Mom and My Million Dollar (semi-creepy) Idea

(This blog needs to be read in your best infomercial voice)

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Are you tired of people mistaking your little girl for a little boy?
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The bell of the ball!
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What do you think? do we have a million dollar idea or what?

Oy Vey

Busy, busy, busy! Sorry for the lack of posts, but work and life are full and I don't have a lot of extra time... I'll try and write more later. But for now enjoy a supper cute picture of Mallory in her Tigger door boucer thing.

Me

One of the biggest things that I am struggling with at the moment is learning how to juggle being a mom, a wife, a vet, a daughter, a friend.... while at the same time remembering how to just be ME. Does that make sense? I have always been a gal who enjoyed time on my own. I could spend hours reading, going to the gym, out hiking, doing arts and crafts.... all the while not having to even talk to anyone! Even when Matthew and I were dating, there were times that he would want to hang out, and I would just want to be by myself. So it's really strange now to feel like I have to be here/there for this tiny little person that we created. Not that I am complaining about it, I LOVE motherhood... I just miss me a little. Geez, that sounds so selfish. It's funny because when I think about it, it would seem like I would get my me time by being at work... no baby, no Matthew, no house work..., but here I am always dealing with other peoples problems, emotional breakdowns, emergency's and deaths that there isn't even time for me to even just enjoy breathing. This is all normal, right?

All Too Quickly...

The other day my little family was hanging out with Brie and her kids at the park by our house. It was so lovely! Bries daughter is 2, and just about the cutest little thing.... but she IS defiantly 2! And according to Brie has started to assert her 2 year old self. Brie does a really great job letting Addison be 2, yet at the same time reminding her that she's the mom and the one in charge. It's really fun now to watch parents be parents. I find myself constantly watching, in aw, silently taking notes of all the things that I will someday need to be doing. That was the thought that made it all so real...despite the fact that Mallory was sleeping so quietly and peaceful in the stroller it was easy to imagine that someday (in the pretty near future) she and I are going to be going through the same sort of struggle... (and if she takes after either of her parents she is going to have a stubborn streak that runs deep). She one day will have a voice. She one day will have an opinion. And she one day be able to TELL me just how she feels and just what she thinks. Wow! That's a frightening thought. I'm not ready for that to happen yet! I feel as though I wish I could stop time, like I need to relish THIS period in her life, because I now realize just how quickly she seems to be growing up! All too quickly there will come a time when she doesn't want to snuggle on my lap, or let me dress her up or pose for cute mommy/daughter pictures. Sigh!

 

Growing Girl

At her Dr. appointment on Thursday we got the stats on little miss Mallory. She weighed 15 pounds 2 ounces and was in the 85%. She finally getting to be the tall girl that I'm sure she'll be, because her height was 25 inches and has jumped up to the 82% (from the 45% back 2 months ago). She still has a little peanut head, even though it did grow a little, she is now in the 27% (she had been only in the 18% before). Not that any of these stats really matter, it's just fun to watch her grow and change.

Ahhhh Perfection!

I know that every mom has 'Mommy Glasses' but I am pretty sure that we have been blessed with one of the worlds best babies! She is such a happy little camper, always smiling and talking about her day in cute coos and hilarious high pitch screeches, all the while smiling and looking around to see who is paying attention! And have I mentioned that no matter how much/long she sleeps during the day, she never seems to have a problem sleeping at night... and more then half the time she sleeps through the night! Yesterday she had her 4 month Dr. appointment and she was such a good girl, she didn't even cry for her shots! Honest! The first one she ignored completely because she was too busy smiling at me, and for the second one she scrunched up her face and grunted, then was over that one too! I'm telling you, (for now) she's just about perfect!

The Great Food Adventure

From the moment that Mallory was born I have been excited about feeding her, whether it was breast milk, pumped milk or dipping her pacifier into the random liquids I was drinking. Now that she is 4 months old we get to start introducing solid foods. And by solid foods, I mean mushed up paste-like food with breast milk added to make it more like liquid. (How is that solid food????) :) ANY WAY. I LOVE the faces that babies make when they are eating foods that they love/hate or have just tried for the first time... I just think it's so cute (I know what you are thinking, 'cute until I get it spat all over my face). True. In my perfect little world I am doing to make and freeze as much of Mallory's food as possible (for now). Not only is it more healthy, but it's way cheaper! So after talking with people and doing a boat-load of reading about how to make home made baby food, I have learned that Avocado is one of the best first foods... who knew?!?! And its way easy to prepare! So the other night we started the great solid food adventure! Mallory LOVED the avocado and would get mad if it didn't go into her mouth fast enough. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, she is a Klein after all. I was a little disappointed though because she never once made the funny faces that I was looking forward to. Oh well, maybe she'll do with the next food we try.
What a big girl she's becoming!

Sonoma County Beauty

These are a few of the beautiful sunrises that I am blessed enough to see each morning as I take Mallory to my moms!

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!!!

Little Mallory went as a Monkey for her first Halloween.... yes she has a flower in her hair (because people thought that she was a boy without it in). :) I do have to say that she is just about the cutest little monkey ever! So it only made sense that I would dress up like a Monkey Farmer... right? (Hey, it was the best I could do with what was in my closet).
We had a really fun Halloween. Mallory was dressed up all day (which I loved, and she didn't really care about. As long as she could get her fists in her mouth she was happy). We had to do a little running around in the afternoon, so we got to take our little monkey around with us! While we were out we found a pumpkin patch! Ok, Ok, Ok, you caught me! I was a horrible mom and didn't REALLY take her to a REAL pumpkin patch! It was the piled up pumpkins in front of Lucky's! Sigh! (Head hung low in shame). We were just sooooo busy that we never made it there (since I'm confessing things, I hate to say it, but we didn't even carve a pumpkin). Not that she noticed. While in Lucky's, Mallory did her first round of Trick-or-Treating! And would you look at that, she just so happened to grab her mommas favorite! What a nice baby! :)


That evening almost all of her grandparents came by the house to see her little Monkey-self go around our little court and Trick-or-treat. It was pretty cute. Everyone loved her! (shocker). After her big day she sat on the couch with us, watched the Giants game and passed out candy. What a day!

I Was Runnin (said in a Forest Gump voice)

I did it! On Saturday Carrie (my cousin) and I ran a 1/2 marathon! That's right 13.1 miles baby! I know, most of you are saying, 'hey, I didn't even know you were training for a 1/2 marathon.' To be honest I didn't really know I was either, until about 4 weeks ago. That's when Carrie came up to me and said, "your back to running again, right?" I told her I was (though I was only running 3-4 miles at that point), so she asked if I wanted to run in a 1/2 marathon. I have ALWAYS wanted to, but never had anyone to do it with, so I excitedly said "yes"! That's when I found out that that the race was only 4 weeks away!!!! Yikes! My life is so busy/crazy/hectic that I knew I wasn't going to have the time to properly train, so I wasn't really sure if I could even really do it. So I guess I didn't tell everyone because the competitive side of me didn't want to fail! But I did it! WE did it! I am soooooo proud of us! It was lots and lots of fun! Sweaty, hot, cold, aching, blister-filled fun!!!! Thank you Carrie for being the motivating factor behind getting me to run! The race was in beautiful Healdsburg, where we got to enjoy the most beautiful scenery as we ran alongside vineyards AND it didn't rain! What a blessing!


We started at 7:30am and we finished in 2 hours and 17 minutes! We finished about 1/3 in the pack of runners (there were a little over 2000 people). We ran about a 10 minute mile and didn't ever even stop! We are going to do another on in January! I'm supper excited about it! Finishing was such a high! It made me feel so good! My body was a little sore/stiff that night, but well worth it and I feel GREAT! It love feeling like this, like even though I just had a baby 3 1/2 months ago my body and mind can still do these really active/dificult things! I told Carrie that maybe after baby #2 we should do a full marathon! (But I think I'll have to actually train for that one)! :)




Post race we HAD to do a little wine tasting... I mean those are the perks of living in Sonoma County, right?

Go Giants

Last night Matthew, Mallory and I went over to my folks to watch the Giants game and eat some pizza (cheese less of course). :) Mallory really enjoyed watching the game, until she got distracted by her little doll. She actually watched the game up until the end of the 8th inning... then she got bored once all the walks happened and fell fast asleep! Go Giants !

I Give Up!

Ok. that's it. I give up! Theres no use fighting it any more! I tried and tried and now I'm exhausted... theres no way around it... the color pink is here to stay! Sigh! Prior to Mallory being born, I swore up and down that if our little one was a girl there would be NO pink! Lord knows I tried to stick to my word, but then pink colored gifts were given, pink hand-me-down outfits were loaned, and to be perfectly honest, we were blessed with a little girl with olive skin who happens to look stunning in pink. Sigh! So that's it, I'm done fighting a this losing battle! I'm reforming my thoughts, so now instead of 'NO pink', I will be thinking, 'I don't like pink on me, but my baby daughter is really cute in ever color... pink included.' SIGH!

Keep on Rollin'

This post is dedicated to Carrie who LOVES to hear about babies rolling over (yes that is sarcasm dripping from my voice)…
Little Miss Mallory is SUCH a tease! For the past week Matthew and I have waited with baited breath as Mallory pushes/kicks/arches to try and roll herself over! Its been really cute to watch. The video camera and regular camera have been sitting out on the coffee table for the blessed event. I think that there are currently 4 recording of her ‘almost’ rolling over. Last night she was really rockin’ and rollin’ from side to side (mainly to the right) while on her gym. Matthew, Sonny, Krush and I were all perched around her, laughing as she would ALMOST roll over, then darn gravity would take over and she would tumble back onto her back. She was getting so frustrated and fussy we thought that maybe she was just getting hungry… it was almost bed time after all. So we turned off the video camera and walked into the kitchen. I sear, we were in there for MAYBE 5 seconds, when we walked back to her she had turned over!!!! What a tease!!! She seems to have a 3 step process…
1) She tucks her legs up
2) Rolls to the (right) side
a. Gets stuck on her shoulder… or
3) Rolls all the way over!!!
What a big girl, she is growing up way too fast! She’s going to be running around in no time! Sigh!

Back Bangs

One of my favorite things about becoming a mom has actually been watching Matthew be come a dad. I know it may sound strange, but there is something truly magical about watching Matthew (a not-so-delicate, rugby-playing, beer-drinking, flannel-wearing MAN) turn into a sweet, quiet, snuggling father who picks out cute dresses and outfits to put Mallory in. It puts a smile on my face watching the two of them. Mallory LOVES her daddy! Noone puts a smile on her face like he does. She just lights up whenever he talks to her. I have to admit I'm a little jealous at times.
Mallory has started to lose her hair in a little semicircle around the back of her head, which has left a nice full patch of hair under it. So the other day Matthew was looking at her (as I was brushing her hair after a bath) and he said... "So what are we going to do with her back bangs?" And it's true, her full hair on the back of her head looks just like bangs... so now when we get her ready to go somewhere we make sure to pay special attention to her back bangs too!

Ladys Night

Oh yeah baby! Last night Liz and I went out on a date! No, not with our hubbies, but with each other! It was so fun to leave each of our little ones with or loving husbands and enjoy a night out on our own! It was great! I drove to her house and as I was walking up to her door, she was practically running out of it! We were both giggling like little school girls who where sneaking out... not that I would EVER have done that! ;) Liz and I both LOVE Italian food, so we went to a place in Windsor, where we had a lovely window seat and enjoyed an appetiser, wine (well, I did) and a nummy dinner. Think Lady and the Tramp, but without the pushing of the meatball with our nose. We then hit up the candy store next door and stocked up on sugary goodness for the movie. (Not that I'm saying we snuck candy into the theater)... Oops!
We went and saw Life As We Know It. It was a total chick-flick. Cute and predictable, like ever good chick-flick should be. Both Liz and I cried, laughed, cried some more and laughed again. There were some really clever parts!
So needless to say the date seemed to be a success, and if I'm lucky she'll want to go out with me again! :)
Thanks for the fun night Liz!

Sac Trip

So like I said before, last weekend the three of us went to visit Russell (Matthews older brother) in Sac. We were just there Sat-Sun, but it was really fun and felt like we were there longer... probably because it was so nice to break up our typical Sonoma County routine! On Saturday night Russell took us all out to a place called "The Shady Lady". It's a bar (that serves food, so Mallory was allowed in). It was a neat place, all the worker and the decor looked like it was back in the 1920's. So fun. The drinks were yummy too! There was another baby in the bar, a cute 6 month old little boy wearing a golf cap. I swear he and Mallory were making eyes at each other... or was that just the milk talking?



This was Mallory's first overnight trip, and she did pretty darn well! She just slept in the pack-n-play, but woke up at 3:30 and was hungry. Sunday morning after a nice walk to the grocery store (Man, do I miss The Nugget), we went with Russell to his soccer game (It ending up as a tie game... the other team scored with just 2 minutes to go).





Jeralyn met us out at the field. It was wonderful to see her, and watch her and her boyfriend John interact with Mallory. So cute! I miss Jeralyn so much, and I keep thinking at since we are only 2 hours away from each other we really should be able to see each other more often... but each of our lives are so hectic that it's only about ever 4-6 months that we actually get together. Sad. Maybe that'll change once both of our lives settles down (hahaha)!

What a Morning!

This morning as I was sitting on the couch feeding Mallory and I was watching Krush (our cat) go slinking across the floor, behind the chair. I thought that he was just being neurotic, when all of a sudden a large bird (I think it was a Nuttall's Woodpecker) flew out from behind the chair. Krush went zipping after it, followed by Sonny who was whining and barking at this uninvited guest. I sat there watching this whole thing and I couldn’t help but laugh as I started singing the “there was an old woman who swallowed a fly…” song to my little baby. Mallory was a trooper, and didn’t get too distracted.
The funny part came when I tromped around the house trying to catch the wild bird. I swear, between Krush, Sonny and me we had that poor bird fighting for its little life. It flew on to the fan, so I turned it on, thinking it would fly off. Nope! So I was there, standing in the middle of our coffee table trying to scare the bird down, while at the same time telling Mallory that standing on the furniture is not allowed and mommy is just being silly. Mallory sat there cooing and smiling as she watched the entire circus act. Finally the bird flew behind the microwave and I was able to throw a towel over it and let it go outside. Miraculously I made it to my mom’s to drop Mallory off and was still 10 minutes early to work! Wahoo, what a morning!

Nick-Names

This weekend my good friend Jeralyn met Mallory for the first time (I'll write more about that as soon as I get the pictures uploaded). She asked me what nick-names I call her... to MOST people a nick-name is some shorted version of a name but for those of you who have ever payed attention to what I call things, you will know that to me a nick-name is a elongated version of your name. I don't know why I do it, I just do. Rarely do I actually shorten a name, adding to it is much more fun. Here are a few examples: Matthew= Matthew-Man, Sonny= Sonny-bear, Krush= Krushtapher, Janie= Janie-Baker, Brie= Brie-silent-anna, Jeralyn= Miss Jeralyn... you get the point. It's fun... to me at least!
So it was cute that Jeralyn knows me well enough to know that I wouldn't JUST call Mallory, Mallory. The three nick-names that naturally come out of my mouth are; Mallory Rose, My Little Love Bug and Bright Eyes. Sometimes she even gets Stinky-Pant-McGee or Cranky-Pants-McGee, if the situation calls for it! :)

Wedding Day

This past Saturday Kristen Klein (Matthews cousin) got married! It was such a beautiful wedding and a great party! Kristen was a stunningly beautiful bride, and lit up the room! It was fun to watch Tony (the groom) looking all nervous as he stood in the front of the church, then finally relax as soon as his bride was by his side. The wedding was in San Francisco and almost the entire Klein family was there. They are such a wonderful and fun group of people.... and ALWAYS are the life of the party. Mallory apparently is no different! She got to meet, mingle, and snuggle with all sorts of relatives (some that she had yet to meet)! She was such a good little girl, never got fussy, and seemed to love the music/dancing and colors! Genetics are pretty amazing, because as Matthew and I were looking at Mallory, with her tan/olive skin, and large but deep set eyes we realized how much she looks like Kristen! I swear, It's like I was looking at a little Kristen... or maybe I just carried Kristen's baby for her! It is strange and amazing to see the different familial features come out everyday.

We all danced the night away. I had forgotten how much fun it was to dance! Especially now that I don't have to worry about peeing on myself.... sorry that was probably too much information, huh? Dancing is such a great work out too, my calf's were screaming by the end of the night! Ooh feel the burn! We didn't get home until around 1 am, but it was worth it, I had such a wonderful time. Congratulations Kristen and Tony! We love you guys!!!!

Somebody Slap Me!

Ok, to all the ladies out there, I think that you all will totally relate to what I'm talking about. (Heck and maybe some of you men too...) You know when you just can't get out of your own head? I mean, no matter what someone/anyone says you are there, in your head, over-thing everything????? I know it's just not me... right? For example, this has been happening A LOT since I've been back at work... I go into a room to see a patient, and the client has found out that I have just had a baby (either from the receptionist, or the tech, or they had seen me before)... with out fail the client will say something to the effect of "Wow, you look great!" So no there I am thinking to myself 'do they mean wow I look great...PERIOD, or wow I look great...considering I just having a baby, but if I hadn't just had a baby they would be thinking that I look like I need to be spending more time at the gym...you know some more squats, a few more tricep dips and a handful more sit-ups wouldn't hurt... oh and while you're at it add a few more miles to that run your doing...'
So there I am KNOWING that they are probably being really, really sweet, but paying me a genuine complement... but there's that crazy woman inside of me that just can't stop OVER thinking it all.
One client actually said that 'you look great for having a 2 month old'... so nice, right? Well all I could think was, 'what if I had told you I have a 2 year old... would I STILL look 'great'?' As I am typing this I sort of want to slap myself for being so silly... but I'm just trying to be honest about it all (the whole pre/post baby experience).
I know it's silly, but there are times when I can't seem to get out of my own head. So my goal for the rest of this week (and hopefully forever) is to just realize that a compliment is a compliment and I don't have to analyze it! Maybe you can all help me be accountable for this goal... please! :)