sweet little baby-pie

halloween JT, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

He is just so dreamy... JT cried a lot with the sitter this week. I can't figure out why except maybe he misses us. He has been wonderful in the evenings and all day today. We took him out to dinner last night and tonight and he was just good as gold. He laughs and coos and plays with his doggy and just goes along with whatever.

Yesterday evening after we walked, I carried him around the yard just looking around. It was gorgeous out, very still and you could hear peepers... probably the last peepers to hear for a while. So I whispered to him as low as I could, "Do you hear the peepers? Listen... Peep. Peep." He got very quiet and would concentrate for a minute then he would smile GREAT BIG and not make a sound... then he'd concentrate again... I really think he was in tune with what we were listening to.

His sitter has had him sitting in his bumbo seat a lot this week. So he is sitting up pretty good with just a little bit of help. And this afternoon he was working as hard as he could to lift himself up to sitting from a reclined position. It is pretty amazing to see him developing such strength.

I'm thankful that he is such a good sleeper and has taken to sleeping in his crib... but at night I get a little bit of separation anxiety and I just want to climb in and sleep there with him! (Obviously, I won't fit... and we're too paranoid to let him sleep in our bed.)

Christmas Spirit

Christmas Spirit, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I'm thinking Christmas... here's what's inspiring me!

felt

felt ornaments, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I bought some felt last weekend... I might be feeling felty crafty. I've been working on a little Thanksgiving decor project this week. The hardest part of it is finished... hopefully tomorrow I can get to the fun part and be done with it. Maybe I'll have photos by the weekend!

And then I can start on the felt. :-)

i.am.so.full.

I just put my little guy in bed for the night. I am so full of love for him right now! His daddy has been gone most of the week, so it was just the two of us. Uh yeah, I should be ashamed to admit it was the first time I was ever alone with my own child for more than one day. I'm lucky - John loves taking care of JT, so we share him pretty equally.

The house is a disaster... I think I picked up two piles today and created 12 more. AND THEN, we were upstairs playing today and a shelf full of picture frames fell down!! So my house went ahead and undecorated itself. Ugh. I got that mess about half cleaned up. Oh well.

Adrienne and I went shopping on Thursday evening. I started my shopping for Thanksgiving stuff. I decided to not be cheap this year. Haha. I figured if we are always hosting, I should invest in some decor items that will make it special. I gave myself a budget of $100. So I found this platter at Crate and Barrel. I love it. I know, it's nothing fancy, but it's cool.
Today I found some other stuff at Kohl's for $50. I'm talking matching tablecloths for the two tables, some candles, a big pumpkin centerpiece, and some festive towels. (My kitchen towels are DISGUSTING - been doing a lot of dish washing since July!) So that leaves me $15 to finish up with some garlands and crafty stuff... hmm, hope that's enough!


As evidence, here is decorating scheme from the last two years. It features mismatched vintage tablecloths and a vase I made in a pottery class that leaks. I still like that vase... pretty sure it will make the cut this year also. I rig it up with a plastic cup so it will hold water. I'm creative that way. hehehe.

Sooo, I'm having company for coffee in the morning bright and early, so I should really think of going to bed now. Night all....

inside Penzey's

inside Penzey's, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I finally made it to the Penzey's store here in town! Theresa made a request for a gift box that I needed to get before the weekend. I literally got there with only 10 minutes to shop around. I'll have to go back. I'm not any good in the kitchen, but I could fall in mad love with this place. It.is.delicious.

Of course, I didn't get out of there without something for myself. I picked up a jar of their special southwest seasoning to make my taco salads taste scrumptious.

love.this.baby.

Have I mentioned how much I love this baby? We took him for a walk at a metro park yesterday. It is so much fun to be outdoors with him. He just looks around like, "Wow, this place is amazing!" It's very grounding to see God's little creature take in God's landscape like that. It makes us look around with new eyes, too.

Although, he had a similar look of amazement in Target today. :-) Rows of bright-colored shirts, toys, and furnace filters were all equally fascinating. Hehehe. We walked to Target to exchange the furnace filter I got the other day that was the wrong size. There's your reminder to replace your furnace filter.

I love summer. Love, love, love it. But a 90ish degree day on October 7... little weird. I think we walked about 5 miles to and fro... the little guy did really well. He is a champion stroller baby. I was sweating like crazy though.

My bathroom is sparkling clean this evening. And you won't believe how little effort it took to get it that way. "Honey, do you think you could clean the bathroom today?" And he did it. Too bad he's not into doing it on a regular basis, because he does a really good job. (John, I mean... not JT.)

And to round off a completely rambling and random blog post... a story about bird nannies. That's what I'm talking about... longevity for the mother who gets plenty of help. Have I told you that we are going to move the whole fam-damily to a compound? Well that's what we fantasize about anyway. Yeah, not that it takes a village to raise kids, but maybe it helps moms and dads keep it together. And you figure it would be fun for the kids, too... always having someone available to play.

Ok, if you don't hear from me for a few more days, I am working on my "7 random things" entry for Last Scrapper Standing Round 2.

moving on, catching up

Whoo! I am moving on to the next round of Last Scrapper Standing! woo-hoo! I was worried. I just sighed out loud when I checked their blog. John says from the other room, "You made it?" "Yes." "You were worried?" "Yes!" "I wasn't worried." Sometimes he's a nice boy.

In other news (quickly, as it's time for bed):

- I'm reading Alice in Wonderland via DailyLit. Sometimes I think like Alice... it's weird.

- We had the house sprayed for spiders tonight. You know the story of the spider in the breast milk. And maybe you know about the spider that tried to get JT during floor time one morning. Then last night... I went downstairs to get something from the storage closet in the laundry room... I turn to walk out of the room and there is the BIGGEST SPIDER YET in the doorway. I mean, I had just walked through that doorway. Now, I'm the spider-killer in our household. But this one had me at a weak moment in my pjs with nothing at hand to kill it. AND it was blocking my way out. I had to BEG John to come and kill it so I could leave the room. Ugh! SKEEVY! So anyway, hopefully we are on our way to being spider free for a while.

- I hung some painted frames in JT's room tonight. Most of them are empty... but they are on the wall awaiting the perfect art work.

- My mom has me converted to Diigo for social bookmarking. I imported all my del.icio.us links. We'll see if I like it enough. It has more features, but it's missing the suggestions on tagging that keep me using the same tags. (It prevents me from getting mixed up and tagging some "computer" and some "computers". I like consistent data, you know?)

- The "fourth trimester" must be over... my hair is falling out. Too bad the extra pounds don't shed away like that!

- JT is so adorable. He lights up my life every single day. I've never looked forward to 6am so much before. :-)

last scrapper standing - round 1

Ok, here we go!

The first challenge was to use 8 transparencies on one page. I've been meaning to get around to using transparencies on my pages like a pro. But I hadn't yet. So I think I spent about 2 whole days thinking through what I'd do. I should give a shout out to my hubbie who talked through all the design ideas with me. And another shout out to Jari for helping with the technical details!

Check out my entry on flickr. There is more information there about the layout.

Because it's such an interactive page, a photo doesn't really do it justice. Here is a video of the inside in the dark:



Oh and if you read my blog only for JT updates... He's doing great. Cute as a button and smiling and laughing up a storm. Been too busy enjoying him to blog about him. Maybe later. :-)

baby ego

I sent JT off to the sitter wearing a "Future CEO" shirt. And an "I may be small but I'm the boss" bib. Think his ego will ruin their day today?!


hahaha!

JT stories

Let the JT stories begin! Last week was lacking in blog posts, I realize. There were stories to tell, too. I just never got time to sit and write them. It was my second full week at work and I really just hoarded my evening time to be with the boy.

Last week the three of us went to the mall for dinner and a haircut for John. JT and I finished up shopping and I stopped outside the salon to give JT a bottle. He had chugged about half of it when John brought his stylist out to meet the little guy. Now, mind you, we were the epitome of mother and beautiful child just as they walked over. As soon as she starts to tell us how cute he is, he starts pooping. And when he makes poopie, it's an event. So he's grunting and groaning; face turning red and all scrunched up. And he works so hard at it that the milk I'd just fed him gets worked up, also. So he's grunting and turning red and the MILK IS FOAMING OUT HIS MOUTH. LOL. I just started laughing. She's trying to think this baby is cute and he is being SO DISGUSTING. Oh well, people with kids understand... it's not always glamorous in babyland. lol... still laughing over the grunting and the foam....

We've been giving him baths when we remember. Isn't that good of us?! We remember at least once a week. ;-) Well, there is really no need to avoid a bath, because he loves it. Last week we dropped his rubber duckie in the tub with him for the first time. (He hasn't been interested in toys too much.) We showed him how to kick the duck with his feet. So he began staring intently at the duck, following it all around the tub. He'd lightly tap it with his foot and watch it move to the other side of the tub. He was so light and gentle with it... very controlled movements. We were so surprised! So now that bath time has an element of learning to it, I think we might do better at remembering to bathe him.

Today Mom, Aunt Joan, and I took JT to the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs, OH. How often does a day turn out just as you'd hoped? The weather was beautiful, the day was unhurried, and JT was in a fabulous mood. He slept there and back, slept a little in the stroller while we had lunch and walked around, then he woke up and took in all the sights. He was a little darling all day. Back at our house, he let Aunt Joan play with him for 45 minutes. He cooed and chatted and let her stretch out his little bodied that had been cramped in the car seat for so long. Aww... how sweet is he?!

more recent photos on flickr here

In mommy news... I signed up for Last Scrapper Standing vol. 2. You might remember, I did this last year and ended up hanging in until the last round. You know, back when I was childless with lots of time on my hands. I know... how will I find time? I have no idea. But John said it was ok and he'd chip in with JT. And I'm going to want to scrap anyway... I mean, I have a lot of new material to work with. Last year I made some of the coolest stuff I'd done all year. So we'll see how it goes. I will of course be keeping everyone posted here.

JT Simpson

Here he is... our little boy as a Simpson baby:


Remember, John and Stacy as Simpsons?

sit up

Guess what?! I worked out on Friday and DID 10 SIT-UPS!

This is good news because my abdominal muscles have been missing in action the past few weeks. So no excuses now on losing the baby weight...

Here's a sweet picture of the fam on flickr...

rough day for the mama

I was fine on Tuesday when John stayed home with JT. I was fine yesterday when Nana was home with JT. Today when John took JT to the sitter's for the first time, I lost it. I cried all the way to work today. I just wanted reassurance that JT would have a good day. I knew he wouldn't miss me. I knew he'd probably do nothing but sleep most of the day. But still... he and I had pretty good times and I wanted him to have the same or better.

Well, at the end of the day, I think it worked out just fine. The sitter gave us a full report of his day that was too cute. I think he's going to like her. She read books and played with him a lot today. He likes that, so I can have some peace of mind.

He's been a total angel baby all evening. We played when we got home, had a bottle, went for a walk, and now he's taking a nap with his dad. Speaking of naps... I can't keep my eyes open! He has been sleeping really well this week - letting me sleep until 5:45am, but it still catches up with you. So I am off to bed now while John makes JT his last bottle of the evening.

what do the keywords say about me?

These are the keywords that are bringing folks to my blog from Google and Yahoo. It cracks me up a bit to put them all together. Makes me seem like a freak, really...

brungrrl blogspot
ceilingmax sucks
dark and twisty meaning of
jaundice itching cream
last scrapper standing winner
cafe alfresco dunedin menu
craving donuts
stacy's chips sent to everyone in america named stacy
"cream stick" + donut
tai chi for expecting mothers
100 random things
have got the baby's room nursery all organized

It's like I'm a pregnant, scrapping, zen-wannabe food fanatic... hahaha!

Tomorrow is JT's first day with the sitter. We met with her tonight, along with Reagan, the other youngin' in her care. Wish Miranda luck... her day is going to be an adventure!

I got everything packed up that I think he'll need. I'm nervous for him... I hope he has a good day.

He had a bath tonight... he smells delicious. It's hard to put him down... but we all need to get some sleep, so night-night!

back to work

Today was my first day back at work. JT spent the day with his Daddy. I was happy to go back to work. I'm not a stay-at-home mom. I didn't think I was and I'm glad that I didn't try to turn myself into one. I think we'll be ok. I imagine in a few weeks or months from now I will be miserable and need to spend some days with him. That's what I have personal and vacation days for though, right?!

So tomorrow he's with Nana and Thursday with the sitter. Wish us luck that it all works out ok!

reminisce

I was just going through a cd of pics and video my mom took on JT's birthday. Here is a video of John holding JT (for the first time, I think).



How sweet our little boy is. He sure was little.

step into mama's photo booth

I've done a fair amount of venting here about motherhood. Folks told me to hang in there until 6 weeks, because everything gets better then. Oh my... it does get better. I have stopped holding my breath so much, let some of the tension go.

JT smiles at us now. It's irregular, but it's not just because he's having gas. So I feel a little less like a bad parent all the time. That's how I was feeling when the only feedback I got was negative. I will try to keep this in mind when he is terrible two and only getting negative feedback from me. :-)

We still get up once a night to eat. But I have kind of gotten used to that. I will probably miss it, actually. It's special quiet time (well, quiet after I get the bottle in his mouth) for just mother and son with no other noise or distractions. And the middle of the night is a little bit fascinating for me. Several times we watched storms come and go around 3am. And when there is a full moon, we can see it out the front windows while he eats. Nothing like moonlight on the baby's cheeks...

Image is designed with a Photo Booth Photo Strip Overlay by KristyAnn Designs available at My Digital Muse.

7 weeks old

Can you believe our little darling is 7 weeks old already?! I was starting to look forward to going back to work, to re-enter the world of adulthood. But now he's starting to smile and coo... I am going to lament every missed smile. Being home is so much more rewarding when I can get a smile in between every cry or diaper change. :-)

Here he is swinging a couple weeks ago:



And here he is today... while he was playing away on the floor:

looks like Dad

looks like Dad, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Here is JT next to his dad's baby photo. What do we think? Is he the spittin' image of dad or not?

He may have some serious red hair. When the light hits it sideways, it's pretty red. The next few months/years could be interesting in the hair department!

He's getting so big now... our little 10-pounder!

Nana thinks she's funny

Oh, Nana thinks she's so funny with her cartoons . . .

really, he's happy...

One might think from the most recent pictures on flickr that my baby is never happy.

The hat fiasco was sooo funny. Not to JT, I'm sure. I'm sure it's a clue as to what his personality is going to be like. When something makes him mad, he's going to let us know it. :-)

When we got home from the mall, he had a bath. He loves bath time. I look forward to it because it's some guaranteed happy time where we don't have to figure out why he's upset. He likes hanging out without clothes, splashing in the water, getting lotioned up, and then playing with mom and dad when he's finished.

Tonight we hung out and "talked" to him after the bath. He is starting to almost smile and coo a little bit. We love the sounds that almost resemble phonics. Actually, if John has his way, this kid will be talking in just a few months.

Last night he slept from midnight to 5:30am. He usually sleeps better after a bath, and I think he just had more than 4 oz. of milk, so let's hope that we are going to get many consecutive hours of sleep tonight.

With that, I am off to bed to ensure that I am sleeping while he's sleeping.

mmm, wine

We took the little guy out to dinner with us tonight. He was so good. It was nice to get out, too. And, I had a glass of pinot noir. YUM. I haven't had a drink since July of last year - I missed it!

one angry baby

JT and I had a photo shoot today. I'm a great photographer, I tell ya. I might quit my job, I am just that good at photographing babies...


Oh well, someday I am sure we will feel nostalgic about that toothless howl. :-)

slip-n-slide

We spent the 4th of July at a picnic at my friend Amy's house. You probably wouldn't expect a bunch of sober 30-somethings to entertain themselves like this...

floor time

floor time with Daddy, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

JT loves floor time. I think I mentioned that. But here is proof. And I love reading to him. He just looks fascinated. Of course, it could just be gas, too. :-)

Some of our favorite books: Sheep in a Jeep, a Baby Einstein shapes book, My Many Colored Days (Seuss), and Things That Go.

I also read him random things like magazines and catalogs that I like to read for me. He's just as fascinated with that stuff.

Gotta go, the boss is about to wake up from a nap. He let me have a 2 hour break this afternoon, can you believe it?!

simpsonized

Here are John and Stacy Simpsonized...

Looks very much like us, huh?! And while JT looks much like Maggie from the Simpsons when he sucks away at his binky, I couldn't get him simpsonized with the photos I had.

Days at home are long... can you tell?!

what's new

photo by Carol Miller

JT and I had some great floor time today. He was awake and not screaming for about 30 minutes. He let me read about 5 baby books to him and part of an article from Wondertime. How fun! (He usually throws a fit of hunger before I can get to page 2 of any book.)

We also went on an outing to the grocery store. Not much, but he was good the whole time and I got out of the house.

The trip to the store was to get him some medicine for gas. He's making poo now, but he sure struggles with it. He had a bowel movement this afternoon that he worked really hard for. I bawled my eyes out to see him strain so much. The medical assistant at the pediatrician's office said the anti-gas medicine should help with the straining. If it doesn't, we'll switch to a non-dairy formula for a while. The poor little guy should really be able to get through a day without pain.

Well... I sure digressed on this post. I really do obsess over my son's eating and pooping all day long, so there isn't much interesting to discuss.

Here is a story from this morning... At 5am, JT got us up to eat. John gave him a bottle and I pumped breast milk to store for another time. I grabbed the bottles from the counter that I washed last night. I dried them out, put the thing together and started pumping. Well, halfway through, I notice the one bottle has a SPIDER in it. UGH. I was SO freakin' angry. SO angry. Ruined an ounce and a half of precious breast milk... and let's not even talk about the skeeve-me-out factor of having a spider in the bottle. (No cracks on the ounce and a half... production is low, but it is what it is and I am hell-bent on keeping it up.)

Have I mentioned lately what GREAT people we have in our lives? That is a whole story for another blog post though. We have had blessings like crazy for months now. Folks have brought us food and presents for JT and all kinds of nice things. Makes us feel like we brought our son into a wonderful world!

He's falling asleep in his swing right now... have I mentioned how sweet he is when he's asleep? Love him...

I have to laugh or I will go crazy

Baby stress is killing me. I thought I would never go back to school for an MBA... but now I am thinking it would be easier than taking care of a baby!

So I just watched 20 minutes of an Ellen re-run. She showed this panda video on her show. I am still laughing over it. As she said, you just don't think of big scary animals like panda bears being frightened by small things. Check it out:



And here is a photo of our son JT that shows just what wicked parents we are. I especially like the milky drool on his mouth. :-)

I used to have hobbies...

I got up at 2am, 5am, and 8am to feed the little munchkin. I'm not complaining. I'm happy when he eats. And since he went back to sleep in between feedings, even better! The first thoughts that go through my mind when I wake up these days are "how long did he sleep?" "how long since he ate last?" "did he poop yet?"

And it's not just me. John got to sleep through last night. So when he got up this morning, he wanted to know if the little guy pooped. Do you think maybe we have issues? As he walked out the door, John said, "give him some more prune juice today."

JT has been a little constipated. From what I've read, it's normal if he doesn't have a bowel movement for a couple days. But we sure hate seeing him grunt and strain when he does finally have one. The doctor recommended giving him a teaspoon of prune juice. We gave him a dropper full yesterday, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect yet.

You know what's worse than forsaking your interests and hobbies to obsess over your baby's health? Writing about it on your blog... :-)

a birthday every week

JT is 4 weeks old today. We celebrate his birthday every week on Monday. Of course, today is my birthday... but it's not so much to celebrate as being ONE MONTH OLD!

On Saturday we drove 2 hours north for JT to meet his great grandparents. I think he really likes his great grandma. They spent a lot of time together! We had such a great visit. JT is lucky to have 3 great grandparents in his life. Tomorrow he will meet his other great grandma and his Aunt Joan.

"supermom"

I can't believe I have a 3 week old baby. Where does the time go? And why do I feel like it's only the start of time flying by?!

I'm not a fan of the young baby days. I need more interaction. I need to be less stressed about basic stuff - like eating. I'm going batty worrying about how much he's getting to eat, if it's enough, if he's growing, etc. So the whole supermom thing, definitely not feeling it.

JT's an awfully sweet baby though - very tolerant of his inexperienced parents. Here is a picture of him on Sunday when he discovered his reflection in the mirror end of a toy. Pretty cool to see his face light up when he caught sight of his face.

John got a hot tip that baby swings are THE thing for happy babies. So we went last night and got a swing. I think JT must like it because he's been sleeping in it for the past hour... and we don't even have batteries for it yet to make it swing on its own.

What a little precious... I just wanna give him kisses all day long... :-)

nicknames

JT has acquired quite a few nicknames in his 2 weeks with us...

Hiccup. Because he has the hiccups a few times a day. He has since he was in the womb.
Little Baby Sunshine. Because I like to call him this.
Pumpkin. Among my girlfriends, we call everyone pumpkin.
Precious. Because his dad and I think he's just so precious.
Sweet-as-jam. I don't know if it's actually a nickname, but his dad always says, "Make me some toast. I am going to put the baby on it and eat him, because he's sweet as jam."

updated to add some I forgot...
Senor Poopy-Pants. He usually gets called this when he farts or gets his diaper changed.
Mr. Fussybutt. There is a song for this one. Wouldn't you know?!
Chief Milk Belly. Because Native Americans name their babies after they get to know their personality. Well, our little one loves his milk. And he runs our house now, so he must be chief. :-)

chillin' at home

JT's first photo shoot, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

We have been working on getting into a routine. Unfortunately, blogging is not much near the top of JT's list of fun things to do. Eating, pooping, and sleeping are really his favorites.

Stroller rides are another favorite (or at least an activity that leads to good napping). His mom is getting better and more able to take longer walks, so that really works in his favor.

More pics are posted at Flickr.

home, again

We are home from the hospital... again. We came home from the hospital on Wednesday. Wednesday night went pretty well. Thursday night took a turn for the worse though. JT got really upset at bedtime and ended up being completely inconsolable for hours. At 2am he had a temperature of 99.1 and within another hour it was 100.6. So off we went to the hospital.

By 7am he was admitted to Children's Hospital to figure out the source of the fever. We were just released today after the last of the blood culture results came back. Not sure what caused the fever... he was totally fine in the hospital. They did find he was a bit dehydrated and jaundiced. The jaundice is clearing up now. The dehydration was a combination of waiting for real breast milk to start and a mother who wasn't very skilled at how to feed him.

So it was really like being sent away to parenting boot camp. We got some training on breast feeding and spent two days tracking what he ate and weighing diapers. Poor little guy... his parents are better trained now though. The nurse weighed him this morning and came back to do it again because it "just didn't seem possible that he gained that much weight in that amount of time." Yahoo! He went from 6 lbs 13 oz at admission to 7.05 lbs at discharge.

This picture was taken this morning after he ate. He was wide awake and the sun was shining on him. Is he just the picture of sweetness or what?! (The yellow around his eyes was dye from a test they did looking for corneal scratches... just in case he had given himself an infection by scratching his eyes with his dagger-sharp fingernails!)

Ok, he's asleep and in bed now... so I must be also! Have a lovely week all.

he's here!

Gotta feed the baby... but here's a quick pic and some stats:

John Thomas... aka JT
born 7.9.07 at 9:18am
6 lbs 15 oz
20.25 inches long

summer weekends are the best

Oh, I love slow summer weekends! Today is just great - running some errands, doing some chores, and crafting a little... all on an as-I-feel-like-it basis. And it is so beautiful outside, even if it's warming up a bit much.

Blogging has fallen in priority the past week. But to catch you up, it's been kind of a busy week. Worked this week, had plans all day on 4th of July, got a haircut on Monday, goofed off Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I'm still pregnant. Still have the rash. Friday evening one pharmacy wouldn't fill my prescription for cream because it wasn't specific enough. They needed clarification from the doctor and the office was closed for the weekend. So I say ok, take my prescription with me and walk away. I had another thing to pick up at the store, so as I was walking around I was thinking, "2 more days with only over-the-counter treatments?" The more I thought about it the more it itched. And pretty soon I thought, "oh no, I'm going to cry over this... I need to get out of here." So I checked out and then boo-hooed all the way home over my lack of itch cream. I probably should have had the meltdown right at the pharmacy window. It probably would have saved me the second trip to urgent care to get another prescription. So that is my weekend, soaking in oatmeal baths and lathering on itch cream. Seriously, carrying the baby is nothing. Itching ALL OVER - awful. Just awful.

Oh, and my mom was here on Friday when I came home in that state of distress. I think I've had three hormone-induced meltdowns the whole pregnancy and she had to be here for one - gRReat.

Mom (or Nana, as JT knows her) came up on Thursday afternoon and we spent the evening doing some shopping and eating Chipotle. She helped me with painting some of those fun yard sale finds for JT's room. Friday she spent the day cleaning the whole house (it's so clean... I'm loving it) and making dinner for us. Watch for photos of the craft projects. I have some more details to work on this afternoon, but then I should be able to get stuff hung on the wall already!

And to top it off... Dad is coming from Wooster this afternoon with the crib! It's all coming together nicely. I'm so excited to see it all put together. It might actually be the only room in the house that is completely done and decorated!

In photos this week, there is another post forthcoming about the 4th of July. We had an awesome day and there are some wild and crazy photos to post. But for now, I will leave you with an in-car shot of me in a headband. (I had some issues angling the camera properly for a self-portrait.) What do you think, can I do headbands? I think I'm into them (if I can get some that stay on my small head and fine, slippery hair). I'm also thinking of growing my hair out some more, post-baby. Just for something to do... we'll see how it goes.

Gypsy chic, eh? :-)

39 weeks

Last thing I craved: I don't know about craving it, but I'm eating ice cream like it's my job.
Weight gained so far: 37 lbs. Ok, I surpassed my goal. Just going to make the next goal even harder - to lose those same pounds by December.
Baby's weight: 6.5 lbs.
Last time the baby moved: Going at it right now. He likes to get lodged in there sideways. He must pinch a vein or something when he does that because I get a weird, light-headed feeling.
Latest annoying pregnancy symptom: The belly rash. Oh, don't worry, they say it will go away about a week before delivery. Uh, hello, due in 7 days and still have the rash!
Progress on the nursery: 80%. Can you believe it? We made progress! We moved all our stuff out of the nursery and got all the baby stuff put away and organized. The crib is finished and should arrive soon. Mom and I are going to do some decorative painting this weekend. I have yard sale treasures of picture frames and shelves to paint for the room. It should be pretty cute!

Fannie called...

Fannie called from the pay phone... our crib is finished! Now we'll just need to arrange to pick it up! And then get a mattress and some bedding for it. And a baby.

Went to the doctor today. No sign of having a baby this week. Guess that means I keep going to work. Ugh. Is it the weekend yet?

John rented a good movie last night, Peaceful Warrior. It's thoughtful, powerful, moving, inspirational. One of the best movies we've seen in a while. We watched some of the dvd features about how the movie was made, too. It gave us perspective on what went into making the movie. We kind of understood better how we could be so touched by what we saw.

Tonight I'm in feet-propped-up mode. I read a little more of my book: Lucia, Lucia. It's very light reading. I'm glad I am making time for reading, I really do like reading. The cool thing about this book is that it takes place in the 1950s. Lucia works as a seamstress in the custom department at a major NYC department store. So much of the atmosphere is about the fashion of that time - which I love. I have quite the collection of vintage costume jewelry, much of it from the 1950s. So it's cool to read a story related to that period.

I watched Sunrise Earth from Monday, sunrise over the Penobscot River in Maine. I got chills thinking about putting in on a whitewater river early in the morning. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to raise my kids to love river rafting... or kayaking. We haven't been rafting in 2 years. I miss it.

Now I'm catching up on some episodes of Breakfast with the Arts. I know, I have very strange television interests.

room with a view

We finished the basement and my husband immediately set to work on getting the new tv. I wasn't thrilled... it didn't really seem like a necessity.

But since we have it... I am WAY into Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD. He's going to have a hard time getting me to delete them from the saved shows on our DVR box. This weekend I recorded the episode filmed on a ranch in Wyoming: horses, sunshine, birds twittering, a river, mountains, rising fog, green grass, etc. It's like having a big picture window in our basement where we can watch the sun rise whenever we want from wherever we want.

I've seen the sun rise a few times. Mainly, I can only make it happen on vacation. I got up for it last summer at Huntington Beach (proof: photo). And the year before I was awake crazy early in Punta Islita, Costa Rica one morning reading a book overlooking the Pacific Ocean while the sun came up. (No proof for that one, besides some bug bites that have since faded.)

The break of day is a beautiful thing... so full of hope. I'm glad someone thought enough to record it and broadcast it in HD. :-)

our baby has a room

Brace yourselves. You'll never guess what we finally did today.

We finally made some progress on the baby's room! We got all of our stuff moved out of his room. We have a ton of junk. We got the basement finished and have been spending quite a bit of time there. Well now all the crap we moved out of the baby's room is overtaking our zen-like basement space. Doh! John is assembling a new storage shelf right now to alleviate some of the clutter. (I'm sitting with my feet propped up... I'm so helpful.)


There really isn't much to photograph at this point. But at least everything in the room is the baby's stuff. We are still waiting on the Amish folks to call and let us know the crib is ready. Kind of frustrating to not have a crib yet... even though we won't need it right away. The crib would really make the room.


But we do have lots and lots of baby clothes in which to imagine our little bundle of joy. The clothes are so tiny and cute all folded up or hanging on hangers. I'm pretty sure we have plenty of receiving and other blankets, too. I filled 3 dresser drawers with blankets today!

Then there are the books... OH THE BOOKS! We have gotten some terrific books as gifts and I have found so many at yard sales for practically nothing. Let's hope he likes stories... because he is going to hear a lot of them.

day off

I took today off from work. I call it a psychological day. Sometimes you just need to be away from work. A weekend just isn't the same thing - you're supposed to be off on the weekends. So taking a weekday to just do what I want is good for my mental health.

So here's how I spent the day...

1. Got up at the usual time and showered.
2. Went to Starbucks for a decaf java chip frappuccino.
3. Met my boss for some yard sales. (Yes, my BOSS joined me on this day off!)
4. Spent the whole morning buying nutty stuff at yard sales. I had some serious fun. I got some picture frames that I will re-craft for JT's room. Also got another shelf that I can paint for his room. AND, of course... a whole pile of books for him. Some of these books crack me up. My lovely boss handed me a book about a boy who's mommy is a working mom. In the book, mommy's a witch. lol.
5. After the yard sales I came home for a PB&J sandwich.
6. In the afternoon I went to the tire place to get new tires put on my car. Can't be driving baby around on bald tires, now can I?
   
7. They had to get the tires from another store, so I went to Target for a few things. Like a shower curtain liner. Man, is ours gross. And I had to get a children's book and flip flops to send to send out for chain letters I've gotten recently. (Watch out if I have your address... you could be getting one of these!) Actually, as long as those things don't come too often, I think they're fun.
8. So then I went back to the tire place and dropped my car off. Conveniently, the nail salon is in the same plaza. So I spent my waiting time getting my toes all prettied up with some bubble-gum pink paint.
   
9. I spent my time at the nail salon reading the book I started a few weeks ago, Lucia, Lucia. So far, it's a light and fun book. Lots about the 1950s, fashion, and NYC.
10. This evening John went out with his softball buddies and I had time to watch some tv that I like and make some cards in my scrappin' area.
    

Pretty much a perfect day, huh? (Well, it'd be better if I didn't have to buy tires... but I think I took most of the sting out of that.)

calendar contest time

Time to submit photos for my company's annual photo contest! I've compiled a set on flickr of the ones I think are my best. We're allowed to submit two. Buzz on over to flickr and let me know which ones you like.

Friday yet?

This has been an oddly and unexpectedly good day. But tiring. I think I'm going to have to start planning for shorter days the next few weeks. I am pooped!

JT and I did some tai chi this morning. I think he was mocking me as I did the moves. He was all over the place while I was working out. Oh, and you've never seen anyone breath so hard just moving around slowly! Darn all that extra blood weighing me down. I am going to feel so light and energetic after he is born...

And on a random note, have you seen flickrvision yet? It's pretty cool... check it out!

maternity photos

My photographer friend Bryan was nice enough to take some amazing maternity photos for us today. He completely converted his house into a studio to take these pics for us. I LOVE these photos! I figured we should capture this pregnancy because future pregnancies might not be as glamorous as this one. (haha!) Plus, it gives me something to scrap over the next 4 weeks while we await JT's arrival.

There are several more, but I'll just post one good belly (and cankles) shot and one of me and John for now.

arts fest

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day. Aunt Joan, Uncle Wayne, and Jessica visited us this afternoon. It was so nice outside, we set up a little sitting area and had fruit, lemonade, and iced tea under a tree in the back yard. (We don't have a patio, so we have to wing it, you know?) That was so fun... I wish they didn't have to drive so far to visit for an afternoon.

This evening we picked Sarah up and went to the arts festival for some food, music, art, and people-watching. What a great evening to be out browsing around. I've been on the go all day long and my ankles weren't swollen. We took a couple breaks along the way and by 10pm as the festival was closing up, we'd seen every booth and had made our purchase.

We had in mind to buy something for the baby's room.
Our anniversary is coming up, but really buying anything for ourselves right now seems unjustified. The piece we bought is a photgraph of a carnival ride by Craig Brabson. It's very colorful with a bright blue background. It should look very cool in the baby's room. Oh someday that room will be finished enough to take some photographs... someday... maybe even before the baby is born.

Oh yeah, and John and Sarah thought it would be funny to stick the "Art Fan" sticker on my belly. So I spent half the time at the festival like this. Craig, the photography artist, thought it was so funny, he also snapped a photo with his camera phone. I'm sure his photo turned out better than ours, we'll see when he sends it to me. :-)

she's baaack!

Who's back?! Where did she go?

Vera is back.

The one and only Vera Neumann of the 60s and 70s. The artist/designer who was always ahead of her time and no one even came close to her league. She designed bold, inspiring prints for fashion and home accessories. Now someone has resurrected The Vera Company and is licensing Vera products.

Back in the 90s when flea markets were my weekends, Vera scarves, napkins, and other linens ruled my life. I have SUITCASE full of beautiful vintage scarves. The Veras were always my favorites, especially if I could find a silk one. But even the polyester scarves had bright colors and vibrant patterns. They have never lost favor with me. I can't believe I've had most of them for more than 10 years and they are still as beautiful to me as the day I found each of them.

So I am very excited that Vera is being licensed again. You know what would really take the cake?? If there were Vera scrapbooking papers! I mean, I can't cut up my precious scarves... but if there was paper that I could buy in multiples... one to hoard and several to scrap! Yum. I could just eat up those prints. That woman was ahead of her time.

I'll take some photos of the collection soon to share with you. For now, here is a scan of a Vera magazine ad from 1968, featuring Vera accessories at Kaufmann's of Pittsburgh. I bought this on eBay and framed it. It hangs in our guest room.


And then later... we'll talk about my obsession with costume jewelry. :-)

father's day spoiler

*WARNING* If you are my father and you're reading this... I am about to reveal your father's day gift. So that means you should probably look away or go to some other site or something... :-)

I can't wait until after Father's Day. It's finished now... way early, go me! I am thinking he's going to like it a lot. I think it's pretty cool.

It's another mini-album like the one from Craft TV Weekly. I really like the videos on that site. If they had a television channel on cable, I'd mark it as one of my favorites and DVR lots of episodes! And that Tricia... she is SO creative. Well, I've taken her idea and run with it. And I just keep on running with it.

Ok, I admit... I ordered a CASE of the cd literature envelopes, I liked it so much. Pretty much everyone is getting a mini book for a gift soon. Haha. My girlfriends are laughing at me. Everything now is "you sure you don't want a case of that?!" If we were talking white pens, I might say yes, though.

I like these mini books because they are quick, they have a lot of pockets, and you can add as much or as little as you need to get extra pages. You can also make up a book in advance of knowing what photos you are going to use and then just stick the photos in when you get them. If you do try one of these albums, note that 3.5 x 5 inch photos usually work best (or 4 x 6 photos that you can crop that much).

Ok, let's assume my father isn't looking now. Check out the photos of the book on Flickr. Here is a peak:

showers of love

I have a new article posted on Crafty Places entitled Storing and Displaying Greeting Cards. I owe a BIG shout out to my sis-in-law, Theresa for sparking the idea. Thank you! I LOVE this little book. What you see in the photos here isn't even the finished book. I have lots more to stuff into it. Obviously, a single baby book just won't get it for this kid.

There are more photos posted on Flickr also. I know it has looked on the blog like I never scrap anymore, but I really have been. This project took way more time than it should have, but I loved making it. It reminded me of the scrapping I used to do when I was younger. I cut the tags off JT's gifts and turned those into the journal cards I scattered throughout the book. The gift wrap and ribbons also became embellishments for the book.

Some of the tags were just so darn cute, I think they make the book. And it says something about the time in which he was born, you know? Like that everyone bought him little Carter's clothes and receiving blankets. And that his Pap got him a RealTree hat... the camouflage that is all the rage with hunters today. I mean a book from when I was born in the 70s would look a lot different, you know?!

Have a great weekend. We'll be doing some more preparations in the nursery this weekend and dreaming about our little bundle of joy to come...

35 weeks

We saw the doctor today. All is well. We'll see the doctor once a week from here on out.

Last thing I craved: Fruit. Really loving the fruit lately.
Weight gained so far: 29 lbs.
Baby's weight: 5.25 lbs.
Last time the baby moved: He has had a very active day. Stomped around the womb all evening.
Latest annoying pregnancy symptom: The giant cankles.
Progress on the nursery: 25%. Moved most of the big stuff out, now sorting through the small stuff in the closet. Awaiting the crib's arrival.
What we're reading: Oh Say Can You Say
What we're listening to: Dad's crazy talk. I'm trying to tell him he's driving the baby crazy!

good things tonight

Several good things tonight:

• Week 35 milestone reached... all is well. See the doctor tomorrow.
• A baby bunny in the backyard. Aww, we love babies.
• Ate a mango that I learned how to slice on the internet. Yummy and juicy!
• Still have the feel-goods from last Saturday's baby shower. And pics!
• Got John some summer shirts for work in bright colors. He might go for the orange one even!
• Going to see Knocked Up.

photo inspiration

Some photography inspiration from around Flickr. I am needing to take more photos. I took a few last Friday and Saturday and boy, did it feel good!


1. Spots, 2. round, 3. transformer irreplacable, 4. _MG_1464, 5. winding up, 6. LEARN TO LEAD!!! Kudos, 7. Pontile silente, 8. Melancholy, 9. LensBaby

batter up!

I haven't done much of anything this week and I'm exhausted!

Tonight I got a pedicure and took some photos at John and Allison's softball game. Catch all the action on Flickr. Now I am off to bed. There are yard sales in the 'hood first thing in the morning!