Word on the Street with Stephanie

This Spring/Summer my daughter has been lucky enough to have gone swimming more than a few times. We first noticed that she was a water baby during bath time. She gleefully splashed about (and made a mess of the bathroom) and would sit and play for a few minutes after her bath. We signed her up for parented swimming lessons and she thrived. She loved being dunked and jumping off the edge of the pool into Daddy's arms. We are also lucky enough to know a few people with a pool so she has been in the water quite a bit this summer. To keep the momentum going, I decided to sign her up for private swimming lessons so that she would be able to benefit from some one-on-one time with an instructor. We showed up the first day excited and ready to go and... she screamed her little head off the entire time. I felt so bad for the instructor who had to listen to her crying in his ear the whole lesson. It got so bad it was suggested to me that she might do better if I wasn't around. So I spen...

It seems like every time I ask a parent what their child's first word was, they tell me "dada and shortly after, mama". I was so excited to hear my daughter call me Mama and practiced every chance I got (ok so I still do that). The thing is, no one told me that not all babies follow this pattern and I naively assumed mine would. She is almost 14 months old and in addition to nonsensical baby babble, this is her list of spoken words: Go Doggy Hi Zia That last one kills me. Zia is Italian for Aunt and, naturally, I can thank my sisters for this one. It was one of her first words (I honestly can't remember if it was "Go" or "Zia") and even though she pronounces it like "eeeyyaaa", she definitely associates the word with my sisters. However, I must have gone horribly wrong somewhere because she also calls me "eeeyyaaa". I have tried everything to correct her. I say, "I'm Mama" and point to myself, I do not address...

Our much anticipated weekend getaway was...successful! The only thing I forgot was a hairbrush for myself so I had to comb my hair with my fingers for two days-not a big deal. We went on a boat cruise, had lunch and dinner in restaurants and enjoyed every single minute. Don't get me wrong, it was still hard work. Trying to think of everything we would need for ourselves and baby was stressful but if I forgot something, it wouldn't have been too hard to go to a store and get whatever we needed. Nighttime was especially interesting. Our daughter loves her crib and has been sleeping through the night for some time. She was so confused as to why we were all in the same room and thought it was party time rather than bedtime and was not happy about having to sleep in her playpen which was 3 feet away from our bed. My final verdict is that I would do it again because the memories my family created exceeded any stress I had to endure while I was preparing. We had a blast and are loo...

My husband and I have not gone anywhere since our honeymoon a couple of years ago. Now that our daughter is 1 we figured we should try a short road trip. Once he gets home from work we are supposed to be leaving and I am currently sitting on my bedroom floor surrounded by clothes, baby gear and anything else I think we may need for 2 whole nights away from home. I am certain I will forget something. Here's hoping she sleeps well and that we enjoy our family time! This will either go very smoothly and we will have a great time or we will be pulling our hair out and barely speaking during the 3-hour car ride home. Fingers crossed for the former. I better get all these things into a bag (or 2 or 3) before my husband comes home. Have a great weekend!