because.

it's been a really ( REALLY ) long time. and i sort of want to get back into the whole blogging thing. even if i haven't been up to anything super productive (other than raising a child, but you know?).

currently we're at twenty-two weeks with number two. this pregnancy hasn't been entirely different from the first. i feel similar, i haven't gotten HUGE yet and that amazing feeling you get each time you feel the babe move still hasn't faded. but i find myself not focusing on the pregnancy like i did with M. obviously i'm a little busier than i was the first time around but i think i'm going to start dipping back into my pregnancy books again and put the parenting books on the shelf for a while.

but here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately. m is cracking us UP! all day every day. walking around the house, babe in hand, saying "thAnks", giving her little plastic baby baths every night, feeding her at supper time.... it's just too much. but it's a lot of fun.

when i was editing these pictures (and trust me, i planned on posting a lot more) i noticed a bit of a trend in M's life these days. she likes to eat. she loves to paint. and, one that i had taken considerable note of, she likes glasses, which is why we just ordered these.

happy thursday!!! hope everyone has great plans for the weekend...ours will probably involve lots of play outside and around the house.

our life lately.

has included lots of lunch dates with the hubs ((healthy ones of course. in light of the new year)) and friends. and lots of fun with this kiddo. she really has become quite the source of entertainment lately.

a blue mood.

for m and me....

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

....a couple things we already have

but are in bad need of replacing. 

but then a few others are just cute

silly things i want for fall.

( when it finally gets here )

one busy little bee.

between her purse, her bunny ears and mom's hat, this kid is well accessorized. not to mention that she's practically running circles around me with all this walking. so i guess, in a way, i'm a busy little bee too!

happy tuesday! 

;)

a birthday to celebrate.

a week ago, i pulled out all the stops and started decorating for my precious little angel's first birthday. i canNOT believe how quickly a year goes by. but it came, it went, and our baby girl is still our little baby {even if she does have twelve glorious months under her belt}.

i love the picture of nick and mila with the cake, can't tell who is more excited. pretty sure it's nick. and mila's and my matching outfits? 100% j. crew but also 100% unplanned. although i think we make a cute couple. we were sad that some of our family couldn't make the fiesta but so happy that we did have lots of friends. lots of family. and lots of love to celebrate this first year with miss mila eleanor.

365.

days go by really fast when you have this little girl to keep you company.

i wish i had more pictures to share of our wonderful celebration but the husband assumed ( as they often do ) that i didn't want pictures of our little angel's moment on my computer as well as on his and therefore deleted the pics after uploading them. it's ok husband, i forgive you. until then, i'm sure you can relish in all the joy of this image. i sure have. xo.

going's on.

it's been pretty quiet over here at the gignac house. the calm before the storm i tell you. think we're all quietly and mentally preparing for the weeks ahead {nyc + frio river + baptism + first birthday}. until you're flooded with a bunch of pictures starring each of us in the aforementioned places, here's a little bit of what we've been up to.

nick turned that into this {thanks honey, after all of these years of living together, i finally have a pathway leading to our compost pile}:

all while enjoying fruits from the his garden.

but not without a little help from this one.

as per one of my recent posts, i don't have much to show for what i've been up to {especially since one is a *top secret* project i'm working on with a friend} not to mention nursing one sick case of food poisoning, but if you follow me here, you probably already knew that. all in all it certainly doesn't mean i haven't been busy. main priority: get invites to m's party out asap. or yesterday if that's at all possible. or just reverse time and tell me that my little baby isn't really going to be one whole year already. time machine, can you hear me?

happy monday!

remember when.

i had this really easy baby that took naps on a whim. falling asleep in as little as ten minutes. and she went to bed at eight. and entertained herself almost all day long. well, these past two days have introduced me to a much different baby girl. mila barely napped yesterday {or the day before for that matter} and didn't go to bed until almost ten o'clock last night. what the heck?!?! it all resulted in some serious tears, shed by yours truly. and i just realized that she actually didn't eat much yesterday either. maybe there's something more to this new attitude than i first thought.

after i almost broke down and thought about ringing in happy hour at 3:00, mila finally fell asleep in the car. and for just long enough to get me some mindless blog reading done and a mojito downed.

today is looking a little different, my precious little angel fell asleep this morning at 9:45 and she's STILL asleep!!! she must have sensed my frustrations yesterday {i'm sorry moo}. maybe it's a growth spurt. maybe she's sensing the fact that her breastfeeding days are almost over {speaking of which, any advice on this subject is very much appreciated.....like how do you wean when she's still nursing during the night? and co-sleeping? and like a million other questions}. i would never give up this title i have as a mama, but phew! girl needs a break sometimes {hence the photos that make me look like both a mother AND an alcoholic}!

my first.

mothers day that is. last year we missed it by just a couple weeks. and it's hard to believe that my sweet angel, in barely four weeks, will already be one whole year old.

every single day i am so happy to be called a mother. and more importantly, miss mila eleanor gignac's mother. of course nick did all he could yesterday to make sure that each mother in his life felt special and wanted and appreciated. mr. frugal even splurged for both a baby sitter AND a deep tissue massage por moi on thursday, cannot wait. thanks husband.

and thank you mila, even if you've become this baby that despises taking naps in her crib which therefore makes this a very tired mother. all in all i am still most certainly a very happy mother.

hope you mama's out there had a lovely one. i sure did.

almond milk and polka dot jeans.

and lots and lots of other things.

{recipe: here}

almond milk: love the stuff. so why WOULDN'T i try to make it at home? well, i'll tell you why. because it's  a pain in the booooooTAY. my broken chemex proved to be a perfect straining container since all of my bowls were to shallow to allow the leche to strain properly. but that still didn't simplify it enough to convince me to make this drink again. i barely produced one cup and even though it was probably the best almond milk i've ever tasted, buying it by the carton is way easier. and cheaper too {i think}.

and onto some other weekly happenings....

:: a 'thank you' for a project i'm helping a friend with ::

:: pants i currently eat.sleep.live in ::

:: the only cup of milk i got to enjoy ::

:: mila gettin' some work done ::

:: and finally FINALLY a good run ::

and some links to give you something to do when you shooooould be way more productive than you want to be.....

my new go-to party site for m's first

where i got those polkas

an amazing source for lots of her clothes on this show

wonderful way to waste time and find sweet things

just when we thought we missed it.

for some reason, i just couldn't decide on which DVF for gap stuff i liked the most. the gap seriously used to be miss mila's and my home away from home, i'm pretty sure 75% of her wardrobe is gap. but unfortunately, not all corpus mamas caught on to the cuteness that is gap kids and baby gap clothing, so our much loved store said goodbye to us and closed its doors at the end of february. we've now had to resort to purchasing pretty much ALL of m's clothes online. thank you corpus christi, you really are making it oh so convenient for me to shop for my daughter. really, you are.

so after putting in and taking out pretty much every DVF piece that ms. furstenburg designed, i hit a standstill. untillllll {drumroll please}, a little visit with a friend and a little gift for mila made us proud owners of quite possibly the cutest dress ever.

another drawback to this whole "shop online for everything" thing? my computer screen really isn't doing these cute pieces justice. while that dress is adorable online {and went in and out of my basket several times}, it's SO much cuter in person {and even cuter on my baby}.

kinda ridiculous.

even though i'm slightly weirded out by already having to say goodbye to winter and all the things that come with it. the past two days in corpus have been so nice, sort of like a little glimpse of what my san diego-living cousin gets to experience pretty much every day of the year. so naturally, m and i are trying to spend as much time outside as possible. yesterday it came in the form of visiting some not so friendly ducks at the duck park.

i think mila might have come on a little strong towards her new friend sophia, but she did finally manage to get a kiss in. it was quite possibly the cutest thing ever, and of course i didn't have my camera handy to capture it. don't think it'll be my last chance though, this baby loves to give out her kisses and we're pretty happy to get 'em.

now we're off to m's NINE month check-up. coincidentally, when i sat down to my computer, my moleskine was open to this page.....that two month doctors' visit seems so long ago!!

happy friday.

for the past couple of days.

it's been pretty eventful over here at the gignac house. from eating rice cereal and graduating to her mama's green smoothie in just a couple of days, mila has been doing all of those crazy things, like eating from a spoon and even drinking from a sippy cup, that she hears those big kids talking about.

mila + banana

we're not sure what's next on her menu, maybe some sweet potatoes and avocado. either way, i'm almost certain she'll love it all. even though m makes a pretty hilarious face when she takes a bite or drink of ANYthing, we were surprisingly spared all of those typical first food experiences. miss moo has thus far eaten and enjoyed it all!

i am my mother's daughter.

this morning, i actually made half of the bed while mila slept on the other side. when i was a kid, this was just a normal morning for me {yes, i slept in my parents bed until an unmentionable age} and i used to HATE it. but now? it just makes sense. why not make part of the bed while this kiddo sleeps?

happy friday!

i'm not an expert.

but a few of my friends have asked for some tips on traveling with babies. on our way home from our christmas trip the other day, nick and i realized that by december 31 2011, miss mila eleanor had traveled on twenty-eight different planes, visited three different states and received two official stamps in her passport. so yeah, we've definitely learned a few things since that first flight to college station.

my first saving grace was definitely breast-feeding. when she was an infant, we would nurse right when the plane started to taxi and m would immediately fall asleep {i do think the humming of the engines helped as well}. nursing transitioned into just giving her a pacifier to suck on and now she's just become conditioned to fall asleep soon after the cabin doors shut.

ergo carriers {baby bjorns, infantinos, whatever you use}! this is something i've only recently started doing. we used to always use our stroller, but after having to go through security multiple times, the carrier just works better and we check our stroller and carseat.

other than the flying aspect of travel, packing always seems to get me a little stressed. no matter what the reason for the trip, i always feel like i need an arsenal of baby items to make the transition a little easier. but i have to remind myself that i don't need to replicate home when the whole reason for traveling is to get AWAY from home. i do pack travel size versions of mila's shampoo and lotion, as well as books that she's familiar with, but other than that, we use what's in the hotel. so that means bathing in the bath tub with lots of towels to keep from slipping {thanks mom}, buying diapers once we arrive at our final destination {not so easy when you're in a place like roatan, honduras. but hey, you live; you learn}, and mila sleeping right in between her mom and dad {something we do every night, but might be an adjustment for other mamas and papas}.

 

a little toy variety. after being in the same seat for a while, a little mix-up helps. whether it be nick and i switching her off into each other's laps or just giving her a crinkled up barf bag. mila still isn't very mobile so i definitely realize that what may have worked for us last week, might not work tomorrow, but these are all things that usually kept m pretty calm and satisfied.

and finally, don't, by any means, DON'T change the babe's diaper in your seat. yes, we tried. no, it was not successful, in any way shape or form. lots of clothes were changed, lots of paper towels thrown away and we received LOTS of dirty looks from fellow passengers {fortunately we have a cute baby that pacified the whole situation}.

i talk to a lot of friends that say they're scared to travel with their kids and i think this might be one of the hardest things about traveling. getting over that fear. mila certainly hasn't been an angel on all of her flights, we have definitely been "those parents with the screaming baby", but i think she's become comfortable with traveling. and that comfortability came, i think, because we started her early. i hope some of these hints help y'all with your next, or first, trip with baby.

happy travels!

***just wanted to reiterate that i surely don't think i'm a pro at this, but it's what has worked for us and a few things we learned along the way***

greetings from roatan!

{from the mila diaries}

on thursday, mom and dad lugged me onto a plane {again} for my first trip out of the country! i was so excited i stayed awake the entire plane ride down. since we've been here, i've received my first stamp in my passport, eaten a little honduran sand and got a custom hat made for me by a nice man on the beach. yes, this winter sun has been quite wonderful. now i'm off to do a little shopping for my penpal and the rest of the family.

when i look back on it.

last week was a pretty busy week indeed.

from finally purchasing our christmas tree on wednesday and actually decorating it on saturday {thank you mila for the two-hour nap you took, it really helped out your mom and dad!}.

buying a classic seasonal treat for me to enjoy with my afternoon tea that i have been routinely drinking and LOVING lately.

then working off those christmas-shaped delights by running half of a half marathon...not quite my goal of a "half-marathon post-baby before the end of 2011", but close!

introduced mila to mr. claus. she didn't mind the red-suited man at first but quickly saw through the synthetic beard and decided she'd had enough. it was pretty obvious when she broke into a bloody murder scream. seriously, blue in the face shrieks. and i'm very sorry to the woman in line behind me, she told me to leave mila on the fake santa's lap because those pictures are "the best". i'm all about capturing the moment but i just couldn't sit there and not do anything, so i immediately saved her. mila, you'll thank me later.

and we even made a little update to m's room. an early sorta christmas present but at least now some of her books have a place to call home. and a pretty cute place at that.

just when i thought i had it.

**warning: this is a long one. and yeah, i edited. this is actually the short version**

let me start by saying, breast-feeding did not come easy for this chica. the moment mila was born, i plopped her on and we never looked back.


but about a week and a half into m's life, came severe pain and soreness. resulting in one of the leaders for the corpus christi chapter of la leche league making a visit to our house and trouble-shooting all of the culprits we thought might be contributing to my sudden pain. i remember the next few hours like they were yesterday. exhausted, laying in my mom's bed, with my sister, niece, mom and nephew massaging my every limb, i thought there was NO way i could continue with this sort of pain. but when nick and i got home, he helped me hold mila and with our new-found knowledge behind us, we tried to latch on. and latch on again. and again. finally i admitted defeat {for the time being} and gave mila a bottle of pumped breast milk. with regret and serious doubts, i proceeded to pump and bottle-feed for the next five days. if you know anyone who does this, give them a major pat on the back because it is not easy! without feeding from the breast AT ALL it is difficult and nauseatingly time-consuming. almost a week into this routine, i knew it was not sustainable. in no way shape or form. throughout that week, beyond the pain i was in, i found myself frustrated that i went into breast-feeding so blindly. while i had done what i thought to be a substantial amount of research {including attending a la leche league meeting and drilling my breast-feeding friends for any advice they could share}, no one ever told me about the pain i would face in those first few days {or weeks} not to mention the ridiculous amounts of lanolin i had to buy, bleeding from my nipples that went INTO the milk and those crazy doctors tell you that it's "ok" to feed your babe and last but not least, not even being able to touch a towel to my chest because of severe nipple sensitivity. all i heard was how healthy it was for the babe, that we'd save loads of money and i'd burn calories like i was running daily marathons, you know, the sort of things that would make ANY woman want to breast-feed.

so i knew i had to get mila back on the boob. and ultimately i did. my mom and i went to barnes and noble that sunday morning and i found the best breast-feeding resources they had, ultimately walking out with two books in tow, one of which would eventually become my bible for the next few weeks, and one serious feeling of empowerment. when i got home, with the husband's help, we successfully BREAST fed our little girl. breast-feeding became my life, i plunged myself into any information i could find about it. absorbing it all like a sponge. i literally ate, slept and drank breast-feeding information. it's all i talked about! i was determined to be a breast-feeding genius. but fast forward a couple months and we arrive to wednesday, 30 november.

i always dreamt of being one of those peaceful women that could whip out her breast any time, any place and feed their child on the spot. and i honestly think it's safe to say that's about what i had become {i'm seriously THIS close to slapping one of those breast-feeding awareness stickers onto my bumper}. but two days ago, i felt like someone punched me in my left boob and progressively became more and more achey. an infection was in the works. but HOW!!!???!!!?? how could this be? we breast feed ALL day long, in multiple positions, never withholding a feeding! the past two days have been full of sever body aches, the punch in the boob not excluded. i called my doc and after much discussion, she was convinced that i had an infection and prescribed an antibiotic for me that is safe to take while breast feeding. without much sleep last night, and no help from my kindle, i still woke up feeling 110% better. until this afternoon. body aches and fever returned. immediately i wondered if i would EVER feel better again and whether or not all of my breast-feeding efforts and successes would screech to a halt.


i'm continuing to take my anti-biotic, and after talking to my mother-in-law {an experienced ER nurse of forty years} she explained to me that my symptoms can recur within the first forty-eight hours while taking an anti-biotic {this is what happens when you spend the last ten or so years completely resistant to any kind of medicine, you lose all common knowledge of modern medicine}. although i'm not forfeiting my prescription, it does seem to be helping...slowly but surely, i'm also trying every natural remedy i can. dry-brushing to increase my circulation and improve my lymphatic system {something i did EVERY night while pregnant but have since quit...might be time to resume this pre-shower routine}, salt scrubs, hot HOT showers, eating as many raw vegetables as i can consume, heating pads, more mothers' milk tea and nursing around the nipple clock {a method that my bff dr. sears recommends as a way of preventing and clearing plugged milk ducts, thank you football hold for finally giving me some relief}. what is it about getting sick that makes you feel like eating organic, doing yoga and pumping yourself full of every vitamin possible?


hopefully we are on the road to recovery. poor mila has had to put up with a very lethargic mama for the past two days but she's been such a trooper. tomorrow we're hoping for lots of sunshine, maybe a walk around the park and anything else that doesn't include lying on the bed for the majority of the day.


happy weekend.


if anyone would like to comment on this post with breast-feeding woes and successes, please do so here on the blog...any help is definitely welcome. i am, after all, still trying to achieve breast-feeding-genius status. also! i know that not everyone has the same experience breast-feeding as i have. these are my experiences and i'm speaking for myself and myself alone.

on her first thanksgiving.

mila discovered a few new things that she now loves.

her uncle justin.

{who lives way too far away}

her red clip-on "high chair" at little mommy's house.

{maybe because she finally fits in it without being

propped up by copious amounts of pillows}

her cousins. even though they might stress her out sometimes {despite how many times taylor thinks mila wants to hear being called "baby", she does occasionally like to be referred to by her first name}.

{i kind of love the blurriness of this photograph,

it almost perfectly depicts the scenario}

and balloons!

{who knew!?}

these new *loves* may also be what m is thankful for. but i know that nick and i fit in there somewhere too. hope everyone had a thankFULL thanksgiving!

oh, why hello.

happy monday!