The final day of 2012...

And I'm drinking wine and sitting at my laptop, literally amazed at how fast this year has gone.

It feels like Noah was *just* born, and he's he's now almost a year and a half old. We just celebrated his second Christmas - though the first one he really got to enjoy. He had a great day, and made out like a bandit, of course. Spoiled boy.

Christmas morning 2012

But maybe I should go back to the beginning. This year was the year of Firsts, especially for Noah. He learned to crawl, then walk, then run. He went to Sauble Beach for the first time. He had his first birthday. Then he learned "no", but also to give kisses and hugs, which makes up for it. More recently, he started sleeping in his "big boy" twin size bed. *tears* He's getting so big. 

This year was amazing for me, as well. I had the first half of the year on Maternity leave, which ended in June. Thinking I was going to have to go back to work, it was a depressing time. But someone had a plan for us, for sure, and I was able to stay home with Noah, while babysitting a couple of friends' kids. It has been amazing to get to be with my boy every day. I have not missed any of his firsts, because of this. I am so blessed. 

I am so looking forward to 2013, for many reasons. But tonight, it's still 2012, if only for a few more hours. I am planning to eat ice cream and watch a movie while Noah sleeps soundly upstairs. I'm a Mom, and I'm okay with not going out to celebrate tonight - I'll likely be up at 6am anyway. Haha. 

New Year's Eve, 2012

See you all in the New Year! 

The leaves are FALLing..

I *so* want to start posting here more often and now that Noah has a nap time that I can count on (yes, he's down to one nap now), I have about one hour of free (me) time in the afternoon each day. He naps from 12pm-2 or 1pm-3pm - I always spend the first hour tidying up/doing dishes/putting in laundry, then I sit at the computer with my coffee for the second hour. So far, I usually get sidetracked with Facebook / Pinterest and don't get much done, and before I know it Noah is awake. But recently I've been making a running list of stuff to get done during nap time (I'm obsessed with lists).

This week the list included : order prints from Walmart photo centre, organize/transfer/delete pictures on laptop, update cloth diaper blog, update regular (this) blog. Well, yesterday I scratched off the first two things and today I'm working on the blog posts.

I've been wanting to write about my new status as "stay-at-home Mom". I mean, I've always been a stay-at-home Mom, ever since a month before he was born. But I guess I always knew I'd have to go back to work of some sort after my year of maternity leave. Living off my husband's income only was never a feasible option for us, and I knew that. I was prepared for that.

But then my brother (uncle Aaron) moved here and has been living with us (in the basement) since June. He's giving us "rent" which is helping alot. I also started babysitting a couple of other babies Noah's age, part time, and a little girl every day after school. And suddenly my dream of staying at home, raising my son is coming true. I feel like the luckiest person ever.

It's truly amazing to be able to spend my days with my son - seeing all of his "firsts" and watching him grow and change literally before my eyes. He's becoming such a little person now - running, climbing, starting to talk. He's incredibly smart (too smart, I think sometimes) and knows what he wants. He's generally happy and funny - but of course he has his moments and has begun throwing epic tantrums. I ignore him and he stops, at least for now. He's literally my sidekick and we love being together, though he's becoming independent now and loves playing with other kids and people. He's just... amazing. I love him so much. Now that I'm feeling all sappy I want to go squeeze him (but of course I just spent an hour getting him to sleep in his crib, so I will *not* be doing that).

I'm also making and selling my all natural bum balm (Bubba Baby Bum Balm) so there's some profit from that as well. I have a Facebook page and an Etsy shop. I'm participating in a local mom / homemade fair in a couple weeks as well. I'm super excited - hoping to get my product out there a bit more. I am really passionate about keeping chemicals (things we can't pronounce the names of) away from babies skin, so I'm so looking forward to spreading the word about this.

I'll end this with a recent picture of Noah - and a promise to post around here more often :)

Well, what can I say?

It's been another six months since I've blogged around here - I'm not sure how I keep letting time get away from me.

My baby turned one *gasp* two weeks ago, and is quickly transforming into a toddler. How did this happen? Wasn't he just born? The party was awesome and we had tons of family and friends there with us to celebrate our little man.

Here's a couple shots from the big day.

 He doesn't look impressed.

 His cake!

 Opening presents.

 Cake smash!

"I'm ONE!"

Since then, I've just been trying to enjoy him the best I can. He's growing up too fast. He runs around, gets into everything and sometimes drives me crazy... but he's so sweet and gives the best hugs in the world. He's so smart - he knows tons of words (mama, dada, dog, cat, hi, buh bye, night night, bubble, ball), he figures things out all the time and we wonder how the heck he knew that! Hearing his little voice call  me, "Mama!" or when he wants something and he points and says, "Mama?" - it's just too sweet. You just can't imagine how much you'll love your child and then every day you just love them more and more. It's unbelievable. 

I've been lucky enough to become a "stay at home Mom" as well. My maternity leave ran out and we were still unsure of what we were going to do. I did not want to go back to work and pay someone else to take care of Noah. It just didn't make sense to us. Luckily, a friend of mine who has a son Noah's age was going back to work and asked if I wanted to babysit her little guy. So far it's working out great. I'm just very grateful to be able to stay home with Noah. My husband is amazing. 

Oh, speaking of my husband... he quit smoking for Noah's first birthday! It's been over two weeks now and he's doing awesome. I knew he'd quit when he was ready and he decided to do it now, for Noah, so that he'd never remember his Daddy smoking. Our kids growing up in a smoke-free home (family) was very important to me. I'm so proud of my husband, I can't imagine how hard it probably is. 

These days, I will hopefully get my blogging time in during Noah's nap - that's right, he's already down to one nap per day. It's usually 2 hours long, though, so I can eat, clean up and still get some time on the laptop. I am hoping to be able to post at least once a week here, from now on. I'm still posting more regularly on my other blog, Cloth Diaper World.

January is coming to an end...

It's so hard to believe that we are already almost a month into 2012. We have so much fun stuff coming up that I don't mind the time passing quickly - but I really hate how fast Noah is growing up.

Noah and I are really enjoying swimming classes, every Saturday. He loves the water, so it's perfect fit. I'm trying to get him ready for summer - we're going to be swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's all the time. And we are planning a big pool party 1st birthday... wow. Less than six months and he'll be a year old. Crazy.

Next weekend is his Baptism, and Grandma Rouse (my Mom) is flying down for the weekend! We can't wait to see her. I'm very excited to get family and friends together to celebrate Noah's Baptism.

I'm working on a few things these days - one of which will result in me opening an Etsy shop in the near future. I'll be selling home made all natural lip balm and cloth diaper safe bum cream. I'm also hoping to start selling some bibs, cloth wipes and wet bags that I've been working on. Stay tuned for more on that!

I'll leave you will some pictures from today, of Noah of course.

I have a six month old...

Four months? How has four months passed since I've posted here? That blows my mind. I apologize.

I have been blogging though, but over on my other blog. You can go visit if you want - it's called Cloth Diaper World and, you guessed it, it's my cloth diaper blog. I've been reviewing products, writing posts that other cloth diaperers might find helpful, etc.

Yes, my life is all about the baby, and cloth diapers are a huge part of that. So, my few minutes of free time a day is usually spent writing posts for that blog.

The other thing I've been doing alot of is making baby food. So far I've made sweet potato puree, peas puree and butternut squash puree, as well as mashed avocado and banana. I cut up the fresh fruit/veggie, usually steam it for a few minutes and then blend it into a puree in my new hand blender that my mother in law bought me for Christmas. I was using my three year old Magic Bullet prior to that, and it was doing the job, but not that great. I'm very happy with my hand blender! After it's a puree, I spoon it into clean ice cube trays, let it cool, snap on the lid and throw it (not literally) into the freezer. Noah eats 1-2 cubes per meal, once a day so far. He's loved everything he's tried so far, too.

Eating banana, at 5 months old

Oh, did I forget to mention that he's 6 months old now? How did that happen? He's not quite mobile yet - he crawls backwards but not forwards. He's got an amazing little (big) personality as well. He's very social, loves most everyone and hardly ever cries. He whines, definitely. But crying is rare. He (finally) is back to sleeping through the night - we went through a month or two of him waking up 2-3 times every night to eat. Though those days I just had an extra cup of coffee and didn't let it affect me much.

We spend our days playing, going for walks in the stroller and then when Noah decides to actually nap, I get housework done - like dishes, vacuuming, laundry, etc. I usually only get online on my iPhone, and usually only when I'm nursing Noah. Although he is now alot better at playing on his own (now that he's sitting up) and that allows me a few minutes to actually get on the laptop and upload pictures, blog, etc.

I'll leave you with a picture from today, since I have to go start dinner now. I've been teaching myself how to take a better picture with my dslr, without a flash. I'm proud of this one.