Our WORLD

Bribe number one:

The result:

Introducing JULIAN & Co. Godmother Necklace . I love this piece - such a sweet sentiment for the godmother.

And a few more new goodies….

Check it!

My niece, Rachel is getting married in two weeks and she is having 4 flower boys including Lovebug.

That means I have only 14 days to beg, plead, bribe Lovebug to cooperate. So far it’s not going well.

Today we went shopping for the outfit: Bone colored khakis, a white button down dress shirt, a brown leather belt and converse shoes - any color. Rachel said she would supply the tie.

As I laid the selection over my arm at babyGAP, Julian protested, “No, no Mama, this one” - pointing to a pink striped shirt. “And these jeans”, he instructed as he pulled them from their rack. “The shoes I have are better”, he informed me. I explained over and over that those choices were fantastic, but Rachel has chosen “this” particular outfit for the wedding.

“No, no…. Mama call Rachel please”. “Mama, call Rachel now, I want this shirt”….

Rachel’s choice….

Lovebug’s choice…

I get asked this question countless times, “Are you and Tony going to have another baby”?, or “Do you want another one”?

The answer is I truly want another baby. I want Julian to have a sibling or two. Yes, this is what I want. But I don’t want this…

I come from a baby making family. I’m one of 15 (7 girls and 8 boys), all the from the same mama and papa. Between 6 sisters there are 16 kids. Sigh…

Getting pregnant has not been the problem for me. Julian was pregnancy number three. And since Julian I have been pregnant twice. Keeping my little bean in there for 40 weeks is the problem.

This last pregnancy was a surprise. After I saw the baby’s heartbeat on the sonogram screen I became confident. As I approached week nine I became over confident. But at week 11 my water broke of all things. Before I even told anyone I was having a baby, I was deciding weather or not to have a D&C or miscarry naturally.

My Doctor advised me to take a panel of tests to give more insight as to the cause of the miscarriages. Ok, I’ll take the tests.

I arrived at the lab pretty early because there is always a line and always waiting. I signed in and gave the receptionist my lab sheet. The phlebotomist who took my blood the last couple of times wasn’t there. She was excellent at getting blood from my invisible veins on the first try every time.

As I sat in the chair waiting for the tech to count out the vials and examine my arm for a good vein, I realized she counted out 16 vials. “Is that right - are you serious”? I asked as my veins dropped even further under my skin. It was right.

After 6 tries and 3 phlebotomists, my uncooperative veins filled only 4 vials. “Are you done for today”? the last woman asked. “Yes”, I said, holding back my tears. I just wanted this to be done and then given a reason to my miscarriage cause and finally given a treatment. But in my heart I know there really is no treatment.

It’s been 2 months since the lab day. My doctor’s secretary called last week asking if I was going to go back. “I’ll go”, I said. “Drink a lot of water - that’s really important”, she instructed.

So I’ll go next week on one of Lovebug’s school days. I do really want another baby. But I don’t want this….

Isn’t it beautiful? We went to the East Coast in May to visit Hon’s family and took a road trip to The Hamptons.This is The Montauk Point Lighthouse and it’s the oldest lighthouse in New York state.

Everything in my life seems to be only partially finished, or on hold. On the home front, we live in a 100 year old house that is still being worked on after 11 years. On the JULIAN & Co. front, new products need to be added to the website. A much needed “up date” email needs to go to our retailers. Most of the photos need to be replaced, and I still don’t have a press kit - even though we’ve been featured in many loved blogs and magazines. On the personal front, I’m still on a diet after bla bla years, I haven’t worked out since last Thanksgiving and it’s also been a very long time since Mabel has been walked. Meanwhile, for the last year we’ve postponed taking Lovebug to Disneyland too many times to count.

So last week, I made reservations, Hon bought tickets from his work (at a great discount), and we made the 90 minute drive Wednesday evening.

It had been 12 years since my last trip to Disneyland. Things have changed on the outside.

The parking lot is now a multiplex - much closer to the entrance - and an outdoor mall was added as well as California Adventure. Wow. Even being a native Californian and native Southern Californian, I felt so out of the loop.

We arrived around 9PM-ish and what was once a relatively short block of quaint hotels leading up to Disneyland, has morphed into a freeway exit that takes you right to the theme park’s parking lot, and miles of sky rise hotels not leaving out any of them.

After checking in, we made it to Downtown Disney to eat a late dinner and shop at the biggest Disney store in the world….Parenting mistake #10,784: We bought Julian a toy monorail. He played with it until 1:30AM.

Needless to say we didn’t make it to Disneyland at the planned 7AM, but we did manage to get there by 9.

Lovebug had only one goal. Meet Mickey Mouse in person.

I learned that my cautious 3 year old is actually fearless (I’m in denial). After begging me to go on Thunder Mountain, the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain (all three of which he is too small) - we took him on the Pirates of the Caribbean and told him it had a “splash mountain”. After sliding down the second waterfall, I thought for sure he would be cured, but I was wrong. We had to actually wait in the roller coaster line 2 times in the dreaded and shadeless Toon Town to semi-satisfy his craving for a roller coaster ride.

All in all it was wonderful fun, although Lovebug did ask numerous time to go back to the hotel so he could play with his Monorail; and he didn’t meet Mickey in person… but he did meet Chip.

Our little photographer at the “Parade of Dreams”.

Navigating Dumbo

Hanging with Chip in Goofy’s Kitchen