kegels

Can we just talk about kegels ( I hope that is the correct spelling) for one second here? I know tmi bla bla bla but clearly talking about inappropriate things is kinda my thing but I cannot stress how important it is to do kegel exercises AFTER you give birth. My mom told me but in Jenn fashion I did not listen and I am paying for it. I did them when I was pregnant in my yoga class but then I kinda neglected them and if my kegels were people they would be the fat kid for sure. Since I've joined this muay thai class we do a lot of jumping which means every single time I jump I pee myself. Hot right? Today I figured out a way to stop it and I'm sure my face looked awesome but holy shit I hope it's not too late and I will recover and not  have to wear depends by the time I'm 40. I've noticed it happening when I sneeze or cough and most recently when I barfed a few weeks ago. I know its gross but I just don't want anyone to make the same mistake I did.

Besides peeing myself things are good. I had an amazing hour muay thai class and an hour of kickboxing and I feel so good. I got to punch a dude in the ribs over and over it was awesome. He is probably about 400 pounds and like the nicest guy so I felt awful but he kept telling me to do it and I figured all 5'1 of me wasn't going to do much damage. Some days I leave that class feeling so defeated because everything is so hard and it's very much a boys world but other days things come together and I feel so good like I'm really getting it. I guess that's why I like it, you can always kinda improve and push yourself. Now um where is my 6 pack??

Anyways back to mom and kid stuff. Today we adventured to Zoomars with Katie and Kylie. Its the cutest little petting zoo in San Juan Capistrano. I wish I had known about it sooner cause it's a great spot for the kids. We had a quick coffee at the cutest little coffee place and let the kids run around and eat aka spill snacks. So many critters to pet!  They had a cute little playground and an area filled with corn kernals that the kids could play in. Kinda like a version of a ball pit. Such a lovely afternoon being outside.

they were checking out a baby pig.

corn. kinda cool huh?

train.

there are llamas behind me!

they both wanted to swing with katie.

it is not that warm out yet but she seriously doesn't care. all she wants to do is be naked and play with water.

she made me put these shoes on. usually she is very serious about matching shoes but i guess she was feeling wild. and yes she is watering me.

sing

I should be asleep but I just spent the last hour doing boring tax stuff so I need something to entertain me before bed and get these stupid numbers out of my head. Olive was up for hours night last night. I wish I knew why but I don't. From about 11 till 2 I was going back and forth from her room to our bed to try and get her to sleep. She would fall asleep in her crib for a few min and as soon as I was back in my bed almost asleep she would scream. It wasn't the kind where you kinda just let her figure it out, it sounded more serious or maybe in the middle of the night I'm too tired to figure out her screams. Either way I got her and put her in our bed a few times. She just wouldn't sleep so finally after like 3 back and forth attempts she went back to sleep till 6. I hope she doesn't get my crappy sleeping habits and bouts of insomnia. Please tell me I'm not the only mom that has wanted to crawl in the crib just so they sleep. Let's hope tonight is not a repeat performance.

For getting no sleep I was actually quite awake all day, probably cause I got just too little sleep and was delirious. You know that point? We ran a few errands today then headed to a story time we've never gone to before. It was in the Santa Ana library. After you pass through the nastiest underground parking garage and then excuse yourself through homeless people and their makeshift homes you get to the library. Woohoo. The story time room is actually awesome, cool stage like stairs to sit on and it feels really cozy. It was mostly songs and one story which was perfect. Olive even danced her ass off in front of the room to a song sung in Spanish which was hilarious as she was the only white kid in the room and the only one dancing. Oh and that isn't meant to be racist just an observation as I was the only mom speaking English to my kid. Nothing wrong with it in fact I think it's great and maybe she will learn a few words. We spent the rest of the day hanging at home and being pretty bored. The rain was pretty crazy sunday so parks were kinda out of the question. Tomorrow should be a bit more exciting as we can venture outside.

*some photos from the weekend

snacking on bagel chips and lounging.

after her tumbling class she was beat!

twins.

dancing with elmo.

cameron took the family out to dinner on friday and it was delicious. mama got some wine and ribs and olive was a total champ (aka she was in a booth and got to bounce around the entire time which thrilled her)

sharing noodles.

we started refinishing our table. this is the before. i'm so excited about this!!

sharing peanut butter.

she seriously wanted this.

first corn on the cob. big fan.

family outing to portola for coffee and treats.

no table and rain means indoor picnics.

so much rain.

tofu pizza for blake and olive and prosciutto pizza for me. 

hummus.

zit face

Just when Olive gets us all comfy and cozy in her sleep patterns she likes to throw us off just a little bit, you know she's wild like that. I hear "mom mom" at 5:45 this morning and before I opened my eyes I knew it was way too early. She doesn't sleep in that much longer with her average wake up time being around 6:15 or 6:30 but somehow 6 just seems ok.  I keep telling myself it's just another phase and she will be back to "sleeping in" next week. Right right? I've just been tired this whole week for some reason but it will pass. I kinda blame spring from any weirdness I've been feeling. New seasons are supposed to bring change and moving forward but I think sometimes the new season can throw you off. Not that the first day of spring was really that noticeable weather wise but there is a feeling in the air. I was on a walk with Olive this morning and I felt spring. Don't ask me how but I did. While some people feel renewed and refreshed I guess it makes me feel weird and I need a little time to adjust. Also I don't know if this is normal or not but my face is breaking out like a mother fucker. Like full on teen acne. I'm actually embarrassed to leave the house without makeup. I have really bad skin to begin with but man oh man it's been so bad these last few weeks. I keep wondering if it's because I stopped nursing and now my hormones are out of wack or something? I have no idea what to do but it's really bringing me down and making me feel incredibly insecure. Can I blame spring?

Anyways crappy stuff aside we had a really fun playdate on Wednesday with Katie, Jessica, and their little ones. We've been trying to do a weekly get together and so far it's worked out for the last three weeks. It's been fun to hang with them and get to know them better and the kids are really starting to play and interact which is really fun to see. If I look back a year ago I was so sad and lonely and felt like I didn't know anyone who lived near me so it feels good to have a bunch of moms I can call my friends that I really like. It seems silly to feel good about that like yay I can make friends at 32 but really it is. I still hold on to a lot of the insecurities of meeting new people like not having anything to talk about since my day to day is staying home with Olive but the thing is that is their day to day too so I'm learning to let it go and just be me.

Olive has been awesome lately except for tonight which was just painful. Blake got a haircut after work so he wasn't home to help with the nightly routine and Olive was not happy. She melted down when I was making dinner like crazy. I mean she normally does but this was bad. I was on negative patience and it was like she just kept testing me. She usually wants to sit in the bath for hours but of course tonight she pulled the drain and said "bye bye" after like 10 min. I was so happy sitting there with my beer watching her (i earned that beer) and then she wanted out. Fine. So we played dress up in her room which is her favorite thing right now. She can put on shoes and socks like a champ now. She likes to mix and match legwarmers in there and then put her bathing suits all over her. She still hasn't totally figured out how to get those on but it's adorable. She kept trying to get into her crib cause she wanted to bounce. Normally totally fine but she was naked and I knew she would pee in there so what does she do??? She crawls up on the side of her crib and pees. It all landed in the crib and nothing on the floor. How that is possible I have no idea. So of course it went through the sheet and the liner. I know I know not the end of the world but 30 min before bedtime when you've been at this since 7am is just too much. So after she peed all over her bed she goes in the bathroom and puts her toilet on top of my toilet. Clearly we are not ready to potty train so I am putting that on hold for now. She was really excited at first to sit on the toilet but not as much anymore. I think I'm going to hold off for another month then try again. I don't want to put any pressure on her cause I'm not in any hurry.

She has been throwing out new words everyday. My goal has been to teach her a new word a day. I mean she repeats a ton of new words a day but getting them to stick and repeat them is key. This week we've learned 'blue." I thought she was connecting that to the color but I'm not totally sure. The other one is "happy" but she says it more like "happpp." We draw little happy faces and she says it. Adorable. Also counting. We've managed to get to two. And she will hold up two fingers but on different hands cause she can't quite figure out how to hold two fingers up in one hand. I think it's pretty smart of her. She counts before she goes down the slide too. This week my goal is for her to say three and hold up three fingers. She is still communicating with sign and she is signing thank you so much now and it just kills me. I seriously get all proud when she does it like holy shit I did something right. I'm really trying to get her to say the words when she signs. Tonight I got her to say more a few times so we'll see if it sticks. It's not hard to get her to say words as she will repeat almost anything or at least the first few letters but getting her to understand the meaning and having it be important enough to stick is hard. The funniest word so far is Barry. My mom got her a Barry Manilow shirt (ok she got her a few) and I told her that she was wearing Barry on her shirt and so whenever I would point she would say Barrr. I wish my mom was here to see. I tried to make a video of it but she does not perform under pressure.

I've blabbed enough. Blake and I started watching Game of Thrones so we're sorta hooked and that has been consuming us every night. So so good!

doors are for babies.

child labor.

Olive and Jessica.

Reading to Olive and Kylie. Twins would be BRUTAL!

Babes playing dress up and destroying.

She is super into ants right now. Says hi and follows them around. She actually held one the other day and was just blown away.