It’s so easy to get caught up in everyday life and to forget what’s really important.  It’s so easy to wish that Brayden would sleep for just a few more minutes so I can get a little more work done.  It’s so easy to tell Brayden to go play by himself so I can get a load of laundry done.  Or take a shower.  Or finish a phone call.  It’s so easy to get frustrated on days when Brayden won’t leave me alone for a second and every time I leave his sight he yells, “Mama!  Mama go?  Mama!”.  It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by being a Mom.

And then you read Layla’s story.  And suddenly those small things seem like nothing and getting to be a mom is such a gift.  Brayden is healthy.  I am healthy.  Chuck is healthy.  We’ve got a roof over our heads and food on our table.  We are together and that’s all that matters.  I read this on Layla’s blog a couple of weeks ago and every time I get tired or frustrated or annoyed I think of what her mom wrote:

Layla now spends most of her days sleeping. 30-45 minutes after she wakes up, she is ready to lay down and sleep again. Is this God’s way of preparing me for all the quiet time that is coming soon? The house is quiet. I am able to go through the motions of laundry, dishes, cooking and picking up without interruptions. But I WANT interruptions. I WANT Layla to be under my feet asking for cookies. I WANT to hear her playing with her toys. I WANT to take 45 minutes to unload the dishwasher because she keeps trying to help. For every time I uttered the words “I just can’t get anything done with these kids under my feet all day” I am eternally regretful. The days that I looked forward to naptime so I could get a grocery list made, or finally fold all the piles of laundry…I regret those days too. If I could do it all again, I’d enjoy EVERY SINGLE WAKING MOMENT I had with her. I would never wish for her to sit still or take a nap or go to bed early. I would never look forward to the days when she could sit through an entire episode of Dora silently. I would treasure every second with her.

I know I’m not perfect and there will still be plenty of times when I get frustrated and tired.  But, after reading this I have done my absolute best to treasure every single waking moment with my baby.  Life is just so short.

This picture makes my heart happy.  It’s also a good explanation of why they don’t let 2 year olds drive real cars.  He was a maniac!

*  Taken with the Canon G10.

Every time we see an airplane I ask Brayden where the airplane is going to take us.  He says, “Forda”.  I ask him what is in Florida.  He says, “Pink cups.  Mick.  Rocks (rockets).  Choo choos.  Bumbo (Dumbo)”.  Why we are flying all the way across the country to go to a theme park that’s almost exactly the same as one that’s 15 minutes away?  I don’t know.  But, I know it’s going to be an adventure (especially the plane ride with a 2 year old!  Yeah!).

Thanks for all of your awesome suggestions about what to do in Jax.  I now know that the cool kids call Jacksonville Jax so now I don’t look like a dork.  Because we are going to Animal Kingdom on Saturday I think we are going to go St. Augustine instead of the Jax (not Jacksonville) zoo.  Or maybe we’ll go to both.  It’s going to be a LONG day and I don’t want to be in the hotel so we shall see!

I know we’ll be riding a pink cup at some point though

We’re leaving for our big Florida adventure later this week and I’ve been meaning to do some research on fun things to do in Jacksonville for Brayden and I while Chuck is in his conference.  But, I’ve been to busy so I am turning to you, my Internet friends.  Anything fun for us to do?

And, Floridians, can you please tell your state to warm up for me by the end of the week!  I’m not liking these cold temperatures I’m seeing!  Really, as long as it doesn’t rain on Saturday or Sunday I’m happy, but if you could try and warm it up to like 75 that would be awesome!

You know what’s awesome?

When your kid is sick and he coughs non-stop from 5am to 9am (no that’s not the awesome part).

So you contemplate if you should make an appointment with the doctor.

After another 15 minutes of non-stop coughing you make an appointment.

He coughs all the way to the doctor and the whole time in the waiting room.

Then the doctor comes in and he doesn’t cough once.

Not once.

And the doctor looks at you like you are crazy.

She says everything looks fine and probably notes in your chart that you could have munchausen syndrome.

And then you get the kid back in the car and he coughs the whole way home.

That’s awesome.

Happy Friday!

I’ve got a sick boy here.  Fever, cough, threw up once.  All fun stuff.  The problem is that while his fever ranges from 100 to 102 he acts like he feels fine most of the time.  Just more tired than normal.  I don’t want to take him out because I don’t want to get anyone else sick, but we got major cabin fever yesterday after watching Cars, Thomas, a few episodes of Wonder Pets, and only taking a 45 minute nap.  So, we went out for a little drive and picked up some Starbucks at the location with the drive thru.  So we wouldn’t infect anyone.  He spent most of his day like this though.

PS  Do you like my new artwork?  I love it!  Not only one of my favorite songs ever, but also our first dance song at our wedding.

Chuck and I were born and raised in Anaheim.  We’ve had annual passes to Disneyland since we were kids.  We’ve probably both been hundreds of times.  We are spoiled rotten and go to Disneyland several times a month.  It’s one of the pros of living in Southern California along with 80 degree weather in February which most of the time outweighs the cons (EARTHQUAKES!, traffic, ridiculously high cost of living).  It’s just what we do when we are bored.  It’s so easy to go for a couple of hours, ride a few rides, grab dinner and head home.  Obviously B isn’t complaining!

While Chuck and I have pretty much done everything you can do at Disneyland, we both had a first this weekend.  We got to ride in the front car on the Monorail!  This was B’s first time too and he just loved it!  The weird and creepy kind people that were riding up front with us reminded us that you can’t do this at Disney World because “a whole bunch of people died on this thing”.  While that made me a little nervous the pure joy on Brayden’s face as he acted as our tour guide and pointed out the “cars”, “cups”, and several other things that I didn’t understand because I couldn’t make out his Branglish helped me forget about the dangers of the Monorail.  It’s such a little thing, but I’m glad we all got to experience this first together!  And in less than 2 weeks we will have a very short trip to Disney World!  I’m very excited to take Chuck because he has never been before.  Actually, he’s never even been to Florida before!  Should be fun!

I’ve received a few emails and comments about Brayden’s pictures on the train tracks.  I want to let everyone know that those are dead tracks.  No trains travel on them!  I may do a lot of crazy things to get a shot, but putting my child on real train tracks where real, big, fast trains travel is not one of them.  I would highly suggest that you do not put your two year old (or anyone else’s two year old) with suitcases and a birthday cake on real train tracks.  Seriously.  I was shooting an engagement session last year and we were shooting out in the middle of nowhere, but close to a train track.  The couple was probably 10 feet away from the track and out of nowhere comes a train.  I did not hear it.  I did not feel the ground rumble.  As I was taking those pictures I thought it would be cool to have the couple on the tracks.  Had they been on the tracks I honestly don’t know if the train would have seen them / us.  The whole thing really scared me!  It’s just not worth it!

Onto happier topics, I love what Kristen is doing over on her blog:

I’m totally guilty of blogging about the happier times and sugarcoating things a bit.  But, I think the better pictures come with happier times.  I mean, how many crying pictures can I really post?

Because there’s a lot of this that goes on in our house, trust me!  But I would rather post the pictures of the times when we are having fun!

Now, if you follow my tweets there isn’t anything sugarcoated over there!  In fact, I think I probably tweet to much.  I’m guilty of tweeting before I think.

On Formspring someone asked me what my perfect day would be.  Yesterday was pretty much it.  Here is the formula for my perfect day:

1)  Chuck has random Tuesday off from work.  Chuck never gets random Tuesdays off from work.

2)  Brayden sleeps in past 7.

3)  Donuts for breakfast.

4)  A sunny and beautiful day with tempertures in the high 70’s.  And it’s February.

5)  Walking along the beach with my favorite guys.

6)  Brayden making me proud by being adventurous and trying new things.

7)  Randomly find a piece of art that I had been searching for at a store by the beach.  Buy said art.

 Head home before noon and get a full days work in while Chuck watches Brayden.

Okay, maybe the day would have been more perfect if I wouldn’t have had to work, but I think that’s pretty darn close to perfect.

Dear Brayden,

2 years ago today, after a very long and painful labor, we met at exactly 3:30pm for the first time.  4 days past due and you had no intentions of coming out so the doctor had to force you out.  When the doctor held you up over the curtain for the first time and your Daddy and I saw you we both cried, but later admitted to each other that we thought you were an albino baby.  Your hair was as white as your skin and you had bright blue eyes.  Regardless, we loved you because you were ours.

2 years ago today you were a stranger.  I could only dream of what your voice would sound like when you said, “Mama”.  I could only imagine what you would look like when you took your first steps.  I could never comprehend how proud I would be every time you learn a new word, when you blew out the candles of your 2nd birthday cake, when you said, “Love Mama” for the first time, and all your other little accomplishments.  I would have never guessed how much joy and happiness you could bring to me.

2 years ago today I wasn’t sure I could do it.  I still have days that I’m not sure I can do it.  But, I hope you know how much I try to be the best mom possible.  I love making you laugh so hard that your face turns red.  I love tickling you so hard that you giggle and say, “No, Mama!  No!”.  I love that I’m the only one who can understand your “Branglish”.  I love that I get just as excited as you (okay, maybe more excited) when we get stuck at a train crossing.  I love getting to discover new things with you.

2 years ago today I knew I loved you, but I could have never imagined how much more I could love you today.  Brayden, I love you so much and am so proud of the boy you are.  I can’t wait to see how much you change and grow over the next year.  But, please don’t grow up too fast.  These past two years have flown by.  I’d just like you to stay my baby for a little bit longer.

Love,

Mama

I was going to try to take credit for this outfit, but I can’t.  I would never pick out something this cool.  The outfit was a birthday present the very stylish Trista Lerit.  Trista has been buying Brayden designer duds since before he was even born.  Thanks Trista!

And a big special thanks to my hubby who helped me take these pictures during the Super Bowl  He’s so awesome!

And with Brayden’s birthday it also means that’s it’s the 1 year anniversary of Mom*tog!  192 posts, 2372 comments, over 350,000 hits, and countless new friends.  It’s been a great year!  Thanks for the support.  Thanks for reading.  Thanks for the fun!  I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store!

And as a Happy Birthday / Happy Anniversary gift the UNposing Guide is 25% off until Sunday at midnight!  Enter in the code “Anniversary” at checkout.

Last week we found out that Brayden’s pre preschool class was having a Valentine’s Day party.  His very first Valentine’s Day party!  His teacher requested that we bring something with a Valentine’s Day theme, but preferably healthy.  If it were up to me I would have brought cupcakes or brownies (yum!).  But, I wanted to be a good mom and adhere to the rules.  Of course I panicked yesterday because I still hadn’t thought of anything.  What’s a girl to do?  Twitter it!  My friend Kimmie suggested that I make these.  Um, cute!  So, I showed my husband a picture and told him to make them  Because, I’m just not good with things like this.  However, I did cut up the oranges!  And I tried to skewer them, but I stabbed myself twice and called it quits.  Here is the end result:

They were a hit!  Brayden’s teacher, Miss Heidi, loved them and so did all the parents!  First Valentine’s Day party = success!