tuesday tidbits

** we leave for greece tomorrow.

** i have a lot to do today to get us organized!!

** yesteday bean pulled himself onto his hands and knees.

** please do not crawl until we get home.

** he has also started to grab his junk when i change his diaper.

** it has made me keenly aware of the fact that i am surrounded by males in this house.

** i will be blogging from greece.

** i also asked some of my favorite people to guest blog for me.

** i do hope you will tune in.

** their posts are awesome!!

** trying to wrap up a project today before we leave.

**i have decided to take all bean's formula in my carry on.

** i had this vision of opening my suitcase and seeing formula over everything.

** they don't have his kind of formula in greece.

** so i am taking 5 cans of formula in Ziploc bags in the diaper bag.

** chace has 4 swimsuits. mama has one.

** what is wrong with this picture?

** the last two summers i have been pregnant while in greece.

** i am very happy that i am NOT pregnant this summer.

** have a great tuesday and we will talk to you from greece.

week in photos

wrapping up

i have been working away at getting caught up on some projects  before we leave for vacation next week.  i don't like to come home to unfinished projects and i need to focus on creating for the holiday bazaar when we return. i have lots of sewing to do!

last night i finished attaching the binding on riley's cowboy quilt. i am very pleased with how it turned out. i am giving it to riley's momma tonight ( we are having a girls dinner out, no kids, no husbands, just us).

bean thinks that the quilt is really swell and knows that his buddy riley will love it.

a close up of the center blocks.

so, athena and i were a little obsessive and driven about finishing the blocks for our friendship quilt. i am   not sure who was pushing whom, but all 20 blocks are complete. the goal is to have them sewn together by the time she and stella arrive in NY at the end of september and we are going to quilt them while she is here. now, this may be ambitious on our part, we will have a 7 month old and a 9 month old. but hey, a girl has to have some goals. all of the blocks are pictured below. blocks 1-10 are the ones i made and 11-20 are the ones athena made. this is going to be one  amazing quilt.

my two favorite blocks. block 1 and 10. both are athena's nod to my cooper. the very reason that we are friends and making this quilt. xoxo

funny thing

a funny thing happens along the course of parenthood. the ability to tune out one's child. to go in a zone. to pretend you are asleep. or you don't hear him screaming. funny thing.

those first weeks of parenthood i jumped at every little sound chace made. now i know the difference between i am just making noise, i am mad, i am hurt, i am hungry and get me the hell out of this crib. funny thing.

chace has been waking up a several points during the night. we have been working on letting him get his little self back to sleep. he thinks he needs to eat. as a wise momma, i know he does not ALWAYS need to eat. funny thing.

last night he woke up at 11. i went in gave him his pacifier, patted him on the back and said goodnight. he did not want to go back to sleep. funny thing.

i tuned him out. then heard ph go in there and do the same thing. then he said to me "its only 11:30." "do not feed him" was my reply. funny thing.

chace continues to make noise over the monitor. by 12 it was a full on scream. we both knew he was not going back to sleep. ph was lying very very still. heavy breathing. i knew he was awake. funny thing.

but i got up and went to chace. it had been an hour and if i wanted to sleep i needed to feed the child. funny thing.

i went downstairs, made a bottle, and watched my son suck it down like he had never eaten before in this life. then he promptly went to sleep. funny thing.

i went back to bed. "how did you do that?" ph asked. "fed him" i mumbled. " how much?" he pondered. "8.5 oz." i mumbled again. ph then says "you should have woken me up. i would have fed him." funny thing.

tuesday tidbits

** bean slept until 8 am this morning!

** he was however, up at several points during the night.

** and he was able to get himself back to sleep.

**we leave for greece in 8 days!

** 8 days!!

** i feel like i have so much to do to get ready.

** the task of packing for the bean is a little overwhelming.

** its not like i can run to target if i need something.

** athena and stella are coming to visit us in september.

** this makes me excited beyond belief.

** the fall weather has inspired me to want to knit.

** maybe he knit ph a sweater.

** but i have a lot of sewing ahead of me.

** i think this year i will be watching football and sewing rather than knitting.

** i am having a little chat with randell in a few minutes.

** been struggling with grief lately.

** yesterday i was at the yarn shop.

** there was a box on the counter that said "cooper's hawk"

** i got the chills.

** bean had his 6 month check up yesterday.

** he is in the 50th percentile across the board.

** have a great day!

week in photos

explosion

have you noticed the explosion of mascara commercials lately?

they all claim to give you super long, super lush, model like eyelashes.

now i do like makeup, i do not wear alot of it, but i like it. if that makes sense.

i do not like wearing make up in the summer, with the exception of mascara.

for the last couple of year i have been using diorshow black out mascara.

i love it. but i do not love its $24.00 price tag.

this week i fell victim to the glam lash hype.

and bought maybelline's volum express mascara.

it promises to make my eyelashes look like "falsies"

well, i wore "falsies" when i got married

and this doesn't really look like the same thing.

i will continue to use it, but i don't know if i will run out to replace it.

however, i do like the $6.99 price tag.

what kind of mascara do you use?

clarity

motherhood has provided me with some clarity, an understanding of my own mother and why she did and said certain things when we were little.  i heard the following words repeatedly when i was younger "you will understand when you have children of your own."  this would immediately instigate a roll of the eyes on my part, a heavy sigh and a "you just down understand" would fly out of my mouth. as if i had the world's worst mother and had such a miserable existence. this could not be further from the truth. my mom always says in her next life she is going to be one of her own children. i think she is on to something.

here we are 30 some odd years later and i have my ahh-haa moment, the light bulb goes off, i have clarity. i finally understand what she is talking about. it's like i finally understand the secret language of motherhood. it all makes sense. why we went to bed when it was still light out. why she insisted that we took a nap, she didn't care what we did but we had to be in our room for two hours. she needed some peace and quiet! i understand why she took a bath at night. what i do not understand is why she did not drink more? or maybe she did and i just do not remember it. and i am sure i will have many more ahh-haa moments along the way, after all chace is only 6 months old.

i put all this together this week when i was ever so lucky to have a cold. the same cold that the bean had and he so kindly gave to me. there is nothing worse than a summer cold. all i wanted to do was take some medicine and go to bed. but i could not do this, i am a mom now. it would not do me any good to complain, no one was listening. bean still needed his diaper changed, needed to be fed, and entertained. he did not care how i felt. he felt fine.  there are no days off in motherhood. children do not care if you are sick, tired, hungover, emotional or just feel like sometime to yourself. they need you, but mothers need their children too.

my love for your chace brings a kind of clarity about life that i never knew existed and could simply not understand until i became a mother.

arrival

around this time of year i begin to anticipate the arrival of fall. one of the things i love about living in the northeast is the clear mark of seasons.  fall is my favorite season: the way the sky looks, the blustery days, the crisp edge to the air, the color of the leaves, the smell of wet leaves, picking apples, knowing that the holidays are right around the corner, pulling out the sweaters, boots and jeans, and making chili on sunday.


but the thing i look forward to the most is without a doubt is start of college football.

the countdown is officially on.....

tuesday tidbits

** i am in the mood to purge...... my knitting books.

** i am keeping only the ones i love.

** listing the rest on half.com, if they do not sell i am donating them to the library.

** or any one else who wants them.

** i think i have ruined our dining room table cutting fabric.

** i wonder if we will ever eat at said table again.

** it currently serves as my work space.

** last week rejection sucked.

** this week acceptance is sweet.

** i got into the holiday bazaar at the RMSC.

** this is a HUGE show.

** i have lots of work to do.

** i just went into ph's bathroom and noticed that he had one of my very expensive bottles of shampoo in his shower.

** i was wondering where that went....

** i have discovered the joys of checking books out of the library.

** chace is not napping well these days...

** it felt like fall yesterday.

** i am ready for its arrival.

week in photos

dear chace

dear sweet chace,

half a year. 6 months. 182 days. 4,368 hours. 262,080 minutes. 15,724,800 seconds. all these measurements say the same thing, happy 6 months!

you have changed so much since i last wrote you. you are sitting up, rolling over and standing with assistance. you do not have any teeth yet, but i feel confident that they will be arriving soon. i am in awe of how you change from day to day. i can see you grow each day. your brain is like a sponge and i can see you soaking your surroundings in. your facial expressions, let me know what you are thinking, well i wish i knew what you were thinking, but i do know it is something.... you are like me in that way. you may not being saying it, but it is written all over your face. this my dear will not make you a good poker player. maybe this is a good thing.

this month, we went on our first family road trip. your pappous came to visit, and you have spent a lot of time with your uncle luke. in a few short weeks we will head to greece where you will meet your godparents and many others who are eagerly awaiting your arrival. your dad and i are just hoping that the flight over is uneventful and you sleep most of the way. please sleep chace.

speaking of sleep, you are napping more consistently. and occasionally you will sleep through the night, giving us a taste of what is to come. but for now it is only a taste.  you did taste cereal but it did not agree with your stomach, so you will have to wait until we return from our vacation before you start experiencing food.

my love for you grows immensely each day. seeing you laugh or smile can melt my heart into a puddle. i look forward to each day with you and watching you discover the world around you.

happy 6 months, my sweet boy.

love
mom

far far away

this is the beginning of a new quilt
using heather ross' far far away 2 fabric.
i love it.

i love it because athena and i
are having a quilting bee
between the two of us.

the basic idea is that we each make two blocks
keep one and send the other.
at the end will have enough blocks
to have the exact same quilt.

well, the same components.
i am sure we will lay them out differently
and use different colors for the sashing.
or maybe we wont.

we are also writing a little diddy
about why we chose each block.
this one is called southern belle.

we are calling the quilt
the friendship quilt.
athena is my gift from cooper.
and i thank him every day
for sending her my way.

though we live far far away
from each other.
and have never met.
i feel like i have known
her my whole life.
i can not wait until her
visit to NY in the fall.


stay tuned.
this quilt is going
to be AMAZING.

just drainage-

there are benefits of having a doctor as your father. he can call you in a prescription in a pinch, can confirm that you do not have stomach cancer, rather since you just gave birth it is probably hemorrhoids, and even write you a note to get out of class when a big hunk candy bar is thrown at a pep rally, hitting you in the back of the head and requiring stitches ( true story). but there are also some disadvantages too, particularly when your father treats people who have cancer. not a lot of sympathy when you do not feel well. 

growing up my brothers and i had to be on our death bed to get to stay home from school. i am talking puking your guts out, as long as it wasn't related to alcohol consumption, burst ear drums, extremely high fever or puss on your throat. it was hard core in our house. i think all three of us had broken bones  at one time or another and my dad was pretty convinced otherwise. thankfully, mom took us to the doctor to have an xray to confirm that they were indeed broken.

the most common phrase we heard when we didn't feel well was "its just drainage". didn't matter what it was, if it wasn't life threatening, it was "just drainage." 

i found myself using that phrase last night and laughed to myself.

you see, the bean has his first cold and we were up most of the night trying to comfort him, sucking snot out of his nose and hoping he would fall back asleep. at one point, i think it was 3 am, i looked at ph and said the following " well, he doesn't have fever, his snot is clear, so it is probably just drainage."

frightening!

i took bean  to the doctor this am, and while she did not use those words exactly, she might as well have told me it is "just drainage."

tuesday tidbits

** the heat and humidity have returned.

** bean has returned to his regular scheduled sleeping habits.

** this means no more crying it out.

** he still takes a bottle in the middle of the night.

** i wonder if he is getting too old to take a bottle in the middle of the night.

** should we start phasing it out?

** thoughts?

** i deposited a check into my checking account via my iphone.

** how cool is that?

** i bank at chase bank.

** if you are curious.

** the red velvet cookies are divine.

** and ridiculously easy.

**i am ready for fall.

** i picked up my knitting needles again.

** i did not forget how to knit.

** i am working on a baby gift.

** rejection stinks.

** i did not get into second storie.

** but am trying to get into another craft show.

**we will see.

** have a great day!

weekend snapshots

road trip

saturday we went on a family road trip to ithaca.

we visited cornell, ph's alma mater.

it is a beautiful campus.

i see why he loved it.

lots of green space.

cool architecture.

and its an ivy league school.

this trip was a trial run for our upcoming trip to greece.

ph practiced getting the bob up the stairs.

we repeatedly told the bean 

"we are almost there."

we dined out.

changed diapers in small spaces.

were flexible with the schedule.

and found creative ways to keep chace entertained.

does eating lunch on an ivy league campus increase

your chances of attending an ivy league school?

does it make you smarter?

it was a fun outing.

a nice change of pace.

we survived 

were no worse for wear.

and are looking forward to our 

next family adventure.

i want to know....

why little boys ALWAYS have the longest eyelashes?

______________

and for those of you who want to know how bedtime was last night, bean screamed for 20 minutes before falling asleep. we went in after 5 minutes, 5 minutes and then 10 minutes to tell him we loved him, put his pacifier in his mouth, and rub his back. he also slept through the night. we will see how tonight goes.

the inevitable

i knew this day would come. 

it was inevitable.

despite knowing it was looming,

i hoped we would be spared.

not a chance.

bean has woken up the last two nights,

30 minutes after going to sleep.

this is not normal bean behavior.

the first night i thought maybe he was hungry.

so we fed him.

he went to sleep.

last night we had a repeat performance.

we tried to let him work it out.

ph was stronger than i.

but we finally caved and fed him.

he went to sleep.

and slept through the night.

despite sleeping through the night,

i was beginning to see a pattern take shape.

so, i sent out a mom s.o.s this morning,

including a call to the pediatrician's office.

and the response was the same.

he needs to work it out himself. 

even if it takes him two hours.

oh give me strength.

parenthood is not for the faint of heart.

last night i made cookies to distract myself.

i can not do that every night.

perhaps i will start drinking bourbon.

or maybe i will just sew alot.

i need something to distract me.

tuesday tidbits

** the weather was really nice over the weekend.

** but it didn't last, its back to hot and humid.

**i know i do not complain this much about winter weather.

** do i?

** bean is sitting up.

** he has been able to roll from his front to his back for some time.

** he has just figured out how to roll from his back to his front.

**up next... crawling.

** the child wants to move.

** this is no surprise. i walked at 6 or 8 months, depending on who you talk to.

** either way, i was an early walker.

** i started a new quilt.

** it requires me to cut out 500 3x3 squares.

** it may take me forever.

** but it will be worth it.

** i have been trying to make these cookies all week.

** maybe today will be the day.

** college football starts in one month.

** i can not tell you how happy this makes me.

weekend snapshots

** disclaimer. ph did NOT get a harley davidson. he wishes he did. this is his uncles bike. he was trying to convince me he needed one. i was not buying it.