit up for a short time on his own.

Last night Hubby and I decided to go cold turkey with the swaddle. We figured it was time for Will to sleep without it since he's approaching 6 months. We decided to lose the swaddle for night time sleep since he's always able to put himself back to sleep when he wakes up, unlike his naps (which are much better, but still not as good as night time). It worked surprisingly well. He woke around 4am and 5:15am but went back to sleep both times. He woke again around 6am and was talking to himself and kicking his legs. This wasn't too unusual since he typically does this, but usually goes back to sleep. Well without the swaddle, he decided it would be a good idea to roll from his back to his tummy — for the first time! Everything would have been fine, but the little dude couldn't roll back over to his tummy so he got pissed. Hubby went in and gave him a quick swaddle and he went back to sleep until 8:15am. That boy LOVES his swaddle!

We've decided that our experiment went pretty well, but we need to get him to roll from tummy to back before we can do this again (that's our goal for this week). Will and I are going to Ohio to visit Grandma next weekend while Hubby goes skiing with his brother, so we'll likely go back and try the no swaddle after that.

In other news, Will has been doing great with the nanny. She absolutely loves him and he smiles when he sees her come into the apartment in the mornings. She's really good about taking him out for walks and to his play date and music class during the week. It makes being away from him much easier.

He is such a smiley baby in general. He doesn't laugh too much, but when we do get him going it's the funniest sound, Hubby and I crack up every time. He's still fascinated with his tongue and loves blowing his razberries. He's constantly talking and squealing and recognizes himself in the mirror now. He's even starting to acknowledge the cat, but still not showing too much interest in playing with him yet. I think the cat is just fine with that!

I still can't believe he's on his way to 6 months old. I'm loving every new stage Will experiences (even the fussy/cranky ones). It's amazing to watch my sweet boy take in more and more of the world around him!

I'm a working momma

I survived my first week of work, with minimal tears!

I've mentioned that I quit my job in December to freelance and give me a more flexible schedule. I was able to work out a situation with another company so that I'm working three days a week (Wed-Fri), but am available Monday and Tuesday for conference calls or some minimal work from home. In addition, I've told my former company I'm still interested in taking on some projects from them. Well, they took me up on that offer and asked me to work onsite last Tuesday. That meant I worked Tues-Fri last week...away from Will. Nothing like getting thrown into the fire right from the start.

Monday night was tough. I was snippy with Hubby and generally in a bad mood. Once I had a good cry about leaving Will I felt a little better. I completely trust the nanny we hired for Will and know this is for the best, but at the time I felt like I was failing my son by leaving him in someone else's care. I'm still torn about being away from him during the day, but he's proven that he'll be OK. In fact, he had a great week with good naps, a couple play dates and a music class.

Things were a little slow at the new job, but I had enough to do to keep me distracted from thinking about Will. I was definitely anxious to get home each night so I could spend a half hour or so with him before bath time. He was all smiles when I walked in the door, which of course melted my heart. My sweet boy missed me!

I know how lucky I am to have been able to work out this flexible schedule, so I'm going to do everything in my power to make it work.

The holiday recap

Whew, it's been a busy couple of weeks but we successfully survived the holidays...and had a very nice time too!

We ended up staying in Ohio for a couple days longer than originally anticipated because we decided to buy a car (we sold both of our cars when we moved to NYC). We'd been thinking about it since Will was born, but were going to wait until the Spring or Summer, however a possible new job situation for me (more on that in a minute) prompted us to get one sooner rather than later. So, last Thursday I turned 35 years old and got a new car. Quite the birthday present! I'm not sure how next year's birthday is going to compare because in 2010, I got a positive pregnancy test on my birthday and this year a car. 2012 has some big shoes to fill.

So, Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's was a success. Will was passed around so much and rarely had any "independent play time", but I think he enjoyed it. Hubby and I joked that he was going to be bored as soon as we got back home and he didn't have 15 people passing him around. Thankfully he's very adaptable and transitioned well. We tried not to spoil him too much but he did get a jumperoo from Santa. He's not too sure what to do with it, but I think he'll grow to love it over the next couple of weeks.

We're back to swaddling him for naps. We continued the no-swaddle naps while in Ohio, but discovered Will was having a hard time transitioning from one sleep cycle to another. He goes down for his naps fine whether he's swaddled or not, but has a hard time getting back to sleep if he wakes up after one sleep cycle. Hubby and I did a lot of research and found that a lot of babies have sleep issues (both naps and night time) between 3-5 months as their bodies adjust to different REM sleep times. It seemed that swaddling helped the babies easily transition from one sleep cycle to another, so we reverted back to it. We'll keep this up for another couple weeks until he outgrows these sleep issues. Hopefully he won't decide to roll from back to tummy in that time (that would be the only reason we would stop swaddling). I'm happy to report that his night time hasn't been disrupted (que wood knocking). He still sleeps from 8:15pm - 7:45am without disruption.

It's amazing how much he's changed and advanced in two weeks. He loves tummy time now and is soooo close to rolling onto his back. He's always reaching for his toys to put straight into his mouth and he LOVES to blow razberries. This creates so much drool I try to keep a bib on him all the time now. If he's tired in the evenings all he wants is to be held with a teether in his mouth. I think his gums are really starting to bother him, poor little guy. We start a weekly music class this Friday which I think he's really going to like. I've taken him to a couple drop-in classes and he's fascinated with the sounds. I can't wait to see how he does.

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day back at work, but since I quit I'm still home. I was hoping my company would need me for freelance work but they don't this week. I've been talking with another agency in NJ about a job share situation. I would work 3 days/week and have a counterpart that would cover the other two. I would be the primary client contact so would likely have to take some calls or possible meetings on the 2 days I'm going to be home. It will (hopefully) also allow me to do some additional freelance work. I'm meeting with the creative director for lunch on Friday to try and iron out the details.

2011 was an amazing year for the Fairytale family, and I can't wait to see what 2012 holds!

My favorite present under the tree this year!

Enjoy his present from Santa

All bundled up and ready for the cold weather

Hi ho, hi ho...it's off to Grandma's we go

It's crazy town around here. What else is new? I hate to do it, but this is going to have to be yet another bullet point post. Maybe I'll make a New Year's resolution to quit posting with bullet points!

• Will had his 4-month doc appointment yesterday. Everything went well, but we need to increase his bottle size a little. He weighed in at 13lbs. 8oz. (25th percentile) and 25" long (again, 25th percentile). We think the nurse shorted his length by at least a half inch, but oh well. Right now he takes about 28oz of formula a day, but we're going to increase that about 30oz and start him on solids at 5 months. He still spits up. All. The. Time. That makes it hard to give him larger bottles, but I want his spitting up to be a little more under control before we start the solids.

• He's still sleeping through the night (8:30pm-8am), but Hubby and I are waiting for the sleep regression. We expect it when he starts to cut his first tooth. Speaking of which, this kid drools like you wouldn't believe. His shirts are constantly wet and everything he can get his chubby little hands on goes in his mouth (yes, even though he doesn't weight a lot he has the cutest chubby hands ever). I can feel a hard spot on his lower left side, but don't see anything yet. We haven't noticed that he's in pain so I'm not too worried about it.

• Last week I started putting him down for naps unswaddled. That was a challenge. He would go down fine, but would wake after about a half hour and not be able to put himself back to sleep. There was a lot of calming, reassuring and crying last week during nap times, but we seem to be a little better this week. I'm sure things will get all off track again while we're at Grandma's, but such is life with a baby.

• Speaking of Grandma's, we're leaving tomorrow to drive to Hubby's parents in Ohio. With feeding stops, we expect it to be about a 9 hour drive. Will has never been in a car longer than 2 hours so we'll how this goes. Fortunately, he doesn't mind his car seat and he's at the age where he can look at/grab toys hanging in front of him. I'm hoping that will occupy him while he's awake.

• We have a lot planned for the week we'll be in Ohio, but I think I'm most excited to take Will to see Santa. Obviously he won't care, but it was always a tradition I loved as a child and I want to make it a tradition for Will as well.

• In non-Will related news, I quit my job last week. Officially I resigned as a full time employee, but I am still working for them as a freelance/contract employee. I'm hoping this will allow me a more flexible schedule. We'll still have the nanny full time so I can be available for work whenever they need me. The crazy thing is, an hour after I resigned they were calling me with a project, so I've been working a little bit over the past week. It's actually kind of nice to get my brain into work mode. It was starting to get a little mushy from "mommy-brain".

• That's it from Fairytale land. I hope everyone has a very happy holiday season and I'll see you in 2012 (unless I have a free minute or two while in Ohio to put up a quick post).

Will has become such a smiley baby...I love it!