Mama Speaks

The days of my life before motherhood seem so far away, yet I remember. I remember when I felt fat and hideous wearing my size 8s.  How I would LOVE to be that "fat" again. Another thing I remember is my expansive underwear collection, most of which consisted of thongs.  In fact, my only other underwear were my "period underwear."  C'mon ladies, you know you have a pair or two.  The ones that don't make an appearance in rotation until that special time of the month comes around.   The ones you wear because you don't care what Mother Nature does to them.  Period underwear exist in the last phase of undies before they go to retirement at the county dump. Anyway, I remember having conversations with some people (kept anonymous for their privacy) about my "gross thongs." "How can they be comfortable?" "Why even wear them?" "Yuck!" Of course, I defended my butt floss adamantly.   "They're comfor...

We survived (and enjoyed) 2 days at Sea World for A's 2nd birthday.  One perk about a 2 teacher household is that we both got into Sea World for free and Ayla did, too.   This morning, I asked her, "Who are we going to see today?" She replied, "Shamu." Sorry kid, not today.  She really enjoyed herself during all the shows and whatnot, but she kept this serious face on her look at almost all times. Except when we sang, "Happy Birthday" to her. Isn't she just the cutest?   Of course, being away for her birthday means that we didn't get to spend it with all the family.  We look forward to enjoying time with the grandparents and my siblings (Ayes' aunts & uncle) for a meal of spaghetti and french bread, followed by a cake made and decorated by Ti-ti Lexi. We might go for a swim.  And of course the grandparents have some little gifts for her.   We kept the gifts to a minimum, just a few little Target dollar items-they...

So, in celebration of Ayla's 2nd birthday, I've decided the first thing we're going to do is turn her car seat around forward facing! NOT! Seriously folks, unless you're new to Mama Speaks, you know I am pretty passionate about car seat safety, especially in regards to the benefits of rear-facing until 2--OR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE! I wrote about it in my wildly popular post (one of the most read out of the 97 posts prior to this one) here . I also mention it in "I'm That Mom."   My wonderful friend and fellow bloggin' mama Amanda wrote about it in her wildly popular post here .  I mention my favorite car seat links in "I Like It."   My passion and commitment to car seat safety includes two attempts at trying to take a CPST (child passenger safety technician) course, the first of which was too far away to drive to and fro for 4 days in a row, the second canceled at the last minute due to low enrollment. It pains me to see how people...

It is coming SO quickly.  Oh my goodness, I'm not ready!  We have a million things to do, but I'm glad we have the things we did already done.  My problem is I got some big things done early (including one move where I had to fire a vendor) which made me feel so ahead of the game.  Now I feel like I need every moment between now and October 8th to make it happen. Done: +Wedding dress & shoes +Bridesmaid dresses +Flower girl dress (1 out of 2, but have both picked) +Caterer +Venue +DJ/lighting +Ceremony officiant +Photographers +Save the Dates ordered and mostly delivered +Invites ordered and received :) +Wedding bands Need to: -Decide on bridal jewelry (working on that with a good friend who offered to make it for me) -Get a garter (easy) -Decide on hair/makeup for self -Hair/makeup for bridesmaids -Bridesmaid jewelry and shoes -Cake -Decorations (have color scheme...have lots of ideas...but no set plan) -Flowers (going very minimalist in...

My baby is going to be 2 in four days.  Four days!  How is that even possible?  That's 730 days!  But I guess when you're 9,855 days and counting, like myself, those 730 days are a drop in the bucket of time. They've been the 730 most important days of my life.  Add the 270 days of gestation, that brings us to 1,000 days. 1,000 days of Ayla. I have probably 10,000 memories of those 1,000 days, but I can't imagine ever having enough time to write them all down. Here are a few favorites... When Ayla was born, I remember looking at her and thinking, "You're my baby?"  She was so puffy and swollen related to my own puffy/swollen/high blood pressure-ness, plus she looked Asian due to how that affected her eyes.   When Ayla was 3 weeks old, I remember crying hysterically and telling Brandon that she was growing up too fast. I'll never forget those early weeks all she wanted to do was sleep on my chest.  I wanted to hold her every moment ...

Shrek 4 & "mama blankey" Mama! Shoes!!!!! Sushi Chocolate chip cookies... $$$ Coloring Being cute!

My mom, Aunt Kari, and I went to Orlando this weekend.  One of the many highlights (they were all highlights!) of the trip was the world's fastest trip (for us) to IKEA.  We spent maybe an hour in there, which if you know us, you know our trips are hours and hours.  Many times, we'll have been there for 2 or 3 hours before we even notice how long its been!  While we were there, I purchased a set of Tripp storage tins. You see, I'm on this quest to become more organized.  The idea of organizing excites me.  If my organization was based on the number of organizing books and magazines I've read, I'd be the queen bee of organization.  But alas, I'm not.  My only regret about buying these tins is that I put away the second set I intended to buy.   Hair ties, bows, and headbands fit perfectly in the smallest of the 3 tins in the set. Oscar absolutely adores little plastic toys.  Dinosaurs are his favorite victims.  I recently found the...

Happy Sunday!  This morning I am prolonging the inevitable chore of getting dressed for my fun, busy day ahead.  My Aunt Kari is in town, so her, my mom, and I are going to go see John Edward (psychic medium) in Orlando.  Luckily, my bridesmaid dresses came in for my girls this same week, so we are picking them up for my 2 girls (sister and future sis-in-law, who will be getting married 5 months and 2 days after us).  It wouldn't be an Orlando trip without an IKEA stop, so we'll be going there.  (My aunt has never been!  Eep!) Then, after our show, we will be going to Ming Court for some Chinese/sushi.  Sadly, it will be farewell to my aunt (her name Kari means "pure of heart"-so fitting), as she will be returning home to Iowa. We've spent a ton of time together this weekend, and we've all especially enjoyed Ayla's antics. Ayla's Antics   Ayla loves all shoes, but these were some of her favs at Payless. Putting on everyone's shoes and walkin...

This is my bridge.  My "run your ass off" bridge.  My mom got started walking it the summer Ayla was born.  I went with her on and off, but I got out of doing it when I got back to work that Fall.  Too tired, unmotivated, etc. Well, I'm baaaaack.  5 months until our wedding.  When I weighed in on Saturday, I was at 154.8.  I had to go back on Sunday to make sure it was true!  I've been trying to get below the 155 mark, which hasn't gone so well.  I kicked off my whole weight loss with Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet.  It went great-I didn't feel deprived after the first few days of adjusting to life without my love, carbs.  I lost about 6-7 lbs, but as soon as Phase 2 began (reintroducing 1 carb at at time over a period of weeks), I fell off the wagon.  I tell you what, that first piece of bread was my gateway carb! Now I am just watching my calories on MyFitnessPal, which is a pretty rad website.  Yep, I said rad....

Do you ever have one of those days (weeks...months?) where you feel like you have nothing left to give? Like you're running on E?  Like you're running miles on the hamster wheel, going nowhere fast? Ever feel like every corner you turn something is waiting for your attention, be it a task, someone who needs something, or a bill that needs to be paid? You have a mama meltdown, then 16 hours of sleep...only to feel even more exhausted than before? Where you just want to cry or scream.  Or cry while screaming? Or binge eat chips and chocolate for hours on end?    I'm trucking along, but I feel like if everyone around me could lend me some of their patience (and an extra hug or two) since mine is hanging by a thread, that'd be great.  I am so happy that Ayla gave me extra hugs and kisses today.  And shook my hand, saying, "Mee-show!" (As in, "Nice to mee-show [meet you]!")

My Mother's day involved a very cranky, no-nap-taken almost two-year-old.  Oy vey! She felt it would be more fun to run around the pool than to go swimming in it.  However, she was very well-behaved for our much-too-long wait at IHOP, for less than amazing food.  The family at the table next to us, who yelled at the kids and threatened them for doing very typical kid things while bored and waiting (horsing around at the table, very mild horsing mind you), pointed her out to the 5-year-old saying how well-behaved she was being.  Of course, that prompted her to start throwing things on the floor and demanding to be held. Anyway, my mother's day was mostly good, although getting into a fight with my mom is on the bottom of my list of things I hoped to have happen today.  I got to sleep in yesterday, and I really slept.  I mean, I went to bed Friday night at midnight, and I didn't get up until 4:00 pm on Saturday.  That is SIXTEEN hours of sleep.  W...

Tomorrow marks my 3rd mother's day.  My first mother's day, I was 9 months pregnant and ready to pop.  My second mother's day, I was getting ready to watch my baby smash her first birthday cake. Now, here I am with a toddler ready to turn two and celebrating (?) having Oscar the Boston Terror for a whole year. For me, I have two things that I love about Mother's Day.  #1. I love that I have such an awesome mom that I am blessed to talk to on a daily basis who has taught me everything about everything. #2. I love that I GET to be a mom.  For years, I watched people around me get pregnant and have babies...and I figured it would always just be a dream for me.  I never truly thought I would fall in love with someone so great and become mama to such a sweet little girl. This is one of the first images I got to see of sweet baby Ayes.  This ultrasound was done at 10 weeks pregnant.  After seeing the images of Ayla, my mom nicknamed her "acorn" since we d...