Settling In

I'm thankful that packing is behind me and now it's just a matter of unpacking. I love our new home and can't wait to be done with all the boxes and mess. It's the first time I have moved out of Costa Mesa, which is a big step for me. Ok, ok, I know I'm still practically in Costa Mesa, but according to the U.S. Post Office, I now reside in Santa Ana. And I'm happy about it.

It's aweome to have a driveway where we can park three cars in the driveway. And I love that we don't have to cram everything into two small rooms. We have a backyard where Cub can learn to ride his bike and splash in a kiddie pool. Our neighborhood is so nice and quiet. I can take Dominic for walks and not worry about traffic or tons of people. It feels like a grown up home and I guess we are grown ups now, so it's pretty fitting.

Long Awaited Tooth

After months and months of teething, drooling and chewing everything he could get his hands on, Dominic finally got his first tooth! It's amazing to see a little white nub sticking out of his bottom gum. It's tiny and sharp, kind of like a shark tooth. I have to say, he looks so cute with a little tooth in his gummy smile. The one right next to it seems to be coming right behind it, so hopefully it won't be as painful as the first.

My Little Leprecahn

Happy St. Patricks day! I remember when this day was all about drinking green beer, partying it up and having a good time. This year it was a little different. I picked up Dominic from his babysitter, went home, gave him a bath and played together. Then I went to my weight watchers meeting and dinner with Lanie. I have to say, it was a pretty great way to spend St. Paddys day. There was no drinking involved, no drunken toasts, no Irish drinking songs, none of that. But I didn't really miss it. I had a great time with my baby and then a great evening with my best friend. I guess that means I'm content with the way my life is now.

Not to say that drinking it up means unhappiness. No, not at all. But I remember when I was pregnant, it was really tough for me to not be able to party because I missed that part of my life so much. I wasn't sure how things would go and if I would always feel like I was missing out on a good time. Well, I'm happy to report that I feel good about things. I have a different focus now. Don't get me wrong, I still love to have a night off and hang with Rob and my friends, let loose and go drinking. But I don't miss it as much as I feared I would. I'm in a different place and it feels pretty good. Before the highlight of my night may have been doing shots with my friends, but today, my highlight was that Dom stood on his own, without even realizing it.


He was playing and let go, Rob and I both were looking at each other thinking "oh my gosh!" Once he realized he didn't have anything that was holding him up, he kind of panicked and plopped back down on his butt. Another milestone accomplished!

Home Sweet Home

Moving sucks. I really really hate moving. I'm much more of a stayer. I move somewhere and then stay there for a long period of time. I lived with my parents for 21 years. I lived in my first apartment for 6 years. I lived in my second apartment for 4 years. You get the idea. I'm a total creature of habit, so it's been kind of rough for me to live in 4 different places in two years. Rob and I moved into our place on Pomona Ave (dubbed the Jungle House) in March 2009 and it has been good to us. But now with Cub's toys and realizing we still have boxes unpacked, we have come to grips with the fact that we have run out of room. It made sense to find a new place to live, but we had only been living there for a year, so i wasn't ready to move on. As it turned out, fate intervened. Our landlord raised the rent and it was just too much for our place, so the search began.

We looked at tons of different places, some great, some not so great. But none of them felt right. We were running out of time, and then it happened. Rob found our "diamond in the rough." For the same price and we would have been paying if we renewed our lease, we scored a four bedroom, two bathroom single family house. It's perfect for us, with a huge back yard for the Cub and a two car garage for Rob. It's somewhere that I can see us staying for a long while and setting our roots down. We move on March 20th, and there is a lot of packing to be done before then. Did I mention how much I hate packing?

A Bed For Three

Dominic used to do really well sleeping through the night, but over the past three months, he wakes up in the middle of the night and just won't go back down in his own bed. At the time he was teething pretty badly and so I would bring him into our bed to calm him down. That then turned into him going to sleep in his own bed (around 11pm, after rocking him to sleep) and then every night, making his way into our bed and sleeping there until the morning.

This is something that I never thought I'd do. When I was pregnant, I swore that we would never fall into this pattern because once there, it's hard to break. I have to admit, this turned into a nightly habit more because I was exhausted and just couldn't find it in me to stay up for an hour trying to get him back to sleep and into his own crib. It's hard not to when he snuggles up to me and falls asleep in my arms.

And now we are paying the price. Truth be told, we both like having him in our bed....he loves to snuggle and when he wakes up in the morning he laughs and smiles and just makes the day a great one right from the get go. But this is habit that isn't really benefiting anyone. He needs to learn to sleep in his own bed, and Rob and I need to reclaim our bed.

I know what needs to happen, but I'm just not sure I'm ready to go there yet. The idea of letting him cry breaks my heart so i guess I will need to toughen up. In the meantime, I'm glad we have a king size bed!

I love you because

I saw this on a website today and realized how true it is!! Having a baby changes a mom's life, but the bundle of joy also alters the way she looks at the world and lives each day. Here are some of the purest perks that come with being a mother.

1. You see everything for the first time again through the child's eyes — even ants are amazing.

2. A single gummy smile can save even the biggest wreck of a day.

3. When the infant fusses, your mere presence calms him.

4. If you rest your child on your chest, your hearts beat in unison.

5. When he laughs, he shakes, drools, and almost keels over, but it's the most adorable thing you've ever seen. So you make him do it again and again.

6. You think about the future in bigger and brighter ways. You picture him heading off to kindergarten and graduating from high school.

7. You anticipate and even dream of little things like a cutting tooth, a single step, or a two syllable utterance: "mama."

8. You forget about things you used to care so much about, because they actually don't matter at all.

9. You finally understand what "a mother's instinct" means.

10. Your will to live intensifies because you don't want to miss a moment of your child's spectacular life.

His futures so bright