Joe cool sleeping

A few weeks ago, we found my scripture quad, my CD, and my son's sunglasses, they were lost during the move. It was a dream come true. My son slept with his sunglasses, and woke up the next morning, coming into my room with them.

The Thanksgiving Post

First to start it off the turkey! (I wish I had little resin pilgrims and indians in my thanksgiving decorations, but I don't. I have tried looking for them with no success. No one sells thanksgiving things. I think I might try two last stores on Friday, better late than never, then give up until next year.)

My thanksgiving thoughts-- what I am thankful for:
1. My religion
2. My family, specifically my two boys,

but also I am grateful for the families my husband and I grew up in, although since I now have my own family I appreciate them more.
3. My country, my liberty
4. The fact that I did not have a preterm baby!
5. Did I mention my son? he gives the sweetest kisses, and hugs

6. Did I mention my husband?

(I had never seen this picture before I found it on my computer today. Taken in the line of duty as a scout master.)
7. That this is my second pregnancy so I know there is an end insight.
8. I'm also grateful that I have a place to live, my husband has a job, I have food to eat, all the material stuff, but I don't think any material stuff would matter if it was for the previous blessings.

I know I don't appreciate my family enough, I try to appreciate my son enough but I'm sure one day I'll look back and think I missed it. Although that's not really my personality, I figure I did the best I did at the time. President Monson words, from October 2008 Conference on Sunday Morning have been popping in my head for the last month and half.

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

I know I will miss the tiny fingerprints so I try to soak that up, but I have a hard time believing I will miss the toys EVERYWHERE and all the laundry. I am not yet to the point of trying to appreciate the laundry, but I am trying to not hate the toys. I do appreciate when my son puts away his clothes without the threat that I will take away his Thomas underwear, does that count? I also appreciate having a washer and dryer within the locks of my house. This is the first time in my marriage I haven't had to walk outside my front door to do laundry and boy do I love it, even if my laundry has doubled for some reason.
There is nothing like looking through my photos to make me realize how fast life goes by. If I didn't already think about enough I can't believe how big my son is getting.

Plumbing with Dad

Our kitchen sink has been stopping up for a while now, I thought my husband knew, and it is a rental so I have been ignoring it. He didn't know, when he did found out last night during the dishes, he got himself into some serious business, which ended up costing the whole evening, $35, and two hours of work in the morning. Luckily my son had the time of his life last night, plumbing with dad. I normally don't post videos, but the second video is one the most favorite clips I have ever taken of my son. He loved every minute of plunging with dad.

Bye Bye Mop

The other day was hair cutting day for the boys in my house. My husband shaved his head first then my son's. This is a before shot. He has curly hair, as far as I've been able to piece together he is the first small child to have curly hair in two generations. His paternal grandfather has curly hair, as does his maternal grandma. And although I think his hair looked fantastic the day we decided to cut it, it rarely looked this good, and it was getting very long on the sides. I'm not that good of a hair cutter to trim everything, because once the sides got trimmed the top would have been too long. Usually his hair just looked like a messy mop, from bedhead and such. I have no idea what to do with small child boy curly hair, other than gel, and I'm not much of a gel fan for small boys.

Here is the after, it was sad to see the curls on the ground. Although his eyes are much more noticeably brown and big now (where as before the were noticeable but melted into the other brown on his head).

Pictures are no indicator, but while my husband was shaving the boy's head, I said I think he has my family's color of hair, its not the right shade for your family. My husband agreed.

Date Night

My super nice sister in law, called up my husband on Friday and offered to babysit our child so we could go out before our offspring double in quantity. My husband said we could go anywhere other than the new Twilight movie. I assumed he meant he wasn't willing to go see it, but he said no because its sold out. I said I don't care, I want to go see Quantum of Solace. (I read the Twilight Books, but I disliked the last book so much, I don't know if I want to go see the movie of the first. Although she is the author I've decided Stephenie Meyer and I have a very different view of the books. She played a large role in developing the film from what the paper said, so I don't know if I want to see her ruin the series more.) Back to Bond, so I've been very excited to see Quantum of Solace since I first saw the preview on Apple. Enjoyed the previous much more than any other James Bond movie.
So we went to the theater and parked near the homeless shelters and wondered if our car would still be there when we got back, and based on the remains of a few bikes parked near by it wouldn't. I've never seen bikes so stripped and mangled in my life. The theater was filled with hoards of middle age woman and teenaged girls standing in the way being pests. There was a super long like to get our tickets ripped, we figured it was only for Twilight, so we walked up, then realized maybe its for all. Since our movie was about to start we said the heck with it, and walked to the theaters anyway. Since it was a large movie complex we got lost, and a nice manager with an accent stopped to help us. He said we were down the wrong corridor, then he said oh your problem is you haven't had your tickets ripped yet. Brent said, yup, and the man pointed us in the right direction. I found it hysterical, the manager was all confused why our tickets weren't ripped and Brent was just agreed with him. It was the highlight of our date.
I very much enjoyed the movie, but wished I would have seen Casino Royale more recently. But still the highlight of the night was the manager trying to figure out why our tickets weren't ripped. That an evening alone with my husband.

Mommy confession

I absolutely hate pop up books. I can't handle the stress of me wanting to keep them looking nice, and my son wanting to use them. He is normally pretty careful, but lets be honest he is two, so some have had a lot of repairs. I hate pop up books with a passion, but that doesn't mean anything, anyone who wants to buy one for my son is still allowed.
(I have gotten over my play-doh phobias, marker phobias, paint phobias but not pop up books. That is not entirely true, the paints are still kept out of reach as is the play-doh, and he has never gotten to play with more than one color of play-doh at a time. But I've finally allowed him to keep his markers himself. I felt guilty because he hid them from me, so I couldn't take them away when he was done. He hasn't done anything bad with them to warrant me taking them away so now he gets to keep them.) My poor child his mother is psychotic. I can't help it, I don't like play-doh colors mixed, I am afraid of art mediums on the wall, and I hate bent pop up books.

Happy Holidays

As I have already mentioned I have way too much holiday material in my house. So I used some of material to make a fall/thanksgiving apron, and a Christmas apron. The first is thanksgiving if you couldn't tell.

My favorite part, the jack o lantern on the back of the neck. It was no accident.

The Christmas one.

The material was rather dark and busy and needed something to break it up, so I used the lace I had bought but decided not to use for something else. I love the way it turned out, maybe its a little grandmaish, but I think it adds to the retroness of the print. Plus it reminds me of a scalloped design on a cookie, or frosting trim on a gingerbread house.

I've been wanting to make a birthday apron for months now, but haven't been able to find any good material for it. I saw one at a store for a large lump sum and thought it was a cute idea. I thought my small children would think it was fun if their mom had a special birthday apron for their birthdays. I know that sounds cheesy but none the less, I decided to jump on board. So now I'm well on my way to having an every holiday apron. I now need to go get some clearanced Halloween material so I can be ready for next year.

Emerging Literacy

Often time I tell my sister stories about my kid, her response is I love emerging literacy. She knows all terms because of her PhD efforts in education psychology. So here are the latest stories, recorded for posterity.
First off sometimes when I'm trying to use the computer my son gets obsessed with trying to find the J on the keyboard. Especially when I tell him I'm talking (chatting) to daddy. Once he has the J he usually is interested in other important letters like the S, etc.
He loves to "write" there is a clear difference between his drawing pictures or coloring pictures and the "words" he has written with markers.
A few weeks ago he got this little card and wrote on it. It had his words on it, he carried it around for a day, when he said, "mom read this". (I had no idea how to read what he wrote.)
He still likes looking at board books, with one picture and one word on each page. (He has a varied taste from infant books, up to chapter books.) In an effort to get him to suck his thumb less in my presence I started having him "read" the one word per page books to me. By this age he obviously know what a banana is, or what a flower is, and other simple objects.
The other day he got a bunch of little one word books at his cousin's house and said, "mom read this". I said how about you read them to me, then his cousin who is about 14 months younger than him came up, and wanted to join in the action, so I said how about you read them to her, that would be so big of you to read to her. He "read" the books, he had never seen before.
I thought all of this was uneventful until the next day we were reading a book with more than one word per page, but none the less he could "help" me read it, by filling in what each animal is on the page, then I read the description. Well this apparently opened up a whole new world to him, because I found him in his room later that day, "reading" the same book. It is about a caterpillar that is trying to figure out what he will grow up to be. I heard my kid says, a lion, no, flip the page, a bear, no, flip the page, etc, a butterfly, yea!! I was so proud, it was the first time I had heard him read a book out loud with words I understand. Who knew I was emerging his literacy until after I heard him read, I'm a Little Caterpillar. I will have to remember November 18, 2008 was the day my son "read" his first book.

Dentistry

For the past two years I have gotten very conflicting information about children and scheduling trips to the dentist. Long story short, my son went to the dentist yesterday for the first time, whether we waited too long or not I have no earthly idea. At first I didn't want to go to a Pediatric Dentist because I didn't want one more medical number, but finally I decided he needed a check up, so I went with a Pedodontic. I was expecting it would take months to get in, so I figured if I scheduled now we would make it before the third birthday. Surprisingly, they offered me an appointment for the next day. I talked to him about going to the dentist after I got off the phone. Then we talked about it on the way. I told him everything that would happen, comparing it to a normal doctor so he could relate. (Very similar in my opinion, a nurse/hygienist comes out, does all the work, the doctor/dentist comes and checks.) He was absolutely awesome the whole time. He got a sticker before they started, then he sat there perfectly still while the hygentist cleaned, opened when he was suppose to, closed when he was suppose to. Our hygentist was very kid friendly so it was probably for the best to go to a pedodontic practice, I've had some very sterile (no pun intended, as in lacking in stimulating emotional or intellectual quality) hygienists before. He was cavity free, so that made me happy. Since I have only one child I still take things personal, I was afraid they were going to say his teeth look terrible, and I was going to blame myself because I am the one that brushes his teeth. He was great with the dentist too. The dentist was impressed he was so calm. Partly I'm sure its his personality, and partly I think it had to do with the fact that my husband and I told my son how lucky he was to go to the dentist. Both of us like getting our teeth clean (not really the actual process, the aftereffect) so we sincerely told our son that it was so neat he was going to the dentist. After it was all over he got to pick out a toy. This office didn't have a DVDs in the ceiling, or xboxes, but I have no complains at all in their manner of dealing with kids. As I write this I realized I forgot to tell them, he sucks his thumb, oh well, they said his teeth look great, keep doing whatever you are doing to clean them. We are terrible at flossing, my son has huge gaps (which is good for children, because it gives room for the adult teeth) so I think whats the point of flossing 4 teeth, since none the rest need it. The hygienist said, yeah the front would benefit from flossing, but I get lazy about flossing my son's teeth too. I didn't tell the hygienist this, but I'll tell the internet, I'm also not too good about brushing twice a day, we always brush at night if we are at home, but in the mornings if my son doesn't want to brush then I don't force him, I don't want to make teeth brushing a power struggle because as of right now he is fine with brushing them at night. (I also don't force him to fold his arms, or pray with me if he doesn't want to. I never know if I'm making the right choice, I don't want to make prayers a power struggle and for the most part he is great about cooperation, sometimes he just feels the need to exercise his agency, so I ignore that he is being irreverent and pray myself so he can hear.)

Follow the Prophet

In the middle of putting my kid to bed tonight, he randomly said, "I love food storage." I asked, "did you just say, I love food storage." "Yes"
Well ok,
I guess we are teaching our child to follow the prophet at a young age.

Ladybugs

I finally made the pillow case out of the ladybug material. Yes I admit it took me forever to get around to a 15 minute sewing project. It turned out a little big, because I didn't feel like trimming extra material. (By the way, that is not his blanket or bed, that's way too girly for a little boy.)

Which means my son can use it as a sleeping bag. He loves it. He went to bed the other night in it.

This is what the picture turned out like after my husband said, pretend like you are sleeping.

I thought he was so cute, in his lady bug bag. Once again, good thing he found manly looking beetles.

PJs

I've hit critical mass in my pregnancy, I am so sick of pants that don't fit right, and pants that fall down. Which means I spend half the day in my pj pants. Really they are are velour sweat pants, sexy I know. I wish I wore them all day long everyday, because they are the only things that fit, and are comfortable. I am in a constant state of uncomfortableness since I have 3 weeks left, so if I can feel a little less uncomfortable with staying in my powder blue velour pants every day, I will. Unfortunately I am not the type of girl to wear sweat pants in public, as try as I might, I can't walk out of the house in them any farther than to take out the trash or get the mail. (And even then I sneak around so the neighbors don't see me in my sweat pants.) Which means if I go in public to the store or such I have to put on pants that don't fit. I hate ALL maternity pants, (I had one pair of capris that fit, but now they are a little cold). I have almost two drawers of pants that semi fit during pregnancy, and all are uncomfortable, all have to be pulled up all day long, so I am now uncomfortable enough I'm boycotting, at least in my house. Since my son thinks I'm in pjs all day, he wants to wear his all day. We have compromised, he can wear his, if he puts on big boy underwear.
Last night, my husband's friend told me I looked really tired. I said I'm uncomfortable, I only have three weeks left. I thought it is only going to get worse until after she comes.
In good news though, she is getting lower, her bum is now below my belly button. Which is actually really nice, because now my belly button doesn't stick out as much and it stopped hurting.
P.S. I desperately want these fleece pants from old navy. They are super long on the mannequins which means they might actually fit me. Plus I can't think of any thing better than fleece horizontal striped pajamas during the winter.

MY FAVORITE!

Every girl needs a pair of black mary janes. So I decided to start my daughter off early. I made them with black craft felt, because I could not find black wool felt. I love them. They are about my most favorite things I have ever made in my life. No exaggeration. I love them! They make me happy. Which is good, because the hormones are starting to get to me, and I'm a wreck, I started crying in the middle of dinner the other day, and on our way home.

You be the judge

Am I any smaller this pregnancy than the last? The first picture is me on Sunday, exactly one month from my due date. The second picture was taken on 1/25 and my son was born on 2/16.

I thought my belly was smaller this time, but maybe its not. I am wearing the exact same shirt. My face is at least definitely less swollen than last time. I think I retained more water last time.

Milestone

My kid has been potty trained for a while. Downstairs he can to do it entirely independent, although right now he favors the upstairs. Upstairs we have to remember to keep the light during the evening, because he can't reach that, he also needs help turning on the water upstairs to wash his hands. Other than that, he goes in and pottys all by himself, thankfully, because he always gets the urge in the middle of dinner. (Nothing annoys me more, I ask him to go before, I've just spent the last 20+ minutes moving around in the kitchen, so there is nothing I hate more as a mother that having to get up during dinner to help him. Luckily he can do it by himself.) But yesterday we hit a milestone. In the middle of dinner he got up (not to potty, just because he didn't want to eat) and I noticed he had different pants on. I asked him when he changed his pants, he looked at me like I was crazy. Later that night my husband was gathering up dirty laundry from his room (it always amazes me how much laundry a little person can have), and there was a pair of wet underwear on the floor. I said he didn't wet any underwear today, but sure enough they were wet, and under them was the pair of pants my son got dressed in the morning.
New Milestone: Changing his own accidents.
I anticipate a few accidents over the next few years, but who cares as long as he is changing them. I've heard stories of the child that never once had accident, but that is not my child, he has many more important things to do than hang out in the bathroom all day. And heck I can't blame him, our bathroom is the ugliest room in the house. I can dream yesterday will be the last accident, but I decided many months ago to have low expectations when it came to potty training that way I wouldn't be disappointed. Its worked great, I didn't tell my son my low expectations, so I didn't set him up for failure, and instead he exceeded my expectations by a hundred fold. I really did not expect him to go in and go potty all my himself, by October, he is not even 3, no one else born in 2006 in Nursery is potty trained. I assumed I'd be helping through the first few months of baby sister, (his underwear is pretty tiny and get quite twisted). Although I also anticipate some regression during the first few months of baby sister.

All ready

Less than a month until my due date and I'm finally all ready for the baby to come. (Sort of) The infant car seat is out of storage, all the new baby clothes are washed, I got diapers awhile ago when they were on sale (two boxes, probably at least last us 3 days), I finally remembered I needed to buy wipes last Saturday (my son no longer needs diaper wipes), and I bought a swing today. (I couldn't have survived postpartum last time without the swing, and since we gave away our last I had to get a new one, in order to feel prepared.) Wipes and the swing were last on my list, and they are now crossed off too. Here's to waiting and becoming miserably uncomfortable! As of now, I'm hoping she comes on time, not early. By the time the 9th has past if she hasn't come, I know I can't say, I hoping she comes late. (She is all ready, head smashing my bladder, one foot in the left rib and the other foot in the right rib. I have to remind myself this is a good thing. My son was sideways so his feet were only on my right side, I had to do exercises for him to come back up since he dropped early, and rotate fully.)

games

Let me tell you from experience, playing games with a two year old just shy of three years leaves something to be desired. Whether it Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, or just Memory. It leaves something to be desired. Although I do enjoy when my son sets up the Chutes and Ladder people in a row, and then calls out numbers from the spinner to them. (I think he learned that from helping his grandma call out Twister calls for some older girls.)

Striking Fear

Yesterday my husband showed me a picture of the Prime Minister of Iran, and asked me if he scared me. I thought he wanted me to say yes, so I round about said um, not really I don't think so why? He said me either, I was just wondering, because I just read a news article about how evil he is, he doesn't look real evil to me, he doesn't strike terror into my heart. I said me either.
I said people who scare me by their pictures are people like Hillary Clinton (I am so glad she lost the primary.) and Ted Kennedy (I admit I found a partially awful picture of Ted, but he freaks me out.)Then later that night as we were about to go to bed, I said very excitedly, oh, I know who really freaks me out, Condoleezza Rice!Nothing strikes more fear in my heart than a picture of Condi Rice.
(See I'm bipartisan, both republicans' and democrats' pictures gives me nightmares.)
How about you? Are there politicians out there in the world that you see their picture and they scare you?
P.S. To make it even, I added another Republican, my husband can't stand to see pictures of Giuliani.(These pictures are probably all copyrighted so hopefully I don't get in trouble.)
P.P.S. Speaking of Politicians' Pictures, when I got my most recent Time Magazine, I said to my husband I'm so sick of seeing life size pictures of Obama on the cover. I brought up when an unnamed female relative said, the positive thing about Obama being elected is he is at least attractive and has a nice voice. And while I agree that after 8 years of listening to President Bush sound like a moron, we need a break, I am not attracted to Obama so I don't want life size facial shots of him in my house every other week. My husband said it could be worse, life size shots of McCain. I said no what would be really bad, is life size shots of Cindy.If someone really wanted to give me nightmares show me pictures of Cindy and Condi together. Ahh! What really gets me is Condoleezza's eyes, even when she is smiling they look devoid and angry. I believe what they say, about someone's eyes being the window of their soul, so I always look at politician's eyes. Let me tell you in my opinion, there are some pretty gruesome eyes to behold out there in the news. And now I am done with my extremely politically incorrect blog post. (By the way I don't think Cindy is scary, I just think she looks like a weirdo and I don't like to see pictures of her.)

I'm a survivor

Yes, I will admit before I start that title is a little dramatic, but that's my personality. I survived (as did my child) my husband's very first business trip.
(Once again this is probably longer than most of you have interest in reading, but its my personal history.)
I swore when my husband was scout master business trips would be easier because he was getting paid. Wrong! The night before he left I was a wreck, because I kept thinking what if something goes wrong, when he was scout master he at least had some spiritual protection being a church leader. (Let's hope he always has spiritual protection.) Since we live so close to the airport my husband decided he would rather have me take him at 5:30 in the morning, then have work pay for his car in long term parking. So we woke up my kid, put on his snow boots and hat, (it was snowing) and drove the 15 minutes to the airport. By the look on my child's face I thought he was going to cry when his dad said good bye to him, but he didn't, dad is good at boosting confidence. He probably told my son it was his job to take care of mommy, nothing like telling my son he needs to take care of someone to help him feel better. (Whenever he starts to get anxious and scared about his mommy and his baby sister, I tell him how good of a big brother he will be, and all the things I'll need his help with, and then he is happy as a clam. He is a giver.) I also didn't cry, so I couldn't cry if my son didn't because it would have made him cry. We went home got back in my bed, and slept until 9:30 in my case, and 10 in my son's.
All day it snowed and snowed and snowed, I can't believe how much there was.
After story time we went to JoAnns and got fleece to make a scarf. Since I will wear a scarf most of the winter I figured my son might one too. I also decided buying fleece at JoAnns was our best bet, because so many store bought scarfs are woolly and itchy, and I can't knit. We also got fun projects to do while Daddy is gone. I think its important to do fun things while dad is away, it makes a miss him a little less. Not to say we don't miss him a TON, it helps us from getting sad.
By the way it snowed all day long!
My son did all his crafts that afternoon, they were suppose to last three days. Oh well.
We borrowed Candy Land, and Chutes and Ladders from my sister in law, so my son woke up early Thursday morning, in anticipation of game playing. No need for breakfast. We took a few turns playing Candy Land correctly, when my son decided he had enough, and I wanted to match the color coded cards with the colors on the game board. Apparently he is not quite old enough for Candy Land, but matching is right up his alley. Then he moved on Chutes and Ladders, I didn't even attempt to play it with him, because I was eating breakfast. He spend a good deal of time, talking to the game board players and spinning the spinner calling out numbers. He "played" those two games all morning long.
Although my son gets sad at bedtime because his dad isn't here, life has been business as usual for us. I'm perfectly fine without my husband for a few days, I'm not freaking out at all. I guess I just get dramatically sad right before and after he leaves.
Naptime today finished in tears. Sort of, my son woke up, and found me fine, but once he found me he started bawling. I felt bad I couldn't pick him up, instead he had to walk to his bedroom to get his blanket, and then walk to mine so I could rock him. I held his hand, but I still feel guilty when he is sad and I can't pick him up. We went out to eat for dinner, and my son was so happy. He thought it was so fun to go out with mommy. Bedtime was a process, as my previous post explains. At that point, since I had no one to help me, I wanted to break out in tears, but no one was around to listen, and so I didn't. No one was around to take over, so the problem eventually got solved, although I really wished my husband was around to take over.
Friday morning, my son woke up practically in tears. After 5 minutes of wake time, the tears came, so I got his blanket, and we both crawled back into my bed, and since I was up super late crafting, we fell asleep for another two hours. He played a little bit in the morning, but not much, he was ready to go down for a nap super early. I woke up him from his nap to get his daddy from the airport. He has basically not stopped smiling since. My kid slept a ton while his dad was gone, I don't know if it was because he was sad and missed his dad or if it was because he is just super tired. Unless we had a fun activity like painting a wooden Christmas ornament or playing Candy Land, he was almost always asleep or sucking his thumb in either his room or mine (the blanket isn't allowed anywhere else in the house). I survived perfectly fine for 3 days without a husband, but my son had a real rough time. It makes me nervous to go to the hospital. Hopefully there are no complications, so I only need to stay a day or two. I think last time I was there less than 48 hours. Luckily we have a whole weekend to soak up daddy time.

Jinx

Tonight as I was putting my son to sleep I could tell things were not going as planned. He wanted more and more books, I had to act fast. I asked, "do you need a friend in bed?" "Huh" (meaning yes). "Like your valentine bear?" (This is a usual favorite, but I guess my earlier post jinxed me.) "Huh" (again, once again meaning yes). I started rifling through the stuff animals no valentines bear. "How about this one, I can't find the bear?" "Yes", "so good night?" "No, valentines bear." By the time this ends he has three stuff animals in bed. Still he keeps saying valentines bear. I tell him I need to go look for it in a different room, stay in bed. By this time I have been silently praying that Heavenly Father will help me find valentines bear. I tell my kid, you better be praying to Heavenly Father that mommy can find the bear. I search the whole house nothing. My silent prayers continue. I go back in and explain I can't find it, try to pawn off other stuff animals. Still I get valentines bear, with that tone of any second now if things don't go my way I'll have a melt down which leads to tears. I leave once again looking for the bear, my prayers are stronger, and I too have that tone in my thoughts that I want to cry. I think maybe if I just sit on the couch he'll think it is coming and fall asleep. I move the couches out, no bear. I'm afraid he is going to get out of bed, so I go back in there. Still no bear, I search in the stuff animal box for the fourth time. Still no bear, I'm wondering how all those sunbeams find their mom's keys after one prayer. This valentine's bear is surely just as important as some kid's mom's keys. Still praying. I find a mini bear, I ask my son if he wants the mini bear instead. He says, huh. I asked if its good enough. He says, huh again. With no valentines bear question following. Is it success? I give the bear a kiss then him a kiss, he gives me a kiss back. Success, I'm out the door, shutting it behind. Thanking my Heavenly Father.
Lessons learned:
1. Never suggest what friend my kid needs in bed, until its already in my hands.
2. Prayers are answered unexpectedly, not how I plan.

Holiday Babies

My son is a valentine baby. His birthday isn't actually on valentines day like his father, but close enough, two days later. That valentines my mother gave me a free bear she got with a purchase of 3 Hallmark cards. Some how it became my son's toy, he loves that bear, two years later it has matted hair like a loved toy.

As you can see we have a lot of pictures of him with his valentines bear, simply because he loves the bear.
My next child will also be a holiday baby, but Christmas this time.
I wonder...
will she have a holiday bear?
a christmas bear, that she loves?
a christmas something else stuffed?

Only time will tell.
We ask our son, is that a valentines bear, because you are a valentines baby? And his response is yes.

Baby Love

As I have mentioned my son sometimes gets in bed with me in the morning. This morning I woke up before him, but was afraid if I moved, he would wake up, so I laid there watching him. Its moments like that when I fall in love with my baby again, who isn't so much a baby. But when he is sleeping, and sucking his thumb he still looks like a baby instead of a big boy. He still has that perfect baby complex (I don't know how long little kids keep it). His skin looks soft and even. (Nothing like mine. His pores are invisible at his age.) Still free from freckles that he will inevitably get after summers in the sun like his parents have. His eyes closed with long black eyelashes sweeping at the bottom. (Something he inherted from his dad, not me.) You would think he would be perfectly still since he is asleep, but his thumb sucking is quite the process. Which only intrigues me more. When he is in deep sleep he doesn't suck his thumb, but if I've woken up, that means he is no more than a half an hour behind, so he is no longer in deep sleep. He sucks his left thumb, which to me was an early indicator he was right handed, because he could suck his thumb and still do things with his dominate hand. While he is sucking his left, his right hand is busy rubbing his blanket seam, and feeding the edges of his blanket through his left hand, as his nose smells the blanket. I almost wanted to time him to see how long it takes him to make one complete round of the blanket through his hands. It fascinates me that his hands can be so active, while his little body is still asleep. It during these times, I soak up the last remaining moments of having an only child. In a month or so, it won't just be him, he won't be the center of the universe anymore, and all although the new baby will change our lives for the better, things will never be the same anymore. I have loved having an only child for the year and half after college graduation until my son becomes a big brother. (Sure he was an only child before my graduation but he didn't have my undivided attention.) Although I never expected to space number 1 and number 2 by three years, I in no way regret all the time, I've had just one, to break me into this whole motherhood process slowly. As I stare at his sweet face, with soft skin I'm reminded that theses are my last few mornings of just him, soon a little girl will dictate our schedule and my son will have to adapt. We won't have leisurely mornings in bed, because the new one I'm sure will want to eat somewhere in between 8 pm and 8 am, and probably want to eat every two hours, in between those times. I have to soak up these moments of falling in love with my first baby now and remember them, so when I am so tired and too busy to notice them in the following couple of months, I'll always have the times when it was just me and my bud, Jo----. Because who knows, maybe by the time I have energy to notice them again, his cheeks will be gone, I can hope not, I hope they aren't gone in less than 6 months, but every day he gets skinnier and taller, so life at this point is unpredictable. It seems like these last almost three years have gone by too fast, I'm always surprised at how excited I can be when he hits a new milestone like pottying completely indepent or actually coloring pictures instead of randomly using a writing utensil, but still at the same time wanting him to never grow up past where he is now. And while I always want him to stay this sweet boy who has the cutest little voice and can remember something that only happened once, over a month ago. Like when his daddy was writing on a little piece of paper with a little pencil while looking at a computer in the library, and then tell me what he is doing, and what he saw daddy do. While I want him to stay like this forever, I can not wait to see what new things my baby boy will do in the future.

Homecoming Outfits

When I was two months pregnant the first time my husband and I went to Argentina (yes I admit a terrible time for international travel). While we were there we bought a baby outfit. White with blue little chicken like birds, we were positive the child growing in me was a boy. It was the outfit we brought my son home in the hospital in. It was sized 0-3 months, it drowned him, my mom said, he isn't three months yet.

He was so cute! (Can you tell I'm hormonal?)

I spent too much money on this outfit, but my baby will look so cute coming home from the hospital. Its newborn size so it won't drown her. It didn't come with a hat or built in feet on the pants, so I had to take matters into my own hands. I added a matching bow on a white hat, so her head stays warm, and still matches.Here is a close up, you know I love to give my viewers a close up.And I made baby shoes that match! I have an on going love affair with homemade baby shoes for girls. Luckily after making my sister's girl some, I got pregnant with a girl. (They are a different pattern then the last pair.)

This might be a little much, but my first child came while I was busy in school. So my second child, is the child that will have way more stuff than the rest. In fact this was scaled down, I was thinking about making a matching baby bracelet, but I decided I'm too tired. Not to mention I'm sure a day old baby doesn't want to wear beads on her wrist. I'll save that for when she is three weeks at her baby blessing.
PS more baby shoes to come in the future!

Bragging

I think I have a smart child. A few weeks ago, he made this at the library. I hung it on the fridge, then he made a J out of magnets. I was proud. Who cares if it is backward, I thought it was impressive that he could make a J-- his first name initial. I could careless about the gluing of the leaves, it was all about the J.

Add a fourth

Stockings are my favorite Christmas decoration. Here are my family's stockings so far. Please Please Please click on the link. I love them.
If you will recall, I went on a stocking craze last year.
Luckily this year, the only one in my family having a baby is me, which means, I only had to make stockings for one child. MINE!
So all I had to do this year was add a fourth to the family collection. Luckily I already had everything to make this stocking. My son picked the main material, out of a stack of Christmas material.

I had to buy the green bobbles for this stocking, but that is all. At first I planned on keeping this one, but I'm afraid its too fancy, and I'll set too high of a precedence for my future children.

So I haven't really decided which one is staying at my house, and which one is going to live with all the cousins at grammy's. I like the green bobbles, and it is by far my son's favorite out of two. But I also the how the silver trim brings out the silver in the red material.
Not to mention, my husband confirmed my fears. My son was "helping" me sew the green trim on, and when we finished he went to show his dad. His dad, said pretty fancy, are jealous its not yours? Luckily my kid looked at him like he was crazy and said, no. I was so annoyed that my husband asked him if he was jealous, I don't need anyone teaching him that, I'm sure he'll figure it out on his own, no need to bring it on early.

First Holiday Post

For some crazy reason I made a Christmas dress for my unborn daughter. I've been wanting to try this pillow case dress, From Freshly Picked.
Obviously a newborn is too small to wear a full size pillow case, but I didn't have a Christmas pillow case anyway, I made a small one out of this material. My real problem is not having a baby girl inside of me, my real problem is way too much Christmas material in my house, because this is not a holiday were I can go spend money at JoAnn's every time I turn around, its about making due with what I already have.
When I finished it looked like a potato sack with holy berries on it, so then I took it some under the arm pits, to give it an A line appearance, instead of a square pillow case.
For the record, Making your own bias tape is about the most ridiculous thing in the world.

Motherload

My kid got quite the motherload of halloween candy, for only trick or treating two short streets where half the houses had their lights off. Apparently neighborhoods where only the neighbors come (no out of neighborhood travelers) give you big handfuls of candy. I think every house gave him at least three pieces. In fact his bag got too heavy in the end of him and he didn't want to carry it.