Uncategorized | Heir to Blair

8 months.

14 Jun posted by heirtoblair

I know that we can be so amazing
& baby, your love is gonna change me
& now I can see every possibility…
~Micheal Buble

Dear Harrison,

Three-fourths two thirds of a year have flown by & I can barely believe it. They say that time speeds up as you grow older & believe me, IT DOES. One moment, you’re sixteen & in the car with your best friends on the way to Bojangles & the leaves are falling & the sun is shining & you’re thinking, it doesn’t get better than this, & the next thing you know, a decade later you’re writing a letter to your very own baby about how he stood on his own for the first time yesterday.

Harrison…YOU STOOD ON YOUR OWN. Pulled up holding onto my fingers, which is your favorite game & instead of sitting back down with a chuckle, YOU LET GO. As if to say, “Momma, I got this.” You let go for two seconds. Stood on wobbly legs. & then fell on your butt with a grin.

Ch-ch-ch-changes, they are a-coming.

But Harry, those changes are good. & I’m so excited for you when I think of all the things you are learning & accomplishing these days. Your daddy often marvels that every single day is different & therefore, he doesn’t want to miss one beat. You’re feeding yourself crackers & puffs, pulling up on everything, & it seems that every day you have a new consonant that you talk back to us with. “Ya ya ya” you said this morning, a precursor to all the eye-rolls & “yeah, yeah, yeah, WHATEV MOM” ‘s that are in our future.

Harrison, I’ve thought a lot about change today – changes in you, changes in me, changes in our life. There are a ton going on right now but for the first time, I feel like they are all good, positive changes in our life. & although they are a result of things going haywire in the past, these changes feel so good for our family. I want you to always know & be strong enough to recognize when change needs to happen, & be brave enough to embrace it. Own up to it. & then celebrate in it. Whether it’s standing on your own, getting back to your basics as a person, or watching a tomato turn red in your garden as summer unfolds. Embrace change.

For you are changing, growing, & turning into a little person that I am so proud to call “mine.” I hope that you will one day be proud to call me yours.

& no matter what changes, my love for you will never end.

love,
Momma

dsc 0046 8 months.

Harrison, 8 months.

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Filed Under: Letters to Harpie, Uncategorized

Blogging DANGEROUSLY. God, I love her name.

10 Jun posted by heirtoblair

Y’all, this is “Kit.” & I love her. She writes Blogging Dangerously, one of the most hilarious, irreverent, no-gloves blogs I have ever read in my life. She likes to write about sex, but she’s writing on a more serious note today. But if you’d like to read about her college flings, married sex, & the Marine that was “hung like a gerbil,” then RUN to her blog & add it to your Google Reader.

She’s also sweet as sugar, but don’t tell anyone because it might ruin her reputation.

(& if you don’t follow her on Twitter, SHAME ON YOU. She’s hysterical.)

________________________________

Sometimes I’m not sure if my readers are more shocked by the WAY I talk about sex on my blog – or by the fact that I actually HAVE sex and 4 young children under 7. The resounding comment on my blog is, “I will try to remember these things in case my husband/wife and I EVER have sex again!”

And you know what? I get it. For a few years there it felt like the only time my husband and I had sex was when we were actively trying to get pregnant. And after the second or third night of “trying” we were ready to wait a month until the next window.

Sometimes the most intimate we were was just leaving the other one alone in the bedroom to make magic alone and then get some much needed sleep. We weren’t going for movie-style intimacy, we were just trying to hang onto some semblance of our sexuality.

After my 4^th daughter was born it got much more difficult. First of all we had 3 young children who were keeping us hopping during the day and a newborn who was keeping us awake all night. Then, YEARS of breastfeeding had taken their toll on my estrogen level and I was just NOT IN THE MOOD. And when I WAS in the mood my body wouldn’t cooperate so it hurt – pain is definitely NOT an aphrodisiac!

I talked to my doctor and she gave me an estrogen based lubricant that worked wonders. First of all it helped during sex but then the estrogen was absorbed and helped me get to the point that I no longer needed it. If you think that you have a physical issue (pain, or anything that’s not like it used to be) please ask your doctor.

Once we’d resolved that issue we ran straight into another issue – timing. I’m a night person. I have a lot of things to do during the day and I can’t relax completely until they’re done and everything is put away and things are in their proper place and my face is washed and my teeth are brushed, etc.

My husband is more laid back but when he’s tired he’s TIRED. Bedtime for him is LIGHTSOUT, no talking, keep your hands to yourself time. So you can see what I mean about timing issues. Day after day he would walk into my home office and get shot down. Night after night I would roll toward him only to have him roll away.

And it was okay, our marriage was strong enough. But after a while I realized that it didn’t HAVE to be. We didn’t have to have a lackluster sex life because we had a strong marriage. Sure, on the weeks where we all came down with a stomach bug it was good to know that sex could take a back burner but during the weeks when things were going well it was equally good to know that I was married to a man who could curl my toes – TWICE.

We started trying to be more flexible. I realized that if I was in the mood during the day we could squeeze some time together into 15 minutes – certainly less time than I was allowed for lunch – and easily shorter than a nap. We started going to bed earlier.

And the more sex we managed to have, the more we thought about sex, and the more sex we ended up having. There were weeks when we had sex 5 times – and they were followed by weeks where we didn’t have sex at all. And then there were weeks after weeks after weeks when we had sex twice. There was really no pressure to keep score but the point was that we were in the habit of having sex instead of the habit of NOT having sex. And while our marriage may have been strong enough to withstand NOT having sex, it was nice that it didn’t HAVE TO. There was no pressure to have newlywed sex but it was nice to be enjoying my body with a man who could curl my toes - TWICE.

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Let Dad kick-back with a six-pack.

9 Jun posted by heirtoblair

I was STUMPED to as to what to get for Nate for Father’s Day. Then after talking to my Jockey girls (::fist pump::), we decided it would be awesome to stock up some lucky folks with new shirts for their man. Because there is nothing more gross than old undershirts with yellow pit stains. Anyway, we got talking & ideas rolled & creativity was flowing & there may have been mentions of how they read the word “vagina” five times in my post that day, & we came up with a LOVELY giveaway just in time for Father’s Day:

Kick Back With a Six Pack

Catchy, right? I can’t take credit for it. Here’s the deal – there will be SIX WINNERS! woot! Six of you will win a coupon + free shipping for a set of classic six-pack set of shirts for the man in your life for Father’s Day, compliments of Jockey. They even have talls, which is what Nate will be getting to replace his grungy T-shirts from college that he wears under his polos. (plus something else, but that is super-hush-secret until Father’s Day just in case he stumbles upon this).

To win:

“LIKE” Jockey on Facebook. Then come back & tell me you did it & why your man/father/brother needs new shirts. That’s it! I’ll draw the winners with random.org on Sunday, so you can order & have them by Father’s Day!

Good luck!

legal landing

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Thirty-One.

3 May posted by heirtoblair

Giveaway is CLOSED! But the trunk show is open until May 9, 2010!

________________________________

Trunk show! With a giveaway! Oh, wait. That’s right. People don’t like those anymore, huh?

cat curse you villain Thirty One.

So if you hate giveaways, back out slowly. If you want to win free stuff, keep reading.

Jen from Thirty-One brands is allowing me to host a trunk show! I went to a Thirty-One trunk show back when I was first pregnant with Harrison (that feels like forever ago now!) & loved their gear. It’s so delicious & girly & Southern & monogrammed. Everything an be monogrammed, which of cours emakes the Southern in my need smelling salts. WE TAKE OUR INITIALS VERY SERIOUSLY DOWN HERE, Y’ALL.

I am a HUGE fan of the thermal totes – I can pretty much see myself using this for lunch, bottles, or taking beer to the beach.

Easy-peasy: Check out the site by clicking either the link above or “Thirty-One” to the right of this post & tell me if you prefer a) no monogram b) initials or c) your name.

& I’ll let random.org pick someone to win $50 store credit! (drawn on May 5th)

p.s. leave me your legit email in your comment so I can contact the winner that way

p.p.s. the trunk show will stay open until May 9th!

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Why we hand our hard-earned money over for American jailbait music.

15 Apr posted by heirtoblair

I have terrible, predictable taste in music & that is putting it kindly. For years, I didn’t believe it got any better than old-school Britney Spears & to this day, I still have moments when I’m sure the Brit-ster & I would be BFF. My husband, Nate, has excellent taste in music. In college, his Napster collection was legendary. He appreciates everything from bluegrass to R&B, & can recite the lyrics to every mid-90′s rock song ever recorded. His first concert? Dave Matthews Band at 15 years old. My first concert? ummm…Britney. When I was 20.

Obviously, I must have some redeeming qualities other than musical taste, considering that he did marry me.

There are “those” that will say you should introduce your child to classical music early to cultivate a young genius. (Who “those” people are, I’m not entirely sure. But they’re out there, trust me.) They want you to hook your fetus up to a set of Bose headphones, pumping Mozart & Bach into your placenta. Personally, the idea of stretching headphones over my INCREDIBLY MASSIVE, heavy, moving eight-months pregnant belly sounded as appealing to me as taking a 24-hour long spin class at the gym. Especially knowing that any beat would send the lad inside into a full on ute-rave, potentially causing permanent damage to my lower ribs & bladder. So instead, I turned up my favorite flavor of girly-pop for nine months & immersed myself in vats of Ben & Jerry ice cream.

So it shouldn’t be a shocker that Harrison emerged with a rather unsophisticated lean towards Top 40 music. I first noticed it in the car when he would settle to me belting out Jessica Simpson ballad’s over his screams. & then when Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” debuted, Nate & I knew we were in trouble. It was the one tune that could always calm Harrison. He could be red-faced, hollering at the world & all we had to do was push play. Miley’s voice would fan out across the room & Harrison would turn into a gyrating, smiling baby. ”Party in the USA” is now the third most played song on our iTunes playlist. & then the world was graced with Ke$ha. Oh, Ke$ha & your “Blah Blah Blah.” & oh, how Harrison loves you even though you burn even MY ears by the fifth replay on the morning commute.

But we’ve accepted this slowly, as we love our son & are willing to sacrifice our souls & ears for his happiness. & last night before bed, Nate said, “There’s a new Ke$ha song out – we should download it for Harrison, don’t you think?”

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