You are my sunshine!

How I love awards! Harmony from Baby to Go sent this my way...

Here are the rules


#1 Thank Harmony (a big thank you!) and you should go to her blog and check her out.
#2 Share ten things about myself.
#3 Pass this on to 10 bloggers(it'll probably be closer to 5 - sorry!)
#4 Let the bloggers know I've picked them for the award

Okeedokee 10 things about me...

#1 - I'm a lefty - well, I write with my left hand (meaning I usually have marker and pen ink all over my hands and arm) but do everything else with my right (weird - I know)
#2 - I hate shopping.  I hate browsing through stores with no real purpose.  The thought of spending the day at the mall seriously makes me nauseous.  I will only go shopping if I have a very specific thing to buy. Gift cards are probably one of the worst things to give me because they sit in my wallet forever!
#3 - I really trust my "sixth sense" - When I get that nervous feeling in my stomach - it's usually right
#4 - Studying abroad in London my junior year of college was one of the best decisions/experiences of my life - living in Europe and getting to travel all over was just amazing.  I hope Jenna wants to go abroad.
#5 - I try to act all tough, but inside I'm really a sissy.
#6 - I come from a long line of long marriages - my parents are at like 45 years (and still love each other), and I think there's only one divorce in my whole extended family (both sides) - I tell my husband - when we say "I do" it's seriously for life
#7 - I'm jealous of moms who can still wear bikinis - although I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, those damn stretch marks did me in (eff you genes!)
#8 - I'm a huge "gamer" - I take competition very seriously.  Anything from license plate poker (ask me how to play) to scrabble (more than one person has cried during a game with my family) to headstand contests in the pool (Jen beat me last time) - I like to win.
#9 - I don't ever want to have a pet.  I like other people's pets, but have no desire to ever have one of my own.  I lived with a roommate who had a dog and you know what? The house smells - you get used to it when you live there, but that doesn't mean the smell goes away.  And I really don't believe that dogs belong in the city.
#10 - I'm feeling really sad about going back to work in September.


Passing some sunshine onto some blogs I've been really into lately and have linked up with a few times...




not only a great read, but I won my first contest through Cali and it was awesome!!

Katies Bookcase
I love reading, love reading reviews and this girl's got it all!







Thanks to these blogs for the Not Mom of the Year contest - loved doing it, loved reading the entries!!




Thank you for making me a better writer - writing the letters to myself was one of the best things I've ever written and I don't know if I would've had the courage without your linky!

Weight a Minute!

I feel like I can write about my baby weight now that it's all (finally!) off...J is almost 11 months old. Now let me go back to pre-pregnancy Melissa...I have never had a weight problem, always thought of myself as pretty active, liked going to the gym, and have never been on a diet. Then I got pregnant and several things happened that hindered my ability to stay in that "healthy" 25-20 pound weight gain range.

#1 - had spotting in my first trimester and my ob-gyn told me to lay off on the gym for a while. I understood that to mean, no exercising - the spotting really scared me and I didn't want to hurt my baby in any way. So I did some minimal walking, but that was about it

#2 - we were in the middle of some major changes in our life - we were selling our condo in Hoboken and in the process of buying our apartment in Queens - stressful to saythe least!

#3 - due to the timing of the buying/selling, we moved in with my parents for about 5 months of my pregnancy (my husband is a saint). Let me just say that my parents were amazing to us, we didn't have to pay for a thing, so we were really able to save and they fed us wonderfully! Which basically meant that we had bread, pasta, and all sorts of deliciousness every night for dinner...

16 weeks - already gained about 12 pounds!

All this added up to my 50 pound weight gain...now just to give you an idea - I am 5'2" and petite...My last weight check at the Dr. put me at a whopping 170!! I remember my husband saying something like "don't worry about your gain, you'll always weight less than me" (well I got within 5 pounds of him!) And it's funny because at the time - I thought I looked like a super-cute pregnant woman - all belly...well I only saw my belly...what I didn't see was my ass an thighs that got so big that I couldn't fit into my maternity pants anymore.

36 weeks - holy cow!

It's ok because I can laugh about it now...unfortunately for me, my genetics are not so wonderful in this area, so the weight did not just fall off of me, like some of my friends. The initial 30 pounds came off without much work within a few months, but the last 20 pounds have been work to take off. I was doing a good job of going to the gym, (they have a wonderful babysitting service) but lately it's been tough because of J's nap schedule. So I joined Weight Watchers the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I always said that I wanted to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by J's first birthday. I realized that I needed to just watch what I was putting in my mouth and it's worked. I am now back to my original weight (just in time to talk about baby #2) and I feel great. I don't know that I'll ever wear a bikini again because I have some pretty bad stretch marks (thanks, Mom for those genes) - but I think of them as battle scars! I'm kind of proud of my body and what it went through - I brought a life into this world (be it a small one weighing in at 6lbs 6oz)!...and if I have some stretch marks because of it - then so be it!