This is the first image of Lola in my series of Uno Dos Max baby tees. The Uno Dos Max Baby T-Shirt Kit includes twelve t-shirts printed with each month of your baby’s first year. The idea is that you take one photo each month and compile all twelve, like so:

Does a more perfect baby shower gift exist? And how cute would the series of images be for your kids first year birthday party invitation! Fantastique!

Uno Dos Max Baby T-Shirt Kit available at Etsy.com

*Baby blanket knitted by my mom. Pretty amazing, right?

A few people have asked for an update on the Fritz situation so I thought I’d fill you in. Thankfully much of the bad behavior seems to have been a result of his cold. I think the combo of feeling like crap plus most of my attention focused on Lola just made him freak out. Can you blame the kid? Three weeks ago Fritz was the center of our universe. Now I have to meet the demands of a newborn and the demands of my son and my husband. I’m constantly being pulled in three directions and unfortunately for both the boys, baby Lola trumps all for the moment. When the girl needs to eat she needs to eat.

Fritz’s first week with his sister at home was smooth. We were all very much in awe of the new baby. Week two was when the nasty cold struck and Fritz went all Jekyll and Hyde on me. Now in this third week order is being restored. Fritz is back in school and has returned to sleeping in his room the whole night through. I no longer have to shoo him away from breathing or coughing on his sister and now he can be my little helper. He’s been giving her a bottle when I get the chance to pump one and helping bathe her. When we read bedtime stories before bed he holds his baby sister in his lap. I want him to feel important and that he is the best big bro a girl could have. I’ve also made a great effort to do activities just with him. When we get home from school I give him some extra attention and alone time together. It’s a lot easier to do this now that Lola is settled in.

So essentially things feel pretty back to normal, save the general toddler hyperness and occasional tantrum. Fritz is really shaping up to be a great big brother. He’ll look at Lola and say ’she’s so pretty’, or ’she’s so tiny’. He takes his step ladder and goes over to her pack-and-play in the living room and holds her little hand. He will request that I put her on the play mat or the bouncer so she can be on the floor with him. It’s all very precious. He restored my faith in toddlers! That kid almost broke me last week. Fewww, nervous break down averted…for now anyway.

Just because you have a girl doesn’t mean she needs to be dressed in pink all the time. Today Lola is sporting onsie and pants by H&M. The booties were knitted by my mom and they remind me of Oscar The Grouch. I think this look is lovely and zen.

When my Google Alerts turned up this post on Momversation, entitled Hipster Mom: Oxymoron?, I had to comment. The author Christine poses the question ‘…is it really important to be ‘hip’ and a mom?’. She claims that …’Being a ‘hipster’ is about being better than thou and if a mother is concerned about being too cool for school, she’s sending a dangerous message to her kids.’ This is such bullshit. First of all being hip isn’t about being ‘better than thou’, it’s about looking good, feeling good and enjoying who you are. While I think the term ‘hipster’ is funny and I use it partly in jest, I also believe that myself, and probably most of my readers, do embody the origins of the word ‘hipster’ which by Websters Dictionary is defined as ‘a person who is unusually aware of and interested in new and unconventional patterns’.

Christine also claims that if you are a hipster mom your kids will turn out like the bratty kids on My Super Sweet 16. Where that kind of reasoning comes in is beyond me. I would think that, like myself, any hip mama would expose her child to art, music, kindness, creativity and good fun not extreme materialism and snobbery. She ends with telling her readers to ‘be yourself’…but I guess if being yourself means being ‘hip’ or a ‘hipster’ you’re inevitably a bad influence on your kids. Suck it Christine! And by the way, you couldn’t be more off the mark on your hipster imagery for the post. See above for an actual hipster mom.

This is our friend Nick’s book. He makes Robots. My husband and him went to high school together. I met Nick for the first time, like, a million years ago at McCaig Welles Gallery where he was having a robot show. The whole gallery was filled with hundreds of robots. All he paints is robots. Robots, robots, robots! His studio is a virtual robot factory. Nick gave us a copy of his book, R Robot Saves Lunch, and it’s currently in heavy rotation. Nick wrote an inscription to Fritz and we never miss that page. Fritz also has an original Nick Kuszyk hanging in his room  which was a gift from Nick at my baby shower. Fritz is very proud of that…already a collector! At this point I’ve probably read R Robot Saves Lunch at least seventy-five times…and surprisingly it’s still enjoyable. I owe that to it’s short length, cute plot and great artwork. Teach your kids about street art today and buy R Robot Saves Lunch!

I’m not going to subject myself to a before photo in a bathing suit here, but trust me I was considering it. As you can see from the photo above, taken about a week ago, I chunked up quite well towards the end of my pregnancy. It wasn’t too bad looking when I had a big round belly leading the way. Now it’s all bloat and flab. Lovely! So in the end I topped out at a whopping one-hundred and sixty-five pounds. Nearly three weeks later I weigh in at one-forty-five. And let me remind you that I am five-foot-one. So, here I am, for the second time, on the long road to losing the baby weight. For some chicks it seems easy, you see them a month after they gave birth and they look just as they did before they were pregnant. Fuck them. For others it takes several months of diet and excercise to regain their figures. I weighed one-hundred and twenty pounds before I got pregnant so that leaves me with twenty-five pounds to shed.

My body is pretty repulsive to me at this point. My mid section has a gelatinous protruding belly and a set of crazy love handles. Right around the bottom of my bra at the back there is a kind of folding of skin a.k.a back fat. My butt and thighs need some serious toning but are not horribly affected. My arms are rather wide at the tops and my face is huge but I think thats gone down since the above picture, probably water weight. Ok now that I’ve isolated my problem areas what am I doing about it you ask?

#1: I’m following the guidance of a book called Bouncing Back After Baby. The author gives you a week by week schedule to get back to your pre pregnancy weight starting the week after you give birth. So far I’m up to a few yoga poses and very short walks. She also gives tips on nutrition and general mental well being.

#2: As soon as I get the ok from my doctor, I’m taking classes at a place in Carol Gardens called CKO Cardio Kickboxing. This was a gift from my parents. My mom lives directly across the street from the gym and has offered to watch Lola while I take morning classes during the week. I think this will really get me on the road to a sexy summer bod. I can’t wait!

#3: For those days when I can’t seem to make it out of the house, it’s Wii Fit. EA Active is my fitness ‘game’ of choice.

#4: Breast feeding and a sensible diet. So far so good on the breast feeding. Everyone knows that this is a great way to get out a ton of extra calories and get back to pre-pregnancy shape much quicker than if you weren’t. We’ll see how long it lasts! As for my diet, I’m not ‘dieting’ per se but I have cut out all the sweets I was eating before I gave birth. I’m making an effort to munch on carrot sticks, pretzels, raw almonds, banana chips and fruit. I’m also drinking a ton of water.

So there you have it! My goal is to lose it all and tone it up before June. I think that’s pretty reasonable. I’ll be updating you along the way.

Here I am about a month or two pre-pregnancy. I want my body back!!!:

He’s finally turned on me. Well, that’s the way it feels anyway. For the past three or four days Fritz has become the antichrist. I swear he’s even speaking in tongues. The kid is sick with a bad, bad cough, horrible stuffy nose and a bit feverish. Every single thing he does is bad. I’m guessing his logic is ‘If I’m miserable you will be too’. I feel terrible because in an effort not to let him walk all over me I’m scrambling to discipline him, but it’s hard when every action he takes needs discipline. Here’s the other part of the story, not only is he sick but his dad went out of town for the past five days, he’s got a new baby sister thats being doted upon and takes up a huge amount of my time breast feeding annnnnd his routine got totally effed up staying at my parents house for three days because I was scared to stay home alone. What I’m trying to say is things are crazy-up-in-here!

Ok, here’s an example of what a little jerk Fritz is being…On the way back from the doctors yesterday he decides to just repeat ‘mommy, mommy,mommy, mommy’ and when I finally say ‘Yes sweetie, what is it?’ he responds “DON’T TALK!’…which I wasn’t to begin with. He’s throwing toys, wanting things he knows he can’t have, fucking with his sisters swing when she’s in it, being outrageously obnoxious and totally defiant. Some of my disipline methods are counting, yelling (doesn’t work), time out and taking away toys. To get him to do anything good I have to bribe him with a treat. It’s completely out of control. I don’t believe in spanking but I have come really, really close here. Oh and I’m in a constant battle to keep him from coughing all over his two week old sister. Maybe an exorcism is in order?

Update: I realize this sounds harsh especially since the kid is sick but I’m pretty sure his M.O is to make my life a living hell. I know that he probably just wants attention and it’s just all spiraled out of control. I feel bad for the kid, I do. I want pamper him while he’s sick but I cannot tell you how hard he’s making it for me. Now this what you call mothers guilt…an update on a nasty post about your two year old.

Here’s Lola! She turned two weeks old on Tuesday and I’m loving every minute of having this babe in my life. Sometimes I call her my ‘main beeotch’, other times just ‘girlfriend’. She’s very cool and easy going. While I try to get back to a regular posting schedule (I have so much to tell but where does the time go!) I thought I’d share some of her little outfits. Here we goooooo….

What she’s wearing! Panda Footsie Pants by Carters, Onsie by Z Layette & Company, Fuzzy Coat by H&M, Hat by Zutano and Pacifier by Advent

Eeeek Gads! I loooove this AA meets Sesame Street collaboration. The simple line drawings make for a tasteful representation of the Sesame Street crew. I got the above tee and tote for Fritz and I. Made for Hipster Moms and Kids everywhere Am Appy is sold!