four months

Yesterday, we finally had G's four month well visit (even though he will soon be 5 months old). Just another reminder that our baby is, truthfully, the most perfect and cutest baby that ever existed. Oh, I'm sorry, did you just throw up in your mouth? Okay, then I guess I'll just get to the stats:

Height: 25 1/4 in. (50th percentile)
Head circumference: about 17 in. (50th percentile)
Weight: 16 lbs 10 oz (75th percentile.... last time he was in the 90th percentile for weight so this is good)

Developmentally, he's perfect and everything looks great. We also got the green light to start feeding him rice cereal in place of one bottle feeding but no other solids until 6 months. So... what did I do last night? Fed him cereal, of course! I just couldn't wait. At first, G just wasn't sure that was a rollercoaster he wanted to ride but he caught on pretty quickly and we both got some good laughs. I'll just let the pictures do the rest of the talking...

instant craftification

As promised, here are pictures of the baby invitations I made for the baby shower Kathy is hosting. There is a feeling I get after finishing a small project like this that I like to call "instant craftification." Finishing a craft-kind-of project is just so satisfying! Especially when it can be completed in a few hours or even a whole day. I'm an instant craftification girl all the way and this one definitely fit the bill. Kathy's first and only big request was that they be shaped like onesies. I inquired about colors (bright blues, greens...), embellishments (buttons and brads), size, envelopes and her choice of wording. I made them all a little bit different with the same overall feel, layout and color scheme. So without further ado...

(orange splotches compliments of the aybaybay address protection agency. or that i'm just too paranoid to post anyone's address on my little space in the interwebs)


The text is printed on vellum which I laid over varying printed papers.


For the onesie "snaps," I used solid brads on some and button brads on others. All of the upper buttons were random and different for each invitation. (EDIT: They are expecting a boy so I feel the need to point out that the text area is light red and NOT pink as it looks.)


That's all, folks. :)

a holiday picnic

I know this is late but I AM a procrastinator through and through...

On Sunday we went to my parents' for a Memorial Day picnic. Afterward we met up with some of our Athens friends for a dinnertime get together. Good food, good family, good friends, sweet baby, good times... and that's about it. Really... there isn't much more to say about it.

Pictures of our weekend picnic (at my parents')... (well... really, it's just a lot of pictures of G).

Another rare picture of the two of us.


Not much better than G-daddy lovin


For about a second I thought G's cheeks were getting smaller. Until I saw this picture.


Never wants to sit, only wants to stand.


Mama, where's MY turkey burger?!

bottle it up

Warning: this post will be horrendously boring unless you have a teeny ounce of interest in baby bottles.

Among all of the questions I get from expecting mamas in Target's baby aisle(s), "Which bottles do you use?" is one of the most frequent. (Um, why did I never think to ask questions in the baby aisle when I was pregnant??) I really don't know why people ask me this but somewhere along this mama journey I'm on, I actually have developed a few "thoughts" on bottles. I'll keep it simple, promise.

My biggest gripe? Medela's bottles. Or maybe I should say any bottle that is "made" to go with the pump. I fell into that trap big time with Medela. Stocked up on a whole bunch of Medela brand bottles thinking they were just the ones that would fit the pump or that they were just somehow more fit for storing breastmilk. Made perfect sense at the time. How wrong I was! If you are considering a Medela pump... any standard bottle will fit the shield. In a pinch (when my sink was totally full of empty Medela bottles) I've used other standard neck bottles such as Dr. Browns and even the glass Munchkin bottles. Don't get me wrong, I love Medela, but their bottles are expensive and are certainly not the only shoe that fits. And if you use or received some wide neck brand bottles like, say, Avent... they make a piece that adapts the Medela shield to the Avent bottle.

My second biggest gripe? ... leaking. I LOVE wide neck bottles. For nursing and pumping I don't care, but when I'm mixing formula, wide-neck is what I want. (It's cleaner, plain and simple.) BUT... the Avent bottles, though I do love their wide necks and all of their cuteness (if you can even call a bottle "cute," anyway) leak like crazy if the collar isn't screwed on just so. This drives me CRAZY. Any kind of leakage drives me crazy because, really, who likes a sticky mess?

My favorite? Born Free. Hands down. And if I had to pick a very close second, it would be Dr. Browns. Both have venting systems. Dr. Browns is great with the pump (standard neck) and Born free is wonderful for formula (wide neck, my favorite). If I had to pick a winner I'd pick Born Free, hands down, every time. Never once had a leak, clean-up is fine and they've always been BPA-free. If we had money to blow and didn't already have dozens of other bottles, I'd stock my whole cupboard with them, I love them so much.

Well, now that my interest factor just decreased 2910831 points, I'll leave it at that. So, to my two readers who have asked me about this in recent weeks, I hope this is helpful. If nothing else, at least you are now a few wasted minutes closer to meeting that sweet little baby!

shkoo's out

Well... technically school has been out but today was my last work day!

C'mon, sweet summertime, we're ready!

so many babies, so many reasons to craft

Remember way back when I was crafting? (You know, when I actually had time to craft. And by time I mean almost-no-time-at-all.) And how I was about to send out some gifts? Well, I finally did. And so now I can share.

It seems like everybody's havin' them some babies! The Scobeys are expecting a sweet little girl any time now so I thought maybe I should finally send her gift before she actually arrives. Also, Paul's cousin Betsy will be welcoming a baby boy in the next couple of months.

I know that all baby gifts are technically for the baby... but I'd rather give things that are helpful or provide a little sanity when the baby arrives. And, though you might initially think cutesie burp cloths to be excessive and silly, I can tell you right now that sometimes that was the one thing that made me not feel quite so bad when I was just a mere blob of sweatpants and spit up slumped in the corner of our couch. And if you have to wear the things on your shoulder for the next however-many months, you might as well look cute doing it, right? I received a few like this and I stand by my statement that they are one of my favorite baby gifts ever. Hence my decision to craft and let them take over my dining room table.

The Scobeys decided on a bird theme for their wee girl's nursery so in addition to paneled burp cloths, I appliqued a bird silhouette onto a 3-6 month onesie for little Evie (another one of my favorite baby things we received -- clothes bigger than 0-3 months). I made the stitching a little haphazard and left the cotton edges so that they will fray just a little bit with washing. (I guess the onesie really is for Evie after all.) Other sanity items for Ashley: LilyPadz (a real lifeshirt saver in those early weeks of nursing) and side-snap shirts for Evie (G was not a fan of clothes being forced over his floppy head so these were a must-have for us).



paneled burp cloths:





For Betsy, I sent three paneled burp cloths (two shown below) and since I'm not sure whether or not she intends to nurse, I got an Adiri nurser which is great for breast or bottlefeeding.





I'm getting better with the sewing machine and with summer upon me, I'll probably find a lot more time for it. But first, I am making baby shower invitations for Kathy's brother's baby who will be arriving at the end of the summer. (Random fact about me: I used to sell handmade greeting cards on Etsy and last summer I made 150 place cards and table cards for a wedding in New York City.) I'm a day behind on finishing the sample (I lost my vellum!) so I'll post when they're finished.

Who doesn't love babies??

done!

First year of teaching - DONE! Man, what a year. I'm still processing everything I've learned and already planning for what I can improve on next year. But for now, I just want to focus on the fact that I made it through in one piece! Three more workdays and it's sweet, sweet summertime with my little fam.

we celebrate mother's day now?

Well, technically we have always celebrated Mother's Day. But now we celebrate Mother's Day. It was another one of those I'm a mom?? moments for me.

We went out of town over the weekend to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach for a wedding on the Hebert side of Paul's family. Too short a trip but still a much-needed break and very refreshing. G went "swimming" for the first time, met a whole lotta family and went to his first wedding. I prepared for the worst but hoped for the best and I've gotta say we have one insanely incredible infant. I mean, pshhh, I knew that already but really... he is the best.

As far as Mother's Day... we spent most of it coming home but went out for some totally terrific tapas at Casa Mia when we got back to Athens (goat cheese might be my new favorite thing ever... you know, in case you were wondering). I know a lot of people are very into the big gifts and grand gestures for Mother's Day, but nothing will ever top having the privilege of being this sweet boy's mama. This is the best gift...







And as for my non-bloggyness lately... all of my own words can't even touch this poem:

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye 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 his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But 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.

maxin' and relaxin'

he's so his daddy's child.

who? me? nahhhhh, not me!

Following MckMama's lead, I'm starting Not Me! Mondays. If you want to get dirty and participate in the fun, too (and I hope you do!), go here to get the scoop. Sometimes it's just plain funny (or more like horrifying) to look back at my mishaps. Here I go... if you're not into dirty you might want to Stop. Here. I'll give you a little space to reconsider before moving on...

It has most certainly not been almost a week since G had a full-on, in-the-baby-tub bath. He'll get one tonight but I don't know why I would even need to say that because it has definitely not been that long.

And I know I did NOT leave his folded clothes on top of the reading basket in his room for, ohhh... half the week. Yeah, definitely wasn't me.

My clothes are clean and always put away so I most definitely did not use the dryer as my closet for the past three days. I always put my clothes straight away when the dryer buzzes. Got laundry? I'm on TOP of it!

I love to craft but if you're thinking that my dining room has been used as craft storage for the past two months, you would be oh so wrong. I would never use the dining room table for sewing storage. Ever.

We love food and we love t.v. but I would never even dream of eating on the couch. Every day and night. For every meal we eat at home. Just no. Absolutely not.

While all of the above things I didn't do might not seem too bad for some, this one also might not. I can in no way (AT ALL) relate to MckMama when I say that I would never, ever in a million years dream of using G's too-small diapers for something other than their intended purpose. And even if I did think to use them for something other than diapering (Paul uses them to clean up spilled Coke in his car), I wouldn't dream of posting about it on the www. Nope.

So... spill it! What did you not do last week?

strollin' under the influence

If ever I regret not having taken a picture, it might have been yesterday.

Paul went to school so G and I were just chillin' like villains. Our neighborhood had a 'hood-wide garage sale and then a neighborhood social planned for the evening. We do have things we could sell but not quite enough to make a complete garage sale so we'll just save up for next year. Honestly, most of my sale-worthy goods are clothes, shoes and handbags that I could certainly get a little more money for at Plato's closet so that's my plan for the time between school is out and my surgery in June. Anyway... what I'm saying is we spent the morning walking around the 'hood, checking out other people's sales, talking to neighbors and generally enjoying the outdoors before it started raining. Once the rain came, we went to Barnes and Noble to look for baby books and flip through some magazines (maybe my favorite thing ever: rainy day + bookstore + good book/trashy magazine + seasonally appropriate beverage. Annnd yes, I know you're thinking, "You still don't have a baby book for G?!" Well... no, I don't, but I have been keeping record of all of his milestones and big firsts. Baby books are ugly and I'm holding out for a cute one. Or I'll give up and just make a photobook and somehow throw the milestones in there anway.) Ah-hem... anyway... back to my point of photo regret... or coulda-woulda-shoulda... or "how did I not see this coming?"...

In keeping with the relaxing spirit of the day (and my dwindling latte budget), I opted for a diet IBC Root Beer when we made our way to the BN cafe. After officially ruling out all of my baby book options and flipping through a few of my favorite home design magazines we left and went to the Old Navy next door in search of a bathing suit to hopefully flatter (camoflauge) the post-baby physique. As per usual for a Saturday, there were a good number of women and their daughters eyeing summer dresses, polos, etc... and, also usual for a Saturday out-and-about, I was getting a lot of curious looks which are usually either because I'm young ("is he... yours?") or because G is the cutest ever and everyone wants to gobble him up. Definitely didn't even cross my mind that I was pushing a stroller with what looked to be a cold beer in the mama cup holder. So when I finally realized what they were all looking at, I just silently begged to escape without some stranger scolding me. Well.. nore more than two minutes later, a woman with her tween-age daughter just had to offer her $.02: "Well I hope you're not driving." ... "Ummm, it's root beer?" I'm sure she just walked away thinking, "Riiiiight."

I so wish I had taken a picture of that because when I saw myself in the mirror after that I just had to laugh. I can't even make it sound as funny as it looked. But even though it was just root beer this time who's to say I won't make it an O'Doul's next time?? Hah.

lurve

like a champ