Every Bite Counts

A few weeks ago, I turned 30. Ah, yes, the big 3-0. I am not, nor have I ever been the type to be sad on my birthday because I'm "old". I am actually very excited for my birthdays. I like the feeling that this day is somehow about me and only me (and dammit it should be about me), I like the cake and ice cream with the tiny colorful wax candles, and the hoopla of the chorus of waiters singing to me. I like that. But, most of all I like the feeling of newness. I like the thought that I'm about to embark on a new year, a new adventure, a new season of my life. So, here I am, a wife, a mother, a teacher, a 30 year old, venturing into this season of my life. My heart is full of desires and dreams that I hope to accomplish. I'm hoping I can leave behind the insecurities and regrets that my 20 year old self held on to so tightly.

My new mantra for my 30's is to Savor Each Bite, Make Every Bite Count. I don't know if it's because I'm a planner by nature or because I'm just crazy, but I am always looking for "what's next." Nevermind what I'm eating for breakfast, what's for dinner? Nevermind that I just graduated college, when am I getting married and having babies? I shovel these bites into my mouth without savoring it which leads me to being discontent and disappointed. This snowballs into feeling so disgusted with myself.  I just stuffed my face with all that I could and was still so unhappy with what I had in my tummy all because I want more on my next plate. So, I'm vowing to change that. I want to slow down and relish as many moments as I can. I want to appreciate that bite that is on my fork, now. I want to enjoy the season that I'm in, not anticipate the season that is yet to come.

As for my blog, I want to refocus my attention on food. Cooking, recipe testing, restaurant reviewing, and studying food photography. I love this blogworld and all the friendly people in it. Thank you to all of my loyal readers for sticking with me and reading what I have to say. I appreciate it.

Here's to 30. Here's to making every bite count.

Random Wednesday: Priorities

1. I'm giving up Facebook. My promise was to give it up for a week. I only failed once. I'm ashamed that my willpower is so weak that I HAD to check it. Did I find anything cool on my "give in check?" NO! Same ol' Like this picture because I want a puppy, Like this picture if you don't want to go to Hell, Like my picture because I went to the club this weekend and I'm showing my boobies. Wow, I am addicted to what now? Yeah, I'm definitely going to do this.

2. I have 5 drafts of unfinished posts in my Blogger. I write them during my lunch, on my phone, or when I'm on the loo, but I'm big on pictures and I can't upload pictures quickly at any of those times. I like to post lots of pictures because I like blogs with lots of pictures. I would rather gawk at pictures than read sometimes. I'm a first grader apparently.

3. Tonight, I will be making Pineapple Fried Rice, but with quinoa. All I can think about is that I'm going to hate it. I tried quinoa and I'm not a fan of the texture. I want to like it, mostly because I bought a big box of it and I don't want to waste it. If you have any recipes that I might fancy, please pass them to me.

4. Joaquin is starting to get a little too attatched to me. Sometimes he wants just me and only the warmth of my arms. I love it.

5. I really hope my dinner turns out edible.

6. I'm not posting pictures today. The first grader in me is crying.

Three Months with Baby Joaquin

My son is the cutest. Sometimes I just stare at him and smell his little face for hours. It smells like love...pure love. Why do babies smell so damn good? That's what I'd like to know.

Baby Joaquin is now 3 months old. They say that this is the end of his "4th trimester." Well, he might as well just move out to college now. He doesn't even need me anymore...::sniffle sniffle:: I feel like he's just growing so fast. I'm probably going to say that in every post, but it's so true. Time flies when you're having a good time, I guess.

I have to brag and say that Joaquin is the best baby. He has a cool dude type of personality, always chill to the max. He only cries when he wants food...just like mommy. He sleeps 6-7 hours at night, wakes up to eat, then falls back asleep....sounds like a good plan to me. I might keep some cookies by my bed for myself. He melts my heart with every smile....even when he throws up all over me at 4 in the morning. And he is just getting more adorable each minute of the day. I swear, every time he wakes up from his naps, The Cute Machine adds more cute to his tiny wittle face.

Ok, now for the not so cute stuff....his shit smells worse than ever. He drools all over my back before I go to work and I don't realize it until I see a dried up milk stain mid-way through the day.
He clawed me in the face...twice...today. And the weight of his hard head feels awesome when he slams it against my nose.

God, I love that kid. I would live this way everyday just to have him stay this small forever.

Really, I don't mind any of those things. Small price to pay for this amazing baby. The one thing I'm not loving this month is his baby eczema. His face is so dry, red, and cracked. I feel so bad when he rubs it as he tries to itch himself. Poor guy. I've been using Aveeno products, giving him short lukewarm baths every 2 days, and I keep it moisturized throughout the day.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

In other news, he had his first run in with a fountain. Little man is hooked. He loves this humongo fountain in Downtown LA! We are just having so much fun bringing him around.

 

 



As for myself, I'm doing good. Physically, I can fit into most of my pre-pregnancy pants. Just in time, too because I ripped the elastic off my maternity pants trying to pull them on. Whoops. I also found more stretch marks on my body that I never knew existed. Scary how those things just pop out of nowhere. I think I had them when my belly stretched but since I couldn't see anything passed my basketball of a belly, I never saw them.Those sneaky little suckers.

 Mentally, I feel pretty good, less stressed and a lot calmer. Ladies and Gents, the hormones have left the building. I'm even starting to shift my attention back to being a wife and a mother instead of just a mother. Hubby is glad that I'm not a complete biotch, 24/7. Sleep wise, I'm living off of coffee (My Keurig is my lover) and the lady at Starbucks greets me by name. Even though Joaquin only wakes up once, it is still so hard. I'm zombie-ing my way through my work day. I am still working hard for my students but honestly, it takes a lot more brain power to successfully teach a lesson. 5 more weeks until Spring Break. 5 more weeks until Spring Break.

I have my amazing son, my patient husband, my K-cup and Starbucks Gold card, and my health. I can definitely make it to Spring Break..... 5...more...weeks.

Two Months With Baby Joaquin

My little baby is a whole two months old this week. I can't believe it's already two months, but I can't believe it's only been two months. Know what I mean? Joaquin is growing so fast and when I say fast, I mean chubby. We have his two month check up this week so we'll see how many pounds he's packed on. I'm guessing he's around 13-15 pounds. He's a chunkers and I just love his jiggly legs that look like they have rubber bands all up and down them and his chubby cheeks that I can't stop kissing. He's eating a whopping 4 oz of breast milk or formula each feeding and any less he screams like...well, a baby.

 

Another fav of mine is hearing him coo and ahh throughout the day. Sometimes I'll even get a loud ahh like he's trying to establish his roar as a human being. Primetime for chats and smiles is morning time and it really takes the edge off of my zombie-mommy state. He is a better conversationalist than a lot of people I've encountered and I can just googoo and gaagaa with him all day! It literally melts my heart every time.

And the question on every one's mind, how is baby boy sleeping? I feel so blessed that he is slowly but surely sleeping longer stretches of time during the nights. Since Week 2, we tried establishing a bedtime routine. I knew he wouldn't follow it just yet, but I wanted to create it early on so that all three of us could get used to some kind of bedtime routine.

His Bedtime Routine: We feed him his dinner anywhere from 7:00-9:00 pm depending on when he's hungry. On some nights, we will give him a warm bath and a lotion/baby oil massage. Most of the time he digs his baths but there are certainly those times where he screams his head off, particularly when it's time to rinse his hair. Then, I swaddle him tightly and rock him to sleep in the rocking chair while Hubby reads a bedtime story. We put on the sound machine (Joaquin enjoys the "crashing waves" channel) and he'll either fall right to sleep or he'll wiggle like a worm for about a minute and then fall asleep. He'll wake up around 1:00 or 2:00 am to eat, fall right to sleep and wake up again at around 4:00 or 5:00 am to eat again and try to chat it up, then fall asleep. I don't give in to playing with him at that hour because one, I'm half asleep, and two, I don't want him to think it's play time. He'll sleep again until about 7:00 am and that's when our day officially begins. He's a good napper as well, which has allowed me to nap, clean, or blog during the day. I'm one lucky momma! ::knock on wood::

As for me, the first month was definitely trying and was filled with hormone imbalances, c-section recovery, the lack of sleep, and my battle with breastfeeding. I felt so guilty that I wasn't "loving it" like people expected me to....like I expected to. My mommy friends reassured me that what I  was feeling was normal. The Baby Blues came and went.

But I'm so excited to report that most of that has passed and I truly, wholeheartedly love it. I love my little baby boy to pieces and I just love being a mother. Sure, there is still the lack of sleep (oh, how I miss sleep!), the hormone imbalances (sorry, Hubby), and my battle with breastfeeding pumping, but when I see my little Joaquin smile at me, my heart just melts to the floor. The good moments with my son outweigh the bad. I don't even mind poopy diapers...that has to say something!

As for my body, I am amazed at how resilient it truly is. I mean, don't get me wrong, I still have a few stretch marks, a very ugly c-section scar, and flab in some places I've never had before, but for the most part I am back to normal. My pre-pregnancy weight was about 130 lbs and while I was pregnant, I ate everything in sight and swelled so much from the summer heat that I gained 50+ lbs putting me at about 180 lbs. Right now, I am down to 145 lbs thanks to breastfeeding, my mother's genes, and not having much of an appetite. I've taken a few walks and plan to start some strength training soon. I don't care about losing all the weight, but I want to be fit and strong.

Before. During. After

     

Overall, things are amazing. My son is amazing. My husband is amazing. My dog is amazing. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

Liebster Blog Award

So, I won a little award. Deidre Ann from Nowhere to Be & Forever to Get There so kindly gave one to lil' ol' me. Thanks Deidre!

This award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers (yup, that's me) and in my opinion is a way to get to know bloggers a little bit more. I like these "tell me about yourself" type posts. I learn something new each time, both about myself and about others. It's fun!

The rules are:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you.
3. Create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.

4. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.

5. Go to their page and tell them.

6. No tag backs!

I'm going to try and write things that are random as hell. I'll regret this around fact 5 when I can't think of anymore...

Without further ado...

#1- When I was born my mom almost named me Liesl, as in "My name is Liesl, I'm 16 years old and I don't need a governess!" I love that movie.

.via.

#2- People like to nickname me. Growing up I was called "Sunshine" because I was smiling all the time. In High School, I was "MoJo Potatoes" and in college, I was "JoMo" which combined the letters from my first and last name.


.via.

#3- More often than not, I have a Christmas song stuck in my head. Jingle Bells is my personal fav.

#4- My baby will be Sergio's grandmother's 38th great grandchild.

#5- When I was in first grade, I hit my head on the edge of a glass table. Stitches RULE!

#6- I can't swim. I am deathly afraid to try and I feel like an idiot every time someone questions me about it.

.via.

#7- When I took my pregnancy test at the doctor's office, the nurse thought I was a pregnant teenager and treated me like shit. She even asked me where my mother was. When she finally pulled up my file and saw that I was 29, she instantly wanted to be nice and talk up a storm. Doesn't work that way, freak.

#8- Even though I do not wear a lot of makeup, I am OBSESSED with Makeup tutorials on YouTube.



#9- Even though I am not into Astrology, I am a quintessential Cancer. Crabby, stubborn, hides in my shell, holds a grudge.....geez, I need to work on myself.

#10- I never thought I'd say this, but I miss being able to run. I was a baby runner before I got knocked up and I can't wait to get my body back so I can start up again.

#11- I have a crazy person habit of giving feelings to inanimate objects. If I know I haven't used...say... a certain bowl for a long time, I'll think that it's sad so I'll use it. Yes, crazy person habit.

Whew...that was hard!

Ok now for Deidre's questions...

1. Why did you name your blog what you named it?

Refer to #2 above. It's a cute play on words. At least I think it is.

2. If you could trade lives with any celebrity for a day who would it be and why?

Kate Middleton. She's so pretty and poised and she looks like she lives a cushy life.

3. What is your go to website when you are bored?

YouTube

4. If you could have picked your name when you were born would you keep it what it is or would it be different?

I like my name.

5. Why did you start blogging?

It was a hard time in my life...Here is my post about it.

6. What was the first job you ever had?

Hello Kitty store in my mall

7. Who and where was your first kiss?

My first boyfriend, outside my parents' house (Sorry, Mom and Dad)

8. If you could make one wish for the future generation what would it be?

I would wish for them to have a good education.

9. If you were an Olympic athlete what event would you want to partake in?

Gymnastics!

10. One thing you would never ever do, not even for a million dollars?

Cheat on my husband.

11. Your dream job.

Restaurant owner

 

The Ladies I nominate

Christine @ Bookishly Boisterous

Allison @ A Little Blueberry

Ellie @ Fit for the Soul

Tessa @ My Little Nugget Life

Jenna @ The Three Little Birdies

Jamie @ Thirty and Thriving

Jessica @ You and I

Kate @ Awaiting Baby O'Brien

Angie @ Keith&Angie

Erikka @ Lil Babe Henretta

Alice @ Little Llama

 

My questions for you!

1. What was the first blog you read?

2. If you could live in any country, which would it be and why?

3. What is one food you HATE?

4. If you could be friends with one celebrity, who would it be and why?

5. What was your favorite childhood snack?

6. Who was your favorite teacher and why?

7. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

8. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

9. What movie could you watch over and over?

10. How many times in your life have you helped a complete stranger?

11. How many times in your life has a complete stranger helped you?

Have fun ladies!