Into The Fall

I just found the Back to Blogging Challenge by The SITS Girls, but I loved the Day 1 challenge. I am a list maker. In the past few years I've become very digital, but I had a physical planner up to the point that it no longer fit into my diaper bag (those are stories for another time). So with this new season and fresh start, here is some of what we plan to do this autumn, in no particular order.

Pumpkin picking at the farm - This isn't something that I did growing up, but we've been doing it every year since Munchkin was born. I love it, Munchkin loves it, and now that Peanut is a little older, I'm sure that he'll love it too.

Hey rides and mazes - I think that the boys will get a kick out of this.

Carving and decorating pumpkins - We haven't really decorated pumpkins before, but now that we have a bit more room, this could be a wonderful activity for the boys.

Playing on a tractor - The farm that we usually go to pick pumpkins has tractors set up for people to play on.

Feeding animals at the petting zoo or farm - I think that Peanut would love the animals now that he is old enough to actually participate.

Boo at the Zoo - We've been doing this for a couple of years now, and it really is a fun family weekend activity.

Costume parades and parties - Our fall is filling up quickly with these Halloween-type activities

Trick or treating - Munchkin went for the first time last year, and he is definitely looking forward to going again this year.

Playing in the leaves - Both boys seem to love playing with leaves.

Baking pies - I am not a fan of cooking, but I love to bake. This is a fun season to bake in.

Family movie night - Planning on taking full advantage of our Netflix account.

Family game night - I'm almost embarrassed that we haven't done this before, but I am looking forward to getting to play with the entire family.

Making Thanksgiving desserts - Thanksgiving is my mother's holiday, and she always makes a feast. I try to bring a variety of desserts, and maybe Munchkin can "help" me with the baking this year.

What are you and your family planning on doing this fall?

So now I have plans for August

I'm going to BlogHer.

I'm shocked that I was able to convince my husband that I should go. Obviously, I have a lot of work to do here, and I don't just mean in the design. But he agreed that it would be a good idea, and the fact that it is local enough that I didn't need a hotel room was definitely a perk.

I'm still working on Bloggy Boot Camp, but that is really just a matter of if I am going to be staying (and if they want to come to Philadelphia with me).

Happy New Year!

Photo by Creativity103

So much for getting the redesign completed for the new year.

I still have a ton to do, but I am going to take another pass at the #SITS31DBBB challenge. Hopefully that will help me finish the redesign that I've been working on for what seems like forever.

By tonight, I'm hoping that I'll have the new domain and twitter name set up.

Things aren't working for me the way that they are at the moment, as evidenced by the fact that I haven't posted in two months. I'm hoping that participating in this challenge will help me to refocus so that this blog works for me instead of just being work.

Here's to an exciting new year!

And it just kept coming...

A bit over a year ago, while I was still a blissfully sleep deprived new mother, there was an "incident". I had never had to deal with a blow-out diaper, but there is always a first time for everything. Luckily, I was at home. Unluckily, it was a work day, so it was just me and the baby.

I was shocked when I discovered that "stuff" had come out of the diaper, up the back and even at the legs. I believe that there was a bit of yelling on my part as I pulled off the diaper. The baby found this wildly entertaining, which caused him to laugh. And pee. Which made me yell even more. Which lead to more laughter.

Cue the pooping. Across the changing table. I don't think that I ever knew how forcefully that could happen. At this point, the baby as stopped laughing and started to cry, probably because of how much louder I was now yelling. I'm standing there, cleaning up the messy (again) baby, as well as the poopy changing table cover, and trying to stop the baby from putting his feet in it. All the while, swearing that my husband will be changing every diaper from here on out.

It was not long after the "incident" that we started to use disposable changing pad covers.

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com.  Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

What I Love About Me

Sometimes I forget to appreciate myself. It is especially easy in this bad weather, where nothing seems good anymore.

When my husband came home yesterday with a dozen gorgeous roses, it showed me how much he loves me. He doesn't do flowers, he's very allergic, so I've accepted that I just don't get them. That made me start to think about why I should love myself, which I seem to have forgotten.

So in the spirit of The Mommyologist's Mom Sexy Valentine's Day Bash, here are ten of my reasons to love myself.

1. I'm a geek. I'm a huge fan of Star Wars and I have been since I was little. Friends know not to question my Star Wars knowledge, and I still can't get them to play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit with me (which I own more than one version). But I don't limit myself to Star Wars! I'm pretty much into science fiction in general. I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who, Stargate (all three series) and even Star Trek.
2. I'm good at computers. In another life (pre-baby), I was even a web developer. I wouldn't be able to jump right back in without bringing myself up to speed, but I'm still the person that gets called when anyone has a computer problem.
3. I'm a huge Broadway buff. I miss the days when I would perform in musicals, and was serious about dancing. Now I really just get to sing along to the music in the car.
4. I'm smart and I love to learn. I worked hard all through school, and it paid off. Even now, I still like learning new things.
5. I am a wealth of random knowledge, and I love to share it.
6. I'm a reader. I love books, and I love to read. I just need some more time to do it.
7. I'm hot. I'm back in the shape that I was at the end of high school, at the peak of my dancing "career". Due to a very restrictive diet because of a dairy/soy allergy I've managed to loose all the baby weight, the first year of marriage weight, the post college weight and the freshman 15...
8. I will do anything for my baby. He's allergic to dairy and soy, so I haven't had any in over eight months. That was huge, almost everything has dairy or soy. And I'm a big fan of cheese and chocolate.
9. I am fiercely loyal. I stick by friends when they need me, and even when they don't.
10. The Baby loves me unconditionally. Anyone that perfect must have a good reason to love me like that.

Explained in Thirty Seconds

Day 1 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge on SITS (a few days late).

I had a hard time with this, mostly because I'm not sure where I am going with this blog. Today (if today was Monday, which it obviously isn't, but let's pretend) I am supposed to write an elevator pitch for my blog. How do you explain in thirty seconds something that you aren't sure about?

So I pulled from my "About Me" page, which I had worked so hard on.

It reminded me of where I started. Even though I haven't been blogging all that long, I had lost what I wanted to do here. I'm afraid that I was starting to think of this as a "baby" blog, which it was never intended to be. This blog is supposed to be my release, my path. While I will talk about the baby, and some of the things that we are doing, he isn't my focus here. I am.

So, my new (work in progress) elevator pitch:

A new stay-at-home-mom trying to guide her family through the changes of their new lives while not loosing herself in the process.

The Challenge

To help motivate me, I'm going to join the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge with the SITS Girls. I'm late starting, so I am going to be playing catch-up, and I hope that it won't take me too long.

This is me throwing my hat into the ring.

Merry SITSmas!

Now that the holiday season is here..

Head on over to The SITS Girls to see more SITSmas cards.

The Halloween Parade (Literally)

There was no big party to attend this year. There was no trick or treating, since candy is still off limits. But my little lion did march (ok, was pushed) in the local Halloween parade.

And yes, he had a tail.

--
This post is part of the Celebrate Halloween SITS Contest, which I really want to win. If you haven't already checked out SITS, you definitely should. They have the best blogging tips, and are a great place to find new and interesting blogs.

Check out my other entries for the contest:
Ghosts of Halloweens Past
Creepy Crawly Creations

Also linking up to Cole's Trick or Tweet.

Ghosts of Halloweens Past

For a number of years, every Halloween, my husband would get the flu. It started the year of Josie, when he called me the morning of the party. My (at the time) boyfriend, who only ever wanted to be left alone when he wasn't feeling well, called me and asked me to skip the party and stay home to comfort him. (Which I didn't do, because I had people depending on me to complete our costume. I swear that it wasn't because I wanted to go out and NOT get the flu...)

Every year after that, come Halloween, he was sick. To the point where people stopped thinking that he would ever show. (Not that it ever stopped him from getting a Halloween costume, he got a new one every year that he didn't use.)

Then last year, I was four months pregnant, and we were planning on heading to the same Halloween party that I went to every year (alone).

And he didn't get sick. And he got to use his costume. And no one knew who Dr. Horrible was. But I got to spend Halloween with my husband for the first time in many, many years.

--
This post is part of the Celebrate Halloween SITS Contest. If you haven't already checked out SITS, you definitely should. They have the best blogging tips, and are a great place to find new and interesting blogs.

Writer's Workshop: Creepy Crawly Creations

I am not the most creative person. Especially when it comes to Halloween costumes. My costumes tend to be of the store bought variety. There are a few years in recent memory where I tried to be a bit more creative than "Sexy Alice" (although, I rocked Sexy Alice last year at four months pregnant).

A few years ago (a few more than I care to admit), I convinced two friends to do Josie and the Pussycats with me. It wasn't that long after the movie had come out, so there were the licensed versions available for purchase. We did not go that route.

Melody, Josie and Valerie*

The three of us went shopping at off-the-beaten-path stores to get the perfect outfits and accessories. The ears and tails were generic tiger accessories, but everything else I thought brought it all together perfectly. And even though we didn't have the generic movie costumes, people still recognized who we were.

We had ears! And tails!

That was an awesome Halloween.

* Masks have been added to protect the innocent.**

** I'm (apparently) not that innocent.

--

This post is also part of the Celebrate Halloween SITS Contest.