Craft Club and a Cocktail Party

This was an exciting fun filled weekend for Kenny and I. Mema came into town on Saturday allowing for some time to ourselves on Saturday and Sunday.

Craft Club was Saturday evening hosted by the founder Julie. She was super patient as we all hammered away making necklaces. My first one turned out great. The 2nd one I tried didn't go so well. I had to get Adalyn home for bedtime, so I wasn't able to stay for the whole evening. But I hear everyone was up late chatting away.


After handing Addie off to Mema and getting dressed. Kenny and I were off to his co-workers annual cocktail party. Kenny was originally going to go by himself, but with the surprise visit from Mema a day early I was able to go with him. I did sacrifice my first block of sleep by being out. But it was nice to get all dressed up and have some time to hang out with some adults.


Sunday Kenny and I had a lunch date, along with a quick stop to Target and Home Depot. We were hoping to get a chance to figure out the new cabinets we need for the kitchen remodel, but we were out of luck. No one at fabulous Home Depot wanted to help us. We did get a chance to look around with out kiddos and have some ideas of where we want to head with the kitchen.

Thanks Mema for holding down the house while we got some time away from the kiddos!

Menu Monday

Monday -- Chicken Parmesan and Cornbread

Tuesday -- Salmon and Rice

Wednesday -- Meatloaf

Thursday -- leftovers

Friday -- Fajitas in the crock pot

Saturday -- leftovers

Sunday Spaghetti and bread

Bumbo

It seems that it doesn't matter what age you are, sitting in the Bumbo is fun!

Pillow Project

A fellow friend/blogger posted a great idea on how to make sewless pillows. Since my brother made us blankets like this a few years ago, I figured if he could make it then I certainly could do it. I had been running out of ideas for Shane and I in the project area and there just so happened to be two unused pillows laying around the house. Off to Joanne's we went to get fleece. With a little direction Shane picked out his fleece (he really really wanted the Buzz Lightyear, but it was more expense and uglier, so Mean Mommy said no).

The idea had been to work on this project together, but that didn't happen. Shane did entertain himself a large portion of the time by cutting the fleece scraps into little pieces. He was quiet and happy and that makes me SUPER happy, even if I did all the work.

My pillows were a different shape then Nona used for her pillow project, so I totally winged the dimensions. They aren't perfect by any means, but Shane was happy with them.

Flashback Friday

These pictures don't mean as much to you as they do to me. But I vividly remember taking these pictures the morning after Shane had slept through the night the very first time!! We went back and looked at Shane's first year calendar the other night to remind us when that was. He was days away from turning 4 months old and was weighing in at 12 pounds. I've heard that babies start sleeping through the night when they weigh between 12-15 pounds. Adalyn is coming up close to 12 pounds. Here is to hoping that sleeping through the night follows that!!

And of course his little mohawk! So cute.

Wordless Wednesday

Conversations With Shane

There are so many times through out the day that I have a conversation with Shane or he just says something funny and I want to remember it forever. Hence, the new blog "column": Conversations With Shane.

Last week as we were getting ready to go to Addie's 2 month doctor visit, Shane and I had this conversation.

Me: Shane, do you want to take anything with you to the doctors or in the car? Maybe a toy or a book?

Shane: (He starts to walk to his bedroom) Yay, I think I should take a quiet toy.

Me: Why a quiet toy?

Shane: So when the doctor listens to Addie's heart she can hear it okay.

Really!?! What foresight for a 3.5 year old!!!

Menu Monday

I am super impressed by last weeks dinners. Every single one of them got made. Let's see how this week goes.

Monday -- leftovers from Sunday's Goulash

Tuesday -- Halibut

Wednesday -- leftovers (if there is enough)

Thursday -- Crock Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Chicken

Friday -- leftovers

Saturday -- Macaroni and Cheese Casserole

Sunday -- leftovers

Sleep....

Addie and her buddy Seahorse catching some zzzzzz's in the swing.

It seems little Adalyn either is doing hardly any of this or a lot of this. She has one good day/night of sleeping which is then usually followed by one or two not so good days/nights not sleeping. A "good" day is any nap over 1 hour 3+ times over the course of the day. A "good" night is 5 hours straight to start out. A "bad" day is when she won't sleep longer then 45 minutes in a row and then usually that night she'll start out with a 2-3 hour stretch followed by waking up every hour or so after that.

Some days we can get her to sleep in minutes and other days it takes over an hour. Some days she'll suck on a pacifier, others she screams bloody murder if you even get it close to her mouth. On the upside she isn't sleeping in the Moby attached to me any more!! My back says thank you to that! She has graduated to the swing. Even now sleeping nights in the swing as well.

She may have a case of acid reflux, which we just started medicating her for. Keeping her in an upright position seems to help her not get woken up when she refluxes.

We are crossing our fingers, hoping and waiting for the days when she puts herself to sleep and then sleeps through the night. Those days can't come soon enough!!

Flashback Friday

Shane at two months old (August 2007). 9 lbs 1 oz



Adalyn at two months old (January 2010) 10 lbs 11.5 oz
Man, I knew that Shane was smaller then Addie, but these pictures really show it. You can't tell with Adalyn since she is all covered up, but under her clothes she has little fat rolls. Not like skinny little Shane! Amazing!!! Shane is also so much darker in hair and eyes already at two months. Adalyn is sporting light hair and blue eyes.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Shane and I planted this Amaryllis bulb in the beginning of November before the baby was born. It was slow going but finally we got beautiful flowers out of it the last week.

Renovations Continue

Kenny's (and Shane) have continued working on the pantry project as he (they) can between naps and all the other things that happen in a household of two children. We had my cousin Jeff out to work on the electrical. A major help there! It's coming along. We are now looking into shelving for it. Can't wait for it to be finished.

Looking at it from the kitchen.

The view as you walk in the house from the entry.

Menu Monday

Monday -- Super Easy Fettuccine (new recipe, it's not waist friendly, but what fettuccine is?)

Serves 4 prep time 30 minutes

2 sticks butter

1/2 lb grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Salt

1 lb fettuccine

Directions: using an electric mixer, beat butter and Parmesan until creamy. In large pot of boiling water, cook fettuccine according to pkg. Instructions until al dente, about 12 minutes. Reserve about 1/2 cup of cooking water; drain pasta. Return fettuccine to warm pot. Toss pasta with 1/2 teaspoon salt, cheese mixture,and 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Add more pasta water, as needed. Serve with additional cheese. From Martha Stewart Magazine.

Tuesday -- leftovers

Wednesday -- Country Pie

Thursday -- leftovers

Friday -- Lasagna Soup

Saturday -- leftovers

Sunday -- Goulash

2 months old

Adalyn is two months old today. That is it?!?! Just 8 weeks. I feel like we've been doing this two kid thing a lot longer then 8 weeks.

She is still a super happy baby. Smiling and cooing all the time and rarely crying. But just not sleeping enough and taking cat naps. Which won't allow her to get the deep sleep she needs in order to sleep even more. It seems that if she wakes up to early in the morning the day is shot for good sleep. I carried her in the Moby for 4 hours the other day just to keep her sleeping. We are praying this phase ends soon! Last night for the first time ever, she was in her bassinet asleep at 8:30. Hopefully this will start helping.

One thing I have noticed is that she is now happy to sit in her bouncy chair or kick and play on the floor or with her play mate. Since we are holding her ALL the time to keep her sleeping, it's nice to be able to sit her now for 10 minutes and have her play happily. She is even grabbing for her little friends that hang in front of her, too.

It appears that we've decided to spell her nickname this way: Addie

Cloth Diapering

(my subject wouldn't cooperate and look at the camera)

We are into day #4 of cloth diapering. So far, so good. I've been trying a whole bunch of different varieties and brands of diapers. I've only had one leak and that was a diaper cover that I think was just to small. I've even washed a load already. There was a little problem of staining. I'll need to do some research on that portion of the washing to resolve that issue.

I like the Velcro fasteners better, but I didn't like when they where washed and got stuck to everything. I see the benefits of the snaps then. I have an All In One that I like, but it took forever to dry. A couple of them seem really bulky and I don't like that. There was one that I thought her bottom was super wet feeling after I changed her and I didn't like that either.

I've tried Thirsties diaper covers. I liked it, but it seemed really big on her. Bottom Bummpers, I liked but hate how it fastens in the back. G diapers, I like also, but it also fastens in the back, which I find extra hard to do. Fuzzi Bunz were good, but expensive to me. And I'm not sure how I feel about the pocket diapers. Feels like an unneeded extra step. I was given about 10 Q-Baby pocket diapers (not even sure if they are around any more). I really like them. They seem to fit her good and absorb the wetness well.

I'll be getting more soon after I decide really what I like to use best. We aren't using them at night right now. Too much other stuff going on to deal with that at for the moment. I just want to get sleep at night right now with out any diaper worries.