A Night with Jason Mraz

Monday was an awesome day. Rob and I rode the motorcycle down to San Diego because we had tickets to go see Jason Mraz. He played in this tiny little theater called “Spreckles” and was seriously smaller than my high school auditorium. It was just him and Toca Rivera, and it was absolutely amazing and incredible.

I love when we take the bike. It is just so sexy to see Rob maneuvering that thing on the road. I feel safe on the back and love the thrill of speeding down the freeway. It had been a long time since I was last on it, I think when I was pregnant. It’s something special between us, it represents a time in our life where all we could see, think about, hear was each other. When I’m on the back of that bike, and Rob reaches behind him to give my leg a loving rub, it instantly takes me back to that place.

We got into town about 3:00pm, checked into to our hotel and then walked down to Gaslamp to grab a bite to eat. We had about three hours before the show started so we took our time, people watched, ate some good food, drank some cold beers and just really enjoyed ourselves.
At about 7:00pm we walked over to the theater and sat through an amazing 3 hour set full of our favorite songs, funny commentary by Jason and a ton of video cameras. I think the taped it for his DVD special, Beautiful Mess. How cool would that be if we were on it?

A Perfect Bird

My turkey rocked! It was a thing of perfection. Golden brown on the outside, moist and delicious on the inside. I can’t believe I did it! Our Friendsgiving dinner was awesome and I ate way too much because everything tasted amazing. Tina brought the salad and mash potatoes and Lanie made sweet potato casserole and apple crisp. Good thing I saved my WW bonus points for this meal!

Tackling the Turkey

Rob has been dreaming about a home cooked turkey for a couple of years now. I have never even thought of attempting it because I have never cooked a one in my whole life. The idea of it seems rather daunting. One always hears all these horror stories about how the outside is crispy, but the inside is raw. Or it comes out so dry it’s like sandpaper. Even the best cooks can have a terrible tasting turkey.

A couple of weeks ago, Rob mentioned again his dreams of a juicy turkey with all the fixins. I thought, you know what? If it’s a turkey he wants, then it’s a turkey he’ll get. We had planned to get together with Lanie, Tina, Jorge and Ethan the day after Thanksgiving for a “Friendsgiving” lunch, so I decided jump in head first and take charge of cooking the bird. And I have been a nervous wreck ever since.
What have I got myself into? What if it comes out awful? People will be depending on me to eat! I can’t let them starve! So my research began and I spent days looking up a ton of different turkey recipes and cooking methods, to brine or not to brine? Frozen or fresh? It has to be perfect.

We decided to go with a beautiful 18 lb fresh turkey from Trader Joes. It’s a beauty and I’m getting pretty excited about putting my cooking skills to the test. I’ll also be making the gravy, stuffing, glazed carrots. If I can pull this off, I will be pretty impressed with myself!

P.S. second weigh in today and I’m down .8lbs. Wish it would have been more, but I’ll take it!

Best Gift Ever

My parents are almost impossible to shop for. When it comes to birthday and Christmas gifts, it’s always an agonizing feat to try and figure out, what do you the people who have everything? Well, this year, we might just have found the perfect gift. I thought it would be awesome to get a professional photo taken of all the kids and grandkids. Sure, they have photos of us throughout the house, but not all in one photo and by a professional.

All the kids liked the idea, so Lexi contacted Joel, her wedding photographer. We all agreed on a price and picked a day to take the photo. Sunday seemed like the perfect day since my parents were leaving in the morning to go to Big Bear for a week. We thought using Stellagio would be a perfect backdrop for the photo. Everything was all set to meet there at 3pm, until they decided to leave on Monday instead. Lexi and I were texting back and forth in a panic, trying to find another location. Maybe outside near the beach? Well, of course today was the one day it poured down with rain. Why?!!!

We finally decided to just go to Luciano and Lexi’s house and take the photo there. It was pure chaos, to say the least. But, everyone did show up on time, and I think we managed to get a good photo to give to Mum and Dad. Joel is having it printed onto a canvas and I can’t wait to see the finished product!

3peat

Today is Rob and my 3 year anniversary. It’s funny to see people try and figure that one out, especially when they know we have a 2 ½ year old. It kind of blows my mind just to think about it. Our relationship has been such a whirlwind. We’ve been through more in those 3 years than most people in 10. It has been hard at times, trying to balance our lives together as a family when in a sense, we’re still getting to know each other.

But the one thing that has never changed is the love. It was there in the beginning and it’s still there. It’s something we both believe in and hasn’t failed us yet. I feel very lucky to have Rob as my man. He’s hardworking, honest, and ambitious, loves his family and makes me laugh for days. Oh, and lets not forget incredibly sexy. And for those of you still trying to figure it out, three years ago today, we found out we were pregnant with our sweet baby cub. And our lives would never be the same again.

I Lost!

Yesterday was my first weight watchers weigh in. I was SO nervous as I stepped on the scale, even though I had been rigorous with my points and exercise. It paid off though, I lost 4lbs! WOO HOOO!!! I couldn’t believe it! 4 whole lbs! now that is what I can a kick start! I’m so pumped about it, it’s definitely a great way to keep me motivated!

Sleep Deprived

Dom was up from 1am-3am …pretty standard for a Monday night. When is this beginning of the week curse going to stop? Zzz

Back to the (diet) Drawing Board

So yesterday was a big day for me. I surrendered to my most evil battle and threw my hands in the air. I dragged my ass back to weight watchers and started all over again. I can’t even begin to explain the frustration that I feel, being back here. But I just couldn’t take it any longer. I’m completely miserable with how I look and feel and there is nothing that is going to happen without me making it happen. I had to take back control and just accept that things went horribly wrong over the past 6 months or so. I still have no answers as to why I gained 26 lbs out of nowhere, but I am determined to get rid of it.

Lucky for me, I have the best BFF in the whole world. Lanie met her WW goal 2 years ago and has been on maintenance ever since. I told her I was thinking about going back, but I needed a push. So she pushed me. She went with me and promised she’s go with me every week to my weigh in and meeting, How amazing is she?

I was nervous as hell when I got there. I slowly stepped on the scale and held my breath. It was bad. The first emotion I felt was embarrassed. Embarrassed that I was back. Again. Embarrassed that I gained back pretty much all of the weight I lost before. And also ashamed. I don’t know why this whole thing is such a reoccurring nightmare for me, but hopefully the cycle will end soon. The important thing is I went back to give it another go.

The first 2 weeks are always the hardest. Lanie and I always describe it as being in detox, and it’s so true. Your body goes through withdrawls from eating fast food every day. It craves the ice cream and fatty foods you had been enjoying up until that moment. Staying on track seems like an impossible task. It’s definitely one day at a time. My goal right now is to lose 26lbs. That’s how much I gained back and it’s time to say goodbye. I hope that I can stay focused and kick some serious ass.

Yia Yia is here

My Yia Yia arrived from London yesterday! I’m so happy and excited that she’s here. Last Christmas, when she left to go home, she told us that she won’t be making any more trips to California because she’s just too old to travel. Well, I’m glad she didn’t stick to that. At 87 years old, she’s still got the gusto. It’s so awesome to see her here and give her a big hug.

It’s been a whole year since she’s seen Dom, and a lot has happened over those 12 months. The difference between a 1 ½ year old and a 2 ½ year old is HUGE! I wasn’t sure if he was going to remember her, but he didn’t even hesitate when he saw her. He ran right up to her and gave her a big hug saying “Hi Yia Yia Lou!” It must be pretty cool for her to see not only her grandkids but also her great grandkids. I will have to make a point of taking a photo with her and all of us before she leaves. Lucky for us, she’s here until January:)

No Sleep Continues

It has been a rough week in the sleep department. Monday night Dom woke up at 2am and was up until 4:00am. I don’t know why it seems like Monday nights are when we have that problem. Last night I went to bed praying he’d sleep through the night. When I heard him calling my name I was almost scared to look at the clock. Please don’t let it be 2am, please don’t let it be 2am, please don’t let it be 2am……….ahhh! 5:30am! Woo hoo! Yea, it’s been such a rough week that I was actually HAPPY that it was 5:30am. It was better than being woken up in the middle of the night and then being kept up until the wee hours of the morning.

Its times like these that make me terrified of changing him over to a big boy bed. At least now when I put him in his crib, he stays in there. With nothing keeping him in, how will I even get him to stay in his bed? He’ll just get out on his own and that will make those nights when he has to just tough it out and cry next to impossible. I know it has to happen at some point. And I know we are super lucky that he hasn’t tried to climb out of his crib, especially with how much he loves to climb and scale everything in his sight. My days are numbered. Maybe he’ll hang in there until he turns three?

Roses

These are the roses in my front yard.

They remind me of my Yia Yia.

And that makes me happy.

Sleep Celebration

Victory! Last night Dom slept from 7pm to 7am! Wooo hoooo!!!!

Restless Cub (and Mom)

This time, Dom woke up at 9pm. It was strange though because he was whimpering. Little soft whimpers, almost like the was in pain. I went in there and he was curled up in his bed, whimpering. It broke my heart. No mother wants to see their child in pain.

I picked him up and gave him some cuddles on the rocking chair. 2 minutes later, he was wide awake. He wanted to go potty, so took him and then told him it was still night time so he had to go back to sleep. He had to go potty again, so off we went. We went back into his room and I had him lie down on the floor so I could put his diaper on. As I turned to get it, he decided to pee all over himself and the floor. Oh Joy.

Once I cleaned it all up and got his clean pj’s on, it was time to go to sleep. I put some orajel on his gums in case he was teething. By this time it was 10pm and I told him that he has to sleep in his bed, not Mommy and Daddy’s. Because he’s a big boy. “Mommy, leave the door open?” “Yes baby, I’ll leave the door open.” And then..not a peep until the next morning. I think it might be a mixture of growing pains and a possible molar coming through. Poor Cubbers.

Up and At 'Em

I’m not sure what’s going on with Dominic, but last night, he woke up again. This time it was 11:30pm and he was wide awake. “Mommy, we go in the kitchen for brefas? I go play in the living room? I go in my tent? I watch Shrek? Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!”

What is going on here? Why is he bright eyed and bushy tailed after only 4 ½ hours? We repeated last night performance, but I only let him stay in our bed for an hour before putting him back in his crib. Once again, we made a deal to leave the door open, and it worked. I’m not what’s causing him to wake up like this, but hopefully he’ll do better tomorrow. I’m so tired and need a solid night’s sleep.

Trick or Treat

Well, it’s November people. Someone tell me how this could be possible. Christmas is next month. Whaaaaa? Where the hell did this year go? It flew by faster than ever. And the scariest thing about that is I seem to say that every year. Why is it when you’re little, time practically stands still. But when you’re an older, it whisks by you like a tornado?

Yesterday was Halloween and we took Dom trick or treating with Steve, Martha and the kids. He had so much fun running up to the door, ringing the door bell and say “twick or tweaaaaat!” And then when he got some candy in his bucket, he’d say “thank you!” then run over to Rob and say “Daddy! I got one!!!!!!”

What a difference a year makes. Last year he was only one and he didn’t really get it. He was barely walking, barely talking. I think we hit about 3 houses before we went home. I actually got a bit teary eyed this year, seeing him running up to the doors with his cousins. He knew the drill, he knew the reward. He was so excited about the whole thing and totally got it. How is this my baby boy? Where did he go? Last year he was a baby Tiger and this year? Spiderman. Bam! From cutesy stuffed animal to crime fighting super hero in the blink of an eye.

We stayed out for about an hour and then headed home. It was 7pm and that’s when he’s usually in bed. Of course all he wanted was candy. “Candy Mommy! Caaaaaannndy!” I signaled to Rob to take out most of it from his bucket. There is no need for all that sugar. Dom is a little, tiny kid. It would spin him out of control and we would literally have to peel him off the ceiling.
After pj’s were on, we made a deal. He would get to pick out one piece of candy tonight and eat it, but that’s all. He grabbed his bucket, sat down on the floor of Rob’s office and dumped it out. He very carefully organized them in a line and picked up each one, examining the wrapper. He finally settled on a Kit Kat bar and dove right in. It was priceless to see his face as he took each bite. He held it in his clutches while dancing around the room singing “triiiiick or treeeaaaat!”
After he was done savoring his one candy bar, teeth were brushed and stories were read.

Thankfully he went to bed with little fuss. Until about midnight when he woke up crying, saying he was scared. When we were trick or treating, there was one house that had a 6 foot skeleton dressed in a cape. Dom was scared at the time; in fact he insisted I take him back to go look it. “Go back Mommy!” But now that the fun and excitement was over, maybe it was spooking him a bit. I brought him into our bed where he proceeded to play, sing and jump until 2:30am. I was exhausted and told him it was time to go into his bed now. Once again, he told me he was scared and wanted to stay in our bed. We compromised and he went into his bed, but I left the door open and turned his little star light on. I crawled back into my bed and could hear him playing. Finally at 3:30am it was quiet. I closed my eyes, more than ready to get some much needed sleep.

What felt like 5 mins later, I heard “Mommy! Mommy! It’s wake up time!” I looked at the clock, and sure enough, it was 6:30am. Noooooooo! It was times like that which I wished I drank coffee.

My Whole World

My life began the day my baby was born. I felt such a sense of purpose and love, it surpassed anything else I had ever experienced. Every single day that I get to be his Mom is a joy and a privilege. He makes me laugh and makes me proud. I couldn't imagine my life without that sweet little smile and those tiny little hands. Seeing him grow up is such an honor. Dominic Marcus McCool, thank you for being my Son and my greatest accomplishemnt. I love you!

L.O.V.E.

The Good Life

Sometimes it’s easy to forget how good life really is. The days turn into weeks, months and before you know it, years. Things fall into a routine that is comfortable and natural to you. I realized today that life is good. I mean, I already knew that. But life is really, really good.

When I had my pregnancy scare a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but think about how different our lives would be. Don’t get me wrong, we would happily welcome a new baby if that’s what was in the cards for us, but our life would without a doubt be harder. We are in a place in our lives that Dom (for the most part) sleeps through the night. He’s old enough to hang out in the living room for 20 minutes watching a movie while I make dinner or get dressed for work. We have a dog that used to be wildly hyper and has now mellowed out some. Dom is starting pre-school in January and we got to pick one that we liked best, not what we could afford. We have good food in the fridge. We have two cars that are reliable. We have the chance to do things together as a family and also apart. We are lucky enough to have friends and family that want to take Dom for the night so Rob and I can have some grown up time. We have electronic gadget's galore.. iPods, iPhone’s , iPads, mac computers (do you sense a theme there?) If we want to go somewhere, we are usually able to make it happen. If we want something, we are usually able to make it happen. We live a very blessed life and I am so thankful that this is our reality. A lot of that is due to Rob working so hard, hustling two jobs. He sacrifices sleep and time in the morning with our boy to make that happen.

Having another baby would change all that. Health insurance and daycare alone is about $1,000 per month, so you can imagine what adding another person to that would be. Not to mention, back to sleepless nights and 24 hour baby watch. Like I said, if I was to get pregnant, we would accept it and embrace it. But it would definitely change our lives.

I am constantly surprised at how many people ask when we’re having another one, and when I say “we’re not” they look shocked and almost appalled. Where does it say that all women must have two or more kids? I think it’s great that most people do have more than one child, but for us, we are more than overjoyed with just the one. Especially since I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to have any at all.

I guess the bottom line is this. I’d rather have one incredibly amazing child and give him all that we can and all that he deserves instead of multiple children who might have to go without because of the cost of living. Dom will have everything he needs to become a successful and educated young man. That will be one of greatest gifts we could ever give to him.

Maybe the pregnancy scare happened to remind me of how good our lives are. It made me think about how things would be different and what things would change. Now that I know I'm not with child, I especially appreciate how, we as a family, have found our rhythm. And it's a beautiful song that I am thankful for every day.

Chilly Mornings

Today was the first morning where it actually felt like October. It was dark outside and it was cold! Our house has single pane windows (which I hate) so you really feel the draft when there is one.

Once Dom woke up (at 5:45am..really?) I brought him into bed with me and we dived under the covers to get warm. He watched some videos on his phone while I tried to go back to sleep. Of course that didn’t happen. Between “Mommy, what happened to Lion King?” and “Come on Mommy, dance to Crazy Frog with me!” and "Mommy, let's go have brefas in the kitchen!" I realized I should just count my losses and get up. I can never be mad though, his little face and enthusiasm is kinda infectious.

We went into the kitchen so Dom could have his breakfast. As soon as he saw Sophie he greeted her with a “good mooooorning Woofie!” Today he asked for cereal. “Frankenberries and Captain Hurt please.” I don’t know why he calls Captain Crunch “Captain Hurt” but what I DO know, is that it’s the cutest thing ever. Sophie jumped up and put her paws on his tray so without missing a beat, Dom told her “knock it off Woofie!” Where doesn’t he get this stuff?

Phoenix Bound

Our trip to Phoenix was so much fun. Well, except t for the fact that the Cardinals lost. Boo. But other than that, it was an awesome two days. We arrived on Saturday and checked into our hotel, Hyatt Place. It’s was so nice. We had a little living room area in our room and a huge flat screen TV. Oh, and a free breakfast the next morning. Definitely my kind of hotel. And the best part? We scored it on Hotwire for $70!

I decided to scrap the one on one lunch with Moe since I knew she was nervous about it. She suggested that Rob join us so that’s what we did. I kept it way more light too. No need to dive right into the heavy stuff. We met up with Moe for lunch at 1pm and I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous. But as soon as I saw her, it was fine. Everything went really well and the three of us got along great, just as we always ddi. After lunch we went over to her apartment so Rob could hook up her TV and once again, felt like old times. It was nice to see her and know that we can be in the same room together without there being tension.

Later that night we met up with Melissa and her husband Mark. I’ve known Melissa since she was 14 and I was 16. She was Dimitri’s girlfriend back in the day, when he was 18. Yea, you read that right. Crazy huh? Her and I were really good friends, since we were close in age. We’d hang out together all the time, and after D and her broke up, we stayed closed for many years. We’d party all night and always have the best time. I’m not sure how we lost contact, I guess those types of things just happen.

We hadn’t seen each other in probably over 10 years so it was so great to catch up. She is so awesome and her husband is too. The guys totally hit it off, and the fact that he’s a die-hard Cardinals fan didn’t hurt things either. They live in Orange County but were out there for the football game like us. We ended up having such a fun night, catching up and hanging out until the wee hours of the morning. She really is one of those friends that you can go a lifetime without seeing and when you finally meet up, it’s like no time has passed at all. Now that we have reconnected, I’m looking forward to staying in touch and hanging out again soon.

The next morning we got up early, around 8:30am. I was dead tired, having gone to be bed only 5 hours earlier, but excited for the game. We had some breakfast, checked out of the hotel and made our way to the stadium. As time went on, I realized that I was little hung over. Oppsie. I guess 8 beers and 2 shots will do that. Quick stop for some Advil and a bottle of water and I started to feel better.

I cannot get over how many Steelers fans there was at the game. I think we may have been out numbered in our own stadium. They played great and we played not so great, so the result was a loss. But it was still fun to go and experience a live game.

We headed back to the airport right after the game ended to catch our flight. I was exhausted and ready to get back to my baby boy. He spent the weekend with Tina and Jorge so I know he had a blast. We got home just a little before 9pm and I was ready to crawl into bed and pass out. I’m really glad we went and were able to spend a weekend together out of town. Next up is San Diego next month to see Jason Mraz! YAY!