Category Archives: Primrose

Monthly Motherhood Update: Prim at 13 months

June 9, 2016

Saying: Prim is babbling constantly and making all sorts of new sounds. She has a handful of “real” words, but she has extensive conversations in her own native tongue (which, unfortunately, I’m not quite fluent in just yet 😉 )

Eating: Prim still eats a TON of food — and I’m still totally surprised by how much she eats. The other day I made buttermilk pancakes from scratch (this recipe, which is great) and made the pancakes really large — like the size of a salad plate. Prim ate two whole pancakes AND an entire nectarine for lunch. And yes, she was hungry for a snack about two hours later. How is this even physically possible?

Sleeping: Prim definitely had a transition period when we arrived in Amsterdam, but she actually acclimated to the time change really quickly. She’s back to sleeping through the night like a champ, but I’m sure with the move into our new place just around the corner another little shakeup is bound to happen.

Doing: Prim is busy and constantly in motion, but will stop every once in awhile to “read” a book, which has become quite an event, full of loud nonsense words and dramatic page-turning (and given that I’m the one who reads to her every night, I can’t imagine where she’s getting all this flair from. 😉 )

Latest milestone: Prim can stand on her own unassisted, and can even get to a standing position from the floor without holding onto anything, but she has yet to take her first steps. I’m sure that walking is imminent, and I can only imagine what sort of trouble she’s going to get into once it happens!

Favorite toys: Prim plays well independently and especially enjoys “cooking” with her little pots and pans, which were a birthday gift from my sister’s mother-in-law.

Sweetest things: Prim has learned how to blow kisses, and no longer exclusively gives kisses open-mouthed. She’s learned how to do the “smack” motion, and loves to practice by grabbing my face with both hands and planting one on me. I’m sure that someday she’ll be devastated to learn that she ever loved to kiss her mama on the mouth, but right now there is just nothing sweeter.

Favorite thing about this age: Prim has become fascinated by airplanes (apparently watching them out the window is very different from actually being on one) and watches for them from our hotel, as we have a pretty decent view of the airport from here. Anytime she sees one, she yells and throws her hands in the air like it’s the most amazing thing she’s ever seen.

Baby / Motherhood / Primrose

Monthly Motherhood Updates: Prim at 12 Months

May 13, 2016

Saying: Prim says Mama, Dada, dog, and bye now. She might be saying duck as well, but it’s still kind of unclear. 😉

Eating: Prim’s continues to be a voracious and adventurous eater. The other night she took down an obscene amount of roasted lamb and marinated grilled mushrooms. I really hope this eating thing continues because this girl will eat just about anything!

Sleeping: Prim has been sleeping through the night consistently now, which has been such a treat. She does still have the occasional “off” night where she’ll wake up once after she goes to bed, or she’ll wake up in the very early morning, but the whole sleeping through the night consistently thing is such a game-changer. It’s like I didn’t even know how tired I was until I started sleeping a normal number of hours all in a row.

Doing: Prim is chattering away and making all sorts of new sounds. She speaks a mile a minute and very clearly wants to communicate (she’s quite insistent with her gestures and facial expressions). I honestly can’t wait until she has more words in her vocabulary — it’s like she has this whole inner dialogue that she’s just dying to tell us about!

Latest milestone: Prim likes to choose her books at bedtime now, and sometimes prefers to “read” them herself, rather than having mama read them to her. It’s very sweet, but she’s also started the obstinate scream-response when we take something from her or do something she doesn’t like. I guess we knew it was coming (and it’s not surprising at all given her larger-than-life personality), but man, I can really see those toddler tantrums on the horizon now.

Favorite toys: Almost all of her toys were packed up weeks ago to be shipped to Amsterdam, but this girl hasn’t missed a beat. Her current favorite plaything is an empty Kleenex box, which she stuffs full of old BART tickets, large legos, and, occasionally, even her stuffed lion.

Sweetest things: Prim has learned how to give “Eskimo kisses” in addition to regular kisses, so now if I ask for one she’ll lean into super close to my face and giggle when I rub my nose against hers.

Favorite thing about this age: Prim has just started to become a little bit shy around people she doesn’t know well (or doesn’t remember). When they approach her she will either crawl to me or KC and hide behind our legs, or bury her head in our shoulder if we’re holding her. She does eventually warm up and start chattering away, but the “stranger danger” response is pretty darn cute.

Baby / Birthdays / Primrose

Prim’s First Birthday Party

May 10, 2016

We celebrated Prim’s first birthday over the weekend. Since her birthday happened to fall just before our move, we decided to have a combination going-away/birthday party to celebrate the start of Prim’s second year and the start of our new adventure in Amsterdam. KC’s mom and I worked hard to plan the party, and in the end everything really came together nicely.

It was so nice to have so many close friends and family come over to celebrate Prim, and Prim did fabulously amidst all the attention (this girl loves a party!)

Prim wore a grey Baby Gap dress, which was the very first thing we purchased after we found out we were having a girl, and used as a gender-reveal gift during Christmas for my parents. Her pink sweater was my mom’s when she was a baby (and look how sweetly Prim coordinated with her Nonna on her special day!)I made Prim a little no-sugar smash cake (recipe coming up tomorrow!), which came together surprisingly well. I was a little doubtful that it would work out the way I intended, but actually ended up being adorable and perfect.

This was the cake we served to guests — I’ll be posting about this beauty later in the week as well. (Doesn’t it look fancy? It was $19!)

I can’t believe this sweet little peanut is one already, but what a great way to ring in the end of her first year.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to come out and share the day with us. It was so special having you all there, and we sure are lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Baby / Birthdays / Primrose

Happy Birthday, Primrose!

May 9, 2016

Dear Primrose,

As of 1:13pm today, you are officially a one year old.I can’t believe it’s been a year already. 365 days of kissing your cheeks, belly, hands and feet. 12 months of snuggles and milk parties and stories and songs and silly faces. 52 weeks of firsts, from smiling to cruising, from first foods to first words.

I remember a year ago today so vividly. I remember the doctor placing you on my chest and holding you so tightly and feeling overwhelmed with love. And everyday since then, your dad and I have loved you and watched you grow, learned with you and watched your little personality emerge.
You are so funny and sweet and silly, and being your mama has been the greatest gift.

We love you so much, Sweet P, and we can’t wait to see what year two has in store. Happy birthday, beautiful girl. Love, Mama

Baby / Personal / Primrose

Almost One Year

May 4, 2016

I’m having some trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Prim will be one in less than a week. Last year at this time my maternity leave had just started, I was swollen beyond belief and oh so pregnant and uncomfortable. I remember feeling ready to give birth and meet her, if only so my poor feet could get a much-needed reprieve, but also feeling a little conflicted about the end of pregnancy.

I know a lot of people who don’t like pregnancy, which I totally get. Your body is transformed beyond recognition and you have little to no control over the changes. There’s also a slew of glamorous side-effects like near-constant nausea and puking (which can last months, yay!), swollen extremities, joint pain, oh yeah, and the long list of everything you’re not allowed to do while pregnant.

But despite all that, and the fact that my pregnancy was certainly not what I would characterize as “easy” given that I had severe morning sickness for 10 weeks straight and then suffered from intense swelling at the tail-end thanks to a sudden onset of preeclampsia, (oh yeah, and let’s not even dive into the insanity which followed the actual birth) — despite that, I really loved pregnancy.

There’s a certain unmatched intimacy to pregnancy. Your body is doing something amazing, and while you’re pregnant you know that baby growing inside you better than anyone. While I was pregnant KC asked me, “What do you think she’s going to be like?” and I remember telling him, “I feel like she’s going to have a ton of personality. I don’t know why, I just feel like she’s going to be this little firecracker.”

And you know what? I was right. This girl is so funny and never stops talking. I can only imagine what she’s going to be saying when she has more than 4 words in her vocabulary!

Much like the end of pregnancy where I was ready to meet her, but also wanting to have her all to myself just a bit longer, the milestone of Prim’s first birthday is similarly bittersweet. I’m so excited to celebrate the end of Prim’s first year and beginning of the second, but also feeling that twinge of “already..?”
I think that most parents feel this way as their children grow up. It’s amazing and wonderful to watch them learn and change, but you just can’t help wanting to keep them little just a little bit longer. ♥