AVON

I will admit having a baby causes you to get a bit out of touch with pretty much everything around you. LOL Sophia is growing up so fast and getting so big already. Staying at home with Sophia so far has been a blessing, but with all good things, they must come to an end. I started back to work from my maternity leave last Monday....sigh! I miss her terribly during the day but praise God that Dan wants to be a stay at home Dad. Not that Motherhood doesn't keep me busy enough as it is, I have rejoined the AVON company as an independent sales rep. A lot has changed with them since I rep-ed for them in the late 90's. I even have my own website www.YourAVON.com/PamelaLeBlanc. Take a minute to check it out. I just launched it. If you happen to be interested in any of the products feel free to order direct from the website ( I can tell you it is a lot faster than what I can do right now face to face with a 2 and 1/2 month old ha, ha). If you know anyone who would be interested in AVON products if you would be so kind to point them in the direction of my website, it would be appreciated. And for all of you who like tangible things (like myself) if you would like a paper copy of the catalogs, just let me know and I will mail them to you. Feel free to contact me via my website, by cell 818-399-0185 or through my AVON email address: AVNchick@yahoo.com.

Dr.'s & More Tests

I went to the Dr. last week and had a full female check up and an ultrasound down on my belly. I wanted to check to see how I was healing from the c-section since I still hurt on my left side and to check to see where we stood with those cancerous cells from before the pregnancy. Fast forward a week and I got the test results back...... all negative! Praise God!!! No cancerous cells, no biopsies to be done, the pap came out negative and although my left side still hurts, I have pretty much healed up from the c-section. I just still need to take it a bit easy as my left side is still sore (and stubborn for that matter LOL). Good news all around. I love it!

Star Wars

I surprised Sophia and Dan and took then to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. They were having a special exhibition on Star Wars. We got a chance to see the costumes, equipment, vehicles and a ton of models used in the making of all 6 Star Wars movies. Dan was surprised. He thought my little day trip idea was awesome and relly thoughtful. Here are some fun pics.

My Big Toe Fell Off (well sort of)

I was being an idiot and trying to multi task while holding Sophia the other day. All moms do it, I just dont do it very successfully yet. I was holding her and trying to put away my mini paper/photo cutter machine
(I used to do a lot of scrapbooking and a lot of photography and this little machine would allow me to cut down photos and paper clippings). This was one of my bad ideas. I was bare foot and of course I dropped the machine square on my right big toe. Youch!!!!! Well needless to say I cried and went hoping around the house like the Easter bunny, crying then laughing at myself in my sorry state then crying again because it hurt. My toe is now bluish black and it still hurts. That's smarts for ya'. I won't be doing anything like that again any time soon. LOL

Hello Kitty

OMG! I forgot how much I love Hello Kitty. My mom used to shop at the Sanrio store all the time and get us Hello Kitty and Keropi stuff. I was reminded of it all of a sudden when my mother-in-law bought Sophia a Hello Kitty beanie and matching booties recently. They were soooo cute I was a bit jealous. So I have gone off the deep end and have started buying a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff (video recorder, stationary, band aids, water bottles, etc.). Even looking for a Hello Kitty Easter basket for Sophia and I. I think I am even going to make her 1st b-day a Hello Kitty party. LOL Obsessed..... YES! Living vicariously through my daughter.......ABSOLUTELY!

Barlow Girl Concert- The Fish: Women's Night Out

Once a quarter my favorite Christian radio station has a Women's Night Out. It is part seminar part concert. This time my favorite Christian all girl rock band was playing Barlow Girl. The group is made up of 3 sisters of different ages, very much so like myself and my sisters and our ages. They are awesome! I love their edgy-ness and their rock sound. Gone are the days of the choir in a church. I have a couple of their CD's and I really enjoy their music so I thought I would go. I took my neighbor Nikki and we had a blast. We stayed after wards and they signed one of my album covers. It was super cool.

And where was my sweet Sophia you ask? At home with my wonderful Hubby. This was the first time I had been out on my own without Dan or Sophia for more than 3+ hours. It was nice to get out thanks to the hubby, but I really did miss them. Is it bad that I want to be a home body and just be home relaxing with my family all the time. It's like I have sophia-itis. LOL

One Happy Baby

I just couldn't help but post these photos to my blog. I took them quickly in succession and this is what I got. She is just so beautiful. I am so lucky.

Shutter Bug

A friend of mine at work told me about Olan Mills. I vaguely remember them from my childhood. They are that photo company that used to come to my elementary school and take our school pictures. Well they now have locations inside Macy's, Kmart's and a bunch of other stores nationwide. She said they have a whole package for newborns for free and then you can get discounted pics for the remainder of your child's first year so I thought we would check it out. So off to the local Kmart we went and had a whole photo shoot done today. Sophia was fussy all day today and we almost thought it wasn't going to happen but right before it was time to start clicking away, she fell asleep. We took a couple of shots of her asleep and a couple of her awake. She was so cute and so well behaved. We were in and out in a half hour and will pick up the pics in about a week. I look forward to sharing them with all of you once I get them and have them scanned in. I look forward to going back each month and getting a new set of photos done to mark each milestone month during Sophia's first year. They said I can come in as often as I want, no minimum or maximum, no limits on the number of people who take pictures with her so we can get family portraits done as well as get photos done with the grandparents and cousins and I can go to any Olan Mills location nationwide to make it convenient for me. Pretty cool deal for only $20. Now I just need 900 more picture frames and I need bigger walls. Hee, hee.

Visit With The Smith Family

It's been quite a while since I have had a chance to spend some time with my BFF Shana and her husband Grant and daughter Krystina. So we made plans to meet up at the Smith compound and hang for the evening on Wednesday. It was a blast. It started out with me leaving on time. Sophia blew a gasket only 2 blocks from our house. I pulled over and fed her, burped her and then changed her diaper. Wooh! Dude! Not just any diaper. When they say 9 to 14 pounds that's all those things will hold. Sophia managed to stuff 15 pounds in a 9 to 14 pound diaper. Red alert. We had to bag all of her clothes. She destroyed them. Once the crisis was averted, we headed out again. Traffic. Shoot. Now it will take me twice as long to get there. We finally got there and got a chance to visit, catch up and touch base. Sophia got fed again and got lots of love and T.L.C. from the gang. We packed up and then it happened. Yawning in technicolor. Yup, she barfed up all 5 oz. of her bottle all over herself, her p.j.'s, her car seat oh and me!! And not just any barf. Projectile out of her mouth and nose. Poor thing was choking looking up at me as if to say where did that just come from? I got her cleaned up, changed her back into her spare set of clothes, Krystina got Sophia's face cleaned off, Shana got the car seat cleaned and Grant stayed out of the way- the women were on it!!! LOL So once again we got packed up and headed out. So much for an uneventful day. Upon arriving home, Dan cleaned and scrubbed down the car seat, threw all of the clothes including my jacket directly into the washing machine and Sophia and I headed into the bathroom- this was one chica who was in desperate need of a bath. Pee Eww! Yucky stinky. Checking the clock it was 11:30pm by this time. Yikes. Off to bed..... well not quite. By this time Sophia was bright eyed and bushy tailed. No sleep for the weary tonight. Wish us good luck.

More Shots....

Well we were back in the Dr.'s office this week. More shots. One in each thigh. Not a happy camper. Sophia got shot in the left thigh and then as she started to cry they whipped her around and gave her a shot in her right thigh. Ouie!!!! And boy did she scream. Crocodile tears like you would not believe. Took about a half hour to calm her down. And then she passed out from exhaustion from crying. Poor thing. Just wait until we get her ears pierced. Yeowie! That one will be a disaster. Yeah! Fun things to look forward to.

Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik, better known to many as Blossom from the early 90's hit sitcom series Blossom or most recently Amy Farrah Fowler from the hit sitcom series The Big Bang Theory is not only an accomplished actress but has a PhD in NeuroScience and as of 2012 a published author of a little book I picked up called Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide To Raising Confident Loving Children The Attachment Parenting Way. She recently debuted this book and one of her stops was the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. My girlfriend Nikki and I drove out and caught her appearance. She was funny, entertaining, smart, intelligent and informative. I purchased her book and stayed to meet with her personally and get it autographed. We were able to speak briefly about Sophia. She congratulated Dan and I and gave me some advice on lactose intolerance. She also warned me that many children who have lactose allergies also have Say allergies so to keep an eye on her. I was grateful for the advice and star struck by the opportunity to have the meet and greet. I am reading her book as we speak. I find it comforting. I want to raise Sophia the way I want to raise her. I know that sounds selfish or Diva-esque. I cant explain why I do what I do or why I want to raise her this way. I just know it is comfortable to me. It is refreshing to have a book that validates this and lets me know to keep going with my gut. Because it is the most natural instinctual way.

Mind Your Manners

My Mother always said for me to mind my manners. Please, Thank You, Your Welcome, Sir, Ma'am. You know, the usual. No elbows on the table at dinner and never any spitting ever, no matter what. I intend to teach my daughter these same basics. But I guess I am already too late. She is already burping and passing gas with the best fraternity brothers and now I get to add creating spit bubbles to boot. LOL Yes my daughter spits. Ha, Ha. There is no burp cloth, bib or towel for that matter, that can contain the drool produced by Sophia's over sized spit bubbles. Any bigger and the poor thing might float off. LOL I do have to admit they are adorably cute. And then she smiles mid spit and sucks the bubbles back in. Who wouldn't coo and awe at a kid this cute. What can I say. I am a proud Momma. Even if her only achievement so far has been creating a bubble. Hee, hee! 

T.G.I....... Vanessa & Kris!!!

One of my besties was in town this past weekend celebrating her 40th birthday. We had planned a big dinner at The Sky Room in Long Beach on Friday night to begin the celebratory weekend. One problem, no kids allowed. Ummmmm..... I got one and it is not so easy to get away from her. Sooooooo, Hay Auntie Vanessa do you want to come over and play??? My best friend Vanessa and her fiance Kris came over to hang for a bit and then watch Sophia while we were out for the evening. I have to tell you I was a bit nervous leaving her. Its one thing to leave her with family who know her temperament but it is another thing to leave her with someone who doesn't expect her temper tantrums. But to my surprise she was an angel and didn't even fuss. Thanks Vanessa and Kris. You guys are life savers. We had such a good time at dinner, I really appreciate it. You guys are the best.

Lactose Intolerant (better known in my house as rooty tooty booty)

Yup my daughter is lactose intolerant. Yuck! Babies can be lactose intolerant to breast milk as well as cows milk. Right now we don't know which one she is allergic to. As a result, I have stopped eating and drinking all dairy to prevent her from getting sick. We are also giving her gripe water for her colick and gas, semithicone drops for her colick and colief drops for her lactose intolerance. All herbal, non-medicated. It's really helping. She is less anxious, less gassy, less fussy. She has regular diapers and seems to cry less. She is starting to sleep 4-5 hours at a time. Thank goodness. At least we are on the right track. Hopefully this gets better quickly. Most people say she should grow out of it and be much better by 3 months old.

My House Isn't Clean But At Least The Baby Is!!!!

I dont have any time. My time is no longer my own. It now belongs to my 45 day old daughter. I have learned to multi task with one hand. My house isnt clean but at least the baby is. And I have managed to forget everything: my wallet, my purse, the diaper bag, my keys, my to do list, the mail and even clothing, yes clothing, BUT I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THE BABY (yet). LOL I struggle to get enough sleep and I am walking a fine line between the sane and insanity. I am anxious, frustrated, angry, sad, happy, excited and tired all wrapped up in a big pink bow. This baby raisin' thing is hard. Harder than anything I have ever done in my life. I look forward to the 5 minutes or so I get a day to myself but unfortunatetly I waste it on other things like the laundry needing to be done, grocery list being written, house cleaning, dishes, even making meals is a waste of time. Sleep, ahhhh, sleep. So precious. Cant earn it, cant get enough of it. If you waste it you can not get it back. I definitely need more of it. And of course I say that as I write to you at 12:56AM.  lol

Needing A Little Miracle For A Little Miracle

I was born and raised Catholic. I am a God fearin' Christian woman and practice what I preach literally. God is in everything I do and I try to walk a straight path that would be pleasing to my Lord and Saviour. Since God has been taken out of schools, sporting events, work and the government you can be sure that he will not be taken out of my blog!

The Bible teaches "knock and it shall be opened", "ask and you shall recieve". And so here I am. I come before you Lord, I am knocking. Open your door unto your daughter. Here I am asking for you mercy and blessings Lord. Grant me this so I can receive your offerrings. I ask for a miracle, Lord. Not for myself but for my friend Lauren. I ask for healing, strength, patience and health. At 38 weeks pregnant, Lauren gave birth naturally to a 5 pound baby girl. Ashlynn's esophagus was malformed and she had to undergo emergency surgery to attach it properly to her stomach so she could eat leaving her in the NICU for 3 weeks. And while Lauren travels to her baby girl twice a day, she can not hold her or touch her. During this time, one of her lungs collapsed and they could not inflate it. So they did surgery again. Now stable, Ashlynn is in the fight of her life. Lord, why such pain and dispair for your little one? Why so much suffering? I need a little miracle for your little miracle Lord. Please grant me this. Please heal Ashlynn, Lord. Let her go home to her Momma. Let her be not affected by this and let her live a normal healthy life. The children are your special chosen ones. Is Ashlynn any different? And so I come before you today Lord and ask all of these things in Jesus' name.

AMEN

Cancer Update

Good news. The Dr. has decided to up my cancer check up from June to the end of March. This is much better since we will be able to check everything out sooner rather than later. This puts Dan's and my heart at ease since we were concerned as to what may be going on inside and since they didnt want to take immediate action who knows what it would have looked like in another 3 or so months. Now we just have to keep our eyes out on Sophia's mole. They have concerns that if it changes color or shape in could be cancerous and need to be removed.

Shots...Ouie!!!

This week was Sophia's 6 week check up and it was a doosy. It was her vaccination appointment. She needed 6 vaccines. 5 shots 1 oral. At least 1 of the shots had 3 vaccines combined. we decided to spread these shots out over a 3 week period so she didn't have to get all of them all at once. She didn't mind the oral vaccine which I am sure was nice and sugary for her. The shot on the other hand was totally different. Daddy took point on this one. The nurse gave it to her in her left thigh. She yelped and started to cry and then Daddy grabbed her and started holding and rocking her. She calmed down immediately and then just whimpered but she was all right. Wow what a trooper. I had expected her to scream her head off for hours after. No such luck, thank goodness. Now we have a repeat in 2 weeks. Wish us luck.

1 Successful Night & A Busy day

Well, I made it through the first night on duty all by myself. Sophia was a complete angel no problems what so ever. And today was even better. I got up, got ready, got Sophia ready and got out the door. We went to the gas station to get gas, we got the car washed, we went to Walgreens then CVS then Walmart. We picked up lunch, came home and had an appointment with Chris from Tender Impressions. Chris takes your child's foot or hand print and turns it into a work of art for your nursery room wall. We chose the hula girl. Chris put green paint on Sophia's foot, made an impression on paper (for the hula skirt) and she is going to cut out scrapbook pieces to create her body, hair, tank top and lei and flower in her hair and put it all together and frame it for us. How cool is that. What a wonderful "welcome to the world" gift from our friends Brad and Nikki. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I cant thank you enough. How awesome is this going to be to hang from our wall and show her later on down the line. Cant wait to get the finished product.

After that, we watched Spongebob and ICarly together, went through magazines, started dinner, worked on her baby book, worked on her photo album, cleaned the house and then Daddy came home. Phew. Ever feel like Super woman???? I sure did today and was so glad to get sooooo much done. Now lets see how tonight goes and whether or not I can have a repeat tomorrow.

Man Your Battle Stations It's Baby Duty Time

Dan is re-certing this weekend for life guarding. This is a requirement each year in order for him to lifeguard for the city or the county each summer. That means 2 days of back to back drills, swimming and classroom time. It also means 6am wake ups on both Saturday and Sunday. That doesn't bode well for a household currently being held hostage sleep wise by a colicky baby of only 38 days. So I am officially on baby duty both nights by myself. Yup, you heard it, BY MYSELF!!! No reinforcements whatsoever. Yikes. This could get messy quickly. For all of you who are squeamish, look away now, avert your eyes, don't look don't look. LOL I am up to the task and those of you who know me, know that I am a type A personality, so of course I am overly prepared to take on this task. Hee, Hee. I have a make shift changing station set up in the living room on the ottoman. I have snacks and water bottles prepared for me on the coffee table. I have extra sheets and blankets set up on the couch for me to crash if I need to. The night lights are on, the bedroom door is closed up tight for Daddy and I am waiting for the early morning infomercials to come on so I can order products I don't need that don't work. LOL We got this in the bag. Slam Dunk!!!!