Tag: family

Birthday Recap

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I planned to post about my birthday yesterday, however, I was severely sleep deprived due to Baylor’s favorite doll, New Baby, loosing her hat and pacifier in the middle of the night. More on that tomorrow. If the doll makes it to then.

Anyway, I had a lovely 30th birthday. It hasn’t quite sunk in just how old I am, but I’m sure as my back gets achier and the cost of my face cream continues to increase, I’ll get a good dose of reality.

I treated myself to a lovely pedicure, breakfast with the sister (including presents!), a nap, phone calls from family and friends, endless FaceBook well wishing and dinner with B and PW. It was a fast, but totally relaxing day. We dined at one of my favorite places, Cowboy Ciao and then came home for some cake and presents – it was a fantastic day spent with the ones I love…I am however, looking forward to the birthday remix where we have cake AND cocktails in a few months!

 

And yes, that dress and hairdo do look familiar. It’s the only damn thing I own that fits right now and doesn’t look too horrible. Not to mention my hair is atrocious due to the need for a cut and color and hormones. Did I mention that I love the end result but hate being pregnant??

Hand Over the Camera

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When we were kids, my dad snapped pictures of everything and anything we did. He had a great camera and always had it handy. So I guess it’s safe to say I come by my need to document life via photos, naturally.

I invested in a Cannon Rebel T3 last summer after exensive research. I needed something that was fast, easy to use, small and didn’t cost us Baylor’s college fund. I realized that in order not to break the bank, I’d have to ditch the small requirement. I settled on the T3 because it wasn’t enormous and it got great reviews for newbies like me.

I snap pictures all the time with it – which means I’m never in the pictures. PW will take over periodically, but then there’s never a picture of the three of us. So this past weekend for Baylor’s party, I grabbed a friend that I knew took great pictures and asked them to snap a few shots of the important moments so that I could actually be present and enjoy. And the result? Awesome. The pictures are beautiful because they’re done with someone else’s eye so the light is a little different, the zoom is a little closer, everything is just different enough that it’s fantastic. And the best part is that I get to help blow out the candles on the cake, eat it and have the picture to remember it for a lifetime.

So next time you are busy snapping away, hand over the camera and see what happens. At the very least, you’ll be able to prove you were actually there!

Case in point? I love the flowers in the front of this pic.

I love catching me mid song and B’s sweet smile!

Compartmentalizing

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Compartmentalizing is the name of the game today. It’s been a year since we lost Mame and I just can’t do it today. I can’t disolve into to tears. I can’t think about how much I miss her and all the other sad feelings that would overwhelm me if I let them. I had an ugly cry (a really ugly cry) on PW’s shoulder last night so that I could face today and the tasks at hand without puffy eyes (it’s not going to great so far). I just need to get through today in one, non tear streaked piece and can and will accept and feel whatever emotions come my way on another day. It’s just too much today.

I have a voice mail from last May on my phone from Mame and I can’t delete it. It’s so funny – it’s her telling me that she swears there is a bird in her yard and when he chirps, it sounds like he’s saying “Baylor! Baylor!”. She ends the call by noting that she has yet to take her pain meds so it is clearly real and not a hallucination. It makes me laugh and cry all at the same time.

So, no sad comments please. No long hugs or “how are you?” questions. Only jokes, snarky comments and funny stories today. I’m terrible at hiding my feelings so I need all the support I can get. We’ll deal with the sad stuff later, ok?

Practice Makes Perfect

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Yesterday Baylor and I babysat baby Mason for a few hours while Ali got her hair did. I wanted to help out because A. nothing says fun like trying to calm a baby while someone is putting foil in your hair and B. I secretly wanted a little practice. I wanted to see what it would be like to have two of them and get a few things done.

After a bottle, change, car seat move and a packed diaper bag, we ventured out to pick up coffee at our favorite roastery and grab a few things at the grocery. Bold, yes. But none of it was essential so there was plenty of time to abort the mission. But thankfully, M was the perfect gentleman and sat happily in his car seat the entire time. B was a golden child. Like the kind you think your kid is going to be when you have a second child. She listened, she helped, she even climbed in the same door as Mason’s car seat, shimmyed into her seat and was 90% strapped in when I got to her side. I’m sure it was the novelty of having her cousin around, but I’m going to pretend that this will still happen (at least for a little while) when it’s her brother.

The one thing I didn’t think about was me. Well the belly anyway. Mason is about 7 weeks old and I look more like I ate a really big burrito and am allergic to sit ups more than pregnant so everyone (naturally) assumed he was mine. I don’t know why, but I was a little unwilling to accept the chubby momma role (since his actual mother is back into her pre pregnancy jeans. bitch.). Thankfully my assistant was happy to tell anyone that looked her way that this was her cousin Mason and that she was babysitting and that her brother was in mommy’s belly. So I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.

All in all, it was a positive experience. Although I plan to really enjoy my current one munchkin schedule.

T-Town Bound

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We made a quick trip to Tucson this weekend and had a ball. Normally I am opposed to overnight trips – they’re just too much work. Packing up the kiddo’s stuff, bedding and “just in case” supplies is a pain in itself, but I have to find someone to check in on the BearMeister, pack myself and PW…it’s just a lot of work for 24 hours. Not to mention that this weekend we had stuff scheduled on both Saturday and Sunday so we were litterally zipping in and out of town. But to my big surprise, it all went very smooth and was a ton of fun!

We arrived with enough time before dinner to walk around campus. It was so much fun to see The Phi, Peter’s fraternity house (which is currently being occupied by another fraternity and caused PW to hold back a few swear words), buildings that we each attended classes in, our favorite resturants, our respective dorms…the list goes on. It was amazing to think back and realized how much life has changed in the last *cough* eight years since we graduated. The campus has changed so much, yet all the amazing memories are still there. It’s even more fun that PW and I were there together so it wasn’t me showing him, but rather getting to tell each other our favorite memories. At one point Baylor sighed and asked when we were going back to the “HO-teeeellll”. Apparently memory lane was not as exciting for her.

Ah The Phi. I lived in the window right above the “Alpha Phi”

Next we were off to dinner with the family I babysat for while at UofA. It’s scary to think that Madi is now graduating high school and headed off to college herself! Amazing how she’s grown and I haven’t aged a day…to say that it’s wonderful to catch up with the L family is an understatement. They are truly amazing people and even when we haven’t seen each other in years, it’s like we just talked yesterday. Dinner was at one of our collective favorites: Rosa’s. I had forgotten how amazing the refried beans are and I said a little prayer of thanks that the morning sickness has passed so I could enjoy every stinking last bite of my enchilada and tacos!

After dinner it was the UofA baseball game – PW’s reason for planning the trip. The team has moved off campus to Hi Corbett Field which turned out to be awesome. The stadium was packed, they served beer and there was a jump house, what more could you ask for? Oh yeah, a win! We got that too.

Pretty sunset

We had to teach Baylor not to cheer for the other team. She broke out her signature “dirty look” instead.

PW and BW

The Super Moon! The camera phone didn’t do it justice.

We headed back to the “ho-teelll” after it was looking promising that the Cats would pull off the win. We were impressed with The Lodge on the Desert. It was close to the hotel and campus, full remodeled and a nice price. Bay was excited to try out her new Pea Pod sleep tent and it went swimmingly. If you have any traveling to do with a toddler soon (especially one that sleeps in a crib but has out grown a pack and play) then I highly recommend the tent. It has an air mattress, is one piece that folds flat and doubles as a play area. It was perfect way to divide a room for her and us so we could do crazy stuff like brush our teeth and watch TV without waking her up!

We’re already talking about another slightly longer trip later this summer to one of the resorts. Sure there are two world famous resort just down the street, but there’s something about getting out of town, visiting places you haven’t been to in years and a long drive that make a trip even better.

 

Easter Fun

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We had a great Easter filled with fun and family. Smarty pants B, upon discovering the bunny balloon she had been eyeing for weeks at the grocery announced “the Easter Bunny shop at Safeway too!!”.

A little baffled by the chick that makes cheeping sounds when you hold it

After mass we headed to my mom’s house for brunch. It was amazing as always and included lots of running on the golf course.

Zoe and B sharing some bubbles – well, in theory anyway

Big kids, little kids and the big kids at heart playing catch

After a little spillage in her dress, she changed into one of Noni’s shirts (which she spilled on) and then enjoyed her gardening themed Easter gift from her buddy Joyce.

Working Girl

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One of the appeals of starting to work for the family business two-ish years ago was that I would be able to do it around Baylor’s schedule. And it’s worked great especially since she started preschool. 12 hours a week plus nap times is just the right amount of time to get stuff done.

Last Friday was a rare day when I had to schedule a meeting for an onsite inspection during a non school day. It also meant I had to head South to Arizona City  which would add and 2 hours + to the meeting time for commute. Thankfully Grandma had coordinated a day off of work so it would all work out brilliantly – Bay to Grandma’s house, me to AZC for a meeting with enough time on either end to get some work done around the house.

And then pneumonia.

After much discussion, PW and I figured out that with a lot of tag teaming and Grandma’s help, we could both make it to our meetings and get the munchkin healthy. I would do the x-ray as soon as the place opened at 730 while PW worked and took a meeting over the phone. I would spend the next hour prepping for my meeting and then tag PW to take B to the follow up appointment with the doctor. PW would then tag Grandma to take B home to play, eat and nap. I would return home around 2 to tag Grandma and then B and I would spend the rest of the afternoon watching Mickey Mouse in a daze of sleep deprivation and Albuterol.

It was around 1030 that morning that I realized we were going to make it. It was all going to get done and get done without being too messy. The end result was total exhaustion from the past 2 days and scrambling for the past 5 hours. I’ve always had so much respect for friends who both work AND raise awesome kids, but now that I’ve tried on their shoes, I’ve realized they should really have a super hero cape to match!