Shoes!!!

We tried on Charlie's little Lacoste shoes for the first time. I wrote about them here after I purchased them in California. They are still too big, but seriously he is so stinking cute.

Formula

Yesterday we started Charlie on formula. It has been an emotional roller coaster with breast feeding from day one. It has never been easy for us. So many people tried to comfort me and say it would get better, but for us it never has. I have tried everything, I truly know I have gone to every effort to make it work. But the last two times I have had Charlie weighed he has not been gaining the weight that he should be. He is gaining, but not as much as he needs and this week he dropped in percentile for weight. So, I am going through basically constant pain and he is not even benefiting from it. We made a family decision that it was best to start Charlie on formula. He has been so cranky this past week, and I knew it was down to hunger. He just wasn't getting enough out of every feed whether I expressed or breast fed him. After his first formula bottle yesterday he was SOOO happy. Charlie is a very happy baby normally, but he has been in the best mood since I started giving him bigger bottles with formula. He has obviously been deprived of the right nutrition lately, and he has not stopped smiling since he has been fed the right amounts. It reinforces that it was the right decision for us. I felt a lot of guilt about not breast feeding, I let myself cry twice about it. But in the end I think Charlie, me, Justin and my marriage will all benefit from him being well fed and me not suffering. We gave it a good 4 months.

I read on another blog a quote that has really made me feel better.
"Remember formula won't kill your baby, and breast milk won't make them fly."
Charlie thriving is what is most important, however that may be!

And Charlie didn't even notice the difference with formula, what do you think? This is him right after his first formula bottle!

Half marathon.....err 10k

So, the half marathon that I signed up for when I was 7 months pregnant was last weekend. However, I have not been able to keep up with training like I should have. My last half marathon I did not train either, and just did one 10 mile run before the race and I was fine. But.....I didn't just have a baby then! I did a long run last week while Justin biked with me and nearly died after about 8 miles. I knew that 13 miles was going to be impossible to run. After debating if I should run/walk the half marathon I just decided to call the race officials and ask if I could change my bib number to run the 10k (6.2 miles) instead. They said yes, and I instantly felt relief. I would way rather run the 10k then take forever to complete the half marathon. I ended up doing my best 10k time yet, running a little under 9 minutes a mile. I felt AMAZING after the run! I saw Justin and Charlie cheering for me at the 9k mark and I seriously sprinted the rest of the way, it was such a buzz.So crazy that Charlie was in my belly only 4 months ago!!Lesson learned, next time I sign up for a half I NEED to train.

Relaxing

Charlie loves relaxing in our bed while we get ready in the mornings. He is so observant now a days. We just crack up at how adorable he is!!

These are iPhone photos by the way so not the best quality, but he is still the cutest regardless.

Snug as a bug in a rug

Charlie post bath tonight.

Cooking class

I have been taking a few cooking classes with my friend Bambos recently. It is taught by this pretty amazing french chef named Francois. This is him showing us his skills.Last week was a fish course which was so fun for me. I learned how to shuck an oyster!! Amazing.

Also, how to descale, de-bone and fillet a whole snapper (guts and all!). We used it in snapper en papillotte, which consisted of smashed potatoes and a cooked salsa with basil and lots of garlic that was amazingness in your mouth. Booya!!I am clearly over excited about this dish.

I also cooked mussels mariniere and a cod teriyaki dish. Everything was delicious. I love learning new recipes...and eating them!

Chillin

Dancing feet

Dempsy Hill Lunch

We took Sheena and Thomas to Dempsey Hill today, it is a lovely area here that is full of restaurants, cafes and bars. We sat outside at P.S. Cafe and enjoyed a delicious lunch with my favorite truffle fries, and enjoyed quite the dessert of chocolate marshmallow brownies. Charlie was very well behaved and as cute as can be.Your welcome in advance for the plethora of blog posts today :)

Look, I can sit

...kind of. ;)

Rooftop Views

One of the buildings in our apartment complex has an amazing viewing deck on the 41st floor. We went up there last night with Sheena and Thomas to check out the views before heading to dinner. Singapore really is so beautiful, especially at night.

Sophie the Giraffe

What is it with Sophie the Giraffe? Every kid has her, and apparently every kid loves her. Charlie already grabs on to Sophie, and even started chewing it!I tried asking him why he loves Sophie, but all he did was smile!

Weekend Away

This past weekend was our first trip with Charlie. It was a weekend of many firsts for him. His first plane ride, first train ride, first stay in a hotel and first boat ride. What an adventure. The flights went well with him, we just went to Hong Kong which is only a little over 3 hours from Singapore. He was very content sleeping in his little bassinet on the plane.Justin's parents watched Charlie most of the weekend while we attended wedding festivities. It was definitely exhausting going out late every night and having things to do every day while having Charlie to take care of. Traveling and going out is a whole different ball game with a little one in tow. On the wedding night we were out until 4am. These past few months I have learned to cope with sleep deprivation, but I was not prepared to handle sleep deprivation with a hangover!! Killer.

We stayed at a super nice hotel, and had adjoining rooms with Sheena and Thomas so we had tons of space for the 5 of us. It was a very fun weekend, but Justin and I are still recovering today.

At dinner on Lamma Island, a 30 minute boat ride from Hong Kong.Pre wedding drinks at the Captains Bar in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
More pictures of our trip here.

Date Night

The in laws are in town so we took a night to ourselves while they stayed in with Charlie boy.

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was very nice. Charlie and Justin bought me beautiful flowers, and I was spoiled with home cooked delicious meals all day.

Charlie and I with my flowers.Having brunch on our balcony with the in laws :)Justin's parents arrived on Saturday. They will be here for the next two weeks. They are accompanying us to Hong Kong this weekend, and will be watching Charlie for us when we go to our friends wedding.

Thomas cuddling with Charlie.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!! I hope I am half the mom that you are. I love you so much.

Extra Dirty Please!!!

That is exactly how I like my martinis, preferably with Grey Goose and extra olives as well! It has been well over a year since a dirty martini has touched these lips, but last night we were reunited..... and it was glorious!!It was followed by amazing wine, great banter and delicious food. Another fabulous night at Oso.

Wanna go for a ride?

Charlie sure does!!! He loves going in the car. This is him while we were getting ready to leave the house this afternoon. We went to the mall again today. Yesterday Charlie was my little shopping partner as well and he begged me to buy him this yacht club outfit for next weekend in Hong Kong. We are doing a boat ride there with friends and he is just going to fit right in in his new outfit and fake Ray Ban sunglasses. He can't wait! Today Charlie was my date at my fav sushi restaurant. So romantic. He slept through most of it, but hey he just downed a bottle of milk so who can blame him. Sleeping or not he is still one of my favorite men to be with. My other main squeeze is taking me out tonight for drinks and then we are meeting friends for dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant. Fun fun.

Side story from today...while we were at the mall we passed this kid store that had a baby mannequin in the window with a tshirt on that had a tie and vest on it. I just about died and had to have it for Charlie, so I went in and picked up the shirt...$119!!!! For a flipping 3 month old tshirt!!! I seriously had to look around for cameras because I thought I was being Punk'd. Who do these people think they are charging that? After almost dying from a heart attack of the price tag we beelined it out of that shop as fast as we could!

Charlie loves Daddy

Play Group

Here are Charlie's new friends from our play group. We were missing one of the little girls that day, there are 9 of us normally. Aren't they a cute bunch?We all paid for 4 weeks of this new mother's group, but now that it is over we all still plan to meet up weekly at each others houses. It is really nice to spend time with other fun mommies. Two of the other mom's I met through the group came over last week, this is Charlie with their two sons Imran and Ryder.