Happy Thanksgiving

I am wishing all of my family and friends and happy and healthy Thanksgiving holiday. We are staying in Arizona for the holiday (like we do every year) and will be enjoying the beautiful 70 degree temperature. With that said, here is what I am thankful for this year.

1. An amazing, happy and healthy child. With Maxim being a 10 week premie anything could have happened, so I am extremely happy that he is a strong and healthy baby boy. He is very smart, adorable and I could go on and on about how perfect he is...but I won't.

2. Green tea to get me through the days. I don't drink coffee or soda, so the only thing that gets me through the long days is tea...and lots of it. I would say I drink about four cups of green tea a day...at least four cups.

3. Awesome friends...near and far. I have this saying "You can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends, so choose wisely." I definitely picked a great group of friends who mean a lot to me. I have friends all over the U.S. and wish I could see them all the time, but I can't. Even though there is distance between us I know that when we do touch base it's like no time has passed at all. Those are the good friends that I choose to have in my life.

4. Family...near and far. Unfortunately our blood family lives far away, but even so, I am very thankful for them and I look forward to seeing everyone next month at Christmas. I am also thankful for the family close by that we have in our lives. They may not be blood related, but they sure are family.

5. An awesome husband and daddy. Let's face it, Andy is a pretty awesome husband and daddy. He helps out a lot and definitely shares parenting duties. I do know that not every mamma out there has that support so I definitely appreciate it and am thankful I have Andy.

6. The HOV Lane. This might seem trivial to some people, but when you have an extremely long commute like I do, you would be thankful for an HOV lane. I am glad I found a sitter for Max by my work so I can take the HOV lane both ways because without it my commute would be close to an hour instead of 35 minutes.

7. My-Grastick. I was introduced to this recently and I absolutely love it. Basically, it's oils that help with headaches. I don't get a lot of headaches, but I do have a lot of tension on my neck so I use it to release the tension. It works great and I would definitely recommend using it if you are prone to headaches or just have a lot of tension.

8. A career that makes me happy. Not everybody has a job, or a job they like, or even a career, but I do and I am thankful for that. To leave Maxim every day like I do, it has to be for something I love doing, and I do love my career.

9. FaceTime. I don't know how parents got away back in the days without FaceTime. It's the only thing that keeps me sane when I get out of dodge. It's hard enough to leave the big man behind, but it does help when I can see him (and he can see me) whenever I want. It makes the distance a little easier on this mamma.

10. A great sitter for Max. I truly lucked out on this one. Earlier this year we found the perfect person to watch Max while we work during the week. Ms. Marie is amazing and so good with toddlers. I am very grateful for such a caring individual to watch my sweet little boy who teaches him new things and does arts & crafts with him.

Girls Weekend

It's extremely hard for me to leave the big man for even one night, let alone a whole weekend, but it was that time of year to pack a bag and head to Palm Springs with two amazing girlfriends. Even though it's very hard to leave the big man I really did need a dose of girl time and a weekend doing some damage shopping. We had plenty of girl talk, laughter and most importantly good food.

The first night we ate at Roy's...it's kind of our annual tradition. Both mornings we had $3 mimosas. Who sells mimosas for $3...Louisa's of course! After a long day of shopping on Saturday we shared sushi together along with a few bottles of wine...yes, I did say a few.

During my much needed ladies time, I did step out here and there to get in some FaceTime with my favorite big man. He's super cute here in the picture I took of us FaceTiming.

After I hung up Andy said he kept looking for me on the iPad and saying "mamma." Completely broke my heart, but he broke my heart even more when he screamed when I left the house with my bag on Friday.

I can't believe another year of Palm Springs has passed. Of course I had an excellent time with my ladies and even though I know them pretty well I still learned a couple new things this year. I learned about Amber's love of calf socks and Kim's new love of essential oils. We all love to shop and apparently did some major damage in Palm Springs.

Until next year Palm Springs!

Playing With My Hair

The big man has always loved playing with my hair. He has always liked putting his fingers through it and feeling the softness of it. Sometimes he has pulled out of curiosity, but most of the time he is petting my hair. The other night after I got out of the shower Andy captured the big man sitting on my lap fascinated with my wet hair. Too cute!

First Haircut

We have reached another first in the big man's life...the first haircut. Where is the time going? Why is it going so fast? If it wasn't for the massive mullet he was growing I probably would have waited a little longer because he doesn't have a lot of hair, but he definitely had a mullet in the back and I just couldn't take the white trash baby look anymore. I booked an appointment at a kids hair cut place hoping that it would be fun for him. Each chair had it's own TV and they played whatever movie the child was into, so the big man got to watch Elmo for the whole 10 minutes it took to cut his hair. He also got to sit in a really cool fire truck.

Overall, it was a good experience. He got to turn the wheel on the fire truck, watch Elmo and they saved his hair from the first snip into a small baggie. I did not ask for this, but the place automatically did it when I said this is his first haircut. They packaged it up nicely so it would easily go into his baby book. Talk about customer service, or a good marketing strategy, so that I will continue to go back.  The big man was a little scared, but he managed pretty well. We got the mullet trimmed off and now he looks like such a little man. Time, please so down!

Bad Back

I recently did something to my back as I was putting the big man in his car seat. It hurt so bad that I could barely move and it still hurts at times. Yes, I do see a chiropractor and I cannot wait until my next appointment. Only a couple nights after the initial incident I laid on the kitchen floor thinking it would feel good to lay down on the hard surface. I don't think I was down there even a minute when the big man came and straddled me and jumped on my belly wanting a "horsey ride" and wanted me to read him a book. Man, that hurt, but this mamma gave her little boy a small "horsey ride" while Andy decided to giggle from the living room and take pictures.

The Big Man and Chicken Pox

Last Thursday night we noticed a spot on the big man's face, but decided it was probably a bug bite from playing outside at the sitter's house most of the day. Hey, it's been pretty buggy around here lately. Then on Friday morning I go to get him up and his big blue eyes are smiling at me as soon as I walk in the door along with 6 spots on his face. I immediately know it's chicken pox. I know this is a part of life and everyone gets them and it's harmless, but how do you tell a 16 month old not to scratch the pox? I noticed three more on his neck and one on his chest so I called the doctor just to confirm it was the pox. The doctor was not totally sure if it was the pox or a virus because it was so early on. She ruled out anything more serious and told us to keep an eye on it for the next 24 hours. Plus the doctor said that since he did get vaccinated for the pox three months prior it won't get any worse than it looked.

Auntie Kelli arrived to Phoenix on Friday and it was great to see her, plus it was nice to have an RN around all weekend to keep an eye on the "sort of chicken pox". The big man had no fever and no other signs of the chicken pox other than the 10 spots on his face and neck. Auntie KB said everything the doctor said so we just kept an eye on him.

Come Monday they were almost gone, but not completely so the big man stayed home with daddy all day. By Tuesday his spots looked great so we contacted his doctor to get a written notice so he could head back to the sitter's house for some much needed social time with his friends.

Yes, he had the chicken pox, but due to the vaccination we (not my idea) gave him it was super minor and easy-peasy. He had no idea he even had the pox. Phew...dodged that one!

Halloween Weekend

I just LOVE Halloween! It is such a fun holiday. I find joy in the creative side of Halloween...the carved pumpkins, the homemade costumes and the parties. It is all a ton of fun! Now that we have Maxim we do not get dressed up and go to parties, but Andy is more than ok with this. Me, on the other hand, I am kind of bummed we do not do that anymore. However, we do have a super cute toddler that I get to dress up now. I do understand that I have limited years where I get to choose his costume before he decides to grow up and tell me what he wants to dress up as. This year I decided to have him be a mummy because it would be super cute, creative and he is a "mummy's" boy. HA HA!

At first I didn't want to do it because I knew it would take forever to make the costume because I do not have a sewing machine, but then Andy talked me into it by telling me how cool the costume would be. Ugh...that sold me. I started making his costume four weeks ago and put many hours of hand sewing into the costume. I spent nap time and after bed time sewing this costume. After week three of sewing I decided that I am bat shit crazy, but at least my son will be the cutest toddler mummy around.

I made the costume out of white pants, white hat, white t-shirt, two white pillow cases, green tea, black shoe polish, many hours and tons of love! I purchased the pants and hat at Hobby Lobby and the shirt at Old Navy. I shredded the pillow cases into strips and soaked in a pot of hot green tea to stain the white so it looked dirty. I then streaked black shoe polish on the wet material. The strips went into an old pillow case and into the dryer to dry and shred the strips. I then spent a ton of time hand sewing each strip onto the clothing. I put the pants and hat onto the big man's Elmo doll to help stretch it out as I sewed. I couldn't sew the strips on too tight because I had to be able to squeeze his diaper butt into the pants when I was done. 

After many hours I have a very cute mummy!

On Halloween we trick or treated at my work where the big man had a good time. People decorated their offices and there was even two mini haunted hallways that he enjoyed. The big man had fun putting candy into his bucket and he giggled and smiled each time. He did have a little candy, but then the rest of his bucket of candy went to daddy. He did get scared by another adult's costume and by one of the "monster's" in one of the offices. I hope this doesn't scare him away from Halloween forever.

After that we went to dinner with uncle Ryan (he was in town for a last minute visit) and then over to the Seifert's for a visit.

We had one tired big man at the end of the night!

On Saturday we hung out with uncle Ryan at the JW Marriott where the big man had a great time splashing in the pool. I did not go in because it is officially Fall here and I believe it was only 77 degrees on Saturday...brrr! Instead I just took pictures.

After the JW Marriott we went to our friend's surprise engagement party and hung out for a few hours. It was a very busy weekend for the big man (Andy and I too) and he held up ok...for the most part. Halloween was a lot of fun this year with the big man being a toddler. I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend. I can't believe it's already November!