Ramblin' Fever

Ah, the Great Outdoors. The melodic sounds of birds chirping, ocean waves crashing, wind whispering through the trees, and the air punctuated by the shrill shrieks of a tiny toddler in the throes of a temper tantrum. As the record scratches and the music abruptly comes to a halt, the overwhelming beauty of the nature hike we were just enjoying blurs into the background as my tiny terrorist planks in the middle of the trail demanding that the we stop immediately and prove that once again, the world does in fact revolve around her. Goldfish crackers are frantically yanked out of a perpetually cluttered diaper bag, soothing shushing noises escape from adult mouths as if that might make a difference, heads swivel back and forth scanning to see who is noticing this debacle and desperately hoping not to overhear the disapproving clucks of fellow hikers. Just another day in paradise, baby.

I'm starting to get that rambling fever that creeps up every now and again. The palpable urge hits me to pack up the truck and drive across stretches of open highway for days on end Thelma and Louise style, blasting Tom Petty and getting into the kind of trouble you just don't find when caring for a tiny human. The only thing I want in my face is the sunshine. Who cares where the road leads me as long as it never ends. As long as the sound of silence remains uninterrupted by the incessant voice of Mickey the damn Mouse.

Just as I have mentally made it past the California state line, just as I begin to almost hear the first few chords of Free Fallin', just as I have escaped into a daydream so blissful I can almost taste the sweet fruit of freedom...

My tiny toddler picks herself up off the dusty trail, looks around at the wonder of the world completely unimpressed, flashes an unapologetic smile, and whips those pigtails around as she runs off.

As I chase her down the trail to save her from the impending danger of her adventurous spirit, it occurs to me - She has that rambling fever. The only thing she wants in her face is the sunshine. Who cares where the road leads her as long as it never ends. She is going to find the kind of trouble only a tiny toddler terrorist can discover. She will not live in a world without Mickey. Thelma and Louise have nothing on the Outlaw Bugsy Malone. And seriously how old am I? She couldn't care less about Tom Petty. Let it Go, she'd rather Build a Snowman.

So I am once again reminded that when I get that rambling fever, I'm going to have a sidekick along for the ride. We will find the kind of trouble that only a mother and daughter can. And oh sweet sunshine, I hope this road never ends.

Adventures in Bachelorette-ing

You know that moment when you're out a swanky club, sipping on some classy champagne, admiring the panoramic view of city lights, and a Cutie McCuterson comes over and starts talking to you? It's flattering and wonderful and it's all fun and games...until you whip out your iPhone, start showing him pictures of your super cute baby and discussing how you are still breastfeeding. Where are you going, Mister Cutie Cute? Your mom's calling? Did I mention that I'm a mom? Okay, bye....

That's exactly what happened at my sister's bachelorette party this past weekend. I spent weeks planning a party suitable for my little sister. She has spent her whole life being amazing, so I had to plan a shindig that reflected just how fabulous she is. She and I have very different styles. She's glitz and glamor, I'm bars and banjos. She can dance all night to Britney Spears, I spent my 20s following Phish. We are as different as champagne and whiskey, but because she is my little twin star I knew just what kind of party to put together.

My sister leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes - and I mean this literally. The girl leaves a trail of glitter in her wake whenever she leaves a room. After she leaves my house, I find hot pink heart shaped rhinestones stuck in my carpet. I find cotton candy in my cupboards. She is creative and artistic and sparkly, and I don't mean that as a metaphor. So it only made sense that I had to glitter the heck out of anything and everything in sight no matter what. I started with champagne bottles.

They turned out so pretty, but let me tell you a secret - it was so easy. Just be prepared to find yourself covered in glitter for the next few days. You will find glitter in some very strange places, but it's a small price to pay for such a fun looking project. All you need is Modge Podge and glitter. Cover the bottle in the Modge Podge, and then get crazy with the sparkle. I used really chunky glitter, which I think works better than fine glitter. It covers the bottle better.

It was time to figure out what type of adventure upon which we should embark to celebrate my sister's impending nuptials. Because she loves me and knew that it would be difficult for me to leave the baby terrorist for the first overnight since the baby was born, my sister decided that San Diego was as good a place as any to party. I took it from there. I decided that a booze cruise made all the sense in the world because, well...there's booze. And water. And a boat. It's really a no brainer. I chose Sail San Diego to take on the challenge of sailing around 12 drunk girls, and Captain John did a great job! We docked at two bars and they paid for our drinks, then hopped back on the boat and boozed some more.

I bought captain hats for each of the girls and hot pink sunglasses. Because I had a thousand pounds of glitter left over from the champagne bottles, I got crazy and bedazzled my sister's sunglasses in hot pink glitter.

After we were sufficiently boozed and cruised, Captain John returned us to shore and it was off to our pretty awesome hotel room. We stayed in the Star Suite at the Andaz Hotel in downtown San Diego. It had king bunk beds, a bar, and a bull's head on the wall so obviously it was perfect.

After eating pizza that my sweet husband and baby terrorist had thoughtfully dropped off, we headed upstairs to the rooftop bar where we proceeded to party a little more. I may have mentioned several times as I swizzled champagne that I was still lactating. Turns out that I am still "super fun" to party with. One by one we made our way back down to our room. I may or may not have returned to the wrong floor and knocked on the wrong hotel room door demanding to be let in before I realized that this was not in fact my room.

I am an old lady, and bachelorette parties in your 30s tend to end a little earlier than they did in your 20s, as we were all in bed by midnight and up bright and early for a nice brunch at Cafe 21. If you haven't been there, you must try it. It's amazing. Especially if you bring your own champagne in a water bottle, which I'm not saying that we did.

Cheers to you, Dolly!

Sweeten Up Your Event With Dolly's Cotton Candy, San Diego Style!

It's no secret that I agonized over returning to work after birthing my baby terrorist. As much of an adjustment it was transitioning into motherhood, the thought of allowing someone else to spend more time with the baby than me was something that made me feel incredibly sad. Ultimately, returning to work was something that had to be done for our family, but I continue to run through a list of entrepreneurial endeavors that will make me rich and give me the freedom to tell the boss man to take this job and shove it.

Now, you may have heard of Dolly's Sweet Dreams Cotton Candy, a business dreamed up and manifested by my sister. Four years ago, she announced that she was going to start a cotton candy catering company. As she grew her business, her client list grew - I still remember the day she did Kourtney Kardashian's baby shower, and I recall when I saw the episode aired on TV - there was my baby sister, making all of her sweet dreams come true. She eventually added caramel apples, popcorn, and shaved ice into her repertoire of all things delicious.

Right about the time I was wailing miserably about returning to the workforce, my sister had the idea to expand Dolly's into San Diego. She enlisted the help of yours truly to make this idea a reality. I am excited to announce that we have recently launched Dolly's Sweet Dreams Cotton Candy - San Diego! If you or someone you know wants to sweeten up a birthday party, wedding, baby shower, bridal shower, bar/bat mitzvah, or corporate event in San Diego County, please contact me at dollyscottoncandysd@gmail.com. I would love the opportunity to help you fill up on memories!

You Oughta Know

They didn't tell me certain things about having a baby. Or maybe they did, but I was under a blissful cloud of delusion and was convinced that my baby would be perfect. I tend to be more of a talker than a listener, and I have a gift for tuning out the things I don't want to hear. I may have been warned, but I sure didn't hear it.

They didn't tell me just how high I would be coming out of my c-section. Normally, that would be awesome - who wouldn't want to be floating on a cloud of legal drugs - but as I was hovering in a dreamy parallel plane in which I couldn't feel my toes, a world in which I was pretty certain I had just birthed a beautiful baby girl but wasn't quite sure, a nurse emerged from the fog and demanded that I begin breastfeeding.

Wait, what?

I was high as a kite. I unfortunately informed my dad as I came out of surgery that I had been high before, but never this high. In an instant, the years of self-righteous, indignant denial of any wrong doing whatsoever washed down the drain. But no matter, I had no time to worry about medically induced confessions. I had to figure out how to tell the nurse that I was unequivocally impaired and there was no way in hell that I should be holding my baby, let alone attempting to breastfeed the poor thing. Welcome to the world, baby - Sorry mommy is on (some really good) drugs and already totally incapable of being the parent you need me to be. I always knew that I would have some mommy fails, I just didn't realize that it would happen pretty much the second she was removed from my womb.

Those lactation consultants are incredibly militant, however, and my just say no approach was ignored as the nurse thrust the baby terrorist at me and tapped her foot impatiently as I fumbled for what I hoped was my boob - I still couldn't feel my body, so it was a shot in the dark - and luckily for me, the baby terrorist was quite adept at the whole eating thing.

They didn't tell me that there would be a time a few days into this whole new life with a baby thing where I would lock myself in the car and cry like never before. My in-laws were in town visiting, meeting the baby terrorist for the first time. As her terrorist title might imply, she wasn't the easiest of babies. One particularly difficult evening, the tiny human was dissolved in a fit of animal sounding, ear piercing, insanity inducing screaming. No amount of rocking, shushing, or screaming along with her could console her. I was seriously sleep deprived, in pain, questioning all of my life choices that had led up to this very moment, and suddenly I just couldn't take one more second of it. I handed the baby off to my husband and because we had a house full of guests, I escaped to my car and cried. I contemplated putting on some good Pink Floyd, fully dissolving into my misery and driving off to some tropical paradise never to be heard from again.

That's when I heard a knock on my car window. Through tear filled eyeballs I looked up to see my husband, looking haggard, tired and concerned, and my baby terrorist, looking thoroughly satisfied that she had broken us as she sucked peacefully on a pacifier. Sighing, I abandoned all thoughts of a deserted beach and endless margaritas and rejoined my new life. They just don't prepare you for that.

They didn't warn me that going back to work would be the hardest decision I would ever make. It wasn't really much of a choice as it was either go to work or catapult our family into bankruptcy and financial ruin. Right before maternity leave ended, I was showing my husband all of the cute baby girl clothes I had bought the terrorist.

"Isn't this so cute? And look at these shoes, they are so cute. And this sweater, isn't it cute?! Cute cute cute!" I went on and on ad nauseam.

My husband leveled me with a stern gaze and said, "You know what else is cute? Having a roof over our baby's head."

Okay, okay. Point taken. I was going to have to work whether I wanted to or not. I locked myself in my office the first day back and cried, and, folks, I work from home. It wasn't like I had far to go to leave the baby but it felt like my world had ended. And again, that recurring thought of the tropical beach and bottomless margaritas returned to tempt me. It wasn't working that was difficult. It was surrendering my child to someone else for more than a couple of hours at a time that proved to be my undoing. They didn't tell me how much that would hurt.

They didn't tell me how much rage I would feel the first time someone said anything against my baby terrorist. Look beotch, I am the only one who gets to throw around phrases like "baby terrorist". The first time I heard anything other than she's the most perfect baby in the entire world, I saw nothing but red. I blacked out. I don't remember anything that I said but there is a record of it somewhere in text message format. It was that moment that I realized this mama bear I will lift a car off of my child don't mess with mom thing is no joke. Me, the girl who tries to avoid confrontation at all cost - turns out I have a little streak of fierce deep down. They didn't prepare me.

They didn't tell me how scared I would feel the first time my baby was really, really sick. My first clue was when the terrorist wanted to snuggle. Clearly, something was wrong. Usually she pulls my hair and bites me, all while talking smack in the loudest inside voice I have ever heard. This particular morning, she crawled onto my chest and let me hold her for hours. It was the sweetest and most terrifying day of my life. Her fever was high and I inundated the doctor with five thousand phone calls, each time being told that she is fine, she just has a virus, she'll get over it. This is when you realize that nobody knows your child better than you do. The five thousand and first phone call was to inform the doctor that the baby terrorist does not call a truce for a silly virus. She has an agenda. Something was wrong. The level of panic I had to suppress and the calm composure I had to maintain is something I will never forget.

I wasn't prepared for the tremendous feeling of relief and overwhelming thankfulness I felt when she began to get better. When she woke up one morning, yanked my hair and yelled at me I looked up to the sky and thanked God my terrorist was back.

They didn't tell me how full my heart could feel even at the strangest of moments. How at my most stressed out, what have I done, my life will never be the same again, I wish I could go to the movies alone, heck I wish I could pee alone, what did it feel like to sleep in past 6 a.m., will my boobs ever be mine again moments I catch myself looking at my husband and my baby and feeling like my heart is so full of love it could literally pop. How willingly I give up pieces of my life just to see her smile, to hear her laugh, to receive one of her open mouth awkward heavy breathing too much eye contact kisses.

They didn't tell me any of this. And even if they had, I probably wouldn't have listened anyway. It's much more interesting to just be surprised everyday on this crazy ride.

A Pink Lemonade Celebration

Let's have a little party, we said.

We'll keep it simple, we promised.

It's just her first birthday, we reasoned. She won't even remember it.

Five bazillion dollars and several new gray hairs later, the baby terrorist had her first rager, complete with a homemade lemonade stand.

I'm not sure what happened, but I found myself drunk with first birthday fever. It's not everyday that we get to celebrate the fact that we kept a little tiny terrorist alive for an entire year. An entire year! If that doesn't constitute spending a ridiculous amount of money on the cutest cupcake toppers you ever did see, then you obviously haven't spent many a sleepless night staring helplessly at a screaming baby, scratching your head and maybe even crying yourself because you just don't know what the heck that child needs. How about that time I endured the greatest pooptastrophe of all time? That alone validated my need to throw money at a ridiculous number of pink garland. Oh, and remember that time I sucked the very snot out of my baby's nose? Well, I don't mind if I do have six thousand Instagram photos printed of the little terrorist, paste them onto fancy construction paper and obsessively hang them around the house. I still have PTSD from the terrorist's epic meltdown at the post office, so buying enough pink and yellow candy to keep us buzzed for a year only seemed logical.

I decided to throw the baby a pink lemonade themed first birthday party. Since I have a handy husband who likes to escape to the backyard for hours at a time, I tasked him with building a lemonade stand. He exceeded all expectations with this cute little number!

I bought the ridiculously cute tutu and onesie ensemble from Gentry's Closet. As you can see, the birthday girl is pretty stoked about her awesome lemonade stand.

I went a little wild with the Instagram pictures, but they made for such easy and cute decor that I couldn't help myself. I printed them using the app Printicular. You can have them delivered to your home or printed at Walgreens. I totally got carried away and decided that I needed to buy fancy schmancy scissors, glue the pictures onto pink and yellow construction paper, and give them cute borders. I luckily had very quiet evenings after the baby went to bed because my husband was traveling for work. I spent many a night watching (and judging) the Real Housewives, drinking wine, and cutting out pictures. Really, if we're being honest, that's how I spend most of my nights anyway!

I made pink lemonade cupcakes and found these super cute cupcake toppers from Scrappin' Ashley on Etsy. I am no baker, so I agonized over these damn cupcakes! They might not have been the prettiest things ever, but the frosting was amazing.

I even made the baby terrorist a giant cupcake for her cake smash. I used the world's largest cupcake mold to make it, and it took two whole boxes of cake mix. For spending the last year engaging in terrorist tactics never seen before, she was quite the little lady when it came to that cupcake. She daintily put a finger in the frosting, and took little bird bites. She was also very thoughtful when it came to sharing her cupcake, and was more than happy to indulge her parents and her pooch.

No party is complete without a candy bar. Did you know that you can buy just pink and yellow jelly beans on Amazon? I can't even explain how excited that made me.When did I become such a nerd? I enlisted the help of my fabulous sister, owner of Dolly's Sweet Dreams Cotton Candy, to sweeten up the candy bar. I can come up with cute ideas, but I am the worst when it comes to cuteness execution. That's where my sister came in. Each guest got to take home a bag of candy as a party favor. Can you tell I am new at this motherhood thing? Who in their right mind sends children home with a bag of sugar? It's no wonder  I have a baby terrorist. Instant karma.

Here are a few more fun photos from her party.

I now understand why the second birthday party is way more understated than the first. This was exhausting and expensive, but it was so worth the celebration. It's not everyday that you get to graduate from baby terrorist to toddler terrorist with so much pink and yellow.