Wordful Wednesday - My Boys and Their Toys

What a lovely first Christmas in our new place we had! I was so worried that with all the rush of moving, we wouldn't be able to celebrate the holiday properly, but silly mama, all you need is love and family (and gadgets!) to make your holiday bright. Here are some pics of my boys and their new toys.

In true "geek" fashion, we are a family of electrical gadget lovers. This year, HH gave me the miraculous ROOMBA. The love I have for this robot knows no bounds. It is my own personal cat-hair army. Returning the favor, I gave HH a hands-free blue tooth for his iPhone. Here he is playing with the voice activation. Yes, HH you are a super-spy.

I have to admit however, that this love of electronics didn't come directly from the Fornator line. Here is my dad reading the directions to his new Flip recorder. While understanding all thing related to the heart (the actual human heart, not romance), my dad isn't exactly known for being a techie. Hope you have figured that thing out Dad!

Like papa, like son - here is Noah exploring one of his favorite gifts, a toy with gears. He spent most of yesterday taking the gears off and trying to figure out how this thing worked.

Now, that gear toy definitely got high marks from my 11 month old. But the irony of infancy was not lost with our guy. The next picture is of his favorite thing he got for Christmas. I didn't have to order away for it, or wrap it, or worry about our "Santa" budget. Nope, it came from Albertsons on Christmas Eve and was 2.99. It's a balloon. Take a look at this pic, is it love or what?

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas To All!

May the joy of the season fill you with happiness!

Cheers,
The Mantuano Family

Writer's Workshop - A Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I think you have a pretty thankless job. You spend all year taking care of your little ones (the elves of course) and picking up after the pets (reindeer). You get constant requests for toys and receive very few thank yous. On your big night you are expected to slap on a cute outfit and jolly smile and fill the wishes of boys and girls all without a night's sleep. Hmmm, Santa your job sounds a whole lot like BEING A MOMMY!

With all of your time spent on others, it's no wonder you have put on a few pounds. I would like to apologize for all the insensitive a-holes who liken your stomach to a "bowl full of jelly." May they receive coal this year.

Santa please know that you are appreciated. I realize you don't receive a paycheck for all of your hard work and have to remind yourself that your effort to make children happy is rewarding in itself...wait what am I saying?....Screw that Santa. This year, put your feet up, open a box of Oreos and LET SOMEONE ELSE TAKE CARE OF THE KIDS! I hear Fed Ex is open Christmas Eve.

Sincerely,

Rachel (Who stills likes ponies...hint hint)

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Thank you to Kat for the great prompts and to the bloggers who spend invaluable nap times doing their Writer's Workshop posts. You are the gift that keeps on giving!

Wordful Wednesday - In Da Buff

Couldn't resist more therapy sessions needed for Noah when he gets older....I mean really, have you ever seen a butt this cute? And check out the thighs. Yes, I bite them daily (I know that sounds weird, but mommies, you know what I mean!). The other thing I love, but you can't see in this picture, are the adorable dimples in his legs. Mommy has these too, but for some reason, they are not so adorable on her....

I have posted before on Noah's favorite state of being and marvel each time at the joy he gets from running around naked. I am just a little bit jealous at his complete lack of self-consciousness. I typically avoid even looking in the mirror when I am getting dressed for fear of catching an unflattering glimpse. If my husband is home when I am walking to get underwear from the dresser, I do a backward shuffle to avert his gaze from those "adorable" dimples which sprinkle my thighs. All of this musing leads me to question..."When do we lose our love of our bodies for just being just how they are?"

I think I know the WHY (insert pictures from US Weekly here....). But I want to know the WHEN. It's not that I want Noah to grow up a nudest or anything. I mean what if he had to ride the bus or something? (shuddering at naked people in buses and the germ ramifications of this....) If I could only pinpoint that critical moment when it changes from "I'm awesome!" to "What does __ and __ think about me?" Maybe I could stop it from happening just a little.

My wish would be for him to grow older, always retaining this feeling of unconditional self-love.

(I would also like to solve world hunger and create peace among men, thank you.)

Bust Out the Bubbly!

Hello fellow bloggers! It's time to celebrate! I just received an exciting email - I am going to be featured @ SITS! (Doing a happy dance in my chair).

Pause to regain decorum....

Ahem.

I have to take this opportunity to tell you guys that I am so thankful to have my bloggy buddies in my life, especially my SITS buddies (check out the ladies under Fabulous Links, they rock). You guys have been an amazing support network this year!

So many things have happened! My husband and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary, my son, Noah was born (and is going to be 1 next month - yikes, where does the time go?!?), and we just bought our very first house!

This has also been a year for blogging. Sippy Cup Chardonnay emerged as a way to connect with people. As a new SAHM I thought I might lose it (one can only sing Twinkle Twinkle and attend so many playdates in a week). It began as therapy, and has become an obsession and a great way to avoid doing housework!

Most of my posts are about mommy life. Here are some that were fun to write:

Hasta La Vista, Boobies

My 10 Fears

My Halloween Grinch

Toxic Baby Bums

Hope you enjoy your time here. Pour yourself a glass of Chardonnay and enjoy!

Cheers,

Rachel

p.s. I think you'll find the more you drink, the better my posts are anyway. haha.

Not Me! Monday

After eating a whole package (yes, I said whole package, don't judge me) of chocolate covered Oreos and checking in with some of my favorite bloggers, I am feeling so much better! You guys have me cracking up with your "Not Me! Monday" posts. I have always loved the game "I never" but this takes it to a whole new level. Thought I would join in the fun.

This week I DID NOT:

• Feed my 11 month old Frosted Flakes one frantic morning because I couldn't find the Cheerios. (And he totally DID NOT throw them up 10 minutes later....)
• Threaten to sell the cat to the glue factory after she peed on the new carpet 2 times
• Let Noah play with a box of wires yesterday (they were unplugged at least!) because it kept him busy for 20 minutes
• Confuse Neosporin for my travel sized toothpaste at 12am when I finally went to bed. Note to all: It tastes like what I imagine toe jam would.....
• Try and convince my husband that it was ok for HIM to wear MY jeans to his office, because all his pants were at the old house (He did actually try them on and looked way better in them. Sorry Brian, if your co-workers read this.)
• Go out and buy the $16 dollar Williams Sonoma brownie mix, because I thought I would impress my new neighbors and then BURN THE HELL out of them
• Use baby wipes as my "shower" for the day (2 days this week....sad, very sad)
• Wake up to make at least 5 different To Do lists at various times during the night and then rip them up in frustration in the morning

Ok, so I realize this makes me sound completely neurotic. Truth is, I mostly am anyway, but this has just been an especially crazy week. Good news is most of the boxes are unpacked and my parents are coming back to help us settle into the my new house in less than a week. I promise, no more "baby wipe" showers after that......well, not more than once a month at least....

Have a great week!

You'd better not pout, you'd better not cry....

Just a quick post to check in. We just got internet in the new casa and I feel like they just turned the water on. What did people do before they had the web?

Can't stay on long, Noah is currently screaming from his crib. We are on day four of napping strike. You'd think he would appreciate his fantastic fortune at having a much bigger room and a whole playroom to himself. He seems much happier, however, at the scary wires, boxes and tools laying around that he has to play with.

I will be back later to write more when we both are a little more sweet and a whole lot less pouty.

I leave you with the view from our new house (yes, that is the ocean in the distance, its a far distance, but hey, its's there!). The quality is not great, because I took this with my iPhone. Lord knows where the real camera is....

Writer's Workshop

This week I have chosen to go the distance and do all of Kat's prompts. That lady is so creative, I have trouble picking just one....

1). Post and write about the 6th picture from (the 6th folder of?) your Flickr account and then do the same for the 6th picture of the 6th folder on your computer.

The picture below is the 6th photo from the 6th folder of my Picasa account (don't have Flickr). It's Noah and I in Brian's parents' pool. His Grandpa bought him a raft and he was all about it. My kid loves the water.

From September

The next picure shows you who he gets it from.........

This is Noah's papa surfing it up in San Diego. It just happened to be the 6th picture from the 6th folder on my hardrive. Not too weird that it is another water picture. We are beach lovin folks, I think Noah should have been born with gills.....

2). Are you still friends with you high school friends? Describe them.

I am delighted to say I have 2 best buddies from high school whom I love very much. Cynthia, I wrote a post about a while ago is a beautiful island babe. Gorgeous on the outside, freakin hilarious on the inside. We share a love of puppies and nose picking. Beth is who I want to be when I grow up. She is a woman who strives to be the best person she can be and is not afraid to be the change she wants to see in this world. She is also as sweet as pie and a loyal friend. She is my "warm hug." (Cynthia, you are my itchy sweater...:P)

(My beautiful bridesmaids - Beth and Cynthia on the right )

3). If you had to star in a reality tv show, which one would it be and why?

This one's easy. I would be on The Hills so I could slap that douche-bag Spencer from here to Kentucky.

4). Describe a time when your pet caused chaos

Daily. Today's episode occured about an hour ago when she came out of her bathroom with a rather large dingleberry hanging from her bum and I chased her all over the house with a paper towel trying to wipe it off her butt before it got lost in the depths of my shag carpet. She hid under the bed for 20 minutes and emerged "dingle-free". GAH -how will I sleep knowing it's under my bed somewhere!?!?

Cat says: "There's more where that came from. Keep giving me the diet food and next time it will be ON TOP of you bed.... I am thinking your pillow......"

Wordful Wednesday - The Playa

I can't get enough of the sound Noah makes when he's really excited about something (in fact, I have made it my new ring tone). The phrase "squealing with delight" comes to mind, but doesn't fully explain it. I think "audio joy" is a better description. Exuberance pours out of him, fills the room with happiness and touches everyone around him. You can't help but smile. Check out his papa and uncle, they've clearly been feeling the audio joy.