Baby's first Halloween

Happy Halloween! I got to carve a pumpkin this year - woohoo! I love carving pumpkins. Last year I didn't because I was too pregnant. This year I decided to carve one for Tristan so after browsing around for ideas, I settled on aviator Snoopy. Since there is so much talk these days about the movie, Amelia, I thought it was appropriate as well :) This design was a lot simpler than most of my previous carvings but it still took around 40 minutes. As usual, Jean-Louis prepped the pumpkin for me by removing most of the flesh inside. He did a great job but I could have actually used a bit more flesh in the area I was working in, if you know what I mean ;-) Anyhow, it all worked out and I'm happy with the end result :)

We bought a scary shirt from Gymboree for Tristan to wear. We probably shouldn't have done that since he will only get to wear it once or people might think we are creeps. Actually, I already put it on him one other time leading up to Halloween. The skeleton on it is suppose to glow in the dark but I don't see it. Maybe in special lighting?

Jean-Louis and I are feeling a bit under the weather so there was no party tonight. It's too bad because Halloween doesn't often land on a Saturday night. If I were much younger and childless (and not sick), I would have loved to throw a costume party. My cold is actually getting worst. I don't think having New York Fries for lunch helped either! I am drinking so much too and honestly, I think it is only making me pee more, nothing else. Man, I hate being sick and I can't wait to get the flu shot. Never had it before so I sure hope it will work magic.

Things I meant to report

I have a random list of things I meant to say but it didn't make sense to create blog posts for each of them. I'm just going to list them below. In other words, this is the lazy me trying to skip blog posts :)

• Tristan started clapping his hands this past week.
• Tristan started teething at the top of his mouth 1 or 2 weeks ago. He's going to look like a bunny soon.
• We confirmed a few days ago that Tristan is allergic to eggplant. We suspected it before and the same thing happened this time when we fed him some. His chin turned red almost instantly after he ate it. Hopefully, he will grow out of it. Neither of us have any food allergies so we think it is just bizarre that he would.
  
• A few days ago, I caught a cold. It's the third time since mid August!
• A few days ago, I started to treat myself for another breast yeast infection. Ugh.
  
• A few days ago, I discovered bloody marks on my nipple so Tristan has definitely been biting me!
  
• I was contacted about a job recently that I didn't apply for. That is always a good thing :)
• Less than a week ago, I discovered that there is a Jacadi in Vancouver! I know!!!
• In the past week or so, I wait listed Tristan in 2 more nearby daycares and started to look into nanny sharing and babysitting. No leads so far but honestly, I haven't put a lot of time into it yet :(
  
• Just yesterday, Tristan started to drag the exersaucer across the room of the office. He's also playing with wires and plugs a lot more now. And he loves to open drawers and cupboards!
  
• Recently, Tristan hates being strapped in the highchair for feeding. This is a first.
• The past two days, I have started to feed Tristan a bit more formula milk. So far he is drinking everything.
• Last but not least, Tristan is now sleeping from 9:30PM to 7 or 7:30AM. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now (knock on wood). As a result, his naps are a bit shorter during the day. It's great news for me since I get to sleep in a bit more but at the same time, I can't do much during the day since he is up most of the time. Oh well - you can't win them all :)
  

A big potato mess

Lately, Tristan has been wanting to eat on his own. We prepare finger foods for him like cubed carrots, branches of broccoli, tofu, rotini pasta, and cheese. It's a bit of a pain for us to let him eat like this because it means massive cleanup for us afterwards. The alternative is for us to feed him and he cries throughout the entire feeding. When it comes to babies, no option is a great option. The past few days we opted for the no crying option and big mess. Today's lunch was a huge mess.

I decided to cook potato for a change. We like to give him a little something different every day so he doesn't get too bored. He is teething at the top right now too so it is even more important to keep him happy during meal time. Now, if he would only eat potato like cheese, it wouldn't be so bad but he ate it like... well, potatoes :( Massive, massive mess. He squeezed them, chucked them on the floor, smeared them on the tray, and he ate some. This is typical of his behavior, except if it were another vegetable, it wouldn't be so bad. The potatoes were powdery and would dry hard. He rubbed his face, stroked his hair, ears, - pretty much everything was touched by potato. It acted like a gel in his hair - yuck! I think he liked how it felt being sticky to his head so he kept touching and massaging his head with the mash potato. I sat eating my hot pot soup and shaking my head while I watched. Why, why did I give him potato this way? Well, what was done was done and I couldn't waste the moment without a good picture and then writing this post to warn all the other parents NOT to finger feed their babies overcooked potatoes.

Lesson learned: don't use overcooked yellow potatoes as finger food for the baby.

He's walking!

Jean-Louis bragged about Tristan taking 2 steps the other day but I didn't see it. He has maybe taken a step before but I wouldn't call that walking. Today, he took at least 4 quick steps towards me so it is now official. Tristan is walking! Does that make him a toddler now? Wow, babies sure don't stay babies for long.

First steps and walking - amazing! Tonight, we will bring out the camcorder and try to record it. We'll try after dinner because after a meal is when he is usually the most hyper and energetic. We did the same thing when he started to crawl. Exciting but scary too. Now, we have to toddler proof our home!

Tristan is 11 months old!

11 months! You know what that means. It's time to start planning the 1st birthday bash. I love to plan events so it's super exciting! 11 months is also our last monthly birthday celebration for Tristan. I'm sure going to miss cake every month :(

Tristan is eating well and I really think he is fattening up and growing more. We'll find out at his one year checkup next month. I'm not too worried since he is eating much better now, although it is still a struggle to feed him these days. He is still eating everything but some times we have to bribe him with stuff he likes like bread, cheese, and fruit. We try not to do it too often. He is easily distracted too so a toy or an object he can bang on now and then helps too. I honestly think we have tried every trick in the book to get him to eat. Every trick! It's really hard to keep your cool in front of him sometimes too.

I think Tristan is drinking more milk this month than last month. Since he was out of daycare this past month, I was able to add the afternoon feeding as well as give him a bottle. All in all, I think he is just consuming more of everything and he is very regular. He poops every day and some times even twice a day. He is retaining most of his food too. He rarely spits up or pukes anymore.

Breastfeeding is still going strong. I feed him three times a day but I may cut that down to two soon. A milestone happened yesterday for myself. I started to get my period again. Exactly 11 months after birth. Well, I certainly enjoyed not having it for the past 20 months :) The breastfeeding sure helped keep it away for awhile.

"Mamamama" is one of his favorite sounds to make. He doesn't yet know what it means but he likes it :) He loves to just make noise and holler at the top of his lungs. He'll pull himself up and once he is as high as he can get, he'll raise his hand and holler. It's the Tarzan move - that's what I call it. He understands some words like "ball" and "water" but he still can't speak. Also, I think he is making a bit less progress with the baby sign. This month has been a strange one for him. He seems to be a bit confused with milk and more. He does the milk sign a lot!

Tristan is very close to walking. Did I say that last month? Well, he can stand for many many seconds on his own. He may have taken a small step or two as well but I'm not counting that as walking. Once he walks, we can take him out and set him free in public :)

Tristan is more and more loveable to play with these days. He was even entertaining to his grandparents in France on Skype the other day. He would spin and walk around the office chair and laugh and fall along the way. He even grabbed toys and tried to give it to them. At this age, Tristan loves to play peek-a-boo with everyone. He just loves it! Tristan and his Daddy crawl and chase each other around the dining room every night while I prepare dinner. Yeah, there are definitely good times now :)

My breastfeeding days are almost over

The first month I started breastfeeding, I could not imagine lasting 6 months. When 6 months came around, breastfeeding seemed so easy so I decided to continue to 12 months. It is now 11 months. 3 breast infections, 1 breast yeast infection, countless blisters and clogged milk ducts, and 2 colds later, I am still breastfeeding. In fact, I have a blister and clogged ducts right now! Boy, do they hurt :( So even after all this, somehow I just refuse to stop. As long as he still wants it, I am willing to feed him. Besides, I am still home and I don't have to worry about packing milk or feeding in public so it's easy.

There were times where I thought Tristan was not interested in me breastfeeding him anymore. It was actually quite depressing being rejected. He would not be interested after a minute or sometimes won't even want to feed. Usually by the next feeding session or next day, he would be fine. I guess they are easily distracted at this age and more interested in solid food. I surprised myself by feeling sad over it since it was my plan all along to stop after a year and that time is almost up. I should probably start to wean him now.

It should be a time of celebration. 1 month to go! Then I will be able to do anything, go anywhere, wear all my old clothes and bras, drink wine etc. I have been waiting for the end of my breastfeeding days forever it seems. As that time approaches though, I'm feeling a bit bummed. I'm reluctant to give up breastfeeding because I have grown so attached to it and I don't want to deny him any of my milk if he still wants it. Also, the benefits of him acquiring my antibodies and digestive enzymes and all those goodies are also giving me reasons to hang on even longer. Well, 12 months is not a hard deadline so depending on the situation, I may not have to stop all together.

1st Thanksgiving for Baby

I wanted to take a picture of Tristan holding the turkey drumstick but my day and night was too hectic so this post will have to settle for just a picture of my cooked turkey.

Tristan did eat turkey for the first time but I had to grind it with carrots and green beans. I'm not sure he liked it since like most dinners, he is quite difficult to feed. I made enough for a couple days of feeding so I guess we'll see. He did like the string beans when I fed it to him in whole form. He enjoyed biting into it bit by bit. Normally, he wouldn't like green beans that much. Babies are so strange that way.

Since it is Thanksgiving today, I had planned for us to give thanks to all the things we were grateful for at the dinner table tonight. Nope, it didn't happen. We got too caught up in trying to eat and feed Tristan and we were running late and I simply forgot all about it. I'll take this opportunity now to do it in this blog post. Here are all the things I am personally thankful for in my life right now (as it relates to motherhood):

1. To have Jean-Louis and Tristan in my life of course. I am happy that Jean-Louis is here for us whenever we need him and he is a very hands on kind of father. I am happy that Tristan is doing so well. I wasn't sure we were going to make it this far but we have and there haven't been many mishaps along the way.
2. I'm thankful for the roughly 7 hours of sleep I get every day now :)
3. I can cook again, almost like how I used to so we can all eat better.
   
4. It will be 11 months next week and I am still breastfeeding.
5. I was able to use all my maternity and parental leave with paid EI benefits.
   
6. I have a consulting job that is very flexible with me so I can work as much as I can.
7. When I do work, I most often really like my job.
8. I discovered iPhone app work and really enjoy it.
   
9. Last but not least, I am thankful for technology and gadgets like the iPod, iPhone, Skype and even Twitter. These have given me an outside link and in a way, they make me feel a little bit less isolated from being home a lot with the baby.

My list can go on forever but I am actually super tired right now from having cooked up another storm in the kitchen today. In the past, I used to cook much more and was much less tired. Anyway, everything turned out good and we have food for the week and some for the distant future. Thank goodness for frozen food!

Why I look forward to Fridays

Friday is finally here. I have been waiting for it to come since Monday :)

I stay at home to take care of our baby and have been doing it since he was born over 10 months ago. I do not commute to work anymore so some times I don't even leave the house for days. You're probably wondering why I care so much about Friday when my full time job right now is taking care of our baby and on the weekend I don't exactly get time off. True, but on the weekend, I only have to take care of the baby part time and that makes a bit difference for me :)

In fact, I look forward to the evenings when my husband comes home. When he is home, I get to do other stuff like cook, eat, socialize with him, and shower. In a way that puts me in Mommy mode part time. Starting Friday evening right until Monday morning, I also get to be in that mode. You see! I love my Fridays!

There is a bit more to just being on duty part time. I wake up Friday mornings to #followfriday tweets and I always get excited when someone recommends me to follow on Twitter :) I also spend part of my day looking at online grocery flyers so I can plan our shopping trips. So that is another reason - I get to go out to the mall and shop and cook, which I love.

On the weekend, my sweet husband wakes up with the baby and lets me sleep in for 30 minutes to 1 hour. God bless! After feeding the baby when I wake up, I make us breakfast and he makes the coffee. I only have coffee on the weekend so I look forward to that as well! I usually get to work for a few hours, we watch dvds, and we go for afternoon strolls. Sometimes, we make plans to hang out with friends but mainly, we get things done around the house and just relax. Ahhhh... Fridays :)

What's on the agenda that is different this weekend? House cleaning, hair cut for my husband when the baby is sleeping, a visit to our new neighboring Waves coffee house, Thanksgiving cooking, and skype video social with our friend from New Zealand who just had her baby. Hey, when you are a stay-at-home-mom you would get excited about these things too!

A-meh = Mommy?

When he is distressed normally, Tristan would say "a-meh." He does this when he is in his crib crying to sleep. He does this when he wants out of the exersaucer. Some times he will just say it like that. He repeats sounds when he likes the sound of it but this particular sound seem to be associated with a cry for help. I noticed he has been saying it a lot today. Is he trying to call out to me? I read that a baby's first word may not even be a real word. Could "a-meh" be his first word?

At one point, Tristan was saying dada a lot and then he switched to mama. I haven't heard him say dada for awhile. "Mama" comes and goes at random so it is apparent he doesn't know what mama is associated with. All this baby talk and beginnings of language is so bizarre and fascinating to watch!

We're all recovering from the cold

After a week of staying at home, we are all feeling better. Tristan started to show a lot of improvement after a few days. I think lots of good naps and my breastmilk helped him get better :) I started to feel sick too and it's been on and off for a few days now. This weekend, we finally left the house and as a result, I started to feel a bit worst. I think having too much to do and no nap during the day are also to blame. I'm okay though. This time around it is not nearly as bad for me as my last cold two months ago. Tristan is more or less back to normal now and Jean-Louis seems okay too. As a precaution, I am still dining us on sick food. This week we're having homemade spicy noodle soup!

Onto other more pleasant news, I think my efforts to try and fatten Tristan up the past couple of weeks is starting to pay off. The past week was a bit hard at times since he was sick and a bit more resistant. He is eating more now, although it is still hard to feed him some times :) We don't force him to eat anymore but we do trick him every now and then. Lately, I have been staring at him thinking that he looks a bit fatter these days. Jean-Louis agrees too. His face is rounder. Or maybe it's just me wanting it to be rounder? In any case, he is eating more and he is very regular and very healthy. If it turns out he is still a bit light weight, I'm okay with that as long as he is healthy.

Here is a photo of Tristan I took last week. He is all bundled up in warm clothes since he was sick and it was so cold here. The cold, the darkness, the rain, the dry hands, the cold allergy - all of it reminded me of the birth almost a year ago. Wow. Already. Kind of an unpleasant flashback I have to say. So very glad I am not there anymore :)