Pow wow

We celebrated river's first birthday a week early with family and friends up in Utah. We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. Fall in Utah is simply the best. We had an Indian pow wow for our brave little one in the mountains with the fall leaves, a river, a campfire, and a teepee to top it off. We had an ice cream bar with teepees, s'mores and hot coco. The kids played ring-around-the-arrow and had a bow & arrow feather shoot off. We all put on our indian headdresses and pow-wow-ed around the fire. It was a night to be remembered.   

Thanks to all for coming and making river's birthday so special. 

Xo

Brave little ONE

My little indian is one years old today! I can't believe it. Last night I found myself going through all of his newborn pictures and holding back those tears. 

Just one year ago today I was holding you in my arms for the first time...all 7 pounds of you, and nothing can describe that single moment. It is only felt. Also, nothing could have prepared me for this first year and now it has seemed to vanish before my eyes. I look back thinking how tiny you were. Now you are walking around on your own two feet...not wanting to hold my hand. 

But really, it feels like River has been apart of my life for a very long time. We are connected. Always have been. We are soulmates. Eternal. 

It's amazing to watch him grow and learn and experience all of this world every single day. I feel extremely grateful to be this boy's mama. He is teaching me more than I him. My wish to you my darling boy, is that you find your own unique talents and purpose in this life, and experience much love and happiness along the way. 

I love you my brave little one! 

Happy birthday! 

Xo

The tour life.

We started our tour in Atlantic city. The beach was our backyard. Literally. So we tried to really take advantage of that for the two weeks we were there. Its safe to say we were on the beach every single day minus maybe two. It was heaven. I'm telling you, river fits in so well at the beach we will have to live on one. Not for me, but for him;) And with that, I will leave you with a massive photo dump of our days at the beach, since half my phone pics are now full of them. 

      Little shark is ready for shark week

   Getting buried in the sand is so funny. 

Beach naps are much better than regular naps. 

                    Our little tribe.

Beach bummin at it's best. 

We already miss the beach. 

Xo

Travel month.

August has come and gone. Just like that. It has been quite the travel month going from utah to jersey to new york to ohio to chicago and then back to utah and we will eventually be ending in vegas. Whew. I am so grateful the husband could come the entire time as well. I don't know what I would do without him pretty much every.single.day. I am also grateful to our friend for taking such good care of mowgli while we are off touring. It doesn't get any easier leaving that boy behind, but it does ease my mind knowing he is in such good hands and with his two very best dog friends nonetheless. 

With that said, this month has been amazing, even with a few hiccups along the way. River has been a dream traveler even when our fight got delayed 8 hours, we got put on stand by, and then the airline lost all of our luggage (see what I mean by a few hiccups). We have been in taxis, trains, planes, boats, and cars. You name it. I read up on a lot of 'traveling with baby' forums and I wanted to share some that have really helped me. So...I used to think that keeping river up and trying to get him to sleep on the plane was a good idea, but I quickly learned (from a long flight from London) that a well rested, happy baby is much better to travel with. Sleeping is key to a happy river, so if you can give your babe a good morning nap or afternoon nap before your flight...let them take it! Also, I fed river on take off and landing, or I gave him some water in a bottle or let him suck his binki...that sucking motion is important for their little ears to pop. I bought some new books and toys just for the plane. I brought lots of little snacks and an iPad (we don't usually use the iPad, but I downloaded a couple apps for entertainment when worse comes to worst). Pack enough diapers and wipes and a change of clothes for those unexpected blowouts.  I also definitely brought Lysol spray and disinfectant wipes since river is at the prime age of touching everything and putting it in his mouth, and because I am slightly OCD. Ha. Other than that remember to breathe and just roll with whatever happens.

 Travel days can be stressful...but they can also be very easy if we just choose to let them. I was determined to have a calm flight going out...I was so calm that I made us miss our connecting flight. Oops. The husband was like, "let's hurry, we are boarding!" And I was all like, "it's fine. Relax." As I slowly walked river and I over to our gate just as they shut the doors for good. But guess what, we jumped on the next flight we could and it all seemed to work out. sorry about that one husband;) 

You realize how many other families there are traveling with babies when you are in that group too. Be patient with your little one and have fun. If you're calm and happy so are they:) 

Safe travels. 

Xo  

Update.

My baby is 9 months old?! He has officially been on this earth for as many weeks as he was inside my tummy. It kinda blows my mind. 

I had every intention to update my blog with every milestone and month marker... But here I am. Nine months later. This whole motherhood thing is quite possibly the most amazing thing I can ever do. Some days it scares me and I feel completely overwhelmed. But most days it makes me want to be better, love harder, and be more present. Motherhood is hard to explain until you become one. So many emotions on the daily. I am so grateful I have been entrusted with such an important and strong little soul.

River is a wild one, but he is also very sweet. He is a definite mama's boy. He loves getting tickle tortured and smothered in kisses. He adores mowgli and looks for him first thing when he wakes up in the morning. It's kinda the cutest. 

He probably would prefer to live in the water if he could. He loves the pool, bath, drinking fountains and pretty much anything else that has to do with water. Reading time is maybe his next favorite. It's so cute when he comes and sits on my lap and we read all his favorite books, but he loves when his papa reads him his Korean books most. 

I am a little scared river is going to start running before he learns to walk. He is a speedy crawler, but would prefer to hold his mamas hands and walk like a little adult. He has the best smile right now with his two bottom teeth and one fang tooth on top. He's our little snaggle-tooth. He is still mainly breast fed, but loves gnawing on broccoli and could eat black beans all day. so weird. Definitely his father's son on that one. He has the cutest voice/growl. He knows how to throw a tantrum. He loves looking for airplanes (we live by a small airport) and is fascinated by anything with a motor (the vitamix, vacuum, motorcycles, trucks...) such a boy. 

We are experiencing a love like never before with this baby boy of ours. He is growing too fast for his mama though. All 22lbs of him. Our little chubba love. Happy nine months river zen.

I love you. 

Xo

Viva Las Vegas.

It's official, we are living back in the beautiful desert of Las Vegas. I look back at my last post and can't believe how fast life can change, and also how much river has grown in just 3 months. Whoa. It makes me wanna take a deep breath and stop time just thinking about it. Ha. Really though, it just helps me to realize the saying, "the only constant thing in life is change." I love that truth. The unknown used to scare me, (if I'm gonna be honest, it still gives me a little anxiety when we are about to embark on something drastic... Like packing up your entire house and moving into a tiny one bedroom apt in a completely different state... but I have learned to actually love change. It means adventure, problem solving and putting myself in an uncomfortable situation to see how much I can grow coming out of it. It doesn't mean it will be easy. It may be really hard. But it's our choice to make it hard or not. It's just perspective (thanks husband;)...he's so good at change).

Anyway, I guess my long rant is about how crazy (in a good way) these past few months have been. I am so grateful to be back at work... If you can even call it that;) It's the perfect "mom" job for me because I still get to do what I love and it's only a couple hours at night. Sometimes the husband and babe come with me and it's even better! Seeing river in the audience with his little earplugs in makes my heart almost explode. He loves watching the show...well, maybe he thinks it's boring because he falls asleep in it every time? Who knows?  Ha. 

Leaving Vegas last year, I never thought I'd be back, but it feels right. We don't know what the future holds...no one does...but we are here...in the present. Happy where we are for the time being and trying to figure out this thing called life. 

Ps. I just have to...my awesome cousin (loveisallyouneed.me) took some quick family photos while we were in Utah and I am in love. 

  I love my little family with all of my heart. 

                 Here's to adventure. 

                              Xo