create(d)

My "one little word" for 2007 was CREATE. I'm not sure how well I did with that. I did manage to create a new life. I've created a lot of messes and some new fat cells over the past year, also.

And my 2007 resolutions... blah. I gained more than 30 lbs... and of course, it's not gone yet. I have 11 more pounds to go. So sad, that is probably the amount I gained by overeating ice cream. *Sigh* If I had behaved, I'd have made the goal already. I think I read three books this year. Sadly, that is better than last year. I have read a TON of baby information online and elsewhere, does that count? I put a few pictures in albums, but I wouldn't say I am caught up on that one, either.

Not sure what this year's word and resolution(s) will be. I am thinking one resolution this time around. Although, I do have a goal to ditch that 11 lbs by April. And I have another goal in mind. Maybe I will have it decided for posting by New Year's Day.

Well, in the creative department... I am carving out time to make stuff. I have done a little digital scrapping. Designer Digitals posted several very cool freebies recently that I totally dig. So I downloaded those and have been playing.


And you won't believe what I did today. I sewed. Still have a bit to finish. Maybe a photo by Tuesday. :-)

buying handmade

Now that Christmas has passed, I can tell about my handmade purchases. I photographed a few of the packages as I received them. I got some notecards from annacote. There is some beautiful stationery on Etsy... definitely check it out. I ordered scrapbooking what-nots from elles and maythird. A few lucky ladies got a handbag and a wristlet/wallet from lulaballou. In the delicious department, I gave a little and pampered myself with some aspenspa. Yum, yum. Go for the juicy pear lip balm!

All the packages were shipped speedily (even if the post office was a little nutty in delivering on time this past holiday season). Every single package was neatly packed. Items were well-protected by plastic wrap and tissue paper. And I think every single seller included a hand-written thank you note. It's a beautiful shopping experience... I love it!

I'll be giving more handmade stuff in 2008. And maybe next year I will be a little more prepared for Christmas with some gifts I hand make myself.

We took the Christmas stuff down tonight. I just couldn't bear the thought of doing anything but relaxing on New Year's day. I got a little caught up on laundry the past few days. But of course, JT got a TON of new clothes for Christmas, so I'll have to pre-wash all those things... so more laundry.

I love his little clothes... they are so cute and I love the thought behind what people pick out for him. My 4-wheeler ridin' aunt and uncle got him a 4-wheelin' outfit with camo sleeves - too cute. My other aunt got him a Pooh outfit in an outdoor explorer theme... it's totally us. I just wish he didn't have to outgrow everything so quickly. Can you believe I have already filled a storage tote with the 0-3 months clothes he outgrew?!

Ok, I'm sleepy... off to bed. N-night.

quick summary in photos...

On Thursday evening we had carpet installed in the basement...


On Friday we got the house all cleaned up, chores and errands done, and finished wrapping packages...
Then we went to visit John's family for the weekend. JT got presents out the wazoo... and spent a ton of quality time with Aunt Jen and the rest of the family...

On Sunday we had our Christmas exchange with John's Dad and JT's cousins... the group photo of the kids didn't go so well. And yet, I love this photo... :-)


If I don't post again . . . Merry Christmas to all!

more wrappin'...

Oh my... there are still packages to wrap! I think I have 6-8 more packages to wrap tomorrow night before I can put away the wrapping supplies. A few much-anticipated packages arrived tonight, so I was able to get those wrapped. Just one more package is still in the mail somewhere. Good thing it wasn't intended for anyone in particular. (I always buy a few extra whatnots to add to other gifts, you know?)

We are having carpet installed in the basement tomorrow. If you've been reading the blog very long, you'll remember those tales - and the debacle of a floor solution. Anyway, we're just going to do wall-to-wall carpet like we should have done in the first place. It should be nice. I'm looking forward to it. Of course, it also meant that tonight we spent picking up and moving all our stuff down there. Ugh. Too much stuff. (Most of it the crafty stuff...)

JT went to bed EARLY tonight. I fed him dinner a little later than usual, then a bath, then off to bed. We skipped the nighttime bottle for the first time ever. He has been sound asleep for 2 hours already... it's so weird. I remember a few weeks ago when I'd be thinking "a couple hours of sleep before he needs fed again". Time flies... please, stop! I don't want my baby to grow up too fast.

Next week is all about him. I am going to savor every bit of him that I can. Luckily for me, it will mean going to bed early and greeting the day a little later in the morning - yahoo! For now, n-night.

wrappin' presents

I told you we had lots of fun on Monday... here is one of our activities...


And certainly, don't let me catch any of you putting your baby in the Bumbo on the tabletop AND letting him chew on plastic wrap at the same time! I had to get the package away from him... he was seriously going to make a meal of it!

santa baby

JT and I had a day o' fun. We did some shopping and hung out all day. He laughed so much today and pretty much captured hearts everywhere we went!

I hadn't really planned to spend so much time at the mall. But he was so enamored by the whole thing, we just sort of goofed off. He loved the lights and the music and the PEOPLE! He didn't cry over Santa. They just sat and chatted a bit... JT reached out and touched Santa's beard. Luckily for Santa, he didn't pull... tee hee hee.

Of course, he screamed in the car most of the way there and most of the way home. I'm not sure what is so terrifying in the back seat of the car... and why he doesn't fall asleep instantly back there like the other 90% of infants.

Well, I can't wait to see his beaming face again in the morning... so I am off to bed to hurry that along. :-)

under the tree

under the tree, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I have a photo of my baby under the tree... but no presents there yet. 80% of the presents are purchased, just need to wrap them. Lots of people are stressing over the holiday.

When should I start stressing? My decorations are minimal, the house is a mess, the playlist of Christmas tunes on my iPod needs work. And yet, I find that I don't care. I feed baby, do dishes, do laundry, and play with baby. (and really, I will play with baby and skip dishes and laundry when I can) So that's pretty much how it's going to be. Christmas is what it is here. And frankly, I have a heck of a lot of spirit!

There is a snow storm on the way this weekend. Woo hooo! There I go again, loving the snow when everyone else dreads it. JT and I are sooo going out to play in it.

I am off a couple days next week, and all week during Christmas. Can't wait. I'm just gonna play, play, play!

crafty balloons

crafty balloons, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I am so into these mosaics on flickr. You can make them at Big Huge Labs.

I'm also really into hot air balloons since we went with the hot air balloon mobile in JT's room. Oh wow, these projects really have me itching to make something.

But you know how it goes... John entertained JT all evening, so I had some time. I made dinner, did a load of JT's food-crusted laundry, and changed his crib sheet. Now he's in bed and the chores are done. I'm exhausted. I am staring at the computer screen, but really all I can see is the backs of my eyelids.

Someday, the crafting will come again...

learning to eat

Here JT tries bananas for the first time:

for this moment

Tonight after his last bottle, I held JT while he dozed off to sleep. This is usually John's time with him, but I got him tonight. The little guy was tired and his eyes were droopy. But he was fighting to keep his eyes open, staring at me, reaching out to touch my face... oh how that makes up for the cranky sobs from earlier in the evening!

datebook

I love this Non-Planner Datebook! I'm pretty sure I'm going to need it when I finish reading Time Management for Unmanageable People. And yes, I'm serious. Time management... bah. Leave me alone and just let me get creative. ;-)

all I want for Christmas...

Christmas tree 2007, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I pretty much have everything at this moment. Not much left to ask for besides world peace, a cure for cancer, and to stop global warming. Sure, I am currently stuck at work awaiting a jump from AAA because my battery is dead and that sucks. But I am only bitter because this is cutting into my precious JT time.

The battery is dead because of JT, actually. Yes, the only grief he ever gives me is in the car. He screams a blood-curdling my-mommy-is-mean-to-me cry when I take him in the car by myself. It's the worst at night. For a while I tried turning on a light for him because I thought he was afraid of the dark. Well it didn't work. And I forgot to turn the light off when I removed my screaming babe from the evil car. So the battery weakened. Now it's 28 degrees outside and it has quit completely.

So anyway... I mentioned before that I took the handmade pledge this Christmas. Last night I placed my Etsy orders. I think everything shipped today or will ship tomorrow. That's what I'm talking about. I have placed Gap and Jo-Ann orders lately and they didn't ship that fast! Go crafty entrepreneurs. I am so happy to be supporting these folks. I'll take some photos as the stuff arrives, but don't expect me to post until after Christmas. Ha! You thought I'd actually tell what presents I'm buying - so not! A few of my favorites are posted at left, you can check those out and guess which I actually indulged.

I had lots of fun with JT over the weekend. He's into squealing. I like to think of it as "discovering his voice". We spent hours squealing back and forth. He'd sqeal, I'd squeal, he'd screech, I'd screech, etc. I tried to throw in some different vowel sounds: aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!! oooooooooooooo!! He'd still just yell eeeeeeeeeee!! He did take a moment to ponder the different sound I made, but in the end he settled on the eeeeeeeeeeeee!! John hates our new game. hahaha.

JT is LOVING solid food. I can't feed him the rice cereal fast enough! I added some cinnamon to it for taste. At least it feels less like torturing him from my perspective. He also watches us eat more intently now. He used to hardly notice. Now if I eat with him on my lap, he stares at me as I eat. And he stares at my food. I think he's going to be ok with trying new things. I just hope he can stand to keep eating baby food before he gets his teeth. (Hands off my Chipotle, baby!)

That wraps up everything I meant to say along with those last couple short posts. Now... where is that tow truck?! Later...

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

In case you're reading... I would not be opposed to finding this under my tree on Christmas day. I promise I would love these stamps forever and make beautiful projects with them. :-D

much love,
Stacy

eating cereal

After a few weeks of putting the spoon in his mouth, JT has figured out eating rice cereal. Here is his Aunt Theresa feeding him some...

interview with a rock star

I got to interview my favorite rock star yesterday...

this baby rocks

this baby rocks, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

Look at this chunky monkey. He was very chatty today. Well, after he woke up from an apparent 5 HOUR nap. Haha!!

He's had a lot of new stuff lately that I haven't had time to blog or scrap. We have been trying rice cereal for a couple weeks now. Just this week I had the sitter giving it to him also. She seems to have better luck getting him to swallow it. I think he's too tired with me... or just holding out on me! But we will keep plugging away at it.

He's learning to use his hands, too. He's so funny to watch. He plays with his binky. Plucks it out of his mouth and plays with it until he drops it. Then he will grab bib, toy, burp cloth... whatever is near... and stick it in his mouth. But watching him with the binky is the best. He will eyeball it in his lap and work forever on getting hold of it and guiding it back to his mouth. Usually it's upside down or backwards and he still attempts to cram it in!

He almost sits up on his own. It won't be long. He is so strong. It is so cool to see him develop core strength. He likes to do his ab workouts in the evenings, raising straight up from a reclined position over and over. I couldn't even do that after I had him... pregnancy wrecks your abs!

Last night I read him a few books and then we sang and danced to Peter, Paul, & Mary. He loves reading... I am so glad, as I have that huge collection of books started! We sang "I love rock and roll music" and "Puff the Magic Dragon". He went crazy for singing along to the songs. That's what I'm talking about... growing up on books, music and legos... just like his mama did. (We're still another year from starting legos... oh the things we are gonna build then...)

I can't get enough of these photos. This one is totally "my parents are so weird". lol...

Ok, I'm committing. I signed the pledge to buy handmade this holiday season. Etsy is the place! Recently I bought this print which I framed and hung in my bedroom. And I love this quilt I got for JT just before he was born. Otherwise I have held back. But if you're on my Christmas gift list this year... watch out, it's gonna be a Crafty Christmas. muhaha.

how many days til Christmas?

Yay... it's Christmas season!! I think I have all my Christmas cards ready to be mailed. I finished them up tonight. Obviously, having them finished this early in the game means I didn't write anything meaningful and sentimental in them. They all feature a darling picture of our little Christmas angel, so I think folks will overlook the lack of sentiment. (Next year... words, I promise.)

Now I just need to get the Christmas music loaded back onto my iPod.

highchair baby

highchair baby, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I assembled JT's highchair today. He sat in it this evening and had dinner with us. He squealed with delight when we first pulled him up to the table. He loves the vantage point! We fed him some rice cereal with a spoon. He might have swallowed a few granules of it.

Oh, and he isn't totally sitting up on his own yet... but close enough that he can do 10-15 minutes in the chair as long as he's strapped in.

He really likes when I spin his binky like a top... the tray table offers plenty of space for binky spinning. Endless entertainment. Who needs toys? :-)

thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday

Tonight, in between folding clothes and running the sweeper, John informed me that "thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday." LOL. Apparently, it's not as fun when you have to clean house and assist with the meal preparation. JT sat and watched us run around the house like crazy people... John sweeping the stairs and me cleaning the living room floor. "What's going on around here? Are we having company or something?!"

You know what I like about hosting Thanksgiving dinner? The house will still be clean Friday through Sunday and I will be off to work to enjoy it. Anyone hitting the stores on Friday to start Christmas shopping? I'm thinking I might... JT wants to see the mayhem. Tee hee.