‘fraidy cat

I don’t blog nearly as often as I want or should. I know that if I were to blog more often, I would really start to carve out a blogging identity. Right now I’m not sure if this is a parenting blog (not exactly), a food blog (a little warmer perhaps),  I already have a diet blog, is this just a random blather blog? Likely. I would prefer having somewhat of an identity and a common denominator among my posts other than the fact that I wrote them. I guess I need to take the time to write. I would learn more about myself and the writing process.

I think I’d like to swerve somewhat into the direction of a motherhood blog. Being a mom is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I want to share my achievements (no matter how small) with other parents and other future parents. I want people to chuckle and agree with the importance of a great child product (Whoever came up with the spill-proof cup ought to be canonized). I’d really like to start meeting other moms. I don’t know too many moms that I’m not somehow related to. The problem is, I’m also afraid to meet other moms.

But how could I be afraid to meet other moms? Surely if I were to be welcome into any blogosphere it would be a mommy blogosphere, right? Well, Let me tell you the most irrational thought I’ve ever had on the subject. Here it is. I am afraid other moms will not like me because I am not a stay at home mom.  I always wanted to be, but I can’t. We can’t afford for me to quit my job. As a result, my son is more attached to his grandmother than he is to me. It makes me feel like a bad mother, and I’m worried that other moms will only underline that ridiculous thought. I was considering joining the local MOPS chapter, but they stopped their meetings for the school year, literally, the week I decided to finally go for it.

I found another mommy group in the area when I was reading the newspaper a couple of weeks ago. They advertise regular meetings in the area and once monthly “mommies only” outings. I was thrilled with the prospect. I went to the website listed and found the details are as follows…
In order to join, you must email the leader with a short blurb about yourself and your child (who must be under 5)
the leader will then email you back a schedule of play-dates
you  must attend one play-date and then the other members must APPROVE your application.

I have not emailed.  It’s ridiculous, I know. I go back to worrying about being a working mother. I guess I just can’t imagine that a woman who works for a living and has a child at home would ever need to meet other people. I think the worst part of all of this is that I realize just how stupid this all sounds but I still can’t bring myself to write a short blurb to a complete stranger. What would my blurb say?
Nervous mom to a 16 month old boy. Works full time. Hardly sees her son (awake) as a result. Comes in third place behind grandma and daddy. Needs to meet more people. Will not be able to attend often, due to work. You’ll see her about as often as her son does.

This entry is a lot dumber than I intended it to be. Maybe this will be my inspiration to update more. Happy thoughts.

Bliss.

No lie. Work stresses me out.

More often than not, I come home a frizzled frazzled mess.

Holiday weekends are obviously no exception.

I’d been previously informed that I wasn’t going to be in the sanctuary of the department but would rather be put out on the floor to run a demo station for chocolate covered strawberries on both saturday and sunday.  I was miffed. Annoyed. But I don’t want to talk to customers all day long! Today I dragged my heels in the door but soon realized that my station was a blessing. It didn’t take long for me to remember how downright AWFUL Mother’s Day weekend can be in the bakery department.  I was soon very grateful to be talking about tempering chocolate and “did you know” facts about chocolate and strawberries “did you know the FDA doesn’t consider white chocolate to be chocolate at all?” and such silly things. I also got to chat with customers about the ups and downs of working with sweet goods and reassuring people that just because you work with sweet goods doesn’t mean you have to be tremendous.  “you CAN trust a skinny chef!”

Speaking of skinny chefs, Rob and I went clothes shopping yesterday and I fit my butt into a pair of size 8s. I pretty much died right there. Never in my life have I been a size 8. I’m pretty sure I was a 12 at birth.  I celebrated by letting rob take me out for fried chicken. Now that is rational thought!!!

I made this cake tonight for Mother’s Day.


This Photo is property of http://www.bakerella.com It is being used here because my cake has not fallen yet and I’m sure she would understand. I love you bakerella!

I don’t think mine is going to look as nice. I was getting frustrated whilst folding my egg whites. I don’t think it mixed thoroughly. I can actually see a few pieces of egg white froth still embedded in the top. Hopefully once it falls it looks a little better.

While it was baking, I took a hot bubble bath. Rob cleaned the bathtub for me.  As I was sitting there in my boiling hot water (I really have to have it VERY hot) with the lights dimmed and candles lit, all of my Victoria’s Secret bath goodies around me, texting my friend Katy, eating a frozen snickers bar, I thought to myself “Bliss.”

If nothing else, I had my 30 minutes of calm accompanied by a snickers ice cream bar.

Tomorrow will be interesting.  Katy is supposed to help me demo strawberries tomorrow. We are going to have a SPECTACULAR time.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone, from the bottom of my heart.

Beauty and Truth

First off,  this post is going to be all about babies.

Second,If any of you enjoy Sephora, I beseech you to click the following banner.

Now since I work at yet-to-be-named grocery store, I don’t really make enough moolah myself to bid on anything but I can certainly promote the heck out of it! Mike and Heather’s story moved me to tears (many times) and though I don’t know their family and only learned of Maddie after the fact, I feel a connection that I cannot deny.  I learned of Maddie through a good friend on Twitter who had re-tweeted a link to Matt Logelin’s blog where he had posted an entry about Maddie.  I cried a LOT that day.  Rob came home and found me an inconsolable wreck in the computer chair. I wasn’t sure I could stand (Incidentally, this was also the first time I learned of Matt’s story). Whether you are a parent or you are not, the loss of a child as beautiful and vibrant as Maddie is devastating. Heather, from me to you, I am truly truly sorry for your loss. I doubt these words will ever cross your computer screen but my heart breaks for you every time I hold my own son.  I know it’s somewhat irrational of me to feel guilty that I was lucky enough to have an easy pregnancy (which was a surprise) and a healthy baby (despite a less than desirable delivery) when so many other families have to endure tough situations.  I’ve recently become infatuated with the idea of volunteering for Southwest SIDS Research, but given my tendencies to have every little tug at my emotions reduce me to a crying mess, maybe it’s not that good of an idea.

When I was pregnant with James, I wanted my labour to be as natural and not interfered with as much as possible. I was even serious about not getting an epidural. when 40 weeks rolled around and there was no sign of labour but a sign of a rapidly growing baby,  my doctor and I weighed induction vs c-section. If 2 more weeks went by, my already big baby might get too big for a natural delivery. If I were to be induced, it would mean medications and someone breaking my water for me. It would also reduce the possibility of a c-section. “Okay.” I said “We’ll induce.” and while I was a bit hesitant in my decision, I would still be able to experience somewhat of a natural delivery. We arrived at the hospital bright and early a few days later. I was given the pitocin and my contractions started almost immediately. The nurse told me she was giving me something to help me relax while my labor progresses. I regret letting her. Whatever it was she gave me was so powerful I would fall asleep between each contraction. It blurred my brain completely. I ended up getting an epidural. I know this because when I finally was out of the grip of that medication and awake enough to understand anything, I pinched my thighs and I couldn’t feel it. Evidently, not only had I asked for one, I also had to sit upright for 30 minutes draped over a nurse due to placement issues. I remember none of this. After being in labour for 8 hours, it was finally time to push. 2 hours later. I had an oxygen mask on. My epidural catheter had been turned off to see if it would help me. No go. My blood pressure skyrocketed, and James’ heartbeat began to slow. I didn’t have a choice. Neither did my doctor. It took them 35 minutes to prep the OR. Longest and scariest 35 minutes of my life. I was instructed to stay calm. Don’t push. Don’t panic. I’ve really got to hand it to Rob. A lot of men would be completely freaking out. I’m sure he was, actually. But Rob tends to be completely stone-faced when he’s upset. He held my hand and talked me down a little bit. Finally the OR was ready. It was so cold in there. Rob sat beside my head. I kept waiting to hear the baby cry.  The doctors had a cd player in the OR. Tom Petty was playing. “I’m free….free fallin….” James let out a little cry.  They brought him over to me after he was wrapped up and wiped off a bit. I kissed him and kept saying “my baby…my baby”. The anesthesiologist asked me if I wanted him to put me under for the remainder of the procedure and I said no I would be okay. But I’m pretty sure I passed out anyway. I woke up when they were about to move me off the table back onto my bed. It was so cold I was shaking. Thankfully they warmed my blankets but it took over an hour for me to stop shaking.  And then I met James.  And everything I’d been though was suddenly worth it.

When I was younger. I stopped having a period for over 2 years. I saw my doctor and had my blood checked. I was informed that it was most likely because I was overweight. My doctor essentially patted me on the head and told me to lose 50 lbs and I would be fine.  I don’t know if it was one heck of a coincidence or just bad timing. When I finally got to meet Rob in person (yep, we met online), the day after we met I got my period for the first time in years. It was a sign.  Okay, that was TMI and I’m sorry.  But the fear that I still may not be able to have children, or alternatively, that it would be really hard, still lurked in the back of my brain. Seeing as how I couldn’t rely on my cycle after I went off the pill, I was shocked to learn early June 2007 that I was 10 weeks pregnant. I knock on every piece of wood I pass by. I had NO SYMPTOMS. I thought I might have had really bad PMS but I had nothing that led me to believe I could be pregnant.  When it was confirmed with my doctor. I was flooded with guilt. I had a drink on my birthday. I’ve been working too hard. I haven’t been eating right.  But nevertheless I managed to have a too-easy pregnancy. I even continued to work 32 hours a week up until 5 days before James was born (the date of my last doctors appointment). The morning after James was born, my doctor came up to do her rounds. She sat down on my bed and told me that I have fibroid tumours in my uterus that are already progressed enough that it’s flat out amazing I got pregnant in the first place.

So I’m on a new birth control pill. It’s a mini pill which means it has no estrogen in it. I shouldn’t supply my body with estrogen because that basically would be feeding the tumours. While the mini pill does not make you have a period like other pills do, I still found it somewhat disconcerting that I hadn’t had one since January 6th of this year. I had taken a pregnancy test the first of march because I hadn’t yet read my pill pamphlet (bad Ashleigh) and was unaware that it was relatively normal to be irregular on this pill. Last week I decided to take another test. Just to squash that one lingering “what if” in the back of my head. I admit I was a little scared to take it. I’m not sure which result I was more scared of. In any case, James is not going to have a sibling any time soon. Rob admitted he didn’t think having it come up positive would have been the worst thing in the world.  And yet, I go back in my head to what my doctor told me. If I got pregnant once, I might be able to do it again without treatment.

So I’m still not pregnant. So I’m still taking my pill.

Regardless, I thank God every day.

197_9774
James on Valentine’s Day 2008 (3 weeks old)

weary with the dusk

I realize that it’s been over a week since I’ve last updated and I want to apologize to all three of my readers. I spent the great majority of last week at work and spent the weekend in Sayville, NY  with Caitlin. I had a great time and knocked her socks off when she realized we had been planning her a surprise bridal shower. I must admit, I’m still in complete amazement that we managed to pull it off without her being the wiser.  Her mother and I spent weeks planning the surprise factor. I admit, I had to do a bit of storytelling in order to have a reason to come visit her. I told her that Rob and I were just getting on each others nerves and we needed to spend some time away from each other. I hate to admit it here, but I think there may have been a small kernel of truth to that story. However small it was, I think it has been squashed.

I always knew when my mother in law would be babysitting James when we were working that he would grow really attached to her.  I guess I had just hoped that I would still always be his number one. At this point, I would say I am his number three.  On monday, when I was flying home from NY, my connecting flight in Baltimore was delayed 2.5 hours due to inclement weather.  I was really upset. It would mean another full day without seeing my James. After a long wait, an even longer flight, and a long drive, we finally made it to my Mother in law’s house to pick up James. And he wanted nothing to do with me. My heart broke into a thousand pieces. I know he’s a toddler, I know he was probably just “mad” at me, but I’d spent all afternoon daydreaming about his giggles and he wouldn’t even grant me one.  Toddlers.

My birthday is coming up next month. I’ve decided I would like a Nikon d40 camera. It really comes down to the fact that I want a good camera (re: one that isn’t going to run out of battery power in 5 minutes) before we go on our trip to Canada this summer. But considering my current state of employment, I’m probably going to end up with a target gift card. That’s okay too. I can never have too many pairs of pants.

I think I may be stressed out a little bit. My gums feel inflamed and I have a constant headache. I think I’m grinding my teeth again at night. Which is not good, I’m already dangerously close to needing crowns from worn down enamel. I’m going to stop here. I hate thinking about teeth. I really do.

Here is a photo from the bridal shower.

Check me out, doing my”Honourly” duties.

I had been planning on making her wedding cake. I was really excited about the prospect and had all kinds of plans. But while I was there this weekend, time flew by so quickly. It dawned on me that with flying up 2 days before the wedding, I would simply NOT have the time to fit in baking AND decorating a cake to serve 150 people in between all the other last minute things I will need to accomplish. I’m totally bummed about it but the caterers were giving her a cake anyway so at least she’s not screwed.

Darling Husband bought me tickets to see RENT this weekend as a Valentines Day gift.  Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal are playing the lead roles in this tour which has me unbelievably excited. And grateful. Robert doesn’t like RENT at all and this will be the second time he’s taken me to see it regardless of that fact.

Maybe I’ll keep him around after all.

Life’s a beach.

On sunday, I worked an early shift and was approached to stay overtime. I broke eye contact and said that I was unable to stay. I have a hard time saying no. It’s not about the OT pay, I just hate to see them screwed. But I knew the problem was solved whether I stayed or not, so I said NO!! Finally. It felt good once I got past the guilt.  The reason I couldn’t stay? I wanted desperately to take James to the beach for the first time and the weather was finally nice enough to do so.

We went into the surf just a little and let the water rush over our feet. It was shockingly cold for this time of year in TX. James was startled by the cold and disliked it immediately. He did like playing in the sand, however. So the jaunt wasn’t a total bust.  Also, we made lots of memories. The first time James picked up a seashell, the first time James chased birds, the first time James ate sand…

——–

On saturday morning, Robert and I ran our first 5k fun run. We’ve recently started to train in order to run a half-marathon later this year and I wanted to run the 5k just for fun to see how we would fare. I hoped to finish around 45 minutes but didn’t expect much better. I am a beginner, after all. It was horribly windy and horribly humid and it felt like we were running against the crashing waves. Just when you think the wind has died down enough for you to pick it back up and sprint a little bit, here comes a gust right in your face. At one point a gust actually caused me to have to balance check. Anyway, Here are our stats…
Robert: placed 84th overall, 11th in his age group (male 30-39) with a time of 36:46
Me: Placed 93rd overall (har har), 5th in my age group (female 20-29) with a time of 39:50

All in all, not too shabby! I’m awfully proud of myself but even more proud of my darling husband who didn’t even want to start running in the first place :p

——

In other news, James is officially a Canadian Citizen. I’m really excited about this. I want him to love Canada. I love Canada. I used to lament that Canada didn’t have much of an exclusive identity. Other countries have significant and defined cultures. Canada’s culture seemed to be about par with The US in the sense that it was the western hemisphere. Aside from poutine (which WILL kill you) and the country being officially bilingual, there wasn’t much separating Canada from the US. I still think that’s mostly true when you look at the big picture. But that was my problem. I was spending too much time looking at the big picture to notice the little details.  I saw some silly little video on Youtube about the amendments to the citizenship laws and I found my heart melting when he was surrounded by the red and white paraphernalia. I really want to visit Canada this summer. Stop off at Tim Hortons. Lament that there is no place in TX like Timmy Ho’s.  Enjoy the beautiful scenery of northwestern Saskatchewan and northeastern Alberta. Be able to tell my money apart without looking at it too hard. August can’t come soon enough.

——

The other night, Rob and I were watching TV and I turned to him and I asked him “Rob, will you marry me?”
He seemed a little perplexed at first but soon caught on to what on earth it was I was talking about.
We’re going to start looking into the process of marrying in the Catholic church. Rob is sure he’ll have to go through Confirmation first and there is plenty of uncertainty over whether or not I’ll have to convert. I don’t think I’m ready for that, actually.
The proposed wedding date (Assuming rob has to Confirm first) is Saturday November 23rd 2013

Mark your calendars.

This @#$% is bananas!!!!

Probably the lamest blog title ever but hear me out! (read me out?!)

So I had some bananas lying around. I’d missed the window of the best time to eat them raw so I figured I’d let them continue to ripen and do something with them later.

Today I made banana nut muffins.

I found the recipe here  but I will copy and paste it here.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 overripe bananas

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. (editors note: This is super important.)

With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes.

Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.

Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. (Note:This is called the muffin method and it too is extremely important, do NOT over-mix muffin batter!)

Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The recipe as printed notes that it yields 12 muffins but I was able to get 18 muffins. I also topped them with a simple streusel topping before placing them in the oven. It is completely optional but I would personally never skip it. The recipe for that is as follows.

3 tbsp flour

3 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp finely chopped pecans (optional)

2 tbsp butter

mix dry ingredients together.
cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.


(Another note: I don’t own a pastry blender, you can use two butter knives to achieve the same end or do as I do and use the tools at the end of your arms :D Make sure your hands are clean, please!)

I really wish my waistline would allow me to keep all of these muffins for myself.  Unfortunately I will be giving most of these muffins away to my in-laws.

But that’s why I took some pictures.

(Go on, take one…no one will know…)

—-

In other news, The other night we spent 2 hours in the clinic with James because it had come to my attention that he had an ear infection. I know these things can and do go away on their own but when my son doesn’t want to eat and can’t sleep, the co-pay is a small price for a peaceful household.  Do you think they call the symptom “irritability” because you feel irritated or because you start irritating the people around you?! I admit that I find myself downright annoyed with James when he’s being fussy.  I don’t know, I guess I wish I could tell him in plain english “Look kiddo, you need to eat cause it’ll make you feel better. Stop rubbing your face when I’m trying to spoon-feed you sweet potatoes. Can you let me know when you’re itchy so food won’t get smeared everywhere? On that note, will you let me know if you have to sneeze? By the way, you need to take your nap because you’re sick and you need your rest.” I guess the time will come when I can explain things to him in plain english, but he still won’t understand.

Boys. I swear.

I find a fatal flaw in the logic of love

Comments are fixed!

I don’t take James outside to play as much as I’d like. I guess I’m worried about allergies, bugs, dogs, other kids. It’s something I kind of need to work on. We’re already giving him claritin every night to combat the allergies. We don’t leave the house without bugspray lately (Because the skeeters would carry him away, no problem) but today I decided to buck the trend and take the camera outside with us.

I think he enjoyed the time outside. I know I did. It was beautiful. Breezy, warm, calm. I really like our neighborhood.

I fiddled around with some settings on the camera, finally decided on a setting called “Foliage”.  I think it came out pretty well. I like the emphasis on the other colours, the clarity of the texture.

Enough talking about cameras.

I’ve been living in TX for over three years now and I still have met next to no one. With the exception of people I’ve met with work and rob’s family, I don’t actually know anybody.  I have a friend at work who introduced me into her circle of friends, it was going well until they discovered I was not only married, but also somebody’s mother. As soon as that cat was out of the bag, there was a shift. It was so slight that my friend is still not convinced it happened. Other mothers might know what I am talking about. None of them are married or parents, let alone both. Suddenly I’d become a wet blanket without even trying.  There is a MOPS group that meets locally every other wednesday but I usually have to work. I feel a little stuck in my situation. I’m happy with my marriage, I’m totally in love with being a mother, but I feel lonely.  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t trying to meet other mothers by blogging again.

I’m looking forward to the possibility of visiting Canada this summer. I would like to see my family and my friends. However, again, my life is in such a different track than the lives of my friends so I find relating to non-parents increasingly difficult. I feel like I have nothing to talk about with people that a) are not parents or b) are not on a diet.  I’ve developed a couple of deep and meaningful friendships over the internet but I miss being able to laugh with my friends without having to type “LOL”

Sometimes I still wish I could be a stay at home mom. That’s what I always wanted to do when I was younger. A boy I went to elementary school with still recalls me saying that I wanted to be a mom when I grew up “with such conviction” and he asked me how it felt to be living my childhood dream. It’s good. A little different than I’d planned. As far as staying home goes, life happens, and life can be expensive. We rely on my paltry little paycheck more than I’d like to admit.  It does break my heart a little but what can I do?

Today we finally were able to give James the Easter basket we had put together for him.

A stuffed bunny and some eggs filled with toys.  No candy!

Then James went for a walk with his daddy.

I want to take James to the beach this weekend.

Does anyone know a good place to meet moms?

I hope my writing gets better.

I watched Oprah today and saw Matt and Maddy’s appearance.  I cried.  But, every time ASPCA or something to do with starving children appears on tv I HAVE to change the channel or I’ll start weeping. I’m an emotional person. I need emotional connections. Maybe if I had people to connect with (outside the immediate family) I wouldn’t well up over every single tug at my heartstrings.

the wanting comes in waves

I recently bit the bullet and got a “mom” haircut. My hair was long. It was very long.

(hint: The reflection)

Between work and having a toddler I just didn’t have the time to give it the care and attention it needed.

So I lopped it all off.

I went to a department store salon and before I could even get the words “save to donate” out, she hacked off my ponytail and got to work. I did not want to leave her a tip, but I did.

I made a little Easter cake for Rob and I, and some cupcakes for my coworkers (Just what every bakery employee wants, a cupcake). They turned out pretty cute.

Our wall is not yellow. I photoshopped it (poorly) to add a smidge of sassiness. I think it worked like a charm.
What we have here is a yellow cake with chocolate buttercream icing. Topped with some sweetened, tinted coconut, and various bits of easter candy. It’s an Easter basket!!!!

I’ve been wanting to get better with my photography efforts. It’s going to be difficult for a number of reasons. 1) I don’t know a thing about most manual functions. 2) Our camera sucks. 3) Our camera is broken (drains batteries far too quickly for trial and error). 4) The lighting in our house sucks pretty much across the board.  These food photos came out surprisingly well considering how I took them. Our kitchen lighting sucks hard. So I decided to go get the table lamp out of the spare bedroom. I took off the shade, turned on the lamp, and held it out of the frame so I would have lots of lighting without using flash.  Rob thought this was hilarious. I would have thought it was hilarious.

I’d been wanting a Holga camera for my birthday (05/24) but now I’d pretty much take anything that works properly. (Or a nikon d40… whatever..)

Happy Easter everybody! I’m gonna run to the store and get me a diet soda!!!

Are you reading this?

Hootie hoo?

Two fists of solid rock.

I used to use this account as a pregnancy blog. It occurred to me sometime in the second trimester that I wasn’t a very good writer and between work, sleep, and eating everything in sight, I abandoned the notion that I would ever be a successful blogger.

I guess I’m trying again.

For a while now I’ve been keeping a diet blog over at 3fatchicks.com

At some point perhaps these two blogs will merge.

It’s 12:38am the saturday before Easter Sunday. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t considering bringing home a diet soda from work tomorrow (today?) to crack open at midnight. Rob and I gave up soda for Lent. I’m not even catholic.  I’ve probably been dehydrated for the last 7 weeks. I hate the taste of regular water. I avoided substituting coffee for soda so as to not rear another addiction. Why can’t I be addicted to something healthy? Like celery. Bad example. I hate celery.

My inlaws (and Rob) are frustrated because as a wage slave in the food service industry, I always work the weekends and holidays.  As a result, I will not be out of work until the ungodly hour of 4:00pm on sunday and clearly my 14 month old son is going to be robbed of the important tradition of the egg hunt in aunt rosa’s backyard. It’s as if I’m doing it all on purpose.

My eyelids weigh 10 lbs each

—

We took James to the city Easter Egg Hunt thursday afternoon. There were hundreds of families there, some waiting patiently (most waiting impatiently) and right at 5:30, a parks and rec representative blew a whistle and suddenly all the parents were pushing their kids into their respective age corrals. My darling James is very shy. He immediately came back to his mommy’s safe arms. The rep informed the parents that we could indeed help our young children if necessary. I took James by the hand and we teetered out into the field. We came upon a clump of eggs and we made away with one of them (and only because another mother told her son to leave one for us)

I got what I wanted. I wanted one photo of him clutching an egg. He’s 14 months old. He doesn’t need candy anyway.

We were walking out of the corral when another mother stopped us and told her daughter to give James some eggs. She explained to me that last year, she didn’t get any eggs and another woman had stopped and offered her daughter some so she wanted to do the same should the opportunity arise. I’ll have to look in other baskets next year. If James overcomes his shyness, that is.

We then patiently waited in line to take a picture with The Easter Bunny (a parks/rec employee who drew the short straw) and I was anxious because James had already exhibited signs of social anxiety and a giant bunny was probably not going to help. Thankfully this bunny was much cuter than the one at the mall, and waiting in line, we had a good long time to point and stare. We even got somewhat of a smile out of him!

Charming.

On our way back to the parking lot, we encountered the Chick Fil A cow. I guess CFA never misses a chance to advertise. Once again, James had no trouble approaching the giant animal. I think he watches The Wonderpets too much. I told him to give the cow a high five and he obliged willingly.

I’m not going to stay with this blog title, but it had to be something other than “Ash’s baby blog”

although, it may as well have stayed that way. Motherhood= life

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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