DISNEYLAAAAND

This one time in November we went to DISNEYLAND! It is the best place EEVVVEERRR!

For reals guys.. I'm pretty much obsessed with this place.  One day, when I'm not poor, I'm buying a yearly pass.. it's been my dream since... oh FOREVER

J was a champ, all the babes actually did awesome!  He would pass out when he was tired, and party hard right up until that point.

His favorite part was meeting the characters.  Seriously he loved them! And got the biggest smile and just waned to stare at them and touch them, it was probably my favorite Disney experience thus far

Seriously nothing is  better than kids at Disneyland

We stayed with Wood's family at a sweet awesome Disney house that was like mmmm... 5 minutes away? It had cute murals and Disney toys everywhere, it was fun!

CarsLand is definitely a new favorite!

We had a large group! the more the merrier right?

J's first ride!

Nap on the go!

We also had some beach days, went to Sea World and to the San Diego Zoo.  We partied hard all week long! It was a great vacation and we loved it!

Living the life

Oh man have I been living the life lately!! Never have I enjoyed my Christmas break so thoroughly!! 

I have loved every second. From spending time with family and having lots to do to spending my days at home with just me and my little man. 

I am just soaking up my days pretending to be a stay at home mom. Soaking them up like a shamu wash cloth. Ever seen one of those amazing things?? They are pretty absorbent!

As I have been soaking basking delighting in my days at home I have decided that I was born for this!!!! Seriously I rock it. 

My baby sleeps in!! Since he isn't getting woken up for daycare he sleeps in until 8:30 everyday! It's beautiful. I COOK DINNER. I'm still not cooking everyday but I am definitely cooking more often! I clean my house! I work out! I stay up and hang out with my husband! I do all these things and still have sufficient time to play with my baby! AND sometimes I even sneak some snuggle time during one of Js naps. 

I'm not saying that staying at home wouldn't get hard or mundane or stressful or that I shouldn't be able to do all these things while working...... but....... to me the grass is looking like a beautiful deep green on this side of things. 

I'm thinking of investing in some kind of robot. So I could teach through the robot while still staying at home. Sounds brilliant to me! 

Besides me, Woody and j have also had a great break

J had a stellar first Christmas and got spoiled by all of his wonderful grandparents and family. He thinks that life is pretty awesome these days with all his new toys. He goes from toy to toy to toy all day long. He got a little standing table and a walker and both have been helping him with his walking and standing (go figure). He is a champ at his push toy. He walks all around the house and gets the biggest smile. I love how he will go and find it himself and start walking around it's adorable. (Did I tell you how much I love hanging out with him yet?)

Woody is also enjoying having me stay at home. Because I cook I clean and I even will stay up at night and hang out with him! Seriously guys.... We're loving it. 

But alas come monday I will have to get up, I will have to wake my baby up, he will have to go to daycare and I will have to go to school. (I will do this because one of my co-workers recently threatened my life if I didn't return, and she's much stronger than I am so I have been sufficiently bullied into returning). 

But on the bright side J has a wonderful lady who I know loves him and I have a fantastic job that I have a love/hate relationship with. Mostly love. But hate too. 

I hope you have been enjoying your break as much as we have been enjoying ours! 

The life of my carpet

The story of my carpet lately has turned into a sad tale. Filled with towels and carpet cleaner and crunchy carpet that was accidentally missed..... (Well now you know)

We've had an unfortunate last couple of weeks. They have been occupied with things that should not be talked about in proper conversations. Since this is not that I'll tell you... Diarrhea throw up, pink stuff and of course water....and Gatorade. Blue Gatorade. 

The tale begins as many end.. The return home from a wonderful disneyland vacation (the fact that I haven't posted pictures is inexcusable..... I'll do that eventually). Sadly the combination of multiple babies and kids with a theme park did not bode well for the littles. 

J man and many of his cousins came home with a cold.

After many stressful nights I finally put my foot down and took the babe to the doctor. Turned out j had a double ear infection with his cold. Cue: pink stuff AKa antibiotics. 

The amount of wiggling, pursing of lips and spitting out caused a fair amount of pink stuff to end up on our extremely ugly and already dirty carpet. 

I'm not sure how long he was better for (like two days) before the diarrhea started. I'm sure you can all guess what (and how) got on the carpet this time. You got it. Pee. (You were thinking something else weren't you?) With all the diaper changes on a seriously wiggly baby it was only a matter of time before it took too long and the carpet paid the price.

Quickly following this the little man caught yet ANOTHER bug and the carpet was seriously destroyed.  I have never ever seen so much throw up. 

Not ever. 

I have nightmares about it

At this point in the game Woody and I were both sick and carpet cleaning was subpar. I am still finding crunchy pieces that I have to reclean..... Yeah I'll get to that later is usually my thought (jk ok maybe) 

Admist all the sickness and dirtying of carpet my little j still found joy in his journey and put the joy in mine as well. 

I hope on your thanksgiving break you were filling your stomachs instead of emptying them like us ;)

A little update

I love my life and my especially my cute little pirate!! 

J went to his first birthday party! His cousin turned 1! They will be good friends when they grow up

I'm Teaching my little J man to love to read!! The teacher in me can't help it. He is super good at turning the pages when asked!! Makes me smile every time he does it. But mostly he thinks they are fun toys... Progress

J has decided he wants to feed himself. Looks like he is really good at it don't Ya think?? He only eats a little baby food he likes things he can pick up way more!

As always he's a little monster!!! He gets around EVERYWHERE. he keeps us busy and Woody and I love it!!

Sadly it looks like J has gotten my super amazing immune system. AKA he's sick all the time!! It breaks my heart when he's sick. And the worst part is trying to decide if he's sick enough for me to stay home. Sigh... Times like these I have to remind myself that I love my job and am happy to help support my family. 

As always being a mommy is the best!

Free At last

** WARNING ***

 this post is about breastfeeding..... read at your own risk ;)

Well ladies and gentleman... the time has come and my little man is on FORMULA 

dun dun dun

GASP! Foooorrrmmmuulllaaa???

Hahah oh breastfeeding... everyone has so many strong, opinionated, different views.

In the beginning I told Woody 6 months breast feeding and that's it! Because I totally understood how formula is expensive and that it's good for your baby to get the mommy milk BUT I'm going to be totally honest....

I thought breastfeeding was weird. 

I didn't like the idea of it. I didn't like that it would always be me, or having to worry about feeding in public, or I just didn't think I'd like it.

But the little man came and we had some serious ups and downs with the breastfeeding business.  I was lucky that he did not have any real issues with it. I had plenty of milk. And it was not as bad as all the horror stories say it is.

Over the summer, J and I got to be PRO at feeding in public.  Seriously, I just didn't care anymore.... especially since I went to the beach and basically every time I fed him it was in public. So we got over that real quick.

I decided that breastfeeding was AWESOME. It was super easy, and quick. And I didn't have to worry about packing milk or anything. 

  

Then I went back to work and I could only pump once a day.... Things got tuff real fast. My boobs hurt, my milk got low J hated eating in public (because we stopped practicing) I hated pumping, we had to eat right after day care which never worked with his schedule (but I was always full)  

And the list goes ON.....

Because my milk was so low J had to eat half and half. And he didn't like eating straight formula so it got to the point that I had to pump so I could mix it with formula (while I'm home!) and then feed him....

So think how awesome it was to eat out and about, I had to bring Breast milk and formula and worry about thawing Breast milk, how full I would get etc. 

It was awful

So I decided I was done (judge me if you want, whatever!) 

And we slowly made the switch to formula. (Which stopping nursing was so painful like SO painful). But now I'm done

Cue hallilujah music

Well mostly done (I still leak at times). And truth be told I love it! I love being able to snuggle j while he eats. I love not worrying about how full I am or my lack of milk. I love not having to pump, or thaw Breast milk. 

basically good decision!

So.... 

Breast feeding. Surprisingly I enjoyed it. 

Formula. I enjoy it!

You can't go wrong! Whatever works for you and your babe!