Milestones, he's had 'em - I swear!

Technically my lil' beasty is 9 months old as of yesterday, but I figure before I post his 9 month milestones I better catch up! Ok, hopefully my memory of the last few months is up to par (howls of laughter from anyone who knows me - yeah much love, ya c-words!).

• Sitting with no probs (and generally a lot straighter than above, but dude wants to crawl on out of the photo).
• Crawling and sometimes with a ferocious fervor - YOWZAS!
• Cruisin' for a bruisin' - seriously, he wobbles around the coffee table, couch, chairs, media center, you name it and let's just say lots of tumbling has come of it, but darn it if he ain't a trooper!
• He knows and does the sign for milk!
• Holds his bottle - less work for mommy and daddy, woot woot!
• We tried feeding him avocado and sweet potato purees, which just made him gag so hard he puked. Solids are so not his friend.
• He did suck on some cantaloupe in one of those mesh things at Fox & Goose restaurant, but when we tried it at home he wanted NOTHING to do with it. #palmtoface We gave up with solids after several attempts and figured we'd try again next month.
• We got TOOFERS! 2 to be exact on the bottom. 
• He's over the pacifier.
• Sleeps through the night again - phew!
• We used the extinction method for his nap time and it totally worked! He takes 2 naps: 1 in the morning and 1 in the early afternoon. Each nap lasts roughly 1.5 to 2 hours! When we first used it, he cried for about 15 minutes and then was out for over an hour. Next nap he cried less than 5 minutes. Now he rarely fusses and if he does it's less than a minute. There's a lot of controversy about CIO and extinction, but heck, it totally worked for us and Han is one of the happiest lil' dudes I know. :) Plus, mommy and daddy get a full 8 hours of sleep every night. Hallelujah!
• We were using cloth diapers exclusively, but he broke out in a crazy rash. Turns out we needed to strip them, which I learned from my co-worker at the Public Library. Unfortunately, Danny and I have become a bit too complacent and haven't jumped on the stripping cloth diaper ball. New Year's resolution: go back to cloth diapering! 

• Tried vegan refried beans from El Papagayo and LOVED 'em! Took the spoon from Danny and fed himself. Unfortunately this was short lived as Danny tried again at home only to spurts of gagging and eventual vomiting. He loves the Apples & Greens smoothie from Jamba Juice (yes, the one I hurled up while in labor). The Jamba Juice we go to actually makes it with real spinach, kale, and apples.
• Danny and I now sit at our dining table with Han and whatever we are eating we give him a piece; e.g., pineapple, seasoned beans, olives, seasoned tofu, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, etc. He sucks and sometimes swallows, but mostly he gags - haha.
• Much steadier on his feet! In fact, on Saturday, January 3rd he took his first steps! It was only a couple and he fell, but he's been practicing all by himself daily! 
• Naps and sleeps through the night (thank the old gods of the North!).
• He received some cute clothes and toys for Christmas. 
• I moved his diaper changing station from our buffet in our dining room to his room, which makes our place feel a tiny bit less cluttered. Baby steps.
• Loves watching Pee Wee's Playhouse with his daddy. 
• Loves watching Sex & the City with his mommy. ;)
• I don't know why, but he started pointing. He sure loves pointing. He can sort of wave too. He doesn't always do it, but it's clear he is copying us when we wave to him.
• We sign milk, diaper, all done, more, and night night to him. He doesn't sign any back and actually doesn't sign milk as much as he used to, but I think that's because we know our kid and his cues. We'll keep it up and hopefully in a month or two he'll respond.

Ok, that's all I got for now. I'm sure there's stuff missing. Ugh! I'm determined to be better at posting his milestones. My goal is to post his 9 month milestones tomorrow! There. I said it, so it must be true. Ha!

The big ol' gift-giving debacle.

As another holiday season moves along (thank the gods!), I found myself struggling with the whole Christmas gift-giving concept. This year was Han's first Christmas and although I was super excited to see him among all the festive lights, decor, and family, I started to wonder: what if we removed the gift aspect of Christmas and instead focused on the family and all around feel-goodness of the holiday?

Since I'm the only one working while Danny stays home with Han, our finances are pretty dismal. We didn't get anyone a gift this year because of it. And although I was bummed at first, the pressure of planning a budget and buying gifts didn't exist for me this year. Let me tell you, it was RELIEVING. It felt so good! A Christmas miracle, if you will! No gift-giving and instead simply hanging out with family and eating good food totally MADE my holiday.

I brought up this idea of focusing on family instead of gifts to Danny. His reaction was akin to telling an eight year old Santa isn't real. Danny is a big kid who LOVES presents - giving and getting. A part of me was frustrated that the exchange of material items is something he refuses to give up, but then I can see where he's coming from. I mean this is a tradition we grew up with and he came from a very happy home where money troubles didn't exist or at the very least were not at the forefront. My upbringing was very different. Having your phone, power, and water shut off as a kid is confusing, sad, and scary. Losing the home you grew up in to something called a foreclosure is a whole other confounding ordeal. That being said, we always had Christmas and I'm baffled at how my mom was able to swing that especially during all that other mess. I imagine it was stressful and deflating at times.

And that's why I wanted to call the whole thing off (or well, the gift bit). I truly believe Han will be a better person celebrating Christmas without the materialism. Trying to convince Danny was going to be the hard bit. I started researching online to see what other parents had to say on the topic and I think I've come to a compromising solution that will not only appease Danny, but makes me feel content about the idea of gifts for our son during Christmas time. First, let me break down each article I read in order so you can see how I came up with a solution that works for me:

Wait, a post not about Han?

Strangely, I have embraced interior design. Oh ho-ho, by no means am I an expert. No, no. My education on it has come from tons of HGTV and blogs. As of late I got a bug up my pa-toots to re-do our bedroom. I hated the lavender gray color I thought was gray-gray when I bought it - ROOKIE MISTAKE! And it just started feeling kind of BLAH. After devouring the blog House*Tweaking, I found myself loving her master bedroom design choices. I started tinkering with ideas in my head and then I created my first mood board:

1) bedding, coverlet, paint color 2) Picasso print 3) blanket 4) deer skull 5) swing-arm wall lamp 6) stock photo from Sleep Train 7) IKEA Expedit - no longer in stock 8) nightstand 9) storage bench 10) chair

Eh, not that best but I certainly felt proud of myself. At any rate this board incorporates items I already own with ones I hope to purchase. I wanted our room to come off a lot more sophisticated than it did. Because I knew the process was going to take time and because we are chronic procrastinators and because of $$$ I made sure to use items we already owned that hung out in other places in the house.

The first thing we did was paint. Now that I sort of understand the differences between grays (I personally like grays with more green than blue) I couldn't wait to get the paint rollers out! We chose Benjamin Moore's Rockport Gray:

We of course painted a swatch on the wall and debated between other grays, but ultimately this was the gray that stole my heart and Danny just had to fall in line. Of course once we painted a wall he fell in love too. Well, here are some "still in progress" photos:

Eventually I'd like to change out the nightstands and table lights with the ones on my mood board or at least something close (re: cheap) to those items. I'd also like a bigger bed with either a headboard or mid-century modern like bed frame. I may just have to make do with a headboard until I make my gahjillions to afford something as spiffy as a mid-century mod bed frame. A girl can dream.

I plan on getting rid of that mirror. I need to find a new place to hang my necklaces. In fact, I should probably go through them and part ways. Also, the Billy bookcase that holds my sweaters and shoes needs to go too. I plan on going through and donating as many items as possible. The goal is to replace the bookshelf with an awesome print we have, add a chair, a small table, and a record player. Baby steps.

That there is Danny's record collection. He also has a deer skull I hope to set in the middle of the shelf. I may add other little decor bits here and there, but the focal point will be the skull. I have a Murphy vanity. It's a great space-saver, but the front of it could easily display a cool print or something. I'd also like to hang other art pieces in that corner. On top of it sit my jewelery box and earring holder. Another de-cluttering project. I hope to keep the top of the vanity for art or other knickknacks. I also plan on getting rid of that mirror on the floor and hot pink trash bin. I'd love to get remove the ceiling fan but we're renters, folks.

Gosh, looking at these photos makes me think I need to learn how to use a more profesh camera - iPhone snapshots aren't cutting it. Well, maybe it will once I upgrade to a 6 - ha! At any rate, I'm happy with the progress and sure hope I can finish it before Danny and I pay for that ol' marriage license. Our efforts are now focused on baby-proofing and finishing Han's room, which seems more prudent since our kid is a mover and a shaker now! Sheesh that was fast. 

He's half way to one whole year!

Han is now 6 months. I'm not going to lie, it felt like 6 months was FOREVER away. Now I look back and think: "wow that was a hot second." Everyone kept telling Danny and me this, but when you're in the thick of newborn insanity it's hard to remember it will all boil down to a teeny blip in this lil' dude's existence. So let me catch up on what this bundle of mayhem has been up to these past couple of months:

Catching up on the ol' milestones.

I figure it's important to track Han's milestones and my memories of him for each month. I'd like to say that since becoming a parent my memory has gone to shite, but really it was shite pre-pregnancy. That being said, if you wanted to know who directed a movie or what actor starred in such-and-such film I could pull that out from the recesses of my brain in a flash. But I digress. He's now a little over 4.5 months old, so I'm gonna try my darnedest to make note of every milestone for each month that I can...here it goes: 

Ripped from my loins: Han's birth story.

Of course I had a birth plan. And of course I was super flexible, but one thing I new for certain was that I wanted a drug free, va-jay-jay birth with a good friend as my birthing coach and of course my baby daddy. Funny that no matter how flexible you think you are sometimes even the most hell-bent of us falter. So was my fate. Sigh.

On April 12th around 3:15pm, Danny (my partner in crime and baby daddy) and I were about to leave our humble abode to meet his folks for a pre-birthday din din for his mom. I even put on make-up for the first time in weeks! Well, before we trotted out the door I decided to blow my nose. Now, anyone who knows me knows that when I blow my nose Louis Armstrong's got nothing on me!

So it's no surprise that my trumpeting nose blow broke my water. It wasn't a geyser shooting out my crotch; more like a leak. I cleaned myself up and decided to head to dinner anyway because I read when women have a leak it takes a while for labor to really start. Plus, I really wanted to buy Han a coming home outfit (yeah we waited till the last minute, what?).

This is super long, so click the jump if ya want to keep going...

Allow me to introduce you to my son.

His name is Han. Yes, as in Han Solo. We're huge Star Wars fans. His middle name is Amado after my dad. He was born on the same day as his paternal grandma (different year o' course!): April 13, 2014.

I still plan on doing a "to do (wish) list" update post as well as a birth post. Not sure in what order yet. Probably the latter first since it's been almost 4 months (say what?!) and my memory ain't the best. It's crazy looking back at Han's first-few-days-on-this-Earth photos because he looks so different now! Most notably, he has waaaaaaaaay less hair.

Here's hoping I'll be better at keeping up with this here blog-a-roo since it's really my "baby book" and I want to look back at my lil dude's milestones. Maybe I'll even get another post up before the end of this month - cray cray! However, please don't hold it against me if I don't. Shanks! ;)