Julianna's guest post

Recently I saw a post where a blogger had their 10 year old child do a 'guest' post and shoot some pictures for her own guest post as well. (I wish I could remember where I saw it so I could give due credit!) I thought it was a great idea and was wishing I could do that with Julianna, except she is 2 and 1/2 years old and isn't allowed to touch my camera yet - haha!

So ... instead, I decided to have some fun with this idea. I came up with some questions that I could ask my 2 year old Julianna and post them here. I am of course answering as I think she would. As for the pictures ... well, I had to come up with something original.

What is your favorite stuffed animal and what did you name him? 

My Baby Giraffe. His name is Giraffe.

Tell me the five best things about you.

1. My pretty curly hair that Mama insists on making perfect every day before I leave the house. I'm OK with it as long as she lets me put a barrette in Giraffe's hair too. 

2. I can count to 20 and know all my colors! 

3. When I smile, everyone else smiles back at me for some reason. 

4. I can run around in circles over and over while squealing & giggling

5. Mama and Daddy say I eat like a champ and they say they don't know where I put it all because they can feel my little ribs.

What does the word "success" mean to you?

Eating all my pizza and a fruit squeezy


What are your favorite vegetables?
Yucky, I only eat cucumbers that Mama cuts up and puts in my white cup and those little crunchy baby carrots.


Who do you think I'd rather you be: an NBA ballplayer, the mayor, a famous explorer, or a movie star? Why? I think a movie star, maybe Minnie Mouse. She has nice shoes.


What is your favorite toy?
I like to play with my play dough with Mama and making snakes and spaghetti with it. 

What do you think are the characteristics that make a good parent? 

When Daddy snuggles with me.


Do you think I lose my temper too often?  
Only when I'm a bad girl and don't listen to you Mama. I know you have my baby brother in your belly and you get upset easy now, but it's OK even though I cry sometimes.


Name two things we should do as a family on the weekend.
Go on a train ride and go strawberry picking when it gets warmer out. (Note* We always tell her we'll do everything 'when it's warmer out', since we hate the cold weather!)


If you were going to have a weird, unusual pet, what would it be? 
A Giraffe- I love giraffes. 

Who is your best friend? 

Daddy and Giraffe. Mama too, but I hide my feelings from her sometimes.


When do you feel misunderstood by grown-ups?
When I want to watch Mickey Mouse all day and they won't let me. I don't understand why not? And why don't grown-ups understand how much fun it is to chase the dog around and pull her tail & ears? And why don't grown-ups give me what I want when I lay on the floor kicking & screaming while having a major meltdown?


What three words best describe you?
Mama calls me crazy, so I guess if running around screaming, waving my arms and panting makes me crazy, then I must be. Everyone says I'm a happy girl, so I must be. And I must be a big girl because Mama and Daddy keep telling me I'm such a big girl and that I make them so happy.


What’s something that makes you angry?
When Pepper licks me or tries to steal food off my plate.


What’s the best compliment you ever received?
That I am a good giraffe Mommy.


What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?
Hold her hand while we walk outside and play legos with her.


What makes you sad?
Not being with Mommy & Daddy.


How are you like Daddy?
I quietly observe a new situation and take in the atmosphere when we first get someplace new like the park or playground. Once I assess the situation, I then move in for fun.


What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?
Play Hide & Seek and snuggle!

I was snapping some photos inside the house the other day - trying to get back into the photography state of mind lately.... Julianna quickly found her own Fisher Price camera and started taking some pictures too! She wants to be just like Mama! 

"Cheese Mama!" ........ She says cheese before she clicks her camera each time! 

Exhausted from snapping pictures. 

Pretending to sleep.... Notice baby giraffe's head sticking out. 

11 things Meme

I am linking up (late) to Paper Mama's "11 things Meme" ... I like doing these types of posts sometimes and it helps my friends & followers to know me better & breaks up the week. These are fun!

My questions to answer:

1. If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

Anything but Skye. I have spent most of my life correcting people in how to spell, pronounce, and oh yes I am a girl (I get "Mr." or referred to as a "he" in the business world all the time if someone doesn't know me) - and of course the most asked question, "Were your parents hippies?" ... Ugh spare me. 

2. Are you a collector of anything?

My house collects dust LOL. Other than that, we have very few "collections" in our house. We have the Waterford Crystal 12 days of Christmas Champagne Flutes which we will probably never get a chance to use... and that's about all I can think of for collecting. My house is too small! 

3. What is your first thought when you wake up?

My mind starts going as to what needs to be done for the day - and then I look in the monitor to see if Julianna is up and can we sleep in a few more minutes? If the alarm goes off, it's set to sports talk, so sometimes I'll sit there and listen to the sports news for a few minutes... Yes I enjoy that stuff! 

4. Do you prefer sweet or salty foods?

Majorly Sweet. Especially now that I'm pregnant - no doubt! Bring on the chocolate! Oh and the Ben& Jerry's ice cream!

5. Name one thing you miss about being a kid.
The innocence and every day happiness of not knowing a world where bad things happen. Oh and, having summer off! 

6. Are you a morning or night person?

Morning. Brian and I turn into sloths at night time. I couldn't imagine going out until 2am or later {gasp} like I used to in my 20's - Ugh! We got home from a Yankee game last year at midnight and I was off kilter for a day or so. I need early bed time - haha! 

7. List 5 items on your life’s to-do list:

Visit Italy 

Become a photographer 

Move south and build a bigger house 

Learn how to cook more Puerto Rican food 

Make more money (that's always on my list! haha!) 

8. Share one thing that people may not know about you.

That I was married at 21 years old (briefly) to a Snake that was 11 years older than me who was a pathological liar. Luckily I got out of that pretty fast and learned a big lesson. Incidentally getting married so young should be illegal , you don't have a clue who you are and what your world as a true adult will be like. At 21, you are still a kid. Live & learn right? 

9. What is your all time favorite song, movie, and book?

Oh there are just too many to name really and I could never narrow it down to just one of each. I will tell you that ever since I was a kid, I loved all the Star Wars movies and have seen them all hundreds of times over the years, and sadly could quote too many Star Wars lines like the nerd I am :) 

Favorite book - Hmmmm - I read a good book recently called The Shack - I usually do not care for spiritual fiction but I have to tell you, it was a fabulous book. It is an incredible book to read that helps you understand why bad things in life happen sometimes. I highly recommend it for everyone! 

10. Do you have any hidden talents?

Um. Not that I'm aware of.

11. Are you a really clean or super messy person?

I would like to think clean. I am anal about cleaning up my house daily but somehow I always think it's a pig-sty and messy because it's so small and we don't have enough storage ever. 

One of the 'rules' is I'm supposed to post a picture of myself... but I think I'll hold off on that for now, as I plan on doing a pregnancy post with pictures next week. Instead, you get a picture of the sunrise in the morning after the pretty snow the other night. It coated each tree branch....

Here is the bracelet my daughter made for me with the help of her grandma. I love it & don't take it off. 

Have a nice weekend! 

Babymoon

Babymoon happened. Even with the snowstorm! Brian and I thought for sure we were going to have to cancel this past weekend's spa getaway due to the snow, but it worked out for  us luckily.
Brian's parents were able to drive down here on Friday even with the storm. Somehow they did not hit snow until about 30 minutes west of our house. We were kind of on that border line of where he storm was cutting out. We got less snow than they predicted originally - only about 10-11 inches. East of us did not fair so well - Long Island and Connecticut got hammered with 2-3 feet of snow - ouch! Usually it's NJ that gets it, so we somehow lucked out this time.

So, my inlaws made it down here and we were able to leave Saturday morning to drive to Bethlehem  PA for our spa day and overnight visit at historical Hotel Bethlehem. Oh happy day! I was so upset on Thursday with the impending snow forecast thinking we would need to cancel. Good thing we didn't jump the gun & cancel the hotel!

We went to a Spa called "American Hairlines" in Bethlehem. It was very nice - certainly not DePasquale's Spa - but nothing really measures up to that really, so it's an unfair comparison. We both had a massage, facial, pedicure & manicure.... and we both loved the facial the best. I never had one before, so it was a very pleasant surprise. We've had massages plenty of times - but never facial. I would do that again no doubt!

Oh and the best part about the spa was, the employees are allowed to bring their dogs with them to work! While I got my facial, the therapist's pug named 'Juicy' slept under the table and even was snoring a few times- it made me smile and also relaxed me since I am a total dog person! One of the other workers has a mini-doxie he brings in but he wasn't there that day. What a great idea!

Our hotel room was very lovely - and we even had robes. Yay. I love the little luxuries like that. We went out to a local place called "Apollo Grill" for dinner. It was good but I did not feel that well while we were there, so we ended up wrapping my dinner to take back with us. I had a wicked headache and felt pretty queasy. Man this pregnancy stuff is getting old quick! Luckily I felt a little better later on and was able to eat some of my dinner back in the hotel room. The next morning, we slept in and went for a fabulous brunch in the hotel's historical 1741 room. Overall, we had an incredible 24 hours away from home. It was a successful baby-moon!

p.s. Julianna missed us but she was a good girl for Grandma & Grandpa ... she was so happy to see us when we got home too!

I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to but I did manage to get some ... It was very cold out and not conducive to walking around and being outside too much.

This was an old staircase leading up to the 1741 room in the hotel. 

A picture of 'us' outside of the hotel. 

Hotel Bethlehem from the ground. 

I love the buildings here. I wish we could have ventured out further than a couple of blocks. 

We'll go back in the summer and do that! 

I love how the streets and sidewalks are brick. 

I thought this building was pretty cool! 

Tons of small, quaint restaurants on each street.

Hello! 

Each building had such pretty detail - I really want to come back in warmer weather and explore more! 

What did we do this past weekend?

This past weekend was eventful (at least for Winter time it was!). I normally hibernate in the Winter but I also try to balance that with getting out of the house on the weekends for sanity and peace of mind!
This weekend, we were able to get out and do some good stuff! I took some pictures with my Iphone - No big girl camera. I don't know why, but I can't get motivated enough to take out my Canon lately. I think it's the weather. Yep, it's totally the weather.

Friday ... 
This weekend, Brian, Julianna and I went out to a (new) local pizza place for dinner on Friday night.  We have our normal "Friday night" spot we go to, but decided to try something different since we had a $10 giftcard. We went to Grotto Pizza (for anyone local) - and it was decent. It was kind of run down and not much room to sit comfortably - however the food was good enough where I would go back there for the pizza. (Pizza is a  staple of the food pyramid in NJ!)

Saturday....
Julianna went for her swimming lesson - and I am happy to report this week, she liked it and did better! She did not have a full out meltdown. She actually held onto daddy and kicked her legs to stay afloat... and she held onto the steps and kicked her legs while floating! Yay! She is not progressing as fast as the other kids in the class, but who knows, maybe they have pools at home or are more comfortable in the water than Julianna. She is still scared but I know she'll get over it.

Right after her swim lesson, we went to a friend's 5th birthday party at "Giggles PlayStation" in Rockaway, NJ. I love this place. It's a great place to go in the colder weather with young kids and for birthday parties. They have a huge playground, rides, ball pit (aka germ pit), a carrousel and a small train ride.

Then... at night, we had our wonderful babysitter come over to watch Julianna while Brian and I went out to dinner to a great Hibachi place. We only stayed out a couple of hours- but date night is so essential when you have kids. You need to get out and have adult time.

Some Iphone pics from the birthday party:
(How I hate grainy Iphone pictures. Ugh! - But I have to work with what I got some days!)

Julianna's first time going into the ball pit- 

I told her don't get stuck because no way is this pregnant mama climbing in there to get her! 

On the mini-carrousel 

Snack-break

Party time 

Cake time! Julianna stuck her hand in the icing and started shoveling it into her mouth - I was cracking up! 

No pictures of that though! Just pictures of her being civilized and good! haha! 

 Little Piggy 

Sunday ...
I made a big yummy pancake breakfast with fresh strawberries that my daughter & husband devoured! I love when they love my cooking.
Then we drove to Bridgewater mall (not too far from us) - to walk around and get out of the house - sometimes just getting out for a few hours & window shopping in the Winter makes me super-happy!
Oh and we picked up these 2 really cool things from Williams-Sonoma: THIS strawberry huller and THIS Herb wand. I can't wait to use them! Williams-Sonoma has the greatest stuff in the world!

Julianna and I at the mall - she loves shopping- I've created a monster!

 

 Julianna discovered the Lego Store. Look at the buckets of Lego heads & hats - too funny! 

She loved the Lego table they had there- She didn't want to leave. 

 Julianna and Daddy walking through the mall - she loves to hold the bags of stuff we buy! 

 On our way home, Julianna fell asleep... I volunteered to drop Brian off (so he could work on tax stuff- blegh) and then I drove around while Julianna slept. The Lake is barely frozen for as cold as it's been, but it's so pretty even in the Winter time. I can't wait for summer even more now! 

Julianna waiting for the Superbowl to start 

(well, not really, she was watching Mickey Mouse)

Pepper during the SuperBowl. 

Speaking of which - what did everyone do for the Superbowl? Anything? 

We just hung out at home. I'm too tired and pregnant to deal with going to a party on a work night for a Superbowl that I really am not super-interested in anyway.  I was happy the Ravens won, but hey, it's NOT the NY Giants. And now that's football is over, it's almost time for baseball - I can't wait for spring training to start! 

I need to get away .....

This is the time of year that I normally get the "Winter Blues" ... It's usually the end of January that I get depressed about winter and I long for the green grass and blooming flowers of Springtime. We start to see signs of spring around the end of March ... so it's only 2 drawn out months of waiting now!

Brian and I are saving up money for "baby stuff" lately. We need so many things for this little boy! It's never ending. So, that puts off other things that we would like to do now (such as going on a mid-winter vacation). We also need to buy a new twin bed for my daughter. We just got her a headboard, and we need a mattress, box spring and comforter set this month. This stuff adds up right?! Ugh!

So anyway. We came up with a nice little compromise for our sanity. 'They' say you should try to go on a baby-moon when you are pregnant, to enjoy a little getaway before the baby comes. So we came up with a nice little escape that should be very relaxing and emotionally fulfilling. My mother in law is going to drive down for the weekend to stay at our house to watch Julianna and our dog, Pepper.
We used a few of our United Miles (since they are useless now towards a plane ticket anyway) to book and pay for a hotel room at the historical "Hotel Bethlehem" in the quaint town of Bethlehem, PA. We actually tried to stay overnight right before Christmas but we weren't able to get a hotel room because they were booked. It's a nice town with shopping and restaurants which we have been wanting to visit.

We go in a couple weeks & I'll be taking my camera for sure.

Anyway - I found a day spa coincidently right down the road from the hotel. I booked a 'Spa day' (4 and 1/2 hours) for Brian and myself. The plan is to go to the spa first, enjoy our massage, facial, pedi, mani... then check into the hotel and have a pleasant dinner.. and stay over... sleep in with no worries.
I. can't. wait.  It's a couple days of much needed worry-free relaxation with my husband.

Brian and I normally do date-nights but we have never had the opportunity to go away overnight without Julianna yet. (We always go on vacation with her). We don't have much help here, so we usually just have our babysitter come for a few hours so we can go out to eat on a Saturday night. Overnight will be a nice treat & Julianna will be in good hands.

I can't do a blog post without a picture... I just can't. Here is one of my favorites from the past year- from last February I believe. (Can you tell I haven't taken any pictures of anything lately - I am pathetic) - I need to really get out and shoot in this cold winter air!)