duets

I always sing this song to Odesa and recently she started singing along with me. I whisper a line at the end & she now whispers with me!

Sheets!

Easter fun day!

Let the birthdays begin!

Odesa turned one last week and we celebrated not once but twice! She had a party the Saturday before with her cousins & baby friends in the park by our house. On her actual birthday we made sure it was super special by doing all of her favorite things & eating her favorite foods. She started out with banana fritter pancakes, raviolis for lunch, not one but two trips to the park and then dinner at her favorite restaurant with all her favorite people. She finished the day with a little organic ice cream and a few rounds of high fives for everyone.

Looking back on our 12 months together I am both sad that she is growing up but excited about what is in our future as we enter into year 2 of her life (and I dare to say toddlerhood.) Each stage of her life so far has had its great parts and its challenging chapters and I have to say right now I am feeling 12 months. Its such a wonderful place to be in with her. Our days are full of games, stories, singing, dancing, parks, playdates and cuddly memories. Now that she is walking well the world has suddenly become so vivid to her, she is curious & bold as she journeys out of my arms and into independence. Until she realizes she has ventured a little too far and comes running back for comfort. I truly hold on to these moments so that I can remember forever how wonderful it is to hug and comfort this tiny person. As much as I love 12 months I have a feeling its just going to get better & better as she grows & blossoms.

I do have a few goals for our second year, the biggest one is potty training. I know its early but Odesa is getting so efficient at communicating with us that it might be possible! Another is taking her camping, which we are scheduled to do in May at Palomar Mountain. A goal for myself-more sleep, Odesa isn't making any promises though. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to whats in store for us next but am holding on tight to this tiny part of her life.

The right way is never the easy way.....

When Mike & I found out about our greatest accomplishment (maybe even our only accomplishment thus far!) we were surprised to say the least. I was suddenly thrown head first into the vast unknown of parenting books, baby supplies, questions and more questions. What to eat while pregnant, what to buy for our lil miss, diapers, birthing strategies, immunizations, OH MY!!!

While I was pregnant Mike & I spent more hours than I can count, & probably more hours than Mike cares to remember making the important decisions on all things baby. From car seats to doctors-then midwifes and more. I thought we were oh so prepared for the most unplanned pregnancy of all time. Well boy was I wrong! We survived the first few months by the hair of our chinny chin chin to say the least, doing whatever it took to keep our spawn happy & content. By around 5 months I realized everything we were doing as parents was in line with a specific parenting technique labeled Attached Parenting.

We had heard of attached parenting before & I had even read a little bit about it while pregnant but stopped once I read the words cosleeping. I am 100% against any type of "sleep training" method out there but if there was one thing Mike & I were not going to do it was sleep with our baby. One has to draw the line somewhere right? Well my first mistake here was assuming I had any idea of what life would be like with a baby when I was pregnant. I think we lasted about one and a half nights with her in the bassinet next to the bed before we "gave in" after getting up constantly and started co-sleeping. Sleep is very dear to me and I was not about to be the zombie mom who was up all hours of the night nursing & rocking a crying baby. With Odesa in the bed everything was easy & right, she slept better, I slept better & nursing was a breeze. Fast forward 12 months and here I am a zombie mom! If you haven't yet met Odesa (shame on you!) then what you don't know is that she is a tiny person with a BIG personality. She knows what she needs & how to get it! Well our co-sleeping situation has turned into the all night diner under moms shirt! Due to some breastfeeding woes- more on that later, Odesa has become accustomed to eating at her favorite restaurant 7-10 times a night! Needless to say neither Mike or myself are sleeping much these nights. So now we are forced to make some real decisions regarding our daughter & our parenting style as we move forward into the world of night weaning. The road wont be an easy one, and I am sure things will get much harder before they get easier. We found a plan where you slowly introduce other ways to put them back to sleep instead of nursing. Hopefully restful nights are somewhere in our future!