Why do we lie?

Why do we lie? There are tons of reason why… For a lot of us, it is the pressure of being good enough. It is hard enough during our teenage years and into your early 20’s but somehow we still do it. I know lots of people, especially women, who struggle with this on a daily basis. Sometimes we can’t help but feel powerless and inferior in certain situations so in turn, we embellish.

Whenever someone would ask me what my favorite book was, for years I would respond with “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Lie. Not my favorite book. On top of that, I wouldn’t say “The Little Prince” or “El Principito” in my two most fluent languages… Instead, I chose to say it in French because it made me sound worldly and intriguing. Thank God no one ever really asked me “why?” I never really read the whole book in any of the three languages and to this day, I can’t tell you what really happens, partly because my memory sucks and also because I read most of it in AP French class focusing more on pronunciation and grammar than the actual plot.

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Don’t Leave Before You Leave

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg discusses women, leadership and success in her book Lean Inn released back in 2013. Among all of the important and valuable messages that she mentions there was one in particular that resonated with me simply because I thought it adequately described a particular situation I was going through. The message was the following; “Don’t leave before you leave.”

I heard this at the precise moment when I was dead set on resigning from my corporate job. She explains the phrase “Don’t leave before you leave” as the moment in a woman’s life when she thinks it’s time to give up her job because she sees not being able to attend to her future, unborn children if she remains working. In other words, it is “looking for the exit before it’s time” says Sheryl. Whoa. Light bulb moment!

The reason why it resonated with me so much was because I was going through both a future resignation and a plan to start a family. As I looked at my situation I thought, “Oh man! Am I doing exactly what Sheryl says NOT to do? Am I leaving because I want to start a family inthe future and I don’t see myself wanting to come back to this job?” It hit me hard and it started to take over my mind until I quickly decided to let it go. I realized that it was in my best interest not to fret and let time take care of it. Continue reading “Don’t Leave Before You Leave”

10 Months of Alfie

It’ crazy how fast kids grow. Everyone tells you but you don’t really get to grasp it until you see it unfolding right before your very eyes. In the last month alone, my baby has really surprised us with how quickly he’s growing.

A few days before Alfie turned 9 months, he started fully crawling. He would drag himself “boot camp style” all over our floors prior to this. It wasn’t long before he started lifting himself up and walking while supported/assisted. Now at 10 months he’s not far from balancing his little body on his own. He follows us wherever we go and we love hearing those baby hands slapping on the floor making their way around the corner. We crawl under the tables and chairs, we scare each other around every corner of the house and we laugh and laugh. Continue reading “10 Months of Alfie”

7 Tips for Traveling With an Infant

Hello everyone!

We are halfway through baseball amateur scouting season and boy has it been a fun but tiring ride!  Traveling with a baby is complicated enough (all the planning and prepping) but when the baby starts getting older and wants to crawl and move around and explore, it starts getting a little bit trickier, especially if you are flying solo. Having him on my lap for the duration of a flight or having him strapped to his car seat for long periods of time takes a lot more thought and planning. Been there? I feel ya!

It’s even worse when your plane was supposed to leave at 12:50 PM and you end up delayed with an actual departure time of 4:15 PM.  I’m one of those moms that’s always ready and organized, of course, until this time.  This was the one damn time when I figured there would be no need to take more than what we needed. I also had {still have} bad back pain so I wanted to avoid any additional weight in my shoulder bag/diaper bag/Mary Poppins bag O’tricks. Luckily, we were OK and I was able to manage Alfie’s hunger with what I had plus a banana and blueberry yogurt that I got at the airport. The little dude behaved like a champ. Whew! Continue reading “7 Tips for Traveling With an Infant”

5 Must Have Items for New Mom & Baby

Hey future mamas and papas! Listen up! In the short amount of time it takes to prepare for a baby that’s on the way, there are way too many decisions to make. What type of crib do we get? Which doctor will deliver our munchkin? What stroller best fits our lifestyle? How are we going to decorate the nursery? While it’s all very exciting, it’s also exhausting. As a new mom, I want to share my list of must have items that helped me a lot during the insanity of the first three months of a child’s life.

The sooner you prepare, the better. Life gets a heck of a lot more complicated after that baby comes into the world. Something as trivial as getting milk at the grocery store all of a sudden turns into an episode of The Amazing Race. Seriously. I hope the items listed below give you a bit more insight into post-birth must haves! Continue reading “5 Must Have Items for New Mom & Baby”

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Rise and shine!

Let’s start off the week with a little chuckle! Enjoy a bit of what a “day in the life” is for me and Alfie. He might ask for earplugs soon but for now, bring on the music! Hope you enjoy my very serious rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb.

For some more chuckles see my spoof of “Let it Go” below when my baby was having gas issues and then another spoof on Boyz II Men’s “Water Runs Dry” about the day to day struggles of being a mom. Enjoy!

Have a great week!

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The Things That Matter

Upon recently losing a loved one very near and dear to your heart, you can’t help but reflect on your own life. This has recently come to mind due to the unexpected passing of a family member of mine whom I loved and admired very much. In light of this event, I thought it would be nice to write about the importance of the things that matter. Call me a hippie, but for me, it’s all about LOVE.

If I were to tell you that life is very simple, would you believe it? In my opinion, life IS very simple. Life is simple when you love purely, authentically and completely. Life is simple when you surround yourself by those that make you happy and don’t put you down. Life is simple when you accept yourself for exactly who you are and live on fearlessly. Life is simple when you don’t sweat the small stuff. Life is simple when you live with purpose. Continue reading “The Things That Matter”

Family First and Then Everything Else

Here we go again! It’s baseball season and the hubs is-a-travelin’ and the wife is-a-followin’! Now with a baby in tow, it’s a bit harder to travel but that’s not stopping us from keeping our new family together!

My husband is a baseball scout traveling all over the Midwest and Southeast of the country as well as Puerto Rico. While we’re fortunate that we get to travel with him, it’s not like I can just drop everything and go. His schedule is highly unpredictable and unpredictability is not desirable when traveling with an 8-month old. Therefore, we plan to see FF when he knows he’ll be in one place for more than two days (tournaments or a series of games).

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The Day My Life Changed Forever

It’s been about three months since I gave birth to our son. It has been such an emotionally overwhelming, difficult but beautiful experience! So much has happened in the last three months that I could write a whole book about it! It’s crazy how life changes in an instant. I love being a mom and every day brings new challenges. I would like to take this opportunity and share how it all went down the day our baby boy decided to join us. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this story too! Ready for this long post? Here we go…

On Monday June 8th 2015 I headed out to work just like every other day. My thoughts were on my husband, Frankie Frankie “FF”, and the importance of that day for his career. It was the first day of the 2015 MLB Draft. (For more info on the story behind my hubby’s career and how it affects the family you can click on this link here). He had already been in Arizona for two weeks at the Draft Meetings preparing for this big day and this was it. For all the marbles. All he needed were these three more days in Phoenix, AZ to start and finish the official MLB draft. I took a look at my maternity bag on the floor next to my bed but opted not to take it with me this time. (Of course). You think you know where this story is going…?? Read on…

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On Pregnancy…

Holy $!&% At any time now, my life could be forever changed. I can become a mother in the blink of an eye. One day I’m just doin’ my thing and the next, I have a son. This is mind-blowing to me and unreal.

I can’t complain. I’ve had a really good pregnancy. It’s been a wonderful journey and now I’m 38 weeks and nearing the end if it all. I have to admit that while I am looking forward to the rest of our lives with our future son, it hasn’t really hit me yet and it won’t until that baby is in my arms and life suddenly takes on a new meaning.

It hasn’t been the easiest several months though. Life has a way of coming at you like a freight train at times and you just have to go with the flow and deal with it.

Since I haven’t checked-in in a while, I’ll give you a brief summary of each trimester (from what I can remember)…

First Trimester

Finding out  I was pregnant was funny and exciting. We didn’t believe the pregnancy test at first because we needed more than blurred pink line. So when FF went out to get another pregnancy test he decided it was a good idea to buy 4 more just to be 100% sure. lol! Hunger and sleep took over my life during my first trimester. I wanted food at all times (at least 5 big meals a day) and I was falling asleep at 7pm and then waking up at 4am with insomnia on some days. I didn’t get tired during the day, but by the time I got home I was out like a lamp. My nose would bleed every now and then and I was thirsty all the time.  Morning workouts were fewer and much shorter. Forget about nighttime workouts. I was too busy eating and falling asleep on our apartment couch. My bump was not evident at any moment during my first trimester. We also didn’t announce our pregnancy until the end of the first trimester and of course, everyone was excited.

About 2.5 months pregnant
About 2.5 months pregnant
Our Baby Announcement during Thanksgiving weekend
Our Baby Announcement during Thanksgiving weekend

Continue reading “On Pregnancy…”