Crazy Cali!

Two weeks ago Jack and I had a whirl-wind visit to California.  I had a last-minute business trip to LA pop up so I decided to take Jack over the weekend to see my family. In just a few short days we managed to squeeze in Jack's first visit to Chuck E. Cheese with Mimi, a trip to the Rose Bowl with Uncle Jess, Jack's worst tantrum ever on the plane (complete with a 10 minute melt-down followed by projectile vomiting all over himself, me AND the girl sitting next to me) and, of course, the birth of his cousin Amelie Faith.  And I even found a little time to work. Whew!  It was absolutely Bananas!!  But it was fun and well worth the time Jack got to spend with my mom and bro.  They all really bonded.  It was hectic so I didn't get too many pictures but here are a few highlights.

When Jack saw this pink bike he made a bee-line for it. We put him on and he would not get off! Daddy would have been so proud...

It was an unusual rainy day in SoCal so we decided to take Jack to Chuck E. Cheese. He LOVED it! He especially loved this blue car and rode it at least 10 times...

Jack and his pal Chuck! This was another ride he wouldn't get off of...

Jack was determined to get a basketball into the net....

It's not surprising that Jack is very competitive, given his overly competitive parents! So when he couldn't get the balls up lane the traditional way, he decided to take matters into his own hands....

Papa Joey bought him this bat and gigantic ball. He was in heaven...

Uncle Jess and his twin dog Rooney. I don't really like animals but I adore this dog...

Jess and Jack really bonded. When my mom had to go to San Diego to be with my sister as she was having the baby, Jess took care of Jack all on his own and he was awesome! He's going to be an amazing daddy!!

Pumpkin Patchin!

A few weekends ago we met our friends at Burt's Pumpkin Farm in North Georgia...WAY North Georgia!  It's actually only about an hour away but the traffic was pretty bad so it took twice that long to get there. I think every family in the the greater Atlanta area had the same idea.  But it was a gorgeous fall day and we got to see our friends so it turned out to be a lot of fun.  Jack had a blast running around with his buddies, Grant and Elena and he saw some pumpkins as big as he is.  The funny thing is that we were surrounded by pumpkins but didn't buy any - the line was too long!!  Here are a few of the cute pics - I love the ones of the three kiddos sitting on the hay. The last is too funny - it's like Grant and Jack were so over taking pics and they got a little loopy...and Elena is just looking at Jack like he's a nut! 

The Little Tank!

Well folks, the results are in and Jack got his first 100%!  We had his 15 month check up last week and he continues to impress us with his size.  Weight - 30 lbs (95th %) and Height - 34 1/4 inches (100%).  We call him our little tank!  Unfortunately, he had a stomach bug over the weekend so we think he lost a few LB's.  Poor kid was so sick.  But he's been chowing down the past few days so I'm certain he'll gain it back!

From what I read, he's a "classic" 15 month old - one minute he's laughing and the next he's crying.  If he's not dancing, he's throwing a tantrum.  And he's definitely keeping us on our toes - either making us laugh or pull our hair out.  Raising a toddler can be challenging but it's still a lot of fun! The kid is hilarious - his favorite thing right now is doing the hokey-pokey.  We can watch him for days.  And he loves to run and play rough usually resulting in several scrapes and bruises per day. 

But besides being fun and athletic he's also a smart little guy - he's learning so much on a daily basis.  He tries to say everything and mimic what we do.  And he loves animals so were taking him on his first visit to the zoo this weekend - I think he's going to love it!  I can't wait to see his little face light up when we see his favorites - monkeys, lions and elephants!  And he's also really into body parts - eyes, noses, and especially belly buttons which he calls be-bots.  He really loves to dig his finger in your bely button - it feels great. 

Here are a few pics of our little tank in his Brown's jersey from his papa Don.  Hmmm....maybe we have the next Peyton Manning on or hands.  The kid looks pretty comfortable with a football in his hands!

I was a really good mom before I had kids!

I remember reading that book title a few year ago and thinking how stupid it was....of course that was before I had a baby! But now that I'm a little over a year into mommyhood, I totally get it.  When I was pregnant I used to promise Christian that our our children would never run around in diapers, the house would always be clean and I would always look perfect...all while being a high-powered career woman!  I was going to DO-IT-ALL!  I clearly had no idea what I was getting myself into because this is my reality...

More often than not Jack is wearing nothing but a diaper...

The house usually looks like this...

And when I was pregnant I looked like this...

(OK, in my defense – that preggo picture was taken at a White Trash Party, but I really did wear that outfit. What was I thinking?!)

Anyway, work has been amazingly busy lately and I’ve been gone a lot so I’m feeling like a really bad mom. I often wonder if I really can do it all. Lately, I've been struggling with this question and feeling guilty about being a busy working mom, having a messy house, always having so much to do but not enough hours in the day to get it all done, making time for my husband, my family, my friends,....my blog! And all this stress is causing way too many gray hairs on my head but I'm too broke to get highlights! Argg, what’s a girl to do?!

Well, pray, of course! And God reminds me that I have a LOT of good thing going for me. For starters, I have the best husband on the planet who steps up when I’m busy and takes care of things. And, even though I’m crazed at work, I have an awesome job that affords me tons of flexibility. I know this busy time won’t last forever – in fact it will be over in 2 weeks!! And I have amazing family and friends who are always there for me, even if I don’t call or facebook all the time.

And then there’s Jack – my sweet little buddy who proves to me every day that he’s A-OK! He’s such a smart, healthy, happy boy who I find absolutely irresistible! So when I start to feel stressed and overwhelmed I just look at this delicious little face and I know that I’m going to be OK too…

The family that runs together....

This summer I started running again.  I wish I could say I rediscovered my passion and love for running but the truth is, it was born of necessity.  I mean, does anyone really love running?!  It boiled down to the fact that those pesky last 5 lbs of baby weight weren't going to burn themselves off. And since I now have a child and therefore less time in the day to go to the gym, my only option was hoofin it!  So in what had to have been the hottest summer on record, I started to run.  And as long as Jack had a full can of puffs and a sippy cup of cold water in hand, my loyal running buddy was right there with me. 

Ok, so I have to admit, it actually was a little (and I stress the word little) fun.  It reminded me of my old cross country days in high school...and also reminded me why I quit cross country to be a cheerleader!  Boys really didn't go for the freshman girl who ran cross country!  But I digress.  So, after running for a few months I decided to challenge myself to a 10K - The Big Peach Sizzler.  I figured if I could push 30 lbs of solid baby up a hill, I could tackle 6 miles all by myself.  I talked a few of my boot camp girls into joining me and the race was on.

So I got a new par of kicks, trained my butt off for a few weeks, scored some comfy running clothes and had Christian download a bunch of hard core tunes on my ipod - nothing like a little Guns N Roses to get you pumped! I finished the 6.2 miles in just over 54 minutes - not too shabby for my first 10K! I was pretty proud of myself for finishing so well AND for losing one jean size! A few weeks later Christian and I ran a 5K with Jack in tow. Unfortunately, we had some major stroller issues so we didn't really have a great finish, but we had a lot of fun doing it as a family! And even though I'm not training for anything in particular, I'm still running. Me and the boys will be out there hoofin it until winter comes and this Cali girl goes into hibernation!

Jack was waiting for me after my 10K!

Me and my Operation Boot Camp girls. We're a bunch of tough chicks!

We were joined by one of our boot campers Rich, who wore the smallest shorts on earth. So gross!

My boys are always there to support mommy!

Here we are at our 5K with our fellow boot camp instructors and a few of our campers.

It was an early morning so Jack was beat.  He slept through the entire run, including our out-of-control stroller issues.

Awake and ready to go!  How cute does Jack look in his new fall gear!

More end of summer fun!

I've been a terrible blogger since my hiatus - I just can't seem to work it back into my rotation.  It's like a never ending item on my to-do list.  Plus, work has been crazy busy so I can never sneak in blog time at the office anymore.  But enough excuses, it's time to catch up!  So here are the last of our photos from summer... the very end of summer in fact - Labor Day! 

We spent Labor Day with the Pearch's - Matt, Kate and Grant.  They came to our neck of the woods and we took them to our favorite pool.  Jack and Grant have become quite the little buddies so of course we had a blast!  I love that they are of an age where they can play together.  The pool was empty so we had run of the place.  And despite being rather chilly in the water, it was a perfect pool day.  Then we came back to our place for a southern feast - BBQ, mac n' cheese and homemade Key Lime Pie.  Thank goodness we wore our bathing suits before we ate.  What an awesome way to say adios to summer!

 Grant says...."Brrr...this water is cold!"

 Jack has gotten so brave since the beginning of summer - he's jumping off the edge now!

 My adorable boys!

 Happy Jack!

 Jack and Kate having fun with the water toys - I love this picture!

Matt and Grant getting in on the water action!

 Such a great picture!

 The big boys racing each other down the slide.  It really is so much fun!





One last summer pic of me and Jack.

After 300 attempts - I FINALLY got a cute shot of Jack and Grant together - both looking and smiling!

Five things I learned this weekend...

1. Jack's feet have grown 2 sizes in 3 months.  I just bought my 14 month old an 8-wide shoe!
2. My muffin top will never go away if I continue to eat fish n' chips, junior mints and, of course, muffins!
3. Jack LOVES sour patch kids.  He's definitely his father's son.
4. An action-packed caper movie should never end with the main character looking out over a tropical beach somewhere far, far away.  It only worked well in Shawshank Redemption so let's retire it already.
5. The "I only want my daddy" phase is officially over!  I'm a happy mommy.

Doe Ba!

Jack has gotten really good at hitting the ball off the Tee.  He's quite the little athlete!

Jack's has just put together his first word combo!  For the past week he's been saying "Doe Ba" which translates to "throw ball."  It's fitting these would be the first words he puts together since the kid can literally throw a ball across the room.  We've been worried that he wasn't talking much but everyone kept telling us it would start around 15 months...they were right!  He's 14 1/2 months and is a talking machine.....well mostly babble and about 12 actual words. All the words that went into the vault are now back and he's added some new ones...juice, bubbles, bye-bye, jump, truck and choo (which is what he calls his train).

He's also starting to learn what animals are.  He moo's when we point out cows and will bring us his favorite piggy book when we ask for it.  A lot of this I attribute to his school because they teach him so much in circle time.  When he first started the toddler room the teachers said he wouldn't even sit for circle time and now they say he loves it and is learning a lot.  We're just amazed how is little brain works and of course we think he's a genius.  We'll just skip elementary school and go straight to college....we're thinking baseball powerhouse LSU or mommy's Alma mater CSUF!!