Mommy's Helper

One of the projects on my "to-do" list for the week is FINISH THE CRAFT ROOM!  After today I am ALMOST there!  Here's my little helper lounging with his toys while I organized and arranged twine, ribbon, and glitter:

Three Little Loves

Little Guy (decked out in his western gear) and I went out to visit Daddy on the ranch. For someone who LOVES dogs, he doesn't quite get the cattle yet.

After the ranch, we FINALLY got to meet baby Iris. She is so precious, just a little peanut. She looks nothing like her adoring big brother, but is a lucky little girl to look just like her mommy. Here's a quick shot of our three little loves.

Sweet little bum

Today marked the beginning of covering this sweet tush

with these new babies! 

What's that I hear in the distance?!? Heckling?!? Yes, I was a naysayer to cloth before, but I've changed my tune, and I've been assured that the benefits will far outweigh the burden. It's even been said that I may ENJOY laundering Little Guy's cloth diapers...I am pretty excited to get him into his first "fluff" tomorrow morning!

NASCAR

Today my husband made his 2012 resolution: to become a NASCAR fan.  In true resolution fashion, he invested four plus hours watching the Daytona 500 and is JAZZED for his new hobby.  Somewhere between lap 9 and 190, he mentioned it would be cool if Little Guy was a racecar driver; I assured him it would most certainly NOT be cool for my baby to take up a sport that puts him hurling down a track at 200+ miles an hour, whizzing past dozens of other cars, avoiding accidents, fires, and flying debris.  No, he's not going to be racecar driver.  In an effort to distract Little Guy from his potential racecar driving future, I gave him a pot and a spoon.  Now what's better than a racecar driver?  That's right, a drummer.  Give me a few months and I'll probably add drummer to the list of occupations I hope my child does not pursue, but right now it's darling...and he connects on only about one out of every ten swats.

Anniversaries, Birthdays, and Babies, Oh My!

In the last three days we have celebrated the birth of baby Iris, the 63rd wedding anniversary of great grandma and grandpa fitz, and g'pa Tim's 57th birthday- WOW!  What a lucky family we are to be surrounded by such wonderful examples of everlasting love, and to be able to celebrate new lives and honor great lives being lived.  Family party dynamics are starting to change and come full circle with the additions of Little Guy, Brayden, Averie and Chloe.  It reminds me of 20 years ago when there were babies everywhere!  We caught three of the four little beans for a picture:

Little Guy getting cozy with his lady friends Averie and Chloe at the anniversary party.

All of these celebrations haven't left much time for bathes (we remedied that this evening!), which has led to some stylish morning hair dos:

Little Guy continues to want to crawl, he just hasn't quite figured it out yet.  He can successfully get out of his bumbo chair (it's still a mystery how, he seems to do when I have my back to him) and spin circles on the floor (I am pretty sure he'll cover college tuition with a full ride break-dancing scholarship). 

Highlights for this coming week include Baby Jackson turning "1" and meeting Baby Iris, plenty of pictures to come, I am sure!

It's magical

Little Guy is IN LOVE with our two dogs. He's not just curious or intrigued by them; he is fascinated and infatuated with them. Full meltdowns can be cured by a glance at Olive and giggles erupt every time he sees Winston. Today Olive played mother hen and sat next to Little Guy while he played, just keeping an eye out on everything. Little Guy is practicing "gentle", something I am sure Olive and Winston will welcome. Little Guy's usual approach to harassing petting the dogs is to grab a handful of fur, lean forward, and put an open mouth right on their backs, filling his mouth with dog hair while simultaneously pulling hair out.

He's getting to be Mr. Independent when it comes to play time.  He's happy to just hang out with his toy bucket, discovering new noises and tricks.  I love to watch him and see the excitement in his face when a ball rolls or a rattle clanks.  How cool is it that everyday even the smallest of things is something completely new to him, and he is SO eager to see it all.  The novelty he sees in the mundane wears off on me, and it makes every day seem magical.

72 degrees and a new baby on the way

It was 72 degrees today.  In February. Craziness.  I know we need the rain, but Little Guy and I were pretty excited to play outside in this awesome sunshine. 

It should be sunny skies all week, so I think our bubble machine and stroller will get plenty of use.  Along with enjoying this great weather, we are getting ready to welcome Henry's new brother or sister any day now.  We can't wait to meet baby G.  

They're Here!

Girl Scout Cookies (thanks Mads!)

Highlights of our day:

1.  Girl Scout Cookies arrived!

2.  Little Guy weighs 17 pounds 10 ounces! 

3.  Blowing bubbles in the 70 degree weather!

4.  All the backyard cement is poured and we LOVE it!

Low lights from our day:

1.  Two of the five boxes of Girl Scout Cookies are gone, and my hubby hasn't had any yet.

2.  Little Guy had to get shots today; breaks my heart every time.

3.  There's no low light to bubbles in 70 degree weather or beautiful new cement.

4.  PICNIK is closing in April and I am already hyperventilating!  Subway art creation in FULL gear!

This is my latest creation for my grandparents' 63rd anniversary!  A little mod podge and canvas, and it will be all done.  Thanks to Mother Huddle for the great subway art tutorial.

Bubbles and Beer Pong

At the end of my day, my heart is happy, my brain smarter.

This makes my heart happy:

This makes my brain smarter:

Two things I learned today while wondering the great aisles of Safeway:

1. They actually sell ping pong balls on the beer aisle, for all your beer pong needs.
2. Those signs that warn you that your cart has been equipped with a self locking wheel device if you should try to take the cart out of the parking lock, ya well, IT'S TRUE!  There I was, combining my cardio with my errands, parking at Target, shopping in Safeway, pushing my cart FILLED with our weekly groceries, when the wheels locked up.  Not only did they lock up to push forward, they locked up to move in any direction.  I was forced to lug all my groceries, in the dark, to my car, across the parking lot.  Silver lining- Little Guy was home sleeping with Daddy. 

A great day begins at Black Bear Diner

You know you're going to have a great Sunday when it starts with breakfast at Black Bear Diner and a trip to the local hardware store.  Little Guy always loves a trip in Daddy's truck.

Our family had quite the productive day cleaning out the shed, organizing the garage, and picking up the side yard.  Little Guy has been having a hard time getting enough sleep with all the house projects going on, so he was less than happy to spend the day doing chores.  Between the meltdowns and the golf TV breaks (Little Guy and the hubby, respectfully), it was nothing short of amazing that we ALMOST got all of our chores checked off our list.  Little Guy ended his day with a nap, and I am pretty sure we weren't even out of our circle before he was sound sleep.

PLAY dates

Today Little Guy is 6 months old!  Happy half birthday buddy. 

Our house is in construction mode; the pool is getting a face lift and our windows are being replaced with beautiful white double pane goodness. 

Because of these projects, our house is not conducive to sleep right now, so Little Guy's buddy, Lizzy Bug, let us crash at her house today for nap time.  Here are our little loves at roughly 1 month, three months, and six months:

Miss Lizzy Bug is just as big as Little Guy now and they are finally aware of each other, making our play dates, well, actual PLAY dates!

Almost half way

Usually it's a sigh of relief to be almost half way...almost half way home, almost half way done with chores, almost half way to your savings goal.  But when that "almost half way" proceeds "to one year old", it's bittersweet.  This Saturday Little Guy will be six months old, or half way to one year! 

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? 

In honor of his almost half birthday, here are a few noted milestones Little Guy recently achieved:
1.  His hair can now legitimately be brushed, parted and styled- styled may be a stretch, but it can go from geeky side part to punky spike during bath time.
2.  He can roll, scoot, and acquire just about anything he wants, presuming it's on the floor and doesn't move itself- the dogs are still safe, for now.
3.  He is a bit of a chatterbox (he's certainly not my son!), and the louder the better when he's "telling" a story.
4.  This guy has learned to kiss and I can't get enough of 'em, tongue, slobber and all.
5.  He may detest not be into eating foods just yet, but he LOVES his high chair and all the toys that come with it.

Happy Almost Half Birthday Little Guy.  We love you!



Love is in the air

Happy Valentine's Day.  In true lover's fashion, my dear hubby brought me Valentine's Day breakfast in bed, love.  Not wanting to ruin this relaxing trend, I decided Little Guy and I would treat today as a lazy leisure day.  I could not find my motivation ANYWHERE, so instead of humming around the house not doing our chores, we went to the park.

We're trying out a different nap schedule, oh help us...but with that new schedule, comes a slightly later bedtime.  I can't decide how I feel about a later bedtime- right now Little Guy happily goes down at 6:00 on the dot, no worries.  But he hasn't been staying asleep for very long, so we're changing it up a little and tonight he napped from 5:30 to 6:15, bedtime at 7:30.  It took him a lot longer (40 plus minutes of rocking/soothing) to fall asleep, but we'll see if it makes a long term difference. 

When did I become the woman so obsessed with napping and sleeping, that she would write a whole boring paragraph about it?!?  I am not sure, but I imagine it won't be the last paragraph I write on the subject.  In the meantime, I'll try to keep it more exciting...Thursday I am hosting the first play group for six to twelve month old babes...if that's not exciting, then I don't know what is ;)

Jackhammering, IKEA, No Naps, Ear Wax...

What do these all have in common?  They were all a part of our weekend, and needless to say, it was a loud weekend at that.  The pool project is coming along quickly, which is a good thing, since mommy is wearing thin with the interrupted nap schedule.  IKEA on a Saturday is always a gamble, even when you get there promptly at the opening hour.  And when you travel all that way for two brackets and somehow in the WHOLE ENTIRE STORE there is only one bracket, well, let's just say it makes for a long drive home.  To help offset the feeling of defeat, I went ahead and bought a heaping cart full of crap valuable items that I am sure I will find some use for when I realize, that I do in fact, need another glass jar to hold some cherished craft supply.  Between jackhammering, IKEA, and project window replacement ( thank you Dad), Little Guy got next to nothing when it came to quality nap time, which in turn led to a bad night's sleep, leading to a grumpy baby and a repeat of this cycle for two days...I hate to say it a loud, but tonight is already shaping up better than the last two, so let's hope that Little Guy is feeling the Valentine's Day spirit and showing his mommy some love.  The ear wax sealed up the weekend- Auntie Katie came to visit (we hadn't seen her since her raging vacay to Mexico- Little Guy wasn't sure who the bronzed beauty was when she got here) and we tried to clean Daddy's ears.  We didn't have the right tools and he wasn't a very agreeable patient, but it made Auntie Katie and me laugh!  Alas, we also threw in a nice walk with Daddy (in an effort to lull Little Guy to sleep) and some play dates with friends and family.  Here's to a Valentine's Day week filled with SLEEP, SLEEP and more SLEEP...and love, for all of you without a cranky newborn in your house.

Crafting...

I am very lucky to be a stay at home mom.  My dear husband goes to work to support us and I get to raise our little guy, plus I get to craft while he's sleeping.  Today my hubby came home during nap time, and there I was in my heavenly craft niche.  He looked at me and said, "I thought you stopped crafting".  This was funny because we had JUST finished revamping said craft niche, like five days ago.  So no, I had not stopped crafting, but he remembered me giving away A LOT of scrapbooking stuff a while back.  I laughed and explained that scrapbooking was crafting, but crafting was not just scrapbooking.  He doesn't get it.  In the meantime, I need to stop perusing the DIY blogs as there just aren't enough hours in the day.  Tonight's project, mod podging our family rules...hopefully I'll have pictures to post tomorrow.

Boot Scootin' Boogie

It was only a few scoots, but they were scoots nonetheless.  The dogs were playing next to Little Guy, and when they took off, so did he...okay, he didn't really take off, but he did scoot forward twice.  Of course you'll have to take my word for, since he showed no interest in even rolling over when his daddy got home.  Today, two scoots...tomorrow, the world.

Only Little Once

Today we met baby Brayden- seeing a two-month-old baby (who is, ironically, the same weight at two months old as Little Guy was at BIRTH) lying next to Little Guy made me realize just "how fast it goes by". I used to snicker at the cliche saying, politely smiling when strangers asked me how old my newborn son was, advising me to "cherish every minute, it goes by so fast". Well, I was that stranger today, and as soon as the words tumbled out of my mouth, I was snickering at myself, at the fact I had become a part of the cliche. IT DOES GO BY WAY TOO FAST!!! I applaud all the milestones, the smiles, the coos, and I wonder aloud when Little Guy will crawl, walk, and talk. But I don't want it to happen today, tomorrow or anytime soon. Holding baby Brayden, all snuggled up on my chest, reminded me that they only get bigger...so I remind myself tonight, just like I do every time I find myself devoting time to frivolous things, that they are only little once, and I know I don't want to look back and wish I had done more to cherish every minute, as cliche as it sounds.

Everyone's doing it...

blogging that is.  Not one to miss a trend, I am a little shocked that I am just now getting into blogging.  I've recently been spending my free time (a very SCARCE amount of time) perusing mommy blogs, finding inspiration for craft projects and keeping myself awake during those midnight feedings, and 3 am feedings, and 5 am feedings...Little Guy is going through a growth spurt, mommy through a case of  sleep deprivation.  I think it's that lack of sleep that has fueled my fire to start blogging- that, and my desire to document EVERYTHING about this new journey through mommyhood.  So here I go, with my son 13 days shy of 6 months, ready to capture it all here, for eternity...or until I wise up and decide some things are best left untyped.