Happy Birthday Calan!

I am officially the mother of a 1-year-old. Calan turned 1 on Friday. It was a crazy, amazing weekend. We celebrated Sunday with family and friends. To say that it was a wonderful weekend is an understatement.

The ever important dessert table.

Candy, cupcakes, cookies, and Calan's special cake.

Calan's train cake matched the train on his shirt.

I made the banner out of paper and ribbon.

Ready for presents. 

Happy little guy. 

He knew just what to do with that cake. 

Proud parents!

I can't believe that we do this all over again in a month. It has been an amazing year and I am sure next year will be just as amazing.

(I'll post a 12 month update blog when I get a chance to write it, but Calan is doing well on all fronts.)

Starting to get anxious

I am officially starting to get anxious. Both Bob and I are praying for an early arrival. I am just so impatient right now. I am 36 weeks and so ready to meet our little girl. Time is ticking by so slowly.

Calan was 7 days past my estimated due date. Not sure if I can wait that long. I am not in pain. I am not huge or swollen. I can still most everything. I  am still somewhat enjoying being pregnant. I am just so ready to meet her.

It is kind of funny even though I didn't know I was having a boy, I felt like I knew Calan better before he was born. From 34 weeks on with him, I was have non-stress tests twice a week and an ultrasound once a week. I have so many ultrasound pictures of Calan; I don't even know what to do with them all. But with Maisie, I have not seen her since I was 19 weeks pregnant. That seems like ages ago. I knew Calan's approximate weight and how he was positioned and so many other details besides the fact that he was a boy. This time I only know that Maisie is a girl and that she is head down.

Not knowing more is really making impatient. I know that she needs more time to grow, but my patience is running thin. I am anxious and excited and ready (I think).

I love that my husband is my children's father

There are many times since I met my husband 12 years ago that I am so happy that he is in my life. There have been many times when I know that I would not be the person I am today without him. Watching him be a father to our son is definitely one of those moments.

He is so in love with his son and his son is so in love with him. Each morning we get up and I feed Calan his bottle. Bob comes in our family room to say good morning before he hops in the shower, and of course each morning, Calan goes to the gate as Bob closes it and cries a little and calls for him. Yes, Calan gets over it quickly, but as his mother it warms my heart knowing how much our son loves and wants to be with his dad. 

They have their own games and language that I am not a part of. I love that when Bob grunts and grrrrrs to Calan, Calan grunts and grrrrrrrs right back. They call it playing "bear," and Calan just can't get enough of it. 

I am so happy that my husband wants to be and is such an active father. He makes his family a high priority and Calan and I both know it. 

Father's Day was pretty nice around our house. We got Bob a little present and then got him his favorite breakfast. We went to church and heard an amazing Father's Day message. (I highly recommend it for any parent. Here is the link: Kensington Streaming - Kensington Church - 248.786.0600 - 1825 E. Square Lake Road, Troy, Michigan 48085). Then we went swimming and finished out the day with an amazing dinner at my father-in-laws.

I am so happy that Calan and soon Maisie have Bob as their dad and I feel truly blessed that he is my husband.

Stuck in Ground Hog's Day

I am not complaining, but life has really gotten into a rythm. Everything seems pretty predictable right now as we near Calan's first birthday. He is sleeping like a champ, eating like a champ, and Bob and I are enjoying every moment.

Our day starts with Calan making a little noise at 6:30 a.m., but we get out of bed around 6:50. I go and get my smiling little boy who is usually holding on to his blanket standing up waiting for me. He drops his blanket and he and I go cuddle on the couch while he drinks his bottle. He then plays for a little bit while Bob is in the shower and I make breakfast. We all then sit down for breakfast together around 7:40 a.m. Bob then leaves for work, Calan goes and plays in his pack and play, and I clean up from breakfast. At about 8:30, I go and get Calan and change him into clothes for the day, read him a story, and put him down for his morning nap at 9.

Yep, that is our morning, every morning. And I love it.

The rest of the afternoon is just as predictable, but varies with activities and what errands I need to run.

But I can't help but wonder as we have settled so much into a consistent routine how it is all going to change in about 6 weeks. Will we still be able to have breakfast together and enjoy that time together? What time will we be getting up in the morning and will I feel like a slept at all the night before? I know that there will be a new normal and I know that these are all natural concerns, but I can't help but wonder what our new life will be like.

June 2010 vs. June 2011

Is this really June? I was talking with Bob last night and it amazes me how different this June is from last year.

June 2010 was insane. I basically had 3 doctor appointments a week between weekly ultrasounds and doctor visits, as well as 2 non-stress tests a week. Last year, was so warm for so long, I was so swollen by the end of my pregnancy. My ankles were sausages and my pregnancy waddle was in full swing. At this time last year, I was one week away from my estimated due date and I thought there would be no way I would go late. (I delivered at 41 weeks.) Then you add in the fact that my father-in-law had a heart attack and underwent a quadruple bi-pass the week Calan was due. Our lives were busy.

This June seems very less dramatic to say the least. My pregnancy is going just fine. No additional tests needed. I am not swollen yet and I am getting around pretty well. Although I will be honest that it is getting harder and harder to bend down to get toys and what not for Calan. While it was extremely warm the last few days, it is no where how it was last year. The weather has actually been very pregnancy friendly. My father-in-law is doing well and hopefully will not have to Skype with us from a hospital bed when Maisie is born.

This June, I get to enjoy spending time with my son and watching him enjoy Michigan summer for the first time. We are planning his first birthday party for the end of the month. So excited to celebrate with friends and family.

I am loving June 2011. I hope July 2011 is just as great!

Mom doesn't like it, but you must try it

Bob and I aren't picky eaters per se, but there are definite foods that we do not like. Bob hates mayonnaise and mustard. I hate melon (all types including watermelon) and turkey. I try to avoid these foods and a few others because I know that we won't eat them, but I don't want my preferences to limit our children.

We have organic produce delivered to our house each week. And while most of the time, I sub out items that we won't eat, some times (like last week) I forgot to sub out items, so we got what we got, which included a cantaloupe. Yesterday for breakfast, I gave Calan a few pieces of cantaloupe, and he was not having it. Our son is a texture eater, so he doesn't instantly like new foods. It usually takes a few bites before he decides one way or the other. However, I usually have to some what force the extra bites to make sure whether he likes it or not. Well, he did not like it. Since, I don't like it, I can't really blame him, but as his mother, I have to give the new food a fair shot before I concede. 

While I might give up one day, I usually try to figure out if there is a way Calan might like the new food. This morning, I blended the cantaloupe with strawberries and mashed banana and he loved it. I also added the mixture to my plain yogurt and I liked it too. 

Cantaloupe is full of vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium and it also has a high concentration of beta-carotene, which is great for vision and eye development. I am glad that I was able to figure out a way for it to be eaten. I would have hated it if it went bad on my counter top. I blended up the rest of the cantaloupe with strawberries and froze it in ice cube trays to be used through out the summer. 

Busy weekend means tired Monday

It is amazing to me that while I stay home everyday and most of my days are pretty similar, if Bob is gone a lot during the weekend, I am exhausted come Monday. Some how even though I stay home, I look forward to the weekend where I can tag-team some of the parenting duties and we can spend time as a family. When it doesn't happen for various reasons, I am exhausted come Monday.

Even though it was kind of a busy weekend around here, we did blow up a kiddie pool for Calan and he had a blast playing and we tried to avoid getting too wet. Of course just like most kids, his favorite toys I brought out were a kitchen spoon and ladle.

The water was a little cold.

He got use to it though.

It's a rough life for a dog and baby in our household. ;)

Diaper stash washed and ready to go

I will be cloth diapering a 1-year-old and newborn come July. Over the past few months, I have been watching deals and purchasing diapers. I had a pretty decent newborn stash with Calan, so I didn't need too many items for that, but I knew that I needed diapers once Maisie is about 10 pounds.

I love that my drawers are stuffed to the max. I mainly use Smartipants for Calan, but they were never on the half-off sites that I follow, so I ended up stocking up with Oh Katy (Katydid) diapers. They are pocket diapers just like Smartipants, but the insert needs to be pulled out before it is put in the wash. They are also much more colorful than the Smartipants that we have. I can't wait to put Maisie in a dress and showoff her cute fluffy butt. 

Calan's diaper drawer, which is full of Smartipants,
GroBaby (GroVia), Flips, and other miscelleneous diapers.

Maisie's diaper drawer stocked full of Oh Katy (Katydid),
Kissaluv, Lil' Joey's, and prefolds.

The overflow drawer, which has prefolds, fitteds, and some
diapers that will fit Maisie once she is bigger. I also keep a
small stash of disposables for baby-sitters. 

We will set up a diaper station in our room once we set up the pack and play. I obviously do not want to head downstairs to change her diaper in the middle of the night and wake Calan. I will probably use our Kissaluvs upstairs at night. I have 10 of them, so that should last me a couple nights before I would need to do diapers. Plus, they easily stack, so it will be easy to set up a small station upstairs in our room. 

Here is a video of my stash:

The elusive vegetable

From newborn to 6 months, my biggest concern and worry was Calan's sleeping and how to get him to sleep regularly and through the night and during naps and in his crib, etc. Now that I got that down, I worry about his food. Am I setting good eating habits, is he getting enough, will he transition to milk, will he ever just eat his green vegetables? The questions and concerns don't end. 

He eats a lot of things, but somethings are obviously better for him than others. Already, I am noticing that he loves the not so good things over the good things. I am already trying to hide vegetables in other foods to get him to eat them. Green beans in apple sauce, carrots with a little brown sugar, broccoli blended with cheese. I know that none of these are bad things per se, but I am hoping that it isn't a trend for the future. I hate food battles. 

If the vegetable is not to his liking he spits it out or tries to block the spoon. I know that he is just showing me that he is not liking it, but he can't live on fruit and bread. I am staying persistent and just  try to get at least half of what I planned to give him veggie-wise even if it gets spooned in with a little apple sauce or something like it. 

I just want to set up good eating habits. I am trying to avoid a picky eater and trying to avoid giving in to his preferences. I know that he will eat the veggies, but he knows that there is always something better that is going to be offered, so for the first 5 minutes of each meal is usually me trying to get him to keep his hands away from my spoon and the veggie in his mouth. If I get through that, then I give him some fruit or bread or whatever is on the menu. 

I do have to say that planning his meals has gotten a lot easier. I can just go to my refrigerator or pantry and find something for him to eat. There is not a ton of prep work in advance anymore and that is fantastic. I need him to eat pretty self-sufficiently come July. I am not trying to push him before he is ready, but I know that if he can munch on a finger-food size strawberry, he should be able to eat some broccoli. 

How we came up with Maisie

Well, it is written on the nursery wall, so it must be official. We are naming our daughter Maisie Michelle. Yep, we know that isn't a common name, and yep, we know not everyone is going to like it right away, but yep, we are naming her Maisie.

So where did Maisie come from? Well, Bob and I started looking through Scottish girl names back in December and came across it online. We thought that since we got Calan's name from a Scottish list that maybe we should find a sibling name doing the same thing. However, when we started looking at girl names, Scottish names are not nice girl names. Not sure how the women got forgotten over there, but good girl names are few and far between.

It was not love at first sight for me. Bob liked it right away and I loved how it was spelled, but not how it sounded exactly. MAY-ZEE just did not seem like her name to me. But I was wrong. I can't explain it, but somewhere between December and April, this little girl became our little Maisie. The name grew on me and when we would talk about any other name, we would just return again to Maisie. And then one day, we were just calling her by name and our name search was over. She was Maisie.

Having Wilson as a last name, I do try to find names that are slightly different, but not crazy. My husband is a Bob so basically there are millions of them out there, and I don't want that for our children. Another important thing to me is that the initials of our children do not spell anything and that middle names are family names. Calan's middle name is Robert after his dad, of course. When we started to talk about middle names, I always wanted Elizabeth, which is my middle name. However, when we decided on Maisie, I just didn't like the multiple "z" sounds in her name, so we started to talk about other options. Bob only has one sister and yep, you guessed it, her name is Michelle.

So there you have it, Maisie Michelle. I love it now. So if you aren't in love with it today, wait a little while, I promise it will grow on you.

Maisie Michelle will be here in about 7 weeks!

Nursery Done!

Man, what a whirlwind these past few weeks. I swear, I have had little time to do anything. But between fun play dates, Susan G. Komen 5K, my husband's 30th birthday, and Memorial Day, it has been fun! Through it all, my husband and I were finally able to finish moving everything around in the nursery. We are done decorating and it is ready for Miss Maisie to get here. 

If you missed that ... Yep, her name will be Maisie Michelle. I am sharing because once I post nursery pictures, here name is visible. I talk more about how we came up with her name in my next post. 

As for the nursery, we took my son's single baby nursery and moved it into a larger room to make it basically a nursery for twins. We added a crib, dresser, different window treatments, and a few more decorations. It was pretty simple to make the change and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Calan's nursery was gender neutral from the start and that made it very easy to make it a nursery for both of them. 

Here are a few pictures of what Calan's nursery looked like before we moved it:

And here is the nursery now:

View from the door. We mirror faced the cribs. 

Calan's side of the room. We needed a new dresser to put
their clothes in because I needed more diaper space in our
changing table. 

Maisie's side of the room. We bought a
fourth shelf and added name decals for wall
decorations.

The changing area stayed basically exactly the same.
However, now it is filled with more diapers!