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Bahama Mama!

I spent a lovely long weekend in Nassau celebrating a childhood friend’s tropical wedding.  Her groom is from Nassau so different events were hosted at various family member’s homes and the ceremony and reception were at a swanky/hostorical country club (can I use both those words together??) My hotel was beautiful, I met lots of the happy couple’s friends and had some buddies to hang out with all weekend, which was great – I probably would not have gone exploring on my own).  I tried conch fritters, hiked all over the island, read an ENTIRE book in one sitting (poolside under an umbrella, of course!) and danced Bahamian-style with Bahamian natives!  Here is a sampling of my “holiday” ~

view from my balcony (niiiiice, huh?)

orchid growing out of a tree

rehearsal dinner

canon in old fort bay club

wedding cake

the bride’s shoes & bouquet

the bride & moi!

cool mural

I love the colors there!

The Queen’s Staircase

the cloister

at the cloister (photo by phong lang)

cabbage beach near sunset

paradise beach

my mosaic matching tushie (photo by phong lang)

Breastfeeding!  The saga of the tatas.

*Note: this post talks about breastfeeding, pumps and other assorted boob-related things.  If you’re sensitive to that stuff – don’t read anymore!*

The summer has wonderful and full for our family.  Birthdays, travel adventures, pool time and watching my two little boys learn together and grow some more.  I am still rather astounded on a regular basis how quickly my little ones have gone from squishy, portable blobs of cuddly, drooly goodness into mobile, vocal, opinionated, funny little people!

I am looking forward to a cherished friend’s wedding in a few weeks, and am starting to make preparations for the trip as it involves plane travel out of the country (not too far out of the country, it’s in the Bahamas, but still).  If you remember my posts from May about our European extravaganza, it was at that time the the hubbs used all of his vacation days for this year.  I was given the “A-Ok” to attend this fall event without him, but with our youngest son.  I am proud to say we are still nursing and I figured all along that I’d be taking little man with me so I wouldn’t have to speed up the weaning process and rush the rest of our breastfeeding experience.   However, the closer the trip gets the more nervous I have become about traveling on my own with a small toddler.  I know he’s a good traveler, and I know we’d be fine once we got there and just do what we need to do to accommodate his needs as well as mine.  I was also prepared for the “mood” of the weekend for me if I had a baby with me.  I’d have afternoon naptimes, bedtimes, and other baby-related restrictions for the duration and would be at Zeb’s mercy in certain ways.  Not being able to cut out the nursing cold turkey (and not wanting to for that matter), my mom and husband have gradually talked me into leaving my munchkin at home and taking along my trusty breast pump!  It had completely slipped my mind because this particular kiddo has never wanted a bottle.  Like, never ever.  So what milk I did pump in the first few months of his life sat in the freezer unused until I deemed it time to toss after the 6 month mark of being in the freezer.  Liquid gold!  Down the drain!  ~sigh~

So, I dug out my Medela pump last night and sterilized the parts again so I can start pumping now to build up a little reserve for him while I am gone.  It might be in a sippy cup, but it’ll be mommy’s milk and I doubt he’ll forget how to nurse in 4 days time.  I can pump while I’m away to keep the milk production active and see how it goes when I get home.  I feel like we’re about ready to wean soon anyway, we’re down to just three feedings a day, and Zeb is 13 months old.  We wrapped it up at 15 months with Evan, so I was aiming for this general time frame.  My bosoms have been either giant, squishy preggo boobies or giant, portable, milk-makers (or for a span of about 3 months they were BOTH at the same time!) for 4 years now.  Mama needs her boobs back to herself for a while!  Let’s see how deflated they get and see what my new bra size is.

My bosoms have been a steady DD since high school.  Pregnancy #1 upped them to a DDD.  Nursing baby #1 I was buying G-cups (Good Golly!!!), then back to DDD for pregnancy #2 and now back to G for nursing.  The ladies are gonna be a DD-extra long, I’m afraid.  I’m gonna have to roll them up and tuck them in my pockets.  But the money I saved on not using formula for two kids, I can spend on pretty push-up bras!  HA!

ANYWAY, so I now feel better about leaving him at home while I’m away knowing he will have some of his mommy juice available and that I won’t run dry.  And is it bad that I’m just a smidge excited that I’m going by myself?  I have a Thursday-Monday mini-vacation in the Bahamas all to myself!  It’s weird!  It’s crazy!  I’ll be part of all the wedding festivities and events, I can stay out later in the evenings, catch up on a book (or two?!) and just….relax!  I feel selfish being giddy about it, but I think any mother would, especially when the kids are this little.

My mom is amazing and wonderful for taking over kiddo care while hubbs is at work, and I hope a few days of boy bonding will be a pleasant and uneventful experience for all three of my men.

So…cheers to a mama vacation and some mental rejuvenation!  I’ll post again about the wedding – on the beach right before sunset???  Yes, please!

This will be me in a few weeks =)

New Kids & Backstreet Boys Concert!

Yes, folks.  Being born in 1980 puts me at the prime age to have been a New Kids on the Block fan.  In both 4th and 5th grade, thankyouverymuch.  My parents got me concert tickets for my 10th birthday present, and my dad braved the crowd with both me and my brother and my friend, Amelia ~ it was August of 1990, and oh what a night!

I got to re-live my childhood boy band crushes this past Saturday night with three of my girlfriends as we attended the “NKOTBSB” concert.  My hubbs let me splurge and buy floor seats for the four of us and it was like a group 30th birthday present (shhhhh!!!!  I stopped aging at 26, so keep this info hush hush!)  We bravely faced the ungodly amounts of estrogen, stood at the t-shirt table for almost half an hour (3 peeps working the booth and a mass of people with no sort of line formation made it take FOREVER).  And we unintentionally missed most of the opener for the opener (17 year old boys running around in tight pants with faux-hawks…no thanks…I’ll take a New Kid in a tank with big muscles, though!)  And once the show started we were on our feet for the whole three hours and it was amazing!  And fun.  I have been to concerts of all types, and I don’t remember ever leaving one and describing it as just plain fun!  The guys performing were all in top shape, they still had the moves, the old-school songs were cool to hear again live and funny to me because the lyrics contain some major cheese (eg: “Please don’t go girrrrrrlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, it would ruin my whoooooolllle worlllllllllllllllld…..”)  And of course we were treated to the faves, Hangin Tough and Right Stuff.  Yeah, baby, it was awesome.  I screamed, hooted and hollered with my girlies.  We were crimped, crinkled, bedecked with bright shadow and glittered out the wazoo and it was just FUN.  We swayed during the slow ballads, large drool puddles accumulated on the floor below us and we had to mill around the tour t-shirt kiosk to get our shirts and slap bracelets (you heard me… CLICK CLICK …SLAP!!)

Here are a few pictures of our amazing evening for your enjoyment.

European Adventure: Part III

London

The last part of our voyage took us on another train ride under the English Channel to London.  We were surely glad to hear proper English, and the accents were a delight!  Our hotel this time was directly across from Kensington Park, home of Kensington Palace, a gorgeous recreational area and Princess Diana’s Memorial Playground.  Our rooms again were lovely, and Evan was lucky enough to be roommates with “Ting” in her soft grey suede digs.  Mom, the baby & I made a rushed trip to Harrod’s our first afternoon there while the hubby and big boy napped.  Running though at nearly top speed, we only managed to drool in two very small sections of two floors (there are 6 floors I believe and the store spans an entire city block….ohhhhh emmmmm geeeeee!!!!)  Our purchases were modest, a mere dozen of the loveliest cupcakes EVER and we were out the door again to reunite with the sleepyheads.

President Obama’s arrival happened to fall on the day after ours.  His presence in the city, which was very close to our location and most of our scheduled itenerary, had us making last minute changes but ended up allowing us to see a few things not on the initial list for this trip that we may not have ever seen.  We visited gorgeous Hampton Court, the summer home of King Henry VIII (and all of his wives).  It was fascinating because he built a Tudor style palace and someone after him (I cannot remember who at the moment) added on, building an entirely separate Baroque style palace and joining them in one corner.  The courtyard between was pretty, but the seemingly endless acres of sculpted English gardens all around were astounding!  We got a reader’s digest version of a history lesson while strolling through the open portions of the palaces and lands, and Evan led us through a hedge maze with only one dead end (our guide told us there were 7 dead ends total, so we were impressed with our kiddos natural instincts!)

We eagerly partook in the fish & chips tradition, we saw the priceless crown jewels at the Tower, went on the London Eye (much cooler than we thought it was going to be), witnessed a flash mob of dancing roller-bladers near Piccadilly Square, wandered through Westminster Abbey – I loved seeing all of the tombs there…Charles Darwin & Geoffrey Chaucer & Isaac Newton got me in a tizzy.  Really, that doesn’t even begin to cover the monumental amount of history there ~ kings going back hundreds and hundreds of years…we just don’t have that kind of lineage here, it is truly engaging.

All in all it was a dream trip.  Our little boys were better travelers than I ever could have hoped for, I loved experiencing Europe with my mom and my husband, and I’m so excited that the doors of the world have been opened for my children!  This will not be our last adventure abroad – just the last one for a little while   Maybe we’ll tackle Disney World next.  Who knows?

We’re at Hampton Court ~ Where’s Evan?

The corner where the two palaces join at Hampton Court.  Left – Tudor, Right – Baroque

London Bridge was definitely upright and stable.

Fish & Chips with mom at the Goat Tavern.  Yum yum, y’all!

On approach at the London Eye

Evan and his big truck in a pod of the London Eye.  Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in the background.

Cupcakes from Harrod’s…just as tasty as they are good looking.  There was even glitter.  I INGESTED glitter.  Now my innerds are sparkly, too!

Today is Crisis Control’s Annual Hope du Jour in my town.  Folks – if there’s a weekday that you don’t cook, make today the day!!  Go to Crisis Control’s website: www.crisiscontrol.org  (sorry guys, still can’t find how to link a page on here…) , scroll down a little to the events section and click on HOPE DU JOUR for a list of participating restaurants!  Grab the kids, grab your keys and go out to eat tonight!!!