friends

it still takes a village

February 18, 2016 by Rachel 1 Comment

I thought I could do it. I mean, I’ve dealt with a newborn before, right? Wrong. Oh, so wrong.

Thankfully, I had Chad home for two weeks to help with the transition of our family of three to four. And then when he went back to work, my mom came up from Kentucky to stay with us for a week. And then when she left, my dad came up for three days. And then he left and my world came crashing down.

Truth be told, it’s been unravelling for a while, I’m certain. But I’ve had this idea that I am adjusting much more easily because this isn’t my first rodeo.

And then it all came to a head yesterday.

Remy has been screaming nonstop. We think it’s colic. Hooray…. somehow we’re ‘blessed’ with two colicky babies. Isn’t that, like, illegal? It should be. In addition, Ari is being less than cooperative at most moments; so I feel as if every interaction I have with him is telling him “no” and putting him in a time out.

I thought getting back into work would help me; but I got wiped out. I thought I could do it all. I really did. But apparently my body and my mind just aren’t ready yet.

Thankfully, I have my village.

I have my incredibly understanding and supportive husband. And my parents. And a very awesome group of Mommy friends. Because it really and truly takes a village. I talked about this after Ari was born, but it stands true for a second baby, too.

So thank you to my village. But my in-person village and my social media village. Both awesome. Both important. In the meantime, I’m going to refocus on getting the hang of this mom-of-two thing. And I’m going to focus on trying to get into a routine at home… with cleaning, cooking, naps, sleep, etc. That’s what we need right now, and that’s what I need right now.

Life Lately | January 2016

January 5, 2016 by Rachel 2 Comments

Life has been crazy busy lately. But we haven’t actually done anything lately. Seriously. Here’s the long + short of what we’ve been up to as of late:

Nesting. I’ve been mega-nesting as of late. Like, when I’m not nesting, and I’m trying to do something else productive (like sleep), I’m THINKING about nesting. It’s fantastic. But also, I’m not able to tackle the things I want to accomplish as quickly as I would like (because, belly). But I’ve successfully gotten a ton done.
Food, food, food. I’m not eating a lot (because, belly), but I’ve been eating well! And I’ve been keeping it down! Hooray! And, obviously, at this point I’m enjoying every second of it. And I’m not eating crappy like I did with Ari, either. I’m eating really delicious, mostly healthy foods!
My sister-in-law had an impromptu visit from Colorado last week and we ended up spending a really awesome 24-hours with her, including a trip out to our fave local Chinese spot for some dinner. It’s the little things in life, like food and family, that make life interesting! LOL!
My SIL visited! Well, I kinda let you know about that in the last bulletpoint, but leave me alone! LOL. But seriously, it was a great visit. She ended up getting stranded at Cleveland-Hopkins airport in an effort to get back to Denver from Florida, and she just decided to stay for a couple of days, sans kiddos! Moosh seriously loved every single second of having her here. He completely manipulated her time and attention – Ha! When he woke up and she wasn’t here, he said, “where’s my friend Ashy?” ♥

Fire trucks. Ari got to meet up with his friend Kayden (and my close friend Kristi) to see some fire trucks up-close and personal! In a “private showing,” of sorts, these kids climbed in and out of the fire trucks and even got to go on a quick ‘ride’ around the block! Moosh. was. ECSTATIC. Seriously. I’ve never seen this kid happier than riding in this fire truck.

Pregnancy. Guys, I’m over it. Like big time over it. I’m so over it that I can’t even put together a “pregnancy update” post. Cause here’s what’s new with this pregnancy:
- I’m about ready to pop. Nope, still not as big as I was with Ari; but more uncomfortable than I was with him pregnant at 41 weeks.
- My boobs leak everywhere, always. I think I’ve gone through an entire package of nursing pads before this child has even come. Having pumped nonstop for 12 months with Moosh, I feel awfully guilty that this colostrum cannot be ‘saved’ for Baby Girl.
- Heartburn. I had heartburn, like, twice when I was pregnant with Moosh. With this child I seem to have it all day every day. If you’ve never had heartburn it feels like your chest is on fire and you may vomit at any moment. Every burp you feel coming leaves you to wonder if it’s going to come back up. For me, it doesn’t seem to matter what I eat, when I eat, or how little I eat; I will have heartburn. Suuuuper.
- Lots of movement. I thought Moosh moved a lot in the womb; but that was nothing compared to what this girl is putting me through!
- Contractions. They are coming and going, infrequently. I’m nearly 38 weeks (Thursday), so it’s bound to happen eventually, right?? Only a couple of times have I actually thought “Oh, this might be it.” But nope.
Staying on the homefront. I’m too miserable and too uneasy to ‘go’ far from home. If it’s not Target, a trip to see Kristi, or the doctor, I’m not doing it. Sorry, friends! You can blame me for being antisocial, but to be honest, even if you were around me, you wouldn’t want to be. I’m just not fun. In fact, we skipped out on seeing my favorite comedian of all time, Tommy Johnagin, because I don’t really want to travel too far from home. I know. Lame.

Until this new baby comes, this will be our life. Nesting, resting, and staying close to home.

… and I wouldn’t have it any other way! ♥ ♥ ♥

Christmas 2015 // that’s a wrap!

December 30, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

Guys – my holiday hangover is still in full-force. … and I didn’t even partake in any ‘party’ festivities, so to speak! Ha! But seriously, something about celebrating Christmas leaves everyone in a post-Christmas lull. For me, it’s a mix between that and pregnancy exhaustion. But I’ll blame it on the holidays. 😉

Christmas Eve-Eve //

Well thanks to my ‘schedule clearing up,’ we were able to attend Chad’s families Christmas Eve-Eve party! Unfortunately, Chad was still working, so Ari and I went at it alone. And let me tell you… any shyness that Moosh use to have? it’s GONE. Big time. GONE. He was the life of the party… and he knew it. And he loved it! And for once, I didn’t have to chase him around, because he was a “big boy” enough to play semi-independently with the other kiddo!

Christmas Eve //

Chad worked Christmas Eve until about 3:30PM or so, so Ari and I met up with my friend Kristi and her kids at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

It was amazing to see Ari ‘ooh‘ and ‘ahh‘ over Kristi’s baby girl. He’s been around her since she was born, but he has never ever taken interest in any babies. Well, perhaps it’s because he’s finally come to terms with the fact that Baby Girl will be here before he knows it!

After that little playdate we honestly did nada! We had zero plans, so PJs at 5pm was absolutely in order. In fact, Ari and I may have actually been in PJs before Chad got home! Ha!

And we finally had our first experience with the “Santa is coming!” jitters! I know this is the first of many years to come, but it was so funny trying to get him to relax and go to bed knowing Santa was ‘looming’ around the corner! Eventually, we all fell asleep. [thank goodness!]

Christmas Day //

We woke up at about 7:30-8ish. I was exhausted, but totally excited to see the look on Ari’s face! He came downstairs slowly and exclaimed “Santa came!”

It took a while to open presents because he would rip the paper off the present and then he would beg us to open it and to start playing with it right away! Ha! So it was a process of “open this,” “no, we’ll play with that when we get through all the presents,” to “OK Ari next present.” Tear it open and repeat!

After assessing the Santa/presents situation, we tried to take a nap — Ha! That was a short-lived dream. 🙂 We ‘awoke’ to my father-in-laws visit with us to celebrate Christmas! We relaxed until it was time to go to dinner. See? We were doing a mega-ultra-relaxed Christmas celebration.

And a sorry to my Jewish friends, but we totally had plans to steal your Christmas and go to our favorite local Chinese restaurant. In our defense, though, I’m fairly certain that NONE of the people that were eating at this restaurant were Jewish; but the restaurant was very busy. We ate and ate and ate. Went home and played some more. A pretty perfect Christmas day!

December 26th //

We. slept. in! Thank goodness. We all needed it. And after breakfast, we took Moosh to Cafe O’Play for their 1-Year Anniversary celebration!

Chad, my father-in-law, Moosh, and I met up with Ari’s girlfriend, Veronique, and her mommy for a fun playdate! And they totally soaked up every second together!

And before we knew it, it was time to go home and all take a big family nap! We seriously did SO much of this over the holiday break. Naps, naps, naps. You would think we would all be extremely well-rested, but that’s definitely not the case!

Animal Attractions at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo // GIVEAWAY

December 3, 2015 by Rachel 2 Comments

With the warmer-than-average Fall, this Winter is going to hit us like a ton of bricks. Snow bricks, that is. Also? Snow bricks may have been something my pregnant mind said because I couldn’t think of the term “snow balls.” Yep. That happened.

Anyways…

This February 4th, 2016, between 6-9pm, in the depths of our Northeast Ohio Winter, The Cleveland Zoological Society will be hosting the 12th Annual Animal Attractions valentine’s event inside of the RainForest in the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo! That’s right — enjoy an adults-only event, complete with open bar + tasty eats from local restaurants — in a nice, 80 degree tropical climate. In Cleveland. In February! It sounds like a perfect evening to me!

Tickets for the event went on sale earlier this week and admission includes an open bar, wine tasting, up-close animal opportunities, presentations, and a sampling of foods from the following local restaurants:

AMP 150
Butcher & The Brewer
Cleveland Cupcake Company
Creekside Restaurant & Bar
Fresh Fork
Great Lakes Brewing Company
House of Blues Cleveland
Merwin’s Wharf
Tremont Tap House
Vitamix

I’m excited for an adults night out + to have the opportunity to explore the RainForest at an after hours event, all in support of the Cleveland Zoological Society! For those who aren’t aware, the Cleveland Zoological Society supports the zoo and the educational programs that the zoo offers! It’s a hugely important asset to our community and I’m honored to be supporting them!

Tickets for Zoo members are $60 each and for non-members they are $65. Attendees must be 21-years or older to attend.

But before you purchase tickets to this must-see Winter event, you have the chance to win a pair right here!

Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Entrants must have the intention of going [please only local entries] & will need to be 21 or older. Winner will be notified by email shortly after the giveaway ends.

And if you don’t win, there will be plenty of time to still purchase tickets here!

Disclosure: I was asked by the Cleveland Zoological Society to help promote Animal Attractions. In exchange, I will receive two complimentary tickets to the event. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.

Key to the Cure // Wrap Up

November 6, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

Before I get into this wrap up I wanted to very quickly give a shout out to one of my favorite local charities, Shoes and Clothes for Kids (SC4k). The mission of SC4K is to provide disadvantaged kids in Greater Cleveland with brand new shoes and clothing. What might surprise you is that two of their most requested items are socks and underwear. It’s so easy to take simple things like these for granted, but many kids in our community are wearing hand-me-downs, giveaways, throwaways – and some just go without.

To get people to think about this topic, they created a catchy video. Take a quick minute and check it out:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdgGqUKW9nA#t]

Right now they are running a crowdfunding campaign to help increase sock and underwear donations! Even better? They’ve received a challenge grant of up to $15k! That means your donation will be MATCHED!

If you are able, please consider donating to the campaign here.

Alright, so, a few weeks ago I had the privilege of attending another charity event, the Key To The Cure event at Saks Fifth Avenue at Beachwood Place! My girlfriend, Carli, and I decided to say buh-bye to our boys for the evening and head out for a night of fun.

Saks Fifth Avenue of Beachwood Place teams up with the Cleveland Clinic each year to host a shopping extravaganza! It’s a chance to give shoppers the opportunity to support women’s reproductive and breast research by offering a percentage of their sales go to the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center from October 15th to October 18th.

Guests were encouraged to purchase presale tickets to the event kickoff, which was the event we attended on October 15th, for $75 per person. Included in the event ticket was a $50 tax deductible write-off, a $25 Saks gift card, live entertainment, and food and drinks supplied by the amazing local talents from the Taste of Cleveland restaurants!

Carli and I arrived and were a tad bit overwhelmed at first. There was a LOT of food. Like, a lot. And, even though I knew I would be sick later, I wanted to eat all of it. We did a quick circle through Saks to check out all of the food offerings (duh. I’m pregnant), before diving in.

The food was amazing. Many of the offerings were from restaurants I have already been to; others I was experiencing for the first time (though we had meant to try them… that whole toddler thing keeps us home a lot as of late). Society Lounge provided cocktails for the evening (and I may have sipped on the most delicious Moscow Mule I’ve ever had), and wine was also provided for guests. I honestly can’t even remember who had the best food (but it was probably Lago).

Oh and I made sure to eat as many delicious donuts as my belly would hold, thanks to Peace, Love and Little Donuts. 🙂

At the end of the night, we waddled our way upstairs to the childrens department (because let’s be real — when a mom is given $25 bucks to spend, she chooses to spend it on her kids, not herself). I bought baby girl an adorable sleeper (that I would have normally never spent $25 on… let’s be real). So thank you, Key to the Cure, for the “free” $25!

Overall, it was an awesome night. I would love to experience the evening again, but this time not pregnant (Umm, HELLO Moscow Mules and see ya next year!)! If you missed it this year, keep an eye out for it October 2016! And see ya there!

weekend wrap up //

November 4, 2015 by Rachel 2 Comments

Hey look at me! I’m doing a wrap up of festivities that occurred just ONE week ago, instead of THREE weeks ago! Ha! #success

Thursday //

Technically, our ‘weekend’ started on Thursday with Trick or treat at the art museum. Or as Moosh calls it, the Art ‘Seum. Moosh loves the art museum! And he loves Halloween. So TWO of his fave things at the same time?? Genius!

<This year was a bit more chaotic than the previous year. There were more activities for kids and, what seemed like, a lot more kids in general. We bounced from activity to activity. But probably my favorite part was the sensory play that Moosh was totally NOT into. They had cooked spaghetti, but it was all different colors. And it had a little bit of water mixed in with it, so it was slimy like worms.

I tried to get Moosh to grab it, by reaching my own hands in. He visibly shuttered… and I died laughing. I couldn’t help it. It was such an ‘adult’ reaction.

Friday //

Besides dragging Ari to the hospital with me for my glucose test + rhogam shot, we did nothing. And we had a super chill Friday night, once Chad came home from a long week of work. He was on-call all week (and had been called out several times in the middle of the night), so spending a nice evening at home was just what we needed.

Saturday //

I woke up bright and early to get a jump on our day. Chad’s sister, who also happens to be my high school friend, had come into town from Denver (yes, all three of his sisters live in Denver!) to visit for the weekend. So I let the boys sleep in while I packed up the car.

Sidenote: Does anyone else feel like they pack up EVERYTHING they could POSSIBLY need in their car for the kids??!! This includes, but is not limited to, a change of clothes (complete outfit with underwear and socks), ‘busy’ activities, snacks, drinks, etc. Ha! Life of a parent!

I love the fact that all I had to do was wake the boys up and get Ari dressed while Chad got himself ready. Easy-peasy. Load everyone in the car and drive the hour+ for our visit!

Ari talked about “playing with his friends” the whole ride there. He’s been saying that about every kid his age lately. It’s the cutest. ♥

When we arrived Ari practically RAN into my friend Nikki’s house to play with his two cousins and Nikki’s two boys. What is it about another kids toys that is just way more fun than playing with ones own toys?? Ha.

The kids played while the parents caught up. After an hour or so we loaded up the cars and headed out for lunch. That’s right. Five kids, 3 of which are 3 and under. 4 Frazzled parents. Two grandparents. In a restaurant. Complete. CHAOS.

Lunch went as would be expected. The kids grew restless; the parents shoveled food in their mouths as quickly as possible. But we ate. And we survived.

Post-lunch we took the kids over to a local park to burn off all the energy they were holding in during lunch. And they played hard.

But, as per usual, Moosh refused to nap on the hour+ drive home. Sigh, kid, sigh… He just stared out the window like a zombie. Dead tired, refusing to nap.

Which, of course, made trick or treating Saturday night just super fun. I mean, he was SO looking forward to it. But we made it one block — ONE BLOCK — before calling it quits and heading home. Our Ninja Turtle was definitely exhausted.

But the houses we did hit up, he did great. He walked up, by himself, and said “Trick or Treat!” followed up by, “Ghee boo!” which is how he pronounces “Thank you.” Super proud Mama moment.

Aaaand then we went home to wrestle him to sleep. Fun times.

And then I forced Chad to watch a spooky movie with me. 🙂

Sunday //

I’m just gonna say it. I LOVE THE TIME CHANGE! I know, I know. Other parents hate it. But I actually slept til 8 (which is really 9) and went to Target by myself — because Chad and Ari were still sound asleep. !!!!!!! Yep. Love it.

Chad and I had a (mostly) chill day of just cleaning and grocery shopping. I napped with Ari (YEP. My kid even NAPPED during daylight savings. Hate me all you want.). We ate. We relaxed. Perfection.

Now, if only I could bottle up that extra sleep and extend it throughout this week! Ha!