Whole Foods Huntington Beach (and Giveaway!)

Last week I had the opportunity to tour the new Whole Foods in Huntington Beach.

Right now I should just stop and tell you a little something. If I had unlimited time and an unlimited budget, I would love to be the kind of person who pops into a store several times per week picking up something fresh for dinner. There would be someone knowledgeable to answer my questions about wine and cheese for a party. I would be able to pick up a cute dessert to surprise my family and I would do it all without forgetting the stash of reusable bags I keep in my car.

When I picture this fictional place in my head it's always a small business. The kind of place that doesn't really exist in Orange County, land of the many retail chains.

However, Whole Foods has created this family/small business feel, while being anything but small. The people that work there know their stuff and they're excited about it. It's hard to not get excited along with them.

I mean, look at this animal welfare rating system for their meat. Even the "1" rating, the lowest, requires no cages, crates or crowding. That's better than what you're going to find in the meat case at your corner grocery store.


Whole Foods has a reputation for being pricey. Let's face it, in many cases you get what you pay for. It's more expensive to produce quality food, food that you can feel good about feeding your family. However, Whole Foods has gone a long way towards making their stores wallet friendly. They have a HUGE bulk foods section where you can pick up as much or as little as you would like.



They also have the 365 Everyday Value line of products. Bub was a big fan of the cookies and almond milk. (So was I, if we're being honest!)


Above and beyond your standard groceries, they also have a body care line (I could have stood there all day smelling the lavender soap,)


specialty chocolates,


and a drool worthy bakery and candy selection.


Not to mention the over 800 wines that they stock, their outrageous cheese case, coffee counter and gelato station.

What makes this particular Whole Foods special is its commitment to the local community. This store works to combine the surf city culture with the local Vietnamese community. To this end they have both a self serve Pho bar and a Pizza and Beer Bar with live surf reports. Their goal is to make their store a place where people not only shop, but spend time with friends.

How would you like to win a $10 gift card to your local Whole Foods? The gift cards are only good in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. Sorry! I'll have a giveaway soon for all of the United States - promise!

If you live in one of the above areas, leave a comment below and you'll be entered to win. Contest closes on Sunday, November 7 at 6:00pm PST. Be sure your email address is visible in your profile, or leave it in your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Disclaimer: I was given a goodie bag in exchange for touring the new Whole Foods. No post was promised in exchange for taking the tour, nor was I required to offer the giveaway. The words above reflect my personal opinion.

Still tired, but now with perspective

You know it occurs to me that mothers of babies are supposed to be tired. It's expected that we'll not be getting consecutive sleep and that we'll be busy all day and that the demands of said babies will be such that we won't have a minute to ourselves for days on end.

It's just that I was so spoiled. Bubette was an easy newborn. I mean, she had the evening screamies for a short (very short) bit, but for the most part was content. You know, provided that mommy was around. She slept for longer and longer periods of time, we put her to bed sleepy but awake and she fell asleep on her own, she napped in her crib, she went back to sleep easily after middle of the night feedings.

But, as I mentioned, that's the exception, not the rule.

Tonight, I went grocery shopping after both kids were asleep because I didn't even have enough food in the house to throw together a decent lunch to send to preschool tomorrow. I came home and caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror and realized that I wasn't wearing makeup. I NEVER leave the house without makeup. I have blonde eyebrows and eyelashes - I have zero facial features without makeup. Tonight though, off I went. It wasn't even as if I knew that I was a blank slate and decided to hell with it, I need bread and pears. I had no idea.

I'm that scene in Look Who's Talking where she puts coffee in the baby bottle rather than formula.

We're still in the vicious cycle of relatively little napping with a side of night-time sleep regression. She's been waking only once a night since she was eight or nine weeks old, occasionally sleeping through the night. Now, she wakes at least twice and demands to be fed. I think it's the trifecta of weaning from the swaddle, a cold and the new skill of rolling over that's royally messing with her head and my sanity.

But again, I tell myself, this is how it's supposed to be. All summer when I was generally well-rested, was just a tease. My husband was home all summer, so we were evenly matched with the kids, and even if one was having a bad day, it wasn't just me being double teamed. Now that things are within the range of normal, they seem Level 10 HARD.

We're moving forward with a plan. I'm staying home as much as possible this week, trying to get back to some semblance of a schedule. We're attempting an earlier bedtime to make up for the lack of daytime sleeping. And, I'm trying to keep things in perspective, because this is how it usually is.

Little Distractions

Last Thursday Bubette took a three hour morning nap and napped for about an hour in the afternoon. That was the last nap she took in her crib. We were home all day Friday, keeping to her schedule, yet she didn't sleep for more than five minutes at a time. She did nap in my arms and her car seat as we were out and about this weekend. Yesterday, however, we were home all day and nothing. NOTHING.

I'm wracking my brain. I don't think I've had any caffeine without realizing it. It's still early, but I've checked for teeth that might be poking through. She's caught a little bit of what Bub and I had, but can still breathe and it doesn't seem like that would account for going on five days without napping.

I know this will pass. I know at some point she'll nap again. In fact, she's asleep now, and has been for three whole minutes. I've been trying to get her down for an hour, but every time I've put her down she wakes up screaming. Four minutes now. Maybe this one will take.

I know this isn't the end of naps for good, but whenever something is challenging I get the apocalyptic feeling that this is how it will be forever and ever. I'll always have a fussy baby who will never let me put her down. I'll never get the laundry folded again and every meal I make will be punctuated by unhappy shrieks because I can't hold her while taking things in and out of the oven.

Eight minutes now.

While we wait, I would like to direct you to this recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread that I managed to make yesterday despite the cling-on baby. Make it. Make it NOW. (I made two small tweaks to the recipe. It calls for a pound of pumpkin, but the small cans of pumpkin are only 15 oz. I found that this was fine. Also, I used mini-chocolate chips rather than regular size. I'm kind of crazy about mini chocolate chips and I think that it gives the perfect little surprise of chocolate.)

Weekend Recap

On Friday, Bub has his first preschool-friend birthday party. It was at one of those inflatable jump house places, and ever since he broke his leg on one of those slides last year, I have mild anxiety around those things. Fortunately, the party was small, and so were the kids. He had a great time and there was a delicious homemade cake. I'm counting that evening as a success.

Saturday, husband had a test and I had a baby shower to attend with my mom, so my dad came by to hang out with Bub for a little while. Since Grandpa is his very favorite person EVER, this made for one happy little boy. Added bonus: Grandpa doesn't say no, so Bub got about a million snacks and had someone to do every single thing that he wanted to do.

The baby shower had a dual green them. Green, since they don't know the sex of the baby and also, and eco-friendly theme. The invitations were Evites and the guests were asked to not wrap their gifts. It was kind of fun to see all of the goodies displayed on table and the mom-to-be didn't open gifts since they were already opened, so she was able to just spend time with everyone at the shower.

Fun fact: The grandmother-to-be, my mom, the person throwing the shower, and one other friend of theirs not at the shower, were all pregnant at the same time. We (the babies) were all born three months apart (March, June, September, December) and are now having babies of our own.

Yesterday was pumpkin patch day. We woke up to rain and I mentally canceled our plans. Everyone looked at the forecast of sun for later in the morning and encourage me to rally, so we did. I'm so glad I listened to them. It rained the entire time we were driving to the pumpkin patch leading me to two conclusions: Nobody is going to be there! We're not even going to get out of the car!

Wrong on both counts!

The rain stopped (although the sun never came out) just in time, and the place was PACKED. It was awesome though, and I got my wish for pumpkin patch pictures in actual fall clothes, rather than shorts and flip flops, like just about every other year.

Everyone went to bed early last night, even the husband and I were asleep before nine. I needed that restorative sleep because this morning I was greeted with an icky disaster. Without divulging the details I'll let you know that it involved carpet scrubbing, a load of laundry and an early morning shower for the three year old. The picture perfect weekend was fun while it lasted!

This and That

• I could have gone on and on yesterday. All day long I kept thing, "You know what else sucks?" and then kicked myself for not including it. I took both kids to the grocery store yesterday, only because it was absolutely necessary that we go. I forgot bananas. I buy bananas every single time we go to the grocery store, and I forgot them yesterday. Fortunately my Target's grocery section opened this week and we have to go get a birthday present tomorrow, so win/WIN.

• I was mildly cheered by the sight of newly cleaned refrigerator and pantry shelves filled with our groceries. Bonus: yesterday was CSA day so my refrigerator drawers are full of color.

• Since we have stopped swaddling the baby (cue angels singing, because that was no easy feat) we get the treat of watching her sleep with her arms flung above her head. It's about the cutest thing ever.

• May I speak for a moment about Teen Mom? Feel free to skip this if you're not into MTV's latest trainwreck. If Gary's accusations are to be believed, and I think they are given the fact that I have never once seen Amber lift a finger, my heart breaks for poor little Leah. And I know, judge lest not ye be judged, but it just seems to me that if you have a camera in your face, that you might make an effort to at least ACT like a good parent. Or at least one whose care of her child doesn't border on neglect. I continue to be impressed by Catelynn and Tyler and watched their reunion with Brandon, Teresa and Carly with silent tears running down my face. And Maci, well her obvious love for Bentley moves me.

• I start writing for Style Lush today and I can barely contain my excitement. Are you reading Style Lush? Because you should be. It's the source of many of my recent purchases, and the inspiration for gifts beyond my go-to giftcards. I'm only writing temporarily, but hopefully Jennie will forgive me for secretly hoping it turns into more than that.

• I did finally get those Hot Tamales.

Blergh

I haven't felt well for a while. Two weeks ago I had mastitis; last week I got the pertussis vaccine which left me feeling crummy for a few days, and now I've caught whatever strain of the plague is circling the preschool.

My outfit is frumpy - not that I'm usually the picture of style, but today is a special sort of disaster. My hair is both frizzy and limp, my eyes are burning, the dog barks at flies, and today, the rear lift gate on my minivan closed on me. Honestly, I'm surprised that hasn't happened sooner.

On Tuesday, I sat through an entire pediatrician appointment with the left side of my bra unsnapped.

The baby has started rolling over, and now she rolls over at any given opportunity, then screams for someone to come rescue her. At all hours of the day and night.

Despite all of this, I know that my life is generally good. I'm lucky to be a stay at home mom, even if it means I haven't had a real break in months. Things are good, mostly, even when they're not.

I still sometimes feel like the sky is falling. Like if I don't get some Hot Tamales STAT, things are going to get really ugly.

Straight to Kindergarten

Tonight, before dinner, Bub was playing outside. I admit that I was only half-listening to him as he babbled on. I noticed that he had sidewalk chalk and was counting, but I was making dinner, trying to finish my book club book, and keeping the baby entertained and not really noticing much other than that he was okay.

After dinner we went outside to clean up and I noticed what he had been drawing.

"Buddy, what's that?"



That's a four.

I think we can all agree that is, in fact, a four, yes?

"What about this one."

That's a ten.



It is! It IS a ten!

"And this one?"

That's a five.



Well, they can't all be winners.

Still, is there any denying I've got a genius on my hands?

Someday

I know this time with young children is fleeting. I know that I will miss their tiny little faces and the time when everything is so new and exciting. But, if I'm being honest, I spend a fair bit of time thinking of the future. Some things have to wait because of our kids ages, some things just have to wait. Here are just a few of the things I'm looking forward to, both big and small. Some are pipe dreams, but some are attainable.

• A trip to Disney World, with the kids. Yes, we live minutes from Disneyland, but Disney World is definitely a must.
• While we're on the subject: A Disney Cruise.
• A trip to the Mediterranean. A cruise maybe? Either without the kids or when they're much older.
  
• A living room with an actual coffee table, not a Thomas the Train table. More specifically, a living room that looks like a living room and not a playroom.
• While we're dreaming big: a playroom.
  
• A bigger house (Four bedrooms so we can have an office/guest room again, and a yard that doesn't make me feel claustrophobic.) What's that California housing market? Are you laughing in the face of my big dreams?
  
• Movies. This includes both having kids old enough to take to a movie as well as going to the movies regularly as a couple again. I'm thinking once bedtime routines aren't so complicated, we'll have an easier time using non-grandparent babysitters*
• Game/Movie nights. When the kids can have their own movie in one room and the adults can break out the Pictionary. Wild, I know.
  

*The grandparents are AWESOME babysitters, don't get me wrong, but they prefer us to bring the kids to them. So, packing up the kids, driving 30 minutes, going to a movie, and then waking them up after the movie to go home is more work than it's worth most of the time. It would be nice if we could go to the theater that's minutes from our house and come home to sleeping children.

What are you looking forward to?

Four Months

This has been a big month for us. Your brother started preschool, which means you and I get some girl time in the mornings. Mostly you nap, but we occasionally get out for a little fun.

Since everyone asks how you're sleeping, I think it's worth noting that you take two naps during the day and sleep pretty well at night. Most nights you wake up once to be fed, sometimes you sleep 11-12 hours. You like your schedule and take a few days to adjust once we've dragged you all over creation to keep your brother occupied.

I think four months is an awesome baby age. You're not yet mobile, so you're still remarkably easy when you're awake, but you're not a floppy little newborn anymore. You're sturdy and you're interacting with us and your eyes track me around the room.

You're this close to being a hip rider - I can feel it. The advantage of having chubby babies (95th percentile, as always) is that you're so sturdy early on. I dream of the day when I can just pop into preschool drop off with you balanced on my hip without having to hassle with the stroller.

You are such a happy baby. You smile with your whole body and it doesn't take much to get that gorgeous smile out of you. You laugh at everything and you love it when I sing to you. Along with your brother, that makes exactly two people in this world who find my singing enjoyable. We read books together before nap time and you sit so quietly looking at the pictures. I know the day is coming where books are for chewing, but right now I'm loving our little story time.

Your brother adores you and exclaims how cuuuuute you are on a daily basis. You love when he talks and sings to you, and you like having a little buddy to ride along with in the back seat. I can't wait until you two are chasing each other around, driving each other crazy as only a brother and sister can.

You are definitely a mama's girl. For the first time in over three years of parenting, your dad had to call me when I was out with friends. I could hear your frantic cries in the background and knew dinner was over. As sorry as I was to leave the sweet potato fries behind, there's something kind of great in knowing that I'm the one you need.

Four months baby girl, I've loved every minute of it.

On Fall. And Skype.

Flannel pajamas.

Flannel pajamas and socks and using the covers and making chili without simultaneously blasting the air conditioning. Bliss.

Today was 50 degrees cooler than last Monday. FIFTY DEGREES. I'm not sure if other people's moods are as determined by the weather as mine are, but I do love the hints that fall is here.

In other moments that bring me joy, my dad called tonight. He asked if we have Skype. My mom's friend moved to France and they Skyped her in to their book club meeting the other night, and it blew his mind. Then, someone mentioned to my dad that this is how they keep in touch with their grandchildren. I, of course, am aware of this use for Skype, but since my parents live thirty minutes away and we see them frequently, it never really occurred to me to do this. Also, my dad set up my mom's Sirius/XM online account and had to call me in to finish it as he found the whole thing so frustrating, so I thought the Skype/webcam situation might be a little crazy making.

Anyway, I told him that we don't use Skype because we don't have a webcam. He told me to pick one out because that's what Santa's bringing. What's not to love about that?

Brighter

I'm stealing Erica's idea and listing things that I'm grateful for. She's committing to doing this every day, but I'm not going to fool myself. I'll start with today and see how things go.

1. The weather! Today I walked outside and found the temperature to be refreshing. I raced upstairs and opened all of the windows and we're enjoying our first air-conditioning free night in a long time.

2. A report from Bub's preschool teacher that he had a good day, two days in a row. On one of those days, his good influence friend was there. On the other, he made good choices on his own. (He hasn't really been having bad days, just typical three year old boy days. His teacher seems to really get that this is how some kids behave and is great about stressing the good days and not making an issue of the less than stellar ones.)

3. My whining paid off and my husband tackled the mess that was the front yard. No more dead or overgrown plants!

4. We received our first book order forms from Bub's school. This used to be my very favorite thing when I was in school and I'm thrilled to be ordering books for my kids now.

5. Finishing. Today we packed up baby/kid clothes to donate, cleaned out the garage and put away no-longer played with toys. Tomorrow the house painting should be complete and our carpets will be cleaned.

And a bonus, because I'm a copycat: Bub got to level four on the full-sized Ms. PacMan game in our garage. Husband granted him his very own column on the high scores chart that he keeps.

A few Friday things

• We're in the middle of some major house maintenance (repainting trim, cleaning carpets, trimming trees, and more.) The annoying thing is that you really won't notice much of a difference once we're done, because things will look as they should. Except for our bank account, because that will look sad. First world problems, I know.

• If I were posting pictures of my children, I would being showing you a picture of Bubette holding her foot right next to her chubby little cheeks. She's discovered her feet lately and it's beyond cute. Also? That kind of flexibility is wasted on the young.

• I love Etsy. I love Etsy so much I have to force myself to walk away some days. What I don't love is that there isn't an easy system in place for notifying the buyer that your order has been received/paid for/shipped, etc. Some sellers do this, some do not. I know that I could email the seller, but I'm sure that's annoying. Typically, I just wait a reasonable amount of time and then POOF! Mailbox surprise! I'm not really sure why I'm complaining.

• I went to the doctor yesterday because the antibiotic they had given me for mastitis didn't appear to be working, so they prescribed something else. I got home and the bottle said DO NOT USE IF PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING in large letters on a neon green sticker. So, there was two hours wasted driving to and from the doctor's office, and enduring said appointment, with two children missing nap time, that I'll never get back again.

• The husband and I were both so exhausted last night that we left all of the dinner dishes in the sink. I promised to get to them in the morning. Instead, he set his alarm for twenty minutes earlier so he could take care of it before work. In return, I made the bed for the first time in a week. We're speaking each other's love languages today.