Surfs Up, (with your) Baby!

I hope your Memorial Day weekend was long and wonderful. Mine was spent in a beach town, but not at the beach...not much. The weather wasn't all that conducive to bathing suits and barefoot walks through lapping ocean water. But, we did take advantage of a few hours of sunshine on Sunday.

Last summer, my daughter wasn't mobile. Beach trips consisted of playing with stacking cups under the umbrella and pointing at seagulls. This past weekend was our first time at the beach with a walking toddler. And wow was she walking...and running. She stumbled across the dunes, shouted at the ocean, genuinely blown away by the foaming waves, she picked up shells, put down shells and barrel rolled on the sand. She was so happy and it was wonderful to watch.

At some point during her backward crab crawl across the beach, as sand caked into her pupils, I was brought back to a Caribbean vacation I took pre-baby. I remembered my childless self, sipping a tropical cocktail and reading a book under a tiki umbrella with my husband basking in the sun next to me, an hour into the worst sunburn of his life. Next to us were a couple with an adorable 6 month old. I was thoroughly impressed, and slightly confused, as to why this adventurous couple decided to bring their infant to the far off island of our destination. It seemed an impossible feat. Were they actually having a nice, relaxing vacation? I didn't ask, but I desperately wanted to.

Flash forward to my sand covered babe who is gleefully rolling across the wet beach like a frolicking seal lion. The beach is so different now. Life is so different now. And, I can't compare my two hour beach trip to a week long tropical vacation, but I can make an educated guess at what those parents were thinking - they couldn't bare to do anything without their tiny man. They derived such joy from watching him experience life that it almost didn't matter where they were. They weren't there for the drinks or the sunburns, they were there to have an adventure as a family. Of course (of course), there will be future vacations when my little one stays at grandma's house while my husband and I sip cocktails under a tiki umbrella. And I'll sleep late and read a book more than one chapter at a time and sun bathe in silence, which will be amazing, but I'll miss my daughter more than a little. I'll miss her sea lion impression.

How adorable is this little seal lion pup? My daughter has the same form.
(image source)

Very Colorful Baby Shower

Throwing a gender neutral baby shower can stress people out. Should all the decor be blue and pink? Or just yellow? Or is yellow old news and everything should be orange or gray or minty green? By removing the gender factor, pulling together a nice color scheme can feel tricky. So, how about choosing all colors? If I could do it again (I had a gender neutral baby shower), I might use the following as inspiration because I truly love it.

Where To Find These Jewels

Felt Acorns by Sewn Natural

Jones Soda from Amazon

You're My Favorite Pin by Bust My Buttons

Scalloped Color Block Napkins from Target

Rainbow Invitation by Tambo Creations

Heart Night Light by Light Box Furniture

Let's Get Personal...With Art

Taking it down a notch (or ten) from this Monday, I'm back to crafting. It's not another quilt...it will be a while before I can tackle one of those again. It's some personalized nursery art. Of course it involves the artistry of your little one, making it doubly personalized (and doubly awesome). 

Again, I should apologize for the iPhone photos, though I think in this particular post it's only enhancing the free-flowing, impressionist style of my daughter's work.

The execution was pretty simple. First, I cut a letter "M" out of some scrap paper. Next, I taped the M to a piece of card stock using little circles of scotch tape. I chose card stock instead of regular weight paper because my daughter tends to paint with thick layers and regular weight paper has a hard time handling her magic. She's great at blobbing and blotching. 

Then I let her do her thing. Typically brown and purple are her favorite colors to work with, but for this particular project she went full rainbow. It's hard to see the M in the painting below, but it's there.

I let it all dry, then I gently peeled off the M. Ta Da! A sweet, frame-worthy creation. I absolutely love it.

I love painting and I think my little lady is taking to it as well. Speaking of those who love painting -  did anyone else read Taylor Kinney's interview in which he talks about how he and Lady Gaga love painting together. I bet some freaky stuff goes down in those creative sessions.

Just Wait Until...

Something super duper annoying that people say about parenting: "Just wait until...fill in the phrase". Just wait until she starts to crawl. Just wait until he turns two. Just wait until she starts preschool. Just wait until you have two kids. Just wait until you have three kids. Just wait until you have a dozen tantruming, psychotic kids.

It's typically used in response to another parent venting about the challenges of a new stage in her child's development. Exhibit A:

Mom 1 - Jane started to crawl. She gets into everything now. I can't take my eyes off her.
Mom 2 - Just wait until she starts to walk.

They are such competitive words. Oh, you think you have it hard? You think juggling twenty things at once is tricky, do ya? Mom 2 might as well say, I have it harder and I juggle more. Or even, your parenting is pie, I do the real thing. Those are the indisputable implications and they're all really frustrating.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this sentence from another parent because it happens all the freaking time. You might even know a perpetual offender. I typically respond by affirming the assertion with "I can't imagine!" or "Yeah, that's gonna be hard." I'm a pretty non-confrontational person and I'm very non-confrontational when it comes to parenting. I try to live by the rule that most parents are just trying to survive, just trying to get it done without anyone losing limbs or eyeballs. And so, I bite my tongue and play along.

But, it's not cool. And, maybe more importantly, it's not true. Who's to say that it is more difficult to parent a walker than it is to parent a crawler. There are harder aspects and easier aspects to both stages. A walker has farther to fall to the ground and is, thus, more prone to injury. A walker is also more self-sufficient. It's impossible and short-sighted to characterize any stage as more difficult than another. Each stage of life, and of parenting, has unique challenges.

So, maybe I'll never be able to (or want) to say it in the moment, but I'll say it here - the parenting that I'm doing right now is pretty damn legit and I plan to continue being a rockstar, just wait.

Didn't See That Coming

In case you missed it, last Friday, the Social Security Administration posted a list of the most popular baby names from 2013. I'm obsessed with baby names and was basically waiting by my computer for the list to post, like a total lunatic with a disheveled side pony tail and sleepy crust at the corner of my eyes. I quickly gave you my initial reaction last Friday and today, after a full week to look through the new list, I'm ready to present some extensive cliff notes. Is that an oxymoron - extensive cliff notes? Anyway, the theme of the 2013 list (for me) is - didn't see that coming. There was so much that I didn't predict or predicted the opposite. Ooops.

Ladies First.

Geraldine - Just a month ago I told you that Geraldine was "right on trend" and would rise in popularity. Wrong. Geraldine had the 2nd biggest drop in popularity of any girl name last year. It sunk from 990 in 2012 to 1402 last year. That's 412 spots downward.

Adele - Another name that I could have sworn would rise in popularity dropped 109 spots last year. Have we already forgotten about the British song bird? Perhaps so given that she hasn't come out with a new album since 2011. Her third studio album is expected to release in August, so maybe her name will rebound this year.

Daleyza - This name increased in popularity more than any other girl name last year, times three. It jumped from 3715 in 2012 to 585 last year. That's a massive jump in popularity. Enormous. So, where did this name come from? Who or what drove the sudden and extreme popularity? After some Google research, I found the answer: Larry Hernandez. He is a really popular Latin musician with a reality TV series. Larry's daughter is named Daleyza. Aha. Clearly I didn't see this coming, I had no idea who Larry Hernandez was until writing this post.

Last Name Trend - The last name as a first name trend has been steady and strong on the boy side, but, as I mentioned last week, I never considered it to be a trend for girl names. Again, didn't see this one coming. Many of the girl names that saw a noteworthy increase in popularity last year fall into this trend: Lennon, Henley, Oakley, Hunter, Saylor, Wynter, Sutton and Carter.

The Kardashian Effect - The names Kourtney and Khloe lost popularity last year, but there were several other Kardashian influenced names that rose in popularity. Mercy, the name of the kitten that Kanye gave Kim jumped 143 spots to 854. Kaidence, the name that we all thought Kim and Kanye were going to name their daughter, had its first year in the Top 1,000. Penelope, the name of Kourtney's daughter, broke into the Top 100.

Flower Power - Many people gave their daughter flower and plant names last year. All of the following names had a big rise in popularity: Saige, Azalea, Rosie, Juniper, Magnolia and Rosemary.

Geography - I immediately noticed a trend in geography related names when I posted last week. This is a crossover trend for both boys and girls. Dallas, India and Ireland had major popularity growth last year, each jumping more than 200 spots. On the boys side, Milan, Atlas and Memphis took big jumps.

Gentlemen Next.

Jayceon - Jayceon Terrell Taylor, better known as The Game, had quite the impact on pop culture last year. His name rose in popularity more than any other boy name. The second season of Marrying The Game aired on VH1 last year. If you don't watch, it's a dating show where contestants vie to marry The Game. Spoiler Alert: season two worked as well as season one (not at all), which you may already know because two episodes of season three have already aired. So, apparently, people love The Game and his (real) name.

Castiel - I don't watch the CW television series Super Natural, but a lot of people do. I know this because Super Natural has an upcoming ninth season and because Castiel is the name of a character. Last year, the name Castiel rose 418 spots and broke into the Top 1,000 list for the first time.

Uber Masculine Names - We get it, you had a son. The rise in hyper-masculine boy names last year was the hands down biggest trend for either gender. Check out this list of boy names that jumped at least 100 spots in popularity: Duke, Magnus, Stetson, Mack, Bruno, Major, Royal and Legend. If we include boy names that jumped 50 or more spots we can add Maverick, King and Titan. 

Ethnic Boy Names - American parents have always borrowed names from other countries when it comes to daughters. More and more, they're getting comfortable with borrowing boy names as well. A big handful of boy names that had a significant rise in popularity came from overseas:  Lochlan (Irish), Thiago (Brazilian), Niko (Greek), Santana (Spanish) and Otto (German).

Hebrew Names - Hebrew and Biblical names have always reigned on the boy's side, but last year was a bit of a banner year for these names. Noah, a Hebrew name, was the most popular boy's name last year. We also saw a rise in popularity with some lesser known choices including Azariah, Jair, Yair and Enoch.

And that's that.