Kelly B.com

I'm going to admit something silly because...well, why not? One of the more interesting things about being human is relating to other humans. I'm sure at least one other human out there is as weird as I am, so I'll break the proverbial ice and just admit my own shortcoming...I never learned how to ride a bike. Let's rewind to the 80's when I should have learned this basic skill and point the finger at two busy hardworking parents who literally saw me a few hours a day to pat me on the head, feed me and tell me to go to bed.  My dad worked 2nd shift most of my life and as a result I saw him for a few minutes in the morning in between the morning rush of getting ready for school and the mild grazing of his lips on my forehead at 11pm at night when he got home.  My mom was there for me in the afternoons after school got out but she was the only ticket in town and she was terrified of doing things out of her comfort zone. As an example I became quite a library rat bec...

I had another baby.  Let's just get that out of the way.  He's gloriously beautiful. He puts girl babies to shame with his full head of wavy hair, big smiles and dimples. Oh the dimples. They just kill you. And in case my opinion is not enough please ask the half dozen strangers that stop me at the grocery store just to compliment the baby. EVERY TIME. The kid smiles and giggles at the drop of a dime, he's the politician of the crew. I say that because three seconds before that he tried to scratch my eyes out and was wailing at the top of his lungs. Mercurial doesn't even begin to describe it. On a side note, I rarely ever had that happen with my first boy.  Not that he wasn't a good looking child, but he had a very grown-up, serious expression glued to his face all the time. He came out a mini adult.  It took him a lot longer to figure out how to manipulate smiles out of people...but not the baby.  That kid can turn on the magic whenever he feels like it. A...

I have started going to the gym. Yes, Me.  I am also baffled by this. The truth is that I made time to nurse and pump for my baby for seven months of his life.  Even when it was terribly inconvenient and I was tired at 3am and I looked like a blind hobo dressed me...I still did it.  I still found the energy to follow through and just do it.  People do it everyday! It's best for the baby!! It's only a little bit longer!! Exclaimation POINTS!!! While pumping and gyming might not seem immediately related I figure that if I could dig that deep and find the energy for my kid, I would be short changing myself if I could not find a few moments each week to take care of myself.  To give myself more energy for my family.  To become the hottest momma at the sandbox.  I wanted it and I was convinced I could do it. I'm only getting closer and closer to 30 and what do I have to show for it?  I might be thin but thin people die of heart disease too. ...

Other than boring mom stuff you're probably wondering what fills my days. I'll breeze past the boring stuff like laundry and grocery shopping and admit that in the few moments I have left to myself I have become fond of online shopping and getting free samples and generally trying to find deals though I do draw the line at hoarding 300 tubes of toothpaste. I grew up in a house where we never lacked in toiletries so perhaps I'm a tad sensitive but there is no logical reason you'd ever need that much of anything before it goes stale anyway. Since Trevor doesn't like clothies and he's home with the kid most of the time we consume disposables and watching my son poop away our money is sobering so if I can save a few bucks I try to. I figure every buck I can save is a buck he can use toward college, and when you put it into that perspective it seems silly not to try. Cloth nappies are not an exponentially big savings when you take into account the energy it take...

This is going to be brief, unproofread and probably a just plain unthoughtful post but I figure that any post is better than no post after this long of a period. Kid is 5 1/2 months old and possessed by the desire to move. Flail, crawl, walk...whatever, he just needs.to.MOVE. He's been army crawling all over the place. It's kind of frustrating but entirely adorable and expected considering who his dad is. I'm surprised he's not climbing on to the countertop and jumping superman-style off the top yet. My hands are full, my life is full, I sleep more than I did before but not enough and frankly, I'm squeezing this task in while the kid's napping. Yesterday I did 90 billion loads of laundry and vacuumed the mountains of dog fur. It's not really that entertaining fodder for a blog but it's what life is and somehow...well, it's fantastic. Am I right where I was pre-baby? Well, not exactly but from all outward appearances I can fit into all my prep...

The baby's doing just great. The ultrasounds were beautiful. The doctor even used the term "perfect" to describe it. I know the gender and I am working with family on plotting a baby shower before the snow starts flying. I am however going to admit that I do not want to explicitly share my baby with the internet. It's been a really hard decision for me to make because I tend to believe in openness and communicating in an open atmosphere but in my heart I do not want to share. I want to keep this baby close and safe and protected and I don't think that the internet is a safe or kind or nurturing place for an infant and I do not want to be that parent who struts their kid around like the prize pig at the fair. My job is to protect this little soul, not to exploit it. For me, my kid is a kid not a status symbol. I don't care how many comments or "likes" I get about my baby. He/she is going to be the most beautiful thing I ever laid my eyes on a...

Happy 2 year anniversary to my Trevor. A year go we didn't have one of these Or one of these And now I can't even imagine a life different than the one we have. And I certainly didn't see this coming And baby makes...4? (I realize that might be the smallest bump you've ever seen but trust me, it's there.) Sorry for the hush-hush. It takes a while to internalize that you've got a tiny human being developing inside of you and to decide how much of that person you'd like to share with the internets. I've decided for me that we're sharing very very little because one day when he or she grows up they're likely to lament what I've shared and there's enough to be embarrassed about when you're 17 without adding in pictures of your naked baby bottom floating around for all of the internet to see. Consider it a case of me proactively shortening the area in my kid's autobiography where they blame me for everything that's wrong with th...

Clearly I spoke to soon. Takesies backsies anyone? Lex and Mike eloped this Saturday at Wickham Park on what would have been their planned wedding date anyway. It was very last minute even though they had originally planned to be wed on that day and they've been engaged well over a year but all the most important people seemed happy, albeit rather harried. Since Amanda's been in town anyway I've kind of used her as my go between with Lex and this whole wedding because to be rather honest I thought Alexis fell off the face of the earth and hated me for some confusingly unknown reason. I'm not saying I'm perfect but I try really hard to be empathetic. Rather than bother her about it I just preferred to not push the issue any further. Getting married, or not getting married or eloping is a pretty stressful thing without dealing explaining it to every Tom Dick and Harry. Because through the 1+year of plotting this wedding it's shrunk from a 300+ guest event t...

As you may have already noticed, I have really random luck. Not particularly "good" or "bad"...just random. Like, that $100 gift card a few months ago. Like constantly getting hit by other drivers in my car and it not being my fault and my car perpetually being in the shop. If it was good luck I wouldn't be hit. If it were bad luck, I'd be horribly disfigured and hurt. As it stands I'm perfectly whole and healthy. And I apparently tapped into some more random luck. If you haven't already guessed I am a bleeding heart. I don't want to be a crunchy granola chomping hippie but I'll be damned if I don't secretly want to wear all organic clothes and throw away everything I own that's plastic. Dirty Dirty Petrochemicals. As it stands I don't want to shave my legs, but that's another story. So these hippie tendencies in me tend to make me want to secretly save the world. I don't have a brand name one, but I have a stainless ...