Boobs and Poop

We have made many changes and my life has been completely without any routine for the past year. We moved out here when I was pregnant, had the baby, then I decided not to go back to my job and have decided to go back to school... and of course, I'm shooting for a spot in a very competitive program and have a ton of prerequisites to meet. If you're an avid Boobs and Pooper, you've already read all about it . My taking classes and tutoring students are only possible thanks to two reliable childcare options we now have during the week: the assistance of a part-time nanny and a part-time spot at an awesome daycare. To say I was excited to get back to a routine and let some other people deal with my baby is an understatement. I was elated all that first week. For the first time in forever, I had my own schedule and am able to "do me" periodically throughout the week. That wonderful feeling of elation was eradicated within that same week. The Saturday follow...

The owner (and unknowing recipient of my buried feces) from whom we rented a cabin  finally left her review : Nice little family! Kept to themselves the whole four days Could have taken more care not to scratch the wood floor when moving furniture around Apart from that, they were easy guests to host  July 2016 Phew! By the skin of our tushies, we got away with it.

I laugh at myself every time I consider the fact that we live in Diamond Bar . It's not just that it's so suburban, or that we're living this totally boring family-focused life here. In my early twenties, I worked for a British curling iron operation. I worked for the heavily-scrutinized North American division, where under the guidance of an over-eager salesman-turned-CEO I drove to Diamond Bar from Westlake once a month to conduct sales meetings. It was one of those "many hats" situations wherein it mattered not that I was the marketing coordinator, I was convinced that the health of our business depended on my driving 120 miles round trip to deliver a sales presentation to a group of rowdy hairstylists each month. I was too young to question any of this then. Anyhow, each month as my coworker and I made the long trek to Diamond I'd joke about having to travel to "Bumble F**k Egypt" for irrelevant meetings. To my mind, Diamond Bar was not a pla...

... a baby came out of my vagina! She's looking at me right now. She has teeth. She has a voice. She can take a few steps on her own before falling over. She is so awesome. She has completely stolen my heart and my identity. I am not the person I once was, and I have decided to acknowledge that this is a good thing. The person I once was was far unhappier than any one person deserves to be. She has taught me to be happier. She has also flipped my world up-side-down and inside-out. Words do not take on the same meaning... Insecurities run deeper, but my will to overcome is much stronger. I am so grateful I am her mom.

I was pregnant when we got married in April 2015; so for the past year I've been looking forward to our 1-Year Anniversary. We've been planning to drop the baby off at my parents' place in Henderson, NV and spend some time on the Las Vegas strip. But a new idea started to take shape in early March... My husband and I are fortunate and his parents love babysitting. We got to take a small "just us" trip and spend a night alone for my 32nd birthday. We decided to be as alone as possible without going totally remote to a walk-in campsite. We found a KOA that rents small cabins in Santa Paula, CA (about 30 minutes away from my in-laws' place). And thanks to a processing error on their end, we bypassed the 2-night minimum and booked a studio cabin for one night. So we "glamped"... and we loved it! I never expected to fall in love with KOA, nor did I ever expect to "glamp" - but the unique date night experience was great for hubby and me. It w...

I've been having a rough couple of weeks... I've been feeling a little lost and a little insecure about this blog. I've been up in my own head and not on the keyboard. I have written regular posts, but I'm kind of forcing myself to "get it out there" so that I don't loose momentum. I've been hounding myself with the usual questions: What am I doing with my life? Was this decision to stay home, blog and work on passion projects (while raising my baby) the right one? Should I have gone back to an office, and should I take the baby to daycare? My daily routine (or lack thereof) is nothing like I might have imagined just a short year ago... Connecting with other mommy bloggers has surely helped! I think I needed some inspiration and motivation.  Talking with Leah from And 1 More Makes 3 has helped me refocus and feel excited about creating more (and different) posts. There is a lot going on with me that's left me feeling anxious about the pres...

Shaving my pubes always results in razor burn, ingrown hairs and stubble, plus an itchy and uncomfortable situation no matter what the undergarment or clothing choice.  But I've long been a routine and regular waxer.  For years, I got a full Brazilian wax every 4-5 weeks in order to keep the pubes away. I even kept up with this pubic hairstyle through the pregnancy. I, of course, took a break from waxing after the baby. Vaginal delivery and tearing, you know. I was terrified when I finally did muster up the courage to go back and get waxed. I wound up with a weird shape - a sort of hairy box around my outer labia with a thick landing strip on top. I was scared of the waxer going too close to anything that tore during delivery, so I kept insisting she leave a little more. It was getting awkward as she didn't like the idea of a customer leaving with a pube style quite like the one she'd created on me. This was probably 4 months after Bumble was born, and my...

I recently had the pleasure of “e-meeting” a fellow mommy blogger and kindred spirit. Leah, the creator of And1MoreMakes3.com , uses her blog as a platform to discuss mental health issues, using her own experiences as a springboard into the larger discussion of mental health for moms and others in the UK. Her tone is frank, open, approachable and light. She makes the topic of mental illness less scary by virtue of her attitude about it. She suffered from depression and anxiety for over 10 years, and now considers herself a “survivor.” Her blog is an extension of her own journey to mental wellbeing, as well as a platform for sharing with other people that it is ok to feel this way and to get help. By using her own journey as the example , she shows her readers the benefits of facing mental illness and fighting it. She helps remind those who have forgotten that there is hope, and it is possible to take control. There’s no shame in suffering a mental illness, or an invisib...

To get through the pregnancy and maintain some semblance of comfort, I incorporated a variety of strangely soothing activities into my daily life. Some became habits and have now outlasted the pregnancy. Although I am happily not pregnant, I still do all of these things: 1. Sleep with a pillow between my legs. 2. Weep for no reason, often out of nowhere. 3. Wake up every 2-4 hours, sometimes for no apparent reason. 4. Eat at strange times of the day and night. 5. Eat cereal. 6. Forget everything. 7. Take prenatal vitamins.