Boobs and Poop

I'm back! I took a break, and then an even longer break. I lost my confidence and I guess my voice too. In reviewing my last post - from March! - I can see that my thinking was not as sharp or clear as I'd like. I have a lot to say but am really nervous about saying it or writing it. The truth is that as much as I seem to want to do this, blogging is very hard for me. I have in my recent past really hurt people's feelings with my writing. I have also taken some personal risks and wrote things that later embarrassed me. Worst of all, I've both hurt other people and embarrassed myself at the same time with my writing. Sometimes I guess I'm fearful I'll make the same mistakes again... or if I'm really honest about it, I feel as though I don't deserve the chance to write about whatever I want to now because of the mistakes I made then. There was also an incident. A short, brief conversation. Not even a conversation... my mother made a passing commen...

So it's been awhile. I've been busy and I've sort of gotten the hang of being a parent. Basically, I have resigned myself to the fact that I have no control over anything. But I do the best I can in spite of this. It's been really hard to think clearly. Not so much because of being a parent, or because I still feel like a newbie in this new town, but because I don't really have a good grasp on what's appropriate. I could blame the election of Donald Trump - and he's certainly a clear indicator of what I'm grasping at here - but I think it's more than that. Lately, I've been listening to NPR and watching Fox News. I've been contemplating growing more of our food and buying a clone so I can grow my own marijuana. I've also been shopping at Whole Foods and Nordstrom... I've been driving a Mercedes, and a Toyota Corolla. We live in Diamond Bar, but we rent a townhouse. We're white, but are we that white? The answer to the last q...

So I marched ... I wasn't particularly interested in marching until about 2 weeks prior to the event, when my sister-in-law said she wanted to check it out. I started to wonder if I should go too? I knew a lot of people who would be going to different Women's March events all over the country and started to get early onset FOMO, and I hate missing out. I don't usually march or participate in protests, rallies or anything of the sort. I used to. For that reason, many people are surprised to find how apolitical I actually am these days. When I was younger, I was very involved - CSPAN was my ESPN. I worked for Environment California, I interned for my congressman in Washington, D.C. and I was a proud, proud elected officer of my YMCA Youth and Government program in high school. I was very interested in the political process and public policy. My interest in my youth stemmed from my reverence for anything "anti." Wanting to be involved in the political proces...

by Alysson Foti Bourque;  illustrated by Chiara Civati Buy it on Amazon! Every Thursday the kids at Alycat’s school get to eat dessert after lunch. Alycat is so excited to choose from ice cream, fudge popsicles and popsicles with cream in the middle. Dessert is all she can talk about at breakfast on Thursday morning; she even daydreams about dessert on the bus on the way to school. Alycat is so distracted by her excitement, she misses the bell and is late getting to the cafeteria for lunch. By the time she makes it through the lunch line, all of the ice cream, fudge popsicles and popsicles with cream in the middle are gone. Alycat is so disappointed she refuses another dessert from the younger kitten’s dessert choices. She says she won’t have any dessert at all as tears stream down her face. Her friend Spotty tells her not to worry so much because it’s the same ice cream every week and nothing exciting. She is surprised that Spotty doesn’t look forward to desse...

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.

... that the "the one in white" lady is pretty bitchy, right?

This somehow insanley relevant image was pulled from this article .  We like to use Air BnB or VRBO in lieu of the traditional hotel room when we travel with the baby. Having a kitchen and a separate-ish sleeping space for the baby is critical, especially for longer trips. We didn't have the option to lodge with family this time and so Air BnB it was. This particular Air BnB experience wasn't so great... This isn't a formal review, as I think some of our experience wasn't about the cabin or the owner - we were just woefully unprepared for the rustic cabin experience with a crawling baby. I also remembered Topanga Canyon being a little more centrally located than it is. I didn't recall the winding canyon roads being so long, or nauseating. We both ought to have known better because we both lived nearby for many years. I, however, was the one who went through the process of booking this accommodation on Air BnB. So I feel responsible for the misery of our poo...

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.

A few weeks ago, we took our (then) 9-month-old baby on her first cross-country trip, complete with a layover. We lost 3 hours heading from west to east and forced her to suffer two separate ear-popping take-offs. To boot, we'd subjected her to an hour-long car ride, remote parking at LAX, a shuttle and airport security before the aerial adventure even commenced. It was a long day for us all, but baby girl was in a great mood anyhow. She smiled, clapped, cooed and made many friends. She was actually impressively well behaved. The day was of course not without incident. During the first flight's departure, my husband was holding the baby. He had her wrapped in a soft, warm blanket and was trying to feed her a bottle to ease the discomfort of ear popping. She didn't seem interested in the bottle, even though she'd not eaten much that morning. So he propped her up, she let out a giggle and then he smelled it. He nudged me. He cautiously moved a corner of the blank...

I joined a virtual book tour as a reviewer, and I've had a blast so far! I'd determined not to do product reviews when I first started the blog (almost a year ago!). The idea of a book review never occurred to me before, but it is definitely something I plan to do again. You can follow the virtual book tour and read other reviews this week too! So, here it is! My first children's book review: THE LIL’ DEFENDERS by Jaimie Hope illustrated by Jose Julian Ramirez Rivas Get it on Amazon ! Brother and sister Hunter and Holly discover they have superhero powers while playing baseball in the park with two friends. The four children are surprised by the discovery and rush from the park to Hunter and Holly’s Aunt Jaimie. Aunt Jaimie asks: “Didn’t your parents ever tell you we’re superhero families?” The children are at first wary but ultimately excited to learn this. Aunt J explains that the children have “suddenly come into [their] powers” because “someone or something mus...

I am in the middle of a Bikram yoga challenge. I committed to completing 25 Bikram yoga classes this month (May 2016). Bikram yoga is hard, hot, really intense and not for everyone. I've completed 18 classes so far this month. I have 7 classes remaining and due to some scheduling issues, I must complete my first "double" and attend 2 classes back-to-back this weekend. Before completing 18 classes in such a short span of time, I couldn't fathom doing two classes in a row. I know it will be a challenge, but at this point, I am confident I can do it. That's pretty huge because it's been awhile since I've felt totally confident I can do anything. I've been having a lot of doubts about what I'm doing with my life  these days. I often question some of our lifestyle choices and the decisions we make together as parents. I've been tired, and kind of lonely. I haven't been very motived to do me at all. I recently started binge watching Keeping ...

I was raised in a time so far removed from the 1800s' pillars of the cult of "true womanhood" that growing up I truly believed it was shameful for a woman or mother to not work. If she were at home, either as a homemaker or mother (or more than likely both), she should still be able to "pull her weight" and be employed too. I don't know exactly why I have been so hard on other women throughout my life, but another of the many things motherhood has taught me is that I was part of the problem. Meaning, I was part of this whole culture that devalues anything feminine and encourages women to "act like men" in order to be successful. There was a very recent time when I bought into that old-timey concept that woman equals inferior unless she can be a man... and a woman too, of course. Because she's not really a man, after all. She's less than a man - her only chance at success is to act enough like a man that in some moments other men forget...

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 got my own boarding pass! #spiritairlines #spirit #babyonaplane #flyingbaby #averybravery #averykatherine #thanksgiving #thanksgiving2015 A photo posted by Avery "Bumble" Brazell (@avery_bravery) on Nov 30, 2015 at 4:44pm PST Our little babe has been on 5 flights and has endured several long-distance drives in her short, 7-month life. She's also the champion of long, long car rides that should have been short car rides but weren't due to the heinous traffic conditions on the roads of greater Los Angeles . I would say we have managed to get her from Point A to Point B rather successfully every time we've taken her anywhere. Based on the number of times we failed to get ourselves from Point A to B as a childless couple, this was an exciting and somewhat shocking development for my husband and me. Before I dive into a bunch of unsolicited advice, I should remind you that I typically act like an insane person when I'm under any stress at all. Tra...

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...