Introducing Puppy + Baby

One of the (many) things keeping me busy over the past few months has been our new puppy! Husby and I had a moment just following Christmas where we caught our breath and took a collective sigh of relief. In that moment it was clear we could add one more thing to our plate. And, somehow that something became our new addition, my and Lil’ O’s first pet ever, our new puppy Knute (pronounced kah-NEWT).

Now, just to be clear, if you’re eager for balance and streamlining activities, combining puppy and baby is not a good idea. Oblivious to all the work that a puppy, or even a dog for that matter, requires, I was eager for the addition. I’ve never had a pet. Nope, not even a fish. And, by getting the puppy now, Lil’ O would grow up with it. And, at least in theory, the pup would be fully trained before Babe #2 (this is a hypothetical babe, not an announcement). It all sounds lovely and would complete our happy little family. Well, we do adore Knute, but he is certainly a lot of work. Especially in that first month when he wouldn’t sleep through the night and wasn’t yet potty trained. It really is like having another baby! Except feeding is a lot easier. And it was a lot easier to be stern. And he got the whole potty training thing faster. Goodness, we haven’t even started that process yet with Lil’ O! So, easier than a baby, but still soooo much work.

The good news is that Lil’ O and Knute get along quite well. They don’t really know how to play with one another yet, so we often have to separate them, but they so clearly want to play with one another. It’s adorable! And, after a few months and clearly establishing our dominance as alpha, we’ve mostly fallen into the groove of being pet owners. Husby has done a wonderful job of training Knute and he is a very sweet dog.

For those who are wondering, we got Knute from a lab rescue group in town. We don’t know what his mix is exactly, but suspect some combo of lab with pit and/or boxer. There could be more in there, but there’s no real way to tell. Regardless, we think he’s a cutie!

Dedicating Lil' O

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Ours was a bit clouded by Husby running a fever and being sick, but we had a wonderful celebration nonetheless. It was just quieter than planned. Still, it was fun seeing Lil’ O “hunt” for eggs at church (he likes the orange ones and doesn’t understand why you’d want more than two since that’s one for each hand), and a wonderful opportunity to reflect on all we’ve been given by God.

For us, that includes Lil’ O. Ever since our little man was born, we've known we didn't create him, God did. Creating another life is altogether too much for a person to do and we give the credit to God. We see ourselves as stewards of Lil' O and know we are truly blessed by him. He is such a joy. Oh, he's plenty of work too, but it’s so incredibly worth it. To cement and declare our decision to bring up our Lil' O in a home that believes in Jesus, we recently had the joy of dedicating Lil' O to God at our church. It was a beautiful opportunity and we’re so grateful to everyone who made it possible and who joined us. Thank you!

The Fam: Grandpa, Meema, Husby, Lil' O, me, Grandma, Sistah, Granddad

(Explanatory Side Note: Many choose to baptize their little ones, and it is a beautiful thing. Our church leaves baptism for adults who have chosen Jesus as their own. Children haven't yet made that decision for themselves, so dedication shows the parents' desire for the child or children. It also serves as a public commitment by the congregation to help the parents raise their little one for Jesus. Hope this helps provide the back story behind this tradition and to our celebration.)

Lil’ O’s First Birthday!

Lil' O back when he was just a lil' guy.

Somehow my baby boy has turned one! It seems just yesterday that I felt as big as a house and we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the little baby that would become Lil’ O. But, it also feels that it’s been ages since we were footloose and fancy free of the stresses and obligations that parenting brings. We wouldn’t change the chaos of our life for anything and Lil’ O brings so much joy into our home and our lives.

To celebrate the all-important first year, we threw a casual gathering for family and close friends. Since all the boys in the family, but especially Husby and his brother, love Lego, that became the theme of the party and my excuse to buy lots and lots of Duplo “as decoration.”  ;) 

 

We kept it casual with food on the grill and easy sides. No matter what we served, we knew the highlight would of course be Lil’ O’s first real taste of sugar. No surprise, it was a hit! We did have to feed him a taste before he realized the cupcake was something worth eating, but then he stuffed as much as he could in his mouth and barely bothered with chewing.

 

We had a blast, though we did have a lower turnout than expected as a few whole families were sick. Seems our minor bought of sickness concluded while other families were just getting started. Bummer for everyone. Boo! On the positive side, it did make the shindig more casual, which I appreciated. The party was wonderful, but was just one piece of a celebratory week, which also included celebrating Lil’ O’s birthday on his actual day with banana bread for all the kiddos at daycare and reprised with family that evening, lots of gifts, hosting my in-laws (from Ohio) for a week-long visit and visiting the zoo. So much fun!

We are so grateful for our dear friends and family that celebrated with us and more importantly who help us care for Lil’ O (and stay sane). Special shout out to my dad and Ms. E’s husband for taking such beautiful pictures at Lil’ O’s birthday party. Thanks guys!

Parenting Through Cold & Flu

Well, seems we’ve all been hit. All parents. All kids. Everywhere. Everyone seems to have been sick this winter and I’m so glad we’re finally getting some sunshine and health! January and into February everyone in our house was sick. It. Was. Miserable.

First up, I got sick. Just a common cold, but taking care of a kiddo while sick is a whole new ball game. Sharing is caring, so then Lil' O got sick. Sigh. Thankfully Husby stayed well long enough for me to get mostly better. We tag teamed taking care of Lil' O based on who felt more healthy throughout the month. Lil' O got mostly better, then Husby got sick with a different bug. Both fully recovered, and then I fell sick again. It seems I perhaps didn’t give myself enough time to get well the first time around, because it was the same cold, but more persistent the second time around. Well, life doesn’t go on hold and showers don’t throw themselves. Alas.

A new twist that I knew about intellectually, but wasn’t quite psychologically prepared for is that regardless of who is sick – me or Lil' O – I had to take off of work. It’s evidently frowned upon to bring kids to daycare if you so much as suspect they have a cold, a sniffle, a cough. Hard part is how does one determine if babe is teething and that’s why there’s drool, coughing and fussiness, or that they’re really sick? More than once I’ve wished there was a button or clear way to sort between the two. Or, as we call it in our house, WTF for “Why The Fuss?” Having a funny name helps us defuse the situation and laugh a little despite our frustration.

Lil' O had a fever one night and it was crystal clear that he wasn’t well. He wanted to cuddle. I loved that part, but since he’s more of a go go go type, we knew something was up before confirmation by thermometer. (See picture below.)

Other than that, though, each morning was a kind of guessing game. Is he was well enough to go to daycare? Should we stay home because he's actually that sick? Or, do we need to stay away from the other kiddos at daycare as a precautionary measure? Not sure I made all the right calls, but we got through it and now Lil' O is healthy and fussy for all new reasons. Yay? More on that soon.

All this to say that parenting through cold and flu season is hard, I’m still catching up from the one-two-three-four punch, and I have new appreciation for parents everywhere, especially where there are actual seasons and sicknesses seem to last longer.

Any tips from more seasoned parents, grandparents and caregivers out there for getting through the dreaded cold and flu season? All I’ve heard so far is to pick up Hyland's Tiny Cold Tablets whenever and wherever I can find them and hoard them until needed. (Evidently they sell out quickly this time of year.) I was skeptical of a homeopathic solution, but with limited options we gave them a try. I will note they worked pretty well and were certainly better than nothing. All other tips welcome! Thanks!

Lulu’s Book-Themed Baby Shower

Throwing a baby shower can be a lot of fun, whew, but it’s also quite the undertaking. Ms. E and I were thrilled to throw a shower for our dear friend, Lulu. We jumped at the chance and planned for months. Once the time came, though, I was especially super glad we were in it together. We decided early on to divide duties according to our interest and strengths. She managed all of the food and I got to decorate! The shindig was also being held at my place, so I cleaned up, but that’s less exciting. Neither of us were quite sure what to do about games and we were super excited and relieved when another friend of Lulu’s, and a fellow bridesmaid to her, wanted to be involved. We delegated games/activities to her and didn’t look back. I sent out invites and managed overall direction and coordination to be sure we were all in sync across our assignments. Happy to report all went off without a hitch, well, not any noticeable hitches. ;)

Beyond determining roles, next up was finding the perfect shower theme. Lulu let us know she wanted something with lots of color and that the nursery would loosely be themed around The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We didn’t want to focus the shower on just The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but thought that was a great place to start. After much research, we found it! The perfect theme to fit our friend and that we could all rally behind. Books! In my décor research I found a shower that was themed around a few different books and we were sold! From there we picked our books, largely on what we thought would fit a colorful décor scheme and based on which books we most enjoy reading to our sons. Our top five picks, in no particular order, were Curious George, The Little Blue Truck, Goodnight Moon, Dr. Seuss, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, of course.

Once we landed on the theme and books, Ms. E and I met to brainstorm food. The final menu and Ms. E’s adorable names for each dish are below. It’s totally inspired.

 

The Food

As already noted, Ms. E managed all things food and it was wonderful! I’m so grateful I wasn’t in this shower thing alone, she loves tackling party food – as she reflected on in her recent blog post (http://lifetossedtogether.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-career-in-baby-shower-food.html) – and she’s totally awesome at it! She made everything! Even the adorable names for the dishes.

Curious George:

Curry-ous George Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches
Man with the Yellow Hat Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Where the Wild Things Are:

Wild Rumpus Veggies and Dip
King of the Wild Things Fruit Salad

Good Night Moon:

Gouda Night Moon Cheese Plate

Little Blue Truck:

Read to Pop-Corn

The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

Very Hungry Caterpillar Cupcakes

The Décor

I love decorating! It’s fun and parties are a unique opportunity to explore since the decoration is meant to be short lived. We included copies of each book as part of the table décor, and I tried to have a decoration for each book as well. Thanks to our sons, we had a lot of the books already and were even able to use some of their toys for decoration. Resourceful, why, yes, we are, thank you. ;) The décor items and books mostly accompanied the adorable food that Ms. E prepared. In addition, I tried to bring in a lot of color since that was specifically requested. Lulu, our mama-to-be, already knows my place and I was hoping she would walk in and feel like the home was remade to suit the shower. So, I took down curtains and family photos to make room for decorations and hung lots of plastic tablecloths to bring in bright pops of color above windows and over the food. It took a bit of time, but the cut tablecloths that hung over the food might have been my favorite. I found the idea somewhere along the way while researching, but can’t seem to find the source blog now. Sad. Regardless, I love how it came out and it was an inexpensive way to bring in color, color, color!

My other favorite décor item and labor of love was the diaper cake. It seems like baby showers these days require a multi-tiered “cake” made of diapers, and we wanted to be sure ours was up to the fun as well as serving the functional need of providing our mama-to-be with diapers for her coming little guy. Since we knew Lulu was going for The Very Hungry Caterpillar in the nursery, I played it safe here and got a Hungry Caterpillar toy as the cake topper and decorated around that color scheme. The cake was “frosted” with blue and green plaid (I love plaid!) receiving blankets and the top of each layer was covered in red crinkle paper to hide the diapers below. I hid a few functional surprises within the center of each tier too for Lulu to find as she dismantles the cake to use those precious diapers. It might seem silly, but the cake is a fun centerpiece for a shower and dismantling the cake from my shower provided us with quite a few much-needed diapers! So, I was glad to share the joy of diapers and pass it along.

Ultimately, the shower came together well and Lulu seemed to enjoy it. Our only real glitch, I think, was that we weren’t quite ready when Lulu, her mom and mother-in-law arrived. Woops. Ms. E and I had been juggling prep with taking care of our little ones, Lil’ O and Lil’ Sir, plus my new puppy. (More to come on life with little pup in a future post.) Thank God my mom was with us to help us juggle – she pitched in taking care of the little guys, watching pup and generally helping us with some of the prep tasks. She was so helpful! Once the shower actually started and Ms. E and I came down from our prep frenzy, I think all went well. Lulu at least seemed pleased, and at the end of the day it’s all about the mama-to-be. :)

Love you, Lulu.