Fast forward twelve months and we find Maya taking another class at The Little Gym, a dance/gymnastics class. The question is how is it going? Well, let me tell you, it is night and day from her last experience. She is night and day from the little girl she was just one year ago. The very first class she ran in all by herself and didn’t look back. There was no drama, no crying, nothing, just big smiles and lots of fun.

She has the same teacher as last year and Ms. Jessica couldn’t believe the transformation either. She fully expected to have to work with her on going into class on her own, she didn’t expect to have her be the first one through the door without so much as a glance back in my direction. And, not only is she going into class on her own but she is willing to try anything that Ms. Jessica asks her to do. Last year she was stubborn and wouldn’t try something if it scared her, or she wasn’t sure about it. Not this year, she’ll try anything.

Maya has grown up a lot this past year. I’ve seen it in many little ways. But the way she is handling this gymnastics class has really cemented it for me. I’m so proud of her.

It is called Wooky Baby.

Babies grow fast!  Wooky Baby, a clothing rental service for size 0-3T, was founded with the goal of reducing the “cost-per-wear” of children’s clothing.  At an average of $8 per outfit, a customer can save upwards of $50 by renting instead of purchasing an outfit that a child may only end up wearing once or twice.  Wooky Baby clothing rental service is not only cost-effective but also environmentally responsible.

The option to purchase outfits (new and used) was recently added to the site.  Wooky Baby offers unique, fun clothes that are changing daily.  Labels include Burberry, Florence Eisman, Good Lad, and Bonnie Baby.

Here’s How it works:

The Wooky Baby online catalog works like most shopping carts.  There is a $5 flat rate shipping fee which includes the cost of a label to return the items when the child is finished wearing the clothes.  The clothes can be returned with the supplied shipping bag and label provided via email.  The shipping bag will be picked up in the mailbox by the postal service.  The cost includes a one-month rental, but the clothes can be kept for longer.  A recurring fee will be charged for each month the clothes are rented.   The $5 flat rate shipping fee applies to both the rental and/or purchase of as many outfits are in the order.

As the mother of two girls I know how expensive it can get buying clothing for them, especially those special occasion, one wear type outfits. Having a place to go where I can rent a beautiful dress for a wedding or a party seems like such a fantastic idea. I love what Wooky Baby is doing, the service they are offering to parents. I’ll definitely be scouring their site looking for a dress for Anna for an upcoming wedding we will be attending. I’m much more open to spending $8 to rent a dress she’ll wear once instead of spending $40 to buy it and have it hang out in the closet after one use.

Now for the best part! One lucky reader is going to get a chance to give Wooky Baby a try for free. Wooky Baby is giving away 5 free rentals to one lucky reader, that’s a $50-$85 dollar value! All you have to do is leave a comment telling me about a time when you wish you had been able to rent an outfit for your child instead of having to buy one. On Monday, February 27th I will draw the winner.

You can find Wooky Baby online, on facebook and on twitter.

*Open to US residents only.

*I received no compensation for this post and the opinions within are my own.

Today is about more than just Valentine’s Day around our house. A certain someone is 7 months old today! She is now more than half way through her first year of life. Hard to believe how quickly the time is going by. I’m still looking for that pause button so I can slow things down a bit.

Weight: ~ 15.5 lbs

Height: ~ 26 inches

Anna is my little peanut. She is only just now starting to out grown some of her 3-6 month clothing. She is in a few 6-9 month pants and pajamas, still mostly 3-6 month shirts. It is going to be interesting to see how her size differs from Maya as she gets older. Right now she is quite a bit smaller than Maya was at this age, about an inch or so shorter and a couple of pound lighter.

Don’t let her size fool you, the girl loves to eat. She is still breastfeeding like a total champ. She eats on average every 2-3 during the day and goes about 12 hours at night (gotta love a baby that sleeps 12 hours straight at night!). She is also eating solids now and does really well with them. Her favorites are sweet potatoes and white beans, green beans and peas, pears, apples, peaches and prunes. The sweet potatoes and white beans meal is by far her absolute favorite, she opens her mouth super wide once she knows that is what is for dinner and she gobbles it up faster than any other food.  She isn’t a fan of any food that isn’t very pureed. I tried to give her mashed avocado the other day and she chocked on it and made herself throw up because it wasn’t pureed. I’ve also tried a few pieces of very mushy banana and she does the same thing. The net feeder has come in handy for her since she doesn’t seem to tolerate chucks of any kind. She has had bananas and peaches in it and loved them, especially the peaches. We’ll stick with purees for now and keep trying to introduce chunkier food and just see how it goes.

This is such a fun baby age. She is learning so many new tricks so quickly. I swear everyday she has some new trick she is showing off. Right now she is all about chattering away and loves to keep me entertained by talking away with me while I’m making dinner. She loves her jolly jumper and spends a little time every day bouncing around in it while squealing with delight. She has just recently started to get mad if a toy she wants is out of her reach so I’m guessing over the next month or two we’ll probably have a mobile baby as she figures out if she moves she can reach that toy she wants.

Anna is still my peaceful, content, easy going baby. She melts my heart with her adorable smiles. She makes my heart swell with love when she nestles into me for a little snuggle. She makes my heart smile with her squeals, coos and adorable little “mum mum” sounds.  Love you baby girl and can’t wait to see what the next month brings.

It was no surprise when Maya wanted us to bring out the jolly jumper for Anna when she was still to young to even hold her own head up for any length of time. I started putting Anna in the jolly jumper for short bursts when she was about 4 months old. She wasn’t a big fan at first. Eventually she started to enjoy sitting in it but hadn’t really figured out that she could make the thing move. I would bounce it a little for her and she seemed to like that, but if left to her own devices she would just stand there with this look on her face like “What exactly is the point of this thing?”.

Then all of sudden one day she just figured it out. I put her in the jolly jumper and she immediately started bouncing, jumping and spinning around. She was completely delighted with herself. She looked at me like “Mom, why didn’t you tell me this thing was so much fun?” Now she loves going in the jumper. She’ll squeal when she sees me putting it up in the doorway and can jump like nobody’s business.

It is so cute to watch her jump away, it reminds me so much of her big sister at this age. Maya gets a huge kick out of watching Anna jump away too.

For being able to make little girls truly believe in magic.

For being a cozy nap buddy for sleeping babies.

For all the work you do around here, especially the stuff that you secretly enjoy, like jackhammering out sidewalks

For being my best friend and a wonderful husband.

For all these reasons, and many more, we love you. Happy Birthday

The home stretch can seem endless, the wait unbearable, but don’t worry your baby will make their appearance eventually. You can’t rush nature, that baby will come when they are ready. As the final weeks and days of your pregnancy draw to a close there are a few early signs of labor that you can look for that can indicate your body is in the final stages of preparing for labor. Our bodies go through a lot during pregnancy and those finally weeks and days are no exception. Here are 5 signs that your body is getting ready for labor.

• The Braxton Hicks contractions that you have likely been experiencing for several months now will change. In the final days of your pregnancy you will likely notice an increase in both the frequency and the intensity of these contractions. Braxton Hicks are your body’s way of practicing for the real thing.

• You will likely lose your mucous plug. This can happy several weeks before your labor begins or only a day or so. Your body will start to expel the mucous plug when your cervix begins to change. Some women walk around for weeks at 1-2cms dilated.

• The baby “drops”. This is the term used when the baby moves further into the birth canal in preparation for the impending delivery. Sometimes this “drop” is obvious and you can see that you are carrying the baby lower than previously in your pregnancy. Sometimes the only thing you notice is increased pain and pressure in your pelvis.

• An increase in the pain and pressure in your pelvis and hips. During the final weeks and days of your pregnancy your pelvic region will begin to prepare for the delivery and this often makes you even more uncomfortable than before. Your hips and pelvis will begin to move and separate which results in increased pain and pressure.

• You may notice some digestive upset. Many women in the final days before labor experience vomiting, diarrhea and upset stomach.  There are several cause for this digestive upset including changing hormones and added pressure on your stomach and intestines from the growing baby.

She has discovered a lot of new sounds and plays with a lot of different sounds. Her preferred form of vocalization is still squealing, however, she has discovered that she can make her voice very, VERY loud so the squealing around these parts has reached new ear-piercing levels. My favorite is when she decides to wake in the middle of the night and squeal to herself for close to an hour (can you sense the sarcasm).

Over the last couple of weeks she has really started to discovered a lot of new noises and sounds she can make and spends much of her day practicing one form of verbalization or another. Today it has been all about “mmmmmmma mum”. Yesterday it was little fake coughs over and over and over again. A few days ago she was all about blowing raspberries.

You should see the delight on her face when you copy a sound back to her. You can just see her thinking “Hey, that is the sound I just made!!”

Maya was a very vocal baby. She switched from cooing to babbling very early. By 4 months she was babbling with ma, ba, da, and ga. Anna has been a much quieter baby. She spends a lot of time observing and absorbing what is going on around her in her quiet little way. I love all the new little sounds she has developed. I love how she creates this perfectly adorable mix of peacefulness and sweet little babbling and crazy loud squealing as a soundtrack to her day.

I leave you with a small taste of Miss Anna’s crazy loud squealing. Happy Weekend

She still isn’t super stable sitting up on her own, and in the blink of an eye she will topple over. But, each day she seems to be sitting up better and for longer before she face plants.

The girl likes to keep us on our toes with a little game she has developed to make sitting practice more fun. She loves to throw herself back as fast as she can. If we don’t have a pillow, or ourselves, behind her she would smack her poor little head super hard. You can’t see it coming either. She’ll be sitting smiling, reaching for things, having fun and then in the blink of an eye she has flung herself back and is giggling at herself.  Luckily, we’ve avoided injury by always making sure that there is something, or someone, behind her.

I can’t believe she is already old enough to be sitting up by herself. She is my little big girl.

Dancing to her favorite Dragon song

There isn’t any one type of music that she gravitates towards, although a good beat does seems to help. The only requirement for making the list is that the song speaks to her and makes her want to dance. If she can’t not dance to a song it will become an instant favorite and very quickly makes its way onto her iPod. Her favorites range from Gwen Stefani’s The Sweet Escape, to Adele’s Rolling in the Deep, to Forbidden Friendship from the How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack, to OneRepublic’s All the Right Moves, to Led Zeppelin’s Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, to Eminem’s Like Toy Soldiers.

Her musical tastes are beautifully eclectic. And, there is just no swaying her opinion, no matter how hard her daddy tries You can’t convince her she doesn’t like a song once she has developed a taste for it and you can’t convince her that she likes a song that hasn’t spoken to her. She usually knows the very first time she hears a song whether it is a keeper or not. There is no telling what her next favorite is going to be either, she will hear a song on the radio or in a movie or something, it makes her want to dance and is an instant new favorite.

I love her love for music. I love how she sings to her self a random times throughout the day and will just start dancing to some tune playing in her head. I’m pretty sure there is always a song playing in her head.

Maya has been waiting and waiting for the day when Anna would be able to play with her, and although Anna still just mostly watches her play, Maya loves these moments. She is patient with her and teaches her. She loves to read her stories, she loves to make her laugh and she loves to talk to her about her princess and pony toys. As Anna gets bigger they are playing more and more together. These two are going to cause a lot of trouble together, can’t you just see it!

Maya can make Anna laugh better than anyone. Sometimes all she has to do is look at her and Anna will burst into giggles Anna, in turn, can make Maya giggle. They get each other going, it is so fun to watch. They compliment each other. Maya the performer and chatty one, Anna the observer and quiet one. They will have each other’s backs, I love that. My two beautiful girls. Best sisters, best friends.