Chistmas at Grandma Kathy's & a New Family Car

Christmas at my mom's house was great!  Liam and Marlo had a blast thanks to Grandma Kathy and Uncle Chris.  My mom always makes us feel at home and Uncle Chris was on fire!

He dressed up as Santa and Liam totally believed it!

Liam is obsessed with his gift from Uncle Chris - a huge remote control truck!

Even Marlo got a new ride from Uncle Chris!

In addition to plenty of family time, I got to meet my girlfriend Sarah's baby girl Mazie for the first time and got to see my dear friend Francie and her daughter Patty Lu who are visiting from New York.  I love that I have friends who also had baby girls in 2012 - second generation friendships!

Marlo and I came back to the O.C. on Wednesday night, but Liam was picked up by Grandma Mary and is staying with my in-laws in West Hollywood until tomorrow morning.  For being only 3 I think he's doing a great job being away from home for so many nights.  He's only had one major "I miss mommy and daddy" meltdown.  

It's been so quiet in the house without Liam.  It's crazy how easy one child is.  I'm stating the obvious, but sometimes I forget how peaceful everything was with just one.  Although the peace and quiet has been nice, I miss my boy.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him tomorrow.

Oh, and tomorrow is Joe's 36th birthday so we're having a daytime date - lunch and a movie! We're both really excited since neither of us can remember the last time we went to a movie - possibly it was before Marlo was born and she's a year next month.  So, yeah, it's been awhile. 

Lastly, I think we'll be heading into the New Year with a new car!  Our lease on the Prius is up soon and we're buying a family car.  Joe's getting off work early today so we can "close" the deal we have on a new 2012 Chevy Traverse.     We're considering buying the Prius out and trading in Joe's car.  I hope we do end up keeping the Prius.  I'm not into cars at all!!  I just want something that is safe and easy to drive.  But the Prius is the first car that I'd be sad to get rid of.  I love the Prius.  But we need a bigger car. 

We've talked about MAYBE having another baby next year and if we decide to grow the Friedman clan, the Prius ain't going to cut it.  More about baby business in another post!  I still need to get one kid walking!

Well, I suppose my next post should include my new year's resolutions...I better get to thinking!

Not your typical playroom: Home for the holidays!

I took the kids up to LA to spend Christmas with my mom.  Joe will be here for the weekend and Christmas, but he has to work quite a bit next week.  And since Liam is off from school for two weeks I thought I'd seek refuge with my mom and in-laws.

Staying at my mom's house is always wonderful.  It's the house I was raised in so it will always be home to me.  But it's also home to my mom's photography studio.  Kathy is taking the week off from shooting so she's turned her studio into a playroom for the kiddos!

Crawl mats for Marlo and a plethora of toys!

Light reflectors for the optimal playtime experience 

Make-up station for dress up

A rainbow of photo back drops for art time!

My mom even moved out of her room for the week and gave us the master bedroom!  She spoils us!  

Oh, and I got my two front teeth!!!  

Hello Gorgeous!  Okay, not a gorgeous picture of me, but compared to the picture of me with crazy teeth - this one is a winner!  

 

I was in quite a bit of pain and had to take a shot of this baby.  It actually did the trick - go figure!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!! If you didn't get our holiday card, here is the photo we used, sans cute "all you need is love" message. 

 

 

I am a Johnny Apple Seed holiday card giver.  I give them to everyone.  I LOVE getting holiday cards.  I know many people throw them away.  But I cherish them.  I display them until the end of February.  I look at them frequently - they make me happy.  When I was younger, my mother would display our holiday cards from each year, and by the time I was a teenager, I got quite a kick out of seeing how we all changed from year to year.  We now have three holiday cards as the Friedman family.  I can't wait to display them all 20 years from now when our children are older.

Side note: the camera really doesn't lie.  I love our holiday card, but after we took the picture, I realized that we had acquired an animal in our family and it was living on my head.  So, yes, we got rid of the family pet - I cut my hair.  It's still long, but it doesn't look like I have a cat sitting on my head.

Oh, and I will be posting some video from Liam's holiday show at school.  There were some hilarious moments.  I just need to edit it!  Happy Saturday!

 

All I want for Christmas are my two Front Teeth!

After my last post, I thought I'd bring back some humor to my blog with revealing the tragedy of my two front teeth.  About ten years ago I knocked out my front teeth, the top ones.  It's a long story, but basically, I was in a swimming pool and had an accident and lost them.  I had bonds on them for a while, and finally got veneers after the bonds were constantly chipping.

A few weeks ago my veneers chipped.  I always thought veneers were like diamonds - they didn't, or very rarely chipped.  Guess I was wrong.  And, let me add, that veneers are not cheap. And if you chip one, you replace them all.  I thought I could live with the chip until my insurance would cover them (another 3 years..ridiculous!!?)  But then another piece chipped so I decided to suck it up and get my two veneers replaced.

So, they put temporary veneers on while the actual permanent teeth are being made.  It takes a couple of weeks.  I've been in some pain, but the pain is small potatoes compared to how awful the fake veneers look.  The day after they were put on the tops of my teeth started to turn grayish-blue.  And each day since they've discolored even more.  I now look like I have two rotting front teeth and haven't seen a dentist for twenty years.  Fantastic. I called my dentist to complain and she said this is all perfectly normal!! Really?! For $1200 couldn't my temporary veneers at least be the color of my teeth?!

Closed mouth you wouldn't think twice...

I smile...and whoa! 

I get my new teeth this Friday so only two more days of looking like this...I don't mean to be so vain.  And when I think of how stupid it is for me to be complaining about some funky teeth when the nation is mourning the loss of those beautiful babies, I honestly want to give myself a smack.  But, I suppose we could all use a good laugh.  And come on, you can't not look at this picture of me and not laugh!

In response to today's events

In addition to shedding a few tears and staring at my babies sleeping for longer tonight than I usually do, I could only process the tragedy of today with writing.  Not that any words said or written can make things better, but it is my way of processing things.


I can't imagine what losing a child would be like.  To be honest, this is stuff that keeps me up at night.  I know it's ridiculous and somewhat self-destructive to think about these things, but I can't help it.  I think of how wonderful and happy I am and then I think of all the things that could happen that could take the most precious people away from me.  And days like today just make these thoughts worse.

Joe lost his little sister, Molly, when she was 13.  Joe was a freshman in college.  I wish I could have met Molly.  We named Marlo after her.  I hope her spirit lives within Marlo in some small way.  When I visited Joe's hometown, we went to Molly's grave.  While we were giving Mary (Joe's mom) some time alone at Molly's grave, I was in tears.  Of course I didn't want Mary to see me upset, but I just couldn't bare seeing a mother at her child's grave.  As a parent, you always imagine that your child will out live you.  And it seems like such an injustice when this is not the case.

Molly was sick and her death, obviously, was very different from the lives of the children that were taken today.  But no matter what, the death of a child is just so wrong.  The dreams destroyed.  In the words of James Baldwin, "The children are always ours, every single one of them..."

My heart goes out to all the victims - the children and the teachers - and their families.

Happy Hanukkah Mommy!

I've been debating for a while about getting a nice purse.  At first, I wanted to get a really nice diaper bag.  I settled though on the Skiphop Versa, a reasonably priced one that fit my needs.   I decided against getting a nice d-bag because 1.) It's a bag for kids and will get destroyed and 2.) I'm not always going to be carrying a diaper bag around.  The baby years will be gone before I know it.   But I've always wanted a nice hand bag.  I've just never invested in one.

So, for Hanukkah this year, mommy got herself a handbag!

 




I realize that one can spend thousands of dollars on a purse and that was not my goal at all!  I wanted something nice, but not something that would break the bank.  I also wanted something that was mom friendly, but could still be trendy enough to wear out to dinner.  I got the Tory Burch Amanda Hobo bag and it has a cross body strap which will be great for day to day and taking the kids around.  But the cross body strap can be removed and the purse can be worn over the shoulder as a tote.  There's plenty of room in it for a wallet, make-up bag, my day agenda, cell phone, and what have you.  It's not an evening clutch, but it's stylish enough to be a mom purse during the day and a lady's going out bag at night.

Anyways, I'm excited.  I called my best friend and told her about my new bag and she told me that I'm officially now an O.C. mom and housewife now that I have a Tory Burch bag.  True; I won't deny it. But I LOVE this purse!  I suppose it's only a matter of time before there's crushed Cheerios at the bottom of the bag, but so be it.  I admit that I do feel guilty about getting this for myself.  I don't need it.  Well, I do need a purse, but I don't need one this nice.  But I'm pretty sure I deserve this!  We all deserve to treat ourselves every once in a while - be it a new handbag, a yoga class, or Krispy Kreme Doughnut!

I'd love to know what some of my readers have treated themselves to lately!!  Do share!

(Full disclosure - yes, Joe knows I got a handbag. But the one I asked him if I could get was not the one I got.  The Amanda Hobo is a bit more expensive, but not by much.)

And here's a cute video of the kiddos - the piano was one of Marlo's Hanukkah gifts, but Liam discovered it and brought it out to play.

Updates from Previous Posts

Happy Hanukkah!  After the last night, I'll post some  highlights from the holiday.  Liam has been really excited about the entire holiday season. I suppose it started with Halloween which led into Thanksgiving, and now he's beside himself over Hanukkah and Christmas (at my mom's house.)

But, I wanted to post an update on some of the things I've blogged about over the past few weeks,

Marlo's Physical Therapy: 
Marlo is still seeing her P.T. twice a week.  She's making solid and steady progress each week.  Her P.T. says she should be crawling by the end of the year.  And hopefully, by her first birthday in January, she will be pulling up and trying to cruise around.  She REALLY wants to move - the motivation is there.  She can scoot around quite well on our hardwood floors and is rolling everywhere.  We're focusing on getting her up on all fours unassisted.

I am so looking forward to Marlo moving.  Beyond the fact that she is behind the curve on this milestone, her inability to crawl has taken a toll on me physically.  I carry 23lbs. around all day.  It's nuts!  My shoulder bursitis has come back with a mean vengeance, my lower back is consistently in pain, and by the end of the day, I feel as if I've worked out for hours.  I guess the one benefit is that I've lost all pregnancy weight and then some by weight lifting all day, but I'm done with it.  Moreover, Joe and I have talked a bit about having another baby, but I can't even start to think about having another baby when I have a giant infant on me all day.  Marlo is one next month and in no way does she seem on the verge of toddler-hood to me.  That being said, I can't wait to announce it when she's finally on the move.

The No-Nap Sleep Solution:
Well, the no napping thing is working.  Liam falls asleep by 7 every night.  Sometimes he can't even make it to then and he's down by 6:30.  It's fabulous!  I get an hour to do whatnot in the house before Joe gets home and then we get a solid two hours of hang out time before bed.  Plus, there are no more crying and screaming tantrums because it's time to go to bed.  Although Liam spends less time with Joe, I really think it's been better for everyone, Liam included.  Usually, Liam wakes up early enough to say good bye to Joe before he leaves for work and this seems to make him happy.  And all weekend is pretty much family time so Liam and daddy get plenty of hangout time then.  The house is just more peaceful.  It means more work for me during the day, but so be it.  And I've been trying to use this time with Liam in productive ways.  For example, when Marlo naps, we'll usually use that as our cooking time.  We'll bake something or puree Marlo's baby foods.  Or sometimes we'll use the time to clean up the house.  Liam LOVES cleaning.  I bought a bunch of non-toxic green cleaning products so I'll let him clean the counter tops in the kitchen - one of his favorite chores.  Or I'll let him vacuum - maybe his all time favorite chore.  Although I might need to go over something he's cleaned, he usually gets about 80% of the mess.  It's actually helpful.  He just likes to be busy.  After Marlo wakes up, we'll go to the park or go outside to play with his friends.  And it took a solid week for him to adjust and not to be Mr. Fussy-pants in the evening, but he's there.  No more meltdowns in the evenings!

Dinner: the monkey on my back
I'm still trying to get the whole dinner thing organized.  I really appreciated getting some recipes from my readers.  And I'm ALWAYS asking other moms how they organize dinner.  It's a work in progress.  I got Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious to see if I could sneak in some veggies without Liam turning up his nose.  And it's totally worked, but I've only make snack food items such as banana bread and muffins. (Oh, and I tried the chocolate pudding made with avocado - deceptively disgusting!)  I've also started reading French Kids Eat Everything.  So, yep, still trying to get dinner on a solid role! Now that Liam is always going to bed before Joe gets home, I at least know that dinner will be in two shifts every night. This is one of the major downsides of Liam gong to bed at 7, but it's one that I'm willing to deal with for a more peaceful evening.

Post Party Reflection

Last night's holiday party was wonderful!  Joe and I had a blast.  There was a raw bar with fresh lobster tails and champagne being passed around as we walked in the door - my kind of place!  I LOVED seeing all the dresses and shoes and jewelry.  Some women wore long dresses, some went short.  The dresses were diverse, but everyone looked elegant and very put together.  There were plenty of women that got their hair done for the party.  Or there were a lot of women who knew how to do some pretty fancy updos!

Dinner was delicious - scallops, prime rib, stuffed chicken, squash ravioli, tons of veggies - for an event that large (about 600 people), I was really impressed with the food.  I was also impressed by the the opening speech given by the CEO Mohamed El-Erian.  I've always respected Joe's work, but listening to this guy and his colleagues talk about PIMCO really made me proud.  And I appreciated in the CEO's greeting that he acknowledged the spouses and families of PIMCO.  He said it's not easy working at PIMCO and the spouses play a critical role in keeping the PIMCO employee's sane!!

It's also incredible to see someone you love accomplish and live their professional dream.  Joe wanted this job at PIMCO badly.  During the interview process, I remember him telling me that if he didn't get this job, there would never be another opportunity like this.  I thought he was exaggerating a bit, but now after what I know about the company, I get it.  And being at the holiday party just made me really proud of how hard my husband works.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find my camera before we left!! I was so upset about this. The one time I'm all dressed up and I can't take a decent picture!!!??  Arrrggg!! But, Joe took a couple phone pics of me and we got the "prom" style portraits taken at the party. Oh and our photo booth pictures didn't turn out - the photo booth battery went out and we didn't want to stand inline again...so the photos were not happening for the night!

Our portrait - with my hand looking ridiculously long

The new dress and the new shoes!  

An attempt at a close up...sigh

Outfit update!

I seriously can't believe how much I debated over the dress I am wearing tonight to Joe's holiday party.  I've been obsessing over it.  I guess because I wear "mom" clothes everyday and don't get out much, the holiday party is a bit intimidating to me.  And the crowd that will be at this party is an elite bunch.  I feel a bit out of my league.

So, hearing from my readers was awesome! I highly recommend posting your outfits for a public vote for an important event!  It's a great way to get multiple opinions.  Anywho - the black dress was winning by about 1 vote.  (Unless I followed my friend Nicole's method and gave the men's vote a heavier weight. In that case, black won by far.)

I really wanted to wear the red.  At the end of the day, I felt like it was something I would never wear, but it made me feel fabulous!  I felt like a million bucks in that thing.  And I can always wear a black dress. But the red Von Furstenburg is unique and could only be worn at an occasion like this evening. 

But, Joe liked the black better on me.  And any man I asked - chose black.  This just goes to show what men want - tight and black. I could be wearing something from the dollar store, and as long as it shows the body and some leg, it's a winner.  But, my friend's dress was so tight I honestly feared that I'd pop a seam.  Seriously. No joke.  And I know I wouldn't even want to sit down at the party for fear that something would rip.  So, I splurged and bought a tight fitting black dress with new shoes (you can't tell from the picture but they are bejeweled and sparkly).  The new dress' fabric is a bit more giving so I feel comfortable moving in it - a good thing!

I asked Joe if he thought it was too much. I want to look sexy, but I also want to look like a wife and a mother.  Tall women who wear short things can easily look like hookers.  But Joe assured me that the dress is perfect for the party.  So, the above is what I'll be wearing.  If it was up to me, I'd be in red.  But, this time, I'm going with what the husband wants.  We never go out. I might as well look my best for him.

Anyways,  I can't wait to go!  They take pictures, there's a dinner, pool tables, dancing, photobooths - sounds like a whole lot of fun!

Thank you readers for all your outfit votes and compliments!  I'll be sure to post some pictures with hair and make up done!