Unfortunately it didn’t entirely work but I am a lot more ready for someone to arrive in a couple of weeks.

We had lunch next to my local movie theatre and my son asked over and over to go to the movies, and over and over I told him there just wasn’t any for kids at the time. Which is sort of true, there are none that I want him to go see in a theater right now.

At three years old, I’ve been picky about his movie experiences.

All of his little friends went and saw Cars 2 in the theatre, something that I pondered, studied and finally said no to after hearing about loud explosions and knowing my son would cry in the theater at the overly loud noises since he startled easily.

I was lucky enough to take him to his first movie theatre experience last summer with the Oogieloves , which was perfect for him since he got to get up, get down, and there were no loud noises.

He speaks of the movie theater with a little reverence, which fascinates me because I’ve been to the movies about as much as he has in his short life.

While I’m dying to see The Great Gatsby and the newest Star Tars before the baby comes, other things and my body telling me it’s bedtime keep getting in my way of the cold dark room and a handful of Sour Patch Kids.

However, I know by the end of summer he will get a chance to go to another movie.

I’ve been following the Disney Planes movie news for a while, but not as long as my son has been obsessed with the Air Mater short on the Cars 2 DVD (or as he put it, “the scary Cars with bad guys in them” movie).

He and his friends have all had the same little plane toy along their treasured piles of little toy cars and several versions of Lightning McQueen- a Falcon Hawk 1 that zips along and frequently gets under my feet.

And hopefully by then I can leave the baby for a few hours and spend some one-on-one time with a sweet little guy who has spent all of the long hot summer dealing with a new baby brother.

What movies are you looking forward to most this summer?

The post Looking forward to Planes appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

After watching a friend try to deal with the new craziness of a three-year-old and a newborn to take care of, I have realized the more I can get done, the better.

Not only am I going to schedule bills (I am the banker in the house) and make freezer meals (currently being hunted down on Pinterest) but I am already planning baby announcements.

Yep, baby isn’t here for another few weeks but I am already looking at what to send out.

For Wonder Boy, I photoshopped pictures together, added a fall theme of leaves trailing around and had the pictures printed at CVS, bribing someone to go gt them for me.

A little more time consuming than I can plan for with a kid running around chasing the dog with a construction truck.

So this time I am planning to order my announcements online on Minted and make it just that much easier.

Minted has so many options online, created by independent designers.
My pregnant brain is having a problem deciding so I thought I’d share all of them I am considering!
I love the idea of this one with a quick note on the back about how the family is adjusting to the new arrival.

I almost did a moon-and-stars theme for the baby’s nursery, so of course I am drawn to this one.

A photog friend is excited to use some of her props on my upcoming arrival- I can squeeze several on a card and show off all of his cute pictures.

Minted even has postcards!
This could be a cute way to put a smile on someone’s face as they sort out the fun mail from the bills and junk.

I know my son will be a proud big brother- I’d love to share a picture of him as well on the announcement.

So, along with shopping to stock up on diapers and making freezer dinners I have this fun chore.

What announcement do I use?

Got an opinion? Let me know?

Any cute ones I missed on Minted.com?

The post Minted is announcing the baby appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

Part of the reason why SoCal Lady Bloggers was started was to make it easy for bloggers to find other bloggers, including us out in the IE to find other bloggers and not have to hike to LA for everything.

However, with all of the get-together that had been planned I’d only made it to one other ‘meetup’ out here in the IE – a chance to check out the Ontario Reign hockey team.

I was newly pregnant at the time, and felt horribly sick most of the game.

So a second chance came up and I ran with it- hooking up with Marie Callender’s to try out their new Pie and Pasta Amore menu.

I mean, how could you not want to try out pasta and have a slice of MC’s famous pie?

We lost our local Marie Callender’s a couple of years ago and the pies are still mourned locally.

And this pregnant lady loves pasta and pie. It was a partnership made in heaven.

The Pie and Pasta Amore menu features four options for pasta, all served with a caesar salad or a choice of a garden salad or soup, depending on the pasta.

I got the rigatoni with caesar salad and enjoyed every delicious, heartburn-inducing bite (tomato sauce and I have not done well this pregnancy, yet I keep eating it.)

I’d order it again if I wasn’t pregnant (and probably again if I had the chance- I am silly like that).

I also enjoyed a bite of the shrimp pasta dish, which I loved even more. (Or maybe I should just be smart and order the shrimp next time, right?)

To top it off I picked out from their list of over 30! pies a slice of coconut cream pie and savored every coconut-y bite (I also have a thing for coconut right now. Mmm, coconut.)

Nope, no picture here. I ate it too fast after getting it back from the temporary photo studio set up on a nearby table by the other bloggers in attendance.

This menu is for a limited time only, so grab some girlfriends and have a night out dishing gossip and inhaling carbs and pie!

You can find Marie Callender’s on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest.

The post Marie Callender’s Pie and Pasta Amore appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

It still had all of the plastic on and was barely dirty, so we ran it home and placed the final piece in our nursery for Wonder Boy.

Almost 4 years later it is being used again, and instead of a giant Lightning McQueen pillow to sooth an aching back, it has a different look.

Same comfy chair. Still my favorite place.

The blanket was knit be great grandma for the first baby and will soon cover the second as well. The pillow was sewn by myself, with a little help from Wonder Boy picking out the grey color.

The nursing cover hangs over it right now- I love the material too much to put it away yet.

The post Favorite seat in the house appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

The post It’s a Monday appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

This is somewhere Wonder Boy has gone to for years- and mixed in with the people at business lunches or simultaneously plugging into their laptops is a mix of ladies who lunch and occasional other kids.

We were talking about what he was doing on the iPad- something that often comes out at Mu just because it is a quieter restaurant and we can still engage with him as he plays a game- when I looked over and saw a much older boy with boredom and a little yearning on his face watching us.

Who I assumed was his mom was staring at her iPhone.

Now, in the blogging world its hard to state that you judge someone. There’s a lot of pressure to be benevolent of all because you don’t know the situation.

But this mom not only ignored her son before the food came- they barely spoke as they silently slurped their tom ka kai soup.

I felt so bad for him as we chatted and giggled away over my son ordering a ‘side of chopsticks’ and devouring most of his lunch, jabbering away about his little friends and my belly thumped along with every bite of curry I ate.

Eating out is always social in my family. The iPad or an iPhone often gets handed to my son, because he is three in a world of adults at a restaurant where often there is no kids menu.

The adults get some chatting done, and whomever is by him sometimes gets lulled into a game or smiles over his shoulder as he watches one of the retro Mickey Mouse cartoons I downloaded.

But he is never, never ignored.

He is still, often, the center of attention as questions are asked, interrupting his little game or someone joins in with a quick tea party where the host also eats all of the food.

I wondered as we left what the rest of the kid’s day was like- was he off from school for a reason? Did she work? Will they go home and go separate ways into entertainment and chores?

I hoped they’d have a good conversation. I hoped nothing was wrong. it’s hard when all you see is a few minutes of someone’s life.

Even as I still found fried rice later on in my son’s shirt I was glad for our times out- that even if it was just eating out and the iPad was involved my son still felt involved and loved.

Not bored and wanting.

The post Judging by the eyes appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

The lack of writing I’ve done lately on my blog is in direct correlation with the crazy my life can take coupled with a need to pay attention to my son while he is still the only one here.

April is cesarean awareness month- something I feel gets overrun by other subjects but, yet, one in three births is by casarean here in the US.

As was several of Wonder Boy’s friend’s births.

I’ve written about my cesarean here several times. I had a hard time coming to terms with mine and just when I felt confident in my decision, months worth of thinking ‘ am I doing the right thing’ finally came out of me as my belly expanded beyond the comfort zone.

A couple weeks ago I sat with my husband and son in the doctor’s office, list rotating through my head over and aver as we went through the standard procedure.

When it was my turn to ask questions, I could barely ask my upcoming cesarean (a must for my local hospital and a choice made by Mr. Wonder and I) and started crying.

All of the months, the worries, the stress finally came to a point, even though up to the moment I opened my mouth, thought of it calmly.

Choosing a repeat cesarean was not an easy choice,  and on a regular basis I worry about if it is the right choice because of the pressure to VBAC and the unknowing if I could, maybe, do it this next time.

Through my tears I saw the doctor look at my husband for his reaction. He knew it was an emotional subject for me, he knew why I wanted to ask those questions and was there to support and hear the answers too.

Because I needed to be as prepared as possible.

Because I needed it to be different.

It’s hard to be prepared for any kind of birth- all of the booklearning, studying, talking and planning can be thrown out the window in an instant.

Having a planned cesarean is about the only way to be able to plan ahead- I’ve known my son’s intended birthday for months.

Recovering will not be easy since we now own a 2-story house- I will be taking over my son’s playroom because it’s the only room downstairs that can be made dark and quiet.

Good luck not stepping on Duplos at 3 am right? At least there’s a shower downstairs. And goodbye swimming in the pool all summer- something I have to shove a few more sessions in before the baby comes with Wonder Boy.

My back hurts less in the water anyway, but it is exhausting swimming with this massive belly.

Five weeks from now I will be holding my son, hopefully with happy bliss in my heart instead looking through the world through a cold mist of trauma.

The memories of Wonder Boy’s delivery and the nights in the hospital, not even close to sleep, staring out into the cold hospital room.

Staring at the thin red line and scared I would split open.

Falling apart a little more than I thought.

I will be healing two scars this time.

The post a second scar to heal the first appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

All it took is a roundabout grasp on tying in the Boston bombing suspects with Al-Queda and I was done.

I have watched TV news struggle a lot the last few months.

With Newtown, journalists repeated little snatches of information, leaving a lot of backpedaling only minutes later and people crying out conspiracy theories to a coverup of the actual situation.

With Dorner here in California, news outlets were hours ahead of themselves saying he had been captured, when in fact only sighted, and then took conferences from police agencies who were not in charge of the scene to get information, spreading rumors even farther and then backing off as the real news came out. They even repeatedly showed footage of the shootout looped over and over with the ‘live’ tag on th side, making it seem like the bullets flew forever.

And today I turned off the television again after hearing a news broadcast grasp at a chance the Boston bombing could be Al-Queda related, opening the door again for hatred against any muslim by the angry and vengeful ones who will want to fight back.

I was first a journalist before I became a blogger. At first it was hard spilling my guts out to the world, wanting to share information, have backed up sources, and always respecting fellow journalists.

Now, when I hear something is going down, I don’t turn on my local news or CNN, which has also lost their credibility with me.

I turn to Twitter.

As a reporter I used to watch it with interest, knowing that just because Twitter said stuff first doesn’t mean  it’s correct.

Yesterday, I commented to someone who had an early article about how the first suspect was in custody saying I wouldn’t believe it until more news came out.

But to read it on Twitter, stated over and over by people following scanners and there nearby?

I am starting to believe social media gossip over the journalists.

Citizen journalists, as the public tends to be called when sharing information about a news event, are turning out to be better sources of information than the TV news.

Print is already ahead of the game, linking to tweets and live-blogging events, using detailed and concrete information in the actual print editions.

Television, however, is whipping their horse trying to catch up with the impossible strides of social media and is now losing credibility with every straw they grasp at and have to recant later. If they even do mention their error.

They interview anyone they can, turning information about a suspect into a gossip-fest based on neighbors, classmates and former coworkers.

People are being driven to social media now to find current information and it leaves a risk. People tweet out addresses, take pictures of officers, all in the names of sharing news events, getting the word out about what’s happening near them, and having a moment of fame.

Police are having to ask not to share information that could hinder operations, put officers at risk and endanger others.

I never considered paparazzi as a career option after college, even though it was still a good market at the time, because I couldn’t handle the reckless gathering of any information and letting it blow up for a few thousand dollars.

This is just what the television news is turning into – chasing down anything and letting it grow beyond control then finding out the real news, much later in the game. I applaud any news sources that stay conservative and wait for confirmation before releasing information, like my local agencies when Dorner was a 20-minute drive from my home.

And so, again, I will be leaving my news gathering to a few choice people on Facebook and the occasional search on twitter.

How do you gather information when a major news event is on? Which do you find most trustworthy?

The post Pissed at the TV news appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

I knew then to be careful- Wonder Boy has been excited about a baby brother since he found out I was going to have one, so so long ago for him.

I had kept it a secret even when I had horrendous morning sickness and, now that his little bestie has just had HIS baby brother, my son was even more excited for his.

He loved to poke my belly and tell people that his mommy was having a baby, pride radiating from his face.

Sometimes he even talks about the baby in his belly waking up and feeling hungry- and I just smile and tickle him.

Yes, a party for the baby.

People are excited to see him, just like they were excited for you.

They will bring presents to help us be ready for your brother, because babies can be a lot of work.

I pointed out every time we talked about the little shower that his baby brother would not be there.

I wish he was here today, Wonder Boy would say sadly.

I know buddy, 8 more weeks. It seems like a long time but it won’t be.

You still have all of preschool and next week we’re going to the beach and the zoo.

OH YAY!

The post A party for the baby appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.

Well, his legacy continues on with this pregnancy, with another anterior placenta off to the right, therefore, I feel ALL of my baby’s movements on the left hand side.

Every kick, every shove, every wobble is off to one side.

Since baby definitely has a preference for hanging out on side, my stomach, with 10 weeks to go, has become a little less rounded and a little more, well, oddly shaped.

Exhibit A: (and the only one you’ll get unless you see me in person and forcibly remove my shirt)

I am sitting as straight as I can for this picture.

It really is that off.

It affects the way I sit, I lay down, everything.

Luckily I don’t have an outie (I don’t remember having much of one before) to, um, point out the current situation, which I know will only get worse since the last two weeks have shown a drastic change.

Was anything lopsided during a pregnancy for you or a partner?

The post My bellybutton appeared first on Sunshine Wonderland.