Transitioning...

This blog will be for something else soon... but in the meantime, come visit my NEW blog: Lepper Colony

Day Care

Today is Drew's first day at his new day care. I go back to work next Wednesday so I am taking him a few hours each day this week to get him integrated in it. It's been roughly 2 hours and I am just now feeling the pangs of weirdness that he's not here with me. Maybe it's because I am at home and he is not here. If I was out and about I probably wouldn't be as cognizant. Does that mean I should go out and go shopping? Or maybe get my nails done or a massage? It's all coping therapy, right? :)

Anyway - I took this picture of him this morning in his cute Oshkosh B'gosh overalls - we dubbed it his first day of school.. even though it's not technically school. Still, a monumental day nonetheless.



And I didn't even cry when we left him. My husband kept saying "you're doing good" and I was like.. should I be more upset than this? Nah... Drew is in a good place where he can play with other kids instead of hanging out at home with mom in our pjs. (We can do that on the weekends!) He looked happy when we left & I will be back to get him in just 2 more hours. I can't wait to hear all about his first day!

Cool Baby

In my opinion, there is nothing more hip than a baby in an Adidas track suit. I was lucky enough to find a few on eBay and Drew is finally big enough to start sporting them. Love.

Good and Bad Things

Today is one of those days... good things.. then not-so-good things.. Hopefully to be followed by more good things.

I am back on Weight Watchers trying to shed the unwanted baby weight - and today when I weighed in I was down 3.8 lbs! Christmas you are no match for ME! It was a great motivator for me to stay on track. I am down a total of 5.4 lbs since I started about a month ago and that makes me feel hopeful that someday soon I might actually fit back into my jeans & my wedding band.
That was the good..

...the bad is that Drew got his first round of vaccines today. I think I actually felt my heart rip a little when he started waling from the 3 needles being stabbed in his thighs. The nurse, God bless her, was very quick but nothing could quite prepare me for the total anguish that my 10-week old son was going through - both physically and I assume a touch of mentally & emotionally as well. He's been sleeping for roughly 2 hours now and seems to want to block this day out by continuing on a marathon nap. I know all kids go through this & he will not remember it even as early as later today but still, going through that for the first time is a bit overwhelming. When they put the bandaids on the baby they should also hand the mom and nice glass of wine to calm her. Needless to say, I will probably partake in that glass of wine later today.

In some whimsical way I think that today's little medical adventure is a good preparation for parents; there will be times when our kids have to go through sucky things and all we can do is stroke their heads, tell them it's ok & promise that you will stay with them until it's all better... and then head straight for the booze.

Just kidding... sort of.

Merry Christmas!

I'm a bit late but I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas & is looking forward to the New Year. Our little guy had a great first Christmas - Made out like a bandit! We enjoyed both Christmas Eve & Christmas Day with my husband's family; the weekend before with my family.

Christmas Morning... New bib thanks to Auntie Robin



Christmas Family Photo



Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas Photos

Last weekend we were going to try to take pictures of Drew & his cousins, Jordan & Caleb, for Christmas. We ended up having to cancel our appointment due to a scheduling conflict but we thought maybe we'd try to take some pictures of Drew since he was already in his sassy outfit... All I can say is that maybe it was a good thing that we had to cancel our appointment since our subject was being rather non-cooperative.

Attempt One, on mom's lap:
(now we're just getting cheeky!)

Attempt Two, on the couch:


After this we thought.. maybe Christmas photos were overrated.
Our last attempt....



Hmm, maybe not.

Holding my own...

This cracked me up - Drew decided I wasn't doing a good enough job of feeding him so he decided to take over. I tried to explain to him that it was too early for him to be feeding himself but he wouldn't hear it.


I can't figure out where he gets his stubborn streak from. :)

Smiling!

Drew is 6-weeks this week & that is when all the books say he'll start smiling & giggling. And sure enough... this is the cutey-pie face I got yesterday!



Love!

Facial Expressions

Drew definitely takes after me & has the best facial expressions. I think he is looking at me like I am a crazy person in this one... but it is still pretty cute!


This one just says he's tired of me taking pictures of him.

Sleep...

I love this picture... There is a similar one of me & my dad when I was a newborn. Drew is currently sleeping with us... he sleeps about 2x as long when he's in with us rather than in the bassinet so for right now, we all share one bed. I admit it gets a little squishy from time to time but the pay off is 3-4 hours of uninterrupted sleep between the hours of 11pm & 3am. After that it varies.. but that first block of sleep is the best gift ever!

Welcome, Baby Drew!

This is VERY overdue but I just wanted to introduce our son, Andrew William - we call him Drew. He was born via C-section on October 20th at 4:28pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 13oz & was 20" long.



We are thoroughly in love & are so excited to have him in our lives.
Welcome home, baby!

Modern Technology

Technology is amazing. Mark and I got to see our wee one in 3D the other night. Of course, Flash was being a pill and had his hand over his face... and then his hand AND his foot... but the pictures still turned out pretty good. What an experience! He's been a little hyper bean this week so it was fun to get to see him again and actually feel like we saw the real him. He's pretty cute for not being fully developed yet. And we think he has my nose. Lucky for us all the noses in our family are pretty cute so we didn't have to worry too much about that.

So on this lovely summer Friday I leave you with the latest paparazzi shots of our little man.
Happy Weekend!

Nesting, Phase 1

I think it's officially time I started nesting. Or so I'm told. I don't really want to spend my weekends cleaning and painting, etc but I suppose the poor guy deserves his own room and deserves it at least somewhat put together. So, I've started planning.

First we have to get rid of the furniture that is currently occupying Flash's room. Good-bye Craft Room... it was nice to have you for the last year. See you in the garage. Next, we need to paint. When we bought our house last year all the bedrooms were painted in this lovely ace bandage-colored hue. We managed to paint our bedroom but have left the other 3 alone for the time-being. So, Flash's room will get a nice coat of white paint.

White? you say? But that's so boring! Let me explain to you... I've been reading about this & baby's can really only see black, white & red for a while so I'm just being sensitive to that. Plus, I figure he'll have an opinion in a couple years and we can paint his room to his liking then. Until that time, Mama wants a nice clean, white room. There is a lot of natural light in there & white will make it lovely.

As far as "theme" there really isn't one. No zoo animals or baseballs or other weird boy things. Our baby is far beyond that :) Afterall, coming from artsy parents, he'll have much higher design goals than an oversized soccer ball on the wall. Bleh! So, I've been looking for some design inspiration from 2 of my fav blogs: Decor8 and Style Files. Love. And they've been oh-so-gracious with said inspiration. In addition to white walls I am also adding accents of a couple blue tones (one jewel and one a bit more subtle) and greys.

I've found Kat at Hearts and Crafts to make me some custom paper garlands for the walls - I love these. So simple but yet so fun! It's like a party all the time!


And I am eyeballing this paper crane mobile as well as this poster. Cranes are a symbol of loyalty & peace and I think those are perfect themes for our baby's room.


Next on the agenda is finding a dresser and building (or I suppose buying) some bookshelves. I found a picture of some that I like and am trying to commission my husband and father-in-law to build them for me but not sure I'll get them. *sigh* One can always hope.



Happy Friday everyone! Here's to spending a very hot weekend converting a craftroom into Flash's room!

25 weeks

Tomorrow I am 25 weeks into my pregnancy. I realize it's been a while since I uploaded any new pics so here we are.


Also including a picture of the cute onesies I made for Flash & gave to Mark on Father's Day. No, we're not naming the baby Flash.. that is just his nickname for now while we decide on his real name. He will be the most stylish BMX baby ever!

Isn't it a bit early for Karate?

Yesterday I felt our little guy, who has been dubbed "Flash," move for the first time. And right now, I feel him in there kicking away. At first I wasn't sure that was what it was but I am pretty certain that what I am feeling is Flash taking a Tae Bo class. He is definitely an active guy!

As weird as the feeling was initially, I like feeling him move around in there - not only is it reassurance that he is actually in there but it makes me feel like he is comfortable enough to spread out & make himself comfortable. Silly, yes... but true.

Next up... buying headphones for Flash. What is karate if you can't listen to music while you're doing it?!

Introductions

I had a post all ready to go about this crazy braided lemon bread I made last week but instead, I'd rather share these....




And introduce you to our son....

Dizzy

Today I am feeling a bit dizzy... and a little nauseous... and a tad light headed. This picture really does sum it all up.

Maybe I'll go back to sleep.

17 Weeks

Today I am 17 weeks - our bebe is the size of a turnip. For those of you, like both myself & my husband, who have no idea what size a turnip is... allow me to share:



That's pretty big! I think it's hilarious that the photos that are emailed to me every week with my "updates" show this super skinny woman with a baby snug inside... and very little bump. I'm sorry... I have a TURNIP in my uterus... I'd be shocked and appalled if I didn't have much of a bump. So, without further blathering, here is me at 17 weeks.



It does sort of resemble a turnip..

One more week until we find out what flavor baby we're having and we can hardly wait!

Dear Baby,
Please be spread eagle next Tuesday so we can see if you're a girl or boy turnip.
Love, Mom & Dad

Granola

Today I am making home-made Granola. It is a recipe my mom has been making for years - and still makes for my step-dad. After many weeks of craving Cinnamon Toast Crunch I've decided to try to eat a bit healthier & cheaper and just make my own cereal. Plus, this tends to stick with me better and longer than a silly bowl of CTC. It's so yummy -like a bowl of cookie!



So, in the spirit of giving and sharing, I will be so nice to share with you below the greatest granola recipe! Enjoy!

Granola

1 C Honey
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
Stir together in a saucepan until melted. Remove from heat.
Add:
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Almond extract
Set aside

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients:
9 C Oats
2 C Wheat or Oat Germ
2 C Sunflower seeds (shelled, obviously!)
1/2C Brown Sugar
7 oz Shredded Coconut (I prefer unsweetened, but to each their own)
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Nutmeg

Drizzle honey mix over dried ingredients & mix. Divide mix up onto 2 cookie sheets (sprayed with Pam or something similar) with 1-2" sides. Spread evenly & put in 350 degree oven for 8min. Rotate sheets top to bottom & back to front, bake another 8 minutes until edges are browning, like an oatmeal cookie. Remove from oven & stir while cooling. This is important - if you don't stir while cooling the oatmeal will form one big sheet and will be a mess! Once it is thoroughly cooled store in an air-tight container. Granola should be good for about 2 weeks in the container. You can always freeze it if you need to.

Yum!!!!!

New Landscaping!

Mark and have been working on our yard for ever... or at least it feels that way. I think I posted a bit earlier this year about the dramatic down-turn our back yard took. Ugh. Well, things are on the upswing! Yesterday, Mark and I completed the first re-planting done since we moved in almost a year ago. And we have conquered the driveway strip! Yes, it is true!

Mere weeks ago it was dirt & sprinklers... now it is beautiful with 28 society garlic plants and lots of friendly mulch. Oh... it's just so beautiful.


Now we're pumped to keep it going... this weekend while Mark is continuing work on the sprinklers, I will be plotting and planning for the Front Garden!



It's almost too much!