Currently

I'm currently loving...

Coconut milk. Man, I'm not a milk person AT ALL. Like, I detest it and this is actually good! Add it to a smoothie and you will be HOOKED!

 Pinterest. Um, yep. Addicted. I.CAN.NOT.STOP! Yes, it's that good. You can follow me here. I seriously have so many projects I want to do, this has added more and given me more motivation to do them!  I must also learn how to use my sewing machine...that might be a good place to start! Really though, it's fantastic. I've made several recipes from there already!

You have to be invited but leave me your email and I can send you one if you would like (not sure how many I have left but I will try!) but know you might never want to leave your computer again! Don't say I didn't warn you!

 This stuff is amazzzzzzing.  Satsuma Body Body from The Body Shop! I've always loved good smelling stuff but since I had awful morning sickness with Brady, smells are very hit or miss with me. I can't even use chapstick if it smells a teensy bit funky. This stuff smells so good I almost want to eat it. I have a thing for the scents with a hint of orange! Seriously, it's starting to become an addiction!

 

Chia seeds! 

I know, they look a little like nothing and to be honest, they don't taste like much but I am obsessed! They are super good for you, full of Omega 3, iron and calcium! I made some chia pudding (milk, agave and chia seeds!) and Brady even liked it! These little seeds can hold more than 12 times it's weight in water too!  

 

A sleeping baby. 

Teeth strike again.  Those damn canines are taking their time coming in since it has felt like sleeps been hit or miss for quite some time (and there have been lots of early mornings!) Well, last week, two of the four finally poked through! Yipee! I can't complain though, the kid goes down to sleep so easy now! Before you wish a night of crappy sleep on me, don't worry, I've earned my dues. I think we are still earning our dues since we had a night last week that reminded me of the old days where he wanted to party all night! 

There is nothing more sweet than a sleeping child though. Especially when it is your own!  

 

( Could summer look any better! :) 

Summer! 

It's here and we are all so excited! After a hard winter, bouts of crazy storms and a lot of rain, we were so ready to get out and enjoy the summer! I'm more excited about this summer than ever! I can't wait to take him swimming again and lots of trips to the park! Popsicles are good too :) 

 (I'm so behind on his 19 month post! I literally have taken almost 500 pictures since I got my camera back last week but sadly, it's not fixed. I'm still having the same damn issue! Boo, hoo!)

Purex giveaway!

Purex is now available with Zout, a stain lifter. Brady is well, he's a toddler and that means lots of messes! He can eat with a fork or spoon but spills half of it on himself (or throws it!) I gave up on bibs because well, the kid rips them off!

I've tried a lot of different stain removers and I am pretty surprised at how well Purex with Zout got rid of them! I switched it up and tried Purex with Zout and didn't tell my husband (we usually use the Naturals line.) He does his own laundry (thankyouverymuch) and Mr. I don't care about laundry detergent, told me that he LOVED the new stuff!

Purex with Zout contains three stain fighting enzymes which is better than, well one! They are kind of fun to say too!

With a toddler around, we need all the help we can get and it also comes in their 'Free and Clear' without any added fragrances which is good for sensitive little bodies!

Who wants to win some?

Just comment and tell me what you're biggest stain problem is. Simple and easy. Enter by Sunday, May 29th!

For us? It's berries. The kid will eat them till the cows come home but they always get on his shirt!

Add this to the list.

Add this to the list of things that I should never be allowed to do again.

I always cut Blake's hair (which is super easy because we just basically just shave it) and so I figured it would be no big deal to cut Brady's.

Insert loud buzzing noise.

WRONG!

For one thing, he's got a ton of hair, especially where it's thick in the middle where the cowlick trifecta lives and grows.  Add in some curls and you might be sitting there wondering why I would even think of cutting it myself. Ha, I am still wondering that myself!

 I started using the scissors but decided I was not getting any where so I used the clippers on the longest setting.  As the hair started falling the floor, I immediately knew I had made a huge mistake.

The funniest part about the whole thing is the kid just sat there still as a statue while I did it. The kid can't sit still for more than five seconds at a time but now i know that he can while his mom butchers his hair!

Just so you know, the pictures don't do the do' justice. I mean my MIL told me today she didn't like it one bit! (thanks, by the way!) It looks a lot longer than it really is!  I just might have to admit that I have had to fix a few stray long hairs that I missed the first time and that immediatly afterwards, I realized I missed a whole giant hunk which left him with a mini-mullet for a little while.

(I even whipped out some hair product to make it look better, which it actually did!)

Ooops.

Lesson learned. Momma is not cut out for cutting hair!

Good thing hair grows back and he's cute regardless!

(ps...as I wrote this post, I got the call my camera is ready! Yipeeeeeee!)

Travelin' with Twizzlers!

 Summer is a time for traveling and exciting vacations and I'm curious who is taking one so I can live vicariously through you! Who want's to travel to the Show me State?

(I think this design for the Arch would be awesome!)

 What was your favorite road trip? My favorite road trip as a family hasn't happened yet and I think the last road trip Blake and I went to was to Tunica (I still wanna go back just to eat at Paula Deen's again!)  I can't wait to take a trip somewhere soon! I can think of a million and one places I want to show Brady! It's funny but the idea of traveling with a child used to freak me out but the thought of showing him new places is so exciting!

Here are a few good travel tips:

• Create a boredom bag. Convert a hanging travel cosmetic case into a case full of fun and hang it from the seat back in front of the kids’ seats.
• Take your trip “online.” From GPS systems to phone applications, trips are no longer a navigation nightmare.
• Think through the snacks you pack. Avoid packing snacks that are easy to spill like juice boxes or snacks that melt. Try plastic bottles with sports tops and bring along Twizzlers Candy or Twizzlers Nibs Candy – they are easy to share and don’t melt, making them the perfect car ride treat.

  I haven't traveled much in the U.S (I know, how sad!) and want to take a trip to the Grand Canyon which I have only seen through a tiny window on the airplane on our way to Vegas a few years ago.  I also want to see the Statue of Liberty too !

(Is it odd I just want to nibble on her headpiece?)

What's your favorite snack for traveling?

Mine has always been Twizzlers. It's still my favorite candy and I could eat licorice till the cows come home! I remember eating it as a kid at the pool and I wish I had some right now.

 

Disclosure: I am entering a contest for a Twizzlers Landmark Summer promotion prize pack as a member of the Mom Bloggers Club

Passing it on

When I was pregnant with Brady, I read blogs and found a lot of good tips and ideas so I'm going to share mine with you!

• Jammies. If you are like me and hate mis-matched jammies, you'll like this. When I fold his laundry, I fold the pants up and then wrap them inside the shirt so that we always have matching jammies. It is so much easier at the end of the day, when some certain little man is getting cranky to just pull out a pair and not have to search for a missing piece!

See how happy he is (it could also be that he is wearing jammies with a ball on it!)

• Speaking of  baby clothes, I always keep a storage tote or giant diaper box inside his closet to throw clothes that no longer fit. It's so much easier than a few times a year purging through his closet. When it's full, I mark on the side what size and season it is! I do the same thing with toys that he has outgrown!

• Speaking of toys, I save EVERY box that bigger toys come in. So, than when he does outgrow that toy, I can shove it back in the box and not have to search for all the pieces. 

•  I could never find a syringe when I needed to give Brady medicine. I now store them in a bar food jar in the cabinet. Every night, he takes Zyrtec, I wash it and throw it back! 
•  Crayons are my nemesis. The kid loves them but i get tired of picking them up or shoving them back into that dumb cardboard container that lasts 2 seconds with a toddler. So, I use an old wipes box. They work perfect for little hands and he LOVES putting them away. It's a fun game! I keep all of his 'art' supplies (coloring books construction paper, etc) in a bin and it's a nice way to keep it together!

(sorry for the ugly table in the back ground. Our table started doing that right after we bought it but the place we bought it from refuses to refund us or honor the warranty we bought. It was 'our fault' for using it, I guess. What a great 'Value' it was. ;)

•  I keep a schedule of his day (more so when he was younger) in our cabinet for sitters and family with our emergency, work and medical info.
•  I keep a storage container of kid approved snacks in our pantry. It makes for easy access for when were are running out the door or for sitters to know what he can have! (Our sitter comes here 3 days a week so it's easy for her)

•  Frozen veggies. I keep bags and bags of frozen veggies in my freezer. I'm lucky that my kid loves his veggies and eats them at lunch and dinner but I don't always have time to come home from work and make them fresh which is why they come in handy...and for boo boos too! 
•  Brady loves yogurt tubes (yet, he refuses to eat yogurt any other way, silly kid!)  but he's not quite able to use them with making a humungo mess. I freeze them, cut em in half and he has a nice healthy 'dessert!'
• .Diaper changes. As he gets older, they get harder and harder. A friend told me she had would give her son's stickers when it was diaper changing time. By the time, they would take it off and on a few times, it would be done! I also keep a few other tools up my sleeve--empty lip balm jar I cleaned out. He likes to open and close the lid and it keeps him nice and occupied while I do what I need to! 
• Boo-Boo kit for the car (which I should have had LONG time ago!) I'm working on this now so I don't have a finished product to show but in my car I already have extra diapers, change of clothes and wipes in the trunk in case of emergencies (so I don't have to carry my child into Bed, Bath and Beyond in just a diaper again!) I also want to add more of a boo-boo kit too that goes beyond the first aid kit because when you're running errands with a kid, crap happens. Literally. Extra sippy cup, stain remover, boo-boo pack, neosporin, etc. Also, a few markers (crayons melt) and paper, a sucker for a real emergency, and a few toys.

• Don't be afraid to buy 2nd hand. I have found so many toys, clothes and baby/kids stuff, that still had tags on it or were almost new. Ask around for Consignment sales in your area! There are a few I go to each year and it really saves me a lot! I buy a lot of his play clothes because he's just going to get dirty so why spend a lot?
• I've also been really good about buying for the next season and getting clothes super cheap that way. For fall, I have him almost stocked up. I actually tallied up the cost I spent and what I would have spent and the savings was amazing! I spent less than $60 over course of a few months for clothes that would have cost me over $500. 
• Pictures. I take gazillions and I'm very particular how they are saved because I don't always know WHEN they were taken just by looking. I have each file named by his age at the time. Birth, 1 month, two months and so on. I even put a few extra files for Christmas and special occasions (first haircut) along with the month and year so in five years from know, I'll always know how old he was then. 
• Building on that, after a friend lost everything in a tornado in December, I thought about what I could do to make sure my most loved memories were protected. So, of course we have an external hard drive (if you don't have one, get one now) but that wasn't enough. If my house was destroyed or burnt to the ground, it would all be gone. I save all my files online. I have a few places I do this too and I can post later if you want!
  
  BUT...a parent I work with had the most fabulous idea! She burns them all on a disk and places them in a safe deposit box! Genius! 

                                                               

                                                            (found on pinterest linking here.)

   Lastly, a little reminder. Be truly be grateful for each day. Brady is at the age where he is a lot work. He's into everything and he's testing the waters. He's full of energy and wearing his parents out but at the end of the day, I have to remind myself even when I have lost all patience and I'm so tired I just want to not have to make dinner or read that book-(one.more.time!) that I can't redo this day or this moment. He's only this little for this moment and I am making this moment count. 

Things I learned recently

1. That my son thinks that all bugs are 'a beeeeeeeee!' He tells me about them everyday. He even 'chats' on the phone about them.
2. Those 'bee's' or as I call them, Ants, have invaded our home and momma will attack!!
3. That smashed cheerios can hide just about anywhere. (hmmm, no wonder we have ants!)
4. Brady scrunches his nose when he laughs. Just like his momma.
5. Letting a toddler run around in just his jammy top is OK.
6. Picking said toddler up after he has filled the diaper is not OK. Unless you like to go to work covered in the aroma of 'au la poo'
7. Blue crayons are still blue on the way out.
8. The excitement and look in your child's eyes when he feels a sense of accomplishment never gets old.
9. Actually, a clap and shouting, "yay!' should follow any completed task. No matter how small.
10. A small task to us means the world to a child.
11. Toys have minds of their own.
12. For real. They might start randomly playing in the middle of the night and you might freak out that either your child climbed out of his bed or some crazy lunatic has broken into your home and decided to play with all your child's toys.
13. For some reason, at 3:30 am, the latter sounds less crazy.
14. That a night at Grandma's and a date night out, does a world of good for everyone!
15. That as Brady grows, I find that there are more things I love about him and that age. I get sad to see him grow up but each stage just gets better!

Hello? Hi!

I went over an entire week with no blogging? Woah...

Here is why.

1. I'm tired.

2. I'm tired.

3. I have a toddler.

4. I'm tired.

The last few weeks off and on have been kinda odd and Brady's been waking up and the last week, he's been fighting bedtime. He starts crying hysterically and I can only blame one thing.

Teeth.

I am also without a camera and that means....no pictures. It was a gift from Blake years ago and we still have a warranty on it from Best Buy. They told me two weeks.

That was almost 3 weeks ago. Grrrrrr.

I'm in withdrawal and I feel like my child has aged 10 years since I've been without it.

So, I'll leave you with a video of my child who desperately needs a haircut and is obsessed with bees (which I've learned is any kind of bug) and saying oooowwwwwllllllll! (that is OWL for those you don't speak toddler!)

What it means to me

 Last week, I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Callie was recovering from a terrible car accident and  her baby had to be delivered a bit too soon. She was about to take her baby home after months of her being in the NICU. She freaked out and didn't want to because that mean she had to put her in a car.

It was then that Bailey said, "You don't feel this way because you were in an accident, you feel this way because you are a parent. It will pass, mostly. Some of it never will."

I remember that feeling after our first ultrasound. I remember feeling that way as we pulled out of the parking lot of the hospital. I felt tears coming down my face as we drove home. I was relieved. I was excited but I was also scared. I was nervous. My child had just had been monitored 24/7 for almost the entire week of his life and they were letting ME take him home?

 It was rainy that day and I told Blake to be really careful as we drove for the first time with our new bundle of joy who slept safetly in his car seat.

  

Then, we brought him home and I think we both looked at each other like, 'Ok, now what?' 

We settled in and I watched him while he slept. I checked on him to make sure his little chest rose with each breath. We moved him to his crib when he was about four months old and I lost track of how many times I would check up on him. When I went back to work, I checked in with whoever was watching him that day. I hold his hand as he walks down the stairs and I kiss him when he gets a boo-boo. 

Dr. Bailey was right, while some of it did pass, most of it has not.

Eighteen months later, I still peek on him before I go to sleep. I worry about him just as much as I did that rainy day in October. The only difference between that gloomy day is that my love for him has grown with each day that has passed.

As the episode wrapped up, Meredith finished the episode by narrating, 'You might have to adjust to a whole new way of living. Things may of changed too radically to ever go back to what they were. You might not even recognize yourself. You're a whole new person with a whole new life.'

It was then I found myself in Brady's room. I sat there and just watched his chest rise and fall with each breath he took. I looked at how he filled up a bed he once looked so tiny in.

I then flashed back to a time when I went to bed when I wanted to, not when I could barely stay awake or knowing I'd be woken up earlier than I would like by the sounds of a jumping toddler. I used to wake up when I wanted on the weekends. With motherhood, that changed.

Motherhood might mean a little less sleep. It might bring along a sense of worry.

Motherhood is about rushing around the house getting ready for work with a baby on your hip. Rushing out the door only to realize you have poop on your shirt.

It might give you a new sense of confidence you didn't think you had.

Motherhood might make you better at your job because you work with parents and children and now know what it feels like to want the best for you child.

Motherhood is about extra cuddles when they are sick.

It is about hearing them say, "momma' for the first time or watching them take their first steps.

It's about tantrums, rule and praise.

It is about celebrating each day and capturing each milestone.

It is about joy, laughter and love that is so innocently pure. A love that is not bound by conditions or time. Love that is unconditionally conditional.

 As my second Mother's Day as a mom nears, I have only experienced a tiny bit of motherhood but it has changed me. You can't experience all that parenthood entails and not feel it. I have known love before Brady but the love you have for your own child is a feeling of its own. Before Brady, my worries were silly and now they are tied to that new love that we are blessed to know.

I guess Meredith was right. I am still me but I think I of myself as a 'whole new person...with a whole new life' and I would not trade any of the sleepless nights, poopy diapers or tantrums for the life I used to have!

What does Motherhood mean to you?