One.

Dear Gavin,

How can it be that a full year (or 13 months for this procrastinating mama...) has gone by since you came into the world? It has been a year full of happiness, challenges, changes, milestones, travel, meltdowns, giggles, and so much love. In some ways, this year feels like much longer, since it is hard to remember back to when it was just Daddy and me.

You are such a unique little man! Your personality has many levels. Sometimes you are a very serious boy. Even when you are reading books or dancing to music or seeing people you like, sometimes you put on your serious face and try not to smile! Don't take life too seriously, baby boy. Sometimes you are an absolute ham. You love to make us laugh and you cackle at yourself when you are being silly. You wave your hands in the air, throw your head back and let out your big yelling laugh. It's hilarious. You are adventurous, always wanting to explore and get your hands dirty, but sometimes you are also cautious, and like to stick close to mama. Lately you have been very cuddly, which is so precious. You cuddle with your stuffed toys, you nuzzle into blankets on the bed, and you give your mama lots of snuggles, lying all over me, giving me kisses, lying your head on my shoulder. These are special moments to me and I love you for being a cuddly boy!

Your first year of life, Gavin, was such an adventure! 

You first smiled on your one month birthday.

You have been on FOUR big trips - with 8 plane rides! You have seen mountains and oceans and have been a wonderful little traveler.

You love to eat and I love seeing you try and like new foods. You also chug your sippy cup of water like you've been in the desert for weeks. Oh, and I'm sorry for giving you the spicy tomato from the salsa you were begging for. I think you quickly realized that was a bad idea.

You sat on your own in Florence, tried your first foods in Switzerland, and started really crawling at Nana and Papa's on Thanksgiving - your baptism weekend.

You are very close to walking. You are more confident standing on your own and are taking more steps holding onto our hands.

You are eager to be outside more, I can tell. You love the swings at the park but would probably rather crawl all over the dirt and sand, which Mommy doesn't like. You are also very good at climbing stairs and going down stairs or getting off the couch or bed backwards, but please stop trying to do this off a very high drop on playground equipment. Your depth perception needs some work.

You have 11, almost 12 teeth, beautiful dark blonde hair (which has been trimmed twice!), Mama's eyes and Daddy's mouth. You are a skinny little bean but tall, and you weighed 22 lbs at your 12 month doctor visit.

You still love to nurse and can sign to ask for "milk". I love these moments, but it will be nice when you don't want to have milk as much through the night. To date, you have slept a 5-hour stretch twice and one blissful 6-hour stretch. We still struggle with sleeping and you still wakeup lots in the night, but you are doing so well sleeping all night on your little floor bed in our room.

You can sign "more", "milk" and "finished", and you sign and say "hoo hoo" whenever you hear the train! You can say "mama" though you don't say it all the time, you know how to say "dada" when you're babbling but have yet to repeat it in the right context. Yesterday you said "moo" for a cow and you always say "woo woo" when you see a dog. You like sticking out your tongue and your conversations with perfect intonation are so fun to hear. It will be exciting to hear you start to say more words.

It's hard to think about how much more will change in this next year... We will be moving to a new house, with a nice big room for you and a backyard to play in. We will be making new friends, going to new places, trying new activities. It will be a big change for all of us, but we are very excited. Maybe by your next birthday, you will have a new brother or sister on the way...but I would really like you to start sleeping better before that happens!

I try not to think too much about the night you were born, but I think about it almost every day. That night was the hardest and scariest night of my life, and I am thankful every day that you were so strong and fought to take your first breaths. I'm sorry that it was so stressful for you, and I wish with all my heart that you didn't have to be taken away from me. Those moments that we missed would have been heavenly. I think in some ways this has affected you, and that makes me feel sad, but we can't change what happened, and can only thank God that you were and are a healthy, growing boy, surrounded by love. So many people love you, Gavin. We have made some wonderful friends who love you (your best buddy David loves you so much he gives you hugs and pats your head!), our friends love you and love to see your pictures that we share with them, our family loves you to bits - especially your special Nana who can't get enough of you - and Mommy and Daddy love you SO SO much. I love when your face bursts into a smile when Daddy comes home from work and I love the peaceful look on your sweet face when you're sleeping in my arms. This has been such a special first year, Gavin, and I pray it only gets better from here.

We love you so much Bo Bo!

xoxo Mama

Eleven Months

Gavin turned 11 months the day we went for a waterfall hike in Costa Rica! The trip was awesome and such nice weather so it was hard to come back to a very cold Toronto. Our classes are very hit and miss now with naptime...I hate to mess up his naps, so usually just go with his cues and if that means we miss a class, I at least get my naptime break! He can nap anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, but usually around 1-1.5 hours is normal. After getting back from Costa Rica he has decided to HATE getting in his stroller, which is making grocery shopping a bit of a challenge and is killing my back from wearing him in the carrier more often! Hoping for warmer weather soon and maybe he'll be ok in the stroller again.

He has a MASSIVE tooth coming in on the bottom right side, not a back molar, but one of the middle ones. His eye teeth on the top are coming in too, so I guess we can blame some of his moodiness on teething.

Gavin now signs "more" (by clapping), and also consistently signs "milk"!! That was so exciting to see him start signing milk, and it's been really helpful for both of us I think that he can communicate that. I try to nurse him as soon as he signs it to positively reinforce the sign so I think he's gotten the hang of it now! He also sort of signs "finished" by wiping his hands together when he's done...but a better indication that he's done is a high chair freak out, swiping all the food off his tray or throwing food onto the floor. He is incredibly moody and quite determined. If he really wants something and you try to take him away from it or take something away from him, he cries loud and hard. His mood seems to turn on a dime and he can go from laughing to crying in a second. He is cruising around a bit more so I'm trying to keep shoes on him in the house so he has a better grip on the floor. We really need to start baby proofing more since he's into all the cupboards and drawers. I'm always watching but better safe than sorry. He discovered the toilet paper and has gotten away with two good rounds of emptying the roll, and has almost totally emptied a Kleenex box at Nana and Papa's.

Sleep is still our biggest challenge. I'm constantly second guessing our decisions from one minute to the next. When you're on hour 2 of trying to get him to sleep, bouncing and nursing and feeling like you are actually going to lose your mind, it's easy to just want to stick him in his crib and let him cry. Easier said than done though since I'd never be able to make it past 2 minutes. Then there are the night where he snuggles in, nurses for a while, pops off on his own and sleeps for a good few hours in between us in bed. Those are the good nights. As I write this, he has finally gone to sleep at 10:00 after almost 2 hours of trying to get him down. So tonight is not a good night. Since his birthday is just around the corner, we're starting to think about when the right time would be for Baby #2. We both know we want them to be close in age, but seriously, I can barely do life with our busy, temperamental sleeper as it is, let alone being pregnant, let alone having a newborn to deal with too! One thing's for sure....if Gavin is still sleeping with us by the time I get a big belly...we're going to need a bigger bed!

Nine Months

New Year, Nine Months!

This little explorer is pulling himself up (confidently to his knees, cautiously to his feet), bouncing/dancing to music, hiding and finding things, and crawling like a maniac all over the place! When he wants something, he is FAST. Pulls himself up on our legs and loves it when Daddy comes home from work and they play! He likes turning the pages in his books and knocking down block towers. He weighed in at 19 lbs at his 9 month checkup, so hasn't gained too much in the past 3 months (around 18 at 6 months), but this is still normal. He decided to learn how to crawl up stairs ALL BY HIMSELF (we had finished a class and I left him with friends to go pull up the car since it was a super cold day, and found out he had followed someone up the 3 little stairs at the studio!) and now likes to practice stairs at some of our favourite places to go (Baby and Me Fitness, Children's Storefront). He has learned how to hold his cup by himself too and likes drinking water from it at dinner.

Gavin got a pretty bad cold, enough to take him to the doctor because of his bad cough. Just a virus so nothing to worry about, but it meant a week off of classes to not spread germs, followed by a week of Mommy being sick, so no classes again! January was a long month of going a bit stir crazy in the condo...super cold outside most days but we try to get to classes or the Storefront as much as possible. Gavin's best friend is David, born 7 hours earlier on March 31! They are very similar in mannerisms and it's nice to be able to talk to his mom about going through the same stages. We meet up at Baby and Me classes and the Storefront for lunches and playtime. Gavin's favourite soup at the Storefront is the split pea soup! He loves playing in the basement with the kitchen set, climbing the little steps to the book area and pulling books off the shelf and will play with and kiss the baby dolls. So cute! He also went through a "scrunchy face" stage:

He seems to know what we mean when we say "be careful" and will consistently "sit down" when told. "No" is sometimes listened to, sometimes not! He has started clapping which is the cutest thing in the world, and might be close to signing "more". Bedtime has been challenging - maybe we are trying to get him down too early since he will often nurse but then pull away wide awake and want to play. Sometimes we'll just let him play to get his energy out and find it's best to wait until he's SUPER tired before even trying to nurse him down. Had one 6 hour stretch of sleep this month!!! Unless I fed him in my sleep and never remembered...

Better Late Than Never...Eight Months

I told myself I HAD to get these done before Gavin turned ONE...which is now a mere 9 days away! How did this happen?! Here's a look at the past few months in the life of Gav.

In December, Gavin turned 8 months old. This was a pretty perfect age for all the excitement of Christmas! He was interested and totally in awe of all the decorations and music but didn't once try to tear down the Christmas tree. Such a good boy! He still loves peek-a-boo, is starting to pull himself up to standing and follows us all around the house or will come find us when we call him. He rips his socks off about 5 times a day and sometimes grinds his tiny teeth which drives me crazy!!

We decided to ditch the winter weather and went with Daddy on his marking trip to San Diego! Another good flight, but getting there very late meant a not very good cab ride to our hotel. His sleep was a bit off the whole time due to the time change, but we knew that would be difficult, especially only being there for a few days, so we just went with it. Crawling around in the hotel room, he learned to go from crawling to sitting! He also liked pulling all the clothes out of the suitcase. I'm sure it was a nice change for him to be out in the stroller without the Bundle Me cozy bag, sweaters and hats. It wasn't too hot, but sunny every day and warm enough for t-shirts. We went to the San Diego Zoo and he seemed to like looking at all the animals and just being outside with Mommy and Daddy all day. One night we tried putting him to sleep in the stroller so we could take him with us up to the rooftop pool for a quick dip in the hot tub. He was not thrilled about not being included so of course woke up. We got a few minutes at least. Drove up the coast to Laguna and Newport Beach. He was a good traveler getting there but not so happy on the way to Newport Beach or on the way back. Taking him down to the ocean was so fun, after a very west coasty breakfast bowl and green smoothie which we shared with him. He was a bit afraid of the waves and wind so stuck close to me.

It was a bit hard finding things for him to eat on the trip. I'm not wanting to give him too much salt, sugar, etc. so it's sometimes challenging finding something for him to eat at restaurants. I was a bit more relaxed though and let him taste a bunch of different things, like the fantastic burgers we had at Urban Burger or minestrone soup, and found him some squeeze pouches of pure applesauce which he seemed to really like, plus always had some apples and bananas and of course, Cheerios. He still seems to be a good eater, loves fruit, sweet potatoes, peas and soup. Not a big fan of meat, but likes beans and ground meat (turkey) in burgers, meatballs or chili. We are pretty positive he is allergic to butternut squash after giving him some soup and enduring a night of throwing up (at Lindsay's in Milton - so much that our sleepover turned into a late night drive home!).

Gavin babbles a lot to himself and has some different tones of voice. He smiles a huge grin all the time but it's still sometimes hard to get a good laugh out of him. For some reason he's started finding it hilarious when he gets out of the tub. I'm usually in the tub with him and pass him out to Daddy and he squeals and laughs and kicks his arms and legs like crazy! So weird... Still sleeping in bed with us, waking frequently and nursing through the night. Will sometimes sleep in though which is nice.

Christmas was super busy but lots of fun. Gavin ended up getting what we're pretty sure was fifth disease on Christmas Day. He'd been fussy and not really himself the day before and had a low grade fever and we noticed the rash on Christmas Day. Definitely not acting like himself so not as into opening presents as he might've been if he was feeling well. Lots and lots of nursing, cuddles and some good naps. He gave us a great gift New Year's Eve when he slept from 10:00-12:30, letting us have a fun evening and midnight celebrations with Kyle and Shannon (and Dad and Rob).

Ten Months

We have a confident stander on our hands! At ten months, he pulls himself up on everything and towards the end of the month is starting to cruise a little bit along the coffee table or back and forth from table to couch. He got a bit too adventurous one day pulling himself up on the high chair and fell and got a huge fat lip! When it happened, it bled quite a bit and I worried he might need a stitch in his lip - seemed his tooth had cut a big chunk out of his lip. Was really swollen that day and a big red mark on it the day after. 
  
Daddy had gone away for a weekend and got back late after Gavin was asleep. When he woke up in the morning and saw that Daddy was back, he gave him a huge hug! So sweet! He does the cutest things, like climbing into his baby bathtub on the floor, sometimes just to sit there! He loves watching the trains from the futon in his room and will sit right on the windowsill to watch them go by and waves when it disappears. We try to go swimming every so often and he started kicking on his back and blew some bubbles! He is a good helper and likes putting clothes in and out of the laundry basket and loves playing with the swiffer! He is getting into a lot more now, opening and closing drawers (sometimes on his fingers!) so I really need to watch him since we haven't baby proofed that much. He gets into the kitchen drawers all the time and likes to play with utensils, and sometimes pulls all Daddy's socks out of his drawer. 

Another big trip for the little traveler! We went to Costa Rica for 10 days and spent time on the beach and in the rainforest. He was pretty good on the long flight, and it was nice having extra hands - Nana, Papa, Uncle Rob - to help. We took him down to the water the first day and he was pretty apprehensive - didn't quite like the loud waves and didn't want to be put down in the sand. By the next day, he was cautiously exploring the sand and was soon all over the place, playing in the sand, splashing in his little tub on the beach, making mud with the sand, and his favourite - crawling right into the waves lapping on the beach! It was SO hot on the beach so we had to keep him in the shade and he spent most of the days in his bathing suit or diaper. He is having two fairly consistent naps during the day, but the timing depends on when he wakes up. On the trip (maybe the time change or with it being lighter in the morning), he was up super early, sometimes 5:00am. Tried to also get him in bed early, and thought he might sleep more soundly after so much fresh air and activity and in a king bed, but seemed to wake just as frequently as normal. We made him some soup (broth, tomatoes, beans, rice, carrots) so he could have some familiar food but he didn't seem to want to eat too much. Usually eats more at breakfast and lunch than at dinner. Still loves fruit, though bananas are hit and miss, and we took a big supply of Love Child Organics fruit and veggie purees so we could make sure he got some greens and we had something to take on the go for restaurants, on the plane, etc. Towards the end of the trip while in the volcano area, he must've been starting a growth spurt because he was eating SO much! One breakfast it was a full pancake with some pear puree "sauce", tons of fruit and rice and beans! 

He is a bit too interested in our phones now, so it's hard to get photos of him when he lunges for the phone every time! He now knows how to press the home button and sometimes even "talks" to Siri, which is hilarious. We've given him my old Blackberry loaded with Raffi songs so sometimes that is an acceptable substitute, but he's smart enough to know it's not the real thing. He claps and waves all the time now and is starting to clap in his high chair to sign "more". He talks up a storm in all different voices and often says "s" or "z" sounds. Sometimes Daddy even calls him "zee zee" since he says that so often! He sometimes says "dadada" but not too often and will say "mama" but not necessarily in the right context. Close enough though! 

Review Time Part Two

Diapering/Hygiene

Pampers Swaddlers & Cruisers - We learned early on that Huggies are the worst (they leak!) and Pampers are awesome. Wetness indicator? Genius. We used Swaddlers until he was about 6 or 7 months (basically until he started crawling) and then we switched to Cruisers. We've tried Baby Dry as well (which I think may be cheaper...) but prefer Cruisers.

 

Huggies Natural Care Wipes - That's right. Pampers dipes, Huggies wipes. We tend to rip the wipes in half (we're really not that frugal, it just seems a huge waste to use the full one) and Huggies wipes rip super easily. Pampers don't. At least the ones we tried which I think were Sensitive ones. Huggies wipes for the win!

 

Live Clean Baby - We've used the body wash and lotion from the start and love them both. That body wash will always make me think of baby bath time :)

Coconut oil - Instead of diaper creams, we've used coconut oil for pretty much everything - mainly diaper rashes and dry skin

Aleva Naturals wipes - We received some of these as gifts and they have been great! The Breathe Easy wipes smell great and we've used them a few times for nose wiping and keep the Pacifier and Toy wipes in the diaper bag for using while we're out and about.

Lansinoh nursing pads - After trial and error with a bunch of different brands, these nursing pads are BY FAR the best. I found that I needed to wear them every day since when I would feed Gavin on one side, the other side would leak. With yanking down your bra every hour or so, I found that the most important thing was stickiness. These pads have two sticky spots so they don't move around once they're stuck! All other ones seemed to lose stick and fall out every time I nursed which was super annoying. I wish I could have used reusable pads since I feel bad that these create so much waste, but they wouldn't have stuck at all

Other:


Dwell linens - One of the things I splurged on/asked for as gifts. I LOVE their patterns and have to say that the quality has been great. We have the crib sheet in Stars and Skyline, the grey crib skirt, and change table covers in Owls Sky and Skyline. Beware: infant spit up STAINS. On that note - buy Sunlight soap bars in bulk. You'll need them. Best stain remover!

Skyline change pad and crib sheet

Aden & Anais swaddle blankets - Yes, they are expensive. Yes, they are WORTH IT. I would tend to say these blankets were our most used baby item for the first 6 months. Since Gavin was born in the spring, these blankets were perfect for light swaddling or covering him up in the car seat or stroller. We would have one with us wherever we went to use for a burp cloth or to lie him on the floor and they were great to travel with since they fold up small and could be easily washed and dried. Gavin loved them too, he would hang onto them, cover his face with them (scary!) so we eventually got him a set of the "Issie" mini blankets so he could carry one with him. Cute :)

Baby Cubes Fresh Feeder - We got this as a gift and I first thought it would be pretty useless. WRONG! This thing has been the BEST since Gavin started eating solids. I mostly used it on the go (which was every day!) so I could take a snack without the mess!

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS! - Since we have such limited space in the condo, we were a bit worried about getting baby gifts that we wouldn't have space or use for. So our go-to suggestion for gifts was books! It's nice to have a variety so you're not reading the same thing all the time and we've loved getting some super cute stories! A select few of our favourites:

We also have a few favourite books that we read to prepare for baby:

Review Time Part One

Looking back and remembering all the research I was doing a year ago, I have been wanting to follow up with a review of some of the products we've used with Gavin and what we've loved and used or not so much. After I started writing this I saw how long it was getting so I'll break it up into a few posts, basically meaning I might be done by the time Gavin starts Kindergarten.


Up first: Big Ticket Items

Carseat - Graco Snugride 35

No complaints here! It has been fairly portable, though heavy, and we liked that it could easily snap in and out of the base in the car and onto the stroller for running errands. In hindsight (and someone did give us this advice) we could have gone with the Snugride 30. I doubt most babies actually make it to the size limit in the 35 before outgrowing it in other ways. Gavin was around 20+ lbs at 8 months and partly because it's winter and he's in bulkier clothes, the straps were getting way too tight.


New carseat! - Diono Radian RXT

We've only been using this seat for a week or so, and so far so good. The one thing I don't like (which I was somewhat prepared for since I read it in reviews) is that it is extremely hard to tighten. Maybe it's because he's still a bit small for the seat and once he's bigger it may be easier but right now, I have to pull the tether SO HARD to get it snug on his chest. And it will be next to impossible to travel with....


Stroller - Baby Jogger City Mini GT

Loooove it! We've been really happy with the stroller. I'm so glad we went with the three wheels, it's been so easy to maneuver through all the condo doors and the grocery store and it folds up SO EASILY with one hand. I wish the undercarriage was bigger for holding more stuff, but we've made it work.

Stroller Accessories:
Carseat Adapter - MUST HAVE. This made it sooo easy to keep Gavin in the carseat and snap it onto the stroller. Great for when he was sleeping since we didn't have to take him out. The adapter wasn't the easiest to take on and off so we just left it on which made it a bit awkward to fold up but once you got the hang of working around it, it was fine. We kept it on the stroller until our Europe trip at 5 months and then had Gavin sitting right in the stroller itself. 
Jolly Jumper stroller caddy - great for water bottle, phone, etc. and nice to have the zippered section
Baby Jogger Wind/Rain Canopy - this has been key for rainy days or for everyday use as soon as the weather turned cold, but word to the wise: DON'T leave it attached and fold the stroller up! It ripped along the seams on both ends and kept getting worse with the cold. Now we have a new one and will make sure to detach one end of it before folding.
JJ Cole Bundle Me - we chose this winter bundle for the stroller as it seemed to be great quality and long lasting (can extend to accommodate a child up to about 4 years old!) The only downside I've seen with this is that there isn't a way to cinch the opening tighter, so Gavin can easily get his arms out. Still need to make sure he is in lots of layers and has mitts on and this is another reason we always use the wind cover. 
Car mirror - I forget what brand we have but they are all fairly similar. A must have for the car to easily glance in the mirror and see baby while rear facing in the carseat.

Crib - Oeuf Robin Crib

Hahaha, maybe I can let you know how we like the crib once Gavin actually starts sleeping in it? In hindsight, we maybe should have held off on the crib until we saw what kind of sleeper he was. I'm glad we found this one on sale though as cribs can get so expensive, and I do like the simple design of it. (It has NOT been easy lowering the mattress though!) We used the Arm's Reach co-sleeper bassinet (borrowed from a friend) until he was almost 6 months old (we stopped using it after our Europe trip and once Gavin was too big/could move around more and sit up). This was a fantastic bassinet, kept Gavin close to easily pull into bed for nursing but he could be in his own space too. If space in our bedroom allowed, we would definitely have considered doing a side-car with his crib and pushing it up to our bed but unfortunately there just isn't room. I won't get into detail with Gavin's sleep troubles, but needless to say, he does not sleep in his crib yet. He will sometimes nap in it during the day or start the night off in the crib, but as of now, sleeps with us. And we're all happy with that :)  Oh, and the crib mattress. We got this on sale as well but spent a bit more on this to get a good one. Better to get a higher end mattress and go less on the crib since the mattress is what gets used and needs to be safe and comfortable and last a long time.

Other nursery furniture - Pretty much the only things we bought specifically for the baby were an IKEA dresser to use as a change table, a display shelf for books and decor, and the glider. The glider is awesome but hasn't been used as much as I'd hoped. If we had more room and it was actually IN the nursery, maybe we would sit there for story time. As of now, story time is Daddy's domain and the boys cuddle on the futon in the nursery for stories. I would definitely recommend using a dresser as a change table as opposed to one of the open shelved traditional change tables. So much more functional and nice being able to have things put away in drawers. 


Babywearing

Boba stretchy wrap - We used this wrap for at least the first 3 months or so and LOVED IT. I actually bought it off Kijiji, still new. I would definitely recommend searching Kijiji for baby stuff since some people are selling things that are brand new for cheaper than store prices. Gavin seemed to like the wrap a lot and usually fell asleep in it. We didn't wear him ALL the time, which I think was good because then we could use it as a soothing technique or to put him to sleep when needed. It took a few tries to get the hang of tying it but then it becomes second nature and it's amazing to have your hands free! We also had a woven wrap which I never really got the hang of using. I wish we had given it a better try since I know so many people love the woven wraps and you can use them longer than stretchy wraps (which start to sag when baby gets too heavy) but we really liked the stretchy wrap.

Boba carrier - We did some research and because the Ergo carriers required an infant insert and this one didn't, we decided to get the Boba to use once Gavin "graduated" from the stretchy wrap. We started using it when Gavin was about 3 months old. Again, it took a few tries to get the hang of putting it on and getting it comfortable but it worked out pretty well. Once we got the Ergo however, this one has barely been used. It's just a little heavier and the fabric is thicker so for our sweaty little man, we preferred using the Ergo.

Ergo Performance carrier -*cue angels singing* Definitely one of our best purchases for baby. We LOOVE this carrier! I know a lot of people have the Original or Organic Ergos but this one (Performance) was a little sportier, lighter weight and more breathable fabric which were all what we were looking for. We still tend to use the stroller more often, especially now that Gavin is way heavier, but he will still fall asleep in the carrier most of the time which is a great trick to have up our sleeves, especially for church or for Daddy trying to get him to sleep at night. I used this for our Carrier Fit classes as well and it was very comfortable. I use it a lot when going to classes now just for shuttling to and from the car. No point in getting the stroller out for a two minute walk from our parking spot to class but it's awkward just carrying him in my arms with bags, etc. so this is safer and I can tuck him inside my coat on the cold days. Would 1000% recommend this carrier to anyone, so worth the investment.