Just Pictures

These pictures have been open in photoshop for several days... waiting for me to come up with something clever to write with them. But I got nothing.

Finley really likes the new camera.  The LCD screen on the back is like 4 times bigger, so I think he really likes to see himself after I take a picture.  He's very vain.

I think I would be too though.

Silly Goose

Finley has become quite a silly goose lately.  I think Miss Amy tells him that a lot because he's started walking around the house saying "silly goose, silly goose" or telling Belle "silly Belle."  And he's right, he's a silly goose.  Here are some of his antics from the past week...

Crawling into a grocery bag and laughing hysterically until he couldn't figure out how to escape.  Then he cried as I went to get my camera.  And it was a paper bag--not plastic.  I read the warnings.



I was really busy reading the internet when I heard him clomping around.  Little did I know, I have a very fashion forward little tyke.  Teacups as shoes?  Perfect!

He also pushed his toy lawnmower around with his head--but I didn't get a picture of that.  Who teaches him these things?

37 Weeks

Officially full term.

This is about when I stopped running last pregnancy--but I've decided to keep going a little longer in hopes that I can coax little mister to coming early.  I mean, not really early.  Just like, it would be fun if I didn't have to be induced this time around.  My hip joints are starting to feel a little stretchy when I run (and let's be honest, it's less of a run and more of a mosey) but it feels good to get out and move around.  Knowing that I'm not supposed to run for 6 weeks after the baby comes makes me want to get in just a few more runs now.  Yes, I know I am crazy. I'm ok with that.

My last appointment went well--I'm going to try to schedule being induced on April 11th or 12th.  He's due the 13th, but I'm really not so in to waiting this time.  My doctor said my ankles were lovely--no swelling.  I've kind of stopped gaining weight--I think I got large very early and haven't put on any pounds in the last month.



Although clearly, I have gotten bigger.  That thing is out of control.

But pretty much that's it.  I have a really hard time sleeping and my back hurts.  And I have heartburn.  And a small person continually kicking the right side of my body.  But other than that, no complaints.

The Coolest Way to Spend a Saturday Night

What did you do this Saturday night?

I have a lot to do--I'm having a baby in the next few weeks and there is a lot of preparing that has to be done. Our guest room/office is being turned into a nursery/guest room...  so all of the office stuff needs to be relocated. (That reminds me--who watched The Office?  I CRIED.)  We need to sort through all our junk and find new homes for it--whether it be the trash, a thrift store or some other corner of our house.  Tonight I decided to tackle one of the most important and daunting tasks on my lists--testing all of my pens.



Somehow our house has these little collections of pens all over the place.  I'm borderline obsessed with Sharpies and Paper Mate Flair pens--and Sol routinely brings home 2-3 pens from work.

I seriously think we had close to 500 pens.  I'm not kidding.  And I desperately tried to throw away any ball point pen or pen that was being used as a marketing device--but Sol has some sort of emotional attachment to them and really want to keep them.  Or donate them.  He was fiercely protective of his pens.  I'm submitting his name to "Hoarders."

In the end, these are the pens I am keeping.



And these are the pens that I am not keeping.



Quote from Sol: "So not only are you not letting me keep my pens, you are also going to blog about it to embarrass me.  Cool."

It's non-stop action over her, folks.

A Fwee-Fwee!

One of Finley's newest loves is airplanes, which he calles "fwee-fwees."  I'm not sure what part of "airplane" sounds like "fwee-fwee" but there you have it.  His robot shirt got a little wet today, so he demanded that I let him wear his airplane shirt, even though it was dirty.  So we went outside with the shirt to take some pictures.

He liked to show me the airplane on his shirt (with some drool.)



He liked to look for airplanes in the sky.



And he liked to be generally adorable.

And here is the interview portion of our show... shot with my new Canon 60D!  Love.

23 Months

Finley is 2 years minus 1 month.

After re-reading the post from 22 months... everything is about the same.  He is getting better at talking and stringing a few words together.  He's so fun to play with and is just a joy to be around.  We've started talking a little about the baby in my belly... pretty sure he's still in a for a rude awakening.  Love this boy.

Snapshot Saturday

Welcome to the inaugural Snapshot Saturday... an excuse for me to post a picture when I have no witty/interesting/thoughtful words to include.

I just like this picture and wanted to share it.

The end.

Embrace the CAMERA

No seriously, I'm embracing my camera.  Awhile back, I started selling stuff on Etsy to finance my need to buy MacBook Pros and Canon DSLRs... and finally made enough money to buy a new camera.  The Rebel XT had seen better days.  After lots of long hard thinkings, I decided to buy the Canon 60D with the 18-135mm lens.  And I looooooove it.



I love it so much that I forgot how to take pictures (lens cap off!) and strike really awesome poses whilst I shoot.  36 weeks pregnant + running 3 miles + awkward clothes = really great picture.

(I would like to thank Victoria for taking these pictures and then continuing to be my friend.)

I tried to get Finley to take a picture with me using the awesome swivel screen--but he just wanted to grab the screen, so I have a dozen pictures of me looking awesome with him lunging toward my camera.  Also we were doing some online shopping, so I let Finley pick out which credit card to use.



Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night to hold it and I stare at it and say, "My Preeeecioooooous..."  It's normal.

I'm looking forward to learning more about how to use the camera, because it is currently still a little daunting and certainly has not turned me into the next Ansel Adams or Annie Leibovitz.  Maybe next week?

What Finley Looks Like When He Sleeps

So I got a new camera, which I plan on blogging about tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have taken and plan to take like a million pictures.

First up is Finley before he goes to bed.  He thought it was hi-larious when I was taking his picture because I used the flash--and I rarely use the flash.  He giggled and giggled as he pretended to sleep.  (Ironic that the first pictures I post from the new camera are with a flash. Tsk tsk.)



Things to notice in the pictures.  He must be holding both monkeys and his blanket to sleep.  Also, Vic brought him this ball from Canada that he also needs to hold when he sleeps.  You can also see the evidence on the rails of the crib of what happens after we leave the room--he turns into baby Wolverine and tries to claw his way out.  Just kidding, the bar from the brace he has to sleep in has absolutely massacred the inside of the crib--it looks like a war zone.



Night night Finley!  And my apologies in advance for the slew of pictures and probably boring posts that will come in the following weeks...

Finley's Favorites

Here are two of the things Finley loves to do.

1.  Whatever daddy is doing...  Raking.  Picking up sticks. Picking up dog poop (with his bare hands).  Lounging with his arms out.



2.  Brushing his teeth. On his own. He tolerates us brushing his teeth for a little bit--even though he chomps down on the brush to try to suck the toothpaste off.  But after we brush his teeth he looooves to carry his toothbrush and toothapaste around until we convince him to put it away before bed.  Also he loves to say "AWAY."





And also he loves to wear cute stripey pajamas.

It's Electric.

I know this picture will do nothing to dissuade the "pro-haircut" faction of Finley lovers.  But I obviously like to stir the pot, since I posted an equally ridiculous picture a month ago. (And I'm pretty sure that post got MORE comments than the one announcing baby #2... so I'm glad people care more about Finley's hair than his brother.  Sad face.)

The thing is, if I cut his hair it wouldn't stand up when he goes down the slide.  And then our daily lessons on electricity become significantly more theoretical and less practical.

And--wouldn't this be a sweet profile picture to use to make a silhouette?

His hair will get cut eventually.  Promise. We have some big events coming up and he needs to look his best.  His father and I are in continuous talks as to what needs to be cut and who needs to cut it.  However, when it does get cut, it will be of our own volition... since clearly we disregard half of the comments we get regarding his hair.  But the half of the comments that are "pro-hair" we cling to strongly.

MWAH.

Embrace the Camera... with Dad

My two boys.



Only a month away from being my THREE boys.  What will I do?  I will be so outnumbered.  There will be so much burping and wrestling and trucks.



This little boy is in for a rude awakening... he's about to discover he's not the only little man in my life.

Do you think you can come over and break the news to him for me?  I'm having a hard time explaining to him that I'm going to be holding another little guy instead of him soon.

How to Make Fitted Crib Sheets

There are a lot of things this blog is... actually there is just one thing this blog is.  It's an ode to my child.  There are a lot of things this blog is not... and a craft blog is one of them.  Not because I'm not crafty, I really like to make things.  But more because blogging about stuff you make isn't very fun.  It's not fun to write out directions on how to do stuff, and it is boring to photograph the steps of a project.  And it's very difficult to photograph yourself making something--like actually impossible.

But, I made all the sock monkey nursery stuff for Finley's room and decided to make it for this lil guy's room too.  I was apparently too good to use a pattern the first time, so I made up all the bedding as I went... which means I had to redo all my thinkings for the second go round.  So just in case I'm crazy enough to make bedding for any other kids, at least I can save time because the directions are already written out.  With clever commentary. And terrible pictures--I was totally lame and shot with a flash and then didn't edit these pictures at all, except to add some "helpful" words

It should be noted that the hardest part of making your own crib bedding is that you are pregnant while doing it. All the bending and cutting and lifting and aerobics involved with sewing are tough. Also, it doesn't save you any money.  I bought fancy flannel and it ended up being more expensive than if I bought premade stuff... but it was fun and it is JUST the way I want it.

So the directions:

1.  A standard crib mattress is around 28x52".  I'm a freak and wanted 10" extra on each side to wrap around... you could probably make do with 8".  This means I needed fabric that was 48" wide, and my flannel was only 45" so I had to cut two pieces that were 48" long and sew them together.  This also means there is an unsightly seam running down the center of the sheet... not such a big deal on some fabrics, but on this very geometric, patterned piece, it almost KILLED me not have the circles match up.  Oh it hurt.



Basically, you need a piece of fabric that 16-20" longer than your mattress in each direction.  I estimated my mattress to be 28x52", so I made my fabric 48x72".

2.  Then you need to cut out the corners--if you have yourself 10 extra inches, then you cut out 10 inch squares.  If you have a rotary cutter, you can fold the fabric in quarters and make just one cut for the whole shebang.  I measured out 14" from center and 26" from center and then started my corner there.





3.  Drape the fabric over your mattress to make sure it fits.  I normally end up trimming mine back a little bit--you obviously want the corners of the fabric to be on the corner of the mattress.



4.  Sew the cut out corners together.



5.  Turn the sheet inside out and put it on the mattress.  Then pin up a nifty pocket for your elastic to run through.  You'll need about 90" of elastic.  I've used 1/4" and 1/2" elastic and they both work fine.




6.  As I mentioned, I am a freak and didn't want an unfinished edge on the elastic pocket, even though no one would see it except me.  So as I sewed the pocket, I turned the edge in.  I used a zig zag stitch here since it will be scrunched from the elastic.



7.  Leave a hole to thread the elastic through.

8.  Attach a safety pin to your elastic and push it through--this would be a good job for your husband.  What has he done to help with the nursery anyways?  Make sure to pin the loose end to the sheet so you don't accidentally pull it through.  (Pictures of the elastic were boring.)

9.  Sew the two ends of elastic together.  And then sew up the hole.



Voila!  A very impressive custom crib sheet.  This took me about 4 hours--but I stopped in the middle to make dinner, periodically played with Finley and checked my email, and I had to tear out some serious stitches when my elastic slipped through.  I also had to make up all the directions and do a lot of math, so that took up some time.  When I made the second sheet, it took me about an hour and a half and I took several breaks to watch "Big Love."

So... is it worth it?  I have no idea.  I like sewing and picking out fabric, so I thought it was a blast.  The best part is that the sweet lady at The Flannel Queen gave me a 10% coupon code (MARCH10) for you guys to use in case you want to make something nifty as well!  They have a ton of cute fabric to choose from... so you should check them out.

THE END!

Monkeys on the Slide

One of the best things about watching kids grow up is learning about their preferences.  Finley has quite the affinity for monkeys... this could be because we made him dress up as one for his first Halloween... or that they are plastered all over his nursery... or that he has at least five stuffed monkeys... but I like to think that he decided to like monkeys all on his own.

He insisted on taking all of these monkeys down the slide with him.  Just like he insists on holding all of the monkeys in his crib when he's going to sleep.  He's such a silly kid.  We got new baby two stuffed lions just like Finley's favorite monkey, so I guess that next child is doomed to like lions.   

It's also worth mentioning that Finley refuses to say "monkey" even though he can say "mama" and lots of other M words.  When he wants his monkeys (and as he saw me writing this post) he says "eee eee oooh oooh aaah aaah aaah."  And since none of the monkeys have names, we might just name them "Ee" "Oo" and "Aa" like the monkeys on the Disney Channel.

Pickle Bucket

I've been lamenting that I have nothing to blog about.  Luckily, Vic and I went to Firehouse Subs today and got some exciting things to bring home.

Pickle buckets!  We've been talking about buying them for awhile--they only cost $2 and are kinda cute.  I thought they would be fun to put toys in, Vic thought they would be fun to take up space on her moving truck back to Kansas.  Upon purchasing our glorious buckets, we realized that they actually used to hold a lot of pickles... and they smell like it.  Like, terrible. I pretended all day long that I was going to leave them in Victoria's car over the weekend and she believed me.  Gullible.



I also got these cute hats for Finley and Calvin to wear... they liked them more in theory than in practice.



And they liked them even more when we made them wear them in the stinky pickle buckets.



The pickle buckets are currently on the deck, where they will be until they can smell normal again.