TLPA 2010

FINALLY! I am done with our TLPA Convention 2010. It was 3 months of preparation for me, and two plus days of 6am-11pm of work, but we are done and it was a success. Our "fake" Paris was a hit too. I am really looking forward to starting the new week fresh and focus on getting caught up at work.

Happy Halloween!! If I have time, I will try and do a Halloween post after the festivities, maybe tomorrow though. I'm going to squeeze in a workout, bake some pumpkin rolls, dinner with the family, and then off to Amy & Mike's for some trick or treating and Halloween fun. Looking forward to a fun Holiday!

Here are some pictures from TLPA 2010:

My Hubby and I at Cocktail Hour

Hubby, first time TLPA'er

Laura and "PARIS"

"PARIS" and I..

Our booth

Have a spooktakular day!

My Favorite Pretty Mommy Things & Tips

I love things that are pretty, shiny, new and did I mention pretty? Anything can be pretty.

New shoes, a sexy purse, clothes, even your baby! Whatever pleases the eye. Anywho, I get asked from time to time by pregnant acquaintenances, family, friends, etc what are my favorite baby things, so here is a list of some of MY favorite Pretty Mommy Things that are not only
pretty but totally useful and necessary. As well as some other newborn items and tips that I wish I knew.


Here are just a FEW of my must have Pretty Mommy Things. I'll try and post them as I remember / see them.

• A BOUNCY seat. You HAVE to have one of those when you have a baby. It didn't seem like a must have at all, it was probably at the bottom of my list, but we did get one. And Carter ended up in it all the time. It was the only place we could set him down. We took it everywhere. It ended up in the bathroom a lot. If you think about it, there aren't a lot of places to put your baby down so unless you want them in your arms 24/7, get a bouncy seat. Or get three. I think this one by Fisher Price is SOO pretty for a little boy. Yes, little boy things can be pretty. Ours wasn't nearly as cute, and this wasn't around then:
  
  
• Long sleeve onesies. It's preferred if they ZIP! Do you realize what a pain in the ass it is to button 10-15 buttons up a onesie several times a day? When Carter was first born, he was so teensy and didn't move, and It felt odd to dress him in pants and shirts, etc. Don't waste your money on fancy clothes, jeans, or frilly outfits. Carter basically wore long sleeve feet onesies for the first 3 months. My mom thought it was odd he was always in "jammies," but I didn't really think of them as jammies. I wanted him to be warm, I rarely put something short sleeve on him, and I wanted him to be cozy. So we had a lot of long john type onesie's. You think you're going to want to dress them up all the time, but in the very beginning, you just don't want to disturb the little angel. And your not exactly leaving the house all that much anyway. Comfy and warm is best! Like this (although I don't love the buttons) by Carters:

• Trumpette Socks. So they may be a little expensive for a baby (about $25 for 6 pairs) but they are so gosh darn cute. They have little "cowboy boot" socks, "sandal" socks, even little "loafer" socks. And an added plus is that they stay on REALLY well. My newborn always had to have socks on his feet, always or else they would get super cold so I had a lot of socks. Now, he doesn't wear socks nearly as much. But my favorites are still the Trumpette's. I love these adorable little Trumpette's called "Cheeritoes," and if I had a little girl, I would totally get her the Mary Jane's I've been drooling over.

• Diaper Change Baskets. We had a diaper changing table in the upstairs nursery. Are you really going to walk upstairs every single time you need to change a diaper? No. I think I changed Carter on the changing table twice. Literally. After Carter was born I stayed with my parents for two weeks to get some help and a routine going. My mom had set-up a basket filled with diapers, wipes, cream, powder, and a cute little changing pad. I loved the convenience of this basket and ended up stealing it for my house. We still have that basket as well as another one in our bedroom, and another one at my parents house. You'll want a few of these stations through-out the house. I promise convenience is always going to be the most important decision making factor after having a child; your brain will stop working for a while due to lack of sleep and you will not have ANY energy or free time. ANY. Not exaggerating. ANY. It's flippin hard I tell you. This is the changing pad we used (we have like 4). You can get it off Amazon for $9.99.

And I love these pretty white baskets:

Some Mommy Tips:


If you're expecting and plan on breastfeeding and need a good pump, stick with Medela. I personally didn't like having a dual pump, I always liked having one hand free to do something (browse the internet, use the remote control, magazine, etc). I would rather take the extra 10 minutes and pump one side at a time then sit there pumping both boobies at once. But thats me. I bought an electric one-sided Medela pump and it was just what I needed, and much less expensive. Plus, I almost always was BF, so I didn't need to pump all the time, but I had it if I needed to. And it also can be used cordless with batteries so I ended up bringing it to Disneyland with me once.


If you plan on bottle-feeding (we did both, formula and BF) make sure to buy ALL the same bottles. You'd think if you buy standard bottles and nipples they would all be interchangeable, but sadly no. There is nothing more annoying then trying to find a nipple ring to fit a certain bottle when you have a screaming baby in your arms. Or putting the bottle together, walking all the way upstairs only to find out the nipple didn't fit the bottle and formula goes everywhere while your little one cries. SO please, just pick a brand and stick to it. STICK to it. And remember to switch your nipples to fast flow after 3-5 months. I didn't right away and couldn't figure out why Carter would take forever to drink his 6 ounce bottle. Oops. Also, make sure it doesn't come in too many parts. Your baby will be just fine. You don't need a Dr Browns bottle with 4000 different parts that need to be washed, sterilized and put together 10 times a day. I promise you, you will get soo sick of it. Three parts is enough, bottle, nipple ring and nipple. For my bottle recommendation, I like these by Evenflo. At one point we got rid of a lot of bottles and just bought a ton of these. Carter still uses them. I also can't stand the VentAir bottles that unscrew at the bottom with a little plastic-y thing that has to be inserted. I have a whole bag of these bottoms that we packed away after a few months of using them because we couldn't stand them anymore.




BIBS for newborns. Maybe it was just me, but I had all these cute newborn bibs that we never used. A. Newborns don't eat, so there isn;'t a lot of food going everywhere that needs to be caught by a bib. B. They're not exactly messy eaters when they are nursing. It kinda stays in. C. Newborns don't really spit up. It actually takes a few months before the spitting up to begin. Carter didn't start spitting up (like real projectile spitting up) until about 3-4 months. We thought we were lucky and skipped the whole spitting up stage, but I found out later this is normal.

Toys for newborns. Seriously, whats the point? We bought Carter all kinda of toys, and I think he just started playing with them around his 1st birthday. Prior to this, all he needed was paper, a remote control and a cellphone. That was enough toys for him. In fact, if it was brightly colored and plastic, he showed no interest until recently.

One item I underestimated was mittens for a newborn. I don't think we had any mittens when Carter was born. I guess we never got that memo. I didn't realize how much little newborns scratch their face after being born. It was pretty surprising. Carter lived in mittens for at least the first 8 weeks before he finally stopped scratching himself. My favorite long-sleeved onesie's were the ones that had sleeves that folded over the hands. Those are a must have!!

Oh, and I thought nursing bra's were totally a waste too. I just used a regular bra and pulled the goods out. It works just as good. Those nursing bra's don't give much support.

Ok thats enough Mommy info for now. It's my favorite subject as you can see. It's basically my entire world so I can talk about baby stuff all day long. Ask me anything! I think my next blog will be all about adults and adult things.

I'll close this post with a picture of Carter because I can't resist and I'm his mommy. That's what we do.


Xoxoxo

Getting my Skinny On

I just returned from my Monday night Pilates class. Yay me! I'm pretty proud of myself for making it 3 weeks in a row! My goal is to work out 3-4 days a week and I know that isn't always going to be possible, but the hard part is picking up where you left off when you fall out of your routine. I was THIS close to skipping tonight.

This week is gonna be a crazy one! I am secretly looking forward to this exact moment next week when I can put everything I have to do this week behind me. Sigh. The TLPA 2010 Convention is Thursday and Friday (Work Convention) and we have some business peeps in town to entertain on top of the never ending work mountain that I can't get down. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of fun stuff with some work tied in, there is just a lot going on so I'm hoping to make tomorrow night's Ab's & Assets class because I'll be tied up the rest of the week. And keep my head on straight and my mouth closed (for eating, and I guess talking too because I get into a lot of trouble with that damn thing).

If you know me you know I've struggled with my weight my entire life. I've had my ups and down's and my in betweens. It's been on the forefront of my mind for years and a hard subject for me. In fact, it's hard to even write about. I was in a good groove before I was pregnant with Carter and lost some weight due to a number of factors and then I got pregnant with Carter. I was fairly comfortable with where I was at then, and I almost felt like an average sized person for a while who was just pregnant. And then I had the baby ...


And when you hear that baby weight is the hardest to lose, they aint jokin. It feels like its doubly hard for the weight to come off! I've you've read my blog at all, you know that I WANT to have another baby. So I better get to where I want to be fast.

I know we are going to have two kids close in age, but we are both terrified of having two as Carter is a lil bit of a handful, and if your hands are full, how do you fill it more? That and the financial burden, and we are both full-time working parents, etc. How does anyone handle more than one? BUT I know that we have to have two close in age, and at the end of the day, nothing else matters besides your children and the legacy you leave on this planet so we'll make it work. Somehow. We HAVE to make it work. Money, time, energy - it all works out in the end and it has to. Now I've just got to convince my husband of that.

Our current plan is to start trying in April. AP
RIL. It just seems so far away, and I am so looking forward to being a cute pregnant lady again. However, I think April it will have to be. That gives me 6 months to lose 30 pounds, get caught up financially, and get mentally prepared to do this roller coaster ride again. I think I can, I think I can.


And who can resist a teensy tiny little newborn love bug (like my baby boy as a newborn). Seriously, how lucky did I get? Isn't he like the most perfect thing on the planet?

Us last October. Carter's FIRST Pumpkin Patch Visit.

BUT there is the irrational spontaneous side of me that might just get pregnant before then, because, well, just because. Must hold out. Good things come to those who wait, right??


Well, cheer me on folks. I'm on my way to become a lean mean fighten machine. Watch out world!! I'm off to bed.


Night.


Xoxoxo

Pumpkin Patch Adventures

We just got back from a little Pumpkin Patch romp and we got some great pictures. Yes we went to a Pumpkin Patch last weekend too, well actually last weekend we went to a Pumpkin FESTIVAL and didn't actually buy any pumpkins. So today we went to the pumpkin patch and picked up some pumpkins to carve later.











Happy Saturday Everyone!! I'm taking it easy and focusing on getting the house in order. I'll cook a nice little dinner tonight and maybe we'll watch a movie. Life is GRAND!

Let's Play Some Tag

and I'm IT!

My friend Amy (you can read her blog here: dandelion paperweight) tagged me in a lil game of blogger tag where you answer questions asked by your tagger and then tag others. I don't really have any other blog friends to tag (except for a few blogs I stalk and they don't really know me so I'd be embarrased to tag them), but I'm definitely up for answering some questions! And it's perfect timing as I'm taking my lunch break and I always enjoy talking about myself.

Here they are asked by Amy:

1. If you could live anywhere, where would you live and why?

Wowza. This is tough. I love living here in Sunny Calfornia because I need to live close to my parents, siblings and close friends. I am extremely close with my family and not being able to see them all the time would kill me, BUT ideally, I'd love to live oversea's outside of London somewhere at least once in my life. It's such a different lifestyle over there; they are much more relaxed, open and live a slower paced lifestyle. I want a beautiful cottage style country home with lots of land for my kids to run and around in. It would be AMAZING. But let's start by visiting Europe before I move myself there. Maybe in a house like this:

And by cottage, I guess I meant big fancy mansion in London. Yea, this.

2. If you couldn't have the job you have now, what would you want to do for work?

Depends. Am I being realistic or can I have any job I want? There are so many things I want to do, but if I had to pick one, I'd love to be a screenwriter. I am constantly writing screenplays in my head, but I have the hardest time getting them on paper. I'm still working on making that dream a reality, but another dream of mine is to open my own restaurant and have my own make-up line. Someday my friends. Someday.



3. What is the one blog you look forward to reading each day and why?

This is easy, I love OMG I'm a Mom and Amy's blog dandelion paperweight. Those are the only two I read every post but there are others I read when I have time.



4. What would you call your personal style?

Wow. I don't know what to say. I love fashion and clothes, but I really don't spend a lot of time thinking about it because I can't anymore. I usually choose comfort over style (or a combination of the two really) but if I gave it a title, it would be "Working Momma Simple & Comfy." I'm usually working so I have to wear nice pants, and an appropriate top but I'll pair it with some comfy sandal's and a cozy sweater. And just jeans on the weekend with the same tops and cozy sweaters. And I could live in my ugg boots and or flip flops. I'm not good with heels, I'm too clumsy. I can do boots with a little heel though.



5. Who had the biggest influence on you growing up and why?

These are tough! I don't know. I guess my mom, or actually both my parents. I know a lot of who I am I can pin point to one or both of my parents (both good and bad influences). My friends also had a huge influence on me growing up. When you are at those vulnerable ages, you emulate your friends and want to impress them, or be like them so I owe a lot to them. As an adult, it definitely shows I've become my parents. OMG. Here they are:

And here is a picture of me with my closest group of friends (Amy on left, Laura, Me, Roxanne)

Lunch break is almost over. Did I mention today is FRIDAY!? I can't wait to see my Peanut Head after work and kiss him and squeeze him, and spend the WHOLE weekend with him! We're carving pumpkin's and making pumpkin pie, and cleaning. I love me some FRIDAY.

Have a good weekend all! And by all I mean ALL 3 of you who may or may not read this. :)

xoxo
Me

And the winner is ... YODA

Should I not post pictures of his costume before Halloween?? Is there an etiquette for that? Oh well.

So today we were finally able to go to the Halloween store and check-out costumes for Carter. I had been looking at costumes online for a while, and I saw this Yoda costume and thought Carter would make a cute Yoda. My husband is a huge Star Wars fan so I knew Star Wars was going to play a big role in our son's life.


I wanted Carter to be a Bumble Bee (too girly according to some), or a cute little Tiger (or maybe it was because the baby modeling the tiger costume was freakin adorable) or a little monster, or dinosaur. But I kept coming back to the Yoda costume. It was sentimental in the sense that I knew it would make my husband really happy, and would mean something to him. And then everything else seemed meaningless.


So I held up the tiger costume next to the Yoda costume and asked Carter to choose. He instantly grabbed the Yoda costume and lugged it around the entire Halloween store for people to gush over and tell him what a cute Yoda he would be. Settled. While I was at the Halloween store he seemed especially concerned with the masks. I think he might think they were real heads. He seemed perplexed by them and kind of freaked out.


Today was a better day for me at the office. I'm catching up a bit more and didn't feel like I had the weight of the world on my chest when I left. It was also payday and that always makes me happy. We had a nice little dinner at Chili's just the three of us. They have the best chips and salsa there, sooo yummy! I let Carter chew on some of the tortilla chips, and after carefully watching Mommy dip hers in the salsa, he reached over and plopped one in the salsa and put it in his mouth. The salsa is kinda spicey and I watched him waiting for some sort of reaction. He loved it! He grabbed the next one and carefully dipped it in the salsa, and then the spice finally hit him and he started sticking his tongue out and spitting. I wish I had a video of it. After a sip of his milk, he went back for more and more! Our little one is going to love spicey foods!


It's so much fun watching your child develop their own likes and dislikes. Yes it has a lot to do with what you put in front of them, or what you do yourself, but when they decide they like something on their own, or dislike something that you think they should like - that is when it get's truly amazing.


We did a little trial run with Carter in his costume tonight. We dressed him and gave him his little pumpkin lantern we got at the dollar store and went outside and walked around for a bit. He loved it! He carefully toted his lantern around, stopping to take a break here and there and setting it down always remembering to pick it up before he started walking again. I snapped some pictures with my other baby, the Canon Rebel. See some of my favorites below.


The husband is bugging me to go upstairs to bed now. I think my nightly blogging is annoying him because I always start so late.


G'Night.

TODAY

TODAY I:

Woke Up


Hit Snooze

Woke Up


Hit Snooze


Checked Facebook and Email


Thought about how I want another baby


Thought about how I want to win the lottery

Got ready for work


Checked Facebook and Email


Went to Work


Thought about how I want another baby


Got sucked into my busy work life


Got sucked out of my busy work life when the power suddenly went out


Ate lunch / Power Back on

Got sucked back into my busy work life


Left Work


Thought about how I want another baby


Thought about how I want to win the lottery


Checked Facebook and Email


Made a decision to skip Ab's and Assets class

Watched some of The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown with Carter


Ate dinner


Cleaned and did some laundry (FINALLY)

Thought about how I want another baby and browsed pregnancy websites and blogs


Checked my lottery numbers, didn't win.


Fiddled with my blog and now in bed.


Held Carter while he cried after he tried to take a nose dive off the bed and Andy caught him
right before he hit the ground. Carter was scared.


AND that takes me to now. I'll probably check Facebook and Email once more before going to sleep. Aw, who am I kidding, I'll probably check Facebook at least 3 more times and maybe once randomly in the middle of the night if I get woken up and can't fall back asleep. Damn.


Not sure what the point of this was. So here is a beautiful picture of my baby boy and husband Andy. I love my little family!





And I would like to give a shout out to Amy, my only reader. :) Love you!

Carter's First Birthday

Wow. This is amazing. Two blog posts TWO days in a row. I've set a record. I don't care if this is full of grammatical errors, or my spelling is off. If I spent the time doing everything as perfect as I want it to be, I would never get anything done. So I'm just going to be my unperfect self, and do all the shit I want to do and not worry about what other people think or say about me. What other people think about me is none of my business.

Before I show you all the wonderful pictures of Carter's Birthday, I need to vent a little bit about my stress level right now. I don't know why, but I feel like I'm going to explode at times. My job is the most insanely stressful job ever. I have a ton of pressure on me. I feel like each day I'm drowning in work and by the end of the day I'm barely clinging to the surface, and then it starts over. And then over, and over and over again and I'm worried that one day I'm not going to make it to the surface and I'll drown. I have no idea what I mean by that, but I seriously can't wait for this convention at the end of the month to be done so I can focus on my insured's, writing business and doing what I love; helping my clients. I don't want to get into specifics, but I'm a commercial insurance agent. Don't let my stress post fool you, I adore my job, I just don't adore all the mess that comes with it.

I am also trying to spend more time writing my dream screenplay that I have been writing in my head for years. This is what I want to do. This is what I was meant to do, and I can't do it, if I don't do it. I can't be a writer if I don't write. Right? And plan C is winning the lottery, which I am so don't tell me I'm not going to win, because I am. K? Now ..

Carter's First Birthday Party! We had a Barnyard Themed Backyard BBQ Bash at my parent's house on Sept. 25th. I worked my butt off to make sure my little guy had a birthday to remember, and pretty much broke the bank too. We have no more savings. Nough said.

I made and designed a candy bar complete with pinwheels, cow and pig lollipops and all kinds of goodness. The kids at the party were in awe of the candy and couldn't keep their eyes off of it. Mission accomplished. We also had a petting zoo that my mom sprung for; complete with a pony and weird fuzzy chickens. That was also a huge hit. I made it through the day, but because I was such a mad-woman prepping the event, I didn't really get to spend time on my hair or makeup and ended up hating all the pictures of me so I am coincidentally missing from most of the pictures. Carter also ended up with 3,000 toys so that was also a challenge. We invited everyone we knew and then realized, that the feck are we going to do with all of these toys?

Seriously, raising the first child is like a big science experiment and I'm sure with the 2nd one we will do things almost right the first time, and then the 3rd, well, we'll be pro's by then. Poor Carter. Not really poor Carter because he is a spoiled little munchkin.

Here are some pic's from the event. Well I'm quite proud of myself for posting again, and it feels really good to put this all out there so I'm going to do my best to keep writing to you all, even though I'm pretty sure you all is no one. But, no pressure to myself so I don't psych myself out. K. Nighty Night.

Halloweenie things

Ok, I get it. I'm a horrible blogger. It isn't meant to be. So I'm taking the pressure off myself. I DON'T need to do this all the time; I'm gonna allow myself to blog wheneverthehelliwant. Now I don't have to feel guilty about not doing it, or guilty if it has been months in between.

I've been feeling alone lately. I don't know why. I have a wonderful husband, an amazing little man who turned 1 by the way, and some pretty great family and friends. But I'm feeling a little lonely. I realize most of my friends don't have children and I'm starting to really noticed how

alienated I am. I'm never invited anywhere anymore and I don't know how to feel about it. I know I couldn't or wouldn't go in most cases, but I want to feel wanted and to feel invited places.

I'm 27 and I know I shouldn't take these things personally, but I am and I do. I'm noticing how I've been the "initiator" in most of my friendships with people, and when I stop initiating, those relationship's slowly disintegrate. I don't have the time to make plans with people anymore. I can't go have drinks last minute, or do a weekend girls get-away. I have a

little man who I love more than anything on the face of the planet, and I can't wait for my friends to have children so we can get together and do play-dates, but for now I'm just feeling a bit left out, but I'm making peace with it. It's a part of life. I have a really good group of close girlfriends who will always be in my life no matter what, but its hard being the only one with kids. I just can't do the same things as them anymore and sometimes I feel like I'm missing out. Obviously, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

On another note, I can't stop thinking about how badly I want to have another child. We really want to wait to start trying until next April or May, but I don't know if I can wait. I miss the whole process of having a child. The excitement, the pregnancy, and all the baby-mania that comes along with it. And I miss having a teensy tiny little newborn that I can hold and rock and love. But it's a lot of work, and having two little ones is going to mucho difficult and mucho expensive. I am determined to have 2 close in age, so what is the difference of doing it now versus later?? I've already been obsessing with everything TTC so I don't know how long I'll last. For now, I'm enjoying watching Carter progress everyday.

We took Carter to a Pumpkin Festival yesterday and it was so amazing to see him take it all in. He was sleeping when we arrived and once he awoke, he was so excited and enthralled with all the people, decorations, and music. He kept pointing and saying "Woooowww." I love seeing him so excited and I am looking forward to all the neat things we can do with him. We had a wonderful day together with my mom and took lots of pictures:

It was a perfect fall day, or as fall as you can get in Southern California. Still trying to decide what to dress him as for Halloween. We'll probably go shopping next weekend and pick something out.

Work has been all-consuming for me lately, and

my mind is rarely not on my job and what I have to do there. I'm only one person and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with what I have to do. But I've just got to keep on swimming, keeping on swimming.

Hopefully I'll be able to post about Carter's First Birthday soon and get some pictures up.

Got another busy week beginning tomorrow. G'night all!

Me