A Ninja's first haircut....

For so long we were holding on to the dream that the hair on top of O's head would catch up to that on the sides and back...  alas, not so much.  Even though I was against this first haircut, I know it was needed.

The cut is really cute (thank you Kent)!  He also kind of looks like someone else's baby though.  haha

Here are some pictures from start to finish (see captions)....

Waiting....  this place seems cool.  Lots of
weird noises and pretty ladies.  Notice my really
long hair - in the back!  ha!

This chair is weird and cool, I think?

Hmmm.  More weird stuff.  A booster and
an Angry Birds cape?

HALP!!

Out of the chair and on foot.  From this view I would be
pretty freaked out too.  Nothing like sharp scissors pointed at what
looks like your face....

Oh gawd.  My hair!  HALP!!!

Alright, this Kent guy isn't too bad.  

Oh ya, first look in the mirror....  he likes it!

After!!  Lookin' good kid!  Thank you Auntie
Annie for the great shot!

Yep!

Sleeping Ninja after his bath with his new short hair.  Awwww.

Almost back!

Phew folks, what a crash course the last weekish has been...  but, I am happy to report we are all on the mend!

O's temp finally broke Tuesday morning.  It seemed like things were turning around for the better, but he was still in pain and very much in need of cuddle time.  The Ibuprofen really does work wonders for these instances.  We did add all natural Orajel as well and it does great.  Still using that along with the all natural Camilia.  Here is a shot of the sweet boy's swollen grill (6 teeth total- 4 front & 2 back).

Gnarly!  I tried to get an updated picture today- all front 4 are out, but O wasn't havin' it!

Tuesday night we were in thinking we were in the clear... O was happier, smiling and eating.  So off the boys headed for bath time when Joe called me in to take a look at O.  This is what we saw:

Little red bumps everywhere

Quick text to our life saver Pediatrician friend- she quickly responded to set our minds at ease and said it was a virus called Roseola.  Wait, what??  Yes, a virus.  Apparently the bumps on him were the sign the virus is exiting the body.  No biggie, just a kid thing that runs its course.
Well, isn't that lovely?  Teething and a virus?  She also said the virus was more than likely the culprit behind all the temperature spikes.  These things are all so new to me.  Makes me want to be a doctor to maybe be in front of all crazy kid sickies!!

We took a turn for the best near the end of the week, but I in turn got a cold.  O and I had 2 play dates scheduled with friends we had so been looking forward to, but I canceled.  Super sad, but there is no way I was going to take the chance of passing any of my germs to my friends kids.

O has a runny nose now, heck we all do.  But overall- we are ALL on the mend!

He has had a great week with his nanny Amy, girlfriend- Isabel, Miss Davina, NahNah & Christine.  Oh, and we cannot forget Yoda- the funniest doggie O knows!

Getting this Ninja to hold still now days is not so easy!  

This picture is just proof of how he was the entire play date we had a couple weeks ago when I had no idea 6 teeth were busting their way through his gums and that he may have had a virus.  Yikes.  Freakin' shitty mom of the year award!  :/

The sweetest girls ever, Viv & Mal.  They did everything they could to try and make O happy.

Teething.... you are a B.

Poof!  Just like that it has been over a month since I last posted.  Time is cruising right along and so is our sweet Ninja.  

He is growing like a weed (length wise he is currently about half of me), traveling, walking (see clip below- first time walking with shoes on-  he kills it barefoot), trying to talk (he is a huge fan of saying "car" and "oh god"-  should I not be encouraging the second one??  haha) and teething (he currently still only has 2 bottom front teeth).  

On the teething front- I must admit, we may have jinxed ourselves when we were out to dinner Friday night with friends.  We had a lengthy conversation how O's buddy Jack (who is a few months older) has so many more teeth and all questioned when O may get more?  I of course sat there thinking this teething thing will be just fine.  The first 2 he got weren't TOO bad (just sad clingy boy who wanted his Mama & Dada- passing within 24 hours of onset)....  This is going to be a breeze, right?  HA!  Strike one.  

So if you honestly take time to think about the process it is terrible!  Teeth ripping through your gums?  Why does it have to be so awful?  Barbaric.  

Saturday morning we woke up to a very fussy little boy.  Totally not normal for O.  I thought, oh no big deal- probably teeth, it will be like last time...  no biggie.  Things actually got worse and he was more fussy, I contemplated rescheduling a play date with a friend and her girls, but selfishly I was looking so forward to seeing them and O playing with the girls I convinced myself it would pass.  Strike two.   

The drive and the visit were probably one of O's worst showings, ever.  First time for everything I suppose, right?  I blamed myself though.  I knew better, I should have rescheduled.  Strike three.

Once we were home he went straight to bed.  I hoped this would help, but upon waking up he also had a fierce fever.  The drooling was out of control, he wouldn't eat anything but he was still drinking his milk and water.  We were able to sooth the pain with Camilia and a bath to break his fever.  Success!  But, this poor boy was in pain and totally drained.  I will save you any further details of this horrific process, but long story short we are on day 2 of him being miserable.  We also gave him Little Remedies today.  It helped very quickly.  Lots of love and snuggles around this house.  I will be following up with his Pediatrician tomorrow just in case he wants to see him.  However, I hope tonight brings teeth and no more pain.  So from a Mom to her son's teeth, "please just get the f out, thanks".  :)

Lots of cuddles with Dada today (3/16/14)

Cruising the city in my Uggs.  First time walking in shoes!  (3/14/14)

Ready for take off!

O when he isn't teething!  Always a smile and the best giggle pretty much ever!  

The winning item here is I truly do buy in this whole "Mom's intuition thing" its legit (oddly another item we discussed with our friends Friday night).  

Lucky number 7!

It was another snowy, cold day in Denver.  The sun has only come out once for about 15 minutes in the past couple days (yes, I know I should not be complaining- we have family in the north and midwest where the sun hasn't been out in far too many days to count).

I am pretty convinced the lack of vitamin D in Denver is why everyone is being so bitchy.  On the bright side though, the minute said people see orange or blue or hear the word "Broncos" the nice comes back!  Phew! We are definitely spoiled by our sun here, no doubt about it.

O had to do his night before the game work out inside.  Nike work out pants and baby wife beater.  Duh.  Happy Happy Day before the big game!  Wooo hoooo!!  Go Broncos!

Day 6!

What a great weekend it is!  Go Broncos Go!  

Did you think I would forget on this snowy, cold night?  Not a chance!  Bummed due to the weather O and I were not able to get out and hang with our friends... but we made due and it seemed a good fit with some teething issues today.  This is such a shitty process and we seem to have it a lot easier than what I have heard from other people's experiences, but still-  YIKES!  

O's appetite was not phased by his teeth today, but it did make him camera shy.  I couldn't catch a good one to save my life!  We discussed this while I was asking him to at least cheese and clearly he wanted me to post one of his most favorite pictures....  I will leave you with this awesomeness.

"When I take time off from being a Ninja, I am a mountain man with my rugs & ice cold Coors".......

Day 5 in pics & stuff...

grate·ful

  [greyt-fuhl]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful: I am grateful to you for yourhelp.

2.

expressing or actuated by gratitude: a grateful letter.

3.

pleasing to the mind or senses; agreeable or welcome; refreshing: a grateful breeze.

I have so much to be grateful for in my life.  Crazy how easy (sometimes) it is to lose track of that. A big thanks to my incredible husband not just today, but all days.....   He makes sure I have time for me...  with friends, yoga or trips.  

I spent the day today with great friends and got my sweat on in yoga.  The dudes had boy night round 2 tonight.  Last night Joe took O to chill with his buddy Freddy and his cat Timmy.  Here is a most excellent video of O & Timmy:

And tonight, my sweet boys eating out at difranco's .  Couldn't love them more.  

Waiting for my homemade Lamb gnocchi!  

This is how we roll!

Day 4 in pics & stuff...

Today was a productive and beautiful day all around!  

O and I spent the morning together eating, playing and babbling...  I think his first word may be DOG.  

Right now is seems comforting that it wont be F***!  ;)

However, it is a tad troublesome his "dog" kind of sounds like "cock" sometimes.... true story.  I will currently blame it on the fact his sippy cups need to be straw cups...  Apparently in the speech therapy world this is why he is talking Mike Tyson-ish.  Getting straw cups stat!  

O got a special delivery from Miami today-  fun hats!  He had just gotten home from chillin' with his friend Freddy, so tomorrow we will play more.  Thank you Mariam!

Ok, nigh nigh!  

Day 3 in pics and stuff

I tried to catch a couple great pics this morning of our little Ninja, but these days he doesn't hold still so well. Seems his teeth are not hurting as much as they did yesterday, thank goodness.

Tonight as we hit bedtime this is what happened....

It is hard work for a ninja to wrangle his own stuffed ninja and the alligators that are within the blanket.  You can see he succeeded with only a couple "scrapes". haha

I personally had a really weird day.  No reason to go into it or try to make any sense out of it.  However, oddly enough this quote was brought to my attention and couldn't have been any more fitting:

"Great minds have purposes; little minds have wishes.  Little minds are subdued by misfortunes; great minds rise above them."  Washington Irving 

Day 2 in pics & stuff...

Today was a cold, snowy day in Denver.  This equals boring for O.  I am glad we were able to get out yesterday and enjoy the 55 degree sun.  

His teeth seem to really be bothering him this evening, so- organic sugar free Popsicle, "Surf's Up" and a eucalyptus steam bath are on the treat menu.  Dinner menu is grilled steak bites, homemade beef & veggie stew and pesto tortellini.

Enjoying the "treat" part of the night!

Surf's Up!  

PS-  At his one year check up with Dr. Bryan, O weighs 26 pounds and is 31 inches long.  Not a small child at all.  haha  

A picture a day & review...

This week I have decided to post a picture each day.  There may be no content, but the pictures are really the best.  I just looked at the calendar and cannot believe how quickly January is sneaking by.  

I also wanted to write a quick review on a planner I just ordered from Erin Condren.  First of all it is really flipping cool.  Secondly, it is also very overwhelming.  haha  I am starting to find a groove with it, but still at a loss on the most effective way for me to organize the days the way MY brain sees it.  If you haven't checked her products out, I highly recommend it.  If you use her planner and have any ideas or helpful hints of what you do, I would LOVE to hear them!  For now, this is what my calendar is looking like:

And last, but not least some before bedtime shenanigans with O!  ;)  

Bah-bye bottle & other stuff

1/18/14:  we said good bye to formula, bottle warmer and the bottle.

Two weeks leading up to this we started to cut back the amount of formula he was getting along with the time we would warm the bottle.  No need to sugar coat, things were not as smooth as I would have anticipated at first.  I did a lot of reading and learned about the differences in texture and taste in formula versus whole milk.  So, we took our time.

We entered this particular morning with caution and a level of fear.  
After all, it changes things....  The simple, real things it changes is that cuddly time spent on the couch or comfy chair just chilling out.  It changes the time you have before it is time to get your ass in gear and make sure his food is ready (in our case just about everything is made fresh).  It changes measuring the milk unless you buy all sippy cups that have the ounces on the side (not doing that).  I could list many more, but this is the just of it....

Much to my surprise Owen transitioned with ease.  Hot damn, I should have done this 3 months ago!  Little shit refused anything cold before now but, cold milk in a sippy-  Yay!  High fives all around.

We also started supplementing Vitamin D drops and Pro-biotic.

I was stressed at first about the amount of milk he was getting per feeding, but after discussing this with Dr. Bryan, he set our minds at ease.  We agree with him and aren't huge milk pushers.  We can make sure he gets the vitamin D through the drops and calcium by integrating some cheese.  Luckily he already gets plenty of the other proteins and nutrients he needs from the food he eats.

In the meantime he is standing, dancing & chatting (babble-yes) like a champ.  No forward walking movement on his own, but he will walk with your help.

Hallelujah!  He almost has 2 teeth on the bottom!  Wish I could get a pic, but he wont let us get too close.  haha

Party planning and outcome for our sweet ONE year old!

I figured I would make this a combo post of the before and after.  This post is more of a review of the great people and places we used to make everything come together!

~This post starts on December 6th and wraps up on January 10th~

 Those of you who know me well know this is NOT my strong suit (the creative side of it anyway).  I am super stoked to have quite a bit of help from my very dear friends.  

Planning the date for O's 1st birthday was a tad tricky.  You see, it is playoffs weekend and you know we are Broncos fans!  We didn't know until just a couple days ago if the playoff game would be Saturday or Sunday of his birthday weekend nor did we know what the time would be.  As long as the Broncos play well and may be in the final games, we will run into this each year.  This year though I think we got off pretty easy since his actual birthday falls on a Friday.  Done and done!  

The invites were step two.  Things went fairly smoothly on this end.  The shipping side ended up taking longer than expected so I didn't get them out at what I thought was the "ideal" time (this was a learning experience though, I know having a babe with a bday around the holidays equals more forward planning next year).  However, no sweat- it all worked out.  I ended up getting the invites through Etsy (check out sangelastro's page).  She was easy to work with and prompt to respond.  They turned out really cute!!  As far as additional stationary goes his thank yous will be purchased through Scribbles.  Check them out, fun store and great owners!

We also booked O's favorite local band- St. Lumen.  The lead singer is so talented (the rest of the band is great as well).  We met Lindsay (the lead singer) at the coffee shop in our building, Drip.  O loves flirting with her big time.  The first time he saw her singing at a benefit, he melted.  ;)

We also booked our friend and photographer,  Jeff to take pictures.  Check out his work.  Once he is done editing I will post the link to O's bday pics! 

Thanks to my friends we have successfully tasted cake and placed all necessary orders for said cakes (yes cakes), cookies and cake balls (you only turn 1 once, right??  haha).  We have also successfully eaten way too many nachos.  I know....weird, this doesn't exactly go with party planning- but we needed fuel.  And last but not least, almost all of the decorations have been purchased.  

Last step will be to finalize the menu from Attivo (where we are hosting O's party)!

Phew, what a furry of crazy and fun!  Here is the outcome:  I say SUCCESS!  I would highly recommend everyone in this post.  They helped all the fun details become a reality.

Everything came together as planned with one HUGE surprise from one of my friends.  Can you believe this incredible banner??  So freaking awesome!!

The cakes, cake pops and cookies turned out perfect (and tasted great).  If you are in need of anything Michelle at Gateaux was a breeze to work with- so talented too!!

We are so incredibly thankful for this sweet boy who is loved by so many people.  Thank you again EVERYONE!

After waking up to a living room filled with orange and blue balloons, pancakes and eggs for breakfast, followed by a day, night and weekend full of fun, friends and family.  I love this sweet boy more than I could ever explain!

What does a chunky Ninja eat you ask?

This is a picture preview of a weeks worth of food.  

I have to mention - when he is feeling well (he is finally in the serious teething stages- no es bueno), it is typically MORE than this.  I just keep hoping that he will always be a good eater and like all the healthy options we are providing.  So many articles and people mention their kiddos hitting a point where they become picky. Like I said, until then I keep my fingers crossed ;)

 

Clearly we have become Whole Foods' best customer since we started feeding O real food.  Granted, we have always shopped there, but never in this capacity.  I also have to give a shout out to Tony's Market they have the best customer service and fish department (O loves his fresh fish- right now his most fav is the Chilean Sea Bass)!!

We keep the following daily chart of what he eats and does throughout the day.  I believe it is so important to SEE and know how much they are eating- this is the same for the sleep schedule too.

Here is an example of what he ate today:

Breakfast:  1 egg & 1 egg white with whole milk, 4 banana slices & 4 avocado slices (no rhyme or reason in the number of slices - this is the number he chose to eat.  I think I sliced 8 & 8-  perk to what he doesn't eat, we eat).
Lunch:  left over Cod from last nights dinner, Thailand Organic Plum Pouch, 2 slices of avocado, 2 apple slices, mango & sweet potato puffs and quite a few sweet potato snacks (these are organic sweet potatoes that I slice and dice with olive oil, very little sea salt & ground pepper) and throw in the oven- such a fun treat and snack, he loves them).
Mid-day snack:  Apple, Banana, Mango & Cinnamon packet, orange slices (didn't count- it turned into a long day) and one Ella's teething cookies.
Dinner:  Steamed Wild Grouper with sweet potato snacks.

His total formula/whole milk mix was 22 ounces for the day.

Fresh Organic Beef Stew is on the menu for tomorrow.  Phew!  I have never chopped so much in my life (ISABEL, HALP)!  haha  Really though, it is so worth it.

Here is a big cheers to this little almost one year old eating it up even more once he has teeth (yes, he eats all of this and has no teeth).  By the way - this teething thing is no joke.  Awful!  TBC on that one.

YUM!!!