Essential Wellness Ottawa: November 2015

Wow I can't believe my baby is 1 and is now considered a TODDLER. This year went by so fast but it was by far the best year of my life. While there were definitely hard moments and hard days, especially in the first few weeks, mommyhood is really the best gift ever. It is actually way easier than I expected. Everyone kept going on about the sleepless nights and constant crying, feeding, dirty diapers, never going out etc. but I didn't find that to be a burden at all. Granted, Cooper is generally a very good sleeper and eater, it really hasn't been as hard as everyone made it out to be. Maybe it is because we waited until our 30's to have kids so our lifestyle is probably a bit different that someone in their twenties...

Anyway, Mitch and I aren't big partiers so our day to day life didn't really change too much. We probably eat in more now than we used to but in general we still take Cooper out to restaurants, on vacation, to weddings, playdates, family events, get togethers with friends, races, the gym, farmers markets, etc. We often schedule stuff around his nap times but we still manage to get out and do just about everything we did before we had kids. Now that he is a bit older, we may do date nights a bit more often but other than that, I don't think much will change...unless we decide to add a baby #2 to the family!!!

12 Month Growth Stats:

weight 21 lbs (42nd percentile)
length 29.5 inches (30th percentile)
head circumference 46 cm (48th percentile)

Favorite Foods:

bananas
mushroom ravioli
nurses 3x per day since I went back to work - I hope to continue nursing until at least the age of 2

12 Month Milestones:

says "Hat" and touches head or puts object up to head
walks pretty well with walker or Jeep and can now walk only holding on with one hand- still not walking by himself though
wears 12-18 month clothing
started daycare 2 days per week
takes bites of food ie. bites of banana
loves to share toys and food
really enjoys playing with his stuffed animals (Coconut & Duke)
dances to music on his toys
now has 4 teeth (his 2 bottom front teeth, his left top front tooth and left fang tooth)
first time at a pumpkin patch
first Halloween party & first time trick or treating

1st Birthday:

We had a Cake Smash Photoshoot for Cooper for his 1st birthday. We had it a couple weeks before his actual birthday because we wanted to use the pictures from his cake smash on his birthday invitations. We had a baseball themed Cake Smash and actually did the photoshoot at a local baseball diamond. The pictures turned out great. However, we used red icing on the cake which took FOREVER to get off of Cooper and all our clothes. Haha! It was a lot of fun!

We had Cooper's 1st Birthday Party on October 17, 2015 at "A Gym Tale". A Gym Tale is an indoor playground that has a large play structure, mini trampoline, ball pits, etc. The party was 2 hours long. The 1st hour was spent playing in the play structure while the 2nd hour was spent having food and opening presents in the party room. We invited about 10 kids (which were all 1 or under) plus parents and family so all together there was about 25 people. The package came with a bit of food but we were able to bring extra snacks and cake. The downside was that we were not able to set up the party room until right before we entered the party room to eat so it was very rushed. I would definitely prefer to set it up before the guests arrive. It made it hard to have any food or watch Cooper eat his cake and open presents. Overall, the party was a great success and Cooper definitely got spoiled. He got a lot of toys, some of which we haven't even opened yet. I am going wait a couple of weeks and let him enjoy the toys he has opened so far and then open the rest.

We didn't really get him any big gifts for his first birthday because we knew he would get a lot of toys from everyone else so we just got him a Little People car ramp which he can race cars down. It is supposed to be for 1-3 year olds but I think he is still a bit young for it. He doesn't really understand how to race the cars down yet so he just throws the cars at the ramp! Haha!

As far as future updates go, I don't think I will do baby updates every month anymore. I think I will do baby updates every 3 months or so but I will do other types of updates such as work/home balance, vegan recipes, crunchy mommy topics, baby games & learning, and maybe even TTC baby # 2 updates (when the time comes) so please keep reading and let me know if you have any questions or topic ideas!

Here are some pictures from Cooper's Cake Smash, Birthday Party and other random pictures from the last month: