Ummmm….it’s DECEMBER already?! Where has the time gone?! This time of the year always seems to speed up – there’s so much to DO and EAT and CELEBRATE – but with a baby, everything has gone into warp speed.
Winston is army-crawling everywhere (to hell with crawling like a normal baby, he says) and learning to pull himself up onto furniture, toys, the dishwasher, people, dogs – basically anything within reach. So we’re baby-proofing the house and watching him like a hawk. It’s a fun time, but so exhausting! Gone are the days when we could put him on the floor under a baby mobile to buy ourselves 2 minutes to, you know, pee in peace. Kiddo will not sit still! (See below for proof.)
In October, we took him to a local pumpkin patch for the obligatory baby pumpkin pictures. We got lucky and had perfect weather and a good-tempered kiddo who put up with our desire for hundreds of photos, and I love how the pictures turned out.
We had a very low-key Thanksgiving at a friend’s house. We (translation: Adam) smoked a turkey (which was delicious – recipe here) and brought a bourbon pecan pie, and my friend provided all the sides. It was so sweet of her to offer to host, because there’s no way I could have pulled off cooking all those dishes by myself. The day was everything I wanted it to be: focused on food, football, friends, family, and the dog show 🙂
The days are getting increasingly short, which means we had to cut out our nightly walks in the park. As a consequence, Winston finally dropped his third nap of the day (since he used to fall asleep while being pushed in the stroller). We’re now (mostly) on the 2-3-4 Sleep Routine, and it has made a huge impact on our days. Winston has been a great night-time sleeper since we sleep-trained him a few months ago, but his daytime sleep routine didn’t fall into place until recently. Now that he can stay awake for longer periods and is finally on a somewhat predictable schedule, we can plan errands and outings without fear of a sleepy meltdown in the middle of say, Target (speaking from experience).
Winston has also been on two cross-country plane trips and WOWEE talk about an experience. If you’re still childless and traveling, enjoy the hell out of those adult-only plane rides you get to take. Being spontaneous, packing light, and sleeping, reading, or watching movies on plane rides are all things I took for granted pre-baby. It’s a total adjustment. That being said, Winston was a champ on both trips and the learning curve is steep. He did well enough on the plane that we’re planning to take a cross-Atlantic trip to London sometime this summer.
(9+ hours on a plane with a 15-month old. Are we crazy? You can tell me.)
We have another cross-country trip coming up for Christmas and we’ll see how it goes with our ever-increasingly mobile child. If it’s successful, I’ll do a separate post for tips and tricks of navigating air travel with a baby.
And now you’re all caught up! Have a great weekend and enjoy this holiday season!
Mama Bear CO 