Tag Archives: family
Crafting from Pinterest…Making Crayon Art
While visiting my family in Texas, I decided I wanted to try some of the crafts that I had pinned on Pinterest. My sister is the original crafty person. Actually, Martha Stewart is probably the original crafty person, but my sister could give her a run for her money. So it wasn’t had convincing her to do crafts that I had found on Pinterest and of course my nieces were excited to help out.
There are so many different crafts that I pinned, but we narrowed it down to two. The first craft we made was melted crayon art. This was fun and really enabled the girls to be individually creative. I would highly recommend doing this with your kids, but if you don’t have kids making your own crayon art would be fun as well.
Here are a few tips that we learned along the way:
1. Put a sheet down because once you start blow drying the crayons, the melting crayons may spray.
2. Make sure to use a glue gun to glue your crayons to the canvas in the arrangement that you would like them to melt.
3. Dark colors will dominate, so double up on light colors.
4. Keep the paper on the crayons, this helps the crayons melt down the page instead of just splattering everywhere.
5. Maybe use the crayons with just paper, not wax paper. The wax paper tends to melt too.
6. Blow dry the crayons from the top and they will melt down the canvas. Melting the crayons really
is a trial by error, but it is all fun.
7. Make sure to be safe when handling the glue gun, help younger kids and don’t give the glue gun to a toddler.
8. Mix crafts to make the art interesting. We used colorful paper to add to the art pieces.
9. Have fun and be creative.
We had a lot of fun making our art pieces. The girls really enjoyed the art project and were excited to hang their masterpieces. This was a great rainy day activity, which was perfect because it was raining that day. So all in all, great craft find on Pinterest.
Men have lowered the bar
Recently I have realized men have really lowered the bar for themselves. Things that I do on a daily basis, AJ does and women of all ages ooh and ahh at these minor daily tasks, as cute as they may be. This past weekend two things in particular stood out.
First, AJ and I were on the beach with Maggie , as I’m carrying her through the sand, no one pays attention. AJ picks her up and its as if the clouds have opened up and angels have sung. I hear women gasping with delight at the sight of him holding his daughter. Seriously? I mean, I know she is cute and its great to see a father show affection, but I was just holding her and no one even noticed. 
Then on Sunday, AJ and I went hiking and took Gilmore. As we walk through the trails, I walk in front of AJ and Gilmore and everytime somebody passes me, they giggle and coo. Finally I turn around and ask AJ if he things its weird that when he walks Gilmore or holds Maggie everyone notices. He says, he noticed that it was happening too and thought it was really funny. Of course then, he asks if I want to hold Gilmore’s leash so people will notice me. I opt out because I think men need a role model. If my husband has to suffer and take on this burden, then so be it. Of course, I’d like to clarify who remembered to pack the three water bottles for AJ, Gilmore and myself and then carried them in her purse, that’s right me. No one ogled my Gap shoulder bag that I used as my hiking pack, which I thought looked really cute.
Here’s a picture of AJ giving Gilmore water during the hike. At this moment, I realized how much women love men with dogs and babies. There were five girls standing behind me giggling and trying to talk to AJ about his adorable dog, etc. etc…. In all honesty, I love AJ getting the attention, because he is a great dad. I guess I need to tell him the neighbors ogle over him when he takes out the trash, that way he loves doing that too.
Nightmarish travel…Part 2
If you haven’t read part one to this story, here it is.
After the worst plane ride imaginable, it was with great relief that we landed in Atlanta. AJ and I just looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, the relief was for mere moments, because we had to get off the plane, change our tickets, and get to a hotel. Yes, these seem like simple tasks, but both AJ and I are weak (in the moment), sick (unbelievably so) and barely holding it together (understandably so).
While everyone else exits the plane, we game plan, mostly because we wouldn’t be able to move if we wanted to. How are we going to do this? We have a carseat, stroller, a push wagon (for Maggie to push around), two carry ons, a backpack, my purse and a baby! When we are at our best, this isn’t an easy task. We settled on a plan and jumped into action. Well, stumbled into action. I carried Maggie in the Ergo (basically a front holding baby carrier), my purse, and one bag. I’ve got the important cargo. AJ put on the backpack, attached the carseat to the carry on, and grabbed the stroller from the gate. In other words, he’s got all the rest of the cargo.
As I walk up the ramp and pass the gate area where our stroller is sitting, I notice the wagon isn’t with it. I’m typically thrifty, but right now all I could think was “Screw it! Just keep moving.” At the end of the ramp, I am about to throw up again, I sit in the seats closest to the gate, while everyone stares at me as if I’m carrying a virus that could wipe out Atlanta. Of course, as far as we know, this could be true.
AJ comes up the ramp and looks worse than I feel. That, to my mind, scares the heck out of me about how I look, cause I feel miserable. We are a sight! The flight crew tells us we have to change our tickets at another gate. So here we go, shuffling through the terminal. I kept having to tell myself not to vomit before suddenly being stricken with fear that I would pass out and fall on Maggie. I’m so weak, I keep seeing spots. Must. Sit. Now. I find a seat and plop down. I tell AJ to go on without me. He does. Jerk.
He makes it to the counter where he is like the 15th person in line. 15 people! I can’t make it through 15 people! And I’m sitting down. AJ’s never going to make it. Next time I look up, he’s holding himself up on the stantions – can’t be comfortable or stable. Please don’t fall over. I look up again. He’s got his head down on the counter. Progress.
Through this, I’m sitting down, debating breaking out one of the 10 vomit bags I’m carrying in my purse. Running to the bathroom with all of our stuff isn’t an option. If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen here. I’ve put Maggie down to let her crawl around a little bit despite the fact I don’t have the energy to chase after her. As soon as I do, I hear gasps all around me. Not kidding, one lady screamed. I look at Maggie and the back of her jammies are bright red. WTF!!!! Is she bleeding out of her back?!? I quickly pick her up and look in side her diaper. All I can think is, please…please, a cut, a scrape, a bit. Please don’t be bleeding from your butt! I do the thing that mom’s do…I smell her clothes. Sugary. Sweet. Thank God. It’s just Gatorade. She has sat in Gatorade. I loudly announce to everyone around me, my child is fine, she sat in Gatorade. I, literally, hear several…”Thank Gods”. One lady sees my situation and tries to help me put Maggie in the stroller, but Maggie decides this is the time for a full blown meltdown. Thankfully, AJ walks over with good news – Delta set us up in a hotel and rebooked us the next day for no charge. He also has bad news – our bags were booked through to LA and since they didn’t get sick, they didn’t have to get off the plane in Atlanta. Lucky bags. So we have nothing to change into. Great. AJ buys ugly Atlanta sweatshirts. I notice there is a perimeter around us, that no one seems to be entering. Of course there is, we look like hell, smell like vomit and diarrhea and our baby looks like she has blood coming out of her tiny little butt. I wouldn’t come near us either.
We head to baggage claim. I can’t get on a tram – more motion would not sit well – and the moving walkways are making me nauseous. Everything’s making me nauseous, but those, in particular, were making me miserable. We walk, through “the world’s busiest airport” for what seems like FOREVER. Our terminal to ground transportation is the farthest distance one can be between two points at the Hartsfield Airport. Phew. Feeling like death and exercising. Everyone’s favorite.
At baggage claim we ask someone with an Atlanta Airport badge where taxis are. He directs us to the shuttle. We ask someone else. Same response. AJ pleads with the man. “We’ve got a baby and we just need to get to the hotel. Please, where are the Taxis?” he says. “I can take you,” says the man. I think if I was in the right state of mind, I would have said no and kept looking for the taxis, but we were exhausted, sick and smelly. Not to mention it is 40 degrees outside and we are in diarhhea and vomit covered beachwear, so we take him up on the offer. Now this would typically be the part of the story where we all end up wrapped in plastic in someone’s basement, but it all worked out and we made it to our new home in Atlanta, called Holiday Inn Express.
This would have been great, but the Holiday Inn Express, apparently has no cribs. This is not ideal when you’re talking about a sick, sleepless, mobile baby. We did what we could and I built a crib/pen for Maggie with the room furniture, complete with its own electrical socket. Not ideal at all.
I sent AJ to WalMart to buy us some meds, clothes and pedialite. While he is out, I find a laundry room in the hotel and decide to wash all of our clothes. I don’t have anything to wear that isn’t covered in vomit or diarrhea except my scarf. So I make a scarf dress out of the scarf and walk to the laundry room. Nobody saw me, but if they had, they would have thought I was a hooker. Since this was my only option, I was fine with my new hooker look, especially since I had to take Maggie with me. So I guess I was a hooker with a baby, also known as, an off-duty hooker. Once I get to the laundry room, I realize I am short 1 quarter, and my wallet (AJ) is out at Walmart. I get Maggie to sleep and collapse next to her. AJ returns, leans over and says “At least it doesn’t really get worse than this.”
The next morning, I have a fever and can’t keep my eyes open for the entire morning. AJ does laundry and Maggie has constant diarrhea every 15 minutes. We keep weighing taking her to the hospital versus getting on the plane. AJ takes Maggie around for a walk and when they return she seems to be better.
We pack up, deciding to fly to LA. We just want to get home. All ready to go, AJ picks up Maggie and she pukes all over him and his newly clean clothes. So he decides to wear the black pants he bought for me at Walmart. He picks them up and puts them on. The pants are a size 26W/28W. AJ thought that was the waist size. Or that I’m a planet. I am a size 6/8! So is he. He tries to wear the pants but he looks like a poor Arabian Knight. We decide he has to wear his jeans that smell like vomit…again.
We finally go to the airport and just wait. We board our plane and we both just want everything to be okay. I’m still sick and Maggie is sick. At least AJ is feeling better. So, there’s hope the end is near. As the plane takes off, Maggie falls asleep, so I fall asleep. I woke up 3 hours into the flight, with one hour left. I look over and see Maggie is still asleep, AJ is asleep, so I cry. I cry because I’m so thankful that she will have slept through the flight. I cry because the last 36 hours have been a living nightmare. I cry because we are almost home, we did it. From here on out, things are smooth. We find our bags, that Delta was holding for us. A nice gentleman gives us his SUV cab because we had more stuff than him. We get home and Maggie wakes up and squeals with delight because she sees her room. The past 72 hours for her, have been hell. It is completely understandable that she wants to be home. Our dog Gilmore is ecstatic that we are home. He probably thinks he has been neglected while we were gone and probably thought he was going through hell. Whatever Gilmore, whatever!
Nightmarish travel…Part 1
Happy New Year! All I’m wishing for this year is good health for my family and friends. It really is amazing how much I take having good health for granted. Especially being healthy while traveling. AJ, Maggie and I went to Texas for a week, then to Aruba for a week during the Holidays. We had a great time visiting with family, but Maggie woke up with a stomach virus on New Year’s Day and that is where the craziness begins.
It is heart wrenching watching your one year old vomit non stop and not be able to explain to her what is happening. AJ and I spent all of the day on January 1st holding Maggie and cleaning up vomit. At one point during the day, Maggie threw up, then just looked at me and signed “All Done”. That’s right, she was officially over being sick. She didn’t like it and wanted it to stop. Besides the fact that I’m glad we have been teaching her baby sign language and in that moment she could actually tell me how she was feeling, my heart broke for her. After vomiting all day, it was a relief when we were able to get her to fall asleep for the night. Of course, I was too scared to let her be by herself, so I spent the night next to her crib sleeping with my eyes open (not really sleeping, but reading one of Chelsea Handler’s books). On January 2nd I got up with Maggie early in the morning, she was doing much better, YAY! Now if only I had Chelsea Handler’s book editor’s email, I found quite a few spelling errors in her book, which seemed unacceptable…unless lounge is actually spelled longue, in which case, my apologies to Ms. Handler.
Since Maggie is feeling better, I’m feeling relieved that we are traveling back to Los Angeles. We’ve been gone for 2 weeks and AJ and I both are getting a little anxious to get back. We finish packing our bags, go to lunch, then pack it up and go to the airport. Maggie is doing well, she hasn’t thrown up and is extremely playful. We are ecstatic, because traveling with a toddler can be tough, but traveling with a sick toddler is probably a nightmare. Of course, I was focused on Maggie all day and wasn’t really paying attention to any other signs around me. Such as, after lunch AJ mentions to me that his stomach hurt a little bit. He seemed fine and was ready to go, so I just ignored it. We get to the airport, go through two security checks, customs and get to the gate. Maggie begins to get really fussy, this could be another sign of what is about to happen. Problem is, she skipped her nap, so I assume she is just really tired. We board the plane, we get Maggie settled, she is fussy for the entire time we are on the tarmac. All I can think is, let’s go! Once the plane gets moving, she will fall asleep, hopefully. There is one problem (that I know of), since Maggie has been throwing up I can’t give her any milk. This means I can’t give her a bottle to soothe her during take off, slight problem, but I’ve got water in a bottle and some cheerios, so I figure I’m good to go. I look at AJ and he looks like crap. He tells me he is beginning to feel bad, I tell him just take care of yourself, get some rest and I’ll take care of Maggie.
And so it begins…as we taxi from the gate, I am focused on Maggie. I happen to glance at AJ and he begins to throw up…in his hands ( not his finest moment). I grab a vomit bag and he vomits into the bag, fills the bag, literally to the top. I’m conflicted, I can’t help him, Maggie is crying and I need to focus on her. I tell him to go to the bathroom as soon as he can. He says he feels better, of course now I want to vomit because it was absolutely disgusting how much he just puked. We are not kissing for awhile…at least until he brushes his teeth and rinses his mouth out with alcohol. Maggie is still crying, so I cave in and give her a bottle with formula. She is relieved, drinks it then falls asleep.
For the next hour, I try to help AJ, but I’m starting to feel like crap. Maggie is asleep and all I can think is, please stay asleep for the next four hours. Then the unimaginable begins to happen. AJ goes to the bathroom to puke for maybe the 5th time during the first hour. I look at Maggie and something doesn’t look right. OMG, she is about to start puking while she is asleep. I pull her out of her car seat, she wakes up, looks at me and then I feel it. Maggie has diarrhea…explosive diarrhea, that has filled her diaper and is now pouring out of the back of her diaper and onto me. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! This can’t get any worse! I wave down a Flight Attendant. She helps my stuff to the back, so I can change Maggie. She then says to me, “You have to change her in the bathroom, but there’s not a changing table, and we don’t have any water in the faucets”. She also says, “I don’t know what your family has, but we need to quarantine you to one bathroom, but you can’t stand in the back galley because I can’t have you contaminate any food.” So AJ is in one bathroom puking, and the flight attendant wants to not contaminate the other one, but also doesn’t want me in the back galley. At the same time, I can’t walk back through the plane, because I’M COVERED IN DIARRHEA! I guess she wanted me to take a step outside, I gladly would have put on a parachute and sailed down to a tropical island with a hospital, but I didn’t know it was an option or I would have packed my parachute.
Since Aj is still puking, I begin to awkwardly change Maggie in the other bathroom. This has completely upset the flight attendant, but I nicely explain to her, that this isn’t my ideal situation either, but this is happening. She then proceeds to tell everyone that comes to the back that both bathrooms have been contaminated and they probably want to use the bathrooms at the front of the plane. In the long run, this ends up to be a blessing.
After I balance a diarrhea covered Maggie on the bathroom toilet lid and clean her up using all my wipes and a water bottle. (Just call me Mom MacGyver) I leave the bathroom give her to AJ and he takes her back to our seats, I try to clean myself up as much as possible, then I head back to our seats as well. I have hit my limit its been 2.5 hours of constant vomiting from AJ and Maggie’s diarrhea explosion was my final straw. I sit down next to AJ, inform him he needs to be okay, because I’m not. Right then, I begin vomiting. For the next two hours, I am lucky enough to have my own personal bathroom in the back of the plane. No one will go near the bathroom, myself or AJ. We look like the walking dead, actually we both look like Patrick Dempsey’s character on the plane in the movie Outbreak.
The plane finally lands in Atlanta, I’ve run out of vomit bags and politely ask the guy next to me for his. At this point, all six people in the rows in front of us, jump to give us their bags, the three people in the row right next to us, scurry to find there bags and the two rows behind us also begin to find their vomit bags. Clearly, we have made an impression.
Would you move?
Would you move in order to send your kids to a better school? AJ and I sat down the other night and discussed our school plan for Maggie. Whew! What a long and exhausting conversation with so many hypothetical possibilities. Our daughter is 9 months old and we had to discuss her options for school in LA for the next 18 years. Talk about a reality check. Although the conversation was exhausting, it was eye opening.
Until I had a child, I always thought it was just New Yorkers that had to deal with crazy school issues. Watch Nursery University, it is about the competitive Nursery school application process in NY….CRAZY! Then watch Waiting for Superman and you will be angry, but seriously watch it. Then watch Lean on Me, just because Morgan Freeman is stellar and we all need to have a little hope. Actually, watch Shawshank Redemption, that movie really holds up. Although it has nothing to do about education, unless you need to be educated on how to break out of prison.
Adventures in Bike riding
Having kids makes you discover the kid in yourself again. Something I have realized this summer is, I love to ride bikes. I really do. I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was around 8 years old, which was late for my neighborhood. I remember trying to learn to ride without training wheels and every kid on our street was trying to help me. I remember that day vividly, my parents helping me, my sister riding her bike (actually one of my parents’ brown 3 speed bikes, because I was using her bike) and my neighbor Corey who was 4 years old but already competing in dirt bike competitions cheering me on. It was a scary, fun and rewarding day.
In college I bought a mountain bike and would ride to the hill trails near the Bay lor campus. My dormmate Yvette and I would ride 1-2 days a week, until I skidded off a trail and nearly off a cliffside. With good reason, I stopped riding for awhile and never really rode off-road again. Of course, I would ride my bike to classes but that was it.
When I moved to Los Angeles, I brought my bike but only occasionally rode it, then it rusted out from being locked outside my apartment. My next bike was then stolen from my apartment, then another bike was stolen and then I won a bike and it was defective. So for the past 5 years I haven’t really been bike riding.
A few months ago I almost convinced AJ that we needed to buy bikes and two trailers, one trailer for Maggie and one for our stuff, just in case the big earthquake hit and we needed to leave LA without a car. I wanted to be able to at least push the bikes and use them as a dolly system until we were able to find roads again. AJ nixed this. I was really bummed, but understood because we never ride bikes anymore. So buying two bikes and two trailers just for an apocalyptic scenario, did seem a little silly.
Things have changed. We went to the Jersey Shore in July for a week with AJ’s family. AJ and I ended up riding a tandem bike that was at the rental house, we had the best time, we ended up riding that bike around the island for a couple of days. 
Then AJ rode around with Maggie on the back of another bike. She had a great time. We both remembered how much we love bike riding.
Then this past week we went to San Diego for the week with my family. My sister’s family is very active and wanted to rent bikes one day…AJ and I were excited. My brother n law Sean rented two bikes that sat four people. It was awesome! We had the best time. We raced each other, we almost wrecked, we scared people walking, and we laughed the entire time.
New York City is up next and I’m definitely going to rent a bike in Central park.
I guess the moral of the story is, find the kid inside and have some fun. Go rent a bike. I know that I’m going to rent a bike wherever we go and take Maggie on a fun and healthy adventure.
Are there great places to bike ride in your city? If so, let me know. I’d love to hear of them, maybe I’ll try them out too.
Time flies
It is such a cliche to say that time flies by, but it really does. I can’t believe that Maggie is 6 months old today. It seems like yesterday that my water broke and I thought I had peed all over myself. I remember every detail of that day 6 months ago…the funny, the scary, the emotional and the love.
I drove myself to the hospital (after taking a shower and blowing out my hair). I actually think that this was the most calm I have ever been in my life. I don’t know if I was in denial or if I just didn’t want to bring Maggie into this world with my anxiety. Probably a little of both.
So much has happened in the last six months. There has been a lot of love and loss. We never knew how much we actually would love this precious little girl. At the same time we had to say goodbye to my wonderful dog Paxton, whom I had for 16 years.
The last 6 months really have been an adventure and I wouldn’t change a minute of it. Thank you to AJ, my family and friends for being a part of our lives and Maggie’s.
PS. Maggie is now a few days away from being 7 months. Time really does fly because I forgot to post this . 
Wow, this was really sentimental. On a different note, screw you to everyone that gets annoyed that I don’t have time for you. Now that’s more like it.
1st Mother’s Day
My first Mother’s Day came and went so quickly. Not to say it wasn’t amazing, because it was amazingly perfect. It was a simple day. AJ let me sleep in until 8AM (huge for me), Maggie and I cuddled on the couch watching TV (not common, we usually don’t have the TV on if she is in the room), and then we went on a picnic / hike to see the waterfall in Monrovia.
One of my favorite things to do is to get outside and hike. Usually its Runyan Canyon or Fryman Canyon, but this was a day for a new adventure….family adventure.
There’s not much to say…the pictures say it all.
