The Maclaren

Before Blake was born, I had the hardest time picking out a stroller. I would find one that I liked, but hated the color or design. Or I would find a color I liked, but hated the stroller itself. Worse, I would find one that I loved only to check the price tag and learn that it cost a small fortune and I wasn't willing to pay that much (kind of like when I searched for a decent diaper bag and found some that cost $300...which should be a crime in all 50 states.) Finally Evan and I found a stroller we both liked that seemed easy enough to use and it came with a car seat.

My mom was kind enough to buy the stroller for us and in the 5 months we've had Blake it has gotten a lot of use. I remember rolling the stroller around the kitchen with Blake in it just to get him to go to sleep. I love our stroller. It's easy to use, cute, has plenty of room for Blake to grow, has a great storage basket underneath, and is currently doubling as Blake's high chair. The only thing our stroller isn't good at is...being carried up and down subway stairs. Evan has no problem doing it, but I do. In fact, I rarely take Blake in the stroller on the subway by myself because 1) it's hard for me to carry and 2) I'm afraid I'm going to trip and injure my child. So while we will continue to use our "hummer" stroller (that's what a host at a restaurant called it when we rolled up to be seated), I needed a stroller that I can use when Evan can't carry the hummer for me.

So my search for a lightweight yet durable stroller for Blake to cruise around Brooklyn in began. Enter the Maclaren. Everywhere I went I saw people with this stroller. It was recommended by people in our ward. These strollers looked cute and not too expensive. I finally caught a glimpse of what type of stroller it was and immediately went home and googled it...and subsequently fell in love. The Maclaren was lightweight (8.8 lbs). durable, cute...and British! I could just imagine myself walking the streets of New York pushing my British stroller, feeling pleased as punch. The only thing that was going to throw a wrench in my plans to obtain a Maclaren was the price. Their least expensive stroller cost as much as the "hummer" my mom bought us! So the envy set in. Everywhere I went I eyed other strollers. I could spot a Maclaren a mile away. I would stare as they passed me by thinking, "If I could just get a Maclaren, everything would be wonderful!" (Ok, that's a little dramatic, eh?) I searched other brands of lightweight strollers, but nothing came close to the Mac.

Finally, I found a Maclaren on ebay for half the price. I couldn't believe it. I knew for sure I was going to get scammed. I've never used ebay before and wasn't even sure how it worked. Would I have to bid on it? Would I get into a bidding war and lose my precious Maclaren Volo? Luckily, I didn't have to bid on it. So, after much anxiety, I bought it...and it came today!

Now, the color is not my favorite. But for half the price and the ability to carry my child down any set of stairs in this city, I had to take it (or go on steroids to bulk up so I could carry our hummer. And since steroidy women aren't very attractive, I'll take the Mac...not to mention the medical ramifications of steroid use.) I haven't taken Blake out in it yet, but as soon as he wakes up and I actually get to take a shower (yes, it's 4 pm and I haven't showered.  I've been waiting for the UPS guy all day and didn't want to miss him!) we're going to take our Maclaren Volo for a spin. I just hope it's as wonderful as I've built it up in my mind to be.

Seeing New York- Natural History Museum

I think this post might be one in a series of posts about the fun things we do in New York. It would be fun to see a new sight every weekend, but that would require us to dip into Junior's college fund and that certainly isn't an option. Maybe we'll make it a once a month thing. Anyway, this past Saturday we went to the Natural History Museum in NYC. Although Blake won't actually remember going and seeing all the cool dinosaurs and sea creatures, we have pictures to prove we were there (to use when Blake's older and complains that we never do anything fun.)

Our trip to the NHM was a lot of fun! Especially when we met Michael, a museum security guard who stopped to talk to us about...well pretty much everything. Michael came over to see Blake, and in the 5 minutes we spoke with him, he talked about:
1. New York radio stations
2. A radio host named Blake
3. Blake Shelton (the country singer)
4. Winning prizes through radio station contests
5. Meeting Usher 3 times because of the different contests he's won
6. Whitney Yogurt Company
7. Carol King
8. Neil Sedaka
9. Barbara Streisand
10. How babies know their mother's voice
11. Having another baby and it being a girl
12. Coming back to the museum with the baby girl, finding him and showing him our new baby
13. Los Angeles
14. Virginia

Michael was the friendliest/most talkative person we have met...ever. If we are still in New York when we have another child, I think we really will try to find Michael at the museum and show him our new baby!

Utah and California

A few weeks ago we set out on a graduation/mission homecoming extravaganza that would take us across the nation to Utah and then to California. My little sister, Tori, graduated from BYU and we were there to celebrate with her!

After Blake and I had our fun in Utah, we flew to California to welcome home Evan's brother Josh from his mission in Chile. We were all excited to see him again!

Not only did Blake get to meet another uncle, he also had his first swim!

He also did a lot of reading,

and playing with new friends!

Overall it was a great trip and we were sad to come home! (But happy to finally be home after our late night flight and being taken to Manhattan instead of Brooklyn by the car service driver...that was beyond annoying.)

Cast your vote!

So I've never entered Blake into a photo contest, but I think he's just so darn cute that I had to do the Gerber Generation Photo Search. Monthly winners get a flip camera and the grand prize winner gets a...drum roll please...$25,000 college scholarship and could be in Gerber ads! And even though he is my child and I'm probably biased, I think he's cute enough to be in Gerber ads. So I need your help in the voting process. Voting for September starts today and ends on the last day of the month. Here's the step by step process to vote for Blake and help him win!

1. Right click and open the link in a new tab. (Click here)

2. Go to the bottom of the page and click on the button that says "Search Photos"

3. Type "Blake" in the first box and "Brooklyn" in the second box.

4. Click on the search button.

5. Look for this picture:

6. Click on Blake's picture and then click on the "vote" button.

7. You'll have to enter a valid email address because you have to validate your vote through your email. (If you have a junk email account, use this one. I wish there was a way to do it without entering your email, but I haven't found one. Sorry!)

8. Check your email and follow the instructions. The email went to my spam folder, so make sure to check your spam or junk folder. You have to click the link in your email in order for the vote to count!

9. This turned into way too many steps so now I'm afraid you'll be deterred from voting! I guess I could have combined some steps, so really it's only like 4 steps. If you still think that's too much to ask, then just take another look at the photo above and ask yourself how you could deprive that cutie of a college education! He may hit you up for money one day if you don't help him win the scholarship. And you won't have any excuse when he asks, "Well, did you vote for me everyday during September 2010 so I could win the Gerber Generation Photo Search? Oh, you didn't? Well I need 20 bucks."


Remember, you can vote once a day for the whole month. So if you find yourself with nothing to do, or even if you have a lot to do, just take 2 minutes to vote for Blake! Thanks for your help!

things

Living in Brooklyn has been quite a change from anywhere I've lived or even visited for that matter. I was thinking last night about the things I miss about other places I've lived.

1. Walmart. I never thought I'd miss the annoyingly long lines, not so good produce, and employees who will just tell you that Walmart doesn't carry the thing you are looking for so they don't have to help you look for it. I mainly miss Walmart so much because it was my go-to store when no where else had what I needed. Basically Walmart has everything...and it's all in one place.

2. A car. And wide streets. We decided not to take our car to New York for several reasons. And even if we did have a car I probably wouldn't be going anywhere I don't go now, mainly because of parking. But, it would be nice to have a car every once in a while to get out of the city.

3. Clean streets. Let me clarify. We live on a street, which is pretty clean. But the avenues that run perpendicular to the streets are DIRTY. The worst is on trash days when all the businesses put out their trash and the wind kicks up. Gross.

4. Having a washer and dryer in the apartment. I've only lived in a few places that had this amenity (besides my childhood home). Going to a laundry mat really makes you appreciate having your own washer and dryer. Even more, it makes you appreciate having a mom who will do your laundry for you!

5. Only living 5 minutes from church. Utah spoiled me. I never had to drive more than 5 minutes or walk more than 10 minutes to get to church the whole 6.5 years I lived in Utah. Now it's a 45 minute subway ride to church. It wouldn't take that long if we drove, but...well see number 2 of this list.

6. Dry air. I grew up in VA where basically you regretted spending any amount of time doing your hair because once you walked outside the humidity made your hair turn into a big frizz ball. In general, when you live in a humid climate, going outside makes you feel like you haven't showered. When I lived in Utah the air was nice and dry. Yes, I had to invest more in lotions and what not, and during the winter my skin itched like crazy, but at least my hair looked good! Well, the humidity here brings me back to my childhood: frizzy hair that is usually in a pony tail and break outs. But at least I'm saving on lotion!

7. Public school systems other than New York's. I've just heard some things. And it's a little nerve-racking and slightly disappointing.

Now, for a more uplifting list of things I like about New York:

1. The trees on our street are really pretty. I think our street looks like a scene in a movie...a movie based in Brooklyn.

2. I've been surprised at how nice people are here. Of course, there are rude people. And people who think Brooklyn is the center of the universe (newsflash: it's not.). But for the most part there is always someone willing to help us carry the stroller down the steps to the subway. Even yesterday a guy in the 99 cent store helped me find dish washing gloves and even let me switch sizes when he happened to find the size I needed as I was walking out of the store.

3. The diversity. Sometimes I like this, and sometimes it is frustrating. It's nice to be around lots of different people from different places. On the subway I hear people speaking Spanish, Russian, French, and Chinese. And sometimes English. The frustrating part comes when I can't understand people. One time I almost had my groceries delivered because I couldn't understand what the bag boy was asking me. I just assumed he was asking paper or plastic, so I said plastic. Then he started to put my groceries in a huge delivery bag. Luckily the cashier told him I didn't want them delivered. Crisis averted.

4. I'm excited for fall. The colors are going to be gorgeous!

5. Going to Times Square...just to eat at Baja Fresh. Hahaha too bad it started storming so our trip was cut short.

6. Being able to see the Statue of Liberty from a nearby park.

7. Living in a brownstone. Ok there are definitely things I DON'T like about living in a brownstone (little creepy crawly visitors that I'd rather not have to deal with, creaky hardwood floors that wake Blake up, "mouse hole" kitchen and bathroom). But, I think our apartment is really pretty. And I hope I will be able to look back on this time and think, "Man, I can't believe we lived THERE!" (In a good way, of course!)

Brooklyn still doesn't feel like home to me, and I'm not sure when or if it ever will. But I'm trying really hard to find the happy times in every day that we are here. Some days are great, others are blah. And still others are not so great (usually the days that involve creepy crawly visitors...yuck.)

Blakey update: We've got a tooth! (and far less sleeping is going on in our home because of it...) 

Adventures in Yoga Land

Soooooooo I'm on a quest. This is a quest many a mom has undertaken. I'm on a quest to lose the baby weight...and some extra poundage I was lugging around before I found out I was pregnant. I actually like to workout...when I'm in shape. I enjoy lifting weights and feeling sore the next day. But when I'm not in shape, I dread working out and hate anything that makes my heart rate increase or that makes me feel out of breath. Here's the problem: the only way for me to enjoy working out is to get in shape, which requires a lot of being out of breath. So any way I slice it, I have to go through some not-so-enjoyable times to get to the enjoyable (and smoking hot body) times.

So I decided when we got back from our vacation, I would start working out. I really want to do P90X because I, like many other people, am a sucker for late night infomercials and truly believe this can help me get in shape. My family has the P90X workout program so I wanted to borrow it. Then certain members of my family decided to get into shape, so that plan is out the window for at least 90 days. My sister was telling me about the workouts and said that you have to jog in place during certain intervals. I'm not sure if that is the ideal workout program for me since I live in an apartment with tenants below us and I'm certain they would fear their ceiling was about to cave in if I start jumping around up here.

Typically in my work out past, I've enjoyed high energy workouts. I like doing step aerobics, kick boxing, and even the dreaded boot camp. It seems like the sweatier I am, the better I feel about myself. So generally I've stayed away from yoga because it doesn't seem very high energy, and it seems like only vegetarians and granolas do it. I need some bumping club beats or instructors yelling at you to step it up in order to feel all "worked out". (Although the only time I've ever done yoga I thought I was going to die, so I know it will get you in shape.) The only work out dvd I have is Yoga for Mom and Baby. Since I don't even know where a gym is and wouldn't go to the gym if I had a membership because I'd have to go by myself, I'm going to have to get in shape at home. So what better way than to do yoga with Blake!

Today was my first time using the dvd. It started out really well. I was sitting on my mat with Blake, holding him in my lap and breathing deeply. Now it was time for the first stretch which required me to lay Blake in my lap. So what happens when your baby doesn't want to lay in your lap, Ms. Calm Yoga Instructor Lady? Well this is what happens: I paused the dvd, looked at the clock, realized it was nap time for Mr. Yoga Baby, and promptly laid him in his crib. He eventually went to sleep and I continued Yoga for Mommy and Baby...minus Baby.

I liked doing yoga today because now I feel like I've done something to help me on my weight loss quest, but I don't think this dvd alone is going to help me get in shape. Some of the poses were relaxing, others were slightly more difficult. Like this one:
I've started eating healthier, and with Blake eating fruits now I'm trying to eat more fruit as well. Also, living in a city without a car means we walk everywhere, which is good for my thighs. So even though yoga didn't go as I had planned today, I'll try again tomorrow, probably not so close to nap time...and not so close to when Blake finishes eating. Because there's nothing worse than being all relaxed and yoga-y and having a baby barf on you.

On a cuter, less weight related note, here's my baby in the tub, so nice and clean:

cutest.kid.ever.

This weekend we were finally able to bless Blake! Evan's dad was able to come as well as my parents and my brother Jordan. It was a special time for our family and we are so thankful for our family members who were able to come. (and sad for those who couldn't!)

Grandmomma and Blake
The Grandpas

Distracted by the subway (p.s. My hair looks weird.)

Elder Jordan
Uncle Jordan and Blake

"Y'all come back now, ya hear?!"