What is going on here?

I should post an addendum to my last blog. Remember the shopping spree I went on? Well, let's go over the items purchased.

1. Potty training seat: I even spent the extra $10 for the high back bjorn seat that I was told to get. Let's see what baby Max does with his new toilet. He uses is as a bowl for his ice. He's figured out that as the ice melts he can drink cold water out of the area that is supposed to hold urine. Oh, and when he is finished eating his dinner, he will take it and put it in the potty. That's probably why I found potatoes in there this morning.

2. Swimming pool: I bought a little pool for our rooftop deck because the weather is beautiful and Max loves the water. However, after bringing the pool in the house, Max filled it with all his toys. So his swimming pool is actually a glorified blue and green toy box. And truthfully, the toys are all stored in there so perfectly that I don't mind leaving it just the way it is.

3. Extra large gardening tools: It's not like he can ever play with them outside anyway. He might knock a little kid over at the park with that arm of his. So he walks back and forth over the carpet with the rake and I kind of feel bad that he hasn't gotten to use his hoe, rake, and shovel in an actual garden.

Ooooohhhhh welllllll...... He's happy and who cares if everything we get him is noticeably less interesting than the box that it came in. I'm just grateful to have such a happy baby boy.

This week he taught me about motherhood in the millenium. No texting while diaper changing was the #1 lesson learned. Yes, I learned the hard way and no, I will not be repeating that mistake! I THOUGHT I've been doing great because I basically gave up talking on the phone months ago, but texting while parenting is a major distraction to watch out for!

I also learned that after about age 16 months, it is not wise to cloth diaper with velcro diaper covers. He can take those off by himself and snaps are the way to go. My favorite diaper covers are called the "flip" for this age. Another lesson learned....

Today Max got his 15th tooth. All he needs, is one more bottom tooth at this point for a complete set of chompers. He's been nursing soooo much for comfort lately and I wouldn't be surprised if after these last two teeth come through if he goes back to only breast feeding a few times a day again. We have been enjoying oodles of snuggles.

Tonight when my little angel fell asleep I couldn't help but stare at him for a while before I laid him down in his bed. I breathed in his breath and held his little hand and told him how special he is to me. He is such a peaceful little boy and our attachment is the most beautiful bond I have ever experienced in my whole entire life.

I love that I have such a healthy baby boy, such supportive mommy friends, and the ability to go to bed late at night without feeling like a truck ran over me. I have not forgotten how sleep deprived I was this time last year and it is such a blessing to feel rested--even with a teething baby!

Good times on runyon canyon with our sweet friends Jolynn and Zaiah made for a fun beginning to the week! We're getting ready to leave town tomorrow in time to beat carmageddon in LA this weekend. We're packing for vegas and rocking out to some tunes...Let the good times roll!

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!!!

Lights Camera Camping

As if we didn't already know it, Max is a ham in front of the camera. We booked an infomercial together and shot it last week. He was all smiles as I talked about the fantastic baby food processor that we've been using to make all of Max's baby food at home. He was a natural and we enjoyed our time on set.

The whole crew including the producers raved about Max's happy demeanor. Every single one of the babies at the shoot was adorable, but they unanimously voted Max the Gerber baby of the group. He won it by a long shot.

Max may read this later one day and think it's crazy that he ever loved so much attention. Or he may laugh at how he was born loving the camera. Either way, I will support him, but I'm guessing it will be funny to look back on how his life began.

On Friday, we headed out for a weekend of camping out at Joshua Tree. I think it was fairly brave of us to take a 7 month old camping, but everything went really well. Max absolutely loved all of the bustling activities that encompassed camping. Once again, he was a natural.

Like all little boys, Max loved being in the tent. He didn't seem to miss the comfort of his crib for one single second. He slept on the air mattress for part of the time and in my suitcase for the other part of the time. It got really cold at night and we had him bundled up like a burrito. We kept him so busy that he never turned down an opportunity to sleep. Awesome!

We went on 3 beautiful hikes and Marc and I traded off carrying Max. It was a little too hot for me to keep him in the moby wrap, so Marc ended up just carrying him in his arms most of the time. That had to be an arm workout for Marc and pure bliss for Max. He was so content that he even fell asleep around Marc's neck on one of the hikes. It was pretty darn cute if I say so myself.

This was truly a week of reaffirmation that my baby is a super star camper. He doesn't mind roughing it or earning his keep. What a trooper! I'm not ready to get him an agent, but we will start planning our next trip!

Yummy

Max enjoyed what turned out to be almost a full week of eating banana. Ok, let's be real. I enjoyed my newfound time when he's busy sucking on his banana lollipop. Sweet!

After much deliberation and research, we have decided that his next food will be green beans. So Marc bought fresh green beans and boiled and pureed them. I was all prepared to make Max's food, but I was happy to let Marc take care of it. He's so good in the kitchen, and made Max's food for the next few days while I was putting Max to bed.

After Max fell asleep, I went in the kitchen to see how the process was going. And to my surprise, liquified green beans tasted delicious. I finger licked the blender clean. I think with a little salt and pepper it would be like any freshly made vegan soup I would order from A Votre Sante. Max's homemade baby food is delicious! Unbelievable, huh!

Only problem is that I shouldn't be eating so late at night. Green been mash after a huge Lizzy salad and sweet and salty mix from Trader Joe's for dessert. Who am I kidding. I do this every single night these days.

Sherrie is visiting from Dallas and we had a nice visit today. Our plan was to hike up temescal canyon with our babies. Her son Ethan weighs 10 lbs more than my little baby so I told her I would carry her son and she would carry mine. But she insisted that she had mom arms and was in great shape to carry the heavier baby. She even bragged to Marc that she was so strong and flexed her muscles for all to see.

That turned out to be a funny joke and we didn't even come close to the magnificent ocean view at the top of the loop. Nope, not this time. We had left salads and snacks in the car and she decided she would rather sit down at the beach and have a picnic than continue the forward march. We were hot and sweaty and tired.

In my opinion, it would have been easier to hike the rest of temescal. We didn't have any type of a blanket or towel to spread across the sand, so we improvised by sitting on our slings. I wish I had a picture of my awkward position. I spread my wet-with-sweat-moby wrap on the sand to sit on. As I attempted to snack on salad, I was holding Max with one hand and a little umbrella to keep us from getting a sunburn with the other hand.

We got sand in all our food and every crevice of our bodies, but it was a great time. Ethan has a funny love/hate relationship with the ocean. He's fascinated yet scared of the water that keeps coming back to get him. He was all boy running around and digging up sand.

Max was slightly less impressed. Nothing compares to milk bottle numbers one and two. He had his boobies so all was good. Yeah, imagine that. With everything else I was trying to balance, I had to whip out a sweaty boob for my boy. Kinda' yucky sounding, but what's a thirsty boy to do....

Sunday night we went to dinner at Sor Tino for Robert's birthday. I love this restaurant because it is walking distance from our house and the Italian food is delicious. It was such a nice, normal dinner, and then our little group of five (plus one sleeping baby) walked over to Yogurtland. We took the little sample cups and kept re-filling them over and over again. I couldn't stop laughing. Part of me was giddy happy at how long Max had slept without a peep and the other part of me couldn't believe this group (ages 33 - 42) was having so much fun eating free dessert. Gosh, we are so mature.

When I was little, I can remember thinking that being an adult meant you had to be a boring, predictable person. Now I think it means you can have more fun than ever. I can't believe no one at Yogurtland told us we needed to purchase a yogurt, or better yet to just leave.

Hey, I guess there are worse places to be than a yogurt bar on the weekends. At least we weren't at Cabo Cantina smoking cigs with the baby. Or better yet at home licking baby food off the counter.