don't be judgy.

so this thing happened last week. and if you follow me on social media, especially facebook, it's likely you caught my rant. 

at the time, i wanted to blog about it. but once i slept on it, my nasty attitude was long gone. it had been replaced with the urge to bond with other moms with completely different parenting styles. 

super long story short, while i was out at the grocery store, cece was due for a bottle. so, i fed her one. and as i walked the aisles holding the bottle, i met a woman and her children, and she gave me the nastiest look that said "i can't believe you don't breast feed her. you know that's best."

and i wish she'd known my struggle to get cece to latch. the tears. my worry. my disappointment. my guilt. and i wish she'd known that i'd just barely realized i was done being ashamed to feed bottles in public. snap.

i like to think i am pretty open minded. i cloth diaper, more often than not. i breast fed hadley, with difficulty, and supplemented formula. i babywear. i am from portland, oregon, for crying out loud...

they say the midwest is so friendly. i'd say it is a lot more judgy than the pacific northwest. 

so, have you seen this commercial? i love it. it is so universal, and requires no further explanation. well, except, note the sponsor.

and now, go forth and don't be judgy. there's more than one way to raise a child!

xoxo, al

MLK JR

as we drove home from school friday, hadley asked me if i knew about Martin Luther King JR. i was so pleased her teachers had addressed this holiday, as i know a lot of these days off school go unnoticed by preschoolers. i was extremely impressed by her grasp of MLK JR and what he stood for. 

hadley told me MLK JR had very dark skin, and lots people with our skin didn't like him, or other dark skinned people just because of their color. hadley thinks this is ridiculous. A. MEN. SISTER.

and she can't believe he got shot. yes, her teachers went there.

then the conversation moved on. snacks, books, playing in the basement, can we go see daddy at work, etc.

"hey, i have a cousin with really dark skin, and i love him a lot."

and then we ate lunch.

i am thankful my girl lives in a time, place and situation where she thinks it is crazy to treat someone any differently because they are different, for any reason. and i am so thankful for sweet justin and the happiness he brings to our family, and for teaching hadley love is blind.

xoxo, al

Top Ten Things My Four Year Old Says That I am Tired of Hearing

1: why is (fill in the blank) older than me? (all day long. everyone she can think of.)

2: the baby is awake.

3: i can't wear those jeans. they aren't pants. (she's got a strict leggings only policy.)

4: can i have a treat? (we are still working through halloween candy, though in my opinion, all the good stuff is long gone.)

5: well what about a snack?

6: (just after she's told it's time to climb into bed) but i need some milk.

7: look mama, the baby's on her knees! (the baby has been up on her knees for weeks. in fact, she pulls herself up to standing, and walks along furniture now.)

8: can i have another treat?

9: are we half way there yet? (if i forget to mention as we drive by the yellow coffee truck that marks half way she gets upset. on the other hand, half the time i tell her, she's annoyed i am telling her. i can't win.)

10: did the baby poop while i was at school?

sigh.

xoxo, al

fossil fest!

one of the greatest things about toledo is that it is also a metro area made out of a lot of amazing communities. or, you know, small towns. just like the one i grew up in. 20,000 residents, a main street with an adorable downtown, and really neat local businesses. and in these adorable little towns are adorable little markets and festivals happening all the time. 

well, not all the time. i'll be real with you. it's freaking cold here in the winter. so when i say all the time, i mean between like may and october. you can count the rest of the year out and stay home sipping tea and watching netflix.

anyway. 

today was fossil fest in sylvania, which is just down the road from us. it's all about fossils, as you can guess. there is a sweet hidden little historical area in downtown that is home to this fun activity. people bring amazing fossils and rocks to share or sell, volunteers run great games for kids, and best of all, KIDS CAN DIG UP THEIR OWN FOSSILS! there is literally a pile of fossils in the parking lot, just waiting for kids to dig in, chip away, brush of and clean up these finds.

 

so, moral of the story is, don't pass up the opportunities to get out and explore and get to know your community. it probably rocks, even if it's not toledo;)

xoxo, al

 

Preschool!

the anticipation of this day has grown over the last weeks for hadley. she's been working hard to complete her potty training (still working on #2's.) and brushing up on her numbers, letters, nice to meet you's, and pushing hard to get to an early bed time. 

bed time. that is the hard one around here. neither joseph or myself are early to bed or early to rise, and hadley seems to take after us. but, she's been asleep by 9:15 most nights over the last weeks, so i could  count that as good!

anyway! this morning we were up early, eating breakfast and getting dressed, and definitely getting excited!

and as you've guessed, after just one little nudge into the "green room" this little socialite had no problem getting involved and chatting with her class. hadley is going to rock preschool's socks off!

as for us, we didn't even cry;)i thought about it for a few seconds, then i remembered i haven't been home alone in two years, with the exception of that time joseph took hadley out hot wheels hunting long enough for me to vacuum like a year ago.

and then i was fine.

happy school year, everyone!

xoxo, al

a little of this, a little of that!

as you all know, i don't always blog when i say i will. i have dry spells. then i have the spells where i blog every day. that's what i like best. unfortunately, life is a priority, and blogging comes second. this time, though, we can honestly say poop has hit the fan...

baseballcation was an amazing trip, once in a lifetime experience, awesome roadtrip. but holy cow, 8 games in 8 days, almost 2,000 miles and around five hours driving each day can really take a toll on you. i will get caught up with our trip soon, i promise. but i thought i'd offer up my excuse for dropping off the face of the blog world

(for regular updates on what's up with the Gilbuenas, follow me on intsagram! i don't think the button on here works, i will have joseph fix that. meanwhile, we are fromholytoledotoyou.)

so, when we arrived home from our trip, i was dead tired. our house is already in a state of chaos, since we were waiting on a house for nearly months, that then fell through. so, i came back, tried to pack a few more boxes, do a dozen loads of laundry and catch up on life. i was also excitedly planning a baby shower for my toledo and 31 bff, marcy.

meanwhile, our freezer stopped working, and i shuttled most the frozen food into the fridge. but i had a bad feeling about the fridge as well, which was more or less ignored by maintenance. so, we ended up losing all our food, and eventually got a new fridge. 

MEANWHILE, my eye started to bug me just a little. looking back, i was having some trouble focusing while we were on vacation, but i thought i was just tired. but it got progressively worse, although not bad enough for joseph to diagnose pink eye or uveitis. after some ups and downs, it got bad enough he was able to get a clear look at the problem, and diagnose uveitis, which more or less is swelling in the cells or tissue in my eye, in the muscles that allow me to focus. it hurts like snitch. well, my super fabulous dr fixed me up pretty well now, but my left eye is dilated, to help relax the muscles that need to rest to ease the pain. so, i can't focus. the left eye is just a blur. i am typing this with that eye all scrunched up. i am hoping that we are on top of this, and can see great improvement and maybe stop the dilating medication in a few days, and get back to normal. i feel half worthless. 

and in the midst of the eye stuff, hadley got another cold, followed by me. my cough is awful. and i am so bummed that i won't be able to see marcy's sweet 11 pound baby for a few extra days. 

this all sounds pretty terrible, right? i am not being dramatic.

the good news is, we somehow manage to get out once a day, in the evening to go get our precious geocache for the 31 days of geocaching we are doing this month. not only is it so necessary for hadley to have this fun trip out, but it's good for me to, even if i am a hot mess!! today is the 23rd, so today will be our 23rd day in a row of geocaching. yay! i know, we are nerds. 

we are looking forward to hadley's first day of preschool in a week and a half, and also a long overdue trip from my auntie jewel. in just under a month. 

i'll just dump some photos so you know we are still alive and happy, after all that complaining i just did:) 

hadley's invitation to preschool orientation. 

out geocaching

and geocaching

and geocaching...

more geocaching!

geocaching:)

hadley loves to try on glasses.

if my eye hurts, so does bizzle bop's.

we love albuterol, yes we do.

check out hadley's new fishing pole!!
(excuse the ghetto blanket over the window,
i really, REALLY need darkness.)

the dodgers got brian wilson, my least favorite player in major league history.

xoxo, al

Baseballcation 2013 Day 2!

I know this is a little late, but I'm still trying to keep up with a daily blog about our trip. So. I will catch up. Today we are beginning day four. I will blog say two now, and hopefully day three tonight, and day four tomorrow morning!

We are having a blast, but I think that goes without saying:)

Sunday morning we woke up in our hotel in Kenosha. We were thankful wed chosen to stay half way between Milwaukee and Chicago, making our drive to Miller Stadium only 40 minutes. That also later meant it was just that far back, and we got to stay two nights in the same place, which doesn't happen again on this trip. 

Anyway. 

What I am about to describe may not be of surprise to many of you, but it's not a part of MLB I have experienced before. So keep that in mind if I seem silly:)

TAILGATING!

 I am pretty sure I've never actually been a tailgater before, but I've never been out there in the trenches, and I've never known tailgating to be anything other than college football, in my little world. So, I was surprised to park In a lot at miller stadium, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, and find thousands of fans grilling, eating, drinking and having a jolly time before leaving the parking lot. Oh man, it's smelled so good. I was plotting internally how to make friends and grab a burger. 

But then I moved on and we grabbed our daily geocache, keeping up with the daily geocache in August challenge. 

Now to get to the good stuff! Miller Stadium was great. This stadium may top the list of favorite stadium experiences. We'll see. We've got a couple more to go still:)

Of course, one of the most important things for our family is Hadley friendly anything. Hadley really scored here! 

As we walked through the gate, Hadley got a ticket for a free kids ice cream. Score! She was also given socks so she could play at the play land, since she'd worn flip flops and they heavily enforce their mandatory sock policy. (Thank you, BTW!!) There were clowns, balloons, face painting, and slides. Hadley was in heaven. She even got to take her picture with Mickey Mouse!

Going back to the moment we entered the gates, we received bobble heads of a brewer player that I have already forgotten. But even if you aren't a Brewers fan, these are always fun, and we will forever remember these came from our Baseballcation 2013:) We also each received a $10 voucher to spend inside the park, and actually they gave us four accidentally. So, we used those to buy a $20 helmet full of some pretty amazing nachos! Who wouldn't love nachos in a helmet?!

We also got a souvenir soda as we have been at every other stadium we've been to, ever:) but the sweetest find was a Brewers Camaro to add to Joseph's hot wheels collection! (Not pictured yet.)

 The afternoon was perfect. We were all happy and feeling well enough (pesky colds we are still trying to shake) and so much was aimed to please the three year old. The sky was blue with picture perfect puffy clouds. I'm in love. I'd even revisit this place someday:) 

I am an Oregon girl, and seriously miss the coast now that we are living in Ohio. But as a friend told me when I first moved to Toledo, Lake Erie and Lake Michigan can be just as amazing. I have found this to be almost true. The time we spent playing at the beach on Lake Michigan, north of Chicago amazing. Hadley loved the sand and the water. And I loved having a happy family playing together. 

Ok, more later. Yesterday was pretty amazing too. Here's to catching up! 

Xoxo, al

The Chirping Moms Yellow Friday Sale

(I know, it isn't Friday anymore. But these deals are good all weekend! Sorry for the delay!)

I am so excited that I get to share this with you! The Chirping Moms rock, in case you didn't already know that. You may also be following their blog. If you aren't, and you have little kiddos, you should! Now stop on over and these shops for some great back to school deals, thanks to Courtney and Julie:)

Yellow Friday: Back To School Sale is here! I know it's only July, but it's time to order some school gear if you want to take advantage of some GREAT deals. All of the participating shops & their deals are listed below. There are 12 total. This time, we are sharing a picture of something each shop sells, a link to shop the sale & also a link back to where we talked about their company this week. Please comment below if you have any questions & shop, shop, shop!

For all deals, use code: yellowfriday

1. Conniption Prints: 25% off
Shop the Sale  : Learn More About the Company

2. Curious Georgia: 30% off Shop the Sale  : Learn More About the Shop

3. From the Heart Creations: 20% off

Shop the Sale : Learn More About the Shop

4. Lily Pie Baby: 20% off any purchase over $5.00, Free Gift with purchases over $25

Shop the Sale : Learn More About the Shop

5. Olivia & Owen: 40% off

Shop the Sale  : Learn More About the Company

6. One Good Name: 10% off PLUS a free additional 2 inch monogram or name vinyl with each order Shop the Sale  : Learn More About the Shop

7. Seesaw Society: 20% off + free shipping Friday, 15% off + free shipping Saturday & Sunday

Shop the Sale  : Learn More About the Company

8. Sila Boutique:  15% off

Shop the Sale : Learn More About the Shop

9. Spark and Spark: 30% off Back to School items

Shop the Sale:  Learn More About the Company

10. Smock Candy: $10 off Purchase of $30 or more, free shipping, AND spend $75 & receive a FREE bubble gum necklace worth $15

Shop the Sale: Learn More About the Company

To shop this sale: shop in Facebook album "7/19/13-7/21/13" .To purchase an item, comment under the picture with the instructions listed. To redeem the coupon code, message Smock Candy after you comment. 

11. Teapots & Toads: Take $10 off any purchase of $30 or more

Shop the Sale : Learn More About the Shop

12. Too Cute:  15% off

Shop the Sale : Learn More About the Shop

Happy shopping!