june non-challenge: favorite meals

Day 7 – What’s your favorite thing to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? If you have children, what are their favorites?

Me
Breakfast: Vanilla latte, egg scramble (with turkey bacon, cheddar, tomatoes, onion), hashbrowns, and a little bit of a waffle. Mmmmmm…

Lunch: Amy’s Grapefruit Salad. A local restaurant favorite. It has lettuce, sliced avocado, cashews, shredded chicken, grapefruit, and a sesame seed dressing. So delicious!

Dinner: My sweetie makes a delicious dish of cabbage, turkey meatballs, potato, carrot, onion, and lima beans in a tomato sauce. My fave meal!

Baby
Breakfast: Strawberries, banana, and oatmeal or Rice Krispies

Lunch: Grilled cheese, fresh fruit (berries especially), Soycatash (from Trader Joe’s – has edamame, corn, and red peppers)

Dinner: Pasta with (turkey) meat sauce, broccoli or asparagus (he loves both), garlic bread (this child LOVES bread), yogurt

june non-challenge: new things

Day 6 – When was the last time you tried something new? What was it and what was the result?

I was going to skip today as I really can’t think of anything to talk about. However, I just can’t bear to skip so here I am! I tried beets for the first time around Christmas and I LOVED THEM! Yum, yum, yum. Other than that, there are always new things in terms of parenthood. I learned that getting on baby’s level and talking in a very soft voice (almost a whisper) causes him to stop having a tantrum to listen to what I am saying. Sometimes he returns to his tantrum after we’ve “talked” and sometimes he doesn’t. Interesting, no?

june non-challenge: birthdays

Day 5 -What do you prefer to do on your birthday? If you have children, what do you prefer to do for their birthday?

My birthday has been a super low-key event for quite a while. The last blow out birthday I remember was my 21st and I just turned 41 (Mama old!). These days, it’s usually a few gifts from family and DW always makes me a chocolate cake (YUM!). Pre-baby, sometimes we’d go out with a couple of friends for dinner or drinks. Nice.

For Monkey’s birthday, we had a party at home with family and friends (let me know if you need the password). This year, we are planning to do the same but the guest list will be pared down to only people with kids (plus Grandma, of course). Our place is small and we want to make sure this  year’s party is all about Monkey. Last year was our little celebration, too. By the way, we already have Monkey’s party theme. We bought these at Target as they were on clearance and we knew they were absolutely perfect!

Now to come up with activities and snacks to match… And how freaking cute is this cake I found Googling???? WANT!

 

june non-challenge: parenthood surprises

Day 4 – What has most surprised you about parenthood?

I’m going to be a bit redundant with others and say I had no idea just how difficult the sleep deprivation was going to be. I used to wake up frequently in the night and would always say how having a baby would just be more of the same in that department. WRONG! It’s not just the frequent wakings, but nighttime parenting, too. Trying to get the baby back to sleep, trying to get the baby to nurse (oh, those early days are so rough), and it just goes on and on.

The amount of attention a baby brings to your family was also a surprise. We are always getting approached by people to look at, talk about, interact with Monkey. One of our cranky old neighbors is now actually really pleasant and shares interesting stories about raising her son. We’ve made friends with waitresses and waiters at the restaurants we frequent as they love to play with baby. I didn’t realize how just how much people love babies.

And finally, I was totally surprised at many aspects of breastfeeding. First, that it would be so so so hard to get started. Second, that I would LOVE it so much (I was pretty apprehensive about it when I was pregnant, thinking of it more like something that was necessary but not enjoyable). Finally, that I would still be BFing at almost 18 months with no sign of slowing from Monkey. Never would have predicted that one.

june non-challenge: guilty pleasures

Day 3 -What are your guilty pleasures? Lettin’ it all hang out!

Make your own free picture collage

june non-challenge: high school me

Day 2 -Describe your high school self. What extracurricular activities, if any, did you participate in during high school?

I spent my freshman and sophomore years in a small high school in the South. My family moved to Los Angeles the summer between my sophomore and junior years, much to my dismay. So I was in an LA suburb for my junior and senior years. I liked school when we were in the South, but was very unhappy at my new school until I started dating my high school boyfriend in my senior year. I had friends, but wasn’t popular or anything. I didn’t participate in any activities, but I was on the yearbook staff my senior year. My main interest was music – I saw tons of bands, bought lots of records (that’s right, there weren’t CDs yet when I was in HS), and loved listening to music and singing alone in my room. I wrote (bad) poetry and read like crazy. Graduating was one of the happiest days of my life – I was so ready to get the hell out of there!

Bonus prom photos!

 

june non-challenge: where i blog

Day 1 – Provide a picture of the space where you normally blog

I typically blog at work (hey, it’s more fun than actually WORKING), so here’s my depressing little cubicle. Ick! Family photos are to the left, lest you think I don’t have them. In this picture you see my Hello Kitty calendar, Halloween card featuring Monkey as a monkey, and the a plush of the little black kitty from Kiki’s Delivery Service. I also have a flair wall, more Japanese cuteness, and a Buffy mini-poster in my little space.