Thursday, January 31, 2013

currently

Wow could this week have gone by faster???  Happy 1st day of February to you! We are that much closer to spring.  Let's also not forget that it's Friday and I have the whole weekend off.  YESSSS!
Watching:  Lost.  I'm not late to the party.  I watched Lost the first time around, but I just had this desire to start over.  DJ and I didn't watch Lost from the beginning but one weekend when we were still dating we started from the very first episode.  We didn't even leave his bedroom.  We just watched episode after episode.  Sometimes that's the only way I like to watch suspenseful shows like that.  Whole seasons at a time.  I do that currently with shows like Sons of Anarchy, True Blood and Homeland.  I'm too impatient at all times sometimes to wait a whole week between episodes.  It's far better for my heart to watch them straight through.

Listening to:  Florence and the Machine and Lana Del Rey.  It's crazy but I swear I sound just like them in my car.  Our harmonizing is soooo on point. 

Planning:  Vacations.  I have 6 weeks of vacation this year.  Yesss!  Although it seems like chump change compared to my 6 weeks last year plus my four months of maternity leave.  Did I even work last year?  Austin, Florida, Tennessee, see you soon.

Thinking about:  I've been thinking quite a bit about the type of woman I am, the type of man my husband is and the types of role models we will be to our son and future children.  It's still January so I am still sorting out details and blue prints if you will in regards to my resolutions.  It takes time to build the foundation when you want to successfully change or reach goals.  We are evolving and eliminating as much negative as possible to make room for more positive.  I regularly think about small changes we can make as a husband and a wife, a daddy and a mommy.

Looking forward to:  Warmer weather.  Be it leaving this fridged state or the seasons changing, I need to feel the warmth of sunshine soon.  My seasonal depression is starting to show through my pale skin like a goose bump. 

Also I'm looking forward to my hair not falling out anymore.  It seems to be increasing the amount in which I am losing daily, but I have my fingers crossed it will subside soon.  My mommy friends told me it would happen, but I was all, "I don't know, my hair is still so thick and lucious." followed by a hair flip.  Cut to the past two weeks as I yell nightly from the shower, "DJ!! I think I'm dying! Losing this amount of hair can't be normal." accompanied by a clogged drain and a pile of my hair big enough to provide a Raggedy Ann doll with a full head of red locks.

Reading:  Board books.  Hank's library is increasing and he loves a good story.

Making me happy:  Weighing less than I did before I got pregnant, asparagus, black cherry berry tea, my Henry bear sleeping through the night again, the new season of Project Runway (the real deal too, not that dumb all stars version that Heidi Klum doesn't even host), Apple replacing my iPhone within 10 minutes at the Apple store (hollar for a phone with sound), our tax return this year (oh.my.god. double hollar for that bad boy), February finally arriving and being filled with love, installing our new thermostat all on my own while DJ was working making me feel like a super woman, my mom being the most awesome mom ever and my little Bowie bear letting down his walls to get super snuggly with Hank lately.
Have a good weekend friends!



Tuesday, January 29, 2013

weekend inventory

Let's start with the best news!  I actually found out on Thursday, BUT Henry is ear infection free!!  I took him back to see his pediatrician because he still seemed fussy, but she said that his ears are clear and besides a little congestion in his sneezer, he's a healthy horse.  A solid 14lbs 10oz of adorable.  He does however have a little toof that will pop any day!  She also explained some science about our bodies at night which would account for his restlessness between 2am and 5am EVERY night, which made perfect sense, because this mommy who has been very spoiled with a good little sleeper has been surviving on a maximum of 4 hours per night the past 2 weeks.  Mama is t-i-r-e-d, tired.  Poke through little tooth, poke through already!  He did however sleep from 9pm-7am last night which was a major, fist pumping, hallelujah type moment this morning. 

Friday the snow fell and my little Hank and I hung out in the evening.  He loves to see himself on the iPhone so I obliged happily and we face-timed my brother in law in Florida.
Saturday I worked for a few hours, and then we went thrifting.  I found a few pairs of denim shorts I'm planning on getting creative with, DJ got a few flannels and Henry, well he scored big time.  We found him, eight Baby Einstein DVDs! These things are $14-$24 brand new and he loves them.  We got them for $2 each!! On top of that we bought him a ton of adorable clothes of course.  Baby western shirts are the bees knees.  Once we got home though, I needed sleep.  Okay I still didn't get much sleep, but I absolutely needed to veg.  Lay like a vegetable.  In my pajamas and watch bad tv and Lifetime movies.  You would think that I would have gone to sleep early considering my sleep deprivation, but instead I stayed up late.  I'm pretty sure alone time is just as important as sleep sometimes.  A little decompression time if you will.







Sunday we went grocery shopping and then went sledding.  We bundled up and drove down to a little hill nearest to our house.  It was so fun! How did I forget how fun it is to go sledding?  I kept saying, "Oh my god, I was going so fast!"  I know Henry won't remember this stuff, but DJ and I will never forget how fun it was to take our baby sledding for the first time.

Friday, January 25, 2013

friday feelings

Blogging is a funny thing.  Sharing your life, the joys, the frustrations, the inspirations.  I started my blog with a certain style in mind, but life and growth have taken it in a completely different direction. 

One of my favorite things about blogging is the sense of camaraderie and support among bloggers that I've come to appreciate so much.  You begin by following someones blog that catches your eye.  Then they by chance follow you.  Someone comments on your blog and then you take a chance and read some recent posts from them and realize how much you have in common and then you follow them regularly.  Reading about their life while they read about yours.  You get to know one another.  Complete strangers that live across the country sometimes, that you would never have otherwise met.  Friendships develop so quickly.  I find myself chatting regularly with fellow bloggers and celebrating their victories, sometimes more frequently than my own friends.  The next thing you know you are part of a little circle of blogger friends.  Your friend follows someone, so you follow them.  Then you start following them on other social networking sites and you are just that much closer to them.  It links your lives in a small way and sometimes a very significant way.

I can ask for inspiration and advice or read their blog and gather ideas for a better me, a better dinner, a better home, a good laugh.  I've come to enjoy my blogging friends more than they could know and for that I must say thank you!


There is a small amount of blogging that stinks though.  When you share your life with people, some icky people feel as though it gives them the right to criticize your choices.  Sadly, it seems like negativity can sometimes be more contagious than positivity.  Someones hurtful comments or words make your blood boil.  Who is this person and what gives them the right to say these things to me?  They don't even know me, but they think they do because you share.  I try my best to stay honest and share good and bad without bumming anyone out with personal frustrations or failures, but there are still things that I keep to myself and my family.  I think that's what people sometimes forget.  We read about what others want to share.  I instantly feel upset, mad, frustrated and want to respond, but per usual most of these negative Nellys use "anonymous" or dummy profiles to spread their hate.  It's a cowardly way of bullying.  The funniest thing is that lots of us have site trackers that also provide us with lots of information about these meanies, what location in the world they are viewing your blog from, what site led them to ours, i.p. addresses that contain their names, etc, etc.  So really you're not as anonymous as you think you are, jerks.  Just as in life though it's far better to take the high road and ignore the filthiness.  I am sensitive though and even one negative comment in a six month period is one too many.  I do wish we could just ship all of the meanies and spammers away to an island and they could just be mean and spam each other. 

I do love blogging though.  I like to share my life because it's a good one.  I'm a proud wife and mommy that takes far too many pictures of her son, but that kid is too cute not to brag about.  Happy blogging and happy reading to all you positive Pollys out there!

Oh by the way, Hank has some late breaking news!
Hank is super excited to welcome his BFF, Phoenix to the world!

Us Bloomingburgs are overjoyed for our friends Marianne and Alex on the arrival of their baby boy.  Can't wait to meet him :)

Thursday, January 24, 2013

warm weather dreams and spandex/latex blends

Is it too early for babin' suit discussions?  Nah, didn't think so.  I'm working on my post baby body as we speak so maybe I'm just looking for a little inspiration to get my ass in it's rightful upright position gear.

I'm super loving the retro high wasted bottoms this year.  And I don't know what I would need the long sleeve number shown below for, but I want a reason.
asos swim


target swim
victoria's secret swim
more victoria's secret swim
 Good ole' Target & Victoria's Secret always have my heart when it comes to swimsuits though.  Target, because they are so inexpensive to begin with and if you wait like 3 weeks it will probably be marked down to about $4.  And Victoria's Secret because they always make my boobs look amazing and those ruffly bottoms up there are flattering like you wouldn't believe.

Before you ask the question my husband already asked...Yes I already have a million bikinis and no, it's not enough.

I miss you summer.  Please disregard my wish last year that you would go away.  I was pregnant, therefor I can't be held responsible for my feelings.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

things i have learned in the past week

I have had a wealth of knowledge dropped on me in the past week or so.  Let's review...
completely unrelated photo, but dang my kid is cute
1.  I do not need to buy every single brand of pale pink nail polish.  None of them will go on opaque and it will require 13 coats, give or take, to lose that streaky look.

2.  I way over estimate people's level of maturity.  Apparently a middle school mean girl mentality is far, far more prevalent in grown women than I was aware of.

3.  Buying Folger's brand k-cups to save $6 is a mistake.  Starbucks k-cups are double the price with good reason.  They actually taste good.  Bad pizza or bad sex is still pizza and sex, but bad coffee is just bad coffee.

4.  No matter how dirty your truck is, you should never attempt to wash it in freezing cold temperatures.  Ne-ver.  Even if the tree you parked under at work was armed with poopy birds that must have just eaten dozens of berries.  That is, unless you enjoy your doors frozen shut. 

5.  Drop Box is da bomb.com and I am forever grateful to my friend Kristin for introducing it to me!  And if ya don't know, now ya know, ya know.

6.  It's just good sense to forbid your husband to hit the "thumbs up" button on your Pandora stations, unless you also enjoy shitty instrumental rock songs.  And trust me when I say, that one click of the "thumbs up" makes instant changes that take multiple "thumbs down" clicks to reverse.  And no one wants to be stuck in the shower, soaking wet, unable to reach the iPad, listening to whatever you don't want to be listening to.

7.  If you want something at Target, just buy it the first time.  Whether you did it in one visit or three visits in two days, you're still spending the same $300.  Your credit card will be impressed either way.  (Although I technically earned more reward points the way I did it, 10 bonus points per purchase peeps)

8.  Lemon balm works like Valium.  Not kidding.

9.  PMS still sucks.  I haven't had to deal with it for over a year and I was quickly reminded that things haven't changed in the past year.  It's no fun, I become a couch potato and require ample amounts of chocolate and that's all there is to it, period.  Har har!

10.  Saving my grocery list, blog notes, general things to remember in my "Notes" app on my iPhone is a huge risk.  I may or may not delete them by accident on a regular basis.  Or something like that.  Best to stick with old school, hand written pieces of paper strewn carelessly about my purse like a grandma.

11.  People care too much about Beyonce lip-singing the national anthem at the president's inauguration.  It's still her voice whether it was live or recorded.  It's not like I went out there and lip-sang to a recording of Beyonce singing the national anthem.  Let's all make a promise that we'll stop hating on things that don't effect us.  That was officially just added to my resolutions.  Boom.
meet chunk, henry's moosey fwiend!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

baby talk

A few weeks ago our friends, Cara, Rob and their baby River, stopped by to hang out.  Their son is just a month older than Henry.  It was so fun to be pregnant at the same time and have someone to talk to that could relate.  Now it's even more fun to have two little boys so close in age.  We all sat around and drank bottles.  Us ladies shared a bottle of wine, the men, bottles of beer and those sweet babes had bottles of milk.  Bottles all over the place. 



I was amazed at the difference a month can make in baby time.  Baby River was doing lots of rolling, toe grabbing and his head was so steady.  Barely a milk drunk head bobble to be seen.  And despite what the pictures may lead you to believe, he's a bit bigger than Mr. Henry.  Henry was clearly stretching his little limbs as long and tall as he could to match his baby friend. 






In the past few weeks though since we had our little play date, I've started to see Henry start to improve in all the same areas.  It's incredible to see him go from not being able to touch his toes to the bottom of the jumper one week and then the next he's practically flat footed on there!  He must have been taking notes from his older and wiser friend ;)
bella loves babies

Monday, January 21, 2013

weekend inventory

This weekend was the Plymouth Ice Festival.  We've been planning a little triple date action with our friends for a few weeks now.  Nana came over to watch Henry while we went out to eat at The Sardine Room, a newish restaurant in downtown Plymouth and then walked around looking at all of the ice sculptures.  Well we tried to.  The weather was apparently too warm for shaved blocks of ice and by the time we got out of dinner there was not much left.  Obviously afterwards an alcohol drink was in order to warm the insides back up.  We even stayed out semi-late for our parental bones.  It seemed like a fine idea since I had Sunday and Monday to recover on sleep.  However as you can see in some of these pictures the later part of the night was a slight blur which made for a rough early start on Sunday and a very very lazy day.  The kind of day where you wake up and take your pajamas off only to shower and then put another pair of pajamas right back on.







Henry has still been feeling yucky.  Even though to the naked, non-mom or dad eye he hasn't really seemed sick at all the entire time.  He saves his crankiness for us two.  If you can't be your crankiest around the people you love the most, who can you be cranky around?
Sunday I did manage to make chicken stuffed peppers for the second Sunday in a row.  They are so good.  I'm working on introducing healthier meals to DJ.  Slowly but surely over the past few years I've done my best to get DJ acquainted with healthier food options.  I won't even tell you how against skim milk he was five years ago and how now he thinks whole milk tastes like sludge.  He protests EVERY single new dish I make, but ALWAYS ends up loving it so much that he requests it again within the next week.  Usually accompanying the request for a repeat he wants to add, replace or subtract something though.  It cracks me up, but as long as it stays healthy I am open to the suggestions.  I also made peanut butter cookies with the little Hershey's kisses in the middle for a sweet snack.  Working on that "perfect" homemaker title over hurrr.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

this is the good life

These are the greatest of moments.  It's has good stuff written all over it.  I can't contain the euphoria of coming out of an un-interupped slumber to find my most favorite humans on the planet cozied up, preparing themselves for a little quite time.  I'm terribly lucky in love.


 Enjoy your weekend! 

perfection...guilt...balance

I am going to be honest and say that I am really struggling with being back to work.  I miss my son all day long.  Then I get home and I'm tired, but I smile and say hello to Hank and his gummy toothless grin sets my heart on fire, but I'm still tired.  He is precious beyond compare.  It's such a cliche to say, but I have never known love like this.  He is perfection in every sense of the word.  I can do no wrong in his eyes and it's magical to feel so loved and to love so much in return...perfection...guilt...balance. 
I always imagined myself being the perfect mother.  Clean house, meals made, happy husband, happy baby, happy Laura.  Well...damn it's hard.  I'm pretty sure I need the day to be longer or I need to require less sleep.  I want to be able to find enough time for all the things I need to do, have enough time to snuggle and love on my husband and baby and of course enough time to do something for myself...perfection...guilt...balance.

Towards the end of maternity leave I had my shit together.  Hank and I were on a schedule, my house was clean, I even had time to get in a little yoga and eat.  Since I've started working again I feel that anxiety of not having enough time again.  The same anxiety I felt when Hank was first born.  Oh, the terrible feeling of balancing sleep, Hank, DJ, dogs, house work, showers.  And after I fought with myself long enough, sleep inevitably won, leaving my house a mess and an empty belly until DJ got home from work and finally made me something to eat.  Now, after what feels like a brief moment of relief that I had it all figured out, I'm back to work again and there goes 8,9, and sometimes 10 hours of my day.  It takes very large amounts of caffeine to keep me going these days.   How do you perfect working moms do it?  How do you hand paint your baby's leggings, make meals that Pinterest inspired and keep your homes so clean?  The thing is I probably could do all those things, but then when do I get to actually spend enough time with my son to see him in the leggings, watch my husband enjoy his dinner or slip my work out shoes on and pump some iron...perfection...guilt...balance.

Last week was my first attempt at gaining balance in my life again.  I would get up early to get myself ready for work so that when Henry woke up I wasn't running around the house. I could just baby babble with him and enjoy his smiles.  I would go home for lunch and drink a protein shake because that still allowed me to play on the floor with Henry and then head back to work.  Usually when I got home at the end of the day Henry would be napping so I would try to throw something lame in the oven for dinner and get showered.  Then Henry would wake up, I would feed him and play until bedtime.  That's about the time that I would be fading fast right along with my baby.  We bathe Henry every other day and I actually skipped a bath one day because I just couldn't do it.  I was too tired.  Guilt.  Then bedtime ensued.  I worked out twice with a personal trainer and my best friend, I would eat right after Hank went to bed and lastly I would sneak in some tv time in bed until I couldn't keep my eyes open and then repeat.  Did you figure out yet what I sucked at?  Taking care of my husband.  I had already accepted that my house will probably always be in shambles through out the week, but it didn't dawn on me until Saturday when I had to work in the morning and I had mentioned to DJ that I might stop at the mall on the way home and he got a slight attitude, that I had completely neglected him all week.  I felt awful...perfection...guilt...balance.
Saturday after work it was unseasonably warm for January in Michigan so we bundled up Henry, grabbed the dogs and took a walk together.  I told DJ that I was sorry.  We talked about how this gift of parenthood that we've been given is a work in progress.  We are adjusting and it's hard.  We love our life and wouldn't change a single thing.  We have a deep love and appreciation for each other and all that we have.  Every week is a re-do and I will progressively get more organized (per my new years resolutions).  In the mean time it's a cycle of perfection...guilt...balance.

weekend inventory

Excuse  my late posting but with a sick little boo boo at home, me time is few and far between.

Friday DJ had to take Hank to the doctor.  He has a double ear infection.  My poor babe.  Starting on Tuesday night Hank was very restless at night.  He woke up at about 2am and kept rubbing his face super hard.  Sometimes he does this when he's tired, like we all do.  I pulled him in bed next to me and tried to tuck his little arms in his blanket to keep him from bringing them up.  This always works like a charm.  Not that night though.  He was restless all night and it totally threw me off.  He still slept through the night but I got almost no sleep just listening to him wrestle around.  Wednesday night I noticed he kept rubbing his face on my shoulder.  Hard.  I made the dumb mistake of Googling what it could possibly mean and the only thing that people were saying was that it could be a possible allergy to dairy.  I freaked and read it to DJ and he told me to calm my frazzled pants down and call the doctor in the morning.  Wednesday night was a repeat of Tuesday night, except that at about 5am Henry was full on awake.  DJ got up with him because I was once again on about 2 hours of sleep after being awakened at his every face rub.  DJ fed him a few ounces and he slept on DJ's chest until I woke up for work.  I called the doctor and she said that she didn't think that I needed to worry that it was an allergy (and to stop using Google) but that he could have a cold, an ear infection or possibly just teething.  She said I could bring him in that day or wait 24 hours and see if anything changes.  I made an appointment for the next day since Henry was still his super happy self and I had no other indication that he was not feeling well.  (I'm a psycho with the thermometer so I knew he didn't have a temperature).  At the doctor, they discovered he did in fact have fluid in his ears.  He is also majorly teething and might even have his two bottom teeth by the end of the month!  The pediatrician (who is awesome and reminds me of Glenda the Good Witch of the North) prescribed some antibiotics and said that it was a very good thing that we brought him in, because over the weekend he will probably have been in an awful lot of pain.


Saturday I worked in the morning and afterwards we decided to get out of the house, get some fresh air and enjoy some of the unseasonable warm Michigan weather.  It was really beautiful out and downtown plymouth was hopping.  Everyone was out walking around.  After a walk we laid around and I took a nap with Hank.  Sick Hank just really wants to cuddle and lay his ear on mine or DJ's chest.  I was meeting with my friends for a wedding planning party that evening and left Hank a little bit crabby with DJ.  Within probably the first hour that I was over at my friends house, DJ called and I could just hear my baby crying in the back.  My heart broke and I had to leave.  Not without first getting some excellent advice from my friend's sister.  A super mom, if you will.  She told me to give him a little infant tylenol to ease his pain and use sweet oil to massage around his ears.  I swear I could see his sad little face change within minutes.  It was like he was saying, "Thanks mom!"
Sunday I got up early with Hank and cleaned.  He fell asleep mid-laugh I swear.  I was done cleaning, showered and dressed before 8am.  I let DJ sleep in before making stuffed french toast and then we headed to the ice arena where the Detroit Red Wings were practicing. 


We love hockey in this household and are so happy once again.  Hank slept through the whole thing, but he's allowed.  After watching hockey, DJ left to play hockey and my friends came over for a little hang out. 
A no make-up, indian pale ale, girl talk kind of night.  Plus my bff brought me a cupcake that I still can't stop thinking about.  All in all a good weekend. even with a sick Henry.