I am blessed to be celebrating seven years together with my man later in the month. Our original anniversary (before we got married) was November 23, we only celebrate our wedding anniversary
(May 20th) now because let's face it, my husband has a hard time remembering things so I won't torture him with two anniversaries. I am blessed with the amazing family I have and I got super lucky with having some pretty amazing in-laws too! I am blessed with the friends that I choose to surround myself with. It may not be many but I hold them near and dear to my heart. They all have a special place in our lives and I wouldn't have it any other way. I am blessed to have an awesome apartment along with even better neighbors, a nice car and enough to not be struggling. I am blessed to be celebrating my little bean's first birthday on Sunday! Yes you read that correctly my girl will be 1 on Sunday. Actually writing that out really makes it real and gets me all sorts of emotional. I really don't talk about her turning one. Don't get me wrong I've got everything ready to go. I've got the decorations, the plates, her outfit is all set, we've taken her one year pictures but even doing all of that it really hasn't hit me until I just wrote it out. Damn, my baby is turning into a toddler. When did this happen? Why did this happen? Can't she just stay my little love muffin forever?
Here's a little peek of her one year pictures (the rest are on Facebook):
(May 20th) now because let's face it, my husband has a hard time remembering things so I won't torture him with two anniversaries. I am blessed with the amazing family I have and I got super lucky with having some pretty amazing in-laws too! I am blessed with the friends that I choose to surround myself with. It may not be many but I hold them near and dear to my heart. They all have a special place in our lives and I wouldn't have it any other way. I am blessed to have an awesome apartment along with even better neighbors, a nice car and enough to not be struggling. I am blessed to be celebrating my little bean's first birthday on Sunday! Yes you read that correctly my girl will be 1 on Sunday. Actually writing that out really makes it real and gets me all sorts of emotional. I really don't talk about her turning one. Don't get me wrong I've got everything ready to go. I've got the decorations, the plates, her outfit is all set, we've taken her one year pictures but even doing all of that it really hasn't hit me until I just wrote it out. Damn, my baby is turning into a toddler. When did this happen? Why did this happen? Can't she just stay my little love muffin forever?
Here's a little peek of her one year pictures (the rest are on Facebook):
I love these pictures so much! I still seriously can't believe she's going to be one! I just love our little family so much!
Don't get me wrong I love watching her grow but it's definitely bittersweet. It's so much fun now that's she's getting bigger and now that she's walking. Going places is a lot more fun just watching her take everything in and exploring. I've been wanting to write about this for awhile. I've been wanting to write about my parenting style but I just haven't had time. The days go by too fast and the weekends even faster. So here we are, we've almost made it one whole year. Now don't get me wrong I am by no means a parent expert and every one's different but this is what we do. This is what works for us. I guess for the most part I let Penelope take the lead. I really want her to be a strong and an independent individual. I like to let her explore and figure things out for herself. I'm a big believer in learning through play. I think it's important for her to be able to play on her own. I think it's important for her to be creative and use her imagination.
My one biggest fault as a parent (so far) that I really hate is that I yell no.....a lot. I'm sure it's annoying to her if it annoys me, and if it's annoying to her she's probably just ignoring me anyways. I'm just not one of the parents who can stay calm and take the time to say things like "No Nella we don't do that, we need to be safe, blah blah blah." I mean she's turning one, how much can she really understand. I feel like they learn best by doing. If they're running and they fall, they'll learn to slow down. Yes I let her test her boundaries but when it comes to not being safe I say/yell no. Like when she's going for the stairs or when she's headed for the toilet or towards the end of the bed I yell no. I've tried extremely hard to not make sounds when watching her. Which means when she falls, or bumps her head I don't say "Ooo" or "Ahh", I just let her be. She really only cries if she really gets hurt. She's very big into the fake crying right now and it makes me laugh. If I tell her no to climbing the stairs or take away something she shouldn't have she let's out this nice big wail but there's not one single tear. You can tell it's fake.
Update: Just so you know since writing this last week I have been working very hard to not yell. I'd like to think I'm doing a pretty good job. Although there's really no one to hold me accountable (I'm by myself all day) I am really trying. Instead of getting mad and yelling I simply take a breathe and just tell her no thank you. I don't want to be the mom that yells all the time. Distraction is key for us as well, if I don't want her to climb the stairs I tell her to go find her baby or her ball and that usually works.
We're working on having nice hands. She can be a little violent I guess you could say. I'm sure it's not on purpose. She is only one and she's still learning, but she will get into kids faces and just hit them or fail her arms. I just take her away and tell her that's not nice. I still think it's hard for her to understand. She doesn't get that pulling some one's hair or hitting someone in the head hurts them. That will come with time but for now I will remain consistent in telling her that's not nice and showing her gentle hands.
We are still going strong with breast feeding and I am proud. I was always unsure if I would breast feed. I knew it was normal, it was what our bodies were made for me but I had never been around anyone who really did it. My sister did with both of her kids but I never really saw it and we never really talked about it. Honestly I thought it was a little weird. You know having this little baby just sucking on your boob. I decided I would try it and if we could do it great but if not that was ok too. The main goal was to feed my baby and weather that was by boob or bottle I didn't really care. But we did it. We tried and kept going. Yes it was hard. Like when she would eat, and then act like she was starving ten minutes later. I gave her a binky. Yes my nipples felt like they were going to fall off. I should have expected that seeing as I've never had anything sucking on my boob for 15 minutes at a time, but don't worry they got used to it. Your body will adjust. I was worried I wasn't making enough until we went to the doctor for her one month check up and learned she was 10 pounds. (Her birth weight was 7 lbs 13 oz, she dropped a couple ounces before we left the hospital and a couple more after that, a little over a week later she was back up to her birth weight.) That was confirmation that I was doing ok. Here we are a year later still chugging right along.
Being a mother is such an amazing journey and I don't want to rush it. I want to enjoy all of her moments. Lots of people ask when we're going to have another and I always say when's she's potty trained, but really I am in no rush. I may be getting older but I don't mind spending this time watching Penelope and all her moments. It's amazing to watch her learn, weather it's learning how to eat yogurt with a spoon, or learning how to walk or how to put her puzzle pieces in her puzzles it's all fun and I'm learning too. I'm learning how to be more patient, I'm learning how to let go, I'm learning how to be a better person and I can thank my daughter for that.
Here's some pictures from last month:
My one biggest fault as a parent (so far) that I really hate is that I yell no.....a lot. I'm sure it's annoying to her if it annoys me, and if it's annoying to her she's probably just ignoring me anyways. I'm just not one of the parents who can stay calm and take the time to say things like "No Nella we don't do that, we need to be safe, blah blah blah." I mean she's turning one, how much can she really understand. I feel like they learn best by doing. If they're running and they fall, they'll learn to slow down. Yes I let her test her boundaries but when it comes to not being safe I say/yell no. Like when she's going for the stairs or when she's headed for the toilet or towards the end of the bed I yell no. I've tried extremely hard to not make sounds when watching her. Which means when she falls, or bumps her head I don't say "Ooo" or "Ahh", I just let her be. She really only cries if she really gets hurt. She's very big into the fake crying right now and it makes me laugh. If I tell her no to climbing the stairs or take away something she shouldn't have she let's out this nice big wail but there's not one single tear. You can tell it's fake.
Update: Just so you know since writing this last week I have been working very hard to not yell. I'd like to think I'm doing a pretty good job. Although there's really no one to hold me accountable (I'm by myself all day) I am really trying. Instead of getting mad and yelling I simply take a breathe and just tell her no thank you. I don't want to be the mom that yells all the time. Distraction is key for us as well, if I don't want her to climb the stairs I tell her to go find her baby or her ball and that usually works.
We're working on having nice hands. She can be a little violent I guess you could say. I'm sure it's not on purpose. She is only one and she's still learning, but she will get into kids faces and just hit them or fail her arms. I just take her away and tell her that's not nice. I still think it's hard for her to understand. She doesn't get that pulling some one's hair or hitting someone in the head hurts them. That will come with time but for now I will remain consistent in telling her that's not nice and showing her gentle hands.
We are still going strong with breast feeding and I am proud. I was always unsure if I would breast feed. I knew it was normal, it was what our bodies were made for me but I had never been around anyone who really did it. My sister did with both of her kids but I never really saw it and we never really talked about it. Honestly I thought it was a little weird. You know having this little baby just sucking on your boob. I decided I would try it and if we could do it great but if not that was ok too. The main goal was to feed my baby and weather that was by boob or bottle I didn't really care. But we did it. We tried and kept going. Yes it was hard. Like when she would eat, and then act like she was starving ten minutes later. I gave her a binky. Yes my nipples felt like they were going to fall off. I should have expected that seeing as I've never had anything sucking on my boob for 15 minutes at a time, but don't worry they got used to it. Your body will adjust. I was worried I wasn't making enough until we went to the doctor for her one month check up and learned she was 10 pounds. (Her birth weight was 7 lbs 13 oz, she dropped a couple ounces before we left the hospital and a couple more after that, a little over a week later she was back up to her birth weight.) That was confirmation that I was doing ok. Here we are a year later still chugging right along.
Being a mother is such an amazing journey and I don't want to rush it. I want to enjoy all of her moments. Lots of people ask when we're going to have another and I always say when's she's potty trained, but really I am in no rush. I may be getting older but I don't mind spending this time watching Penelope and all her moments. It's amazing to watch her learn, weather it's learning how to eat yogurt with a spoon, or learning how to walk or how to put her puzzle pieces in her puzzles it's all fun and I'm learning too. I'm learning how to be more patient, I'm learning how to let go, I'm learning how to be a better person and I can thank my daughter for that.
Here's some pictures from last month:
