who needs ben & jerry's?

our own delicious chunky monkey.

(isn't that expression hilarious? she was blowing me a raspberry.)

this morning.

this morning i woke up to the smell of the lovely scent of "kitchen spice" wafting through the air. bath and body works knows how to do fall scents, don't they? have you tried "leaves?" yumalicious.

this morning i overheard caleb singing, "if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it! woah a oh, oh a oh oh oh!" in his defense (and mine) this is a song i solely sing to leah when i'm feeding her peas and she's refusing to open her mouth. it makes her smile and plop! in go the peas.

this morning ben came in to the room with a confused look on his face. walking kind of funny. turns out he'd put on a pair of my jeans by mistake. i was grateful that not only were they my "too big" pair, but they were snug on him.

this morning i insulted ben by saying i was grateful they were snug on him, because we were "quite a few pounds different." (i know that saying isn't really worded correctly but you get the idea.) so then he thought i was calling him fat. which is not at all true, i was trying to not call myself fat. and defended my grammatically un-correct statement by reminding him that i am about a foot shorter than him, and therefore should weigh "quite a few pounds different" from him.

this morning i insulted ben again because i also informed him that those jeans of mine were petite in length and that they didn't necessarily look like capris on him. that the length was quite fitting.

this morning i attempted to make up for my slew of insults by letting him know that the gap lived up to their claim. that those jeans of mine did, in fact, make him look longer and leaner. "oh wow, thanks." was his sarcastic reply. hey, i tried didn't i?

this morning leah didn't yet fit into the pants i had bought for her, so instead she crawled around in her baby thigh-high leg warmers. there's something unsettling about the word thigh-highs when discussing my now 8 month old lassie, but she sure looks cute in them. they squeeze the chunk of her legs so that when when you get to her diaper there's about an inch of muffin top chub spilling out over the sides. plus we like to make her dance to "she's a maniac" when she wears them and put it on the video camera. so funny.

and as for me?

this morning i am enduring a hangover from fair food. to specify, that is food from the fair, which we went to yesterday. check out these fries! and it was my first real attempt at eating fried treats. i wasn't sure how the deep fried twinkies would be but to my amazement they were absolutely spectacular. but due to the calorie overload yesterday i will be re-thinking my malibu barbie halloween costume. i think i'll go as her frumpy mother instead.




this morning i am loving the fact that the high is only 70 degrees today and that we're busting out the long sleeved shirts and pants. blessed be cooler weather!

the halloween spirit

tonight we carved a pumpkin and took some pictures. some of them turned out kind of spooky.

introducing, billy bob the jack o lantern (named by his big brother caleb)...




caleb's head on fire (showing off his demonic side)...



and caleb the ghost (whoooooooo)...


hope this is getting you in the mood for a freaky week.

bath time.

warning: you will see a cute baby bum in these pictures...watch out!

i don't know if there's anything that leah loves more than her night time bath. if she's in another room and hears the bath water go on, she squeals with delight and takes off crawling at warp speed to the bathroom.

and then....

it's S.P.L.A.S.H. time!

seriously, i have to put towels on the floor and make sure i'm wearing something akin to a wet suit because i get doused with her crazy splashing.

and after?

she loves crawling around in the buff
almost as much as she loves the bath.

that's pretty much our nightly routine. hope you enjoyed it!

wrap up on reality life

now that the show has wrapped up the final episode, i thought i'd share my thoughts on the past 8 months or so. in case you don't remember, this is how i looked when the show first started:

i remember sitting at the casting call, that my husband and sister had urged me to go to, feeling frumpy in my maternity sweater. it no doubt carried a stain on it, as did all of my maternity clothes by that time. i sat down next to a lovely lady wearing heels and gucci glasses carrying her portfolio (yes! i said portfolio!) with her. i felt

so. out. of. my. comfort zone.

as i drove home, i was proud of myself for giving it a go. this was not something i usually do, putting myself "out there" for pretty much anything. when i received an email to return for a 2nd interview, i was honestly shocked.

i sat around the table for the interview, surrounded by 8 beautiful and inspiring women. each had a story to tell. in the beginning they seemed so different from me, so hard to relate to. but as the hour went on we began to find common ground. not only that but i realized how much i genuinely liked each of them. i got so excited thinking about how much fun it was to meet them, and how it would be fun to watch any of them in the show.

i felt intimidated thinking about what in the world i could offer to them. the first 2 years of caleb's life were pretty much hell in motherhoodland. the seizures, the physical therapy, the specialists, the constant crying, the difficulty of it all. but since then i felt like we had worked ourselves into a pretty quiet routine. honestly? i felt like we were:

boring.

so when i received the phone call to participate in the show, i thought they had called the wrong pregnant girl. i felt nervous, intimidated, and completely insecure. but at the same time i felt extremely flattered and excited.

we started shooting about 5 weeks before i was due. i immediately felt comfortable with the group of people i met working on the show. they were so nice and patient with me. i have a tendency to ramble on when i'm nervous. and most of the time forgot the question i was asked. :)

5 days after the photo shoot for the show, this happened:

one of the 3 most important things in my life. leah was born, and my world was yet again changed. before the birth, i was extremely nervous to have anyone with cameras around me. but as i watched the birth episode i was so glad that i had agreed to it.

i also got the chance to vent about my colicky baby, hopefully helping other moms with hard newborns to not feel so alone. it was a difficult time, and again i was grateful to have been able to have the chance to be on the show to realize that i survived it.

now miss leah is 7 months old. not only is she crawling, but she is standing up and cruising along our furniture. it is such a complete opposite situation from caleb, who couldn't walk until the day after he turned 2. she is so happy and into everything!

ben is now in his second year of his doctoral program, working very hard and pulling out fantastic grades while keeping up a crazy schedule. i could not have done the show without his support and encouragement. caleb is a fun and healthy 4 year old who is a good big brother to leah and has an infectious love of life.

the Real Mom's Guide show has been such a fun experience and i have seen myself grow from it. i've learned to be less hard on myself, less critical of how i look, and more forgiving of my imperfections on the outside as well as on the inside.

i've loved getting to know dana, ida and vanessa. what amazing women they are! beautiful, fun, inspiring, funny, and REAL. it's been so much fun to get to know them and learn more about them. they have wonderful families and are amazing mothers.

a huge THANK YOU to Real Mom's Guide, to Mott's and to SheKnows! to all of the wonderful people i have been able to meet along the way (a special thanks to shay, i love ya!) it's been such a fantastic 8 months. and i can't wait to see season 2!

with love,

lynsey

proof that nearly bald babies can get bedhead too.

when she woke up with fluff everywhere i realized that i don't give her head enough credit.
i keep referring to her as bald and i guess she wanted to prove me wrong.





point taken!

RMG season finale episode!

hi there,

so the final episode of Real Mom's Guide was posted and it was fun to look back at the moments through the last 8 months. it's weird to forget that i was pregnant when this first started and leah is now 7 months old. so much has changed, and it's not just the hair. :)

i had a fabulous time, and loved getting to know ida, dana and vanessa. not to mention the great film and production crew. they were all so nice and patient and kind. (specifically kind when they didn't put my tears on the finale...much appreciated!)

so go on the website and watch the last episode. vote for your favorite moment on the show, and if you haven't become part of the Real Mom's Guide network yet, join up! they have fabulous articles, giveaways, and it's a wonderful network to make new friends and connect with women that are all dealing with the same issues that you are.

click here for the episode.

unintentional hiatus

hi there. remember me? the one who usually has too much to say?

i've been gone. if you haven't noticed. not intentionally....just....not much to say. i've been around, reading blogs, checking out what facebook friends have been up to, trying my darndest to figure out the twitter obsession (which i have yet to figure out). i've just been more quiet about it. aren't you grateful for a little break?

but i feel a post coming on. woo hoo!

and a post with pictures? double woo hoo!