We like to Party, we like we like to Party

My baby is about to turn 9 months old...

...so I am doing what every mother would be doing...


PLANNING HER 1st BIRTHDAY!!!!


I am trying to come up with some cute themes, and I need some help.

My family calls her monkey baby, so I was going to do monkeys.  (However, my sister in law is kinda claiming them for her son (who is a few months younger than Cdubs).)  But then monkeys are not very girlie...and this baby is def. more monkey like.

Then I saw a really pretty theme called, "You are my Sunshine."  While yellow is not Cdubs best color, I still like it.  But it might be too summery for November.  All that yellow next to the beige of the GA after thanksgiving...CLASH!

And then Kdubs suggested a 'round the world theme, which I brushed off as "too adult."  But then I thought it would be super fun to do a "Where in the World is Cdubs?" ala Carmen Sandiego and dress her up in a red trench coat.  While, I like this idea...it might be better for birthday #2 because we will have finished our travels then.

Have you seen any cute girl themes that aren't too girly? 

A lot of the other ones I've liked would be great for when she is older--tea party, fairies, etc. 

I just want something cute and colorful.

Open to suggestions below.

Brain Mish Mash

I have about 3 posts that I need to finish and post, so until I can commit to them, I figured I would just go through a few things that are going through my mind:

• I recently started a new part time job.  It is only 10 hours a week, but it seems to be taking up all my nap time.  Until I can get a handle on things, my apartment is totally suffering.
• #1 on that suffering list: Laundry.  I have been struggling for almost 2 months to get a handle on our laundry from the first two weeks of traveling.  But having a washer/dryer combo means that I can only put 1 sheet or 3 pairs of pants in at atime.
• This, however, does not explain why I can't keep up with folding the clothes.  That is just me being lazy.
• I could really go for a Twizzler right now.
• I am also re-watching the first few seasons of How I Met Your Mother...happiness reigns in my tv life.
• The baby is getting really big!  She is crawling...well more like army-crawling/inch-worming.  She is babbling more and more, but her favorite is still Da-da-da-da.  
• I am loving introducing her to solid foods.  We have tackled a lot of purees (zucchini and peas with mint, mixed vegetables with italian seasoning, apples and cinnamon), finger foods (bananas, avocados, bits of toast).  And we are thinking about starting on some yogurt and/or soy beans.  
• I still love breast-feeding, but she is getting less and less enamored with it.  She will nurse for shorter and shorter amounts of time, and she does not always want to nurse to sleep.  
• She sometimes even wants to sleep on her own (with minimal crying).  Every so often, she will cry so much that I can then nurse her down.  
• I dread the weaning process that has obvious started.
• I am loving this Tracey Porter dinnerware. But I am not sure if it is a little over-the-top.
• 33 days until we come home to Atlanta.
• Living in Vienna is starting to grow on me, but I am still so excited to go home I can barely stand it!
• I made red beans & rice from scratch this week...and now I have "Baby Got Back" in my head!

One more year of my 20s

Tonight, I am in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, and am about to start the last year of my 20s. I have never been a person who dreads getting older. I have gray hairs (I call them Kdub hairs, since they magically appeared after I met him)...I have never had a lithe or perfect body...

But one thing has hit me, this eve of my last year of my 20s, pregnancy and childbirth have made me feel and look old!

My hair is crazy looking. Because I won't try and get my hair colored in German I have awful gray roots...I am suffering from the worst bout of baby bangs I have ever seen! and I got the worst haircut of all times before I left. Lets just say no coloring, straightening, conditioning or whatever will fix all that is going on here!

My body feels not like my own. I didn't expect to be Heidi Klum and look normal after a month. I have actually lost a lot of the weight. My clothes mostly fit, they just don't fit right. I have a pooch which I have never had before...breastfeeding has made parts shift...and my skin is definitely not glowing (maybe it is the lack of the pregnancy glow). Too add insult to injury, I have developed carpal tunnel and an ankle sprain that prevents working out.

I feel like the hormones are leaving my body and making me feel "normal," but who the heck knows what normal is anymore.

So here is my resolution for the last year of my 20s. To come to a balance of diet and exercise that looks "effortless," esp to Cdubs. I don't want her to grow up with me obsessed with having to fix myself and I don't want to pass onto her my self-critical nature.

Of course, how critical can I be, sitting in my hotel bathroom (because Cdubs is sleeping in the main room), drinking a Zlatý Bažant beer with Kdubs and eating french fries from room service and some sort of Slovak dessert that may actually be goose liver pate.

Anyways, this is me saying...happy birthday self...you went through a hell of a lot this past year and you made it...congrats. Now buck up and let's blow #29 out of the water.

I know

I know God exists because of her:

da da da from trs on Vimeo.