Jamma Jamma Jamma, PJ!

It's Pajama Time!

Today is the kind of day that calls for PJs. It's ridiculously cold and blustery outside. G-Man didn't sleep well last night which in turn means Mama didn't sleep well either. Add that to the fact that my pants are a little snug and my face is all broken out like a teenager (WTF?) and I'm definitely not in a fashonista mood today. When I rolled out of bed this morning to collect G from his crib, only to find that his supersize overnight diaper had leaked all over, I was done before the day even started. Thus, I declared an official pajama day, and no, I will not be sharing pictures of our outfits. :P

Instead I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite outfits this summer and a clip of one of my favorite movies (which we are watching while all snuggled up on the couch).

On me - Top: Forever 21, Pleated Shorts: Target, Sandals: Ross, Sunglasses: Marshalls. On G - He's a Target baby all the way!


Maxi Dress: Target, G's outfit: Target

And now I leave you with possibly one of the best scenes ever! Gotta love Rupert Everett...

The Breakfast Club

Today's look is somewhat reminiscent of The Breakfast Club. Specifically... Judd Nelson:



Comfortable, casual, and slightly rocker/badass - all things every Mama should be. ;)

Boots: Steve Madden (Macy's Sale), Purple Socks: Target




Jacket w/Zipper Details: Costco, Dress as Shirt: Kohl's, Skinny Cargo Pants: Forever 21




Hat & Bracelet: Target


Belt: Target


In my neck of the woods layers are essential as is the ability to vary an outfit with a couple of quick changes.

Ditching the jacket for the warmer part of the day.


Here I switched out the shoes for a slightly more demure look. Added a silver headband and threw my hair up into what Husband lovingly calls "the hairball."



And the little baby rocker:



Will Sweep For Food!

Here We Go Again...

Just a reminder, this blog started off when I was pregnant and on bed rest. I started this blog to talk about everything I was going through, the good, the bad and the ugly. As a mom I'm still encountering the good, bad and ugly on a daily basis. So... just to make sure you all have fair waring, I will still be discussing the following from time to time:

*cervix
*uterus
*pee
*poop
*vomit
*diarrhea
*blood

...and probably a lot of other things that haven't even occurred to me yet. If you have an aversion to those things then turn back now.

Sometimes I'll be posting about what I'm wearing, or the cute thing that G-Man did, but other days I'm going to be writing about diaper blowouts and irritated uteruses (uteri?). Today is going to be one of those days.

It's the most wonderful time of the year. That oh so wonderful time when you get to don a paper gown in a cold office, stick your feet into stirrups (not the kind for riding horses) and make awkward conversation while a doctor pokes around in between your legs. Wait... that's not the most wonderful time of the year?? Hmm, yeah, I guess not.

I used to dread these appointments, so much so that I think I avoided actually going to one until I was twenty-two. Bad I know. But, ever since having a baby my sense of humility seems to have gone down considerably. Falling out of my paper gown? Who cares! Chatting while I'm being probed? Not a problem. Doing those things with my one-year-old squirming in his stroller? Not really my idea of fun.

This morning G-Man and I woke up a little late. Knowing that I had about 30 minutes in which to get myself ready, the baby ready and out the door, I jumped out of bed in a panic. I grabbed little G and plopped him onto the changing table and a tantrum immediately ensued. Lately he's had issues with me changing him. Husband can change him 'til the cows come home, but if I do it we have a total meltdown. It's a fight every.single.time. So, as G flopped and flailed all over the table, I did my best to prevent poop from flying across the room, wiped him up, strapped on a new diaper and got him dressed. Next I ran out to the living room and gave him some toys to keep him preoccupied and then ran back to the bedroom to get myself ready. When I returned to the living room I found the sweet little monster sitting in the middle of the floor, gleefully pulling tissues of of their box one at a time and then tossing them aside before grabbing the next. Gah!

After cleaning up the tissues I grabbed my coffee and some food for G and found a way to simultaneously guzzle and shove food into him at the same time. Once we were done with that I made sure the diaper bag was packed. Food for G, snacks, water, diapers, wipes, change of clothes, yep it was all there. We were finally ready. All I had to do was slip my shoes on and we were ready to go. Then, just as I reached for my keys the phone rang. After all of that my appointment had to be pushed back because Dr. M had a surgery go late at the hospital. They said they would call me back later to tell me when to come in. My friend was scheduled to watch G during my appointment but not wanting to leave her hanging I decided to just bring G whenever they wanted me to come in.

Fast forward to my appointment. ***Here comes the unpleasant stuff - yes, more unpleasant than a flying poop visual*** I brought G-Man into the exam room with me. I strapped him into his little umbrella stroller so he would be contained during the exam and then gave him a bunch of snacks. Food always makes him happy. Then, just before Dr. M came in I noticed a smell, a distinct smell... sure enough, poopy diaper number two. There I sat, in a revealing paper gown, with quite the dilemma, crouch down on the floor and attempt to change G (on the yucky floor) before Dr. M came in, or leave him as he was and hope he didn't get too stinky (or rashy). Ultimately I chose the latter scenario. So, in addition to lying there, paper gown failing to cover me while Dr. M chatted and probed away, I got to have the smell of a poopy diaper occasionally waft over me. Dr. M either didn't notice or was too polite to say anything. Probably just too polite.

I'll spare you the details of the actual exam and try to focus more on what we discussed. Unfortunately over the last few months my symptoms from Endometriosis have returned with a vengeance. I was pretty lucky in that my period didn't return until G-Man was 11 months old, but when it did I'm pretty sure my body decided to make up for it by bleeding for six weeks straight. Yes, you read that right, six weeks. Dr. M said that my ultrasound was mostly normal except that my uterine lining was pretty thin. She agreed that not taking the progesterone only pill anymore was probably for the best. Then she started discussing my pain. Her best guess is that I have some scar tissue building back up and that I have increased pain from my tilted uterus. This is where it gets really good. Her suggestion? Have all the babies we are planning on having and the go ahead with a laparoscopic uterine suspension. A what??

Essentially this is what a "normal" uterus looks like vs. what my tilted uterus looks like:



For more information check out this site.

"What is the treatment for a tipped uterus?

If you have a tipped uterus and are experiencing symptoms, your physician may recommend surgery to reposition the uterus. A uterine suspension can typically reduce the pain experienced during intercourse and/or menstruation. This surgical procedure is used to reposition a tipped uterus from its backward facing position to a forward facing position. The UPLIFT procedure is a newer and improved method of performing a uterine suspension. It has been proven to have fewer postoperative complications than other uterine suspension procedures. Uterine repositioning provides lasting pain relief in most cases of painful sex and in some cases of painful menstruation."

The alternative is a hysterectomy. Or I could just live with the pain. I guess we shall see.

12, 13, 14 (almost)

Where has the time gone? Have I mentioned that my baby is not really a baby anymore? At almost 14 months old he doing decidedly kid-like things. Sometimes it is so wonderful to watch him grow and learn and other times I just want to cry out, "No!! Stop growing!! Stay just as you are!!!!" Thankfully for everyone involved (even me) he continues to grow and learn each day. In fact, right now he's walking (yes walking!) around our living room babbling and laughing like a mad man, stopping only to pick up the occasional toy, inspect it and then toss it aside. When he catches me watching he tilts his head to the side and gives a big ol' smile. Quite the little man.

So what have we been up to the last couple of months? Growing, growing, growing!

Stats: Weight - 19lbs 12oz at 12 months and approximately 21lbs now. Height 29.5in (at 12 months). He just started fitting into his size 12 months clothes although in things like one-piece pajama sets he's starting to need the 18 months size because he's so long. I think he technically could still fit into the 9 months size pants around the waist (he's a skinny mini!) but he way too long for them so instead he'll have to deal with saggy pants. He was fitting nicely into size 3 shoes and then I noticed they were getting a little tight so I took him to get measured for new shoes. He's now a whopping 4.5/5 wide (you can thank Daddy-o for those wide feet little G-Man).

Walking: Little man is now walking like a pro. He keeps me busy chasing after him. I will say that certain things still trip him up (literally), like uneven/bumpy surfaces, needing to step up or down, or inclines. Yesterday we were leaving the house and he tripped over the threshold smacking his head into the doorway. There were tears. Lots and lots of tears. Also, when he tries to combine walking with any other task, like drinking water it's pretty much a recipe for disaster. He now has a lovely cut on his chin and lip from a run in with a sippy cup. Lesson learned, don't drink and walk.

Language: We're pretty sure G is fluent in some sort of alien language. It sounds a lot like "dooka dooka, DO da, gwee bah JOO mah!! It has a similar cadence and inflection to the English language but is quite clearly foreign. He points at stuff and gestures while he talking too. Pretty interesting stuff. Then there are the real words: go, bye-bye, hi, mama, dada, up, down, cold, water (wawa), banana (nana), that (dat), doggy (dahdah), belly button (bay buh un), I did it, I got it, all done, all gone. I know there are other words he says but for the life of me I can't think of them now. He can also do the sign for "more." I'm not big on the whole baby sign language trend, but he was getting frustrated (and so was I) during meal time so I showed it to him a couple of times and he picked it up pretty quickly.

In terms of comprehension, I'm pretty sure he understand a large percentage of what I say. He can follow pretty simple directions, i.e. come here, go get the ball, etc. When we ask him where his head is he smacks his head with his hands, he can also locate my belly button when asked. We're working on pointing to his nose, but he frequently ends up poking himself in the eye with one.

Other cute things: G loves to point at things. He loves to visit with our neighbor who takes him around the back yard for little nature walks. He points at everything and babbles away while he does it. He also recently learned how to clap (right around 12 months I think) and now he does it for everything. Sometimes I'll be watching TV and if people start clapping on there he'll stop what he's doing, luck up at me and clap very enthusiastically. He waves bye-bye (and sometimes for hello) pretty well, but it's usually after the person has already gone.

Every night Husband and I read G man stories and then Husband says goodnight, gives him hugs and kisses then and blows G kisses from the door. For the past few months I've been helping G blow kisses back. Yesterday, for the first time ever he blew me a kiss on his own. I actually think he's been trying to do it for a while but was confusing it with the fun game of patting his hand over his mouth to make the "wah wah wah" sound.

I have had terrible allergies since I got pregnant with G and for some reason they have never gone away. Because of this, when G was still pretty small I got into the habit of making a big production out of my sneezes. Right after I sneezed I would say "Achoo!!" and be super silly about it. If I didn't do it that way he would get scared. Now it's just habit for me to say "Achoo" after I sneeze and it still makes him laugh. This morning I walked into the living room where G was playing and I sneezed twice. He turned to look at me and before I could say anything he smiled really big and said "Achoo Achoo!" Smarty pants.

G loves TV. I'm a little ashamed to admit this one. I know the AAP actually recommends that children don't watch until at least two years old, but really I think I would have lost my marbles early on without a little background noise here and there. Luckily He mostly only watches when there is music playing. He loves the intro to The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That, Super Why, and Backyardigans. He squeals with delight, runs up to the TV and dances around (which is more like a funny little booty shake). Then when the music is over he goes back to playing. Oh and he loves the theme song to General Hospital.

A few pictures of my guy:

The birthday boy





My handsome little man

Monday Mommy Fashion

Well hello there blog world! It's been way too long since my last post. A lot has happened (hello my baby is almost 14 months!!) and I'd like to try to get back in to posting regularly. I've been toying with the idea of doing a weekly weight loss post, maybe including some pictures of the process but I don't quite know if I'm brave enough for that yet. So, instead I came up with the brilliant yet not very original idea of doing a weekly fashion post. We'll see how long that lasts. ;)

I confess: I have a momiform. That is a uniform that fits my mommy lifestyle pretty comfortably. Is it attractive? Probably not. Is it comfortable. Yes! Right after the little man was born I found myself living in "easy access" tank tops and sweats most of the time. Then if I had to go out I traded in the sweats for jeans. Cute, right? No, not so much, but it worked. Then I started following a blog called Ain't No Mom Jeans which inspired me to start putting a little more effort into my overall look. Slowly I've built up a wardrobe of affordable clothes that I feel are both comfortable and flattering. So... now my plan is to post a weekly look with all the details. I will say that I am not a model nor a professional photographer. Just your average Mama who likes clothes. You may not like my style and that's A-OK with me!

So, without further ado... What I'm wearing today:


Top & Tank: Target, Ankle length jeggings: Kohl's, Flip Flops: random shoe store in Miami circa 2007


Belt: Target


Makeup: My routine tends to be short and sweet, not much time for all the frills with a little one pulling on my legs, but what I use - Foundation: Clinque, Powder: Bluff Dust by Benefit, Under Eye Concealer: Simply Ageless by Covergirl & Olay, Bronzer: Benefit, Blush: Bourjois, Mascara: Whatever is on sale at Target :)

And finally, what the little man is wearing:


Overalls: Thrifted Levi's, Sesame St. T-Shirt: Target, Shoes: Stride Rite

On the move:

Define "Broken"

Because there was absolutely no way I could fully express my frustration in a short Facebook status update, I turn back to my old friend Blogger. The title of this particular post? Something my landlord just said to me over the phone with regards to our dishwasher. Before I get ahead of myself let's recap for those that have not seen my posts through Facebook.

About two weeks ago... no wait. I have to start even earlier than that. Over a year ago, when we first moved in our landlords kept going on and on about how they had just put a new dishwasher in and wasn't that just great? They seemed overly proud of it in fact. Don't get me wrong. I was very happy to move into a place with a dishwasher, I think it's a dandy appliance, it was just odd how they kept on mentioning it to us. That and the brand new front door they put in. They're proud of weird things. Anyhoodle, we moved in and the dishwasher was great, it did in fact cleaned our dishes. Then, about a month or so ago our dishes stopped getting clean. It was subtle at first, our glasses came out with a kind of film on them so I bought that Jet Dry stuff. No help. Then I noticed our silverware wasn't getting clean. Then from there nothing was getting clean. I kid you not, I can put a mug that was used for coffee (something that I can rinse under the faucet and have it look relatively clean) in there and it will come out with the coffee still in it. And yet I didn't call the landlords about it. For several reasons really; life is stressful, they kind of intimidate me, I hate confrontation, and I worried they wouldn't believe me since it is a "new" dishwasher.

So, about two weeks ago I was running a load of dishes, fully aware that about 75% of them would be coming out dirty, when I smelled smoke. I came out of the baby's room and saw a stream of smoke coming out of our dishwasher. I quickly opened the washer up and as smoke billowed out I made sure there were no actual flames that needed to be put out. As smoke filled the air, I quickly ran to our sliding glass door to air our place out before our alarms could go off. Back to the washer I went. The smoke was dissipating and I could see we were in no imminent danger so I calmly sent Husband a message on messenger telling him what happened. "Call the landlords." Ummm, hint, hint, honey-pie, I want you to do call them, not me! No dice though. I was forced to make the call as Husband was actually at work and had work calls to make. Bummer.

So, I called them and explained the situation and they said they would send Dan the Handyman by to take a look. Dan the Handyman is just a general handyman kind of guy. So far he's repaired the faucets in our bathroom, replaced out water heater after that caught on fire (yep, that's now two fires we didn't cause in our place) and done a few other small tasks here and there. So he came over the next day and the first thing he asks after hearing my tale? "Are you sure it was smoke? You know these things can let off a lot of steam." Um, thanks Dan the Handyman for implying that I'm such a moron that I can't tell the difference between smoke and steam. I informed him that unless steam smells like burning food and can set off smoke detectors I was pretty sure it was in fact smoke. So he continued his inspection and left telling me he couldn't find anything wrong with it.

The next day I got a call from the husband part of our landlord duo and he informed me that they couldn't find anything wrong and he had bought some stuff for us to treat our water (we have hard water) and he would bring it by when he got around to it. No mention of the fact that it had smoke coming out of it. It must be the hard water. End of conversation. Several more days went by and I finally asked Husband to contact them. Sometimes, as unfair as it is, people take men more seriously. Especially people like my landlords. I'm pretty sure no one would have asked Husband if he had mistaken steam for smoke! Anyway, so Husband called and a few minutes later I received a call from the wife part of our landlord duo. She told me repeatedly that I probably just needed to soak my dishes, and get special soap, and pre-wash them. I informed her that I do in fact soak/rinse my dishes, that my habits with regards to doing the dishes has not changed since we moved in. The washer used to get our dishes clean and now it doesn't. That, to me, does not equal a functioning dishwasher. Finally she agreed to send out an actual appliance repair guy.

Sooo, last Tuesday Appliance Mike came to take a look. At first he tried to sell me on the idea that we needed to use better soap, but after I showed him some dishes that had been run through our washer and were clearly still dirty he decided to actually try to run the machine himself. After running it and opening it mid-cycle several times he said "well, there's your problem... it isn't spraying water." He informed me it needed a new motor. He would be in contact with my landlords and then get back to me. That was Tuesday. Today, Friday, I had still not heard from anyone, neither Appliance Mike, nor the Landlord Duo, so I mustered all my courage (God how I hate confrontation) and called the husband landlord. After explaining that we had had a repair man out who had informed me that our washer was in fact broken, he said, "You had a repair man out??" I said, "Well, no, we didn't, your wife sent one here." "Oh well she didn't tell me, what did he say?" I informed him that the repair man said the washer was broken so I was just wondering when it was going to be fixed. His response? "Well, define "broken." WTF? It's broken! As in does not work. Ceases to function! It is built to clean dishes and it does not do its job. What I actually said was that the repair man told me it does not spray water and needs a new motor. Long story short(er) he tried to tell the other repair guy said it was fine so it must be fine. I felt the heat rise to my cheeks as I said "Look, it had smoke coming out of it and on top of that it does not get our dishes clean. At this point I am having to hand wash all of our dishes and that just isn't acceptable to me." He couldn't have hung up the phone faster. He told me he would call his wife and hung up.

Several minutes later my phone rang and the wife was on the other end. She let me know that she would be coming by to take a look for herself (as if she could see something Appliance Mike couldnt??). I quickly ran around try to make our place look like a bomb didn't just go off and she showed up at the door about twenty minutes later. She looked around my kitchen (dishes soaking in the sink) and said "well you really can't run dirty dishes like that through the washer, they won't get clean. I have to practically pre-wash my dishes first. I said "right, I'm soaking those so I can wash them by hand later. I'm not going to put them in the washer there's no point since it doesn't work." I showed her a pot that had been run through and how it was still dirty. She didn't believe me. She told me that if dishwasher runs then it has to work. It either works or it doesn't. (Um, ok...) Then she asked if it fills with water properly. I said yes. Then she asked if it drained properly. I said yes. Triumphantly she exclaimed, "Then it works!" As calmly as possible I said, "No. It does NOT work. Yes it may run through the cycle (rinse, wash, rinse, drain - or whatever), but it does NOT spray water. The repair man told me it does not spray water so our dishes will NOT EVER get clean. It NEEDS A NEW MOTOR!" She gave one last ditch effort at telling me I need to pre-wash my dishes, all dishwashers are that way, blah blah blah. I told her for the fifty billionth time that it used to get our dishes clean and now it does not. I have not changed my habits the dishwasher has therefore the problem lies with the machine not me. Then I told her what I've been wanting to say all along, which is that we would not have rented a place without a functioning dishwasher and we need this to be fixed. All dejected she said "Well, I'll have to think about it." and left.

So, that's it. She's going to "think about it" while I stand around hand washing our piles and piles of dirty dishes. Husband says if they don't do anything about it we will just get it repaired on our own and deduct. I'm still hoping that they step up and do their job so we don't have to do that, but I'm not holding my breath.

P.S. I'm betting there are a million typos but I don't have time to edit right now. I have to wash some dishes so I can make dinner. Then I have to wash the dishes again.

11 Months (and a few days)

How is it possible that I haven't posted in almost two months? I'm thinking blog maintenance isn't my forte. Oh well. Time for a quick update. Little G-Man is not as little as he once was. We are now weeks away from the big O-N-E!!! Crazy, right?

A few stats on the little man:

Weight - about 18lbs almost 19 I think. Hard to say when don't have a special baby scale. Instead I weigh myself (ugh) then I weigh myself again while holding him.

Length/Height - About 30 inches. Pretty hard to be accurate when you have a little wiggle worm flailing all over the changing table.

Grant's latest and greatest adventures:

A Mover & A Shaker! - While Grant still loves crawling like a maniac he is also seriously considering walking. A few weeks ago he tried taking a step and had a few wipeouts. Ever since then he's been pretty hesitant. He pulls himself up, get into position and then stands there carefully considering whether or not he should attempt it. Usually he sits back down and crawls to his destination.

Talking - He talks up a storm. He says, Mama, Dada, Go, Hi, I did it, I got it, and All done. I also think he may have said Bye and possibly Thank you. It's kind of hard to tell though since he mixes the real stuff in with a lot of nonsense.

Teeth - He has four teeth that are completely in and three more that are working their way through. This means the teething monster has hit us hard. We are dealing. We are all dealing. Also, this coming Wednesday will mark G's first visit to the dentist. What they plan on doing with my 11 month old and his almost seven teeth I have no idea, but they say you should bring your little one to the dentist either by the first tooth or by the first year. Many general practice dentists say you can wait until age two or three but most pediatric dentists say that by that age most kids will have cavities.

Sleep - Honestly? We're in sleep heaven. Writing that means I'll probably jinx myself, but for the last couple of months G has slept between 10-13 hours every night. He very rarely wakes up and usually if he does he goes back down on his own. With the teething G has started waking a little early, around 6:00 or so so I usually nurse him in our bed for a little while and then if he still seems tired I'll put him back in his crib and he'll sleep until 8:00 or 9:00. As for naps, he was taking three regular naps a day but I think as of this week he is transitioning to two slightly longer naps, which is fine with me.

I am now in the process of planning the little one's first birthday party. Probably just a small family thing but it should be fun none-the-less. I'm pretty sure we're keeping with the whole owl theme (owl pinata anyone?) and have yet to figure out how to feed everyone. Any ideas on food that is gluten-free and also has a vegetarian option?