A few more pics from Strolla Momma's

lunges, lunges, and more lunges !!! We hop up and down on the steps and then we run up and down the steps. :)

Dips

Squats... my enemy. ;)

Stroll Momma Stroll!

I have been wanting to blog about this for the past several months. I finally got some pictures so now I can!

I attend a 'Mommy and Me' exercise class in Central Park. The class meets on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Its a pay as you go class, so you can come on the days that are most convenient for you. Its a great set up!

We run around the Great Lawn in Central Park doing various hopping, skipping, jumping, running... all with our strollers in front of us. We stop every now and then and do various exercises such as, dips, pushups, lunges, squats, etc. At the end of the class, we do about 20 minutes of sculpting exercises, which is really my favorite part. I've never had the discipline to do these types of exercises on my own, so I am enjoying being made to do them!
Anyways, I really enjoy the variety that this class provides. It is fun, I get to meet other Mommas and their precious little ones, all while being in the great outdoors, beautiful Central Park, and staying in shape! I love it!

If you live in NYC and are a Momma, you should definitely give this class a try! Its totally worth it. Its pretty challenging at first, but if you keep coming back, you'll know the routine and you start seeing the benefits, which will keep you coming back for more!

Here are some pictures from class today. There were only 2 of us there. In the warmer months, there have been 12-15 Mommas in attendance. I like there to be a lot of Mommas there for the instructor's sake, but for my sake, I like it when the class is small. :) One time I was the only one that showed up, so it was like I got an hour long personal training session for 10 bucks! You can't beat that!
Anyways, enjoy the pics... don't make fun of me d/t all the crazy poses. :)


Step ups onto the wall

Abs... I think this is the hardest part of the class.

Bands... for arms and upper body

Jonah didn't last in the stroller the whole time today.

Stretching and cool down.

Thankful

Now who wouldn't be thankful for that cuteness!

We have been without internet in our household for about a week and a half. It was really wierd not to have the internet... that's pitiful I know, but it made me realize just how much we use it. Its crazy to think about life before the internet! I am thankful for the internet so that I can keep in touch with friends and family much more easily!!

Anyways, I thought I'd post a few recent pictures of our family. Our babysitter and friend, Erin, took these for us. Isn't she awesome. She's a great photographer and a wonderful babysitter too! Jonah loves her!! Enjoy the pictures!

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for so much. I am so very thankful for my wonderful hubby and my amazing baby boy. I don't know what I would do without them. They are both such blessings in my life. I am also thankful for my family. Its hard being far away from family, especially this time of year, but it also makes me more thankful for them. I am thankful for my friends! I am thankful for friends that I have known for years and I am thankful for new friends. I love meeting new people and getting to know them. Most importantly, I am thankful for my salvation. Thankful that Jesus died on the cross for my sins so that I can have eternal life. What an amazing gift and huge blessing to know Jesus. I also must mention how thankful I am for our church up here in NYC. It has been a huge blessing to us... the people of our church, The Gallery Church, are not only our friends, but our family. I am so thankful for the obedient hearts that started this church and have continued to lead this church so that families like ours can find a church home in this big, sometimes lonely, and sometimes overwhelming city.

Well, those are just a few of the things I am thankful for. I really could go on and on! I hope that each of you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. I hope I get to see each of you soon!!!

The Today Show

As some of you know, Jonah and I made our way down to the Today Show last Friday to try to get Jonah, the Bumble bee, some TV time. Well, we were successful. That is, if the only measure of success was to be on TV. Here are a couple of reasons this trip could fall into the 'NOT successful' category.
1. There were crowds of people.
2. Jonah got tired, hungry and fussy rather quickly.
3. I had to hold Jonah a long time because he wasn't happy sitting in his stroller waiting for our 5 seconds of fame.
4. My back and arms were killing me from holding Jonah for 2 solid hours.
5. There were crowds of people.
6. We were only on TV for 5 seconds.
Well, it is still up for debate as to wether or not this trip was worth it.... maybe we'll try again next year when Jonah can stand and not have to be held the entire time.

Fortunately, Mark's parents were able to DVR the Today show, so when we go down to Kentucky in December we'll be able to watch it! :) They also paused the DVR and took a picture of the screen while Jonah and I were on it. I look a little happier than Jonah. ha!

Here's Jonah all dressed up in his bumble bee costume in his stroller. This pic is in the train station on the way down to the Today Show. He looks thrilled to be up so early in his costume, doesn't he?

And here we are on the Today Show... our 5 seconds (that's pushing it) of glory. Jonah is half asleep at this point and you can't really see his feet, but one of his socks had come off and his pant leg was all bunched up... I didn't have much time to prepare him once I realized the camera was going to be on us.

Yay for visitors!

I am long overdue for an update on the blog, so here ya go!
The past two weekends we have had out of town guests! Yay for guests!
Two weekends ago we had my dear friend, Courtney, come stay with us. She is a friend of mine from nursing school. I am so thankful to stay in touch with friends from college. I cherish those friendships!
We had a great time during her visit. One thing we did is go up to the Harlem Meer in Central Park for a 'Pumkin Sail'. It was a little bit disappointing to be honest, but we still had fun. We dressed Jonah up in his halloween costume for the event, so of course there are lots of pictures!

Here is the pic of the (disappointing) pumkin sail. We thought that the pumkins would be allowed to freely float on the pond, but that was not the case. We had also carved a pumpkin and toted it all the way up to be entered into the sail to find out that all the spots were filled. Oh well. We had a nice time anyways.

Our bumble bee!

Me and Courtney at the Resevoir in Central Park..... on our walk home from the (disappointing) pumkin sail.

This past weekend, my parents came up from Atlanta. We had a nice time with them as well! We mostly just visited, hung out, and let them get some Jonah time in, since that doesn't occur too often with them down in GA! We did make it to the natural history muesem, which was fun.

I also took full advantage of my Dad's handy-man skills and put him to work in the apartment. Here are a few pictures from their time here.

Our first stop after my parents arrived in NYC was to Home Depot, one of my Dad's favorite stores... we had to get the needed supplies to get some stuff done in the apartment.

Jonah was very curious about the work that 'Papa' was doing. He definitely wanted to help put up the shelves!

Jonah and 'Grammy'

Jonah with his Grandparents (and the giant turtle) at the Natural History Muesem.

Papa pretending to rescue Jonah from the giant turtle.... Jonah is quite oblivious :)

We wore Jonah out.... we fed him a bottle in Central Park on the walk home from the Natural History Muesem.... he fell asleep while Mark was burping him. How precious.

Playdate

Jonah and I had a playdate with some friends this past week. The temps were a bit cooler than we expected, but we still had fun. As you can see from the pics, the 'Great Lawn' at Central Park was kind of empty. We thought it was kind of cool that Jack and Jonah were just about the only ones out there.... so we had to catch a few pictures of it! Our city boys.. (but we know they are southerners at heart).

Cheap Entertainment

This is the fun Jonah had today with my J.Crew catalog. He giggled and giggled at himself as he tore up the magazine.

Will work for milk

Jonah has just started 'earning his keep' around here.

Storage unit

This past weekend we borrowed a car from some of our friends and headed out to our storage unit in East Hanover, NJ. Oh the joy! What a good excuse to get out of the city, right? We have to store our 'off season' clothes in the storage unit because we don't have enough room in our apartment. We only have two closets in the apartment (including the pantry, which serves as a pantry, coat closet and storage area), so needless to say, there is not much room for access clothing.

Since we were headed to the storage unit, we decided to take Jonah's baby swing and put it in the storage unit. This is sad, I know, he's not using the swing anymore... he literally outgrew it! So, off we went to the storage unit. Of course, we managed to make time for some non-NYC things, like Panera Bread, Chick-fil-a, and a regular suburban-style mall. Oh the little things in life! :)

Well, anyways, while we were at the not so well organized and overstuffed storage unit, I wasn't sure what we were going to do with Jonah. He would scream if we left him in his car seat during the time it took us to rumage through the 'junk' in the unit and find what we needed. We didn't have a stroller with us because we were planning to buy a new one later in the day, and I didn't love the idea of Jonah crawling around on the concrete floor of the Public Storage facility (although I'm sure he would have totally loved it). So, how convenient that we had the swing with us. Jonah sat and played in his swing for the last time (tear, sniff, sniff) in the 'hallway' of the storage unit. Here's a picture to document the "fun".


Unfortunately, we somehow managed to forget to get our winter coats while we were at the storage unit. I believe we did make it home with all the winter clothes, but no coats! How could we forget such an important item? From the picture, you probably get the idea that our storage unit is highly organized... well, think again.... so really, its not too surprising that we forgot the winter coats, they were probably barried under one of a million items we have stored there. I guess we'll have to make another trip out of the city in the near future. (sarcastic tear, sniff, sniff).

Peek-A-Boo and Crawling!

This post is a little overdue, especially the crawling video. Jonah has been crawling for at least a month now and I am finally posting a video of it. The other video is of Jonah playing 'Peek-a-Boo'. He instigates this now and its so cute. Luckily, Mark caught it on video. Enjoy.

Gap Baby?

So, I entered Jonah's picture into the 'Gap Casting Call' contest. They are looking for the next Gap baby. I'm not getting my hopes up, but it sure would be fun for Jonah to be a Gap baby!

What I need for yall to do is go to the website, create a login, and then vote for Jonah. In fact, I need you to vote for him once a day until Nov. 17th. So, if you will click here to VOTE for Jonah.
Thanks for your support! Jonah appreciates it :)

To cut or not to cut......

To cut or not to cut... that was the question. Well, we decided to cut! I was a little nervous about this, but I am so glad we went ahead and got Jonah's hair cut! It looks so cute. Not that he wasn't cute before, obviously, but I really like the neat trimmed look in the back. He definitely looks a little more boyish and a little less babyish. He's just growing up too fast!

Jonah did really well during the hair cut. He did move around a little, but there were plenty of distractions. He sat in a seat that was a little play car and had a steering wheel. He also watched an Elmo video, although he wasn't really paying any attention to it. We blew bubbles for him, which did entertain him a little, but the thing that really got his attention was Mark talking to him and showing him the Elmo DVD case. Mark would open it really slowly and say 'look Jonah, what's inside................(open slowly)......................absolutely nothing!' then Jonah would just sit there and watch him do it again. Isn't that funny! ?

Well, here are a few pictures of the grand event! The place we got his hair cut even gave us a little certificate and a lock of his baby hair. How precious... something for the baby book.

NINE months!

9 Months old!

Playing in his room

Getting into something he shouldn't be getting in to!

Watching Sesame Street! :)

Jonah had his 9 month check up last week before we left on our trip for Maine. He did great! He got 2 shots, a fingerstick, and a TB skin test. He didn't even cry for the fingerstick or TB skin test,.... but he did cry for the shots. I can't blame him though! Shots hurt!

Jonah is trying to stay on top of the growth chart.... at least in the height category. He is 31 inches tall, which is above the 100th percentile! Wow! We're gonna have a bball player for sure.. or at least that is what his daddy is hoping! Jonah now weighs 20lbs 8ounces, 50th percentile, so he is just about average in weight. The pediatrician said it well... he's perfectly proportioned.. who doesn't want to be tall and thin??

Above are a few recent pictures of Jonah. You can check him out now that he's 9 months old. He is growing so quickly! Its amazing how much a baby changes and grows in their first year.

He's getting into everything! He's crawling, cruising! He loves pulling out all the DVD's from the entertainment center and loves getting his hands on cell phones and remote controls. He also has two teeth on the bottom!

Giveaway

Check out this giveaway....
http://uberchicforcheap.blogspot.com/2009/09/sh-sh-shade-giveaway.html

I know I want to win!

Are you kidding me?

Well, my love for NYC may be short lived. Not really, but today we went out and about and being in the crowds makes me not **love** this place. Well, its not even so much that there are lots of people (although I would rather not be in large crowds of people) its the way that individuals in the large crowds of people act!

We went down to Macy's today. That was the first mistake. The problem is Macy's has great deals on baby clothes, especially when there is a sale. Going to Macy's on a sale day with a baby stroller, 2nd mistake. Going to the world's largest department store on a sale day with a baby stroller... HUGE mistake! Anyways, the Macy's in NYC, if you have not been to it, is QUITE large. It is indeed the world's largest department store. It is multiple, multiple floors... 10, I think. The store itself takes up nearly a whole city block. There are a bzillion people in the store at any given time, especially on the day there is a one day sale, especially on the weekend.

The main problem that we have is that at Macy's we MUST take the elevator to get from one floor to the next. There are escalators and I am sure there are stairs somewhere, which if we had to we could use, but carrying a stroller with a baby in it up to the 7th floor of a building is not the easiest thing to do. Anyways, Mark and I both get BEYOND aggravated because all the bzillions of people that are also at Macy's think that they MUST take the elevator too... when in fact, they do not. The escalator is right around the corner,, and c'mon, how much effort does it take to ride up an escalator? This is soooo frustrating b/c there are like 10 elevators and when one is opening up for people to get on, everyone rushes over to it. Most of the people rushing over to the elevator are able bodied people WITHOUT strollers who could easily take the escalator, but choose not to. These people do NOT care that we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for an elevator and just run over in front of us and get on the elevator. Smiling at us as the door shuts and thinking... guess y'all can catch the next one. When, what they don't realize(or maybe they do) is the exact same thing will happen with the next elevator. We really have had people cut us off, cut in front of us to get on the elevator with absolutely no regard to the fact that we have no other option but to take the elevator. Why? why? why? do these people do this? Is it really that hard to take the escalator?? Does this happen anywhere else in America or is it just in NYC? Where are these people's mothers that should have taught them to be a little more courteous? Seriously, its maddening! Today I had a lady come into the elevator while I was trying to get off with the stroller and block my way so that I couldn't get off. I had to restrain myself from running over her with the stroller. Isn't it common courtesy to let the people off the elevator before getting on? When people are acting this way... I often think to myself... 'Are you kidding me'? I just can't believe that people act so selfishly and without regard of others. At the same time, I try to let this be a reminder of how much the world, the people of NYC need God's love. If I do not show God's love to them by being courteous as He would be, how will they ever see or come to know God's love. Every chance to display God's love counts.

Sorry to ramble on about this. I just had to vent b/c it was a very frustrating experience. Note to self... do not go to Macy's on the weekend with a stroller.

I will be back to my normal self soon and post happy, enjoyable things about Jonah and our fun times together. Thanks for letting me vent though.... and please remind me never to return to Macy's on the weekend with the stroller.

I <3 NYC.

Some of you are probably surprised by the title of this post...
The surprise you have is probably due to the fact that generally, love is not the sentiment most prominent in my vocabulary when refering to how I feel about NYC. Its not that I hate NYC, its just that most likely if given several options of places to live, NYC would probably not be my choice. However, today I do feel love for NYC.

Being in this city on September 11 brings out emotions for those that were here on that dreadful day. It stirs my heart to think of what even the average New Yorker went through that day... not to mention those that had a family member or friend that was killed in the tragedy. I cannot imagine being here on that day and I am thankful that I was not. I was reminded today of the magnitude of how many lives were taken by the selfish terrorists. I had the TV on the channel that was televising the Memorial Service.... I'm not exactly sure how long it took, but I do know that the reading of the names of the victims lasted several hours, Jonah had a nap in the middle of it, and when he woke up, they were still reading names.

Its hard to understand why such a tragedy happens. I don't think I will ever understand why things like that happen or even why a single murder happens. What a tragedy like this does help me understand is that all people need God's love. I desire to be an instrument of God's love and for that reason, I <3 NYC.

Tales from Jonah's crib

Lately, it seems as though Jonah thinks his crib is more of a playpen than of a place to sleep, a place to get his beauty rest, his much needed slumber.

Ever since we started having him sleep in his crib, from about 4 months on, (before that he was in a co-sleeper beside our bed) the usual routine was that after we laid him in his crib at night, he might fuss or babble a little and then fall off to sleep. He has really been great at going to bed and such a good sleeper. We are so blessed in that way!

Yesterday when I laid him down for his nap, I figured he'd follow his usual pattern. This was not the case.... Jonah did babble and talk a little after I laid him down, but then things got quiet, so I figured he was asleep. I was wrong. I went to check on him a few minutes later and this is what I found.....

Now I know for sure that we need to lower the crib mattress to the lowest setting! Jonah sure was proud of himself for this milestone! :)

Today I was able to successfully get him to fall asleep in his crib for his nap without dealing with him trying to stand up and play. I guess he was tired. I had to keep a close eye on him after I put him down for his nap though because we still hadn't lowered the mattress. This is what I found today...

Aren't those toes precious?

Jonah always has a way of making me smile.

This evening after I had given Jonah a bath and gotten him ready for bed, I sat him on the floor for a minute to go grab something before nursing him prior to putting him to bed. I noticed that he immediately started trying to pull himself to a standing position using the couch..... and he was successful! Again, he was quite proud of himself!

Its silly, but these accomplishments by my baby boy make me feel like he's not such a baby anymore. I'm sure he will be running through the apartment before I know it. I'm doing my best to savor every moment with my little (not so little anymore) bundle of joy... such as the cuddles he gives when he wakes up, the many smiles, the giggles and day to day fun. Just in case any of you were unsure.... I LOVE being a momma.

Bath time!

Jonah absolutely loves taking a bath. He has actually enjoyed his bath ever since he was born.
I decided I had to get some of his bath time fun on video, so here it is. I hope you enjoy! :)

Mark and I are thinking that Jonah is going to be a great swimmer.... he loves the water (as you could see in that video). He doesn't really even mind if the water gets in his face. Another reason we think Jonah will be a great swimmer is because now that he is kind of crawling, his crawling resembles that of some kind of swimming stroke. Here's another video with a little glimpse of that. Watch out Michael Phelps!

another blog

Hello all--
Just wanted to put a post up about another blog i follow. All of you fellow Mommies would probably like reading this blog. She does some great giveaways, so I thought I'd let yall in on those. She is currently giving away some burp cloths that I'd just love to have for Jonah. .... so go check it out for yourself!
http://magnoliasmarriageandmanhattan.blogspot.com/

I'll be posting an update on jonah soon!

Friends!

Jonah got to hang out with some friends today... (and so did I)! :)

We walked over to the west side this morning to pick up a CD of the professional pictures that we had taken of Jonah. Since we were on the upper west side (UWS) we planned to hang out with some friends of ours from church, The Wyatts. I ended up watching the twins for a little while so Susan and Jack could go look at an apartment. So, Jonah got to hang out with his friends. Elliot and Jonah had a fun time fighting over the toy drum, they all played together with the 'Leap Frog' musical toy. Its really fun to watch Jonah interact with other babies as he doesn't get to do this terribly often right now.

Enjoy the pictures of all the cute babies!