Monday, March 31, 2014

Baby Showers and Nurseries!

One of the benefits of finding out what you're having as soon as I did was you get an early start on getting shower theme ideas and nursery ideas!  I have been searching for ideas since we began trying back in October, and now that I know I'm having a little man I have tried to narrow down the ideas.  My mom and I have settled on a car theme for the baby shower, and I'm going to carry that theme over to the nursery.  For those of you who know me, you know that my husband is a mechanic and a HUGE car guy so it only makes sense we would carry that over to our son's nursery.


I am getting a bunch of ideas for both the shower and the nursery and I'm talking to several people on etsy for custom items for each, along with forming my own DIY ideas (stand by for a new DIY blog page for all my fun ideas).  I am trying to keep most of my ideas a little hush hush, only for family and close friends because I really like being super crafty and throwing ideas around before I settle on one thing...but his nursery is going to be SO cute. I went all out for Isabella's nursery and I plan to do the same for my little man.  If you want to check out my pint rest boards and see some of the ideas I'm tossing around you can see my nursery board here and my baby shower/party board here.  I've even started thinking up some cute crafts for Isabella's room and some amazing ideas for her birthday, I always like to go all out for birthdays, but this one is really important to me because this will be Isabella's first birthday after her brother arrives, and I really want her to know that she is still special to us and we will still put just as much love, attention, and focus on her once her brother arrives as we did before we had him.



I am also trying very hard to get away from the all blue everything that tends to go along with little boys.  After having an emotional breakdown over not finding any non-blue clothes (yay for pregnancy hormones) I went back with pure determination and I was able to find some non-blue clothes and get a nursery theme and bedding that has hardly any blue! YAY!! So, I want to know what kind of fun shower and nursery ideas have you guys seen or done yourself? I love hearing other people's party and craft ideas, I think it's so great with crafty mommy's get together and brainstorm.  Also, you can look below to see what Isabella's nursery looked like.  We have sense moved and she now had a "big girl" room that is not painted but is decorated with owls, with her own craft area, maybe I will do a room tour at one point.


  The view of her nursery from the door.

 The butterflies were all 3D and I made the flight paths with purple paint and a small round sponge.

 The inspiration for the entire theme, her bedding.

 I chose strong colors because that is what newborns are able to see.


 The bow holder I made with some of her hand made bows.

 I painted each letter pink and then put the purple dots with the same round sponge used for the flight patterns, there is also one butterfly on each letter.









Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Walking Dead


Okay, so I am a HUGE fan of AMC's "The Walking Dead" every Sunday my husband and I sit on the couch together and watch it to unwind...I guess that's a bad plan since it's an incredibly stressful show.  As you may or may not know, today was the season finale and it was INTENSE!!!!  My husband and I were on the edge of our seats and yelling at the TV. I don't want to give anything away if you haven't seen it yet, but if not, you need to get to your DVR NOW!!!!  The only gripe that I have is that we have to wait until October for the next season! Why oh why must they wait so long!?!?!?!  I think there needs to be a push for there to be two seasons per year, which a lot of other shows do, because that is what the people want!!  I heard that the writers are planning on creating a spin-off with completely different people on a different part of the country/planet and it won't have anything to do with the original group...I'm not really sure how that will go, I think they should just put all that time and money into having the original series go on twice a year. Who's with me!?!?!?

Friday, March 28, 2014

New Parenting Post!

I'm not sure how many of you visit my positive parenting blog as well as this one, but I just posted a new blog about sleep training. I think it's very informative and a good example about informed parenting and decision making, you can find it here.

Monday, March 24, 2014

SURPRISE!!!



That right, we're expecting!!!! I am currently 12 weeks along and we just found out via blood test that we are having a little boy! Isabella is excited but a little bummed to not be getting a little sister (I ended up buying her the Frozen DVD to soften the blow). But she is so excited to be a big sister and helped me hang up the two onsies I purchased, she was so excited to be in "her brother's room".  Over the next week or so I will be creating and posting to a new page (I will link it to the main blog). That will chronicle pregnancy and fetal development in general as well as my personal experiences to help any mommy to be's get a little more real-life information!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Are Dads Getting in on the "Mommy Wars?"



When it comes to the "mommy wars" I'm ambivalent.  I think mom's need to support each other and their decisions on how they raise their children (unless its neglectful, or is putting others at risk). I also am not one to "brag" about how smart my child is.  Obviously, as her mom I think she's the cutest, smartest, kindest child since forever, but every other mother has these same feelings about their child. Now of course if you're in a conversation with other parents about ways they teach their kids at home, or the type of school program they're in, I don't think it's bragging...just wanted to make that clear.

So this post was sparked by my encounter with a single dad at the park. Our children where the same age, and of course started playing and hanging out together. So naturally, dad and I started to talk about our kids and the activities they were involved in. He asked me if my daughter was in preschool, I said "yes" he then said that he homeschooled because he didn't think the kids got anything out of preschool.  He then started quizzing me about what academic facts my daughter knew, after I told him he proceeded to tell me everything more that his son could do.  Now this doesn't normally bother my, however, it did seem that this particular dad was only asking me questions to "one-up" me (or I guess I should say my child).  Of course he finished every comment about how his son knew more, with "but she's really smart though".

Now this was my first real life experience with the mommy wars, and quite frankly it took me by surprise that a dad was participating. Usually, guys are pretty go with the flow, and don't try to compete (at least not so obviously, and not with a woman). So this entire experience was very weird to me and I wasn't sure how to respond to what he was saying.  I just opted for the old "kill 'em with kindness" strategy and pretended that I didn't even realize what he was trying to do.  I'm not sure if he got the message or not with my indifference, but it did make me feel better that when I was presented with it, I didn't fall into the "mamma bear" mentality to defend my child against a someone I barely knew, whose opinion didn't effect me in any way.  Now I want to know, how do any of you mom's deal with being confronted with the mommy wars?



Saturday, March 22, 2014

Working Saturdays

My job outside the home is to provide applied behavior analysis (ABA) services to people with developmental delays, and as a supervisor I sometimes need to work Saturdays.  While this is usually a huge bummer for me, because I don't get to spend the entire day with my family.  However, I like to put a positive spin on things...this Saturday turned into a father-daughter day.  It makes me so happy to come home and walk into the den and see my husband and daughter laying on the floor coloring. And then to have my daughter run up and tell me all the fun things she was able to do with her dad today.  It is so important for a dad and daughter to spend quality time together, away from mommy (because lets face it, moms can tend to take over the situation). I love seeing the two of them bond both with and without me. Things like this make my occasional Saturday work days worth it.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Should We Ban "Bossy"?


There are been a lot of rumbling (and yelling) in the blogosphere of the mom world concerning the recent media push to ban the word bossy in describing girls.  It all started with Facebooks COO Sheryl Sandberg stating that instead of being called "bossy" little girls should be call "leaders".  This statement first made its appearance several months ago, but didn't pick up steam until this past month. As with anything that gains social media momentum, there have been  A LOT of opinions both for and against this movement. However, I haven't always seen very coherent reasoning's for either side (this is not an all inclusive statement, I have read and heard some great arguments but they have been few and far between).  I originally wasn't going to write it hear because first I'm not a "banwagoner" and second I'm not sure how many people actually read this. But then I read a status from one of my Facebook friends. We all have at least one of these friends, we don't agree with ANYTHING they say or believe, and often times their statuses give us actual hives because of the word vomit that is spewing from them, however, we are unable/unwilling to "unfriend" them due to social obligations that would become weird after a social media diss such as "unfriending'.  This particular person looked at the ban on bossy as a push for political correctness that was just trying to take away our freedom of speech (a whole other issue I'm not getting into right now), and that we should embrace bossy as a sign of being a strong woman.

So in response to this particular status, and many similar ones I've read over the past weeks, I am going to throw my hat into the "ban bossy" bandwagon and provide my two cents on the issue.  First of all something I've seen a lot of is people not being in favor of banning a word. I would just like to simply state that we are NOT actually banning the word, we are just trying to change the way we use it. I don't think I need to harp on this too much, it seems pretty obvious but you never know.  Second a lot of people are saying that being called bossy needs to be taken as a compliment and seen as something that only strong women are called. And here is where the issue lies.  Yes, it is true that usually strong women/girls are the ones who are called bossy (girls are called bossy exponentially more than boys) however, even if YOU are taking it as a positive, most people are NOT. The connotation of the word bossy is very negative.  The Websters Dictionary definition of bossy is: "given to ordering people about; overly authoritative; domineering."  This obviously is a very negative definition and it is what people MEAN when they call someone bossy.  The same qualities that earn a woman/girl the title of bossy, are the same qualities that will earn a man/boy the title of strong, efficient, leader, etc.  All of these words have a vastly more positive connotation than bossy, however they are used for people possessing the very SAME traits, the only difference is their sex!

Here is where the issue lies.  We as a society are using language to subconsciously punish girls for having the same qualities we want to reinforce and mold in our boys!  When we call a girl bossy and then turn around and tell her male peer he has great leadership qualities we are telling her that that type of behavior is unbecoming and wrong for a girl to partake in, and that only males should be intelligent, be able to preside over a group, and be vocal in their opinions and beliefs,  Even if we are not intending for this to happen, it is what we are doing, and until we start telling boys that they are bossy for these behaviors, we are instilling gender biases in all of our children. Because just as we send a subconscious message to girls about what behaviors they should and shouldn't be engaging in we are sending a similar message to our boys.  We are telling them that a "good" girl is one that is quiet and docile and follows the rules of the boys and that THESE are the qualities that they should value and look for. Now I don't know about you but that is not the message I want to send to my daughter or her male counterparts.

We will never ban the word bossy, and we will never stop it from being said. However, I propose that instead of banning the word bossy, we need to change the connotation of the word instead.  We need to stop using bossy as a negative and change it to be a synonym of the word leader rather than an antonym.  We need to use the word bossy equally with both boys and girls for the same behavior and with a positive attitude regarding it. We need to make bossy interchangeable with leader. Because we will never get rid of the word, and it doesn't matter how YOU view the word. What matters is how SOCIETY and our CHILDREN view the word. And until we change the word bossy into a positive nothing will change.  So from here on out I vow to use bossy interchangeable with leader and use it for both boys and girls.  So I can change how my daughter and the people around her view the word and the world they live in. Because my daughter, even at three, is strong, intelligent, opinionated, creative...she is a leader...she is bossy!

Monday, March 10, 2014

A Relaxing Family Weekend

Things have been so crazy around here I am just now able to sit down and write a little. This past weekend was so nice! If you know me, you know that for the past few weeks I have been feeling down right...poopy (this is the language you use when you have a toddler). I have just been feeling really run down, tired, sore, grumpy, and queazy all day EVERYDAY for about three weeks. Well, this past weekend was the first time in a long time I felt NORMAL! So I did what any sane woman would do with her first moment of health...I cleaned my house! In my defense it was bordering on a borders episode with the mess that had piled up. It was so nice to be able to look around and see clean counters, floors, windows, closets etc. ALL MY LAUNDRY ACTUALLY GOT DONE! For my daughter and I not doing laundry for a couple weeks didn't phase us because we have an ungodly amount of clothing, but my poor hubby was on some pretty slim pickings in the clothing department. It just felt so good to fell like myself again and do all of the things I usually do.  After I cleaned the house I was able to sit and play with my little love for a decent amount of time without having to lie down or run to the bathroom. And then we got to go out to eat!!! It has felt like YEARS since I felt well enough to go to eat anything, let alone go out to a restaurant (in reality its been two-three weeks). It just felt really nice to feel normal again.

And then on Sunday we took a nice little trip to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.  I feel that it is important to expose your children to as many learning opportunities as early as possible. Because although they may not fully understand what they are being told when they are really young, the seed of knowledge and the fire to burn their desire to learn is set when young kids are exposed to unique learning opportunities.  My little one absolutely LOVED the dinosaurs. She had so much fun looking at and touching all of the bones. She tried SO hard to assemble a dinosaur spine, I thought steam was going to come out of her ears! The even have a dinosaur show with huge animatronic dinosaurs! She was so excited and was loving every second of it.  Weekends like this remind me of how blessed I am.  There is nothing that brings a smile to my face more than watching my little one learn and become fully enamored and passionate about something...maybe I have a future paleontologist on my hands!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

A mommy's mommy.

I am so blessed! I have been felling so sick and down right icky for the past few days and as all you mommy's know, motherhood doesn't come with sick time! My wonderful hubby has been helping me all weekend with our little bundle of energy and he was DIEING for some guy time, so I lied and told him I was fine. Well, ten minutes after his friends arrived I was feeling...not so wonderful. Well I did what any mature, grown woman would do...I called my mommy! 

I am so completely blessed to have such an amazing woman in my life. She was working when I called her, and she dropped everything and drove half an hour from her house to mine and spent the day with me and Isabella! I told her I was getting stir crazy being stuck in the house all weekend, so she took the two of us to the mall. We spent the next couple of hours walking the mall and talk, and of course eating. Then we went back to my house and I was beat! So of course because she's the world's best mom, she tucked me into bed and watched Isabella, until Charles got back. Because of my mom's selflessness and my hubby picking up my slack, I was able to take an amazing four hour nap, and wake up feeling revived...mostly. I am so grateful, for my mom and I truly understand what a blessing it is to have someone like her as my example of what a mother should be. I work every day to be the best mom I can be, and I use her as an example.  Thanks mommy, you really saved the day!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Rainy Days and Relaxing

If you live in California then you know that it's been raining like crazy this weekend! Now I understand that a Californian's idea of "crazy" rain and anyone from any other part of the country, is pretty different. BUT, my street was turned into a river and the wash I live next to was so flooded I couldn't get out until late in the afternoon...so by California standards this is CRAZY! And as any mommy out there knows, rainy days mean little to no playing outside, and little to no playing outside means a grumpy toddler who has meltdowns over EVERYTHING! And when I say everything I do mean everything, like crying because I gave her the banana she asked for, or not playing with the playdoh the way she wants me to.  Needless to say this resulted in quite a few time outs today.  Finally, I gave up and put her boots and rain coat on and let her run around the backyard and roll in the mud with the dogs. I honestly didn't care how filthy or soaking wet she got all that mattered was that my little supernova of energy was being expelled outside and NOT causing my hair to turn grey.  After about 20 minutes or so she went on a rain filled golf cart ride with daddy. After that she determined for her self that it was "too wet' outside for anymore playing and promptly curled up on the couch and watched cartoons for maybe 5 minutes before she slipped into the heavenly coma like sleep that only physically and mentally exhausted moms pray for. This allowed for my dear sweet hubby and I to cuddle on the couch, enjoy the rain, and a nice movie. I love little days like this, where we are able to enjoy each other as a family despite the ad weather, and when my little love bug gets to explore a world thats different from her normal one (today it just so happened to be a wet, muddy, dirty world).