Rockefeller Christmas Tree

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is an annual Christmas tree lighting that takes place in New York City's Rockefeller Center, in mid-town Manhattan.

I was just watching the news and this year, the tree was spotted and taken from the front landscape of a lady's home in a little town called; Mifflinville, Pa., population 2,500. It just arrived in New York City and the official date of the lighting ceremony will be on November 30th!! (Yes...this gets me super excited! I seriously turn into a child around this time of year. It's kind of like how I get excited watching the ball drop for the New Year. Man....New York gets all the cool stuff!)

Anyway! Just talking about Christmas trees has already got me excited to put up mine. Believe me, I would already, but apparently it's frowned upon. And Justin won't let me. ;)

One day....I will make it to this lighting ceremony event in New York City! I will! It's on my "bucket list".

Does anyone else get excited about this??

My Nemesis...

We're STILL working on potty training.
Anybody that says "Oh my child potty trained in just 3 days" makes me want to pull their hair out. So just as a warning DO NOT TELL ME IT ONLY TOOK YOU 3 DAYS! Or even a month for that matter. Don't tell me, "Just keep trying". Cuz guess what...We've been "trying" for 1 1/2 YEARS!! I'm at the point where I feel like it's never going to happen since it's taken this long.

A big reason for the lengthyness of this process is....Our child is different. He's had this nightmare of #2 for 2 1/2 years now. #1...no problem. DONE. Check. But ONE bad constipation experience when he was real little he has not been able to get over. Even if he's not constipated, he still gets scared to let it come out because he's afraid it's going to hurt. Even with all the prizes, treats, privileges either being taken away or given, he still will not give 100% to #2 on the potty. Yes, he's done well the last couple weeks. He went for 4 days in a row on the potty (but we have to remind him and sit with him in the bathroom and coax him through it). Lately he'll go every other or every couple days. Believe me that's a breakthrough. Before he wouldn't go for almost a week. Yes....a week. Until it was just too big to hold anymore and it had to come out. I tell him that he's doing this to himself and if he went every day, then it wouldn't hurt. He says "ok", but then does it again. This is with us even making him sit on the potty for 15 minutes every hour. He's a "holder"...a secret "holder" cuz sometimes I don't even see him doing it until it's too late, and Teigen tells me "The poopy went bye bye."
So this is our life....which gets me frustrated and edgy. Justin says to not let it bother me, but how can I not when it's what we do all day every day. When I remind Teigen it's time to go "try" he throws a fit, falls to the ground, says "no", etc etc....I get tired of being so calm about it and build up frustration and stress inside (which is not good for me with my condition). I don't know what to do. I can't take back what's been done, only keep doing what we're doing and hope eventually it'll happen. All I know is that I get to retry this in 2 years so I want this to be a better experience for Chase. So if he ever gets too firm of poo, I fix it right away, trying to avoid another traumatic experience.

P.S. Sorry about all the "potty talk", but It's always on my brain and I just needed to get it out.

Revisiting my first love...

Photography. My first love.
Not so much in taking photographs of people though. I loved and still love taking photographs of the beauty of the world that surrounds us. But...that's just not where the money is...at least not right now.

I had a chance to take photographs of my friends newborn. Just 6 days old. Just under 7 lbs. How is it that I already forgot how little they are at first. Or maybe because Chase wasn't that little. I remember having this vision of putting chase in Justins firefighter helmet or his boot and taking photographs. But guess what...I did try. But he was just too big. Remember he was 8.7 lbs? And he never lost weight like most babies. He actually weighed more when we left the hospital, which isn't common. It's usually the opposite result. He wanted to eat and eat. So....maybe this next time I can make my vision come true. Here are just a FEW of the photographs. I'm working on a business name and will eventually make a website. I think I'm finding my new love...