Garynation

When I found out I was pregnant with Aliza, I knew I wanted a jogging stroller this time around. I didn’t have a single one for Marielle and I always wished I did. I soon found a used one on craiglist. Yes, I am a craiglist, ebay, and consignment shopper. Gently used is fine with me, if it saves me a little cash. I love the double jogging stroller we found for a little more than 1/2 the price of a new one. It broke soon after we got it (before Aliza was born) and I contacted the company and got a BRAND NEW one to replace the old one. Talk about a good deal!! The only thing about it is the shading. It goes over the kids heads, but if we’re facing the sun, they still get blasted with sun in their eyes. I’ve tried a few things to “fix” this, but only one has truly worked. And I know I look like a total ass walking around the neighborhood like this, but I could care less. This is a small amount of embarrassment I’ll take for my kids. We get to get outside and walk and they don’t have to s...

I have always known that I am not very good with kids. I am the youngest on both sides of my family, no little cousins, no little siblings. I babysat some, but not much and it was always kind of uncomfortable to me. It has always escaped me, ‘what do you do with kids?’ I remember asking my neighbors before getting pregnant, “What do you do with kids on the weekends?” They laughed, of course knowing how difficult it can be to entertain these little (sometimes) hell-ians. Jon on the other hand – SO GOOD WITH KIDS!! Really, I think he could be a stay at home dad. Not that he wants to, but I think he would be great at it. Granted, he has a HUGE immediate and extended family. Cousins out the wha-zoo, and by the time he was 10 or 12, his sisters were having kids. He’s always been around kids. When we first had Marielle, I was scared to death of her. What to do, when to do it, how to stop crying, even how to change a diaper – I had no clue. To be honest, Jon didn’t really know what to do eit...

Marielle’s first broken bone. Her left tibia. And her mommy broke it for her. Ugh – I can’t even say how bad I feel, but of course, it was truly an honest accident. And the story goes like this… I took the girls to a BREC park on Drusilla Blvd. It is across the street from my sisters work, and I thought that if it was a nice park and the girls were happy enough, maybe we could do lunch there and invite my sister. I unloaded the girls and got them swinging, we were the only ones at the park. Marielle wanted to slide, so I let Aliza swing while I followed Marielle around the play land thing. I had my camera and was taking pics. Aliza kept falling forward in the swing like this. It was too cute. Marielle on the small slide.   And this was the last picture I took before “it” happened, That’s how high up we were, about to go down the big slide.   I knew Marielle wouldn’t go down the slide by herself. I had the bright idea to put her on my lap and slide down. As we sta...