TheJavaMama

Fun Weekend in Dallas

July 12, 2010

Connor & I met up with our friends Laura & Gooner at North Park mall in Dallas

Laura is one of the sweetest blogger friends I have met and is also one of the healthiest! She has gotten so skinny! Go check out her blog if you are looking for looking for tips & healthy ways to eat 🙂 I haven’t seen Laura since November of last year when I was still pregnant with Connor so it was nice they finally got to meet each other in person! We had a great time Laura and G! Thanks for coming to meet up with us and letting Terence tag along!

Here’s Laura & Connor

And here is Laura’s precious angel “Gooner“
She is SO beautiful!!!

This is Connor last night in an activity center at my mother in law’s house. He just LOOOOVES this thing and we have so got to get him one of these activity centers because he’s getting to the point where he doesn’t like to lay flat anymore. What kinds of toys/activity centers do you guys recommend?

We are starting rice/oatmeal cereal for the first time tonight! Wish us luck!

Connor meets Mr. Jonas

July 11, 2010

Mommy & Daddy took me to Dallas today to meet a friend and on the way home they stopped at Restoration Hardware to look around. Mom was wheeling my stroller by some people and they said “oh what a cute baby” I was.

Mommy turned to Daddy and said “I think that is a Jonas brother!”

Daddy said “No it wasn’t”

Mom said it was so Daddy went and asked Mr. Jonas for a picture. He was there with his wife and family and they were SO sweet! They shook our hands and introduced themselves. I had no idea they lived in Dallas. Kevin wanted to even hold Connor…it was so cute! They were the nicest people and genuinely as enthused to meet us too!

Thank you Mr. Jonas you made my Mommy’s day 🙂

(I just wish the picture wasn’t so blurry!)

It’s FRIDAY I’m in LOVE

July 9, 2010

THINGS I AM IN LOVE WITH RIGHT NOW :

(You can participate on Summer’s blog)

DROMEO pain relief lotion

I rub this on my neck and shoulders all the time and it’s like a warm heating pad. I love it and instantly feel better. Right now they are running a special on their Facebook page. Just search “DROMEO” on Facebook and you can “like” them and look at their specials.
*25% OFF* … through Saturday night only!

You MUST use discount code 1776

Ginalli Clipless Iron
This is the best curling iron I have ever come across and it makes

those perfect Taylor Swift ringlets 🙂

Reese’s DARK peanut butter cups
Love..love..love these and they are soooooo good!

Shout Wipes
It seems like I can’t go anywhere without these now days because
I have constant drool all over me!

Zutano Children’s Clothing
I love this print at Zutano’s right now…I think it’s a little bit girlie for Connor though!

Sprinkler System 🙂
We are getting a sprinkler system installed next weekend so Terence won’t have to spend three hours watering the yard! Woohoo! I’m sure it will be very nice and we’ll have more free time together.

What are you in LOVE with this week?

Growing Boy

July 9, 2010

Connor –

Daddy took you to your 4 month doctor appointment today and he said you did so good! Mommy had to work, but you got an excellent report! You are 60th % for weight, 90th % for height, and 95% for head. Daddy said you didn’t cry when they first gave you your shots, but by the third one you were not too happy! I wish I was there to hold you all the times when you cry my sweet boy! You are so strong and LOOOOVE to try and stand up! You are growing so quickly right before our eyes and we are so blessed by your little life and couldn’t imagine our life without YOU in it! Love, Mommy

Photography Lesson 2

July 7, 2010

This is my camera : It’s a Nikon D80

I’ve had this camera for about 5 years now. I think the newer version of it is a Nikon D90. The best site I’ve found for camera reviews and lenses is at Ken Rockwell. You can look up whatever camera you want and it has excellent tips and reviews.

I personally would NOT buy a camera kit. If you are thinking of purchasing a nice camera I would buy the body and lens separately. Usually the lenses that come with camera kits are crappy. The key to a great photo is a great lens. One of my favorite lenses is the Tokina 11-16 mm lens

Here are some pictures I took with this wide angle lens :

Here I am standing right in FRONT of Connor, but you would never know because it gets the whole room in

I’m standing really close to the living room and I got the WHOLE thing in the frame

Here I am standing right in front of the doorway to the kitchen and I got the entire room in again

You get the point – Wide angle lenses are GREAT if you have a large area to cover or a whole lot of people to fit into a frame.

Another program I could not live without is LIGHTROOM. This program is not as fancy as Photoshop, but if you can’t afford the steep price of Photoshop then I would recommend Lightroom to anyone! It’s great because you can change the white balance, exposure, and enhance colors in your photos….as well as many other features.

I also own Photoshop and it’s a great program and you can do so many wonderful things to photos. I love using “actions” in photos, with the click of a button you can totally transform a photo! I may talk about that in my next photo post.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT LIGHTROOM CAN DO :

Here is the photo straight out of the camera

Here it is after I’ve enhanced it with Lightroom

As you can see it just gives you that little extra “sparkle”

I guess that is about all for todays photo lesson 🙂

If you have anymore questions just be sure to leave a comment and I’ll try my best to answer!

Crazy Long Weekend

July 6, 2010

It has been a great three day weekend!

I don’t want to go back to work tomorrow! Boohoo!

Connor has had a CRAZY growth spurt all weekend…it’s like he has a bottomless pit for a stomach or something. I think this kid has probably gained a pound in just two days! He’s also been sleeping a lot more. I have been very strict on his diet. I had a lot of trouble in the beginning getting him to breastfeed so I have been strictly pumping since we got home from the hospital. It is rough, but I am proud I have been able to stick with it. It’s a LOT of dishes and takes a lot of discipline to get up and make myself pump all the time, a couple cases of mastitis, and pumping in the car a LOT! LOL! It’s definitely had it’s challenges, but my husband has been my biggest supporter and I’m so glad that even though I wasn’t able to breastfeed I didn’t give up and continued to give my baby breast milk. It’s a very personal decision for everyone, and I’m not saying it’s bad at all if you didn’t breastfeed…I am just saying I have worked hard and had several breakdowns to get to his point….it’s definitely harder than I ever thought!

Okay- and with that said I worry about what and when to feed him. Well, not really worrying because I know he is being fed plenty. I don’t want to give him cereal or baby food because American Pediatric Guidelines recommend only breast milk for the first six months. I’m sure that every baby is different and they will be just fine regardless. When did you start baby foods and why?

Proof that he has a bottomless stomach right now….he sprayed my ENTIRE wall here and got pee all over himself (his shirt is soaked!) and all over the changing table. He was like a continuous fountain! Terence tried to cover it up but it kept going and going and going…..

Do you ever wonder what your baby would look like with hair? Here’s Connor toupee…aka…Momma’s hair!

Today we went grocery shopping, to Babies R Us, and we grilled out again for dinner. Of course we had our coffee fix too 🙂 We also had to go to Lowe’s to get a new mailbox because somebody blew up our mailbox yesterday with a firework! Crazy people!!!! Who does that???