Spelling Bee Champion?

 

So, before I present the video below, in all it's glory, I just have to say how inherently ridiculous baby blogs are. (or is this now a kid blog? whatever.) I mean, even if you try to avoid bragging about your kid, you end up doing it anyways. That's because you tend to post cute pictures of your kid as opposed to ugly ones. And you're also blinded and constantly amazed at their development because it's the first time you've ever seen something go from zero to 100. I mean, seriously, to watch something go from a blob who doesn't know it has hands to a little kid who can count to 20 is amazing.

 Anyways, this is all because I have this video below of Jack spelling some words which I think is awesome. He is so good at letters and spelling and it just seems to come easy to him. Which, as I'm typing it sounds like such a jerky thing to say. But it's just his strength. In the interest of fairness and to temper the bragging, Jack's got plenty of weaknesses. Mainly anything social. He is so quiet around strangers and in big groups. And when we go to new places he usually spends the first hour clinging to mommy. Ahh, he's just like his mom in so many ways.

 Okay, enough talk. Here's my super brilliant adorable genius future spelling champ:

 

Five for Friday: Reasons for bad blogging

I am really been neglecting this blog. Man, I just feel like I have so much to do in the Jack-free hour or two I get after he goes to bed but before I go to bed. I almost went to bed without doing this blog but, quickly, here are some of the reasons I've been failing at blogging this week.

My top 5 reasons for neglecting the blog:

5. Busy wiping green, thick snot from my son's nose while he screams.

4. Turns out that you have to do laundry at least once a month.

3. Baking cookies for my MOMS Club bake sale tomorrow. Why did I volunteer?!

2. Trying to write thank you notes for Jack's first birthday (and failing)

1. I'm sick so lately I've been choosing that extra hour of sleep over doing the blog. I apologize. And I apologize for this lame list. Better luck next week!

Damned if you do, damned if you don't

I recently read this awesome article over at Jezebel about parenting and sharing in this age of blogs and facebook and open honesty. It particularly resonated after a facebook friend (who is not a parent) made a semi-humorous update to all those new parents who posted pics of their kids in their Halloween costumes to tell them that the kids look uncomfortable and miserable, not cute. I took exception mainly because Jack looked happy as hell in his tiger costume. But I get it, non-parents don't get all gaga over pics of cute kids. But with all these easy avenues for sharing (facebook, blogs, emails, photo texts) how much is too much? As the article says, if you boast too much about your kid, you're an ass. And if you complain too much about the downside, you're an ass. So you pretty much can't win. But, as you know, it is awesome being a parent and, at the same time, there's plenty to complain about. But how do you effectively describe the experience when people only want a short 5 word answer? Here's my favorite part of the article...an amazing run-on sentence: (you can read the whole article here)

In the sound byte of time allowed for humans to actually talk to each other in real-life settings such as jobs, what are the odds that you can convey the full range of the parenting experience to a childless person in such a way that everyone around you can get that you definitely don't think your kid is special in the annoying way, but that you definitely love your kid in the normal way that means you're probably gonna think it's pretty special, but that it's hard to be a parent, but that it's not so hard that you're being a martyr about it, but that it's also awesome, but that you feel like people could use more help and planning and better networks for child-rearing, but that you're definitely not complaining as if you're some kind of victim, but that you definitely chose to be a parent and could have chosen not to, but that it's super rewarding, but that it also doesn't mean that you're not allowed to say it's really extra fucking hard?

Yup, it's hard as hell. But also amazing. And my kid is normal. Which means he's the greatest, most special kid in the whole world. ;-)

Link Award

The lovely Kerry was nice enough to make me one of the recipients of this Link Award.


So what I'm supposed to do is link back to some of my previous posts in the following seven categories and then pass the award on to seven other blogs that I enjoy. Normally I wouldn't bore you with links to my old posts but I figure I should do what my nice Australian blog friend says.

Most Beautiful - Has to be the little guy's birth story. That's part one and here's part two. I'm so happy we both took the time to chronicle every detail. Because right now if you asked me to tell you Jack's birth story I'd say, "I got induced and then I had him 24 hours later."

Most Popular - This post detailing Jack's nursery decor is the most popular page on my blog by a mile. Probably because of all the Ohdeedoh.com people popping over.

Most Controversial - Funny enough, one of the most popular Google searches to get to my blog is "forward facing stroller dangers". Not that it's a controversy, but apparently people think it's a raging debate.

Most Helpful - Learn all about me in 25 items or less!

Most Surprisingly Successful - Pretty much a lot of the Five for Fridays could qualify but this particular one on TV Moms is funny because so many people get to the blog after searching "Claire Huxtable". Who knew Mrs. Cosby was still relevant?

Most Under-rated - Under-rated means that I actually think any of my posts are worth a damn but, really, it's just me rambling. But I chose to link all of his weekly birthday posts because, are you serious? Have you seen how cute all those pictures I take of Jack are?

Most Pride Worthy - I love all the posts that my husband writes but this one on "life after baby" is just so darn cute.

Now I'm supposed to pass the award on to seven other blogs I read....which may be hard. Let's cheat and do five...

1. BabyDurso
2. MiniLynn
3. BabyBodden
4. A Mighty Fine Life
5. Growing Up Senge

Out of Order

Sadly, there will be no post today because the little guy had me up from 3am to 6am crying his head off. After I got him up and calmed down, we walked to Vons where he proceeded to cry as I bought all the groceries. The nice check-out lady bent over his stroller and cooed "What's wrong sweetie? Did mommy get you up too early?" I almost punched her but thought better of it. Then I got a venti iced coffee to make me feel better. The end.

LA Ladies Who Blog

Last week I was lucky enough to get to attend a cocktail party for "LA Ladies Who Blog". Of course, the party was for "real" bloggers with thousands and thousands of readers but I snuck on the guest list because I knew the host. Oh yeah, she's my sister. Most of the woman write about fashion or cooking or lifestyle so there weren't many mommy bloggers. Which I guess was good news because that meant Jack was the hit of the party. The photo above and all of the photos in this post were taken by one of the amazing photographers at the party. (Here's his website). It turns out that Jack is pretty photogenic. I mean, with those cheeks, how could you not be?

We had a great time at the party and my sister did a fantastic job of hosting all the ladies. Here she is next to her garden which happens to be overflowing with great tasting vegetables.

She also put together a gift bag that we got to take home with amazing free goodies. Companies reached out to her and wanted to donate their stuff to all of these blogging ladies so she happily obliged. I certainly won't detail every single goodie but I have to say that I loved this popcorn if you ever want to send any as a gift. And I'm not generally a fan of baklava (a Turkish dessert pastry) but this was the best baklava I've ever had in my entire life. The butterscotch flavor was to die for.

You can read more about the party over at my sister's site. And, of course, a few more pictures of Jack.

p.s. Isn't Jack's shirt awesome?

Blog Hop: 25 Things About Me

So one of the blogs I read was doing a Blog Hop so I thought I'd join in the fun. Besides, aren't you dying to know 25 random facts about me? Probably not. Unless you are the one reader tired of seeing cute pics of Jack. Anyways, here you go...

1. My first cassette tape was Madonna's "Like a Virgin".
2. I always, always, put my left contact lens in first and I don't think I could do it any other way.
3. I have watched the miniseries "North and South" about 50 times. This adds up to A LOT of hours of television.
4. The sound of nails being clipped makes me cringe. I have to go to the farthest end of the house to get away from the sound.
5. I can't leave Target without spending $75.
6. I have obviously cried at the end of "Beaches" and "Dead Man Walking", but I have also cried during "Freaky Friday" (La Lohan version) and "Father of the Bride".
7. Sometimes I do judge a book by it's cover. Forgive me.
8. In middle school I wore hideous floral denim shorts over longer spandex shorts with lace on the bottom. But so did everyone else.
9. I snuck into a 1998 World Series game in San Diego. Amazing what a little face paint and a Padres shirt can do.
10. I still have my wisdom teeth and I think my dentist is lying to me when he says I have to take them out "or else".
11. In high school I was paid to do calligraphy and personalize things. I guess my handwriting is okay.
12. I have slept on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles and in the bushes in south central LA. all in the name of ‘Oscar’.
13. I still get excited when I see famous people even though I've worked on movies and live in LA.
14. I love massages. Like a lot. If I was rich I'd get one every week.
15. I get air-sick. And car-sick. And sea-sick. I am not that fun to travel with obviously.
16. I wish I were 5'6" instead of 5'8".
17. I record "Saturday Night Live" every weekend with the hope that ONE of the sketches might be funny. They never are.
18. I've lived in a studio apartment with two other people.
19. I've only eaten in a sit-down restaurant by myself once and I will never do it again.
20. I can't stand carrots and celery. Or beer. Gross.
21. If they made a movie of my life I'd want Elisabeth Shue to play me. Circa 1984.
22. I hate eating meat on the bone. In fact, I don't really do it.
23. I hate New Year's Eve because you're "supposed" to have all this crazy fun and it's always a let-down.
24. I'm a Sagittarius which I think means I should like clubbing and sororities more.
25. Because of Oprah's hard-hitting episode, I fear I am wearing the wrong bra size.

Ohdeedoh!

Jack's room was featured on the design website ohdeedoh! They only publish a few pictures so for a full nursery tour, you can click here and see it all. I only wish his room was still as neat and tidy 5 months later...

Blog fodder

Well, I figure the next few days will go so well that it will be fun to blog about OR it will be so horrifically bad that it will make for a very comical blog post. You see, today we are taking our first flight. Across the country. Almost 6 hours. I have been stressing about this trip. (to be clear, only about the flying...we are all very excited what will happen when we land.) The thing is, Jack isn't a great candidate for flying. He hates sitting in my lap. He hates sitting still. In times of trouble, the one thing that calms him down is walking around outside. He is hard to get down for a nap. See what I mean? And to make matters worse, yesterday I had my worst day with him since he was a newborn. He cried and was fussy all day. I fed him like crazy but it got to the point where he was refusing nursing. Something was bothering him and since he didn't have a fever, I can only assume it's teething. Though there's no tooth in sight. But he was just miserable yesterday so I am so scared of the plane.

Oh, and did I mention that I hate flying? I'm not frightened of it but I get incredibly sick. I usually just combat this with Dramamine. The ol' world wide web seems to think that this is okay to take while breastfeeding, though there was some disagreement. So at Jack's last appointment I asked his pediatrician if it was okay. Much to my dismay, she said no. My mind panicked so, half jokingly (but half seriously) I threw out "...a glass or two of wine then...?" She didn't answer for a moment but then realized I wanted an answer. Looking at me like I was the worst mom ever she said, "No." So, no drugs, no sleeping, no nothing for me. I find it hysterical that besides dealing with a crying baby, I could also be vomiting in one of those lovely white bags. Good times.

But something has happened over the last few days. I've stopped being pessimistic about it. I am thinking that Jack will be okay. Sure, he's a baby so there will be some crying. But I'm hoping it's just normal crying rather than total meltdown for 5 hours. Only time will tell. And of course I'll let you know how it goes. Even if there is vomiting.

(And of course because I'm a little bit crazy, I've scheduled my usual 5 for Friday post and Jack's weekly birthday post for Saturday. So we won't miss a beat! Keep checking in.)

Commenting Challenge

As is well-documented on this blog, I spend a lot of time holding my little guy as he naps and breastfeeds. I'd say that throughout the day I pass about 5 hours cemented on my couch or glider. Geez, adding it up seems pretty insane but, yes, about 5 hours. The only thing that saves me is surfing the internet on my iPhone. Throughout the past year, while navigating this whole pregnancy/motherhood thing, I've stumbled upon a lot of "mom blogs" that I read almost every day. I find it comforting to hear about similar experiences and to see babies that were born about the same time as Jack. Of course, these moms have no idea I'm so entertained by their writing because I never comment. Not sure if I'm too shy or have nothing to say... Nonetheless, I really should let them know that I appreciate their blogs and thank them for letting me spy on their lives.

Taking all that into account, I saw a commenting challenge on one of the blogs I read and decided to sign up. It just means that I actually have to leave comments on all the blogs I read this week. And maybe some of my secret readers will leave comments here. Of course, I know a lot of you enjoy the blog without commenting so, don't worry, you don't have to say anything.

For those new readers, welcome to my little blog. I'm a new mom and a Hollywood film industry career gal (currently on hiatus) trying to navigate this whole parenthood thing. I started this blog during my pregnancy where I detailed all the ups and downs each week (linked above). My son is ridiculously cute but, as a trade-off, is sometimes difficult, stubborn, and definitely tricky. Probably gets that from his sarcastic and stubborn parents....who love him very much.

"You take the good, you take the bad..."

"You take them both and there you have the facts of life."

A funny thing happened last week that I thought was interesting and thought I'd share. Within about 48 hours, I had two friends send their condolences because they had read my blog and was sorry that John and I had to go through all these hard, difficult times with Jack. Then a different two friends saw me and complained that my blog was too happy and made motherhood seem too easy. The really interesting part? All four of these people were new moms. So I was confused. Previously I was worried that I was complaining too much about the little guy and all the trouble he was giving us. Then I thought twice and thought that maybe I posted too many smiley pictures of Jack. So, I don't know. Here's what I've come up with. By some miracle, I know about 10 women who have had babies in the past 6 months. And of course I read some new mommy blogs. As far as I can tell, Jack is definitely not an easy baby. Some of these babies sleep for most of the night, love being thrown into a carrier on their moms chests, and will nap in their car seats. But, while he's not easy, I also don't think he's the most difficult. He's not colicky, doesn't have acid reflux or any health problems, and he doesn't really cry that much. Well, he will cry, but not if we hold and bounce him. (that's another blog post for another time.) So he's rarely inconsolable. He gets fussy in the evenings like every other baby but he's also all smiles and laughs for certain parts of the day.

So what do I think? It's just fascinating how completely different the motherhood experience is. How many variations there are in new baby behavior. I hope no one reads this blog and thinks that John and I are suffering too bad. Yes, the lack of sleep is rough but Jack is so alert and so happy that it's a fair trade-off. And of course I also don't want anyone to think that I'm making motherhood sound easy. That's ridiculous! In fact, I'm already brainstorming a post about all the ways that motherhood is hell. But I'll save that for when Jack is really behaving badly. :)

Oh yeah, about this blog...

You may notice that there are a lot of posts on this lil' blog even though you're just hearing about it. Let me explain. First, while the first entry is from June or so, don't worry, I haven't been blogging behind your backs for that long. I just kept track of my pregnancy week by week and then, when I started this blog a few weeks ago, I transferred all that information here. And appropriately dated each post. Second, I didn't want to tell everyone about the blog until after our little arrival. Call me superstitious!

This blog is for friends and family so they can see pictures of the little guy and keep up with our lives. I'm not so arrogant enough to think that I have anything new to add to the "motherhood" experience or story. But this will be a welcome diversion and an easy way to share pictures and stories with everyone.

You'll see the posts go back a while so please check out the earlier posts for hilarious (okay, not really) accounts of my pregnancy week by week. And the real reason to read them? "John's POV" at the end of each post. Adorable and funny at the same time. And don't be shy about commenting!