Journey to Aspen: August 2008

Baby's Name: Aspen

Nicknames: Sweet Pea, Sweets

Baby's Age: almost 4 months (Next friday)

Baby's Weight: Uh 12-13 lbs? I weighed with me on the scale and there was an 11.5 lb difference. But I think she weighs more than that. I guess we'll find out next Friday.

Baby's Height: No idea, 23-24" maybe?

Clothes Size: 3-6 m or some 6 months to go over his big ole fluffy but, lol

Diaper Size: small cloth or 1 disposables

If you are breastfeeding, how is it going? Going fantastic.

Is baby using a pacifier? Nope, she's a thumb sucker and I love it!

Heard any giggles yet? Oh yeah, she has the best laughs.

What are you most excited to see baby doing? I love making her laugh. She's starting to "talk" more and that's really cute.

Sleep Through the Night? mostly. This past week she has been waking up more, but I think she's just going through a growth spurt.

Where does baby sleep now? In her crib for naps and at night. If she wakes up I bring her to bed with me.

How is napping going? Going pretty good. She has a set nap time in the mornings and afternoons. I've been able to get her and Max asleep at the same time in the afternoons so we all just take a nap. Love it!

Does baby like bath time? She loves her bath! I think its her favorite thing!

When is baby's next well baby visit? Next Friday the 5th

Do they have a favorite toy/blanket/pacifier yet? She likes a few of her blankies, but no favorite yet. I think once it gets cooler she may start to favor one. It's just been to hot for blankets lately.

How are YOU doing? Doing pretty well. I just started back to school this week so things have been hectic, but once they settle down I will do better.

Care to share how the weight-loss is going? Eh. Slow. I'm back in my regular pants but I still have 9 lbs to lose, so I guess its all in my boobs, lol.

What else has been keeping you busy besides babies/kids? Schoolwork is my main focus now besides the kiddos of course
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On my baby board for Aspen we have Mommy of the Week where they get to ask me whatever and I answer them. It was fun! So I thought I would share the questions and answers,

What does your screen name stand for? Brandi is my first name of course and Love is what I always said I would use for a middle name if I ever had a daughter. If Max had been a girl, he would have been Adriana Love. But we fell in love with the name Aspen later after we had him and that became our new favorite girl name. I thought about Aspen Love but it sounds to hippy-ish for my taste. So we went went something different.

How old are you? 26 1/2

How long have you been with your SO? 7 years next month. We dated 5 years and have been married for 2. And yes, for those that just did the math, Max was at our wedding

How did you meet? I've known my dh Curt for a long time. He works for my aunt and uncle and owns part of the business with them. So when I moved to Louisville to go to college we started hanging out and after the first year we decided to start dating. And the rest is history.

Where do you live? Louisville, KY. I love it here! It's very family friendly, very clean and has a big city feel to it without seeming too overwhelming. Great place to raise a family!

Is this where your from? I'm originally from KY, but from Eastern KY. I moved to Louisville 8 years ago, so it's home now.

Do you plan on having more children after this? The jury is still out on this. I would love to have another one someday, but I can't do anything for another 3 years. Somedays I'm happy with just my two. They are both great kids and are healthy, so I don't want to "rock the boat". I think I am ok if it happens again, and I'm ok if it doesn't.

Do you work? If yes what do you do? Sometimes. I do photography. For the past three years I've been working really really hard to get my photography business built up. I love it! You get to meet a lot of great people and work with kids. But it's a very hard business to make any money at. So many people are in the business nowadays because of easy access to great cameras. So I've decided to do it on a limited basis and go back to school to finish my nursing degree (starts in 2 weeks!). I also have a Bachelor's in History from the University of Louisville. So I like to refer to myself as the "Jack of All Trades".

Does you SO work? What do they do? Curt works for a data communications company. They install and program telephone systems for large companies like hospitals and hotels, and some smaller businesses as well.

Do you have any siblings? I have 4 siblings. I have 3 older brothers and 1 younger sister. I love being from a large family. Which is why I'm hesitant to only have 2 kids because I loved it so much.

Your favorite childhood memory? There is a large lake near my hometown where we used to go swimming and camping. Last year we took Max camping there and he had a blast! I can't wait to create childhood memories there with my kids.

Your favorite vacation ever? Hmm, I have a few. I loved the trip with Curt that we took to San Diego the year before we got pregnant with Max. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the trip we took in January to San Fransisco. That was fun because we had Max with us.

Favorite kind of food? I love homecooked foods like what you have at Thanksgiving. My all time favorite meal is from a local persian restaurant. I love the basmati saffron rice, with shirazi salad and grilled veggies. YUM!

Do you cook? Bake? I used to say that I couldn't but I'm trying to be better. I'm getting better at trying new recipes and figuring out what works and what doesn't. I always do a lot of baking around the holidays because I love the way it makes my house smell and I want my kids to have good memories of all the goodies around that time.

Do you have any tats or piercings? No tattoos, not my thing. But I used to have my belly button pierced. I took it out to have laproscopic surgery before I got pregnant with Max and never put it back in.

How often are you on the internet? Mostly in the mornings before the kiddos are awake. I used to spend more time on it when I was doing more photography. Lately I've been on it a lot shopping for diapers, but I've got enough now, so I don't need to buy anymore.

What is your favorite online shopping site? Lots! I love Etsy, Hyena Cart, and Ebay. Also Crazy8 for kid's clothes.

What is you favorite Resturant? A local persian restaurant called, Saffron's. I also have favorites for different types of food. Like Mexican--Qdoba, Italian-- Macaroni Grille

Movie? The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. These are seriously the best movies EVER. Curt and I could watch them over and over. I can't wait until Max and Aspen are old enough to watch them.

TV SHow? We don't watch a lot of tv. We are one of the rare people that don't have cable either. We do pick up a few channels with and antennae, like ABC, FOX, CBS, and NBC. I like to watch American Idol, House and we used to be big 24 fans. My sister let us borrow her Smallville dvd sets and we've been watching that sometimes. I think we are on season 3.

How did you come up with your childrens name? With Max, my dh wouldn't agree on anything unless it was a short and simple name. So Max was one of the only names we could agree on. It really suits him well so I'm glad we went with that.
With Aspen, we had heard the name on one of Max's Baby Einstein dvd's and said if we ever had a girl that would be on our list. There weren't any names that really stuck with us as much as that one, so we decided that was the perfect name for our little girl and it has certainly proven to be the perfect name for her.

What is your favorite time of day? I like the evening when my dh gets home and we are together as a family.

What do you like to do with your free time? I'm currently learning how to sew and knit. So I've got a couple projects going on. I also love to read. I'll read just about anything. I love to read magazines like Reader's Digest and Time.

How do you entertain your kids without the tv? We do watch tv sometimes, just not cable television. Max watches PBS and we buy a lot of movies for him. I just like having control over what he is watching. He doesn't watch shows with commercials and stuff like that. I don't like all the marketing that is directed at kids.

WHat kind of camera do you use? I used shoot with a Rebel XT and then upgraded to a Canon 30D. I have several really nice lenses as well and that makes a big difference.
How did you learn? Mostly self-taught. I read a lot of books and websites and practiced, practiced, practiced!!!

What kind/s of music do you like? I like a lot of folk music I guess. I have a huge montage of music on my ipod though. I like to listen to someone with a nice voice like John Mayer or Michael Buble. My current favorite album is the Across the Universe soundtrack. It's all the Beatles songs sung by the actors of the movies.

What books? I LOVE to read! So I have lots of favorite books. My recent favorites are "A Prayer for Owen Meany", "Stiff", and "The Kite Runner". I love the Harry Potter series and have reread those many times.

When/why did you decide to start cloth diapering? I started trying cloth diapers out with Max right after he potty trained. I would put them on him at night even though he was day trained. I researched it a lot though when I was pregnant with Aspen because I was determined to give it a try with her. I really wanted to do it and wished I had done it sooner with Max. I told myself I would give it a try at least and if I didn't like it I could always sell them and go back to disposables. But I love doing it and I'm happy with my decision to go to cloth.

Have you ever met anyone famous? A few people. I used to work at the only five diamond restaurant in the state so we got a few famous customers. I met Johnny Reznik from the Goo-Goo Dolls, Senator Lehy, Sigourney Weaver, Allison Kraus, and I *saw* Gweneth Paltrow in the lobby bar at the hotel. Oh and this past KY Derby we saw a famous actor, Adrian Grenier. He played Anne Hathaway's boyfriend in "The Devil Wears Prada."

To add to the music question....do you have any absolute favorite bands/singers? My absolute favorite band of all time is the Dave Matthews Band. I love listen to Annie Lennox or Enya, but not all of their songs. But the songs I love of theirs I can listen to over and over, more than any other songs.

If money were no object what would you do? I would do a lot of traveling. I want to go on an extended trip to New Zealand. Not just to vacation there, but to get involved with the everyday lives of those who live there. I love to hear about how other people live and spend their time.

Where would you like to go on a family vacation? I would love to go to Hawaii.

What do you like to do for me time? I love to read, sew, knit, get my hair done, "window-shop" online

What is your favorite guilty pleasure? Dark Chocolate. Oh and ice cream covered in caramel. YUM!!!

What's the most challenging part of your day? I think the most challenging part for me is trying to take care of immediate needs at the same time. Max always seems to need me right as soon as I start feeding Aspen. And going to the grocery store always seems to be an adventure. It gets crazy sometimes.

Where did you go to college? I went to the University of Louisville. I got my first degree there and I'm getting ready to go back there for a second one.

What were like in high school? I was a normal kid. I didn't really fit into any cliques or anything. I was definitely a geek, but not a nerd, lol.

Were you involved in any sports/clubs? I was the number 1 seat on the girl's Golf Team at my high school. I also was involved with the French Club and the Academic Team

Do you belong to any other message boards? Yep. My first board ever was my ds's SK DueinJan O5 board. They are a great group of ladies and we are still very close. We went to a private board after all of our babies were born and I loved it!! I still post there everyday.

Being a mostly SAHM what do you do with your kids to occupy your time? We go to the zoo a lot and go to parks. We try to eat lunch with my dh a few times a week. Max is getting ready to start preschool next week so that's going to take up a lot of our time.

What is YOUR favorite clothing store, and what is your style? My favorite clothing stores are Express and Target. I dress pretty simply. I usually wear a dark shirt like a black or navy and jeans or khakis. I'm not into prints or designs.

How is your home decorated, do you decorate antique, country, shabby, contemporary,etc..? Uh, we are pretty undecorated, lol. I'd say if we have to classify it in a category it would be contemporary. We have light blue and light gray walls with stainless steel light fixtures. Pictures have black frames.

What are some of your favorite names? I love thinking about names!! I wish all my friends would get pregnant and just let me name their babies, lol.
My girl list this time was:
Ruby
Violet
Finley
Vivienne
Lyndon
And you know what, I love the name Suri, but nobody could get away with naming their kid that nowadays because of TomKat, lol.

My boy list:
Jasper Reid
Fox
Phoenix
Abe
Lyric
Archer

What is your favorite fast food place? Probably Fazoli's or Wendy's or Chik-fil-a

What's your favorite pair of shoes? Gosh! I used to have quite the shoe collection. But after kids I just wasn't as interested in buying shoes for me anymore, lol. Right now my favorite pair of shoes is my Keen sandals. I wear those the most. I also have two pairs of ALDO flipflops that get worn pretty often.

Do you have any family traditions when it comes to the holidays? My immediate family doesn't have any real set in stone traditions when it comes to holidays. But with my own family, we have a couple things that we traditionally do each year. For Halloween, we go to the same farm and do a tractor ride out to the fields to pick our own pumpkin to carve. This usually is an all day event. Then for Christmas I make sure that we are always home on Christmas morning (I won't travel to visit other family that morning) so that we can put stuff out for Santa.

Do you have any fears or phobias? My biggest fear is definitely losing one of my children or losing Curt. I have a phobia of clowns. I can't stand them and they seriously creep me out. I also have a deathly fear of free-falling, which I didn't discover how bad it was until Curt and I decided to bungee jump one year. Seriously, the WORST thing I've ever done. HATED every second of it!!!!!!

If you could go into space would you? Probably not. I'm happy here and I'll just look at all the cool pictures that all the astronauts take. And besides, it probably wouldn't be as cool as what I imagined it would be like. I want space to be like all the movies like Star Wars and such. And it probably wouldn't.

Are you a planner or a spear of the moment type person? A little of both. I have no problems going with the flow and doing stuff spur of the moment, but I also like to plan most things in my life.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Hmm, I'm sure my answer would have been a lot different if you had asked me this question 10 years ago for today. But 10 years from now I don't see my life changing too drastically. Except I will have a teenager then and that should be interesting, lol. I hope to be in a much bigger house and happy.

biggest pet peeve? I have a lot, lol. I think one of my biggest is people who aren't gracious. I am thankful for all things in my life, big or small. Another pet peeve is people who cross sidewalks really slowly or walk in the middle of the road when you are driving, and then give you an evil look when you have to stop forever for them to cross. I'm not saying you have to run, but come on, don't crawl!

favourite season of the year? I love the Fall. That's right at the beginning of all the great festivals and holidays. It's so much fun!

idea of the perfect family day/vacation? The perfect day is when we get to go out and do something as a family leaving all worries and stresses behind us. It's so much fun to be able to get out and just enjoy everyone's company.