Top 2 Tuesday!

I'm getting an early start on this. Tomorrow (or somewhere else in the near future) you'll get goodies about our weekend.



Top 2 gifts I have received. (Aside from Jude, of course)
1) My tea press. I love tea. Especially loose leaf tea. My parents got me this for Christmas a few years ago and it's the greatest thing in the world. It makes two cups of tea, which is great for the times when I want lots of tea, which is usually all the time. The only downfall is that loose leaf tea isn't as easy to find in stores, but I did discover Teavana recently because one of my friends works there, I just haven't had the money to go and spend on tea. :(

Image from Google.

2) The surprise trip to NYC my parents took my sister and I on for Christmas a couple years ago. We were opening our presents and we got to the last box. It had socks in it and underneath them were tickets to plays and airplane tickets to NYC. We were still half-asleep and it took us awhile to catch on, but we pretty much packed our bags and got on a plane Christmas day and went to NYC for 3 days to see "Evil Dead The Musical" and "The Producers" on Broadway. It was great!

Ch-ch-changes

This is one of those posts that I've been thinking about making for, like, a week. No joke. 
I've been busy making some changes to better myself and the world.
Change 1: I've stopped using shampoo and my hair looks/feels fabulous. If not better than before. I use baking soda & water. Plus a few drops of tea tree oil for a little extra cleansing boost. I haven't added the recommended vinegar "conditioner" because a) I haven't really needed it and b) I couldn't find the apple cider vinegar in our cupboards.
Change 2: Teaching Jude how to walk. He's getting better at it everyday, he'll take a step or two on his own here and there. I think the most he has taken on his own so far is around 4 or 5. He's getting there slowly, but surely. Soon he'll be running and driving me even more crazy.
Change 3: I made my own soap. It smells of patchouli and is shaped like a T-Rex.
Change 4: Since I'm running in the 5k for Craniosynostosis on Halloween, I decided the other day that maybe I should start actually training. I tried training before, but I always felt like crap (I'm out of shape and my legs weren't cooperating by either my knees or ankles failing on me) after running, so I gave up after a week. I was doing the Couch to 5k plan before, but this time I decided to just go for a barefoot run. Well, I wore my fancy Paper-Feet. I jogged .91 miles (which I know thanks to http://www.mapmyrun.com/) without stopping. The only reason I stopped and chose to do a 2 block cool-down walk as opposed to 1 is because I was thirsty and forgot to bring a water bottle with me. But, after running barefoot, my legs felt great and I didn't twist my ankle once(which I'm normally very prone to doing), no shin splints, no awkward cramps. I did forget to stretch, but I still felt great. I need to keep that up and work up to 3 miles for the run.
Speaking of the run. I'm trying to collect money. A $500 donation, going towards The Jorge Posada Foundation & CAPPS (the hosts of the race), also gets a spot on the t-shirt and in the official race journal for Jude's name. So far I have collected $155, mostly through Paypal. If you're interested in making a donation to sponsor Jude in the race, please let me know and I can send you the Paypal link.

Changes I still need to make include but aren't limited to: cloth pads and/or cup, sewing more, knitting more, crafting things to sell, rearranging my bedroom, and finding an attention span.

Craniosynostosis Awareness

I don't know why I haven't done this sooner, but I guess with Jude's surgery around the corner (one week and one day away), now's as a good a time as any.
I set up a page at carepages.com for Jude. I'll probably keep it more updated than this throughout the surgery and hospital stay. You do have to join carepages in order to view the page.

For awareness and more info on craniosynostosis, you can visit the following sites.
http://www.cappskids.org/ - The Craniosynostosis and Positional Plagiocephaly Support Inc. strives to spread awareness, educate and offer support and guidance to families affected by craniosynostosis and/or positional plagiocephaly.

http://craniokids.org/ - provides awareness and support forums, founded by a mother and father after researching craniosynostosis and being disappointed in the lack of personal support and connections they found.

http://www.jorgeposadafoundation.org/ - founded by Jorge Posada after his son was diagnosed with craniosynostosis, the Jorge Posada foundation is a non-profit organization that creates awareness of craniosynostosis and provide support of families going through this journey.

Thank you all for the support!

Birthday Party brain vomit

Jude's turning one in 2 and a half months. I've been trying to figure out what to do for his birthday party. I've been googling themes and I keep finding great stuff. Like really awesome things and now I want his party to be perfect, I don't even believe in perfection, but his party has to be it. Just a warning, this post may or may not be coherent from a spectator's point of view, it's mostly to get my thoughts out of my brain so they don't get swallowed and lost in that vortex.
I definitely narrowed down the theme from several contenders to under the sea. I'm thinking for colors I want teals and blues and orange.
Maybe some greens for shiggles. Orange doesn't really belong below the sea perse but it looks really rad with teal. I figured it out! It's the fail whale's fault.

I'm debating between doing a tons-o-fish feel or narrowing it down to one main sea creature; either a whale or an octopus. The fail whale is mighty cute, but that might be sending the wrong message... Maybe I could use my master-genius to turn him into a not so fail whale just for Jude's party.
I definitely want to make most of the decorations and whatnot by hand.
- Banner. I have so much extra cardstock and scrapbook paper lying around.
- Cupcakes, because slicing cake at a party with my family is always a huge hassle. But, my grandma has been on an ice cream cake kick for everyone's birthday's this past year... and ice cream cake IS mighty tasty... NO. Cupcakes, and since my grandma loves me she'll probably bring an ice cream cake to the party for my birthday (a convenient 8 days after Jude's). Cupcake cake or individually decorated cupcakes? Cupcake toppers? Cake stand? I feel like I'm getting a little crazy, I never plan things this far in advance, I'm a very last minute, spontaneous person.
- Jude's cake needs to be adorable, and sea creature shaped.
- Invitations; do I make them on the computer and print them or do I work some paper magic like I did for my baby shower (which reminds me, Sydney's graduation announcements need finishing, good thing my parents aren't ready to mail them yet).
- Favors, to do or not to do? I'm leaning towards yes because everyone loves favors, and I have 10 freakin' little cousins for crying out loud, plus Jude's baby friends that come. That said, it really is going to be a small affair, just close family and friends but I have a lot of those.
- I'll leave the nom sitch up to someone else.
- Table decorations. Fishbowl ceneterpieces complete with real live fish that double as a party favor, anyone?
- Activities aren't really needed, he's only one and everyone can just enjoy everyone elses company, dammit.
-Oh, and of course, this will be as eco-friendly as possible. RRR, ftw.


In other, completely unrelated news:
- We went to the beach with Nicole, Carly & Kaleb on Thursday. My back is sunburnt and Jude wasn't digging the water but loved trying to eat the sand. I didn't take any pictures though.
- I'm pretty sure I have an ear infection, my ear has been hurting for days, and there was a pimple in there and it popped and it still hurts and my mastoid is swollen and PAIN OW OHMIGAWD. I'm pretty sure I'm going to urgent care after those hosers get home from the parade and I eat some lunch.
- Jude's cutting another tooth, this time on the bottom. Teething isn't as bad as I expected, he's just extra cranky and extra clingy. And he has a boogery nose.
- He plays the soooo big! game now. I tried to capture some video of my intelligent baby earlier but alas, my stupid video camera is dead even though it has hardly been used.
- I sneezed and Jude's toy cheered for me. I legit had something more important to put here but I can't remember, and yes, they do say I have A D somethi- can we have class outside?
- I like lists and I love lamp.

That is all. Have a wonderful long weekend! We're bbqing some ribs & chicken wings for dinner. omnomnomnom

Green Street Fair

His shirt says "Be green save our planet" in sequins on organic cotton, I thought it was fitting.

This weekend was the Green Street Fair in Downtown Plymouth. It sounded fun and interesting so Jude & I checked it out on Saturday. There was live music, tons of booths selling eco-friendly/crafty wares, vegan foods, recycling info, organic clothing, activities for children, and organic elephant ears. I wanted to try the organic elephant ears, but didn't get the chance to.
I strapped him to me and we walked around looking at all the booths. People tried to sell me home cleaning products, soap, cloth diapers, and cloth pads & menstrual cups. Surprisingly, a lot of the local green stores/companies I knew of before and shop from weren't there (like Green Baby Bargains and the Little Seedling). Another surprising thing was that there was only one tent of green menstrual care products and two cloth diapering tents. I expected more baby products, and more crafty tents I think. I got a lot of comments and questions about my baby wrap, which was cool. I saw a lot of baby's in Ergo carriers.
My neighbors run a green dryer company, I don't know exactly what it is that they do, but it has to do with dryer vents so I ran into them there at their booth and chatted with them a while. I also ran into 2 friends from high school.
Jude fell asleep the latter half of us being there and once I exhausted all the booth possibilities we sat in the park in front of the music stage and listened to some music. Jude woke up right before the band American Mars came on so I let him sit in the grass while we waited for my dad to pick me up. We listened, and Jude danced. Everyone who walked past thought he was absolutely adorable.


I couldn't resist, I went back today after getting cash from my dad to get my mum a mother's day gift. I also ended up getting myself a bar of body/face soap & a bar of shampoo from the Mirror Lake Organics booth because they had some bars that were half off from getting rained on (the soap's fine, just the labels are a little messed up) plus it smells delicious and the guy selling it was kinda cute, not going to lie. ;D But, really, who can say no to a delicious smelling bar of homemade, organic soap for $3?