From Hiatus to Baby Room

My blog has been long-neglected due to technical difficulties. Computer dying, backup laptop dying, Justin fixing laptop, Dad fixing computer, computer dying for real, and finally, new computer purchased. And here we are.

So, Christmas has yet to be documented, but I thought I would do things backwards and start my catch-up with the nursery changes. Thatcher Reid is expected in the next 6 weeks, and goodness knows, he demands a nursery with updated decorations from when it belonged to his big brother. (Who has already been moved to his “big boy” room, more on that later). I had mentioned the owl idea in a previous posting, and I think that the whole thing turned out really well. Lots of colors and variety.

One of my goals for the room was to have a lot to look at. In my experience with Thad, I spent a LOT of time in the nursery. Usually planted in front of his crib, him swaddled, with static blaring on the radio, jiggling him to sleep. Often this was a 30-45 minute process before he would finally calm down and fall asleep. In the meantime, I would stare at the wall, willing my child to sleep. Eventually, I taped some printed-out Bible verses to the wall so I would have something to read. Needless to say, those verses are so committed to memory that I don’t think I could forget them if I tried.

This time, I wanted to be better prepared with a more visually appealing room, with lots to look at. Not for his sake necessarily, but for my sanity. That’s worth something, right? So far, it feels like a happy place.

Here is what it looked like before Thad was born:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what it looks like now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All new artwork, more of it, more going on in general. Things that I like: Lots of pictures. Pictures of Thad, the first picture with Thad and I at the hospital. Justin, Thad, and Justin’s Grandma. Me and my niece. My favorite, beautifully illustrated copy of the Chronicles of Narnia. Basket full of infant toys. Basket full of the necessary 300 burp cloths. U of O Duck from Aunt Jess. Basket full of our favorite Aden and Anias swaddling blankets. A collection of That’s favorite board books.  I bought almost nothing. The two corner tables were nightstands that Justin made for the guestroom, before it became my sister’s room. The lamp was a transplant. Other than that, the furniture is all the same. I made all of the pictures except one:

 

 

This one was done by a friend at work. Crayons glued onto a canvas, then melted using a hair dryer. Pretty sweet. She had just been over and seen his room, and did an awesome job going with the color scheme.

 

 

 

 

One of my FAVORITE things in the room is the “family tree” that hangs above the changing table. I got this idea on Pinterest (really, I got most of the ideas from Pinterest). I drew a tree, then took it to our Christmas celebrations with each side of our family so everyone could make their owl fingerprint. Rather than buying stamp pads, I just used some markers. Each person colored on their finger with their choice of marker, and put their owl somewhere randomly on the tree, and signed their name. Double awesome because it goes with the owl idea, AND Justin is a fingerprint expert.

Some other Pintrest-inspired close ups:

Glued-on button initial and “Cute as a Button” stitched onto a piece of wool.

Thad-assisted owl cut out of scrap book paper and printed alphabet using Power Point.

 

 

I cut this page out of a book called “Animals Animals” by Eric Carle (the Hungry Caterpillar guy). The book is full of his illustrations of different animals, each with poem, limerick, or little saying about that animal compiled from different authors. It’s a really cool book. Thad now says “uh-oh” every time we come across the cut out page, and I have to explain to him that it’s okay, Mommy did it.

 

 

 

 

 

I also did a little bit of sewing with a new gray and white hounds tooth print bed skirt and 2 wool appliqued owl pillows.

And last but not least, I added a bunch of framed Bible verses. Just little verses here and there for me to look at while I am in there. The one from Numbers (bottom left) is my favorite; it’s called the “priestly blessing”, it is the blessing that God told Aaron to say over the Israelites. Our pastor says it to the congregation at the end of each service.

So, that’s it. I like the room. It feels good. It feels happy. Ready for the new baby Crossland.

Pillows! Owls!

I haven’t mentioned this yet, but we are in fact having another baby. I am 21 weeks, doing great, but terrified for what’s in store. In effort to push those thoughts aside, I am choosing to think about more enjoyable things besides never sleeping and the remote possibility that I will have another colicky baby. On the top of the list of happy things, is decorating new baby’s room. We’re having another boy, which is awesome. (Especially since I don’t have to buy a whole new wardrobe!) I was originally planning on keeping everything in the baby’s room exactly the same as it is now, and moving Thad into the room next door, and focusing on decorating that room. Well, that’s still happening, but in the mean time, I have developed a slight obsession with owls. Not the brown and gold, creepy-eyed owls of the 1970’s (my Grandma used to have a super scary picture of an owl at the end of a dark hallway, which I honestly had nightmares about).

Example:

Seriously, people? Yikes.

No, no, these are super cute, google-eyed colorful owls….which, who knows, may still give my child nightmares, but at least I will like them.

So, while I do plan on leaving things as they are for the most part, I want to incorporate some cute owls into the room as well. The walls in the room are a light gray-green, and a lot of the current decor is black-and-white. I am planning on sticking with the very manly black, gray and green idea, and adding some pops of color here and there. I have a fascination with throw pillows, and have found some really cute owl pillow ideas…

Here are a couple of my inspiration pictures:

The one on the left I have in the works. I’m going to make that one out of wool with the tree and owl appliquéd on the front. I love the look of the wool, I would have thought that wool would be really scratchy, but I bought some pre-washed stuff from the quilt shop that is really soft and nice feeling. Both of these should be really easy and straightfoward. And come on, are those cute or what?

Here is another one that I LOVE. I’ll probably change this one up since it has little birds instead of actual owls, but I love the multi-colored look. I’m thinking that I will do the top two first, then use the scraps to cut out mini-owls for the one below.

I like this picture too, I would maybe do it by painting a canvas a solid blue color and then decopaging some hand-drawn owls onto it….

I have also thought about doing a mobile (to hang in the corner of the room, rather than above the crib), maybe using twigs with little owls hanging. I might also make some bean-filled owl bookends. I don’t know yet exactly, I’m going to start with the pillows and see what I want to do from there. I have the habit of being too matchy-matchy, so I want to make an effort to mix and match colors and styles and themes.

Keep in mind, this is for the new baby’s room, I still have Thad’s room to think about too…

Cheap Entertainment

I have become fed up with toys all over my house all of the time. I understand that toys are necessary, and in fact, life is much easier when the wee one is entertained. However, a lot of the toys we have a just a waste of space. They are big and bulky, not easily packed up and put away. We could get away with having much fewer toys, especially if they are toys that keep his attention for longer than 30 seconds. Along that train of thought, I have recently re-vamped my Christmas list of things to get Thad, and I will go through that at a later date. For now, I wanted to share a couple of ideas for entertainment that is small, fun, inexpensive, and easy to store.

1. Window Decals

I got these at the Dollar Tree for, you guessed it, a dollar. I got a couple of different sheets with different themes. Can’t beat the price, they keep him entertained for a good 20 minutes or so, and they are super easy to put away. They also require a bit more brain power and motor skill ability than a battery-filled, automated light up toy. He takes them off the sheet, puts them on the window, puts them back on the sheet, takes them to the slider door, tells me what they are, and so on.

2. PlayDoh

There are a bunch of home-made playdoh recipes online, all are basically the same, and are really easy to make. I feel like it is another activity that is a bit more stimulating than a lot of toys out there. Not that he is building the Eifel Tower or anything, we are still working on not eating it, but he is definitely getting the idea. Even though you use food coloring to dye the dough, I have not had any issues with the color being left on his hands when he is done, or on the kitchen counter.

These are just a few ideas, I have some more up my sleeve, which I will share in an upcoming post, along with some other life-simplifying thoughts.

Hunting 2011

Okay, I just got super frustrated. I ALMOST finished this post, Live Writer crashed, and nothing was saved. So irritating. I sat down to try and re-type what I had written, found that to be too irritating, so this time I will be doing the short version. And saving periodically. Here it is:

Justin hunts. His family hunts. He goes hunting with his family. I used to go. I had a baby. Now I don’t. No bed. No showers. Fear of no sleep for baby. Justin calls me a baby. Decided to go. Had dream of bear mauling. Got scared. Went anyway. Thad loved it. Slept great. Justin right. Shoot.

Notice that there are no pictures of me. That is because I didn’t shower all weekend. Not my finest hour. No one saw any shootable bucks while we were there, but after we went home, Justin’s uncle got a forked horn. Justin went back up the next weekend and got a nice 3x4, which got him about 35 lbs of meat when it was all cut up. Last time he got a buck, I was actually pregnant with Thad. I helped him cut it up, and in the process realized that there were ticks all over the dear, one of which had crawled on to my shirt. This year, I took a pass on Lyme Disease and let my sister help Justin instead. Anyway, Justin’s sister soon blew them all out of the water by getting her first buck, a big 4x5. Impressive.

Weekend Update

We’re in the throes of fall. I love it! Could do with a little more rain, but the 50-60 degree temps are treating me right. College football is in full swing, and by far my favorite sport to watch. For the last 3 years we have gotten season tickets for the Oregon Ducks (Go Ducks!). This weekend is an away game, as well as my father-in-law’s 60th birthday. I have to say that while I enjoy going to games, which is a super fun atmosphere and experience, I also love away games that I watch from the comfort of my own home. In part, because of the FOOD!

The in-laws are coming up for the weekend, and Justin will BBQ a delicious pork-rib dinner for the birthday boy. I will also be baking him a chocolate cake, as well as preparing yet-to-be-determined side dishes for dinner. Likely some version of potatoes, bread and salad. He’s old…he likes the classics :)

Since we will have people over for FIL’s birthday, as well as the football game, I am planning on making snack foods as well. Some fun items on my food agenda include a few Halloween-specific desserts:

These Candy Corn Sugar Cookies look delicious and easy, you just make the dough, separate into 3 bowls and add food coloring to 2, smash it into a bread pan, chill it and slice it. Bam. Cute.

I will be making these Mini Caramel Apples. I LOVE caramel apples, but my biggest issue with them is too much apple, not enough caramel. (Yes, I realize I’m not 12, but really, how often do you eat a caramel apple, might as well enjoy it). I am going to do a couple of variations of theses. I have caramel candies to dip in, and also some Reses peanut butter chips. I’ll then dip that delicious concoction into mini chocolate chips, crushed peanuts or sprinkles.

I even have a black girl living in my house to eat the Mini Caramel Apples. (Not the one in the picture, a different one). But that’s another story. I also need to get a melon baller for the apples, as I have been told that my Pampered Chef cookie scooper is not sharp enough to go through an apple, and that I will break it if I even try.

I was also planning to make Jalapeno Pepperjack Scones again, but I am re-thinking the Jalapeno use, and I think I am going to make these Poppers instead. I actually prefer the scones, but will do the poppers since they seem to please the masses at football games.

Maybe if I am a super awesome person, I will document my cooking endeavors with a picture. Don’t hold your breath.

House Update

The last 2 summers, Justin worked his hiney off finishing everything in our backyard. The nice part of that is that we spent a lot of time outside. This summer he mostly worked on in-house projects. Painting most of the interior, new floors, and new molding. The result is awesome, but we both feel like we didn’t really do a lot outside this summer, and now our chance is gone! Not everything is finished completely, he still has a little trim painting to do, and we have really haven’t hung anything back up on the walls yet, but for the most part, all the big stuff is done. My biggest issue with this house has always been the nasty, nasty floors. Linoleum in the kitchen, dirty carpet from the front door to the back door…all of which now lives at the dump.

Front Room:

 

Family Room:

Kitchen:

Like I said, everything is not done yet. A few pieces of furniture need to be purchased. We are going to get a computer hutch for the front room, which will go on the wall across from the couch. Those 70’s-tastic bar stools need to be traded out for something a little more up to date. But, everything is at least clean and functional at this point. So even though a lot of the summer was spent indoors, totally worth it.

Thaddeus Lee Crossland, 18 months

Where, oh where, does the time go? Summer has flown by, all of a sudden it is gray and raining outside, and my baby is a walking and talking little boy. Probably about time to post an update on life.

So as of September 30, Thad is a year and a half old. We don’t go in for his checkup until next Wednesday, so I’m not sure on his stats yet. I’m going to throw out a guess that he is about 29lbs and 2 ft, 9in tall. We’ll see how close I am.

He walks (obviously), forward AND backward, he runs, he attempts to jump (and gets zero air). He can make a plethora of animal noises: Moo, oink (which is really a snort), baa, who who, hee haw, hisss, cock-a-doodle-doo, an elephant noise of some sort, etc. I asked Justin the other day how many words he though Thad knew, his guess was 20. Really, Justin? That’s way off. I would say more like 50-60. Maybe only 20 if you are talking about words other people would understand. (Assuming you wouldn’t recognize things like “coff-coff” as wash cloth, but come on people, that’s not that hard to figure out). He most definitely has mastered the word “no”, but will only nod his head for yes, he refuses to say the actual word.

He loves books, trains, cars, animals, chasing the cats, especially Penny who is always elusive, climbing, and anything to do with the computer. He throws some serious fits, yes, occasionally in public. Sometimes the fit includes hitting me in the face…not embarrassing at all. We are working on that. For the most part, he is a really good boy, who is very sweet and happy. He gives great kisses and hugs, his favorite is to hug mommy and daddy at the some time, an arm around each neck.

He is a great sleeper, bedtime starts at 7:30 with a bath, then PJs while daddy sings Old McDonald (“eee eye eee eye”) or Wheels on the Bus (“roun roun”). Then he and I sit in his chair and drink a cup of milk cuddled up with his blanket that he calls “B”. I always sing him You are My Sunshine, which I have sung him even from back in our nursing days. He sleeps until around 7:00 or so, usually through the night. Occasionally he wakes up and cries, but usually because he has wiggled out of his blanket, and just needs to be covered back up. He is officially down to one nap per day, usually around 11:00, and always between 2 and 3 hours.

He is eating big people food with the exception of pureed veggies still. Kid doesn’t have a ton of teeth yet, and has a hard time chewing some things, which doesn’t stop him from trying to swallow them whole, so I am hesitant to give him too many veggie chunks quite yet. He loves all types of fruit, cheese and bread. We have the hardest time with meat and his veggies, but in general, he is a good eater, no too many battles.

I still battle with the confidence of feeling like how I am handling him is the best way. Mostly noted during fits or times of ignoring what I am asking him to do. But, overall, I feel like we aren’t messing him up too bad. He gets a lot of love and attention and seems happy. I guess we’re doing ok.