baby Archives - Page 7 of 8 - The Ten Thousand Hour Mama

You’re an animal! (and Tender Wondersuits giveaway!)

September 29, 2014catherinemryan

Flamingos, as it turns out, rock Peeper’s world.

We went to the Oregon Zoo recently, and I walked a different route than I typically do. The path took me down a lush section of the park I hadn’t been to since I was a kid. We finally came across some animals, but the bats were asleep and the lizard wasn’t moving, so Peeper seemed more interested in the flowers.

Then we found the flamingos.

She flipped! It’s a good thing there was a glass panel separating us from them because she tried her hardest to get into that pond and see them up close.

Banana boobs

August 25, 2014catherinemryan

Sometimes Peeper wakes from a nap completely sweet: You can hear her babbling to herself or spot her playing with her toes when you peek at the monitor. Other times she gets up on the wrong side of the crib. She fusses and clings like a monkey.

I was carrying her around the apartment on one hip when she was like this a few days ago. She was holding her stuffed bunny and lay her head on my shoulder.

I made her a snack, and we traded bites of toast and banana. She was starting to perk up a bit but still was a sweet bundle of snuggles. The more she runs around, the fewer chances I get for quiet cuddles, so I relished the moment.

Then Peeper dropped her half-chewed banana down my shirt.

Precious cuddles followed by mooshed banana-y boobs—that, in a nutshell, is motherhood.

13 months

August 13, 2014catherinemryan

Now that Peeper is officially a Big Girl, she’s been exploring—and pushing—boundaries.

Walking is second nature by now: There’s no more precariously toddling with outstretched arms for balance. With her two-legged confidence comes running, or at least race walking. Bonks and bruises come with the territory, but her indomitable enthusiasm doesn’t leave a lot of time for fussing and crying after a tumble.

We also have a budding monkey on our hands. She has discovered climbing and tries to scale anything with a foothold: chairs, the dishwasher, the open fridge.

With mobility, the entire world is opened up to her, yet she pays attention to the tiniest details. When playing on the lawn, she notices a sugar ant toiling among the green blades of grass. She points at a spider on its web, which must look as if it’s floating in the air. And as she sat in sunlight streaming in through the window, she paused suddenly to stare at dust motes swirling in the light.

Flower, pretty flower

August 12, 2014catherinemryan

Flowers are probably in Peeper’s top ten favorite things, ranking below milk and baths but above pizza. Whenever she sees flowers, she makes a sniffing noise and squirms to get closer.

They feature in her play, too. When we have bouquets in the house, I periodically give her a flower or two.

She carries them around and offers them to everyone, making a sniff, sniff noise.

Inevitably, though, she finishes by pulling off all the petals. I imagine her reciting, “She loves me, she loves me not” as she plucks them.

Peeper, the answer is yes, no matter whom you’re picking petals for. How could anyone fail to love you?

Walk the line

July 10, 2014catherinemryan

The day before her birthday, Peeper turned a corner—literally. She went from stringing together a few steps to full-blown walking.

Look! Evidence she’s a walker!

[vimeo 100441531 w=500 h=281]

Peeper walks the line from Catherine Ryan Gregory on Vimeo.

I’m still having a really hard time calling her a toddler, so for now I’m settling on one-year-old baby who walks. Really rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Her newly honed skill delights everyone, most of all herself. Her hands are always full as she motors around the apartment, and I think she’s thrilled that she can carry mum mums or her hairbrush or the dog’s Kong ball or both the remote controls at all times.

When Peeper was doing more stumbling and falling than actual walking, parents of older children would give me this knowing look like, Just you wait. And I’d say something along the lines of, “Yeah, I’m excited and scared at the same time!”

But now that she’s a biped, I haven’t felt the panic that all these parents foretold. Maybe that comes later, like when she decides to sprint into traffic or play chase in the crowds of the Saturday Market, but for now, I’m just enjoying watching her explore on her own two feet.

For now, those two feet carry her toward me more often than not. They run to me to show me the piece of popcorn she found on the floor. They toddle my way when she needs a snuggle. They leave her hands free to carry a book so we can get down to the serious business of reading I Love You Stinky Face for the eighteenth time.

There’s plenty of time for those little legs to carry her away. Today, though, her walking brings her closer to me.

Hurricane Peeper

June 25, 2014catherinemryan

One morning this week I woke up as one half of my head imploded and was sucked into a black hole behind my right eye.

At least that’s what it felt like.

I haven’t had a migraine in years, but this one woke me around 3am. It kept me awake as I tried to alleviate the pain—massaging my scalp, plopping a bag of frozen vegetables over my face—between retching into the garbage can. Yeah, not pretty.

Peeper, luckily, slept in as late as she ever has, and the headache had mellowed quite a bit by that time. Even still, I was nowhere near the top of my game all day.

By the time Eric got home from class around 5pm, the house was a disaster. He laughed as he stepped over the shoes scattered across the hallway, the DVDs spread out over the living room and the cookbooks, bags and utensils in the kitchen.

The chaos made me realize how much I tidy up after Peeper throughout the day.

Imagine a wrecking ball dismantling a 10-story building. During a hurricane. In a town recently hit by an earthquake. Such is the destructive power of my daughter.

Ten Thousand Hour Mama — She loves to “help” with laundry.

11 months

June 24, 2014catherinemryan

“Peeper, can you say ‘dada’?” We were driving to Woods Memorial Park for a family walk recently, and I could hear our little one playing in the back seat.

“Dadadadadadada,” she replied, pulling off one sock.

“Good job! Peeper, can you say ‘mama’?”

She paused.

“DADADADADADA!”

Despite her continuing refusal to say mama, in the last month she has come so far in learning to express herself.

Six awkward (and sometimes gross) mom moves

June 4, 2014December 23, 2016catherinemryan

Once upon a time, before Peeper was even a gleam in my eye, my husband and I visited his brother’s family in Michigan. He and his wife had just had a boy, their first child, and I was thrilled to meet my first nephew.

The ensuing days were like a crash course introduction to what motherhood actually looks like. Much of the trip is now a blur—it was about eight years ago, after all—but I distinctly remember my sister-in-law scraping out a bit of wax from her son’s ear.

Ewww, I thought. I’ll never do that.

HA!

I have, indeed, pulled that mom move, along with many others that are sometimes weird and occasionally gross. Here’s a list of just a few of the weird things only moms understand. Read more →

Perchance to dream

May 28, 2014catherinemryan

The other day, I witnessed a minor miracle. Peeper took a long afternoon nap.

The nap in question was so long, in fact, that I had to wake her. It was 5 o’clock and I didn’t want to completely throw off her bedtime.

I snuck into her room. She was out cold. Instead of throwing open the blinds, though, I sat down next to the crib and rested my forehead on the slats. I sat quietly and watched her sleep.

She was lying on her stomach with her rump stuck in the air. One cheek was smooshed on the mattress. Her eyelids fluttered and her lips pursed. She was dreaming.

Avoid baby shower registry hell [Giveaway]

May 19, 2014catherinemryan

When I was pregnant, I checked a pregnancy web site weekly, mostly to find out what fruit Peeper was. TheBump.com also had tips and to-dos that expecting mamas should keep in mind. Never having been pregnant before, it was helpful to have someone tell me to, say, interview pediatricians and buy life insurance.

The reminder to register for baby shower gifts, then, was a needed if unwelcome kick in the maternity pants.

I had no idea what to add to my online registry. (I ended up using MyRegistry.com so I wouldn’t be limited to one or two stores, by the way.) Sure, I figured I should ask for bibs and bottles, but what kind? How many? And what is a layette?

Online articles with a checklist of registry items were only moderately helpful. I don’t like shopping, so the idea of wandering through ~~Baby Hell~~ Babies R Us with a scanner gun sounded like torture. A friend who had recently given birth offered tips, but I would have loved a way to compare products and test brands out before asking friends and family to buy gifts for me and the growing bun.

In a few weekends, there will be just such an event for parents-to-be and already-parents such as myself: The Northwest’s Biggest Baby Shower, Saturday May 31 from 10 am – 5 pm in Portland’s Left Bank Annex. The mondo event is a way to poke around, check out eco-friendly baby products, learn about services for after Tiny arrives (like postpartum doulas, which I’d never heard of when I was preggers), get mini-spa treatments (yes, please) and leave with a bag chock full o’ samples.

Man, I love samples.

Personally, I think the expert speakers lined up are worth a visit in and of themselves. There are workshops on baby wearing, post-birth physical recovery, babyproofing and—here’s the cherry on top—baby sleep.

Seriously, someone will tell you how to help your cute-but-squalling baby sleep better. And you don’t even have to read a book.

The folks over at the NW’s Biggest Baby Shower have given me 10 sets of couples passes to give away here. Peeper and I are going, and we’d love to see you! (I’ll be the blond circling the booths giving away freebies; Peeper will be the even blonder baby grabbing at anything remotely shiny or crinkly.)

Simply click the link below, follow directions to multiply your chances of having your name drawn, and you could be joining me and about a bajillion other parents at the NW’s Biggest Baby Shower.

I’ll be choosing 10 winners on Friday and you’ll hear from me on Saturday if you win. There are some options you can do once a day, so check back throughout the week.

Let me know if you are going—I’d love to meet you in person! (I’ll also have some materials at the blogger booth—stop by and say hello!) See you there!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received a free pass to the NW’s Biggest Baby Shower. All opinions on this blog are entirely my own. I tell it like it is.