Verbally Challenged

OK so those are two words that NEVER go in a sentence together – not in my world. But remember I told you that my mother-in-law knitted Addy the cutest little spider hat ever?

The little spider is on a string and flops around on the hat. It’s SO cute! I love it! Thanks again Marybeth!

Liam says: “I don’t really feel five so I think that I’ll just stay four for a little while.”

Mommy thinks: “Excellent. I can stay in denial just a wee bit longer.”

Besides…don’t we older folks say “you’re only as old as you feel?” I’m holding firm at 25.

Today my little girl is 10 months. And tomorrow my little boy is five. Fast, fast, fast.

I’m hoping to get an opportunity this afternoon to snap a photo of the little princess. Right now she’s napping and we have a day planned. But right now I have a minute and should get the info down – later I’ll add the photo (as in tonight).

****I got one! I had to bounce my flash off of the ceiling since today was an UGLY day and didn’t have enough light! So here is Miss Adeline at 40 weeks stiking the “so big” pose!

So 10 month Addy stats:
*We were just at the doc and she weighed 16.5 pounds. Looks like she’ll be a peanut.
*I just got soft shoes for her since the weather is getting cool and had to get a 0-6 month size. See…little.
*She’s crawling and getting into everything – I like to say that she’s curious. And while she can crawl on her hands, still prefers the army crawl.
*She can pull up onto things but doesn’t care about it much. I’m not complaining.
*She loves showing us “so big” with a huge grin on her face.
*When she smiles, her WHOLE FACE smiles…perhaps it’s the cheeks?
*This morning she crawled over to me, onto my lap and said “up.” I’m still in disbelief. I’ve been signing it for the past two months and she has yet to sign that one back – but she says it? Perhaps it was a fluke, we’ll see.
*Eating has greatly improved and she wants just about anything. Before it was sweet potatoes or cereal. Now anything goes – my food included. WHEW!
*She laughs at anything that Liam does…anything. If he gets up and walks behind her, fits of giggles. It’s crazy – I love it.
*Still sleeping/napping…mama likes that.
*She has four teeth…still. I can see little buds coming down on the top gums but no teeth near the surface. I’m not complaining…still nursing.
*She drinks water from a sippy cup (this isn’t really new though). I gave up on the bottle – figured what’s the point now (THIS is new).
*She digs other people but sizes them up first. Once she’s comfortable she’s all smiles.
*She hums herself to sleep…I call it chanting. Ahhhhhhhhhhahhhhhhhhhh

And here is another photo…just because.

Liam’s party – a Halloween theme. He wanted a smiling jack-o-lantern on his cake so I ran with it. As I mentioned yesterday it was a smaller deal this year – close family. It was a refreshing change and definitely the less stressful route. I know that in another month and a half I’ll be having a larger shin-dig for Miss Addy and figured that would be enough.

Liam had a fantastic time, got some super cool gifts and ate lots of apples and icing. It was his day after all. And one good thing that we’re noticing about gifts for a five year old – they’re smaller. We like this since the playroom is almost maxed out on space and I don’t feel like purging at the moment.

Decorations – I didn’t get a photo of everything, this was the breakfast room with the cake. I made the table flags and little sign. It’s not very easy to find Halloween and birthday stuff combined. Plus I thought it tied everything together better (and yes I’m probably the only one who noticed).

I should get the bat streamers in the dining room…they were pretty cool.

I made some appetizers since the party started at one. In the past I’ve done a big mexican buffet type meal but since we were going small, I went down a course! And because I tend to forget about my camera, I didn’t think to snap a photo until halfway through the party – that’s why the plates are full of food!

We sang Happy Birthday to the boy with a plate on his head (don’t ask).

And finished the night off with a photo of Addy in her party dress (and small headband).

Liam keeps reminding me that he’s not really five yet. As if I didn’t already know. I’m dreading the next few days – I feel like I’ve just now adjusted to life with a four year old!

Coming soon, Addy stats and a photo of the cutest spider hat ever!

That’s where this blog has been for the past week – designing too for that matter.

My focus this week was Liam’s birthday party that we had today. It wasn’t a big thing this year, just close family, but still involved a bit of planning. Free time was spent meal planning, grocery shopping and decorating (with things that I made). We had a “boo-day” party this year – per Liam’s request – and it was a really nice time. I’ll share photos and more about party décor tomorrow.

In addition to party mode, I’ve been dealing with Addy who for the past week (or more) has been having separation issues. She wants to sleep at naptime but doesn’t want me to leave the room. She’d much rather fall asleep clinging onto my shirt with her head smashed again my shoulder. And when I’d get up to leave, she’d cry and crawl towards me, reaching out – I can’t leave her. So while she’d still nap and fall asleep at night, it may take an hour longer because I need to help her. Breaks my heart. Now IF I had the time (and not another kiddo to tend to) I’d be more than happy to nap with her. Four to five hours of naptime a day – heck yeah! But alas, reality.

Actually, when it comes to kiddos sleeping, the reality is that I’m stubborn (big shock there mom eh?)! Liam took two naps a day until he was three. He’d go a few weeks where he’d just play in his bed during the second one. I have no problem with playing in bed, as long as he stays IN BED. Heck, his stuffed animals got quite the education during his downtime! And just when I was ALMOST convinced that he was going to give up naps, he’d sleep solid the next week. I never caved. I’d still put him down the same time each day just waiting for the naps to start again. And they always did.

I’m doing the same thing with addy. I was thinking last week that maybe the morning naps weren’t going to work out anymore. But I didn’t cave and still put her down – just adding some extra snuggles and cuddles as needed. For the past two days, I’ve had “easy Addy” back. Naptimes and bedtimes are no problem again. She laughs when I leave the room and plays for only minutes before going to sleep. I’m lucky.

I learned early on with Liam that sleep begets sleep. And I’m lucky to have two well-rested kiddos…for now.

Remind me to show you the crazy cute hat my mother-in-law made for Addy. She has amazing knitting skills (thanks Marybeth)!

This weekend we visited our cottage. It’s a little place that we bought last month, mainly for summer use when we want to get away and play at the beach. It not really equipped for winter since it doesn’t have heat. But with five space heaters, comforters and blankets – it all worked out. Plus I got to cuddle with my four year old quite a bit and how couldn’t THAT be a good thing!

The cottage, I’m learning, is a neat place. It’s in the sweetest little neighborhood surrounded by other little cottages – all with fun names. And because our day to day life is in a more country setting, I was happy to see (and hear) children outside playing – as kids should – while at the cottage. In fact, I spent a good part of my afternoon watching two neighbor boys throw handfuls of rocks on the street and high-five each other every time a car went by because the tires made crazy noises. Part of me thought that maybe that wasn’t a good thing and I should say something, but far be it for me to spoil their fun – heck mine too – as I got a kick out of watching them. And I have to say I appreciated the fact that it wasn’t MY kid doing it! I watched later in the day as the mother swept the rocks out of the street back onto the roadside, it took at least 20 minutes. Cheap entertainment. And here I thought that the neighbor across the street was nosey!

More cottage fun, I got to take a nap while the kids napped. A one and a half our of pure bliss – good deep sleep – it makes me happy just thinking about it. Naps are hard to come by now with two kiddos.

And the cottage has no television. Well, there IS a TV but no cable and I really do like that. I often wonder what life would be like if I weren’t a slave to the television. Getting sucked into shows like Dancing with the Stars or Top Chef. Would I be less stressed, more relaxed and more productive? There is something to be said for silence and I don’t have the strength to keep the TV off at home as much as I’d like. It’s a tough call.

And apparently another cottage thing – bonfires. Our next door our neighbors were out back having one. And bonfires smell SO GOOD. I was a bit jealous as the night was chilly and the warm bonfire would have felt really good – add marshmallows and it would have been perfect. Well, maybe add some good music and THEN it would have been perfect. They were blasting oldies, which somehow decreases the coolness of their bonfire.

This morning before we left we took a walk and I got some really nice photos. This one shows Liam mocking me. As I was crouching down trying to catch a photo of him I told him to “move back and crouch down like mommy” – well he did. Striking the camera pose and all. Little bugger.

More later.

Have you seen pencil lines sketches before? I know I know, I’m lame and don’t always pay attention to what the cool kids are doing (or where they’re hanging out). But I checked out the site, played along with one of the sketches and it was selected as a favorite! Now that’s fun!

Love me some sketches!

Yesterday I started having microwave issues and it’s really throwing me for a loop. There are several appliances that I can go without but not this one.

My morning routine alone:
Baby food (it’s frozen) – 33 seconds
Cat food (don’t ask) – 11 seconds
Bird food (African Grey) – vegetables 1 minute
Bird food (African Grey) – egg – 9 seconds or 45 seconds
Tea (2 minutes) – this one I can do with the kettle
Oatmeal – 45 seconds

So 219 seconds – gone. That is unless I unplug it for 15 minutes and plug it back in. That seems to be a temporary fix – I just don’t know how temporary.

Does anyone know why my microwave runs for three seconds (literally three seconds) and shuts down?

Darned modern conveniences have me all spoiled now! Some people need a coffee maker (I don’t even own one)…and others need a microwave. Sigh.

There are some words that you just enjoy saying, for me grimace happens to be one of them.

This evening we were cooking pasta, which happened to be whole-wheat organic pasta – Amish made I believe. It came in our fresh farm box that we get once a week. So in the taste testing stage Nate admits that he doesn’t like it. And in fact proceeds to compare it to eating the inside flap of a cardboard box. Nice. I tasted it and quite liked it – admitting that it does have a different flavor I wouldn’t compare it to cardboard. Because I didn’t mind it, he said that we’d go ahead with it but I insisted he make his regular white noodles. I didn’t want to have to sit next to him, grimacing through the whole meal and ruining it for me.

So while the white noodles were cooking, we discussed the word grimace. McDonald’s had a character named Grimace…why? Thank goodness for the Internet because in no time I was able to get some info about him. I found this interesting,

Large and purple with short arms and legs, he is known for his monotonous face and slow-witted demeanor. His most common expression is the word “duh”.

That’s great for the kids right? And apparently he was linked to milkshakes, and the fact that he liked to steal them. Originally he had four arms, to steal even more milkshakes, again, great for the children. He was later modified to only have two arms – much better. And who knew that he had an Uncle O’Grimacey – for the shamrock shake campaign – of course.

I’m thinking there is a reason why we don’t hear much about ol’ grimace anymore.

I just realized that it has been forever since I shared anything. And because I *AM* verbally challenged as my banner mentions – I should be all about pictures, pretty or not.

SO, I created this layout using mostly American Crafts stuff (paper, stickers, marker).

I have a HUGE love affair with AC letter stickers. The basket that I have of them, obscene. I should be ashamed but I’m totally not.

And then this page was made using the most fabulous October kit from It Kit Studio. Talk about fun and different products thrown together – and don’t forget the stamp. LOVE me a unique stamp!

And this little tag set I made using the October kit as well. I think that I need to do a modified set for Christmas – so fun! This uses BasicGrey papers, the Bobunny chipboard, the stamp and the bakers twine (this twine is adorable)!

And how about a couple of photos. Oh…anyone know how to post photo on the web and NOT lose something in the process? My color always gets tweaked with the “save for web” option and if I bypass it, I lose clarity. Sigh.

My boy LIam…yes he let me take photos of him again…FINALLY!

I did a photoshoot with my family (my parents and my sister’s family) a couple of weeks ago and got some really fun shots. That’s where these are coming from!

And then my gal who was less than thrilled to be there during naptime.

More later!