I can't believe it! Kolbe is one year old. I know its so cliche but it really does go by so fast. I found a quote the other day that describes it perfectly: The days seem long but the years are short.

I wanted to give you a quick update on what Kolbe is up to as a one year old.

He is such an active little guy without a doubt. I'm not sure where he gets all of his energy but its insane! So much so, that I pretty much have to drag him into his room and make him take a nap or else he would go on about his day without giving naps any thought (and turning into a sleepless crank monster!).

On Sleeping:
He is an early riser, usually around 630am, but thankfully he goes to bed between 630-7pm so it gives him a nice and long stretch of sleep. He is still waking up to nurse once a night, so we'll see how much longer that lasts. It doesn't affect my sleep all that much since I'm only up for 15-20 minutes but I do have some champagne in the fridge ready to celebrate when he finally sleep through haha.

Naps are a whole different monster. He was doing okay taking 2 naps a day but then hit a pretty rough nap regression, which he never really recovered from. He would only sleep while being held and would protest when I put him in the crib so we are having to do a little sleep training again for naps for the past few days. Thankfully it seems to be going well and I'm pretty sure he's finally getting the hang of putting himself to sleep once I lay him in the crib. He usually takes a longer morning nap and a shorter afternoon nap to hold him over till bedtime.

Kolbe is making me a saint with his countless sleep(less) adventures! Lets hope no more sleep regressions hit our household! (please Lord have mercy on me....)

On Growing:
Last time I weighed him he came in weighing 22lbs and 9oz and was 30 inches long. I seriously can't even picture him being the 8lb 20in baby that he was when he was born...its surreal and crazy how hazy it is in my memory.

What a difference a whole year makes no?

On Eating:
Kolbe is doing pretty good with solid foods. He still really loves purees but he is adding more and more finger foods to his repertoire as he gets more teeth. He is not big into trying new things so I have to put something on his tray quite a few times before he truly eats it. Sometimes I get really lucky and he likes it on the first try. Thankfully he will still eat fruits and veggies in puree form because he is very particular on what finger foods he eats! Some of his current finger foods include cheese (and more and more cheese), pancakes, waffles, raisins, puffs (and more puffs), Ezekiel bread, chicken, hot dogs, frozen mango, watermelon, peas, yogurt, and berry-banana smoothies in a sippy cup (with spinach snuck in them!). I put corn on his tray today and I think one kernel made it into his mouth woohoo!

Nursing is still going strong and he doesn't seem like he is ready to give that up any time soon, which is ok with me. He is currently doing 4 feeds - early morning, middle of the day, bedtime, and middle of the night. I've also been giving him a little bit of whole cow's milk and he is taking to it well! I'll probably drop the middle of the day feed over the course of the next few weeks or months (we just recently dropped another day feed a week or two ago so I'm going to wait a while) whenever he seems a bit more ready for it. Its one of the few times I get a calm Kolbe all to myself and I cherish that time I have with him. Unless of course we are in public. Then its a wild, and flailing all over the place Kolbe and I live in constant fear that he will pull the blanket off of me soooo we stick to nursing at home for the most part =)

Dislikes:
Being confined whether it be in the car seat, stroller, high chair, or someones arms for too long while that someone is sitting down. I take full advantage of when he comes and lays his head on my shoulder because I know its only going to last about 2.5 seconds since he is always go go go and very rarely wants to snuggle unless he has just woken up.

On Teething:
He currently has 4: two bottom and two top. Its so funny to see him with top teeth since he had been toothless for so long! He recently just got his top teeth about 2 weeks ago.

On Playing:
He is super into books right now. I love when he can sit for a few minutes with a book and just flip through it. He also loves bringing books to people to be read out loud. As soon as you start reading, he does a happy squat dance. His current favorites are Dr. Seuss' Mr. Brown Can Moo Can you? and Eight Silly Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.

He is also figuring out how to put smaller objects into larger objects and he loves figuring things out such as how to put lids on tupperware. One of his other favorite toys is a ball and he calls it the "bouncy." His most recent endeavor is picking up things that are way too heavy for him and moving them to another room, such as a half full gallon of water. This totally makes me nervous. Next on the baby proof list: remove heavy objects from Kolbe's reach. Never thought we would be having that issue! His new nickname is Hercules.

Ultimately though, the boy just wants to be outside. As soon as our front door opens, he runs over and waits on the threshold for one of us to take him outside. Rocks, sticks, and leaves are all the rage these days as well as dirt and grass. Just today I caught him with a mouth full of mulch. . . how appetizing. He takes off when he walks out the door and actually cries if we bring him back inside! We are working on making our backyard a bit more Kolbe friendly so that he can have free range.

That's all I have for you on Kolbe's life update. I love this little guy to the moon and back and life without him seems so far in the past now. He has never been an "easy baby." I would label him as an intense and strong willed kid from day one. And while his bad days are intensely difficult,  his good days are intensely fun and joy-filled and I wouldn't have it any other way. Of course it presents challenges but ultimately it helps form us into stronger and more united parents for him and our future kids. Already he has taught me many life lessons on how to be a more patient, forgiving, and level headed person by his example.  We are definitely blessed to have him in our family =)

I'm very much looking forward to seeing what having a toddler is like. Its a whole new adventure each and every day!

When I was little, one of my favorite books was "Where the Wild Things are." As Kolbe's first birthday approached, I began to brainstorm for a party theme and decided that a theme to match the book would be very fitting considering Kolbe is a little wild thing already =)

The day started out dark and stormy but thankfully God heard my fierce prayers and it turned out to be a gorgeous day with beautiful weather.

Without further ado, here is a recap of the birthday celebration starting with the Birthday Boy:

The cake pretty much deserves a whole other blog post due to its awesomeness. The same friend of our family who made Matt's grooms cake for our wedding made this sweet cake for Kolbe and it was a hit. She is so talented and I know she makes every cake with love =)

The details were so good and she blew the theme out of the water. She also made Kolbe's smash cake, which Kolbe seemed to really enjoy diving into! More on how that went later in the post!

The party goers enjoyed
Gnashing Chips & Dip, Claw Kebabs, Mischief Cheese Cubes, Wild Water, Magic Tea, Roaring Rolls, Monster Meatballs, Rumpus Wraps, Forest Pasta Salad, and Growling Pb & J.

The food was a hit and I didn't have too much leftover which is always a good thing =)

My awesome sister made the party favors, which were Little Sugar Cookie Sail Boats decorated to match the one in the book. They came out so cute and everyone loved them!

And speaking of how awesome my sister is, she also painted this "Monster Photo Op" which I think a lot of the party goers had a lot of fun with, especially the adults haha. Here are some examples:

Unfortunately we weren't able to get Kolbe to stay still long enough to pose but we still have it so maybe one of these days we will try again.

For decorations, I wanted it to be simple yet still look tasteful. The party was inside a pavilion that is open-air, which already made for a scenic view of the park and river from the huge windows. We hung some streamers and paper ring chains along with some cute balloons clusters and "Wild" flowers next to Kolbe's picture banner.

Kolbe has so many people that love him so much already!    

Singing Happy Birthday to the special Birthday boy. I can't believe he will be One in a week. Where the heck has the time gone??

The famous Cake Smash. I'm not going to lie when I say that I was freaking out a little bit inside at the amount of mess that was occurring right before my eyes but sometimes you just gotta let go and let the kid get dirty no? To my horror, I realized we had only brought one packet of wipes that had about 5 wipes left in it so we ended up doing our best to clean him up in the bathroom with wet paper towels before a major bath took place at home!

He was so skeptical at first and I kept pushing the cake closer and closer to him until it was too tempting for him not to stick his face in a take a bite hehe.

He loved banging on it like a drum too. And then he discovered that the icing came off and it was a crazy mess from there! All while everyone spectated =) It was such a fun moment and I definitely have it forever ingrained in my memory.

We were so happy with how the party turned out and it was a lot of fun for us and everyone who came. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Kolbe's First Birthday!

I actually took him to the doctor today because he has been having some congestion lately and it turns out our poor guy has not one, but two ear infections! It explains why he has been so fussy and unsettled lately and I feel bad that all of our party guests witnessed Kolbe outside of his usual happy state.

Despite the circumstances, he was pretty content for most of the party, but definitely not himself  so I'm bummed that he wasn't as happy as he could've been. I'm looking forward to him being his usual self for his real birthday next weekend when we take him to the ZOO for the first time! Until then, thanks for reading this novel of a blog post!

I have a feeling the Wild Rumpus is just starting with this little guy and I'm excited to jump on the crazy ride =)

We have been a busy family of three these past few weeks, especially enjoying this beautiful weather by spending time outside. Now that Kolbe is walking, its a lot of fun to take him to a nearby playground and watch him roam around, explore, and go down the slide with Matt - he absolutely loves it.

The three of us packed up and spent some time at Abbey Youth Fest this year. We've been going since we were in high school and didn't want to miss out! Obviously this was Kolbe's first and he was a little intrigued by the huge amount of people but he behaved and we had a great time with friends, going to mass with thousands of people in the beautiful field, and experiencing adoration by candlelight at night - amazing.

Apparently I like to spend time in hospitals in the spring time because I had a sudden appendicitis flare, which I initially thought was just a terrible stomach ache. When it hadn't gone away by that night, I decided to go to the ER and I am so glad I did. Twelve hours later, I was getting happy on anesthesia (seriously that stuff make me feel wayyyy too good haha) and a short 20 minute surgery     q1q2q2later, I joined the appendix-less club.

Haha I told you those meds make me feel wayyy too good! When I came out of surgery, I couldn't stop laughing and cracking jokes with the nurse and he commented that he had never seen someone come out of surgery so happy !

Matt did SUCH a good job taking care of Kolbe while I was spending the night at the hospital. Even when Kolbe woke up to eat in the middle of the night, I was suddenly very thankful for our stash of frozen breastmilk that made things easier for those two. Fortunately, I was able to go home the same day as my surgery and it was a happy ending. I'm pretty much back to normal and just slowly getting back into my workout routine yay!

I was also blessed enough to get away one night after Kolbe went to bed and spend some much needed girl time with some lovely ladies =)

I love these girls to pieces! We enjoyed some delicious blueberry mojitos, potluck dinner, and great conversation.

On Good Friday, we ventured to New Orleans to do the second half of the 9 Church Walk, which is a pilgrimage that takes place every year, where large groups meet and walk from uptown to downtown while stopping at nine churches on the way to pray and reflect on the Lord's Passion. I love this tradition, its one of my favorite things to do during Lent and I was bummed that we didn't go last year since I was about 247 months pregnant by that point =)

By the time we reached the last church, which was the Cathedral downtown, Kolbe was done sitting in the stroller (ok he was done probably 2 churches into the walk haha) so he ran around Jackson square for a bit, looked at the cool fountain, and humored me by taking a family picture =)

A few weeks ago we also celebrated our great friends Kacie and Brian at their engagement party! It was awesome for Matt and I to be able to go together since Kolbe does pretty well with sleeping these days *I seriously hope I didn't just jinx myself*

Here is the happy couple and some other pictures from the party

Last but not least, I will leave you with a picture of my cute little goofball:

hahahah Just kidding! Here is the real goofball of the house:

Kolbe will be ONE (Ah!) in two weeks and his party is next weekend so I will have lots of updates and pictures for you soon!


Happy Divine Mercy Sunday =)

Welcome to the new mini series on our blog where we will randomly bring you bouts of Kolbe in disbelief over life's little surprises. Without further ado here's the first one. . . .








Wait so there's no pope right now?!?!?

This post is about 2 weeks late but better late then never right!?

I can't believe this little guy is already 9 whole months. He has spent the same amount of time out in the world as he did in the womb. And I bet if he had a choice, he would go right back in for the constant flow of free food that he would get through the umbilical cord haha

Kolbe is so fun to be around with, and we love to make him laugh. He is constantly making us laugh too. He loves to climb everything in sight including people . . he is definitely Matt's son that's for sure. He also loves to pose for the camera and as soon as I put my phone or a camera in his face, he usually looks up and smiles, its the cutest thing.

He crawls ALL over the place and its hard to keep him out of anything these days. His favorite place to hang out is Matt and I's closet where all of the shoes are. He beelines it every time he gets an opportunity to go in our room haha. These are the kinds of things he is up to these days:

Our house constantly looks like a Toys R Us explosion thanks to Mr. Little Tornado Man. I don't even bother to straighten up anymore until after he goes to bed because its a lost cause.

I always looked forward to when we would be feeding Kolbe solids since I could pretty much approach it any way I wanted to and I was excited to apply all of the dietitian things I learned regarding infant nutrition. Now that its here, I'm happy to report that it seems to be going pretty well. He has bad days here and there where he doesn't want to eat much, but overall, he seems to like everything and is not very picky at all . . . yet! (famous last words right?)

He also loves nothing more than to take his socks off and eat them.

Along with everything else in sight including leaves and sticks!

I love to see him get excited about things too. He does this cute thing where he swings his arms up and down really fast and makes a high pitched squeal while bouncing on his butt with a big smile on his face. It melts my heart =)

Currently he is pulling up on things and walking while he holds on to things such as the couch. This past week, he has been letting go and standing without any help for a few seconds at a time. He seems to be getting really confident so maybe he will be walking soon!

9 month facts:

Weight: 20lbs 11 ounces
Sounds: mama, dada, baba although none of them are specifically aimed at anything, he just says them all day long.
Teeth: 2 bottom teeth
Favorite Foods: bread, cheese, sweet potatoes, pears, raisins, happy puffs, oatmeal
Likes: Being thrown in the air by Papa, shoes, riding in the grocery cart, being held, bath time, being sung to, dancing, eating everything!
Dislikes: Getting his diaper changed, being left alone, not being picked up when we walk by him, being bored.


And just for a quick comparison, here is Kolbe at a few weeks old. I don't even remember him being that small! What a little peanut =) It seems like he loved the camera from the very beginning!

Hey friends. I hope everyone has had a smooth start to the new year! Up above is our annual family picture (first annual haha) which we hope to take every new year's day in the same chair for the rest of our lives! We can't wait till we are surrounded by kiddos in who knows how many years =)

Anyway. . .I wanted to share some of my New Years goals here on Brew Carre'. They aren't resolutions, since those typically fizzle out for me but these are legitimate things that I hope to get accomplished this year. Here we go. . .

2013 Goals:

1. Go on a nice date with Matt at least once a month (but more often as time permits!)

2. Read 1 book per month. . . I'm still looking for my January book. I want to read some good fiction but have no idea what I want to read yet.

3. Step up the intensity of my work outs after I'm done nursing Kolbe. Long story short, I had to tone things down because I was having issues feeding him every time I would do a hard core work out session. Its unfortunate but life goes on and I'm excited to get back into it soon.

4. Speaking of fitness, I'd like to run a 1/2 marathon at the end of the year.

5. Recharge my soul by spending time in adoration once a week.

6. Learn how to take better photos with our new DSLR camera. It was Matt and I's Christmas gift to each other.

7. Last but not least, I want to continue my resolution from last year which is to put things away when I'm done using them. I kept it up pretty well surprisingly but there's room for improvement.

That's it! Hopefully I can make all of these happen. I'll leave you with some cute pictures of Kolbe and some weekend fun!

Chao!

The 12 Days of Christmas have come to and end with the celebration of the Epiphany. We had so much fun enjoying our 12 days of togetherness. Here is how we spent our last 2 days of the 12:

Day 11: Make Top 10 List

We decided to make a top 10 list of places we would like to travel to in the next 20 years. Without further ado, here is where we will (hopefully) go at some point in our lives:

1. Rome (and obviously other places in Italy while we're at it!)
2. Mediterranean Cruise
3. Colombia
4. Mission trip somewhere in Africa
5. Caribbean Islands
6. Ireland
7. Hike the Grand Canyon
8. Switzerland/Germany/Austria-beer!
9. Historical New England road trip
10. Northern California mountains

. . . .and of course DISNEY WORLD! Which I will never ever ever get tired of visiting.

We are excited to make some of these trips happen some sooner than later =)

Our activity for Day 12 was: Go on a long walk

The bambino maxes out at 30 minutes in the stroller so that's how long our "long" walk lasted haha. We parked our car in downtown Covington and walked around the neighborhood and we really enjoyed it. It was chilly but bearable. We took this next picture at the end of the walk when Kolbe wasn't enjoying himself anymore. Can you tell? haha

I can't wait to do the 12 Days of Togetherness again next year. We loved it and it definitely added an extra element of fun to our days. Doing this inspired us to make some New Years resolutions regarding our relationship and squeezing more dates each month Win!

I'll be back later this week with a recipe!

Days 9 and 10 of our 12 Days of Togetherness were just as exciting as the rest have been!

Our activity for day 9 was:

Leave a hidden note for each other

The rules were that we had to write the note on day 9 but not necessarily find them on that day since who knows how long it would take to find them.

A little side story: Kolbe's tray on his high chair has this plastic cover that snaps onto the main tray. This morning when I went to put Kolbe in for breakfast I see a big piece of paper underneath the plastic cover that said "HIDDEN?" haha I was impressed by the hiding place that Matt came up with =) I turned the paper over and he had written me a wonderful, and very complimenting note and it totally made my day. I told you he was good with words =)

I was apparently not on the same sentimental brain wave because I totally left him a silly note taped to the home brew that is currently fermenting in our closet. The note was written from the beer's point of view haha.

Day 10:
Learn a new game!

We decided to play with the Dominoes that I gave Matt on Day 3.

We learned a new game called Matador that was pretty fun and I'm sure we will be playing it again. Here we are in all of our Domino glory:

Be back tomorrow with more Christmas shenanigans!

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! Kolbe and I got used to Matt being home during the holidays and it was a reality check when he went back to work todayWe are getting back into our routine though and for the first time since I can remember, dinner was prepped and ready to be baked by 3 pm thanks to Kolbe taking a good nap. . .win! That recipe is coming soon =)

Our 12 Days of Togetherness continued and our activity for the 8th day was:

Share 3 things that you love about the other person.

I loved doing this! It was an awesome way to really show each other the impact we make on each other's lives and it was especially great for me because "words of affirmation" is my love language =) (Side note: if you've never heard of the 5 love languages, you must check it out!)

Here is what we shared in a nutshell:

Matt's 3 things about Ali:
1) Determined to eat well and be healthy no matter the circumstance.
2) Keeps our relationship playful and reminds him to not take himself too seriously
3) Trusts in him and his role in our relationship

Ali's 3 things about Matt:
1) Willingly helps out at home and with taking care of Kolbe-very hands on!
2) Is great at expressing himself with words and good at holding meaningful conversations
3) Always selfless no matter what the circumstance

and I added a silly #4 just because:
4) Thank God he is good with money because if he weren't we would certainly be in financial ruin because Lord knows I'm definitely not a good money manager ha!

There's nothing quite like listening to your husband tell you specific things he loves about you =) And I know he enjoyed it as well.

Check back soon for the rest of the 12 days of Togetherness!

We are loving our 12 Days of Togetherness! On the 6th day of Christmas, Matt and I. . .

Played a board game!

A few years ago, all Matt wanted for Christmas was a board game collection, so that's what everyone gave him. Now we have a rather large assortment of board games! Mad Gab was our pick last night since it was one of the few that you could play with two people. It was so fun and I blew Matt out of the water =) hehe

Today on the 7th day of Christmas we started reading a new book together.

When Kolbe was born and I spent hours and hours nursing him (not exaggerating haha), we would pass the time by reading out loud to each other-or more like Matt reading out loud to me! We really enjoyed it so we are trying to bring it back into our lives now that Kolbe is a decent sleeper and we have more free time in the evenings.

We started reading a parenting book in the Love and Logic series and its really good so far and definitely in line with the way we would like to parent Kolbe and our future kids.

If anyone has any recommendations on books we could add to our read list please let me know! We are looking for some good fiction.

Adios!