Author: SalinaCab

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Learning

SalinaCab

I started giving my kid water or apple and prune juice in a little bottle originally because she could hold it herself. Then I heard that when you start kids on juice or water, they should have it in a sippy cup that way they get use to it early. Also, apparently it’s good to differentiate between milk and juice/water.

I know that sometimes hearing how you shouldn’t do this with your kid or that can be overwhelming and freaking annoying. Everyone has a opinion. Normally I would go the route that says do you and do the best you can. Which is what I try to do on a daily basis for my daughter, and what I will continue to do for the rest that follow.

But I got to say the whole milk in a bottle, juice/water in a sippy cup kind of makes sense. I decided to try it with Siri, she really struggled yesterday (her first time with a sippy cup), she was getting so pissed and frustrated that she couldn’t get anything out, she also didn’t understand how to suck it, considering it’s a different shape than the bottle. Anyways, today she figured it out! I was like damn! It was a pretty proud moment.

I also heard that if you plan to want to have meal times together as a family start it off early. When feeding your child in a highchair or whatever make sure it’s to the table if the child is eating before you actually have a meal. Or if they are suppose to eat around the time of the meal make sure they are sitting with you. It is suppose to get them use to eating food at the table and as a family. I was like DAMN! That makes a lot of freaking sense, especially since it seems almost like common sense, but at the same time I wasn’t really doing that with my own kid.

So let’s just say, sometimes when you hear something you have to judge for yourself if it makes sense for you to implement it with your own child. I decided to do both topics I mentioned above because personally they make sense to me and I believe in the long run our family and my child will benefit from it.

Blog

Pictures

SalinaCab

I don’t know about all the other moms out there, but my camera roll is strictly filled with a crap load of pictures of my kid. However, I’m not one of those moms that take pictures of everything my kid does, I normally save pictures for when she’s wearing a cute outfit, or hitting a milestone. None the less, I am non-existent on my own camera roll lol

I do take a couple pictures of my dog, and precious moments she has with her daddy, but other than that it’s all her. What can I say!? She’s adorable and her smile is infectious. Quite honestly I’m not complaining because most often than not, I would rather be behind the camera because I sure as shit ain’t fit to stand in front of it. Other moms would know, 9 times out of 10 we look like hot messes.

I have made it a rule of my vocabulary that I will never describe myself as anything but a hot mess. First, it states that yes I am a mess… I’m also a mother what did you expect? Finally, the ‘hot’ part boosts my confidence a little (no lies here). I use to have clear skin and wash my face twice a day, becoming a mom kind of changed the need for me to spend that time cleaning my face when I could be doing something more important. Even then I wasn’t really photogenic, I didn’t really have the confidence for it. So my kid will continue to be the center of my camera roll for the next… long ass time. Hopefully 1 day we will get some really nice family photos done… who knows when that’s going to happen lol

Blog

My Night

SalinaCab

I normally have a decent routine when it comes to evenings. Sometimes Siri gets a bath before bed then she goes to sleep around 8. If I feel like working up the energy to get my butt in the shower, I do that. I’ll sit around with my in-laws until about 11pm, then I work way to my space, hang out, blog or whatever.

Well tonight my normal routine went awry. I ended up spending time talking until about 12pm. Then of course I’m preping Siri’s cereal for tomorrows meal, I’m washing bottles, cups, bowls, spoons. Next thing I know it’s 1am, I’m watching YouTube videos and haven’t even posted anything to the blog yet… GRRRREAT.

My point is when you become a mom and you set up a routine for your kid, it doesn’t apply to you. The routine is strictly for your child. I’m lucky enough that mine is still young enough to follow the routine without being a pain in the butt. A mother’s job is never done. I could easily have gone to bed the minute I got downstairs, then I would run into quite the situation when she decides to wake up at 4am for a bottle, and I have no clean bottles. OR when I go to feed her the cereal that wasn’t prepped the night before, so therefore I have to make it, on top of having her freak out because she can see me making food for her but it’s not in her mouth.

Being a mother is just a lot of cleaning and sometimes organization… if you’re lucky.

Blog

Snuggles

SalinaCab

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When your kid hits the stage where they absolutely adore you, right before they are able to throw tantrums and say hurtful things unintentionally, make sure you soak it all in. She’s only 6 months old and she brightens everything. There are some days where she decides she wants more cuddles and snuggles, I know what’s to come so there’s no way I’m not going to love it.

She was having one of those days where she was tired enough that she wanted to snuggle before falling asleep for a nap, instead of getting cranky to the point where you have to rock her like a mad woman so she’ll finally go to sleep. So I can say without a doubt I loved nap time today, and even bedtime. When your child snuggles into (I’m sure it doesn’t matter what age they are) it’s a really nice feeling.

I was even telling my boyfriend that I understand why mother’s can spoil the crap out of their kids, especially first time moms. It takes everything I have some days to put her in her crib for bedtime after she’s fallen asleep on me, but I do it because I know in the long run you want your kids to know they have their own bed, while mom and dad have their own.

Either way I really had to snap this picture. I love her!

About Me, Blog

My Relationship

SalinaCab

I decided to share some of my story. Specifically about my relationship where it started and how it has gotten to the point where it is now.

It all started when we met in 2011. We ended up in the same applied math class in grade 10, first semester. We became friends and talked quite frequently. He eventually invited himself over to my house to watch the Step Up movies (I had never seen them), haha. We ended up not even watching that specific one, we watched a crap load of other movies. We became a couple at the end of grade 10, I actually dumped him while he was on a road trip to a different province (we’re Canadian). I remember he told me, he loved me. I thought it was a little out there, but I did believe him when he said that he actually meant it.

I was a very toxic and negative person back then, I did a lot of stupid things that I would eventually regret. Once I got some guidance and help, I started to fix my life. We kept in touch throughout the 2 years we didn’t really see each other. It was probably very dumb, but every time we talked I always wanted to make sure his feelings hadn’t changed, that he did still loved me. Sure enough, he always felt the same. I truly believe that deep down I had strong feelings for him always, I just didn’t think I was in a good place to become any thing more than friends.

It was the summer before grade 12 started, 2013, I was tired of being in the house all summer doing nothing but working, so I messaged him just to see if he would want to see a movie. We went to that movie and everything changed from that day forward. I was finally at the point in my life where I could trust myself to be in a relationship with him and not hurt him or do something stupid. From that moment on I loved him, just as much as he had always loved me.

Our relationship wasn’t always simple, it was very complicated in the beginning. We had to deal with family members that weren’t exactly fond of him, and had no fear in showing it. I lost the last grandfather I had left at the beginning of our relationship. He lost his great-grandmother 7-8 months after we started dating. That was the first time I took a plane, so I could go with him to the funeral and burial in a different province. It took a little over a year for things to finally mellow out.

I remember being told that the amount of love I had for him was just a honeymoon stage, that it would go away eventually. Or that he was unstable in ways. All those words just went in one ear and out the other, because I knew this was my person, that we were meant to make it work. We didn’t always have it easy but we always made it work. We’re now almost 5 years together and we have the most precious little girl. We’re committed to one another and we do our best to make everyday the best we can make it.

For all those people that thought we were young and stupid, that we weren’t going to make it. I would just like to say we showed you. We aren’t naive either, we know that the world still has a lot to throw at us and we aren’t perfect. But we agreed from day one that we would try our damn hardest to make this last until 6 ft under, and we live by that. We’re the farthest thing from a perfect couple, but we work through our differences and we cherish every moment we spend together, as well as a family.

To my person, my ride or die. I love you so much! I’m so freaking proud of us and our family! Forever and always!

Blog

1 WEEK

SalinaCab

I have officially had my blog available to readers for a little over a week now.

I always wanted to start a blog, I never really had anything specific to blog about, and I never did any research into actually achieving the goal. I’m often have dreams of doing certain things and chicken out. I did it time and time again with blogging. Even after I became a mother and had a beautiful little girl to write about, I still needed a nudge into actually opening the blog. I was often told I had a nack for writing but I still never thought people would care about what I had to say.

I’m always afraid of doing something out there and being rejected, or bad at that something. I believe it to be one of my flaws. Now that I have Siri, I hope that I can raise her to have be confident and not let anything stop her from doing what she puts her mind too.

I’m thankful for having the views and traffic that I do so far! It’s only been a week but everyday I post something I become a little more confident in what I’m doing. On top of always having the dream to start a blog, and being told I’m a decent writer, I’ve always wanted a place to tell my story every aspect of it. Now my story has gotten even bigger since our little girl came into the world, and I’m excited to share it with everyone that cares to listen.

I also want to encourage people to subscribe, comment, like, share, ask questions or even message me to chat about life and all things parenthood! Thank you again!

Blog

Relationship Time

SalinaCab

I was doing my regular scroll through Facebook when I happened upon a blog post one of my favourite actors wrote. Pretty much she went on a vacation with her husband and left her child in the care of someone else. Of course after posting all her pictures with her husband on social media, everyone came out of the wood work with an opinion. Apparently there were quite a few people shaming her for going on a vacation without her child. If you have time to read the article, Us Time, she goes on to explain that even though they have children they still need to focus on their relationship.

The post got me thinking, I only have 1 child and obviously I expected our time to hang out just one on one would be non-existent. However, I do try to make time for my relationship. The truth is my man and I were together 3 years before I even got pregnant. We hit 4 years together the day after our daughter was born, we were a couple before her, and I want to make sure we are a couple after her and our future kids leave home. I love my daughter with everything I have, but I also love my other half with everything I have.

Traditionally, you hear most people say that they put their kids ahead of their relationships. I don’t think that’s fair. I think a balance is essential. I can’t expect us to have been a couple before our child then not be a couple until they leave the house. That could  be decades from now, and quite honestly I would never expect to survive life together that way.

When you make time for one another a way from kids or to regroup while they are sleeping it will benefit the relationship, which in turn will benefit the way you raise your kids. Every Sunday I stay up waaaaay too late to hang out with my man (12hr nights), I cherish that time, it’s one of my favourite moments throughout my week. I love it because it gives us some time to be together, Siri is in bed around 8 so we have from 8pm to roughly 4am to regroup for the week to come. We talk about anything and everything, we try to catch up on our shows, we play video games together. Essentially we hang out, and it’s a reminder to the days before kids. I would be really worried about how our relationship would function if we didn’t take the time to sit around and do nothing with one another.

Now this doesn’t mean it’s the go-to fix for everything. I’m not naive and think just because we make time for one another all of sudden every issue is gone. We still get frustrated with each other, I still get annoyed when he leaves his garbage everywhere (it’s like cleaning up after another kid). Sometimes I still feel under appreciated, but we try really hard to communicate through those times. By communicating our issues, we hope that we’ll always want the weekend to come, we’ll always secretly look forward to Sunday because it’s our time.

I love you JD!

Blog

To the people who want kids… but haven’t had them yet

SalinaCab

To all the people that want to have kids but haven’t yet, I have some serious truth bombs for you. If anyone has ever told you that parenting isn’t sunshine and rainbows, but actually really hard, they were actually lying… It’s a HUNDRED times more DIFFICULT than those people are letting on.

I only have a 6 month old and I’ve already learned this. I’m at the stage in her life where her smile is absolutely infectious, her laugh makes you want to squeeze her, but other than that it’s just freaking difficult. I love my kid but that doesn’t mean I love certain things about this stage of her life.

The first couple months of having a baby can be a breeze or hard as hell. Compared to most I had it easy. My kid wasn’t colic, she was pretty content all the time unless she was hungry, and she shit quite a bit.

I would have you know today a lone she shit twice… I’m not talking about little baby poops, I’m talking about explosive up the back shits. Every time came with a new clean undershirt and outfit having to be put on after the others were a write off. Now I have to stand at the bathroom sink and try to wash this crap out of her clothes so they don’t stain those pretty outfits. To top it all off changing the diaper of a 6 month old is next to impossible, they either want to contort themselves into a ball trying to eat their toes, or they decide to roll around like a ball on speed. After dealing with the huge crap, I did the one thing I shouldn’t have, I thought to myself “the worst is over, and I survived it with minimal shit on my hands (literally).” It was almost like my child could read my thoughts because everything just got worse from there. I’m trying to put a clean diaper on her which I can’t fasten properly because like I said before she was contorted into a ball, so I have to redo each side of the diaper so it’s tighter now that she’s cooperating. Just as I’m getting ready to put her PJ’s on she wants to roll around the crib like a mad women, which then makes me realize that she still has shit on her side. FML.

She is now in her PJ’s watching her Little Baby Bum, cranky as can be because the child will not take 2 naps during the day like she needs, and now it’s too close to her bedtime for her to take one.

So anyone that thought raising a tiny human was hard, you have another thing coming. I can tell you that the first 6 months consist of shit EVERYWHERE, pee EVERYWHERE, smiles, learning, laughing and cranky babies! But it is one of the best things you’ll ever do, being a parent. 🙂

Blog

Renovations

SalinaCab

My in-laws purchased a house back in June with the intention of us moving in to their basement and making it our own. I was already 5 months pregnant at the time, and we had to build two bedrooms, for us and our little girl before she arrived. Well we finished ours and hers, they look pretty good. Now we’re trying to make the rest of the basement livable.

I’m excited to get these further renovations underway, but it will definitely be a bit difficult with a little human around, especially since I’m going to be helping too.
But we do have a bit of a blueprint drawn up and I can’t wait for the finished product!!