Tale from the Playroom... or wherever...

Some of you faithful readers may remember when we affectionately referred to Gavin as “MiniMarshall” or just “Mini” for short before he arrived. We waited 40 weeks (exactly!) for him, but we kept his name top secret. We decided on Gavin Patrick around week 25, but no one knew until his grand (very punctual) arrival. While he arrived ON his due date (unlike most babies) and he came out with big, dark eyes and lots of dark hair, we knew he was mine. Clearly already demonstrating OCD tendencies, and a full head of hair – definitely my child - but that is where the similarities pretty much ended. He looked exactly like the husband. Soon, we would learn, his personality was right in line with his too. 

So, I know now that the term “Mini” was foreshadowing that this little boy of ours would actually be a Mini-Me for the HUSBAND. I should have known. I lug him around for 9 months and then I end up with ANOTHER version of Andy. Lucky me! Seriously though, I these two crazy boys do make me feel pretty lucky. Some of the trouble they have already been into has… concerned me… but their similarities also… well, let’s use the word concerned again. Poor Gav already has a lot to “look forward to” being our son, especially the son of class clown/king goofball/rusty the dawg fan.

Recently these two musketeers outsmarted me again at a friend's engagement party. Gavin of course wore a onesie featuring a bowtie and suspenders, because he knew it was appropriate for such an occasion. (This where I still claim him as mine.) His father wore his signature quarter-zip sweatshirt, because he apparently thinks he’s athletic or something. Anyways, back to the party. The husband had Gavin while I socialized and talked all things wedding with the bride (I will never turn down a conversation about venues, lace and flowers - as long as I live! I can't help it.) 

About a week later, I get a text from friend saying she loved the pictures of Gavin in the laundry basket. What? I know he’s been in the laundry basket, but I try not to photograph that in fears that CPS will judge. She tells me that the husband had been sending photos on Saturday night and really, I need to send them in to whoever makes those towels! Again – what? Now he is in a towel advertisement? I’ve got to get to the bottom of this. Obviously nervous, but curious, I ask the husband if he had Gavin in a basket of towels? To which he nonchalantly replies, “Oh yeah. I had to pee so I took him in the bathroom at Matt and Sarah’s and that looked like a good place to put him.” Seriously? The impromptu photo shoot took place next, and I have to agree, this would be a very sweet in the Pottery Barn catalog we all know and love perusing each month.

just another day at the office with the wood samples
and sophie the giraffe.

a boy and his boat. 

This rivals the time he took him to work for the day and I asked where he was planning on having Gavin sleep. “Do you want to bring the pack-n-play?” Silly question. Why would you bring a bed for your baby when you can just lay him on the floor under a desk?

Or, how about the guys day at the Seattle boat show? Yep, there's Gavin with the Cris Craft he is putting on his wish list for Santa this year.

The best part of these daddy-grams is that Gavin never seems phased… Pottery Barn hamper with soft, new towels in the newlyweds’ bathroom? Sure! Why wouldn’t I just perch in there and giggle? Nap on my blanket on hard carpet in some empty office while my dad works down the hall? No problem! Just come check on me eventually, ok? I actually like to sleep face down.

What’s next, Dad?

Love,

YOUR mini

where you lead, i will follow... literally.

Firsts and '14

I last wrote to you one month ago – oops! I’ve had lots of ideas brewing since then, but I’m sure it has been a busy month for you too. Gavin turned 3 months then and, yes, you can do the math, he is 4 months today! We have had a lot of “firsts” in this last month alone, and many, many since September. As we turn the page into the new year, I thought I’d pick a few of my favorites to share with you. May your 2014 be full of equally funny memories!

• first birthday as a parent: To me, this was obviously an opportunity to receive another gift. I figured Gavin for sure wanted to celebrate Mommy’s birthday in a big way! So, when I asked the husband what Gavin got me, he replied (dumbfounded): “Oh, that’s a thing?” Yes, that would be a “thing.” Of course the child buys the mom a gift, and of course when he is 3 months old he needs his dad’s help! Fortunately, Gavin busted open his piggy bank and got dear dad to take him to the mall. It took him about a week (I guess he was figuring out what he wanted to get me), but he did deliver a very sweet and thoughtful gift, wrapped and all! I’m sure next year he will do more advanced planning.

• first Christmas as a parent: We were really excited about this one. We wanted to make all these traditions with Gavin – Christmas jammies (favorite baby pajamas for year-round are Hanna Andersson - check out their sale here), a Christmas book, a special “first” gift (click here to see what Santa brought - he shops at Pottery Barn Kids!), handprint ornaments, the works! I know everyone says the first Christmas doesn’t really matter, but it mattered to me, and I was going to make it great. I give myself an A+ for planning all of the above, but the execution was a bit rough. After I threw up my Christmas dinner, I proceeded to throw up a few more times throughout the night. There was no special storytime or sipping yummy wine while watching the Christmas tree twinkle (ok that second one is a mommy and daddy tradition, obviously no wine for baby). The worst part of all is that I am literally the WORST at puking. I do it about once every 5 years on average and so my experience is limited. I keep my eyes closed and I cry. This makes for poor aim and a lot of emotion. I won’t go into any more detail, but not even keeping your eyes closed can protect you from asparagus between your toes. The perk of the whole day was that Gavin – like mother, like son – LOVED opening his presents, well he loved watching me open his presents. I have to admit, getting to open twice the gifts was pretty sweet for me. I can’t help it! I love prezzies. Another perk was that he remembered to get me a Christmas gift – I think he felt bad about forgetting my birthday, so he really made up for it and got me a night at Salish Lodge. What a doll!

• first time baby rolled over: This was another one I was waiting for. All Gavin’s facebook friends have been doing it, so this mama’s competitive gene was brewing tough… (sad but totally true). He flopped over a few times but totally accidentally, so I didn’t really count those. He doesn’t really seem to have any interest in this trick, which shocked me because 1) like stated above, we are a very competitive family (well at least him and I are… husband also doesn’t seem to care about this trick) and 2) he is always twisting and turning to see what’s going on, so I thought he would just do that with his whole body and roll over. Not so much. I realized that he is really twisting and turning so he can see the tv, an ipad, computer or phone. Have screen – he will follow! (I need to figure out how to use that as a training technique!) Then one night, he got really angry in his crib and BOOM! Flipped over like a fish! I couldn’t believe it. I was so shocked, in fact, that my precarious balance of the baby monitor (need one? i recommend this Motorola or this one is its sister and great too) and the soup-bowl sized mug of hot chocolate became… unbalanced. All of the sudden, the monitor was submerged in the cocoa. Gavin was flipped over upstairs, the monitor was taking a bath in the hot chocolate, and I was screaming. Fortunately the husband came to his senses quickly and removed the monitor (we left the flipped fish for a few minutes while we problem solved this pricey piece of technology). To say the least, all 3 of us had a terrible night’s sleep! The monitor had to sleep in rice, so I was a puddle of worries until (smarty pants) husband set up his phone with some (smarty pants) app so I could watch Gavin sleep from my phone. While this sounds cool and high tech, it kept breaking and had no sound capabilities, so my little ears were straining all night. Rough. I don’t even want to know what people did before monitors, iphones and Ziploc bags full of rice to fix all of the above. The worst part is, I don’t even really like hot chocolate! I was drinking it because I didn’t have any wine open and felt like a lush opening a bottle for myself. You know the feeling – everyone gets it (sometimes). So I thought to myself, “Have some hot cocoa. It’s winter and you have a fabulous mug to put it in.” I also had a delicious salted caramel hot chocolate mix – which I do like. Well I did, until we got in that fight. The moral of the story is I never would have balanced my wine with the monitor (not even the cheerleader in me can tackle such a feat), so therefore, back to the vino for the night cap.

• first time baby laughed: he had mastered the squeals, but we kept trying to get a real laugh out of him. The husband (he thinks he’s funnier, so this just added to that silly lie he tells himself) finally got him to do it! Even though he was the first one to make it happen (and clearly my competitive issues were all fired up), it was a very sweet moment. The best part is Gavin’s laugh is a low chuckle and he is very stingy with it… we probably work for at LEAST an hour a day to get just a snippet of his giggle. Hopefully, he will feel more generous soon.

•  first time got pooped on by a bird: this is just in general – this had NEVER happened to me – Praise God – but when Gavin was just a few weeks old, it did! We were on one of our delightful fall walks when we literally got SHOWERED in bird poop. Fortunately, the faithful Bugaboo was there to protect Gavin. Had he not been snuggled in that Cadillac of a stroller with the basinet “hood” up, he would been attacked by bird poop in the face! Gross! Also fortunate was that my favorite color is black and therefore the black stroller came clean and hid any remnants. WHEW. The bird totally aimed for him and missed me, but he did manage to hit my pregnant friend on her coat. I felt that was especially rude, since she is pregnant and the scent of bird feces is just extremely obnoxious, especially in the first trimester. But we all survived.

I sure hope 2014 is treating you well so far. It’s going to be hard to beat last year… having a baby kinda tops my charts for favorite year award. But as this little person grows and grows, it really does just keep getting better, so I predict that we have a lot to look forward to… and I look forward to sharing it with you! Xoxo and happy, happy New Year!

practicing his horseback riding skills

awkward christmas eve pj selfie!

checking out his new toys - see - not interested in rolling

Tailgating Tips from Broke-O

Unless you live under a rock (and by that I mean giant boulder), you know that it is full-on football season! In this house, that means football is the soundtrack to my life on Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. Four. Whole. Days. I like football! But, I also like… reality TV. So, this also means that I only have 3 precious days where I can control the television and catch up as quickly as possible on my really important shows like the Kardashians, Sister Wives, 19 Kids and Counting, etc. The husband does admittedly watch a few shows WITH me, which I appreciate. But this further complicates things, as we also only have those limited time slots to squeeze in Nashville, Chicago Fire, Parenthood, and Modern Family. As you can see, our TV schedule gets booked up pretty quickly! Luckily, Baby G likes all of these shows too so we “let” him stay up and watch them with us. He drives a tough bargain but you know, we want to be the cool parents.

So, when we’re not watching football with TV shows wedged in between (PS ask me if you need suggestions for your own TV viewing or summaries of this season’s events –maternity leave has really solidified my commitment to Scott Disick), we do actually leave the house and GO to the football games. As many of you know, we are loyal University of Washington alum and love supporting Husky Football! This year, the season has been extra eventful for us since we did a little thing called have a baby in the middle of it. That said, we did miss 2 games, but are proud to be back at it. Now, we have the best accessory of all – a teeny tiny Dawg Fan, Gavin! Obviously, we have had to adjust our tailgate tactics slightly to accommodate this little Husky. Here are my expert (that is a very loose term) tips for tailgating with a Mini:

      Hydrate: the diaper bag is also a PERFECT holder for a bottle of wine. Fits like a glove into those side pockets! Think of it like this – pack bottles for baby and a bottle for you. Everyone will be happy. (Be sure to buy a screw top bottle of wine - easier for travel!) Likewise, beer cans slide nicely into the ERGObaby front pack (check out this new cute gray one) when the babe is still small. The husband easily packed 2 in there + our son. We don’t consider any of this inappropriate. Space efficiency is dire when it comes to tailgating, so you do what you must.

Pack in advance: You will need to bring a minimum of a million more things with you for the babe, so I suggest packing your bag in advance to ensure you get all the necessities. Then, you can go back and eliminate some of the nonsense stuff you threw in there and lighten your load. Like don’t bring the whole lip gloss collection, but more like your top 2 favorites (this Chanel is my #1 right now). Oh did I say the baby needs a lot? You know what I mean.

Speaking of packing, bring someone to carry all that stuff: You must have a pack horse… aka husband… aka personal assistant? Whatever. Whoever. This cannot be done alone! Basically, one person takes the little Dawg and one person takes everything else. Teamwork at its prime.
     

Make a plan: What they say is true. You’re a little less spontaneous when you have a tiny human in tow. Personally, this is not a negative for me. I literally despise spontaneity. Ask the husband – he really appreciate this about me. Not. I can’t help it! I just really dislike spur of the moment plans and disorganization of any sort. So, I’m happy to make a plan and stick to it. And make sure everyone else does too. Let’s just say no one listened to me the first time around, and we learned the hard way this is necessary. Miles later and 2 sore backs and 4 sore feet, we realized we had overdone it just a tad.  I was even more disappointed when those guys who ride the bikes with the little carriages on the back told me it was going to cost $30 for a ride to our car! Even in my desperation, I couldn’t give a guy on a bike with a boombox thirty bucks. So, I suggest making a (flexible) timeline for your day with a general idea of where you want to be when. Share the plan with the packhorse and your day is smooth sailing.
      

       Last, remember layers: This is a tricky time of year with the weather, so dress in layers to be prepared. When in doubt, wear more. Some of my favorite cold weather tricks are tights under jeans or leggings, slipper socks inside my boots, handwarmers in my pockets and my shoes, don't be afraid of faux fur (for anyone! Check out gap.com for my vest and variations of Baby G's fuzzy bear suit) and obviously bring a blanket for your bleacher seats! For convenience purposes, you should definitely have a cross body bag too. This Rebecca Minkoff is perfect and just came out in great new colors. I love the soft grey - amazing neutral. (Can't get in time for football season - remember to ask Santa!) Remember – only 2 lip glosses in there, though. After all, you need room for the tickets! May the best team (and best dressed tailgater) win!

      

PS: A quick plug - I recently added a "subscribe" box to my blog and would love for you to do so. I value all of you fashionistas and want to make sure you are updated, pronto, with the happenings on here. Thanks for following my antics! I promise to keep 'em coming. 

See you at the patch.

Fall is in full swing around here! I’m sure you are all rejoicing in the fact that you could take your sweaters and boots out of storage like I am. Gavin was a fabulous assistant, and rode around in his little ERGObaby pack while I did my semi annual closet project. It took a little longer, but with his help, the closets have been switched in this house! Summer went upstairs and down came the cozy and cuddly fall/winter wardrobe, complete with scarves and booties. Speaking of – how do you store your scarves? May I suggest this little miracle worker? One of my fellow mommy friends discovered it during one of her Amazon Prime shopping sprees while she too was on maternity leave. (We have since both agreed that Prime is dangerous when you stay at home! I also ordered a shoe organizer but in my hurry to satisfy my starvation to shop I failed to realize it was way too large for any closet I have! But another perk of Prime is free returns... so the cycle continues.) Anyways, my scarves were previously folded into a useless bin and now, I can see them all at once! Even better, this actually doesn’t fit in my closet, so it must be housed in the husband’s… it just allows me to spread out even more and control every possible inch of square footage in this house.

A perfect place to wear your favorite scarf and other fall clothes is… you guessed it… the pumpkin patch! I realize this is not an original idea – I have seen tons of your adorable photos and everyone's patch looks have been so cute! My patch outfit this year was pretty basic; it wasn’t very cold, so I didn’t have the opportunity to bust out a scarf or hat, but I was pleased that I could wear my Hunters. These are definitely a staple for all wardrobes, especially a Washingtonian. I promise they are worth the $$! You can spot them at pumpkin patches, football games, and I know they will be making appearances at Christmas tree farms in a couple of months! If you don’t have your own pair yet, check them out here – pick your fave color and they will be on your doorstep by the end of the week. Don't forget a pair of liners too! You can thank me later. (Read one of my first blog posts ever here, when I first purchased my Hunters 4 years ago- oh the memories!) 

If you need a basic scarf to wear with everything, including your Hunters, the tissue weight cashmere-wool blend ones by Nordstrom are my favorite. They last forever and so it is no wonder I own multiple colors - check out the rainbow of offerings here. I have my eye on the bordeaux (Nordstrom online calls it "dark purple") one on the left. 

Someone who did get excited about his patch look was… the husband. I’m not really sure who’s style he was channeling; all I know is he wore his chambray shirt with a Carhartt vest – and you know how I feel about the C word.

He wasn’t hard to beat, but cutest boy at the patch was a tie between Gavin in his pumpkin hat and our friend Wyatt in his own kids size Hunter boots. See, they are a must-have for the little tikes too!

Back to the patch. There we were, major new-bees. This is another one of those first-time-parent moments. I suppose most people will become parents and will have… experienced a pumpkin patch before. Not us. See, we prefer to get our pumpkins at the grocery store. We are all about the convenience. We never carve them either. We go through this same anti-attitude at Christmas and Easter too. This was the first year we dyed Easter eggs and it was almost a bust when I only had balsamic vinegar instead of regular (and I thought it would be ok to use – good thing I was corrected). Christmas is another time of year where we really reign in the field trips and stick to Safeway and its peers. In 4 years of Christmas tree shopping, at least we have diversified our purchases amongst 4 different grocery stores. Last year, we really patted ourselves on the back when we went to the small, local gourmet grocery store. We felt that was practically the farm and were extra pleased when they offered to give the (probably month-old tree) a fresh cut! However, like always, by the time we woke up on Christmas morning, we pulled our presents out from beneath a very dead tree. Whomp whomp. 

The husband wanted to do our usual lame routine this year, and even suggested we take photos of Gavin at the STORE, pretending it was a pumpkin patch! I have to admit – at first, I agreed. But then I had this strange guilt that our 1 month old would surely remember his first Halloween picking a pumpkin in a parking lot while his parents filled their cart with meat and produce and I couldn’t get past it. It took a lot of convincing, but I finally convinced the husband to accompany us to the pumpkin patch. I received a few choice comments, especially when I gave the wrong directions, there was no parking, blah blah blah. As if he plans everything to a tee? I think not. He also insisted on driving the truck versus the Prius so he would “feel less lame.” He was definitely feeling a little less lame a few minutes later, when he happily snacked on hot roasted corn on the cob and fresh kettle corn. Such treats are not available at the local grocer, I assured him. There was also a little petting zoo; this didn’t really impress either of us (especially because I can see a duck any old time and they are not a favored animal in this Husky home), but it was an added element that again is not featured when you shop at Safeway.

So, if you need it, here are the top 5 reasons you should pumpkin patch it within the next week or so:

• ·      You will have a reason to bust out your Hunters for their 2013 season debut
•       Take your pick from traditional, minis (you know I love them!), sugar pumpkins, ghost pumpkins, yellow pumpkins… shop til you drop!
• ·      The best patches have yummy snacks that literally taste like fall
• ·      It will get you at of the house long enough to miss almost an entire football game (Wives and girlfriends everywhere: rejoice! Even us football fans can use a break.)
• ·      Your new social media profile picture will be way cuter with a real pumpkin patch in the background instead of a parking lot with shopping carts