Bungalow Bee

Update. Inconsistent, but here.

2011-11-29T16:26:00.000-08:00

I should do a better job of updating. I love reading my posts from when Millie was really little - sad that there aren't more.

So, I'm currently 30 weeks pregnant and this baby is a healthy, growing BOY! His name will be Carter, but we still haven't figured out a middle name. I thought the middle name would be the easy part seeing that it took us until 4 weeks ago to decide on Carter (names are tough). We're really only deciding between 2 possibilities for a middle name but we're just too lazy to think about it right now. Amelia will move to another room and the nursery will be Carter's. We haven't chosen a theme and we haven't even moved Amelia out of that room yet. Her new bedroom was our extra guest room but, more accurately, our "throw-it-in-the-back-room-and-we'll-figure-it-out-later" space. Lots to go through.

My baby is getting so big. She's almost 2 1/2. She's a good girl if not a little dramatic. Lately every request ends in tears. Being two is so confusing, I'm sure.

"Want your friend, Katilin, to come over to play?"
{crying} "No" {more crying}.
"You like playing with Katilin. Won't it be fun to have her over to play?"
{face brightens} "Yeah!"

Seriously, kid?

Every night before bed I rock her and sing her a song. Up until a month ago her request was "ABCs". Then it was "Hickory Dickory Dock". While we were visiting family out of town she watched her first Christmas movie, and that night before bed she said "I want a song about Christmas". So, lately it's been Rudolph, Frosty (when I can remember the words), and Santa.

We've been potty-training her since September. She ran around our house naked from the waist down for a full 2 months and was doing really well. We started putting big girl undies on her, even for naptime, and she was doing great! Then we went to Florida on vacation and she regressed. She was an old pro at pooping on the potty before our vacation. Now she exclusively poops in her pants. Lovely. I'm hoping it's a phase and that if we're persistent and consistent with the big girl undies she will "get it" again.

Really don't have time to update so I should get going.
Happy Tuesday!

In Case You Haven't Heard...

2011-08-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

We are adding to our Baldwin home in early February. I'm almost 14 weeks along and feeling pretty good (so glad the first trimester is over!). We went for an ultrasound last Friday and the tech gave us a gender guess, but we'll make it public once we know for sure at the beginning of September. We are beyond excited, and Millie couldn't really care less.

Speaking of Amelia, she turned 2 in early July and gets more and more attitude with each passing day. Some days I feel that I'm on top of her for everything, but I know my persistence will pay off later. She's hilarious and she talks and sings constantly. She's entering a shy stage, or should I say a pretend shy stage. It doesn't take her too long to warm up to people.

I actually just got on here to look up my Spanish Rice recipe but decided to update, so I should probably go get dinner going.

How are you??

I miss blogging, kinda like I miss reading a book or going on a date with my husband. Okay, I really miss going on dates with my husband. But, we are remedying that. Life doesn't slow down!

Happy Tuesday!

Music to My Ears

2011-03-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

She sings. All of the time. Her ABCs, Elmo's World, Twinkle Twinkle, My God is So Big, or really any tune she hears she will attempt to mimic. She's not unlike her dad in this way. He makes up lyric to familiar tunes or just generally sings the wrong lyrics unintentionally while he mindlessly does household chores. I can see Amelia being this way later, as, really, she is that way now. We have a couple of Little People kids CDs that are on a continuous loop in the van. I don't listen to "my" music or even the radio. She has learned the lyrics to all 30-something songs and, although choppy, she sings along.

I got a deal on Groupon for Gymboree classes. A month's worth which, at the time, I envisioned being going to these classes at least twice a week. Nope - it's for 4 classes. We had to choose between a variety of options whether we wanted her in an art class (she gets bored after scribbling for a few minutes so that probably wouldn't work), a music class (she'll play instruments and learn about reggae and jazz? Maybe not), or a "play and learn" class which sounded good to me. She would be able to get out all of her energy and be tired for naptime! It was basically a glorified Open Play with some fancy equipment. There wasn't much structure at all and there were about 15 kids which seemed excessive. Amelia wasn't interested in climbing on anything - she was being shy and decided to try to round up every bouncing ball she could get her hands on.

I was able to switch her to the music class and that went much better. She loved playing the instruments and she watched the teacher very closely to try to keep time with the teacher's taps and beats. There were only about 8 kids in the class which felt much more personal, and the teacher actually taught the entire time. We learned about Celtic music but it wasn't about Celtic music - that was just what music played in the background and what the kids tried to keep beat to. I'm really excited about her next class.

She's hilarious. I need to start writing things down. The other day, she put her shoes on her baby's feet:

I mean, come on. What's funnier than that? The fact that her baby could stand, literally, on its own two feet.

She loves Elmo and Caillou. Every morning when she wakes up, she yells "Mommy! Mommy, Daddy! Mommy!" and when I go in to get her she says "Elmo? Caillou?" The routine is that I let her watch TV while she eats breakfast then we get ready for the day and try to get out of the house. Getting out of the house is a must with a toddler...at least with my toddler. We drive each other crazy if we don't get out at least 3 or 4 times a week (during the day). That's why I love MOMS Club...something to do every day.

I better get off of here. A lot of work to do.

I'm doing a Deserving Mom contest on my Millie's Bows Facebook Page. If you know of a mom who puts others above herself and, despite her circumstances, pushes through and keeps going, please tell me her story and get her some recognition (and $50 worth of bows!). Email me at MilliesBows@gmail.com or visit my fan page for more info.

Happy Friday!

Figures

2011-02-23T00:38:00.000-08:00

I planned for days to write a post lamenting the fact that my child will not eat anything. It was going to be good, too. I thought of adjectives and acronyms and dusted off my sense of humor. Mostly I was frustrated and you know how much sense it makes for that to bring out the best writing in someone.

Amelia hasn't been a good eater since day 1, literally. I've been in a constant state of maternal angst, metaphorically and literally ringing my hands worrying about if she's getting enough nutrients and, if she decides to become a fruitarian, will she waste away to nothingness? My sister gave me good advice. She said not to push it - not to force her to eat. I nodded emphatically and agreed with her. Eating shouldn't be a warzone.

The next meal I shoved a green bean in Amelia's mouth. You may think I'm kidding about the force-feeding bit, but I'm not. Usually if I could just get a taste of a food on Amelia's tongue she would decide she liked it and eat at least a few bites. If she couldn't bear the taste on her tongue then I didn't push it. I've had to start pushing it. She refuses any and every food - even foods I know she has liked in the past like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She will not touch a noodle. Of any kind. Which means she won't eat spaghetti or macaroni and cheese - childhood staples! I know it's a texture thing and she'll grow out of it, but she needs the carbs! My waft of a girl is just a few pounds more than her 7 month old cousin! Granted, he's a tank, but still.

Things she'll eat for sure:
- A Costco hot dog (go figure)
- Fruit of any kind
- Goldfish crackers
- Pizza
- Donuts (that's my girl!)
- Fruit Roll-ups
- Chocolate (of course)
- Sticks of Colby Jack cheese
- Waffles
- Her daddy's Chicken Fried Rice (we tried living off of it for a while and got burned out)
- Ice cream

Things she won't even touch no matter how often she's offered them:
- Eggs
- Pasta
- Any kind of vegetable (although she ate a couple of tiny bites of broccoli lately)

That list may seem short but it covers a vast array of foods that her father and I happen to enjoy. I still offer her everything we eat but she usually won't eat it.

Mealtimes for the last year have been filled with frustration and crying - and not just from me.

Yesterday she was feeling really sick so she ate next to nothing all day. I could have penned the most angst-ridden blog from the heart yesterday about what a horrible mother I was. That is, until about 5:30pm. She just wanted to snuggle and I realized she had a slight fever and was exhausted and, from what I could tell, had the chills and body aches. We put her to bed with not much in her tummy. Even her beloved Fruit by the Foot didn't get eaten.

This morning when she woke up I offered her a blueberry waffle (I made them last week and froze the leftovers) and turkey bacon. She didn't touch the bacon but she ate almost the entire waffle and about 1/2 of a pear. That's good for her, people.

Lunch was nothing to write home about. I cut up leftover pork chops to look like chicken strips and even gave her some dip to dunk them in and all she did was take a couple of bites then suck down the sweet and sour sauce I gave her for dipping. Then she had a Fruit By the Foot and called it good.

We cut back on the snacks today. When David got home Millie had developed somewhat of a cabin fever and really wanted to go outside even though it had snowed today and was freezing. We bundled her up and David took her out and let her run around the cul de sac for a while. Pizza was for dinner and that's all she talked about until it was ready. She was offered a slice of pizza and carrots. David thought the piece of pizza was too difficult for her to eat so he cut it up and she wouldn't touch it. Ah! Presentation! We then gave her another piece that was whole and she gobbled it up...toppings first. Then she asked for more! MORE! I noticed teeth imprints in the carrots but not a full bite - she didn't want anything to do with them. But after dinner David gave her as much applesauce as she wanted and she had quite a bit.

Hopefully this is a turning point to better eating. And with that, I'm taking my sick self to bed.
Supposedly we'll have snow tomorrow. Doubt it.

Happy Wednesday!

A New Arrival

2011-02-20T23:54:00.000-08:00

The thought occured to me today that between my two sisters and I, we have given birth 5 times in the last 2 years. I've given birth once so perhaps this isn't my bragging point.

My sister, Lindsay, gave birth to her second beautiful daughter on Saturday. Lainey Elizabeth bolted into the world around 11am after a not-so-long labor and only a few minutes of pushing. Amazing. I would love to say that we were able to make it in time for me to see her be born but she came so fast that we were still on the road. I have yet to witness one of my sisters giving birth - or anyone for that matter. I've only been in the driver's seat in that situation, so to speak. Lainey is beautiful! She looks so much like her big sister, Kate. Lainey's oxygen levels were a little low so she has been in the NICU since Saturday evening. We are praying for her to be released tomorrow.

Amelia is growing up fast. Too fast. Let me rephrase that. I haven't met an age of hers I didn't like better than the age before it. Up until a couple of months ago I wasn't even ready to entertain the idea of another newborn in our house. I love that Amelia can mostly understand and respond to what I say to her or ask of her. Car trips can still be a little brutal, but we never have to stop on the 3-hour drive to Portland anymore. If she gets bored I give her another book or a Fruit by the Foot ("loll-ups" as Amelia calls them).

We recently went to Florida on vacation and had such a good time. We stayed with friends who were amazing hosts - we didn't want to leave! We initially went down there for my college reunion. I went to a small, 2-year liberal arts school and I actually left one semester early but they consider me part of the class anyway and for that I'm grateful. It was fun to reconnect with my classmates. We drove into Orlando for a quick trip one afternoon and walked around Downtown Disney (it's FREE). We had no desire to spend the $200 on one theme park for one day when our 19-month-old would likely last 2 hours.

I need to be better at blogging. I am wanting to ramble because these stories need backstories but I don't have the time or energy (my family is currently fighting a nasty cold) to expand on this topic.

We had fun. How's that?

We ate all the Chic-Fil-A and Dunkin Donuts we could handle. Washington state needs to step up their fast-food game.

I will write tomorrow. I must document the eating habits of my child so that when her child gives her a hard time about food I can show her a post that exactly portrays my true feelings as they are in the moment. I'll give you a sneak peek: complete and utter frustration.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul & strength. He deserves more than we could give so give everything you can.

Have a good Monday!

I've watched "White Christmas" - the season can begin

2010-12-22T01:16:00.000-08:00

Let's pretend the previous post was yesterday's. There. That was a good post yesterday, huh?

The gifts are all wrapped and under the tree. Last year I faked it and just threw many gifts in bags. If a gift was actually wrapped all I did was stick a bow on the front and call it good. This year I decided that all the gifts should be tied with ribbon and the ribbon should then be curled and cut. It took me probably a total of 6 hours to do, but I'm happy with the result. Part of the anticipation is unwrapping the gift. If it just takes one second flat to do it then what's the fun in that?

I feel like my Christmas tree could use more "oomph" at the top. I'll have to see about that next year. Maybe. I really am not someone who needs to way overdo everything when it comes to decorating. I enjoy it, but I don't shop for my home very often (or ever). I think everyone has something that they feel pretty crazy to spend money on and, for me, that's home decor. I'd rather have a new shirt or, better yet, buy clothes for Millie.

Speaking of decor and Millie, I bought her a stocking. It's a technicality, really. We aren't ever here at our house for the holidays so I don't know that her stocking will even be used except for looks. I forgot to get one for her last year so I bought her a really sweet heirloom needlepoint stocking from L.L. Bean just a couple of weeks ago.

And just for the fun of it, here's her First Christmas ornament from last year. I love it.

I love looking at photos of the babies from a year or more ago. I can't believe how much they've changed in what seems like a short amount of time. Here they are on 11/29/09 (l to r: Kate, Anna, Amelia):

And here they are on 11/27/10 (in the same order, only Caleb [6] and Ben [4 months - my sister, Carrie's, 3rd] are sandwiched between them:

How time flies! The girls are starting to play with each other more and getting into the territorial phase. Amelia is the youngest - she's almost 18 months. Anna is the oldest of the girls at 20 months and Kate is 19 months.

I think that does it for me tonight.

Happy Wednesday!

Screaming Santa Photo

2010-12-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

It strikes me as odd that I finally have the time to blog 4 days before Christmas.

My business keeps me very busy. I make bows in every spare slot I have available and even those are precious few. It's still going very well, although I closed my Etsy shop - right now I only sell my wares via my Facebook fan page. I got a little tired of Etsy's fees and how long it took to create each listing. My hope is that I will be able to have my own website relatively soon. We'll see!

Amelia's doing great. She's at the age where she repeats (or tries to repeat) what we say. We took her to see Santa a couple of weeks ago, and because I'm such an awesome mom I was kind of hoping we'd get the obligatory screaming child Santa photo. She sure seemed on her way to making that wish a reality. She clung to me as tightly as she could - her little arms wrapped around my neck and her fingers digging into my back. She even managed to wrap her legs completely around me in an attempt to interlock them when I tried to give her to Santa. Santa just sat there, probably hoping we'd give up and walk away. I managed to free myself and put my close-to-a-meltdown 17-month-old daughter on Santa's lap. She was not havin' it. But then the photographer produced a Goofy stuffed animal and waved it in Amelia's face. This is what we got:

Thanks a lot, Goofy. Here's hoping next year I get my screaming child photo.

(I really do love this photo)

The Business. She's a Beast.

2010-09-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

It's been two months since I last posted. To the day. Odd.
Somehow I have over 760 "fans". And if I could send free bows to each one I totally would.

But, the business is why I haven't been blogging. Or cleaning. Or cooking much. Or, really, much of anything. It's pretty much grown into a huge, scary monster that I am afraid I can't handle anymore. Busy is a blessing, don't get me wrong, and I certainly wouldn't complain. But I feel an obligation to every single one of my customers to make the best product possible and ship it as soon as possible which is very stressful.

It sounds easy. You're thinking it sounds easy.

It was easy when I first started and had, maybe, an order a week. Now I'm looking at my order sheet of orders placed this week and last and wondering how I'm going to ship 16 orders as quickly as I'd like. The truth is, I'm not. And I have that disclaimer on my main business page - that it could take 2-3 weeks for in-stock orders to ship. You'd think that would make me relax a little but it doesn't. It makes me twitch. Do you know how quickly 2 weeks flies by?

Christmas is 3 months away!

I digress. Really. Because I'm not complaining, I promise. I could just use one or two of Santa's elves right about now. He should stop being so selfish and gimme one.

On to other things. Like my sweet, beautiful Amelia. She's such a good girl and this age is SO fun. I don't let my business completely overtake everything in my life, especially her. We have a great time. She's hilarious - I'm really enjoying 15 months old.

She can say a lot of things because she tries to mimic everything you say. Today, she said a word and I didn't understand it (big surprise), so I said "What?" To which she responded "What? Whaaat? Whaaaaaat?" I would be offended that she were mocking me if she weren't 15 months old and learning to speak.

She says "Thank you" ("Tchank Tcho") without prompting.

She says "I love you" ("Ya Ya") and gives kisses and hugs without prompting.

She says "All Done" ("Ahh Duh") as she signs it now.

Give her 100 toys and she will always go right for a baby doll and tote it around with her.

She laughs a lot, but she laughs the hardest at/for her cousin, Caleb. They are GREAT friends.

The girl will eat any dried or fresh fruit you stick in front of her. She may be a somewhat picky eater with some things, but fruit is not one of them.

"Default happy" is how my husband describes our baby, and he's right. She just seems content and easy-going 95% of the time. She gets that good naturedness from her daddy. Not that everything is stars and rainbows all of the time - she has her moments. But, we deal with the attitude and move on.

She will and does walk off with things. No idea where the remote control for our Blu Ray player is. She walked off with one of David's favorite pens - can't find it anywhere. Half the time we can't find our lip balm or remotes for our bedroom lights. It'd be frustrating if it weren't so funny.

She started walking in mid-August and hasn't slowed down since. That was the same week we were down in Portland buying our '05 Honda Odyssey Touring. Yes, a van. And I LOVE IT. Seriously, I think people who say they'll never own a van need to drive one around for a week and see how awesome it is. Remote control doors and rear hatch? Um, yes, please! Seats that fold into the floor and hidden compartments in the floor for storage? OKAY! The list seriously goes on and on.

You'll notice many of the photos are from this month. We drove down to Portland last weekend for an early trip to the Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island. We had a really great time but many of the festivities weren't out yet - too early. I should mention that my sister, Carrie, made the girls' t-shirts. Cute, right? She's making more to sell in my Millie's Bows comment game on October 1st. See my Facebook fan page for details.

And, just for fun, here's a photo of the newest member of the family! Meet Benjamin! My sister, Carrie, gave birth to him on July 28 of this year. He's so squishy and loveable. That's my dad holding him.

Happy Friday!

Trader Joe's Woes

2010-07-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

Trader Joe's are few and far between around here, but when we were visiting David's Gramma we decided to go to one just around the corner. David calls it the Hippie Store. Politically correct? No. Funny? Yes. Let me say that if you're a TJ's first-timer, you will stand out like a sore thumb. People who shop there regularly know where they're going. I definitely felt lost and out of sorts several times...reading all the labels wondering exactly what I'm looking at. I realize I just ended a sentence with a preposition.

I was mostly looking for things for Amelia. Not that I'm super picky about what I feed her, although I do try to give her well-rounded meals and snacks. She is getting about 5 teeth right now but she still doesn't chew things very well so I'm forever chopping up her food in little pieces which completely cramps my laid-back-mom style. What's worse is when I spend more time chopping than Amelia spends time even considering eating it. Tess is a very fat dog right now. Imagine my complete elation when I stumbled across these in Trader Joe's:

They're teeny tiny ravioli! Perfect for munchkins with few teeth. Plus, they're freeze dried so they don't have to be refrigerated or cooked all at once. I thought I was being all clever when I boiled enough of these to last a few of her meals. We also bought mini tortellini with pesto filling. Brilliant!

These things are nasty. Amelia won't touch them. I tried one and they taste like...well, like freeze dried cheese would taste. Major convenience fail. I'm pretty sad about this - I am hoping Amelia will develop a liking to them.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, these...

...are awesome.

They're also $3.50/box which is roughly $.59/package. Amelia really likes them.

I also bought some hummus which, paired with calamata olives, pita bread, and cucumber, was a very yummy dinner for me tonight.

A few Amelia things:

~ Last night she was sitting and eating at dinner and I was going to be a little longer fixing my plate so David sat down to eat, too. As soon as I sat down to eat, Amelia clasped her hands and bowed her head. She knew it was time to pray! Even though David had said his own already, he said a prayer for all of us. Very proud moment for us!

~ My dad has always called us girls his "chickens". Before (or maybe right after) Amelia was born, my dad picked out chicken ornaments for each of us. I think they're supposed to be ornaments for a Christmas tree, but I took the hook and string off and it became a decoration in Amelia's room. Every morning when I go get her up for the day she points to it on her shelf and says "Bid, bid" (bird). Then she does the motorboat thing with her mouth and that is her trying to say "bird" the correct way. Every single morning this happens - like that bird is the first thing on her mind! I snuck in her room and took the bird off her shelf so I could show it to you!

~ She has started blowing kisses. She puts her hand to her mouth and says "Muuuuah!" but doesn't remove her hand, so she's keeping the kisses to herself for now. She's also started giving kisses close-mouthed which is a little less messy but makes me a little sad.

~ She took 3 steps on Wednesday, 3 steps on Thursday, and a couple today. She could be on her way to walking! Everyone tells me that when they walk is when you have to look out and be careful, but she's been standing and cruising for months. I can't imagine anything that would be in her reach now that wasn't in her reach before. I'm ready to be able to take her to the park and let her walk around. Right now she just sits on my lap which can't be fun for her. She'll walk about 5 steps next to me while holding my hand so I let her do that while we're out and about sometimes. She loves, loves, loves going crawling after church at the building. Grandpa follows her around and cheers her on which is so cute.

We went to a local street fair today. It was less than I was expecting but still nice to get out and about.

Happy Weekend!

Not Millie's 1st Birthday

2010-07-20T01:57:00.000-07:00

It's never, ever a good idea to drink a large glass of iced caffeinated coffee at 5pm. Take it from me. Learn from my mistakes. Don't walk in my footsteps. It's 1:20am and I'm starting a blog that is bound to be long and wordy.

First, a couple of things.

We went to see David's Gramma J last weekend. She hasn't seen Amelia in months so it was fun to see her and catch up with her. I tried to get a photo of everyone but Gramma wouldn't look at the camera in any of the photos so this is the best one I have of David and Amelia (to the right).

We bought a big, huge bag of Brookside dark chocolate covered acai with blueberry on the 11th of this month (last Sunday for those of you who don't feel like thumbing through a calendar). It's gone. David had 3, maybe. Amelia had 3, maybe. I'm not a math whiz or anything but I think that means I had more than 3.

Amelia has learned to say "Please" ("psss"). Up until this point we hadn't really pushed the manners thing since she was still learning how to say a lot of things (important things like "bird") and she looked lost when I asked her to say please. Truthfully, she's probably insanely brilliant and realized that once she started with please she'd never be allowed to stop. She's also got the head nodding for "yes" and the violent head shaking for "no" down, although both are just games and we are still trying to help her associate what they really mean. Well, she knows what they mean but I don't think she knows that's what she's communicating when she nods or shakes her head. Get it? Okay, moving on.

She's been signing "More" for months now, but in the past few weeks has also picked up "All Done".

I was going to make this post about her first birthday but I'm actually getting sleepy and we have plans to go to the park tomorrow morning. Amelia is teething like crazy - I see about 5 teeth trying to pop their way through. I put her down for her first nap today around 10:45 and got her up around 2pm. Lest you think she slept for more than an hour, let me tell you that in that time was some crying, then some rocking, then some more crying in her crib, then me changing her stinky diaper, then some more crying in her crib, then me being a sucker and giving her more milk, then her finally crashing around 1pm and waking at 2pm. I tried to put her back down to see if she'd take a cat nap around 3:15 but no dice.

Am I crazy or does Amelia look a little like Emma, the guidance counselor from Glee, in this photo?

David and I went jogging today. Maybe a 1 1/4 miles. Definitely a mile - just not sure about the 1/4 part...could be more or less. I say jogging but of course I mean I would jog in 30-60 second spurts then start walking and mumbling about how out of shape I am. I tried several times to get David to go ahead of me and I'd catch up but he wouldn't - he wanted to wait. Isn't that sweet? At the end of our run we had circled the park and were about to go home but I convinced him to take another lap around the park and he did - a 7 1/2 minute mile was his pace. When we was running with me it was a 12 minute mile. Lame.

I put Millie to bed at 8pm which is half an hour earlier than usual. She zonked out and we haven't heard from her since. Actually, that's not entirely true. She squawked a few times but went right back out. Usually by now she'll have woken up for a bottle or something. Not that I'm complaining, it just means that she will probably be waking up around 7:30 or 8 instead of 9 like she usually does. And here I sit at 1:40 writing a blog. Stupid. Stupid.

It's almost 2. All of the photos with the exception of the Gramma J one were taken tonight while David grilled our steaks. My baby is not such a baby anymore.

Happy whatever-day-it is.

I can't believe I have over 500 fans on Facebook. I'm supposed to do a huge giveaway so if you have any ideas of what that could be, please let me know.

Super Lame

2010-07-15T23:07:00.000-07:00

I'm all about posting the ups and downs of life. I never understood why one would post only happy things. Isn't the purpose of a blog to document real life? Anyway, I digress. A balance of both is good, I'd say.

My husband is passed out on the couch and has been since about 9:15 tonight. He has been staying up until around 11:30pm every night and getting up at 5am for work. I love Thursdays when he doesn't have to work the next day (he is on a Flex schedule where he works more hours during the week and has every other Friday off), but lately he's had to go in for a meeting for about 4 hours, even when he isn't technically supposed to be working. Thankfully it's not until the afternoon and he gets to sleep in. Usually we watch a movie together on nights like tonight. Or, he'll go work on projects and I'll make bows. Tonight, he went horizontal on the couch and it was all over. I feel bad for him - I wish he wasn't so tired all the time.

We bought a bag of Brookside dark chocolate covered acai with blueberry at Costco. They're good. Too good. I'm considering buying another bag and stashing it in my freezer so I can have a surplus when Costco doesn't sell them anymore. I'm getting the feeling they're a seasonal item. I made the rookie mistake of leaving the open bag on the coffee table the other day. Amelia sniffed them out, reached in the bag despite my chorus of "No"s from the other room, and popped one in her mouth. It was like slow motion, me running from the kitchen to stop her and her shoving the choclatey goodness into her mouth. I told David about it later and he got the mistaken impression that I had given her one. So, he decided to let her have one, too.

A little dark chocolate won't hurt her. She's eaten so many blueberries this summer that I wouldn't be surprised if she starts turning blue. One thing she won't eat: meat and veggies. Our pediatrician assured us that she won't refuse them forever, but right now it seems like the only things she'll have anything to do with are sweet things like fruit. She actually really likes cheese and hot dogs, but if the cheese is shredded instead of cubed it throws her off and she won't eat it. Crazy girl.

I'm having a giveaway on my Millie's Bows blog. I'm giving away some cute clippies, so check it out!
Enter Here! ~ Millie's Bows ~

Happy Friday!

Miss me?

2010-07-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

Ah, the things that make one think "I should document this".

**WARNING** This post is about poo...and I don't mean the Disney character.

I saw on the video monitor today that Amelia had woken from her nap. I was in the middle of something and decided to just let her be since she seemed content. Probably about half an hour passed and I assumed she had fallen back to sleep since she's been doing that quite a bit lately. I finally check the monitor and I can tell that her rear is bare. I didn't look too closely but I grabbed my camera on the way to her room, thinking that whatever was going on would at least be humorous enough to photograph.

I was right.

I'll spare you the photos, but she had decided to see what it would be like to poo on her crib sheet instead of her diaper. The diaper was virtually unscathed save for a few poo streaks on the outside. Not only did she deficate on the crib sheet, she played in it and smeared it all over everything she could reach.

Now, I'm a first time mom and have never had to clean up a mess this stinky or on a scale as large as this. I didn't really know what to do exactly. I left the room and started to fill the tub. When I went back into her room I took her shirt off of her and she tried to grab my shirt. Keep in mind her hands are absolutely black they're so caked with poo. I realized once I reached the bathroom that filling the tub was a monumentally BAD idea. Now there were poo particles floating all around her the second I put her in. So, I started to empty the tub, all the while trying to run her hands under the heavy-streaming water and scrubbing them as much as I could. I was grateful that I had just cut her nails a few days ago.

I finally got her un-pooed enough that I could fill the tub and give her a normal bath. That was the easy part. While I was drying her off I called my mom. I knew she'd get a kick out of my situation and, honestly, I thought it was pretty funny, too. It wouldn't have been funny if Amelia was old enough to know better and did it anyway, but she's 1. Anyway, apparently my younger sister had done the same thing to my mom when she was a baby. I think my dad called this something like "sweet revenge". Maybe 28 years down the road I'll get a call from Amelia when her baby smears poo all over the place. A mom can only hope.

It really wasn't as bad as I thought - cleaning it up. I put all of her little stuffed animals and her blanket in a bag and also had a separate bag to put my used cleaning items in. Her crib sheet was soaked in the bathtub while the bumper, rug (yes, some even ended up on the floor), and mattress pad were washed. Then her sheet and her little animals were washed.

I'm sure you care about the details. I just have to say that I would rather clean up her poo than be a Northwesterner without A/C this week. It got into the mid-90s today and many, many homes in this region do not have central air. We had ours installed when we moved in and it's so nice. Although, last night we lost power for a few hours (which never happens) and that was pretty crazy.

I'll catch up with other things soon. I have to write about Amelia's first birthday party.

Cuteness

2010-06-08T00:38:00.000-07:00

Jillian Michaels kicked my rear-end today and I think she plans to do it again tomorrow so I'm not sure why I'm still awake, much less blogging. I still enjoy blogging even though it's becoming harder and harder to find the time for it.

Is it weird that I forget how old I am? I recently turned 29, and my only reaction to that was "What? I thought I was already 29." Nice. Sometimes I feel like I'm in constant crisis mode, but not about anything important. Mostly just about how in the world am I going to find the right organization storage for all of my craft stuff? And...how will I be able to make it functional enough so that I can operate my business on a daily basis? Right now my workstation is my dining room table which always results in an illusion of sorts by sweeping it all off the table and throwing it in the back guest room. Ta-Dah! No more mess! This has to change. Here's the problem: I have 250 spools of ribbon.

My sweet girl will be 1 in less than a month. I'm working to plan her party and so far just have some things ordered. This will probably be one of those situations where the date seems so far away but it sneaks up on me and I'm unprepared. I'm just tellin' it like it is.

I wanted to share some pictures but Blogger is doing the usual messing them up and I don't have time to fix them so how they are is how they are. The one above is Amelia with her Uncle Jake and Sage the dog at my in-laws' house. The very top picture is from the same day - her first "whale spout" in her hair. Aww...

Here's a couple I took on her actual 11-month day. If you don't know, I have taken a photo of her next to the same pig since she was 5 months old. It's neat to see how big she's gotten (Amelia, not the pig). The pig is special because my dad got it for me when I was 2. When Amelia reaches the 1 year mark I'll post all of the photos.

Tonight Amelia cried out a few hours after going to bed and I didn't have to but I went in and rocked her. It didn't work to put her to sleep - it never does - but it was so nice to just love on her. It feels so good when she buries her head in my neck and wraps her little arms around me. Often on the weekends when David gets up with her she won't eat and instead looks for me to come in and feed her and rock her. He's really good about getting her to eat and go back down anyway, but sometimes she just wants me. That feels good. And, yet I love when David gets home from work and Amelia just wants to attach herself to him and play with him. I know she's growing fast but in some ways it doesn't feel like it yet. I'm enjoying every stage.

Must go to bed. Happy Tuesday.

P.S. Please go to my store and purchase a FIND A CURE Flower. $2 from the sale of every flower will go to the Susan G. Komen foundation in honor of a friend of mine who just found out she has breast cancer. Thanks!

Record-breaking badness

2010-05-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

I have to make this quick because right now I'm supposed to be doing 556 things and none of those require blogging. BUT, monumental terribleness happened today and I must record it. After all, every second that ticks by another brain cell in my head implodes.

Amelia didn't sleep well last night. I have thought for the last couple of days that I was being a super awesome mom by figuring out a way to get protein in my baby's lunch. Add black beans! Problem is, beans are a magical fruit. Baby's got gas. She didn't go to sleep until 9:30 last night then woke up at 2am (I hadn't been to bed yet) screaming. I rocked her and fed her and rocked her some more. She finally went to sleep and I finally did, too. I thought she would sleep in a bit but she was awake at 7:45 this morning and wouldn't be put back down.

I gave her a bath then put her down for a morning nap which only lasted 45 minutes. Not long enough. I tried rocking her - she was obviously SO tired. She's been cutting teeth so I gave her a little bit of Walgreen's version of Tylenol. She loved chewing on the dropper so I let her hold the bottle. It was in her crib when I put her back and hoped she'd fall back to sleep.

Meanwhile, I called David's mom and asked if she was free to come over and play with the baby so I could get some things done. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. She said she would be happy to (LOVE her!) and she'd be here after lunch.

Amelia had gotten quiet then all of a sudden started crying. It was the poo cry. Sure enough, I walked in to her room and smelled it. Then I looked in her crib and saw it. Not poo - reddish pink stuff. My first thought was "She threw up the Tylenol" but .08 mL is not enough to coat her crib sheet in 5 different places and make my baby a completely sticky mess.

I found the dropper and the bottle. Empty. It had only been half-full to begin with. I changed Amelia's diaper and stripped her of her sticky, gooey clothes. I called David at work and he said I should call poison control, something I was planning to do anyway but for some reason called my husband first.

Amelia's baby tub was still in the kitchen from when I bathed her, oh, and hour or so before. I stuck her in the tub and let her splash around while I ran a wet washcloth over her and called Poison Control. The guy on the other end needed info from the Tylenol bottle. In Amelia's room. I grabbed her out of the tub, wrapped her in a towel and found the bottle in her bedroom. I gave him the information he needed and he put me on hold while he did some calculations. I took Amelia in the living room to put a diaper and clothes on her while I waited. As I was trying to diaper Amelia one-handed, he came back on the line. Amelia was fighting me and the diaper so I let her air dry while I wrapped up the phone call. She crawled next to the towel, sat up, and peed. On the carpet. Reminded me of those fireboats:

David's mom came over and played with Amelia for a couple of hours while I worked on finishing my lesson for the ladies class. I taught the class - it was on Homemaking. I was told it went well!

I should be packing and making bows. I'm so far behind on the bows I need to make that I feel I'll never catch up. Most are donations to a wonderful charity but I also have some gifts to finish making.

Happy Friday!

Starting to Forget

2010-05-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

I was so concerned about potentially boring my few readers that I neglected writing about Amelia as often as I wanted to and should have. Now I'm starting to forget so much about her first several months. I know we had rough nights (and some rough days), but not wanting to be a downer, I rarely posted details. How lame. Life is full of ups and downs - how can anyone read a blog that's all "ups" and no "downs" with any sense of reality at all? Especially with a newborn the wonderful moments outweigh the tiring, emotionally exhausting ones, but I think they're all worth documenting.

Often we drive past the gas station where, on the way home from Bible class one night, we had to park there so we could take turns soothing an inconsolable baby. My parents were in town that night and my mom spent a lot of time with me trying to figure out what was wrong with her...I think Amelia was maybe a month old. Finally my mom, being the rockstar superhero that she is, soothed Amelia with a combination of song and belly rubbing. I know now that it was painful gas causing my baby to get so upset.
So, I'm here now. I have to get back on the proverbial horse and write about my sweet baby. It makes me so happy to go back and read the few posts I did manage to write when we first brought her home and the months that followed.

Here are some things about my 10 1/2 month old baby girl:

- She doesn't like anyone to touch her hands. At all. I was able to put a finger puppet on her pointer finger tonight in Bible class before she slipped her hand out of my grasp. I think it was just an attitude thing, but when I was holding her tonight I had my hand on her leg and she kept pushing my hand off.

(Picture to the right is of Amelia and her pediatrician. We love her!)

- She still only has 2 teeth that are all the way through and those are on the bottom. The white of her left eye tooth is clearly visible but no sign of her two front teeth yet.

- She loves graham crackers, green peas, cheese, all fruit, Costco hot dogs and buns, and beef. She's not a big fan of chicken or turkey.

- She loves Tess. Every morning when she first sees Tess, she claps and says "Hi Teh!" She's constantly grabbing Tess's toy rope and waving it in front of Tess's face until Tess grabs it and they play some tug-of-war.

- She hugs me every time I get her up in the morning and after her naps. I love it. She will give me hugs and kisses any time I ask, and I ask a lot!

- She's a daredevil. Climbs on things, including our couch, and loves to be tossed into the air.

- She says "Mama", "Dada", "Bah" (Book), "Teh" (Tess), and tries to say a lot of other things. She's just at the age where she'll look at your mouth when you're saying something and she really tries to figure out how to say it. She babbles all of the time. I can't wait to see what she says next!

- Her favorite games are "Peek-A-Boo", "I'm Gonna Get That Baby", and "I See a Belly!" She loves her books, especially "Open the Barn Door" because I make the animal noises. Every time I say "Woof Woof", Amelia laughs.

(Picture to the left is her about a week ago when she fell asleep for the night using her stuffed bunny as a pillow)

- She loves her daddy. When she hears him come in the door, she crawls over to the gate and claps and bounces up and down. She wants him to hold her right away and she'll spend until dinner snuggling and playing with him. She loves repeating noises that he makes. He'll say "Ha ha ha" and she will repeat it. They do a lot of "Ah!"s back and forth.

- She has learned on her own how to uncap lipbalm and Vaseline as well as how to push the button on the wipes box and start pulling wipes out of the container.

- If she is done with something it goes on the floor. This applies to books, toys, and especially food. Tonight I gave her pieces of cooked chicken breast dipped in mixed veggie puree. On the floor. Then I tried salvaging the pieces (they had dropped onto a clean towel which we had underneath her) by putting a small piece of pineapple on top of each piece. That did the trick. My baby loves pineapple, just like her mama and completely unlike her daddy. The "on the floor" thing has become an issue in the middle of Bible class or worship services when she just lets go of whatever toy she's done holding and it falls loudly onto the floor. So, we are teaching her not to drop things on purpose. It's a fine line between purpose and accidental at this age.

- She's not so much a drama queen, she stays pretty even tempered. However, her whine/cry sounds like the most pathetic noise in the world. Sometime I'll record it and post it. There are days when she's not in the best mood and that's all I hear. It makes me want to saw my ears off with a spoon.

I think that's enough for tonight. Good timing on her part - she just cried out. Hopefully (praying!) she isn't really awake and that was just a squeal in the night. We'll see. Mama needs sleep. I planned to get up with David tomorrow morning but I also planned to go to sleep 2 hours ago.

Happy Thursday!

Snot Rockets

2010-04-29T01:21:00.000-07:00

I called Poison Control for the first time tonight. David and I were in our bedroom - he was getting ready for Bible class and I was on the computer. The baby was playing with whatever she found lying around. We have toys and baby-safe gadgets within her grasp in our bedroom for occasions such as this.

Now, I dig a lot of things out of her mouth on a somewhat daily basis. Mostly ribbon. I try, but I miss picking up some minute pieces of ribbon from my bow-making sometimes and if it's even a speck, Amelia will find it.

So, in the bedroom. Suddenly I turn and David is digging something out of her mouth, asking why I had a pill on my nightstand. I didn't have a pill on my nightstand. Apparently, a stray FenuGreek pill had found its way under the nightstand and Amelia found it. Nursing moms will know that Fenugreek are herbal pills meant to increase milk supply. I haven't nursed Amelia in almost 2 months, so obviously I was completely clueless as to how and when this pill wandered under my nightstand. David retrieved the capsule from Amelia's mouth. She had biten off the top 1/4" of the pill and that part was still in her mouth. Fortunately, the capsule still held most of its contents. I go digging in Amelia's now maple-sugar-smelling mouth for the top part of the capsule and its contents. She is not happy about having my pinky finger shoved in every crevice of her mouth, but I caught a glimpse of the capsule and am determined to grab it.

I finally dug it out and called poison control. No harm. They took my name, Amelia's name, and her date of birth. I can't help thinking that I'm now on file with CPS.

David took this week off work. Here was our plan:

- Get home improvement projects done
- Do a lot of spring cleaning
- Go to the zoo
- Go to the aquarium
- Take family walks every day
- I would get to make some bows while David watched the baby

Here's what actually is happening:

- Millie and I got sick

It's so bad that every time Amelia sneezes, David sings "Snot Rockets" to the tune of the "Hot Pockets" jingle. You can imagine why.

Is there really a worse way to try to fall asleep than with a stuffy, yet runny, nose? I'm an advocate of the cry-it-out method, albeit a modified version of the method, but when the baby is sick all of that gets thrown out the window.

I put her down at 7:30 tonight. I thought I had every possible base covered. We stuck to the bedtime routine, I also turned her cool mist humidifier on high, Baby Rub-bed her chest and neck, gave her a dose of Benedryl to help with her nose, and slightly elevated her mattress. She fell asleep quickly and easily. I was so relieved.

Fast forward one hour and 10 minutes later. Amelia wakes herself up by coughing and decides it would be a good idea to stand up in her crib and make a huge fuss. After a few minutes seeing if she would calm down and realizing she clearly won't, I went in and tried the old "I'm right here, I wiped your nose - oh, hey look! It's your pacifier! - but I'm not going to pick you up" routine but she flipped out. I rocked her.

And rocked her.

And rocked her.

The good news is that she let me rock her. The bad news is that she didn't fall asleep, she just stared at me and played with my nostrils.

I fed her what equaled an obsene amount of formula for what she's used to at bedtime, but she drank it and wanted all of it (she is definitely one to turn down the milk if she doesn't want it). I laid her down and she did the thing where she pops right up the second I put her on the mattress.

David got home from Bible class and we let Amelia cry in her crib for probably 10 minutes. I was hoping she would realize how tired she was and zonk out, but I also was realistic in that the more worked up she got, the more snotty everything got. Snotty - messy, crusty, snottiness.
I'm a sucker and got her out of bed where she played in the darkness of our bedroom for about 30-40 minutes. Happy as a stinking clam. Fed her another 4 ounces which she sucked down then I put her back to bed. She fussed for a total of 1 minute then completely sacked out.

I'm pretty sure it was 11:45pm. Now that I'm on record with CPS I'm sure this will go in my file, too.

I'm scared of how this night and tomorrow will go for us, but hopefully she sleeps well.

P.S. I'm having another giveaway tomorrow on my Facebook fan page, so stop by.

Wordless Wednesday: Rub-a-dub-dub

2010-04-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

No Appropriate Title

2010-04-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

We are fighting the gas monster over here. I think it's part of growing pains. You get to try a lot of really yummy and interesting foods but sometimes it takes a minute for your little digestive system to figure it all out. By "we" and "you" I, of course, mean Amelia. Someday she'll be mortified that I posted about her flatulence online, but it's just part of being a baby and some day she'll understand.

We hear "something" and follow her around sniffing her rear only to discover that she's reached the age where not every toot means she has filled her pants. It's pretty sad, though, to hear her whine and cry in her sleep every now and then. I'm not 100% sure that gas is to blame, but it's my best guess. She's hopped up on Motrin tonight so I can't really blame her teeth.

She's starting to really say some definitive words. Tonight she pulled herself up on David and said "Dada". Then, a few minutes later she hoisted herself up on my leg and said "Mamamama". She tries really hard to say "Uh oh". The only thing that comes out is "Uh" and then a little cough. She hasn't grasped the "Oh" sound yet. She waves at everyone and everything, and every once in a while she'll say "Hi" or "Bye bye". She says "Tess" on cue - it sounds like "Teh". She has also tried a few times to say "Thank you".

It's hard to know if she's old enough to say "Please". I'm trying to work with her on it but so far all she does is grunt when she wants more food. She has signed "more" to me a few times by clapping her hands together, and she has signed "milk" a couple of times as well.

I came back from Oregon with either a cold or allergy issues. I'm not really sure which but my nose is stuffy, my head feels like it's going to explode, and my voice is on its way out. I'm still going to try to make the most of this week that my husband has off work. I'm really looking forward to it!

Flowery cupcakes

2010-04-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend we were in Portland for my niece's first birthday. My sister baked some cupcakes and bought some candy for us to, hopefully, get us inspired on how to decorate the cupcakes. I tried working with some of the candy she bought but neither one of us were really happy with how it was turning out. I had researched a little online and found that it's possible to roll out gumdrops and cut shapes into them. I thought that was a clever idea but when we were at the store at 10:15pm the night before the party to readdress the cupcake decorations, Starbursts sounded better and the colors were brighter. I figured rolling those out would have the same effect. So, we bought them.

After I rolled out the Starbursts and cut them into flowers, I poked a hole through them with a toothpick and Carrie rolled the scraps into balls and we used those as the center of the flower. Then, we stuck the toothpick through the green Sour Patch Straws that Carrie had purchased earlier that day and voila! Cupcakes with flower sticking out of them.

Anna definitely approved..

Would anyone be interested...

2010-04-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

..in hosting a giveaway on their blog of my products?

Email me at MilliesBows@gmail.com if it sounds like something you'd want to do. I'd like to do one every month or two starting in June and I'd pick different blogs each month to host the giveaway. My only requirement is that you have a fair number of followers and that you post regularly.

I know I've been absent - I apologize. The business is going really, really well. Too well. I'm wanting to do giveaways because I think it will help keep business up without me having to spend a lot of time on the computer, marketing myself.

Back to making ladybug clippies...

Caption This!

2010-03-31T00:04:00.000-07:00

I don't get out much. I make bows and get over-excited about my daughter clapping open-handed for the first time. That's not to say I don't do important things, they're just not interesting to anyone but me.

My mom got the babies matching dresses and after Amelia had her picture taken in it, Mom loved the pose so much that she wanted to duplicate it with the other 2 girls. Fortunately, the photography chain we used near my home up here is one that my family uses often down in Oregon and they had a similar background for the babies.

The babies also got matching denim dresses from Granny & Granddad (my mom & dad) so we got a shot of them alone and also one with Caleb. Of course they're all wearing Millie's Bows. I tried to talk Caleb into wearing one but he wouldn't do it.

My bow business is going extremely well. I have several orders stacking up and am having to decide between cleaning my house or making bows. Both have to get done but guess which one wins out most often?

It was so fun being in Oregon and watching the babies play together and play with Caleb. Amelia absolutely adores her big cousin which works for me - he's endless entertainment for her.

Anna is the personality of the group. She's so funny and she eats like a truck driver. Obviously she's adorable, but I think more than being cute her personality totally shines through. She's always good for a laugh - and a pose. This picture struck me as hilarious and I think it would make a good "Caption This" contest. So, give it your best shot - I'd love to hear your caption suggestions!

A little weighed down

2010-03-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

Millie and I had an adventure today. We even dragged David, my dad, and a random young couple and their little boy in to it.

I decided it would be fun to take the train to Portland with Amelia. I figured it would be less stressful to ride rather than drive, so I bought the $28 one-way ticket and, while nervous, was optimistic. How bad could it be? Just like taking a plane, right? A lot of help with bags - just check them at the front counter and carry on your small bags and, in my case, my baby. So, I packed a very large suitcase and planned to take the car seat by wrapping it in a garbage bag.

There is a train station just about 6 miles from our house and that seemed a little too convenient but, like I said, I was optimistic. A friend who initially told us about the train and how great of a trip it is came over on Wednesday to hang out with Amelia and me. I told her that we were leaving from the station closest to us and she said "You know that's an unmanned station, right? You pretty much just walk up and get on the train. But, I'm sure the conductor will step off the train and help you with your stuff."

Okay. I got even more nervous but I was still picturing an actual train station that you walk up to, walk inside, maybe get a cup of coffee, relax, check your bags, and eventually get on the train.

Imagine my surprise when David drove me to the train station in the Back 40 and it was a raised platform with some shabby wooden overhangs as covering and absolutely nowhere to check any bags. It was pouring down rain and David grabbed the baby in her car seat and the diaper bag while I had my big suitcase rolling behind me as well as another carry-on. We realized we had to cross to the other side of the platform where the south-bound train will approach via a walkway under the platform then up what felt like a steep incline to the little bus-stop-like shelters to wait for the train. I have to give a shout-out to David. He (twice) scoped out the area and went up to walk around the platform to find out where we needed to go so that the baby and I could stay warm and dry in the car. Love him.

The train approached and the conductor stepped off to help me with my bags. I said goodbye to David and boarded. He stood outside the window and waved to us, then snapped this photo:

I think it's a funny picture because Amelia is smiling at David and he's literally jogging alongside the train to take the picture.

The ride itself went just fine. Amelia didn't want to eat any formula which didn't surprise me. When a lot is happening around her she just refuses to drink formula and, when I was nursing, she refused to nurse. So, she got a lot of solid foods on the train including raisins, a toasted bagel and each bite I dipped in apple blueberry baby food, yogurt bites, and Cheerios. About an hour after we left she zonked out in my arms and I was able to lay her down in the seat next to me which, fortunatly, was never filled even though every other seat was filled.

Unfortunately she only slept for about half an hour until a loud noise woke her up, but I was able to flip through a few pages of a magazine and doze off for a little bit while she slept which was great.

A few times, a young couple walked past with their adorable 2-year-old son who was dressed in blue and white striped overalls and a matching conductor's hat. CUTE. The first time Amelia saw them, she said "HI" plain as day. It was so sweet that I called David and told him about it.

The conductor who helped me with my bags to get on the train was so nice and actually he stopped by a couple of times during the trip to tell me what a good baby I had. However, he was nowhere to be found when we arrived in Portland. Instead, another very grouchy conductor helped me. I told him where the first conductor put my bags and as he was lifting them off the train and onto the platform he growled at me that my bags were illegal in size and weight and that I shouldn't have been allowed to carry them on. I told him that I had planned to check them but there was nowhere to check them.

He said, "Well, there probably was a place but you just didn't get there in time to find it!"

I was dumbfounded. I didn't know what to say, so I just mumbled something like "Actually that's not the case..." and then he said "Oh, wait, where did you get on the train?"

When I answered him, he said "Oh, yeah - there isn't a place there to check bags. Sorry, miss, sorry. Sorry about that."

Maybe he was just having a bad day - I hope he doesn't treat every customer that way.

He set my bags on the platform and left. So, picture this. I'm carrying the following:

- a 17ish lb baby
- a diaper bag
- a messenger bag
- a car seat in a garbage bag
- and I'm pulling a large suitcase behind me

Yeah, it wasn't working well. I tried, but the train station entrance looked like the finish line of a marathon and I was standing at the start. I opened my big bag just enough to grab the Bjorn. Unfortunately, the last time I wore the Bjorn I undid all the hooks and buttons on it so I was having a really hard time trying to hold Amelia and figure out how to put on this contraption. About that time the young couple with the 2-year-old son walked by me. I thought I was the only one left on the platform but was relieved to see them and especially relieved and extremely grateful when they offered to help carry some of my load. I had asked my dad to come in to the train station to meet me since I knew I wouldn't be able to get all of my luggage so luckily he was standing right inside the door as we walked in.

My dad took me to my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch on the way to their house and Amelia enjoyed more yogurt bites and some sticky rice. I enjoyed General Tso chicken.

Amelia still, even though I had tried several times, wouldn't drink formula at all. Of course I was worried because she hadn't had even a drop since 5:45am and here it was 1:20pm. But, when we got to a quiet room before her nap she drank some and that made me feel better. However, her nap was only an hour long. So, she had a total of an hour and a half of sleep between 5:45am and 8:00pm when she went to bed. For her, being overtired means being upset about bedtime. I tried rocking her but she fought me so I let her cry. She fell asleep about 40 minutes later after some crying and whining.

It's been a long day and I don't know why I'm still awake. Amelia had so much fun today playing with her cousins. Here's Amelia and Anna with Caleb. He's such a good big brother/cousin and the babies love him.

Amelia and Kate

The girls with Caleb

Amelia sported her "UW" turtleneck and socks today to support the University of Washington Huskies since they were in the Sweet Sixteen, but they lost to West Virginia. Oh well!

Tomorrow we have a lot going on but I'm looking forward to this weekend with family even though I miss David. My mom's birthday was today so tomorrow we celebrate since she was busy tonight.

I have to go to bed - it's almost 1am! I got 5 hours of sleep last night so I really need to try to squeeze in as much as I can.

Goodnight!

Here's lookin' up your old address

2010-03-24T00:22:00.000-07:00

I'm writing on borrowed time. David's asleep and it's 11:45. Amelia slept 12 hours straight last night after going down without a peep. She peeped tonight on and off for about 30 minutes tonight, falling asleep for about 15 of those 30 minutes, but she's been out for a good 3 hours now.

I decided to go ahead and post this because I'm going to be insanely busy tomorrow filling Millie's Bows orders and packing for Amelia and me to take the train down to Oregon on Thursday morning. And when I'm in Oregon, I don't check the computer. At least not more than once or twice.

I was reading some of my older posts before the baby was born and I used to actually be a mildly entertaining blogger. Not that Amelia isn't an entertaining subject matter, but really only to me and her dad and her grandparents, probably. Plus I think a small chunk of mental capacity made its great escape at some point between getting pregnant and birthing my child. It happens. I may just be getting less interesting as I grow older - I won't rule out that possibility.

SO. I was going to make homemade pan pizzas tonight for dinner. I've made it before, back when I was still interesting. Dough is so super simple to make but for some reason I always feel like it's going to be a headache, and having to wait for it to rise...I just didn't ~~have~~ make the time. I had already thawed the mozzarella and pepperoni by transfering each Food Savered item from the freezer to the fridge a couple of days ago and since I only have one more night to cook before I leave David to his bachelor ways, I decided to at least attempt something pizza-ish. By the way, David will be more than cared for while I'm gone in the meal department. I made a double batch of Poppyseed Chicken and am planning to freeze a couple of chicken pot pies. Can you tell we've run out of red meat in our house?

Anyway, on to the recipe. It's pizza on a flour tortilla crust. Now, before you judge, just listen. I've made flour tortilla pizza before. It was soggy and slightly unappetizing. This pizza, however, was crispy and absolutely tasty. Could have been how much cheese I piled on it, but one of these pizzas fed David and me and we were full at the end of the meal. I only served strawberries on the side instead of making a salad or something 'cuz I'm ghetto like that.

Try this recipe - you won't be disappointed! My additions are italicized.

Quick Tortilla Pizza

Makes 2 pizzas; serves 4 (I obviously halved the recipe - I only had 3 flour tortillas on hand)

INGREDIENTS

Six (10 inch) flour tortillas, preferably whole wheat

(Um, didn't use whole wheat tortillas)

8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese (divided use)
(Who actually measures cheese when making pizza?)

2/3 cup pizza sauce (divided use)
(Didn't measure this, either...we're "light on the sauce" people)

Pepperoni, olives, vegetables, or any other toppings you like
(I used pepperoni, black olives, and chopped up fresh spinach...I put spinach on and in everything I can get away with)

I added some garlic salt, pepper, and cilantro (why? I don't know, I really don't. It was green) to taste.

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray the bottom of the first tortilla with non-stick cooking spray to help it crisp. Lay sprayed side down on cookie sheet.

Sprinkle a small amount of cheese on top of tortilla, just enough to help tortillas stick when cooking. Top with another tortilla, sprinkle with cheese, top with third tortilla. Top last tortilla with about 1/3 cup pizza sauce and toppings of your liking.

Repeat the directions for the second pizza, using remaining ingredients. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (mine was done at 17 minutes - nice and crispy) or until golden brown. Cut with pizza wheel (I won't tell if you want to use a knife) into wedges.

Per serving (based on 4): 274 calories, 19 grams protein, 10 grams fat, 6 grams saturated fat, 36 grams carbohydrate, 4 grams fiber, 33 milligrams cholesterol, 748 milligrams sodium. Analysis by registered dietitian Mary Mullen.

"Didn't measure" is the story of my life.

Tonight I went to Google maps and looked at the "street view" of my hometown and the little house where I lived for the first 9 years of my life. I have really, really great memories of that place. It's a very small town, but I love that it's small. I also love that it seems to have stayed largely unchanged. I'd love to go back someday but I'm not sure how realistic that is since I'm halfway across the country now. Anyway, it was fun to get to roam around town via the Google street view. Speaking of which, I looked up my address now on Google and it's eerie that our garage door is open and so is the gate to the backyard. David was obviously working in the yard when they came by with the truck. Strange! You can actually see my brother-in-law working in his front yard and their dog sitting in the yard staring at the Google truck when you look up their address.

I decided to show you the street view via Google Maps of our house. I don't know - to me it's kind of crazy! Obviously this is prior to David cleaning out the garage!

Have a wonderful weekend! My shop is closed for the long weekend but I'll be back to doing orders on Monday.

Call CPS, I let my child cry

2010-03-21T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry for sharing the cord story in my previous post. I know I freaked out both sets of grandparents, and I couldn't sleep last night because I was literally sick just thinking about what could have happened - I think I finally fell asleep around 4am. Thank You, Lord, that nothing happened to our beautiful daughter. I'm going to move on now and try not to ever think about it again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My baby went down at 8pm without a peep. This makes me so very happy. Mainly because bedtime lately has been an absolute chore. I pity the women who think they must rock their children every night until they are fast asleep and refuse to let their child cry even a little. Especially if they had a child like mine who just hated bedtime and didn't want anything to do with her crib or anything to do with me since my end goal was to put her in the crib and she knew it. The only person she wanted at bedtime was Daddy, and that's because she knew Daddy wouldn't try to force feed her a pacifier and pin her to his chest while humming "You Are My Sunshine" and attempting to release calming energy.

Our routine at night goes a little something like this:

1. TV goes off, then she gets a bottle (4 oz, sometimes 6 oz)

2. Oatmeal mixed with fruit and water or formula, nuked to a perfect 98°, then some cold fruit puree spooned on top (she loves this. If your baby won't eat his/her oatmeal one night, try adding some cold fruit puree with each bite).
3. I strip her down and wipe her with a warm washcloth and a dab of Baby Magic lavender calming lotion.

4. Diaper change & jammies
5. To the nursery for storytime and pacifier with Mom (Amelia gets the pacifier) by lamplight.

6. Rocking with Mom in the glider for 2-3 minutes, then an "I love you", "Sleep through the night", and "Nite nite" from Mom.

7. Bedtime

Usually at step #5 she starts whining the second I cross the threshold to her room. The book helps to distract her and by the time I'm finished reading the story, she's rubbing her eyes and will willingly lay on my shoulder. Laying her down is iffy. Sometimes she won't fight it, she'll just curl up in a little ball and go to sleep but she'll wake up crying an hour or two later. Other nights, she doesn't even let me lay her down - she sits right up and begins protest. Either way, I leave the room. Our mistake has been to go back in the room after about 30 minutes of whining/crying. We pick her up thinking, Maybe this one night...

...her teeth are hurting.
...she has a poopy diaper.
...she's still hungry.
...she will go to sleep if I try rocking her again.
or, my favorite...
...she's scared of the dark.

After offering to fix all of the above and getting completely rejected and totally frustrated, we've been known to walk her into the hallway or into our bedroom just to see what happens. Crying stops. Actually, the crying turns off like a light the second David holds her because, as I said before, she knows he isn't going to try to get her to sleep. We have felt like genuine suckers every single time. It got to the point that I would get mad at myself for thinking I could rock her to sleep...she fought me hard, no matter what. I don't even remember the last time she even got drowsy by my rocking her. It's more stressful to go into her room when she's throwing a fit than it is to just let her cry. That might sound weird or stupid to some of you, but it's the truth. Knowing the battle that awaits on the other side of that door really helps us to know that it's not worth the trouble. If she were at all comforted by us then it would probably be a different story, but she wants nothing to do with us unless we're going to let her stay up.

So, we've let her cry the last couple of nights, no exceptions. For naps, too. We've even gotten good at figuring out when she has a poopy diaper. If she's whining then goes radio silent for about 10 minutes then starts really crying, she pooped. David called it today during her nap so we changed her (boy, it was a doozy - all up her back) and back down she went.

Tonight, it was too good to be true that I laid her down and she went right to sleep. David thought she'd for sure be awake an hour later, but here it is 3 hours later and not a peep. Apparently she just didn't like bedtime. It was such a frustrating experience until we figured out that nothing was wrong with her and if we leave her alone and stop catering to her every whimper she'd realize that bedtime is nothing she needs to be rescued from and being overtired and wired and forcing herself to stay awake is far more stressful and taxing than just succumbing to sleep.

It's been one night - I'm not going to throw a ticker tape parade quite yet. Especially since Amelia and I will be going to Portland this weekend. Anything could happen when she has to sleep away from home.

Don't forget about my giveaway on my Millie's Bows Facebook Fan Page. Already over 225 fans - I can't believe it!

Happy Monday!

Heart Stopping

2010-03-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

I hope it's not a testament to my mothering abilities that I've had two completely heart-stopping, panicked moments involving Amelia in the last 24 hours.

The first happened last night. I was making dinner and David was in the living room with the baby. I thought he was watching her but with how fast she is, he looked away for a minute (watching the NCAA tournament) and she crawled into the kitchen. At that second I had been broiling garlic bread in the oven and left the oven open for a second so I could transfer a piece of garlic bread from the oven to David's plate which was on the opposite countertop. I turned around and Amelia was about a foot from the oven, posed to pull up on the blazing hot oven. I guess I'm not one of those people who remain poised in and calm in a dangerous situation. I flipped out. "NO, NO, NO, No!" I screeched as I bolted toward her. I was able to scoop her up before she could reach her little hand to the oven and I walked into the living room. "She canNOT be in the kitchen with me when I'm cooking! She tried to pull up on the oven when I had it open! I thought you were watching her!" I didn't leave David time to respond, I just handed her to him and left. We talked about it later - it's not like I normally have the oven wide open when I'm cooking so next time I do that I'll just make sure to tell David that it's not safe for her to come in the kitchen. Seriously I about had a heart attack.

The next panicky moment was this morning. This is one of those times I've been really grateful to have a video monitor. If you remember in the post before my last one there was a picture of Amelia in her crib. We kept two video monitor cameras on her crib since she moves around so much. We finally mounted a shelf and put one on the shelf so that we get a full crib shot of her. There are still times when we can't really see all of her, so we left the other camera sitting on top of the crib. She had never shown much interest in the cameras and since we recently lowered her crib I didn't even think she could reach them. I can't move the crib to unplug the camera so I just left it. If Amelia gets enough sleep, she will wake up and suck on her pacifier in her crib and play for upwards of 30-45 minutes before she starts talking or whining for me to come get her. She was doing that this morning when I checked the monitor, only this time she had the camera next to her in the crib and she was laying down, playing with the cord. I didn't panic - I showed it to David on the monitor then walked into her bedroom. By the time I got in there, she was sitting up and the cord was wrapped around her neck. I don't mean loosely. I mean if she would have tried to stand up it would have strangled her. I can't believe I'm even writing about this. I know my mom (and probably David's mom) are going to read this and possibly have a minor panic attack, but we've avoided crazy close calls thus far in her young life and it wouldn't be babyhood without her giving us heart palpatations.

Oh, and yes, David is going to unplug the camera and get it out of the crib this morning before she even takes her first nap.

I'm doing a big giveaway on my Facebook fan page. So, if you have a little girl or know a little girl who would love some hair accessories, go to my Millie's Bows fan page and enter the giveaway. I think you have you become a fan before you can enter. Here's a photo of the giveaway:

Have a wonderful weekend!

Late at night when all the world is sleeping

2010-03-16T01:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, it takes a lot of time and energy to start up and run a business, even a tiny one-woman operation like mine. Granted, I enjoy it and want to put a lot of time into it so it has inched its way up my list of priorities.

I need to update this blog, though, since it is the only way I will remember anything about Millie's infant years. Well, I might remember things but not the minute details or when exactly she hit milestones or stopped nursing.

Yeah, she stopped wanting to nurse. I've given myself a good kick in the proverbial pants about it and have taken many a ride on the Guilt Trip Express. While it makes me a little sad that I'm no longer the one providing her sole nourishment, it also eases some stress that inevitably would come when it was time for her to eat. She would NOT nurse during the day unless, and I'm not kidding, we were in a dark room with no noises and no one else but us. I did that for a while but she would be hungry right after nursing so I'd have to give her a bottle anyway. From the time she was a newborn she would break the latch constantly for no reason that I could ever figure out except perhaps a short attention span. She had trouble gaining weight in the beginning because my milk didn't come in for 5 days. Maybe that's where all the trouble began, I don't know. Starting at around 5-6 months we would only use formula to supplement at night before she went to bed since, if we didn't, she would scream after being laid down because she was still hungry. Pretty soon after 6 or 7 months we started giving her a bottle in the middle of the night, too, since she wasn't ever satisfied with just breastfeeding. I always thought I would nurse my baby until she was a year old - maybe even past that at bedtime. Maybe I'm crazy but it's never been all fireworks and stars for me as some women say it is for them - and as much as I tried to make it be such a deep bonding experience - it wasn't. Formula is expensive, and it's not an expense our family had budgeted so that part really stinks, too. I feel like I short-changed my daughter because, deep down, I feel like I could have kept going somehow. Maybe pumped more, taken Fenugreek more regularly (and ignored clogged ducts and headaches it seemed to give me), and really been vigilant at it. But, she doesn't WANT to, so I feel like I shouldn't make her. And, in the end, mama and baby are less stressed and fully nourished. The impact of not nursing anymore is just starting to hit me and, I'm not sure why, but I want to cry. Okay...this might be harder than I thought.  Amelia's fine. She won't be stupid or obese as an adult because she's on formula now. You won't be criticized or thought of as a sub par mom because of this. Your family actually won't go broke by adding an additional $100/month to the budgeted expenses. Everybody is fine! You think moms who nurse have these thoughts? Nope! I never want to hear a mom who breastfeeds tell me that they feel criticized for the decision to nurse their baby.  I would take the criticism and judgment for that any day.

Completely not a tangent I planned on taking.

Things happening, in bullets.
- Amelia dances. Started doing it last weekend, rocking out to "La Cucaracha" from her music table.

-  If she's in a talkative mood, she'll usually say "Hi" when prompted as of last weekend.

- For some odd reason, she pulls her hair while she drinks a bottle. I can actually see her scalp raising with each pull. I figure some day she'll realize she's the one inflicting pain and she'll stop.
- For the past couple of weeks, a 10 hour stretch of sleep at night is not uncommon. Last night she slept 12 hours. Tonight, she was a pill to put to sleep and didn't fall asleep until 11pm.

- Naps have been generally only twice a day and 40 minutes to an hour long each. Today, however, she slept for an hour and a half and two hours, respectively.

- Our daughter is a daredevil. She tries to dive off of our bed, which is why one of us has her by the ankle at all times when she's up there.  She loves riding on Daddy's shoulders and swinging in his arms.  He also throws her into the air and she laughs like crazy.

- Her second tooth (the other bottom one) broke through last Friday.

- She has discovered where the dog sleeps (in our bedroom closet...that's where she likes to sleep!) and now crawls back there on her own, sits at the door of the closet, and laughs at Tess.

- Everything goes in her mouth. She loves finding the smallest fuzzy on the floor and trying to pick it up with her forefinger and thumb then shoving it into her mouth. This doesn't really bode well for my bow-making business. I have to keep every little scrap of ribbon picked up off the floor at all times or she'll find it. Already we've had to dig 2 pieces of 3/8" ribbon (about 1/2" long each) out of her mouth. She's quick about it, too. We only notice that it looks like she's chewing on something and that justifies a finger sweep of her mouth.

I have pictures and video but will have to post them later. Our computers run on a network which is based on our PC in the bedroom. When it's shut down or asleep, I can't access our pictures which are kept on that computer. And, at 1:30am I dare not go in there and wake up the PC because I'm sure David would wake up, too. And that's just inconsiderate.
Coming soon...

- A baby food making blog
- Pictures, pictures, and a video or two
- Our trip to the local photography studio for Amelia's 8 month pictures

By the way, if I reach 175 fans on Facebook I'm going to do a BIG giveaway. So, tell your friends & family to become a fan of Millie's Bows! http://www.facebook.com/milliesbows

Happy Tuesday,

A lot happens in a week!

2010-03-02T02:13:00.000-08:00

I'm a wee bit neurotic when it comes to how my child sleeps. She moves around in her sleep constantly. I think this is partly due to the fact that she is an incredibly light sleeper. God made her this way; we did not. I am very sensitive to noises and perhaps because of it or in spite of it I tried very hard to make Amelia used to being in the midst of life itself. All day every day in the months following her birth (until she started sleeping in her own room for naps) she would take her naps in the living room. David and I would keep the TV at a normal volume, unload the dishwasher, etc., hoping she would just get used to sleeping wherever, whenever. Didn't work. I guess with my noise sensitivity and David having been a light sleeper most of his life our child didn't stand a chance.

This is why my blog posts are so lengthy - I get off on tangents and ramble.

Anyway, so Amelia moves around a lot at night and I'm neurotic about checking the video monitor to make sure that she's still covered up and her face isn't too close to the bumper. David makes fun of me because even though I can see her on the video monitor, I frequently go into her room to check on her. Sometimes I accidentally wake her up by moving the blanket out from underneath her feet or by grabbing her by the ankles and pulling her away from the side of the crib. Usually she goes right back out, but since she's been teething it's a whole new ballgame.

First, it takes forever to get her to sleep at night. Bottle, nursing, teething tablets, Motrin, paci, rocking, more rocking. You name it, we've tried it. Gone are the days where I could lay her down and she'd drift off to sleep. She needs me to rock her now. I really don't mind - I absolutely love the time I can spend rocking her and cuddling with her. It's the times that she's so uncomfortable that she screams when she's in her crib and she screams when I'm rocking her that's tough. Or when I rock her to sleep only to lay her down and have her start crying again.

Can I just stop and say that it's really creepy to be in the living room of your home and hear breathing that isn't your own? I know it's either the dog or one of the 2 cats, but still...

My entire point is that I didn't check on her tonight at all after I put her to bed. I saw in the monitor that she was covered but I didn't check the monitor after that. Usually I'll check it before I go to bed around 11pm then go and adjust her and cover her up, but obviously I haven't gone to bed. So she woke up at midnight crying. I tried rocking her to sleep a couple of times but it resulted in her crying and standing in her crib. She's finally asleep now after I nursed her and rocked her.

She can pull herself up to stand in her crib. As of, oh, last Saturday. She pulled to her knees (which I actually think is what's pictured) a couple of times that day so I asked David to lower the mattress. He did, and after her next nap when I went in to get her she had pulled all the way up to standing. Whew.

And here she is today. I caught her in this position when I came back to the living room after having heated up her lunch. She really loves those Yogurt Bites.

And she somehow managed to prop herself underneath the same table a little later. You can't really tell, but she's standing with one hand on the diaper caddy and one hand on the table support. If she moved, she bumped her head. So, being the wonderful mom that I am I made sure to snap a picture and then help her get out.

After David got home from work today we took Amelia outside for another shot with the tree. It looks much better than it did even a few days ago.

I want to try feeding Amelia what we eat since I hear that's the best way to raise a non-picky eater. So David broke out the high chair for the first time and she ate at the dining room table with us. Well, she didn't really eat. She posed for a few pictures and shoved the food around. She wasn't hungry.

She also might want me to tell you that for a while now she's been drinking out of her sippy cup all by herself. Not always tipping it far enough to get water and not always attempting to drink it with the sipper facing the right way, but she has the right idea, anyway. She's still just on water...we are holding off on juice for as long as humanly possible.

Finally, here are a couple of pacifier clips I made for Amelia tonight. If you have any sewing ability whatsoever, please don't look closely at my stitches. One of them is just one-sided ribbon. The other is one-sided ribbon that I stitched together so that it would be a thicker, two-sided paci clip.

Business is going well...many new items listed and I have a few orders I need to fill which is why I haven't been blogging much.

Happy Tuesday!

Things are Bloomin'

2010-02-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

I'm going to do this post in a bulleted format because simply too much has been going on and if I write about all of it I'll bore myself and you. So, here goes!

- Millie's first tooth (her bottom left) broke through on February 5th. This helps explain the terrible sleeping and overall crankiness that is atypical for her.

- The night before Valentine's Day, David took Millie and me to a local chinese restaurant. I only bring this up because of how cute my baby looked that evening and because I have proof of her cuteness...

- David and I went to see "Avatar" on Valentine's Day, but it was sold out so we saw the movie "Valentine's Day" instead. It's a rental. We finally saw "Avatar" yesterday in 3D and it was good - the animation (especially in 3D) is incredible. Here's Amelia and David on Valentine's Day...

- David bought Amelia a Sophie the Giraffe teething toy as a Valentine's Day gift. He also made her a card by drawing hearts and writing "Happy Valentine's Day" on a piece of folded cardstock. He's not an artist but I hope he does that for her every Valentine's Day - it's pretty special.

- The weather here lately has been incredible. Mid 50s to lower 60s and beautiful blue skies. On Friday we took Amelia to the park right up the street. David thought I was a little crazy for wanting to take her on the slide and swings, but we did it and I think she liked it, even if her face doesn't show it!

Our plum tree is really going crazy right now, blooming really early. So I couldn't resist getting a couple of pictures of Amelia with it.

- I thought I had more to say but apparently my memory is short. Wait, I already knew that. This is why I need to post often. Otherwise I forget what I want to say. Oh, I'm annoyed that the Olympics air live on the east coast and we get a 3 hour time delay even though they are taking place just a couple of hours north of here.

- Here's a cute video I took of Amelia (far right) with her cousins Kate (middle) and Anna (far left) last time we were in Oregon at the end of January. My sister, Lindsay, is the one with the blanket.

Busy week this week, but hopefully I'll post more often now. Obviously if I wait then I forget everything.
Happy Tuesday!

Our Story

2010-02-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

I've moved around a lot. I've lived in Oklahoma, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Florida, Illinois, and Washington.

When I was 21, I moved to the Chicago area for no other reason than to be roomies with a good friend from college. I had no job, little money, and a little Saturn car that somehow made the road trip from Oregon to Illinois. I stayed in the Chicago area for 2 1/2 years which surprised me since I was extremely homesick the entire time I was there. I finally sold my furniture and my little Saturn and moved home to Oregon in the fall of 2004.

Christmas 2005, 5 months after we met

A month in to job searching I got a call from a recruiter who worked for the same company I had just left in Chicago. She wanted to know if I would be interested in doing the same thing I had been doing in Chicago, only I would be doing it in Seattle. I hesitated. I just got home after being away from home since my freshman year of college and I really didn't want to leave. But, I wasn't really sure of where to go next and since this position was just a temporary fill-in for a girl going on maternity leave, I agreed. I packed up again and headed north, this time in my parents' Toyota Avalon. I stayed with friends of a friend for the first month or so, then moved in to an Extended Stay hotel. I missed home (and having a stove) and would drive the 3 1/2 hours to Portland every single weekend.

February 2006, Kerry Park in Seattle

The temporary job ended up becoming permanent when the girl decided not to come back from maternity leave. I was happy to have a more stable income and health benefits, but I realized when I accepted the job that I was, for now, "stuck" living away from home again. I missed my family and I missed my nephew who was 1 at the time. I moved in to a more permanent housing situation but still drove home almost every weekend. I still didn't know hardly anyone up here and on the weekends I did stay, I would go for runs and veg on the couch.

Us on our honeymoon in Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Finally, I decided I could at least use some company to show me around the city. I got a Match.com account and was amazed at the response. Apparently, if you were a woman with a Match account you got bombarded. I did. I don't even remember how many email responses I got but it must have been between 30-40 every couple of days. I didn't want to take all of the effort it took to write each person back. The majority of the emails went straight to my "deleted" items, while few were responded to and others loitered around in my Inbox until I decided if I wanted to respond or not. I went on dates with 2 guys from the site but both fizzled out after a couple of months. One of the emails that loitered in my Inbox was from a guy who sounded very well-spoken and sweet, but his photo was from far away and from the waist up, which made him look short and scrawny. I left his email in my Inbox because it was one of the few that wasn't creepy or over-the-top...just very low key and sweet. I never got around to responding.

Us in San Diego, March 2007

Six months later, I had a friend named Mary who I knew from church camp when I was a teenager. She was getting married and invited me to her bridal shower. She and I went to church together and she told me a couple of times about a guy named David who had just gotten out of a long relationship but she thought we would get along so she wanted me to meet him. People had often tried to set me up before and either it was a disaster or it never happened. I smiled and nodded at Mary but never said much about David. Mary pointed David's sister out to me at her bridal shower. She was taking pictures and I thought she was pretty. Apparently, she and Mary were working together to get David and me to meet. I found out later that she showed David the pictures she took of me and he nodded and smiled at her the same way I did at Mary.

Us. Wrigley Field, May 2008

Fast forward a couple of weeks and it's Mary's last Sunday at church before she moves to another state with her soon-to-be husband. David, his sister, and his sister's husband come to our congregation to see Mary for the last time and so that David and I can meet. I have no idea that they're going to be there. I had been at an air show the day before and was tomato red from a sunburn. I remember he got up during services (which he never does) to use the restroom and he passed by me. I remember thinking how cute he was and that I wanted to meet him. I didn't know it was the David that everyone kept telling me about. We went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and his family jokes about the fact that David's sister practically interviewed me the entire time. David thought it would be cheesy to ask for my phone number at that time, and he knew he would see me at Mary's wedding the following Saturday so we parted ways.

I called my Mom before I got out of the parking lot and told her I had met a really cute Christian guy.

This will get a lot longer if I keep giving every single detail so I'll summarize.

Us on our 1 year anniversary trip to New England, October 2007

He asked for, and got, my phone number at Mary's wedding. We hung out as friends for a couple of months while I dragged my feet to commit and he tried very hard to win me over. I was an idiot, but I finally wised up. I think it was because I knew that when he and I got together, that was it...he was my forever. That, and I was dating someone else at the time. I dropped him like a hot potato once I actually made up my mind and the rest, as they say, is history.

Oh, and it was him. The email from the really nice "short, scrawny" guy. It was David (all 6'3" and 190 lbs of him). He was fresh out of a long relationship and decided to try the online dating thing. He emailed a total of 2 girls on Match and one of them was me. I guess God decided we deserved a second shot. I'm sooo glad.

He proposed on Tax Day, ironically enough (he's in Finance). He did it surrounded by my parents, sisters, and their husbands. It was perfect. Here's a picture right after I said "yes".

We were married October 2006 at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club - the same place Tiger Woods won his unprecedented 3rd consecutive Amateur title. I used to be proud of that fun fact regarding our wedding site.

We had a beautiful, gorgeous wedding. My mom worked so hard to make every detail perfect and I love her for that, especially since I was still living 3 hours from my wedding site. It was all wonderful. Every single thing. I know my neck is funky in this picture but I love our expressions because it shows how happy and excited we are to be getting married.

Happy Valentine's Day, my love!

Bakerella would be so disappointed

2010-02-10T23:15:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to try making cake balls for a while. David asked if I would mind making them for him to take to work on Wednesday (staff meeting). I agreed.

Do you remember in grade school when you were handed a sheet of paper that told you to write this, color that, etc, then at the bottom of the paper it said "Do nothing on this page". The point being that you should read instructions in their entirety before acting. I was one of the kids that slammed my head into the desk when I finally got finished following all of the instructions on the page only to realize I shouldn't have done any of it.

I got started on the cake balls too late because I hadn't read the instructions which said that they needed to be refrigerated or frozen for several hours.

I made the cake and let it cool. I crumbled the cake, added the frosting (of which I only had regular vanilla, not cream cheese frosting as the recipe called for), then formed the balls. I made them a lot larger than the recipe indicated because I didn't want to be forever rolling cake balls and it was already 8:30pm. I was later really thankful for this decision because just the couple of dozen I rolled took so much time (and chocolate) to dip.

I stuck the cake balls in the freezer but finally pulled them out after about 2 hours. I couldn't wait any longer. I was getting really tired and I knew I wouldn't want to wake up at 5am to get the balls dipped and out the door with David by 6:30. Well, they weren't frozen enough.

They looked awful. I tried to cover up their awfulness with some chocolate drizzle but nothing could save them. David took them to work anyway. Someone asked if they were store-bought...maybe he saw them from 30 feet away.

Lesson learned : I'm not a dipper. I am not a fan of dipping. Things I try to dip always turn out badly. Maybe I should just practice more.

I'll leave you with a few cute pictures of my baby. She cut her first tooth last Friday...her bottom right one. The last few nights she's slept in 7 hour stretches which gives me renewed hope. She's babbling a lot more, too.

The first one is Amelia with David's mom. She was sweet enough to offer to come over and play with Millie so I could get some bows made. She must have worn Amelia out because Millie slept for 2 1/2 hours after Grandma left!

I took these two tonight. She doesn't really look like herself in the first one, but I love the big open-mouthed smile.

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow night/Friday morning I will share with you David's and my love story. It's a good one. At least to me it is!

There's something wrong with this picture.

2010-02-07T23:27:00.000-08:00

I pulled this book from Amelia's collection the other day to read it to her.

The illustrations are really nicely done...

I found out that the book has very few words, just pictures. That's fine, I like making up my own words to the story.

If only the story wasn't about a completely irresponsible mother, who, in the real world, would have been arrested for child neglect and abandonment.

Um, lady? Carl is your dog. Or maybe the voices in your head told you that he's a human being, capable of caring for your infant. I mean, I normally throw Amelia in a fish tank to see how she swims, too. Totally normal.

"Better job than I could have done, Carl, especially when I'm not on my meds."

Steam or cold? Let's do both.

2010-02-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

Millie celebrated her first day being 7 months old by going to the pediatrician. Then, she thought it would be fun to get a diagnosis of Croup today, too.

I highly doubt she is having a blast.

I crawled into bed last night/this morning around 1:30am. I don't usually stay up that late but I had things to do on the computer. Important things like write a blog.

At 1:38, I kid you not, Amelia woke up. At first I didn't know what I was hearing. It sounded like someone had parked Sea World in the middle of my living room. My daughter was barking every time she sucked in to take another breath, and it sounded painful. I rushed in there to nurse her and unfortunately had to change her diaper, too. I really am not a fan of middle-of-the-night diaper changes. One of two things happen: Either I change her diaper prior to feeding her or I wait until after she's been fed to change her. With the former option, she cries because she's hungry and her screams wake up David, and with the latter option she manages to wake up completely and is sometimes harder to get back to sleep. Last night she started crying while I was changing her after she had been fed, and since she was barking so badly it woke up David. He really was worried and asked me to call the pediatrician in the morning.

So, I did and they said they'd like to see her.

It was pouring outside and my gas tank was inching closer and closer to "E". I don't like to get that close to empty, but I don't drive my car all that often so I frequently forget where my gas gauge lies.

I decided to take the freeway, figuring it would take less time even though the backroads are more direct. I was already running late. Right outside my neighborhood the "low fuel" light came on. I get good gas mileage so I wasn't too concerned. I made it to the pediatrician's office only 5 minutes late, but wasn't called back until after 10 minutes of waiting.

Her oxygen levels were good. Whew.
She was diagnosed with croup and offered a steroid shot to open her passageways. Steroid shot? My baby? No, thanks. We were told she is contagious and would take 7-10 days to fully recover. I need to watch her to make sure she doesn't run a fever or start to have trouble breathing. Having a sick baby is absolutely no fun...it's so hard to have her feeling crummy and not be able to tell me what's wrong. Even if she could, I can't fix it.

She fell asleep on the way home and I decide to take the back roads. It's like I was being punished - I hit every. single. red. light. I'm not kidding. Every one. The needle on my gas gauge inched closer and closer to the dreaded "E" and I tried to coast down hills when I could. The back roads only have one gas station and it's Arco...I mentally block it out.

I made it home.

David got home tonight and he sounds awful. He's getting sick, too. I guess it was inevitable.

Right before her bedtime, we ran a hot bath and sat in the bathroom with Amelia for several minutes, hoping the steam would help her breathe. She would NOT sleep tonight. I couldn't nurse her, rock her, sing to her, sway with her...nothing worked. Several minutes into my efforts, we decided to take her outside and hopefully let the frigid air do its work on her croup. She stopped crying as the scenery changed and really any time David held her. He wasn't the evil person trying to get her to sleep. We brought her inside and I kept trying. She cried really hard and the barking started again so finally after an hour and a half of fighting her, I gave up. She played happily on the floor in the living room until she pooped. After that, I successfully nursed her and rocked her to sleep at 10pm.

I think this is my most boring post yet.

Here's something unboring (at least to me):

Talented friends & my baby girl is 7 months old!

2010-02-03T00:08:00.000-08:00

Man, I have talented friends. And nice friends.

Beverley has been my twin's bff (sorry - just using the lingo that was used when they became friends) since middle school, and also a friend of mine. She has a beautiful daughter named Lucy who recently turned one. Bev offered to take some photos of her baby, my baby, and my sisters' babies all wearing some of the bows I've made.

She did a fantastic job.

Seriously, I feel like my bows don't live up to the photos taken of them! Hey, at least they're perched on some seriously cute little heads. And, the good news is that I'm getting better at my bow-making skills, which helps David to know when I'm buying out my supplier's entire stock of ribbon.

Did I mention I will soon have 1.5" crochet headbands in a variety of colors in stock? I will. I'm so excited. Nylon headbands, too, in pink and in white.

There are so many cute photos, but I guess you'll have to go to my Etsy shop to see them. Or become a Facebook fan. I do want to show you this one of Kate, not only because she's adorable, but because she's sporting my new ladybug clippie.

Okay, enough shamless plugging.

While I'm on the subject of talented friends, I have another friend who dyes and spins her own yarn and makes absolutely gorgeous items. Her Etsy shop is called Neauveau Fiber Arts and Supplies. She offers free shipping on everything! Here's my favorite item in her store...a Snow Bunny handknit baby's hat.

My baby is 7 months old today (Wednesday). 7 months. I wrote about her milestones in my previous post so I guess there's no use in posting them again. I'm so proud of her, though. I can't get enough of her. She still isn't feeling well which makes me sad. But, except for the gurgly nose and cough you wouldn't know it - she's still happy and playful. A bit clingy and hasn't been napping well but that's to be expected.

You know how I posted about our PC being in our bedroom? My husband is currently snoozing away and I'm still up trying to get the pictures uploaded to Etsy ASAP. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to load them onto Facebook.

Oh, one more thing. I was in a rush to get out the door and to my sister's house last Saturday when Bev was going to meet us to take the photos that I didn't change Amelia out of her recently green bean stained shirt. I thought the shirt she was wearing over it would cover it, but it turns out she didn't wear that shirt the whole time. Thus, the trailer trash look. Not my most shining motherhood moment. Ah, well. What's a baby without a stain on her shirt?

Milestones

2010-02-01T22:29:00.000-08:00

Amelia and I are both sick. Congested sinuses, runny nose, occasional cough. Thanks to David I slept like a drugged baby last night (on Nyquil) and he got up with the baby the 3 times she woke up to eat. I actually got up once (maybe twice - who knows, it was all a drug-induced blur) to nurse her back to sleep.

Sleep, tonight, is just not happening.

Ways David and I have tried to get her to sleep tonight:

- Rocking her (arches her back and squirms and screams)
- Nursing her (see above)
- Feeding her via a bottle (takes a few sips then...see above)
- Laying her in her crib, awake (no way. Silly us)
- Getting out the swing and putting her in it (played with the toys on it for a few minutes then...see above)
- Giving her some Benadryl (for her nose, not to get her to sleep)

So, right now she's laying on our bed playing with the case for the thermometer. Happy as a stinking lark. Usually she'd let me nurse her and/or rock her to sleep but she's not having anything to do with sleep tonight.
Recent milestones she has hit:

- She now says "Dada" on a regular basis. Everything is "dada", so I don't know that it counts as a first word, but she'll usually say it when prompted which means David definitely thinks it is her first word. Either way, it's the cutest sound in the entire world.

- She screams. I don't mean crying, I mean she just screams/screeches at the top of her voice just because she can. I'm sure that will eventually get annoying, but for now it's the second cutest sound in the entire world.

- She's army-crawling. She has never gotten on her hands and knees and rocked back and forth, but she gets where she wants to go by using her elbows and dragging the rest of her body along with her. She'll move her legs, too, but more like a frog so I don't think they help her much. But, she can get across a room!

- She's done it for a week or two (maybe more), but I've noticed that not everything goes directly in her mouth anymore. First she shakes it as hard as she can and if she has an object in her other hand, she bangs both objects together several times. Then it goes in her mouth. It's really neat to see her coordination get better.

- She coughs because we react. She'll cough once and either David will say "Bless you!" or I'll just exclaim "Oh!" so she'll cough again and smile/laugh at our reactions. She does this 3 or 4 times before getting bored with us.

I have spent some time reading previous posts I wrote before and directly following Amelia's birth. I love those posts, mainly because I have forgotten a lot already and it's fun to look back and read some of those things.

Well, David is waiting on me to try once again to nurse Amelia and hopefully get her to sleep.

We had a fun weekend in Oregon. I did a lot of baking with my mom for a shower she co-hosted with another lady from church for a girl who is having triplets. I was really looking forward to going to the shower but that's right after Amelia and I got sick. My friend, Bev, graciously offered to take some photos of her baby, Lucy, and my sisters' babies and Amelia with some of my bows in their hair. I should get those photos soon so I'll share them as soon as I do. Thanks, Bev!

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Thank you, Tylenol

2010-01-29T01:56:00.000-08:00

I love Tylenol, if for no other reason (which, admittedly there are several) then for making such an infant-friendly medicine dispenser.

We got to my parents' house in Portland pretty late on Wednesday night. Amelia had slept the entire way down and didn't so much as wiggle a finger as David carried her in the house as she sat in her car seat. Once we got inside, she woke up but only barely. My mom waited up for us (Dad was out of town on business) and was so excited to see Amelia that we handed over the dazed baby to a very eager granny. Amelia was obviously still very tired, but after an hour of visiting with my mom, sister, and brother-in-law, she was on an over-tired buzz.

I tried to nurse her. We gave her a bottle. We laid her down. She screamed. We sat her up. She fussed. I rocked her. She screamed some more.

The only thing that worked was giving her that blessed Tylenol bottle and letting her go to town on the rubber applicator top. She didn't scream when we would sit her up in the portable crib and let her play so that's what we did. David was exhausted. I was tired and getting more tired every second that passed. There was a small lamp on the desk in the room where we were staying so I turned that on and we decided to let her play for a bit and see what happened. She's never been the kind of baby to fall asleep while playing, eating, or anything else, so I really wasn't expecting her to just topple over and succumb to slumber. After a few minutes she started whining. Then fussing. Suddenly the Tylenol bottle was completely abandoned and she was staring at us through the mesh of the crib, lip puckering.

I'm not opposed to a little "cry it out" action, and I would have just let her do her own thing in her crib to fall asleep had it not been for 5 other people in the house trying to get some sleep.

I had this under control. My daughter has been on this earth for a mere 6 1/2 months - she can't beat me at this! I knew that nothing was wrong except that she didn't want to sleep. Or, rather she really did want to sleep but was so exhausted that she couldn't figure out how to relax herself and fall asleep.

I picked her up, put her paci in her mouth and assumed "the position". It requires her head cradled in my left arm with my left hand wrapped around to hold the pacifier in place while my right arm holds, and subsequently pats, her rear end, all the while standing in place and bobbing up and down while swaying side to side. It hurts. It hurts real bad, and at first she was really mad.

Just as a side note, you know how "they" say you should relax when your baby is upset because it helps them relax? I so wish that weren't true. I have to go into full-on zen mode to tune her out so I can compose myself enough to relax my body.

So, back to the cradling, patting, bobbing, and swaying. I was doing all of that. It started to work. It's funny that the second it started to work, it worked quickly. She had been crying pretty hard so when she fell asleep she was still sniffling. That always breaks my heart. I thought for sure since she was calm and sleeping when I was holding her that she would wake up the second I dared lay her in the crib. Nope - she stayed asleep, sniffling and all. At 1:30am. She woke again at 6:30am then at her normal wake-for-the-day time of 9am.

It would take a while to explain the sleeping arrangements at my parents' house right now since my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew are crashing here until their house is finished, but I'll say that we are sleeping in my mom's office and I'm sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor while David sleeps on the floor. Just thought I'd explain the context of the pictures.

Edit from my last post:I love my sisters, and being that they were very young in my childhood memory, I doubt they meant anything by the looks they gave me. As a matter of fact, maybe I have a Cinderella complex and just imagined that they were glaring at me when, in fact, they were actually not glaring at me at all.

Unrealized talent

2010-01-27T17:53:00.000-08:00

I shouldn't be posting but I decided a quick one won't hurt. We're packing...heading to Oregon tonight after Bible class.

It's amazing what we can fit into our car.

It also validates our need/desire for a van. I never thought I'd use the words "van" and "desire" in the same sentence, but I almost salivate now every time I see a newish Odyssey. Oh, the space. Oh, the comfy chairs. Oh, the DVD player. Oh, the automatic sliding doors.

I was thinking today about unrealized talent. Of course, my main desire for my baby girl is that she grow to love and serve the Lord. I think I will have failed as a parent if I haven't succeeded in instilling how important her soul is to God, to herself, and to us. Then I got to thinking about how much responsibility it is, as a parent, to scope out what your child is good at (and enjoys) and really foster that.

When I was 7 years old I was sitting in the bleachers of a middle school gymnasium with my parents watching my younger sister play basketball. Lindsay was/is the athletic one of our family. She always excelled at sports and really enjoyed it. Zoom in on me when I was on a little league softball team and I'm squatted down in the outfield plucking dandelions from the grass. I know it's pretty common to be 6 years old and completely uninterested in organized sports. I still wish I would have picked a sport and stuck with it just for the experience of team playing and staying physically fit. But, anyway, not my point.

So I'm on the bleachers with a blank sketch pad in my hands. I drew a cow. I remember this next moment very vividly. My mom praised me for drawing such a good cow. I mean, she really praised me. I felt so good about that stupid cow. Soon after, my mom took me and my sisters to a hobby store to load me up on some art supplies. My mom is extremely talented...she was always a skilled art student and looking at her drawings from high school and college always inspired me. The creativeness I have in my DNA, I'm proud to say, came from her.

So we're in the hobby store and she wants to buy me an art portfolio - you know, one of those big folders with the handles that you can carry your art around in. She's squatted down in the aisle of the store, propping a portfolio in her hand, looking at me. She asks me if I think I could use one. Inside I screamed, "Yes!" and was literally bursting with pride from the attention she was paying me. But, I could tell my sisters were less than enthused about our little hobby store outing, and when I glanced behind me in the aisle of that hobby store, my gaze was met with glares. They were kids. They saw that I was getting attention and they weren't. But, I didn't want to cause friction so I declined the portfolio.

I still regret it.

I don't know why - I just do. My mom was trying to show me that she saw my interest in art and she was investing time in my talent.

So, my prayer is that what Amelia finds that she's interested in and talented in, that I can also recognize that and support her. Obviously as long as it's wholesome I want to be able to really let her blossom into whatever she wants to be.

I do, however, want to start her out with a musical instrument (with her fingers, hopefully the piano or the violin) and a sport and crafts at home.

Okay this went on a lot longer than I had hoped and now David is waiting on me to finish packing so we can get the car loaded.

This started a whole new line of thinking in my head so I'll probably want to continue with it later.

And the winner is...

2010-01-26T19:18:00.000-08:00

Congratulations, Micah!

Email me your address and I should have your bows in the mail by next week! Also let me know what color you'd like the flower clippies.

Thank you, everyone, for entering! I'm sure this isn't the last clippie/hair bow giveaway I'll do, so stay tuned!

A Giveaway!

2010-01-24T22:35:00.000-08:00

I've been having so much fun making bows... take a look at my Etsy store. I think everything is very reasonably priced and the awesome part is that every bow is completely custom-made for you. If you don't see what you're looking for - just ask! I decided to do a giveaway since my business is just starting out and it's a pretty competitive market. Couldn't hurt to send out some product!

So, here's what you'd get...

Two (2) owl themed mini bows on lined alligator clips
(yours would have the owls right side up!)

Two (2) cherry themed bows on lined alligator clips

And two (2) flower clippies, the color of your choice

(subject to availability of ribbon I have on hand)

I can make any of the above bows except for the flower clippie on either a plastic barrette or a small french clip - your choice if you'd rather one of those instead of an alligator clip.

Here's how to enter...

• Comment on this post (on Blogger, please) - 1 entry

• Become a fan of Millies Bows on Facebook - 2 entries

• Become a Follower of my blog - 2 entries

• Mention this giveaway on your blog - 3 entries

So, you really have 8 chances if you do all of those things! Leave a separate comment for each entry.

I'll draw the winner at 6pm on Tuesday, January 26th!

$4 for a box of cookies. And, a question.

2010-01-22T18:43:00.000-08:00

First, I just have to say I felt like a genius today.

Millie and I drove to pick David up at work today. As we were pulling in to the parking garage I was talking to him on my cell phone (I only called to tell him we were there - shhh - don't tell Oprah!) and he told me that he'd be down in a few minutes - he was busy ordering Girl Scout cookies. We're Samoas people, and apparently David thought we should have 4 boxes. 4. boxes. We don't even pretend that we can't possibly eat more than 1 box before they go bad, thereby stuffing the other boxes into the freezer for safekeeping. I'm pretty sure the last box is still warm from the Girl Scout's hands whence they came as we polish off the final cookie.

Now, my genius moment.

I was waiting for David to come down to the garage and decided to play with Amelia since she was stuck in her car seat and I didn't anticipate waiting long enough to unstrap her and pull her out. As I was singing along with Do Your Ears Hang Low? on her Baby Genius CD, I glanced at my front passenger tire. It looked kind of flat. Because often tires can look a little flat at the bottom and I've been known to point out "almost flat" tires that aren't flat at all, I went to the tire and pushed my foot against it. Pretty sure it isn't supposed to be squishy like an intertube. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I did my same scientific test on the rear passenger tire...pretty firm.

David came at that moment and before he could reach the car I said, "Lookatmytireit'sflat!"

I was completely proud of myself for noticing my flat tire and potentially saving all of our lives.

David took a glance at it and then back at me, smiling. "Ooooh, it's fine." That's the kind of "Ooooh, it's fine" that generally means, "Silly, Jamie. It's so cute that you think you're right."

"Push the tire with your foot!" I said, and watched as he did.

"Hmmm, yeah, you're right - it's pretty low. I'm going to try to make it home, though."

AAAHHH! Ha! Haha! I was right! Not only was I right, I was right enough that we might not make it home. Exciting!

David filled the tires when we got home and reported that the tire pressure is supposed to be at 30 for all tires, but it was only at 25 for 3 of them, and the "flat" one I noticed only had a tire pressure of 15. He said he didn't see a nail in the tire, so that's a good thing.

I know realizing your tire is a little low is nothing to get excited about, but when you have a husband who notices everything before you do, it's kind of fun to notice something first.
Now, the question...
What are some of your favorite blogs to read?

I'm trying to expand my blog-reading options and would love to see more of what's out there.

Off to make bows! Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy lab rat

2010-01-21T22:24:00.000-08:00

Amelia's whining in her crib right now and I'm sure it's because she's over-tired. Here's her normal schedule (there's a reason I'm posting this - I'll get to that later):

Around 9am : Up for the day
Nurses, then a bowl of oatmeal with whatever pureed fruit I'm feelin' that day.
Playtime

Top her off before her nap (the girl won't sleep without a full stomach)

10:30-11am : Naptime (usually she'll sleep for an hour)
Nurses

Playtime
Nurses again, gets a veggie of my choosing

1:30-2pm : Naptime (usually she'll sleep for at least an hour and a half, sometimes two and a half hours)

Playtime

Nurses

Playtime
Nurses then a bowl of oatmeal with, again, a fruit puree mixed in

7:15-7:30pm : Wipe down, jammies on
Kiss from daddy, story read by mommy

Kiss & cuddle with mommy then bed

So, for the last couple of days I've been taking her for appointments at the University of Washington Infant Hearing Lab. Shortly after she was born, we were mailed something that asked if we'd be interested in her participating in research studies. David and I both thought it might be interesting, so we signed her up. David's a UW Alum and knows his way around the campus but no matter how he tried to explain to me how to get there, and no matter what the Garmin said, I still got hopelessly turned around. Fortunately I made it with time to spare. Time I spent driving around aimlessly looking for the designated parking lot.

The first day, I opted to carry Amelia the 2 blocks to the Hearing Lab. If we lived in a normal city, that wouldn't have been such a problem. But in Seattle, it's hills, hills everywhere. It's downhill getting there, but wow, lugging 15 lbs of a baby back to the car, up hill, is not an easy task. Not for me, at least. I need to get in shape. Luckily I could still keep at least some composure and not pant with my mouth gaping the entire way. I get embarassed about that - the cars driving by and the numerous college students walking the streets could see me struggling to lug my baby up the hill and, you know, talk. That's how narcissistic I am - everyone must be looking at me.

(If you want to skip my explanation, scroll down to the italicized font where I've put links you can follow to hear the process explained by people who know what they're talking about.)

Anyway, we're talking about the hearing study. So we got there and, as usual, Amelia gets a lot of attention. Babies usually do - especially when they're as cute as Amelia. Friends of ours gave us an adorable outfit the night before so I put her in it then realized I didn't have a bow or headband to match. So, I made one, put a piece of velcro on it so it didn't slip out of her fine hair, and clipped it to her head, right on top of that place on some babies' heads that pulses. So, not only did she have a fancy bow. She had a fancy bow that moved.

Here's how the hearing study worked. We walked in to a room that is kind of a "staging" area. I signed a consent form and also a receipt of my check ($15 each visit which will go into Amelia's savings account -she earned it!). Then I chose a CD from a very minimal selection of CDs. The best I could do was Billy Joel's Greatest Hits. I actually like Billy Joel so I didn't mind. Since it's a "blind" study, the parent holds the child on his/her lap but must have headphones on so they can't hear what the child hears.

Then we walked to a room next door where there are two large sound-proof booths. The person running the study sits on one side of a one-sided window and then her assistant comes into the other side with Amelia and me. They place a foam-tipped earplug-lookin'-thing in her right ear and tape it there. There are a lot of wires connected to it which they clip to her shirt in the back. The entire time the test is happening, the assistant is holding up toys for Amelia to look at so she stays distracted.

Apparently, the earplug Amelia is wearing plays a continuous beeping tone that is obviously there and she can hear it but it's not annoying or loud at all. Then, every once in a while, the tone changes or another beep comes in. The person running the study who is sitting on the other side of the mirror is looking for signs that Amelia recognized the tone change. When she sees that Amelia heard it, she lights up toys in a glass box in the corner or turns the TV on in the corner for a couple of seconds as a "reward". I was encouraged to bounce Amelia on my lap or clap to reward her when I saw the toys light up or the TV go on. Amelia didn't give two flips about the TV or the toys lighting up - we couldn't even get her to look at them.

The first day, Amelia was tired. The appointment was at 2:15 so I didn't have time to lay her down for her second nap before we had to go. Our time in the booth was, maybe, 5-10 minutes because Amelia would cloud up and rain every time she heard the noise. If you know my daughter, you know she's not a crier, especially in public. At the very least she'll just go quiet and straight-faced, but generally she's a really easy-going kid. Apparently, she did not like the noise because she would turn toward me and try to grab onto my shirt to pull herself to me and cry when the noise happened. I felt bad that we were botching it, but I really wanted to let her cuddle me even though I resisted the urge and tried to get her to face forward and keep going.

Today was much better. I think we must have been in the booth for 20 minutes. All I know is that the first day I barely made it to "You May Be Right" on Disc 2 of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits, whereas today I got all the way through "Allentown". Our appointment today was at 12:15, so Amelia was fresh off her first nap and wasn't quite tired enough for her second. She was pretty solemn, but not grouchy.

After each test, we go back to the staging area and they stick a little rubber thing (I know, I'm so technical) in her ear that blows tiny puffs of air to make sure she doesn't have fluid in her ear. Then, we're done! The whole process, start to finish, lasts less than an hour.

(Okay - seriously I just wrote this entire blog then was able to find the actual lab's website explaining why they're doing what they're doing. In about 2-3 sentences. Ha. Here's the link.

Also, here's the link for explaining the entire process. In 3 very short paragraphs.)

Today, I wised up and brought the stroller. It was actually sunny and almost 60° today which is about 10° above normal for western Washington for this time of year. I had to break out the sunglasses for Amelia and for me.

So, anyway, yesterday we picked David up from work on our way home since we drove right by Bellevue City Hall then rushed to eat dinner and head to Bible class. We didn't get home until close to 9:30 and Amelia didn't fall asleep until 10. Then, today she slept on the way home from the UW but didn't want to sleep once we actually got home. She slept for half an hour and was done. I put her back down around 5, though, and she slept for an hour and a half. Then we ran some errands tonight after dinner and didn't get her in bed until 9 which she wasn't too thrilled about since she whined until 9:30 then fell asleep. The poor child isn't used to being out and about. I really should do it more - it was fun.

So, as usual my post is long and boring and I don't even have pictures. I'm going to ask on Tuesday when I go back if they mind me taking some photos. For posterity. I don't know if they will let me, though.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Disaster & every day life

2010-01-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

If you can watch those news reports about Haiti and not get a little misty-eyed (or bawl, like me) then you're not human. I wanted to reach through the screen and grab all those orphaned babies and children and bring them back here to live with me. I felt an obligation to watch when they showed a 3-month-old baby girl in her mother's arms and the reporter narrated that she was starving. I felt an obligation, but I didn't want to watch. I wanted to change the channel and forget what I saw. Before I became a mother, scenes like that would touch me. Now that I'm a mother, scenes like that haunt me.

I remember when my baby girl was that age.
I remember her tummy, how I'd watch it rise and fall with every breath she took.

The baby girl on TV was so calm, but her eyes were like saucers - staring at the camera in almost a pleading way. I have heard that there is a movement to bring as many orphaned children to the United States as possible to get them medical care and, hopefully, loving homes. However, efforts like that can take time. A lot of time.
Amelia was napping when David and I were watching the news story about Haiti. When she woke up, I squeezed her extra tight and kissed her over and over again. And I looked at the remnants of our dinner, thinking about what some Haitians would do to get even a nibble of what we have to eat.

Keep the Haitian people in your prayers. There are still people buried under those buildings and some are still alive, but they are running out of time very quickly.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Switching gears...Hard to do, I know.

When I wrote my previous post I said that my laptop didn't have a USB drive. It was late. I shouldn't write late at night. My laptop obviously has a USB drive, however, it does not have an SD card reader so I have to use a separate SD card reader that has a USB adapter on it. There.

My right eye, for the last few days, has been leaking like crazy and has swollen to impressive levels. The most fun, though, is waking up in the morning with my eye crusted shut. Mmm, details. I'm sure you want to know more. I wish I could tell you why my eye is going all Hunchback of Notre Dame on me, but I can't. I have no idea. I changed my pillowcase thinking maybe it was allergens, but it didn't help. I took Benadryl last night before bed but that didn't seem to make a difference, either.

On Monday morning, David said "Wow, yeah your eye is all swollen and crazy". He got out of bed and walked toward the bathroom. I thought, How sweet - he's getting me a cold or warm compress for my eye. He returns to the room and hands me something. A mirror.

Thanks, babe.

To his credit, I did ask for a warm compress and he happily brought one to me.

Switching gears again. Amelia slept 8 1/2 hours last night! She woke up around 5am and I fed her then laid her back down and she slept for another 4 hours! Then, for her morning nap when she would usually only sleep for an hour (her long nap is generally the afternoon one), she slept for 2 1/2 hours. Maybe it's a growth spurt. Or, maybe, just maybe, the "sleep training" is working.

On Sunday night, she woke up around 1:30am as usual and it had been about 5 hours since she last ate so normally I would just give in and go feed her. But, I didn't. I checked on her 3 times in the hour that she was awake and fussing but she never really cried like she meant it and she would even stop for short intervals to look at something in her crib. She finally fell back asleep and slept for another couple of hours. So, woo hoo.

We took this picture of Amelia a couple of nights ago. She's modeling the super cute, very clever "car seat blanket" that her great grandma Baldwin made for her. We love it! And she's sitting on a blanket made by David's cousin, Coralie. We come from a very talented family!

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. Amelia and I are going to the University of Washington to participate in a hearing study tomorrow then again on Thursday. Innnnteresting! More on that later.

In the Bedroom

2010-01-18T00:49:00.000-08:00

I don't know what's happening, but the list of blogs on my page won't refresh which means I don't have a clue who has updated recently. My not seem all that important unless you're sitting in a dark living room with your husband who is playing Xbox and it's either sit there and watch him play or catch up on your blog-reading.

David and I bought our laptops at almost the exact same time. We weren't even dating yet. In my little mind we were good friends and we really liked spending time with each other. Meanwhile, the more time we spent together, the more he liked me and wanted to date me. But that's another story for another time.

Our engagement photo.

Wedding guests signed the mat and now it hangs in our bedroom.

Anyway, we bought our computers in August of 2005. I only know this because of when David and I started our friendship (July 2005) and when we started dating (September 2005). My point is that, in laptop years, our computers are old. Way over the hill. As a matter of fact, mine is literally falling apart and David's doesn't even keep a charge anymore unless the cord is held just a certain way which requires it to be held down underneath the computer and tilted just so on the table. Once, a couple of years ago, we had a guy come to our house to give us an estimate on what it would cost to replace the aluminum windows on our house with vinyl. He was an older man, and I remember feeling sorry for him that he had to spend his post-retirement years driving around being a salesguy. I tried to stay as uninvolved in the bidding price as possible, but they still won't do a bid unless the spouse is in the room so I had to be in the vicinity, pretending to listen. I was sitting in an overstuffed chair across from where I would usually sit on the couch, my laptop perched on my legs which were folded under me. My laptop was plugged in because, as I remember, it was almost out of battery power. Only problem was that it was plugged in over by the couch where I usually sat and this poor old man decided to walk to the bay window in our living room without watching where he was going. He tripped on the cord and my laptop went flying. Luckily, the old man was okay if not a little embarassed (as was I), but my laptop suffered a couple of minor casualties. Among them, a piece of plastic broke off the corner on top of the laptop and the portable USB adapter (my laptop is so old that it doesn't have a USB drive) bent and was never the same.

My corner of the room.

I was so proud of myself for picking out and deciding where those shelves should go.

Notice we don't have window treatments. Sigh.

Not to bore you with our laptop woes, but my laptop is incredibly slow and doesn't hold a charge for longer than 20 minutes. David's hasn't held a charge for quite a while, but only recently has he had to finagle the cord a certain way to even get battery power to his computer. I'm pretty sure his battery is gone.

So, in November we bought a PC. I went back and forth about whether I actually wanted a PC or a laptop, but in the end we decided on a PC because of how much it would store compared to a laptop. We need the space because we are parents.

David's grandma B made this for me and I absolutely love it. It fits between the box spring and mattress to hold magazines, notes, whatever! I'm so glad I don't have to keep my magazines on the floor anymore.

I did fight where David wanted to put it: in our bedroom. Our bedroom is so ghetto-fabulous right now. We have, literally, 3 different styles of furniture in our bedroom and 7 pieces of furniture. My husband has a lot of clothes. He actually wears the same rotation of about 8-10 shirts and 3 pairs of pants, but he keeps 80% more clothes than that "just in case". Just in case of what, I don't know. But anyway, the desk joined the Bedroom of Misfit Furniture and is now happily residing squished in here with everything else. We are a Realtor's nightmare. The simple truth is that there wasn't another logical place to put the desk & computer. The desk used to sit idly in the upstairs guest bedroom, collecting old issues of Real Simple and acting as a catch-all for whatever our guests decided to put on it. We couldn't put the computer in a guest room - it might be a little rude to barge in on guests when they're staying here so that I can check Facebook or write a blog. I mean, I'm no etiquette expert - I'm just guessing.

The desk.

The bows and clippies I've made hanging tackily on the wall. I need a designer or something.

It's not a bad desk. I have dreams of sanding it down, painting it, and replacing the knobs but it's a family desk and I am not allowed. Same goes for the dresser and nightstand that match. So, I learn to appreciate the charm of a mismatched room.

I've been sitting here trying to figure out why, A) Blogger keeps turning my right-side-up pictures sideways when I upload them (annoying!), and B) How to add captions to pictures in Blogger. Too frustrated to keep messing with it. It really should be easier.

It's late and I'm going to bed. Thankfully, David has tomorrow (today) off work. A perk of being a government employee. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

He knows me very well

2010-01-15T12:47:00.000-08:00

David came home on Wednesday with a gift for me. In case you're wondering, yes, he does read my blog so he knew I was having a fat day. He also knows that the way to make me feel better about my fat day is to bring me the biggest cupcake he can find. What a guy!

Behold, Trophy Cupcakes.

And the red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

I was planning to eat half of it and save the rest for later. But then I took a bite.

Seriously. I ate it all. Actually, I'm not completely barbaric - I did give David a bite. Just one bite.

It was delicious.

On the sleeping front, we're doing better. When Amelia started feeling better we began letting her cry again. She never has a problem going to sleep initially. Naptimes are great, bedtimes are fantastic. It's that she wakes up an hour after we put her to bed and she's mad that we don't come get her up to play. So, the night before last she fussed/whined/cried for an hour before finally falling asleep. Last night she woke up 45 minutes after I put her to bed and she cried for 20 minutes before falling asleep. Hopefully it's working. I haven't been leaving her for the full 8 hours. She seems to want to wake up around 1:30am every morning and since it's been 6 hours since I put her to bed I feed her. I know she could go longer, so I guess I'm waiting until she doesn't wake up that first hour then we'll work on the rest of the night.

My sister, Carrie, started her blog again. I hope she keeps it up now...I really enjoy reading her posts. Her blog is here if you're interested in reading it and/or saying hi.

And, just for fun, look how big my baby is getting. This picture really makes her look huge. Pardon the sweet potatoes stain on the front of her shirt.

David has a 4 day weekend (a perk of working for the government) this weekend, so I plan to work on more bows and post them and he plans to get some things done around the house. Amelia plans to be cute. So far, so good.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Dear Valerie,

2010-01-11T23:18:00.000-08:00

I'm really happy for you that you lost all that weight on Jenny Craig. Really, I am. Forget that I weigh what you did when you were "fat". My only saving grace is that you're 4" shorter than me, but even then I'd be in denial if I said I wouldn't love to lose 30 lbs. Love. It. But, anyway, we're all real happy for you that you've kept the weight off for 3 years and that you are still eating the Jenny Craig food (yuck!), but can you please go be your perky, slimmer self somewhere else?

Signed,
Resentful Fat Girl

I'm not really resentful. And I really am proud of Valerie and her blue bikini - I'm just tired of looking at it. I don't really make resolutions at the beginning of a new year, mostly because I'm constantly thinking to myself "I should do this" or "I'm going to commit myself to do that" and then I falter and, ultimately, fail. Every time I try to watch what I eat, my milk supply seems to decline. I couldn't tell you what my milk supply does when I exercise, but then what excuse would I have? David has been kind enough to offer to exercise with me which I think will really help. And, nice weather would help, too. I am excited to get out and go for walks to the park with Amelia this spring/summer.

Speaking of lactation and weight loss. Okay, not really speaking of weight loss. But tell me this batter doesn't completely blow your mind. I could live off of it. Or die off of it - whichever. But I'm prescribing myself cookies and it doesn't get much better than that.

I call them lactation cookies even though I didn't follow an "official" lactation cookies recipe. I just made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and added coconut like my mom used to do in her oatmeal cookies. Little orbs of perfection.

Oatmeal and flax seed are supposed to aid in increasing milk supply and I put both in these cookies, so here's hoping. Even if it doesn't help, they sure are fun to eat. I only made two cookie sheets worth and put the rest in the freezer for a later time. I love having cookie dough in the freezer. I mean, obviously not more than I love having it in my mouth (hence, the Fat Valerie dilemma).

Amelia's congestion seems to have improved but she still struggles with it, especially at night. Tonight, for no good reason at all, she woke up about an hour after going to bed, screaming. She was pretty much inconsolable until I stuck my finger in her mouth and stuck a couple of Hyland's Teething Tablets under her tongue. Nothing says reality like someone's finger jammed in your mouth. I think she must have had a nightmare and then stayed in a daze for a while. After the Hyland's incident she seemed fine if still not really congested (even more so now, after crying). David's dad used to be a pharmacist in the Army and recommended Benadryl to help her breathe better and to help her sleep. Since we already have the cool mist humidifier going at full blast in her room and that doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot of good, we decided to try it last night. She slept for 5 hours straight, which is far longer than she's been sleeping with the cold (or without it, for that matter). We tried to hold off giving any medication to her tonight but she was just miserable. She fell asleep shortly after I put her down after the nightmare episode, but slept fitfully and would whine/fuss in her sleep before finally waking up. That's when we gave her the Benadryl. She played happily in her crib with a tag on her blanket (we have video monitors - thank you, Lord, for video monitors!) until finally turning over and zonking out.

One more note on the sleeping thing. Last week on our first night of Ferberizing Amelia, she woke up at 1:15am which was too early. She wouldn't be fed again until 3:30am, so I laid in bed and watched her on the 7" screen on my nightstand, cringing and hoping for only a few minutes of Angry Baby. She barely woke up, reached for her pacifier which I had put beside her in the crib, put it in her mouth, and fell back to sleep. Seriously. I wanted to go into her room and wake her up just to give her a high five or kiss her chunky cheeks. But that would defeat the purpose, so I just woke David up and told him about it instead. He appreciated that.

It was out-of-control cute last night when David was playing with Amelia on our bad. Tess, the dog, decided at that very moment that she needed to be pet. She nustled up next to Amelia, turned on her back, and put her head in Amelia's lap. I grabbed the camera just as Tess decided she was done being cute, so these aren't the best representation of the scene, but they're still cute. P.S. I know it's not in good form to not use a flash when shooting a very quick moving dog and baby, but when I use the flash Tess ends up looking like Demon Dog and I try to avoid that. Amelia still absolutely loves Tess. I have to send Tess out of the room when I feed Amelia, otherwise the child won't eat because she's too busy staring down the dog. I'm still thinking Tess gets the most baby giggles.

Millie's Bows - NEWS

Now available: You may opt for a thin piece of velcro to be applied to the inside of the alligator clip for no additional charge. This is especially helpful for Moms who have babies with thin hair or very little hair to keep the bow in.

Also, new to the shop (both will be posted tomorrow 1/12)...

The Dainty Mini. $4 for a set of 2.

Also, the Big Girl Bow. Approximately 4 1/2 inches in length, perfect for post-toddler girls. Soon will be available on a french clip.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

My baby is sick

2010-01-09T22:10:00.000-08:00

She is. This is a whole new arena for me. For 6 months she's had nary a sniffle but now, all of a sudden, she has horrible sinus congestion and today has been consistently running a 99.7° fever.

Have you ever nursed a baby who had sinus congestion? Not fun. Amelia would try to nurse then she'd choke because she couldn't breathe. I mean, imagine your worst cold where you couldn't even blow your nose because nothing would come out yet you were so stuffed up that it hurt to blink. Now imagine your food source being something you have to suck on at a 90° angle. Talk about impossible.

I tried pumping and giving her a bottle in a more upright position but she would take maybe 2 small gulps and refuse it. Again with the sucking thing. She looked at me like "Seriously, Mom? Are you trying to starve me?" So, I took what I pumped and made a yummy green bean, oatmeal and milk pile of goodness for her. She was slow at eating it but she ate it. Then she took a nap and slept for 3 hours.

The pediatrician wanted to see her when I described her symptoms so I scooped her up right after her nap and took her in. Just a cold. Scooped her up and took her back home.

She's just been cranky, tired, and miserable today. She took 3 naps, none of them long, and I put her to bed at 6:50pm because of how tired she was acting. I hope she starts feeling better, although truthfully David and I both aren't feeling 100% tonight, either.

In other news, David spent a lot of time today entertaining the very grouchy Amelia so that I could create my shop on Etsy. It's a lot more of a time-consuming process than I originally thought but it feels good to have it done! David made me some bases with dowel rods sticking out so I can stack my ribbons on them. Makes me feel a lot less cluttered.

I spent some time the other day reading through posts I wrote right after Amelia was born. I wrote about sleep then, too, only not as much. You'd think lack of sleep would be more prominent in those first few months, but apparently I was too busy being grateful and stuff. Also, I used to be kind of witty...I don't really know what hap-- wait, what was I saying? Oh, yeah...I had a baby and my brains fell out.

Gotta go check on my baby. And clean up my ribbon mess, or at least organize it. Wish me luck and an early bedtime.

A New Hobby...For Sale

2010-01-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

Because I need a new hobby - I don't already have 5 hobbies with supplies for those hobbies stacked up in dark corners of my house. I guess I should look at it as gaining another valuable skill rather than taking on yet more craft supplies that I'm still not sure where to store. I'm having a lot of fun with this, and I am genuinely hoping to attempt contributing something financially to this family with my new hobby.

In other words: I'm selling them.

I'm working on opening my Etsy shop at the moment so I don't have anything posted online, but I'll post pictures of what I've done and tell you that I'm constantly creating and churning out bows. I'm not completely out of my mind thinking that making bows is a novel idea. I realize that the market is competitive. I also realize that I'm just getting started and, while I think my bows are lovely, I know others have been doing bows longer and are better at them. Which is why I'm not selling them at boutique prices.

SO... all of this is on a trial basis. I want to sell my bows for a very reasonable price but I also want to hear feedback about them from people who have them.

Now, on to pictures of the bows. Realize I'm not anywhere near a professional photographer and don't own a nice SLR camera with which to take pictures of my products. All of my photos have a yellow tint because of the harsh lighting above my dining room table - and there's my disclaimer about the photos! I will probably apologize more than once about the quality of the photos...

- What you see above is just the ribbon I have on hand, but I have access to every style under the sun and every color of the rainbow.

- I can also make them whatever size you need. 3/8" ribbon, 1" ribbon, etc.

- I also have the following resins on hand: ladybug, strawberry, cupcake, and daisy, but I have access to many more and can show you pictures of other resins if you're interested.

- All bows are on lined alligator clips, but I can also make them on alligator clips with teeth, ponytail holders, etc.

These bows are some of my first attempts, and I do get better with each bow I make. You'll notice the butterfly clip. I can make that in any color and can also make a bumble bee and a ladybug...I just haven't made either of them quite yet.

And...just in time for Valentine's Day...

Pricing

$4 per large bow

$4 per set of mini bows

$3 per insect bow

$2 per mini bow

Shipping not included. Buy 5 or more bows, get free shipping.

But...I will match any competitor price.

I'm just starting out so I don't think it's fair that I price my bows higher than anyone else's right now.

Here is a photo of the bows I made for my nieces. Already, looking at the pictures I took I can see a lot of errors that I know how not to make anymore. Again with the lighting - sorry!

I have another style of bow to show you, too, but I'm still trying to figure out what to put in the middle of it. Maybe I'll post a picture when I figure it out.

Like I said, I know the bow market is a competitive one and that I'm just an amateur, but I'm getting better by the bow. I hope you'll think of me when considering ordering a bow.

I'm also working on nylon headbands for alligator clips. I made some for my sisters' babies but I'm still trying to round up the supplies I need to make them. I'll let you know. Here's a picture - let me know if you'd be interested in them so I don't round up all the stuff then no one cares (the one with the bow is actually a single bow with an alligator clip - it's just as an example)...

Sorry to market my wares to you. I promise it won't happen again. Unless I want it to.

If Amelia had enough hair, I would have her model some of the bows for you. Oh, if you scroll down to the previous entry, my nieces are wearing the headbands I made for them.

Ah, need to go to bed. We let Amelia figure out the sleeping thing relatively on her own tonight and it went pretty well. Of course, she went down easily, but she woke up an hour after that and stayed awake for another hour and a half. She never got angry...just whined/fussed and played with her pacifier and rolled around her crib.

By the way, my little girl is sitting up SO well by herself now. I took a picture a couple of days ago... It must have been about time for her to eat. She gets to be like Pavlov's dog with the drooling around mealtime.

Have a great Friday!

Christmas in Pictures

2010-01-05T22:33:00.000-08:00

I got so used to making enough coffee for 8 adults that I accidentally made my coffee the consistency of tar this morning. That's what a week in Oregon does to me, I guess. I don't mind.

I'm going to summarize the Christmas holiday in the only way that isn't over-the-top wordy and completely boring to all of you (and saves me from a lot of proofreading)....in pictures.

On Christmas Eve, Amelia got to play with cousins Lucas and Isaiah that she hadn't seen since August...

When we got home that night, Amelia mostly enjoyed chewing on wrapping paper while we opened a few gifts for her. Here she is in her snowman pajamas playing with a Christmas present from a friend. She's laying on a quilt made for her by her great-great-aunt Nan!

On Christmas Day, we delivered treats to our local fire department before heading to David's parents' house for Christmas breakfast made by the guys. They made breakfast sandwiches on croissants. Yum.

That morning, Amelia got to try on a hat made by her aunt Stephanie and a bib that David's grandma made and that David wore when he was a baby!

She also got to see her cousin, Nora, who is David's cousin's 3 month old baby girl. I have a feeling they'll be friends when they're older.

The QT with cousins didn't stop there. We decided to head down to Oregon on Christmas night instead of our original plan of waiting until the following Tuesday. Amelia slept the entire way and we got in really late. In Oregon, Amelia...
...got to defend her pacifier from her cousin, Kate, who was very curious about the plastic object protruding from Amelia's mouth.

...got to play with Kate (when the paci battle was over, of course)

...play with both of her girl cousins! (Sorry the picture is blurry. I loved it too much not to post)

...got to go to the baby Bible class for the first time (since she's the only baby where we attend up here, there isn't a Bible class for babies)! Even though she was tired I think she really loved it!

...got to see her very first snowfall since Hillsboro got 4 unexpected inches of the white stuff (notice out the window behind Millie and her Granddad)! She didn't care much.

Millie and I were in Oregon for a week. We had such a great time. The longer I was there, the longer I wanted to stay! Carrie and Chris bought a house at the end of November and, because it's a "fixer-upper", they're staying with my parents until the house is actually liveable. So the guys spent every night (and day!) over at the house fixing it up. One night, the guys stayed at my parents' house with the kids and the girls all went over to the "fixer-upper" and primed doorways and window sills. We worked a lot but we laughed even more.

Speaking of Chris & Carrie, I'm going to be an aunt again! Anna is 8 1/2 months old so she'll only be about 16 months older than her next sibling and Amelia will only be a little over a year older than her next cousin! Does it get any better than that?!

David had to work the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas, so he went back home on Sunday night then returned late Tuesday evening. While he was home after work on Tuesday evening, he and his brother-in-law, Jake, worked on our master shower. I'm happy to say that I think it's nearing completion. David tried to put up sheetrock tonight but it was really loud and the baby was asleep. She woke up so he stopped.

We got back to Washington in time to see David's aunt and cousin from Chicago. While we were there, Amelia got her first look at Sage, Jake and Stephanie's lab. I can't get my baby away from the animals - she wants to love on every dog and cat she sees, and Sage was no exception.

Here's Amelia's 5 month shot and 6 month shot next to "the pig". My dad won that pig for me when I was 2 and except for the stick-on black nostrils that got lost in the wash, I'd say it's in pretty good shape.

I think month 5 was a huge growing month for her. Now that she's on solids, she's really beefing up. So far she's had...

- Peas (loved them)

- Green beans (loved them)

- Squash (yum)

- Applesauce (absolutely)
- Pears (nom, nom)
- Prunes (out of necessity...she ate them fine)
- Peaches (not a fan of peaches. Who doesn't like peaches?!)

Tomorrow is her 6 month checkup. I've got my questions for the doctor written down.

Seriously. See, this is my problem. I start a blog and can't shut up. I need to work on breaking up the posts.

Have a good Wednesday,

I'm laughing at myself

2010-01-04T23:04:00.000-08:00

I fully intended to write a new post tonight but, if you can even read this, you'll see that I'm having complications. If you get my posts via email, come over to my blog and have a good laugh.

My train of thought: I want a simpler blog layout. I'll just pick one of the Blogger templates and start over.

What actually happened: It was too simple. Decided I needed 3 columns instead of two and started playing with the HTML coding to change some fonts. Wound up with itty bitty writing. I'll be working on fixing it tomorrow.

I have so much to share that I'm thinking my entries just from the holidays will spill into February.

For tonight, I'll just say that I'm so thankful for this blogging world. If it weren't for the blogging world, I...
...wouldn't have started to "follow" Diane's blog
...wouldn't have known Diane when she and her sweet family picked up and moved just 15 minutes from me!
...wouldn't have had the complete delight of meeting Diane and her lovely husband and adorable children this evening!

It was such a great night getting to meet Diane and her family! Hopefully we can get together and be crafty soon!

Signing off for tonight!

It's the Holiday Season, don't forget to hang up your sock

2009-12-24T00:51:00.000-08:00

I wish I could post pictures of the gifts I'm making for the babies, but I want their mamas to be surprised, too, so it will have to wait until at least next week. I'll just say that I'm hooked and that I'm seriously considering going into business doing this after the holidays. I'm very fortunate in that I can stay at home with my precious baby and not work outside the home, but, wow, experiencing our first Christmas as a single income family has been a very eye-opening experience. We thought we were living tight before - whew! - nothing compared to Christmas.

So, anyway, more on the newfound passion of mine and potential 2nd income in the coming week or so.

So, the sleeping hasn't gotten any better, but we've chosen to embrace it. We still hope that she'll go down only once, but when she wakes up after an hour we bring her out to the living room with us. We've tried letting her cry but the child can be a mule...very stubborn. I don't know where in the world she gets that from. She cries and cries and then she screams and screams. Tonight she started flipping out so David went in to get her and even after he picked her up she continued to completely scream her head off - she even cried harder when he picked her up. She would stop for a couple of seconds and consider her surroundings but then she would start the screaming again. I've never heard her cry like that - it was awful. She finally settled down and David put her on her play mat. She laid there contently for about 30 minutes then I fed her and laid her back down. She didn't make a peep and fell right to sleep. So, the question is whether it's worth it to fight her on this or just to pretend that her 8pm bedtime is actually just a nap and let her play until she gets tired. Whatever...I mean I can't really complain too much since she'll usually sleep through the night once she goes down.

I know I post about sleeping all of the time, but she's almost 6 months - it's our life right now. I wouldn't want her looking back on my posts and thinking she never gave us any trouble. I don't want to put a smiley face here but that's the spirit in which that comment was intended, so just imagine it's there.

I have a nasty cough but I'm fighting it. Tomorrow we go to Lacey for David's extended family Christmas Eve celebration. I managed to make a no-bake cranberry walnut cheesecake pie and a double batch of artichoke dip so that's my contribution. Should be fun. I don't imagine Amelia will be getting her required naps over the next couple of days, but hey, it's Christmas. Couldn't get any worse than it is or than it has been, I would imagine.

Next week we head to Oregon to have Christmas with my family. Well, they'll have Christmas on the 25th but since it's David's parents' turn to have us this year we'll celebrate with my side of the family next week. On Christmas Day we'll head to David's parents' house for breakfast, gift opening, then dinner with his aunt and possibly a couple of other relatives. My only wish would be for snow...or at least rain. We're in Seattle, for crying out loud! But no, we're supposed to get sun on Christmas! It'll be a fun day either way!

Hmm, pictures. Let me see what I have.

So this is David and Amelia playing on the floor. You'll see the "Scat Mat" next to the chair which is supposed to give the cats something similar to an electric shock when they step on it. This is to prevent them from scratching our furniture more than they already have. I'm mumbling under my breath but you can't hear me. The obvious Amazon box and Target bag are the few items I had left to wrap that I got wrapped tonight. I put them by the tree so I would remember but then I got sick so they stayed there for 2 days. That would drive my mom crazy. It drove me crazy, too, I just didn't feel like doing anything about it.

And here's just a cute shot of Millie. I have some pictures taken with the "Night" setting on my camera, but it looks like my baby is being engulfed in the flames of the fireplace which is very disturbing.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas fun?

2009-12-20T23:12:00.000-08:00

Can someone please tell me why my child wakes up exactly one hour after being put to bed for the night? I'm stumped.

So, it's been an interesting weekend. On Friday night, David and I had a little gathering to go to and I had volunteered to bring a dessert. I always volunteer to bring dessert - baking is fun, cooking is not (to me). I did what never fails to drive David crazy...I tried a new recipe. He has no objections to new recipes; it's the making them for the first time and "trying them out" on non-family members that he doesn't understand. Really, I don't understand it myself. I should just make something tried and true when preparing dessert for other people. I decided to make some little cookie cups and then fill them with cream cheese frosting. Sounds good, right? First off, I should have known nothing good could come from them when I was trying to squish the dough into my mini muffin tins and it kept sticking to my fingers and wouldn't mold into the pan. The recipe called for store-bought refrigerated cookie dough but I don't think I've ever bought cookie dough - I always make it. I figured it'd be the same thing.

Apparently not the same thing.

Something was burning. I peeked into the oven and realized that the tins were overflowing and dripping (yes, apparently cookie dough can drip) onto the bottom of the oven. I think my dough wasn't cold enough...maybe I overmixed it. Either way, the stench was very potent. I wasn't having a particularly uplifting day to begin with but this failed recipe really had me defeated. We decided to just pick up some cookies on the way to the get-together instead. I hate doing that, but I love that the option to buy yummy cookies from the grocery store bakery is there.

So, that night we got home from the get-together and I rushed to get the baby in bed. For the last week or so she's been going to bed fine but then she'll wake up really mad about an hour later. She won't go to sleep until around 11:30pm so I've been trying to get her on a schedule. If she's anything like her father, she'll thrive on routine and structure. We'll see. Of course who really expects to stick to a schedule around the holidays? Yeah, I'm a great mom. Thanks to David, she's now sleeping again. He went in and patted her bum until she went back out. I don't know why she wakes up. Oh, nope...she's awake.

Anyway, so on Friday night I got her in bed then decided to make some baby food. We bought the big bag of frozen organic peas from Costco so I put some in a pan with a little bit of water and cooked them down. Tried pureeing them in my small food processor - wasn't pureeing them well enough. Tried them in my bigger food processor - still not working. Then I got out my blender. Realizing that they probably weren't liquifying because they were too hot, I threw in several ice cubes and, voila!, baby food! It made a lot more than I anticipated...I filled my Baby Cubes and stuck them in the freezer and still had about 1/2 cup left which, in baby food terms, is a lot of food.

So, on Saturday, Amelia had peas.

I think she liked them but, wow, she made a mess! The fingers had to go in her mouth after every bite then they went all over the Bumbo and then all over her pajamas. They went in the wash and the baby got a bath.

That night we had some friends over for our annual Christmas party. I had decided to make some fudge and did a double batch. Well, it took forever to boil...literally, like, an hour. So I was in panic mode trying to get everything ready before people arrived. It's a good thing I have such a wonderful husband. He vacuumed, straightened, cleaned toilets, and took care of the baby while I baked the fudge, cooked the artichoke dip, and cleaned up the kitchen.

Good friends of ours have a sweet little boy named Max who is just 3 months older than Amelia. Here are a few pictures. They had a good time checking each other out.

Amelia tried to eat Max's ear and did a face plant into the sofa.

"Finally someone my size!"

I can't believe it's the week of Christmas already. More than that, I can't believe that it's 11pm and, yet again, my child is still awake. I fed her earlier when she first woke up and she didn't seem all that interested. David just tried feeding her again and she didn't even drink everything he offered her. I also gave her Tylenol and Hyland's Teething Tablets so who knows what's wrong. Maybe 11:15pm is her real bedtime. Seriously, we tried getting her up at 7 or 8 when she first wakes up no matter what time she goes to sleep at night then putting her down for only 2 naps, one around 10am and one around 2pm then 8pm for bed and she still won't sleep.

Okay, enough about that. It's Christmas already! I haven't been in the mood to do much baking. I think I have a bit of the baby blues or seasonal depression or something. Probably shouldn't shout that out to the world, but it's how I feel. Just...down.

I should run errands tomorrow but I haven't been feeling so hot today and I need to make sure I'm not getting sick first. Blech.

My baby is crying. Still. Crying. She has to sleep some time, right?

Good night. And wish me luck.

Babies Don't Keep

2009-12-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

Can someone please hand me a beach towel? I'm going to need it to mop up my tears. I ran across this poem and had to share.

Babies Don't Keep

Mother, oh Mother,

come shake out your cloth,

empty the dustpan,

poison the moth,

hang out the washing

and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house

is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery,
blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done
and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The cleaning and scrubbing
will wait till tomorrow,
for Children grow up,
as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs.
Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~author unknown~

It's that time of year...

2009-12-15T23:05:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to change the url for my blog. How's that for indecisiveness? My dad is probably smirking - some things never change. Right, Dad?

How's your Christmas "to-do" list coming?

Shopping is done, wrapping is done, but baking is eluding me this year. I plan to get started (and hopefully finished) this ~~year~~ weekend. Yes, I actually typed "year" without realizing it. That's what I get for multi-tasking. My sweet baby has been laying in her crib playing with her bunny for the last hour. She's just now starting to whine. I don't know why she's still awake...my consuming excessive amounts of chocolate, perhaps (thanks to a dear friend who knows me all too well and sent a 2 lb box of See's Candies for Christmas)? Hope not.

Anyway, I bought some little festive cartons from Oriental Trading Co. and plan to stuff them with the following and give away as gifts:

- Shortbread or sugar cookies (I have a cookie press that I use exactly once a year)
- Peanut butter popcorn
- Chocolate covered pretzels
- Almond roca

I think that's all I'm going to do. Maybe fudge. Okay, definitely fudge. What's Christmas without fudge?

I was going to take a photo of the baby in front of our tree tonight but, well, I forgot. It happens. Frequently.

Well, the baby finally fell asleep. For one hour. Then she started crying, then screaming, and we let her cry for about 15 minutes. David went in to check on her and determined that she sounded "gurgly" and was probably hungry. I caved and picked her up yet she continued to cry. When I nursed her she dove at my chest and ate heartily, so she was obviously hungry. After I burped her she did what she always does and started cooing and talking to me, grabbing my cheeks and unintentionally sticking her chubby fingers up my nostrils. She buried her face into my face and attempted to suck my nose off, all the while happily squeaking. I kissed her plump little cheeks and put her back in her crib. She started crying again but stopped for about 10 minutes to play with her pacifier. I kept looking at her on the video monitor and she looked wide awake. Still on her back which meant she had no intention of falling asleep. It's been 30 minutes and she's been crying for probably the last 15 minutes, but at least now she's on her belly. I'm not going to pick her up. I did that last night and ended up being up with her until 1am. I love that baby and it pains me soo much to listen to her cry, but she's fine. Deep breath.

Just for fun, I put together this little photo collage.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Tired of hearing about sleeping? There's a recipe, too.

2009-12-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

Don't forget...
I've decided to change the name of my blog to Bungalow Bee for privacy reasons.

The new url is http://bungalowbee.blogspot.com. I will make the change on Wednesday, so if links on your page are pointing to the old blog, please change it after Wednesday. Sorry this is such a hassle. If you know a less crazy way to do this, PLEASE let me know. It says that 34 people are still following me so I assume that it will correct itself on your blog if you didn't enter it manually.
__________________________________________________________________________

The good news is that the swaddle is history. The bad news is that Amelia is still waking up every 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

Friday night was rough. The baby woke us up every 2 hours (!!!) wanting to eat. David and I were both really frustrated and extremely exhausted, but more importantly how could this baby be functioning on so little sleep? For the last week or so Amelia has become much more mobile. She can very easily and fluidly roll from tummy to back and from back to tummy, although she isn't rolling around the room yet. So, now she always winds up on her tummy or on her side for naps and seems to be sleeping longer. If she can find a comfortable position during naptime and it's not on her back, then it probably doesn't make sense to swaddle her and stick her on her back anymore. So, Saturday night we put her to bed swaddleless. I'll spare you all the details, but she was awake again soon after and I called my mom and sister, Carrie, asking for advice.

They suggested filling Amelia up then just laying her in her crib and letting her fall asleep on her own. I don't want any hate comments about "crying it out". As a matter of fact, if you take issue with "crying it out" (otherwise known as the Ferber Method), you might want to read this article.

Anyway, so we stuffed her full of rice cereal which she ate happily, made sure she had a clean diaper, put Baby Orajel on her bottom gums where she's getting a couple of teeth, and suctioned her stuffy nose. Then we put her to bed. And she cried. So after 5 minutes I went in, patted her bottom, gave her back the paci, and left. Ten minutes later it was David's turn. He apparently hadn't read the method. He stayed in there and rubbed her back until she fell asleep. I really didn't care, I just appreciated that she was finally asleep at 11:30! She didn't wake up until 5:30 at which point I fed her and put her back in bed. Unfortunately she woke up again at 7 and I made the decision to keep her home from church because of how stuffy she has been and because it started to seem more like a cold coming on rather than teething issues. She was back in bed by 7:30 and she slept until 11am.

So, Saturday night wasn't too bad at all. But then there was Sunday night.

The child would not go to sleep. We tried to let her cry. After 30 minutes the whining/fussing turned into a full blown wail. We decided she must be hungry so she got fed again. Oops - she stopped crying right when we picked her up and didn't end up eating too much. Amelia - 1, Mom & Dad - 0

She's fed, she's changed, her nose is suctioned and she has Baby Rub on her chest since the crying made her nose even more stuffy. We laid her back down...more crying. An hour goes by and we're still going in and checking on her and rubbing her back for a second and leaving. Only it isn't really working. She turns on her back when we walk in and cries harder when she realizes we aren't going to pick her up. We finally decide to give in and David brings her to me so I can try rocking her. She isn't interested and instead arches her back to look at her dad and "talk" to him. I laid her next to me on our bed thinking maybe eventually she'd calm down and start to look even a little sleepy. She smiles, coos, laughs, grabs my face, and rolls around. Amelia - 2, Mom & Dad - 0

It's now 11:30pm and David has to get up at 5am for work. This is ridiculous. I put her back in her crib and leave the room, but the crying started before I even put her down. She's overtired...way overtired. Huh, that sounds familiar...I'm overtired, too. Can I scream and throw a fit, please? After 10 minutes I picked her up and rocked her to sleep. Amelia - 3, Mom & Dad - 0

She was up every 3 hours. I realize I'm a sucker and I know the kid will continue to sleep in 2-3 hour incriments until I put the proverbial parental pants on and let her learn how to sleep on her own. She does great at naptimes...she only really fusses for 5-10 minutes before rolling around into a comfortable position and falling asleep. On the days that she fusses and whines for 20 minutes, I don't even go in there and eventually she falls asleep. She'll even sleep an hour or more at naptime now, whereas before it was 30 minutes every single time.

So, we're learning. I really want to let her learn how to fall asleep on her own and, in turn, have her sleep for longer stretches of time. I'm not worried about me as much as I'm worried about her not getting the sleep she needs at her young age.

Moving on.

I need to wrap gifts. I need to bake. I need to finish the babies' Christmas gifts (which, I'm really excited about). I know I'm a pansy, but I still don't like getting out with the baby by myself. It's not that I can't...I do and have. I just don't like it. When I can pull her out of her car seat and have her sit up in a cart all by herself then I will be a lot more comfortable with it. Right now I lug her seat in with me (she doesn't like to be worn, although admittedly I haven't tried it too much because my back is terrible) and oftentimes carts don't allow the car seat to fit easily or at all. Or I get the car seat on the cart and I can't see where I'm going. Anyway, my point is that I don't enjoy getting out with the baby by myself. I need to get over it.

Before I forget, here's a recipe I made today that is really, really good. It's Tyler Florence's Banana Nut Muffins. Wow, they're good. I added chocolate chips and used walnuts instead of pecans. I made a few muffins for a week's worth of breakfasts then I made 4 tins of mini-muffins for David to take to work tomorrow. I think you'll like these muffins...I've never eaten a better banana nut muffin...made by myself. I'm sure there are better ones out there. I baked mine for 17 minutes and that was plenty. Anyway, here's the recipe in case you don't feel like going to the website:

BANANA NUT MUFFINS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I need to go make dinner. My baby's still sleeping...it's been almost 2 hours...nice!

Blog Changes

2009-12-12T00:10:00.000-08:00

I have a lot to say but tonight I'll keep it to one announcement.

I've decided to change the name of my blog to Bungalow Bee for privacy reasons.

The new url is http://bungalowbee.blogspot.com. I will make the change on Wednesday, so if links on your page are pointing to the old blog, please change it after Wednesday. Sorry this is such a hassle. If you know a less crazy way to do this, PLEASE let me know. It says that 34 people are still following me so I assume that it will correct itself on your blog if you didn't enter it manually.

I don't know the extent to which Blogger notifies the followers of my blog, so if the transition doesn't happen smoothly then I might have to go back and forth or create a new blog and leave the other behind.

Does that even make sense? My kid is not sleeping much lately which means I'm not sleeping, either, which means my mental capacity is minimal.

The holidays are a busy time of year which is my excuse for not keeping up with my baby's life in print.

My friend, Sarah, took pictures of my family for our Christmas cards. Fortunately, I have my head on straight enough to have just today sent out said cards so that's done. Well, I take that back. I sent out the first 75. We just ordered 25 more so I'll have a few more to do. I'm excited about them because the photos are great and I designed the cards. I'll post a photo of the card next week (it's really nothing special), but in the meantime, here's one of my favorites that didn't make it on the card:

Speaking of design, I'm now a published book cover artist. As with the card, it's nothing special. The content is great because it's the cover for a workbook that our preacher did for the book of 1 Corinthians. He wanted something very simple so that's what I gave him...

I'll have a better update next week. I have a lot of projects planned to get done before Christmas, but I feel like my goals are a little lofty. Baking is becoming more of a chore than it is a pleasure, only for the reason that I'd rather be playing with my baby than be in the kitchen. Oh, and because Christmas treats somehow seem to always necessitate melting chocolate, I've been trying to get better at melting chocolate. I'm failing. It really shouldn't be this difficult, but I think my chocolate is old.

Amelia's an angel, she really is...I'm amazed at how patient and good she is when we're in public and when we're at home and need her to play alone for a little bit. Tonight we went to a white elephant Christmas party. There were probably 50 people there and it was loud at times and got a little warm temperature-wise. She was perfect, even while a few people held her and she went without a nap for 3 1/2 hours. She got a little cranky at the very end while we were bundling her up to head home, but she fell asleep in the car.

The only complaint I have (which, I'm a parent, I signed up for this!) is that she isn't sleeping well and hasn't for the last month or so. I'm 99% sure it's her teeth...she must be getting some. Last night she didn't fall asleep until 11:30pm. The max amount of time she'll stay asleep is 4 hours, but most of the time it's only 3 1/2.

Finally, here's Amelia when she turned 5 months old on December 3rd. The pig is a stuffed animal that my dad won for me when I was 2 years old. I loved that thing when I was little - I hope Amelia loves it as much as I did!

It's bedtime. Goodnight!

The Sleeping Post, Part II

2009-11-23T22:37:00.000-08:00

I'm watching Amelia in the video monitor toss and turn (as much as she can when she's swaddled and sandwiched between a positioner). Her eyes are closed but she's obviously thinking about waking up yet again. I put her down around 8pm. It's now 10 minutes to 9 and she's already been up once, crying and not willing to go back to sleep. I rocked her and laid her back down. That was about 15 minutes ago and she's now whining again...awake.

It's not a good sleep week so far. I think Amelia is getting her first two teeth on the bottom. I'm just confused at her way of going about cutting those two teeth. She will not sleep, but it's not that's she's really all that cranky. She wants to nurse a lot but otherwise if she wakes up and you engage her then she's perfectly fine. I'll give you a few examples. Last night she was up every two hours. I'm not kidding. It's like she was a newborn again, only this time I didn't have my husband's help in the wee hours of the morning. The man has a full-time job and needs every bit of sleep he can get (which isn't much, really!).

I've been trying to put her down in her crib and leaving her there instead of moving her into bed with us all of the time. I'm not against my baby sleeping with us as long as she's always in her sleep positioner (for safety) and as long as we have a time set for when she needs to be in her bed full time. Anyway, since she had been sleeping pretty sporadically the last few days we decided to let her sleep with us last night. History shows that if she's in bed with us she'll sleep twice as long as if she were on her own in her crib. Apparently that's not the issue - at least not this week. She woke up every 2 hours, nursed, then went back to sleep.

Today it took me 2 1/2 hours to get her to sleep for her first nap of the day and then she only slept 30 minutes. She slept again around 4:45pm and, again, slept only for about 30 minutes. It's like she completes one REM cycle and she's done. How do I get her to sleep for longer stretches during the day? She's never slept in her crib for naps longer than 30 minute incriments. I take that back - maybe twice she's slept 45 minutes. I don't swaddle her - she is just on her back in her crib to sleep. I don't know why she refuses to sleep longer than 30 minutes but it literally is 30 minutes on the nose every single time. Suggestions??

I'm already halfway through a bottle of Hylands Teething Tablets which are homeopathic and supposedly miraculous. Apparently my child is immune to them because they never seem to work for her. Finally I gave her some Tylenol tonight and she went right back out. She'll sleep with us again tonight - I'm going to try to get as much sleep out of her as possible. She's not cranky when she wakes up as long as someone is holding her. As a matter of fact, she's downright cheery if she wakes up and you pick her up and let her stay awake. However, if you try to put her pacifier back in without picking her up she'll shake her head back and forth violently and refuse to accept it. If you pick her up and take her to the glider, prepare for battle. It takes pushing the pacifier in and holding it there while she cries and tries to get away (I'm really not torturing my child). After a few seconds of holding in the paci, rocking her, and patting her rear while humming "You Are My Sunshine" she calms down and will eventually go to sleep.

We are heading to Oregon for Thanksgiving this year. Again, I'm nervous about how Amelia will do in the car but we are prepared this time. Pray it works. I'll let you know. On another Thanksgiving note, I'm contributing an appetizer (Spinach Artichoke dip) and dessert (Chocolate Caramel cake). If I remember, I'll post the recipes.

I made this recipe tonight since I had some cabbage and celery in my fridge that I needed to use. I didn't have the sausage but David and I both thought it was good. If you make it, try to season it heavily - it seems to need it. I used a can of Rotel instead of the stewed tomatoes.

I don't even have a cute picture to share! Oh, but I found this video we took on the 16th of this month. Pardon my frumpy, no-makeup, hair pulled-back look. I was in the middle of organizing the back bedroom which has become our catch-all over the past few months.

Still have laundry & packing to do. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to share after this weekend. I'm going to take a blogging hiatus until next week. Not that it's unusual for me to not blog for a week. Our sweet friend, Sarah, is taking Christmas pictures of the kids and families this weekend. I hope Millie's Christmas dress(es) fit her!

Cookbooks, cookbooks, and a contest (!?)

2009-11-19T23:47:00.000-08:00

My dilemma.

I have a lot of cookbooks (not an exhorbant amount, but more than I can use). I have a lot of cookbooks that I've never opened. Cookbooks that are beautiful and have wonderful, complicated recipes that I will never make because I am generally not one to go and buy unusual or "fancy" food. The reason? It's hard for me to imagine buying ingredients for one recipe. I already have items in my pantry that have been sitting there for a while, so why would I spend money on a leetle jar of some fancy paste when it will probably never be used again and live its life on my refrigerator shelf until it starts growing things. Since I'm not earning a paycheck anymore my main job as head chef of the Baldwin household is to use what we have in the fridge, freezer and pantry while making as few shopping trips as possible. This means making garlic bread out of frozen hot dog buns and David making his yummy stir fry out of 25 half-full bags of frozen veggies. Mental note: We do not need anymore frozen broccoli.

See the blue binder in the picture above (and to the right)? That binder houses mostly recipes I printed from AllRecipes.com. See the cookbooks to the right of the picture? The ones that say "AllRecipes.com"? It's easier to type ingredients into the search on the website and find recipes that way than to thumb through cookbooks, although I really do love cookbooks. I love the idea of them.

We eat mainly chicken, ground beef, and pasta. We also eat a lot of tomato-based foods such as spaghetti and tortilla soup. I'm stuck in a rut when it comes to what I buy. I will freely admit that. If there was such a service as a "pantry chef" or a show where someone came to your house and listed everything you had in your pantry and fridge then gave you recipes to use it all then I would be the first in line. Really, though, this post isn't about what we eat. I do wish I was braver when it came to ingredients. I'm not afraid to try new recipes - as a matter of fact I pretty much will make several variations of the same dish, never repeating the same recipe twice. Of course, this is rather inconvenient when I make something that knocks David's socks off. As I was saying, I'm not afraid to try new recipes, they just have to include ingredients already in my pantry or they have to include ingredients that can be left out or substituted if not in my pantry. See?

Anyway, I used to house all of my cookbooks in a little hutch in my dining room. This worked out okay until every recipe I printed off the internet wound up sandwiched between whatever space I happened to find room. It was looking pretty ghetto. So, now they live in a bookshelf in a guest bedroom of our home. It's not even a cute bookshelf.

I'm a dessert girl. I love making dessert. I have a little collection of cookbooks devoted entirely to desserts. Cookbooks for cookies, brownies (not pictured because it's currently sitting in my cookbook holder on my kitchen counter), and cupcakes.

If I had a better kitchen with more counter space (that's another post entirely), I would make it my goal to be able to produce cookies that look like this:

Isn't it adorable? Imagine having the talent to do that! I considered acquiring this as my new hobby but then I saw the tools required to even attempt to attain this skill:

Considering my sweet husband has been so supportive of all my hobbies such as painting, knitting, and sewing, I figured I shouldn't push my luck. I really have yet to find my niche, but that's probably because I expect to be really great at something right when I start and that's obviously never the case.

Back to cookbooks. I have a cookbook with beautiful photos of recipes I'll never make.

I also have a cookbook dedicated to showing one how to host the most spactacular parties! It has directions and pictures on how to do everything from setting the table to creating beautiful garnishes to making a beautiful ice bowl! It also explains (with pictures, no less!) how to host any kind of themed party you want to throw. Someday I'll be a wonderful hostess, but I probably should get a table that seats more than 6.

I guess my whole point in this is to say that, while I absolutely l-o-v-e cookbooks, I don't know how I'm ever going to use them all. But my goal is to try to at least thumb through them and see if any have recipes that call for chicken, beef, or tomatoes. Ha.

If anyone has a tried-and-true recipe please let me know. I am also looking for healthy recipes...I have lofty goals of weight loss. Someday I want to run a half-marathon (those of you who know me stop laughing!) but the thing is - I hate running. Anyway, that's another post for another time.

If I were to give away one of my cookbooks, would you be interested? Here's why I'm asking: I'm considering doing it for a contest. I will list the ingredients of my fridge, pantry, and freezer and whoever comes up with the best recipe (I have to try it and like it!) wins a cookbook. I'm also asking because I know there are those of you out there who read my blog but you don't comment. Other than family, of course. I know family who read it and don't respond but that's to be expected.

So, answer me that. If you're reading me on Facebook, come on over to my blog. You don't even have to log in to comment (but please tell me who you are).

And, just because I can, here's a photo from bathtime tonight:

Happy Weekend!

Obesity and formula

2009-11-16T00:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm up. I'm not sure whether to blame it on the caffeinated coffee I drank at 4pm or the fact that my baby isn't in bed next to me for the first time in a while. I keep checking the monitor to make sure she's...I don't know...still there?

Can I just say something? Okay, thanks. I mean, it is my blog, after all.

I recently saw a video trailer for some documentary about babies who are formula fed verus babies who are breastfed. I'm not going to name the documentary or the website because I don't want to promote it in any way.

I first saw the video around 9:30pm tonight and I literally can't get it off my mind. The trailer for this documentary had some woman nursing what looked like a 3-year-old and as she nursed her kid she said (and I quote) "I have friends who say 'Oh, I wasn't breastfed and I turned out fine.' That argument, with the obesity epidemic in this country, is no longer valid.  Our country is not fine.  Our country did not turn out fine by not having breastfeeding be the norm. It is an absurd epidemic in this country how sick we are."

Really, lady?
I mean, seriously.

Let's think this through. Over the past 30ish years, let's name the things that have become more prevalent in our society.

- Video games
- Fast food restaurants on, literally, every corner
- Parents afraid to discipline their kids or "hurt their feelings" which leads to kids having a sense of entitlement
- Divorce
- More moms working outside the home
- Microwaveable meals in place of the homecooked meal

Oh, and "formula-fed babies". Right. Our entire society is fat because, as babies, we were all formula-fed. My baby gets formula, on average, less than one feeding a week so it's not that I'm defensive about this.

Here's why this makes me so angry...

First of all, let's all agree that breastmilk is, in fact, the best for babies. There's absolutely no disputing that. God, in His infinite wisdom, provided along with the miracle of life the ability for that life to be sustained with the mother's milk. It's a wonderful thing. It's a natural thing. That does not mean it is always an easy thing! There are babies who come out of the womb Champion Nursers. There are also babies who come out of the womb and take a little longer to get the hang of nursing and it takes a lot of patience on the part of the mom and the baby to get it figured out. Some never really do.

There are women who cannot breastfeed for health reasons on their part or on the part of their baby.  Legitimately, sincerely, cannot do it.  There are babies who are allergic to their mom's breastmilk or babies who have such severe reflux and/or eczema that, to breastfeed their babies, moms would have to go on a diet that would be detrimental to their health.

Let's even forget about the legitimate reasons. Let's just assume that a mom doesn't want to breastfeed her child. Here's the thing... make a documentary, "educate" women all you want, but do not judge women who do not breastfeed. Want to know why? Because it's none of your business.

I guess I should just laugh at the woman who said that formula-fed babies are the reason for the "obesity epidemic" in America.  Couldn't possibly be that we, as Americans...

We are served larger portions in restaurants than anywhere else in the world and we also have a hard time just putting down the cheeseburger.

We allow our kids to sit on their rear-ends in front of video games or Spongebob Squarepants instead of getting outside and exercising.

We have both the mom and dad working outside the home and thus not really monitoring what or how much the kids eat (among other things).

Perhaps because of how little we actually see our children or are involved in their lives, are afraid to discipline them for fear it might hurt their self-esteem and instead we give them whatever they want. Mr. Sense-of-Entitlement grows up and drowns his less-than-stellar childhood memories in a Super Size milkshake and a Big Mac.

As kids we are more often getting Pop Tarts or Lucky Charms for breakfast, chicken nuggets at school for lunch, and McDonalds in the evening for dinner.

The list goes on and on. Yes, I get that she's saying that we are a sick society because, since the introduction of formula, many more mothers formula feed than breastfeed. It's been my experience, just in being involved in several mothering forums online, that breastfeeding is becoming more the norm than formula-feeding. Now, I won't start on the whole "breastfeeing your 5-year-old" debate, I'll just say that I admire any woman who can even make it a year breastfeeding. As I said before, it's not always easy. Most women who lobby for more women to breastfeed are the ones whose babies latched on from the get-go and gain weight beautifully from the start.

My baby lost a full pound within 3 days of her birth. She was cranky and downright unhappy and, as a new mom, I couldn't figure out why. Three days after she was born we went to a lactation consultant who told us of her weight loss and, after hearing about how irritable she was, told us that she was hungry. Talk about breaking a mother's heart. My milk didn't come in until 5 days after my daughter was born. She was burning more calories eating than she was getting from the colostrum (the yellowish stuff babies get from the breast prior to the "real" milk coming in). We had to supplement with Nutramigen and, let me tell you, I was THRILLED that such a product existed. My baby didn't have to go hungry! She also didn't latch very well. I had to use a nipple shield for the first 3 weeks of her life before she finally latched on. Even then she would pop off while nursing for no apparent reason whatsoever. She still does that.

Around 8 weeks or so she would scream at night and cluster-feed (which basically means she was attached to my breast for hours trying to get as much food as she could). She would cry (then I would cry) when nothing was there. I would pump during the day but sometimes she needed a couple of ounces of formula to "top her off". Again, I was so happy that such an option existed. The thought of telling my baby, "Tough luck, kiddo" after my milk supply was gone and sending her to bed with not enough in her belly wasn't an option for me. Before we even introduced formula at night I had someone tell me that I wasn't "exclusively breastfeeding" because my baby was also taking my milk through a bottle at night. Since then I've wised up and realized what a bunch of nonsense that is. It's my milk and, at the time, I was exclusively breastfeeding.

Our breastfeeding trials remain, although I have come to realize that even though my kid is done nursing after 7-10 minutes, she's satisfied and doesn't seem to want any more. She's never choked on the milk even when the supply is gushing so I just have to assume she's an efficient eater and gets the job done in less time which is fine with me. Her weight is increasing beautifully and steadily so we are happy with that. I have tried now to only give her formula if absolutely necessary. My goal is to pump enough so that if David and I leave her with his parents then they will have breastmilk for her. Lately she's been on a new eating routine where she gets a bottle of breastmilk before bed then a couple of hours after she goes to bed I pump and am able to get about 6 oz which we use the following evening to "stock her up". By skipping the feeding at night and giving her the bottle I'm able to pump more. The last couple of nights I've used a couple of ounces of breastmilk to mix with rice cereal and she loves it.

If you read this entire post, great job. Sorry for rambling. My baby's been in her own crib for 3 hours now which means she'll probably wake up in about 2 hours. If she was in our bed with us she would more than likely sleep for 8-10 hours. Oh, well.

Another late-night post brought to you by me, the girl with too much on her mind at bedtime.

Thanks for listening!

Second Chances

2009-11-11T23:39:00.001-08:00

I always think of things to write when I'm laying in bed. So, tonight as I laid (lay?) in bed thinking of a new post, I decided to come out to the dark living room and just get it out.

I didn't grow up until I turned 24. Isn't it funny that I know exactly when my brain fully formed and I was making more intelligent decisions? Did I still make stupid choices at 24? Well, yeah. As a matter of fact, I still think back on my 24th year and wonder if there were times I even had a brain in my head and, if I did, why I wasn't using it. I didn't say I wised up entirely - just that I, on the whole, decided to be who I was and started on the path to accepting that...and liking it. If God was happy with me, why should I care what others thought? Maybe it was more like 25...

I won't bore you with the details of my past, but let's just say that I was probably the most emotionally immature yet completely self-conscious person I knew. Nothing about me felt right so I lapped up any acceptance offered to me, never being fully satisfied but also not wholly unsatisifed as long as the attention was still there. I looked for (and always found) disappointments in people and situations, but instead of facing the disappointments and just dealing with them I would torture myself and the person who I felt had let me down with emotional rants and, well, a bit of melodrama. I filled my youth with dramatic exits, tearful goodbyes, and second, third, fourth and even fifth chances for people who weren't worth my time to begin with. I get exhausted just thinking about some of the silly things I would get worked up about - what a waste of time!

I know everyone can probably look back on times in their youth when they'd love a "do-over". Sometimes I think of certain situations that I know, had I been who I am today, I would have handled very differently. I don't say all of this with regret. By the grace of God I found an amazing man who accepts me completely and drags me back to reality when I'm losing my grip. I serve a merciful God!

Anyway, I was just thinking about the serendipitous ride that led me to this point. How different I was and how sometimes I wish I would have been able to "zoom out" to see the bigger picture. Oh, the stress I put on myself worrying about the actions of others and how that would affect the way they thought of me.

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34

It's important to me that I think about these things but not dwell on them. I thank God every day that He was patient with me and gave me the life I have now because of the lessons I've learned. I'm still learning. I pray that I can raise Amelia to not be like me in some ways - always filled with self-doubt and worry. We're all made in His image and that means we are important and valuable - not in an egotistical or self-absorbed way, but in a way that allows us to exude confidence. Confidence in the One who gave us life and continues to bless us.

The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?

Psalm 118:6

Faith in God demands action. Grown-up, responsible action. Action that doesn't rely on whether someone else takes action or what someone thinks of you when you decide to take action. Daily, unwavering, courageous action. The time and energy wasted on creating heartache for others could have been spent glorifying God. These are the lessons it took me 25+ years to learn.

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentence without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
2 Chronicles 7:10

I grew up at 24 (maybe 25!) but I'm still not the person God wants me to be. I work toward it every day, some days falling flat on my face and other days shining bright for Him. As part of God's will and to obey Him I was baptized 15 years ago. November 9, 1994. I have never felt cleaner. Constant, daily action that isn't at all easy but it's necessary. My faith in God demands it.

I wasn't really intending for this to be a Bible study, but how can I avoid talking about God when I talk about second chances and "do-overs"? He's the Master of giving both.

I'll leave you with a couple of cute pictures I took today. I wish I could tell you how much I love this little girl but I can't even come close. How did I get so blessed?

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Milestones

2009-11-10T22:39:00.001-08:00

Here's some honesty for you: There are days I wonder why people have more than one kid. I'm not saying that Amelia isn't an absolute joy...it's not her behavior or even the fact that she pooped all over her play mat today that makes me say that. It's the car seat. The car seat is such a pain to lug around that there are definitely times I long for the days when Amelia is old enough to sit up in the cart while I shop for groceries or hold my hand and toddle beside me when I have to run quick errands (I just got chills writing that...good chills). And, Lord willing, once my sweet baby is old enough to be doing these things the car seat will be filled with yet another plump baby behind. It's something that I'm sure I'll miss once it's gone for good.

I don't have photos. Wish I did (especially of that play mat incident today - just kidding), but I don't. I need to make a list of things to take pictures of because I always forget. At some point I want to sneak in Millie's room while she's sleeping (preferably during the day without the flash) to snap a photo of her napping and also a photo of her all swaddled up. Although, I do have a picture of her swaddled self...it's just from when she was first born. Anyway, maybe I'll make up for not having photos next time and I'll overload you with photos.

Some milestones I need to document:

- Just in the last few days Amelia has started to snuggle with me. She'll lay her head on my shoulder or bury her face in my neck. The pediatrician told us at her 4 month checkup that she noticed a bit of stranger anxiety in Amelia already. She said it was early, but that it's a good sign. My favorite is when she burps in my face (Amelia, not the pediatrician).

- Amelia has recently taken a very noticeable interest in our pup, Tess. I must get a photo of this. It's so cute how Amelia stares at Tess and her eyes follow the pup around the room. I call Tess over and let Amelia touch her...the kid is mesmerized by that dog.

- It is no longer possible to bathe our baby without getting completely drenched ourselves.

- The nursing thing is going "only okay". Everyone says it's the most natural thing in the world but for something so natural it sure can be difficult. I nurse her exclusively during the day but at night she gets a bottle of my milk. I pump a couple of hours after she goes to bed and by then I have enough to more than fill her (more than a usual feeding). We store it and she has it the next night before bed since that's when she seems to need the most.

- It bears repeating: my kid has the cutest giggle.

- We try rice cereal every few days and so far she hasn't shown much of an interest. But, as I read in my Parents magazine, you're supposed to try a new food 6-10 times before ruling it out. Most babies will like (even love) a food if you are persistent and don't give up after just a few tries. So, upward and onward. I'll probably try it again tomorrow night.

- Last night Amelia slept for 10 1/2 hours. That marks the first time she's ever slept more than 9 hours for us. Please, Millie, let this be the new "norm".

Not much else to report. I got some gDiapers off BabySteals and I'm going to try to make the inserts for them soon. This will be our first foray into cloth diapering so we'll see how it goes. I'm pretty excited.

Bring on the holidays! I can't believe it's already mid-November.

I finally wrote a short (obviously relative) post,