So true…

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Giveaway @ Stilettos & Diapers

 

Molly @ Stilettos & Diapers is having a great giveaway – thought my gaggle of loyal readers would be interested  

 

You can enter to win a $50 Visa gift card from Head & Shoulders – check it out!

http://mystilettosanddiapers.blogspot.com/2012/01/50-visa-gift-card-from-head-shoulders.html 

Now all I want to do is go buy some green apple Head & Shoulders…!

Heather

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In the Moment

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about living in the moment – rather than getting caught up in the fast-paced lifestyle that most of us live – being at home with Ben is definitely a much slower pace than what I’m used to, but I feel myself slipping back into my old ways of not living in the moment at all.  Always thinking ahead of what’s coming, wishing time away, etc. and not taking time to enjoy life as it is at this very moment. 

The fact that I was lucky enough to get pregnant relatively easily and have a healthy baby is not lost on me.  Even during the aches and pains of pregnancy, I still loved it, every minute – and a lot of that is simply because I appreciated the blessing of being able to have a baby, which a lot of people don’t get to experience.  We’re also incredibly blessed to have a very healthy, happy baby.  Though I have this insanely deep appreciation of how lucky I am, I still feel like I need to live in the moment more often, and appreciate everything more deeply. 

Sometimes if Ben is crying, I’m thinking, “Ugh – I can’t wait until he stops.  Why can’t he just be happy and quiet right now so I can get some things done?” or sometimes when I’m feeding him, I’m looking at the clock, thinking about all the other things I wish I were doing.  Often, the only thing that will soothe him is if I’m holding him and I’m either walking around, or standing and rocking him – and I find myself thinking, “I wish he would just let me sit down because if I’m sitting, it’s more comfortable for me and I can go on the computer/read/etc.”  Afterwards, I feel guilty and realize that he’s only going to be a baby for a short time - I know that I will miss his baby cries and soothing him and breastfeeding.  I get sad when I even think about weaning him, so why can’t I enjoy feeding him every single time?  (I do enjoy many feedings!)  It’s only a short time when he will fit in my arms so I can soothe him (and only a short time when he will want me to do this), and I need to remember to pause and enjoy.

I already miss his “early days” (I say this in quotes because really, he’s 10 weeks old, these ARE his early days, but you know what I mean – the very early days) and wish I enjoyed them more – even though during those early days, I was completely cognizant of the fact that time would fly, and that I would miss those times – I specifically would pause and ENJOY THE MOMENT to avoid feeling guilty months down the line.  I was a 100% happy, blissful mama (still am!) trying to enjoy everything, and I still feel guilty I didn’t stop and enjoy it more.  

You only have your first baby once – this bliss of focusing on this little baby you made, without any other distractions, only happens one time – I can only imagine how hectic it will be for baby #2 (ooh and hopefully baby #3!) and how much more challenging it will be to live in the moment.  I’ll never be able to focus solely on a baby like this again – with our next baby, we’ll obviously have Ben, so this whole, day-to-day-living-completely-for-the-baby-without-a-care-in-the-world only happens ONCE. 

I have also seriously been regretting not taking more pictures of Ben.  We do have a lot, but I feel like time is slipping away and he’s growing so fast – I don’t want to miss a single second of it on film.  I really wish we had more of him in the hospital and in his first few days at home – I have big time regrets about not taking more.  I for real get teary just thinking about it.  Granted, I was totally looped out on painkillers for the first two weeks post c-section and pictures weren’t really a giant priority in my mind (and if you know me, you know that pictures are ALWAYS my number one priority). 

It’s amazing the guilt you can have when you don’t feel like you’re doing the “right thing” or doing enough of the right thing, even though you’re trying desperately to do the right thing all the time.  And even with this intense regret, and knowing that I need to be present in the moment more, I still find myself thinking, “Oh if he would just hurry up and finish eating, I can do the laundry/watch this TV show/go on the computer/put the dishes away/have a minute to myself.”  As I’m writing this, I’ve had to stop a few times to feed Ben – and despite the fact that I’m sitting here throwing a pity party for myself for not enjoying the moment, I, at the same time while feeding him, was thinking, “Please hurry so I can finish writing…”  Daaaahhh! 

I can’t believe that in 10 superfast, timewarp speed, weeks, we’ve gone from this:

To this:

And in looking for the pictures above, I realized I haven’t taken any pictures of Ben in the past week with my camera (only a few crappy quality ones with my cell phone).  Oh boy.  Sounds like PHOTOSHOOT TOMORROW – get ready, Benjamin!

Heather

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Misc. Happenings and Further Proof of OCD

 

Ben had a trip to the pediatrician on Friday (why do I keep wanting to say, “vet”?) to have some unhealed belly button silver nitrate-ed off.  Some weird raw skin thing was poking out of the middle, and it definitely looked like it should be on the inside of his body, rather than the outside.  Having terrorized myself by reading stories of umbilical hernias and all kinds of other scary maladies, I called for an appointment.  It was a pretty simple process, and didn’t bother Ben at all – the doctor dipped a little q-tip thing in silver nitrate and put it on the area, and shortly after, the whole belly button turned a dark charcoal gray (strange) and then somehow it magically heals.  I feel like I should have researched this a bit before having the procedure done (some scary stuff on the internets about silver nitrate), but apparently it wouldn’t have healed on its own, and would have likely gotten bigger.  And we can’t be having such a handsome boy with an ugly belly button, now can we?

Of course, they weighed him upon arrival, and, drumroll please… 15 pounds, 6 ounces!  Holy mother, that’s almost another pound since we were there last Thursday.  I’m beginning to think my body produces butter rather than milk… pretty soon my baby is going to look like Paula Deen y’all. 

In other news, hubs was home sick ALL week this week (though Monday was technically a personal day, to recover from going to the Pats game on Sunday and to work on the house).  Boy, someone is a cranky pants when sick… (Derek if you are reading, I’m sorry, I love you dearly, but we both know it’s true )  Despite him being sick, we did get a ton of stuff done for the house this week, and I’m feeling super accomplished. 

My OCD kicked into high gear again this morning when I found myself ironing a comforter.  Our old one was shot and disgusting, and I figured that while no one would say, “I’m not buying this house because the owners have a sickening comforter,” a nice fresh new one would add to the appeal.  I scored a super deal on a Tahari set with pillows and shams ($40!?!), but when I threw anal retentively placed the comforter on the bed, it was too horribly wrinkly for me to handle.  So, I did what any semi-sane person would do – whipped out an extension cord, plugged in the iron, and ironed the crap out of that comforter, while it was on the bed.  And I have to say, it looks divine:

Can I say “comforter” any more times in one paragraph?!

I also have to say, that our bedroom never, ever looks like this.  In fact, it’s only even closely resembled this for the last few weeks.  We never had side tables, lamps, or a headboard – those are new additions this month, to help make the room look more presentable to potential buyers.  And normally there’s a giant ugly dog crate in between the windows.  There’s usually always a pile of plates/glasses/food on my side of the bed, and miscellaneous other junk in my corner. 

Who knew that trying to sell a house would be the one thing that’s helped us get our act together (to be fair, I’m the only one who needed to be not slobbish)!

 

Heather

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The Picnik is over…

 

Is anyone else as sad as I am that Picnik is closing soon??  I just started getting into this program, and now it’s going away (along with Google Friend Connect… another tragedy!). 

 

Without Picnik, how else can I make ridiculous pictures of my baby like this (gratuitous photos of Ben to follow…):

 

Or this:

 

(Clearly I was on a big mustache kick…)

 

Okay, last one…

 

So sad, so sad…

 

Heather

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Giant Baby?

 

So Ben wasn’t ridiculously large at birth, 8 pounds, 7 ounces – he was a c-section baby, but I like to think it was only because he was facing sideways, not because he was ginormous.  (Anyone have any tips on a VBAC?  Already thinking of more babies!  Anyone?  Crickets…  Tap tap tap… this thing on?  Shout out to my three readers, not including my mom …) 

 

Anyhoo, he’s been growing like, insane, since we brought him home.  Most moms get to enjoy at least a month with a teeny, tiny newborn.  Me?  Nope, not so much.  I got about a week, and then he took off running.  He’s in size 3 diapers already, and as soon as I get my shipment of cloth diapers, he will be wearing size LARGE (his weight, coupled with vast amounts of pee = need for lots of absorbency!).  At two months old.  And large is the biggest size they make!  He’s actually pretty normal in terms of clothing size – he generally matches close to his age.  At his two month appointment last week, we learned he is in the 95th percentile for weight at 14 pounds, 10 ounces, and 75th for height at 23 3/4 inches.  Good lord… 

 

Perhaps this outfit is an indicator of a uniform he may be wearing someday (Ben Wilfork??) :

Goodness gracious, that cute chubby little face, with that chubby little belly, and those chubby fingers… kill me every time…

For a sense of scale, the first picture below is when we first brought Ben home, and the second is Ben about a month later on Christmas Eve (Which was a month ago, so imagine how much bigger he is now!  And yes, we did put out cookies and milk for Santa even though Ben had no clue we did this, let alone does he know who Santa is… and wrapped Ben’s presents even though he doesn’t know what presents are,  nor can he open presents… Hey – mom has to have a little fun too! ):

 

So today at the post office, the woman behind the counter was oohing and aahing at Ben:

Post office lady: “Oh, your son is so adorable!  How old is he?”

Me, loving every second: “He’s 10 weeks today, actually!”

Post office lady: “Wow.  Um.  Is he big for his age?” 

 

Happens all the time…  

 

Heather

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Terrible Dog Mom

   
I realized over the weekend that I completely forgot to introduce a key member of our family – our first child, and furry son, Cooper.  How on earth could I forget this cute little guy?  Poor Cooper has really gotten the short end of the stick since Ben came home, and this lapse of memory is another example! 


He’s a nearly 3-year-old Brittany (read: craziest, most energetic dog you can imagine, like Richard Simmons on crack) and gets into quite a lot of trouble, which is more our fault than his, for not giving him enough exercise.  Lately he’s been quite the attention-seeker, just trying to let us know he’s still around (and, that I should try to remember to feed him breakfast in the morning…).  Cooper loves long walks on the beach (no, really!), stealing hand towels from the bathroom, being thisclosenexttoyou, and cheese. 

He’s not quite sure what to make of Ben, other than he knows he gets into a lot of trouble for licking the baby’s face, hands, arms, feet, etc. (ordinarily I don’t mind dog kisses, but honestly, this lately, this dog licks his butt all the dang time and his breath has been staaaaaank…).  Overall, we’re lucky that Cooper is super gentle with Ben.  We’ll just keep working on the butt-licking issue…  baby steps, right?


Heather Pin It

Still pregnant?

 
I’ve been wondering lately if I’m still pregnant.  Sure, I was sliced open two months ago and a lovely baby was pulled out, but I’ve been feeling just like I did when I was pregnant, almost like there’s another baby still in there. 

First, let’s discuss how I still have all the same cravings that I did while pregnant.  I need an IV drip of ice cream, and I’d kill a person to get some cranberry juice up in here. 

Or how about bizarre food cravings?  Two nights ago, I was having Ritz crackers with one of those soft cheese balls  (the ones rolled in nuts that come out around the holidays), sprinkled with Frank’s Red Hot, at 11 o’clock at night. 

Photo courtesy of Dealiciousmom.com

Now, unlike the Frank’s commercial, I do not put that $#%& on everything – in fact, it usually sits in our refrigerator, untouched, until I decide it’s been in there too long and must have gone bad – then it makes a trip to the trash.  Sorry, Frank’s, I love you, but I never think to use you!

The biggest sign of them all is that I am still nesting.  It never stopped.  We’re going to be putting our house on the market at the end of this month (yikes, just looked at the calendar on my computer and realized how freaking soon that is…), so I’ve been in high cleaning mode.  Now, normally, I’m Queen MessyPants, and my husband is Mr. OCD Extraordinaire.  I’ve become so OCD with cleaning that I can barely stand to be in the house because I’m always finding things to scrub.  It’s overwhelming, and our house is only a few years old and is always in a relatively clean state (read: not that messy!).  I swear, now I understand why Mark Summers used to comb his carpet…  (you remember Mark Summers, right?  Double Dare?)


Photo courtesy of nervouscircle.com

As much as I’d love to sit around and watch TV all day with this little guy:

…I just can’t stop the cleaning!

Let me tell you, there's nothing like the impending deadline of getting your house on the market to make you clean like a nesting woman pregnant with 10 babies. Dang. I cleaned the top lip of our shower a few days ago- you know, the little shelf thing that sticks out where the top of the shower meets the wall?  SICK. I scrubbed the entire shower for over an hour in nothing but underwear because I was scrubbing so hard that I broke a sweat. Is that an overshare?  Then I cleaned the light fixture with a toothbrush... 

Today, I whipped out my trusty toothbrush (one for cleaning only, people, don’t get scared!) and took it to the inside of our toilet, and Mr. Clean Magic Eraser’ed the bathroom trim.  I need a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser toolbelt or some kind of fanny pack for my stash.  I walk around with one all the time and can’t stop scrubbing our walls.  Those things are phenomenal.  And the ones for the shower/tub?!  Life changing. 

I have a busy schedule on Saturday, so I probably won’t be toothbrushing anything, but Sunday… look out!


Heather Pin It

Let’s get it started!

 
After thinking about starting a blog for yeeeears, I’m finally doing it!  I’ve had a meeeelion reasons to wait – but now I’m ready to just take a deep breath and go for it.  No more excuses, full steam ahead! 

As for me, I’m a wife and a new mom to our two-month old (whoa – seriously – when people tell you time flies with kids, they are underestimating big time – talk about time warp!) son, Benjamin.  As any new mom would think, he’s totally amazing and the best baby ever – we’re getting quite spoiled because apparently, all babies are not this good.  He cries mostly when he’s hungry, and that’s pretty much it.  He’s been getting very smiley lately, which is the best ever.  

Honestly, how could you resist this face:

I can’t take it!

Hmm, what else, what else… I’m very lucky to be able to share my life with this amazing guy:


I love, love, love cooking, and plan to feature lots of recipes on the blog, along with stories about my various adventures with Ben and in life overall. 

And… cookies for breakfast?  What gives?  I had been trying to come up with a blog name for months, and was sitting on my couch, largely pregnant, eating Oreos for breakfast on a Saturday (now, this had nothing to do with the fact that I was pregnant – I eat cookies for breakfast regardless if I can play the pregnant card or not!).  Then it hit me – Cookies for Breakfast!  I think it encompasses what I’ll cover here – life (because sometimes, the only thing that can get you going are some cookies for breakfast – or some other unorthodox thing!), cooking (cookies, duh!), and whatever else comes along. 

So, here’s to hoping I can figure out this blogging thing (like HTML, coding?! Whaaa? Like, how do I fix the spacing on this page?!) and hoping you’ll enjoy reading!

Heather Pin It