What I find most amazing about these pictures is not just the growth of Kale, but also how both Ross and I appear to have changed. A baby changing is inevitable, and expected. I think I didn’t consider how much I would change. I’m going to continue to take these pictures every 6 months until Kale is 5, and then every year after that. But here is a year in pictures.
Hi there! Been a while, hasn’t it? Listen, it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve just been really busy. I didn’t mean to neglect you, but I guess I did, and I’m sorry. To make up for it, I am going to post an ASSAULT on your senses.
First – the market. Oh man, things are great. We had the Mayor, a cannon, a piper, a gajillion kids and pets… it was awesome. I love my job. I posted pictures to the Royal City Farmers Market’s page on Facebook and also linked it on my profile.
Second – the boy. Well, remember how we posted that little video of him walking the other day? And how he was all stumbly and tentative? Yeah, well, uh…. he’s pretty much running now. Holy cow. We are having a birthday soiree for him next weekend (ZOMG!) and I am stunned at how fast he moves.
Here’s a cute video of him displaying something he has learned:
Today, we took some time out and went for a family adventure. We wanted to go to Point Roberts to test out our passports and so I could buy Red Vines, but we arrived and there was a 30 car lineup to cross the border so we u-turned and headed to Centennial Beach. Weirdly, randomly, we ran into Ross’ cousin Nicole, her husband Paul, and their two munchkins Noah and Theo. Kale got to check out the ocean for the first time and also got some naked baby time in the sand.
Exciting news in our world as well – Kale’s Uncle Erik, Ross’ brother, and his girlfriend Andrea, are now engaged! I’ve been calling Andrea Kale’s “aunt” for ages but now it will be official and I get another sister in law! YAY! I am SO EXCITED. Kale also gets a cousin because Andrea has a 8 year old boy, Liam.
Now that the first market is under my belt, I suspect things will get back to normal around here. PHEW!
Things are all clicking into place for me these days. As some of you know, I will be taking on the childcare for Bonnie, my friend Shauna’s daughter, upon Shauna’s return to work. Bonnie will be here three days a week, and I think having her here will be incredibly beneficial for Kale to have his friend with him some days of the week. It’s mutally beneficial both both Shauna and I that I will take on Bonnie, financially speaking. Shauna is slated to return to work at the end of August and her and I have agreed to this on a trial basis with a re-evaluation date in the future. I’m really looking forward to it.
I’m also going to be at the Farmer’s Market most Thursdays starting June 25th and running till October 8th with my tiny booth for Chai By Night. Although necessity is dictating that I haul all my gear (and Kale) to the market place in a wagon since Ross and I share our car and the market starts before Ross is generally off work, I’ve decided to make this a “thing” – a challenge for Chai By Night to be a low ecological footprint booth at the market. So even if Ross is able to work from home some Thursday afternoons, I will still use my wagon and haul my gear to the market and simply take advantage of Ross being home to perhaps leave Kale behind so I can work the market baby-free. I did a dry run of all the gear in the wagon this weekend and it’s going to work great. I have a few final details to complete for Chai By Night’s participation (along with more chai making!) and one of them is a banner. Originally, I had planned to order a vinyl banner off some internet company for about $50, but since I’ve decided to make this a eco-challenge for me, I’ve also decided I am going to make a fabric banner because vinyl is so icky. I need to find some recycled material that has red stars on it and intend to get to work sewing on that this week.
I’m in the last few details of going back to my former employer on a part time basis when my maternity leave runs out June 13th. About a month after I left, my boss semi-retired and took on another position within the company. A peer was promoted from within the company to his spot, and so now he’s officially my boss. I like him as he’s very professional, and he and I have been negotiated a part time position that will benefit both my employer and myself, allowing me a fairly flexible schedule a few evenings a week and one weekend day. Working a little bit for my former employer will ensure that Ross and I can afford for me to stay home, plus I don’t feel quite so pressured for Chai By Night and Usb0rne Books to take off in any particular way.
So things feel good.
As for Kale (sidenote: I booked our tickets to Calgary, and the ticket reservation agent repeated it all back to me, and she referred to Kale as Master Kale Arbo, and holy cow did that crack me up for some reason – I mean, he’s 10 months old! He doesn’t need a title yet!). Anyway, as for Kale, he just popped another tooth, bringing our total to 5, although I think tomorrow I will be able to post that there are 6 because I can see it RIGHT THERE. He’s become a bit of a vampire lately:
I also think – although who knows sometimes – that he’s trying to change to one nap a day so it’s been a bit well…. whiny here lately while we ride this out. But here is a happy moment (although slightly blurry):
I’ve got a couple of blog posts on the back burner, but the weather has been so nice I haven’t yet gotten around to adding photos, editing, etc. And as some of you pointed out, I need to do some template tweaking as more than one of you thought that previous post about mountain biking was written by me for the first few sentences until you realized it was actually Ross.
Also, last night, I thought I’d be HILARIOUS and Kale had an Orange Dinner:
Gourmet jelly beans, and avoiding the coffee flavoured ones.
My thighs – and the increasing space in between them for the first time in my life. Woot!
How to take better pictures with our little camera.
Whether we should take a vacation during 2010 and rent out our place – I am seeing some going for $3000 a week! That’s more than I made when I was working full time!
Dancing With the Stars, which I am embarrassed about a little bit, but not that much because that’s just who I have become so whatever.
Playing “How Much Is It Worth” in my neighbourhood and checking out www.mls.ca to see if what I think a house is listed at is what it’s listed at.
Kale’s current obsessions:
Sadly, still the Ziplocs. I’ve had to resort to putting all the little ones in a big Ziploc to prevent the confetti-like strewing about of plastic bags that we eventually use to transport or store food.
I’m really excited because I had a chai tasting today at the Village Coffee Lounge on 12th Street in New Westminster and it went really well. John, the owner of the coffee shop, is now officially serving Chai By Night and is also selling the mix. That’s better than I could have hoped for. Things have been trucking right along for Chai By Night – I have my application in for approval from Environmental Health to sell it at the Farmer’s Market which starts in June and I’m not concerned that it won’t be approved.
Kale had swimming today, as he does every Saturday, and there are only two classes left! I can’t believe it has gone this fast. Ross is thinking about signing up for the second set of classes, Waterbabies II, which apparently focusses on propulsion and underwater skills rather than simple submersion. They are offered on Saturdays as well, so it seems like the next inevitable step.
Tomorrow Kale, Ross, and I are entertaining guests for a crock pot dinner and so this afternoon we are headed out to pick up the ingredients we need. It’s a nice and relaxed weekend for us. Gone are the days when my weekend was so jam packed I had no time for anything.
Oh! And Monday I am really excited because I get to have a pedicure! WHEE! My girlfriend Petrina has opened up her own spa and is having a special on pedicures. I used to regularly get pedicures but the hustle and bustle of having a newborn has made me forget all about my previous addiction until I saw her Facebook status proclaiming a reall good deal.
And my massage, originally scheduled for last Wednesday, had to be rescheduled (my fault) for this coming Wednesday. I guess it’s a crazy week ALL ABOUT ME.
But just in case you are missing out on your Kale fix:
Kale is six months old yesterday.This was supposed to auto-publish yesterday, darn it.
Six months old is a huge milestone no matter who you ask. Books identify six months old as the start of toddlerhood and the end of being a newborn. I am stunned at the amount and range of emotions I have felt over this past six months. I am stunned at what Kale has accomplished and the person he has become. He has my eyes and my nose still, but other than that the baby who looked just like me looks more and more like his Daddy every day.
He is a mover and a shaker now. Kale has places to go and things to do and people to see. He has taught us we can no longer trust that he will lie still. He took a tumble off the couch the other day, and has slid off the bed and out of his bouncy chair once too. He has almost mastered getting his bum up in the air and can hold his front end up with ease, and its only in his sleep that he seems to be able to put the two together. He likes to roll, too, and what used to be a 2 minute diaper change is now a 10 minute baby wrangling fest. We’ve learned that we have to give Kale a diaper to chew on and wave around in order to get the 30 seconds we require to fasten his diapers.
He is Mr. Grabby Hands now, too. If he can reach for it, he wants it. If he can see it, he wants to reach for it. And if he can get it, it goes straight in his mouth. He sometimes scratches and pinches my face and when he is nursing, his arm NEVER STOPS MOVING. He loves Mooki – perhaps too much. If he can get close enough to her to touch her, he will grab at her fur and forget to let go. We’re trying to teach him “gentle”. I think that one will be used a lot in the coming months.
His favorite toys still includes the chip bag. We graduated to a different, more crinkly chip bag because the other one kept leaving red chip dust everywhere.
Other favorite toys are the rubber spatula, which he waves around like a scepter and gnaws on like a beaver; the round plastic disks my breast pump is meant to stand up on; anything cloth including shirts, dishcloths, his new feelie I made him, and especially his socks; and one of the few actual “baby toys” in his toy box, the Octoplush. Ahhh. the Octoplush.
A month ago, Kale started solids and we have worked ourselves up to once or twice a day now. He isn’t really keen on boring old rice cereal anymore, now that I have introduced him to peas, yogurt, carrots, cheerios, and Baby Num Num Crackers. He loves those and bites them off with gusto. He also has received a taste of carrots and celery boiled in turkey stock, then ground down and strained using my new manual food mill. He wasn’t totally sure what to make of the turkey flavour but was eager to eat. He loves loves loves banana.
We feed him with two spoons – one for waving around and pounding on his chair, the other for eating.
I also discovered that rice cereal is like freakin’ cement and had to pull out a knife and chip a dried blob off that I missed during clean up. Wow. Someone should market that stuff as a commercial adhesive.
This past two months has been the Time of Bad Sleeps for us. We’ve tried all sorts of things and I recently learned that Kale likes to sleep on his tummy. He sleeps easily and relaxed on his tummy, and he turns himself over if placed on his back. So I started just putting him to sleep there. He hasn’t been feeding as well at night as he used to – waking and screechy, but uninterested in eating and only wanting to be soothed and cuddled. His naps range from 20 minutes to 3 hours and there is absolutely no consistency, other than what time he seems to want them. I have a system now to get him to nap – we cuddle in the chair in his room for a bit, and I rock him or pat him or draw circles on his forehead, and I sing “You Are My Sunshine” to him. Sometimes I tickle him and we giggle and he offers me his sucky. Having this system is helping. Downside? I only know two verses of “You Are My Sunshine” and sometimes it takes 10 verses to chill him down. He is sleeping better this past week, but I am convinced that the Time of Bad Sleeps is closely related to the next most important topic in Kale’s life: teeth.
We have no teeth yet, but all sorts of teething pain. This kid is like Beaver Boy and will gnaw and gnaw and gnaw. I’ve had to cut off my fingernails really short because of all the gnawing he wants to do (and subsequent screeching that occurs when he bites down on a sharp fingernail). His gums are white and painful looking. His huge toothless grin, however, will be something I will miss desperately when the teeth finally arrive. It’s hard to get a picture of his huge big grin – he sees the camera and wants to grab it and eat it and the smile is wiped from his face and is replaced by the look of suspicion. I swear he really does have the most lovely big smile.
With the introduction of solids, I often wonder how long we will be breastfeeding for. Originally, I set my goal to breastfeed for 6 months and then re-evaluate. I was made to feel badly on more than one online forum and by at least one “expert” because I didn’t commit to a year right from the get go, or better yet, indefinitely or because I had the gall to use a pump and bottles. For me, it was about setting small obtainable goals. I had so many struggles with breastfeeding – I was pumping exclusively from one side for about 3 months and was strangely lopsided as a result – until Kale and I finally connected and managed a good latch. I have to pause here to give all sorts of respect to a lactation consultant named Freida for giving me the confidence to keep at it despite the negativity.
Kale pretty much never comfort nurses now. He will holler at me if he is done feeding but I try and put him back on. He will get completely irate. He seeks out his soother after a feeding and when it’s time for a nap. I love the breastfeeding relationship I have with Kale and am surprised at how much I enjoy it. I’m sometimes jealous of the soother, but the relationship he has with it is something we created way back in the beginning when he didn’t stop comfort sucking for ages at a time so I know it’s our doing and I know it’s our job to undo it. In the back of my mind I worry about the day we will have to perform a sucky intervention. But, you know, bridges to be crossed later and all that.
So here it is at 6 months and I ask myself what my breastfeeding goal is now that I have triumphed and met my first goal? And my new goal is this: keep going. If we make it to a year, I’ll re-evaluate again. And as long as Kale wants to make it there, we will, because it’s not going to be me that makes the choice, it will be him.
This Saturday will also mark a very special day for Kale – his first Waterbabies class. This is something that Ross is going to do with Kale so that they have a special relationship too. I’m going to go to a future class and take pictures and I’ll likely spend some time in the hot tub (oh darn) but I really want to encourage Kale to love his daddy as much as me. We’ve noticed a tiny inkling of an overdeveloped connection to me (not surprisingly) the odd few times I have managed to get out of the house without Kale. I’d like to sign up for some crafty classes this year, so I want to encourage Daddy – Son bonding time so that its FUN when I am not home, not “The Great Countdown Till Mommy is Back”.
So here we are at 6 months, the Great Divide that separates us as Parents-of-a-Newborn, and Parents-of-a-Toddler. Ross and I will be going out for the first time later this month without Kale, and he’ll stay home with his Gran. It will be nice to have time with Ross without us comparing notes on poop or his naps or when he ate last. I’m nervous, of course, and I know the entire time we are gone I will be thinking of Kale, and we’ll call a few times, I am sure.
I can’t say I have ever loved someone this hard or this fiercely (sorry, Ross, haha). I’m glad I still make time for things I love, like crafty things or having some time with my girlfriends but in the day to day scheme of things, Kale is the reason I get up and the reason I put on a happy face and honestly, I didn’t know I could be this happy.
Posted by Jen | Under Daily, Kale
Friday Dec 19, 2008
I feel like I am beating a dead horse here because I started writing a post about sleeping, or, namely, the lack thereof.
Kale, as I’ve mentioned, hasn’t slept well this past two weeks, but this last few days I discovered a temporary stop-gap to help him get some shut eye. After nursing, there is the rocking and cuddling and patting and stroking his forehead and then gently easing him into the crib. Some sleep experts feel that by doing this he won’t learn to put himself to sleep, but I can’t stand to listen to the moaning and whining and see the red eyes and listen to the tears and the SHEER AGONY. So for now, this works.
Today, however, the nurse/rock/cuddle/pat/stroke stopped working for whatever reason, so after almost two hours of us going through the cycle of the comforting and then dozing on me and then INSTA-WAKEFULNESS the second I put him into his crib, coupled with frustrated bleats of anger, I tried putting him on his tummy. No sooner had I done that he sighed a content little sigh, his face INSTANTLY relaxed, and he fell easily into sleep. It was like I flipped a switch.
Will he die from SIDS? Well, experts tend to disagree at what point the risk of SIDS decreases to where it is safe to tummy sleep. The BC Health Files say that you do not need to force your baby to sleep on their back once they are capable of flipping over. Well thank freakin’ God. Kale is fully capable of flipping over.
I’ve been in to check on him three times now. All three times he’s relaxed, breathing, and deeply asleep.
You know, I knew the second I wrote that, he’d wake up. Le sigh.
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