The Beater Phone

My cell phone died on me today. The causes are known – biting, licking and falling on the ground. When I went to visit my neighborhood cell phone provider, I learned that I was caught in a loop. My phone was no longer under warranty, I was not eligible to re-new my contract to get a free phone and I wasn't eligible for a discount on a full-price phone. What?!?

At first, I thought I'd just use my previous cell phone, but then I remembered that I had given it to my dad when he was stuck in a similar contract situation. I had boxed up that beloved phone in its original packaging and mailed it to him.

That's when I remembered Goldie. Goldie is a gold-toned Nokia I purchased on-line a while back. I loved her right off the bat even though I got horrible service in my condo building and in my work loft. It was so bad that, shortly after she arrived, I boxed her up and stashed her away.

I found her this afternoon. She's all charged up and ready to go, and seems to get a few bars of service in the new townhouse. So far, so good.

Cupcakes are Yummy!

I did not grow up a huge fan of cupcakes, nor did I dislike them. They just weren't part of my family's dessert repertoire.

When I moved to Ballard in 2006 and discovered Cupcake Royale on NW Market Street, I had to institute a rule: one cupcake per week. While it's much easier to impose some self control, I'm still a sucka'!

I tend to go with what I know – lavender frosted chocolate cupcake or lemon frosted vanilla cupcake. Then I saw the seasonal Skagit Valley Farm Strawberry frosted cupcakes. Are you kidding me with the locally grown, real strawberries [organic no less] in the icing? I'm all about it!

And as if that wasn't enough pure pleasure, I found myself inside the Wallingford Center this same week. I had to take a peek at Trophy Cupcakes and Party. Not only were their cupcakes gorgeous, the ambiance was a treat. I tried their Red Velvet Cupcake. Never has red velvet cake tasted of chocolate to me like that cupcake did.

Cupcakes are yummy indeed!

Oh! Oh! Self-control, where are you?

BandaBibs Rock!

We've ended up with a lot of bibs. A lot of drool bibs. But here's the thing. Monkey isn't a drooler so he doesn't wear a bib unless some type of foodage is involved. As a result, I don't particularly "style his outfits" with a bib as part of the get up.

Well, I didn't until I laid eyes on a dark denim bandana bib by BandaBib.

There are a lot of people out there writing great things about this product. I encourage you to Google BandaBib and ready all those nice comments.

Me? I'm just going to show you how cute it looks on my cutie.

Accessorizing a baby boy has just gotten a whole lot easier. Thank you, BandaBib!

Now please stay seated for Monkey's rockin' drum solo.

Sand Dunes of South Carolina

My name is Christine and I'm a beach snob. At least I was until recently. I liked my beach straight up with a twist of Pacific Ocean. To me, there was nothing like the Beach Cities of Los Angeles or any and all Hawaiian beaches.

This was all about to change when my Mother-in-Law started planning a big family trip to South Carolina. Now that her and her siblings' kids had kids, wasn't it time to reinstitute the annual Packer/Guillot Beach Trip? I was ready for a beach trip since I hadn't properly laid still on a towel for ages, but would I think the Atlantic and her beaches could rival those of my beloved Pacific?

They can! The ocean is warm, the sand soft, plenty of shells to collect and enough honor among beach-goers that you could put your chairs and umbrella out in the morning and not have to worry about them getting stolen.

We fit fifteen adults and four children in a two story home with eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, two kitchens, nearly a dozen porch rocking chairs, a carport that fit four cars with room for another three in the driveway and… wait for it… the beach in our backyard. Bless the front row and the smart family members that found this rental through Dunes Realty.

I relaxed, enjoyed great company, connected with extended family members, took Nicholas on his first proper vacation, played in the water and even had time to burn through most of my latest book. I loved it! The most relaxing end to the trip was that my husband sat next to Nicholas in his car seat for all three legs of our flight home. I savored every last bite of that vacation.

We’re already planning our beach trip for next summer.

The Second 40 Weeks

Our baby is nine months old. I can't believe a second set of 40 weeks have already passed. He has been ex utero as long as he was in utero.

I have to thank the lovely and talented Emerald England who has helped my husband and I capture these memories through lovely photography.

Please check out her beautiful work at www.emeraldengland.com.

Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home. In our case - Home Sweet Townhome.

Never has this sentiment had more meaning to me. After back-to-back trips to LA, a nasty stomach bug, an emergency trip to Ikea for a crib since the little man outgrew the portable play yard my parents bought him, nursing after nursing in the middle of the night, and a huge setback in his napping and sleeping schedule, it was great to be back home.

The house was as I left it. Clean towels covering the furniture just in case of more intestinal distress.

I knew it would take Nicholas some time to readjust to life back on the ranch. But he just won't. Lots of nursing. Waking up two or three times in the middle of the night. Growth spurt. Big time.

My infant sleep research tells me that two weeks before and two weeks after his nine month birthday will be particularly tough on his sleep. My research also recommends that we plan trips around this schedule. Well… that's out of our hands.

So I'm looking at a little over three weeks left in this nine month milestone/sleep disruption process. Then I'm in the clear.

But what will happen after three weeks? I'll let you know.

The Facts of Life

Nicholas and I flew back to California less than a week after our return.

My grandmother spent her last days with her family around her. She passed away in the comfort of her son and daughter-in-law's home.

It was peaceful.

Sqeaky Clean

Recently our household was sick. The kind of sick that requires a special trip to the grocery store for sick people staples and a big thank you to the laundry gods for having included an in-home washer and dryer in our rental townhouse.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I decided to edit our AM routine and take my son and I to my favorite pancake restaurant for breakfast. I would nosh on tasty delights while I fed him sweet potatoes (the yellow kind). This would be different from most Saturday mornings, but my husband was at a work event and I was really looking forward to being back in Seattle after a week long visit with my parents.

Best laid plan put together, I was ready to nurse my son and then head out the door. Problem was, a bug in his tummy had a different idea.

That day my son had three baths. That day I wore three different outfits. One of which was an outfit repeat that went through the wash and then had to go through the wash again. After having to take both of our slip covers off the sofa, we decided just to lay big towels on the thing. It was a day that involved more hand washing and hand sanitizer than when my son was born. My husband and I were desperately trying to keep contamination at bay.

Unfortunately, we caught it, in case you're wondering. In this process, I learned a little about disinfecting nonporous toys. Washing alone or wiping alone with a bleach wipe isn't enough to clean that super cute giraffe or plastic car keys.

Thanks to the Metro King County website, I now know that you need to do both. Because while those plastic toys may reside in the living room play area and not get a whiff of dirt or grime on them, they are certainly covered with dried on saliva and bleach won't do its job unless the surface is clean, clean, clean.

So here are the words we lived by when we were clean those toys - first scrub, then sanitize.

M-I-C… See you real soon!

Nicholas and I took a trip to Southern California to visit with my parents. It was our first airplane trip on our own. It was his first trip to meet Grandma and Grandpa. It was going to be our first taste of summer weather for 2008.

The only things on our agenda were 1) to visit with his maternal Great Grandmother, 2) to introduce him to a swimming pool and 3) to have him meet Goofy and his Pals.

Bubba met his great grandmother. Though he won't remember their introduction, I will and I'll remind him all about it. He flashed her his million dollar smile. He patted her hand. He sang to her. All while she was lying asleep in her hospital bed. It was a bittersweet visit.

The swimming pool thing never happened. I'm still not sure how we didn't fit it in but we didn't.

My parents live in the OC. On my sister's suggestion we had a weekend brunch at Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel. There's a lot of things I can say about this experience but the only one I'll write about is Bubba's delight with meeting the Disney characters. Before our party was seated, we took a picture with Goofy all done up in a chef's outfit in front of a cartoon kitchen backdrop. The baby was fascinated with Goofy's whiskers. It was cute and I was grateful that he wasn't trying to put the whiskers in his mouth. While we were seated at our table, various characters came around with a special greeting for him and there was dancing with the characters at the buffet area.

With validated parking, it was the perfect amount of Disney-to-cost ratio for a person who naps every three hours. I guess that song was right because we'll be back.

Hot Child, Summer in the City

Finally! It's hot. Damn hot! For those of you reading who aren't from Seattle, cut me some slack. I will gladly take 80 degrees in May.

I'm a nursing Mom and though I am comfortable with the idea of having a moderate amount of coffee blended blah blah or a sweet sexy saucy cocktail, that's not what I'm in the mood for. Those things keep me feeling icky and sticky on days like today. I'm also the type that prefers ice cream in the winter. For me it's ice water and a homemade smoothie.

There are lots of smoothie recipes available but I want to share my tried and true recipe from my days working at a café and book store in Southern California (which has since gone out of business for reasons unrelated to the quality of their smoothies).

Make-It-Yourself Smoothie:
1 Cup liquid (i.e. juice, watered down juice, lemonade, or milk)

¼ Cup to ½ Cup protein (i.e. plain yogurt, vanilla yogurt, Greek yogurt or peanut butter) – OR –
1 serving of your favorite protein powder

1 – 2 Servings of fresh of frozen fruit

½ Cup of ice if you want that extra crunch

Here are my favorite combinations:
· Lactose Free Milk – Peanut Butter – Banana
· Pear Juice – Greek Yogurt – Frozen Mangos
· Pomegranate Juice –Protein Powder – Frozen Berries – Ice
· Lemonade – Protein Powder –Strawberries – Ice

Do you make and freeze your baby's food? You can also try using some of his fruit.

Bottoms up, you Hottie!

Whose Bag Is It Anyway?

My memory is hit-or-miss. When it comes to remembering what I learned in high school Chemistry, it's a miss. But when it comes to almost anything shopping related, it's a hit. A big hit.

I remember shopping for our smart diaper bag which we bought after the baby was born. I reviewed my options with my husband in mind. What would he want to carry? What is the most practical bag? We settled on a black nylon messenger bag with a really cool convertible strap system. The most important part about this statement is the word "We." We purchased this bag.

Flash forward in time several months. My husband, baby and I were invited to a baby shower in honor of great friends who were expecting baby number two. All three of us were over-stimulated by the two-year old kids running around, playing with toys, and talking VERY LOUDLY. At some point during the party I went to grab something from my diaper bag. Hmm… that's funny. I have the same bag as someone else. Wait… that's not it! On my third attempt, I identified the correct bag.

Flash forward in time several more months. As we were leaving the pediatrician's office I was telling my husband about how I felt like a Mom through-and-through at that moment. The description was something like this – "I'm sleepy. I'm wearing what could be considered by some to be pajamas. My hair's out of control and my purse is busting at the seams." My dear sweet husband shared a laugh with me and pointed out, "It's not a purse. It's a diaper bag."

Flash back one day, one week, one month… you get the picture. "We" don't use the diaper bag. I use the diaper bag and my husband holds it if I ask him to.

My husband's words were like bad song lyrics I couldn't get out of my head.

Well, I have finally decided to change the station, and guess what? I love this new song! ... Figuratively, of course.

Armed with a gift card I received as a Christmas gift, I have now purchased what should only be described as a purse. A roomy purse with a beautiful canvas body and leather trim. This bag is for me. It holds my things (although it still has room for the baby's things). This bag is to be worn by me, not my stroller. Yippee!

So now the baby is sleeping through the night, I am wearing super cute dark denim shorts instead of workout capris, I style my hair every other day and now I have a purse not a diaper bag. Progress, hah cha!!

Wading Around

I have an interesting relationship with the weather. For as long as I can remember, talking about it hasn’t been small talk for me. My grade school journals often included entries that read, “It feels warm, like 75 degrees. The sky is bright blue and the clouds are high and fluffy.”

I’m often asked how I deal with Seattle Weather since I grew up a California Girl. The answer is that I am patient. Yes, the winter days are short. Tiny. Miniature. I wait for the summer days which are simply divine.

I am patient. I’ve been patient. Very patient… Where is the warm weather already?

In anticipation of my baby’s first summer, I’ve stocked up on gear. He has infant friendly sunscreen, a super floppy lightweight hat and the cutest darn swim trunks with a built in swim diaper.

Now I’m waiting. I wait to wade. While I wait, I have learned that Seattle Parks and Recreation boasts a whopping thirty wading pools!

From mid-May through late August, these water wonders will be open when the temperature is forecasted to be 70 degrees or warmer. The advantage to these community pools is that high public use consumes a substantially lesser amount of water versus neighbors filling commercially purchased pools or running the sprinklers in their own yards.

Sleepless in Seattle

I don’t consider myself an insomniac. In college I was able to sleep-on-demand. I took full advantage of the fifty minutes between my classes: nap for twenty minutes, hit the cafeteria for a bite to eat then jet off to my next class. That’s a skill right there.

Easy sleeping is not in my son’s bag of tricks. Like Father, Like Son.

In my quest to help my son catch more Zzz’s, I attended Let’s Talk About Sleep at the Community Birth and Family Center in the Eastlake neighborhood. This two-hour seminar was facilitated by Ann Keppler RN, MN, co-author of Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn.

I learned about how infants sleep in different parts of the world, SIDS and safe sleeping environments, transitional objects, things that disrupt sleep, recommended amounts of sleep by age, etc.

My husband and I are going to begin incorporating a transitional object into my son’s daily routine. I hope it provide our sleepy one with comfort in our absence.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for more sleeping in Seattle.

How Momma Got Her Groove Back

In my heyday, I frequented dance clubs. I danced my way from Boston to Washington DC and from San Francisco to Chicago. My love for dancing to a good tune didn’t start there.

When I was a kid, my parents would invite their friends over for house parties. With a spread of tasty food and beverages, Motown on the record player and Members Only jackets on the Dads, kids and parents would dance on the burnt orange carpet until the kids’ bedtimes rolled around.

So much has happened since my last dance. I got married, started a family and my bedtime happens during double-digit hours instead of the single-digit ones. Now my dancing is limited to wedding receptions and the goofy dancing I do around the house to keep my son entertained

The idea of going to a dance club in Belltown makes me cringe. Not only am I out of touch with current music and bring the average age up a couple of years but I’m pretty sure my moves are dated.

Where oh where can I get my dance on? I’ll tell you where - Baby Loves Disco. Baby Loves Disco is an afternoon dance party for parents and kids (aged six months to seven years). Clubs across the country and around the world are transformed into a family friendly atmosphere of dancing, playing and snacking on healthy food.

We danced to disco, twirled under the bubbles, made music with the egg shakers, took a break in the quiet room to read a book and received great gifts at the door. The best part was that this Momma got her groove back. Hurray! Whoo Hoo! Ha Cha!