Category Archives: Lifestyle

Happy Birthday to my One and Only

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Today’s my husband’s birthday.  It’s official.  We’ve spent more of our lives knowing each other than not knowing each other.  He’s awesome.  Really really awesome.  So I thought I’d take a quick minute and tell you 35 reasons (one for each year of his life) why I think he’s the best person I’ve ever known (in no particular order):

  1. He’s a good dad.  A REALLY REALLY REALLY good dad.
  2. He’s genuine.
  3. He loves his sister and would do anything for her.
  4. He came to see my dad after he had a heart attack even though we hadn’t really been hanging out for years.
  5. He knows about computers.
  6. He’s good with directions.  Unless I’m in the car.  For some reason, he misses exits when we’re together.
  7. He’s open minded.
  8. He keeps our lives fresh.  If it weren’t for him, I’d never leave Orange County.
  9. He had a picture of Dolly Parton on his computer as a kid.  That cracks me up to no end.
  10. He likes to collect things.
  11. No matter how busy he is, how stressed or upset he’s feeling, or what’s going on, if I smile at him when he’s walking towards me, he’ll smile back.  NO MATTER WHAT.
  12. He puts up with my personality deficiencies and loves me anyway.
  13. He teaches our daughter how to do things like float in the water, wave, and sign “more” in sign language.
  14. He has a broad chest.
  15. He lets me warm my cold feet on his in the winter.
  16. Every fantasy he has of running away or going somewhere includes me and our daughter.
  17. He went from hesitantly wanting one baby to twelve as soon as he held ours.
  18. He knows the difference between right and wrong and always chooses right.
  19. He hates singing but doesn’t hesitate when it comes to baby.
  20. He came to my college graduation even though he caught a lot of grief for it.
  21. If any of our parents need or want something, he will research it, buy it and help them learn how to use it.
  22. He’s smart.  Really really smart.  Like my-feeble-little-mind-can’t-keep-up-with-him smart.  And yet he tells me I’m smart without me feeling like he’s patronizing me.  Never once has he made feel stupid.  Well, maybe once but that was due to pregnancy/mommy brain and that was more my bad than his.
  23. He has beautiful brown smiley eyes.
  24. He’s the purple panther.
  25. His average height matches my average height.
  26. He works hard but makes it seem like it’s a piece of cake.
  27. He eats food I make and never complains.  He even claims to like it.
  28. He makes changes to improve his health.
  29. He processes what people tell him and will politely and respectfully point out when someone is wrong.  He doesn’t just take what people say at face value like I do.
  30. He’s patient and helps me with stuff that’s a pain in the neck.  Like setting up this blog or finding gdiapers.
  31. He actually thinks I’m good at stuff.
  32. He remembers how to play stuff on a piano despite not having played in a good 15-20 years.  Why is he playing again?  Because he wants to play with/for our baby.
  33. He’s an innovator/early adopter.
  34. He’s strong.
  35. He can run and run and run and run and be inspired by it rather than be tired by it.

I could go on (and on and on) but I think I’ve embarrassed him enough for now.  Happy happy 35th birthday, lovekin.  I love you and so does Neenu.

How to make Ladybug Pretzels

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For baby’s party last week, I made ladybug pretzels.  For the most part, I was happy with the way they turned out.

I got the idea from a few posts I saw online but all of the folks who did them seemed to be the type who find this sort of thing easy.  I ain’t one of those people.  I wish I was though.  Wop wop wop.

In case there are others out there who are like me, I thought I’d do a tutorial post on how to make these ladybug pretzels or “Ladybug Pretzels for Dummies.”  :)   I’m going to try to include what the others don’t tell you!

What you’ll need:

  • Large bag of thin style pretzels
  • Red colored candy melts (I bought a small bag made by Wilton from Michaels)
  • Chocolate Chips
  • Two bowls
  • Parchment paper
  • Cookie Sheet (if you want to use the refrigerator to speed up the cooling time)
  • White frosting (optional)
  • #2 or #3 decorating tip and piping bag OR zipper bag

I bought a 1 pound bag of pretzels, thinking it would be plenty.  Believe it or not, it only yielded about 35 ladybugs.  Why?  Well first, so many in the bag are broken.  Next, so many of them are deformed.  And I even looked for a bag that didn’t seem so broken up.  I also bought a good brand, thinking that would minimize the number of misshapen pretzels.  Not so. Third, I um…broke a whole bunch of them.

Step 1: sort through the pretzels and pull out all the ones you can use.  I actually made three piles – one for broken piece rejects, one that had definite first stringers and one pile of maybes (you can call these sloppy seconds if you’d like).

Step 2: Line your baking sheet (or sheets, depending on how many you plan on doing) with parchment paper.  I made the mistake of thinking it would be fine without the parchment paper.  I was wrong.  Once I had done the first dip and they dried, every single one of the buggers broke when I tried to pick it up off the cookie sheet.  The chocolate stuck to the sheet and the pretzels are too delicate to make it through the break up.  So sad.

So I had to go back and do it again.  If you don’t have parchment paper, I had success with a flexible cutting board.  Since I could peel back the cutting board, the pretzels were spared.

Step 3:  Melt the red candy in a bowl per the instructions on the bag.  For those that don’t know, the candy melts are basically white chocolate that’s dyed different colors.  A quick note here (again, this is for dummies like me who could have benefited from someone telling me this)…make sure the bowl is big enough to fit a pretzel width-wise and also make sure you have melted enough candy melts to fill the bowl up to a height that will cover 2/3s of the pretzel if you stand it up on it’s edge.  No one told me this.  I dipped the pretzels by sweeping them back and forth to cover 2/3s and some of them looked sub-par.  Don’t be chintzy with the dipping chocolate!

Step 4:  Dip your first string pretzels in the red candy melts (hold the rounded bottom and dip the two winged top side first) and remove the excess chocolate.  I did this by gently flicking the non-dipped part of the pretzel over the bowl.  Oh ya, and don’t be a dope and use a red bowl.  It makes it hard to see the melts.  Seriously, this didn’t even occur to me.  See how the middle wasn’t covered in red?  That’s because the bowl should have been more full.

Step 5:  Let the pretzels sit until the coating is dried and hard.

Step 6: Melt the chocolate chips per the instructions on the bag.

Step 7: Dip the undipped side in the chocolate chips and lay on parchment paper to cool.

Step 8:  Create the ladybug dots by filling a piping bag fitted with a #2 or #3 decorating tip (I’m not going to get into how to do that – I had to figure it out, you can too!) with the brown chocolate.  Pipe dots onto the red end of the ladybugs.  If anyone has good tips on how to make dots, please leave a comment – I was shocked at how hard of a time I had making nice round dots.

Optional:

Step 9: Use the white frosting to create little eyes on the brown chocolate end of the pretzel.  If you have it in a small tube, it’s super easy.  I had some white and black frosting for some ladybug cookies I had made so I just used the back of a chopstick (Woah!  So high-tech, I know!!!!) and dipped it into the white frosting and dabbed it onto the pretzel.  They weren’t perfect but they got the job done.  If you’re a perfectionist, you can always use a piping bag and tip.

Step 10:  Use the melted chocolate to put pupils onto the white eyeballs you created in Step 9.  I just used a toothpick to do this.

Admittedly, the eyeballs were a little creepy.  But I think I liked them better with the eyeballs than without.  They tasted great and I liked this little touch at my baby’s party.  Ideally they would have been set out on a nice tray but the bowl we used worked out just fine.

Alternative Fuel Vehicles

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It’s been an exciting few days in our area because I’ve seen SO many alternative fuel vehicles; in just a 1.5 mile stretch, I spotted three LEAFs.  Interestingly, each was a different color.  Then yesterday a LEAF neighbor flashed his lights at us and we waved.  Silly but it’s kind of a little thrill.

On top of that, on another short trip, I saw two different hydrogen powered vehicles.  The first was an F Cell from Mercedes Benz.  How’s that for fancy?

I didn’t even know these puppies existed.  So I did a little reading to learn more.  These vehicles are in limited available in select markets in the US (CA is one of the few areas) and are for lease only.  The car has an estimated range of up to 240 miles and emits only water vapors as its emissions.  These have been sold in the Europe based on both the A Class and the B Class but this US run is only based on the B Class.  They’re positioning the car as “mobility free of range anxiety.”  I love that these cars are on the road and the fact that the range is 250 miles is great.  I still prefer our LEAF due to the convenience of fueling up at home, though.  Seeing it did get me wondering if there were hydrogen fuel stations nearby and if so, how many.  I remember when I was in college (this was in the mid 90′s), we used a campus vehicle that used an alternative fuel (I think it was Hydrogen but I’m not 100% sure; I know it wasn’t diesel!) and I remember the driver had to make sure he filled up at the ONE station that was available along our 40 mile trip.  Hopefully it’s more convenient than that.  I think it’s also great that there’s a luxury branded alternative fuel vehicle.  I think there are people out there who might like driving something like a LEAF but are accustomed to luxury brands and think of it as a step down to drive a Nissan.  This solves that problem.

A few minutes after seeing the F Cell for the first time, I saw a Toyota FCHV.

This vehicle is based on the Highlander body and shares some of the technologies with the Prius.  Like the Prius, the FCHV (which stands for Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle) is able to drive on battery only for about 50 miles but it’s kind of a moot point because it has to be at very low speeds.  Might come in handy if you’re stuck on a freeway trying out get out of an evacuation zone?  I just don’t know why they tout this – it’s really not all that useful.  The technology is very similar to the Prius but instead of using gasoline in the Hybrid Synergy Drive, it’s using four hydrogen tanks.Anyway, the car has fantastic range – the four fuel cells can power the vehicle for upwards of 400 miles, making it a contender with traditionally fueled cars.  Awesome.  There are several versions of the FCHV and I believe it’s on version 5.  Toyota is apparently looking into using the technology for buses and trucks too.  With Toyota’s reputation of reliability, I hope this one does well!

It’s really really great to see these options in the market and on the road.  We see a lot of LEAFs driving around these days and the more hydrogen vehicles there are out there, the more fuel stations there will be!  Hooray for clean burning vehicles!

 

#4 on the LIST – Begin using a natural toothpaste

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I was shopping at Trader Joe’s the other day and saw that they had a number of natural toothpastes to choose from so I decided to pick one up. They had both Tom’s and a Trader Joe’s brand. I opted for the Trader Joe’s brand and picked this one:
Haven’t tried it yet but honestly, I grabbed it without much thought and without doing my homework first.  So I started looking at the label a little closer when I got home.  Here are some of the things it says:

  • Contains no artificial sweeteners.  Ya!  one of my goals with a natural toothpaste!
  • No Sodium Laurel Sulfate  Sweet!  Also on my list!
  • No Propylene Glycol Cool – according to EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database: “Propylene glycol is a small organic alcohol commonly used as a skin conditioning agent. It has been associated with irritant and allergic contact dermatitis as well as contact urticaria in humans; these sensitization effects can be manifested at propylene glycol concentrations as low as 2%.”
  • Active Ingredient:  Sodium Monofluorophosphate .76% – anticavity toothpaste This doesn’t sound very natural but it’s basically fluoride.  I think for now I’m ok with using a fluoride toothpaste for me and my husband.  Baby’s toothpaste is fluoride free.
  • Inactive ingredients: Calcium Carbonate, Glycerin, water, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Hydrated Silica, Menta Piperita (Peppermint) oil, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Chrondos Crispus (Carrageenan).
  • All Natural.  No animal testing.  No animal products.  I like that.

I’m confused though.  I don’t understand the definition of “natural.”  So I thought I’d break down some of these ingredients (and PLEASE take this with a grain of salt.  I did this research at a very surface level.  I’m no expert with this type of thing):

  1. Sodium Monofluorophosphate: (MFP) – inorganic compound that is a salt, that is believed to protect tooth enamel from cavity causing bacteria
  2. Calcium Carbonate – commonly found in rocks, and is the main component of egg shells, pearls, snails.  According to wikipedia, the majority of calcium carbonate used is extracted by mining or quarrying
  3. Glycerin – This one confused me somewhat.  Again, according to wikipedia, glycerol is largely created as a by-product of soap making.  I don’t understand how this is natural.
  4. Sodium Bicarbonate – Baking soda…I’ve often wondered why this is considered natural.  Apparently it is commonly extracted from the ashes of many plants but is synthetically produced in large quantities for industry.  I wonder where the sodium bicarbonate in my toothpaste came from..
  5. Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate – A foaming agent and sugar replacer that is non-toxic, biodegradable and safe.  But I don’t see how it’s natural either.  My gut tells me it’s better than SLS and artificial sweeteners, though.
  6. Hydrated Silica – Found in opal.  Used as an abrasive to clean away plaque.
  7. Peppermint OIl – Not going to research this one :)
  8. Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate – Extremely mild, gently sudsing surfactant derived from the amino acid glutamic acid and coconut fatty acid
  9. Chrondos Crispus – Irish Algae used as a thickening agent.

Man a few minutes of googling and you learn a lot.  So I’m not 100% satisfied that it’s ALL NATURAL but I’ve drank the Kool-Aid for now and do think it’s better for me than my usual Colgate or Crest.  Aww…I’ve been a Crest kid my whole life.  Times are a-changing.  In case you’re wondering, here’s what’s in the Colgate tube in my cabinet:

  • Active Ingredients:  Potassium Nitrate, Sodium Fluoride
  • Inactive Ingredients: water, hydrated Silica, glycerin, sorbitol, PEG-12, PVM/MA copolymer, sodium laurel sulfate, flavor, poloxamer 407, trisodium phosphate, sodium hydroxide, cellulose gum, sodium saccharine, xanthan gum, titanium dioxide

Some of the same suspects but way more chemicals, especially in the inactive ingredients.  I’m glad I don’t swallow too much of this stuff.

 

A Week of Trials and Errors

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I realize today’s post may be a bit of a downer.  But sometimes I have to shine a light on what’s bad in order to get to what’s good.  This week I had a lot of intentions and not a lot of them came to fruition.  That’s always a downer.  It’s especially disheartening when it’s the beginning of a new year and you really really REALLY want to be good.  Here are a few things that went awry:

1.  I was supposed to drink more water.  I didn’t.  I had a few glasses here and there but nowhere near the 64 ounces per day I’d like to be at.  I think I even felt a bit light headed a few times.  Argh.  So hold on just a second while I go fill up my water bottle and take a big swig.  Ok.  At least I can now say that I’ve had 16 ounces of water today (a little earlier and a little just now.  Ya, I actually did go fill up my water bottle and drink some).

2.  My husband has this super duper awesome blog, www.irvinehousingblog.com.  It’s going through some changes and I wanted to help him with it.  I want to be able to take some of the workload off.  But I didn’t do a very good job.  I wrote a post for it.  But then my pictures sucked so he couldn’t even use it.  I wanted to go take a second set of pictures to use today.  But that didn’t happen.  Sucks.  He does so much for me and here’s a way I can help and I failed him.  Now it’s 3:35 and my baby’s going to wake up soon and she will need to eat.  Maybe I can still go take a few shots but the lighting isn’t usually quite right…I know the camera can compensate but I don’t know to make it do that.  Darn.  Maybe tomorrow.

3.  I wanted to do a few test runs of some cookies with flooded frosting for my baby girl’s birthday next week.  I did one batch that’s drying right now.  So far they’re ok but not great.  Had I done a few more batches, I think I’d be more confident going into next week.  And to make things worse, I ate a whole lot of cookie dough.  Now I feel like I’m made out of cookie dough.  Soft, buttery and simply sweet.  What can I do now?  Well, I know i have a cookie recipe that I like.  I need to practice baking at least one more batch to the get the thickness right.  Otherwise, I can whip up another couple batches of icing and practice.  Maybe I’ll just trace the cookie cutter onto some paper and use that to practice on.  I think that’ll go a long way because making the icing is one of the stressors and then using a pastry tip and doing the decorations is also up there.  I’m not throwing in the towel yet!

3.  Remember how I mentioned the crazy burrito at taco bell with spicy fritos in it?  Ya, I had a bad headache on Wednesday night and not only did I have that burrito, but I asked my husband to pick it up for us on the way home, after he had worked a long day at work, thereby cutting into his time with Karina.  He only gets a few hours a day with her and I ate into that by not being prepared.

4.  I wanted to make it to the gym a few times this week.  But I didn’t.  I did a yoga video (well, it was sort of yoga but my muscles are so tight and out of shape that it was hardly recognizable!) and we went on a long walk on Monday but that was it.  On the bright side of things, though, that’s two more workouts than the week before!  And there’s nothing stopping me from getting in another video or time on the wii fit board tonight.

Sorry for the negativity but the nice part is that we’re heading into a new week and I’m still hopeful!  I got my eyebrows threaded, I made an appointment to get a haircut, and my baby is turning one next week.  I’m gonna keep trying.  I think I can…I think I can…I think I can!

Oh ya, one last bit of humiliation I just have to get out of my system.  This morning I was diligently frosting cookies (very focused).  My daughter pulled my pants down.  Like all the way to my ankles.  That kid punks me in ways that I never imagined.

Two-Zero-One-Two…Now Whatcha Gonna Do?

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It wouldn’t be a new year without some mention of resolutions or goals of some sort and I’m no different.  I don’t think I’ve ever made the “I’m gonna lose 10 pounds this year” goal but weight loss is definitely on my mind.  I gained somewhere between 22-25 pounds with my pregnancy and then in 2011, I dropped about 30 pounds, so i was in pretty good shape.  Unfortunately I’ve since put on some pounds and would like to lose about 10.  The good news is that several of the goals I put on THE List align with that (drink more water, reduce fast food, reduce soda, eat at home, exercise).  So I think it’s possible.  Here is a run-down of what I’m going to tackle next:

#4 – Begin using a natural toothpaste

I was going to wait until we were all done with the toothpaste in the house to start this but I probably should keep a couple tubes of “normal” toothpaste around just in case.  Just in case of what?  I don’t know.  Anyhoo, I do want to start using a natural toothpaste because I want to reduce the amount of chemicals I’m using but I want to make sure our teeth aren’t suffering.  So I’ll need to find one endorsed by the ADA (Tom’s of Maine is) and figure out if I want one with Fluoride or not.  Unfortunately there is no clear definition of what “natural” means in this space but it seems that it’s generally agreed that it’s free of dyes, preservatives, artificial flavors or sweeteners.  I want to find one that is free of SLS, menthols and eucalyptols.  Almost all commercial toothpastes have SLS, which makes it so latherific.  I think I read that there’s a link between SLS and canker sores, too.  And I’ve suffered from canker sores for a long time, especially during times of stress.  If all else fails, I could always try just plain ol’ baking soda and water.  Didn’t work for my hair but might work on my teeth.

#12 – Reduce the amount of high fructose corn syrup in my diet

HFCS is considered unhealthy because it causes nicks in your arteries.  Weakened arteries can collapse or become clogged and then you have fun situations like heart attacks and strokes.  And I think HFCS has contributed to my gut (that now expanded to encircle my entire trunk).  I don’t know exactly how much HFCS I consume but I want to be more aware.  So step one will be figuring out where it’s popping up in my diet and finding substitutions or eliminations.  Soda was a big culprit and now I drink flavored iced teas.  Well the flavor comes from a syrup that I’m quite certain is made with HFCS.  Sigh.  Will likely need to eliminate those too.  And of course HFCS shows up in all kinds of salad dressings, breads, sweet treats, ketchup, etc.  The good news is if I continue to eliminate  processed foods from diet, I’ll cut this out too.  It starts with awareness, I guess.

#13 – Exercise

I’ve been avoiding this one.  Why?  Don’t know.  I went to the gym a few weeks ago and it felt really really good.  Not just while I was there but for two days afterwards.  Yet I haven’t returned.  Lame.  So here’s the goal: yoga once a week (I have videos and a Wii that might help with that), gym twice a week (for at least 45 minutes) and a walk/run once a week that is a minimum of 2 miles.  I’m supposed to run a half marathon this summer so I need to start training anyway.  My baby likes being in her stroller so the walk/run will be nice with her.  We took her for a 3 mile walk yesterday.  There are a lot of hills where we live so it’s good exercise; I break a sweat every time and I was tired afterwards.

#14 – Switch to cloth wipes

I have about eight more packs of disposable wipes that I need to get through before I do this.  I wash diapers anyway, so why not use wipes too?  I’ll still need disposable wipes for traveling and emergencies so maybe I’ll start making the switch when we’re down to four packs.  I have to research what kind of solution to use…some people just use water, others make a solution of soap, essential oils, and water, others use some tea tree oil in it.  Just need to see what will work best for our baby.  I was shocked when I started reading about wipes.  I thought they were safe to wipe my baby’s face with but then it turns out that most wipes have benzyl alcohol in them, which is toxic when inhaled.  I used to wipe her face and nose with them until I learned this.  Yucko.

#15 – Drink more water

I have so many water bottles.  Plastic, stainless steel, combo.  Yet I drink hardly any water.  This one SHOULD be easy but it’s not for me.  So I have to come up with a plan to make sure I do this one.  The goal is to drink 64 ounces per day.  I have had no water today.  Better get to drinkin’!

I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can.  What’s on your list this year?  Conversely, what are you going to KEEP doing this year?

2011 and my new life

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2011 was so drastically different than any other year I’ve ever lived.  The biggest change is our daughter, of course.  But I realized that I’ve learned so much in this year of staying home with her.  Hell, here are 10 quick things that I learned about just myself:

  1. I didn’t lose my mind staying home.  I kinda like it. I miss working in an office but staying home with my baby has been dandy.
  2. I can cook.  I tried so many new things this year and I’m happy that I’ve been cooking more at home.  It’s fun and feels good to know we nourished ourselves.  Not everything I make is a winner but I’m glad I try sometimes.
  3. I am HORRIBLE at home maintenance.  I wish I were one of those people who just always kept things neat and tidy but I’m not.  A mess builds up, I clean it.  Meanwhile, other messes are starting.  I hate that I’m like this but I’ve accepted that I tend to make mess.  I have not accepted that my life will be full of clutter so I’m gonna work on it.
  4. My ego has a hard time living with the fact that I’m bringing home no bacon.  My husband is the sole bread-winner these days.  I’m the bread eater.  I don’t think we’ve really changed our lifestyles much because of this but it is still a hard pill for me to swallow that I’m not providing financial independence for us.  It bugs me that it’s all on my husband’s head.
  5. I can multi-task like a mofo!  It’s crazy the kind of stuff I’ve done while holding or feeding Karina.  I’m not saying it’s always been the best choice but I can do it…
  6. I like writing.  This blog is fun for me.  I didn’t think I’d have enough to write about but the thoughts keep coming, random and pointless as they are sometimes.
  7. I am horribly out of shape with bad eating habits that I’m trying to fix and I no longer take care of myself.  I realized the other day that I never really look in the mirror.  At first I told myself it’s because I don’t care about my appearance.  But it’s not.  It’s because I’m frightened by what I see.  My looks have aged a lot this year and so has my body.  The lack of exercise and on and off sleep schedules have really done a number on me.  I don’t know what my body is now, so I don’t know how to clothe it.  And part of the reason I don’t know what it is is because I am not ready to accept it for what it is right now.  I know it’ll never go back to way it was pre-baby but I know I can do better than what I am today.
  8. I have the foundations to be a good mom.  There are PLENTY of areas I need to learn and improve but I’m proud of my husband and myself for what we did this year.
  9. In general, I make good choices in life.  This year, more than any other, I am proud of  the life we’ve built.  I picked a good spouse.  We made financial choices that put us in a position to allow me to stay home with our baby.  We live in a safe place and drive our baby in safe cars.  I’m so happy to say I have virtually no regrets so far in life and those that I have are really no big deal.
  10. I AM able to get joy out of the little things in life.  I dunno.  The last few years had been so so hectic with my work and travel and other things. I was scared that I had lost the ability to enjoy little things but I’ve found that some of my most memorable days this year weren’t the crazy trips or events, they were the little joys…my husband driving us to Target in our electric car when Karina was 4 days old.  It was a sunny day and we were happy.  Karina “helping” me with laundry and laughing her head off while playing in the clothes.  My nieces and nephews all running over to say hi to my baby.  The look on all four of her grandparents’ faces when she chooses them to hug.

Given I had zero formal training this year, I’d say I learned a hell of a lot.

What a Merry Christmas it was!

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This year really was a wonderful Christmas.  Starting on Friday and lasting through Sunday evening, we had the loveliest holiday I can remember.  On Friday, we went to some friends’ home for a white elephant gift exchange.  They live at L.A. Live and had this phenomenal view and they are just over the top fantastic hosts.  Check out some of the awesome shots that our other friend, Geeta, took.  Geeta is clearly talented as is our host, Payal.  We knew almost everyone there and everyone was just so nice.  Food was great, decor was outstanding and Christmas cheer was abundant.  We brought two gifts for the gift exchange and I was happy to see that one of ours was stolen twice.  The other one, not so much. AAAnd, we all found out that two of the guests is expecting a baby in July – they’re a lovely couple and we’re all very happy for them.

We were able to attend the party because my mom and dad watched Miss K overnight.  This was the first time I was away all night from my baby.  Ya, we’ve traveled so much but I’ve never actually been apart from her for this long.  Dropped her off at like 4:00 pm on Friday and picked her up at around 8:30 the next day.  I know 8.5 hours may not seem like a long time but I missed her.  I did.  But I knew she was in good hands.  The crazy side of me kept worrying that she felt abandoned or that she was looking for me.  When we went to pick her up, my mom heard us come in and she said to Karina “Look who’s here!” and little baby crawled around the corner and came running towards us with a smile on her face.  More crazy confessions: lately I’ve been worried that Miss K. is bored with me because we’re together all the time.  I know she loves me but she is seldom excited to see me because we’re always together.  Seeing her light up like that was a nice little reminder that maybe she’s not bored.

Anyhoo, we brought her back home and after she ate her second feeding and took a nap, my husband took her to go visit with her other grandparents who were visiting from Northern California.  They apparently had a great time and she was gone for another 3-4 hours!  Man, this was the most time I’ve spent apart from her ever!  While they were visiting, I baked cookies and made rice for our Christmas Eve family get-together.  Made macaroons for my sister-in-law and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for my husband.  Well, not exclusively for them – we did share them amongst six families.  It took a while because I burned my cookie sheets and am only left with one.  But I was as efficient as possible by using parchment paper.  While one batch was baking, I dropped the next batch onto a piece of parchment paper cut to the size of the baking sheet.  When the batch came out of the oven, I just pulled the parchment paper off the hot pan onto the counter to cool and then slid the unbaked batch onto the cookie sheet and popped it in the oven.  Eight batches later, we were done!

Then we went back to my mom’s house for a mexican food fiesta.  My daughter, husband, grandma, mom, dad, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, cousin, cousin-in-law (and her parents), other nephew, and other niece were all there.  It gets a little hectic with all the kids but it’s a lot of fun. We agreed that only the kids would get presents this year but still there were a TON of gifts under the tree.  Fun.  The boys are seven and five and kept asking if it was time to open the gifts.  We kept putting them off.  Finally it was time.  But then we decided to take pictures of the kids:

Precious!  And then this sort of thing started:

And then my sister-in-law had these cute monogram ornaments for each of the kids to put on the tree.

Precious!  And then I made them sing Christmas songs.  Or at least we tried…turns out the kids are still learning the words to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer but they did have Jingle Bells down.  Poor kids just wanted to open their presents already!

Precious!  The littlest one, Aneri, kept mocking what I was doing.  This just melted my heart.  I can’t wait til next year when my little one will understand a little more and get to enjoy the season.  I think my brother attempted to start a conversation about the meaning of Christmas but there was no way that was gonna fly.  These kids NEEDED to open their presents.  It seemed like everyone liked their gifts.  SO MUCH FUN/CHAOS!

On Christmas morning, we went to my sister-in-law’s house to celebrate our baby’s and their baby’s first Christmas.  Our little nephew Karsin is just six weeks old and is just precious.  Have I mentioned that Christmas was just precious this year????  Again, a ton of presents under the tree.  We had a good time opening presents and had a delicious brunch.  SIL made a fantastic strata and some crescent rolls, we brought over a cheesy hashbrown casserole and some fruit.  Also had mimosas and orange juice.  Deeelicious!

Since we live in Southern California, we had  GA-lorious weather on Christmas day.  Sunny, warm and clear due to the winds that had blown all the smog away on the previous few days.  We had planned to take some family pictures and although most of them are on my brother-in-law’s camera, here are a few from ours:

Grandpa and his little tiger baby:

Lots of love in this one…doesn’t SIL look fabulous?  Just so perfect with her little tyke.Grandma, her baby boy, and his baby girl:One last time….oh…so…precious:So while it might seem sacrilegious to Christians everywhere, what Christmas means to me is about celebrating warm feelings and spending quality time with loved ones.  Making memories and spreading love.  And this year was the picture of perfection for me.  My baby was so so happy all weekend long and really, outside of her health, there’s nothing that matters to me more.  Gravy on top?  My husband got me Scrabble Slam and played two games with me.  I won both times but the first round wasn’t really legit.

The Holidays: Still Crazy

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Just now I saw someone post their status on Facebook about how much they hate that their birthday is so close to Christmas.  Then they had like seven follow up comments going on and on about why.  Well, mostly whining.  I think that’s so sad.  I’m sure it does suck when you’re a kid and everyone’s happy about Christmas but it feels like no one cares about your birthday.  And everyone’s partied out.  But when you’re an adult, why would you let that get to you?  I never got to have a birthday party with my classmates because I was born in July.  But it’s still my favorite month and I love that it’s so hot on my birthday every year.  There’s got to be a bright side to everything, right?

Today I went to Macy’s and Miss K did pretty well, considering she was stuck in her stroller for a while.  Towards the end, though, she started to fuss while I was waiting to pay for my items.  Unfortunately they were awkward boxes that weren’t easy to juggle while taking care of her and for some reason, the store was really warm, so I was getting antsy.  The part that kinda bummed me out was that I was waiting in line for a while and then an elderly woman stood next to me.  She asked me “Are you waiting?”  I said “Yep, we’re next in line.”  I wanted to make sure she knew that she was after me in line, not next to me.  She told me my daughter was a doll and we chatted.  Then the cashier finished the transaction he was working on and she stepped right up to the counter, despite my crying child and my pleading with baby to hold on for just another minute or two.  As if I didn’t exist or matter.  I didn’t say anything because she was older.  Eh, who am I kidding, I probably wouldn’t have said anything anyway because despite all my life’s experiences it turns out I’m still a doormat.  On the one hand, she’s just an old lady.  No big deal, it’s just a few more minutes.  On the other, how come I don’t matter?

This afternoon I need to make one more trip to Toys R Us to pick up some presents for my nephews.  I’m a little anxious about it.  I have a feeling it will be crazy there.  Wish me luck!  I hope they like the gifts.  That will absolutely make it worth it.

In general, I think most of the people I shop for are easy.  Hubby’s not.  But he helped me this year by telling me something he wanted.  But then last night he said “You haven’t bought it, right?”  Awww, man.  I hope I didn’t screw things up but I’m prepared to return the stuff if he doesn’t like it.  I wish I could figure out what to get him to make him happy.  Even when I get stuff I don’t love from him, I still love that he spent some time to get it for me.  Maybe he’s just not built that way.  He doesn’t seem to mind that he didn’t get a gift.  He’d rather just get what he wants himself.  But the thought of everyone opening gifts and him not having one just breaks my heart a little.  I guess I need to get over it, it’s more of a drag to have stuff he doesn’t want than it is to not get a gift.

One last whine and then I’ll stop.  I checked my web stats today.  One visitor.  For ten seconds.  How sad.  That’s ok. This blog is still an outlet for me.  :)