Stay At Home Mom

Meet the girls of Oh So Delicioso! If we're friends on facebook, I'm sure you've seen links to the food we grub on and post. I've always loved cooking, but it was hard to really cook for one when I was single (nor did I want to). When Steve and I were pretty seriously dating and engaged, I kinda wanted to impress him with my cooking so I slowly started feeling my cooking skills out. I was maybe sorta kinda pretty good...my new husband told me so, and that's all that mattered at the time!

I realized there were these things called food blogs out there, I became obsessed. My girlfriends and I (Heather and Mekelle) all started following them and cooking from them, and things took off from there.

Fast forward a couple years when my friend invited me to start contributing to her food blog, and here we are. These girls are amazing, and I've loved being involved. It's been so fun to think of new things to try, or to see a recipe and automatically envision how I'd change it.

We did a Thanksgiving dinner night a couple weeks ago last minute (literally less than 48 hours from talking about the idea to execution, it was madness) and it was so much fun. The food was delicious, and the theme was so much fun to plan out. A family that some of the girls knew let us use her gorgeous home and all of her beautiful decor. Us girls were in heaven having a real kitchen to cook in, an actual backyard and a separate playroom for the kids to mingle in, and of course delightful company. We were all one big happy family for the night, I kinda liked it.

And again, today, Aubrey and Desi were our Thanksgiving family.

So thankful for family away from family.

Speaking of Thanksgiving...

at our dinner today, some of Desi's husband's extended family was in LA visiting, so they came to eat with us. One of his cousins (about our age) isn't married, doesn't have any kids, and is in the fashion industry here in LA. We were chatting during dinner and she asked Desi and me if we were all just stay-at-home-moms.

Totally took me by surprise.

I've never actually been asked that question before, as basic a question as it is.

I know she didn't mean it in a condescending way, she was a very sweet girl, but I am very much aware of the negative connotation that tends to have. My initial reaction was first, ouch, I guess I am a stay-at-home-mom. I'm that person. Then I remembered that I do work, but only once a week. So that made me feel better about myself. Next, I was saddened that this was my initial auto-generated thought process. My heart ached a little that the most important (and most difficult) job in the world has this stigma attached to it. I know it's not the entire world's stereotype, but it does exist...it's obviously been engrained into my little brain. After I had a second to process all of this, I almost didn't want to tell her that I did have a 'real' job, because I feel like that would convey a message that I thought less of the stay-at-home-mom job that I also have. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job as a nurse,  am so incredibly grateful to have it, and really I get so much fulfillment out of it, but I kinda wanted to reinforce to her that the stay-at-home-mom job is way more important than my other one.

Anyway, end tangent....

Parker's still not walking, but crawling around like a mad-man he does very well. It's almost like a bouncing crawl. Half of the time he makes this "Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!" noise. He takes a couple steps then leans over and falls with a "UH!" noise. Words include 'bah' for ball, 'ba-ba' for bottle, 'buh' for book, mama and dada, 'na-na' for banana, and 'no!'. My favorite. I'm not sure he knows what it means, he uses it intermittently,  and he says it kinda cute too. I know I'll be putting my foot in my mouth in a couple of months. He knows the lights, Jesus on the wall, Christmas tree, car, sippy cup (or water), and we're in the process of learning eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. We also count. I say 'one', he says 'cheh'. I say 'two', he says 'duhg'. I say 'three', he says 'deh', etc., all the way up to ten. 

I see calculus in his future.

Nailed the playground steps.

Orange peels make a yummy appetizer. He was swallowing pieces left and right.

One of his new favorite games is for me to take the cap off the water bottle so he can put it in place, use his tiny pointer finger to push down with all of his little might, then flick it with his finger to screw it in place. Who taught the kid that?! I certainly didn't! Other hobbies include throwing all of the tupperware out of the cabinet, flinging all of the pots, pans, and lids out of their cabinet, climbing on top of and into the dishwasher, being thrown into and purposefully falling into our bed of pillows and blankets, throwing all of my pillows off of the couch, coming up to me when I'm on my laptop and shutting it closed for me, going up to the piano and playing a few notes, and opening and closing as many things as possible (glasses cases, DVD cases, books, said laptops, doors), and wreaking general havoc.

Bananas get him through church. And goldfish get momma through church.

Two more months until free babysitting......

Yes, those are helmets! And camelbacks! And hills!

We briefly escaped to our pre-Parker, pre-optometry school, pre-California care-free life.

It was incredible, but I wanted to hurl and my legs felt like jelly.

End of story.

 

Peppermint chocolate chips get us through Target.

Notice a trend here?

Pinecone garland is a new favorite. That and the classic Christmas lights.

And this guy at Christmas.
Yes dude, that is a 'bah!'