My Baby is One Year Old

My baby boy turned one year old last week. I am so proud of him. He is the most joyful little guy I've ever had the pleasure to meet and I get to be his mommy!

I haven't been updating as much as I'd like to but I've been busy with mommy-ing my three beautiful children. So excuse the tardiness of my postings.




We had a John Deere themed one year old birthday party, complete with balloons (which Tanner loved), decorations and a lovely cake made by a local baker.






I set up themed food for his party as well. A veggie patch, sandwiches for the farmers, haystacks made out of Rice Krispie squares (both of which Claire & Grandpa made for Tanners party), gummy worms, cookies/tractor tires, goldfish for the fishin' hole, and lemonade.



















But the most important were the people who celebrated with us. We had both sets of grandparents at Tanners 1st birthday party as well as some of his little buddies and their siblings.
























I think Tanner had a great time! Thank you to everyone who came out to make his day extra special!


Happy first birthday little buddy. We love you to the moon and back. xoxoxo

Pulling to a Stand

As of last week sometime (I'm getting bad with dates), Tanner started pulling himself up to a standing position on anything and everything. He uses the laundry baskets, big toys, his push hippo, the couches, chairs and even mommy. (I think that last one is his favourite.)

He's crawling up a storm and is really fast. He will follow me around the house wherever I'm going and seek out objects he can pull up on (or things to unplug - time to baby proof everything again!).

He also got two more teeth this wee, one top left and one bottom left, bringing his count to 7 teeth at 7 months old. He also bites like a shark if you check his teeth. Yup, normal.

My baby is getting so big and growing up. I'm big proud and a little but saddened that he will not be my infant for much longer. However, I take some solace in knowing that he will be my baby forever. XX

Months Four, Five, Six & Seven! (The last quarter of a year..)

It has been a busy few months? A busy spring? Summer? I'm just bad at updating lately.
I spend my days trying to keep the littles fed and watered, enough to quell the two year old crying and whining, so that I can have a minute to use the bathroom, or do other normal things which I have forgotten are actually normal things. Then I stay up late watching tv or reading into the middle of the night for some "me time", which just causes me to lose more sleep and be tired again in the wee morning hours that my toddlers deem necessary to wake up (and then wake the rest of the house up as well). Don't they know that genetically they should also be night owls? I'm wondering if this stuff skips a generation and they're actually morning people, who take instead after their grandma. I'm guessing it's payback from my own childhood. That has got to be it!

Our littlest Smeltz turned four months, then five, then six and seven months! Where is the time going? He has gotten quite big (really big) and started doing all kinds of new things in the last few months.

At four months old we celebrated Tanners first Easter at Grandma & Grandpas house. The kids all got chocolate and toys, and were quite spoiled. Grandma & Grandpa gave the kids clothes and toys from their recent trip to Australia. (We still have Easter candy three months later...)

Five months and he was crawling! (What?!) He did this bear love where he would get up onto all fours like a little bear and try to move forward. Then he tried being an inchworm, but it was really slow. So finally he devised a plan to move like a seal, using his arms like a seal would use their flippers, to push himself up and then violently throw himself forwards. He got really quite fast at it and it's still his quickest way to move around, although now at seven months he has strayed to crawl in the normal hand to knee alternation.

At five months, we visited Grandma & Grandpa at the lake for the May long weekend. We also got a visit at the beginning of June from Grannie & Grampa, so it was a month full of grandparents and cuddles for our little guy. Which I know he loved, because he never stopped smiling.

He had his six month vaccinations on June 20th and he is a big boy! He weighed 21lbs 6.5oz (97th %) and he was 26.5" long (50th %). His height to weight measurement was off of the charts at well over 100%. I'm certain he will slim out once he starts moving around more. There's a reason his nickname is Tank.

We now are giving him baby oatmeal and trying out new foods. He has had orange, peach, banana, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, bread, bagel, chicken, cheerios, fries, cake, icing and marshmallows. (Notice how that list went from fruit to junk food? It's because of camping season. We do not give him junk much at all really.) At first he didn't seem to enjoy eating solids as he pushed them out of his mouth with his tongue when using a spoon. We tried his mesh baby feeder and that went over well, but it was nearly impossible to clean, so we just started giving him tiny bits of foods we were eating, along with baby cereal and finger foods like cheerios.

He also went camping for the first time last month, over Father's Day weekend June 13-15, and seemed to really enjoy it. We went camping again in July, out to Banff and that's when he got all of the sugary foods. It was his uncles birthday.

He also went to the Drumheller Dinosaur Museum for the first time on June 19th. And he played at the splash park all by himself on July 16th. (He kept crawling towards the cement pad and the water from the blanket, which was about ten feet away. I kept bringing him back but he was very determined so I let him explore and I'm certain there were other moms there who we're wondering who in heck would let a baby play alone at the splash park. But he loved it.)

At some point in the last few weeks, he has also started manoeuvring himself from crawling to sitting to crawling again, so he's now fully mobile and is ninja fast. He also has a grip on anything he can get his hands onto and does not let go. Overall his disposition has never changed and he is still the. Happiest baby I've ever seen. I only hope that he will stay this way throughout toddlerhood. For my own sanity really.

We love him beyond words and are so very thankful to have him in our lives. I can't believe how close he is now to 8 months old. That's 3/4 of a year already! It seems like he was just born and should be tiny, but he's 23lbs & 27" (as of today) and a healthy big guy. I can't remember what life was like before he arrived, but it feels like he has always been here.

I will add pictures as soon as I find the time! (So when he is in university perhaps...) or you can check out my Facebook page for up to date photos.

My baby's growing up too fast

Tanner has grown so much and is doing great. At one month old he had his first smile (at mommy) and has been smiling ever since. He is a very happy baby and has an easy going personality. Thank goodness we lucked out, as I can't begin to imagine a fussy baby on top of caring for twin two year olds!

Tanner also lifted his head and turned it side to side during tummy time on Jan 12th. And then shortly after on Jan 16th started grabbing onto mommy's clothes, his blankets, and anything within his reach.

He also rolled over from his tummy to back (two times) on Jan 26th! I thought this was way too early being that he wasn't even two months old but he did it more than once. He's working on rolling from back to front now at nearly three months old and is almost there but his arm keeps getting in his way.

He started following people with his head and followed Daddy for the first time by turning his head back and forth on Feb 2nd, just shy of two months old.

Two months:
The day Tanner turned two months old he started saying "agoo", and has since brought in a bunch of new sounds as he is discovering his voice. It's really sweet to listen to him "talk" to us while making eye contact.

He moved to size 6m sleepers and size 2 diapers at two months also. I'm wondering if he will be a big guy or will slow down at some point. He may catch up to Hayden and Claire in size faster than I'd anticipated. Then it'll look like we have triplets.

Tanner giggled for the first time at Claire (jumping up and landing on her bum on the couch cushion and saying ribbit like a frog) on Feb 10th. Claire adores her little brother and is always wanting to touch, hug and kiss him. She also likes to feed him his milk whenever she can.

The discovery of his hands was really cute. He would sit staring at his hand and moving it around trying to figure out what it was. I remember C&H doing the same, but that seems like a lifetime ago to me now.

Shortly after discovering his hands, Tanner started reaching out to touch his teddy bears face and now tries to touch every toy we put in front of him. He has even started pulling my hair and he has a strong grasp!

He has amazed us most though by pushing to stand on his feet while sitting down. He loves to stand up and smile at us. I remember Hayden standing up early but seem to recall it being more like three or four months old not two months! I certainly hope he doesn't walk super early! I'm hoping to keep my baby a baby for as long as possible.



Tanner at two months old

Handy Mommy

I'm always on the look out for quality used toys and baby stuff for my kids.

Its rare to find things in perfect condition but I've found that sometimes I can modify used stuff or repair it myself, and if it fails, I'm not out much money anyway.

Tonight I decided to repair two Fisher-Price used toys that I recently acquired.

The first was an Ocean Wonders Fisher-Price infant bouncy seat that I bought for $5. Date stamp on the back says it's from 2002, so it's no wonder I have never seen it previously. It has a water component to it on the arch piece and of course the problem was that it was nearly out of water (I guess so after 12 years!) and it didn't work properly without water inside to move the fish around.

My thought was that I could open it up and find a rubber plug to open so I could refill the water. No such luck. I opened it all up and it was sealed up (water) tight.
I figured if I could drill a hole, I could get water inside and worst case I'd wreck the toy, but for $5 I didn't really care. I drilled a small hole near the bottom of the plastic piece holding the water (note: if I were to do this again I'd drill the hole at the top of the case and not the bottom where the water will always be sitting..)

Then I held it under the kitchen tap with a slow water flow until the toy was full. Then I added silicone to cover the hole. (Make sure to dry the place you're putting the silicone, I didn't the first time and had to wipe it all off and try again).

I screwed it back together and put it back onto the bouncy seat. (It leaked water the first time I attempted this but after wiping off the water and re-siliconing it, it held the second time).

Voila $5 good as new bouncy seat with something for my little guy to look at. It lights up and blows bubbles which spin the little starfish. (Our other bouncy seats have nothing interesting to look at and are basically just really expensive chairs.)

I figured that had gone really well so I decided to do the same thing to our Ocean Wonders Crib toy as well. Every mom in the last few years knows this toy. (It's dated 2007 on the back but I've seen them everywhere.) Only problem is they too are always only half full of water whenever I've seen one for sale, so they still work but just look terrible.

I opened the case up and took off the back. Drilled a hole (in the top this time), ran water into it, and siliconed it back up.

Good as new. And my newborn son can enjoy this crib mobile for months to come. I also love that it has a remote so I can control it from outside of his room (assuming it fits onto his crib).

So there you have it. The tools I used were: a drill with a small bit, a screwdriver and a silicone gun.
Two repaired toys and it cost me only a couple of bucks and a few minutes of my evening. If I can do these repairs with two 2 year olds running around like mad people and a newborn, while making supper and baking cookies, then I'm pretty sure anyone can do this too.

Take that Handy Manny!