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Yes, this update includes three months worth of rambles. No, I'm not expecting you to read the entire thing. But this blog has gone from a creative outlet to my baby book, and I'll be damned if I don't finish out these monthly updates before it goes back to being a creative (and sometimes baby-filled) outlet someday. Plus, my baby book doesn't nearly have enough lines or space for all of these memories. And I don't have to use white out here when I mess up 54 times.
I crammed these three months here because I'm gearing up for Leo's one-year post (which I haven't written yet) and his one-year party this weekend (which I haven't finished shopping, crafting or planning for yet). I can't BELIEVE my baby is going to be one! And that I haven't started crying yet.
Before I go through my Costco 12-pack of tissues, let's recap the last three months of Leo:
Highlights: Starting in Buffalo for Leo's first Thanksgiving and ending in Jacksonville for Leo's first Christmas, this month was packed to the brim with family love, holiday cheer and big baby milestones! Leo met Santa again, played in the snow (in Austin of all places), tasted all sorts of new foods and officially became mobile. Meaning I officially have not sat down since. He continues to be a ray of sunshine, always smiling, laughing and cuddling.
Growth Chart: At his nine-month appointment, Leo weighed 19 lbs and stretched 29.3 inches tall! He is in the 39th percentile for weight, 80th for height and 93rd for head circumference! (He has an 18.5 inch dome!) :)
Leo Sleep Chronicles, Vol. 9: In daytime sleep news, this month saw the end of the third late afternoon catnap (which had become an "Ergo nap" as I was over trying to get him to sleep for 30 minutes just to have him sleep for 30 minutes) and the debut of a few two-hour morning naps. Key words: a few. Enough to get me excited that Leo's nap habits had turned a corner and too few to let me know that they had not. I still mainly rock him to sleep for naps, because I am a glutton for baby cuddles, but he did fall asleep a few times by himself for naps this month. And I loved it but I secretly missed rocking him.
On the night front, we are still riding this sleep rollercoaster. He was sleeping GREAT in the beginning of the month – even sleeping through the night a couple of times! – but by the end of the month? Dear Lord. HOWEVER…as I will write more about in the 10-month section, this poor little guy came down with yet another double ear infection after Christmas. So, night wakings were pretty expected. But still not fun.
I'm still nursing him to sleep for bedtime and then for any subsequent night wakings thereafter. I know I need to stop nursing him to sleep, but I just can't. I LOVE IT. I love our bedtime routine (bath, books, boob) and I love the extra snuggles I get at the very end of our day together. I love watching his little lips smack and flutter softly when he is asleep, and most times I get all teary-eyed watching his little angel face in my arms. I talk to him and tell him how much he is loved, and I send prayers of gratitude that he is all ours. I know this time will go all too fast, and while some nights may seem like they will never end, I know that they will. And that I'll strangely miss when he needed me in the wee small hours. (Remind me that I wrote this if he is still waking up in the middle of the night at 3 years old.)
ALSO, Leo started sitting up in his crib in the morning, which, for some reason, melts my heart. Something about him just sitting there, looking around and waiting for us to come in just turns me into a puddle. But he ALSO started pulling himself up on his crib rails towards the end of this month, meaning we had to lower the crib not once, but twice – the last time all the way to the lowest setting. And I honestly don't know if that is low enough.
On the Move: People, WE OFFICIALLY HAVE A CRAWLER. Leo had been rocking back and forth on his hands and knees for a couple weeks, but as we got closer and closer to the end of the month he began to mobilize. Starting with little frog hops, Leo pretty much went from not crawling to crawling at light speed within three days. And I went from being able to multitask to being a full-time baby shadow. It has been so fun and hilarious watching him explore the world around him now that he can actually move from place to place. He loves crawling out of his room now ("I'm free of these four walls!") and out into the rest of the house. Especially the guest bathroom. What is with babies and toilets? And why do I feel like it is going to be so ironic when we are potty training in a couple years?
Christmas with Leo: I knew the holidays would be much more magical with Leo here to share in them, but I never anticipated the amount of feels I would have watching him look at Christmas lights or "opening" presents. I was basically a total sap all month, as we we did a lot of Christmas-y things in Buffalo with my fam before we left at the beginning of December, and then celebrated the actual holiday and New Year's in Jacksonville with Matt's side of the family. And in between, we squeezed in a ton of holiday fun in Austin – including Leo's first snow day! Highlights of the holidays include: watching Leo watch the Mozart's Christmas light show; teaching him how to open presents and then laughing as he was much more enthralled with the wrapping paper than the actual toy gift; thinking it was a good idea to let Leo "decorate" a cookie…but it turned into Leo's first cookie and frosting tasting; Leo pulling on Santa's beard more than a few times, and more than gently, showing Leo the Christmas tree every morning when he woke up, as well as realizing we need a LOT more soft/felt/unbreakable ornaments; and, of course, getting to share Leo's first Christmas with all of our family and friends in both Buffalo and Jacksonville.
Leo's Favorite Things:
- Santa's beard. While we were in Buffalo, my mom and I took him to Kelly's Country Store, where she used to being me and my brothers when we were little. That store and Santa experience were pure magic for me as a child, and so bringing Leo was pure magic x100! So much so that I had him sit on Santa's lap twice so I could really take it all in, after I spent the entire time he first sat on his lap videoing and taking pictures. (Luckily we went during the week when I could afford to be that annoying).
- The color yellow. It was the Wheat Thins box that tipped us off.
- Laying in bed with me in the morning. Well, this is probably more MY favorite thing. During some of Leo's rougher nights, I often bring him in bed with me for the last stretch of sleep, so we can both actually get that last stretch of sleep. I love watching him wake up – I squint my eyes so that he can't fully tell that I am awake and watching him. He slowly blinks his eyes open, looks around the room like "where the hell am I?" and then looks over at me and smiles immediately, like "ahh, right. I'm with my mom." Then he crawls over to me and headbutts me to wake me up. Even in my most exhausted moments, this baby makes my heart jump outside of my body.
- His VTech Sit-to-Stand walker. My mom bought him one for Christmas that we kept in Buffalo, and then we bought him one for Austin. Between this and the cube, the voice of the Vtech lady haunts my dreams. (Ring a ling! The animals sing!)
- Playing with his cousins in Buffalo and in Jacksonville – he is so enamored with all of them. And they all have the amazing ability to make him stop fussing and smile, even when he is super overtired or sick. I need to have one of them on call at all times.
- Practicing his pincher grasp – we gave him Cheerios in Buffalo and while it took him a little bit to get the hang of it, he was picking each one up within minutes! Puffs quickly entered our daily vocabulary and shopping carts.
- Furrowing his brows in concentration when he is studying a new toy, a book page or a piece of lint he discovered on the floor.
- Playing with all of his light-up/singing/moving toys. We spend a lot of time in his room now, especially in the mornings, playing with all the things. I love watching him discover new aspects of his toys every day. He still really likes flipping them all over in his lap and studying the tiniest details – he has an eye, this one. And his concentrating face is SO CUTE.
- Crawling to his nursery door and pushing it away from him and then crawling forward to swing it back open again. (As I stand there secretly controlling the door as I am paranoid he is going to accidentally jam his little tiny fingers.) This can go on for like 10 minutes at a time, until he catches a glimpse of the toilet in the guest bathroom and remembers that is his favorite.
- Crawling to the treadmill and pulling up on it so he can run his hands along the bumpy track. Think we have a future runner on our hands….help me.
- That said, crawling to every single cord, outlet and other totally-not-kid-friendly-object we have in the house. I swear, I could put every loud, colorful toy in his path and he would crawl right around them to get to something he shouldn't be getting to. Like, again, the freaking toilet.
- Being mommy's shadow. Now that he is mobile, everywhere I go, he goes. He also is very big on crawling on top of me when I am sitting down, especially when we are at someone else's house. His separation anxiety is in full force this month…and I LOVE IT.
- Eating the tail on his lion rug. Didn't see that one coming when I bought it eight months ago.
- Looking in the mirror – ain't nobody love Leo like Leo loves Leo! Well, except for me.
- Moving his little body when we sing songs or play music. He kills me.
- Fighting like hell when we try and put him in his car seat! I can't help but laugh at his determination to not be strapped into that thing – he arches his whole body up, refusing to sit his butt down. It takes a few tries and usually some sort of toy bribery – or my phone, keys or sunglasses – to distract him enough to get him in and secured.
- Babbling that babble. Lots of ba ba ba ba ba ba ma ma ma ma da da da da and some pretty hilarious lisp-type sounds.
- Baby swings! He LOVESSS to swing – smiles so big as soon as I put him in!
- Kneeling on the window sill in his bedroom and being our little neighborhood watchdog. Every morning he has to kneel up there and check out the scene!
- Taking a bath in his little tub without the netting. He wasn't too sure about it the first few times, as he refused to lean back and would only will sit up straight with his hands clutching the sides of the tub! If his hands weren't so chubby, I swear you would see white knuckles he would clutch the sides so hard. Eventually, he relaxed enough to let go and play with his bath toys.
- His lion bath towel…especially when Matt and I put it on our heads. It started out of desperation to keep him still when I was trying to wrangle a diaper and pajamas on him one night, but he laughed so hard that I kinda stopped using the towel as a towel and more so as a costume. He laughs AND lays still. Whatever works, people!
- Being tickled – the anticipation of being tickled also gets him laughing, which gets us laughing even harder!
- Playing on the kitchen floor with pots, pans and Tupperware. It is crazy how fast our kitchen cabinets can be emptied when I need to keep him preoccupied.
- Making this hilarious scrunched-up stink face! He randomly started doing it one day and I think I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. He still does it all of the time – so much so that I'm beginning to think it is how he smiles now, Chandler Bing style.
- Dropping toys, sip cups and food from his high-chair. Then once he drops it, he likes to lean over the high chair to see where it landed on the floor.
- Along that same note, he loves to push toys he is no longer interested over the side of this car seat. I always give him a few things to play with before even the shortest of distances, and find it hilarious when I go to get him out and find them all tossed overboard.
Favorite foods:
- Avocado, still reigning champ
- Refried beans
- Mashed potatoes
- Hummus
- Raspberries
- Happy Baby Organic pouches – so many fruits/veggies, so little time I have to spend preparing them.
- ICE CREAM. My brother Joe gave him a little bit when we were visiting, and I'm pretty sure he learned the "more" sign right then and there. He is my son, after all.
- Also, not a food but related – Leo started drinking out of a straw sip cup this month! After he sucked down a HappyBaby pouch, it dawned on me that he would probably like drinking from a straw. Little baby basically chugged so hard I had to take the sip cup away at one point!
Parenting Lessons Learned:
- Sharing a hotel room with a baby that now does not share your room is not fun or really doable anymore. We went to San Antonio for the night and while we were pretty great at talking, eating and getting ready for bed with minimal noises, housekeeping and the homeless guy across the street from our hotel PLAYING THE DRUMS AT 2, 3 and again at 4 AM were not. It was the.night.from.hell.
- Playpens are awesome, in theory – we got this Summer Infant one this week – but one day, your baby will eventually realize you've pent him up and strongly protest every time you put him down in it thereafter. We can still get 5-10 minutes out of him in there before he starts pressing his whole face into the mesh siding…which, actually, is highly entertaining.
- We should have really started thinking about baby proofing sooner.
- People on planes who help you with your bags and your baby as well as let you use your tray for the snacks and drinks are angels. PURE ANGELS.
Highlights: Leo rang in his tenth month and 2018 with quite the bang, including two ear infections, a cold and many a sleepless nights. (We rang in the new year together as Leo woke up right after the ball dropped.) Thankfully, the month went up from there, as it included many exciting, new things like peanut butter (not allergic and not a weirdo who doesn't like peanut butter…not sure which brought me more relief!), learning to pull up to stand and visits from his Uncle Bryan and the one and only Mama Ro!
Growth Chart: At his appointment in January (one of many… ear infections = meeting your deductible real quick) Leo weighed 19 pounds and stretched 29 inches long. Hard to believe this baby almost tripled his weight and expanded nine inches since he was born! My arms should be SO RIPPED from lugging this chunk around all of the time.
Leo Sleep Chronicles, Vol. 10: After we got past the double ear infection, Leo's sleep improved ten-fold this month. He not only started taking longer morning naps (some were two hours long!), but he surprised me with much longer stretches at night…even some all-night sleep fests! Of course, for every decent night of sleep there were two bad sleeps, but I will take any great night sleep I can get. He did have a weird stretch one week where he woke up 20-30 minutes after I put him down to bed, like clockwork, but as with all things in this baby life, that was just a phase. Towards the end of the month, most nights he was only waking up once around 3 or 4 a.m. to nurse and then would sleep until about 7 or 7:30. But he had a few nights where he woke up around 10 or 11, nursed and then slept al the way to after 7 the next morning. Ah, that was so, so nice. Sleep is so, so nice. Not that I remember how it feels to be rested, as all of these great sleeping habits would all soon change come February when ANOTHER double ear infection came to swoop up all the fun. Spoiler alert!
On the nap front, Leo is taking two naps a day – one in the morning, around 9 or 10, and one in the afternoon, around 1 or 2. I'm loosely following the 2,3,4 schedule still, but bedtime usually falls around 7-7:30 no matter what. We had a few rough days of nap resistance and cat naps, which is probably why I'm still breaking all of the rules by nursing him to sleep or wearing him in the Ergo for naps. It's just…so easy. I know I will have to sleep train someday but I keep avoiding it, much like the new treadmill we bought. Even typing about it is giving me anxiety. Stop pressuring me, mom sleep blogs!
Leo's Favorite Things:
- Smiling/flirting/staring at every person near us on the plane to and from Florida. He has always been a sociable babe, but I kept reminding him that not everyone has the stamina to smile and wave back at him for the entirety of our 2 1/2 hour flight. To those people that did….bless you.
- Smiling/flirting/waving at strangers in grocery stores. I can't get him to eave bye bye to me but the random person in the checkout behind me at Target can.
- While he is a total flirt, he also loves to play bashful and lean his little smiling head into my chest whenever someone new approaches him.
- Sharing toys and food when asked, "can I see it?" Alas, this lasts for one second until he gently takes it back but still, it is so cute.
- Being home. I mean, this kid is the best traveler in the world but after two months of being on and off planes up North and down South, you could actually see his excitement to be back home and around all of his toys again. He was crawling all over the house, picking up all of his favorite toys and objects and smiling at them before putting them down and crawling to the next. I feel ya, babydoll.
- Wrapping paper. I still had a couple tiny presents wrapped for Leo when we got home, and in true baby fashion, Leo was way more into the paper than the super cool A Very Hungry Caterpillar finger book I found at Home Goods. He loved it so much that he decided to crawl all around the house with a piece of it, stopping to sit up, wave it around in the air and then continue to crawl for a few more feet before repeating the sit and wave thing. This went on for a good 20 minutes. And every other day since when I needed to distract him. Would it be weird if I gave him a piece of wrapping paper to sleep with as a comfort object?
- Our "Guess Who" game. What started as a "here, look at this!" distraction on a very cold and rainy day spent in the house turned into a full-blown OBSESSION. Maybe it is his love for all things yellow or maybe he is just like his great grandmother when it comes to cards, but this boy crawls all around the house with cards in his hands, waves them in the air and then tries to eat them. Well, in some case, does eat them. Max, Anita, Maria and Joe all had to be sacrificed.
- His Leonardo ninja turtle! He gets SO PUMPED when he sees it, then crawls over to it and tackles it down. Between that and his bear blanket/throw, he loves rolling around with his face stuffed into stuffed animals.
- Not sitting still for diaper changes or outfit changes. These are now my cardio intervals.
- Showing off all of his new tricks his dad taught him, including "hands up!" "how big is Leo?" and my personal favorite, "where's your tongue?" He also responds to "where's dada? and "where's mama?"
- Playing with each one of his toys in the morning for 10 seconds before tossing it aside and moving onto the next. I don't know if he has a short attention span or if he is just super excited to keep learning or if the coffee I drink is getting into my breastmilk. But he is an energizer bunny allllll day.
- Fake crying, which he always pulls when we put him in the Summer Infant play yard. He whines "mmm ma ma ma" or "de de de de da da daaaa!!" but if you do anything, like peek-a-boo, he instantly starts giggling. And then immediately gets his way as I pick him up bc he is too adorable.
- Practicing pulling up to stand! He did it first when he was doing his daily front-window watching, and then again a couple of times on the edge of the treadmill. It was so exciting yet so terrifying because after standing comes cruising and after cruising comes walking and after walking comes my life is over.
- Baby play dates. (Who am I kidding…this is also my favorite thing. I'm SO lucky to have the such amazing friends/fellow mamas around me to hang out with during the week, as they provide much needed laughter, support and coffee refills.)
- Laughing hysterically when I play peek-a-boo under his high chair. It started when I went to pick up all of the food he dropped one day, and now the second I bend down to get something he squeals in delight and also sticks his feet out for me to tickle. It certainly makes clean up a lot more fun!
- Library story time, although this month's visit was bit different as it was the first time going since Leo learned how to crawl. Before, he would sit happily on my lap, bouncing up and down for songs and watching in awe as the other babies' cruised the carpet. This time…Leo was all about showing off his new skill. He was hilarious – he would crawl to the middle of the circle, sit up and look back at me, then crawl back on my lap. On repeat. Towards the end, I had to go retrieve him from the personal space of those around us, as Leo was after all the toys, all the iPhones and all the bubbles.
- Making this hilarious scrunched up stink face while also breathing loudly. With his little bald head, it makes him look like Mr. Magoo.
- Giving me hugs and kisses. It is the sweetest thing EVER and I think I might die from my heart exploding every time he does it!
- Balloons, as we discovered while grocery shopping the day before Valentine's Day. I almost bought him five heart balloons, but thankfully came to my senses and only bought him one. Which he loved for a day and then quickly forgot about.
- Staring at me when he is nursing. If I even try to look at my phone he swats his hands around at it. He wants my boob and my full undivided attention.
- Speaking of attention, the millisecond he is done nursing, he pops up immediately and lunges forward at his toys on the ground of his nursery. Then he goes from toy to toy, leaving a trail of wreckage in his crawly path.
- Clacking his tongue (is that the right word?) and sticking it outlay the way on cue when you ask, "where's your tongue?"
- BATH TIME. Oh, how this boy loves bath time. From watching his tub fill up to splashing water EVERYWHERE, it is hard to get him out of the tub and ready for bed these days!
- The remote control. He normally doesn't get mad when you take something away from him, but he was so attached to that remote that I finally had to take the one out of the guest room to be his permanent toy. Sorry, guest room guests.
- Playing with my hair when he eats, especially when he is sleepy. He will now grab onto it and rub the ends against his cheek while he is falling asleep. Which makes me wonder if I'm going to have to cut off a chunk of it and make it into a really weird security blanket if I ever want him to fall asleep independently.
- Making this hilarious noise when he is excited – it's basically him sucking in air while he flails his legs and arms around.
- Spending time with his Mama Ro. Although he hadn't seen her in about a month, he smiled SO BIG when she walked in the door and immediately reached out to go to her. We had the best week all together, spending many days at the trail, exploring the new downtown library and just hanging out at the house.
- Leaning his head sideways in the high chair. He randomly did this one day (probably when he had an ear infection and his ears were bugging him) and it quickly turned into our new "sideways!" game. He will now follow your head to the left and to the right with a huge grin on his face.
- Our days at the trail – we go walk, stop at Juiceland for smoothies and then Leo passes out in the Ergo while I continue walking. These are my favorite days, especially because I used to walk the trail almost every night after work when I was pregnant with him. He used to move so much in my belly as I walked
Baby-Led Weaning/Throwing: Leo started protesting the spoon over Christmas, so since then I have focused more on a baby-led weaning approach to feeding (basically offering small bites of food on his tray and letting him feed himself). This works out great some days for Leo and not-so-great some days for me and our kitchen floor. There is now one large area of our brand new hardwood floors that will never, ever, EVER be clean again.
These are his least-likely-to-throw-on-the-floor foods:
- Peanut butter toast. Like…he eats it every day as it is one of the only things he will eat for breakfast. Or lunch… or dinner. Boy after my own belly.
- Any sort of bread, but especially blueberry and banana bread
- Cheese! Leo LOVESSSSS cheese, cheese and more cheese. Probably why he went two days without pooping this month.
- Quesadillas (Man, typing this all out makes me sound like mom of the year. Let me redeem myself…)
- Pears
- Cucumbers and Lantana cucumber hummus
- Juiceland green smoothies
Parenting Lessons Learned:
- You will jinx yourself if you whisper "Happy New Year, baby, see you next year!" when you put your baby to bed on New Year's Eve. Leo obviously couldn't wait to see me in 2018, waking up at 12:04 a.m.
- Bask in home renovations BEFORE you have a baby, as there is nothing like trying to clean bits of mushed broccoli caked in between your new hardwood floors. Broccoli is just part of our decor now.
- Never underestimate the power of baby distraction. Or the source of it. You'll be amazed at what you can get down while your baby sits on the floor and rips apart your grocery receipt.
Highlights: In the month before the big O-N-E, Leo became more and more of a little boy and less of a little babe. Which was amazing and heartbreaking to watch, as I am so proud of all that he is doing yet so sad that it is all happening so fast and that he isn't my teeny tiny newborn anymore. I thought time moved fast before…now it's showing off. Bah. Anyways, this month gave us a week of playtime with Mama Ro, another week playtime with some of his Minnuto cousins and a Valentine's Day full of more love than I ever thought possible.
Growth Chart: Since Leo didn't have any well-check visits this month, I don't have an official weight or height. BUT, since he did have plenty of sick visits due to his never-ending ear infections, he weighed 20 pounds as of the last visit. Which my aching back could have told you without the $70 copay.
Leo Sleep Chronicles, Vol. 11: Oh my gosh y'all, I am already exhausted just thinking about typing about Leo's sleep this month. It's not that he doesn't sleep…it's that how he gets to sleep and how long he sleeps for and how many times he wakes up at night must be in coordination with the moon's orbit. I can't keep up (sometimes literally, I cannot get up out of bed) with the inconsistency, and at times I've just thrown in the towel to do whatever works. Which I know won't help me in the long run, but I'm too tired to fight. I've been nursing him to sleep for naps and bedtime, which I have to admit, are becoming less of a novelty. Well, I take that back – NAP nursing to sleep is becoming less of a novelty. Nighttime nursing I still love, as he passes out so easily and transfers so easily and sometimes sleeps until 4 a.m. (With a few sprinklings of waking up 20 minutes after I put him down and a few times during the night sprinkled in for good measure). But nap time…woof. On the days when I'm able to transfer him successfully, it is usually always for his morning nap and he then would sleep for 1-2 hours. (Again, we still have 45 minute catnap days). But on the days the transfer is a disaster and I wind up holding him for his entire nap and get NOTHING done that I would like to get done? Eh, I'm okay with changing those days. Don't get me wrong – I am so lucky to stay at home with Leo and give him all of my time and energy. This is my job now, and I understand that doing the dishes or folding laundry are not as important as this time with my son. Hence why I still haven't sleep trained him at all, I secretly am a glutton for punishment. And baby snuggles.
But it is wearing on me, especially on days where Matt is home and my mom and I are out at this super cool Austin event and I have to cut our time out of the house short because Leo won't nap without me there. And speaking of wearing, the second nap of the day has become an Ergo nap. Half because I am prone to stir-craziness and want to stay out of the house, and half because it's so much easier than getting him to sleep at home in the crib. And partly because I love when he sleeps on me in the Ergo. See! Glutton for baby snuggle punishment! I do it all to myself.
Anyways, this month was a bit trying on the sleep front, and made me realize that sleep training is in our definite future. I'm obviously going to put it off as long as possible because I secretly hope everything will just resolve itself…but I know it is unavoidable at some point.
But gah! Let me end this section on a positive note. When Leo does sleep well in his crib, whether it be for naps or at night, there is NOTHING better than going into his room to get him when he wakes up. NOTHING. He smiles so big and crawls up to the crib railings (if he isn't already standing on them) and just beams at you with that perfect little face of his. It makes any sleep struggle memory melt totally out of my tired mind while my heart grows three sizes.
Leo's Favorite Things:
- His mama. :) He loves crawling on me, hugging me, kissing me, being held by me, being rocked by me, being put back to sleep at 3 am by me (and only me). It is both exhausting and inexplicably perfect.</li> <li>His mama. :) He loves crawling on me, hugging me, kissing me, being held by me, being rocked by me, being put back to sleep at 3 am by me (and only me). It is both exhausting and inexplicably perfect
- Crawling up behind me when I'm making something in the kitchen and pulling himself up on my legs, like "whatcha doing mom?"
- Sitting on his daddy's shoulders
- Crawling and standing up on me when we are sitting playing with his toys, just to give me a hug and then going back to playing. HEART MELTING. He is the sweetest little mama's boy in all of the land!
- Wanting to try different food that I'm snacking on, especially if it involved chips and hummus</li> <li>Wanting to try different food that I'm snacking on, especially if it involved chips and hummus
- Reading his books! Not only does he love when we read him books – he leans back on us, turns the pages, lifts the flaps (he pushes my hand away when I try to help him) and really studies each page – he also loves sitting and "reading" his books by himself. I love catching him sitting queitly in his little play area. I'm first suspect because he is so quiet, but then when I see him hold a book between his little chunky hands and flip the pages pack and forth…oh sweet heavens, it is the cutest thing! He also likes to read books in the car now too.
- Besides when he is sitting with his books, Leo never ever ever sitting still for more than one minute at a time.</li> <li>Besides when he is sitting with his books, Leo never ever ever sitting still for more than one minute at a time.
- Talking all of the time. He doesn't really say any words consistently or purposefully, but his baby babbles of ma ma ma da da da wa wa wa na na na tell the most interesting of stories. We get such a kick out of him, especially when you think that he is really trying to say something.</li> <li>Talking all of the time. He doesn't really say any words consistently or purposefully, but his baby babbles of ma ma ma da da da wa wa wa na na na tell the most interesting of stories. We get such a kick out of him, especially when you think that he is really trying to say something.
- Playing chase all over the house. He gets SO EXCITED when I say, "mommy's going to get youuuu" and he squeals and starts crawling as fast as he can, with his little head down and butt swaying back and forth, before he stops to look back at me, squeal again and continue on his run. Then when I "get him" he giggles and then starts the game all over again, looking back at me with his little "come and get me" trouble face. He covers every square inch of our house – no wonder all of his pajamas have holes in the knees.
- Fighting like hell with his car seat, and flailing out of it the millisecond I unsnap him. I have to actually catch him sometimes before he falls out of it! Baby does not like to be confined.
- Waterbottles/straw cups. I can get a good 20 minutes of undisturbed time in the kitchen if I just give him water bottles to play with. He is obsessed with the Camelbaks we have, as well as Matt's mom's water container with a hard plastic straw. Of course, these are now all "his" water bottles, spit and all.
- And well, kinda obvious from the last bullet but…this kid also LOVES water. I have to only fill up Leo's sippy cups with two ounces of water at a time as he would pound the entire thing otherwise. He moves around so much that I've come to the conclusion that maybe he is always thirsty? Whatever it is, giving him a straw sippy cup with water is a no-fail way to make him happy. Therefore I always, always have one on hand when I'm about to plop Leo in the carseat. make him happy. Therefore I always, always have one on hand when I'm about to plop Leo in the carseat.</li>
- Playing with my hair as he nurses, especially when he is falling asleep. He twists it around his hands and then rubs my split ends against his eyes and cheeks. It is beyond adorable. Safe to say I'm never rocking a pixie anytime soon.</li> <li>Playing with my hair as he nurses, especially when he is falling asleep. He twists it around his hands and then rubs my split ends against his eyes and cheeks. It is beyond adorable. Safe to say I'm never rocking a pixie anytime soon.
- Still making that scrunched up, Mr. Magoo face. Especially when the wind blows on him. He kills me.</li> <li>Still making that scrunched up, Mr. Magoo face. Especially when the wind blows on him. He kills me.</li>
- Crawling around outside on the grass. I try to be a good mom and bring huge blankets, but the boy just wants to roll around in the dirt, try and eat grass and climb on top of dirt stroller wheels. I gave up within the first five minutes.</li> <li>Crawling around outside on the grass. I try to be a good mom and bring huge blankets, but the boy just wants to roll around in the dirt, try and eat grass and climb on top of dirt stroller wheels. I gave up within the first five minutes.
- Playing with his baby girlfriends Emily and Marlow. Ladies Love Cool Leo.</li> <li>Playing with his baby girlfriends Emily and Marlow. Ladies Love Cool Leo.
- Brushing his teeth with his Banana Brush. Probably not actually doing anything bc I let him hold it and basically just bite on it, but it is the closest we are going to get to "brushing" for awhile.
- Pulling up to standing on everythingggg. He especially likes climbing on Matt's chair when he is working as well as the treadmill, his activity center and his crib.
- Playing "where's your head?" and "where is your belly?" and his latest and greatest, "where's my nose?" Still loves sticking his tongue out when prompted as well as making "fish face!" all of the time.</li> <li>Playing "where's your head?" and "where is your belly?" and his latest and greatest, "where's my nose?" Still loves sticking his tongue out when prompted as well as making "fish face!" all of the time.</li>
- POINTING! So much pointing! It came out of nowhere – one day, Matt causally said "Leo, where is the fan?" and Leo looked up and pointed at it. From there, his little pointer finger has barely relaxed. From the moment he gets up in the morning to the second he gets in his bathtub at night, this little guy is pointing everywhere and everything, especially at light switches, our kitchen cabinets and trees on the trail when we walk. Pointing is also usually accompanied by a "bwoaaaaaaa" sound effect, which just amplifies the amazingness x100.</li> <li>POINTING! So much pointing! It came out of nowhere – one day, Matt causally said "Leo, where is the fan?" and Leo looked up and pointed at it. From there, his little pointer finger has barely relaxed. From the moment he gets up in the morning to the second he gets in his bathtub at night, this little guy is pointing everywhere and everything, especially at light switches, our kitchen cabinets and trees on the trail when we walk. Pointing is also usually accompanied by a "bwoaaaaaaa" sound effect, which just amplifies the amazingness x100.
- He also loves using his little pointer fingers to inspect everything, especially straws, the tops of fruit pouches (he likes to stick his finger right in there, which is super sanitary after he's been crawling on the ground) and door hinges. This kid loves door hinges.</li> <li>He also loves using his little pointer fingers to inspect everything, especially straws, the tops of fruit pouches (he likes to stick his finger right in there, which is super sanitary after he's been crawling on the ground) and door hinges. This kid loves door hinges.
- Bathtime! He actually whines now when we take him out of the tub, which is hilarious when you compare it to a few months ago when he was so uncomfortable in it that he wouldn't let go of the sides of the tub!</li> <li>Bathtime! He actually whines now when we take him out of the tub, which is hilarious when you compare it to a few months ago when he was so uncomfortable in it that he wouldn't let go of the sides of the tub!</li>
- Clucking his little tongue and finding it hilarious when you do it back to him</li> <li>Clucking his little tongue and finding it hilarious when you do it back to him.
- Animal noises. We have a ton of animal books that we read, plus his bath toys are all little farm animals so we go through all of them and the sound they are every night. He's mastered the owl's "whooo whoo whoooo," which is amazing not only because how cute it sounds but how cute his little face and lips are when he says it!
- Playing around in his high chair. He still finds it HILARIOUS when I pop my head up from underneath his tray, and sometimes I need to put a hard stop to our game when I remember he alsooooo has food in his mouth. But baby giggles are just the best.
- Playing around in his high chair. He still finds it HILARIOUS when I pop my head up from underneath his tray, and sometimes I need to put a hard stop to our game when I remember he alsooooo has food in his mouth. But baby giggles are just the best.
- Music! Since he was a wee babe, Leo always loved when I sang to him or put on music in his swing. Now, like a true Austinite, he loves jamming to live music all around town. He was enthralled with a guitar player we listened to at a flea market downtown, and then we took him to see live music at Austin Beer Garden Brewing when Joe, Janice and the kids were here and he would not turn his head away from the stage. Any time someone even tested the microphone, his eyes were glued.
- High-fiving – his cousin Cecilia taught him that party trick!</li> <li>High-fiving – his cousin Cecilia taught him that party trick!
- Bubbles, obviously, as we can now count that as his first non-mama/dada word. (His first will always be MAMA. IT WAS MAMA.)
- Hanging out at breweries with his baby friends and his parents and their parent friends. Okay, maybe this is my favorite thing.
Look Who's "Talking:" While Leo is lightyears from talking, this month he has surprised us with a couple of "words!" While freaking out over the bubble machine with his cousins, Leo started saying "bubbo" over and over again, and when pointing at his books on his book shelf, said "bwoooo, bwoooo" which I am totally counting for "book." I mean, still counting "mama" as his first word and all, but these may have been his actual first word words, if you know what I mean. <strong>Look Who's Talking:</strong> While Leo is lightyears from talking, this month he has surprised us with a couple of "words!" While freaking out over the bubble machine with his cousins, Leo started saying "bubbo" over and over again, and when pointing at his books on his book shelf, said "bwoooo, bwoooo" which I am totally counting for "book." I mean, still counting "mama" as his first word and all, but these may have been his actual first word words, if you know what I mean.
New Teeth! While Leo still only has two teefers on the bottom, he is working on a few up top! At his nine-month appointment, his pedi said that his top gums were swollen and we will probably see teeth poking through soon. Therefore I blamed every rough night of sleep on those top teeth. For two months. I'm here to report that NO new teeth have made their debut since that day, although I am starting to see the top front teeth underneath his gums, ready to poke their way out. Meaning "it has to be his teeth" has become a daily and nightly phrase for every fussy spell or frequent waking. <strong>TEETH:</strong> While Leo still only has two teefers on the bottom, he is working on a few up top! At his nine-month appointment, his pedi said that his top gums were swollen and we will probably see teeth poking through soon. Therefore I blamed every rough night of sleep on those top teeth. For two months. I'm here to report that NO new teeth have made their debut since that day, although I am starting to see the top front teeth underneath his gums, ready to poke their way out. Meaning "it has to be his teeth" has become a daily and nightly phrase for every fussy spell or frequent waking.
Speaking of teeth…let's talk about BITING: We had a few "incidents" this month with boob biting while nursing. Ugh…even typing that out makes me cross my arms around my boobs and shudder. It was right before we realized he had anther double ear infection – and of course, it was an immediate, painful trigger that something had to be up. But at first, it seemed like he was just messing with me – he would eat for a few seconds, and then, almost like he was bored, just clamp down. My initial and incontrollable "OW!" scared him and amused him, as he stared at me like "hmmm, never seen her do that before. Let's try it again…" Which he did. Multiple times.
I then spiraled into a full-blown panic attack, as he wouldn't eat without biting unless it was right before he was going to sleep. And even that was an issue (hi, undiagnosed ear infection!) and bedtime became intolerable (because I nurse him to sleep). I didn't have much a freezer stash of milk at this point, so I started pumping every chance I got to make sure Leo was drinking enough. But that was a challenge, as I was so stressed that I wasn't able to pump that much at once. I felt like a new mom again, carting my pump around the house and pumping every second I got. (Which proved to be unsuccessful once Leo discovered my pump and TURNED UP THE SUCTION when I wasn't looking.) I even rang the lactation consultants I worked with at the hospital when Leo was born, holding back tears as I talked a million miles a minute about what was happening. Right when I was about to lose it, Leo started nursing again and I was able to pump more. Of course, all at once. My poor boobs.
Long story short (which is funny to say when this blog post is now at 38,4702 words), I took him to the doc. He had two ear infections. He was also teething. This was also a phase. Long story short (which is funny to say when this blog post is now at 38,4702 words), I took him to the doc. He had two ear infections. He was also teething. This was also a phase.
As for the biting, I decided to follow advice I read online: When baby bites, you take him off the boob (no kidding), look at him and firmly say "no biting!" Then try and latch again. If they bite again, put him down on the ground. If he whines and tries to crawl back on you, then he really is hungry and you should try again (I know, it is terrifying). But if he crawls away happily, maybe he wasn't that hungry to begin with and you should wait a little while and try again. Within a couple days, Leo stopped biting and I stopped clenching my jaw every time he latched. As for the biting, I decided to follow advice I read online: When baby bites, you take him off the boob (no kidding), look at him and firmly say "no biting!" Then try and latch again. If they bite again, put him down on the ground. If he whines and tries to crawl back on you, then he really is hungry and you should try again (I know, it is terrifying). But if he crawls away happily, maybe he wasn't that hungry to begin with and you should wait a little while and try again. Within a couple days, Leo stopped biting and I stopped clenching my jaw every time he latched.
All Ears (Infection): Okay, let's talk about the ear infections that have rocked our baby boat the past TWO months. Leo got a double ear infection in the very beginning of January, then another one in the beginning of February. I honestly don't think the one in January ever cleared, even though we went to the doctor to check after the antibiotics were done. That means he has had three double ear infections in under six months…not so good for a baby who is exclusively breastfed, doesn't go to daycare and isn't around anyone who smokes. (Common factors in babies with a lot of ear infections.) Therefore, our doctor referred to an ENT specialist to talk about the possibility of getting tubes put in. Especially because this last infection took two rounds of two different antibiotics to clear up. So all together, it lasted for about a month.
The specialist told me that getting tubes wasn't an urgent matter – we could wait out the rest of the year and see how his ears fare in the spring/summer months when infections are less common, – but at the end of the day, he was obviously prone to infections. And their ear anatomy doesn't change until they are about two years old, meaning we were going to have to get tubes put in at some point. After 20 days of antibiotics, pain and terrible sleep, I knew tubes were the best bet to help our little boy finally get back to himself. We scheduled the procedure for March 13th. I know it is a super simple and very common procedure, but I am still a wreck about it! Although, when it is 4 a.m. and I've decided to put Leo in bed with me in hopes of at least getting a couple hours of sleep, the day can't come soon enough.
Mangia Mangia: Leo really caught the hang of baby-led weaning this month, picking up pieces of food and – most of the time- aiming correctly towards his mouth and not the floor. I'm still breastfeeding him first and foremost, with "real" food being a bonus. There are still some days he isn't into eating (hey, teething) and other days where he houses peanut butter toast, string cheese and avocado quesadillas like a boss. And then there are plenty of days when he will only eat bread and cheese. Or Juiceland smoothies (so far, I am 0-3 on homemade smoothies with this kid).
Current favorites this month are bagels (they must feel so good on his little swollen gums!), naan bread and every.single.Costco sample. (That I then buy and that he then refuses to eat at home.)
Parenting Lessons Learned, No Sleep 'til Ear Tubes Edition:
- Never say you won't co-sleep. Because you will, multiple times, for a long time. I don't know how I would have gotten any sleep otherwise this month.
- It's okay to cry more than your baby sometimes. And in my case, since Leo never really cries, it is okay to just be a mom who cries. At 1 a.m., 7 a.m., 3 p.m. or 5 p.m. at Target on a Tuesday.
- This too, shall pass. Ear infections, boob biting, waking-up-the-moment-you-put-baby-down-nights. They will all go away and be replaced by the next challenge
- You would give anything to swap places with your baby and take away their hurt. Also, to be put down for naps multiple times a day and to be in bed by 7 o'clock.
- Babies are CHAMPS. For the most part, Leo was still so happy and smiley all month even though he was under the weather for most of it. That said, Matt also got a cold this month and Leo wins, HANDS DOWN on the toughness/complaining scale. The "man flu" is real, y'all.
Whew…okay. ONTO ONE YEAR! Anyone still out there?


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SYDNEY Emmitt Smith Color Rush Jersey , Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Sydneysiders woke up to a thick fog of smoke blanketing the harbour city on Monday as teams of firefighters began hazard reduction burns in preparation for the upcoming wildfire season in Australia.
South Westerly winds drew smoke from a controlled burn in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales State (NSW), 130 km outside of Sydney. But NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Inspector Ben Shephard told Xinhua on Monday that there have also been hazard reduction burns underway in the North and West of the city as well.
"We know that we are down on rainfall totals in and around Sydney," Shephard said.
"And the forested areas this year are starting to firm up as having a potential for a fire season."
Shepherds admitted that a lack of moisture over the winter months are "really concerning" for fire authorities in NSW and the window to execute more tactical burn-offs is continuing to narrow.
The RFS usually conducts these exercises in spring when the weather conditions are more favourable. But according to Shephard, if the long Demarcus Lawrence Color Rush Jersey , dry and warm period continues it may start to swing to a point where it could become "too dangerous" to do the burn-offs.
"We can't have it too dry and we can't have it too wet."
"If it's too wet you might only burn the top layer and leave a lot of the fuel underneath and if it's too dry, it can become difficult to control."
For that reason fire authorities develop what is called a "prescription" for hazard reduction burns.
Fuel moisture, weather, temperature and the amount of resources available need to fit certain parameters before an exercise can go ahead.
The RFS also needs to undertake an environmental assessment in order to ascertain there will be minimum harm to any native wildlife in the area.
In certain circumstances they also may need to secure "control lines" in areas close to houses and ask for aviation support.
"Putting a match to the Australian bush on any given day does always pose some risks Dak Prescott Color Rush Jersey ," Shephard explained.
"It's not just a matter of walking into the bush, it's a planned event that is months in the making or sometimes years."
"We try to light the fire in a certain path or direction at a certain level, so it's a fire on our terms and we can minimize the risk"
But the safety precautions are not without their own hazards.
The state's health department issued urgent warnings for people suffering from respiratory condition such as asthma, not to venture outside Monday.
But according to Shepherd Ezekiel Elliott Color Rush Jersey , the risks of not acting to reduce the threat of wildfires are far more dangerous.
"In places that haven't had a fire in a number of years, there will be a big fuel build up in that area, so by burning off that we can reduce the amount of fuel on the ground and in turn act to reduce the impact of a fire in the future," Shephard said.
"When we do hazard reduction burning It doesn't mean we can remove the possibility of a fire in the future Cowboys Jaylon Smith Jersey , it means we can reduce the intensity of it and that is sometimes enough for us to get resources in place to control it and save lives and property."
Although the process is conducted with hi-tech instruments and extremely calculated modern planning techniques, the practice has been around in Australia long before the invention of firetrucks.
"Traditional owners of the land have been doing burn-offs since the beginning of time and that was to encourage new growth into a particular area in order to bring animals to it," Shephard said.
"So there has always been different forms of hazard reduction and it continues today."
"And actually traditional forms of hazard reduction that were used by indigenous Australians in the past, now play a big role in the things we do today Cowboys Emmitt Smith Jersey , depending on the area," Shephard added.
Torrential rain causes floods, landslides in China's Guangxi
Qinzhou port plays important role in trade between China and ASEAN
"Comfort women" statues installed on buses in Seoul
Students attend military trainings camp in HK
Weekly choices of Xinhua photo (Aug. 5 - Aug. 11)
Highlights of multinational drill in Georgia
People mark national Fitness Day around China
Aerial view of Gula Town in S China
The Kremlin said on Tuesday a call by opposition leader Alexei Navalny to boycott next year's presidential election must be checked to see if it complies with the law.
Navalny called on Monday for a boycott of the March 18 election after Russia's central election commission ruled he was not eligible to run for president due to a suspended prison sentence hanging over him.
"The calls for a boycott will require scrupulous study, to see whether or not they comply with the law Cowboys Demarcus Lawrence Jersey ," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
Declining to comment on the election commission's decision, Peskov shrugged off allegations that the presidential poll would be a farce without Navalny.
"The fact that one of the would-be candidates is not taking part has no bearing on the election's legitimacy," said Peskov.
Navalny, a 41-year-old lawyer Cowboys Dak Prescott Jersey , has repeatedly said the suspended sentence handed to him in an embezzlement case was politically motivated.
On Monday Navalny said millions of voters would be disenfranchised without his participation in the election, which opinion polls show incumbent Vladimir Putin winning comfortably.
The European Union also questioned the Russian election commission's decision to bar Navalny.
"[It] casts a serious doubt on political pluralism in Russia and the prospect of democratic elections next year," the EU's External Action Service said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Politically motivated charges should not be used against political participation," it sa
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2013 LearnX Finalist for Best Blended Learning Model
2013 LearnX Finalist for Best Learning Team
2013 LearnX Platinum Award for Best Video
2013 BrandonHall Gold Award for Best Use of Video for Learning
2012 MADC Award for Best Logo and Brandmark Design


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Starting small but aiming big
All National Hunt breeders dream the dream of Cheltenham and for a lucky few connections each year this dream becomes a reality. The concept of the club is primarily to have fun! There are so many national hunt enthusiasts in the area that creating opportunities for social events and seminars on a racing theme was something that kept cropping up in our office meetings.


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By Todd Cohen
Habitat for Humanity and AOL Time Warner aim to plug low-income homeowners into the digital economy.
Building on an initiative launched in 2000 in Winston-Salem, N.C., AOL Time Warner and other partners are investing $1 million over two years in a pilot project to equip homes built by Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County with computers, software, training and Internet access.
Tentative plans then call for national expansion of the pilot, which will be evaluated by researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.
Starting in 2005, a new nonprofit would give owners of every new Habitat home in the United States the option to get technology, Web access, training and upgrades – with the costs built into their 20-year, zero-interest mortgages.
"It's inexpensive to build a smart home and help families acquire the means to take themselves to another level in the economy and give children the tools to perform at a higher level," says B. Keith Fulton, vice president in Dulles, Va., for the New York-based AOL Time Warner Foundation.
The pilot program and expansion plans are modeled on an initiative launched in 2000 by HATCH, a Winston-Salem firm that builds computer centers for early-childhood programs such as day-care centers and Head Start groups.
Believing that computers simply are appliances for which homeowners need training, HATCH CEO Rich Griffen two years ago proposed donating computers, software and training for all new Habitat homes in Winston-Salem.
"It doesn't do a lot of good to put technology in a building unless people understand how to use it," says Griffen, whose firm assembles computers for use by youngsters ages two to four, and also trains adults to help children use the technology.
Building on its experience installing software specially selected for early-childhood programs, the firm customizes software and Web portals for Habitat homes based on the needs and interests of the individual children and adults who will use the computers.
"It's holistic in terms of understanding the needs of Habitat homeowners and the links that relate to all aspects of their life," says Ginny Norton, HATCH's executive vice president for customer relations. "It's our goal to help the at-risk families in our community bridge the digital divide that is so prevalent in the United States."
The portal on a Habitat homeowner's computer, for example, feature links to Web sites on topics ranging from local schools and news to jobs, finance, health, religion and entertainment.
The portal also includes a link to The Beehive, a Web site – hosted by AOL Time Warner – that was developed by One Economy Corp., a national nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that helps provide residents of public housing with access to technology and Web resources.
As part of the initial effort launched two years ago, Habitat agreed to secure free Internet access, now provided by AOL Time Warner.
So far, the initiative has provided tech access to families living in 32 homes.
To test the benefits of giving low-income families access to technology and the Internet, AOL Time Warner and Dell Computer Corp. now will join HATCH in expanding its initial effort to all 207 homes that Forsyth's Habitat will have built by the end of 2005.
In the pilot project, known as the Digital Bridge Initiative, HATCH will provide computers, software, printers and other equipment and support to 75 more Habitat families in Winston-Salem, while Dell will provide computers to the 100 Habitat homes built there before 2000.
And through 2005, AOL Time Warner will give all 207 Habitat homes Internet access, worth $300,000, and will contribute another $125,000 for Wake Forest's evaluation, training manuals for families, technical assistance for homeowners and a temporary Digital Bridge administrator.
Habitat, working with HATCH, will oversee the pilot project and also will continue the program in new homes it builds in the future.
Based on Wake Forest's evaluation of the two-year pilot program, AOL Time Warner tentatively plans to expand the initiative starting in 2005 to Habitat's more than 1,600 affiliates in the U.S., plugging in 5,000 new Habitat homes a year.
In addition to Internet access, each homeowner would get software upgrades and a new computer every three years.
"We're hoping to explore ways to creatively finance it so that all the partners involved can stay with the model and turn it into a real functional, sustainable national program," says Fulton of the AOL Time Warner Foundation.
Sonja Murray, director of development at Habitat in Winston-Salem, says a key to sustaining the initiative would be to create an income stream for technology companies by helping homeowners understand the value of technology.
The pilot will be important, Fulton says, "because it lays the groundwork for testing the assumption that access at home will bring benefits to low-income families that go beyond what they get from having only access at school or community centers or libraries that have limited hours. At home, your access is always on."
The goal, he says, is to find ways to help Habitat develop "smarter housing" and "make connectivity an essential part of investing in these communities and families."
Murray, who is directing the Digital Bridge initiative and plans for its expansion, says affordable housing and access to technology both are critical in the information age.
"The home levels the playing field for the parent," she says, "and the computer levels the playing field for the children."


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Room Description
A 50 percent deposit is required upon reservation. All remaining room costs will be charged in full upon your arrival. A $200 security fee will be taken upon your arrival, and returned to you at the end of your visit.
In-season Chalet Loon rentals (June 30, 2018 – September 1, 2018) require a one-week minimum stay, Saturday to Saturday, and are $350/night + $150 cleaning fee. Total for the week: $2,600 for up to 12 people.
Off-season require a 2-night minimum stay, and are $299/night.
Want a remote getaway? Book a getaway in our newly-built log-style chalet – it sleeps up to 12 people! Inside you'll find a cathedral ceiling, skylights, HDTV, and a wood burning fireplace. Outside there's a private fire pit, large deck, and a barbecue.
There are four bedrooms and three full baths (including one with a Jacuzzi tub). Our fully-equipped kitchen has brand-new state-of-the-art appliances (including a dishwasher!). Don't feel like cooking? Make a reservation across the street at The Lodge for homemade breakfast and dinner buffets. Click here for more about dining at The Lodge and rates for breakfast and dinner.
All chalet guests have access to our on-site amenities.
Please be advised there is no cell phone service at The Lodge (hello, remoteness!). Our WiFi free and fast so you can still access the outside world, if you so choose.
|Bed(s): 4 beds
|Free Internet: Yes
|Breakfast Included: No
|Dinner Included: No
|Occupancy: 4-8 Persons
|View: Mountains
|Ensuite Bathroom: Yes, 3
|Room Service: No
|Pet-friendly? Yes
Check in: 3 p.m.
Check out: 11 a.m.
Deposit & Payment
A 50 percent deposit is required upon reservation. All remaining room costs will be charged in full upon your arrival. A $200 security fee will be taken upon your arrival, and returned to you at the end of your visit.
Cancellation Policy
Due to our intimate setting, cancellations affect us significantly. If a cancellation is made 30 days or longer before your arrival date, you may receive a refund of your deposit. If your cancellation is made less than 30 days prior to your arrival date, the deposit will be forfeited. If you need to check out earlier than your confirmed dates, you will be responsible for all of the original nights reserved.
Rate & Room Requirements
Room rates are subject to the 7% New York sales tax and a 4% occupancy fee. Room rates and taxes are subject to change without notice. Please note a 2 night stay minimums may apply to peak weekends. Guests will be responsible for any property damage.
Click here to read the full terms & conditions.
Dogs must be leashed at all times. Dogs are not permitted inside the Dining Room or the Lounge/TV room. Dogs are allowed only in select pet-friendly rooms. There is a charge of $50 per dog, for the duration of your stay. We reserve the right to limit the number of dogs on the property at any given time. Guests will be responsible for any property damage inadvertently caused by their dogs.


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Remember the day we went 36.1 mph?
Especially in this snow-starved winter, February 23 at Jackson Hole was a day to remember. We took the Gondola up, then skied down the right side of Lupine Way, cut across Ampitheater, and then clipped the bottom of the woods across Tower Three Chute, Hoops Gap, and Thunder, before ducking under the Marmot chairlift and then taking a hard left turn to board it.
I could go on in this level of detail, because the JH Tapped app on my phone recorded every run in detail, or at least it did before draining my battery. (This is a badge of pride for me, that my legs lasted longer on a powder day at jackson Hole than my iPhone battery.)
The moral of the story is: smart customers remember.
Not only can you use apps to record intricate details of your life, but you also can backup your precious memories in the cloud, protecting those 945 photographs you took of your son's 1st birthday and the 147 times you sliced the ball instead of driving it 200 yards straight down the driving range.
Nine years ago, when my 21-year-old was 12, we skied at Alta and I have vague memories of a wonderful time. Nine years from now, when my youngest son turns 21, I'll be able to reminisce about February 23, 2012, the day we went 36.1 mph down Laramie Bowl.


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Soothes and helps heal bites, burns, rashes, sores, dry eczema, and chapped, cracked or infected skin.
The Skin Serum is an amazing blend of the most healing, cleansing, anti-inflammatory, and moisturizing skin care oils. The serum is very useful to improve and clear up burns/sunburns, rashes, eczema, bug bites, dry patches, cuts/scrapes and cracked or irritated skin. I reach for this oil about 5 times a day either for myself or friends & family. It is so useful for almost any skin ailment. To make the serum more effective cover the area after application either with a cloth or band aide (especially for mosquito bites).
This serum is especially effective for burns - it is truly amazing! Apply immedialtely after a burning your skin and the burn simply disappears (there is a bottle of this serum in my kitchen at all times!)
The powerful essential oils of tea tree, german chamomile, geranium, lavender, helichrysum, palma rosa etc... are carried in some wonderfully moisturizing and healing herbal infused and vegetable oils including: calendula, kukui nut, camelia seed, rose hip seed etc... This blend of oils produces an effective anti-bacterial solution that also soothes and heals tissue inflammation while boosting cellular regeneration and skin elasticity.
Simply apply a drop or two of the Skin Serum to areas of concern and cover to help the oils absorb into the skin. The results are usually quick (5-10 minutes) and convincing of the healing wonders of these natural oils!
This product is completely handmade from natural, mainly organic ingredients. Please keep product tightly sealed between use to keep the precious oils from evaporating. Please keep out of extreme temperatures and UV light so as not to degrade the oils and use within one to two years to receive maximum benefit from the product.
Disclaimer: My products are not intended to treat, diagnose or cure any disease. They are for external use only. Keep away from eyes and mucus membranes. If irritation occurs, flush the area with a vegetable oil to dilute the essential oils. Seek medical advice if a medical condition is present.
The Skin Serum is packaged in a 1 ounce cobalt blue glass dropper bottle.


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Title: Mother
Air Date: February 9, 1997
Synopsis: Nikita poses as the long-lost daughter of a woman whose husband is attempting to sell a nuclear trigger.
A nuclear trigger is stolen by a cold-blooded terrorist couple responsible for killing an entire team of Section One operatives. In a final attempt to retrieve the trigger, Nikita poses as the couple's long-lost daughter, who was given in adoption years ago. However, this leads to unexpected consequences for both 'mother' and 'daughter.'


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Fulham Palace
IMAGE: Main Courtyard of the palace framed by the entrance arch
The palace buildings and its grounds are one of the hidden 'gems' of Inner London. If you are a Londoner living in SE London or nearby, you will probably have never been there.
There has been a Bishop of London ever since the office was created. St Augustine brought Christianity to Britain and, in the City of London, he founded St Paul's Cathedral and established a bishop in AD 604. Exactly 100 years later, the Bishop of London bought the estate from the Bishop of Hereford. That began a land ownership longer than that of any other property in London - including land owned by monarchs!
The Bishops of London owned the land and resided at Fulham Palace from AD 704 until 1973 when the extensive estate was given up due to financial considerations. As well as a record set for length of ownership, the property had another interesting claim to fame. It was once surrounded by the longest known moat in Britain. The water extended for about one mile in length, enclosing 36 acres of land. Sadly, between 1921 and 1924, the moat was filled in and almost no evidence for it remained visible. Its line could be seen but only by knowing where the water had once been. One point remained where evidence for the moat could be deduced and that was the location under the small brick bridge in front of the main gateway into the property. Even there, the moat was not obvious.
Starting some time in 2009, it was decided to carry out an archaeological survey on 70 metres of the moat, around the land near the main gateway, and then to restore that section as a feature of the park. The work is (at the time of writing) well advanced, with the ditch now visible. While carrying out the restoration it was discovered that the moat had been filled in using building debris which has had to be removed. Some of that rubble is of interest because it contained man-made items, like old glass bottles.
When the moat contained water, the level was controlled using a sluice-gate from the Thames. Most of the mechanism has been found in situ and it is hoped to put that on public display. Little is known about the reasons why the moat was built in the first place. Over the years many theories have been put forward. It is believed that the land on which the palace stood was a tiny island surrounded by very small tributaries of the River Thames. Why it was felt necessary to spend so much effort constructing such a large moat when the building it surrounded was not a castle or place of fortification may never be known.
There may be little to see of the moat, other than a large muddy ditch but its restoration is important and long overdue. It could be argued that the moat should never have been destroyed in the first place.
While on the subject of Fulham Palace, it should be pointed out that although the buildings stand on an ancient site, only a few of those left standing today date from any earlier times than the Tudors.
Most of the building is 18th century. When the bishop left, in 1973, the property was acquired by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham who did absolutely nothing with it until the late 1990s. Not only were the buildings unused but they were not properly maintained either, which meant that they steadily fell into disrepair. Since the millennium restoration has been carried out and the building is now open to the public. Unlike the superb architecture and grandeur of Lambeth Palace, which is still in use by another bishop - the Archbishop of Canterbury - Fulham Palace never had a grand interior. In fact it is surprising how plain the inside rooms are, including the unremarkable chapel.
Fulham Palace, looking south. The line of the moat, passing the gatehouse, is shown. This is only a small part of the actual length. A slight dip in the land in Bishops Park indicates where tha moat ran on the river side (the right-hand side of the image) of the land of Fulham Palace.
Fulham Palace shown on John Rocque's map, 1746. Here we see the land in plan. The aerial picture (above this one) looks from the NW of the map. The entrance over the moat at the NW corner of the moat is shown in the picture, with its gatehouse. Where the word 'Eights' is shown is now a large area covered by allotments.
Notice how the moat towards the SE acted as a barrier, preventing the village growing north of Fulham Bridge (today known as Putney Bridge). Notice too that almost all the fields around the village of Fulham and all the land in Putney (on the south side of the river) are being used as market gardens, growing fruit and vegetables to be sold in London markets like Covent Garden.


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Today I am PUPO, which for the uninitiated means pregnant-until-proven-otherwise. Due to the quirkiness with how pregnancy is measured (i.e. measurement starts from the first day of your most recent period, rather than from ovulation), I am also two weeks pregnant.
What health class neglected to tell us (or if it did, most of us were not paying attention), is that not only are there just a few days each month when a woman can conceive; if she is in fact pregnant, she has to wait up to two weeks to find out. In this age of instant gratification, this feels like a ridiculously long time to wait for something, especially news as life-altering as a pregnancy. Therefore, for those trying to conceive, there is a window of approximately two weeks each month, when your part is done, but you do not know whether you are pregnant.
While a sperm needs to fertilize the egg within 24 to 48 hours of ovulation in order for pregnancy to be possible, the fertilized egg takes about 5 days to travel down the fallopian tube and into the uterus, where it can implant (implantation occurs 6 to 12 days after ovulation). Only once it implants, does it start to secrete the pregnancy hormone hcg, which is what is picked up by pregnancy tests. While home pregnancy tests are getting more and more sensitive, and able to detect hcg in urine sooner than ever, given the mechanics of what happens when an egg gets fertilized, it's impossible to cut the wait down any further. So we're stuck waiting.
Many people find the two-week wait (as it's commonly referred to) excruciating and painfully slow, however I've actually come to enjoy it over the last year. When we first started trying for a baby, I was like most other people in that I couldn't wait to find out whether things had worked or not, and took a pregnancy test the first possible chance I could. Of course, the test would always be negative, at which point the real mind games started.
The most sensitive pregnancy tests can detect hcg in your urine 5 days before your period is due. However, due to the uncertainty around when the embryo implants, and therefore when it actually starts to secrete hcg, you may have had a successful cycle, yet testing early will still show a negative result. For example, the pregnancy test I use most often has stats something like this: detects 67% of pregnancies 4 days early, 78% 3 days early, 87% 2 days early, and 98% the day before your period is due. This means that today's negative could be tomorrow's positive result. So you take another test the following day, and again it's negative, but it is still early after all, and so on and so forth. After a few months on this rollercoaster, I found it was easier (not to mention cheaper!) just to wait things out until my period came. Then, for a long time, since I didn't really expect things to work anyways, the two-week wait stopped having any meaning for me.
However in 2010, I discovered my love of the two-week wait while going through six intrauterine inseminations (IUI's). Starting fertility treatments was difficult as it stemmed from a realization that we would need help to conceive, but it also brought back hope that pregnancy was possible. This time, I treasured those two weeks between the IUI and my pregnancy test date because until proven otherwise, I was pregnant. My last IUI was in December, however I am still recovering from the hangover of the possibilities that a two-week wait brings, so will embrace it and milk being PUPO for all it's worth!


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Dear customers,
Even if Dandoy Sports is the official Butterfly distributor in Belgium and in The Netherlands, we are not allowed to sell allButterfly products on www.dandoy-sports.eu. However, you will find the full range of Butterfly products on this website : be.butterfly.tt (only in French and in Dutch).
The Butterfly products are available in our stores. You will find special Butterfly corners with a wide range of products from rubbers and blades to clothes or accessories.


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2017 Verbier 3-D Foundation Artist Olaf Breuning
The Verbier 3D Foundation is pleased to announce that we will be working with Swiss artist Olaf Breuning for the 2017 Artist Residency. The artist will come to Verbier, Switzerland to develop new work whilst considering the theme of Migration in the wake of climate change.
This year is a continuation of a 4-year initiative launched in 2016 by the Verbier 3-D Foundation that unites artists, locals and scientists to chronicle the impact of the surrounding glacial environment in Bagnes, Switzerland. Their insights are captured in photography, sculpture and multi-media residencies, alongside research, exhibitions and public education programmes.
The contemporary understanding of climate and glacier awareness and its global increase have clearly shown how human behaviour in one geographical region can affect life in another, how individuals can impact upon other human beings' living conditions, how certain populations' lifestyle affects the environment, and how changes in the natural world conversely can induce migration and societal changes. What is the role of glacier retreat on migration?
Utilising the lens of art, the Verbier 3-D Foundation aims to create a dialogue and awareness around the themes of glacier warming and societal behaviours on a local that extends outwards. The residencies support new work by visual artists who, in their individual approaches, are interested in these conversations. The work is later exhibited in the Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park.
Key concepts include: Place / Space / Scale / Interdependence / Environmental interaction.
Artist Olaf Breuning
Olaf Breuning is a multi-media artist whose works investigate kitsch, appropriation, cliché, popular culture, and hint at a collective visual iconography. Breuning's unique mode of pastiche is eclectic by design, drawing icons from sources both high and low, Edvard Munch to Andy Warhol's Marilyns to the Easter Bunny.
He is internationally known for his work that is humorous and often absurd, based on his observations of human experience and reflections on current cultural and political issues. Gleefully trampling traditional boundaries of artistic practice, Breuning works with photography, sculpture, installation and performance, films and drawing to realise and communicate his ideas.
Swiss, b. 1970, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, based in New York, NY and Zurich, Switzerland.


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History of GDM
The recorded history of diabetes in pregnancy over the past 200 years is essentially the story of the recognition of the adverse effects of hyperglycaemia on both mother and fetus. The aim of the Saint Vincent declaration to achieve an outcome similar to that of a non-diabetic pregnancy have been approached but never fully achievied. Much effort has been spent on the problem of categorising the degree of hyperglycaemia which would justify treatment, and how to identify the mother at risk.
The first documented evidence of the effects of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy in the moden era was in 1824, when Bennewitz recorded a case of severe fetal macrosomia and stillbirth in a 22 year old multigravida woman in Berlin. She had symptoms of severe hyperglycaemia, but he was only able to estimate this by boiling the urine to dryness[1]. The symptoms disappeared after the delivery. Until the discovery of insulin in 1923 there was no effective treatment for this condition, and the outcome of pregnancy for both mother and fetus was usually disastrous. These adverse effects have been gradually but not completely alleviated by intensive multidisciplinary care from both diabetologist and obstetrician, but complete normalisation of maternal glucose metabolism has not yet been achieved. By the 1940's it was becoming recognised that lesser degrees of maternal hyperglycaemia were also a risk to pregnancy outcomes, with retrospective studies showing increases perinatal mortality some years before the diagnosis of overt diabetes mellitus. This led to the term 'prediabetes in pregnancy', and to poorly defined concepts of 'temporary' or 'latent' diabetes.
The first attempt to define the concept of 'hyperglycaemia in pregnancy' was over 50 years ago in Boston USA. This was an epidemiological study of an oral glucose tolerance test in 752 unselected normal pregnant women using a 'two step' procedure which has become the cornerstone of subsequent obstetrical guidelines in the USA, although not universally accepted elsewhere. For various reasons O'Sullivan used a 50g oral glucose load with a single one hour measurement as a first 'screening' test, administered on the afternoon of first registration of the pregnancy , followed by a three hour 100g oral glucose load with four samples [2]. He published the distribution curves of blood glucose at these four times, and considered it 'expedient' to require two or more values above the mean plus two standard deviations to be met or exceeded in deriving his proposed criteria for hyperglycaemia in pregnancy. These 'O'Sullivan Criteria' have remained in use since then, although concerns about the changing methodology of plasma glucose measurement led Carpenter and Coustan to alter the figures to take account of more modern technological processes [3].
A sub-committee of the World Health Organisation subsequently decided that the results of a two hour 75g oral glucose tolerance test derived from non-pregnant men and women could be used in pregnancy, with a cut-off point decided by consensus [4]. These two different sets of criteria have continued to be used in various parts of the world to the present day, but a major weakness has been their focus on the risk of subsequent diabetes in the mother rather than that of adverse fetal outcomes.
The term 'Gestational Diabetes Mellitus' (GDM) was not universally used until popularised by Freinkel in Chicago in a major paper in 1980. In this wide ranging presentation 'Of Pregnancy and Progeny' , incorporating several important insights into the pathophysiology of glucose metabolism in both mother and fetus, he developed his concepts of more subtle consequences of faulty maternal insulinisation. This led to an American Diabetes Association sponsored workshop, and a definition of gestational diabetes as 'glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy' [5]. Enlarging on the biochemical aspects Freinkel formulated his concept of 'fuel mediated teratogenesis', with potential adverse effects on the fetus in early, mid and late gestation. Gestational diabetes in this scenario would result in anthropometric/metabolic effects in the third trimester.
With the uncertainty about the actual glucose criteria used to categorise hyperglycaemia in pregnancy, and the absence of reliable studies of the fetal outcomes, the stage was set for the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO) study [6], which has resulted in an international consensus on diagnostic criteria [7], although this has not yet been fully accepted by some of the obstetrical community. To this end a new definition of the clinical problem is needed, on four points:
- "any degree" of glucose intolerance still includes mothers with unrecognised overt diabetes mellitus who need to be treated at once, so an upper as well as a lower limit of glycaemia is needed.
- "glucose intolerance" by itself implies the need for a glucose tolerance test, which technically is unnecessary if the pregnancy risk is simply due to hyperglycaemia.
- "first recognition during pregnancy" serves to miss the pre-existing but unrecognised type 2 diabetic woman who should have been diagnosed and treated before the pregnancy. This problem is becoming more frequent.
- "diabetes" is an inappropriate term for a simple risk factor for the strong continuous associations of maternal glucose below those diagnostic of overt diabetes with increased birth weight and associated problems.
For these reasons the term used in the HAPO study should be preferred – Hyperglycaemia in Pregnancy should be defined as 'Maternal hyperglycaemia less severe than that in diabetes mellitus, but associated with increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcome'.
It is with deep regret that we report the death of David Haddon on February 26th 2014. His obituary can be found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10780540/Professor-David-Hadden-obituary.html
^ Bennetwitz HG. De diabete mellito, graviditatis symtomate, 1824. In Hadden DR, The first recorded case of diabetic pregnancy. Diabetologia 1989; 32: 625.
^ O'Sullivan JB, Mahan CM. Criteria for the oral glucose tolerance test in pregnancy. Diabetes 1964; 13: 278-285.
^ Carpenter MW, Coustan DR. Criteria for screening tests for gestational diabetes. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1982; 144: 763-773.
^ World Health Organisation. Technical Report Series (1965); 310: 12. WHO, Geneva.
^ Freinkel N. Of Pregnancy and Progeny – Banting Lecture 1980. Diabetes 1980; 29: 1023-1089.
^ Metzger BE, Lowe LP, Dyer AR, Trimble ER, Chaovarindr U, Coustan DR, Hadden DR, McCance DR, Hod M, McIntyre HD, Oats JJN, Persson B, Rodgers MS, Sacks DA. The HAPO Study Cooperative Research Group. Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes N Eng J Med 2008; 358; 1991-2002.
^ International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups. Recommendations on the Diagnosis and Classification of Hyperglycemia in Pregnancy. Diabetes Care 2010; 33: 676-682.