A photo journal comprised of my thoughts on motherhood and other life happenings, as well as some of professional work as a photographer. Southern California is home.
Hooper played with his blocks. He loves stacking one on top of the other. He’s very methodical about it // I bought some new spreads to try on toast or crackers for my favorite picky eater. I’ll let you all know how it goes // Someone has gotten really good at directing others. He does it by pulling at some piece your clothing and it’s not annoying at all. I’m lying, it’s like nails on the chalkboard // Two of my favorite boys watching a morning cartoon // Part of our succulent garden basking in an abundance of sunshine // Guess who got a radio flyer? Yup, and he’s all about it. I’ll include it in my next thrifting post and share a little story about the purchase // Yellow flowers on the kitchen table to celebrate a sure-to-be wonderful weekend.
What happens when your husband watches your toddler, your best friend is in town, and it’s Sunday (AKA flea market extravaganza)? You come away with some treasures, that’s what. Here’s what I collected. And please note, not one thing is for me. Oh the joys of motherhood. Who is this selfless person Hooper calls his mom? I hardly know her.
My favorite find were those vintage Zip shoes. When the lady told me the price, I immediately opened my wallet. They were so cool that they actually silenced my bargaining mouth. I paid $7.00 and walked away feeling like a million bucks. Oh the rush of a good find. It feels so good.
Oh yes, wait now. There was one thing for me or at least for the sweet little place I call home. This awesome plant stand made it’s way into my trunk and I couldn’t be more pleased. Time to visit a garden and complete this little guy.
Hooper eats crayons. Sure, he proceeds to spit out the wax particles but it doesn’t stop him from sticking that colorful stick in his mouth every time we go to a restaurant. That is, until we went out the other night and the waiter handed him a couple colored pencils. He attempted to take a bite, it didn’t work out, and I think he even made a line or two on the paper. What an invention those colored pencils are.
It was my mom’s birthday on Cinco de Mayo, so I broke out a few colored pencils I had in the drawer in hopes he’d draw a little something in her card. Instead, he was more interested with taking the pencils out of the container and then putting them back in. The word “interested”, by the way, is a complete and utter understatement. Check it out for yourself, the boy was absolutely enthralled. Dead concentration caught on film, or that little disc thing we call a memory card.
As a side note, Willy and I took my parents out that night to Cafe Bizou in Sherman Oaks (highly recommended to anyone in the area) and ran into Chuck McCann, the man who does nearly all the voices in animation and television. He had us going coo-coo for coco puffs in no time. He was an instant hit with Hooper and Willy and through their frequent trips outside to play, these three became quite smitten with each other.
Every now and then I need to remind myself I’m pregnant. Like the other morning, after sleeping 9 uninterrupted hours, I asked myself, “Why does it feel like I’ve been hit with a ton of bricks”? Oh yes, because I’m very pregnant. It’s hard to allow myself to rest and nap when I feel like I should have a lot of energy and when there’s a lot of things I’d like to get done. Speaking of sleeping those glorious 9 hours, why is it that you cannot store sleep? If I could just bottle up a few of those hours and save them for a rainy day and by rainy day I mean newborn waking every two hours for the first few months kinda days, then life would be grand. So yes, this week I’m sleeping a lot but more tired than ever and upset by the fact I cannot store sleep.
In other news, all is well at my midwives appointment. They drew blood to rule out any anemia that could be causing the yawning attacks. The baby’s head is down at this point and with any luck he’ll stay nestled in that sweet little position. Oh, and Hawaii was generous to me as far as weight gain is concerned. Twelve weeks to go (remember I plan on a 42 week gestation)… Chugga chugga choo choo.
On a side note, check out our grass. Isn’t that fungus killing it just glorious? With any luck, that will be remedied in the coming weeks.
Happy Cinco de Mayo. Hope you all are spending this beautiful Saturday with a chilled Corona and some homemade salsa. I have a few things to share, starting with this photo of Hooper @ 22 weeks in his “No Hablo” onesie. Want a onesie similar? You can find one here or here.
I also put together a special Cinco de May edition of Mamas & Tykes:
Vintage sailboat romper from Etsy seller Lishyloo. Want one like it? Check out this one or this one. And for the little ladies, try this one or this one.
Lobster swim trunks from i play. There is a built-in swim diaper.
I bought this little red sailboat romper a long time ago on Etsy. The store I purchased it from is now closed. Willy says he looks like a little girl in it, but whatever, I think it’s cute. Hooper can hate me later all he wants.
These swim trunks are from Old Navy. There is no built-in swim diaper, so I bought separate swim diapers. Have a little girl? Check out this adorable suit and this one too.
-Traveling with a toddler is hard. Forget about the near impossible task of traveling with a grumpy toddler, traveling with a happy go-lucky busy toddler is almost impossible too. It didn’t help matters that some chick tried to get onto the plane sick and couldn’t manage to even make it to her seat. We had to wait for a customer service representative to “escort” her off the plane and then had to wait even longer for a clean up crew to clean up the throw up see left behind. It was like starting with a full tank of gas and then dropping to nearly empty before even leaving the runway. Oh yes, there ought to be an asterisk attached to my opening realization that traveling with a toddler is hard. The asterisk would read: And traveling with a toddler while seven months pregnant is harder. That little boy inside of me has quite the limited room as is and having an external little munchkin pushing further on the littler munchkin made this mama short of breath real fast. Bless the flight attendant who pointed out two open seats, allowing Hooper to have his own seat. This wonderful occurrence has happened a few times while traveling with Hooper and it makes such a big difference to my own comfort. It does not, however, change the fact that he nearly refused to sit in his seat. He pulled all the magazines out of the seat in front of him, he took the tray down and then pushed it back up (apologies were made to the people in front of us), played peek-a-boo with the people behind us (more apologies were made), ate the snacks that fell on the ground from the little girl next to him, walked up and down the aisles, you get the idea. He had gotten up so early in the morning for the flight that I was certain he would nap. He did nap, for about 20 minutes until my ass was fully numb, my left foot was tingling, my back was beyond aching, and I took the risk of lying him down on the open seat next to me. He woke almost immediately and never went back to sleep. So, it was a long flight there but he was happy and smiley regardless of appearing busier than a crackhead.
-Holding Hooper on that flight against my belly while the little one inside threw kicks and punches reminded me that soon my attention will be divided. I thought of this fact often throughout the trip. Every time I felt a kick I envisioned having to stop what I was doing and turn my attention away from Hooper. I feel some sadness regarding not being able to give Hooper my full attention in the near future. I worry less about how he’ll handle it and more about how I’ll handle it. Is that weird? I had a conversation with a friend who said she cried for three weeks after she gave birth to her second child. Even though her first child handled it well, she felt like she was cheating on him with the new baby. I’m trying to prepare myself to handle this transition in the most healthy of ways, but I’m sure what that means yet.
-Moments in motherhood, like life, are about perspective. For those 20 minutes Hooper was asleep on me on the plane, before the numb ass, tingling foot, and aching back, everything was perfect. I could stare at that boy sleep all day long. His weightless body and ability to give himself over to me fully is the most beautiful thing. He was perfectly peaceful. But, it’s momentary. Soon your ass is asleep, the fingers in the arm he’s resting on begin to tingle, it gets harder to feel your foot, your reluctant to uncross your legs for fear of waking your sleeping angel, and well, the moment of perfect peace passes. As I laid him on the empty seat, feeling incredibly grateful and indebted to all flight attendants from here and out, he instantly woke up. He never went back to sleep and for the remainder of the flight I was one of those hammers on the arcade game trying tirelessly to knock down the weasel every time he’d pop up. So you have a choice: call it a good flight and praise the lord for the moment he was asleep on your chest and the fact the flight was tantrum and tear free or call it horrible because you worked the whole time. It’s a matter of perspective and the choice is up to you.
-I noticed a woman at the beach watching Hooper as he mosied back and forth to the ocean with his bucket of water. She asked how old he was and mentioned she had a 19 month old at home. I studied her sitting in her lounge chair with her magazine, her husband next to her, and said “enjoy the freedom!”. She smiled in such a way that made me realize she was missing her son. I realized in this moment that being a mom is a double edge sword. It’s hard when you’re in full mom mode and it’s hard when you’re not. It’s a challenge, in my opinion, to enjoy the time alone with your husband when you’re both missing your little one at home. So as she watched Hooper and missed her son, I watched her and missed time alone with my husband. We both had something great in that moment, yet we both had to sacrifice something to be in that moment. The yin and yang, push and pull of life. Again, it’s a matter of perspective.
I told you this Hershey’s shirt is one of my new favorites! And to think I found it under a large pile of clothing and paid only $3 bucks for it! These shorts have been featured in a prior Style de Hooper post and were purchased on Ebay. The shoes are Vans and let me tell you, slip-ons are where it’s at!
