PRINTABLE APRIL CALENDAR
Happy April 1st everyone! No April Fool's jokes over here because 1. I'm a terrible liar and 2. I'm so gullible, I end up believing ALLLLL the jokes....anyone with me?
Happy April 1st everyone! No April Fool's jokes over here because 1. I'm a terrible liar and 2. I'm so gullible, I end up believing ALLLLL the jokes....anyone with me?
Here is your printable April calendar! It's my last month of maternity leave before I go back to work in May! Sooooo crazy. I'm excited to go back but this month I'm determined to soak in allll them baby cuddles! Also very excited to go away to Pender & Whistler. What about you? Any big plans for April???
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR PRINTABLE APRIL CALENDAR
Happy Saturday!!
XO,
Laura
LUCA THE LION // 9 MONTH UPDATE
Our little bubba is growing up so quickly! I can't believe how much of a little boy he is...no longer looking like a baby....it's so sad but this month has been my favourite yet! He's so interactive and plays so well independently. It's so fun discovering what makes him laugh, oh man this is such a fun age!
LUCA AT NINE MONTHS
Our little bubba is growing up so quickly! I can't believe how much of a little boy he is...no longer looking like a baby....it's so sad but this month has been my favourite yet! He's so interactive and plays so well independently. It's so fun discovering what makes him laugh, oh man this is such a fun age!
Here's the Lion's 9 month update:
WEIGHT: 21.5 lbs
My little man likes to EAT! So much that he jumped from the 50th percentile in weight to the 75th!
HEIGHT: 28.5 inches
He's getting taller!
WEARS: He's pretty much mostly in 12 month clothing. Honestly I haven't purchased anything brand new for him recently because I've been going to Thistle & Wren and finding the cutest things! I love consignment. If you're local to Victoria, I highly suggest checking them out (they're located in Fernwood square!)
SLEEPS: Thankfully last month's early wake ups are long gone (hoping this sticks for a looong time). My little Lion has been sleeping SO WELL! Daylight savings turned out to be amazing as he now goes down at 7:30pm, which allows us to actually do things in the evening, yay! And he's been sleeping straight through until 7-7:30. It's honestly been a dream. I think he maybe got up once this past month? And all James had to do was change his diaper and he went back to sleep.
Naps have been going pretty well too. Sometime he resists the morning nap, but usually he'll go about an hour and then for 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon. I'm thinking of getting him some blackout blinds soon because it's been getting brighter and brighter. Please let me know mamas if you have any recommendations!
EATS: Little man eats everything! We feed him a mix of purees and finger foods. Sometimes he's not so good at the chewing part...hoping he gets a few more teeth soon because I'm sure that will help him be more efficient and not give mama a heart attack when he swallows things whole!!!
PLAYS: It's so fun watching this little man explore! We had to hcore baby proof our house because he was getting into absolutely everything! His favourite thing to do is chase Coco, our cat around the house. He thinks she's the best thing ever and she is the annoyed older sister...thankfully she hasn't tried to scratch him but she is so not interested in him lols. He's inch-worming everywhere! We have hardwood so I think it's a bit harder to crawl on. He's also pulling himself up on everything (including his crib when he's refusing a nap lols) and even is starting to walk on his walker! AHHH please stop growing so quickly little lion!
HIGHS: Oh man, so many highs! But I think him giving me kisses is my favourite thing in the world right now. They're open mouth and pretty slobbery but I'll take them whenever I can get them!
LOWS: Getting the flu SUCKED. Oh my gosh, it knocked James and myself out for days. Thankfully Luca only got it in poop format and he wasn't mad at all. Oh ya, it was sooo much fun changing poopsplosions when you feel like poop :/
PARENTING: We simply just love being parents to this little guy. James and him have such a little bond, it's soo sweet. James will be taking care of Luca on Mondays when I go back to work in May and he's soo excited about it. #presh
POSTPARTUM: Well after being sick and pretty run down for the past month, I'm excited to get back on the exercise train! I'll be doing mostly running/walking outside and some videos in my house. We're trying to save some $$ so we cancelled our gym memberships.
WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO: In April we have two little getaways before I go back to work in May! First a quick family trip to our new family cabin on Pender Island...SOOO EXCITED! And then mama gets to go away for a spa trip to Whistler to celebrate my bestie Rachel turning 30!! So excited to get these fun things in before going back to work!!
I'll be back soon with a 10 month update because that's only a couple weeks away lols.
Love ya!
Laura
LIVING ROOM UPDATE (BEFORE)
The time has come to update our living room! Things change when you have a baby...especially when said baby starts to move around. You actually have to sweep your floors and pick up everything because if you have a random stray bit of cardboard in the far corner of your house, said baby will pick it up, and try to eat it and then proceed to gag and you'll have to pull it out of their mouth....true story, it happened to a friend of a friend of mine ;)
The time has come to update our living room! Things change when you have a baby...especially when said baby starts to move around. You actually have to sweep your floors and pick up everything because if you have a random stray bit of cardboard in the far corner of your house, said baby will pick it up, and try to eat it and then proceed to gag and you'll have to pull it out of their mouth....true story, it happened to a friend of a friend of mine ;)
Luca is officially on the move! With that, we've had to move a bunch of stuff around in our living room and rest of the house. First thing to go was our coffee table with sharp corners/taking up space...sorry friends coming over at night, you have to hold your hot tea in your lap!
The second thing to go was the fireplace grate. We enjoyed a number of fires over the winter, but as soon as Luca started crawling, he'd beeline for the grate and try to pull it over.
The next thing on our list to address are the bookcases. Now get me straight, I LOVE those bookcases. They're the Hemnes ones from Ikea and I just love their look. We could have screwed them to the wall but we decided to kill two birds with one stone and totally re-do the fireplace and build built ins!!!!
So here's my dream plan....it may take awhile (aka saving $$$$) for it all to fall into place but here is what we're hoping to do:
- Install new fireplace...we ordered a wood burning fire place insert but may return it and go with natural gas (which is my dream but when we called two years ago it was so much $$$$$ to get it to our home, so we're figuring that stuff out!)
- Build built ins...in doing so, we will probably get rid of the brick around the fireplace and move the fireplace to actually centre it on that wall.
- Figure out where to put tv....we were going to place it over the fireplace but we're thinking maybe put it on the side wall on an arm?
- Move couch across from fireplace...and hopefully purchase new couch that is more kid friendly.
- Purchase two chairs to sit across from each other
- Move rug to our bedroom and find new rug...this is not a priority for James so this may happen in a few years lols.
So there's the plan! I'll be back soon with more inspiration soon!
XO!
laura
LUCA THE LION // 8 MONTH UPDATE
Okay, I am completely ONE month behind...lols. He'll actually be 9 months tomorrow!! I have all the 9 month info, fresh in my mind and I'll be getting that post out soon but I'll do my best to try to remember last month, ha!
LUCA AT EIGHT MONTHS
Okay, I am completely ONE month behind...lols. He'll actually be 9 months tomorrow!! I have all the 9 month info, fresh in my mind and I'll be getting that post out soon but I'll do my best to try to remember last month, ha!
Here's the Lion's 8 month update:
WEIGHT: 20 lbs
We just had him weighed this week at the doctor and he was 21.5 lbs! So I'm going to guess he was around 20 at 8 months.
HEIGHT: 28 inches
My little baby is no longer a little baby :(
WEARS: Size 9, or 12 month clothes!
SLEEPS: Ohhh at 8 months, I'd say he went through a bit of a regression. It wasn't terrible but he started waking up at about 5am. We also had international students staying with us, so we felt a bit bad about doing our normal CIO method....thankfully it's resolved and he's gone back to sleeping 6:30-6:30...PS...I'm sooo excited about the time change this weekend!! Really hoping he'll go to 7:30-7:30!!!
EATS: He loves, loves, loves food. Seriously, it is his favourite thing. He still feeds from me but real food is his deal. He'll eat whatever we give him, it's amazing!
HIGHS: Oh gosh, I'm trying to remember last month, but my mind is such a blur, ha sorry! Oh, his separation anxiety calmed down, so that was amazing! I went away at the end of January and James took care of him and he did so well! We also got to go to our church's couple's retreat and my mom had him...other than waking up at 4 am for a quick diaper change, he did amazing!
LOWS: The waking up at 5am (one day it was 4:30am) was super wearing on me! That was definitely not my favourite part but thankfully he's over that for now!
Sorry for the short update, just wanted to get this out before he turns 9 months old tomorrow!! But I'll be back soon with his 9 month update!
XOXO!
Laura
MAMA + SON PHOTOSHOOT
Have you seen the movie Lion? I saw it this weekend and OH MY HEART...bring kleenex because you will be crying multiple times throughout it! It's a heart wrenching (but also happy story) about a little boy who gets lost in India. So many things stood out to me in the movie (Nicole Kidman's monologue about adoption, was one for the books) but a huge thing that I couldn't stop thinking about was the relationship between the little boy and his mom....such incredible, beautiful love that still haunted the son 25 years later (PS. Find out more about the movie and how you can help street children in India here).
Have you seen the movie Lion? I saw it this weekend and OH MY HEART...bring kleenex because you will be crying multiple times throughout it! It's a heart wrenching (but also happy story) about a little boy who gets lost in India. So many things stood out to me in the movie (Nicole Kidman's monologue about adoption, was one for the books) but a huge thing that I couldn't stop thinking about was the relationship between the little boy and his mom....such incredible, beautiful love that still haunted the son 25 years later (PS. Find out more about the movie and how you can help street children in India here).
I know I can only speak out of my own experience but man, there is something so treasured between a mama + son. This little guy has completely captured my heart in the best of ways and I'm so thankful that my friend and amazing photographer Rachael captured mine and Luca's relationship so beautifully! I will treasure these photos forever!!!!
Thank you Rachael so much for capturing these precious moments!!! If you're local to Victoria and looking for a photographer, I HIGHLY recommend Rachael...so professional, lovely and friendly! You will love her!
Outfit details:
Mama- Top (Joe Fresh last season but here's a similar one on sale!), Jeans (Citizens of Humanity a few years back but here's a similar pair)
Baby Boy- Top (Target), Jeans (Oshkosh B'Gosh consigned from Thistle & Wren), Shoes (Joe Fresh, sold out but you can still get the navy ones on sale!)
XO,
Laura