And Just Like That

Yesterday I said goodbye to 34 and hello to 35.

At 34, I: became a working mama; planned my first kiddo birthday party; watched my baby learn to crawl; learn to talk and learn to walk; became obsessed with instagram, colored pants and all things striped; became a regular chai tea drinker; travelled to Chicago, Oregon and San Diego; fell off the blogging and crafting wagon; stopped watching tv; celebrated Aidens first Halloween, Christmas and birthday; made a lot of baby food and devoted a large portion of my life to nursing the babe; started ans stopped project life yet again; spent far too much time on pinning and not enough doing; started the never ending kitchen remodel; went to farmers markets and flea markets; took a lot of walks pushing a stroller or pulling a wagon; took thousands of photos of the worlds cutest baby; welcomed several babies into the world; took more trips to Ikea than I can count; spent hours and hours pushing a swing; planned and co-hosted a baby shower; ate Greek yogurt, granola and apples almost everyday; went to the zoo, the children's museum and the library; painted some fabulous fourth of July nails; lived out of a suitcase for far too long; had a lot of ups and downs and experienced a lot of heartache; became that mom that makes everything homemade; celebrated small student successes; came up with a few plans; decided to make the best of things; became even more independent; ate a lot of great meals; and received more cuddles and hugs and kisses than I ever thought possible.

At 35, I will: finish Aidens baby blanket; return to project life; read more; actually use the things I pin; make big decisions; purge and de-clutter; work on Aidens baby book; take more walks and push more swings; watch my baby turn two; go on more outings; exercise more; spend less; take some classes; cook new things; listen to more music; spend time outside; meet some babies; create new rituals with Aiden; make stuff; blog more regularly; use what I have; buy more local; rest; and spent time with friends and family.

hello 35!

Around Here

Right now I am:

Loving fall break and the extra time to spend with Aiden.

Wanting to get back to blogging and crafting.

Thinking about the future and where my life is headed.

Investigating lots of learning opportunities lately. I seem to be craving knowledge, growth and learning right now.

Eating nothing exciting. I'm bored with food and meals lately and haven't been doing a lot of real cooking.

Watching Aiden grow and change so quickly. Loving the adventure that is motherhood. Wanting desperately to savor and remember every little detail.

Wishing for cooler weather and all that it brings with it. I can't wait to wear boots and tights and sweaters.

Needing to make some major life decisions and struggling with the how's and the whys and the what ifs.

Anticipating the pumpkin wonderland that is October. My favorite month with pumpkins and Halloween and cooler weather and pumpkin treats and fall and did I mention pumpkin?

Anticipating 

Thursday Thankful

Because I need something positive to focus on, Thursday thankfuls return. Today I am thankful for a summer full of this adorable boy:

Summertime Summertime

Once again I have fallen of the blogging wagon. Like many things I used to spend my time doing (scrapbooking, knitting, tv watching...), blogging hasn't been high on my priority list recently; but, I've been thinking about blogging, does that count? It is officially summer for me (has been for about 3 weeks now), so I'm hoping I can start a regular blogging routine again.

Life's a bit unusual right now though and blogging often falls to the bottom of my list, so we'll see.... I've got plenty of things to blog about, since I haven't updated in months. Stay tuned for a recap of Aiden's 9-11 months, pictures and stories from a trip to OR, pictures of a fun baby shower, a kitchen remodel, the return of Tuesday 10 and Thursday thankfuls and hopefully some project life updates. In the mean time, I've been meaning to jump on the summer list/summer manifesto bandwagon. I don't want a to do list that will stress me out (I've already got that one on perpetual update in my head), so I've decided to do a list of things I'm looking forward to this summer. For documentations sake, I've decided to include things I've already enjoyed this summer. I've been on summer break for awhile now and already enjoyed some great things. So, without further ado, the summer list:

spending time with Aiden
travels to OR
beach/ocean/coast
hanging with Jessie, Nicole and families
co-hosting a baby shower
welcoming new babies (one, Miss Vivi, has already arrived)
summer fruit
homemade popsicles
toes and fingers painted in fun colors
gin and tonics
lots of Aiden snuggles
homemade popsicles
swimming
homemade ice cream
Aiden's first birthday
planning a first birthday party
project life catch up
reading a book (or two) for fun
tackling my to read magazine pile
blog surfing
kitchen remodel
new floors
organizing, purging, updating
enjoying time with friends and family

Tuesday ten

Been awhile...10 from today:

1. I suck as a blogger.
2. Getting over a yucky stomach bug so today's menu has consisted of yogurt, toast and crackers.
3. Picked a good day to be sick and missed all the crazy no power/electrical fire fun at school yesterday. Unfortunately, I got the repercussions of yesterdays crazy, off schedule day today. Ugh.
4. Booked my flight to Oregon to visit some of my favorite people this summer. Thanks to a fabulous gift from my parents, I paid a whole $16 for my flight!
5. Feeling creative lately, but feeling like my small amount of free time should be used on more productive things, like dealing with my disaster of a house.
6. Wishing the weather would stay in the 80s (or 70s) for awhile. My weather app says 100 for Saturday. I'm not ready for that.
7. There are 27 teaching days left this school year...not that I'm counting.
8. My poor baby is working on 3 new teeth at the same time. Thank goodness he's such a good natured baby.
9. Today is tax day and once again we've filed an extension. Not my preference, but we are once again waiting on necessary paperwork. This is the first year I won't file as a business owner in a long time. Definitely less stressful.
10. I suck at taking pictures lately, which makes things hard for project life. I'm so behind anyway, I may gloss over the month of April with a monthly spread. I manage 2 photos today.

Happy Tuesday!

Please watch this video and consider donating. Sophia is a former music therapy client of mine and such a sweet little girl.

Sophia's Story from Point in Time Studios on Vimeo.

You can get more information by visiting Second Chance for Sophia and by visiting their facebook page.

My cousin Shannon also has Rett Syndrome. She is wheel chair bound and non verbal. She has very limited motor skills and needs help with most tasks. She is incredibly sweet and has the best sense of humor. I also did music therapy with her for a period of time. Here's a picture of Miss Shannon taken a couple years ago. She is much bigger now and so beautiful.



There is really exciting research happening with Retts Syndrome. Donating to this cause has the potential to make real changes both for girls with Retts and for other disorders. There is a link on the Second Chance website for donations. Please consider. Sophia and Shannon thank you.

Easter

On Easter morning I gave Aiden his first Easter basket. It was filled with books, bath toys and sand toys. Since the Easter bunny left him no candy, he decided to eat the books and the basket.


Much like his love of hair, he was fascinated by the Easter grass. Mommy quickly put this away before a major mess ensued.


After getting dressed in our Easter best, I decided we needed a quick photo shoot. Plus we needed a practice run for keeping the hat on the head.



We headed to Easter brunch with my family at my Uncle Joe's house. I'm not great at taking pictures during an event, but I did manage a few photos of Aiden with Daddy:


and Auntie Kellie:


After brunch, we headed to my parents for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Aiden loves being outside at my parents playing with Addie, putting his feet in the pool, rocking in the glider and picking Granny Dindy's flowers.






These last two photos totally made my Easter. Hope your Easter was happy!

8 Months

At 8 months Aiden:

• is hilarious
• is clapping his hands
• is saying hi, especially to strangers in stores
  
• is signing eat
• says "Aaaa" to all dogs (my parents dog is Addie, hence the "Aaa")
• is waving bye (sometimes)
• is blowing
• likes to babble and screech
  

• weighs 17.5 pounds
• is a good eater and now the only thing he's tried and doesn't like is homemade brown rice cereal
• is drinking milk from a sippy cup instead of a bottle when mom is at work
• would prefer to drink water from a regular glass
• is drinking from a straw
• still gets up to eat at night
  

• is pulling up on things
• wants to walk (holding hands)
• is rocking and scooting
• is not yet crawling because he can't seem to coordinate getting on his knees and gets frustrated and rolls instead
• runs in circles around his activity table (in a little walker chair)
• plays tug of war and rock with Addie
  

• a wild child
• likes to play rough
• loves to be outside
• likes to swing and go on the little motorcycle thing at the park
• thinks the ABC song is funny
• loves to be tickled
• likes cars and blocks
  

• enjoys being out at stores, restaurants, farmers markets, etc.
• is such a good baby and so much fun
  

Currents

Been meaning to blog. Really I have. It just doesn't land high on my priority list these days. I promise more blogging with cute baby photos soon, but until then, I'm jumping on this blog staple.

time: 7:56 P.M.
location: yellow chair in the living room
watching: Shawn has some cartoon on
eating: finished dinner about 45 minutes ago (asparagus and goat cheese pasta), but contemplating dessert
drinking: water, per usual
wanting: to find energy to get crafty
needing: to catch up on project life. I'm about 4 weeks behind
loving: Spring break has begun. Wahoo!
creating: photo collages with my instagram photos for project life
thinking: about a mint chocolate chip milkshake. Why does nobody deliver ice cream?
wondering: if Aiden will sleep better tonight

time: 7:56 P.M.
location: yellow chair in the living room
watching: Shawn's video game (not really watching too much)
eating: finished dinner (asparagus and goat cheese pasta) about 45 minutes ago. Contemplating dessert.
drinking: water, per usual
wanting: to get crafty, but having a hard time getting out of this chair.
needing: to catch up with project life. I'm about 4 weeks behind.
loving: Spring break week has arrived. Open windows.
creating: photo collages for printing my project life pics
thinking: about a mint chocolate chip milkshake. Why does nobody deliver ice cream?
wondering: if Mr. Aiden will sleep better tonight

atty's!

7 Months

Aiden turns 8 months next week. I took his 7 month photos over a week ago, but am just now getting around to uploading and posting. I love this project documenting his growth. He just keeps getting cuter and cuter. By now he's pretty used to the camera and Mommy's crazy antics to get him to smile. Unfortunately, I didn't have great light for this round of photos. The better shots were close ups taken in his crib. I figure even if I only get one good shot each month, it's definitely worth it.


At 7 months Aiden is:

• working on his 3rd tooth.
• eating like a champ. His new favorite seems to be oatmeal with pears.
• not sleeping through the night. The kid likes to eat.
• still sleeping with me.
  

• wearing 6-12 or 9 month clothes.
• getting bigger by the minute.
• still a hat boy (or so mommy has decided).

• wanting to stand all the time.
• getting more and more curious and mobile.
• loving to play rough and be upside down.
• screeching, yelling and laughing all the time.
• waving and doing the grabby fingers thing when he want something.
  
• loving songs, silly noises and finger play.

• loving books, especially ones with flaps, pop ups or textures.
• pretty into balls.
• liking the park, especially the swings.
• into cars that drive by.
• the most adorable chomping, grabbing, drooling thing you ever did see!

Happy Valentine's Day

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Tuesday 10

1. I know I've mentioned this before, but I am not a fan of the full moon. Ugh.

2. Aiden has started going to bed really early, around 6pm. This is nice for getting things done, but means we're up earlier, around 5:15. I'd much rather go back to the 7pm bedtime and 6:15 wake up.

3. Don't let number 2 fool you into thinking we sleep all that time. We are back to getting up 2-3 times a night. Again, I'd rather go back to 9:30/10:00 and 3:00ish feedings than our current 9:00ish, 1:00ish, 3:00ish....

4. I'm currently in love with parsnips. Delish!

5. Today is field day at school. Hoping this means an easy day. However, see number 1...

6. Aiden will be 7 months in two days! How is that possible?

7. There are 5 pregnant ladies in my life right now. All but one are due in July or August. So far 1 is a girl and 2 are boys. I'm excited for new babies and playmates for Aiden.

8. I see a lot of baby knitting in my future. I'd better finish Aiden's blanket first.

9. I need an appetizer to take to a baby shower Friday. Needs to be something I can make ahead of time and keep int work fridge all day since I won't be going home first. Any ideas?

10. My paperwhites are finally blooming. Love them.

On Cloth Diapering

First off, I am definitely not an expert at cloth diapers, nor is this post going to be anything new or earth shattering. There are tons of cloth diaper how to posts and cloth diaper reviews to be found elsewhere. There are blogs devoted solely to cloth diapering. This is merely a post on what and how we do cloth diapers. When people find out we cloth diaper, tons of questions inevitably follow. Here's the low down on our cloth diapering system.

I knew I wanted to cloth diaper, but wasn't sure my husband would be on board. Since Aiden is with dad several days a week and also with my mom and sister during the week while I'm at work, I wanted a diaper system that would be easy for everyone to use. After reading a ton of information on cloth diapers and many, many reviews, I opted for GroVia diapers. Many people have a stash that consists of a variety of diapers. Because I wanted my husband on board, things needed to be easy with limited instruction/thought process involved, so I chose to just buy one brand. Some people would tell you this is a no no, but it works for us.

I chose the GroVia system because of excellent reviews, flexibility and ease of use. Our hybrid diapers have inserts that snap in and out of the diaper cover. The diaper cover only needs to be changed when it is wet or soiled. With the hybrids we can also use a disposable insert, which is handy for travel. I registered for some stuff on amazon and have purchased from amazon, diapers.com and in bulk from BumRite diapers.

Our cloth diaper stash consists of:

4 GroVia all in ones in snaps
12 GroVia hybrid shells (covers) in snaps
20 GroVia hybrid soakers (inserts)
2 GroVia Stay Dry soakers
2 GroVia boosters
3 Kissaluv cotton doublers
GroVia biosoakers

Cloth diaper accessories:

2 planet wise diaper pail liners
2 planet wise wet/dry bags
GroVia diaper liners
Tiny Bubbles detergent

We also use cloth wipes:

1 Prince Lionheart Warmies Wipes Warmer plus reusable wipes
20 BabyKicks reusable wipes

I prefer the BabyKicks wipes to the ones that came with the warmer. I make my own solution for the warmer using water, olive or grapeseed oil and baby soap (we use either Burt's Bees or California Baby). I roll the wipes, stack in the wipe warmer and poor the solution over the top. I replace wipes and add solution every couple of days. The wipes stay wet and warm. Cloth wipes clean much better and more efficiently than disposable wipes and Aiden prefers them to cold disposable wipes.


We have a garbage pail in Aiden's bedroom that we put a diaper pail cover in. Dirty diapers and wipes go into the pail. With breast milk, poop is water soluble, so the whole diaper went in the wash without any rinsing or pre-cleaning. Now that we have started some solids, the solid poops get dumped in the toilet (or if we use a liner the liner plus poop) and flushed. Every two (or sometimes three) days, I collect the diaper pail bag and dump it in the wash. Cloth diapers require special detergents that do not contain harsh chemicals or enzymes. I've decided to use the tiny bubbles detergent for my diapers. My wash routine is to run a soak cycle with cold water and a small amount of detergent. I sometimes add vinegar to this cycle as well. I follow the soak cycle with a heavy load cycle with warm water and a full scoop of detergent. Lastly, I run a cold rinse cycle. Usually, I run the first two cycles at night, setting the heavy load to run while I go to bed and run a rinse when I get up in the morning. I hang all my covers, all in ones and any stained inserts on the line to dry in the sun. Stains are gone after an hour or so in the sun. Unstained inserts and wipes go in the dryer.

We've had to do some trial and error with the night time diaper routine. Aiden is a heavy wetter and we often have leaks during the night. Lately, what has been working best is to use a stay dry insert with a kissaluv booster folded in half towards the front of the diaper. Our night time routine has changed over time.

All and all, I am very happy with our choice in cloth diapers and do not find them to be difficult or time consuming, as many people assume them to be. I feel good about not exposing Aiden to unnecessary chemicals and love that we aren't generating the large amount of trash that come with disposable diapers. Plus, Aiden looks awfully cute in the fun colors and prints of our diapers.

Tuesday 10

It's been a long time since I posted one of these. Here's a right now 10.

1. He is so much fun


2. So far I am doing much better at project life this year. Instagrams and journaling apps totally help my process on a day to day basis.

3. I'm finally getting used to my working mom schedule. I have a pretty good routine for baby related chores, playtime, work stuff and a little bit of me time. I just need to figure out how to work in all my cleaning on a more regular basis. I'd much rather play with the baby :)

4. I've finally done a little scrapping. I've returned to my roots as a clean and simple 8.5x11 scrapper. It makes it easier to get pages done and it feels more like me. Here's my two favorite recent pages:



5. I'm in the mood to shop, but shouldn't. I'm ignoring my inbox...I might sucker on a sale.

6. We are beginning our long overdo kitchen remodel soon (hence the no shopping). In the process, I've decided to move around 3 spaces in our house. It's a slow process. The house is a disaster and most of my scrap stuff is piled in boxes in a corner. It's making me a bit crazy, but I'm excited about what lies ahead.

7. Aiden is not a fan of avocado or mashed potatoes so far. He'll eat squash, sweet potato and banana with the best of them though.

8. I'm itching to read a book. Haven't read much other than parenting books or magazines since Aiden arrived. I've downloaded Discovery of Witches and Divergent recently and I've got the Dragon Tatoo just sitting there on my kindle app.

9. I'm currently in my office/guest bedroom. Something I rarely use these days unless I'm printing. The calendar still says June. That's pretty funny. Guess having a baby around changes a few things doesn't it!

10. I am hungry. All the time. I eat. All the time. I'm also the skinniest I've been since having health issues a couple of years ago. I apparently can't keep up with the calories needed for breast feeding. I'm trying. Eating lots of pasta and ice cream even. I know, horrible dilemma, to have to gain weight, but I really am too skinny.

Six months

Aiden is already 6 months old! Can you believe it? I can't. It's gone by so fast and he is getting so big. I'm in love with his photos for this month. You can totally see his little personality in these photos. I had a hard time choosing which ones to include in this post. So many good ones. He is just too darn cute, but maybe I'm biased :)

At 6 months, he:

• is huge. We'll find out Thursday his official stats, but everyone's guessing 20 pounds.
• has started eating solid foods. We started with bananas on New Year's day (about a week before his 6 month birthday). He's also had sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Tomorrow we try avocado.
• is taking fewer ounces from a bottle while Mommy is at work, but still nurses every few hours when I'm home.
  
• is drinking water from a cup. I got him a couple sippy cups, but he'd rather just drink from my glass.

• is pretty into standing up and wants desperately to pull up on things...he's not quite there, but pretty close.
• sits up like a big boy.
• is working on crawling, but hasn't quite coordinated his arms and legs.
• has 2 teeth and is working on a third
• is still sleeping in our room and/or in bed with me and wakes up once or twice during the night.
  

• likes to play rough and be tickled.
• still thinks peek a boo is pretty great.
• is loving more active toys and is into banging on things.
• still loves his blankets and stuffed animals.
  

• had his first real illness, a cold that lasted for almost two weeks :(
• loves splashing in the bathtub
• likes hanging outside
  
• is still such a cuddler
• is quite the entertainer and kind of a ham, as evidenced by the next few pictures
  

• is the best thing ever.
  

Project Life

I really like the idea of project life. I love the everyday life aspect of it. I love seeing random photos, notes and bits of life all together. It's fun to look back and remember the ordinary. I love that you can make it what you want. I love that tons of people are doing it and nobody's project looks the same. It's a great, real scrapbooking project.

Last year I was all excited for project life. Mid-January, I bought a kit with some amazon gift cards and jumped right in. The first month or so went great. But the rest of the year, well, I was not terribly successful. It may have something to do with the fact that I was a pregnant first year teacher finishing her teaching certificate courses and working on her master's degree for the first half of the year and a new mommy for the second half. My album went along great for the first couple months. I fell behind somewhere in March or April. My 2011 album has unfinished spreads completed through the month of June. I have a giant stack of memorablia and notes I kept to put in the album and have all my pictures filed by month on my computer. I would like to finish the album, at least partially. I've adjusted my view on 2011's album and will be happy with how ever it ends up, finished or not.

Here's a couple pages from my 2011 album. Cover page:


A finished spread from February:


Where things start to fall apart (you'll notice this is a multi week spread):


Fast forward to December and the all the buzz on the project for 2012. Given my unsuccessful attempt at Project Life in 2011, I was hesitant to commit to the project for 2012. I still love the idea of the project. The project seems to have gained in popularity and blogland is full of people participating this year. I knew I'd be sorry I didn't at least attempt it again, especially as I watched others share their albums. I've changed my expectations this year. Project Life 2012 will be a no rules, no stress project. If I get weekly spreads done, great. If I lump 2 weeks together, great. If I only manage a monthly recap, perfect. I will let the project unfold how it will and be happy with the results. This year, I'm using my stash and mixing up the page protectors. Making it more my style and less what I thought it should be. Some weeks may just be photos and ephemera. Some weeks maybe full of journaling. Some weeks may be embellished. Some may be plain and simple.

This weekend I finished up my cover page and my first two weeks. I'm excited about the project again. I'm happy about how things are unfolding. I hope I can keep up the momentum, but if not, I'm not going to stress about it. This time around however, the iphone is my friend. Most of my pictures these first couple weeks are instagram pictures and I've downloaded a couple apps to help me keep track of journaling and memories in case I do get behind.

Here's what 2012 looks like so far. Cover page:


Week 1:



I added an insert with a couple new year's cards we received:




Week 2: