Liv's Nursery

Zac has been gently suggesting that maybe the kitchen table is not the best place for my sewing machine. I, on the other hand, am reluctant to pack it away with so many projects this close to being finished. So I've been hard at work wrapping up the last touches on the crafts for Liv's room so I can finally post some pictures before she grows up on me and requires a complete room redo...

I think the wallflowers were a nice final addition. Just a bit to fill up an empty corner while the subtle color keeps them from making the space too busy.


Liv's shelves - complete with baby pictures of Mom, Dad, Kian and Liv. The outfit that both she and I came home from the hospital in and a couple of tiny owl touches. The birdhouses still need to be painted - white? yellow? wallpapers with the pink patterned paper? (at least this project won't require a sewing machine)

For some reason, I have proven incapable of making the tissue paper poms that were intended to go in this vase. I had a *kit* and I thought I was a relatively crafty person. These pinwheels were a cute, free alternative.

To hold hair bows and stuff and add a bit more of the bird fabric I love after her bumpers get retired.

Mr. & Mrs. Owl Bookends. Mrs. Owl got a bit rounder with her last pregnancy. Oh well, can't expect perfection when you don't actually use a pattern. I think it add a bit of charm to the couple.

A birthday card from my father-in-law that I saved for a couple years till I had a little girl's room to put it in. Plus Kian & Liv's porcelain baby shoes (as this is one of the few shelves in the house high enough to keep them safe.)

The crib side of the room as it is now.

And what it looked like with the tree decals. I really liked them for about 4 days till they started to slowly slide down the wall. What do you think... leave it blank, paint them on this time, paint them but in a softer brown, add in leaves and pink flowers...

And a bit of homemade fun that did turn out well. I love how these spin with the slightest breeze. So simple & cheap to make too.

A close up of the bedding and my happy girl. It's been a labor of love and I hope it shows how truly loved you are.

Kian-isms

At school they were playing the song Who let the dogs out. Kian replied, "My Mommy." He went on to tell them all about Porter, Molly and Missy. Missy, aka Nimbus, our male dog who Kian has officially renamed. Even poor Missy, er Nimbus, now responds to him new name.

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Kian is more interested in doctors then any kid I know. He constantly asks, "Doctor says?" We have used this to our advantage for those important points in life. I brought him with me to Liv's doctor's appointment a couple month's ago so that "Doctor" could tell him he could no longer unbuckle his seat belt while we're driving around. The seat belt has remained safely in place ever since. Zac had "Doctor" explain to him that poop goes in the potty at his last appointment. Ever since Kian has been potty trained.

He *loves* to go to the doctor's office. He even sat nicely and watched as the drew blood for another round of allergy tests last week, said thank you when the were finished, and has asked to go back for another blood test. For the last year if you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he will tell you a doctor.

I asked yesterday, he told me he wants to be Bob the Builder. I guess the 529 plan is sufficiently funded.

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On the way home from school the other day Kian explained to me "the horses are all in my fields. Yeah, because we all just share the horses." If only you were right my socialist little one.

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Kian's classmate Ashlyn has decided that they are getting married. She told him this was the plan and is very possessive if a teacher tries to give him a hug or another classmate gives him too much attention. Kian seems to have taken the new fact that he is marrying Ashlyn as merely a statement of fact.

On the way to school we were discussing that his teacher won't be there this week. "Why." Because she is on her honeymoon. "Why." Because she got married. "Why." Because when people fall in love sometimes they get married. Like Mommy & Daddy fell in love and we got married.

"YOU'RE MARRIED????" said with complete and total disbelief and possibly a bit of disgust. Yes, buddy, your mommy & daddy are married. I know you thought this was something only three year olds do.

Inspired

A late night tonight - out at Robin & Bob's for Robin's birthday celebration - and now after almost falling asleep on their floor before I left, I'm up surfing the web unable to sleep (btw, Dairy Queeze Reeces Blizzard ice cream cake - yumm, *so* much better then my expectations). The past couple of weeks I've been feeling motivated again - motivated to craft, to cook, to decorate, to organize... to appreciate life, take more pictures, take a photography class, to find order, to finally figure out the office, to do a little every day, to make big changes, to invest in fencing the property, putting in built ins, hardwood floors.

So as I peruse blogs I think - I can do this, I want to do this. I ran across another 365 challenges. One blogger decided to take a picture everyday for a year, and the favorites left in the link are beautiful, artsy, full of memories. I want that. So now what do I want to do for a 365 challenge. A craft a day (not likely), a blog post (still probably to zealous given the wealth of posts I have so far and the time that has passed since starting this blog), a photograph (possible), saving an inspirational photo (doable but will tat just leave me with even more ideas that I'll never get to.)

Part of me says don't give yourself one more goal that you won't have time to live up to. Part of me says challenge yourself. You're missing out on too much of the life that is whizzing by you.

Translation Please

Kian turned 3 on Tuesday. As he talked to everyone who called to wish him well, I thought about how verbose he has become. He told everyone exactly what he got for his birthday, what everyone in the house was doing, and all of his random musings in a nonstop stream of consciousness. Just one year ago we were sitting in the doctor's office when she asked, does he know 50 words, go home tonight and count, if you can't come up with 50 call me in the morning. We were had pressed to come up with 50 and could only get there if we included animal noises and uh-oh!

Of course as Kian talks on the phone we still get a lot of requests for translations. As our friend Matt said the other day, Kian comes up with his own contractions. Some examples... When his teacher asked what he got for his birthday in the morning he proudly told her that mommy let him put sprinkles on the "upcakes" (upcakes = cupcakes, we opened the real presents that night). Just a couple days before he told us he couldn't find his "hookers", where his "hookers" under the table, where the "hookers" behind the chair, he really needed those "hookers" (hooker = later determined to be the train cars that hook together.) When I picked him up at school after a couple of days in PA, Kian used my guilt at being away to request special treats. I wanna go "Walmart" (Walmart = McDonald's though he has never actually been to the McDonald in the Walmart and clearly thinks Walmart is the stand alone McDonald's with the play structure). I wanna get "lunch" (lunch = all meals and/or snack). I wanna go Chick-a-lay (Chick-a-lay = Chic-fil-a though he doesn't actually like Chic-fil-a nuggets so this may also mean McDonald's). I wanna get "CD" (CD = DVD). I wanna get Chippendale's (Chippendale's = Alvin & the Chipmunks, most likely confused with Disney's Chip and Dale). I can't tell you how many months it took me to realize that he always said b*%&$ when driving over the bridge. I just didn't want to ask for clarification and encourage the word.

Next year this time I won't have these cute little words to listen to everyday. As much as I know we should help him with his language a small part of me wants to hold on to my little boy.

More Firsts

After 4 days in PA, Liv came back with her first tooth (on Mother's Day - May 9th which perfectly coincided with her first flight... lots of fun), had her first attempt at a sippy cup with water (fun but not necessarily productive), and became an expert crawler (she's been working at crawling for most of the past month but she officially has it down pat now). It hard to believe she is 8 months today! My little girl is growing up.

Last weekend Zac and I discussed how we really should lower her crib soon. She was already pulling herself up if you let her hold onto your fingers. Zac lowered it Friday. Saturday morning I found her standing up in her crib. The cruising has officially started.

Does Motherhood Equal Worry

I go to work every day and talk about Kian's latest antics and the chaos that is my household of 3 dogs, 1 cat, 1 almost three year old, 1 seven month old , and two working parents. All too frequently I also find myself voicing my concerns for Olivia. I talk about her time at Texas Children's with meningitis at seven days old in a cathartic way. I explain how much I worried, how much I still worry, how much I never really got the full gravity of the situation when it was happening and so maybe only now that its all done and over with can I worry as I probably should have seven months ago. I share her latest updates - another round of albuterol, steroids, inhalers, antibiotics, whatever the flavor of the day seems to be. I don't know what the biweekly doctor's visits mean or what they'll lead to next or how to help by baby breath. I look at her and think she is so happy, so smart, so perfect this is all a silly goose chase for a tiny wheeze but then the doctors throw around respiratory failure, pneumonia, emergency response, rescue breathing treatments and, I worry.

Even as I worry I know we're fortunate - she is okay, in my heart I know she is okay, we'll get through this, so many other mothers deal with so much worse but then *my* baby is sick. Maybe worry is what motherhood is all about.

One of my coworkers keeps asking - Do you keep a journal? Are you writing this stuff down? Kids are curious by nature. They'll want to know what happened to them when they were younger. She'll want to know about all of this stuff. So here it is. I'm writing it down. A chronicle of worry and the loads of precious, happy moments that you don't want to slip through your fingers. Now off to check her breathing -- just to be sure -- before I head to bed.