Halloween. T-minus... holy cow it's soon!

Tomorrow night is a Halloween thing at the school. Brayden's costume isn't ready. Great, huh!? Aaah!! Brayden is going to be an owl, and possibly a wingless owl if I don't figure out a simple functionable way to make wings tonight. I'm an Indian. Get it? Owl and Indian. I know, it's totally cute. Kien and Ryan are Jedi. Ryan is really a Syth, not Jedi, but same-same in the scheme of things. Unless the "scheme of things" actually involve the force, and in that case the Jedi and Syth are complete opposites.

So Halloween is on Monday this year. I will always maintain my opinion that Halloween either needs to be moved to the last Saturday of October or that the day after Halloween should be a school holiday. Halloween is a kids play night. They should be allowed to get a sugar high until after bedtime, and to run wild with their friends and play the role that matches their superhero or vampire costume. Instead Kien will be making it home on time for his 7:15 bed time. Is that lame? I could let him fight the dark side of the force as late as he wants, and let him take (his first) a tardy on Tuesday. but will I?? Or CAN I?

Undecided and dilemma'ed-out,
Lyn

tgiF and FNMN

Here I am...sitting.... putting Brayden to sleep. I'll be sitting here for probably another 20 minutes. I know I totally asked for this when I kicked Dr.Ferber and all the other cry-it-out sleep training techniques to the curb. But I'm sticky, covered with green beans, and all I wanna do is shower. Then I wanna snuggle up to Kien for our [over two year old] tradition, Friday Night Movie Night. A couple years ago Ryan was working two jobs, one of which being a night job at a restaurant. It was during that time when it was just me and Kien to spend our time together. We'd go on dates to the restaurant up the road. We always went to Taco Tuesday at "daddy's work", we had a lot of Play Doh time, and we ALWAYS had Friday Night Movie Night. Kien wasn't allowed to watch tv on weeknights so I referred to Fridays as my "lazy mom" nights. I didn't care whether or not Kien ate a good dinner and I let him binge out on popcorn during the movie. Then we'd snuggle up on the huge couch that was in our rental at the time and watch any movie Kien picked. It was literally my heaven. I would usually fall asleep before the movie was done and I'd wake up at the end of a totally different movie and find Kien passed out next to me with popcorn kernels all over his pajamas. The tradition has always continued but evolved in various ways; daddy was able to join us once he stopped working nights. Then when I was pregnant with Brayden it was even more special because Kien would cuddle up to my belly and we'd enjoy our movie. Now I have to spend an hour putting Brayden to bed before I can join Kien. There HAVE been times when Brayden joined us for FNMN, but he doesn't go to sleep like normal and then his routine is squashed. I'll get in to detail about my crazy routine later, and talk about my miraculous sleep chart, which will probably make an appearance in my Etsy store as soon as I figure out how to professionalize it ;)

Well Brayden might finally be ready to go in his crib and I hear Yo Gabba Gabba theme music coming from the living room. Gonna shower and intervene on that PRONTO.

TGIF for FNMN,
Lyn

This picture is from FNMN two weeks ago when Brayden joined our party then stayed up until 11PM.

Fed too well at Casa de Campogan

Plate full of various meats(including lobster), bright green asparagus, cheese melting on the potato... Mouth watering right? Add the three handsome Campogan men and a picnic in the living room and we have the greatest dinner ever. My husband rocks. He'll rock even more if after I put Brayden to sleep I find a clean kitchen. I'm going to sleep well tonight <3

Loving on SUNDAY,
Lyn

Mommy's half-selfish {sat.ur.DAY}

Oh my goodness yesterday was a little bit crazy but a lot of bit fun. I woke up and took Brayden to Kona to get a birthday present for a party Kien was invited to that was at 2:00. I went straight from Kona to Alesia's baby shower. During which time I missed Kien's soccer game. Anyways I got home around 2:30 and Kien didn't seem to be feeling well and didn't want to go to the party :( being home ended up a blessing though since I had to get ready for my girls game night. Once a month a group of women get together for Bunco. My first time was last month and it was so much fun and themed as the 80's. 11 women decked out in 80s gear definitely was fun! Last night we wore our Halloween costumes and it was only 5 of us. Not enough for Bunco so we played black jack. I won! That makes it even BETTER! :) it was a lot of fun to sit around and chit-chat and BS and NOT have to get up to check on Brayden, have my boob sucked on, or referee between Kien and whoever he would be fighting with. I think these game nights save my sanity, and sanity makes a better mommy right? :)

Sane and Relaxed,
Lyn

P.S. this picture is my parents who went to a Disco themed party last night. How awesome are their costumes!? Love it!

TGiF

Well really Friday is almost over. There are 50 minutes until the craziest Saturday of the year.

Shopping for birthday present I forgot to that is needed for tomorrow.

Kien soccer game at 12:15 which I'm going to miss.

Baby Shower at 12:00.

Kid birthday party 2:00-5:00.

Ladies GAME NIGHT at 6:00.

Nervous about leaving Brayden tomorrow night.  My poor mommy's boy.

I am so excited for each event tomorrow but wish they weren't all on one day.

Falling asleep at my keyboard,
Lyn

P.S. Check out my ETSY shop!

my ETSY shop NOW OPEN

I am so excited!! More items will keep getting added over the next week. Visit. Share. Buy.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CreatedbyLyn

Open for Business,

Lyn

Ferber vs. Brayden night two

Screw Dr. Ferber and his sleep method. Brayden is MY baby.

All I have to do is make sure that Brayden gets one solid nap early enough in the day and bedtime is no problem. And of course he is going to want to eat for an hour straight at bed time, he is loading up so he can sleep for 11 hours without waking up hungry!

So what if I "have to" snuggle my baby for 10 extra minutes. They grow up and grow OUT of snuggles so fast, just let me enjoy the feel and smell of Brayden's head on my shoulder while I still can.

So *I* win this one!

Pleased with MY sleep method,
Lyn

MOMSUMER #1&2: Zerran and Macnut oil

The days of coughing up $180 to sit in a salon for two hours are long behind me. I will always treasure the times when I got to support the cosmetology industry but now I highly lack the resources necessary. Not having the time or money for my old ways, I box-died my hair. For the last month since resorting to such measures my hair has been DEAD. No matter how much conditioner I used, or how many different shampoos I've tried, my hair was gross. Picture a horses mane. Now picture what that horse is eating. Straw. My hair was the straw that a horse would drool over. Most days I didn't even want to touch my hair so I wrapped it in the messiest pile on my head and tied it with a hairband, which only increased breakage. I actually thought about chopping it all off or paying my hairstylist to deep condition it. Then the miracle products came in to my life.

One friend told me to try her "ZERRAN Initiate" deep cleaning shampoo and another friend also gave me a sample she received of Macadamia Natural Oil hair repair masque(and some Healing Repair Oil which I added a few drops of into the masque). I don't know exactly which product was the miracle or if it was a combination but my hair is SOFT! Like straighten it, touch it, don't wash it, soft. Ya.
http://www.macadamiahair.com/ and you can bet your bottom that these products will be on my list to Santa this year.

I loved the Moroccan Oil products until the deep conditioner masque didn't work for the straw on my head. It's always worked in the past, my hair just obviously is over it and trying to get out of that relationship.

http://www.zerran.com for the products like the shampoo I used.

Caressing my hair,
Lyn

Completed projects for today

Finished a baby shower present AND organized my hallway closet. The kitchen is an ignored mess but YAY ME for having something DONE :)

Feeling accomplished,
Lyn

Ferber vs. Brayden night 1

In the red corner, the big-personality almost-six-month old. In the blue corner, Ferber Sleep Method enforced by the weak-for-baby mommy.

The Ferber sleep method involves a modified "cry-it-out" plan where the baby is left alone for regulated, and increasingly longer, intervals of time until theoretically the baby soothes himself to sleep. Read the "Ferber vs Brayden" post to find out why I've had to resort to letting my precious baby cry :(

Quick recap of night one:
6:30 Bath
Lotion massage & jammies
6:50 Nurse
7:00 Bell rings on round one
7:10 Round two
7:21 Round Three
7:28 nurse
7:47 walking out of Brayden's room victorious.

initial put-down:
Lots of kisses and "good nights" as I lay him in his crib. I get out of sight.
He is fine for two minutes then starts to fuss.

First interval: 5 minutes
Then butt-pat and singing and kisses.

Second interval: 7 minutes. Brayden is really crying. This is hard and I have never before seen my timer on my phone tick the seconds and minutes by so slowly. More butt-pats and kisses and prying my hair out of his grip.

Third interval: 7 minutes. This time he one he has tears so I pick my sad baby up. Holding him isn't calming him down I figure he's hungry. Sure enough he gulps down and drains both sides.

He starts to drift off in my arms, startles a bit when I put him down but just looks around his crib and THE EYELIDS DROP!

Final bell rings at 7:47 as I am closing his bedroom door behind me and heading in to the shower.

11 hours and 13 minutes later I get my baby out of bed to feed him

Mommy: 1, Ferber:.5 (since I half-way followed the rules)

Tonight I have the PTSA meeting 6-7:00 so it'll be up to daddy to get the ball rolling. I'll report again tomorrow.

Rested up (or at least better than yesterday),
Lyn

iOS 5

Updated my iPhone.
It's neat. Exciting to get something that feels new. Annoying to have to learn something new. Lol.
No really it's neat so far.

http://www.apple.com/iPhone

Snazzy phone says g'nite,
Lyn

Rain Rain stay a while

The weeds in my ghetto-graveyard-wasteland of a yard have been handled to a pretty satisfyable level thanks to Ryan and our parents. So now its drizzling and I love it. I want it to cool off the heat that is quite uncalled for in mid-October that's killing any motivation I gather up. Turning my dead brown grass green is surely another perk I look forward to.

Loving on Rain and completely aware that "satisfyable" is not a real word,

Lyn

Ferber vs. Brayden

So. Tired. Zombie mom. Help. Coffee. I need to spike my coffee with cocaine. Totally kidding. Stay away from drugs.

Brayden has been a perfect night sleeper since he was two days old. He started with waking up every two hours. Then a few weeks later he would go to sleep entirely on his own and woke up every 3 hours. He then transitioned to waking up only once or twice at night. Suddenly when he was two months old he slept for a straight 12 hours one night. Then again the next night. After the third night of this I celebrated and bragged to everyone that would listen. To my sheer pleasure, he was a 7pm-7am sleeper.

So imagine my frustration when at 5 1/2 months old he decided to stay up til 3:30AM last night!!! He had the hardest time falling asleep and relaxing and wanted to be held but then wouldn't relax. It was just H E L L for both of Brayden's exhausted parents. Especially since I'm the bed-time Nazi.

We aren't the "cry it out" kind of parents but also won't be co-sleeping with him (did that with Kien and he was a-whole-nother form of difficult). We found a decent middle-ground in the Ferber Method (http://pediatrics.about.com/od/sleep/a/110_ferber_mthd.htm) but will still be altering it because I don't like the idea of Brayden crying so much.

Re-starting the new crazy-strict bedtime tonight and I'll report back. My first hurdle will be regulating Brayden's naps. He's going to want to sleep all day. So do I, but that's not an option in mommyhood.

Wish me luck,

Sleepless in Hawaii,
Lyn

The Frozen Pizza

A dinner staple in my house is the luxurious, glamourous, healthy... FROZEN PIZZA. At $9 each for a Digorno or Tombstone it was a pretty cheap meal for the three of us... until Kien started eating more than one piece, which was around the same time I was pregnant and basking in the fact that I was "eating for two". We suddenly required two pizzas which only left enough for Kien to have leftovers for lunch the next day. Do the math and we're up to $18 for dinner for three and lunch for one. That's $4.50 per "serving" (I mean real servings, not the puny amount listed on the package), YEEOUCH!

I am so glad that my eyes were opened to Kirkland's frozen pizzas (not the take-and-bake crap that always gets burned). At $10 for a four pack of frozen cheese pizzas you cannot go wrong. The greatest pizza topping ever is PESTO. Some pesto smeared all over the pizza and even some Aidells Chicken Sausage (any flavor) or Tyson grilled chicken breast and we've got a pizza straight from a chef's oven ;) Tonight it was just Kien and I at home for dinner so I made just one pizza with pesto. I buy a jar of pesto from Costco, which we use for anything and everything. Now to the point of this rambling: My Kirkland frozen pizza + pesto costs a whopping... $2.84. For the entire pizza. It only cost $1.42 per person for Kien and I to eat dinner tonight. !!!

Pesto adds Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Iron, Calcium, and Protein to the pizza. Be aware that it also adds quite a bit of saturated fats, but if you're eating a pizza I'm sure the saturated fats aren't your concern.

In all this talk about pesto and $savings, I haven't even mentioned how DELICIOUS the pizza actually is. The light crust tastes buttery. The cheese is a perfect flavorful blend. It is [by far] a favorite in my house!

Kien's shark attack BIRTHDAY BASH

 
It was over a month ago that my little big man turned five years old. He chose a SHARK themed birthday party. Well, he originally asked for Shark Boy and Lava girl but how was I supposed to decorate for that?! So when Kien said "sharks" I stuck with it and had a blast. His party was two days after my last day of work so I had to stick to a very tight budget. In other words-- NO budget for decorations. Now, understand that no decor was not an option for me or my style. That said, check out what I did for decor, mostly all made on the computer and by hand with supplies I already had! I'm so proud :)

I bought a few things for the goody-bags (bubbles, goggles, pencils), blow-up sharks, and balloons. The cake had white-chocolate shark fins swimming on the surface (OH YEAH I also bought a silicone shark-fin mold which I'll reuse for ice cubes the next time kids come over), and a shark-bite out of the cake.

 

"WARNING SHARK SIGHTED Keep Out" and "WARNING KIEN'S BIRTHDAY Proceed With Caution" signs were posted all over and the inflatable sharks were hung from the tent. I used the bottom of empty water jugs as bowls to be filled with goldfish, and glued a Styrofoam piece to the inside so I could stick my mini-signs in to it as a centerpiece.

 

And I can't leave out the paper mache shark pinata! I am very proud about my special* happy smiling shark! It was tough enough that all the kids got to take good whacks at it, and Christian the 8 year old got to really beat at it and was only stopped on time so Kien could finish it off.

Welcoming myself

I've been wanting to get started blogging for over a year but have been putting it off (like many other things I want to do) and I've officially kicked myself in the rear this time. My blog-theme ideas have changed so many times that I finally settled on a broad theme: ME. hehe. Adventures in REAL world mommyhood.

Now for the introduction nonsense: I'm a stay-home mom finally (I've been dreaming of this since I went back to work when my now five-year old turned one) with two little boys; Kien turned five in August and Brayden was born this past April. Of course I can't leave out my BIG boy, my lover man / husband, Ryan. I know it's corny to say but he really is my rock, and definitely as Kien says, "the King of our castle" (though we know it's the QUEEN who runs the kingdom).

I do enjoy cooking even though I often fall-back on frozen chicken nuggets thrown in the microwave then served with {so gourmet} canned corn. I like to try to be crafty, but my greatest skill is definitely with computer graphics.

Another thing I've been putting off is placing items in my ETSY shop, which I opened but haven't touched since I opened it. That will be up soon. Right? Yes.

We bought our first house in July 2010 and have a lot of work to do to it. I'll definitely be sharing all of that excitement, even though the biggest "mini-renovation" was the kitchen and it's pretty much complete for now (minus floor trim) and a paint switch-a-roo. Oh and I say "mini-renovation" because we can't afford any BIG ones, so it's all mini and DIY until we find oil in our backyard.

Anyway I'm going to go ahead and PUBLISH my first ever blog post and I totally predict that I'm going to be hooked to blogging.

Ready, set, go!

TTFN {Ta Ta For Now},
Lyn