13 months...

A 13 month old? When did THAT happen? Well, William's World is all up to date but writing takes a bit more time while trying to keep up with a buzzing little bee! One of my goals this year is to write AT LEAST once per month as our little William finds his little personality! 13 months old. Running and into EVERYTHING! Dear William, We can't believe you are 13 months old! What an awesome birthday party... it was a BALL! With friends and family alike, we celebrated YOU all day! It was very special and exactly what we hoped for... a happy and JOY filled day! You transitioned to your cup beautifully 2 weeks before your birthday. I thought we would give a cup a try and you think its great! You drink whole milk now (only took a couple of weeks to take the formula completely away!) out of a sippy cup and water out of a straw cup. You just dropped your morning nap (on your own) so are sleeping once during the day and still in bed asleep by 7 and awake around 715 unless we are getting up for school (640 is tough work!). You still love being held when you drink your cup and you love to snuggle at night and rock before bed time. You have quite an opinion about which books you like and which ones are not your favorite. Your teachers love to watch you flip the pages and notice the new books on the shelves. Right now you love all of your truck books and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar!" Maybe you like it so much because you like all of the yummy food! You eat any and everything! Some of your favorites are apples, pears, clementines, applesauce, butternut squash ravioli, coconut chicken, turkey, cheese, pita bread, hummus!, veggie burgers, macaroni and cheese, black beans, navy beans, green beans and the list goes on! You also love our homemade granola bars and even helped to make them today! You are learning to feed yourself and holding a spoon very well. Most days it is in your left hand! You love your dogs and call them often. "Dog!" and you pat your leg just like your dad and I to say "come!" You are saying "mama" "dada" "book" "dog" "uh oh" "that" "yah" "ball" "socks" and you are close to "all done" and "thank you" You sign: more, please, thank you, hat, wash hands, all done, coat, brush teeth and you are close to getting cracker. Its a tough one! You LOVE being outside. You walk to the doors and knock often, telling us you want to go outside. You get so excited when we put shoes and a coat on because you know, "an adventure is about to happen!" You love to cook in your kitchen and you are mastering building towers and knocking them over. You love your friends and you are playing well with others. You like to know that I am close by and you are a happy little lark. You give great hugs, the sweetest kisses and you are so dear. You say "awww" when you hear a baby crying or are giving a hug. You are adventure. Adventure every day! Your "dada" and I love you to the moon and all the way back again! I wonder what next month will hold? love, Mom

music...

TOGETHER! Hello to "flip flops" so glad to see you... Hello to "baby boat shoes" so glad to see you... Hello everybody, so glad to see you... Hello everybody, so glad to see youuuuu! Experiencing a music group as a mom, not as a clinician, was a new experience. Before we began, I made a point to remind myself to be baby boat shoes mom... and oh what a JOY it was! One of my favorite moments after the "hello song" was when my sweet WCL crawled away from the group...and what followed... Of course, my first thought was, "let me go scoop him up and bring him back!" However, I paused, reminded myself to let him "be"... continued singing and patting the floor to the beat and sure enough, in about 15 seconds he turned, smiled wide and crawled right back. What a wonderful, supportive environment... where babies can come and go, crawl and toddle away and come right back as they are ready! It was a simple group. Simple songs. Simple beats. Simple stomps, pats, bounces and buzzes. WCL loved every second. Smiling, laughing, cooing, crawling, snuggling... it was true baby JOY. Have a little one and thinking about a music group? GO FOR IT, you won't regret it.

well well well...

As some of you have noticed, William's World is flourishing. Pictures and expressions, movement and wishes, moments and memories.... Flips Flops and Boat Shoes has been resting.... BUT NOW.... we are BACK! To catch you up since the last post, there has been a lot of change in the Flip Flops and Boat Shoes world... ~Boat Shoes was offered an awesome opportunity with his new company to move South... at the very end of my maternity leave ~We traveled to Charlotte, NC looked at 21 homes in 3 days and decided on one lovely home that we adore ~I left a job that I ADORED with patients and families that taught me more than I will ever be able to articulate ... to move back down south to my roots ... bitter sweet. ~We moved. With a 5 month old. Yes, that was an adventure (see William's world for photos) ~We began living the "home office, but traveling alot" world for boat shoes and SAHM for flip flops. SAHM = Stay at Home Mom. aka: what I imagined would be the DREAM. ~SAHM world: pool time, meet new friends and baby time, library story time, play time, nap time, unpacking... mind you, when you list it out it looks lovely; however, I was MISSING my patients, adult interaction, these things didn't happen every day and I needed a little something more... for me and for WCL to interact with some little friends his own age! ~enter... "everything happens for a reason" adventure... MY NEW WORLD. Teaching children about literature, reading stories, creating adventures with words and loving every minute. So this blog is not only going to continue with the many adventures of Flip Flops, Boat Shoes and baby boat shoes... but with little sprinklings of ideas and suggestions for Children's Literature and instilling a love of reading in children at a young age! stay tuned...

high up in the sky

the comments before our trip to Naples were comical and contradictory...

~what? fly with a 6 week old, you are crazy!
~I would NEVER fly with a newborn

~Good for you! You are one brave mom!
~Way to go, what an adventure!


I have to admit, leading up to our Naples adventure I was thinking both, "this is crazy!" and "what a great adventure for William and for me... it will build character!"

I am happy to report that flying on Southwest with a newborn was flawless. Flawless. What a great word to be able to state about an experience with a newborn.

Let me paint a picture for you~ Carseat bag for the carseat and base. Stroller. 3 suitcases. breast pump bag (carry on). diaper bag (carry on). mom's back pack (carry on). mom's purse (carry on). William (carry on!).

Boat shoes helped us get checked in curb side so mom flip flops and I were able to go through security with just William and our carry on baggage. I was pleasantly surprised how kind, helpful and accommodating security was on both ends of the trip.

You can bring as much liquid as you need for an infant which is very helpful when breastfeeding. I brought 3, 4 oz bottles ready which is ALOT of milk for a short amount of time (3 hour flight), but I wanted to be prepared, just in case. I wondered, why can I bring fluid and others can't? Well neat thing about the TSA, they actually scan the milk to see the structure of the fluid to make sure that it is safe. Kind of impressive.

The flights were also both "almost" flawless! The way to Naples, William had a pretty unbelievable diaper situation... thankfully they dont smell when you are nursing... and I have to say I will ALWAYS use pampers diapers. Not one little bit came out... which was a great thing because mom of the year here forgot one critical item in the diaper bag...

a change of clothes for a newborn.

My favorite moment, mom flip flop says, "well its ok, I mean you clearly have extra outfits" .. and I casually state, "yeahhh in his checked suitcase. Woooops!"
However, thanks be to pampers for their fabulous design and my woops didnt event matter!


One of my other favorite moments was on the way back from naples~ an early evening flight is a perfect time for happy hour, right?! Well our wonderful flight attendant brought boat shoes and I our wine in a cup with a lid and a straw. Kind of like a sippy cup of wine... he giggled as he handed it over and just simply said, "It will be easier with the baby." We said CHEERS and enjoyed our glass of wine, and baby boat shoes didnt get any wine dripped on his precious little self!


So all in all... amazing trip, great experience, totally built confidence and character...and my tips are..

1. pack an extra set of clothes just in case
2. curb check everything and carry the baby
3. bring along a baby carrier like the ergo baby just in case you are the last gate
4. bring as much milk as you need, be ready for it to be scanned
5. enjoy happy hour and if you are lucky, you might get a lid and straw (check WIlliams world for pictures!)