startin' him early...

On Saturday night, after our "big" snowstorm, we all got bundled up and headed out to the Nassau Coliseum for Benny's first Islander's game.

We got there early, had a quick dinner in the Club Room, rubbed paws with Sparky the Mascot, made friends from one end of the coliseum to the other….got down right at ice level for practice and Ben even managed to charm one of the NHL officials out of an actual, official, NHL game puck! Still cold from the cooler! Did you know they keep the pucks in an ice cooler until they are put into play? Me neither!

Also, did you know a 1 year old could keep his eye on the game and actually cheer on his team all the way from the cheap seats?? Me neither! An Islanders fan is born…God help us all….

It was a really awesome night. I am so thankful I got to be a part of it, and watch my two boys sharing something for the very first time that is going to be such a big and important part of their lives together. The first of hopefully thousands of games they will get to share, cheering on their team, hollering like fools and just being boys. It filled my heart with a pretty cool kind of happiness. Nights like Saturday are what it’s all about.

sock monkey birthday party...the details

The little guy's birthday falls smack dab in the middle of Christmas and New Years... this year I discovered that’s a pretty crapola time for birthday parties…my poor baby…but anyone who knows me will tell you I wasn't about to let that stop me! 

I guess I have a serious Martha Stewart complex and I LOVE nothing more than torturing myself brainstorming party ideas, menus, signature cocktails….perusing pinterest and making ridiculous boards full of insane and impossibly perfect ideas…stalking the heck out of etsy sellers who must think I have lost every one of my marbles….

The thing is, like lots of things in my life (just starting to recognize this pattern actually….uh oh…) I have a bit of a problem with the execution. Maybe I peak too soon? Maybe I just can’t handle the pressure? Maybe I just need more vacation days? But crazy me scheduled this part on a Saturday with no day off before it to prep….will I never learn?

Well, thank the baby jesus and my bottle of crazy pills because, with the exception of a few minor hiccups, things went noticeably smoother than they have at any of our cinco de mayo parties, where I typically go BSC* and wind up in the fetal position under the kitchen table chewing on used up lime peels and jalepeno stems and crying into my dos equis.

I didn’t take as many pictures as I had hoped…the lighting in the basement was downright awful…had we known it was going to be a freak gorgeous 60 degree day in January (?) we would have set the whole soiree up outside on the deck! The kids (and some of the adults) spent most of the party out in the hottub and running around the yard in t-shirts….it was crazy!

Poor little Ben had some sort of horrible…I don’t even know what….THING going on. He was super whiny and wouldn’t eat anything and the diapers he was putting out? Not of this earth. Poor Sweet Boy definitely had a virus from hell BUT he pulled through like a champ, as best as he could…..he wanted nothing to do with the cake I slaved over, or my famous macaroni & cheese (ok fine. It’s Martha’s macaroni & cheese….damn her!) but I didn’t hold it against him...his family and friends all got to shower him with love and kisses and presents, hang out together and party, stuff their faces full of yummy food and celebrate a very, very special day!

The Menu

Spinach dip & tortilla chips

Ruffles & onion dip

Crackers & blue crab dip

Pretzels, cashews, chocolate covered pretzels, banana chips

6’ Italian hero

6’ mozzarella, tomato and basil hero

The world’s yummiest chicken fingers

Ranch * BBQ sauce * honey mustard

Martha’s mac & cheese

Caesar salad with homemade ciabbatta croutons

big, crunchy, garlicky, buttery croutons! yum!!!

Fruit skewers

Brown sugar sour cream dip

Mini monkey breads

And

Banana cake (and cupcakes) with chocolate buttercream….from scratch….whew!

The heros, chicken fingers and most delicious honey mustard you ever tasted were catered from Lombardi’s Market which was such a pleasure to work with and has the most amazing food.

Not sure if you can really tell in these pictures, but our friend Matt is a total blast. He tied balloons to the birthday hat...just enough weight so the hat would float around the room in mid air....hysterical...you had to be there....I wish you were!

thanks, Nana Lou, for my AWESOME tiffany & co. fireman set! so cool!!

The crazy-awesome sock monkey wrapping paper and adorable striped paper straws are from House 8810 which i am so excited I discovered. They have the coolest stuff! And they include your packing slip tucked in this preciousl little cloth bag that looks like a manila documents envelope! I'm a sucker for details like that. I will definitely be ordering from them again!

The printables, including the world’s cutest return address labels, favor tags and door sign which are sadly, not pictured, all came from stylish celebrations on etsy and I can’t recommend them more! She was fantastic to work with, so sweet, patient and accommodating even when I was clearly about one pinterest idea away from a nervous breakdown and seriously, without her, this party would have just been a red polka dot tablecloth and me, in the fetal position under the table, chewing on banana peels and crying into a cheap bottle of cabernet.

The next day, Ben slept in until 11am…then crashed out again for his longest nap ever from 1pm until 4:00! Safe to say, between his wild birthday party and his tummy bug, this little birthday boy was knocked out!!

* = Bat Shit Crazy....cuz, obviously.

how's about a list?

1.

i really need to make something with citrus before the citrus season is over....specifically, meyer lemons which are adorable and smooth and delicious and like little oblong balls of happy, squirty, puckery sweet sunshine. mmmmm......meyer lemon curd tart....

2.

i "save" posts in my google reader. i follow a lot of blogs but i do play favorites. the problem is that i also like to save the best for last, and sometimes, usually on mondays when i have 96 unread items and a stack of shit on my desk from the weekend, i sort of "skim" through some posts and "save" my favorites to read last...Ashley, I'm talkin' to you....but then i run out of time, and i have to leave work (you know, that place where i shouldn't be tackling my google reader in the first place?) and my favorites get saved for the next day....and sometimes work gets busy and then i go days without my fix and....it's sad. do you do this too or is it just me? it's dumb. i want to stop, but it is also my little glimmer of something to look forward to. i don't know. i have issues.

3.

i think i'm falling in love with Michael Buble. it's pretty ridiculous. it started creeping up on me during the holidays with his absurd christmas special. i mean it's not like my obsession with mr. david cook, which is actually practically dead. that's the saddest thing i ever wrote, but it's the truth. i don't know what happened there. in the words of the great adele, sometimes it lasts in love and sometimes it hurts instead. but this is about my new boyfriend, Buble. you know, now that i'm typing this out, i'm realizing it's pretty insignificant and not even worth mentioning. Michael Buble. how very adult contemporary of me.....

4.

i really want to get a whippycake. i think they are so insanely cute, but i have serious problems with accesorizing and i am afraid i am going to look like an idiot. i am just not one of those girls who ever looks pulled together. it all looks cute in my head but in 3-d, i am always a major disaster. you can imagine why whippycakes and me might not be such a smart combination. but i want one. do any of you guys have one? which one should i get?

i know i'll get the most use out of the black one, but really, these things are not meant to be worn everyday anyway and the other one is so fun. i love them all.

5.

can we talk about the bachelor? am i the only one who was kind of excited to see shawntal show up again last night? bachelor ben really is a dud, but i still find myself rooting for my top 3...

emily...jennifer...kacie b

and now i'm that girl, blogging about the bachelor...i can't help it!!! it is television crack!!!!!!

i love a good list. i feel so cleansed....

his very first.

The monkey turned one on a Wednesday.

The day started with presents and kisses and hugs. We ate pancakes from Maureen’s Kitchen that were bigger than his head and took a drive out to the Long Island Aquarium to pet the stingrays and celebrate with some tropical parrots.

I wanted so much for this day to be special for him….as special as he is. Obviously, that would be impossible, but I wanted to try. He was overwhelmed and spent the day, I think, in a fog of confusion and bewilderment, his blue eyes as wide as saucers, rarely cracking a smile. He loved the stingrays most of all and he fearlessly reached right into the pool to pet them gently, because that is his nature, my Gentle Ben.

It was a bittersweet day for this mama…thankfully, more sweet than bitter. Seeing my tiny baby, looking so grown up on his first birthday, trying to absorb how much has changed in his inaugural trip around the sun I realized the answer is everything. Absolutely nothing is the same as it was before he joined us on this ride, and while it has been a brutal fight at times, I am nothing less than thankful and humbled by this tiny person with the big blue eyes. I am, and will forever be honored to be the one he will call mommy.

It was a Happy Day, indeed.

hair products i'm lovin'

Ok, so you probably know me well enough by now to know that I don’t really toot my own horn much, and if I do, it sounds more like a sick, howling moose than a parade on Main St. I’ve been suffering a bout of the old blogger’s block as of late. I feel like the dead of winter is such a rough time for creativity. I don’t want to go outside and take pictures because it is so cold and I’m a California girl and do not tolerate this New York weather crap very cheerfully. I’m most inspired by sunshine and the smell of a charcoal grill cooking up some hot dogs, fireflies at dusk and night blooming jasmine. To each their own, but I just don’t see the romance in muddy week old patches of icy snow and  4 layers of uncomfortable, scratchy clothes. Autumn I can handle. Winter is for the birds.

So, while I am working on my recap of Ben’s party and wracking my brain for inspiration, rather than leave my little space on the internets to the crickets, I thought it would be nice to share with y’all what is working for me this winter as far as hair products go! I have been on the search for the perfect “recipe” for as long as I can remember. My hair is naturally curly. Unmanageable at best….downright nightmare at worst. I bring you,  Roseanne Roseannadanna.

love you, Gilda.

I’ve tried product after product hoping to emerge from the shower with Carrie Underwood hair too many times to count.

Failure. Always.

As far as shampoos and regular conditioners go, honestly, besides Kerastase which makes my hair feel like silk and costs as much as my car, I don’t notice a difference between the Pantene I buy at Target or the Aveda my husband brings home from work. I really don’t. I’m sorry. But lately, I’ve been getting a lot of pretty dramatic compliments when I manage to drag my ass to the shower and actually wash my hair (the days are few and far between folks, sad to say)….At first, of course, I didn’t really get what all the fuss was about, but then I saw this picture my friend took at Ben’s party and honestly, it’s not Carrie hair, but for me, I think it came out pretty ok…who knew??

I guess it’s been looking like this whenever I do it lately?…so…yeah. That’s my horn toot/sick, wailing moose howl.

so what has changed, you ask? a few things. Here is what is working for me...

1. Bumble & Bumble Creme de Coco Masque

2. It's a 10 Miracle Leave in with Keratin

3. T3 Veloce Featherweight Hair Dryer

4. Redken Real Control Slim Supreme

5. Orofluido

The B&B Creme de Coco Masque was a sample I got in my November Birchbox and I fell in love immediately. Luckilly, the hubs works for the Estee Lauder Companies which own Bumble & Bumble or else that little hair snack would be out of my budget, but let me tell you something girls, it is worth every penny of the retail price. It smells like summer and makes your hair feel....well...healthy. it's awesome. Once a week.

I was using the regular It's a 10 Miracle Leave In and I loved it....till I tried the one with keratin. The regular stuff is great, the keratin will blow off your socks. and it smells like candy. Bonus!

My new hairdryer, the T3 Veloce, was a little splurge, but I got it at Ulta with my 20% off coupon as a Christmas present to myself since my rickety, 5 year old Hot Tools dryer was jam packed full of lint and dying a slow and tortured death. It has made a HUGE amount of difference.

I read about the Redken Slim Supreme on The Small Things Blog, which i found, like everyone else on the planet, through Pinterest. It's a cute blog with about a million great hair tips and recommending this stuff was one of them. Of all the "ingredients" in my hair “recipe”, I think this one probably the one I would omit first if I had to cut something out, but I still like it so for now, it stays.

And finally, Orofluido. Another Birchbox find. This stuff....this stuff....is the nectar of the Gods. It is. I preach the truth. Of all the things on this list, THIS is what seals the deal. Really, I hate to be a pusher, but buy this stuff right now. I'm serious. I used to use the Moroccan Oil and it was fine and everything, but this random Orofluido stuff that I had never heard of before Birchbox dropped it into my lap wrapped in pink tissue on the wings of an angel, has changed the way my hair will look forevvvvar!!! And i lurve it.

So. Try this stuff if you want to, I love all of it. And if you use it too, or try it and love it, or try it and hate it, or use something else you want to tell me about that you think will work better, or if you just think my hair looks like shit and I should shut my piehole, go ahead and tell me about it! I'd love to hear!!

p.s. This is not a sponsored post. I received no compensation for pushing these products on you. I just wanted to share stuff I like.

oh, hai..

One of my new years resolutions was going to be to stop apologizing for not blogging for a few days in a row (ok. more like a week.) so it’s pretty lame to run right out of the gate all “oh muh gawd! I have not posted in forevah!”…alas, that’s exactly what I’m doing BUT I am not apologizing, so I’m only half cheating…(see how I did that? total loophole. I can do it with food resolutions too! it’s a killer talent. Also, why I still only have one pair of pants that fit since getting pregnant NINETEEN MONTHS AGO. Sigh.)

It is so legit this time though. I have four words for you.

Sock. Monkey. Party. Hell.

The real issue here is that I am an anal retentive, perfectionist control freak (sounds appealing, right? wanna be friends?) and my little baby only celebrates his very first birthday once so I am *trying* to make it the most! Amazing! party! Evarrrrr! Which leaves little time for much else….and that’s ok. it really is ok. (crazy pills in full effect.)

So the party is tomorrow (!) and I sort of feel like I have a handle on things except that my grocery store was fresh out of romaine hearts the other day and please tell me how I am supposed to make a ceasar salad without romaine hearts? So I had to add that to today’s list, and then I discovered that I threw out my anchovy paste after the hurricane so I couldn’t make the dressing that was on yesterday’s list so now that is on today’s list too, and the house is about as clean right now as the floor of the 42nd street N train platform and some of the cupcakes sort of….exploded (?) while they were baking, so that’s kind of a mess, but most were salvageable….and the one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt? Is that Sunday, I WILL be taking a very long nap.

Oh, actually I know two things…the other thing is that my little boy is going to have an absolutely fantastic first birthday party if it kills me…and at this rate, it just might….

Stay tuned for pictures!

2012

Source: Uploaded by user via Lindsay on Pinterest

i tend to be an all or nothing person. all or nothing, black and white....as in the fact that i already ate  157 goldfish crackers, half a box of colby cheezits and 3 glasses of wine and we are on our way to hooters for dinner means that 2012 is basically shot and i should just wait it out till 2013 and try again...

this is precisely the attitude i need to kick in order to be successful...successful in fitting into my skinny jeans and successful in being happy. it is such a remote concept to me.

i always thought it felt more appropriate to turn over a new leaf, wipe the slate clean and whatever other cliches are out there, on your birthday...."the new year" is so universal...so impersonal. the day after your birthday belongs only to YOU. well, you and all the other people who share your birthday, but it's personal. maybe that's why i have a hard time sticking to new years resolutions.....of course, i haven't exactly had a great deal of success sticking to resolutions i thought of on my birthdays either.....so much for that idea...

the recipe for me that is a catalyst for change comes out of the blue. it is a perfect storm of excitement, blind hope, something to look forward to, being sick and tired of being sick and tired. it will strike on a tuesday afternoon after i have bought tickets to a concert 4 months away and really, really want to look cute or when i just am sick of chewing. eating can be exhausting and downright boring when you've done enough of it.

maybe that's another reason why january 1st is such a popular day for the institution of changes. people are just sick of gorging. sick of chocolate and gravy and pumpkin pie and alcohol and latkes and all things holiday. we are craving lettuce and seltzer and fresh raspberries....me? i'm waiting for my kid to wake up from a nap so we can go get wings.......

hopeless.

this year didn't feel like new years at all to me. did it to you? i mean, it really, really didn't feel like it. way more so than when you go back to work after a 3 day  weekend and spend the whole day going "it totally feels like monday!". we were watching new years rockin' eve...the next thing you know i was in bed and by 9:45, i was fast asleep not to be seen or heard from till 6:20am. oblivious to fireworks, oblivious to dropping balls....(hahahahah...i said "dropping balls!"). i don't know how to explain it, it just feels weird.

i have an appointment tomorrow night with the crazy doctor. by that, i don't mean that the doctor is crazy, i mean that i am going to see the docor for crazy people. people like me.  although, she may well be crazy too. you can be sure i'll let you know. i haven't been feeling like talking the last few days. hopefully she can get something out of me that is useful. i hope to eat more healthfully. i hope to fit into something cute by the time summer rolls around. i also know that that level of ambiguity doesn't work too great for me. if i want to see changes, i need to get passionate...and actually, i feel kind of blah....

here is to hoping 2012 lights a fire under my ass....

my 2012 "resolutions" are few and far between. most are resolutions i am all too familiar with, that i wouldn't keep making had i ever been successful with them in the past, but i resurrect them nonetheless because to me, they continue to be important....

get healthy, in body, mind and spirit. lose weight for love of god (what is that thing i keep reading on pinterest? "never give up on something you think about every single day"? yeah. this is that thing. i am so sick of thinking about it. so sick of making excuses for it. so sick of making excuses BECAUSE of it. enough. stop eating crap. stop drinking wine. get off your ass and run. it's not hard it's just inconvenient. cry me a river.). teach your son important things. play with him more. read more. drink less. forgive. be patient. be kind.

so will i follow through on these "resolutions"? i will try. it's more of a continuation to try. i hope we can all be easy on ourselves and forgive if we slip up. try again. admit we need help....i know i do.

but right now? i also know i am going out for wings...

happy 2012!