Time flies.

Today marks the midpoint of our vacation. Hubby and I have been enjoying our week off with the little guy; I just wish that days like these could last forever.

We have spent a lot of time in the car this week. Saturday was a trip down to NJ - I had a bachelorette party to attend, and Hubby took the baby to visit my mother-in-law. Monday was a trip down to Long Island to visit my sister-in-law and my nephews - we had a great time, but after sitting in ridiculous amounts of traffic both ways (on a Monday!), we have decided that Long Island should secede from the rest of New York. The only redeeming quality of LI is the fact that my sister-in-law, her husband and the boys live down there.

We also spent a lot of time by the pool over the last few days - thankfully this beautiful weather holds out. Our little guy is really starting to enjoy the water and sitting in his little boat.

Other highlights of this week include a trip to Lake George yesterday - the baby played his first game of mini golf (he helped Hubby win!), we walked around the village, and had a nice lunch.

On deck for the rest of the week? Visiting my mom at work today (to show off the baby), Cheesecake Factory for lunch, Hubby's fantasy football draft tonight (which means pizza with my brother and her girlfriend), a trip to Vermont tomorrow, and a relaxing weekend.

What are your Labor Day weekend plans?

My boys.

Could I possibly be any luckier?

Gag.

When I was pregnant, I craved salty, "bad for me" foods that reminded me of childhood - go figure. Anyway, I found that Handi-Snacks fit the bill pretty well. Processed cheese, salty crackers and those cool red plastic spreader-thingys. Not to mention the fact that they are only 100 calories, so while I think they are a "bad for me" food, they really aren't. Supposedly.

Even though I am no longer pregnant, they are still in my lunch bag more days than not. In fact, we just bought a box of them at BJs a couple of weeks ago.

So, I am eating them this afternoon and I notice that half of one of the crackers is missing. Strange. Then, I look at the cheese (which I had already spread on one cracker, mind you) and it looked really funky. Really, really funky (but the top layer didn't, I swear!). Now, my rational side tries to tell myself that the missing half-cracker probably fell into the processed cheese during production, making it look gross. But the rest of me is thinking mold, bugs, poison. Ick! I am seriously feeling sick to my stomach.

And I am NEVER eating one of these again!

What a day.

Today has been a rough day.

First, there was the pumping mishap. I pump twice a day at work so Harrison has bottles for daycare. So, I head over to the multipurpose room (aka the "pump & pray" room) this morning and the door is locked. I knock on the door, thinking that maybe someone is in there. Nope. So, I stop by HR to see if someone can unlock it for me. The person who has the keys to the room is on vacation this week. Great. So I end up pumping in the freaking marketing storage room, sitting on the floor. Ridiculous. Thank God that I have Friday off from work.

Then I get stuck late at work and miss the meet & greet at Harrison's daycare. I already feel like such a bad mom because I don't get to see him all day, and missing events like this doesn't make things easier.

So, I have been trying to find a mom's group in the area that I can join to meet other moms and to introduce Harrison to more kids. Why is it that MOPS and MOMS and all of the other mommy groups out there are for stay-at-home moms only? Not that I'm knocking stay-at-home moms in the least (my best friend and Harrison's godmother is a SAHM), but don't they think that working moms feel isolated and need support sometimes too? I mean, if I talk about my baby a lot at work, I am portrayed as unprofessional. And because I am working every day, I don't have the opportunity to meet and connect with other moms. Sometimes, I just need to participate in some "mommy talk" with real, live mommies.

Being a working mom stinks sometimes.

Come on down!

2007 is turning out to be the year of the game show. Between Bob Barker retiring (and Drew Carey being named his replacement), Merv Griffin passing away, and "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" becoming enormously popular (for some unknown reason), the game show is now hip again.

I was reading his blog this evening, and he was talking about his favorite game shows. So, without further ado, here are my top 5 favorite game shows of all time:

1. The Price is Right - Bob Barker kept Harrison and me company through 12 weeks of maternity leave. I never was a huge fan of TPIR, but now I can't get enough of it. Plinko, That's Too Much, Hole in One, Showcase Showdown... I love them all. Even though Bob Barker has retired, I have been enjoying TPIR in reruns. Not sure how I am going to feel about Drew Carey taking the reigns, though - I just don't think it will be the same.

2. Love Connection - Oh my God, I love this show. It is so eighties, I can hardly stand it. Chuck Woolery was always dressed up like an extra in "Miami Vice" and the big hair on the girls (and the guys} was out of control. The taped segments where the contestants said a little bit about themselves were so poorly done, and some of the dates were just trainwrecks. It was great.

3. Remote Control - Does anyone remember that show on MTV? Even though I was very young when it was on, I could still rock some of the categories. And the final round, when the contestant was stapped to a Craftmatic Adjustable bed to guess the artists in random videos, was awesome. What ever happened to Ken Ober anyway?

4. Let's Make a Deal - Good old Monte Hall. I loved the fact that contestants were in costume, I loved the tough decisions they faced (should I trade what's in the box for what's behind curtain #2?) and I loved the fact that you could win money just by having a Canadian quarter, or a bottle of nail polish, or a grocery receipt in your purse. (Do you think that people actually got to keep the livestock found behind the losing curtains?)

5. Press Your Luck - Ah, those crazy Whammies. I remember watching this with my brother during summer vacation at my Nana's house, yelling "No Whammies, No Whammies, Stop!" And even at 11 years old, I could already answer the questions posed during the Q&A segment (how easy could you get?)

What are your favorite game shows?

Happy Half!

Today was Harrison's half-birthday!

Read all about it here.

Being "Mommy"

Harrison will be six months old tomorrow. Over these past few days, I have found myself reflecting upon how the little guy has impacted my life.

They say that having a baby changes everything, but I never really understood how true this statement is until I became a mother.

When I was pregnant, I obviously understood that life wouldn't be the same after the baby was born - but I was also convinced that many things wouldn't change all that much. Sure, we were adding a member to our family, but I was confident that he was going to perfectly fit into the life that we had already established.

Six months ago today, I was trying to wrap up work before I went to the hospital. My career was my baby - at the time, I didn't know what I was going to handle being away from the office for 12 weeks. And I couldn't even begin to grasp the concept of being a mother.

Fast forward six months... having Harrison in my life has changed me in ways that I never thought possible.

Our parenting style is completely different than what I imagined it would be: he slept in our room for his first five months (and we continue to co-sleep most mornings). I am still breastfeeding, and plan to do so indefinitely. We haven't started solids yet, but when we do, I will be making his baby food. And if I didn't work, I would definitely go the cloth diaper route. It's strange, but being a hands-on mom is empowering to me.

And my work ethic is so much different: I am no longer the first one in the office and the last one to leave. I still take pride in my work, but I don't have a strong emotional attachment to it anymore. And I would give it all up in a heartbeat if I could.

It's funny: in my first PR job, I used to joke with the company's CEO that I would one day have the corner office. Being the chauvanistic jerk that he was, he would say to me that I would never be CEO because I would get married and have children, and children derailed the ambition of most women in corporate America. Now, I don't believe that is 100 percent true - I work for some amazing women who manage to balance work and home quite well - but I can see how it is difficult to maintain the same level of passion for your work when there are other things that stake a claim in your heart and your mind.

I may not be the same person that I was before I had Harrison, but in many ways, I think that I am a better person. I'm not as competitive. I spend less time at work, and more time at play. I don't waste my time on people or things that don't deserve it. I take the time to hug, kiss and tell my family how much I love them.

Happy half-birthday, Baby H.

Family Fun

Harrison's daycare closes the last week in August, so hubby and I decided to take the week off as well. We'll definitely be hanging out at the pool and doing some things around here, but we also want to take advantage of this time to take a family vacation.

We have been thinking about going to Niagara Falls, but now that it's time for us to start making plans, we are undecided. Some criteria:

1. It can't be too far away... we don't want to spend more than a few hours in the car.
2. It needs to be somewhere family friendly - no Sandals resort for us.
3. We only want to spend about 3 days away from home.
4. We are open to taking a few day trips, versus one overnight trip.

Any suggestions?