Miscellany

So many things to blog about lately. Let's hit as many things as possible in one post, deal? Numbered lists, and go!

1. I've decorated a bit for Valentines Day this year, something I've never done before, but (again) this is our first year with a mantel and it's just too much fun to dress it up. I also never know if it's 'mantEL' or 'mantLE' and I see it spelled both ways, so forgive me if I'm wrong today. I bought a cute felt heart-garland at Target (and 'Be Mine' was our first dance song at our wedding, as I gently reminded Nate), then found felt heart 3D stickers at Joann's for 50% off. Added those to some pipe cleaners, and a few to a ribbon. And voila!











2. Also, made a few new prints to put in frames around our house. Finally made the 'important date' one that you see on Pinterest everywhere. Made Erin one, too, because she's wanted one for years and it was an easy birthday present.  :)







3. My son is almost three years old. And he is painfully handsome with his newest haircut, if you ask me. And he is obsessed with those smoothie pouch thingies. Like, he could eat 10 a day if I let him. He is also obsessed with Nutella on waffles lately, hence the chocolate smears. Love sneaking in some veggies with the pouches. Love his dimples. Love this boy.




4. My kids are obsessed with Henry dog. And the feeling is quite mutual, since our seven year old first born is now the recipient of TWO portions of people food falling from the table. Caught Cecelia playing with Henry on camera and almost died of the cuteness. Especially when Henry kept licking her face, shaking her hand, and then flipped onto his back in order to get belly rubs. What a freaking ham. Love that Truman will say, 'Where's my Henry? I missed Henry today!'. He is such a good doggie, even when he is driving me nuts by his protective bark when someone enters our house. Even when he drops a stealth pee in the basement. He's still an awesome family pet and so good to our kids.






5. I am in love with with running to Justin Bieber's 'Beauty and a Beat'. And Taylor Swift's 'Never Ever'. Truman actually loves that song by Taylor, too, and does a really cute rendition of it yet to be caught on camera. But yeah. I'm 31 years old and love the tween stuff for running. No shame.

6. I never shared our Instagram book on the old blog! My philosophy on photo albums has been: doing a pregnancy album for each baby, then a yearly album for each child (probably just the first two years for each kid, I think). Before kids I'd do a family album every year but now I figure that the kids' albums do the job nicely. But this year, now that I'm heavy into the IG fad, I figured that using my iPhoto pictures in a family album would be good----and then Cecelia's first year album will hold all of our 'real' pictures and all of my appropriate blog posts. And so? I used Blurb, as always, and LOVED how this baby turned out. No text, very straight-forward, and 196 pages. I had to edit my photo selection way down, too, because even though I joined IG less than a year ago I'm completely obsessed. The book (with our last name covered by a hair bow. Random.)














Also, it should be noted: I totally tried to sell myself to Blurb. I wrote them and said that I've made 27 books using their company before, I am obsessed with them, and I have a fairly popular blog. Then I tried to make the stretch that maybe they'd want me to review a book for them and I could get a big fat discount (ie free?) book out of the deal. The customer service people were super nice and said they'd forward my email to their marketing folks. Did not hear back from them. However, the nice rep DID give my a coupon for 20% off so at least I got something out of the deal. I really do love Blurb even if they didn't want me to blog for them;)

7. Speaking of photos, my computer was giving me a 'warning: start up disk full' signal which is never a great thing to see. I checked my hard drive and sure enough---I had 95GB of images on iPhoto. Whoops. I cleaned up a few other applications first and then I knew I had to tackle the beast. So I FINALLY pulled off all of the images from my computer and put them on our external hard drive. Since I also put all of the 'good' pictures on Flickr as a back up, I don't get too panicked about putting the images on the hard drive, but I SHOULD because if something ever happened to Flickr and if my computer crashed I'd be screwed. So anyway, 10,000 images came off my computer. And that was only since Cecelia was born.

8. I should be writing Cecelia's 8 month post right now (happy 8 months, baby!) but I'm doing this one instead. Why do the monthly posts stress me out? Can't believe I did them all the way through age TWO for Truman. Yikes.

9. Speaking of Truman, I just realized the other night as I looked at all of the photos in the past year, that he is no longer obsessed with tattoos. I think last year at this time he was at his PEAK of needing to have one tat on each hand at all times. I remember taking fresh ones along with us when we both flew to Missouri for a wedding last February. Because I knew that if his current ones started to wear off while we were away the world would end. He had tattoos on when CC was born and last summer, too---but since then he hasn't requested any. Why does this make me so sad?? I mean, it's not like wearing temporary tats is the cutest thing ever and it was kind of annoying to ALWAYS be replacing them. But it just goes to show that phases pass quickly and something that was so important a year ago doesn't matter to him anymore. Makes me sad to think that sometime soon he might be 'over' trains---maybe that will be an even bigger pill to swallow, since I feel like his trains are such a big part of his personality right now. Obviously, kids grow up and their likes and dislikes change. But wahhhh--I don't want him to grow up and trade in his trains for video games and girlfriends!

10. I have a fun project that I'm making for Truman right now, inspired by this on Pinterest. I was actually just going to buy that daily calendar instead of making one, but then I found myself wanting to make ours a little bit different. And I haven't really worked with felt before and wanted to give it a shot. It's proving to be pretty time consuming but I think the end result will be worth it. We HAVE to figure out a way to teach Truman about the concept of time. Everything in the future is 'after my nap' and everything in the past is 'last time'. Not sure this calendar will even help but it's worth a shot!



(crafting with a toddler is a dangerous sport for toys)




11. Have I mentioned that I love Craigslist? Because it's my favorite place to buy furniture, apparently. We found our awesome dining room chairs there, I got Truman's cool 'big boy' dresser there, and we found the changing table and also our crib on CL. Add to the list this adorable dollhouse bookshelf for Cecelia!



It is by Pottery Barn (apparently, not sure I ever believe people when they say that) and is 6 years old. I think we got a pretty good deal on it because it's real wood and the price is basically the same as what we paid for the dresser and the changing table before. I might try to paint the 'roof' and the little windows, trading the light green for a pale pink (of course). But we'll see. Now Cecelia will have a place to put all of her books and it will make the nursery feel a little more complete! Just have to coordinate a time for Nate to get the bookshelf and then we might have to rearrange the entire nursery to make it fit next to the rocker. I have a thing about wanting the bookshelf RIGHT next to the chair in there--not sure why that is such a big deal to me, but whatever. Can't wait to see it in person. Thanks again, Craigslist!

12. I have become a bad commenter on other blogs lately. I usually read Google Reader while nursing Cecelia at bedtime, then I mark the blogs 'unread' so that I can go back and comment later when I'm on the computer. Which seems to be a LOT later than I anticipate. Why isn't it easier to comment on blogs on my phone? So many steps and passwords and redirections on that tiny screen. But anyway---commenting on blogs is on my ever-important To Do list!

13. Picky toddler at mealtime, anyone? Wow. Truman is actually getting a little bit better about trying new foods for us but it's always such a battle to get that kid to eat anything healthy (see above point about giving him glorified baby food in a squirt container). For the past two nights, we have had some...events at the dinner table. We make him try something new. He obeys. And then he gags and seriously ralphs all over. Tonight I made him a 'T and C' sandwich----not calling it a 'turkey and cheese' sandwich because I knew he'd tell me he doesn't like turkey. But I called it a T and C---for Truman and Cecelia. Cute, right? He was all about it. I had cut off the crust, made tiny cute little bites, and when he plunged into that first little bite his face dropped. He tried to play it off acting like it was all good and then....he gagged. And couldn't stop puking. Awesome. This is about the 5th time in his life that he has gagged on my food. The night before it was on shredded cheese which he usually loves so whatever. The child has a WEIRD sensory/tactile thing going on I've decided. Anything crunchy or super smooth is good. Anything with variable textures? NO. Again, he really showed me what I could do with my beloved T and C sandwich. He cried and felt badly about it, and I know he didn't force himself to vomit everywhere. But man. Kind of hard to push new foods when I know I will be cleaning them up later...

And what a way to end a post! ;)