Some Things That Aren’t…

~ Aub ~ Leave a comment

perfect.

  1. The way the Patriots are currently playing in the Superbowl right now… I decided to make a run for it in the 4th quarter :/ Hiding out in our bedroom and avoiding a very frustrated husband. Maybe by the time I publish this post things will have turned around…
  2. The way I look/feel in my clothes right now. I’m a solid 5 pounds overweight, and another 5 pounds heavier than I’d ideally like to be… so yea, in total I’ve got 10 pounds to lose and not a whole lot of self motivation to do that.
  3. My current work/life balance. These last couple months have been rough and although I’m grateful that my company is doing well, I’m also always nervous about losing a client, losing track of something project related and/or losing my mind along the way 🙂 This working mom thing is not easy, and some days are definitely better than others.
  4. Finding time to do the things I want to do is not an easy endeavor. When I do have a moment to myself most of me wants to take the time to get stuff done (bills, cooking, cleaning, etc.) or hop on the couch and just sink in. So all those little side projects I’ve been meaning to do, magazines I’ve been wanting to read or friends I’ve been wanting to catch up with get pushed to the wayside.
  5. My mom and wife skills… not always perfect. Whoops! Sometimes I fail, like today when I didn’t notice right away that my 11 months old was sucking on RAW cookie dough while in her carseat. #momfail Or the other day when I was looking forward to Geo’s arrival all day and then immediately snapped at him over something stupid. #wifefail

Some Things That Are…

perfect.

  1. Lucy and her love for her LOVEY. It is the most adorable thing and totally melts my heart when she snuggles into it and loves it 🙂
  2. Having my parents living just a few streets away, and my in-laws just a town away. Their support, love and thoughtfulness is such a blessing and I’m truly grateful for it every day.
  3. My bed. It really is my happy place.
  4. Our road trips! When Geo and I are stuck in the car together for hours on end, it always ends up being fun and great time for us to reconnect/be reminded that yes, we’ve got a lot going on but our relationship is priority.
  5. Having food prepped for the week. This is a perfect feeling for me 🙂 #happiness

Life is not perfect but there are parts that surely are!

Grateful: For bad, mindless mystery books. Especially Harlan Coben ones… its a good way to end a long day 🙂

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When You Haven’t…

~ Aub ~ Leave a comment

blogged in a while and the thought of writing a post makes you cringe. That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling. I’ve been wanting to hop back into it but then I’m so overwhelmed because I don’t know where to start! Do I write about why I’ve been so quiet this last month, or do I just skip over that and go right into Part 2 of Lucy’s birth story (something I really do want to do), OR do I finally write that post about our trip to Norway?

And then I think about why I blog and that overwhelms me too! Do I blog because I enjoy making note of my memories/feelings, or do I blog to work towards something? For a while I thought I’d visit local shops/restaurants and review them on how “family-friendly” they are – I thought that’d be a fun thing to do that other moms might find helpful, but now (to be honest) that feels like a bigger undertaking than I thought it’d be (but maybe I’m overthinking it?) – HA, after typing that word “overthinking,” I’m realizing I’m overthinking EVERYTHING.

I keep up this little blog because I find it to be relaxing, fun and therapeutic. It’s one of my favorite ways to end the day. A place to share mom/boss/wife/sister/daughter/friend/lady moments I’ve had throughout the day, and a place for me to look back on the last 5 years of my life and clearly see how it is I’ve gotten to where I am. This is basically an online diary and I need to remember that it can be whatever I want it to be 🙂

So with that said, I thought I’d just share what my favorite part of today was…

when Lucy caught me hanging out in her teepee! 😀

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Lucy’s Birth Story (Part 1)…

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is finally here!

I have been meaning and wanting to write this post for quite a while but finding the time I know it deserves is a bit tricky these days! So it’s 8:30 on a Sunday night, Geo is downstairs strummin’ away on his guitar, Lucy is sleeping and I’m in bed with some HGTV playing in the background – I’m feeling like this is as good a time as ever to write this down.

Lucy’s due date was March 3rd, 2016 and I just knew she wouldn’t make her appearance until after that (mama’s intuition kicked in a littler early, I guess). I had wrapped up most work items by then but had a few things left on my to-do list including renewing my license which I did one day before I went into labor (jeesh do I regret doing that — my face in my license pic is swollen like woah!). And the nursery was ready and welcoming 🙂

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On Wednesday March 9th I woke up around 4 am with some cramping and thought “I know it’s going to get worse than this BUT what if it doesn’t?! I could totally handle this.” ha ha ha. I crept downstairs and knowing it was the beginning, decided to embrace the peace and quiet and watched the chick flick, Serendipity. Geo woke up a few hours later and we called my midwife to let her know we thought this was it. She told us to start timing the contractions and that’s when we realized we were probably still a ways away from delivering little lucy :p

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We spent the day relaxing (as much as I could anyways) and tried to keep ourselves busy. We went to the driving range where geo hit a bucket of balls, we visited Geo’s mom and took in the beautiful and unseasonably warm winter day. We called my mom and she made her way to the Scituate Harbor Inn, a small hotel just a few streets down from our home. By the time we got home my mom was there, making us dinner 🙂 I remember wanting to eat but really having no appetite (something I wasn’t expecting would happen). I then showered, got comfy and sat on the floor so my mom could braid my hair, which is something she hadn’t done in a very long time – it was perfect. Geo got us some ice cream and I decided it was time to get into bed and get some sleep.

Well, this is a story about labor so it shouldn’t be surprising when I say that I did not get any sleep. EEKs. Labor started to really progress that Wednesday night and by 4 am on Thursday morning I was in active labor. Our amazing midwife from South Shore Midwifery, Nicole, came and checked me and I was about 3 cm dilated. I remember thinking I should have been much farther along and was feeling a little disappointed. Nicole headed home to pack up her stuff and George and I just started to ride it out and realized things would get much more intense before we got to hold our babe 🙂

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Grateful for: A snowy weekend in Scituate! We had lots of plans that we unfortunately had to cancel but it was kind of nice to stay in, do some cooking, catch up on house stuff AND work on my blog 🙂

Why Is It That…

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everything can be thrown to complete shit but as long as I’ve done a load of laundry I feel like I’ve had a successful day?

There is literally no better feeling than putting a load of laundry into the washer… pure happiness.

And yes, this is truly what my hair has looked like all afternoon. Thank god for my non-judging neighbor and for a daughter who’s not old enough to roll her eyes at me (yet!).

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One other thing I need to make note of is… George is watching The Bachelor with me! Yep. It’s happening and it totally made my day (that and getting some laundry done :p). Today was a busy, tiring and stressful day for me but it was really nice to end it watching stupid tv with Geo and being silly – I’m thinking we need more of these nights!

Grateful for: A quiet and sweet moment with Lucy this morning. Early day snuggles are the best!

Oh So Funny…

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kind of.

Lucy toots.

Geo and I both laugh.

Geo – “when do you think Lucy will realize its funny when she farts?”

Me – “haha, I don’t know…”

Geo – “hmm its really important to me to know when she’ll think thats as funny as I do (insert: boy chuckles)”

And then I write about it because what is it with boys and toots?!

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Such a baby here! Must be about 6 years ago… yikes!

A Quick Thank You To…

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my husband.

Geo, as we approach the one-year mark of parenthood I just want to say a few things. So here goes…

Thanks for making Lucy’s birth fun… well, as fun as giving birth can actually be. Besides the pain and exhaustion of it all I also remember there being lots of laughs which I definitely attribute to you (and our midwife!) 🙂

Thanks for all the unnecessary but delicious treats you bring home to me. Thanks so much for this… but can you stop because I really need to lose a few 😀 Really.

Thanks for changing Lucy’s first dirty diaper. It showed me you were ready to dive right in, and you really did.

Thanks for putting up with my postpartum emotions… those were rough :I

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to live abroad – such an amazing adventure for our family!

Thanks for making really good coffee. I may not ever drink my full cup but I love having it to reheat throughout the day 😉

Thanks for putting the toilet seat down… Okay maybe you got into the bad habit of not doing this recently but something tells me you’re going to start doing it again like, yesterday. Right? Yes. You are 😀

Thanks for being such a good gift-giver. Fo realz. I’m sorry for not being such a good one… eeks.

Thanks for being cool with my parents moving into a house three streets away from us. Because I understand that’s close, really close. But they’re awesome and I know it’ll be fun for us to live so close but at the end of the day I do realize it’s close… really close! Haha

Thanks for dealing with my complaining lately. Last week was a doozy and I felt super anxious about things not being unpacked and us not being settled in yet. You took it like a champ and didn’t get too annoyed with me (right? Lol).

Thanks for being such a good dad to Lucy. She’s already learning so much for you, and I can’t wait to see what your relationship with her will turn into as she gets older.

Thanks for always seeing the best in us and staying optimistic when I’m so quick to quit or be negative.

Go us 🙂

Grateful for: Geo’s sense of style… this little outfit made both Lucy and I laugh!

“She needed layers to stay warm” – Geo

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Some Of My Favorite…

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recent moments 🙂

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My two favorites 🙂

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Lucy’s stocking made by Nana 🙂

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Lucy liking her new play room ( I think! haha)

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Happiness!

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Oh hey cute thang 😉

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Lucy enjoying her first meatballs!

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Geo helping with Christmas dinner 🙂

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Love bug 🙂

Grateful for: All of the above.

What A Whirlwind…

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these last few weeks have been! We successfully (thank goodness) traveled to Norway (amazing), packed up ALL our stuff in London (a miracle) and traveled home to Scituate, MA last week (can’t believe it).

It has been a really crazy time for the three of us but we’re very happy to be back in our little home and near friends and family. Unfortunately, Lucy and I have been taking turns giving one another snotty colds but I’m hoping that with a decrease in public transport and travel we’ll be able to recover and get healthy again. City living was so much fun but it takes a toll on your immune system!

Between the packing, the sickness and just getting acclimated to  being home I haven’t had a chance to blog in a while but there are a few things that I am hoping to post about this week – one being our trip to Norway, which was really spectacular.

For now I’ll just say our time in London was really wonderful. I’m so fortunate to have a husband who’s up for an adventure and 100% embraced it 🙂 Here are some of my most memorable times from our experience there:

  1. Our first full day there we walked the South Bank and fell in love with all the commotion that city living has to offer. This then became one of our go-to walks for any of our visitors.
  2. A hot summer Friday spent walking through Regents Park with Lucy. We walked through Primrose Hill, the park and then through Covent Garden all the way home and it was perfection. I felt good, Lucy loved it and it was that day I started to understand my way around the city – I felt pretty darn accomplished.
  3. Our first time eating Indian in London! I made reservations at Chutney Mary for Geo’s birthday and after that meal was when we started our love affair with Indian food 🙂 It was our first date night out since being in the city and everything about the night was romantic and fun.
  4. Our adventure to Scotland! Out of the 5 countries we visited while in England, Scotland was one of my top 2. We stayed in Edinburgh and then rented a car and headed up the coast to St. Andrews for a couple nights. There were so many moments during that ride that Geo and I looked at each other and were like “is this real life?” haha It’s also where I found out I was pregnant for a second time, which unfortunately resulted in a miscarriage but I don’t want to leave that moment out because it mattered and added a lot of happiness to a really wonderful weekend in a really beautiful place.
  5. Our day-date 🙂 Our babysitter watched Lucy for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon and it was so nice to be out and about together during the day, without a baby :p
  6. All our visits from loved ones. It would not have been nearly as enjoyable an experience if we hadn’t had visits from geo’s parents, my sister, geo’s brother and wife and my brother and his wife. We had so much fun with everyone 🙂

Oh gosh, I could honestly go on and on (and maybe I will in the next post!) but I’ll leave it at that for now. It was an experience of a lifetime, we both hope we’re given the opportunity again.

Off to go get little Lucy from Grandma’s house and then work on dinner, fun fun!

Grateful for: This moment. I’m on the ferry, heading home from Boston and enjoying the short amount of time I have to write this post. It’s been a while since I’ve visited this little blog and I’m grateful to have had the time to get my thoughts out 🙂

Getting Excited…

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to head back to the states 🙂 Our flights are booked and we’re getting ready to start packing things up! I know I will miss London (a lot) and we’ll probably go through a withdrawal period but I just can’t wait to be home for the holidays, to be near friends and family and to be back in our home (which I’m planning on repainting over the winter months 😀 he he he). I also really can’t wait for Lucy to be back in her nursery, a room that I worked on so hard during my pregnancy and we’ve barely gotten to enjoy. London is a wonderful city but Scituate is our home and we’re ready to get back.

I think our excitement to travel back home also has a lot to do with the fact that we just bid farewell to our last visitors – Cullen (my brother) and Julie (his wife). We had such a nice time with them and managed to cram in A LOT (thank you Lucy for being such a good baby through it all!). From the V&A, to Greenwich, to Chartwell, to the play, “The Woman in Black” – we did not waste a minute. We also made it over to the Natural History Museum which is really amazing. Before you even get inside you’re in awe because of the building itself…

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However, something I was not in awe of and was actually a bit pissed with was their main floor handicapped/family bathroom. Not trying to be too nitpicky here but I’m starting to get so frustrated with the lack of parent-friendly bathrooms there are.

Lucy really needed a diaper change so I headed off in search of a bathroom for us. After finally finding it (I found the directions to be a little confusing :/) I realized it was a handicapped bathroom inside of a changing station. We go to open the door and that’s when my first frustration with it kicks in. It’s this big heavy oakwood door that’s beautiful but when you’re trying to get a stroller through that’s loaded with a diaper bag, coats, oh and a baby – it’s not ideal. I was annoyed for myself but even more concerned with how a handicapped person would manage.

I walked directly into the changing room area that was very basic – had countertops with a couple changing stations. Could use a bit of brightening or a touch of warmth I’d say but I don’t want to be too fussy here. What I had a real problem with was the bathroom. While changing Lucy I realized I needed to pee. So I opened the door tho the handicapped facility and was instantly shocked. I’m honestly not being dramatic when I say it looked like something you’d see in a prison (I assume since I’ve never been to one lol). It was dirty, smelly, old and literally had two flies buzzing around the toilet bowl. It was so gross that I took a photo of it, although the picture really doesn’t do it justice.

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I think this bothered me so much (enough to blog about it!), is because this is a VERY family oriented museum. They should have their baby changing areas and handicapped bathrooms ready to go and it felt extremely half assed. And not to sound self involved but parent’s deserve better, and those with special needs definitely deserve better. Maybe the museum was just having an off day and maybe I was just tired from lugging a baby around the city but opening that bathroom door (barely managing to open it I should say) felt like a mini slap in the face. I remember thinking “great. this will be fun. gross.ugh.” And one final point I’ll make about this is that this isn’t an isolated experience. Yesterday I had to change Lucy on the ground in a restaurant bathroom. It’s just annoying! haha Public places, please get your shit together. In order to stay in business you need people and that only happens when people have babies!

Okay, rant over.

In other news I’m heading to the Babyccino Shop Up Event in London today and can’t wait! Something tells me their bathroom situation will be spot on 🙂

Grateful: For moments like this… a sleeping baby during a cab ride. Quietness, holiday lights, nothing to do but sit back and relax, it doesn’t get much better 🙂

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I Have A Love/Hate Relationship…

~ Aub ~ Leave a comment

with Lucy finding comfort in only my arms, and not her dads. Yes, she loves George but when she’s having a meltdown or isn’t feeling well the only person she wants is me. There are many times when I find pure joy in this (she’s mine, all mine! haha) but when I’ve had to go into her bedroom 3 times in a span of 30 minutes to try to get her to fall asleep, while George gets to just chill on the couch, yea that’s when I start to not love those moments so much. In the same breath, I know this is only a phase and they’ll be lots of times when I wish she would come to me and want me to hold her so I’m trying to enjoy it as much as I can :p

One thing I do really like is oftentime, when I put her down, she’ll fall asleep and then a few minutes later start to cry. So I’ll go in, pick her up and rock her a little bit – she immediately falls back to sleep. She just wants to fall asleep in my arms opposed to in her crib. There’s something so sweet about it. Sometimes I linger a bit longer than I need to because who doesn’t love a sleeping baby in their arms 🙂

After a couple days housebound because of Lucy’s cold/ear infection, we decided to venture back out into the world and check out Portobello Road. We weren’t disappointed – so cool. I loved walking around and taking in all the commotion; Geo didn’t exactly feel the same way but he lit up when he realized there was a Banksy hidden among the craziness. I lit up when I got my cup of Parmesan and Garlic fries… 😀 haha Here are some snaps of our adventure!

Our home underground stop 🙂

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Banksy! You can’t tell but its protected by plexi glass.

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The London escalators are never.ending. And so steep!

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I spy a couple of cutie pies!

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Grateful: For taking time to go to yoga this morning. The class is intense but it felt so good for my body and mind. Note to self: do that more often.