The Aquarium

Today we took Ace to the aquarium, a lot of the morning it was kind of overcast and we had spend many recent Sundays in the parks so we thought we'd try for something different and I was not about to attempt the zoo for a third time. So we drove to the aquarium and what fun we did have.

Ace was fascinated by the giant fish tank when we first walked in. We learned that the side that we all look through is a piece of glass that is 20'x40' and is 12.1" thick! Quite expansive and full of all sorts of unique fish to look at. We also got to see sea lions, and otters another form of kiiiiitheee (or cat) according to Ace. Ace was of course fascinated by the obligatory tank which I am certain every aquarium around the world now has the Nemo and Dori tank and all the bubbles. Everywhere there were bubbles that is what caught his attention first. He loved all the birds in the bird section and just enjoyed observing more than anything. He even got to play pee-a-boo with a scuba diver that was feeding the fish. He had a nice day.

We topped it off by wandering around the piers and stopping by an arcade which contained a carousel and so Ace enjoyed cautiously observed and partook in his first carousel ride. Although in the picture he looks terrified nervous, for the most part he was fine and just looking around. But to say he was thrilled and screaming "again, again!" would be a far cry.

Lots of Excitement!

Winner of the Dapper Tag is: #11
MommaYoung said...
I am torn between the pink skulls and cherrys...
May 12, 2009 12:10 PM

(so sorry for the delay in the announcement!)

Please check out my latest giveaway for a
Bebe au Lait Nursing Cover!

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Prize from Kristen - First off I'd like to thank Kristen from La Dolce Vita - I was a Featured Reader a while back and I was entered into a contest to win one of her creations from her Etsy store: Kristen's Custom Creations The piece I chose was a custom necklace with my son's name and his birthstone. I love it! Stop by her blog and her Etsy store and check everything out.


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I received the Most Wonderful Favorite Award from Kate at Bless This Nest

The rules:Deliver this award to eight bloggers who then must choose and deliver the award to eight more and include the following text in the award:

"These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers."

I would like to give this award to the following fabulous ladies:
Kristen at All in a Mom's Life, Kristen at La Dolce Vita, Mama-Ritza, Carey at Life in the Carpool Lane, Juls at Every Day with the Crazees, FROGGITY!, Kati at Country Girl, City Life, and my swap partner Single Wide Cottage.

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I receieved the Queen of All Things Awe-Summm!!! from Amy at Little Lady Cakes and what a cute award it is! Sadly, I think I took too long to "accept" the award and cannot locate any rules to follow and so I will pass this one onto one person that is Awe-Summm!!! This award I give to Saundra at An Italian Mama Gone Crazy! Because Trainwreck TV is back and I am so amused by her commentary each and every week!

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And finally, I've Been Tagged!!

Thanks Kati @ Country Girl, City Life
Rules:
1) List Six Unimportant Things That Make You Happy.
2) Mention and link to the person who tagged you
3) Tag six of your favorite bloggers to play along, and comment on their blog to let them know they've been tagged.

1. My camera. I love taking pictures and get super excited when I capture a great shot!
2. TV - I love me some good ol fashion boob-tube watching.
3. Blogging!
4. Crafting: quiling, stamping, sewing, crocheting, scrapbooking... just about anything.
5. Clothes. While they are important to obey all those pesky anti-nudity laws the sheer volumem of which I have in my arsenal to stay legal is just absurd.
6. Shopping: often for the last two

Who to Tag, Who to Tag?
Lori at Livin' in a Fishbowl, Amy at Little Lady Cakes, Kristen at All in a Mom's Life, Juls at Every Day with the Crazees, PhoinixFury at Embrace the Babble, and finally FROGGITY!

Whew! And I'm done :) Enjoy all the fun everyone. Thank you for the great loot everyone!

Walking - Phase One

Ace is on the go. He took two steps last Thursday, last night he took four more independent steps. But with the aid of a push toy Ace is taking charge of bipedalism!

Ace and His New Friend

I often wonder where small children's imaginary friends orignate from. There is a whole line of psychologist out there explaining that it is to fill a void, that it's natural, that it will pass. You can find a school of thought for whatever you want to fit this imaginary friend into for your own peace of mind. Obviously at this stage, if Ace has an imaginary friend he isn't telling me about him... that's ok. However, Ace has discovered his dark and mysterious follower. Yes, that's right. Ace has discovered his shadow!

In the mornings before Ace is really awake, but when I want him to start to stir on his own. I open the blinds in our bedroom. When Ace wakes up and flips into crawl and go mode, the first thing he sees against the wall above his head... is his shadow. He at first was perplexed and hit it. Go away, this is my momma, my bed, my space! I think he said. He looked at me funny - and being the morning I didn't quite grasp that he was discussing his shadow with me using that furrowed brow. The next day it became abundantly clear when he decided that if this mysterious follower was going to greet him EVERY morning that he might as well become fast friends with him.

Ace now, every morning smiles at me, rolls over and goes to have a chat with his shadow. We might have to explain to him the wise information about soap and how to be assured that his shadow is always with him. But for now, he's content knowing that his shadowy friend is there to greet him in the morning.

Ace in Film and First Steps!

This is a 3 minute compilation of three different videos, there's a bit of lag time on cuteness at some parts, but I promise you if you turn it off before the end you'll miss his latest and cutest action. In this film you get some mischief*, some standing, some waving bye-bye, Wheel of Fortune watching, and some babbling.
No steps are recorded, but it is VERY note worth that yesterday he took 2 first steps! Yes, dad walked in the front door and Ace let go of the couch and walked toward him, one foot... two foot... and then realized he could get to dad faster if he lowered himself to the floor and crawled!!! But I stopped him by picking him up and gushing all over him with pride. :) 9 months and 2 days old, and my son took his first steps.
Other noteworthy milestones while we're on the subject. Ace says "cat" and "kitty". He says "kitty" on his own - sounds mostly like kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittthhhh (not high pitched) and if we say cat he will repeat it. On the "mama" front since The Betrayal , his latest and favorite game is when I say "mama" he says "dada" and smiles. He knows what he's doing. He has said mama - often he says it when he's tired and hungry but so far NOT when reaching for me. Siiigh. He'll associated it with ME someday.
Hope you enjoy these latest milestones. Today we went in for his 9 months wellness check up, and discovered that Ace is long and lean (officially) he weighed 17.10lbs (8.44%) 28.5" tall (58%) and his head is 45.5cm (55%) The doctor wasn't worried about him being on the bottom of the weight scale. She just chalked it up to him being skinny, but no need for him to watch his food intake. :)
*Please note in the video in the bathroom the tape measure and CLEAN underwear where brought in from the closet - a re-org game - which is a favorite of my son's.

Wordless Wednesday

September 2008

May 2009

For more Wordless Wednesdays visit here.

Bebe au Lait Nursing Cover Review and Giveaway

To nurse in public, is a tricky thing. Some are afraid to even attempt it, others barely cover their breasts with the baby's head. I fall somewhere in between (like most nursing moms.) I like to nurse anywhere I please, while tastefully draped with a cover. Now for Ace and I that has meant an off-brand nursing cover that has a hole the plops down over my head and covers me almost to my waist and of course my shoulder blades (since those are so riske.) The fabric was long enough to cover the boy during his early life, but in more recent days has proven not enough to encase him (not that he needs to be fully covered) and the part that does - he's bothered by because it rests on his face while nursing - so he'll do ANYTHING not to be under that cover. That's when Bebe au Lait came to the rescue!

About the Company:

Bebe au Lait is owned by a husband and wife team Ronnie and Claire Ekelund. You might have heard about them, the company was originally called Hooter Hiders. The award winning company, after two years with business booming, they decided to change their name and add a more sophisticated feel to the company and thus Bebe au Lait was transformed. The company sells nursing covers, double reversible bibs, hooded towels and burp cloths and all are in stylish and adorable fabric choices! Bebe au Lait is also in the blogging world, and you can find their blog, here.

The Review:

I fell in love with Bebe au Lait's nursing cover! It's that simple. When I first was looking for a nursing cover, I admit I was skeptical about fabric that didn't fully encase me on all sides. I think that was the nervous new mommy in me. However, upon using Bebe au Lait's nursing cover all my skepticism is gone. It is by far the best cover that I've used to date. The nursing cover simply hooks over your neck and has an ample amount of fabric to cover you and your baby, in fact while the baby is nursing it acts as a nice blanket (for the cozy sense of a blanket, not warmth) because it is not super warm so the baby doesn't overheat while under it, which is good because my little man is a hot tot! The rigid neckline is perfect and allows for me to see my son during nursing and the terry cloth corner is wonderful to wipe his mouth when he's done with his snack. Bebe au Lait lists the following features for their nursing cover:

Terrycloth pocket detail for quick cleanup or storage of breast pads or pacifiers.
Machine Washable
Unique rigid neckline allows for ventilation, as well as direct eye contact with the baby.
Generous sizing keeps mommy completely covered during breastfeeding
Multi-use: Can be used as a nursing cover, a blanket, or even a sunshade to protect baby’s fragile skin from harmful UV rays.

I think my favorite "feature" of these nursing cover are the chic designs. I would love to have one in every design just because they are so stylish and cute. Finally, I think the most important part about the nursing cover is how Ace reacts to it. Like I mentioned before in the other cover - he squirms, twists, and fights to get out from under it (even when he is hungry!) We don't have that problem with the Bebe au Lait cover. With the rigid neckline it stays off his face and provides me with a great view of his beautiful blue eyes as he nurses. He is far more content under this cover than the other. So my squirmy worm gives it his stamp of approval and I do as well!

Buy it: You can go to Bebe au Lait's website and purchase your own nursing cover in several different color and pattern options.

Win it! Bebe au Lait has generously donated one Bebe au Lait Nursing Cover to one A-Priori Mommy reader!

How to enter:

Visit Bebe au Lait and tell me which design you'd like to win.
This must be done first before any other entries will count.

Additional Entries: (Up to 12 chances to win!)
1. Blog about the giveaway with a link to The A-Priori Mommy and leave the URL to your post in the comment. (3 entries)
2. Follow me on blogger. Already follow, you count too! (1 entry)
3. Follow me AcesMomma on Twitter AND Tweet about this giveaway. (1 entry)
4. Add my button to your sidebar. (1 entry)
5. Purchase anything from Bebe au Lait between now and the end of the giveaway and post 5 comments with the transaction number. (5 entries)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry (i.e., if you blog about this giveaway, leave three separate comments stating that you did. Your comments are your actual entries.)

This giveaway will end June 10th at 11:59 PM PST. Winner will be chosen via random.org and will be announced June 11th. Winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before a new winner is chosen. US entries only, please. Winner can choose any available pattern that is in stock.

Nine Months Old

Today Ace turns nine months old. He is the ever growing boy. He's changed so much just this month and he's getting bigger and stronger.

New events in Ace's ninth month of life: free standing, going underwater, long car trips, 2 new teeth, and his first 5k and solid food again!

Yes Ace is days away from walking. Today he took a half step, as in he lifted one foot up and moved it forward... then slowly lowered himself back into the good ol' safe position of crawling. He's a speedy crawler today. In fact, we've added another gate to our baby proofed pin living room because he previously got around the barrier (which you can see here in the last picture) and climbed ALL of our stairs (9 of them) to come see me. Yikes! So another gate was purchased and the ottoman barrier retired. He did look so proud that he had climbed all the stairs to come see me though and after the panic subsided, I was too.

Ace has been thoroughly enjoy his swimming lessons and during his ninth month of life has learned to dip under the water. He enjoys any chance to get in the water. Whether it be in class, during free swim with mom AND dad, or in the backyard in the tiny pool we purchased for him. The only constant is that it must be a nice 86' or higher or he says forget it! We tried a little colder water once in his pool in the backyard and he jumped out of that faster than you could bat your eyes. Yes, we boil water on the stove to provide him with adequate temperatures and no I don't think that's too excessive. He's barely 9 months old! I mean he gets some luxuries - if I'm still doing it at 2... feel free to scoff. ;-)

We have also seen the reintroduction of solid food into little man's diet. Yes we started right at five months, that lasted for 3 weeks. Then he got sick and wouldn't touch the stuff to save his life. So after struggling with it for a few weeks, I stopped entirely for the month of April. I waited until May rolled around and started again and yay!!! He's slowly participating and consuming the solid food. He eats about a 1/3rd of a jar in a sitting and does that 2 times a day and occasionally a third time. He's primarily still relying on milk, but he has also started to be interested in the bottle again! Woohoo. So progress is being made in our little guy's eating habits. So far his favorites are bananas and this last week we introduced some protein into his diet and he's been mildly interested in that. Two more teeth have made their appearance now, they can be seen here.

Other adventures for Ace include socializing with his friend Jon Jon (10 days younger than him) and also with his friend since birth, Sabria. He's been enjoying starting to play with the other kids and even in swim lessons is very fascinated with the other kids in his class.

It's truly hard to believe that we are so close to Ace turning one year. I know I still have three months until then - but the last three have flown by and so I know that late summer is just around the corner. My little baby is growing up, but he's quite the looker and he's a joy to spend every day with watching him discover and learn new things.

To look back at the last 9 month posts click on milestones and you can watch him grow from one month all the way till now. But enjoy the below pictures from some of my wiggle worms outtakes. :)

Girls Night Out... and teeth!

What a title! Well, always something to grab your attention, right? Well I thought I'd write because for the first time since Ace has been born - I went out - ALL NIGHT! I went to dinner, drinks, and a movie; all while Ace was home with his dad! Sadly for them, I didn't pump enough milk and so the experience wasn't totally thrilling on the home-front, but for me - I had a lovely time. Granted by the end of the night my chest was bursting to get home, but it was so great to go out and be gone longer than two hours and really for the first time since being gone - I didn't worry. I've left him home with dad a few times, but this was the longest. We had dinner and went and saw the Night at the Museum sequel, which is really good. I hadn't seen the first one - but I certainly will now because the sequel was hilarious!

Now what do teeth have to do with this post? Well, I finally captured a shot with Ace's two additonal teeth. Enjoy! He was having such a fun afternoon and was just smiling up a storm. It was really cute to capture it. Also how could I NOT post a picture of Ace on my 300th post. Yes, this here blog is # 300!

Happy Memorial Weekend everyone, and thank you to all those that have and do serve our country.

His Best Friend

Ace at the age of 9 months has himself a best friend and well has for quite a while now. He'd go everywhere with this best friend if he could - or if the best friend would be so obliging. Ace's best friend is our cat Nickolas. Yes, one can never separate a boy and his dog cat, even if that cat scratches. The thing of it is, for Nick, Ace is his best friend too. Even though Ace pulls hair, ears and whiskers Nick comes back for more. Tort on the other hand bolts the second Ace gets close. :) But Nick and Ace for the most part are inseparable.

Winner of the Bath Luvē is...

First I'd like to say that this individual is the third random number that I had to generate, because the first two people/numbers (who will remain unmentioned) failed to follow the instructions. Be sure to read carefully before entering! So without further (and late, I know) adieu the winner of the Bath Luvē is:

Pam said...

follower

May 7, 2009 6:42 AM

Please stop by her blog and congratulate her!

Also don't forget to enter the Dapper Tag giveaway ending (5/25)!

Look for in the next day or so a review and giveaway for a Bebe au Lait nursing cover!

Wordless Wednesday

The Park, Teeth, and Standing!

We had a wonderful day at the park! The weather was perfect and Ace was able to crawl around and get lots of energy out and enjoy a carrot while on dad's shoulders (in case you're wondering what the heck that is in the below photo.) We attempted, yet again, to go to the zoo - but after circling the parking lotS (yes several) for several hours minutes I had a meltdown at the inadequacies of big cities and their inability to have adequate parking for a freakin' zoo!!!! we decided to go to the park instead and visit the zoo only ever in San Diego in this city another decade day.

Exciting things that have happened this week include Ace's second tooth finally coming in. It happened on Wednesday, but well I've been a little out of it since Wednesday night - so I'm a *tad* behind on exciting announcement. Yes the TOP tooth right about his bottom one has broken through and the other top front tooth is days away from doing the same. In fact if you look closely in the first picture below you can see them. Also in that picture is Ace's latest and currently his favorite facial expression: the wrinkled nose. Other announcements that are looming but aren't quite ready to be made (because it hasn't happened yet) Ace is SO close to walking. Or at least taking that first step. All day today he was pushing himself from the ground into a free standing position without holding onto anything and then just hanging out there for a while. Even bouncing dancing around in place. He tried twice to pick up his foot and go somewhere but it resulted in a fall, so we're not quite ready to call that his first steps.

Finally, I'm feeling much better and have now kept ndown several decent sized meals so the energy is slowly returning as well. Thanks for all the well wishes. They've been much appreciated. Enjoy the photos!

Food Poisoning!

Evil. Very very evil. I spent much of the early hours of Thursday extracting and evacuating the poison that riddled my body. Now I have had food poisoning before. In fact, I'd say I've had it worse than this latest bout of it. However, I've never finished a round with the porcelain god and had to go nurse my baby. Yes, due to the audible-volume of my gastrointestinal melody my son continuously woke up. A few of the times my husband was able to console him back to sleep without the aid of milk, but other times he just wanted me. Delightful. Around 5am I finally was able to hold water down and thus sent my husband to the store to get some Gatorade, because if I was going to continue to nurse with NOTHING in my stomach I better at least get some electrolytes in me. And Kix. Yes Kix sounded bland but tasty enough to consume. And between 6am and 7pm I consumed 20 kix. Yes, I counted. So I had roughly 2 bottles of Gatorade and 20 Kix. Yum a feast for the masses. Loving Husband stayed home from work and took care of Ace, thank goodness as I stayed in bed almost the entire day. Finally around 8pm I thought I'd better try something else. Loving Husband went and got me a parfait from McDonald's and was able to stomach that. I went to bed relatively early (for me) and managed to sleep pretty decently. Thank goodness. Today is slow going but I feel much much better.

I was really bummed because Thursday was supposed to be an all day jaunt with my friend Stacy on a Yarn Hop. We were going to head north and see parts of the state that I've never been too. So I'm bummed that I missed out on that. I guess next year we can go. It is still going on today, but alas my energy levels are just not up for it. And what do you get for reading this delightful stomach churning post? How about an adorable picture of Ace eating his first dill pickle! Yes he loved it, that's my son!

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesdays click here.

The Dip!

As I mentioned in my last swimming post I was terrified of the dip. The new fancy term for water torturing children. Well last week, Ace dipped! Yes I was the mother that had no problem allowing her son to be the test dummy star pupil and have the teacher demonstrate the dip on my son. Ace did great, he kind of made this face on his resurfacing... almost like he was still holding his breath. On the first day of dipping, Ace did it the most. Four dips! He is very responsive to the blow-on-nose-take-a-deep-breath cue and then under he goes without a fuss and then right up into my arms and he's so happy.

This week was Mat Week which means that the instructor rolled out several different kinds of mats and the babes learned how to play on the mat that was floating on water and then also how to "fall off" the side and then grab back on. Granted it's going to take a lot of repetition to create this "natural" instinct in them, but it's good to start now. Ace had a lot of fun on the floating mat once he realized he wouldn't sink. The instructor put out a ton of toys and they crawled around and played on them. Our little terrier son was trying to get the toys by solely mouthing at them. It was really cute. The rest of the this lesson was filled with more dipping, and bubble blowing. You dip across one side of the pool (they aren't under the whole length of the pool, just a few seconds but you walk backwards, then dip, then pull up into you) and then blow bubbles on the way back. Ace this week found the bubbles particularly amusing and was laughing the entire way back while his mommy blew bubbles at him.

The only thing he still doesn't favor is the back float, and this week he was having NONE of it. Glad that since we're adding new things every week that the back floating isn't a long portion of the program, but maybe we can work on that sometime in the future in a free swim day.

In other news! Ace is back to eating solid foods again with enthusiasm for a few days now. Guess he decided it was ok to do so again. Yesterday he ate an entire jar of bananas and about half a jar of Spinach/Carrot combo (which yes was hidden in the bananas) and then this morning he's enjoyed half of a "breakfast" jar consisting of apples, pears and oatmeal and just now for lunch enjoyed about a 1/4th of a jar of sweet potatoes. So yes he's enjoy the sweeter tastes at the moment, but at this point I'm just so excited he's consuming anything besides breast milk I'll take what I can get!!

So that's the life on a Tuesday for our baby bear and his proud mama!

Dapper Tags Review and Giveaway

How many times have you left the house after thinking you have everything you need only to establish you're out of extra onesies or even worse diapers?! To be honest it has happened to me a time or two. I mean it happens to everyone. That's why when I came across Dapper Tags, I thought what an ingenious idea! Dapper Tags is a Los Angeles based company that has developed a stylish checklist that goes with you and your diaper bag!

The creators of Dapper Tags wanted to ensure that you were never again found with "your diaper down!" and if that cute slogan isn't enough to getcha, the adorable designs are. In addition to color schemes there are designs to choose from: cherries, pink or blue skulls, and camo! They're just so cute to add a little flare to your diaper bag.

This product is great for the dads too! Not to suggest that dads are any less experienced in packing a diaper bag (yes I am.) So on those rare occassions when us mommies get to sneak away from our babes - the Dapper Tag provides a great way to ensure that dads have everything they need when taking the babes out for the afternoon adventure.

In addition to having a tag that has a checklist, I think it's a great place to brand your child's name and then wa-la you have a name tag for when you drop your child off at day care, the nursery at church, etc.. That way it's really easy to identify the ever popular bag of choice between the sea of others. :)
In our household, Ace enjoys chewing on the tag more than anything! Overall I've found it to be a good way to just do a mental checklist... with a little extra help (and us parental units can use all the help we can get when it comes to the mental stuff!) The brown and blue tag matches our diaper bag so nicely. The tag tucks nicely into the side pocket of the diaper bag and stays out of the way when toting it around.

Buy it! You can purchase your own Dapper Tag by visiting their website.

Win it! Dapper Tags has generously donated one Dapper Tag to one A-Priori Mommy reader!

How to Enter:
Visit Dapper Tags and tell me which design you'd like to win. This must be done first before any other entries will count.

Additional Entries: (Up to 12 chances to win!)

1. Blog about the giveaway with a link to The A-Priori Mommy and leave the URL to your post in the comment. (3 entries)
2. Follow me on blogger. Already follow, you count too! (1 entry)
3. Follow me AcesMomma and Dapper Tags on Twitter AND Tweet about this giveaway. (1 entry)
4. Add my button to your sidebar. (1 entry)
5. Purchase anything from Dapper Tags between now and the end of the giveaway and post 5 comments with the transaction number. (5 entries)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry (i.e., if you blog about this giveaway, leave three separate comments stating that you did. Your comments are your actual entries.)

This giveaway will end May 25th at 11:59 PM PST. Winner will be chosen via random.org and will be announced May 26th. Winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before a new winner is chosen. US entries only, please.

Mother's Day Swap & Awards!

I've been very neglectful of my acceptance speeches and my posting of things. Yikes!!! Without further adu!

First! The Mother's Day Swap!! Hosted by Confessions of a Moody Mommy. My partner was Hollie from Just a Little Something and I had so much fun trying to find just the right things for her. I tried to avoid a lot of little things and just went for a few big things, I hope she likes it! I LOVE what she sent to me. Below are a few picture of Ace, my Helper and I opening up the goodies!


I received some really fun things from her! I got a giant bag of M&Ms and no I have not gone through the entire bag yet... I swear. I also received a Mark lip gloss (Hollie sell's Mark products) and I LOVE it. I might just have to hit her up for a purchase or two in the near future. I also received some fun body spray and nail polish. Ah pampering! Also got a book to read with Ace entitled "Mommy Hugs" and some great kitchen gadgets. I love fun unique items for the kitchen. It's collecting with purpose I say! So Hollie sent me a peeler for oranges (neato!) and some fun spreader with veggies on them. They'll be PERFECT for entertaining, which I'd love to do more of!
I love participating in Blog Swaps, because you get to meet such nice people and being able to find things for them that they will enjoy and like and the surpise of getting things in the mail! Oh so much fun! So thanks to Moody Mommy for hosting this fabulous adventure. To see what other mommies got, stop by here!

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I also in the past few weeks have been awarded a few blog awards from different ladies. I've been meaning to accept them nicely, but I've never had a spare moment to do so! Yikes, the same of it all. But this afternoon the boy is snuggled up next to me napping and so my fingers are free to write a few acceptance speeches! So without further rambling!



I received The Adorable Blog Award from
Mommyof2girlz at A Pocket Full Of Buttons! Thank you so much! I've seen this award around and thought it was soo cute! And my how it matches my page so nicely. :) Thank you for being a reader and for enjoying my blog enough to award it with such a stellar button!

I love her blog and she is very deserving of this award as well. She's been having an issue with a stalker as of late. A former IRL friend is copying her blogging bits and ideas and yet she chooses to stick with the public venue and share with all of us her exciting ideas. So Kudos to her!

I'd like to pass this award onto my swapping partner Hollie at Just a Little Something for being a great swap partner and of course having an adorable blog!

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I received this award from Carey at Life in the Carpool Lane, back around Earth Day! Oh my, my delay in acceptance speeches is TERRIBLE! Thank you Carey! She had a great set of blogs and ideas for going green that she posted around Earth Day. They were wonderful, please stop by her blog and check them out!

I'm giving this award to my IRL friend Jackie and her latest blog that she's been writing at.: Sustainable Jackie it's a great blog on being green in the Seattle area and in general. She even has a post on being green for her upcoming wedding!

A Wonderful Day!

Today I spent my day with my husband and my son. It was a wonderful first Mother's Day. We set out to go to the zoo and we ended up a mountain! Mt. Rainier to be exact. The zoo was too full and it was such a nice day we decided to head on over to Mt. Rainier, neither of us had ever been there and so we figured it would be a fun experience. The drive was longer than expected and Ace grew weary of being in his seat by the end of the excursion but I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day. It was great to just spend time the three of us and get some great pictures along the way. We went to Paradise on Mt. Rainier - it's about 5,400 feet up and so there is still lots of snow all around. Overall it wasn't that cold. We wrote our names in the snow drifts walls and looked around the area. We saw a kitty fox. Ace was really excited about it. We stopped at a local park on the way down the mountain so that Ace could crawl around and play with some dandelions and get some squirms out. It was a great day. Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008

2009

I love you, Momma!
I wish you could be here to celebrate my first Mother's Day.

Hair Donating

Today I cut my hair in order to donate it to cancer patients. For the last several years I have wanted to do it. However, I didn't realize that it needed to be dye free so the last time I grew it out it wasn't able to be donate. Well I've been dye free for several years now and my hair has grown the distance necessary to donate and summer is almost here! So what better time than to start the summer off with a new short cut. Truthfully I am not a huge fan of short hair on myself. I like the ease of being about to tie it up in a knot and go. (Even before I was a mom I enjoyed this luxury.) However, I've always wanted to donate my hair.

Why? To be honest I haven't been so introspective to give you a detailed answer other than I feel it is important to do. Like most people in this world my life has been touched by cancer. Not personally mind you. I have never had a cancer scare. My grandfather had liver cancer and he ultimately passed in part because of it - he lived a full life and wasn't nearly as afflicted by it as some people are. A friend of mine from college, her mother is battling a relapse of cancer right now. You can follow her story here. Overall, I think that I just want to help someone feel good about themselves during this time. Now for some that doesn't mean a wig, but for some it truly does and for that person I'm happy to be able to do what I can.

So after measuring, researching where to donate, and discussing with the husband the best post-donation hair-do; I made my appointment and headed to the salon with my son and friend Stacy to make the cut. Ace did very well only fussing toward the end - he was content with Stacy holding him. When I was all done and ready to go I went to hold Ace and he wouldn't come to me - he clung to Stacy and his little mouth pouted and his eyes started to well up, he didn't recognize his mommy. It only took a moment or two for him to adjust, and he seems to be more than fine now.

Java Jaunt

Welcome to Java Jaunt! If you are new to this, please click here to the original Jaunt to find out a bit more of what it is about!

Today I decided to visit another one of my recent followers and get to know her better. Mama Ritza a mommy of a 2.5 year old who is freakin adorable in anything from her little Laker's warm ups, to her ballet outfit to her Easter best! Mama Ritza recently dressed up her blog and it is super cute, you should stop by and check it out for yourself. She's acknowledged that she's become uncool - as most of us mommy trend toward as our families take over and the partying only involves paper hats rather than booze and skimpy clothing. :) She's super fun and I enjoyed spending my morning coffee with her. Stop by her blog and say hi!

So who did you visit? Grab the button on my side bar and post about your Java Jaunt.

Laundry Day!

Ok before you judge... please note that all clothing, sheets, towels, etc.. are all clean - I just HATE to fold laundry, remember this post? So since we have a relatively spacious laundry room and an active mobile 8 month old... and I already have the predisposition to HATE folding laundry... the following occurs.


Yes, I know it's T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E! But to be honest, I know that it will happen again in a few weeks and we'll once again wonder know exactly where all our clothes are... in front of the dryer. :-) So since yesterday was a very rainy day and with the swine flu being all around us, I didn't want to take Little Man out to museums, etc.. and at the mall I have no impulse control for a "good deal" I decided it was a good day to tackle the monster in the laundry room. I locked the cats downstairs and got to work with my little helper. As you can see he had a lot of fun... um helping.
He helped me spread out the sheet for easier folding, he pushed and condensed piles for me. He flattened piles that were nearing their maximum heights. He sampled (and pulled out) the stings. Very helpful!


We managed to get all folded... and refolded and put away by the end of the day. Also by the end of the day, I had two more piles waiting to be folded. Siiigh... it will never end.