Not sure what I would've done if I had a girl...

Okay, I’m going to admit this right now, I’m not sure what the hell I would have done if I would’ve popped out a girl instead of a boy. Sure, I may be a woman, but I sure don’t act like it, not in the least. I like basketball, dressing in sweats, and burping! LOL I’m guessing that if I did have a girl, she probably would’ve become a tomboy just like me since I’m not into frilly dresses, the color pink, flowers or any of that girly girl stuff.

I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have tried to get her all glamified because I would’ve given it a shot. I would’ve dressed her up in frilly girly clothes and have her do girly things, yet, I’m sure in the end, it probably wouldn’t have worked out given that I don’t know what I’m doing at all when it comes to that kind of stuff. Like, I’ve painted my nails once in my life at that was a disaster not to mention the time I tried to style my hair and how I ended up looking like a rooster. Imagining trying to do girly things with my little girl and show her the ropes would’ve been comical, but borderline sad with a lot of tears streaming down both of our faces. Ugh, I can just imagine the fights and the headaches!!!!!

Heck yeah, check out my new
Nike sweatsuit!

So again, I’m pretty blessed to have had a boy so I don’t have to deal with the girly stuff. Thus far, it’s been pretty awesome raising our little man Ryan beginning with how I can shop for cool boy clothes for him, which is something I’ve pretty much done my whole life since I don’t remember a time where I ever shopped in the girls or women’s section. Well, there was this one time, I bought like a sweater and black pants. And, I'm not counting the times I had to go maternity clothes shopping given that, that wasn't by choice, but out of necessity.

What’s pretty sweet is all the clothes I can browse and buy. I mean, there are Nike shoes to buy him and a plethora of sweat suits, awesome stocking caps and hats to look at, t-shirts with sports logos to splurge on, and it’s even been fun to get him crib sheets with different sports themes on them! I can’t wait until he’s a bit older and we can head to the sporting goods store together! A new basketball hoop with a basketball; a set of golf clubs; a baseball bat, mitt, ball, and jersey; maybe a tennis racket and a tennis ball; a real football; a little toddler bike; and a bunch of other sport related purchases I'm sure are definitely on the horizon! I can’t wait to get him all kinds of stuff, it's going to be so much fun. Ooh, I should probably get him a fishing pole too!

Yep, his hammer has become
his most favorite toy!

The shopping though isn’t the only thing that’s been fun about raising a boy. Another thing that I’ve enjoyed is the neat boy things we can do together. For example, we can play our version of catch as much and as long as we want without having to take a break and do something else like with play with dolls or something. We also enjoy taking his toy hammer and hitting random things with it, throwing his teething key rings across the room (and yes, I’m aware that a baby of any gender can do this, LOL), and wrestling with his toy bear. Well, I call it wrestling. What it probably really is though, is him just laying on top of it for a bit because he’s stuck or something, but whatever! It looks like wrestling to me!

We also like to read the sports section of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, anything on ESPN.com, and to introduce him to things that are not all stereotypical boy, we check out the entertainment section of Yahoo.com and read up on what’s happening with all the teen moms from Teen Mom and Teen Mom 2. Needless to say, that can be some interesting reading. Listening to music is a fun way we pass the time as well, sometimes it’s nursery rhymes, other times Mumford & Sons, and we also get in some country just to make Dave happy! ;) So like I said in another post I wrote, I try not to do all sports related things with him, which is why we get in the reading and the listening to music. At some point, we'd like him to play a musical instrument, maybe the guitar or piano. That would be cool.

Basically, things are working out pretty well right now and I’m enjoying my time with my little boy. It’s been seven months now since he’s been born and I can’t believe how fast time is flying by. My goal to is take it all in, love every moment, and not take anything for granted! I love you little Ryan, thanks for being your awesome little self! :) And until next time, it’s Carla the new mom, and tomboy, signing off!

No, I’m not fat!

Just as a warning, this blog post is going to be one big rant, so I apologize in advance. :)

Okay, I’ve noticed that within the last week or so, I’m becoming completely self-conscious about the way that I look and I’m finding myself wanting to tell people, “No, I’m not fat, I’m pregnant!” It’s like for some strange reason, I think their eyes are on me and that they’re judging the way I look, thinking that I can’t control my eating and that I have no self-respect or something. I know that what I’m thinking is completely ludicrous because there’s no reason for complete strangers to give two cents about the way I look. Yet, the thoughts are still there and the best that I can do right now is ignore them!

It’s really probably all my fault because I’m not wearing my maternity clothes like I should, something that my husband Dave keeps telling me repeatedly that I should do. For some reason though, I can’t seem to pull the trigger and do it. All of his arguments for why I should start wearing my maternity clothes are pretty valid such as how I will be more comfortable if I start wearing them. I know that this is completely true, yet, I still sit in my uncomfortable clothes. And yes, I do complain about how uncomfortable I am. Dave has been great about my complaining and lets me vent about everything when I need to. Cool guy. I’m not quite sure why I won’t wear my maternity duds. For me, it’s almost like a sign of weakness or something to start wearing them. I know, a completely random way to think, yet those are the thoughts that are going through my mind. I’m sure a psychologist or psychiatrist would have a field day with me, too bad, I’m not going.

In a day or two, I’m going to take the plunge and put on my maternity clothes for the first time and no, I’m not joking around when I make this statement this time around Dave. (Yes, I’m addressing my husband directly here since I keep telling him I’m going to start wearing them starting tomorrow every time he points out that I should be wearing them already). It’s going to be a big day, I can’t wait!

Shopping, shopping, shopping…

There has never been a time in my life where I actually enjoyed going shopping. Wait, that’s not true, when I bought my first road bike, I was actually more than excited to go out and buy it. I also like looking at sporting goods and all kinds of athletic shoes. Other than that though, shopping has never been on my list of super fun things to do. For me, it’s more like a chore unlike other people who view shopping as a fun hobby.

Now that you know my stance on shopping, you’ll now understand why going maternity clothes shopping was an outing that I wasn’t quite looking forward to. So when I did finally take the plunge and do it, it was quite the experience to say the least. My husband Dave and I went together. The only place that I knew of to get any kind of maternity clothes was at the mall in Green Bay. We made our way there on that fateful day back in January and found ourselves, after some walking and heel digging on my part, at the clothing store called Motherhood Maternity. We walked in and I was immediately overwhelmed by everything that I saw. There were strange looking pants with funny panels, tops that were oddly shaped and over sized, and a whole bunch of other odd stuff that freaked me out. Basically, I almost turned around and walked out.

Before I could walk out though, a sales associate by the name of Samantha came to my aid and asked if I needed any help. I think she sensed that I was completely out of my element so it was nice to be asked if I needed help for a change by a sales associate. I told her “Yes,” and she proceeded to ask me a few different questions including when I was due, what type of clothes did I like, what size I was, and so on and so forth. She started picking out things for me to wear left and right and said I should do the same. This is where things got frustrating because I couldn’t find anything that I liked. I mean, I scoured the entire store for like 20 minutes and when it was time to try things on, I had two pairs of pants that I thought were okay and Samantha the sales rep had about 13 things for me to see if I liked. Let’s just say, I’m not a fan of frilly girly clothes and that’s all that was in that store. It was all this form fitting stuff with lace and flowers not to mention how everything was either low cut, low rise or most of the pants in the place had a flare on the bottom. Not cool, not cool at all given that my style is no-nonsense and straight forward. I like t-shirts, sweatshirts, boot-cut jeans, and plain clothes that look nice. I don’t need anything with pretty patterns or clothes that leave little to the imagination if you know what I mean. I like to be covered and I like to look sporty, which means, as I’ve mentioned a bunch of times before, you’ll see me wearing a Nike sweatshirt and jeans, an Adidas t-shirt and shorts, or my lounge clothes.

Two pairs of pants I decided I didn't mind wearing.

Okay, with that rant of frilly clothes out of the way, I’ll get into how trying on all the clothes went. In short, it wasn’t all that fun. Things were too small, too short, too uncomfortable, and not all that appealing to my fashion eye, well, if I had one I guess. J I tried on one pair of jeans and almost laughed. I came out to show Dave and Samantha was like, “Those look great!” All chipper to make a sale and I was like, “No, they’re way too small!” She was nice about it and got me the next size up, insisting that they’d be too big. To her, they ended up being too big, but for me, they ended up being just right as they were a bit baggy and actually kind of looked like real jeans even if they had the weird maternity tummy fabric going on. I can’t complain about her though, she was tremendously helpful and kept coming with more options and took away everything that I didn’t like. After all the trying on, I ended up with three pairs of pants, a cute outfit for the baby (which Dave found), and some tummy butter for my belly. 

The cute baby outfit we found!

In total, I spent $178 and was completely floored. I did earn some Bump Bucks to use on future purchases at the store, yet it was still a lot of money to spend. Probably the worst part of it was that we were in there for almost an hour and a half. Yes you read that right, we were in there for almost an hour and a half looking for clothes, it was borderline nuts. To reward myself, I got an Orange Julius afterwards. It was well deserved. Dave mind you was rewarded with a nice frosty mug of beer at a local establishment later in the evening. He deserved that beer for how nice he when I was trying on clothes. If he didn’t like something or if it didn’t quite look right, he would let me know without hurting my feelings. Really cool.

The shirt I found at Target.

After learning from the shopping extravaganza at the Motherhood Maternity store, I now only shop in about 15-20 minute increments to find maternity clothes. This strategy has paid off due to the fact that the next time I went out to look, I found a nice pair of maternity khakis at Younkers. In and out in about 15 minutes and I was even able to get them on sale. I was also able to find a few shirts another time I went shopping, this time at Target, and now my new favorite place to shop for maternity clothes, yes I now have a favorite maternity outlet, is Old Navy. However, not the store itself, but online. When I checked the store in Green Bay, they didn’t have a lot of options. I was able to figure out my sizing when I was there though and later went online to see what they had. Come to find out, they do have a lot of options and if you catch their online store on the right day, you can get everything pretty cheap. I bought like six items the other day, paid only $88 and got free shipping, which was refreshing after spending a huge chunk of money the first time around.

In the end I’m still not a fan of shopping, even if I did find some stuff to wear. To me it’s always going to be a chore, but at least I know how to shop now without getting too frustrated! Yeyeyee for me! Until next time, it’s Carla the tomboy signing off!

The baby bump has arrived…

So, the news of the day is that I’m starting to really show and I’m going to be honest, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this one. It’s like a combination of being tremendously happy, mixed with feeling all out of sorts mixed with, wow, I look really silly.

It really is a roller coaster of emotions and when I’m happy, I’m really happy and kind of want to show off the fact that I’m pregnant. I want to be like, “Look at me and my baby bump,” and be all proud about it. It’s completely foreign and strange for me to feel this way because I’m a person who doesn’t care all that much about physical appearance and what I look like. I mean, I wear hooded sweatshirts and jeans whenever I possibly can and my husband Dave practically has to beg me to let my hair down since I would rather put it in a pony tail to avoid having it all in my face.  So, to actually have moments where I want to show off what I look like is not something I’m used to and something I probably never will get used to.

Now, when I talk about feeling all out of sorts, I mean just feeling off and all over the place. For example, my balance is off a bit and I find that it can be hard to bend over and tie my shoes. Seriously, this happened to me the other day. I saw that my shoe was untied, bent over to tie it, and almost fell over due to the fact that my weight shifted awkwardly and my body didn’t respond well to it. It was a funny sight to see and if you would have seen it, you would have laughed your butt off. I was chuckling inside myself. I also have to find different ways to do things that were pretty easy to do pre-baby bump. For one, lifting boxes or anything pretty much is not easy like it was before. So instead of carrying things around at work, you can now see me using a cart to get things from here to there. At home, I just ask Dave to help move stuff around and he’s more than willing to do it. What a guy!

The baby bump itself is a bit uncomfortable at times too since I was somewhat in shape before my pregnancy and didn’t have a lot of extra “stuff” around my belly. Now to have “stuff” around my belly is just odd and something that I simply have to adjust too as I know it’s only going to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. What has helped me get over those uncomfortable moments is to just get up from sitting down and walk around. Or, loosen my belt buckle a notch or two if it feels way too snug.  And, there have been times when I just said the hell with it and unbuckled my pants. Too much information, I’m sure, but that’s where a rubber band comes into play. You can rubber band the buckle on your pants so you can wear them longer when you’re pregnant instead of jumping right into maternity clothes. I also bought a belly band and plan on using that soon. Just to note for the record, I haven’t given in yet and started wearing my maternity clothes. I know that day is on the horizon, but I’m still too in love with my regular jeans and they still kind of fit. So, I’m not going to put them away until I ultimately have to! When all else fails and I feel completely bloated, out of whack, and all crazy like, I turn to my fuzzy lounge pants and throw the regular pants aside. I realize that this is something that I can only do when I’m at home, but there have been times when I’ve felt like doing it at work. Hmmm, maybe I should suggest implementing a sweat pants day at work just like casual Fridays? Now that’s something to think about.

My fuzzy lounge pants! Thank goodness Dave gave them to me for Christmas!

Okay, I got sidetracked a bit there, but what can you do? Moving on, I want to briefly get into the looking silly part I touched upon at the beginning of this blog post. For me this happens when I realize the clothes I have on are a bit too small. For example, the other day, I was wearing a shirt that fit perfectly fine everywhere else, except in my belly region due to the fact that my belly bump was basically bulging out from under my shirt. This is when I feel completely silly and even a little embarrassed. When this happens, I typically go home and throw the shirt, or whatever article of clothing that it might be that is too small, in the pile in the corner of the bedroom that I now call the too small to wear pile. The pile is starting to grow and I think I’m going to need a box so I can store it all until after I’m pregnant. I have purchased some looser fitting clothes to get me by for a bit, yet as I said earlier, the day is coming when I’m going to have to bite the bullet and start wearing the maternity clothes I got. That reminds me, I still have to blog about maternity clothes shopping. Well, that post will be next, I promise.

All in all, I’m sure that every pregnant woman goes through the roller coaster of emotions that I’ve been experiencing with my new baby bump. The roller coaster is totally worth it though given that my baby bump means that I’m going to be a parent soon and that when my waistline grows, the child inside of me is growing and getting stronger like he or she should. Honestly in my life, I haven’t experienced a more warm and fuzzy feeling of happiness than that, knowing that my husband and I have created a life that will be a part of this world in five months or so. Pretty awesome. Life is pretty awesome.

With those uplifting words, I'm going to end my post and until next time, it’s Carla the pregnant tomboy signing off.

PS…I realize I got a little emotional there at the end, but it’s all so very true. :)

PSS…This post was inspired by my Aunt Ellyn, thanks for bringing up the baby bump!