Let's talk about poop

Restyle {by Heidi}

My conversation with Adrian over our morning smoothies (all things potty-related have been big topics around here):

Adrian: [sticks his tongue out] A bird won't poop on my tongue, Mom.
Me: No, Daddy tells you that to tease you when you stick your tongue out.
Adrian: Birds won't poop on my tongue. They just keep the poop in their bellies.
Me: If they kept the poop in their bellies they would get a owies in their bellies. Just like you would get owies in your belly if you kept the poop in your belly.
Adrian: No, birds just poop on the grass...not on the road.
Me: Well, sometimes they poop on the road, too.
Adrian: No! They just poop on the grass!

2-year-olds are pretty equal to teenagers when it comes to knowing everything. (Ha, and all of the parents with teenagers are laughing at me now.)

Little Moments

I love these little moments. I'll find Adrian quietly sitting, "reading" a book. Even if he's sitting on a pile of books and his train track...

He has such an amazing memory, it just blows me away. I'll read a book to him once or twice and later, he'll be able to repeat most of the story. The book he is reading is the reason he'll occasionally exclaim, out of the blue, "'Oh my goonness!' says Rabbit."

Jeff's workweek starts today. I still can't seem to get used to this new schedule. And by 'new,' I mean almost 3 months old. Or maybe it's only been 2. I was thinking about getting out in the snow today, but then realized it's pretty windy. I can do the cold, but I'm a total wimp about the wind. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more calm. We totally missed out yesterday; it was sunny and in the 30's (at least). I had a doctor's appointment then went grocery shopping. By the time I got home, I had to babysit and make supper....which didn't end up getting done until 8. Yikes, I don't know what happened there!

Did you realize that February starts next week!? I just realized that and panicked just a little bit. This baby is going to be here before we know it! (And we have yet to decide on a name!)

The 16-year-old

It's a little late, but I just realized that I never posted pictures of Danny's surprise birthday party.

 

Kaitlin volunteered to take him to the pet store while we decorated. Brett went along as well and we had a 'surprise' for him as well. I think he told Mom to make the party for him, too, but make it a surprise! So, we did.

We all had party hats and noisemakers when they walked in the door. I think Dan figured it out before he made it inside because we had turned all the lights off.

Dan wanted to open his gifts as soon as he walked in the door. Guess we shouldn't have put them right under his nose! We did finally convince him to wait a little bit, he was a bit of a...well, he was just being Dan, really.

While we were wrapping our gifts--moments before the party started--Gretchen was saying we all had cool gifts and all she got was a Harry Potter Poster. Well...this was his reaction to that one:

And yes, he totally wrinkled the poster in his excitement. He carried it around for the rest of the evening. (I mean, we were staying in his room so it's not like he wanted to hang it up yet.)

Sorry Brett, we didn't all get a gift for you...but you did get a card! Wade picked up a Miley Cyrus card for him and everyone else jumped in and signed it.

I think my camera battery died at this point, but my mom had a great cake picture on her blog.

Blue-striped tee

I was able to resize my thrifted shirt this morning! I have been realizing that all of my shirts are getting too short. I wasn't very good about getting monthly pictures when I was pregnant with Adrian and I still haven't been doing them now. They're fun to see, but I guess they aren't top priority for me. The point is, I'm pretty sure I'm a lot bigger for this baby than I was with him. The comments from friends and strangers alike confirm that fact...and it's reconfirmed by the fact that all the shirts I was able to wear for my entire pregnancy are already too small. And I still have 2 months to go.

 

Ah, love self-portraits. This one is particularly attractive with the addition of a spare tire thanks to that crooked stripe. ;) 

I found this shirt at Salvation Army. It was in the men's section, but I'm pretty sure it was a women's shirt considering the colors and the fact that it's an XXL and it's still this slim. Okay, 'slim' is a relative word here considering I'm 7 months pregnant...

It fits much better now thanks to a few new seams and I still have a little room to grow. I'm pumped to have another long-sleeved shirt, most of my maternity shirts are short-sleeved.

BTW. As I was taking these pictures, I overheard Adrian in my bedroom, playing with the (cool, unplugged) iron. "I'm sewing projecks." See? I must be sewing more. He's always asking me as he watches me sewing, ironing, cutting, etc, "You working on projecks, hey Mom?" That's my little yooper boy!

a year of sewing

I saw this idea elsewhere in blogland and I thought I'd give it a whirl. I wanted to see how many sewing projects I actually completed in the last year, so I made a collage.

Hm, as it happens, not very many. That's 1.16 completed projects per month, folks. It feels like I did a lot more than that. I mean, I suppose I did make a few shirts for Restyle that I didn't add to the list and let's not forget about all the projects I started and never finished...
Here's hoping I'll have a lot more finished projects in the coming year!

I did just finish another shirt for Restyle this morning, I need to wait for a sunny day to get pictures. I also have a thrift shop find in the dryer that I'm hoping to restyle for myself this afternoon or evening. If these first few weeks are any indication, I should definitely have more completed projects this year!

Yesterday's project

When I woke up to...okay, so I don't really know what the temperature was, but I trust that it was crazy cold yesterday. I thought it would make a great sewing day. As it turns out, I didn't touch my sewing machine all day. When I cleaned out my fabric stash the other day, I found an infant onesie that I bought on clearance at Target. I had originally planned to add a little something to it and give as part of a baby shower gift, but obviously, it got buried and I completely forgot about it. I left it out so I could add a little paint and wear it on the new babe. I really like how this shirt turned out, so I went with the same idea:

First of all, I need to say that when I made the shirts in Restyle I painted first, then sewed them together. I wasn't really up for pulling this onesie apart so I just did the best I could with what I had.

Yeah, that's our kitchen chair. The paint comes right off and even if it didn't I'm not too concerned. My only other option was be a large piece of cardboard which I don't have.
I wasn't able to get the lines quite as straight and clean as when the shirt is pulled apart, but for less than $2, I guess I'm okay with that.

I love how quick and easy it is to paint on fabric! It dries really fast too, so you can reposition after a short time. Now to figure out what to paint on some of my shirts...or Adrian's...or Jeff's...

I'm pretty sure today is even colder than yesterday (weather.com said -13 around 9 this morning), but I have some running to do. Most importantly, to get my hair trimmed and then we'll see if I can brave it to a couple thrift shops that I didn't make it to the other day.

(BTW, I could not get that taped up shirt picture to go the right way. I literally turned it every direction before uploading and it came up wrong every time. Ah, well, you get the idea, right?)

"I wanna skate around"

It's been all about hockey, all the time, in this household.

After convincing Adrian that Dad's hockey helmet wasn't that stinky, he finally wanted to put it on. And if you give a 2-year-old a helmet...

Hang on, we forgot something!

For some reason, throughout that entire process, he was completely fine with me snapping pictures, but then a few minutes later:

Wednesday, Wednesday

I need to get my butt out the door to do something grocery shopping--and thrift shopping--now that the weather has calmed down. Have I told you what awesome friends I have?? Two of our closest friends (along with a few other local couples, not us because I'm 7 months pregnant...) went on a cruise this week. And since Jeff drove them to the airport (you know, cuz that's where he works), they left their car with us with a "I'll leave you my keys so if you want to use it next week, you can run out!" Wow, thanks! Without it, I probably would have missed the annual meeting at church on Sunday. And now, I can run out today since yesterday was really snowy and then I babysat in the evening. (For some other really good friends. Who, btw, brought us a roast for our freezer since we fed their kids supper. Seriously, these are the kind of friends we have. I'm not sure that I deserve them.)

So, while I try so hard to hurry out the door (sitting on the couch, drinking hot chocolate, yeah I'm really hurrying), Adrian is playing hockey and telling me about his trip to the zoo. Last August.
"Papa was zooming the ban [van]. The pigs were getting in the dirt. With their nose!"
I just realized he said all of his r's in that conversation. Lately, he's been pretending he can't say them. He talks in this weird, fake voice, "drive the caaw," "chaaaange ma diapaaaaw." It's really kind of strange, but I realized recently that one of his friends talks like that so he must think it's cool??

Since I'm all over the place, I might as well keep going.

I've started having those dreams where I forget about my baby. He was only a few weeks old and I recall checking on him during the night, but he never woke up to eat. Then, all of a sudden, it's 11 o'clock in the morning and I still haven't fed him and he's nowhere to be seen. I start spazzing out, yelling, where's my baby? Jeff's brother, Dave, is holding him like, uh, hello, right here and I'm all mad because no one brought him to me yet, he's doing totally fine. Oh yeah, and we named him Bentley. And, somehow, it took us about 5 days to realize that my sister has a Bentley and we can't actually name him that. We were embarrassed even in my dream. Oh and guess what? We still haven't figured out a name. Maybe in one of these dreams, one will come to me. ha.

Oh my goodness. I am so excited to have another little bebe. It's amazing how much more excited I am this time around. I think, with Adrian, I just didn't know what to expect so I wasn't THAT excited. I mean, I was happy, for sure, not trying to send the wrong message here. But now, I am just PUMPED to have another little baby, for Adrian to have a brother, to actually see what it's like without being in a haze. Those first 6 months or so with Adrian were an absolute blur. And not because it was so busy, but because I just didn't know what I was doing, I was learning so much everyday. Trying to figure out how to best care for that little guy. We'll see how it goes this time.

Ah, well, I'm off, it's already 10. Have a super fabulous day! I know we will! (How can you go wrong with thrift shopping??)

Adrian says

(As in right now when he saw this picture.)

"Adrian says, 'No taking pictures!' on the caputer!"

 

I'm pretty sure he told me just before I took this picture, "Take my picture, Mom!" And then, when I pointed the camera in his direction, this is what I got. And yeah, that's 'hot chokwet" on his mouth. I've been enjoying a lot of that lately. I found that I like it sweetened with honey. 

Restyle {by Heidi}

Oh BTW, I have an Etsy shop. It actually has something in it. Please disregard the fact that it's been open for nearly a year...

If you recall, one of my goals for the year was to open my shop. I guess that should have said, list something in my shop and actually tell you what it's called.

 I had made a few toddler t-shirts and then s-l-o-w-e-d down around Christmas. Then, as I begin preparing for this "new baby in da house," I started s-l-o-w-l-y organizing my sewing space which happens to be in my bedroom. I was digging through my fabric/clothing stash and found a couple more items that I started, but never actually finished. I finished them up and voila! I can open my shop!

There isn't much, yet, but there will be! I took so long to get this far, so I finally told myself that once I have 5 items, it's time to announce the 'grand opening.' Right now, all of my items ship for free!

As you should already know if you've read my blog for any amount of time, all of my items will be upcycled. So far, everything in the shop is made from adult tops. I'm so excited to work on more items and get them listed!

If you missed all the links above, here you go again: Check out Restyle {by Heidi} on Etsy!

I Want to Drive a Zomboni...

This boy has been killing us lately. I only wish I could remember all the funny things he does and says, how quickly this time goes!

Today, Jeff and Adrian were playing hockey in the living room and Adrian kept 'slipping' on the ice and falling down. Completely his own idea. He went to a hockey game with Jeff the other week and he hasn't stopped talking about hockey players since. Then, in the middle of the game, he stops and runs down the hallway to get his race car. Jeff and I were a little confused because he seemed to be having fun shooting the puck. A few moments later, he came zipping down the hallway on his race car. "Hafta cwean the ice."

He's too fast. And, he doesn't want me taking his picture anymore.

He cleaned it about every 2 minutes after that. And each time, when he was finished, he drove his "Zamboni" back to his bedroom. We just never know what he'll come up with next!

(That blue dot is a magnet, he thinks it's pretty cool that he can get it to stick to his car.)

We did get our winter storm, never did hear the official count, but I'm pretty sure we got over a foot of snow. It finally looks like January! I did get out thrift shopping in the middle of it. I found a really cool crocheted blanket for the baby...that Adrian already claimed. I'll have to get a picture. I also found some kids books, nothing super exciting, we just need some different books around here. I've also been keeping my eye out for a bigger bookshelf, but no luck yet.

Something super exciting is happening this week! Hopefully Monday. I'll keep you posted! :)

"Mom! Where's my race car?!"

Since I'm still handing out Christmas cards, I figure it's appropriate to blog about it as well. Thank-you, thank-you to my mother-in-law for mailing my camera back to me so I have my pictures!

Adrian got this awesome race car from Grandma and Grandpa L. I have to say, it was the one gift that had him SO excited and literally jumping up and down.

 

He's been riding it around our apartment...and parking it in front of the refrigerator. I can't wait until he actually has the space to ride around! 

Lately

We're still here.

Painting,

Playing hockey,

Like his glove? He had me in the net with a bubble mailer on my hand.

And venturing out into the snow,

What little snow we have anyways. I feel like we're back downstate with the amount of snow on the ground. Grass is peeking out everywhere, it's weird for January! We went out the other day when it was warm, but really windy and ended up behind the city housing next door. Buildings block a lot of the wind on two side and there are hills on the remaining sides. It's still a big open area so it's the perfect place to play, and really close which is awesome for 2-year-old feet clunking around in snow gear. We've been building a snow fort in the piles of plowed snow and throwing snowballs. I've been amazed with how easily Adrian has taken snow in his face, down his jacket, up his sleeves...he doesn't seem to care at all.

We're supposed to get a storm, starting this afternoon, so maybe it will start feeling like winter around here!

Other than that, I have been thinking about working on some projects, but nothing has happened yet. I've had plans every day to get a bunch of stuff done, but I keep getting an unsettled stomach that I can't figure out so I end up lounging around after getting the bare necessities done. I plan to do some thrift shopping tomorrow if Jeff isn't working overtime, hopefully that yucky feeling doesn't get in the way!

New Year, New Goals

Little A, last January

I was wanting to reflect on last year's Goals for the New Year, but I didn't post anything and I can't remember for the life of me if I ever made any.
I don't generally do resolutions because they seem like a setup for failure in my mind. Instead, I made a few goals for the coming year. Basically, I'd like to achieve these before 2013.
And, since I didn't do it last year, I definitely need to document them somewhere!

1. Open my Etsy shop. Um, did you forget about that, too? Okay, so I guess I didn't actually forget, but it definitely got pushed aside for a while. Almost a year, in fact.

2. Buy a mini-van! Super exciting, right? We've been a one vehicle family for the past year or so. Jeff had a truck for a short while which was awesome, but we decided to sell it and the specifics aren't coming to me right now. Oh wait, maybe it had something to do with us driving it to the camp--2 1/2 hours away--and Jeff getting it stalled on some bush road and having to get a ride back home with his dad to pick up our car. And then, going back up again the next weekend to fix it and bring it back home. Hmm, maybe that had something to do with it. Anyways, with another baby on the way, it just makes sense for us to get a mini-van. I know we could make it with a car, but if we have to get another vehicle either way, I'd rather have a van.
On a side note, I don't recall ever being the "I'm never getting a mini-van" type. Maybe it had to do with a coworker back in the day who told me she regretted getting an Explorer instead of a van. She said it was such a pain to get kids and carseats in and out. Or maybe it was the fact that I always wished we had a mini-van growing up instead of a full-size. Not that a mini-van was even an option with that many kids.

3. Buy a house. Or get a house? Even since reading Total Money Makeover, the word "buy" has a much different meaning. I guess either way, we're "buying" a house, we just won't completely "own" it for a while. I'll try not to rant about our latest increase in rent here because I'm sure you've heard enough about it elsewhere. I've gotten to the point where I'm done paying someone else to rent. It feels like we're flushing our money away after 3 years. Plus, in our area, I know we can find a house with a mortgage much lower than what we're paying monthly right now. Now that it's becoming more real, I can't wait!

[Pause to get the turkey in the oven. Oh yeah, we're eating late tonight.]

4. Have a successful VBAC. This is actually my #1. I haven't talked about it much on here, but Adrian was breach and after trying for several weeks to get him to flip, I ended up with a c-section. It was such a huge disappointment and I've felt sort of cheated ever since. I wish I knew then what I know now about preventing breach babies. I know there are still no guarantees, but at least I'm trying everything I can to avoid another c-section this time around. If nothing else, it helps to alleviate some of my stress and anxiety when I'm able to be proactive rather than taking the "wait and see" approach.

5. Cut back on grains. Oh yeah, there had to be a health-related goal right? I'm hypoglycemic so I should be eating a high-protein, low-carb diet. I know I feel my best when I'm eating right. Cutting back on grains helps me focus more on vegetables, something we all need more of! I think breakfast will be the hardest. I do not like breakfast foods. My go-to breakfasts are usually muffins, pancakes, or baked oatmeal. I'm not a big fan of eggs and I have yet to find a natural sausage that I like. Just focusing on this one meal would help a lot with this goal!

6. Potty-train Adrian! I was hoping we'd be a little further along by now--he's been sitting on the potty since September, but only peed twice. He's definitely interested, I'm probably the one holding him back. I really, really want him trained, or at least, well on his way, before the baby arrives. We'll see what happens!

What about you? Any resolutions or goals set for the coming year?