Lady Gaga Photos Irk The Messy Mom

I read this article a couple months ago when it showed up on Yahoo news, but it was in my sidebar again today and I had to chime in on the matter.

The title is Lady Gaga Photos Irks Beatles Fans. The story goes, Sean Lennon (Jon Lennon's son) had a photo of Lady Gaga on his late father's famous piano and posted it on Twitter with a caption that read "With gaga at mom's house, she's belting on the white piano..."Apparently this upset a lot of people who felt like it was a disgrace to the legacy of John Lennon. In turn the fans comments upset Sean Lennon and he told them all to take a chill pill. Well, no actually what he said was "pianos meant are to be played. Why is everyone so uptight? What should we do, lock it away in a dusty room? So judgmental..." Other words were exchanged, nothing rude or offensive, in fact I felt like Sean's comments were more than fair. He's probably used to this kind of input involving anything to do with his dad, that just comes with the territory when you are the son of one of the world's most influential musical icons of all time.

On another note when I read that title about the photo "irking" fans and how some people were disturbed all I could think was "aren't all of Lady Gaga's photos disturbing?" I mean really, that women just gives me the heebie jeebies. Her looks reminds me of a female (kind of) Marilyn Manson. I know she is supposed to be the most creative person to ever fall flat on her face in giant platform heels and even the article I just read says that "The pop star was classically trained in the instrument from the age of 4, to prodigal results", but still I just don't get it.

Any of you readers Lady Gaga fans (it's okay, you can be honest), Beatles fans, Beatles rock band game fans? Whose side are you on?

ANGRY Bird Invasion

I don't watch TV these days, and other than the weekly coupon inserts I don't read the paper, so my news feed is limited to what I see on my Yahoo home page. I have some other friends that are the same way. Sometimes we go around sharing what we read on Yahoo news that day and the topics can range anywhere from babies swapped at birth to why bacon in desserts is all the rage. This week I am going to blog about what I read on Yahoo news each day.

There were lots of fascinating blurbs today, but the one I am going to highlight is about the Angry Birds sensation.

In case you haven't heard or unlike me don't have a husband addicted to this app, Angry Birds is a game that you can play on your iphone. The article I read describes it as

"a simple game that challenges players to catapult birds with various abilities at structures containing egg-stealing pigs"

Does that sound like a winner or what? The truth is my husband loves it, my 3 year old loves it, and I wouldn't say I love it, but I have catapulted birds a few times myself and I even beat J's score once! The game is actually pretty fun and definitely an original. The App is currently approaching 18 million downloads and apparently it's a pretty big deal that is starting to expand beyond just iphones.

What (if any) electronic games do you or your family members play? Words With Friends? Family Feud? Tertris anyone? I guess we all need the occasional stress reliever.

Letter to SJ (6 months)

In June I wrote a letter to my baby girl and intend to write one every 3 months. This is the 2nd in the series.

Dear SJ,

I can't believe you have been in my life for half a year now. You are such a sweet tempered beautiful baby. Your eyes sparkle in a way I have never seen in all my life. Right now your eyes are grey and brown with flecks of green, they still haven't completely changed color yet. Your hair has gradually changed from a deep dark brown, to a slightly lighter shade.

There was another baby girl born recently that goes to our church and lives pretty close to our house. There are lots of kids at the church that are close to your age. It will be fun to see you when you get old enough to play and run around together. Before you know it you will be 6 years instead of 6 months and will start to learn what friendship is all about. Mommy has a little thing that helps her remember what is important in life and that is the 3 Fs. Faith. Family. Friends.

Every girl needs a good group of friends. Other girls that you can be yourself around. Mommy feels incredibly blessed to have awesome friends and this week I got to hang out with some my girlfriends twice in a row! First some of my very best friends came to help me make invitations for mommy and daddy's 10 year anniversary.
You were right there with us, but you fell asleep in the highchair.

Then today some girls that I have known and been close friends with for a very long time all came over to our house to finally meet you.
They all held you and talked about how cute you are. All that girl time must tire you out though because by the time they left you were sound asleep again.

I pray that your life will be full of many meaningful friendships. Friends that will be there for you through thick and thin, full of good times, and reflecting the love of Jesus.

Loving My Postpartum Body

You have no idea how hard it was for me to write that title. A few months ago I put down getting back into my prepregnancy clothes as one of my summer goals. Then last week I wrote about accomplishing that goal.

Here is what I had written

"I did it! I reached my prepregnancy weight. I could use some help in the tone and definition department, but overall I feel healthy and happy"

I am ashamed to say that just that short statement had to be mulled over and rewritten several times. First off because I don't want to make anyone feel insecure if they haven't met their personal weight loss goals, and I also don't want that to be the focus of what I am all about. I didn't want to sound prideful either. But more than all that in my mind I was thinking about how imperfect my body still is and always has been. Can I really say with confidence that I am healthy and happy?

Here's the deal ladies and this is a biggie, I reached a number on a scale that I had in my head and it still didn't fulfill me. I had a moment of satisfaction followed by feelings of insecurity. "This can't be it, I still have a muffin top in most of my clothes. I have cellulite, and stretch marks. I am still not satisfied." It was in this moment (and by moment what I really mean is a vague underlying feeling) that I had to make a decision to be happy and healthy. Paul talks a lot about contentment (1 Timothy 6:6, Philipians 4:11, 2 Corinthians 9:8) and being satisfied with what you have and where you are at.

You don't have to be anorexic or a plastic surgory glutton to have a body image problem. Do you tear yourself down for how you look? Do you compare yourself to others? Do you feel discontent with your body more often than you feel content? Then you have a problem. If this little blog is in any way platform that somehow can make difference then I will say unapologetically that I LOVE my body! I may need to be reminded of this when my weight fluctuates, or when I am around the modelesque girls in North Dallas, or when I am in my sixties, but I am committed for the long haul. It's not about pride, it's not about or conjuring up some feel good statement. It's about giving up that area of self pity and freeing up every part of me to be whole and to be used to focus outwardly in the truth of who I was called to be, a beautiful creation inside and out.

Baby's First Meal- AVOCADO

With my son I did his first meal by the book and I did have some reasons for that, but with his sister she seemed to be doing perfectly fine with just breastfeeding so I held out a little over 6 months before sitting her down to spoon feed her. Not only did I wait longer this time around, but I gave her avocado as her first food.

I was hesitant at first because I thought that you HAVE to start with rice cereal, but what I learned is that this is based solely on traditional practice and has no scientific evidence to support it. It dates back to over 50 years ago when people were feeding their infants at one month old. Since rice cereal is hypoallergenic it was the one thing that was well tolerated at this age. We now know that it was not the food, but the age that was conflicting. Turns out babies can do just fine for the first 6 months of life on breast milk alone (in fact they function best this way). For more information on this research you can check out this pediatric news article which is support by the AAP.

That being said here is a peak at SJ's first meal.

If you use an Avent pump I highly recommend these Avent storage containers. They are BPA free, they freeze (and can be thawed in hot water just like a bottle), you can write on them, and they work with the Avent pumps and nipples which really comes in handy.

Avocado is a great first food because they contain carbohydrates, protein, and unsaturated fatty acid, all of which babies need and unlike bananas that have porous skins, avocados have thick inedible skin that protect them from pesticides or funguses that could be harmful.

On top of all that they are SO easy to prepare. No cooking or even blending is necessary. Just mash up the avocado until smooth and creamy, add breast milk if desired and you've got yourself some homemade baby food!

This whole avocado adventure was a first for my baby girl. It has taken some time to get used to, but she never once cried or refused to eat. It has also been a first for me in that I have never made my own baby food before. I now have a husband that loves fajitas, a son that loves tortillas, and a baby that loves avocado. Can we say "Tex Mex"?

This post is linked up with Alicia's Homemaking and is a part of Try New Adventures Thursday. Check it out.

BOWS

In the past 6 months (since I had my baby girl) I have had to learn to attach accessories to a nearly bald head. It's an art form that I am just learning as I go.

This barrette is from Claire's

One very old school option that I have tried is using corn syrup. Be careful with this one it doesn't take much. It does work though. She had this little flower barrette stuck to her hair for an all day wedding and then I was worried that it wasn't going to come out, but just a little bit of baby soap and water was all it took.

Of course there is the classic giant bow or flower on a wide headband.

I bought this bow from my friend who makes them.

Then there are the tiny bows on the small elastic headband.

This headband is from Target.

It didn't take long before I decided I wanted to do more with colors and barrettes so I removed the attached bow and now I can just interchange whatever clip I want.

Like this 4th of July bow that coordinated with her outfit.

I even used the same headband for the cow ears from her Chic-Fil-A costume.

Lastly I have modified simple clips in the same way, by removing the embellishment and adding my own little bow. If your baby really doesn't have any hair you can just skip the clip altogether and use the corn syrup or attach the bow to a head band.

The flower clips were also from Target.

These are just some of things I have done with bows for my baby and so far it works for me.

SJ at 6 Months

It is incredible just how much a baby changes in 6 months. SJ is now 18 pounds of absolutely adorable, huggable, squeezable chunkiness.

She has had so many milestones recently including her first tooth, sitting up, and her first meal.

Six month seems to be a big transition stage. We've moved the bassinet, swing and little baby blankets up to the attic and in they're place are now the exersauser, jolly jumper, and highchair. Our house has gone from being the newborn snuggle zone to the baby play center and she loves it.

She is starting to reach and grab anything and everything. I can't walk past a tabletop without her pulling a piece of paper or something off of it and I can't eat with her on my lap because she feels at liberty to help herself to whatever is on my plate. This is still one of my favorite ages though. She is pretty much stationary and easily entertained, but she's also becoming more playful and inquisitive.

I can't believe her first year is more than half way over!