When Chelsea Visits

Chelsea came to town last month and we had such a great time with her.

We hadn't seen her since Christmas and eight months is just too long to go without seeing your siblings if you can help it! She hadn't met Hannah yet, so we had planned for her to come stay a week to visit and help out however she could.

Jayce ran to the door when she arrived and then ran away so that she would chase him. Normally whenever Chelsea comes to visit Grandma comes as well, so she was excited to have Jayce's attention to herself, and Jayce was excited to have a playmate.

For the rest of Chelsea's stay, Jayce would periodically build her a castle, as he does with anyone who is in his favor. (Not that you weren't special, Chelsea.) But unlike everyone else, he went to work on this immediately when he woke up. As in, Chris and I would hear him get up in the morning, run across his room, and then hear the blocks banging against one another as he constructed a "cool very big castle for Chelsea." He would then push his creation (built on the wagon for ease of travel) down to the guest room to present to a still-sleeping Chelsea. Some mornings we held him off a bit to let her sleep, some mornings we didn't.

I was a little worried at first when Chelsea told me she was coming for a week, because unlike all of her previous trips which are filled with large home projects, trips out of town for shopping and other fun activities, I knew that this one would be pretty low key. As in, none of that. I was a little worried that she'd be bored and ready to go home early. But she wasn't. (Or if she was, she hid it well.)

Instead of any fun major activities, she helped out where ever we needed her. Things like Hannah's bath time. Normally I give Hannah a bath alone since Chris is upstairs giving Jayce a bath at roughly the same time. Not that I need help, I just want someone else there to keep a hand on her so I can get a few bath time pictures. Like these ones where she was working those legs up and down up and down. It was pretty funny to flip through these on the camera, it was like a little flip book...except on a camera.

There were also a few occasions where Hannah was being a bit fussy, so Chelsea took her outside and walked her around to calm her down.

She was in town for Jayce's open house and had agreed to watch Hannah while Chris and I took him to his school. We thought it was just going to be a "meet the teacher, see the classroom" type of thing, and she wanted to see his class too, so we all went. Which meant that Jayce had a serious entourage for his first pre-day. Mom, Dad, Aunt, and sister for a 2 day a week half day program. It was funny.

Chelsea helped me with the nursery, our biggest project of the week. She was originally planning to help paint and assemble it all, but since that didn't work out I saved the decorating for when she'd be around. Which was pretty easy to do with the whole "bed rest so don't go upstairs" and then the "I have a newborn so I need to sleep with any spare time" things I had going on.

So she helped me decide what to hang where, matted photos for me, helped me pick which fabric to make into throw pillows, tied the bumpers onto the crib with cheerleader-grade bows, etc.

Chelsea always keeps my ego in check when we work on these projects as well. Over the past several months she has told me, "You're painting the nursery GRAY?! Yikes, that will be so depressing. It's a baby's room!" When I told her about the crepe paper pom poms, "Yeah, don't make those," and asked with disdain, "What is this 'bunting' you keep talking about?"

Also, in the past,

"Wait, let me guess, you're going to paint it blue."

"You are obsessed with burlap."

"Why do you always paint numbers on things?"

I keep saying, "Chelsea, trust me. It will look good." She usually likes it in the end, but still doesn't trust me from the beginning. Maybe someday. :)

Regardless of the hard time that she gives me, I always sign up for more, saving certain projects for whenever she'll be around so that I can get her opinion, and then suggest something that she'll think is ridiculous. :)

We all loved having her here. Chris could get a bit more work done since he didn't need to rush home to help with the kids, Hannah spent plenty of time cooing and snuggling with her, Jayce had a playmate who would wrestle with him and let him play Angry Birds on their phone, and I had my sister around to hang out with and harass. It was a perfect trip.

The morning after she left, Jayce woke up and said, "Mom, I go wake up Aunt Chelsea?" and we were sad.

Come back soon Chels! We love you!

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On Nurseries, Naps and Non-Cameras

There are many things happening around here lately, each of them could have their own post, but I doubt that will happen. Oh, to have the time to write about everything that I think is funny, terrible, beautiful or random. Someday, perhaps.

1.) I made this plaque for Hannah's nursery and put the tutorial on Lemon Tree today. I just love it!

I sang this song to my sweet little bump throughout my pregnancy and still do so when I'm rocking her. It is exactly how we feel about her addition to our family and our lives, so I was so pleased to get it into her nursery.

I came up with the idea while I was on bed rest and it was killing me to not be able to execute it. I kept trying to justify how I could do it but still be "resting," (maybe if Chris stains the wood, and then brings me the paint, and then I can do it at the kitchen table with my feet up...), but in the end I just waited until after Hannah was born. I love the colors too. The sunny yellow is the same shade I used for the damask on her walls.

2.) Speaking of the nursery, it is FINALLY finished! Chelsea came to town last weekend to visit and was a perfect sounding board for helping me figure out where to put everything. Now it is perfect!! I'll post pictures soon, I just need to go through and edit them all. I'll be posting the nursery reveal on Lemon Tree next Monday so I'll definitely have them by then. I promise there will be entirely too many pictures. :)

3.) Jayce has not been taking his naps. It is unfortunate timing, because some of those days I REALLY need for him to sleep.

I have tried the "resting" thing, and I don't think it's working. Once I have spent over an hour answering calls from his room and telling him to go lay down in his bed, I realize that defeat is on the horizon. At this point I regroup, and tell Jayce that if he's not going to sleep than he needs to rest quietly in his room. At first he was only allowed to read in his bed, but then he would take a few toys into bed, and they would end up zooming around the room, and now he just pretty much pulls out every toy for an hour or so and plays with it. He also continually comes to the door to tell me what he's playing with or ask if he can come downstairs yet.

Just when I feel like I am about to reach a breaking point, Jayce comes to the door to inform me that he has built me a castle. Then he'll run down, grab me by the hand, drag me along saying, "Come Mom. Come come come, I made you a present." Last week when he showed me my castle, he said, "Mom, you take a picture of your castle?" and then stood by it for a photo op. That's my boy. :)

Seriously though, how do I get him to stay in there and read? Or just stay in there at all?

4.) Friday was the end of a cumulatively exhausting week for all of us. I only got about 5 1/2 hours of interrupted sleep for 4 nights in a row, and was starting to feel physically sick from it, kind of like you feel when you have jet lag. Chris taught a week-long intensive class, so he was exhausted by Friday as well. Our air conditioning stopped working mid-day on Friday and is still not fixed. We all had a long night that night because poor Jayce couldn't get himself comfortable enough to get settled down and fall asleep, and we both were upstairs with him at different points in the night.

Saturday morning Chris took Jayce with him to help the students move into the dorms, so that I could have a chance to catch up on some rest. When they got home this happened. I think Chris intended to only stay by Jayce for a few minutes until Jayce fell asleep, but they both slept like this for over 2 hours. I snuck in to take a picture with Chris' phone and it didn't phase them a bit.

5.) I am currently camera-less.

I bought a new camera and sold my old camera. I made the buyer wait until my new camera arrived before I would sell my old one because I didn't want to have a period of camera-less-ness. But after playing with my new (used) camera for a few days, I noticed that the sensor was dirty in major way. The above picture is of a white wall, and all of the crap is on the lens, which means that it would show up in all of my pictures. Uuuuuggggggggrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!! (If you feel like that is the noise that would come from a combination of Ugh and Grr, than you would be right. And you can imagine me saying it, with my fists balled up, through clenched teeth, as I yell to Chris, "There is crap all over this lens!!!!" ) I called the company, sent back my camera and have a replacement on the way. But I will be without a camera for about 2+ weeks.

It's probably crazy, but this makes me sad, and I feel slightly crippled without it. I use my camera at least 6 days a week, so having nothing to take pictures with, not even a camera phone, is a strange thing. But I should look on the bright side. Maybe I'll catch up on my editing and actually blog about all of the things that I already have pictures of!! No, I doubt it. But I'll try. :)

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Lyrics

My friend was just sharing on her blog how her daughter was singing a worship song in the car, and it made me think of something similar that has been going on around our house that I want to remember.

I mentioned before how Jayce has started singing along with everything these last few weeks, and I've been surprised by how many lyrics he knows of different songs.

Last week, he started singing I Love You Lord, and it's so sweet! It's even cuter than normal because of the little 3 year old voice, with 3 year old pronunciations, and 3 year old word mix-ups. It goes a bit like this.

I wuv you word,

and I wift my boys,

to worship you

oh my sword, rejoice...

Great, right?!

He's also been singing this, with profound accuracy.

Country girl, shake it for me, girl. Shake it for me, girl. Shake it for me.

I just hope he doesn't sing it at school.

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When You're Two Months Old

When you're two months old, you are a joy. A complete joy.

I hadn't forgotten this stage from when your brother went through it, but your dad had. This morning out of nowhere he said, "You're right. This is just the best stage!" I love when he admits that I'm right. :) Though, if I recall correctly, I'll think the same thing about 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months...

You are still small and snuggly. A small enough baby that people creep over when we're in public and whisper, "Ooooo, a tiny baby! How old is she?"

Small, but big enough (or maybe old enough?) that you are sleeping well at night. Not all the way through yet, but you are giving us 6-7 hour stretches and we are happily taking them.

You are old enough to be in more of a routine, which helps me out a ton. It's not a perfect routine yet, but again, I'll take it. You eat roughly every 3 1/2 hours, and sleep for a few in between so that I can play with your brother and take care of a few things around the house. We all appreciate it.

You have been around long enough that we have much more confidence about what is happening when you cry. I can tell if you are just a bit fussy and need to be left alone, or if you have a burp or something bothering your tummy and need to be consoled. It is such a relief to be out of the newborn guessing game stage, though I didn't mind it nearly as much as your dad did. :) He just likes to be in control of things, and we love him for that.

We have finally figured out the things that I eat that actually bother your stomach, as opposed to the guessing game that we played at the beginning, where it seemed that nothing was safe. Now we know that too much dairy or any pizza is going to give you a bad night, so we avoid it. Your dad isn't happy about the pizza part at all.

Whenever you're awake you are an absolute doll. You are talking now, to everything. Cooing at the fan, staring intently at the lights, moving your head and eyes to follow us around the room, and smiling so sweetly. We have conversations with you regularly. At 7 and 8 weeks you had started cooing, but by 9 weeks you respond to almost every word. I put you in your crib, hoping to get some pictures of you staring up at your mobile, but you had other ideas, and couldn't pry your eyes from the ceiling fan. AKA, the real mobile.

Your smile lights us up. We are so happy to have this sweet reward every time that we walk by you in your seat, when we place you on the changing table, or when I lay you across my lap to feed you. Your eyes are so inquisitive, searching back and forth across our faces, and they smile right along with your big sweet grin.

The "swimming" of last month, where you waved your arms around and kicked your legs slowly is gone. It has been replaced by vigorous marching, or "ladder climbing," where your legs are constantly moving up and down, up and down, along with your arms, as though you're climbing a ladder.

Your 2 month shots were a real stress. Your brother stopped crying almost immediately at his first set of shots, but you kept gasping for breath and wailing for so long that I had to feed you before we left the doctor's office. You were in a perfect mood that afternoon, but when we went out to eat that night, something was bothering you and we had to leave early due to your inconsolable screaming. But by the next day you were as happy as could be.

Despite the fact that you are small in terms of babies, you are big in terms of 2 month olds.

At birth you weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz, but now you are 11 lbs, 13 oz, in the 77th percentile.

At birth you were 20 1/2 inches long, but now you are 26 inches long, in the 99th percentile.

You have such a strong neck and torso and are starting to have control over it. At one month you would periodically head butt your mouth into my collarbone, which never ended well. But now, you hold yourself straight up, or fling your head and body to the side trying to land in your preferred position in the crook of my arm. Sometimes you fling yourself in the wrong direction and smack your head into my jaw, which is bad for us both. But then I get to snuggle and console you a bit, so I guess it doesn't end too badly.

You are the prettiest little thing. I have thought from the beginning that you looked like a girl, even when you still had that generic newborn baby look. It had something to do with your eyes, but I couldn't figure out what it was at first, maybe the shape? But now I know, it's your eyelashes. They curl on the outsides of your eyes, almost with a little cat-eye effect, and it's so pretty. It reminds me of when I was little and would draw people. The girls had long hair and 3 little eyelashes on the outsides of their eyes to designate them as girls, and the boys had short hair and no eyelashes. Your eyelashes remind me of that. It's sweet.

I'm so glad that you're mine. Happy 2 months.

Linking to the Weiglands, and Embrace the Camera.

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Hannah's Puff Quilt

I am so thrilled to finally show off one of my favorite baby projects, and the item that was my source of inspiration for the rest of Hannah's nursery, my sweet girl's puff quilt!!!

A few months after I discovered that I was pregnant, I started browsing for fabrics and color schemes for the nursery. I saved several photos and links, and upon going back through them I realized that there was a lot of yellow, aqua, and turquoise. The colors still seemed soft and sweet because they were often paired with white cribs and furniture, or in rooms with white trim or white walls. Since our baby furniture and wooden trim is walnut colored, and I didn't feel like painting it, I knew that I wanted white to have a real presence in each of the fabrics to bring some of that airy lightness.

I saw the stunning puff quilts that Heidi of Honey Bear Lane created for her customers, and poured over the pattern that she created, trying to decide if I could take on such an ambitious project. I emailed her and said something like, "Can a beginner sewer do this?" and she responded sweetly, "You could definitely make this quilt! I was a beginner when I made my first puff quilt, and I didn't have a pattern to follow, I was just winging it. Just don't expect complete perfection." (I'm add libbing a bit here, but it was something like that.)

With that, I decided that I would attempt to make a puff quilt for my new little one, and I dove headfirst into the world of fabric.

Almost all of my fabric was ordered online and I had an excellent experience. I found that most sellers were more than willing to indulge questions like, "Is this more of a sky blue, a turquoise blue or an aqua blue?" Several of them sent me fabric swatches to help me make up my mind, and they were all just so sweet to work with. I raced out to the mailbox every day and was delighted to find beautiful little bundles of fabric, all ready to be washed, ironed and cut. There were a few designs that weren't just right for the quilt but I didn't mind. I know that I'll put them to use in some other baby project in the future.

I had never made a quilt before and I loved mixing up the different fabrics to see which combinations complimented one another the best.

I experimented with different patterns and layouts, and took pictures of my different options so that I could choose my favorite.

Heidi's tutorial walked me through the process beautifully, and each step was broken down so that I never felt overwhelmed by the project as a whole.

I got to check off several "I have never ___ before" items after completing this project.

-I have never pieced a quilt together.

-I have never made bias tape. (Yes, she ever taught me how to make my own bias tape!)

-I have never sewn mitered corners before. (Is that the right lingo? I am still learning to speak the sewing language. :)

I made sure that the fabric used in the quilt made it's way into various projects around the nursery. Some of them I have shared already, like the fitted crib sheet and the ruffled crib skirt. But I still have a few more to share in the next few weeks.

Curious about the fabric that I used in this project?

1.) Michael Miller, Ta Dots in Ocean

2.) Yellow Ticking Stripe

3.) Cloud Nine Fabrics, Ele-Fete in Sky

4.) Riley Blake, Bloom and Grow Paisley in Blue

5.) Michael Miller, Ta Dots in Aqua

6.) Alexander Henry, Matisse in Yellow

7.) Riley Blake, Bloom and Grow Geometric in Blue

8.) Cloud Nine Fabrics, Ele-Fete in Shell

The binding is white seersucker, purchased from Hancock Fabrics. The back and bias tape are also Michael Miller Ta Dots in Ocean.

This quilt was definitely a labor of love.  It helped me to pace myself in the pregnancy, not that I had much of a choice, but the slow "one thing at a time" way of putting together a quilt reminded me of the slow but necessary way that her little body was being formed, and not to try to wish away the time.
I cannot take all of the credit for this beauty.  I had paced myself to finish 4 weeks before she was due, which was when I assumed I would be starting to get incredibly uncomfortable and too distracted to work on something like this.  However, the bed rest threw a glitch into that whole thing.  I had finished everything up until the binding, so my mom sewed the binding on it late one night when she came to visit after Hannah was born.  I showed her all of the tutorials that I had been saving, we watched a few videos on YouTube, and she pulled it off.  And it's so beautiful!!

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