Project Monday 12/3

I sat down after dinner tonight and made this quick scrapbook page (just so I could post something for Project Monday).


I've knitted 19 inches on the body my Retrograde sweater. Only 5 more inches before the body is complete. The pattern calls for ribbing at the bottom of the sweater. And I think ribbing is THE worst thing I could put at the bottom of my sweater-- potbellied, hasn't-lost-her-baby-fat, curvy woman that I am.

So if any knitters still read this blog, please leave me a suggestion on what to do at the bottom of the sweater. Thanks.

We got our Christmas cards in the mail today. Hurray! We didn't get our outdoor lights up because of the heavy rains and winds we've been having. And we didn't get our tree up yet either.

I would love to jump on the Advent box bandwagon this holiday season but I can't think of what to put in the boxes.
Sweets and/or candy -- Nope, on a diet.
Holiday activities--Nope, too tired with the baby. At night, I just want to vegetate and knit.
Bible verses--Nope.
I really don't want to go to Target and buy a bunch of stuff we don't need. But I think it's pretty pathetic that I don't have enough brain cells to come up with 20 something fun things for Karen and I to open this December. If anyone has any inspired ideas, please, please share!

In the meantime, here's Kylie!

Photo Friday

Sweet Kitty

This week, our cat Phoebe has started walking close enough for Kylie to touch her. Kylie's face lights up with pure joy anytime she gets to see, much less touch one of our cats. I think Phoebe does it simply because we praise her so lavishly afterwards. Our other cat Chloe still looks at Kylie with a mixture of curiosity and disgust and avoids her at all costs.

Let's see.... our other new things are that Kylie will roll on the floor to either her crib or her dresser and then slap the wood with her feet. She's growing more and more interested in the furniture in her room, not just her toys.

And she's added small bites of chicken to her diet.

Guess that's all for now. Have a great day everyone!

Tidbits

This post has a couple of things I've been thinking about interspersed with Kylie pictures.

Anxious Dreams
The Dec/Jan issue of Parenting magazine reports that as many as 75% of new moms have anxious dreams about their infants' safety (like the baby is lost under the covers) that wake them in the night.

This is absolutely true for me. At least once a week for over 6 months, I would be sound asleep but sitting up and patting the bed, frantically looking for the baby. To make matters worse, I've hit Karen several times in my search. Poor Karen is sound asleep and kapow! she gets a punch out of nowhere! Every time, Karen would have to hug me and repeat over and over that the baby was safe and asleep in her crib in her room. Finally, I would wake up enough to understand her. My heart would race with adrenaline and then I would feel so guilty for "having done it again". It would usually take me over an hour to get back to sleep.

The weird thing is that we have never, ever had Kylie in the bed with us. But that wouldn't stop me from patting the bed looking for her so many times each week. It was a relief to read that other moms experience this too.

Here's a Kylie picture:

Hard-to-open Gerber food packs
Does anyone think that the Gerber food packs are incredibly hard to open? And the organic food is harder to open than the non-organic? Every day, I try to carefully open those packs. The inner seal is glued on with some kind of superglue. And the vacuum-seal creates a food explosion when it's opened. I get baby food on my shirt every day opening these packs!

Conversely, my Chip-Ahoy cookies have an easy, peel-back opening.

Why do they make things that are suppose to be good for you incredibly hard to open?

Another Kylie picture and I love this one. I see this face all the time but this is the first time I've caught it in a photo. This look is, "I'm thinking of smiling at you but I'm going to hold it inside".


Kylie has started squirming around when we're trying to give her a bottle. I've had to grow adept at moving her from arm to arm while holding a bottle at the same time. I'm not sure what all the squirming is about. Many times, when she first squirms, I'll put the bottle away. But then she cries because she's hungry for it. So I try to feed her and she squirms and pushes away. Might be a teething thing or an independence thing but it would be lovely if it would stop.

Here are a few more pictures. Take care everyone!

Project Monday 11/26

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We stuffed ourselves on the feast prepared by our friends Jozette and Michelle. No cooking or cleanup-- I was in heaven. We stayed in our house on Black Friday. The only shopping I did was online which was just fine with me.

I managed to finish this simple scrapbook page about our Thanksgiving. This page was a doozy. I tried four different layouts and tons of different papers and absolutely nothing looked right. I'm still not thrilled with this finished product but I was sick of working on it.

This page was the opposite. I finished it in only an hour on Sunday night after Kylie fell asleep.

I have about ten inches knitted on my Retrograde sweater. I knit quite a bit on Saturday night while watching the Battlestar Galactica installment. Did anyone else see the new episode? What did you think of it?

Happy Thanksgiving

Wordless Wednesday

Baby Pudge

I just love the big, cheesy grin in this photo.

Kylie had her second flu shot yesterday. She did really well--only cried about 1 minute. While we were at the peds office, I had our doctor look at Kylie's face. The discoloration around her lips is actually a light rash caused by all the teething saliva. The doctor recommended putting vaseline on it right before Kylie sleeps. The light cough Kylie has had recently is also caused by all the spit running down her throat.

I'm writing about baby spit. Aren't you glad you stopped by the blog today?

Kylie was weighed at the doctor's office and she weigh 15 pounds, 13 ounces. That's an increase of 7 ounces in just a few days. I think it's all going to her belly and her meaty little legs.


Let's take a closer look at that baby leg pudge!

Can't get enough? Well, here's even more!


Like I said, aren't you glad you stopped by today?

Project Monday 11/19

This is one of those mornings where I feel like I could sleep all day. It was a rainy weekend here in Portland and I was pretty lazy. All I did was take care of the baby and play with digital scrapbooking. Have you ever noticed that when you are lazy for more than one day, that you end of feeling even more tired instead of rested?

I did manage to visit a friend of mine who had a baby the first week of November. I took her a couple of days worth of home-cooked food and got to spend time with her and her baby boy. I was a bit worried that seeing and holding a newborn would make me want to have another baby. But all I felt was a great empathy for this mom who will be taking care of this new baby along with taking care of her husband and 4 year old. My gosh, those first three months with a newborn are so dang hard. I haven't forgotten at all how wonderful but incredibly hard those first months are. So I'm still quite happy with the decision to have one child.

I should get off my duff and vacuum the house but instead I'm blogging and trying to catch up on reading some blogs. Oh, and drinking coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

Here are a few scrapbook pages. I'm finally caught up on Kylie's monthly milestones.

6 months- left page

6 months - right page

7 months- left page

7 months- right page

Just for fun--all dressed up.


I'm also knitting on a new sweater. It's the Retrograde sweater from the 2006 Winter Interweave Magazine issue. And I'm knitting a baby hat made from the leftover yarn from Kylie's latest sweater. I should finish it in a couple of days.

I've noticed that I'm not getting many comments lately here on the blog. If you have time, stop by and say hello.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Seven Month Birthday

Dearest Kylie,

You are seven months old today! Here are some of your milestones for this month:

You’ve gotten so much stronger in your sitting muscles. You can lean way over to the side and in front of you to pick up a toy and then you can sit back very upright.

You love sorting through your playthings. You enjoy flipping over your plastic buckets of toys. Then you’ll pick up a toy, examine it, put it in your mouth and then cast it away for a new one.

You can hold two toys at once, one in each hand. And you can pass a toy from one hand to another.

You can grasp objects between your thumb and fingers—not quite the pincer grasp but very close to it.

You are log rolling to get to what you want during playtime.

You’ve made a shift during mealtime. You prefer soft foods that you can gum. You prefer real bits of peaches, pears, bananas, carrots and green beans rather than the strained variety. You can feed yourself saltine crackers, cheerios and banana puffs. You’ve also added oatmeal, American cheese and tofu to your diet.

You are laughing more and more these days. You are particularly ticklish under your chin.

You weight 15 lbs, 6 oz. which is a gain of 13 oz. You went from a size two diaper to a size three.

You make your mommies smile every day and we are so happy you are doing so well.

Sleep and eat

Remember this past Monday where I wrote that we were weaning Kylie from her swing? I wrote that she got 3-4 naps a day and each nap lasted around an hour?

Well, that's changed!!

For the past two days, Kylie has only taken two naps. One nap at around 9am and the other at around 1:30. And they have only lasted around 30 minutes. If you could only see the surprised look on my face. And someone send me a case of coffee because I'm going to need the energy.

I knew the change in her napping patterns was coming. I just thought it would coincide with her learning to crawl and wanting to play more. So for the past two days, I've been scrambling around adjusting to her new hours.

And my goodness, this baby girl can eat. She loves to eat her soft foods. She has lots of cut green beans, steamed carrots, peaches, pears, pieces of cheese and tofu, and several cheerios for her lunch and dinner. And when she gets tired of gumming her food, she'll eat one or two gerber portions. Her diet has more variety than mine.

I snapped these pictures at dinner tonight. Aren't my girls stinkin' cute?


That's prunes and peaches all over her face and nose.

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures

I've noticed that I've been taking fewer pictures recently. I think it is because my active little girl won't sit still for the camera anymore. I'm going to go into "action photo" mode and start taking lots of pictures again. Even if it means laying on my belly with the camera and having pictures filled with toys and such.

Karen snapped some wonderfu photos during Kylie's lunch the other day. Kylie was thoroughly enjoying eating a cracker. She was grinning and babbling and gumming her cracker like crazy. Kylie is just a fun, little munchkin. She makes me happy in so many ways.

You know me.... I had to make a scrapbook page about cracker day. This is a "scraplifted" page from Jessica Sprauge. Click on the image for a larger picture.

I think it's fun!

Project Monday

We've started weaning Kylie off napping in her swing. Yesterday for the first time, she took all her naps in her crib. She takes around 3, sometimes 4, naps a day that each last around an hour. She loves being in her swing but she's getting too big for it.

I finished knitting Kylie's Tulip Baby Cardigan this weekend. It was very fun to knit and I'm so pleased with how it looks.




I finished two scrapbook pages this weekend. The haircut page has a blank place for me to attach an envelope with Kylie's hair.




I also managed to get our house really clean on Thursday and Friday. Thank heavens because the dust bunnies were rolling around like tumbleweeds. Ever since Kylie was born, the rooms in our house are never all clean at the same time. Like the bathrooms are clean but all the carpets need sweeping, and so forth. But during the past few days, I've been driven to get it all cleaned up. I even did the windows--Yikes!

Quick Update

Yesterday and today, Kylie is loving her finger foods. In fact, the only way we were able to feed her breakfast this morning was to give her a banana puff and then a spoonful of oatmeal. Then a puff and a spoon of cereal. Well, you get the idea.

Two weeks ago, I tried to give her a small bit of peach from a peach cup and she looked at me in horror. Yesterday, she ate over 20 small peach bites. She's been fussy while eating strained foods. Seems like she wants to gum her food instead.

She's still rolling around on the floor to get to what she wants. She's not up on her hands and knees yet so crawling may be a few weeks away.

Ever since Kylie's cold and the time change, her sleep has been a little off. She's going to sleep at 6pm like usual but she's waking up at 4:30am instead of her usual 5:30 - 6:00. Hopefully, she'll get back on schedule soon.

Here's some pictures from this morning.

You know you are a mom when...

I've think it would be fun to start a "you know you are a mom when..." list. I only have two items for the list so far.

You know you are a mom when you carry something baby related every time you make a trip up or down the stairs. And...
You know you are a mom when you have baby socks in the pockets of your jeans and toys in your purse.

I would love to hear your ideas for additions to the list.

I have a bunch of new scrapbook pages to show you. Click on the picture for a larger image.








A big thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Wendy!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Wendy!
Happy Birthday to you!

Today is my darling one's birthday. We're pretty low key about our birthdays...usually just cards and kisses (note the kiss in this picture!).



But, I'd give her the world if it were in my power to give it to her. She's an amazing woman. She's done many things in her life from being an innkeeper to a beekeeper, but the one thing she's done that means the most to me is to be my partner and my love. Do you remember that line from the movie Jerry MacGuire? It was "you complete me". And yes, yes....she certainly does. I am more with her than without her. I share a wonderful life and now a wonderful daughter with her. And everyday I am grateful for her love.

I love you my Wendy! Happy Birthday!

- Karen

Thank heavens for bibsters

Have I mentioned that Kylie is eating lunch? She just finished eating two crackers (which she held by herself) and some prunes. I am a messy feeder. Kylie is usually covered in food (nose, chin, hands) when I feed her. All I can say is thank heavens for disposable bibsters.

Here are some pictures I snapped before lunch---and before I had to change her prune-tinged shirt.

Momma?

Yesteday, Kylie looked me right in the eyes and said, "Momma". Of course she grinned really big when she saw my face light up. If babies can see auras, I'm sure mine was lighting fireworks.

She said it again last night while Karen was holding and playing with her.

This morning, I laid in bed listening to her babble to herself before getting her morning bottle. Her babbles were filled with lots of vowel sounds and goos and coos. But no "ma" sounds.

When I leaned over her crib, she looked at me and said, "Momma" again!

How cool is that!

What's even cooler is her pronunciation. She doesn't say ma-ma. She says, mom-ma. You can really hear the "o" sound in there.

Of course I had to race to consult my baby books this morning. The "experts" say that while babies will string together sounds like ma-ma and da-da, their first words can be happen anytime between 8 - 14 months. Gee, how helpful--not!

So I guess only time will tell if we've officially heard Kylie's first word (but I think we have!)