Northpark, how I love thee!

So I've made it one of my life's missions to make sure my offspring love malls & shopping. In fact, after Cade was born I made sure his first mall experience was the Northpark experience. Only the best mall in Dallas (although Galleria tries).... Here are the reasons why I love Northpark. (and hate people who say "You drive all the way there?") Um, I didn't move to the suburbs to stay in the suburbs. I strategically chose a home that has easy access to 3 major highways so I can get around Dallas. People who live in the DFW area and stay in their suburb bubble are lame, and that's not me.

Wow, I really got off track there! Okay, so back to Northpark love.
1. This mall has the best stores. The Dillards here has a huge shoe section, and brought in the most amazing swimsuit selection ever. Um, if I can brag about a swimsuit collection given the trauma of swimsuit shopping you know it's good. Even better at 50% off!

2. The mall has a great movie theater. With real popcorn. By real popcorn I am referring to the fact that they scoop it fresh into your bag from the popper. Unlike other places that place it under heat lamps and then try to pass it off as fresh movie popcorn. I don't think so.

3. This mall has a Dallas Public Library in it, with fun little crawling playthings for my baby.

3 1/2. Puzzles galore and climby stairs and gorgeous murals! Me likey!

4. The pretty art. The floors are shiny and gorgeous and the art is amazing, and they bring in art. So you're getting a cultural experience also. You'd think Cade is running towards the art, but actually he notices the "up up" and the "down down" (AKA escalators).

5. The awesome food court with comfy chairs. You can get a fajita taco, Sonic drink, snappy salad, or crepe all in one food court. Their restaurants are also amazing, but I save my money for clothes and food court it.

6. The awesome bathrooms. You think I've gone to far, but if you are a breast-feeding mama you appreciate my tips from my months of experience (now over!) and you appreciate that I know that Neimans, Nordstrom, and Barneys are so nice to their nursing patrons they have special couches and seating areas. And they've raised their prices so high, you're not tempted to buy everything you see.

7. The Ann Taylor Loft here formerly had a Maternity section, now it does not. Which is sad, because Cade might want a sister one day and I might need to use it one day. Howev, I am enlightened so I put it on this list and spread the word to all you prego's out there to go online and buy, buy, buy their reasonably priced, amazingly fitting prego cardi's, shirts, pants, and jackets.

8. The night scene, dress up, throw on your heels and eat out at one of the fab restaurants. Scenesters of all ages walk the mall after 8pm. If you love looking at pretty people dressed well, this is where you go.

Rain, Rain, Lets go play!

One of the silly little things I dreamed about when I was pregnant was taking Cade outside to play in the rain. This summer gave us plenty of opportunity. Unfortunately the full on, running through the rain, chasing each other around the backyard, hiding under the trees for relief we were both laughing and yelling so hard wasn't captured on film. Instead, here is the next day, showing Daddy his baby sign for rain. I love that this kid loves the rain and isn't scared by even the most booming thunder. He points to his ear (baby sign for "hear") and then to the sky, looking to me with those big blue eyes like "What's that I hear, Mommy Dear?" (at least that's how it goes down in my head). Enjoy the pics!

Discovering shadows

Cade found shadows today! Here is in the kid's (Izzy and Cade's) favorite exploration place...

He ran away from his shadow a couple of times and it took me awhile to wonder what he was scared of. The weeds, a bug, what? Here he is waving at his shadow.

Gratuitous Izzy shots...

Our puppy princess.

Pump it up playdate!!

I was so excited to discover that Pump It Up has a Junior location in Plano that has "happy hour" for toddlers. That's right mommas, take your babies twice a week for 2 hours of playtime for kids 1-4. Mommies and Daddies can even play with the kids.

About 30 sec in Cade got scared. I guess the sheer size and loud party music were a little intimidating to little man (a-mazing jams, none of that child band nursery rhyme garbarge....no no. There was definitely some "Tub Thumper" and "Jump Around". If only there had been a little "Whatta Man", my friend Amy and I would have been in flashback central. Minus the hot brothers to stare at. :)


Anyways, Cade was scared but he gradually gave it up and his alter-ego, Stunt Man Sam, showed up. He climbed up this huge ladder to ride a slide with me. It was so fast and fun, we LOVED it!

Discovering that going backwards was a little fun too. Gotta go the wrong way to realize the right way is more fun!

He jumped, banged on the inflatables, rode a toy car, flirted with baby Audrey (former helmet buddies, current beautiful head pals!) He LOVED it. It was so cute to see him chase the other babies around.

A moment of rest before jetting off to the next adventure.

Added bonus, mommy workout. Jumping, squatting, crawling, chasing your child... score! Totally made for a non-guilty pizza lunch at yummy hole in the wall, Napoli's, next door.

Only vent for the day: Mommies who check out. I don't understand how you drop off your 3 year old and then lean up on an inflatable, oblivious to him knocking over and crawling on the younger babies. I find this happens especially at mall playyards. It's in-sane. Only at the mall you have to be baby bodyguard because literally there is always about 2 seven year olds who are leaping from slide to climbing house and jumping 5 feet down from things, running backwards up slides and pushing your 1 year old out of the way. I hate those kids. And yet, there you are, surrounded by 30 oblivious mammas who aren't on baby bodyguard/shadow duty...do you tell demonic seven year old to watch out for the babies and make him apologize to your silent child? Clearly you haven't seen some of these moms, it's kind of scary. You're going to jumped if you yell at their child. Question is: would you rather it be the mom nursing the infant who has had 4 hours of sleep all week or the white trash woman double fisting the Route 44's?

Why I Love Summer Break

#1 Coffee & Chocolate crossiant at posh little coffee shop with bestie & my baby. Followed by shopping at Northpark!

(yes Virginia, that IS a heart in my latte!)

#2 Seeing my baby be a big boy & relishing in the moment when he's out and about, not stuck in daycare.

#3 Hanging out in nap clothes with my kids. We play all sorts of things, Izzy, Cade, and I. We take turns chasing each other, we play in the pillows on our big bed, we cuddle on lambie rug, we make forts out of couch cushions, we play in the yard rain or shine, we nap together on the couch. We are a fierce threesome and I'm glad God brought us together. I love them, love them, LOVE THEM! #4 Seeing how Cade looks like mini-me and mini-Alex (my brother) when we were kids (see pic below).

#5 Being in a happy mood when Nick comes home from work and doing our weekly breakfast out as a family. He makes me the happiest girl in the world, and I love him!

Swim Swim Swimmy! (and a booby story)

Swim Pics from Lolli & Papa's Pool! Mr. Turtle is so the pimpest baby float we've ever seen. Only thing missing is a cupholder. And a motor. I'm so calling it: in the next 5 years baby floats will have joysticks and motors so they can propel themselves across the pool and Mommy doesn't have to disrupt her tanning flip schedule by motoring baby manually.

We do own 3 baby sunhats. Elephant, fishy, and light denim. Of course we couldn't find them as we packed up the pool gear so we borrowed Daddy's Aggie hat. And rocked it. (of course)

This is not the time, nor the place. But I miss prego boobs and bf-ing boobs. Okay, I don't miss the hard as rocks watermelon days or the oops-I'm-leaking days, but I am missing the Pam Anderson perk-tastic boobies of yore. Turns out I was in the percentage of women who deflated. I would have rather kept the last 4 prego pounds in the breast department. (only if perky, of course) I'm feeling insecure. Like I'm honestly, on a daily basis no less, remembering the day in middle school when my brother's friend called me flat in the middle of the hallway during passing period. Yep, a 6th grade boy told an 8th grade girl she was flat. I'm such a geek, my response was something like "Oh yeah? Take away the L and I'm still skinny, take away the L and you are FAT!" In my head it was a kickass comeback. It left him stumped long enough for him to shut up and me to walk away. I've forgiven him... not because I'm a saint, but because of the apology 8 years later. He really was chubby at the time. Now he's grown up to be a handsome man and when he ran into me in the bar he told me I was hot ("No seriously, I mean HOT!" was his line) so all is forgiven.

Anywaysssss, on a NOT flat topic, Cade's pumped up floaty rocks his world. So does pool time.

Forward-Facing Baby!!!

So, pics from the day of firsts. After his haircut, we turned around his carseat to be forward facing. His long legs were getting a little cramped sitting rear-facing. So, although Nick & I got plenty of kudos from the CareSafe carseat installation technicians a few months ago for having our 12 month old rear-facing in his toddler seat, we had to turn him around.


He freaking LOVES it! It's so adorable to see him pointing, oohing and aahing as he sees stuff on the road. He even knows red light (he raises a stop hand) and green light (he babbles and points forward)...good training, I say, esp if I check a text at a red light.

So the real danger appears to not be that he is forward facing, but rather, that I am totally engrossed in his facial expressions as we drive. I've even (uggggggggh) bought some nursery rhyme and baby song cd's. They are so LAME, but track 27 on the nursery rhyme CD has challenged me in learning ALL the verses of the "I had a cat and my cat pleased me, I fed my cat under yonder tree. Cat goes fiddle-I-ee"

Going to have to move on to the Raffie and Joe Scruggs classics that I can actually enjoy. I just can't really stand listening to little kids singing nursery rhymes. I SO prefer me some Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert. I do risk Cade becoming a little Glam Rocker... but it's worth it. Right?

Cade's First Haircut

Pics from hair trimming at Visible Changes.

Cade LOVES to run around in a mall, here he is showing off his new haircut. (Curls intact)

While I didn't shed a tear, I was holding my breath. Luckily Mary Jo can cut baby hair extremely well and just flows with him turning his head to check out everything around him. He even got layers! :)

Fireworks Pics

I can't do this entry justice with the severe lack of coffee in my system..So enjoy the pics from Cade's first Fireworks!

Parade Pics

I'm so excited to say it did NOT rain on our parade. V excited seeing as though it was Cade's very first. Being true Patriots, we just HAD to have his first parade be the 4th of July parade. The same parade my parents took us to each year. Mom even made sure we took Cade to our exact parade start. (Close enough to the beginning of the parade to get all the candy, but far enough away to avoid too much crowds)

(Yes, being a good mom means posting the pics where your child looks cute, even if it's not your own personal best pic).... Okay, okay, Nick and I look presh in the pic below, even though Cade' face is blocked...but I was referring to the previous pic...just to earn good Mommy points)

Cade showed off his High Five skills AND his Fist Bump skills with the fire dog. Yay, Cade!

So, I only have one complaint about the parade...there were definitely less creatively-decorated floats than advertisement floats. I'm guessing there were no auditions to make getting a spot in the parade an honor. Nope, more like "If you have a car wrapped in ads, feel free to parade with us".

Okay, complaint time over. It was a blast, I totally loved being there with Cade. He danced, waved his flags, and I even got a tear in my eye singing "Proud to be an American" with him as we waved at the Vets. One even said "Hi Sonny!" and he waved right back. I love, love, loved it!

sorry for lame post. Going to get more coffee and put down Cade for an early nap, so I can snag a nap too! wish me luck.

Today = FAIL

Almost everything I've attempted to do today has been a failure. In fact, when I first typed the title of this blog entry I typed "Today = FIAL". To highlight what a loser I am today, I will admit that I just googled "fial" to see if maybe on the off chance it meant something more, I dunno, meaningful or hopeful.

I got this hit from Urban Dictionary defining "fial" (very convenient, what the chances, right?!)

FIAL - a way of expressing an even more epic fail. The misspelling serves to exemplify the great magnitude of fail that the person is commenting on.

And the website goes on to list 6 different version of this very same definition. Epic. So...how have I failed today?

1. Went to gym. Before I even started on the treadmill (by which I scoped out the tv's to find channels that might interest me.... btw--wtf do they ALWAYS play Charmed for?? it's like I get MSNBC, ESPN, ABC, and CW..... have you ever heard of Fox or NBC?? Regis. Anyone?) So picture me finally choosing a treadmill and programming my Nano and selecting my treadmill program..Then imagine me flinching as I get a tap on my shoulder at 60-something dude is standing 2 inches behind me, ON MY TREADMILL WITH ME. I didn't even hear his question because in my head I had 2 real quick thoughts...#1 Are we doing this now? Do people share? #2 What is this guy saying? Because to me, I heard "Good evening Clarice Starling" Anyways, he wanted to know if the black workout glove on the floor was mine. Um, Seriously sir? Do I look like that kind of girl? And could you not have gotten on either treadmill beside me to ask me that? And can you back up so I don't feel your breath on my neck? FAIL.

2. My first mommy & me playdate at random park. I thought I could find random park. I thought it was at most 10 mintues from home. I thought I could trust the hostess' directions. Turns out the cross streets don't cross. Teachable moment for Cade about parallel streets, I think not. So I called her... Bitch has a voicemail that says "Hey it's x, please leave a message if you have an emergency, otherwise I'll call you back soon. Thankssss!" Um, I decided this was not an emergency, so I hung up and waited as I drove around. Looking for a park with a "rocket". (It's a Rockets for 4th of July party at the Rocket Park) No, Google maps and the city parks & rec guide do not recognize a Rocket Park. Had I followed Google maps I would have been at Lockheed Martin. Literal rockets. I drove for 50 minutes before deciding I was in a bitchy mood and needed a happy meal. FAIL.

3. I thought Cade might like to play in the McDonald's playroom. Oh yeah, it has tunnels that go up 20 feet high. I'm hungry, don't feel like food getting cold so I can chase him up there. FAIL.

4. We came home, had lunch and enjoyed our McDonald's smoothie (super yummy!). I was so proud of Cade drinking it THROUGH A STRAW that I let him walk around the living room with that. He took the straw out and twirled in like a baton. Cute! Uh-oh, mixed berry splats on the carpet. FAIL.

5. Grocery store. Drove there, it was sunny. Get to parking lot, it starts to sprinkle. Decide to get gas first, it starts pouring rain. Go back home FAIL.

6. As soon as we get unpacked and Cade has a quick snack of pears and frozen peas it stops raining. I quickly load him back into the car and we drive to Kroger. We smugly walk into the store, thankful we missed the rain. All the shopping carts are wet from the rain. Not a single dry cart. Smug single girl says "I'm not picky if it's wet" and goes into the store. I won't lie, I wanted to slap her.... My precious BABY can't sit on a wet seat!!! I go back to the car for my handy dandy seat cover.

7. We checkout and cart boy puts groceries in the baby seat. FAIL. We walk outside and it's POURING RAIN. Duped my Mother Nature.... Yet does anyone offer to help us? Where are the cart boys? We've been ditched by the cart boys! FAIL.

FAIL, Fail, FIAL. That's my day. Hopefully I took all the bad karma today so you, faithful bloggie, could have good karma.

Love you, mean it!

Baby Teeth

If you had asked me 6 months ago if I ever wanted Cade to get teeth my answer would have been "no". The whole teething process didn't really make sense to me. I didn't understand "cutting teeth", that just sounds too gross and painful for me to grasp that process would happen to MY baby. On the other hand, I don't remember my own "cutting teeth" period growing up, so can't be that bad. Really though, the thing for me was imagining my little gummy bear with pearly rocks in his smile. I couldn't imagine the cuteness in that. A gummy smile unexpectedly sealed itself in my heart as an irrestible charm. How special to get a smile from this creature that doesn't even have teeth yet? I would think. I would sit for hours holding him when he was a newborn and wait for the moment he would give me his first gummy smile. It's just too precious a thing, so short-lived in the grand scheme of things. And so sweet when he would mistake my pinkie finger for a binkie and soothe himself by sucking on the tip. That gasp he does when he smiles fills me up. It's a little inhale and his mouth opens wide into the biggest grin. The innocence of his gummy smile took my breath away and I feared the day it would be lost to me forever.

Last July



December 2009 - bottom 2 teeth only

The teeth growing process for Cade has been a trip. His teething pain hasn't been that bad....probably thanks to Hylan's Teething tabs and baby Orajel. (Come to find out teething tablets have trace amounts of belladonna in them...a hallucinogen or something. So for Cade, he's really been tripping out while teething. Oops)

So we lived through most of the spring February till just after his birthday with Vampire Child. His top center two teeth did not make an appearance until about 12 months old. I'm SO glad that Twilight has been a hit this year, my vogue baby rocked that vampire look for quite awhile.

April 7, 2009 His birthday...He was graduating from fang boy and had the beginnings of "real" boy teeth.


June 2009 - we've got 6 top teeth (4 center and 2 upper molars) plus 4 bottom teeth (2 center and 2 lower molars)... .Um, yes molars at 14 months old. And the crazy thing is that they came in in pairs... insane, right?! So THAT explains his 5:30am wake-up call this month. Such a beating, it was early bird month for the Lamb household. When Cade wakes up, the world better be ready to play for him. Waiting until 7:00am Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and then Special Agent Oso was grueling some mornings. Toys that sing and talk should have a setting that prohibits anything above "mute" before 7:00am. I digress.

So how have we worked through teething?
1. Hylan's Teething Tablets (these little suckers dissolve in the mouth and calmed him INSTANTLY when we were traveling last summer)
2. Baby Orajel (though now that he's a fighter when it comes to my finger in his mouth I question the point. I'm probably just numbing his tongue and it's going to cost me years of therapy later when he thinks mommy messed with him when he was in pain).
3. Teething rings (on occasion he'll suck on them for 10 straight minutes, howev he hides them in couch cushions and in his toy baskets, so again, I question the effectiveness. I'm sure one day I'll catch him giving them to Izzy, the dog loves ice!)
4. Frozen blueberries & frozen peas. The frozen peas are like CRACK COCAINE to this child. He can't get enough these days. He points to the fridge, walks over, hangs on the door until I open it and digs around the drawer until he finds the peas bag. Then he squeals, laughs, stomps his feet really fast and claps his hands all at once --- so I don't resist. Healthy addiction I suppose.