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!

28 Years Young

So I have to get a little sappy here and give a shout out to my husband, Proctor.  It is pretty rare in your life when you find someone and you just click almost as if you have known that person all your life.  Six and a half years ago that is just what happened and my life hasn't been the same since.  And I am lucky every single day.

Proctor is one of the most genuine, kind, hard working and most hysterical person I have ever known (he literally can make you pee your pants from laughing so hard!)  So enough of the sappy stuff and happy 28th birthday to my best friend and my professional proofreader.  You will always be my mountain man!  I love you Pookie!

Follow the Leader

To say I have an active child would be an understatement.  He is insanely active!  So active that he fights sleep like its no ones business.  Every time I go to put him down for a nap or bed, I leave his room with scratches up and down my neck, drool and snot all over my shoulder and chest.  It looks like I have been through a cat fight and lost.  It's as if he is afraid he is going to miss something.  Miss what?  All the exciting things like folding the laundry, doing the laundry, cleaning, and housework.  To be honest, I wish I were napping and missing out on all these things.  All in all, napping and getting to sleep has been hell!  But we have been lucky.  It's usually just the getting to sleep part that is hard, but once he is down he is down for the count.

At the beginning, napping was completely out of the picture until he hit three months.  But since then he has been awesome! Napping at least two to two and half hours at a time twice a day! It has been pure bliss.  I can actually get things done, unlike before and I got a little peace and quiet to myself.  Well, like they say all good things must come to an end.  Dammit!

In trying to find our balance that I have talked about, Proctor and I wanted a little more freedom and decided a seven o'clock instead of a six thirty bedtime would be best.  That way we could do early dinners, meet up with people; I mean we are his parents, we make the rules, he is just going to have adapt.  

So for the first few days things seemed okay.  His naps got shorter, but he was still napping over all and it appeared he had adjusted or so we thought.  We suffered through another runny nose, coughing spell, four month check up, postponed his vaccinations until his nose cleared up, his ears and throat looked great, but something was off.  Even though my pediatrician thinks I am crazy, I am convinced that he might be an early teether between the constant biting (biting any and EVERY thing!), the excessive drool and his little bottom gums, which are just slightly swollen but nothing piercing his gums yet.  But I still couldn't figure out why Harvey was melting down?  Screaming for an hour just to take a nap, I mean really?  I kept racking my brain thinking, what's wrong with my baby?  Who has possessed my child?  What am I doing wrong?

Finally, I realized looking at his swollen eyes, he is overly tired.  He is completely healthy, he's not in pain, he is well fed, but my child is spent.  I felt horrible.  Proctor and I had selfishly pushed up his bedtime for us, not him.  Not even thinking thirty minutes would completely ruin his day.  We never thought about how he would react.  I mean he's just four and a half months old, how could this little change really effect him?  He's just not ready and I now know that and feel guilty for pushing.  I mean we are his parents, we know what is best for him.  Of course for the obvious things, but what do we really know?

Sometimes I think it's Harvey who is teaching us more than we are him.  He is teaching us the importance of patience, the meaning of true, unconditional love, the simple joy of a smile and the sound of laughter, but most importantly he is teaching us to slow down, enjoy life, and these special moments.  Because lets face it in thirteen plus years, his only response to us will be "Nothing" or "I don't know". He won't want us around or god forbid be seen with Proctor or I and the only thing we will be good for is money and the car keys.  So until that day comes, I am going to enjoy this because I know once he is older, I am going to miss it.

So one day we will rejoin society, have a later bedtime, join others for drinks and dinner, but until then Harvey, I give in for now and will just follow your lead.

Finding the Balance

So the time has come .... We need a babysitter.  The hubs and I have an event coming up soon and it's time to stop relying on family members to watch Harvey. Before becoming a mother, I never understood what the big deal was.  I mean mom and dad need a break, they need a night away and need some fun, so just call the teenage girl up the street, pay her some money so she can go hang out at the mall with all the other tweens and call it a day! After all, I myself babysat three children at the ripe old age of thirteen, so what is the big deal?

Well now that I'm a mom myself that idea has been shot to hell! Because, I am not leaving my child with someone who can't even drive a car! Becoming a mom has changed my view of the world completely.  I have always been pretty laid back and go with the flow and now that I have Harvey, I am more naratic (I admit it!). I don't know what it is, but you always assume something bad is going to happen if your not there. Weird I know, but its true.  

It's a scary thought leaving your child in the care of someone else.  My luck the ONE time I get a babysitter something will happen. But it's time, just like it was time to move him into his crib at seven weeks old, just like it was time to pack up all his old clothes and move them out of his room, it's just time.  My husband and I need some time to ourselves; in fact we have only had one date night since the birth of Harvey. We need to meet up with friends for dinner and drinks, we want to go to our friends wedding in October, we need to get our fun back! We certainly won't be staying out until 3 am dancing on tables and ordering Chanellos pizza, like the good old days, but we need to work on the balance. The balance of work, parenting, alone time, and family time is all a juggle and we are new to this. So, the search for the "perfect" babysitter began a few days ago.

After making a few calls, we finally have a sitter.  Her name I will not mention, but she is sweet, seems responsible, and loves children. This will most likely be the easiest babysitting job she will ever have. She will arrive after Harvey is already asleep and we will give him another bottle once we return home, so honestly she's getting paid to sit on our couch and watch TV. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!  But I feel sorry for this sweet girl! Because the reality of it is that she has no idea what she is getting into.  God help her.

Sure the night of the event I will have it together .... must remain calm and keep my composure. But the reality is that I will most likely burst into tears the minute we pull out of the driveway, have mascara running down my face; then will nervously start drinking wine once at the party, get accidently tipsy, and then start sending this innocent girl text messages just to "check in". I will probably friend her on Facebook, read her homepage everyday, and then she will read my blog see this entry and then she will NEVER return any of my calls or babysit for me again.  This is when Proctor steps in.

Proctor is such a calming force in my life. He always has a way of putting things into perspective and reassures me that things always have a way of working themselves out. And he's right. How he has handled my new nerotic ways is beyond me, but I am so grateful he can. So here is to promising myself not to harass this poor girl, take a deep breath and breathe, it will all be ok. It is time. I will be ready. I promise.

Look who joined the party!

Well I caved!  I am not sure how or why the worst writer in the WORLD is deciding to write a blog, but what the hell, right?  I have a husband I adore, am a new mom to the sweetest four month old named Harvey, and am the proud owner of a doggie school drop out.  And for the first time in six and a half years I have some down time, so why not use it!

What I will "blog" about who knows, but I have way to many awkward/funny stories not to share.  So cheers to a new place where I can go, recharge, vent, laugh, cry, and relax!

(Sadly, my husband will have to check my punctuation before posting all entries .... that is just pathetic and hopefully my son will never ask me to proofread his school papers.  So we will see how many post will actually get written!)