My PB + J

woodland themed 1st birthday

I am slowly recovering from what seemed like months of day dreaming and planning my sweet little man’s first birthday party. It’s crazy how fast the day goes after waiting and waiting for the day to arrive. The party, despite being cursed with rain for the second time, was moved indoors. Luckily, this time around we had the space within our new house to accomodate the party inside. I am more than ecstatic to share his party with you, it was so much fun to plan and I have to tell you I was on a pretty strict budget. I was able to DIY a lot of the special details including the dessert table which I wanted to focus 100% of my time on after botching Payton’s. This is why we decided to have the food catered, but after not receiving a few items and running out of time to prepare a few apps (including the hedgehog cheese ball I so desperatly dreamed of) the party had to go on. In the end, it was a great birthday spent with our closest friends and family. We have raised enough money for two surgeries to be donated to Operation Smile. We will continue to raise money until we reach our goal by his cleft surgery anniversary February 1st. For the complete birthday photo album visit my google+ album..

My friend, Danielle, let me borrow her amazing DIY chalkboard. It was originally by the front door but I was worried with the rain. Don’t you just  love my little mushrooms?

Homemade Sparkling Apple Cider – perfect for the chilly day. 

owl goodie bags and handmade Gnome hats for all the guests 

arrangements and dips. 

Marshmallow Pumpkin Pops – The Marshmallow Studio. I love my two wee gnomes relaxing in the moss. My neighbor had given them to me the day before the party when we were having a community garage sale. 

Water bottle labels – made and designed by me. 

The dessert bar consisted of: marshmallow pops (party favors), mushroom sugar cookies, s’more & pumpkin cupcakes, macrons (vanilla, chocolate & pumpkin), meringue mushrooms, birthday cake, nutter butter “acorn” cookies and m&m’s. 

paper cupcake toppers c/o – too cute invites
fondant pieces – sugar and stripes co. 

thank you tags c/o – too cute invites 

S’mores cupcakes 

the kids painted sugar pumpkins – log seats from my parents backyard. 

faux bois banner with woodland creatures.

meringue mushrooms 
gnome hat fun. 

Vendors & Sponsors –

fondant woodland creatures – sugar and stripes co.
pumpkin marshmallow pops – the marshmallow studio 
cupcake toppers & thank you tags – too cute invites
beverages – HonestTea
gnome hats – made by my sister
faux bois banners – me
mushroom sugar cookies – me
highchair banner – me
cupcakes & cake – me
meringue mushrooms – me 
rag tie banner – me
invites – cherish paperie
vinyl chalkboard – urban walls
photographed by – my friend danielle

melissa & doug suspend game {review}

Melissa and Doug is one of my favorite brands for children’s toys. They encourage imaginative play and the quality is top notch. Melissa and Doug has released, Suspend, a new family friendly game that requires balance and a steady hand, it’s a great addition to your family game night.  
Suspend comes with twenty-four rubber ended wire rods that requires balancing them on the table top piece. It might look relatively easy, but like most stacking games it’s harder than it looks! This game makes for a fun evening with the kids or even for mom and dad to play once the kids go to bed. The game is recommended for ages eight and up but Payton easily understood the concept and stood on a chair to play. 
Melissa and Doug offers an array of toys starting at birth and goes well above age eight. They have added an outlet to their website that offers 40% off their classic toys. Begin your holiday shopping now, you will not disappoint a loved one by gifting Melissa and Doug. 

Win a Suspend Game!


Melissa and Doug has so graciously offered one My PB+J reader a Suspend game in the first birthday giveaway bash package! 

This giveaway will begin on October 15th and will run through the 21st. Make sure to come back during those dates for your chance to win!





Disclaimer: I received a Suspend game for review purposes only. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I personally use and believe my readers would enjoy. 

a letter To Brayden – 4 Months

Baby Brady-
 you are four months! four months, already?! you are slowly turning into a little boy with a little personality. you are such a calm, happy baby. i always envisioned the second baby to be a terror but so far you are clam and easy going. while your sister was a better sleeper you have gone through trauma, learning to use your newly found suction and reintroducing your pacifier. you handled your surgery like a champ, and i am still in awe of how you handled everything. with the whole thing behind us now it seems so surreal because i have forgotten what your cleft looked like. all i see is a handsome baby boy who has the most infectious smile and giggle. your sleeping patterns since the surgery have gone back to normal, but you are waking up once or twice at night because you are such a gassy boy. daddy and i often die laughing so hard because of your loud tooties, we just don’t understand how it comes out of your tiny body. i guess you’re just a little boy and that’s what they do! you love your sister, you often watch her jumping, singing, acting silly and it looks like you are thinking, why can’t i do that?! in time. we introduced your jumpy on your four month birthday and you love it. as long as there is something to nom on you are happy. you love your hands, your sleep-sounds giraffe and your blanket. you still love to be swaddled partially because you love the blanket to be on your face. sometimes i have to check to see if your breathing because you smother your face with your hands and blanket so much. now that you have recovered from your surgery you love your play mat again and once we took off your no-no’s you were back at trying to roll over again and you finally could tuck your shoulder enough to where it did not hurt your nose or mouth. you are also scooting all over the floor and trying to sit up. it all seems to be going so fast because we know what to expect. i love your age right now and look forward to all the fun that is around the corner! 

  • 13 pounds 5.3 ounces – 27th percentile. my little peanut!
  • 28 inches – 65th percentile 
  • size 2 diapers 
  • 3-6 month clothing 
  • talking up a storm. getting the ‘d’ sounds out, why does dada always have to be the first word. i am praying that you get mama out first. 🙂 
  • you are eating rice cereal now that your stitches have dissolved in your mouth. your pedi says your mouth is still really swollen inside. we also think you are teething. 
  • you love the swing more than anything. worried about transitioning you to your crib this month because you don’t like sleeping without movement. 
  • you have been eyeing your feet and finally figured out how to get to them. 
  • you love looking at the lights from the tv. you laid on your mat watching basketball intently a few weeks ago. 
  • your hair is really coming in now. it gets really greasy fast because you sweat a lot so it looks dark and like you have a mohawk but when you see it after bath time it is really light and fluffy (as your sister describes it). 

for whatever reason the video uploaded with only half the sound. not like you need to hear me but i don’t know what happened!? 

sister love: payton truly adores you. if you are crying she asks me to sing twinkle, twinkle. now that she has fully learned the song, she just starts to sing it if you are fussy. if she feels you need your pacifier she will bring it to you and put it in your mouth. she loves picking out your clothes and while shopping a few days ago told me what you love. when we first saw your lip without the stitches and glue she stopped, put her hand to her mouth and gasped, mommy, buddy’s lip perfect. awwweee! he’s so cute! i think it’s safe to say little boy that your sister loves you BIG! i can only hope that this will never change.


you figured out if you lean forward you can get those toes a lot easier!

{a cleft journey} surgery day!

okay, let me first start off that this post has an extreme picture/story overload. i need to update the grandparents and of course document how my sweet little boy’s cleft lip and nose repair went yesterday. the day started off great, jim brought me a bottle at 4:45 am brady ate and then fell back asleep. we woke-up around 6 am while daddy was in the shower and got ready for our day. we made a pit stop at starbucks for a protein box and a green tea and made our way down the 15 freeway to zion hospital. as we were exiting admitting called us at 8:07 to see if we had forgotten, um no! there is a thing called morning traffic so we arrived fifteen minutes late. the sweet boy had fallen asleep and slept for a few minutes while we waited for admitting to call us in. 
he must have been excited for the day because he popped those pretty blues open wide and kept smiling. his whole demeanour over all was perfect, a smiley happy baby.
we went into the admitting office and did all the necessary paperwork and then a nurse soon escorted us back to the OR waiting room. we were given a cute teal gown and over sized peach MC Hammer style pants.
he just kinda hung out while we dotted all those necessary i’s and crossed those t’s with the nurse. 
and then he got to wear the over sized baby pajamas. he told me that they didn’t fit like baby gap and that pastels are not his color. because he is our son, he wore the pastels and took it for what it is. 
we took as many pictures as we could of his “first” face. the nurse probably thought we were coo-coo but hey, his face was changing forever. i never want to forget the first face i fell in love with. so mommy and daddy were the paparazzi found in room number seven. 
sigh. my two boys, the two twins. i love this picture. 
he got all linked up as did i. what is he here for? over and over. 
about 9:15 he finally got a little impatient and hungry. so what else could mommy do but shove the pacifier in his mouth. this is the last time he can use it, we’re hoping it’s a permanent thing. 
love him.
our plastic surgeon, dr. david sinow, came on in and marked his face for hospital protocol. brayden wasn’t having it. he finally knew what was happening. he heard us talking, the nursing talking and knew this happy moment was soon about to change. so he cried. wouldn’t you?
dr. christine briefly told us about her tour with operation smile to over twenty different countries since the 80’s. she was on the first tour to vietnam, amazing! i knew he was in great hands. dr. sinow finished his last notes in the computer and then it was game time. christine asked to take him, i of course, paparazzi mommy, asked to take a picture and this is the face he leaves me with. i would keep turning on my camera to look at this picture and then just cry. why the boo-boo lip, kid? don’t you know your mommy is a sucker for sappy faces, especially when she knows you will be away from her for hours? geesh. a wreck i tell you. 
as they walked away from us towards the OR. check this guy out! christine is saying, look how cute this baby is, the blonde is ooh’ing and ahh’ing and dude takes a photo op. i have a word for this type of guy. 
we soon found our spot in the surgery waiting corridor. we skipped sitting in the waiting room because there was a snoring man. we made a brief trip down to the great outdoors to consume my protein box and tea. jim decided to run over to vons for a crudite platter and trashy gossip mag for me and a bag of rice cakes and smoothie for himself. we made our way back up to the third floor and made best friends with the bench. 
i read, i laid down, i paced, i kept checking the screen to see if his status from blue (still in OR) would ever change. it didn’t. we waited for almost four hours. we decided to go into the actual waiting room to charge our phones. the room was empty for a split second until obnoxious tevas with sock wearing woman and her sick three-year-old who was clearly a lonely woman and befriended the other poway woman to her left. oh, and the kid threw herself all over us…did you catch she was sick? annoying. jim decided to run over to vons again. we were bored. of course, after ten minutes dr. sinow came in, just as that kid was climbing my leg. i had to reassure him that wasn’t our payton. he told me that the surgery went ahh-mazingly well and that our little dude was a champ. jim came back, the doc wrote the prescription and then the phone rang. atkinson? one of you can go back to recovery. first, why do hospitals do this? one parent? i jumped, i didn’t even give jim a chance. i walked back with my phone and camera. i saw the nurse and my groggy boy laying in the crib. the nurse immediately handed him to me. i started balling. it was just like meeting him for the first time. he was whiny but as soon as i started talking to him he calmed right down. he had his mama. i sat in the rocker i spoke quietly to him, taking in his new face and how well he was handling the trauma he just endured. they soon moved us over to the PACU and jim could finally come back. 
he was so calm. he didn’t need any pain meds yet, he was still calm from the anesthesia. the possibility of having to stay overnight was ruled out because he was doing so well. the nurse removed his IV. i then took his clothes off and got him ready to head home. he didn’t like being out of my arms too much. 
so he was attempting to cry it was so soft and groggy. as sad as it was to watch and hear him freak-out i knew he would be fine soon. 
once he had his monkey jammies and his too-cool for school magic school bus “welcome” bands on we walked out of the hospital. brayden slept and made some silent moans. we met my mom, payton, sister and niece at chilis for an early dinner and then headed home. we gave him a bath, 1.5 ounces of formula and his first dose of codeine. he slept like a champ. i woke him up around 10:30 pm for another feeding and more medicine. around 12:45 am i took him into bed with me and held him, he woke-up again at 2:30 crying a little out of pain so we repeated formula/meds again. he was a little more awake this time. a few coo’s and a smile for me. when we all woke-up this morning he was his normal happy self. coo’ing, kicking his legs like crazy, smiling and basically melting my heart. 
i know kids bounce back really fast and for that i am grateful. this son of mine truly is my angel baby, he shows me everyday how to be a stronger person. he has already experienced so much in his short three months then most experience in a lifetime. brayden, you truly are a calm soul. i love you and thank you for choosing me as your mom. all the fears that set in on June 23, 2011 are over. the page has been turned and our new journey can begin. 
and like the new jersey folks are sayin’, you really are a true californian now, plastic surgery before your first birthday. 😉 

love

               ugh.
i love this kid.
i love his smile.
i love his now chubby cheeks.
i love his side smile when he looks at me.
i love the glimmer in his eyes when he sees me staring at him.
i love the way he stretches after a long sleep.
i love the way he kicks me while eating.
i love his long eyelashes.
i love his chunky thighs.
but.
i love his giggle more.
it fills my heart with even more love.