a $.70 toy

I made Levi a toy--it cost me 70cents.  I used a empty peanut butter jar (incidentally, I've fallen in love with peanut butter without anything added, but it's really hard to find and I've been having to get expensive organic peanut butter!  Until I saw that my local grocery store grinds their own and it's way cheaper--score!) and filled it with water.  Then I added some thrift store beads ($.40) and sequins($.30).  The gold paint on the sequins came off after awhile underwater, so now there are clear sequins and glittery water.  I'm betting it's because Dillon told me that his son shouldn't play with glitter.

He wasn't terribly interested in it until this past week.  He's actually playing with his toys with a little more interest and attention span these days.  I'm pretty excited he likes this toy--except that it rolls.  And generally not in the same direction as my son.  He will get better at moving around soon though!

In general I think I have a minimalistic view on toys.  (Now, I understand that I only have a 4 month old and will probably eat my words in a few months or years, but this is where I'm at for the moment)  I like the idea that we will have fewer, higher quality toys in our house.  And by quality, I mean semi-educational, multi-use, & imagination-stretching.  So rather than having a plastic disney figurine that makes a noise when you push a button, I'd like to have more generic looking dolls that my son can have make whatever noise he wants.  Blocks can be whatever he wants (look, it's a car!  Wow, now it's a spaceship!  A castle!)  Pieces of fabric can be capes, band-aids, shopping bags.  You get the idea.  If you can say "what does it do?" and have only one or two answers, it's not the most ideal toy for us!

I saw somewhere a person liked to have one of five categories: art, pretend play, books, gross motor, and music.

That being said, we have quite a few of those toys in our house right now already.  And Levi generally enjoys them just as much as he enjoys homemade toys or anything he can stick in his mouth, really.  So I think in the future it'll be interesting to see where we end up as far as the toy collection in our house goes.  For now I like wood toys.

One final thought: Thank goodness we have a son because I am highly committed to keeping disney princesses out of my home. They just seem to take over a little too much.

"De Quervain's" OR "my experience with the blue gloves"

So I found out I'm stubborn.  I know, I should have realized this before age 27.  Since the only people who really read this are people I know, you are probably shaking your head in disappointment that I didn't know this before.

I was so stubborn that when my wrists/thumbs/hands started hurting after the baby was born, I waited until a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment to ask about it.  I was having shooting pains every now and again when I picked Levi up and every now and then they would "lock up" and my thumbs would stick in one position.  She referred me to a physical therapist and vaguely suggested it was De Quervains Tenosynovitis.  A fancy name for "mommy thumb" from lifting a baby all.the.dang.time.  So I started seeing a physical therapist.  Twice a week.  With an infant at each appointment screaming the whole time.  The whole clinic knew when we were there!

They ordered braces for me to wear, and when they arrived I was *delighted* to discover that they were boldly blue.  No tasteful black braces for this gal.  Thank you "Sammons Preston" and whoever at your company decided that blue was definitely the right choice. 

Sidenote: as a new mom with all the feelings associated with my changed body, as well as someone who is still learning how to carry her baby without being all thumbs, it would be great to be a bit more anonymous sometimes rather than blue enough to have the checkout gal ask me what I did to my hands.  Or small children ask me if my gloves were made out of can koozies.

So I went to physical therapy once or twice a week for over a month before I decided to ask if there was something more we could do.  That was me being stubborn again, I should have asked sooner.  I was referred to a hand specialist, and when I called I had to schedule an appointment OVER A MONTH out.  Grr.  Meanwhile, my hands would frequently lock up or any sudden jarring motion would leave me with misty eyes.  I was using my forearms for holding/carrying/opening things and used my hands like clubs or pinched things between my fingers rather than use my thumbs.  It was bad.

Well this past Wednesday I finally made it to my appointment (over an hour drive with an appointment starting at 8 am with a baby and my hubby in tow) and I got the miracle shot everyone's been telling me about.  I had a cortisone injection in each wrist.  I am so thankful that Dillon came with me to that appointment; I completely underestimated how much it would leave me unable to do a darn thing.  I'm not sure I could have driven home safely.  I was popping ibuprophen and it was helping, slightly, but I still couldn't pick up the baby.  Poor Dillon kept getting called over (thank goodness he can work from home on occasion) to help me shift Levi or move him to the other breast to nurse. It's getting better though and I'm back to a "normal pain" level.

So now I get to wait up to a month to see if there was any improvement.  Needless to say I was (and still am) frustrated.  I thought I'd write about it so that you all can go see the dang doctor if this starts to happen to you.  Don't wait, it'll just get worse and then you'll be poppin' ibuprophen and swearing at the child-proof bottle it came in like me.

I also thought I should write about it because my husband is seriously amazing.  For the past three months he has been getting up in the middle of the night every time the baby wakes to pick him up, change him if necessary, and lay him next to me so I can nurse.  Then, on occasion, I wake him up when the baby is done nursing so that Dillon can pick the baby up and put him back in the pack&play.  The other day we did this every 45 minutes all.night.long.  And then Dillon went to work the next day and functioned like a human.  He's my hero.  Someone start the slow clap for this guy.

How we all felt the morning of my shots.

So my hubby is amazing.  And blue club hands suck.

Expressionless

Hey all.  Sorry it's been awhile.  Our little bundle of joy has been continuing to sleep poorly so I've been catching a lot of naps while he naps during the day.  Also, I started cooking again.  That's right.  I got motivated to feed myself and my husband!

I just thought I'd share a little struggle I've been having.  It's in regard to my son.  He FINALLY started giving us little giggles (the best sound in the world) and has huge smiles that are all gums and I love it.  He gets excited when I blow raspberries on his tummy and smiles really big and then brings his hands to his mouth like he just can't handle the excitement.  It's awesome.  But I can't take any pictures of it.

Every time I try to take his picture when he is doing something cute, he freezes and stares at my phone, expressionless.  So  I have a million expressionless photos of my son. Just try to imagine all the cute things he was doing before he spotted my phone.  Here you are:

I finally caught him in the pack and play one morning, and this is a horrible picture but at least I caught his smile before a tooth started ruining his perfect gummy grin.

I did get a couple more recently, here's my favorite.

Update:  His carseat straps aren't usually this loose.  This was mid-getting him out.

So these are my problems. I know, it's a rough life.

4 months

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Week 17

Oh boy, kiddo.  You really threw us for a loop this month for sleeping, so forgive me if I don't write in complete sentences. 

You found your feet!  And boy, do you like holding onto them for dear life!
You are outgrowing all your clothes!  We're going to have to go shopping soon and I can't believe how big you are getting.
No really good laughs yet, but a few small giggles are keeping us going.  And of course, that gummy smile that we love!
You are a real wiggler when you are excited, and you "swim swim swim!" all the time, especially when we're trying to get clothes on you!
You continue to show more and more interest in toys, and look at them and bring them all to your mouth to chew on.  And you're getting better at spending time alone on the floor with toys.
You also found out that if you grab onto my hair, I can't put you down.  Ponytails for mom for now on!
You are fascinated by food.  Although you're still nursing, you watch other people eat and can't get enough of seeing food.  Are you going to be a big eater like your dad?

A year ago...

One year ago I peed on a very important stick and then two hours later we signed the papers to buy our house.  What a year it has been!

I was going to fill this post about all the things we want to fix/upgrade/change about the house, but I just watched a birth video and am feeling sentimental.  So we'll hold off on the things that we want to change and instead let's reminisce about all the things we've done in our completely imperfect home.

Travel back in time with me to 363 days ago.  We had both taken the morning off of work and I decided that it would be a good time to take a pregnancy test.  The best moment in the world was when I came out of the bathroom (Dillon didn't know I had taken the test) and I went up to Dillon for a hug and said "So, I'm pregnant".  And I looked up and he smiled immediately.  I don't even remember what he said but the fact that there was no hesitation, no processing, no look of doubt was so reassuring and wonderful.  

Then we went to the bank and bought ourselves a house.  The previous owner made us promise not to cut down the olive tree.  

A week or so later, when my morning sickness was in full swing, I was in my sister's wedding and approximately 40 people commented on how tired I looked.  Thanks guys, I was.  But I couldn't tell you that I looked so tired because I was COOKING A HUMAN BEING.  

And since then, I spent an incredible amount of time nauseated on the couch.  We painted and set up the nursery.  We brought in even more furniture than you would think we need.  We had panicky "oh God we can't just call the landlord anymore" moments.  I got bigger and bigger and bigger and figured out the best route to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  I waddled my pregnant butt around the neighborhood.  I got to do something so special: I labored in my own home.  I held on to the bannister that my family made and I relaxed my way through labor.  We brought our baby home to this house.  I spent even more time on the couch recovering from giving birth.  We shared our house with all our relatives and friends and celebrated the day my son joined God's family.  I have walked miles and miles with that stroller around town.  Both Dillon and I know the places to step so that the floor won't creak after putting the baby in bed.  This is our son's first home.

Exploring the backyard with Daddy

First bath in the sink with the orange countertops

Backyard with Daddy

And soon, he'll be turning sticks into arrows and jumping off the patio outside this house.  We will have a play area downstairs.  We will make cookies in the kitchen and decorate Christmas trees and hang our stockings on our new bannister.  We will make memories.  And I couldn't be more excited to share this place with my son and my husband, and continue to make it ours, and to fill this house with memories!

A year ago we put this picture on facebook and said "Guess what we did today?".  And my aunt Laurie was right when she said "Judging by the smiles I would say you either bought house or made a baby!!! LOL"












P.S. This is what happened to the olive tree

Wrapping things up

We attended a wedding a month or so ago, and I thought I'd share the gift we gave the bride & groom.

We gave the lovely couple this book, One Pan, Two Plates.  Which (as I flipped though it) looked like a great cookbook of "normal" foods.  I hate recipes where you have to go on a multi-store hunt for some ludicrous ingredient that will sit on your pantry shelf for the next two years because you ended up not liking the recipe anyway.  But this was not that book.  Normal recipes for normal people, with just enough different stuff to make your meals feel fancy sometimes.  Because we can't all be chefs.

By the way, I took a picture of a set of 3 cookbooks because this is what I want our house to look like.  At the moment, it's all beige all the time.  But I'd love to incorporate a lot more colorful accessories (and hopefully someday white walls) as we get new stuff.

So this book: 


I wrapped it up with plain paper (I got a roll of craft paper from Ikea over 5 years ago and it's still going strong!) and added a little paper flowerage.  I couldn't decide if this was blog-worthy, but I thought it turned out really cute so... why not?

Three sizes, fold the petals up on all three

If only the blog came with 3D glasses!

I cut out three sizes of basic flower shapes from some shiny paper.  Then, I folded the "petals" up a little bit for some 3D action.  I layered the three sizes using tape, and then stuck the whole shebang on the gift. After I made a few more "flowers", it was good to go!

Hope the bride and groom liked it!

Boba

Two things:

1. I'm afraid of a cat named Boba.  I avoid that cat like nobody's business.  You should see me hug the walls to avoid walking past him.  *shudder*

2. We got a new baby carrier.  We generously received a Moby wrap as a gift from a friend while we were pregnant, and we used that for awhile.  Unfortunately, I never really perfected the wrapping (there always seemed to be a lot of extra behind the baby's head and he never felt super secure in it so I had to keep my hand behind him the whole time), plus it was difficult to put on when we were out and about without the "tails" dragging on the ground.  Also, by the time I got it on, the baby was generally crabby and he liked to try and stand in it when I was putting him in.  So it worked occasionally but was never a reliable way to carry him and we didn't use it as much as we could have.

Moral of that long story: we were in the market for a new carrier, and I've heard great things about the ergo.  Namely, that it holds the baby correctly for their hip shape and that it's comfortable.  It's also expensive.  So I was looking for a used one on Craigslist or garage sales but they still ran around $75 for a used one.

We were lucky and hit up Nicki's Diapers for a few new diapers and I saw that Boba carriers 3G were on clearance because they came out with a 4G model.  So instead of $120+ for an ergo, we got a different soft-structured carrier for $90.  But instead of paying $90, we ended up returning some of the All-in-one diapers we had since they gapped around baby's thin legs.  We got a handful of best bottom diapers (which we are IN LOVE with), an amber teething necklace, and an ergo and only ended up paying about $15 for it!  HORAY!

Modeling is his future career.  And he is in love with that potato chip bag.  And I'm not afraid to say that I have let him play with it for the past few days.

So how do we like it?  It's incredible.  He likes being in it, it's a million times easier to get him in the thing since you put it on around him instead of trying to get him in it after putting it on.  And I never realized how much more secure he could feel in it compared to the loosey-goosey moby.  It can truly be used hands-free and I can even bend down instead of doing the deep squats like with the moby (the only form of exercise we did, yah I should really get on that).   PLUS it came in adorable colors and (sort of girly) patterns, but we stuck with gray since the clearanced colors were limited.

My only complaints are that it's a bit of a to-do when you want to adjust it between users (me and Dillon), it's a bit less comfy than the stretchy moby, and that the instruction booklet gave very little information about how to snap things together or adjust things (I didn't know the strap in the back by the shoulderblades could slide up and down until I googled "why can't I reach this buckle").

So the moby was great, it was good for a little baby and felt nice and squishy instead of lots of buckles and straps.  But we've moved on and it feels great.  Much better than that *other Boba* which I have nightmares about.