Happy Half Birthday!

Forgive the "happy face", he had dropped his spoon on the floor and clearly was not happy. But we celebrated anyways. 



I can't believe my baby is six months old. I really am not sure where the time has gone. I wish I could just slow it all down just so I can really relish in all of it.  Don't get me wrong, there are days when I can't WAIT for bedtime, but these days are just flying by. Birthdays in my family were never a huge over the top deal. We received a few small gifts, but the main focus was being together as a family and you always felt special. With Harvey being our 1st child, Proctor and I wanted to make each milestone special. Hence, the "happy face" picture.


Throughout these six months, I have learned a few things:

• Not all grocery store carts are created equal

• Libbie Market and Anthropology sale rooms are not stroller friendly

• My son has a thing for older women (the 75+ age range)

• My child LOVES to be naked. I mean LOVES it. I only hope I can contain this behavior to the inside of our house in the next couple of years and not have a naked child running around the neighborhood.

• Nursing tank tops are amazing!  Even though I only "nursed" / pumped for seven weeks, I still wear them.

• Some people are just not baby people, which is totally fine by me, but I really don't appreciate the ugly looks while out in public.

• Around 5 months of age the car seat becomes the devil.

• Teething is not my favorite stage. Teeth are stupid.

• Harvey's smile and laugh just melt my heart!

• Everyday is a new day, a new trick, and a new milestone.

• Fall is not my favorite season, but thanks to my post baby body, I am loving the big oversized sweaters and black leggings :)

• I really hope Harvey doesn't start talking in a New Jersey or Atlanta accent from all the Bravo shows we watched early on when he was a baby.

• As a family, we are not morning people.  Harvey included.

• Babies finger nails grow at lightening speed. One day you clip them the next there even longer.

• Being a mom of a little boy is all and so much more than its cracked up to be

• My child is addicted to bouncing. ADDICTED.

• Not sure if its a first child thing, a mother and son thing, but we have a very strong and special bond.

• Formula is way to expensive.  Thanks a lot Similac

• Learning to sit up on your own is hard work.

• There is nothing sexier than seeing your husband hold and spend time with your new baby :)

• Maternal instinct and true unconditional love is nothing to mess with

• Finding cute affordable boy clothes is impossible

• Dr. Ferber has not heard my child scream...

• My addiction to Gap Kids grows by the day

• Having a child completely changes your view on everything :)

• No errand is quick with a child in tow

• Saying "I love you" 200 times a day never gets old!

• Lastly, I need to learn not to write blogs 100% about Harvey :)

Bananaphone!

Raising a child can be bananas, especially when your in the middle of nap strike AGAIN. Thanks a lot daylight savings time!  Ok, that was cheesy, but after you listen to as many Raffi songs as I have in a day you can start to go bananas.  My new favorite Raffi song (just in case anyone wants to know and is actually reading this thing) is "Bananaphone". The words are ridiculous and I laugh every time I hear it.

I recently downloaded a boatload of baby Einstein and Raffi music to listen to while Harvey has his playtime.  So maybe he won't be scarred to badly from all the Britney Spears, Usher, and whatever else is played on Q94 (yes, I am 14 again).  But it's no surprise to me that Harvey loves music.  When I was pregnant, he would go crazy when the radio was on or music was playing.  So during our playtime, he goes crazy and knows the music is coming out of my computer and boy does he try to get to it.  We are not crawling yet, but within the last 24 hours he has gone from kinda pulling himself around to full on army crawl. HELP! And once he really starts getting mobile things around here really are going to get bananas!  So happy banana Thursday!

Blogging Face Lift

So, in attempts to give my blog a face lift and learning my way around the "blogger" world, I have been google searching the hell out of custom blogging templates.  And so far ... no luck.  I really didn't think it would be this much of a challenge, but when you are technically challenged to begin with this is bound to be expected.  I mean I just realized there was a photo button to upload photos on to your post!  Duh, that is not brain science!   But I am learning ... slowly, but surely.  And slowly but surely, I will figure this all out.

True Love

"You always went for the tall, dark, handsome types so who'd ever would have thought the love of your life would be short and bald?"  So true!  Thank you Johnson and Johnson bath time commercial.  Happy Thursday:)

Retail Recession

Our economy sucks, no one can deny that, so I like to think I can help our recession by shopping :-)  What girl doesn't like to shop?  I mean come on!  But living off one income and huge home projects coming our way, clothes are the last thing on the priority list.  And considering my husband checks our credit card statement hourly, I can't get away with anything.  Trust me this might be a good thing since I can justify buying anything and I mean anything.

But honestly since Harvey, shopping for clothes has become plain depressing.  Lots of my old clothes are fitting, which is nice, however, NOT the same way they did before baby.  Everyone warned me of this and now I know no one was lying!  So trying on clothes, especially pants, just makes me want to have a Miranda moment in the dressing room, because nothing goes back the same way.  So JCrew, Anthropology, Nordstrom, Saks, Shopbop, GAP, Banana Republic, please for the love of god stop sending me emails on your sales, all you do is make me drool and temp me to shop!  Thanks for thinking of me (and the other million email subscribers on your email list) but maybe things will look up in 2012 after I do a 1000 crunches a day. Okay thanks!

P.S. If Jessica Simpson does not confirm her pregnancy, I may just send a press release out personally confirming it!

Interest? Apparently I have many!

Pinterest where have you been all my life?  OMG this website is better than facebook (sorry Mark Zuckerberg)!  Sure I have interest, but I had no idea I had other interests, until I joined pinterest.  So for those of you who have not joined STOP right here.  Don't!  It is the most addicting website I have ever been on and you will only find more ways to waste your time and surf the Internet.  For reals.

I don't know what took me so long to join, but I am still trying to figure out how this site even works. I have no idea how I am following 100+ people, have no idea even how to follow someone else, but I can't tell you how many hours I have spent searching this incredible site.  Searching anything from recipes to clothes, dream bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, birthday ideas, and Christmas decorations. It's literally like hitting the jackpot!

So thank you pinterest for letting me dream of things I can't afford, to finding ways of spending money we don't have, reconfirming my love for Tory Burch, and dreaming of completely redoing every room in our new house. I just know that my husband will thank you someday!

Cooking for Dummies

I LOVE food!  Really love food.  I have always tried to be a healthy eater, but trust me when I say I will never turn down a piece of pizza, a good cocktail, or my latest crave - a hot dog!  YUMM.  But when it comes to the kitchen, I have NO idea what the hell I am doing.  The kitchen has always been a foreign land to me. I have never ever enjoyed cooking, in fact I have always found cooking to be annoying and whenever I did attempt to "cook" anything, the smoke detector ALWAYS ends up alarming.  Or worse food got left in the oven to long and got burned to a crisp. Just ask Kyle about the night I attempted to make my own sweet potato fries (epic fail!)  Or the night I attempted to marinate my hamburgers only to find out from my dad, the master grill chef, that you never marinade hamburgers.  Way to go Christen.  To say the least, I threw in the towel long ago.

But after ten months (yes, peeps, pregnancy really is 10 months) of eating anything and everything I could literally get my hands on, something needed to change.  I either had to start cooking and make better eating choices or check myself into a Ukrops Bakery Anonymous program to help break my addiction to birthday cake!

So in hopes for a healthier lifestyle and to help shed my baby weight, I joined Weight Watchers online.  In order to really keep track of your WW points, cooking and microwavable meals are really the most accurate way to do it.  So after some hesitation, I gave it a go and started cooking up a storm!  I have to say their recipes are pretty damn good and super easy.  So here is my new fave dinnertime meal.

WW Vinaigrette dressing:  This is literally the most addicting salad dressing EVER.

5 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Hand full of cherry tomatoes halved
Fresh parsley to your liking
1 garlic clove (I add two:)
3/4 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients into a blender until blended and pour! Pour over some mixed greens.  It's to die.

WW Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas:

8 oz Velveeta Light Reduced-fat cheese
1/2 cup of fat free sour cream
1/4 cup of fat-free evaporated milk
Hand full of scallions minced
Red pepper flakes to liking (the more the better!)
3 cups of roasted chicken breast without skin chopped
6 medium whole wheat tortillas
1/4 cup of low-fat shredded cheese sharp OR I use the WW Mexican cheese
6 medium olives pitted and sliced (I hate olives so have never used)
1/4 cup of salsa

Its amazeballs!

This dinner right here is so so yummy :)  Check out their website for this and other great recipes ideas :)
http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/index.aspx

Trust me if I can cook something - ANYone can cook!