Is there a pause button somewhere?

Since last week, baby N has started to crawl. Today, I noticed her first tooth. I'm starting to feel panicky about how fast this little girl of mine is growing up. It doesn't help that her growth spurt shows no sign of slowing down. She's now out of her baby car seat and so we are encountering the stage of carrying around a mobile baby. This typically isn't problematic until you go to church and you have no place to put said child, especially during nap time. Add in the fact that S and I both have obligations during the second hour and it's becoming increasingly difficult to figure out what to do with her. Right now we are relying on the kindness of strangers and friends.

I have to say it took me a while to get this video. #1 kept jumping in and distracting N from crawling, or he would make obnoxious noises in the background that I didn't care to share with the world. Such is the role of a big brother, I suppose.



I wonder if it's any coincidence that baby N started crawling only a day after we took in a friend's cat while she is away on vacation. Maybe the cat inspired N. They both have become the little escape artists, as evidenced by these next two pictures.




It's a good thing we don't have a pet monkey, although #1 could qualify as one some days.

Hi, my name is ... and I'm a negligent blogger

This summer is flying by and I can barely catch my breath to document some of our comings and goings. My friends are moving away, my family is in town, and there's things to do outside because the weather is perfect. I find myself wistfully watching the days slip by. Perhaps I don't feel like blogging much because I don't want to see how much has happened already.

We recently said goodbye to our good friends, the Dyers, who left for a post-doc in Alabama. They followed the Bybees, which I didn't really write much about because A- it's too painful and B- we still see them since Chicago isn't that far away. The day the Bybees left, #1 and Preston held hands when they walked back to our house for the last time. I still wish I had gotten a picture. But they recently came back down on the fourth of July weekend to celebrate Preston's birthday at the pool. That was probably the only outdoor thing we got to do as it rained the rest of the time. No parade + fireworks postponed = not much to do other than have some friends over for an indoor bbq. I still have a stash of illegal fireworks I need to detonate somewhere- contact me for suggestions :).

The day before the Dyers moved we had the girls over and they were entertained by the Wii Grandma brought down with her. Aunt C lead everyone in some group exercises and it was the funniest thing I had seen in a long time. Here's a clip.



The pirates attacking the green monster.


Here's some pictures of Grandma. When #1 saw these, he said "Mommy, Grandma is really old." Apparently my mom needs to stop making disparaging comments about herself everytime she sees a picture with her in it.

Baby N testing out our garage sale finds.






So the nice thing about living where I do is that although our friends move away, we do have a constant influx of new ward members. This little boy moved in a week or so ago. #1 and him ran around with some laser tag gear proclaiming themselves the "viberators"- their words, not mine. The head gear vibrates when you've been hit, so it wasn't totally random.





Baby N's hair is finally getting long enough for some accessories. She is the happiest baby!! Love this girl. Almost crawling, but mostly backward scooting- she still gets around enough to get into trouble.



She still has her rooster tail- very reminiscent of Alfalfa.


Girls are so fun. I actually had to restrain myself from posting more pictures than this. SO CUTE!!!






The sad part at this point is I have barely scratched the surface of what I have yet to post. We'll get there :)

#1ism of the day: "Mommy you have to wake up!! It's 45 o'clock on Saturmorning!"

Apparently some lessons on time and days are in order...

A Comparison

Baby #1 taking his first bite:

Baby N taking her first bite:

Baby #1 jumping (can't get enough of it! Too bad our camera skills are sub par)

Baby N jumping (not as into it- but still likes it okay)

We're Playing

With Aunt Chandy in town and Grandma D arriving tonight, blogging is probably going to be sparse the next few months. We're playing...A LOT...and Chand is babysitting...A LOT. Hopefully we won't abuse her kindness too much. Garage saling, birthday parties, random swapping of furniture and other festivities have been soaking up a lot of our time lately. Here's a few pictures taken inbetween the madness.
Maybe some swimming lessons are in order...

We love Aunt Chandy!



Baby N seemed to like the water just fine and #1 had a blast.

Chand and I have been making the rounds on the weekend and picked up this little (actually kind of big) beauty. The guy selling it had a sign in his garage that was not very noticable, but luckily Chand saw it so we took a look. Only $90 and when the family moves he's going to sell me 4 more chairs. We've already had some friends over for ice cream (they graciously went along with being enlisted to help us move the monstrousity) and played several games on it. There's a hidden leaf and storage in the middle- I'm in love! Luckily we sold our other table the same day (pocketed $175- not bad for the condition it was in). I love garage sales.
Out with the old... (It actually doesn't look so bad in this picture, but the base rocked on our tile floor and the top was really damaged- S also hated the chairs because he didn't feel like they were sturdy enough to stand on).


In with the new!


Here's some pictures of another project I've finished since I've had an extra set of hands to help with the kids. My father-in-law brought back a beautiful scarf from a recent trip to India and I wanted to frame it since it matched the colors in my living room, but I couldn't find a shadow box with the right stain or shape (not to mention price). I picked up this at Ikea and scraped off the coating and it works great! Only $6.99 too!

Before


Scraping off the coating- easy but messy.


It looks better than this, but it was hard to get a picture without a reflection. The embroidery is uneven too, so it made it a little difficult, but I love the overall look. Thanks Grandpa!

It's all about the kids

This past weekend we were up in Chicago visiting with our good friends, the Bybees, and picking up Aunt Chandra from the airport. Both Aunt Chandra and Grandma Dorothy will be staying over the summer (the joys of being a teacher) and we could not be more excited. Literally every other word out of #1's mouth is "Aunt Chandra!" We're glad we got a sublet for them, otherwise we'd be facing some serious kid burnout.

Kid Update

#1

#1 just went to check out his preschool for the fall with me this morning. I'm so excited for him to get more group interaction, which I think will be really good for him. This past Sunday, they were playing a "Squash the Bug" game where the kids could come up and punch through a paper bug to get instructions from a little paper note on the other side. #1 really wanted to be picked and was excited when it was his turn. He wound up ready to strike when the teacher told him "Not too hard now." For some reason, #1 completely crumbled and ran back to me crying and even refused to do it when the teacher tried to give him a second chance. Granted he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before because we had been getting back from the airport with Chandra, but still I think this is an area where preschool could help. He also tends to be intimidated by large groups. Hopefully, more exposure to correction and competition will help him overcome his fears. It helps that a lot of kids he already knows will be in the same preschool as him too. He didn't want to leave from there this morning, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

He is getting much better at standing up for himself though. The other day we were on the playground with one of his friends and #1 went down the slide when his friend didn't want him too. His friend began to yell at him and I prepared myself for a meltdown where I'd end up intervening. I was surprised instead to see #1 hold his ground and yell back at his friend without crying. I know this sounds strange- most people would think I'm encouraging misbehavior, but I'd rather have my son learn to work out his own problems than come crying to me every time something goes wrong. He didn't hit or insult and with a little adjustment on the volume, he's well on his way.

Some #1isms:

Aunt Chandra was playing "red light, green light" with #1 and explaining the rules.

C: When I say red light, you freeze!
#1: But Aunt Chandra, I don't like to freeze- I want to stop instead.

Talking about life after death
#1: I don't want to go to heaven!
Me: Why not?
#1: Because then I'll fall down, down, DOWN!!" (I don't remember mentioning heaven as being upwards oddly)

#1: I want to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house! (a common complaint)
Me: Honey, riding an airplane costs a lot of money so it's something that we don't get to do very often.
#1: Well, what if we take a jet instead? (Apparently airplanes and jets are two very different things)
Me: That'd probably cost more than an airplane.
#1: *thinking* Well, maybe we could take a hangglider.

Baby N

I've decided babies should come out at 6 months old. If it weren't for the size issue (I'd be having a 20 pound newborn at this point), I would totally be campaigning to Heavenly Father about it. Newborns are exhausting! I finally feel sane since N is sleeping through the night and by that, I mean more than 5 hours in a row. Seriously, whoever said that a baby is considered as sleeping through the night when they hit 5 hour intervals has obviously never met me after 5 hours of sleep. N is adorable at this stage. Such a happy, content baby- she reminds me a lot of #1 as a baby. She's been rolling for a while now and has just started getting up on her knees and rocking. She's ready to go and even is doing some backward scooting! We all can't stop kissing her. The only things she has shown a dislike for are pack and plays and rice cereal. She won't sleep in them to save her life and I'm thinking she's going to end up like #1 as far as food preferences. #1 started out on licorice (blame Grandma D) and bananas. She's definitely interested in food though as evidenced by sticking her hand in a bowl of cocktail sauce and a lemon meringue pie the other day. A girl after my own heart.

Really?

My dear husband made this correlation when I brought these binkies home.

Mission Accomplished- George Bush Style

So it's been 2 weeks...and I'm not quite done with the guest room. But I'm done with it for the time being- I need a break! The roman shades aren't done and the night stand still needs to be refinished. I discovered that the night stand has 3 coats of paint on it and probably will be a labor of love- I don't want to do a rush job on it. As for the shades, my serger's tension is off and I need my mom to show me how to fix it. Excuses, excuses.

This has been a fun adventure though. The first day was a bit of a trial. The person who decorated the dream room mentioned the paint color she used and so I decided against my better judgment to just go ahead and copy that. The paint looked like baby poop. So, strike one. I then proceeded to try and dye some fabric to make it more khaki colored and less light yellow. This was the result:

This is such a good idea!

Hmmm...maybe it'll lighten once I rinse it out.

Yeahhh...that's not going to work.


I should know better. My mom is notorious for dying things and I think I can count on one hand (maybe one finger) the number of successes she has had in doing so. She's dyed shoes, outfits, you name it. The only thing I've ever liked was a leather coat- it looked even better when the dye wore off a bit because it gave the leather a really nice distressed look. So you live and learn. Don't dye things.

Continuing on with my first day (we're on strike two now), I decided to go back to the paint and try to salvage it by lightening it with some extra white paint I had laying around. I got a lighter baby poop color. Nice. In my anger I ended up dropping the entire can on my bathroom floor. Needless to say I just about gave up then and there. Luckily, the following day fared better.

I followed my initial instincts and went with a different paint color. #1 helped me paint an accent wall and we had a lot of fun doing so. He helped me quite a bit with the painting and although it was a little nerve-wracking at times, he did a great job overall.
You can see the baby poop paint higher up here.

My cute little helper.

Baby N watched from afar.


The headboard needed some help. I got this for free off craigslist, but there was a nasty hole in the backing that someone presumably to put some cords through. It looked like a rat had chewed through it. I wanted to do a cheap new backing, so I picked up this seagrass rug at Ikea for $5 and spray painted it black. After painting the headboard, I stapled the rug on as a backing. I love how this turned out!
Before

The rug...


Total cost- $6


Since I had the spray paint out, I also painted this lamp I got at a garage sale for $2. I liked the shape, but it was dark brown with a strange shade. I ended up getting the shade new for around $7. Total cost for the perfect lamp- $9. A little more than I would have liked, but I didn't have much time to shop around.



A while back I had gotten these frames for free at a garage sale. I wasn't keen on the print inside, so I used some old photos I had laying around and got them resized at Walmart for $2. I didn't want to pay for custom mats to make them fit, so I just glued the photos onto a white backing and it turned out pretty good. Total cost- $2.



Proceeding to the pillows. I got some large down-filled pillows for free from a Zion's market at church and resized them to fit my needs. It was REALLY messy and I have a feeling I'll be finding stray feathers for a long time coming- I even found one in the fridge today.


Walmart was clearancing off their fabric and trims, so I made the middle two pillows and sewed some black trim on them to replicate those in the dream room. The rectangular pillow is a pillow sham I got on clearance from TJ Maxx that I cut in half. Total cost for all the pillows came to $15. The throw I made from fabric I found in the store and then I used some microfiber curtains I wasn't using anymore to line the back. Total cost was $7. The bedskirt I got for free off the internet during a promotion a while back. The most expensive purchase was for the down comforter that I got on clearance from Target. Overall, I'm pretty pleased though.


Lastly, I got this television stand for free from a friend. It was in great shape, but the top had some marks and the color was a little off. I used the leftover paint from the accent wall ($12) and called it good.


I wanted a little more lighting than just one lamp, so I picked up this wall sconce for $1 at a garage sale. We hacksawed a strange thing off of it that reminded me of a Cootie bug (think swirly and strange) and presto- a normal sconce.


So, all in all I spent around $60. Not bad considering that includes most of the furniture (end table from Garage sale- additional $10). I'm pretty pleased with how it all came together.


Maybe not as good as this...

but definitely better than this...