Yesterday and Today

Yesterday:  I am thankful for mommy friends.  If you are my friend and not a mommy I am still thankful for you.  The boys and I had a play date yesterday afternoon with a mommy I met at yoga and her two boys close in age Scott and Owen.  The boys all had a blast.  Lucia and I got a chance to chat and hang out.  Plus it was raining so it was great to get out of the house and keep everyone's boredom in check.  I am thankful that I have so many mommy friends to keep me sane.  Whether I see you once a year and we keep up mostly through technology (hello blogging, fb etc) or we used to be neighbors and now we only see each other a couple times a month, or I see you or talk to you everyday, thank you for your friendship.  In the tough parenting moments its comforting to know I'm not the only one. When a phase is just beginning, I thank the Lord that I have someone to tell me that this will pass just as it has for their child.  I love getting tips and advice and celebrating the little and big parenting victories with you.  Like potty training for example, only my mommy friends really truly know the sheer bliss that your child held the pee pee for 3 minutes while you made it to the toilet, and only my mommy friends really want to hear the story - haha!  Thank you all for the walking this parenthood journey with us.  We are in good company and we are blessed by each of you!

Today: I am thankful for technology.  Ok, so technology has its problems, like things being really expensive to fix if they break when the old school push to start dryer worked just as well, or kids these days not knowing how to have a proper conversation with eye contact or how to write a paper without using text slang, but today I'm thankful because a patient texted me a picture of her new baby boy who was born late last night.  I love that I get to be in contact with my patients this way and they share their first moments with me via technology.  HIPAA prevents me from sharing the picture with you, but rest assured he is cute and perfect in every way.

I was also able to record the big boys singing happy birthday to Aunt C and Mimi, whose birthdays are today and tomorrow respectively, on my phone and email it to them.  Too fun.

Brian's Job...

 So, that's Tim McGraw.

Ummm what??!!

 Brian has a pretty cool job.  Last week he was in Nashville for, amongst other things, the CMAs. I am jealous.  He had some meetings/seminars etc. in the days leading up to the awards and some of those "work related" meetings included a private concert with 30 or so people by Tim McGraw.  Pretty sweet.

Reba...

Winona...

At the CMAs, where he had sweet seats.

Brian travels a lot, but at the end of the day he really enjoys his job so I can't complain (well I can, and I sometimes do, but there is always a reality check somewhere in quick future that puts Brian's travel in perspective...military wives (you know who you are and I don't know how you do it, you are awesome!!), my girlfriends who are married to firefighters (4-7 nights on, oh my!), even my girlfriend who is married to a chef who misses dinner and bedtime (the hardest time of my day) 6 days a week).  Brian is home more than he is away, he works hard to provide so much for our family, and bonus he gets to do cool stuff like this!  And I'm totally enjoying the stack of cds he brought home from the awards!  Love you Brian, thanks for working hard and for being such a present husband and father when you are home!

Election day thankfulness and more

Yesterday was Election day.  We all know the outcome.  Some are happy.  Some are sad.  And some are very, very bad.....Dr. Seuss!!!  No?  I did not post anything political either here or my facebook because frankly I'm not very political.  I educated myself as best as I knew how and made the most informed decisions I could make.  The end.  And by the way another thing I have been thankful for this election season is not having cable TV.  No political commercials.   I highly recommend it.

So of course I am feeling thankful that we live in a place where we get the right to vote and make our voice heard.  And I am thankful for the people who work to protect that right.  This morning I woke up more than bummed out, I was pissed off!  Prop 37 got voted down in California and it just makes me sick to my stomach.  I could go on but what is that point of that, writing it out here won't help.  I made the decision to channel my anger and frustration into doing something and have started drafting a letter to the stores I frequent.  Maybe it will make a difference.  Maybe not.  Fortunately I have the resources for research what my family eats and where it comes from and who has tampered with it.  I'm sad for those that don't.  A seminar I sat through with Dr. Palevsky during my pediatric training offered me this little tid bit:  we get to "vote" every single day by choosing what we spend our money on, after all isn't that why people keep making these things, because people keep buying them.  So my vote is that I won't buy food that has been tampered with, sprayed with chemicals, antibioticed (made up word but you know what I mean) etc.  I know I can do a better job of knowing which company owns what and how that might work its way down, maybe the crackers aren't GMO, but they are owned by a company that actively opposes labeling of GMOs (example Odwalla juice is owned by the Coca-cola co., uses GMO, opposes labeling.)

So there it is, my little political "rant", if you will.  I am happy that this proposition has brought GMO food into the public arena a little bit more.

And today I am thankful that Brian gets home from his trip! YAHOO!  And he doesn't have another for a while! YIPEE!  And he is taking the whole week of Thanksgiving off!  GIDDYNESS!!!

And today...

...I am thankful that, since it is November, I can play Christmas music all day in my house and not feel embarrassed that it is too early because at least its after Halloween.  Not that I didn't listen to it before Halloween, I did, but I was a bit more discreet about it.  And even though it was 95 degrees out today Christmas music still makes me giddy.

Scott hears jingle bells (the actual sound of the bells not the song) and says "look mommy, Christmas!" We are all getting jazzed about the holidays!

3rd & 4th...

Told ya I wouldn't post everyday.

Saturday the 3rd, I'm thankful for new friends.  We spent a beautiful fall evening cruising around Westlake on our new friends' boat and then had dinner together.  Its exciting to have friends close enough to walk to their house, kids the same age etc.  When we were making our plans we were discussing bedtime/fussy time for the babies and she commented it was nice that they weren't the only ones who let the kids call the shots. Amen.  Took the words outta my mouth!

Sunday the 4th, I'm thankful for Pathways club.  My colleague and I host a Pathways club at our office once each quarter where we discuss parenting and health with like minded mamas and loosely base our discussion on the most current issue of Pathways.  While we don't always have a huge turnout (which we are hoping to change and working on) it is always a fun time and I always leave excited, inspired, and eager to learn and teach.  Today was our last Pathways of the year and I got to spend 2 hours at my office with other moms and eat snacks and I left feeling like I make a difference somehow, however small it may be.  And with that, I'm also thankful for great babysitters who take good care of our munchkins when our work schedules are tight and overlap a bit!

Thankfulness

So I love that everyone is posting what they are thankful for everyday for the month of November on blogs, Facebook, etc.  I wanted to jump on that.  So, naturally, I'm already a day behind.  Life.

So I'll start with my quote that I'm using on my chalkboard right now:

"Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action." - w.j. cameron

So, in that spirit, I hope to be full of thankfulness in my words here and my actions also.
Obviously I'm thankful for the biggies, my husband, our amazing boys, our families, our friends, their and our health.  Not to mention jobs and a home. I'm not trying to downplay this by not writing a post about each of those individually. We are richly blessed and I thank God for those blessings each day. But here, this month, I want to write about the little things, sometimes silly, but it all comes back to the biggies anyways. Will I post everyday? Probably not, but I will try to include something from each day. But I will be thankful each day, for the little stuff and the biggies.

So, yesterday, November 1st, I'm thankful that I get to wear yoga pants to work.

Silly, yes.  But hear me out.  I get to work for myself, doing something I love, bring my kids with me (sometimes) and dress how I want because my office is casual like that.  Yesterday I would not have made it to work if I had had to get "dressed".  Daddy was traveling, the boys were coming with me, we had another day of no naps, we were at the park until 30 minutes before we had to leave, so I washed the boys' hands and faces, changed their diapers and clothes and we left.  All I had time for was a clean pair of yoga pants and a clean sweater....phew!  Days like that when I get to work I joke that this is going to be my last day because I'm quitting.  But once I'm there I absolutely love what I do.  I'm so lucky to be in a great community working with like minded professionals.  I'm meeting so many awesome mamas and soon-to-be mamas and I'm extraordinarily honored to work with them and their babies during such a precious time in their lives.
So yoga pants it is!  And so much more!

And today, November 2nd, I'm thankful for an almost potty trained toddler.  Ok so he's definitely not 100% there yet and I'm so okay with that.  I'm in no hurry and I'm letting him take the reigns and be in control of the process.  I want him to feel comfortable and secure.  I give him the option each day of chonies or a diaper....he almost always picks the chones.  Today was no exception.  When daddy got home from Nashville (hallelujah) we hung out during Owen's nap then walked over to verizon to get my new phone all hooked up (heeey schmancy new iphone 5, and welcome to 2012 with my first ever iphone!), well we were 7th in line so after waiting a little while I took Scott for non-dairy fro yo then to trader joe's while Brian waited at verizon.  Well by the time we got to TJ's and were about half way done with our shopping Scott told me with urgency in his voice, "Mom, I have to pee pee".  Well I had basically forgotten that he wasn't wearing a diaper and we had been outta the house for pushing 2 hours.  So we asked an employee where the potties were and high tailed it to get to them.  Owen was in the front pack, Scott in the stroller...shoeless! Yikes.  Public potty, no shoes, baby in front pack, what's a mom to do?  So I picked him up, got the potty covered, got his pants down and him on...all without anyone touching the floor (I'd like to give a little shout out to yoga and cardio barre for the strength in my legs and arms to pull this little stunt off).  We peed, we washed, we were back in the stroller and on our way!  From the time he told me to the time he pottied was almost 3 minutes and he HELD IT! YIPEE!  So obviously we are still in diapers at night but overall I think we are getting there.  And truly, no rush!  I'm thankful that we get to take our time in this regard, and that I get to be home with my boys to help them potty train and for a husband who supports this process and is patient and who values the way we choose to parent.  And sorry if that is too much potty talk, I promise to keep it to a minimum as we proceed in the potty training department.

Happy Thanks Giving Month!

Halloween Night

 Well whadaya know?  The gnome costume did fit little man after all.  I almost didn't try it on him because I thought he'd be too long.  Yet again, I have over done it on the pictures.  Whatever.  My kids are dang cute, can't help myself.

So Halloween day included a run in the morning, some park time, a trip to trader joe's and then getting in costumes.  Since daddy was in Nashville and was going to be missing trick-or-treating, mommy was flyin' solo.  Frankly I had a bad attitude about the whole day.  Scott was crabby, both boys have been battling allergyesque symptoms thanks to the lovely Santa Ana winds, Owen WOULD NOT NAP and I almost called the whole thing off.  Thankfully our wonderful sweet neighbors invited us to trick-or-treat with them so I mustered up the energy and patience and I'm so glad I did because we had a great time.  But first...more pictures.....you know you love it....

 This kid's expressions just crack me up.

Dear casting agent for Dr. Seuss films: I have your next baby 'Who'

 Seriously. Stop the cuteness.

"Trick-or-Treating?  AWESOME!!!!"

Owen sneaking up on the gnome in the mirror.

T-rex and a garden gnome

"Where's the candy?"

"Omgee mom, someone stole the candy!"

 "Oooooh we haven't gotten the candy yet you say, well let's do this!"

"CAAAAANDY!"

We made it to our neighbors down the block and did our first practice trick-or-treat.  Scott was a little hesitant, but we convinced him to go in and hang out.   Part of the reason I almost called the whole thing off is that Scott is very much in a shy phase right now, combine that with his fear of all things Halloween this year (when we walk the neighborhood he tells me at every house that has decorations up that he doesn't like them, scary witches, goblins and whatnot - he HATES it!) and then add to that Brian not being here and I envisioned Scott freaking out and having a tantrum on the sidewalk and me having to carry him home while also carrying Owen, no thanks.  But after we got to our friends house I was starting to feel better....still guessing we'd only end up at one or two more houses...

Baby Katelynn the elephant.  Only 11 days younger than Owen.  Katelynn's mommy went to highschool with Brian, such a small world.

Well Erika's (our friend) nephew Jaden was there to trick or treat and he is a few years older than Scott.  Game Over.  Scott was in it to win it!  He loved hanging out with Jaden and ran from house to house and scored a bucket full of candy.  We trick or treated for over an hour. 

The boys ran up to the doors and I always offered to join Scott which was always followed by "no thanks mommy".   So grown up.  I was so glad he was having so much fun.  The only problem we encountered was at one house there were life sized mechanical witches etc. near the front door and then a big group of kids came up behind Scott and he got trapped and he FREAKED.  But never fear because he was ready to go again at the next house. 

When trick-or-treating was done Scott was devastated....despite his full blown exhaustion at this point he could have gone all night.  We got home and he immediately wanted to eat the candy.  Stupid mommy thought he really didn't have that much a concept of candy yet. Wrong-o!  So I let him dig through the bucket to choose one "mommy approved" piece.   Luckily Scott doesn't recognize most of the candy (as all of our candy comes from trader joe's, hello organic, no dye lollipops and gummy bears!!) so he ended up having one bite of a tootsie roll type candy and not liking it and then immediately choosing the trader joe's lollipop that I snuck into his bucket.  Phew!  Then he chose to snack on grapes the rest of the evening, happy mommy!

Happy T-Rex!

Scott already asked to go trick-or-treating this morning.  Looking forward to next year already!

Happy Halloween!