5 on Friday

{one}
Pink & Yellow.
1st Birthday Party preparation is in full swing.  As pink & yellow is my color scheme, I feel like I'm seeing the two colors together everywhere.  I find myself hearing this song in my head while strolling the isles of Target, Home Goods or Party City as I look for items for the party.  Humor me and listen to the chorus and say Pink & Yellow instead of Black & Yellow.

{two}
Basil Plants 2.0
Since I killed off my first basil plant, I sent out an SOS to my parents on what to do.  They went a hunt for a sturdier basil plant and found 2 viable options.  This past Sunday, my Dad came over and replanted them for me as well.  Thank God my parents have a green thumb! Here's hoping I do better with my Basil Plant 2.0

{three}
Oh Kale Yeah
One of my besties Anita is a Vegan and champion for the plant-based diet.  Over the past few months, I think I have seen her eat every type of vegetable the Whole Foods has to offer.  Most days at lunch, she entertains the questions of "what are you eating?" "did you make that?" and "that's kale, right?"  With Brad out of town this week, I decide to get some kale and give it a whirl.  Of course, Anita was thrilled and was armed with lots of tips.  Homemade kale chips here we come!

{four}
Kitchen Revamp.
As mentioned earlier this week, we had the interior of our house painted. With new paint, comes new decor!  In preparation for the new paint, I had picked up some new accessories for the foryer area and living room but completely forgot about the kitchen.  For some reason, I guess I thought that what I had decorated the tops of kitchen cabinets with back in 2007 was going to work with this new color.  Wrong!  As soon as I took these decorations down, I started to hate them.  That's how it is when you are redecorating - you instantly start to hate what you've had for years simply because you are so excited about the change.  Thanks to a few Visa gift cards I got for my birthday from my girlfriends & Home Goods, I was able to start revamping the Kitchen accessories immediately.  Lovin' the new look so far!

{five}
Last Day of Pumping!
I know, TMI.  Deal with it.  So, where's my medal?  We get a medal for doing this whole nursing & pumping for a year, right?  No medal? Oh, ok.  A prize?  We get a prize, right?  No prize?  What?  No medal, no prize, no nothing?  So, remind why I did this again?  Oh yeah, because I wanted to.

One thing that I have learned since the moment that I was pregnant is that motherhood is all about doing what works for you and sometimes simply just survival.  No matter what you do - natural childbirth vs epidural, breastfeeding vs formula or cosleeping vs sleep training etc - no one is going to give you "something" as a reward - no medal, no prize, no award.  All you get is the satisfaction knowing that you did the BEST THAT YOU COULD for you and your baby.  Seriously.  Think on it.  It's so easy to sit judgement of other mothers and what they are doing when you are having one of those supermom days yourself.  Believe me, I've done it more times than I would like to admit.  When fellow new moms or other pregnant women ask for advice, I've found myself telling them this: Do you what you can and what works for you and your family.  I made the decision to nurse Eloise as long as I could from the beginning.  I would take it day by day, week by week, and month by month.  Now that we are staring at the finishing line, I feel great that I made it this far and I'm ready to be done with whole nursing lifestyle completely in the coming weeks.  Real talk?  I may run my car over the pump just to show it who's boss for once.