Finding the perfect Sippy Cup

Harry is finally off formula! Thank God! It's so frickin expensive and seems to bloat him. I tried the whole breastfeeding thing for 6 weeks and had to give up for certain health reasons (mental health mostly!!) Sitting on the sofa in my pjs feeding Harry every hour and a half wasn't for me and wasn't conducive to being the best mum that I could be for Harry or the best wife that I could be for Jonny. As I was sinking into the sofa, I was also sinking into a depression...will elaborate more on that another time!   

So how did I transition Harry from formula to cow milk? Simple. It took about 4 days. The day he turned one, I simply cut his formula intake in half and instead of a  4oz formula bottle, I just gave him 2oz and topped the rest with milk. I know it's not recommended as it can have some kind of chemical reaction with the formula but it worked for Harry and he got the taste of the cow milk while enjoying the benefits of his formula. After one day of that I did mostly cow milk and water with a sprinkle of formula powder for flavour. After day 3, I just cut out the formula completely.

Right now we are weaning him off milk at night time and replacing it with just water. He has his last 4oz milk bottle at about 7pm, half an hour after his teatime meal. Then bedtime is 8pm. We brush his teeth using just water for now and he still uses a bottle to be comforted before sleeping but that is now water as it is better for his teeth! Milk is full of sugar!

Harry usually has between 16oz and 20oz in 4oz of milk a day in the form of 4oz bottles and the rest of the time he drinks water. Mostly he was drinking water from a different bottle but now the challenge is on for changing over to a Sippy cup!  He loves to drink out of glasses or plastic, glass-like, real cups with no lid so we use his winnie the pooh cups during meal times but when we are out and about, we need a sippy cup. We have tried the following ones 

Munchkin Miracle 360 Trainer Cup, Green/Blue, 7 Ounce, 2 Count

Munchkin

Nuby 1-Pack Designer Series No-Spill Clik-It Grip n' Sip Soft Flex Spout Cup, 9 Ounce - Colors May Vary

NûbyTM

So we went through the above two kinds of sippy cups or beakers as we call them in Ireland but had no luck! Finally Stephanie, Harry's 'American gran' and babysitter kindly bought him the one below and it his is favourite one! He loves it and he takes in so much more water now. Finally! So if you are going through the same dilemmas, I hope this helps! Don't give up, just keep trying. Now we just have to get him onto drinking milk from it but we are not rushing him. He will do it in his own good time!

Hope you are all having a good week! 

Alison xoxo

Nuby 2-Pack No-Spill Super Spout Grip N' Sip Cup, Red and Blue

Nuby

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Shamrocks in the snow

There's still snow on the ground here in Chicago so we had a nice indoor morning. Started off the with a little potting of shamrocks with Harry. What better way to get to know his roots than with some simple gardening. He mostly tried to pull the shamrocks off the stems!

Doesn't he look like a little leprechaun with red hair here! So cute!

Jonny and I are doing a bit of work this morning but dedicating the afternoon to good quality family-time to remember our home country. It's hard being away from home on days like today so we might might even pop out to one of our fav restaurants/bars here in town called The Chicago Cut and grab an Irish Roast Beef Lunch for comfort! I thought it would be funny to carry Harry's water in this 'sippy cup' today! Haha!

Thanks Vee, Janelle and Axl! They know us well!

We have the babysitter booked for tonight and we are heading out for some drinks with friends. It would be unpatriotic not to, sure! Well, I lie, the babysitter actually booked herself as she knows us so well and presumed we would be heading out tonight! 

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day and don't forget to 'wet the shamrock' as they say, which simply means go have some drinks!

Here's a funny joke a friend sent to me this a.m that I will leave you all with...'An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto one blade of grass to keep him from falling off the earth!'

Happy Paddy's Day! (Not Patty's) 

Alison xoxo

Harry's First Birthday!

After weeks of deliberating whether or not we would throw Harry a First Birthday Bash, we finally bit the bullet and went ahead with it. Why not?  You only turn one once right? Also, given his parent's track record of enjoying parties, we knew for sure that our little man would love it too. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right?

I know people say, including myself, what's the point?!! He's not going to remember it! Why waste the time, effort and money? Well, after the year we have had, moving to a new city and all the challenges of new baby in a new place, we wanted to give back to all of our amazing friends, who we consider family now, who are always inviting us to their homes for parties, dinners and getting me out of the house for a coffee or playdate. Including us in their lives as if we were their own kin is something that we don't take for granted and we wanted to show them our appreciation and gratitude. So while it was all about Harry, it was also a big thank you for all of our guests. 

First on the agenda; find the perfect venue fit for our prince Harry and his fellow royal mini guests. Guess where made the cut? Southern Cut Barbecue made the cut! Just look at the picture above and see how homely, bright and warm it looks. As we live in an apartment, it didn't suit to have everyone over to our place. This venue felt just like we were at home though. Melissa Schero and her team there did such an amazing job decorating the place and even safety locked all the plug sockets so that no tiny fingers could find their way in. Thanks to Matt Moore for allowing us to take up so much space on a Sunday afternoon! It was just so bright and cheerful with exceptional service and don't even get me started on the food! 

On the menu were some pulled pork sliders, sliced brisket sliders, baby back ribs, deviled eggs, tuna tartare and mixed green salad all to be washed down with some Voveti Prosecco and delicious wine from Napa. The kind waiter there kept topping me up all day so I was nicely warmed up with velvety red wine in time for my little speech :) Their drinks selection was really good with lots of variety and I hear they do a great Irish whiskey here too..I think it's called 'Egan's' :) The food was so good and I saw lots of people go up for seconds! Thanks to Lee Ann Whippen, the chef at Southern Cut, there was plenty to go around. I luckily got to steal some to bring home which I am nibbling on as I write this!! Sadly, unlike at Southern Cut, nobody is here to bring me a warm, wet towel to wipe my hands with afterwards. Also a big thank you to the kitchen who baked a beautiful cheese cake and decorated it especially for Harry! Unfortunately none of this was left over to take home. Oh well, I'll just have to go back again. 

Tuna tartare

Mixed Green Salad.

Deviled eggs.

Delicious Cheese Cake 

Prosecco and Wine for the adults 

For all of the little ones at the party, I prepared the snacks myself. I made sure, as best I could, to keep the treats as healthy as possible but to deliver them in a fun way. Of course there were a few sneaky chocolate treats thrown in!! Wouldn't be a real party without chocolate. I also couldn't resist the disposable plastic champagne flutes. You know you are in the USA when you can literally buy anything you can think of. Also a sign we are celebrating in the USA is having a 'smash cake'. I had never even heard of one of these before! Growing up in Ireland you had the one cake. If you were lucky, it had your name on it!  It's basically for the birthday boy/girl to smash up or plant their face in it. As you can see we got a tiny one for Harry for 3 USD in the supermarket. I was not wasting any money on a cake I knew he wouldn't eat. Jonny and I will eat it later on with our Barry's Tea! 

The notebook here was for everyone to write a sweet note or piece of advice for 21 year old Harry. I will wrap it up and give it to him for his 21st Please God! 

Pinterest was great for the ideas! As you can see, I used a sharpie pen to draw dots on the Babybel cheese so they could be transformed into ladybugs and I used the same for the bananas to turn them into pirates!

All pom poms, banners, decorations and balloons as well as this cupcake stand were bought at Party City on Fullerton. Super reasonable all just a couple of dollars.  

Gold fish snacks in gold flutes! I actually forgot the gold fish and ended up just having cheerios in them on the day instead. I took this photo just before the party at home.

For fun, I decided to print large A4 size photos of Harry throughout the year and add some funny captions and speech bubbles from Harry's mouth. Since Harry was too young for any kind of entertainment, I thought this would at least entertain the adults as they went up and got their food! 

I got a bit carried away printing pics of Harry so I cut the faces out and stuck them with scotch tape to the straws! haha! The guests loved this! 

Party favours for the mini guests. They each took home a musical instrument. Harry loves music so wanted to share some music with his buddies. Maybe they will start a band someday together. 

Tiny minaiture plastic cups for 99c for the kiddies to play beer...I mean milk pong with or simply great to take some snacks in for the way home. 'One for the Road' as they say in Ireland. 

Some watermelon for the teething babies!

Mixed Fruit

The play area with a busy basket full of toys for the kids to chew on! haha! 

And below are the pics of all of our amazing friends who joined for the day! Sorry if I missed people I didn't get a chance to take a lot but here are the ones I managed to snap. Also, thanks to Yaxi for helping me take photos!! They came out great! I really wish our own family from Ireland could have been here but please God next birthday and many more, we can celebrate together. 

Since everyone was admiring Harry's outfit for his birthday, I will share the link below of where I got it. It was on sale for 14.99 imagine! Super cute. I thought the pocket with the little handkerchief was so dapper and so like what Daddy wears.

Baby Boy Short Sleeve With Bowtie Checked Gentleman Romper Toddler Outfit Clothing Set 1pcs Jumpsuit (Label 95 / 18-24 Months, Blue)

$14.99 $25.99

I thought Harry would be shy and cry when we all sang to him but he sat there with this cute grin on his face the whole time! He loved the attention! 

Just coming over to have a bite of mummy's shoulder...as you do. 

This is Harry's American grandma, Stephanie. She is Harry's Babysitter who lives in our building. I honestly don't know where we would be right now without her and as you can see from the photos, Harry is very attached! 

It all got a bit much for Harry towards the end and he needed a snooze on Stephanie's lap. I know somebody else who likes to fall asleep at parties! 

Everyone was asking me did I enjoy the day and the answer is Yes! I enjoyed it so much because guess what? I didn't have to cook! I'm so nervous about cooking for a crowd. The Southern Cut staff went above and beyond to make everyone feel at home. I was delighted that I didn't have to host and could focus on enjoying the company of good friends while cuddling my little birthday boy at the same time. I highly recommend having first birthdays outside the home for that reason!

Thank you so much to each and every one of you not only for being there for his party but for being there for Harry, Jonny and I throughout this whole year and keeping us sane in the madness that is the first year of parenthood! We couldn't have done it without all of you! For those who missed it, we still love you and there will plenty of more in the future Please God. 

xoxo