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.

making seasons bright

So what if he didn't make the finalists for the Gap casting call?! What do those people know about cute babies anyway?!


Our friend Bryan took some amazing pics of JT for our Christmas cards at the open house on Sunday. Awesome, awesome shots that we are just drooling over!

Autism Society of America: Urge Congress to override autism funding veto

Autism Society of America: Urge Congress to override autism funding veto

Ok, I admit, I didn't vote last week. I was pretty ignorant of the candidates and issues, so it would have been pointless. BUT, I am interested in increasing funding for autism research AND getting insurance providers to cover some of the diagnosis and treatment.

I really believe it's a disease that is treatable, if not preventable or curable! There are two little boys dear to my heart who stand to benefit from this... so it was worth 10 minutes of my time.

Will you help by writing to your representatives also?
Find your House Representative here.
Find your Senate Representative here.

thanks.

not the mama

We had a fabulous weekend visiting family. I didn't take a single picture. Too busy being "in the moment." JT was so sweet this weekend. He charmed everyone. He laughs so much lately. And he is much more into watching people and examining things than he has been. I love watching him discover the world... I am so excited for every new day with him.

I love being a mom. There is a unique "feature" between me and JT where sometimes he just wants his mama. He did that a few times over the weekend. He'll be really crabby, but if I just hold him for a second, he calms down. I have to say - I love that feeling. Oh, I love it for myself, but I also like that he has someone (or something) that makes him feel at ease. That's something everyone should have, don't you think?

Of course, it brings to mind that show Dinosaurs from back in the 90s. LOL. Perhaps my family were the only people who watched that show during its short run on tv. (We probably only watched it because we got like 4 channels where we lived. So this dinosaur baby refers to the dad as "not the mama". Sure, you're the dad and you're great, but you're "not the mama". Haha!

now roll over!

Guess who rolled over today? Miranda wrote in his journal that he rolled over on his own. At first we said, "oh no! It's the first time and we missed it!" Then we thought, it was probably on accident. Because this boy doesn't roll over. We have been trying it every day. He hates tummy time and when I roll him back and forth he looks at me like, "that's nice Mommy, I will not be needing that skill."

So after his bath tonight, we popped him over on his tummy. He put his leg out and rolled onto his back. What?! Just like that? Like he has known how to do it all along?!

JT is so strong. He was going crazy in the tub. We know that bath time is over when the tub is completely empty of water after he splashes it all out when kicking his duck.

He's awfully cute. But hmm, now I have to readjust all my habits... no more leaving him on the couch or his changing table. And look out when he figures out crawling... we will be chasing him all over. Aaahh.... changes are coming!!

Little Monsters contest entry: shy monkey babe

JT is featured on the Pregnancy and Baby blog... haha! I entered him in the contest only because the prize is a data storage device, something we could totally use to store all the photos I take!

Pregnancy & Baby Blog » Blog Archive » Little Monsters contest entry: shy monkey babe

I mean, I can't help it that he's so cute... :-)

JT's first Halloween

JT's first Halloween, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

We had fun. Check him out! :-)

I forgot to mention, I didn't make it past the second round of Last Scrapper Standing. I wasn't terribly disappointed. It was the week that John was out of town and JT and I were hanging out. So I was plenty busy otherwise. Plus, I was using that time to dream up the ideas that I'm implementing now for Thanksgiving. I'm also doing a scrappin' project at church this week, so there was some preparation to do for that. The demo layout I did for the church project is pretty cool. I'll share it after the event. Here is round two of Last Scrapper Standing. The challenge was to scrap 7 random facts:


Nana Sparkles surprised us with a visit this evening. We went for a walk. The weather is supposed to turn cooler after tomorrow, so JT and I are soaking it up while we can. We also lose daylight savings time this weekend, so it's gonna be getting dark on us in the evenings.

JT loves admiring the sky and the trees. The trees in our neighborhood are SO colorful. I tried to take some pictures the other day, but I'm not sure that I was able to capture it.

JT's Aunt Jen is coming to visit this weekend... we will probably be doing some crafting. I told her to bring stamps and stuff for Christmas crafting. I don't usually make my own Christmas cards, but I use a TON of homemade gift tags. I've been making gift tags since I was like 10 years old. My grandma was a whiz at making tags from last year's Christmas cards. Hmm, maybe I should post a how-to. It's like the easiest paper-crafting you could do. :-)

Here is a mosaic of fall photo inspiration from around flickr. What is inspiring you these days?

going batty

Today was a non-stop, action-packed day! I got NOTHING on my to-do list done and I will have to play catch-up this week. But it was good.

Becka called after church to see if we wanted to go to Boo at the Zoo. I had planned to make chili, clean house, and run errands while JT watched the Steelers with his dad. But it was SUCH a nice day... I felt like I was being a bad mom to deny the little guy a day in the sun... so we went. It was awesome.

And it's not many days that we see so many friends in one day. We ran into Allison at the zoo with her fam. Amy stopped by in the afternoon to bring John a birthday card. And Jenny and Robert dropped some stuff off in the evening. JT is feeling pretty well-loved right now. (It wore him out -lol!)

Last night I finished up the Thanksgiving decor project I started earlier in the week. It's letters that spell "thanks" for our mantle. Check out more details on Flickr. I'm loving these letters. Plus, the mantle is the only part of the house that got cleaned this weekend... only because I wanted to admire my finished work. Now, if I could just get the rest of the house in order, I could really get on with the decorating!

Here are some creepy "flying foxes", aka bats, to get you ready for halloween...

paper leaves

paper leaves, originally uploaded by brungrrl.

I'm addicted to the flickr mosaics. For this one, I was actually searching for some ideas for a project I was working on tonight. none of these actually resulted in any assistance with the project... but there was some cool stuff that got me completely sidetracked! Maybe this will inspire another project.

Oh, and my paper leaves project turned out SWEET. Can't wait to show it to you. I'll photograph it in the daylight. For now, I'm t-i-r-e-d.

n-night.

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!