It’s been way too long since I’ve updated you on Life With Canaan. Since he’s clearly who runs the show in our lives, let me give you a little peek into our latest antics. I’ll try to keep this focused on him (not my pregnancy or other life events). At the bottom, I have our favorite products we’re using at the moment! Here we go…
Life has clearly been a whirlwind since our little buddy turned one! We’ve been settling into the Chicago burbs, finding friends and our go-to spots to play and hang out.
I’m sure everyone was curious, but we did wean from breastfeeding. I nursed Canaan until he was 15 months old, and then I was just done. I missed calling my body my own, I was tired of being needed in that way all day and night…I felt like our time with breastfeeding had come to an end.
That by no means made it easy. There was a lot of crying from me as we found a new rhythm. My husband started putting Canaan to bed and getting more precious moments with him. I felt waves of guilt when he’d cry for me and I knew I just couldn’t comfort him anymore in the only way we both had known. It was emotionally rough for just a few short weeks, and then we moved on.
Now that I’m on the other side, I truly see how short those moments in my life are.
Canaan is a crazy wonderful kid. I just can’t describe him in any other way. He’s so active and engaging, so excited for everything, and just a positive being to be around. He says “hi” to everyone and loves to grin with his head cocked to the side, like a huge flirt. He loves reading and building with blocks and still only gives the TV a glance if Wheel of Fortune is on. He’ll point out balls of every type and basketball hoops as we walk around the block, and he has an arm that puts me to shame.
The “hi” and “bye bye” he insists on yelling to everyone truly melts my heart. He just loves being seen and loves greeting people. My friend calls him “human prozac” because he’s just a big happy pill.
He’s slowly transitioning his open-mouth kisses to ones with closed lips and a small “pop” for sound effects. It makes my heart flutter in a whole new way to see him try to give me different kisses, and I silently shed a few tears to see the old ones go.
I love that my baby still needs to be rocked to sleep. He falls asleep in my arms for naps or bedtime (though bedtime is still his daddy’s territory), and lately I’ve been trying to just soak in those moments. I can feel baby #2 kicking and rolling inside me as I quietly rock Canaan to sleep, and it just reminds me to give C a few more kisses on the forehead and breathe in his hair one more time. I can’t help but think that very soon, he’ll be a little kid who just runs to his room and goes to bed all on his own, not needing me to rock him to sleep.
We really haven’t been traveling as much since we moved and settled in. I’m taking Canaan for one last trip to Colorado before brother comes, so I hope that all goes smoothly, since we haven’t been there in quite awhile. Hubby and I took our first and only solo trip together around my birthday in August, leaving C with my parents for 4 days. I don’t think he missed us at all, because he was excited but quickly disinterested whenever we FaceTimed him. Which I guess was perfect!
Food has been a small battle in our household lately. I know every kid goes through this, so I know it won’t last forever. But that being said, my little foodie pretending to not like sweet potatoes, beans, veggies of any kind…driving me up a wall insane. He’ll eat fruit all day long and has been on an epic peanut butter kick (in oatmeal, on bread), but the carb fest needs to end soon. I mix hemp seeds in his oatmeal and sneak bits of spinach into his eggs, just trying to get a few nutrients in without “forcing” him to eat anything. I still serve him a version of whatever we are eating for dinner, even if he won’t eat it.
He cracks me up, because he won’t throw a fit over food he doesn’t want to eat, but instead he picks up the bowl and hands it to me while yelling “yayyyy!!” like he finished it! I am laughing hysterically while trying to point out to him that he didn’t eat a single thing. Oh well. My husband has to calm me down from getting offended that he just won’t eat my food anymore, because eventually he’ll come back around. Until then, we pretend that if he didn’t want to eat dinner, that was all there was for the night. I slip him a piece of a peanut butter sandwich or a Larabar before bed so he will still sleep well. He’s one, so I’m trying to not get too upset yet.
If you couldn’t tell…no haircut yet. I’ll get to that when I get to it, but I actually still love his long hair. Every weekend we discuss if it’s time yet, and we just aren’t ready, so we aren’t making it a big deal. But the “your daughter is beautiful” comments really are getting ridiculous.
OUR FAVORITES:
We love this shape sorter from Melissa and Doug and any of their animal puzzles.
He loves this block set from Little Saplings Toys and Canaan uses it everyday to build towers. We have the set with the pictures on them too and I love that he’s learning more words by pointing out what’s on the block.
Canaan is a book junkie, always wanting you to read to him, so any book is his favorite. We love the Little Blue Truck books and the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series (my childhood favorite). He also loves Dr. Seuss.
For clothes we’ve been living in Cat & Jack and the Gap Kids brands. I still love Zara, but I just need to wait for their sales. For shoes we’ve been wearing Converse or Native brands.
We use our BOB jogger every single day. I use it for Stroller Strides and Stroller Barre classes, as well as walking and jogging around our neighborhood. We’ll definitely be getting the double version once brother comes.
We switched to a Diono convertible car seat after he outgrew his infant seat. I love how sturdy it is and that they haven’t had any recalls. It is really freaking heavy, but I feel like it was a good choice for us.
We still try to have little-to-no plastic toys in our home. I just don’t like the aesthetic and the clutter, and honestly Canaan would rather play with blocks and balls all day long. We also don’t have any battery-operated toys still. I love the lack of strange noises and Canaan uses his imagination a lot more, making up sounds for things and paying attention to books instead. This doesn’t work for everyone, but for our family it was a perfect choice. My mom has a few toys that sing at her house and he’s happy playing with them there (and I am just fine with my parents’ house being the “fun toy” house). I’m pretty adamant about keeping things this way for as long as we can.
MOM BOD:
I still do a lot of Stroller Strides and Barre classes (and teach them 3 times a week). I also still keep up with the Tone It Up challenges at home and follow their meal plans whenever they have an active challenge going. This takes a lot of guesswork out of my day and actually keeps me pretty happy and feeling fit.
I haven’t been able to go to any yoga classes lately and I really miss them. I practice at home in my living room, but I need the vibe of the class.
A friend of mine and I have started going to Soul Cycle classes and I’m hooked. I used to spin 3x a week for years, so getting back into it has felt amazing. I definitely can’t afford their classes though, so we have only gone a few times, when we can score a free pass off the instructor. I’m hoping money just rains from the sky soon so I can go more often.
And that’s about it for now! Tell me tell me! What are your favorite toddler finds and things to do? What are your toddler food strategies?
Catch up: Life With Canaan 12 months … 10 months… 8 months… 6 months… 4 months…
If you don’t follow me on Instagram and watch my stories, you might be wondering…his name is pronounced [kay-nen].
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