Monday, December 26, 2016

baby's first Christmas

Both of my siblings and their kids have been in town for the holidays and it was great for August to meet his aunts, uncles and cousins!
We spent Christmas eve with my parents and went to the candlelight service, next morning opened presents and had a nice meal together, and then in the evening went and had another nice dinner and opened more gifts with Doug's parents. August got lots of stuff!
Pictures from our family time:
with my niece Elliana
mani/pedi for Molina
Christmas outfits
friends with sons
Dad friends with sons
siblings with spouses
siblings
cousins!
he was more excited to gnaw on his fists than for his presents
he's our best present this year!
love this little man

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

crafts and life lately

Can anyone relate to the extreme sadness of asking your husband to pick up chocolate covered peppermint Joe-Joes and he returns with plain ones? Oh the disappointment. But maybe I'll make it into a icecream pie, mmm.
So my sister sent me a care package with flannel cloth wipes but I had already had cloth wipes so I sewed hers into a quilt. I felt kinda bad because she'd double sided and hemmed them all, but it made it nice and easy for me to make into a quilt and it made it extra thick and warm
I backed it to this ugly blanket that Doug's mom gave us. What about me and my style suggests I'm into blue/yellow/purple polka dots?!? It is nice and soft though and makes a nice quilt backing. I still have to do the top stitching, but it's close to done.
Today was also spent making caramel pretzels for the neighbors. Guess I should've used parchment paper or coated the wax paper with Pam because it was a sticky nightmare!
Here's me dipping it into my dad's patented organ pipe tube/ the pretzel dipper 2000, haha, jk, but it does make the perfect even pretzel coating!
Once I pried them off of there and coated in chocolate they were much less sticky.
Last night went out to dinner with girlfriends. August hasn't taken a bottle yet so he's my ever-present sidekick. And he was slightly fussy. Oh well. Here he is with Aunt Jill.
And by the way, new favorite meal at Panera, LOVE the autumn squash soup but found a new tasty salad the Green Goddess sans bacon, delicious.
other things:
Doug's friend sent us the kid's leash from our registry. Yes we are going to be 'those' parents. But if August is anything like Doug who was always running and hiding from his mom, I'm going to need it! In this day and age of perverts and child nappers, he's staying by my side!
I'm super thankful that so far I've been able to breastfeed. I keep learning all this fascinating stuff like your body makes different milk for a boy baby vs a girl baby; milk is different for a 1 month old vs 9 month old etc; the nipple draws in saliva from the baby then "tests it" and makes whatever baby needs. This is 3 bags of milk over 24 hours, so crazy that it's so different, what is in there!?!
It makes me a bit sad that since those are going in the freezer whatever my body made for him he won't get till I thaw it months later, but on the other hand he is still getting it now too. Catch 22 I guess, I have to pump and save it for when I'm back at work.
August went to his first Elf party last weekend, isn't he the cutest little elf??
other pics:
winter hat model
sometimes taking a binky
little cutie
no mom, not tummy time!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

snow day

The other night we got 8 inches of beautiful snow. Doug made it off to work ok in the Jeep and me and August are still home. Yesterday I get a knock on the door and it's the UPS man dropping off a package. A few minutes later I hear some commotion and then another knock, it's the UPS man apologizing that he bumped our mailbox and moved it. No big deal, our mailbox isn't set in the ground, it's in a big ugly pot that I'd like Doug to replace anyway. So I ask if he's stuck and he says no and goes to drive away. Soon I hear much more commotion as now he is stuck in the ditch in our front yard.
Poor guy!
He tried several times to get out but couldn't. Eventually I came out in my snowpants with a shovel, but what can I really do to get a 2 ton truck out of a ditch!? He had already called the tow truck and didn't need to come wait in the house.
Anyway, they got him out and now we are the owners of these huge lawn ruts.
My neighbor stopped by today to tell me she'd taken pictures of the truck because she didn't know if I knew who did it or not. That was thoughtful! Can you imagine coming home to that and no explanation?! Anyway, poor guy, probably made him so behind in his day.
We had a nice toasty day inside and then later when the roads were all cleared went to book club. We read "A Man Called Ove" this time and it was so good!
While we were gone Doug spent hours building a fort around his firepit.
Hard to see in the picture with the white snow, but 2-3 foot walls off the corners of the deck, his dream is to make like a huge igloo around it. We'll see, of course wife Debbie Downer was asking why spend all that time when it's supposed to warm back up. But boys will be boys :) I have to admit a huge igloo with a firepit inside would be pretty cool. Get building!

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

life lately

Made a tasty dinner last night, bad picture though. Veggie burgers, side of roasted potatoes, and spicy acorn squash.
After dinner we ate some brownies and ice cream, listened to Christmas music and decorated the tree.
I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping! It's been really fun this year.
So there is a woman I used to work with at my old hospital job and she keeps sending me random gifts for August! It's super kind and generous, altho also a bit strange as I wasn't that close to her. I don't know, maybe she just loves babies and her love language is gift giving! Those little Santa feet are so fun.
Another gift he received were these fun books from my friend Missouri Jill. Moby Dick and Les Miserables, the second one has one page English/ one page French. Pretty cool, except I have no idea how to pronounce the French side!
I saw this one day and was laughing so hard:
Haha! So true! I'm always asking Doug to help me with something.
My brother and his family are coming to town in T- 1 week, so excited! I'm so happy I have this time off to enjoy it and really treasure the family time. It will be the first time they meet him and he meets his cousins, fun!
And now for a stream of August pictures:
blue eyes for now!
I find myself just wanting to remember every detail about him. I love his baby soft hair. It's so short on top and like an inch long in the back. A little mullet already! And it's always all mussed up when he's done nursing or sleeping. So precious.
sweet little baby
he liked his bath bucket more this time
in the family rocker, me and my siblings were all rocked in this chair, and now I get to rock my own baby.
I thought it was so sweet he was blowing bubbles, only later did I realize he had his first cold :( although he seems much better now! Praise God. Even a little cold made me so worried. He looks super blonde in this picture.
such a sweetie.

Monday, December 5, 2016

a crafty Christmas

After making one of these for a friend's baby this year I thought, hmmm maybe I should make one for my own baby?!? So I did.
Then a little glue and a 25 cent piece of black felt personalized his own $3 stocking
Might as well do September's while I already have the glue out!
cute, cheap and fun!

Monday, November 28, 2016

4 week update

So 4 weeks in. August has grown out of most of his newborn clothes, tear! Little baby growing up. He's also been fussier. Hmpf. And he's into his cloth diapers, which so far has been ok until my friends today said I shouldn't use microfiber inserts because they are too drying and will give him a rash. Boo, already bought 15 of them!
Anyway, we had a very nice Thanksgiving at Doug's parents and my parents came too so we could do all the family stuff at once.
Last night my parents came over and babysat August so we could go to the movies. We saw Hacksaw Ridge and it was gory but a good movie.
Some pictures from our week: