I haven't posted in forever, so I figure with a baby sleeping on my lap, why the heck not?







So, my goals are chugging along. I am probably about the same, weight wise as last, about -6 pounds pre-preg weight, still have some work to do on that department. I have been on the weight wisher program, wishing it would go away without having to exert any effort. I have met a couple friends for lunches here and there, have not really done a single thing regarding my Miami Mommies groups and have actually received a couple "inactivity" notices from some of my meetup groups that if I don't participate soon, I will be deleted from their email listserve. Oh well. I have been cruising through my paralegal program and most of my "spare time" goes to that. I use the quotations because spare time is really far and few inbetween. I would say 99% of my time is spend on this guy:



Isaiah is 6 months old now, and really fun. He is such a good little boy, generally happy and playful. He loves to be played with, to have faces made at him, to growl at us, to screech, to fake cough and absolutely lives to see Mateo our cat. It is sweet. Mateo, however, does not live to see Isaiah and tries to avoid him as much as possible. I get it, nobody likes their ears and fur grabbed by the chunkload.

What else, what else whatelse? It is getting hot again in Miami, we are actually enjoying the first glimpse of the rainy/thunderstorm season. Its a nice contrast to the hot humid sun. We like Miami still, though, there are some real downsides. For me, these downsides have to do with the fauna. As in bugs. Cockroaches are absolutely horrifying for me, and I had the unpleasant experience of going into the freak show I call my garage at night to get some laundry out of the dryer and stepping bare foot on one of the little jerks. I heard a crunch and felt it. It was just the sickest thing ever. Last month we also dealt with rats in our garage. That was a treat. One night I was sitting in bed reading a magazine when Mike came running into the house screaming, "sick, sick, SICK!" I was like, what the hell? He said he saw a rat run up the garage wall. I went into the garage to investigate and sure enough another one went running. I got some traps the next day and in total we killed like 5 or 6 of them. For some bizarre reason those little rodents do not bother me nearly as much as a cockroach. I am glad they are gone though. Yes, they are gone. We have one of those sticky traps out and so far it has caught like 3 lizards and some bugs, but no more rats. Like I said, my garage is a total freakshow.

Speaking of bugs, there are some of the biggest grasshoppers I have ever seen in my life here. Huge and black and green and red. They look like they could eat a kitten they are so big. Really gross. One cool thing we saw, however, was a few fireflies outside the other night. Those didn't bother me, but perhaps if they flew into my face I would also hate them. June bugs are common here, little kamakazie beetles that pelt themselves at you. Somehow they get inside and it is crazy. Yeah, Florida fauna is a bit much for me. I advocate a giant tent over the entire state for a couple days a year. It really would be quite reasonable. Would take care of our statewide ant infestation as well....sigh.

So other than fighting the good fight for control over my garage, working through the world of legal documents and jargon, trying to interpret my son's growls and screams, introducing some peas, carrots and other purees, I have just been enjoying life. Life is good, busy but good.

Hope yours is as well!

Adventures in the last month

In Feb. we did a treck up to West Palm Beach to get a glimpse of the migrating sharks that had made national news. West Palm is about 40 minutes north of us and a world apart from Miami-Dade. Miami is the lush, unkempt, corrupt, alcoholic, dysfunctional sibling to Broward County. WPB, is the conservative, wealthy, prim, proper one. Needless to say, we did not see the sharks, as they had moved on already when we got there, but we paid $15 in parking for an hour while we pulled over for a blow out diaper and then drove down the very corporate beach front. WPB is full of Gucci, Nieman Marcus, Saks 5th Ave and other designer shops. Not exactly our scene.

The following weekend we decided to go to Miami SeaAquarium in search of sharks. The Sea Aquarium was fun. Mike and I are still getting used to our little child and we have yet to really grasp the massive amount of kids at these types of tourist places. We did like the aquarium, we really did. It was completely full of kids though. Like, kids running everywhere. They were out of control! Screaming, running, tripping, crying, in line, in the bathroom, running up to the display glass, bumping into us etc. It was also pretty warm out. Mike and I figured out where to buy a beer and were like "AHHHH!" This parenting thing is still a giant transition for us. It may be a while before Isaiah gets to see Disney World. It is kind of a shame kids are not more into sports bars. I kid.

In other more calm and fun news, we also started Buggy on some cereal/oatmeal. He seems to think it is just slightly above tolerable. Not thrilled about it, but will sometimes not spit it up. He loves, LOVES his bumbo tray though so that makes the cereal/solids worth it. I love LOVE his cute smile. He makes me so happy.

Here are some pictures from Feb.

Feb goal check in

Well, I am a little late on this check in-but better late then never. I have been meaning to update my blog for a few weeks now but never seem to get to it.

Anyway, I have been working on my New Years Resolution goals among other things in my life. While I do believe there is a chance to work on one's goals everyday, it does feel like my everyday is pretty busy.

Alas, here are the stats:

Weight goal-

I am 6 pound into my 15 pound weight goal. So, I guess 2 lbs loss for the month of Feb. Not too bad. I do feel, however, that now that I have quit nursing, I have also quit losing weight rapidly. I will need to pick it up a bit in the activity area if I want to eventually meet my goal. With this in mind, I decided that for Lent I would go on walks everyday.
I was doing walks when I first started my weight loss goal but have not been as consistant as I would like at this. I think daily long walks will help. Just have to avoid walking to starbucks and buying the cheese platter:) Not the most productive of purchases!

Miami Mama's Group, and meeting friends-

Feb. was pretty much a failure in this department. I met up with my friend Karen like once. Other then that, I did not plan nor did I go to any meet ups. I did join a few other meet up groups on meetup.com and am thinking of going to a park get together on Friday with karen. Sigh. We went through the 4 month Growth Spurt, and Isaiah did some serious sleep regression this month. And I did some serious social cancelling, nap training. I think things may be looking up on that front, hopefully I do better on the social front in March.

Paralegal Certificate-

I did A LOT on this goal in Feb. I decided on University of Miami to go through the course. I called Sallie Mae, got my loan and registered for the program. I received a package of books and have read about half of the first one. I am officially starting on April 1st but have been trying to get a running start on the curriculum. So far I have found the material very interesting.


I feel pretty good about Feb. There were a lot of things that came up this month, a few personal things, my son's continued sleep challenges, another home that we put an offer on that we didn't get and a few other events. Feb was a good month, however, and I feel as though I just might make these resolutions stick!

Wow, one year in Miami! Its amazing how quickly it has gone, yet soooo much has happened! Its still weird to me that we live here, all the way in South Florida, but we do really enjoy this area. It is just the strangest place, but totally interesting.

This is a little thing I wrote for an online Miami forum that I belong to.:

One year in Miami!

Here are some of my observations:


1. Miami’s beaches are spectacular. This is one of the first things that I fell in love with when I moved here and to be honest, they still just amaze me. I don’t get out there as much as I used to (pre-baby) but I still try to go at least a few times a month. One of my favorite mornings was when, in the depths of pregnancy hell, I couldn’t sleep so my husband and I got up at 5:30am and watched the sun come up over the beach in the Surfside area. I still love this area and my favorite beach walk is up by the fishing jetty where the Ocean meets the bay south of Haulover Park.

2. Living on the Beach (or Bay Harbor Island in my case) is a lot different from Mainland Miami. I live in Miami Shores/North Miami area now. I remember Matt wrote something about real life in Miami or something like that and it is true in my experience. The vibe just seems less vacation oriented. My neighbors get home around 5 or 6pm, have kids and that kind of thing. It feels much more ‘real life’ to me living over here, but then again when I lived in BHI, I didn’t have a baby nor a job and could just go to the beach everyday. So, perhaps my life was sort of a vacation…but in a run down apartment…which leads me to housing…

3. Housing in Miami is difficult. I find the neighborhoods in Miami economically and to a real extent racially segregated. Our first apartment, we took sight unseen. It was in a safe and good location, but the apartment left a lot to be desired. It was old, slightly dirty feeling, carpet was ugly and old, utilities were very old and it just had a stale feeling. We were locked into it though and made the best of it. Looking for real estate, I found difficult due to unmotivated agents and a complicated market. Plus, it is a large feat to get to know the areas of Miami. All in all, housing here is DIFFICULT. We will try again to buy a house in a few months.

4. I love Haitian food. Never had met a Haitian before moving here, never had tasted the food. I love going to Tap Tap Room.

5. Much of my experience in Miami was wrapped up in my experience of my first pregnancy and all the medical services that brings. I delivered and had my medical needs taken care of by the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Health System. I think my care was pretty top notch, despite my first impression . Jackson is not in the best location, but it is a teaching hospital and has some fantastic doctors and nurses.

6. Politics here are just nutty. Enough said!

7. Unless they are driving, I actually find most Miamians pretty friendly. Unless they are working in customer service, that is.

8. The Florida Keys are a piece of heaven.

9. I have had a lot of fun tasting the different food here. All the tropical fruit, the different fish especially Stone Crabs and Spiny Lobster are great.

10. The driving here is ridiculous. I still can’t believe I haven’t been in an accident yet.

So, my first year was great. Notice I don’t even mention the job scene, which wasn’t part of my life this year. The people that I know that are looking for work here say it is very hard and I am sure that will be part of my second year experience of Miami. I think Miami is what you make of it, much like everywhere else. For me, Miami is not the club scene, late night bars and dresses made out of vinyl. It is a far tamer life of year round good weather, tomato plants on my porch in February, friendly neighbors (for the most part. We do have a douche bag that lives next door, but that need not concern me). It is trying to fit in a beach trip every other week or so, finding other mamas to go on stroller walks (I have already found a couple that I met online who were also looking for friends). For this life, I find Miami to actually be pretty compatible so far. Cheers to My One Year in Miami!

http://forums.miamibeach411.com/living-relocating-here/8621-one-year-miami.html

Here is the link in case anyone wants to see some of the responses.

End of the month

Well, January flew by!

I decided that to try to keep myself accountable for my resolutions, I would do a run down of my progress at the end of the month. So, without further ado:

15 lb weight loss goal:

in January I lost 6 lbs. Then I gained 2 back. 4lbs isn't too bad so I am pleased with this. The first 5 lbs of weight loss seem to go up and down up and down. I think it also depends which time of day I weigh myself and if I have eaten yet. Anyways, 11 more to go; I could, at this point, just lose 1 lb a month at this point and still reach my goal.

Mommy and Me group, i.e. making friends in Miami:

So far in my online google Miami Mama's Group I have 8 members. All 8 are moms that live in the area and are also interested in a Mommy Group. All have emailed or indicated a desire to be part of this group.

This month I planned 3 get togethers and 2 of them worked out. This counts a lunch date with a new friend and her baby as well as our first Mommy group meet up in which 4 women (myself included) and their babies showed up. It was at a little park in Miami Beach and it was really cool to meet some other moms and share some stories. Isaiah was the oldest, and the only little man.

The next meet up I had planned was at a Botanical Garden, where us moms could walk around with our strollers and take a tour of this garden. I have been wanting to do so since we moved to Miami and thought it would make for some good scenery. Well...nobody RSVP'd. I got a lot of "that sounds great- I would love to go there..." etc but schedules were off, people were sick etc. One mama said, "I would totally love to go but the idea of being in the car with my baby girl makes me want to shoot myself, so I have to pass." LOL! Maybe as our infants begin to get a little older it will be easier to get together....

Feb I think I will try suggesting meet ups at a couple farmers markets, some more park dates and one Mama had a good little Mommy and Me class that sounds fun.

Paralegal Certication:

Well, I think I have narrowed down where I am going to do it. Florida International University has an online program, as does University of Miami. They are roughly the same price, and either way I think I will start at the beginning of May. The next step is getting my Financial Aid application filled out and then getting the loan process started...joy! more student debt!!! But this time, my debt should lead to an actual job, as opposed to a piece of paper that is stuck somewhere in my file cabinent that says I am a college graduate....

Anyways, Isaiah is waking from his little nap now, so this is all I have time to bang out today. Hope your resolutions are going well!

Discovering Miami-Fontainebleau Hotel

Whenever celebrities are are reported to be staying in Miami Beach, usually they are staying the Fontainebleau hotel. This is one of the most luxurious and exclusive hotels on the beach and it is actually really, really beautiful. Mike and I decided to take a walk through to see what it was like. Mike had an interest in this hotel because it is one of his union UNITEHERE's shops and I just have a real appreciation for great hotels!
The Fountainbleau Hotel's rooms (which we didn't get to see) start at $429 for a standard room on a weeknight. For the nicest room, a one bedroom ocean view suite, it is $1159.00 a night. For the pleasure of staying here on a weekend a guest must shell out between $529 and $1,650.00.

In addition, according to their website, upon check in the hotel will authorize (reserve the funds) $150 per day for incidentals-or- you must put down a $600 deposit if you do not have a major credit card...ouch! Its not cheap being fabulous!

Fountainbleau's six pools are really beautiful. The hotel is right on the beach, but sometimes the beach gets a little...sandy, crowded, full of undesirables? Haha, if that is the case for the elite guests at this hotel they can choose between several beautiful pools, some adult only, some with private cabanas with flat screen televisions and private waiter service. While some of the hotel is a little over the top, I must say the pool area is pretty much to die for! If it weren't for security roaming around and a little human strapped to my chest, I may just have jumped into the eternity pool for a taste of the good life!

So beautiful!

Fountainbleau hosts the hot nightclub LIV. Miami Beach as a whole has some pretty exclusive nightclubs, the kind that only admits the young, the beautiful and the rich. LIV is on this scale, at the top of the line. Even the website mentions, "Liv management reserves the right to refuse admission to anyone, at it's sole discretion." Celebrities are always at LIV ordering bottle service and partying into the wee and not so wee hours. Typical of Miami Beach, LIV closes its doors at 5am, not the 2am last call that California and other tamer states are used to. When we visited, LIV was closed (we are more of the 3pm as opposed to the 3am type and the only line I am waiting in seems to be the check out line at the grocery store lately!) but one time a while back I drove by the Fountainbleau the night that Lady Gaga was playing and boy was it packed! For those looking for a great Miami Beach Nightlife Experience, trying to get into LIV would be where it is at. If you are denied, you can always stroll down to Mansion, which I have heard is a little less classy, a little more crowded but also appears on MTV and E! Entertainment TV frequently.

It was fun to visit this hotel. Though I think it is way too much money per night (I would rather a few days in Key West then 1 night in Miami Beach), it is a beautiful place. I can totally understand why J.Lo and the Kardashians love the place:)

playtime!