finally some excitement

Ok, I cannot tell you how happy I am that my life finally had something exciting enough to write about. This past weekend was pretty much fantastic. Friday, I can't remember what we did. That's mommy brain for you. Saturday was my college roommates reunion sleepover night! The last time the four of us were all together was when I was still pregnant, so this was way overdue. 

kewl self-timer photo

I had them over to our apartment, because Harrison is far too high maintenance to go anywhere else. I had my concerns about how Harrison would behave, and/or if I would end up getting any sleep when you combine staying up til the wee hours of the morning chatting with the girls, and Harrison waking up on the reg. I was in some serious 12-5 withdrawal though, so I decided one night of even less sleep than usual wouldn't kill me. Plus, he had been sleeping pretty decently leading up to this... key word is had. 

Dave was nice enough to watch Harrison while we went out to dinner, and needless to say we all pigged out and drank wine. I can't even lie and pretend that I'm a wreck when I leave Harrison's side, its pretty freaking great actually. Somehow, it is relaxing and freeing and much needed, yet I need to hug him the second I walk in the door and ask him how much he missed me. Call me a hypocrite. 

When we got back, is pretty much when shit hit the fan. We accidentally woke him up, and let's just say he was not happy. The next few hours consisted of a lot of crying, inbetween brief lapses of sleep. I guess it was too good to be true to think that he would just magically go to sleep at his bedtime and stay asleep to allow me to hang out with the ladies stress-free. Once we finally got him to sleep, we had a great time drinking (more) wine, playing games, and obviously reminiscing about our crazy ways in the 'Seo. 

Sunday, we braved our way to Letchworth State Park. I say braved because it was a little over an hour away, so that in itself is a hefty mission to take on, since Harrison has become the only baby in history to dislike carrides. The park itself requires a lot of hiking, so we decided to try out the baby carrier for real. This was also concerning, as any time I've attempted to put him in that thing has not gone swimmingly. Much to our delight, he was pretty content being carried around all day (who wouldn't be?) and even fell asleep for a short period. Plus, being anywhere close to Geneseo and/or doing anything that reminds me of Geneseo is a win. 

ghetto baby

the boys. Harrison looks THRILLED

I would have appreciated this family portrait a lot more if my hair wasn't sticking up like Alfafa. 

selfiesss

Heaven? No, just the magical land of Letchworth

This weekend is Halloween weekend and probably for the first time in my life, I'm not dressing up. Can't say I'm upset about that. Harrison is taking one for the team. Stay tuned for the reveal of his costume!!

ramblings

In lieu of Harrison's horrible sleeping habits, I got desperate and did something I never thought I would do: ordered a self-help book. I guess it's not so much self-help as it is help for Harrison. But if Harrison gets more sleep, mommy gets more sleep, and will regain her sanity. Thus, self-help.

The book is called "Good Night, Sleep Tight" by a mommy author who calls herself "The Sleep Lady". It got great reviews and a lot of other mothers were saying it helped their babies sleep significantly, so I forked over the $10 to download it to my Kindle.

So far, this is what I've gathered from it: almost everything I'm doing to get Harrison to sleep is bad, Harrison seems way too ingrained in his bad habits to turn around, and I'm freaking out that I'll never get a good night's sleep again. Wonderful!

Death by milk coma

She does say to wait to start her program until you can have three weeks with little interruptions, and since we are travelling to Watertown in a couple weeks, I'll have to wait until after we return. Two more weeks of the get-no-sleep plan. I am excited to try it out though, and will keep you updated on our progress. That is, if we have any.

This morning, in an attempt to improve my mood and take some of the edge off, I put in a 30-minute yoga video. I didn't know what would stop me first- Harrison deciding that 30-minutes unattended to is far too long of a stretch and demand to be picked up, or me being so out of shape that I poop out. Well, I'm embarrassed to report that it was the latter. I got through 10 minutes before I decided that I was ready to be done. Sad, but true. I'm going to place all of the responsibility for getting so out of shape on Harrison. I had an 8-week recovery period from surgery and couldn't work out! His doing, not mine. Maybe one day I'll put the excuses aside and really start a less pathetic work out regimen.... but probably not.

I'm again sorry at my failure to blog more often. Of recent, I've become obsessed with Homeland and can't do anything but watch it, think about it, and stalk cast members on the interwebs. Specifically, Damian Lewis, who plays the POW turned terrorist. Not only do I find myself crushing on a terrorist, he's also a ginger, and possibly the first ginger I've ever been attracted to. I can't explain it. I think
I'm in love.

you can terrorize me anytime

I'm no Makeup Expert

My sister's friend Kara, who is about 3 weeks away from her due date for baby #2, requested I do a makeup tutorial for new moms in one of my blog posts. I found this hysterical, since I know very little about doing my own makeup. In college, I would risk not going out if none of my girlfriends were around to do my makeup (ha! just kidding... I never not went out). To make matters even worse, my best friend, Melissa, is the makeup queen, so she makes my crutch even more pathetic. I do clothes, styling, nail polish, but not makeup.

I did have a brief stint as a Mary Kay consultant. Mary Kay is more about skincare products than anything, so I wasn't as involved in the makeup side of things. Then I became not involved in any of it when I realized my director was a psychopath, and had to email her accusing her of harassment to get her off my effing back. That shut her right up.

However, Kara's request did get me thinking about the few items that I would die without, so let me just profess my love for certain products (any male readers can stop reading now).

1. Mary Kay Concealer - this shit does work. The reason I listed this first is because it has become increasingly more essential to my life now that I get no sleep. It hides the dark circles under your eyes like no other, and let's face it, that is not only excellent for me when I look in the mirror, but also for those that have to look at me. It's never a pleasant sight to see a person with sunken, grayish blue circles under their eyes. It's also never fun to get told how tired you look on a consistent basis, so I just eliminated that opinion in its entirety.

sidenote: there was a b**** I used to work with that would tell me at least one a week how tired I looked and I wanted to slap her every single time. Is that not the most annoying thing anyone can say to you?

2. Bronzer (also from Mary Kay coincidentally, but any will do) - this might just be one of my crazy theories, but sometimes I feel that the less sleep I get, the more pale I look. I'm pretty pale to begin with, and have (recently) decided that the only tanning I will do in a tanning bed is of the spray variety. This is because my sister is a sunscreen freak, as in puts it on every single day, like even if its blizzarding out. My latest fear is that, as 6 years younger, I will one day have older looking, more wrinkly skin, and be forever mistaken for her elder. Verdict: tanning out, bronzer in.

I also can't stand next to, take pictures with, or be in the vicinity of my boyfriend, because something about his 1/16th Native American heritage makes him extremely tan, bordering on ethnic looking. The stark contrast between him and I is not my friend. That's why my bronzer is!

This is us, mid-summer... I thought I was partially tan until I saw this

3. Deodorant - I list this as if it wasn't essential to my life before motherhood. It was, don't worry. Except now... here comes the embarrassing confession segment of the post... I am more smelly than ever. It's not that my 30-second showers don't cleanse me enough, it's that breastfeeding makes some women more odorous. Yet another fact about childbearing that no one tells you. So if you don't know, now you know.. readers.
       (please stop reading now if you didn't pick up on that lyric from the genius that is Biggie. RIP)

I used to read Word Up magazine

So I guess that's only three items, one of which being deodorant. My life is sad. Sad, but not smelly.

The same day I took this photo, I saw a picture of Baby Lorenzo wearing the exact same shirt.  If you don't know who Baby Lorenzo is, you are seriously out of touch with the world of celebrity babies.

Confessions of a sleep-deprived mom

It's been a week since I last blogged. Oops. That's probably because my day-to-day is very uneventful and unchanging. Hanging out with the kid, maybe leave to go grocery shopping, and catching up on TV, pretty much all while holding him. I have all the time in the world, yet somehow no time to blog.

He recently had his two-month doctor visit though, and I'm happy to report that everything is looking good! Now at 10 and a half pounds, he jumped from the 3rd weight percentile to the 21st! Glad to see the two hour, on the hour, feedings have paid off. He also had to get two shots and I almost cried. Watching your own kid get shots and turn more red in the face than you thought humanly possible, while screaming at the top of his lungs... not fun. In slight fairness, I also got my flu shot, and probably whined more about my one sore spot than Harrison did about both of his. He's such a trooper.

 See how much he's grown! Courtesy of my stepdad's wonderful photography! 

I'll leave you with a few confessions...

1. I love rubbing diaper rash cream on Harrison's bum. Is that weird? So be it. I've always loved bums, but I don't get much interaction with his. Partly because I'm always scared that he will poop on me if I leave it exposed for too long, and partly because he simply has no bum. He was born with negative ass mass, and since has gained weight everywhere else except the bum. Therefore, I really enjoy what limited time I have to play with his bum, even if playing consists of wiping on a cream. I'm also just going to vouch for my sanity after writing that paragraph by saying that I am in the majority here. People who don't love little baby bums are clearly the minority, and probably heartless. Haven't you all heard the phrase, "Smooth as a baby's bottom"?

2. I hate, no- despise, the campaign trail. I don't really pay attention to politics normally, but when every other commercial is some political message denouncing this candidate and that candidate, its hard not to pay attention. I do not want to participate in something that has become more about hatred, pointing fingers, and negativity than it is about fixing our country. That being said, I'm all for appreciating that I do live in a country that allows us the right to vote, and I am not overlooking the fact that many people worldwide are not given that liberty, but I probably will not be voting in this presidential election. Neither candidate is really impressing me by blaming the other for his downfalls and personal shortcomings. Not to mention that I am not educated on the specifics of either's policy, so I am not going to simply just vote blindly and ignorantly because one has a (D) or an (R).. which I feel that a lot of voters probably do. Maybe its the flower child in me, but is world peace too much to ask for? Ok, yeah it is. How about just national peace then? Why is it that we look so poorly upon racism, but judging and stereotyping people based on their political affiliation is ok? That is the only thing I will ever say about politics, which is more than I ever thought I would ever comment in the first place. That might have just spurred a lot of opinions, but keep in mind that I'm a registered hippie, and peace is what I call for.

3. I used to cry when the Colts would lose a game. Back when their record would be 12-4, or 11-5. That's pretty embarrassing to admit, but when your team is going undefeated for the first 11 weeks of the season and you think theres a chance they go lose-less, those losses hurt. Now I am immune, after last season's pathetic record of 2-14. Hey, at least it toughened me up as a fan. And it's like, you appreciate things when you can't have them, so now I really, REALLY, love a win. Booyah Green Bay.

Mommy's little pumpkin

I'm really over these ridiculous outfits

Weekend Recap/Food Journal

It is 2pm and I am finally free!! After having me hold him since about 8am this morning, Harrison finally went down for a long nap, and mommy gets to be an actual human being! I've realized that the sound of his snoring is music to my ears.

Anyway, thought I would recap the weekend of family, eating, and wine, since I was making such a huge deal about it leading up to it. Alyssa will probably have a very similar post, but since she actually works and I don't, I'm going to beat her to it. Shocking, I know.

Friday night, my sister's flight got in so I met the fam at my parents' house. Dinner consisted of my mom's homemade Mac and Cheese (my favorite Mac and Cheese in existence), but as per usual, Harrison wanted to be held, so my meal mainly consisted of dinner bread. Not complaining though, because it was Wegmans' artisan garlic tuscan bread. Dee-lish. I probably consumed half the loaf. I was able to shove about 5 forkfuls of Mac and Cheese into my mouth, but I've learned that eating finger foods is just far more realistic when holding a baby. I've mastered the art of eating one handedly, and accepted that my meals are all going to have to be food I can pick up with one hand- sandwiches, toast, dinner bread, etc... aka carbs. Also not complaining.

Saturday was a glorious day as well. After finally meeting Kari, my sister, her and I went shopping. Incase you don't know, shopping and clothes are both passions of mine, so this was especially exciting for me! My first real shopping trip post-baby, buying clothes that actually fit me, and not having to spend any of my own money (giftcards) made the afternoon superb. Then, we came back to my parents' house for dinner. Again, the homemade meal was scrumptious, but I was forced into scarfing down bread for the majority of it.

That, to me, looks like one serious case of Baby Fever

haha Mom, jokes on you

These two days were great, but nothing compared to the highlight of the weekend- Sunday night aka wine night. After a year and a half, we got to finally pop bottles.... well, the bottle of Apricot wine anyway. It was just as good as I remembered it. I also had my first glass of Zinfandel. No, not White Zinfandel, that blush shit that I was drinking at 18 thinking it was the greatest wine ever, Zinfandel the red wine. It was so so so good, and probably my new favorite.

To make the night even better, Dave came over, so I was relieved of holding Harrison duty, and actually got to enjoy the meal!

I feel like this post turned into more of a food journal. Oops. I think I was just trying to convey the fact that I no longer have the luxury of sitting down to dinner and enjoying the meal in front of me. So all of you people that can do that, well- enjoy it, and think of me stuffing food into my mouth at the speed of light.