You know you’re a real mum when…
If I didn’t feel like a real mum before I certainly do now. In the last month GM has decided that he doesn’t want to lie still when being changed. At first I have to admit it drove me nuts and made me very frustrated. Since there seems to be no end in sight to this new behaviour I’ve had to find a way to live with it. I have now become an expert at changing diapers with baby on his tummy. Of course with that said, over the last couple of days he is now also attempting to stand instead of lie on his tummy. Going with the flow, I have also gotten pretty good at changing his diaper while he’s on his knees. Go me!

I hope next year I’m more into the holidays. I haven’t been for some time now maybe because my husband doesn’t like them due to his job. He delivers pastries for a high end pastry company and is extremely busy around the holidays. Now that GM is almost a year old I really have to get more in the spirit for his benefit.
Sunday I will be entertaining the in-laws. I’m We’re really not into entertaining. Or at least not used to it. Even though it’s not that much we have told our families that we won’t be traveling for a while to visit because we can’t afford to spend our money on gas. Once I go back to work we’ll have more money to spend of stuff like that, but for the next little while we’re going to be really strapped. So with that said his family is coming to us for Easter this year. His mom is still cooking the turkey (thank goodness), but we’ll be responsible for everything else. It should work out better anyways because this way I don’t have to lug all GM’s stuff with us and he might actually nap since he’ll be in familiar surroundings.

What an absolutely glorious day it was today. I’m so glad I decided to get myself out of the house or I would never have known just how beautiful it was out. I’m not exactly sure of the temperature, but I think it was like 5 or 6°C with the sun shining brightly. Hubby called from the road (as he does numerous times a day) and we discussed how nice it was outside. He said he heard on the radio that we’ve had so much snow this year that the giant snowbergs that have accumulated in mall parking lots won’t even have melted by the end of the summer. Wow, wouldn’t that be sight in July? A big pile of leftover snow. So anyway, I had mentioned to hubby that there was an outfit for baby D at Wal-Mart that I was lusting after (yes, you can lust after baby clothes), but that the price was keeping me from buying it. He didn’t think it was too much to pay, so that was the go ahead I needed. Since we are going to London tomorrow for my Mum’s birthday celebration (it should have been last weekend but was postponed due to weather) I thought that would be a great reason to have a new outfit for baby D. Never being one to manage just going to Wal-Mart for the one thing I wanted to buy I ended up also getting him a 2-pack of pjs for when the weather gets a bit warmer and a striped t-shirt and pants.

Being a first time parent though exhilarating is pretty tough. Besides the learning curve one experiences it can be just as hard deciding what gear to get. I know for me I’m constantly wondering if ‘this is a good toy’ or ‘will my son actually use this product’. When I had my baby shower at work my girlfriend asked me to make a list of stuff that I needed. To be honest I simply told her that I didn’t have a clue what I needed or what would be a good purchase versus just more ’stuff’. So I suggested that she make up my list for me seeing as she already had kids and would know better than I what gear was necessary and what was just more fluff. During my pregnancy I felt this pressure to buy all kinds of high end equipment and lots of it. I mean what did my child actually need? I was looking at strollers, bouncy chairs, non-bouncy chairs, exersaucers, jolly jumpers, high chairs, booster seats, bumbo chairs… My head was totally spinning. I have since decided (after almost 11 months) that whatever you get will suffice. I didn’t need to get that change table, I mean what do you do with a change table after you’re not changing diapers anymore? Instead we opted for a child’s desk with a change pad on top.
I will say though that what I consider my smartest purchase was the Fisher Price Rainforest Swing. My son was getting to the stage where I couldn’t put him down because he’d cry. He wasn’t sitting yet, so that wasn’t an option. I thought maybe a swing would be a good idea so I did some research. Goodness knows there are enough of them out there. There are the portable swings, cradle swings, full size swings and then of course there are all the different options available to each one. I chose the Fisher Price Rainforest Swing for a few reasons. 1. I could plug it into the wall. That’s right, besides using batteries I also had the option of using the accompanying AC adapter. 2. I could alter which way it swung. I could turn the cradle seat to swing forwards and backwards or from side to side. 3. The attached mobile lifted up and out of the way. This is great feature when trying to get the little guy in and out of the swing, I never had to worry about banging his head. There were other less (in my opinion) important features such as variable speeds, different music, volume controls and reclining seat.