Photos: This week.... Daddy's home, Auntie Annie, Cats

This week.... instragrammed.

She wants to walk soooo bad!

Trying to fit the entire Bax in her mouth

Auntie Annie came to town!!  

Annie is my very Best Friend who's amazing and living her dream to live in NYC.  I miss her so and hope that one day soon she comes home and hangs out with us some more!

Sunglasses at brunch.  Ray Ban, so hip!

DADDY CAME HOME!!

More Jolly Jumping, of course.  

Bax is loving the Jolly kicks to his head.... Oh Bax.

Bean says "Do not disturb plz"

Animals are so funny.

Momma got creative with Rowen Baby's 'do...

Hey, leave us a comment if you have a sec, Friends!  

love her

I have no subject or rants to go with this entry.  I just wanted to share this new photo of a dressed down, hair au naturel, smiling Rowen Baby.

 Sometimes when Rowen is sleeping, I find myself flipping through photos of her on my phone and feeling such pride and overwhelming love and infatuation for this adorable little human.  I have to look at photos of her on the phone because what I'd really prefer to do is cuddle and smoosh her face but have to remind myself not to bug her.  She's such a good little baby who sleeps on her own from 9pm to 7am every night!  I've been waiting for and dreading this "4 month sleep regression" that everyone keeps warning us about... who knows if it will hit, but so far we're so spoiled.  I know that every parent thinks that their baby is the cutest and most well-behaved.  But I'm pretty sure mine actually is!  :D

Tonight in the car on the way home from spending the evening at Lowell's parents place, Rowen started giggling.  I'm not 100% sure what she was giggling at exactly... maybe my hat, or her owl toy or something she saw outside.  She kept giggling and then we'd start giggling back and then she'd giggle harder and we'd start laughing. And then in the middle of this, she suddently stopped giggling because she had zonked out and fell asleep.  It was unbelievably great.  I'm just obsessed with her newfound ability to laugh out loud!  How can one little person be so perfect and bring so much happiness, I ask ya!  

Rowen's Cradle

Rowen in her cradle at 1 week old

Rowen in her cradle at 19 weeks old

She did this by herself, in an attempt to roll over.

It is an extreme understatement to say that she is ready for her big girl crib.  We have one picked out (pretty much) and will go pick it up when Lowell gets home next week.  

Note: Before anyone sends me messages about SIDS and being a neglectful Momma, I only recently added the bumper pads when she started shoving her little limbs through the bars....  Bumper pads = bad.  But sprained little legs = bad as well.

Photos: First week without Daddy & Serious bedhead

Momma officially survived 11 days of single parenthood!  Daddy comes home in a week!  I've gotten take out more often than I'd like to admit.  I'm currently obsessed with the Dragon Bowl from Fresh.  Why is it so delicious???

The days are flying by pretty quickly, though some hours feel super slow on days when Baby is cranky and won't nap.  If she doesn't nap, it means no downtime.... which means being "on" and in "alert and taking care of Baby" mode for 14 hours straight or more.  It can be a bit of a workout, mentally and physically.  I have much much much respect for you, single parents!  

I'm insanely lucky and blessed to have a Baby who is very rarely cranky and mostly very happy!

This week, Rowen rocked some pretty intense bedhead.  

Her hair's thinning out a bit but growing steadily.

We went to visit Auntie Jenn, Jaden and Nathan.  Rowen loves Jaden!

Jaden baked us cookies.  

Isn't this awesome?  Certainly upgraded from my beige rectangle easy bake from the 80's!

Some days, it's hard to get out of bed.  Some days, we don't even bother to for hours.

Gorgeous!  Go organic, guys. Seriously!

More bedhead

More Jolly Jumping!

These pants really are fabulous.  And how about those magnificent thighs?

This week, we really really love reading!

Momma trimmed all of Eileen's nails for the first time since Rowen was born.  

Yes, that means over four months of neglected talon growth.  :(  They were starting to get dangerous and I was afraid that she'd hurt the Baby accidentally, even though she's a gentle Bean. 

 I managed to escape the nail trim (mostly) unscathed...

Ferocious!

Floral Safari Rowen

Rowen's first time wearing a floppy hat.  It was pretty funny times for her.

When wearing a safari-esque hat, it's only appropriate to hunt lions.  And...cupcakes?

Gearing up for the cupcake hunt.

This is a Bacon cupcake from Yummy Stuff in Parkdale.  

They do some seriously YUMMY stuff there!  The Bacon cake made me curious... I was prepared for weirdness, but it was amazing and rocked hard.  The cake was a chocolate oatmeal thing and the frosting had that awesome salty-sweet taste going.  I want another one now and will need to go back soon.  I LOVE CUPCAKES!

Video: Jolly Jumping Rowen

It's occurred to me that I need to tweak the layout of this little blog thing.  Okay, I vow to update our "about" section and little blurby line before the end of the month! Or maybe next month? ;) Or let's say, before Rowen hits 6 months.

(Oh my goodness she's growing up way way way too fast!)

And now, a Rowen video for your viewing pleasure...because the photos just don't do justice to how fun the Jolly Jumper is.

 Sadly, I took this video towards the end of a jumping session and she was pretty tired.  Her posture is droopy and tired, I know I know.   I swear I'm not a bad Momma, I rescued her for cuddles immediately afterwards!!  (And yes, she's stomping on a cloth diaper.)

Last week.... (Highlight = Jolly Jumper!)

Lowell's Parents bought Rowen a Jolly Jumper last week.  It's definitely been a game changer for her.  She's ready to walk off on her own now...

"This thing is funny, Momma"

A few minutes into her first Jolly Jump here.  She hesitated for about...4 seconds and then she was off!

Bax gets a nice Jolly Jumping pat/lovesmack on the head.

The day before Lowell left, he got some cupcakes from For the Love of Cake.  Two of our favourites (his: salted caramel, mine: grasshopper) and two that were new to us.  

We cut each one in half like usual.  They were gone within a few hours.

Guard Bean

Toe time

Natalya came over with  bahn mi for dinner from Bahn Mi Boys.  SO SO SO GOOD!!  Thank-you Nat, it was much needed!

Another day, another Jolly Jump!

I love these little legs!!!!

There is a thunderstorm and lightening happening right now.  I've embarassingly been afraid of thunder and lightening my entire life.  I secretly want to bring the baby into bed with me so she can protect me with her cuddles.

4 months old

Today, Rowen is 4 months old!  FOUR MONTHS!  I will be a broken record and say once again that I can't believe how quickly time is flying by...  and how big she's getting!!

Today I hit a wall at around 5pm like I often do now that Ms Baby has taken to getting up at dawn....  I had to lay down in bed for "just a few minutes" and set Rowen up  next to me with Chip the Cat and barricaded her in with pillows.  I woke up 20 minutes into my half-sleeping to her little hand stroking my lips and teeth, little fingers trying to wedge themselves into my mouth.  Oh little one....

I still can't believe how blessed and lucky we are to have the best behaved baby in the World.  Yes, of course we're slightly biased... And of course she does have her fussy moments but I swear, we won some sort of lottery.  From the moment she was born until now, she is just the most chillaxed little Baby.

Earlier this week, at her check-up and vaccines, she didn't even panic or freak out after she was jabbed with two needles at the same time!  I don't think that I could even handle two needles at once!  Mommy may be good at wielding needles around animals, but being around needles outside a veterinary context makes me stressed and queasy.  I felt awful all morning leading up to her appointment...and the day before.  I felt so awful that our adorable, sweet Baby who trusts us was going to get stabbed with needles and it would be our fault she was hurting.

Last time she had needles, Lowell held her while she was jabbed...  this time around, we couldn't find parking so I went up alone.  I kept hoping that Lowell would get upstairs in time so that I wouldn't have to hold her.  At the very last second, as they were swabbing her chubby thighs with alcohol, Lowell made it.  I felt like wussing out and making him switch spots with me, but I was brave and stayed put. Rowen was so excited to see her Daddy and was momentarily distracted.   I held onto her little hands and braced myself while she got stabbed. But she only cried for about two seconds after the needles and then kinda looked around as if to say "wait... that wasn't so bad.  Yeah, I'm okay now" and abruptly stopped crying.  She was smiley and happy the rest of the day!  How?  How is she so good?  AND HOW IS SHE SO STINKIN' CUTE???

I feel so lucky to be your Momma, Rowen Baby.  You are amazing and I'm still in awe of what a great little person you are!  I can't wait to keep learning and growing with you for years and years... and squishing your little face with kisses and cuddling in bed with you in the morning.