It is not even Halloween yet!!!

This really really irks me! I am so tired of seeing this year after year and earlier and earlier.

At the Grocery store yesterday, Pumpkins and Christmas BLEH!!!

I do not want to see Christmas crap out on shelves or decorations in stores inside or out until we are at least nearing Thanksgiving. The retail industry is killing the magic of the holidays. How can a tiny tot find a super cool fabulously decorated store special during those magical days before Christmas, if they have been looking at the decorations for months along side of pumpkins, gremlins and turkeys?

Give me a break people. Wait another few weeks, PLEASE!!!! Sales for Christmas can not be that exuberant in the month of October. Those who are already buying for the holidays, I am sure have already been buying all year and are in the process of crafting, not hanging wreaths on their door today!!

Does this bother you? Do you think the retail industry kills the magic? When do you think the stores should bring out Christmas items and decorate their buildings?

Emergency Bath

We are sort of engaging in Potty Training here at the Pink Haired Momma house. But not really. I mean, we have introduced Baby DIVA to the lovely little potty we have for her. We have explained to her what happens in the restroom. She has watched us "do our business" since birth in the restroom. She has gone and sat down on the potty a few times and done her business. But we are not really pushing this milestone yet.

Last week we had a breakthrough. Baby DIVA came into the bathroom while I was finishing up some stuff. She took off her diaper, sat down, went pee, stuck her hand out for toilet paper,(which I gave her), she attempted a wipe, stood up picked up the bucket and proceeded to dump in the toilet. HUGE celebrations went down! Lots of cheers, dancing, singing, clapping. The works. Both momma and daddy were present and partook in the festivities. Pee Pee Dance was in full active mode! I was so incredibly proud of my tot, especially because she had no real coaxing in the matter.

Since then we have had a couple of other times where she has used the potty. We are by no means pushing the use and just kind of are letting her figure it out on her own. It might also be that she doesn't really talk yet, so even if she needs to go she doesn't really know how to say, "Yo momma, I gotta pee!" But either way, I prefer to just let her develop this at her own pace.

Fast forward a week to yesterday afternoon. I was keeping the toilet warm doing stuff and in strolls Baby DIVA. She needs to go, she exclaims by ripping her diaper off and plopping down on her potty. She does her business and at a much more rapid pace than I can move gets up and proceeds to DUMP. Never mind that I am still in the dump site!

Emergency Bath took place immediately following celebratory You went pee pee in the potty dance!

Wordless Wednesday

I finally cleaned the pictures out of my phone, or shall I say I finally figured out how to take the pictures off my phone and put them on my computer. Over 700 pics and video! WOW! No doubt Baby DIVA is a superstar! Here are a few of my faves:

Summer playdates

Discovery of Saturday Donuts!


Realizing she is not a baby anymore

Who knew? I twirl!

Watching Baby DIVA and Baby Kdude play

Grocery shopping with Grandma

Testing out Fall Caramel apples

Loving and laughing the time with my "Rentals"

Win a trip for 4 FREE

You know I am a sucker for freebies, giveaways, contests, you name it. And I also love it when these fabulous goodies are coupled with one of my favorite places to buy groceries at super prices, H-E-B! And they are so awesome they do not even have to house the TV Carts in their store. Right now through the end of October, H-E-B is running a HEB Halloween Goodies Contest. It is simple to enter and YOU COULD WIN A MYSTICAL AND MAGICAL FAMILY VACATION for 4, among other great prizes! There is even a fantastically fabulous instant win game you can play right there on the site. I had a blast playing that! But I didn't win today! BOO! Better luck tomorrow, because you are eligible to enter for prizes on a daily basis.

The trip includes:
Round trip airfare for 4 to Orlando, Florida.
4 nights' accommodations at Waldorf Astoria Orlando.
Orlando Flex Ticket Plus, which includes unlimited access to: SeaWorld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Wet & Wild.
$1,500 Spending cash!

So head on over and give it a whirl. What do you have to loose?

6 Month Meat?

Don't get me wrong, sometimes I am pressed for time and want to scoot my mom ride thru the drive at the local fast food getaway to feed my Baby DIVA, self and H4L. I know it makes me a terrible mom, pumping my kid full of french fries deep fried in a cooker by some pimply teen, but hey a mom has got to do what a mom has got to do, right? And we all know that there are days that those fries are as good as it is gonna get. I always feel incredibly guilty after loading my kid up on fast fries, or perhaps its is just the rumblings in my tummy from the grease and preservatives, whatever it is, now after hearing about McDonald's 6 month old un-aged meal, I am even more disgusted than ever.
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Sally Davies , a photographer who lives close to a McDonald's, purchased a happy meal 6 months ago, in April 2010, brought it home and placed it on a white china plate. She intended to take a picture everyday as the decomposing process set in. A project stemmed from an article she found online about a 12 year old burger that was still kicking it. You can see this project, and all the photographic details HERE, as well as her other works which happen to be pretty cool.

I can tell you that my daughter will probably still have a fast food something here or there in her lifetime, I can not stop that. What I can do though, is look at this project and each time I am feeling lazy remember that not only is the fast food lifestyle unhealthy, but do I really want my child, myself and my H4L to be eating foods that never decompose, never break down, never go away. Not really. Instead I will try and take my lazy butt home, down a red bull, (cause they are healthy right?) and cook up something that possibly will decompose and release those nutrients into my family and keep THEM kicking for years to come, instead of keeping that nasty burger kicking for years.

TV and String Cheese?

It is official. I have seen it all.



A TV built into a grocery cart. Seriously? Are you kidding me? I mean, its not like my kid is an angel or anything and sits still without shrieking like a banshee while we shop for some Dried peas and string cheese, but I think I can keep her entertained long enough in the store that DJ Lance doesn't have to join us and our bread can safely check out without an incident.


Believe me, I am not an anti-tv mom. I love tv shows, movies and cartoons. I let Baby DIVA watch shows on the tube and she had her faves. But it is all in moderation. TV is never used as a pacifier or a babysitter. And this grocery store TV cart screams both. I am actually appalled that this is even an option for parents to use in the store.

Letting Baby DIVA explore the TV cart

I understand we are all in a hurry. I understand that pacifying a child is so much easier that actually dealing with the problem. I understand how embarrassing it is to be that one person with the screaming kid in the grocery store. And I can even recognize that this option could possibly look quite appealing in some situations. But I just do not think this is the answer, no matter how cool the technology.

I am feeling kind of BATTY!!!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Always has been, always will be. AND now it will also always hold a special meaning as it is also my wedding anniversary. The last two Halloweens H4L and I have not decorated much. Two back I was on bedrest in the hospital with Baby DIVA. I do remember sporting some Halloween socks, but that was about the extent of "Decor" that year. Last year we were living it up VEGAS style for our nuptials at the Venetian in Las Vegas. So this year, it was really important to us to get back in the swing of things and express our passion for Halloween. And we have kept it tot friendly, because Baby DIVA does get a bit scared of the decorations; I mean she is not even 2! WE can't expect her to be all vampired out yet , right?

I wanted to add a special touch to our decor, so I busted out my crafting junk and went to work. I carefully cut, what felt like thousands of BATS, from black felt in two different sizes. We then attached magnets to the back and secured them to our garage door. A quick snip snip of the scissors on some yellow felt and we also had a "spooky" moon. Simple, elegant and FUN!!

Grilled Cheese

H4L and I met at work. He worked in the IT department and I in Quality Assurance. I pursued him for months; he wouldn't give me the time of day. Then one Fall day, the weather had taken a plunge from the high 100 degree's to the fabulous 90's here in Houston, Texas, and I came down with the flu, because of the harsh weather change of course. I felt like a giant bag of poo and left work early. Later on that evening a phone call came, a surprise call at that. It was my future H4L, only I had no idea at that time.



Him: "So, you aren't feeling well huh?"




Me: "Not Really"




Him: "Why don't I come by and bring your some soup?"




Me: "That would be nice"




Inside I was jumping with joy. HOT DIGGITY DOG! But outside I looked like a nightmare! I quickly jumped up and tried to fix myself up, to pretend I wasn't sick with the flu. Who was a fooling? I looked and felt like a microwaved bag of poo, but luckily my nose was so stopped up I couldn't smell myself, because I know I stank like yucky flu too. I figured if he lasted 5 minutes we were good. A little while later soon to be H4L arrived at my door with Soup. We warmed it up and slurped on it and talked, to my surprise, throughout the whole entire night. We both stayed home sick the next day and talked and talked all day long, between nose blows that is. From that moment I knew, I knew I would spend all my life with this man. I was smitten.



We celebrate each year on that special September day with soup and Grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. Something silly, simple, and comforting to always bring us back to that moment and to remind us how we got our start. Where the roots are planted in our life. How we first got our start. It is a special way to share our love with each other and our daughter without making a huge spectacle of the date, and we really love it. A timeless treat to enjoy together, now, as a family.



Most days I overlook the simple turn of events that brought me to where I am today. Most days it doesn't cross my mind. But this month when I opened up my Martha Stewart magazine I found in there an entire article dedicated to the Grilled Cheese. Gourmet grilled cheese. And it made me smile. It made me think that a simple bowl of soup and a grilled cheese can be enjoyed not only in its simplest form, but it can also be dressed up and served with cherry preserves and white cheddar. A delicacy that can please all tastes and ages. But when it comes right down to it, it is just two greats, cheese and bread, melted together to form the perfect sandwich. Two separates combined into one to make a new and wonderful treat. Very much like H4L and myself. We are two great pieces melted together to form one great relationship.



So from now on each year, I will continue to dine on our simple soup and grilled cheese dinner, smile at the man I love and always know how wonderful we are together! Don't you just love to be reminded of the pure love and happiness in your life in the oddest unexpecting moments and places?







I love you hun! Happy Anniversay month!

Pumpkin time!!!

It is that time again! October has come and Halloween (and my FIRST anniversary) is on the horizon. The air is crisp and cool, at least for today, and there is candy every which way I turn. And more importantly there are giant orange pumpkins bouncing around all over town.

And Pink Haired Ladies sliding down giant pvc pipe slides with Baby DIVA's!

We took Baby DIVA to Dewberry Farm this weekend for a good ol' time and a romp in the pumpkin patch. Dewberry Farm is a tradition here for us, a tradition of 2 whole years now. Click HERE to see a few pics from our fun from last year at Dewberry. This year Baby DIVA was a little bit more involved. She enjoyed sliding down the slides and playing in Fort Dew hickey. She cautiously but ever so full of curiosity examined the chickens and turkeys and goats and pigs in the animal petting zone. We climbed through tires and wrestled in the Corn crib and sand pit. The weather was gorgeous and inviting as Baby DIVA had a full out tantrum and refused to climb in the Hay pile, I suppose she didn't want to give her DIVA bum dirty. So we loaded her up in the stroller and got ourselves lost in the 4 acre Corn maze. Fun at first, annoying when I really couldn't figure my way out!

Daddy taking a break while lost in the Corn Maze

This view is SCARY! Lost in Corn...not cool!

We jumped aboard the "hay ride" that drove us out to the pumpkin patch. Its was a sea of orange...well kind of. The heat from the harsh summer months and the fact we are still a little early in the season gave us more of a pond of orange, but nonetheless the PUMPKINS were out and ripe for the picking. We scurried on out posed Baby DIVA at every awesome pumpkin we encountered, just to torture her of course. And then she took off scouting out the orange balls for her very favorite. And she found one. A nice plump pumpkin to take home and have Daddy carve a big old Moose A Moose in! Yippee!

Tire playing

Recalls

Recalls.

I am so tired of hearing about RECALLS. It seems like every single day, I catch wind of yet another recall for this or that. Lead based paint on toys, Spinach, Over-the-counter medicines. Seriously, it is getting out of control.

At first glance, I find myself wondering as to how in the world the quality assurance personnel of these major named companies are allowing products to enter into mainstream consumer hands, if there are so many problems. My own career background, pre Baby DIVA and the pink hair of course, was a career based in quality assurance. Knowing the workings of a quality assurance process leaves me wanting to know more and more as to why this continues to be a recurrent problem in our world. But this problem also allows me speculate that the personnel who release these items into the custody of the general public, might in fact be doing their job correctly and efficiently. Could it possibly be that we have a giant out pouring of persons, moms, dads, loud mouths, who are crying wolf at any opportunity they can?

Let us look at the most current recall issued by Fisher Price, just this week. I have a particular interest in the recall that states "Children can fall on or against the pegs...resulting in injuries or lacerations." This is in reference to the Healthy Clean, Easy Care High chair. So, basically this product is being recalled because a child might fall down and get hurt because he or she bumps into it, in simple terms. Well if we put this behavior into practice on all products, we may as well go ahead and start a recall on all walls, floors, toes, empty air. I mean, my kid trips and falls into things all the time; and sometimes she gets an ouch. It happens. Do I like it? NO! But it happens. It is not the tile on my floor who is at fault if she falls and busts her lip. Shoot it is not even her fault. It is an accident. A simple oops that occurs in every day life. I don't call up the President of
Tile world demanding to be compensated immediately because my kid tripped.


I do not want to down play Recalls by any means. There is substantial evidence for many recalls that amounts to a necessity for a product to be recalled. However, I think many recalls (especially in recent months) are based on the fear of the company. The fear the company has of mouthy consumers who cry out as loud as possible for the slightest reasons, who have some how lost sight that occasionally growing up kids get injured, minor injuries of course is what I am talking about. A bump here, a bruise there and sometimes a cut here. But these are all part of the learning process. These little moments when a child walks too close to a sharp edge or is running in house and falls down and bumps his or her head; they are all learning opportunities for the child. Times that the parents then can step in and "Parent" the child. Remind the child that running in the house is not allowed because sometimes we fall down and get hurt. And then we help our child get up and move on. We don't teach him to destroy the floor that he fell on. We don't teach him to wallow in his bruise and place the blame of his fall on the person who designed and built that piece of flooring, god knows how long ago. No, we teach him to watch his step and gain the knowledge that this type of behavior and activity can sometimes cause a bad outcome.

Perhaps instead of utilizing so much effort, energy and time in trying to point blame at a large named company for little Johnny"s little scrape, we should instead "recall" ourselves as parents and learn how to parent and take care of our children again. We should grasp the concept that WE are the parents, not the product designers and marketing departments. We police our children and keep them safe, not the marketing department or factory rollout that makes the toys. We need to re-learn how to teach our children to learn from their mistakes and boo boo's in life. Teach our children that sometimes we do fall down, and when we do many times there is no one else to blame but ourselves. And when we fall, we get up and keep going.

Life as We Know It...the movie

I had the marvelous opportunity to take a momma time out and go see a movie with a great friend, Love to Shop Mom. I jazzed myself up, which in layman's terms means I actually got out of my stylish fashion of day long Pajama wearing that moms seem to know way too well, painted up my face with some make up I forgot I had, slipped on some flip flops (my kind of heels), kissed the kids (Baby DIVA and H4L) bye bye and took off in my mom ride for a wild night out.

But, you know there is something about sporting the mom ride that just kind of deflates your bubble of fun from Hot wild gal to fat momma. And then there is that feeling of fluff that began to resonate over me because I was dressed fabulously in my never really wear anymore jeans because I live in "comfy pants" pretend to be hip mom fashion choice; and I might not really be fitting in them so swell these days. Nonetheless, I felt great and grabbed my gal pal for a whimsical spin in the van, that brought us to a sneak preview of the movie Life as we Know it.

FANTABULOUS movie! The movie is a predictable tale, a story line that is simple, yet incredibly captivating. It really hit home with me, displaying an image of the modern day family and lifestyles that I have come to know as the norm in this day and age. The general premise of this flick is as follows: A young successful couple has a child. This same young couple has a set of best friends, his best dude and her best gal. These bests hate each other, with a undying passion stemmed from a bad blind date set up many years before. Happy married couple dies and leaves their only child, whom is only 1 years old, in the custody of these two adults, the bests, that despise one another. The movie then chronicles the lives of these three people who are thrust together in a bittersweet turn of events that life dealt for them, throughout the first year of this lifestyle change. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

As a parent, I identified on a number of levels with this movie. I found myself immersed in the culture of being a parent and the favorable aspects such a gift provides. The enticing views of feeding a toddler and getting covered in "back spit". The first precious steps your child ever takes and how you must document this achievement with every electronic document capturing device you have at your disposal. Doing whatever it takes to soothe this "monster" child, even if it means standing on your head inside the fridge while singing Barney all night long. And of course those cherished moments where the baby is sound asleep and you peer over the edge of the crib and know deep in your soul you are looking directly at an angel, a gift from above, pure peaceful perfection.

But I also was able to catch a glimpse of my former self in the characters. A glimpse that reminded me, that although I am the greatest expert on parenting now, (hold your laughter back please), I didn't have a clue at the beginning. The former self that was lost, confused, terrified, but willing to bend my body backwards, in half, and up side down to figure out how to keep this kid alive. My former self that was shocked and terrified to learn motherhood was being tossed on my doorstep, but was flinging the door open with enthusiasm. Well perhaps it was a slip of the hand and fear that flung the door open, but that is neither here nor there.


The simple and genius storyline of this movie enabled the actors to really hone in on the real life moments that inevitability factor into every parents life. The movie portrayed a life that all of us could identify with. A story that tugs at the heartstrings and enables you to gain perspective into the lives of parents. All while giving a fantastic performance that is sure to capture anyones heart. Truly entertaining. A must see for all those who would like a glimpse into the life of parenting.