The Perfect Vacation

Posted on November 13, 2011 Written by Tonya

When I think of vacation, I picture quality time spent in a poolside lounge chair with a great book, a pile of magazines and being served too many cocktails.

I also associate vacations with letting my hair down, uninterrupted conversations, new experiences, sleeping in and room service.

Costa Rica, October, 2005

I envision escaping it all: laundry, bills, TV; the mundane of my every day existence at home.

Vacations are meant to be memory-making adventures sprinkled with a little more indulgence than usual and hopefully some decent photos to bring home and frame.

Cabo San Lucas, April, 2001

My perfect vacation [and only because it has been so long that I’ve had one quite like this] would be somewhere sunny and coastal and alone with my husband.

Grand Canyon, Summer, 2008

My perfect vacation would also include:

1. Someone to pack for me, first class tickets and a limousine ride to and from the airport would all be wonderful, but I honestly don’t mind shuttles or coach seats (just so long as I don’t get stuck next to a screaming kid or a stinky fat man).

2. The ability to enjoy the vacation without any mommy guilt!

3. Having been rained on, snowed in and caught in a hurricane, the perfect vacation would include perfect weather upon arrival and for the entire length of our stay.

4. The ability to pack everything I might need and nothing I won’t, in other words, as many shoes as I want without any questions from my traveling companion and no emergency stops at a mall or drug store for something stupid I forgot at home, like a bathing suit. Yes, I have done this before. More than once!

5. Souvenirs. In the form of a special trinket, new friends or the rekindling of an old relationship with a true BFF.

Visiting my BFF, Sophie in New Caledonia, May, 2010

6. The ability to truly relax. This is so much easier said that done, especially for my husband when confined to a lounge chair. For me, if in a beach or pool setting, I could hang out in the sun all day every day, breaking only to eat, sleep and shower, but for him, it’s not so easy. I’m open to water sports and boat rides.

7. The ability to indulge in sweet treats and pretty drinks without gaining a single pound.

8. The ability to NOT get sick. I have had some of the nastiest colds in my life while on vacation.

9. Spa services. Enough said.

10. Returning home to a clean home, fresh sheets on the bed, mail sorted and someone to do the mounds of laundry.

Hawaii, August, 2011

This post was inspired by Stasha’s Monday Listicles, a linky right up my alley, as I LOVE lists! This week’s topic: 10 Things That Make A Vacation Perfect (selected by Hopes@StayingAfloat)

Be Enough Me

Posted on November 6, 2011 Written by Tonya

I worry that I’m not the calmest mom,

the silliest mom,

the prettiest mom,

the fittest mom,

the craftiest mom,

the strongest mom,

the coolest mom,

the smartest mom,

the tidiest mom,

the handiest mom,

or the wealthiest mom.

I know I’m not the most creative, understanding, organized, thoughtful or patient mom.

I’m not very well versed in constellations or dinosaurs. I honestly don’t know why the sky is blue. I don’t cook. I can’t dance. My funny voices sound ridiculous. I forget the words songs once I start singing them and I’m not a very good driver.

I have a terrible weakness for Chai tea lattes, fresh flowers and People magazine and I can not draw a very good train to save my life.

I can read the hell out of any book you bring me as long as you sit in my lap while I read it and I know exactly how to make you smile and no one will ever love you as much as I do, my sweet boy.

This week, I’m linking up to Just. Be. Enough’s Be Enough Me link-up.

Write, post, link-up, share your story and your voice.
Be part of carrying the weight of confidence and share our mission
to empower, inspire, and remind women, parents and children
that the time has come to celebrate ourselves!

Next week’s prompt: What is one image or symbol that
reminds you that are you enough?

(Remember you can also write on a topic of your choice.)

Patience, Confidence, Remembrance & Sanctuary

Posted on September 28, 2011 Written by Tonya

Our back yard has lush green grass, a huge tree and bushes. The front yard has more grass, bushes and an orange tree. I have never actually tasted any of the oranges, but Lucas likes to collect the rotting ones that fall to the ground.

We buy all of our produce at the super market, albeit organic.

If given a plant in a pot, it would be dead within a month. I guarantee it.

For the past year I have purchased fresh flowers for our dining room table every other week. They range from bright cheerful sunflowers, my favorite flowers or crimson, pink or yellow roses, my birth month flower. Sometimes I’ll get Gerbera daisies or tulips because they both come in such a variety of colors, but I typically it’s a vase of sunflowers.

I have never given a lot of thought to the meaning behind flowers, until I saw this week’s Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop prompts. The first one grabbed me: What type of flowers would be in a bouquet that best describes you? and it not only spending a lot of time of the Teleflora Web site, but I am now also very interested in reading Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s book, The Language of Flowers.

A bouquet made up of the following flowers would best describe me:

Aster because it is a symbol of patience, something I desperately need more of!

Blue flowers (of any kind), because they symbolize trustworthiness, confidence, intelligence and unity, all characteristics I believe I possess. Blue is also my favorite color.

Statice because it is the flower of remembrance.

Queen Anne’s Lace because it fills out bouquets nicely and represents sanctuary. My sanctuary has always been my home, preferably in my jammies with a toddler afoot. All images and flower meanings are from telefora.com.

This post was written for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, 1.) What type of flowers would be in a bouquet that best describes you? (inspired by Persipacity and the article Talking the language of Flowers)

Lucas Today

Posted on September 5, 2011 Written by Tonya

Every month I used to share a list of all of Lucas’ milestones, but I haven’t complied one in a while. Every day Lucas shows me another wonderful side to his personality. His likes and dislikes are as complex as yours and mine. He’s amazing.

Here is what I know and appreciate about my son today:

Lucas doesn’t have to be the center of attention. He is much happier being left alone to do his own thing. He’s a true observer, curious and quiet, taking in his surroundings, unless he’s the only child around and then, all bets are off!

Lucas is very loving IF and when the mood strikes him. He enjoys giving “pat-pats”, especially to babies and stuffed animals and nothing melts my heart more than hearing him say, “Mommy, come up here” when he wants to be picked up.

Lucas loves blueberry bagels, blueberry scones, blueberry waffles, blueberry yogurt, blueberry cereal bars and blueberry muffins, but will NOT eat a blueberry.

Lucas loves water in all forms; he lives for bath time, swimming pools, playing with his water table in the back yard, charging fearlessly for the ocean and diving into fountains.

Lucas loves sitting in his “special” chair to watch TV, singing the “ABC’s” no matter where we are, throwing dirt, meticulously removing wrappers from crayons and dancing. You should see his “hotel dance”.

Lucas’ favorite past time I would have say is playing with his Thomas & Friends trains and is ability to identify each one is astounding.

Lucas’ favorite color is yellow, favorite movie is Cars, favorite meal is macaroni and cheese, favorite dessert is M&M’s, favorite book is Where The Wild Things Are and smiles brighter than the sun when he plays with Play-Doh.

Lucas loves older children and if they give him the time of day, he will follow them around like a little lost puppy dog and talk about them for weeks.

Lucas pretty much refuses to pose for the camera and with nearly 6000 photos of him in iPhoto, I suppose I don’t blame him.

Lucas will ask for his lovey first and then “Mommy” if he hurts himself or bonks into something. I’m not happy with this, but I understand.

Lucas will march over to his lime green time out chair when asked. Shocking, I know!

Lucas isn’t a fan of meat. Occasionally we can get him to eat turkey and only recently (as of last week) has he started enjoying hot dogs.

Lucas is afraid of four things:

Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage ride at Disneyland.
A creepy red mask at a Mexican restaurant we used to like to frequent.
Loud fire alarms like the one that went off repeatedly at our hotel in Hawaii on our first night of vacation.
Roller coaster rides.

As you can imagine, this list could go on and on and on, but I’ll ~~spare you~~ keep some things to myself. Lucas appears to be a typical two year old, but he is my two year old.

Home Alone

Posted on April 21, 2011 Written by Tonya

I will be staying home alone this weekend while Todd takes Lucas to the Bay Area to visit his parents.

Yes, you read that correctly, an entire toddler-free weekend! Whatever will I do with myself?!

Honestly, I don’t care if I don’t see another living soul for the next 48 hours.

After much consideration and deep deep thought (yeah, right!), here is my Top 10 List of Things to do While my Husband and Toddler are Away, in no particular order:

1. Shave my legs.

2. Read and possibly even finish a book I started nearly three months ago.

3. Walk 10 miles AND take a yoga class.

4. Enjoy a leisurely lunch with girlfriends.

5. Organize my recent mail, e-mail, desktop folders, edit my media kit and update my About Me page on my blog (I don’t have high hopes for any of this one but added it, in case I feel like being productive).

6. Sleep. Nap. Daydream. Cat nap. Sleep some more.

7. Spend some quality time in front of the TV.

8. Plan a weekend for me and Lucas to be out of town.

9. Enjoy having the bathroom all to myself.

10. Make a special Easter dinner for my boys arrival home.

Check back on Monday to see how much I actually accomplish and in the meantime, Happy Easter!

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The Ultimate Time Sucker

Posted on February 2, 2011 Written by Tonya

I told myself I wasn’t going to do this again.

I don’t need to get one. more. thing. done.

I don’t need to get sucked in any further.

I’ve spent enough time with technology today and the Internet will be here tomorrow.

What I need to do is rest.

I’ve had a headache all day and I told myself that I would crawl into bed as soon as Lucas was asleep. Todd is out with friends and I just started a terrific book, One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni. I was really looking forward to reading some of it tonight as I drifted peacefully off to sleep for a full eight to nine hours.

That was almost five hours ago.

Instead…

I am visiting blogs, commenting on them, brainstorming posts of my own, Tweeting, responding to e-mails, sending texts, updating my Netflix queue and Goodreads bookshelves, playing Scrabble with three different people, catching up with friends on Facebook, posting photos to Shutterfly, making play dates for next week, researching, Stumbling articles and chastising myself for letting another day go by without doing laundry.

All the while, the battery life on my lap top dwindles. It started in the black at 100% and is now in the red at 18%. That’s just embarrassing.

Please tell me I’m not the only one that does this!!

The Internet, I’ve decided is evil. It’s the ultimate time sucker, pure and simple. One simple search leads to five hours of poking around and digging further and before I know it, I have nine tabs open and wonder how did I get here?!

I’m obsessed, that’s how.

The better question is why?

Well, I am done with it. I’m stepping away from the computer. For tonight at least.

Lucas will be up and have his ‘take me to Disneyland’ face on in six hours, IF I’m lucky. Hmph, so much for nine hours of blissful sleep.

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Storytelling

Posted on November 12, 2010 Written by Tonya

I love reading and my taste in books is as eclectic as my taste in movies, music, clothes and men. Lucas LOVES books, too and my heart swells every time he toddles over with one in hand, ready to climb up on my lap and have me read to him.
I read the text and ask him to point out different things in the pictures and he is happy to oblige and ask “what’s that?” over and over and over again. I know when a book is a hit, when his eyes light up and he asks me to read it again. We visit the bookstore and library often and I spend a lot of money on books. I always have, it’s a family trait or disease, I’m not sure which.
We have books everywhere! I have at least three boxes in our garage, a nightstand of the “next ups” and an entire book case overflowing and at just 17 months old, Lucas’ collection is growing rapidly, too.

He has board books, cloth books, tiny little books and big over-sized books. Right now, he is really into books with flaps and has torn many completely off. I dutifully repair them and hand them back to him until the next time.

He has a ton of books that he can play with (chew) and “read” on his own then there are the “special” books, the ones he’s not allowed to play with without adult supervision, the ones way up on the top shelf of his closet.

These are the books that only come out at bedtime; Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Corduroy, Caps For Sale and practically the entire Dr. Seuss collection. Like many of you, I grew up reading these books and they remain special to me today. I believe Lucas knows the difference between these beautifully illustrated hardcover classics and his other books. If he doesn’t, I hope he soon will.

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This post was written for the word game, Word Up, Yo! hosted by the self proclaimed Nerd Mafia: Natalie (Mommy of a Monster), Kristin (Taming Insanity) and Liz (a belle, a bean and a chicago dog).

If you like words too, play along!
This week’s word is eclectic.

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These Are My Confessions…

Posted on November 11, 2010 Written by Tonya

Here goes nothing… a list of all (some) of my weird, embarrassing, illegal and shameful activities. I am sure there are more where these came from, but let’s just start here.

Please don’t judge.

I steal magazines from my doctor’s office.
I let the gas in my car get dangerously low before I fuel up. We’re talking single digits.
I have had the same three Netflix movies for four months. What a waste of $68!
I color my hair and only wash it every three days.
I screen my phone calls.
I make our bed within minutes of getting up in the morning.
I miss working.
I want to rip a person’s arm off if they take food from my plate.
I listen to audio books when I walk.
I cheat at Scrabble, but rarely win.
I let Lucas watch too much TV.
I watch too much TV.
I record Oprah every day and I’ll cry when this season is over.
I have never read one single Harry Potter book, nor have I seen any of the movies.
I don’t like to eat leftovers.
I think there should be a ban on onions. I love the way they taste, but can’t stand the way they make my house smell.
I can’t get one hand wet without getting the other one wet too.
I can rarely listen to a song without singing along.
I can’t stand people that can’t show up on time.
I stole some erasers and gum from a convenience store when I was in the fifth grade and gold charms with my BFF Sophie when we were in junior high.
I use subtitles when I watch movies at home.
I drive over the speed limit and have been know to tail gate.
I’d rather send an e-mail than pick up the phone.
I once “borrowed” a scarf from a friend that I never returned.
I don’t like fish.
I still have thank you cards to send for gifts we received when Lucas was born.
I recently bought a Justin Beiber song on iTunes, of course, if you got your hands on my iPod, you’d think I was schizophrenic.
I floss my teeth (when I floss) before I brush them.

So, there you have it. Well, some of it. What dirty little secrets are your hiding?

This post is forMama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop– Prompt #2: What are your confessions? (inspired by Usher)

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The Happiest Toddler On The Block

Posted on September 19, 2010 Written by Tonya

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a huge reader. I love mysteries and suspense novels, modern day fiction, historical fiction, the classics, biographies and that wildly popular vampire series. I have also been know to read a self help book or two.

Almost the minute I found out I was pregnant, I bought what I assume every mother to be buys: What to Expect When You’re Expecting. I read it religiously throughout my pregnancy and many sections out loud to my husband. I loved the question/answer format.

I was either given a lot of other books or bombarded with recommendations on which ones I just had to read, but I stuck with What to Expect… and then signed us up for a dozen parenting classes.

Come to find out, nothing really prepares you for a newborn like having a newborn. We learned by doing and still are, but in those early days, we kept hearing about the five S’s… swaddling, holding in side position, shushing, swinging and sucking

When Lucas was born, our neighbors had a one year old and a newborn two weeks older than ours and were singing the praises of the book, The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer by Harvey Karp, M.D.. It also has a companion DVD. We watched it, read it, tried it and it worked. Those five S’s literally changed our life!!

Recently, my go-to parenting book has been What to Expect the Toddler Years, but it was starting to let me down in the – dealing with tantrums – department, so I was thrilled when one of my Twitter friends (I’m sorry, but I cannot for the life of me figure out who now) said that she had experienced a breakthrough with her tot and tantrums by reading The Happiest Toddler on the Block: How to Eliminate Tantrums and Raise a Patient, Respectful, and Cooperative One- to Four-Year-Old.

The good doctor wrote a follow up. God bless him!

I am only 35 pages into the book and I’m already enlightened. Dr. Karp’s techniques are very respectful to your child and allows for them to feel like they are being heard.

Karp’s basic premise is that toddlers are little cave people: the right side of their brain, which deals with language and logic, is not very developed, while the left side, which is very emotional, calls most of the shots. He talks a lot about how parents have to be an ambassador: keep relations happy, while putting their foot down when it really matters.

He divides toddler behavior into three categories: “green light” behaviors, which are positive and should be encouraged; “yellow light” behaviors, which are frustrating and annoying but not completely unacceptable things toddlers do (whining, for example); and “red light” behaviors which are unacceptable because they are either dangerous or they disobey a key family rule. I don’t know about your house, but we have a lot of “red light” behavior in ours. Karp gives a great deal of advice on how to deal with each of these three types.

I’ll be reporting back to let you know how this advice works for us. Fingers crossed and a BIG thank you to my Twitter friend. I really want to figure out who it was and send her flowers.

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Be Enough Me

Next week’s prompt: What is one image or symbol that
reminds you that are you enough?

Related Posts:

Patience, Confidence, Remembrance & Sanctuary

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Home Alone

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The Ultimate Time Sucker

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Storytelling

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The Happiest Toddler On The Block

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Next week’s prompt: What is one image or symbol that reminds you that are you enough?

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Next week’s prompt: What is one image or symbol that
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