Wordless Wednesday: Bath time!

He loves to make a splash!

He used to hate the water on his face...

Now it is no big deal!

Chopped

No not the TV show (although I do love that show), today I am referring to my hair.  It is gone.  I am free from making the decision between the lovely, but tired pony tail or having my son yank on my hair.  If you are wondering which choice won most of the time, the answer is the pony tail.  In fact, I had to go back to the beginning of September to find a picture of me with my hair down.

Do you see S's fingers starting to wrap around my hair? Ouch!!

So my requirements for the haircut included:

• Short - no longer than my shoulders
• But long enough for me to pull back half of it into a clip when I work out
• Easy- I don't have the time nor the desire to style my hair...ever.

My normal hair stylist is out on maternity leave so I needed a new one.  Fortunately for me one of the moms in my playgroup is a stylist!! In fact she works at this really nice salon and spa in Lake Oswego called Rumi Simone.  Only problem was that I had no daycare for Superman, when was I going to find time to escape to get this haircut.  Again, fortunately for me, Aleka does house calls!  She came to my house, took breaks so I could take care of my very cranky Superman, and because we are friends, we got to catch up as she cut my hair.  It was perfect (well minus the whole cranky Superman part).  I am so grateful for Aleka and her awesome skills.  If you are in the area and are looking for a new stylist...I highly recommend her.




So on to the cut....

I have heard that some people can't stand seeing hair that has been cut off....but I love it.  When I get my hair cut it is usually a dramatic cut so there is usually a BIG pile of it by the time we are done.  I feel so free when I see that pile sitting on the floor...(crazy? um yeah, I know...)

First a little bit off...

And then some more...

Then the final pile of hair. :)

You can begin to see the cut taking shape...lots more to cut off though!

Final Product! Aleka did a great job!

Final Product- next day.  I didn't do too bad and this time I am wearing makeup. LOL

Not bad, right?  I look like a grown up, but not too old and it is easy for me to do!  Thanks Aleka!!


TTFN, 

Mommy C

(I was not compensated nor given anything for free for mentioning Rumi Simone or Aleka.  I really am just friends with her and love my new haircut. )

Not ready to say goodbye....

As many of you already know, my stepmom passed away last week.  I haven't written about it yet because we had my hubby's family here and frankly, I am living in a world of denial.  I want to write a really nice post in memory of her, but am just not in the place to do it yet.  Being so far away, I just haven't had the closure yet.  I don't "feel" different so she must not be really gone, right?  Obviously, that isn't the case, but that is kind of what it feels like.

Maybe I should mention that I am a stranger to dealing with someone dying.  I have had grandparents die and there was a plane crash when I was in middle school where all the kids from one family died, but I only knew one of the girls a little bit, oh and there was a teacher that died in a motorcycle accident....but really other than my grandparents, no one else that I was really close with has died.  I don't know how to process the grief and right now it all seems to overwhelming to really think about.  I suppose I will deal with it in spurts...or it will all come pouring out at some point....not sure if there is a right way or a wrong way to grieve so I am learning as I go. 

Speaking of the funeral, I leave Thursday for my dad's house in NY and I am thinking that I will wait to write the post about her till I return.  I am telling you all this because ideally the next post I write should be about her and part of me feels like it might be disrespectful to write about other stuff.  Hopefully no one takes the fact that I am going to talk about frivolous things, like my haircut that I had today (and will have a post about tomorrow, as disrespect to my stepmom, my dad, or anyone else in my family.  When I am ready, I will write a beautiful post that explains to you why this woman will be so greatly missed, not just by her family, but by everyone that knew her.

Thank you for understanding.

TTFN,
Mommy C

Are you ready for some football?

I love fall because fall means three of my favorite things: foliage, apples and football.  I will describe my love affair for foliage and apples another post, but today we are talking football.

Growing up my dad watched the NY Giants and therefore I was a NY Giants fan by default.  I remember sitting in the living room to watch the game on Sunday...my dad shouting at the tv until about the second half, when he took a nap but swore he wasn't actually sleeping.  If my memory serves me correctly, the Giants did pretty well in the mid-80s to the early 90s so it was easy to be a fan. 

When I moved out to California I was a new teacher, so my weekends were rarely relaxing.  I usually spent them working my second job or prepping for the week ahead.   So when I had the time...I continued to watch football, but since the Giants weren't on TV very often, I would just turn on the tv and watch whatever team was playing.  To be honest, I usually also took the same time to read the Sunday paper, so the football game was really just background noise.

I met my husband in 2002 and he introduced me to the Kansas City Chiefs.  He lived in Kansas for high school and college and was a huge fan.  At that point, it had been several years since I had really watched the Giants fan so I was easily swayed over to the Chiefs (well that and I was trying to win his heart so I was trying to impress him- why do we girls do that??).   I loved that I had a team to cheer for again and I began to make time to watch every weekend.

If you know anything about football, you know that the Chiefs have not had a great team in many years.  It has been very tough to be a loyal fan when the team you are cheering for is plummeting to the bottom.  In fact, I think I only watched one Chiefs game last year (lots of highlights thanks to the Red Zone channel on Comcast though).   But this year? Well hubby decided that we needed to switch back to Directv so we could get all the Chiefs games with the Sunday Ticket.  When I asked him if it was because we were supposed to have a good team this year, he laughed.  I probed further and he told me he was hoping for an 8-8 season (at least I am going in with a realistic expectation).  

Last week my husband posted this as his Facebook status: "NFL Opening Day: Where every fan thinks their team might have a chance. At least I get to enjoy this feeling until about 8:30 PDT on Monday."  

So when we settled in to watch last night's game against San Diego, I wasn't planning on holding my breath for a win.  I mean, sure I hoped they played well and won, but I had gotten my hopes up too many times.  Instead, I was just looking forward to getting to know our team again and watching a great competition. (Side note: The one thing that my husband has brought into my life that I get mad at him for every time it happens- sports heart break.  I was doing fine before when I didn't really care about a team and that team lost. But now? My team loses and I am devastated.  It is true more with basketball, but only because I am used to the Chiefs losing- see above.).

I still can't believe that we won!  What a great way to start the season!  What a great way to start fall season in general.  So this season, if the Chiefs are playing, you know where I will be...

Go CHIEFS!!

The whole family in their Chiefs gear!

 

Watching the game with Dad.

TTFN,

Mommy C

Favorite Moments Friday

Grandma Donna and Superman

Superman has been teething and snotty and not really sleeping during the day so finding time to blog has been tough.  I have also been spending a bunch of time putting together a video of Superman with his Grandma Donna.  She is near the end of her fight and I am praying that things continue to be pain-free for her.  If you can take a moment and send good thoughts into the universe for her, I would be grateful.  I wish I could share the video with you but it has his real name spoken throughout much of it so instead I have included one of my favorite pictures of them.  I am glad that I have the video done so that Superman will have something to remember her by.  It saddens me that he will not remember her, but I have many things to share with him so that it will feel like he remembers. 

Onto my favorite moments...

• Superman is now an expert drinker from the sippy cup.  He can pick up the cup, position it correctly, and take a sip.  The biggest deal? He no longer spits the water everywhere.  (If this happens to you, try putting a tiny bit of apple juice in the water. He like the taste so he started drinking it. Each meal I added less and less juice and now he just drinks the plain water without the spitting.)
• I figured out how to keep him awake in the car!  I figure out this trick when one day I handed him a half filled water bottle to play with in hopes that he would not fall asleep.  It worked!! Other items that have worked include: Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupons, bibs, and anything else that won't be harmful, but you don't usually let him play with.  I figured it was the novelty of the item, but when I tried handing him a new toy, that worked too.  So now that I know the trick I just hoard all the toys up front and hand them one at a time as he gets sleepy.   You're welcome. :)
• We bought this backpack carrier for Superman.  If you missed it on Wednesday, I posted this picture of us trying it out for the first time.  I spent much of my wee years in a backpack that was not nearly this nice, hiking all over the Adirondacks.  I am looking forward to many, many hikes with Superman.
• He is EIGHT months old and got his EIGHTH tooth on Wednesday, September EIGHTH.  Isn't that cool?

I think that is all for this week.  I am off to finish getting things cleaned up because my husband's parents will be here in a couple of hours.  They live in Kansas and it will be a real treat having them here right now.

Have you "liked" Being Mom...Now on Facebook yet?  If not, please take a moment and follow this link to our Facebook page and "like" away!  Thank you!

Have a great weekend!

TTFN,

Mommy C

Wordless Wednesday: Things that have made me smile recently

My Family

Hanging out...

I? Can drink out of a sippy cup. Impressed? You should be.

Trying out our latest purchase.  "Oh a-hiking we will go..."

I can feel my new tooth, ma.

No post today

Please say a prayer for my stepmom as she journeys through her final days.  Today I am going to spend my blogging time thinking about her and hoping for a quick and pain free journey. 

Thank you for understanding.

Mommy C

Favorite Moment Friday

Here are my favorite moments from the last 2 weeks:

• We went to our cousin's 4th birthday party and Superman went in his first bounce house.  Sure the only other person in it at the time was his cousin, but he thought it was great fun to be bounced all around as his cousin jumped.  
• We finished our Baby and Me swim class and went down this slide:

• Yes, it was totally scary and I thought I was going to hyperventilate.  The babies had life vests on and we were instructed to try and stand up as we landed in the water.   If the we were going underwater, we were to let go of the baby and the life vest would make sure that they would end up face up.  My friend was in front of me and she had to let go of her baby.  Her baby was face down in the water for a couple of seconds and I was at the top FREAKING OUT! Everyone else was so calm and cool because they are heartless jerks they knew he was going to end up face up thanks to the life vest.  The baby was totally fine and my nerves were shot.  So we get on the slide and head down.  This slide was WAY faster than I thought it was going to be and I kept chanting "remember lift him up as high as I can" as we zoomed toward the bottom.  Superman did great and I think he liked floating with the life vest.  He wasn't too impressed with the slide, but we did go down twice and he did well both times.

•  We had some really warm weather here about a week and a half ago so I got Superman a baby pool. (if you ever need to buy a baby pool, I highly suggest one with an inflatable bottom.  I hadn't thought too much about it while ordering, but thought it was cool that this particular pool had one.  I have the pool on our cement slab out back and I feel so much better knowing that if he falls over, he will not hurt his head.)  It has a great little inflatable dome that provides the perfect amount of shade.  To Superman? It was just a big tub.  But since he loves bath time, he was perfectly content to sit in it for as long as I would let him.
 

•  We finally have our 7th tooth!  This tooth took forever to come in and had been the most painful one for Superman.  It is the top middle tooth.  The other middle one is threatening to come in as well, but I am hoping that it is a lot less painful for him.

• We got these balls from Costco and Superman really loves them.  Hubby will rub one of the small ones on Superman's head and he gets a goofy look on his face.  I can't tell if he loves it or if it just feels super weird to him.  

• We have started Gymboree.  I have a two week trial so we are currently working on that.  He seems to really enjoy himself and it is a great way for me to get some ideas for when we are home looking for things to do.  Next week we are going to try one of their music classes.  

•  I have set the pack-n-play up in the master bedroom so that I have a safe place to put him down while I am getting ready in the morning.  He loves to put his hand up against the mesh and have you put your hand on his.  He will move his hand all around the side and wait for you to move your hand.  He thinks it is the funniest thing and any length stay in the pack-n-play now requires a quick play of this new game. 

Well he is awake from his non-nap (thanks to a quick nap in the car on the way home from Gymboree. URGH!) so I must his publish and run off.  I hope everyone has a fabulous holiday weekend.  I will be back on Tuesday!

TTFN,

Mommy C

Mothers for Teleportation Today

I have been thinking a lot about transportation lately.  I am convinced that we need teleportation now and I am convinced that the person who is going to invent it will be... a mother.

Why? You ask. Well it should be obvious, but I will explain myself so that you can nod your head and agree with me. :)

First off mothers want their children to spend time with family members and most have families that live way too far away.  With teleportation you can skip off to your parent's home (on the other side of the country) for the weekend so they can have quality grandparent time with your kids or zip over to your sister's house (way down south) for some coffee talk.  Teleportation would bring families back together again (and I can get rid of my no-good-never-works-right-webcam). 

Second, if the idea of a road trip with children of any age sounds hideously painful and way too much work with all the toys needed, snacks required and lets not forget a nice not-so-healthy dose of "are we there yet?" then teleporation would be the answer to your prayers!  Going to the beach for the weekend? No problem, just teleport there and start building that sand castle in minutes!  The kids forgot their shovels?  No problem, teleport back home, grab 'em and you are back faster than you could say "too bad, so sad kiddo!"

The final reason I think a mother is going to be the one to invent teleportation is because of all the mothers that have been out and about with their baby or toddler and done the "please, please don't fall asleep"chant while trying to drive home like a (safe) mad woman and simultaneously trying to get said child to stay awake.  I swear just when I come up with another way to keep Superman awake in the car till we get home, it stops working.  I can sing horribly loud (and well, just plain horribly), tickle him, attempt to play peekaboo at the stop lights, and eventually just poke and prod him AND he still falls asleep 3/4 of the way from home (Yes, I am doing all of these things while I am driving. Haven't you?). 

Teleportation would make mothers everywhere rejoice at the idea that families are mere seconds away, that the only answer you will need for "are we there yet" is "yes" and that naps will no longer be spoiled by the car nap fairy.

So are you the mom that will invent teleportation for us all?

TTFN,

Mommy C

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

My cousin gave me these GIGANTIC zucchinis:


She also told me about this recipe on allrecipes.com: Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins
So I decided to make them with a few alterations.
1. Splenda instead of sugar.
2. Apple sauce instead of oil.

The first batch? It tasted like Splenda.  Yuck!  So I left them for my husband to eat, which he didn't, and eventually threw them out.  Today I started over.  I used real sugar and still used apple sauce, but only 1/8 of a cup per batch (I had actually doubled the recipe so it was 1/4 cup of oil and 1 1/4 cups of apple sauce).

 Don't they look yummy?