What do you get when you have your birthday, Thanksgiving, and your period all in one week???

Anyone that knows me knows that Thanksgiving is my absolute all time favorite holiday, and this year takes the cake. Literally. I mean it takes the cheesecake, the stuffing, the sweet potatoes, the apple pie, and even the wilted ice berg lettuce salad. This week owns the food department and I'm the CEO.

What I'm trying to say is, "I'm hungry"! Or maybe, "I'm starving" would be more appropriate???

See, my week started off very active as usual with my 34th birthday hike. Sounds athletic enough, until we made it over to the dinner part where I ate for 4 hours straight. That was the beginning of all the rage.

I've always fantasized over having a summer time birthday where I could have a pool party or some type of sun-filled soiree. This year, I gambled and got my wish. I told my besties I wanted to meet at Temescal Canyon for a hike despite the 30% chance of rain. This is not an uncommon birthday amongst many of my fantastic friends. Hey we can dine at Koi with the best of 'em, but sometimes you just need to get down and dirty.

So that's what we did. Not only did the sun shine for the duration of the entire hike without a single cloud in the sky, but my little turkey stayed happily nezzled and mostly snoozing in the moby wrap for the whole 90 minutes....except for a little peek to the camera when it came time to take pictures. It qualified as a perfect hike in the baby/weather department!

Then comes the eating part. That's where everyone came over to our house for a pot of my veggie stew and Marc's brownies. We had tons of hearty, healthy, beneficial food to go along with the decadent delights. There was something for everyone. Except for a meatetarian. If the only thing you eat is meat, then I guess there wasn't anything for you. But there was something for everyone else.

A few of my friends wrote and called to get my recipe for veggie stew. It was really awesome. The only thing is that I never make it the same way twice. But it was an awesome base of beans and flavorful veggies and potatoes. I made the bold move of putting an entire stalk of kale and an entire stalk of chard into it when it was almost done. That was only a bold move for me because it was something different than I usually do, but everyone complimented the greens. Including Marc. It was a perfect blend of flavor and taste. Your welcome my friends.....and Marc! He liked what I cooked......WOOOOOT!!!!

That was only the beginning, and as the week progressed, so did my PMS. My healthy appetite escalated along with the food supply. We flew out on the red eye Monday night and I haven't been able to stop eating. It was just one of those kind of weeks and I got called out on it Thanksgiving day.

During Thanksgiving dinner I was so busy giving Max tastes of all the baby friendly foods that I didn't eat a proper meal for myself and was grazing on everything but turkey for the rest of the day.

Marc's grandmother Charlotte (Max's only living great grandparent) told me I need to stop eating because I look pregnant again. Everyone was stunned except those that were nervous or possibly even a little mad. She responded by telling Marc that I have "let myself go". Hahaha!!!! It was the funniest thing in the entire world.

I promise it was as hilarious as anything could ever be. It was fuel for the new york-banter fire. Those comments provided for so much laughing that I'm sure I burned off the calories from the last two plates of stuffing.

All sorts of points were brought up. Marc's aunt reminded her that I had a baby. Marc's mom mentioned that I was breast feeding and needed more calories for that. Marc brought up that you shouldn't criticize someone's weight if you are fatter than them. And so on and so on....

At every meal after that comments have been made that if someone isn't able to finish their meal that I will take care of it. Or you'll hear Marc simply say "20 or 30 pounds". Or we'll mention that Max will go on a diet now because he is beginning to look pregnant.

I still love Charlotte. I think she was genuinely worried about me and simply speaking her concerns. She thinks because I don't eat meat I never get full and can't stop eating everything else. She was trying to help me with my "problem".

This year I am thankful for my first Thanksgiving as mommy to baby Max. I'm also thankful I finally got my period so my "food baby" doesn't get any bigger. We are having so much fun in Florida. Gobble gobble!!!

Art Rebels

My friend Emme had the BEST 30th birthday party this weekend. We went to Art Rebel art studio for a most extraordinary obsessive compulsive painting party. And we had more than a hangover to show for our good time the next day!

This party consisted of body painting, speed doodling, dancing, spin art, and did I forget to mention NAKED body painting???.....Ahahaha!!! It was a paint party extravaganza! The night began rather calmly when we painted the studio-length community canvas. But the night ended in an all out paint fight, and let's just say that the paint won that competition.

Believe it or not, the naked body painting was NOT my favorite part. Don't get me wrong. I didn't mind painting the chiseled abdominals on the oh so generous volunteer. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Focus on his foot? Uhhh, no thanks! But as much as I didn't mind outlining Patrick's abs with blue and green, there were so many other aspects of this evening that made it one of a kind.

Spin art was my favorite. I wanted to sit at the spin art machine all night long, but didn't want to be a hog about it. I love love loved dropping different colors of paint into the squares and was fascinated at the way the paint splattered to the outer edged of the picture. I'm still amazed that you get concentric circles and streaks simultaneously by dropping paint onto the moving paper. When can I do spin art again? I am ready!!!

Gosh, it's too bad we couldn't all be as creative as Emme on our 30th birthdays. Most of us spend a ton of money on a night that ends up blending in with so many other fabulous nights out. But not this girl. She entered her 30's with a bang. And all of her friends got to wake up with a few masterpieces that we got to bring home. I am so happy we were part of her celebration!!!

This is my favorite picture of the night. I really love all these girls. I've known Paisley and Renee for over a decade and just became friends with Emme this year. You can tell that we are having the best time being art rebels together!

He's a Crawler....Shockaller

What a sport! He is the best little baby and couldn't be any cuter if he tried. It's a good thing that I hang out with a lot of other gushing mommies so I don't have to make the general public sick with my never ending doting remarks. I could talk about this sweet boy 24/7.

Max is doing so much these days. He crawls from one end of the house to the other. We had to start baby proofing when he was 7 months old. Once he started chasing the cat around the house, I knew we had reached the "getting into everything" stage. After Max dove into Boogars' cat food bowl, I told Marc that he has to keep his eye on the baby at all times because has gone mobile.

Several days later after I had explained this bit of information to Marc, I came home from yoga to find Marc asleep on the couch. Of course I thought it was a joke that Marc was napping before midnight because he always goes to bed so late. I asked him "where's Max" and he threw a quick glance toward his feet and said "right there". Once again I thought he was joking or trying to fool me because there was no baby by his feet. In response to my confused expression, he jumped up and started walking in circles and looking around the couch as if he had misplaced the baby....I thought that he was possibly playing a joke on me and Max was sleeping soundly in his crib. I really didn't know what to think about Marc's state of mind until I saw his jaw drop as he looked at his son in the hallway climbing up onto the laundry detergent.

Having a baby has caused me to relive many moments of my own childhood and this stirred up a huge memory. I vividly recalled how serious an incident we had in our home when one of my brothers drank lime away and was sent to the hospital. It was really scary to think back about my brother and a wake up call to Marc. You can't be asleep and watching your baby at the same time.....duh!

Fortunately nothing bad happened and now it is fun to watch little diaper butt scooting around the house. I don't mind that he is all over the place because he is usually having a blast with the cat or his toys. It took him so long to show interest in the cat and now he is all about their brotherly love.

Unfortunately for Max, Boogars is not so keen on having clumps of hair pulled out and has resorted to batting his paw a few times. Ahahahaha....I am still laughing over that one. Boogars is all bark and no bite and trying to show Max that he needs to keep his distance. They are friendly for the most part, but as Max continues to get stronger I think Boogars will keep running away faster and faster.

Max is jabbering away these days and has lots to say. He says quite a few consonants in all the babbling and still only has the two words mama and dada. He said mama for the first time at 6 months old and would repeat it over and over as one long mamamamamama. Then after about a month of that he began dadadadada. Now for the first time this week he is trying to imitate many other words on a regular basis. I looooove it when he does this. It's not too often, but we have our rituals that involve saying and doing the same things.

For instance, this morning when I picked him up out of his crib, I said the usual "good morning". And he just smiled and cooed and made a good morning sound that imitated the inflection of my voice. It was so sweet. And other things I tell him such as "I love you" have been mimicked as well as the word kitty. These words aren't coming out terribly clear and if it weren't in response to what I had just said, I'm sure they wouldn't be as easily understood. With a little more practice I'm sure he will be saying lots more soon.


I'm reading the most fabulous book. Whaaaa----you say? Read? Gosh, I haven't had time to do something like that since Max was born. If I have a free minute, I'm usually trying to squeeze in a nap or a quick workout or a post on my blog. These are all things that I would like to do every single day, but there's absolutely no way. It's always a sacrifice to do one thing instead of another.

But alas, I am reading a book! Even if it is only a few pages a day, I am reading. My first book back is "The Continuum Concept" by Jean Liedloff. Wow, it is amazing and a must read for all parents. I'm on Chapter 3 entitled "The Beginning of Life" and am fascinated by the assessment of a baby's needs.

When a baby is born, they have strict requirements about what they need. We have learned that he cannot hope that if he is uncomfortable now, that he will be comfortable later. Either things are right or not right. He cannot feel that "mother will be right back" when she leaves him. If a baby is left to cry for too long and the response it is meant to elicit does not come, that feeling gives way to utter bleakness without time or hope. That breaks my heart to think of a screaming, crying baby left all alone to suffer!!!

It does make sense to me that we have these maternal instincts to respond to our baby's cries, and it bewilders me that there are people who bring another life into the world and ignore their cries for help. It says that if you can't be received as a baby, that you may have trouble bonding and forming attachments. The psychotherapist that recommended this book to me simply stated that if I ever have any doubts about my role as an attachment parent, to read this book and keep up the good work.

I wish I could stay up all night and read this whole entire book. But there is no way I would be a good mommy tomorrow without any sleep. Funny how parenting doesn't allow for a day off and breast feeding gives about a 6 hour break at the most. I love my full time job!

Speaking of jobs, I have some part time work coming up for the holidays. I'll be working in short 4 hour little incriments on the weekends for Kitchen Aid and I'm looking forward to the small amount of responsibility. Marc's mom does this same job in Florida and hooked me up with the little side gig. Sounds manageable enough for a start back to earning an income!

I'm missing the entertainment industry, but not enough to go back to it any time soon. Those hours are tough to keep up with for anyone, but for a new mom....forget about it. I would definitely have a meltdown! I don't know if I could keep up with breast feeding and would feel horrible about using formula. And not to mention, we still get up once in the night and I would be exhausted all the time. No thank you!

It would be so sad to miss out on special moments and huge milestones if I were working full time. I am so grateful to be at home with my boy. I love being with him and moments like bathtime are the best. His little butt is so cute as he tries to crawl out of his froggie bathtub. I treasure every moment with all my boys!!!

Goodnight!