Being a mom!

I just need to say that I found this website called manicmommies.com I have been listening to the poscasts lately and they just reassure me that I am a normal working mother. So are most of you!!!! Sometimes I think that I am screwing up my kid by either being too strict, to lenient, not consistant enough, not attentative enough, etc. I have been reassured that everything I am doing is NORMAL!!!! All of my worries are NORMAL. Listening to these poscasts and reading the forums I feel like I am saying/writing this stuff.

I sometimes have such a feeling of guilt for working full time and having Owen in school full time. There are not enough hours in the day to get things done. I run around in the morning with my head chopped off trying to get us both ready and out the door. I try to add a cusion for time so I am not rushing him. If any of you have met my son you know that when he needs to move quickly he is a slug...lollygagging around, taking his time. He is just SLOW. Now when I need him to be calm and quiet he is NOT!!! Like any boy he loves to do the opposite of what I want him to.

Lately Brian has been picking him up from school around 3ish everyother day. On my off days I go to the gym after work. On my pick up days I get to school at 5:30. Once we get home Owen is crazy!!! He is just a ball of energy. Brian and I have to make dinner, lunches, do dishes, give O a shower, and be calm for bed. Inbetween these things I usually throw in a load of laundry or something. There is just not enough time in the day for all of the things that need to get done. I am big on Owen getting his sleep too! I feel like he needs to be well rested for the day ahead. He is playing all day!!! He needs his sleep.

So back to the podcasts. The two ladies who do the podcasts are working mothers. The stuff that comes out of their mouths cracks me up. It makes me realize that you dont have to be perfect or have a perfectly clean house. You dont have to devote every waking second to your kid(s). You just have to love them and be there for them! I know that Owen knows we love him and are there for him.

I just thought I would share because sometimes I feel like I am alone in my worries and concerns so I keep them to myself. I am sure plenty of people already think I am crazy, I dont need them thinking I am more crazy than I really am!!!!

Catching up

I have not been as good as I should when it comes to blogging. I guess I have not had the time. We have been so busy. Running here and running there. Busy is good but sometimes you need to just stop and relax.

Owen started swimming lessons three weeks ago. He is doing so great!!!! The first time he went was a no go. He didnt make it in the locker room. He was scared that he was going to sink to the bottom tf the pool. He didnt know what it was about. My child has a HUGE fear of the unknown. If something is new to him he is terrified of it. We had made such a big deal about it, talking about it for weeks, hyping it up and I think he was just overwhelmed. We did not want to give up on it though. So the next week I brought him a half hour early so he could see what it was about. He was so scared to even go into the pool area. After some talking to and watching he actually got into the water. He is still pretty nervous but he trusts his teacher (she is nice but does not baby them which is good). He trusts us when we tell him nothing will happen to him. I think I have learned not to really tell him what is going on. He obsesses about things and thinks the worst. Brian and I are the same way. Stay tuned for pictures. Now that he is getting comfortable I feel I can sit back and let the teachers teach and just watch. I will take pictures soon.

We have been trying to figure out what to do with Owen for kindergarten. It is usually an easy decsion to make...when your kid is 5 he goes to kindergarten. Well when you live in bridgeport its not that easy. We had planned on moving to Boston, living in a good school district, sending him to public school. Well since we are not moving everything has changed. We are not sure where to send him to school. We have looked into Catholic school and we are considering public school. Either one will be fine I am sure. My only reservation with the public school is the threat of it closing. Its been all over the news and I just dont want him to go to a school and half way through the year it closes. I guess it doesnt matter where we are or what school he goes to...it could happen anywhere in this economy. We shall see what happens. Who knew it would be so damn difficult!!!!

As for Brian and I, we are still adjusting to the idea of not moving. I was looking forward to the move and settling down. Now everything is up in the air. I am very thankful that we both have jobs. Dont get me wrong. I am just anxious that I dont know what is next. I have no idea where we will be next year and I dont like it.

I did a photo shoot this past weekend. Only I was on the other end of the camera. It was weird. I kind of enjoyed it but it was still weird. I am NEVER the one to get my picture taken. My friend needed a model and asked me to do it. I agreed.

It was a perfect situation. She wanted to do a trash the dress/bridal session. With my 5 year anniversary coming up I thought it would be a good idea to get pictures taken of me in my gown. I have known Melissa (the photograher) since middle school but have not seen her (in person) for 10 years. We see eachother everyday virtually (thats how it goes these days). It was so good to see her IN PERSON. She started her photography business a year ago so it was great to get to talk shop with her!

Here are just a few of the images from the shoot. They all came out soooooooo good!

Gotta love this economy!!!

So as it turns out, we are not moving to Boston in July, 2009 as planned. We have decided to stay put and ride out this economic tidal wave. Brian's company is having some trouble and has laid of 25% of their staff. After some long conversations with his boss and co-workers, and me of course we have decided it is safest for us to stay put for another year. Brian's job is safe here in NY so this is where we will stay. At first this was a very hard choice for us to make but the more we thought about it the more we thought how lucky we are to have jobs. There are so many people with out jobs who are losing everything they have. We are grateful to have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies and family all around us. It took me a day or two to come around. I was really excited for Boston and ready to settle down. It can wait another year. Who knows, in another year we may be ready to buy a condo or house. The economy may work in our favor. We shall see.

Owen had a Valentines day dance at school yesterday. He had a really great time. I work right around the corner so stopped in on my lunch break to see all the kids dancing, singing and just having fun. Surprisingly Owen was happy to have me there. He has already started the "my mom is a little embarrassing" thing so I surprised to see how excited he was.

I am still working my way into the photography world. Come spring time I will be stepping it up a notch. I am working on portfolio. I will be doing some "Spring Specials". If you know anyone that wants family photos send them my way.

Here are some pictures from Owen Valentines day party .


Stud Muffin


Handsome little man


Owen dancing with is friend Angela


Silly face


Owen dancing with his teacher.

Time is flying by

It has been a little while since my last post. Not too much has happened that is very eventful. We are preparing for our move everyday. We have always put things off until the last minute. This time we want to be prepared. I guess its just part of growing up. I don't know.

I had conferences with Owens teachers. I left that conference on Cloud 9!!!! They had nothing but great things to say about him. I am going to take a second here and brag about my kid...

They said he is one of the smartest kids in the class. That when they review the lesson they did the day before he is the only one that knows everything they discussed. They are very pleased with how quickly he picks things up. If they had to rate him 1-10 they said he is a 10. The only area to work on is his level of frustration and anger but we are all working on that with him. I do notice he gets so aggravated so quickly with things and Brian, myself and his teachers are teaching him new techniques to avoid such anger.

I asked the teachers about any troubles they can foresee in kindergarten. They said the only thing we should work on is him being so fidgety and not paying attention when he needs to. Now we know he is paying attention as he remembers all the lesson plans but once he gets it he drifts off to lala land and gets distracted. Or if something is hard he wants to quit right away. He is only four so we have a long way to go with him. I see so much of myself in him and Brian see so much of himself in him. He really is a smart boy who will succeed in school! I am probably the proudest I have ever been in my life. That conference turned what was a rough start to the year into something great. I have so much to look forward to. So that's enough bragging for now...I just wanted to share that with you all. We are so proud.

I haven't really gotten anywhere with my photography. It has come to a stand still. I have not been pursuing it that much either. I try to take pictures here and there. I guess once we move I can really buckle down and work hard. I hope to become a 2nd shooter or assistant to a photographer out there. That would be great for me to learn the ropes. Right now it is a fun hobby, later down the road I want to make it my job, my life!

Here are some shots of Owen and Brian I took one night after bath...Owen was concentrating so hard on his laptop I just couldn't resist. Brian jumped in to assist and the photo op was there.

Holidays are done!!!

So the holidays are done and they have just completely flown by. I can not believe it is almost 2009. I know I have said this before but I feel like it was just NYE 2008. So CRAZY.
Christmas was great! I love the holidays especially now that there are so many kids in the family. Its really great to see all the kids enjoy themselves.
I have been off since Dec. 24th. I dont go back to work until Jan 5th. I am pretty much loosing my mind. We have been doing things here and there. Yesterday I went and had an endoscopy. That was fine. I have a hiatal hernia which I assume causes the reflux. I also had some redness in the lining of my stomache. My father has the same thing and he is fine so I am sure it is nothing.
Today Danny and Marissa (Brians brother) brought the kids down. We are keeping them overnight. Christoper is three and Ava is 4. They are really good kids. Owen didnt know how to handle them at first. He thinks he has to be the boss and tell them what to do because he is older. Then he wants to act just like them. He finally just relaxed and they all had fun. Bed time took a while. As a matter of fact I still have Chris laying with me on the couch watching TV. Its all good. He will konk out at some point. We dont get to spend too much time with them so its really good to see them.
Tomorrow Jen and Brandon will come down for NYE. I am sure we will have so dinner and drinks. I cant wait for that. We havent hung out with them in a while.
I took a bunch of pictures when we had out first snowfall. Everything was really pretty. Enjoy!!!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

We had a really great Christmas. We went to Brian's parents house for dinner on Christmas eve and my parents house for brunch on Christmas day. All around it was great. Great food, fun with family and of course the wine/mimosas are always nice too!!!

We both have huge families so it is always a lot of fun. Kind of crazy and hectic but never a dull moment. I really wouldn't have it any other way! There are a lot of kids on both sides. The kids had a blast.

Santa was very good to Owen. That boy got everything he wanted and more. He is really into Star wars these days so most of what Santa brought him was Star Wars related. Everything he opened was as he says "What I have always wanted". He really got it this year. It was so much fun seeing his little face and the joy he had. He was so excited and over whelmed that he didn't know what to do. He would open a gift and then Brian would start to open the toy (which takes for ever). Owen would just stand there and wait for it, we had to remind him that there are more things for him to open under the tree. He really was so cute!!!!

Brian and I had a pretty nice visit from Santa as well.

Since the day I met Brian he has been talking about building himself a computer. Well nine years later his dream came true and Santa let him pick out all of the parts to build himself the computer of his dreams.

As for me, Santa brought me a brand new lap top!!! I have been wanting one for a while and now that I am trying to get into photography it will really help. I have my own system to store all of my files, programs, etc. I have a nice big screen to do photo editing. Its everything I want and then some.

I cant believe how fast Christmas has come and gone. It is crazy to me that it is almost 2009. I feel like I just celebrated New Years 2008. Time flies!!!

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!!

The Boissonneault Family

These are the first official family pictures taken by me!!! It took us a while to get a good one but the end result was worth it. Now that they let me get these they are in for it. I will be chasing them down to get family pictures all the time. These two will run when they see a camera...its a good thing they love me!!!!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

We have had our tree up for a few weeks now and I absolutely love it. I love this season. We are feeling especially festive this year. The older Owen gets the more fun it gets. We get to talk about Santa, and how he watches us and know what we want. Owen keeps telling us what he wants. I will be so excited to see how he reacts to what Santa brings him.

We ran into a bit of drama yesterday.

I was leaving work and got hit by a lady who was backing out. Her car did quite a bit of damage to mine. It is not drivable at all. The bumper and front fender is smashed into the tire. Brian and I were concerned that because it was in a private lot her insurance would not cover it. We have insurance but really high deductibles and would have had to fork over quite a bit for a rental car. Who wants to do that at Christmas time. We certainly had not planned for anything like this. We got really lucky! I like to say that the nicest lady in the world hit my car. She was so apologetic and concerned. Her insurance company called us with in hours of the accident saying they are taking full responsibility for the accident and will pay for it all. It really is Christmas. I know it sounds corny but it is so nice to know that there are nice people out there still. I wonder about people sometimes and Brian and I tend to think the worst right off the bat. We got really lucky this time!

If I don't see or talk to some of you have a great holiday! and a Happy New Year!