Letters For Lucas

Wonders, Mishaps, Blunders and Joy.. commentary on my life as a mom in the form of letters to my son

You Know You’re A Mom When-sDaze

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You know you’re a mom when…

  • You physically walk a toy out to the dumpster so you never have to hear it or trip over it again.
  • You will never move a block, an hour or a state away with a toddler without booking a babysitter for 72 hours.
  • You have been sneezed on hundreds of times. In the mouth.
  • You swear you will never climb through the McDonald’s PlayPlace again. It may say that it is “suitable” for adults, but it’s really not.
  • You consider the person who invented the sippy cup a genius and an idiot. Does one exist that doesn’t leak?!
  • You start to sound like your child.
  • You know for all the awful, annoying, patient-trying, frustrating roller coaster ride of moments, there are, every once in a while, scattered throughout the day, small moments that are pure magic in the life of being a mom.

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The House That Built Me

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I love this house and I will miss it.

Today is moving day and I am excited, exhausted, nostalgic and sad.

Walking downstairs this morning, it hit me: last night was my last night here.

No matter how frustrated I have become with this house in the last few months due to its lack of space for Lucas, it’s cold, hard slat floors, it’s barely large enough to turn around in kitchen and it’s distance from good friends and family, we have spent four wonderful years here.

I was proposed to in the dining room.

I became a wife in the backyard.

I saw my parents for the last time in the living room.

I’ve enjoyed meals prepared by my husband, lots of takeout and countless bowls of cereal from the bar in the kitchen.

I’ve walked hundreds of miles on the treadmill in the office.

With my husband by my side, I have cried myself to sleep out of immeasurable grief within the safety and comfort of our bedroom.

We became parents in this house as we paced the floors comforting, soothing and getting to know our newborn.

We turned the upstairs guest room into a nursery and have read, sang and fed our son in the rocking chair in his room night after night for the past 18 months.

We’ve watched hours of mindless television catching up and trying to decompress from our busy days in our family room.

We’ve played “choo choo” and cars in every. single. room.

We have walked to and from the mailbox in hopes of running onto our neighbor’s cat, or better yet, one of our great neighbors.

We’ve hollered at one another at the top or bottom of the stairs, tripped on items that needed to go one way or the other and met each other halfway.

We’ve entertained family, celebrated birthdays and made new friends on our patio and watched a beautiful olive tree grow and bloom in the side yard.

I will carry with me all the warm memories this home has provided and hope that it’s new residents will treat it well.

I love this house and I will miss it.

Here’s to the next chapter…

This post was featured on the BlogHer Home page, in the featured members section on January 5, 2011.

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Simple Moments

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Moving isn’t easy.

It was not made for the faint of heart, the unorganized, the patient-less, meant to take on during the holidays or the parents of a toddler.

What were we thinking?

As I pack, he unpacks.

As I make piles, he reorganizes them.

As I build boxes, he climbs in them.A few ago, our friends sent us a change of address notice and used a similar trio of photos of their daughter popping out of a box and I loved it so much that it is still on our refrigerator (well, it was until I packed it the other day). This was my attempt at duplicating that.

This holiday, try to enjoy the simple moments, the silly moments, the moments you know you’ll never get back and each and every photo opportunity. I am!

This post is for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop – Prompt #1: Simple

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Happy Holidays 2010

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Hallelujah, our holiday card has been ordered! Now, I just hope it arrives before we move IN LESS THAN A WEEK or that Shutterfly will pay for forwarding…This year’s card is doubling as a change of address notice. Two birds, one stone, as they say.

Out the window went the idea of a professional family photograph, this was selfroid was taken by Todd on a recent visit to the beach.

Lucas has grown so much in a year. Here’s last year’s card, if you’re interested.

This post is for (not so) Wordless Wednesdays and if you want to link up or see some really beautiful photographs, visit Alicia at A Beautiful Mess. This week she is spreading lots of holiday cheer in the form of outtakes from her family holiday card photo shoot.

Wishing everyone a very happy, fun and safe holiday season.

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Project Smile – November

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A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people you’re at home. – Author Unknown

Another month of reasons to smile!

1st – Last day of our Kindermusik class. This was our fourth session
2nd – I voted!
3rd – A glorious walk along our beautiful ocean with my beautiful friend, Jenn.
4th – A happy little traveler.
5th – Officially in escrow!
6th – Enjoyed a nice long lunch with a dear friend and Lucas turned 17 months!
7th – Celebrated my niece’s golden birthday.
8th – I got to hold my girlfriend’s newborn baby boy and remember back to when Lucas was so tiny.
9th – Took a peaceful walk along the beach and saw dolphins. A walk is always better with dolphins.
10th – Remembered my mother with love. She would have been 62 today.
11th – Finally got my hair cut and colored. It had been almost THREE months. So long, grays!
12th – Daydreaming about a brilliant future.
13th – Lucas found a mud puddle and he was happy as a clam to play in it.
14th – My best friend’s birthday and a fun day date with my husband complete with movie popcorn.
15th – Exercising my freedom of speech.
16th – Epic carrot cake.
17th – Dinner, wine and good conversation with a dear friend.
18th – Children that take three hour naps.
19th – Family.
20th – I threw a little shindig and brought some of the coolest bloggers together that I know: Kludgy Mom, Surfer Wife, Mommy of a Monster, The Little Hen House, Mommypants, Not Just Another Jen, A Beautiful Mess and Mamaondago
21st – A visit to the bookstore and train table.
22nd – Oprah’s final Favorite Things episode.
23rd – Hiring a mover.
24th – Catching up on TiVo.
25th – Family, friends, good health, a little money in the bank and a clean kitchen.
26th – Sushi and pool with our neighbors.
27th – Dinner and a movie with my sister.
28th – Family picture in front of our new house.
29th – Story time and shaking our sillies out at the library
30th – Donating three huge bags of clothes and other household items to Goodwill. Purging feels so good!

I hope I wasn’t the only one that found so many reasons to smile this month!

Alicia is the brain child behind this wonderful meme. Be sure to link up at her blog, A Beautiful Mess or check out other people’s lists.

You can see my October reasons to smile here.
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Ceramic Mugs

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I started packing on Friday in an effort to burn off calories consumed on Thanksgiving and so that our impending move seems more real to me. I’m excited, I’m just in denial.

I started in the kitchen and quickly had five boxes full of linens, pots, pans, glassware, bake ware, wine and water glasses, water bottles and ceramic coffee mugs.

I don’t drink coffee and Todd, who only drinks iced coffee, uses glass mugs. Why I keep carting these ceramic mugs around from address to address is beyond me. Some were gifts and others were souvenirs. When I remember, I’ll use one for hot chocolate or chamomile tea, but otherwise they collect dust and every three years or so, get wrapped up in newspaper and moved to a new home, where they will once again sit on a top shelf and wait to be used.

With each move, I try to get rid of one. I am down to six.

There are two that I will never part with because my mother made them.

Ironically, she didn’t drink coffee out of them either, but her favorite diet soda.

I don’t remember my mother being a very creative person, but she did teach Kindergarten – third grade, so she knew how to do simple arts and crafts. She sewed a lot when I was really little and made me and my dolls matching clothes and I always had homemade Halloween costumes.

During the early years of her marriage to my father, she was really into painting ceramics à la Color Me Mine. It was the 70’s after all.

Sadly, all I have are a few figurines and these two mugs.They’re ugly, weren’t made for the microwave and aren’t dishwasher safe, but right there in the middle of my gung ho packing day, I had to stop and have a cup of hot chocolate in one of my mother’s mugs.

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Looking For A Silver Lining

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The holiday decorations are up in stores, our mailbox has been littered with catalogs for weeks and there is no escaping the toy commercials on television.

It can only mean one thing: It’s officially the holiday season!

Again.

Ugh.

On top of all the preparations that go into Christmas: finding, wrapping and delivering the perfect gifts, capturing a suitable holiday photo for the yearly greeting card, addressing, stamping and mailing the cards, digging out the decorations, streaming the lights, selecting and trimming the tree, attending the gatherings and displaying and maintaining a sense of good will and cheer to all, we are moving!

We are on Day 12 of escrow and provided everything continues to go smoothly, we need to be out of our house the week of Christmas. Gulp. Happy holidays to us! Can you say “bad timing”?

Rather than freak out about about all the tasks at hand, I’m going to look at the bright side:

  • We’re no strangers to moving. Since I graduated from college, I have moved 10 times and my husband, three.
  • Moving = purging and if not now, then when?
  • We don’t have to decorate our house for the holiday.
  • It will be wonderful to start the New Year and a new chapter with a new address.
  • Our holiday card can double as a “we’ve moved” notification.
  • This could be the year I solely use gift bags without guilt instead of painstakingly wrap our presents.
  • Lucas will enjoy playing in and with packing boxes, also known as cute photo ops. Too bad we can’t put him to work.
  • We have an excuse not to attend or more importantly host any holiday parties.
  • Our gifts to each other can be items we need/want for our new home.

Any other silver lining aspects of moving during the holiday season?

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This is my 400th post!

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A New Zip Code

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It’s official, we’re moving back to the OC!

For those of you that don’t know, Orange County is one hour north (give or take) of where we live now. When Todd and I met, I had been living in the OC for eight years. It’ll be good to be back.

Our San Diego home has been for sale for two weeks and we’ve had almost two dozen showings. We spent the weekend looking at neighborhoods and new houses and hoping, if all goes well, that we will be in a new zip code (Lord, help me!) before the first of the year.

On top of everything else I’m dealing with, a move could not be more ill-timed, but with Todd’s recent endeavor being based in Newport Beach and his need to put in more hours and the fact that all of my close friends live in Orange County, it just makes more sense for us to be there instead of here. I love our current home, our neighborhood, and the friends we’ve made in the six years we’ve lived here, but change is good and I am very excited about this one.

As much as I am dreading it; purging, organizing and packing will be cleansing. It’s amazing how much stuff one household can accumulate.

Bring on the packing tape, boxes, broken nails and late nights!!

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Our House

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I love our house.

It’s the first house my husband and I have owned.

It’s the house I was proposed to in.

It’s the house I was married in.

It’s the last place I saw my parents alive.

It’s the house we brought our son home to.

I love our house.

I love the funky beach community that we live in.

I love our neighbors and being close to the beach and hearing the train pass through our neighborhood all day and the wonderful convenient store on the corner.

I would rather do just about anything than move. Seriously, you name it… a root canal (even though I’ve never had one, I understand they are horrific), 24 hour food poisoning, jury duty, a three hour wait at the DMV with a cranky 15 month old, ANYTHING!

Just the mere thought of moving makes my head spin and stomach turn. I get heart palpitations and break out into a cold sweat.

I don’t like change or weeding through all the stuff I’ve accumulated since that last time I moved and I love our house.

However, in the last year our beloved house has gotten WAY too small for life with a toddler and seeing as I spend almost every waking moment within the same four walls of this house, I have discovered all the reasons it’s perfect for a couple but not made for a family.

There is no yard to speak of, backs into a busy alleyway, has slate floors in all of the major living spaces and not a lot room to grow. On the other hand, it’s beautiful in every way, perfect for entertaining and couldn’t be located better.

If I HAD to move and I fear this will be a reality sooner rather than later, AND money were no object, here’s what would be on my wish list:

A playroom for Lucas – a room separate from his bedroom where nothing is off limits to him and he is free to bounce off the walls as well as draw on them, if he wants. A place where he can sit quietly and do a puzzle or read as it would be lined with book shelves and have a long table and chairs his size with plenty of art supplies and tons of toys.

A guest room with an attached bathroom for all our visitors.

A master suite big enough for a sitting area and a walk-in closet with lots of shelf space and cubbies for shoes (my husband’s, not mine) and handbags (mine, not my husband’s).

A HUGE den off a state of the art kitchen. Kitchen must have an island.

A gym/office space.

A three car garage at the end of a long drive way.

This amazing dream house would be on sprawling grounds with lots of trees and nice lovely lush green grass. There would be one tree large and strong enough for a tree house and a tire swing. There would be a pool in the back yard with chaise lounges set up all around and a built-in BBQ and refrigerator for my wine. 🙂

And a trampoline.

I think that’s it.

Okay, twist my arm.

I suppose, I’d love to have a library too… a small room that was just all books, photos and mementos and one big cozy over-sized chair upholstered in French toile.

I love built-ins and funny little nooks and shelves of any kind and hard wood floors.

As far as location, I love living in Southern California, so I wouldn’t change that. Being in a safe neighborhood, in a terrific school district, near friends and close to parks is important too. Beachfront would be my dream.

This post is for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop – Prompt #4 Describe your dream home…house, location, and grounds (inspired by plinky.com).

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