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: