Alex is 2-months-old!

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Colleen

On Monday, April 9, our sweet Alexander Thomas turned two-months-old. I cannot believe it has already been two months. It feels like just yesterday that I was lamenting that he was taking too long to be born. Crazy.

At his two-month checkup, Alex was 22 1/4 inches long and weighed in at 10lbs 10 oz. He’s in the 17 percentile for both height and weight, but the 43 percentile overall. His head circumference was in the 93 percentile, though, so clearly, he has Jay’s head. 😉

Alexander is a sweet, happy baby. He loves to converse with you if you engage him. He coos and smiles a lot. We think he’s going to be a good storyteller. He loves playing on his playmats or watching the mobile in his crib. He figured out how to make the little animals on the attachment for the rock ‘n’ play move by rocking it with his feet. He’s so smart! He also likes watching Mommy do an exercise video and will hang out in the same room with her while she does it. He only ever gets fussy within the last five minutes of one. Mommy is grateful for that.

He’s also a pretty good snuggler…

Baby ATG also loves listening to music and remains a good sleeper. He is a big fan of the Beatles and his daddy’s guitar playing. Most nights, he sleeps from around 9 p.m to around 2:30-3:00 a.m., and then again around 5:30 a.m. and 8-8:30 a.m. Mommy is also grateful for that. [Note: Now that I’ve typed this out, I’ve probably jinxed him to wake up every two hours, including for good at 6 a.m., lol.]

Alex’s dislikes include sleeping flat on his back (he gets bad gas so he sleeps primarily in his rock ‘n’ play, with some pack ‘n’ play and swing naps during the day), dairy (again, see: gas), and being outside in the backyard (you can put him in the stroller in the front yard and he’s fine, but bring him around back and noooope lol). He also cries a lot when he is overtired at night. Luckily, he’s started having different cries, which helps us identify the problem a lot quicker now.

Alex gets along great with his big brother, Zachary, and of course, he loves his daddy. He will coo and laugh for Jay whenever he gets home from work like he’s telling him about his day. Zach is a loving brother and Alex enjoys engaging with him while he’s playing. He even smiled at him this morning. And Zoe! Zoe is obsessed with watching Alex. She has even nuzzled his head a few times during feedings. She sleeps at the end of the bed in between me and him, like she’s comfortably protecting and watching over both of us. Her attitude towards Zach has even improved. All is well so far in G-land.

We love this little dude so much and are so happy that he’s a part of our family!

Pictures from the last month:

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NC TOYCON!

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Colleen

If you are in the Raleigh NC area this Saturday, April 7, come check out NCTOYCON, Jay’s newest project.  It’s from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.at the Hampton Inn & Suites Raleigh-Durham Airport-Brier Creek. Tickets are $5 for anyone over age 13. You can buy tickets in advance here or purchase them at the door. Check out their website for more information, including toy dealers who will be attending.

It is going to be a really great event. Hope anyone in the area who is interested in collecting cool toys will come check it out. Never too early for Christmas or birthday gifts!

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The Broadcast Ep. 2.34 “Speedboating”

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Colleen


I started editing the most recent episode of The Broadcast and realized that I never posted anything about our last episode, which was released two weeks ago. We took last week off because it was Jay’s birthday on Tuesday (the day we usually record) and I needed a mental health week.

The episode is good though! Shandy talks about her experience at the open call for Big Little Lies extras in Monterey, take a Harry Potter character quiz, solve the mystery behind Shandy’s mysterious children’s toy, and have a discussion on what is theft and what is not.

The theft discussion has garnered a lot of feedback so far. Since there was so much of it, we did not get to it on this week’s episode (2.35). We will be covering it next week, so you have time to listen and get your own feedback in if you want to. (And judging by the amount of emails and Facebook comments we’ve received so far about the topic, you may want to weigh in, haha).

You can listen to the latest episode via BlogTalk Radio, jayandjack.com, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play/Android, etc. Happy Listening and thanks for listening.

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That Time Our Mail Truck Was on Fire

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Colleen

Nothing like getting a good blogging rhythm going and then disappearing for two weeks, #amirite? It’s been a very crazy couple of weeks; we had Jay’s birthday last week (more on that in another post) and Zachary is on Day 6 of being home sick, though he’s finally on the mend. He had a high fever for 5 days (he hit 105 on Sunday). They originally suspected the start of an ear infection and strep was the cause, then we were back yesterday (Monday) and they tested him for mono, but it’s just viral tonsillitis. The week before that, Alex was eating a lot more frequently due to the 6-week growth spurt, so needless to say, it’s been a sleepless two weeks and I kind of feel like crying right now, haha.

Anyway, last Monday, we had some excitement around these parts. Around 3 p.m., I was nursing Alex in his room when I heard a loud bang outside, like a gunshot or a car backfiring. Jay had taken off for his birthday and was downstairs cleaning up and organizing his office/Studio West-er(ous)/toy room, so I thought perhaps he dropped something and called him. He didn’t answer, so I figured I’d wait another minute or so before getting up and checking things out. After another minute, I heard two more loud bangs in a row. At this point, I started to get up when Jay called me back from downstairs (I wasn’t shouting and didn’t get up right away because I was trying to get Alex fed and down for a nap). He asked if I was calling about the bangs and I responded, “Yes. Was that you?” He said it wasn’t and that he was wondering if a car had backfired. I decided to get up and investigate.

I walked out of Alex’s room and through the dining room windows, I saw the motherf*cking MAILTRUCK WAS ON FIRE.

“The mail truck! Fire!!” I yelled into the phone.
“What?” Jay replied, clearly confused by the very fast escalation in my tone and volume.
“The mail truck is on fire!!! Look outside! Fire! Call 911! Call someone!”

At this point, Jay had gone outside and seen the flames. He ran upstairs while dialing 911. For some frustrating reason, they were having trouble helping him. I heard him spelling the name of our street and trying to explain what was going on more than once.

I didn’t know what to do and it was seriously burning up in big flames right on our property line. I put Alex down in his crib and decided to run outside to see if the driver was still in there or if anyone needed help at all. I didn’t really have a plan, but I didn’t want someone to be seriously or mortally injured in front of my house, especially without trying to help them.

Thankfully, when I ran out front, a firetruck was already there and preparing to put it out. The driver was standing near the truck. He had seen smoke coming out of the hood while turning around at the end of the street. He pulled over and got out, grabbed his phone and called 911 just as the truck burst into flames. The bangs that I heard were likely the tires blowing.

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The Broadcast Ep. 2.33 “A Vibrator for Everything”

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Colleen

The latest episode of The Broadcast was released on Friday, and it’s a doozy. In a little over 90 minutes, we manage to pack in a ton of different topics, including 23andMe results, a fitness exchange (yoga for running tips), the contents of a Pure Romance package that a listener sent me (click here to visit The Broadcast’s Pure Romance “Party”), and a discussion on how it feels when you find out that someone who you thought liked you doesn’t like you. We also return to the gun control topic, which morphs into a talk about hunting and becoming a vegetarian and get some good lost-and-found stories from listeners.

You can listen to the latest episode via BlogTalk Radio, jayandjack.com, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play/Android, direct download, etc.

If you’re interested in doing 23andMe, here’s my referral link.

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Tex Mex Stuffed Bell Peppers

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Colleen
Now that the baby is a month old, we’ve settled into somewhat of a routine that’s worked well enough for the last week that it was time to try to make some new meals. My first attempt was a modified version of this recipe from Pinterest. The result? It was delicious and a big hit in this household. I loved it. I can’t wait to make it again. It didn’t even take that long. The longest thing was cleaning out the insides of the peppers. Here’s the recipe I did, made for a family of 3:
 
Ingredients:
  • 1lb lean ground turkey
  • 3 bell peppers (I used red but you can use red, yellow and/or orange)
  • 1 cup salsa
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup Mexican blend cheese
  • Sea salt (recommended 1/4 tsp but I did to taste)
  • Black pepper (recommended 1/2 tsp but I did to taste

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Remove the seeds, core, and membrane from the bell peppers. Slice each one in half.
  3. Cook the ground turkey, breaking it up as it cooks (like you would do for taco meat). Cook until it’s browned and cooked through. Drain any excess fat.
  4. In a large bowl, mix the cooked turkey with the salsa and spices.
  5. Evenly distribute the turkey/salsa mix into each bell pepper
  6. Sprinkle extra Mexican blend cheese on top
  7. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the bell peppers are hot.
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The Broadcast Ep. 2.32 “Get Out of My Box”

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Colleen

Another week, another new episode of The Broadcast is out. On this week’s episode, titled, “Get Out of My Box,” we start off lightly, discussing my (then future) visit to the Social Security Administration’s office to get Alex’s SS number, Amanda’s issues with the post office’s inconvenient hours for working people, and Shandy’s opportunity to audition to be an extra on “Big Little Lies.” We then move into some serious territory as we revisit a November discussion about gun control, school shootings, student walkouts, etc. The episode ends on a lighter note when we answer some feedback about objects being found in strange places or under crazy circumstances. All in all, it’s a solid ep.

You can listen to it here, here, or on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play/Android, etc.

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Happy Birthday to Me

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Colleen

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For as much as I love parties and the excuse to throw one, I have never been big about celebrating my birthday. It’s not that I don’t want to have a birthday or get older or whatever; it’s just that it’s 5 weeks after the holidays end, and until my 26th birthday, I celebrated in the cold New York winter, which is my least socially-motivating time of the year, haha. That, and it’s right before Valentine’s Day, so it’s generally a combo birthday/Valentines Day celebration.

These past two years have been a bit quiet on the birthday front. Last year, we were about to move, so the joke was that I “got a house for my birthday.” [Note: I love my house and want to live here for forever, so really, it was sort of the perfect birthday present from the universe. You can hear the crazy story about how we got this house at the beginning of this episode of The Broadcast; direct download here.] And, of course, this year, Jay was diagnosed with Flu type A and I was in very early labor.

I was a little bit bummed to not do anything for my birthday this year. Jay to the rescue! On Friday, February 23, we had make-up birthday day, where Jay & Zach threw me a birthday just as though it were my actual day. And it was pretty much the best birthday I’ve had in a long time, maybe ever.

It started when I woke up to balloons and decorations. They went all out, with the giant rose gold 34 balloons and rainbow decorations. Zach picked out some of the balloons and rainbow theme himself. 🙂 I LOVED IT.

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Alex is One Month Old!

Posted on March 10, 2018 by Colleen

Happy one-month birthday to our sweet little “29” baby, Alexander Thomas! These past four weeks have been an absolute pleasure getting to know him and there is still so much more to come.

Alex is a sweet-tempered baby who loves snuggles and is just learning to really smile. We can tell that he can see further distances now because things outside or across the room will catch his attention and he prefers to be held up over your shoulder so he can see what’s going on. He seems to want to be where the action is, but is content to watch it. He’s also a good sleeper and he, Mommy and Daddy all just survived his first big growth spurt, where all he wanted to do was eat and suddenly his newborn diapers are almost too small for him.

Our little baby is growing up so fast. <3 I love my boys.

We had a small one-month birthday party for Alex tonight. Party hats are left over from my birthday party, the post of which will be up within the next day or so.

Happy baby:

Podcasting with a sleepy Alex:

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Mattress Shoppin’

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Colleen

Jay and I are at one of those inevitable couples conundrums: disagreeing about mattresses. Jay HATES our current mattress and I hear about it every damn day and night. He needs no excuse to go in Zach’s room and sleep on his new, more comfortable mattress (a year old), haha.

While I freely admit that we don’t have the Rolls Royce of mattresses (it’s from a 2013 Groupon lol), I find it still comfortable enough not to bother me and don’t think we need a new mattress immediately. I am willing to be persuaded and am open to replacing the current one for the right mattress and price. My problem is that mattresses can be so darn expensive. I know investing in the right one can last a long time and make all of the difference in a good night’s sleep. We’ll check out Mattress Firm (where we got our suuuuuuper comfortable guest mattress) but other than that, I’m going to look online. I’ve heard of Casper since they advertise on literally every podcast ever haha but what are some other ones? Jay is a big advocate for Purple Mattress. Are there other good ones that are quality? If we’re going to drop money on a new king-sized mattress, it may as well be a good one that’s gonna last a while.

Anyone have any suggestions? Or even a promo code? I’m a side or stomach sleeper and Jay is a side sleeper. He has broad shoulders and wants a mattress that accommodates that. Thanks!

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