Happy 3rd Birthday...plus 21 days

Taking a break from slacking, err....being otherwise busy, to finally share some pics from the Tot's 3rd birthday. Aside from him coming down with an illness about half way through the day, it was a good day. The cake baking and decorating was less stressful, the gift opening and candle blowing out was actually performed by the Tot, and the mess at the end was slightly less messy. Oh, yeah - there was the one glitch where I discovered that the reason the chocolate cake tasted just a little off was because apparently the oil that I used (at my mom's house) was oil that she had already used to make french fries. Oops. She really should keep that in a separate place - or in something other than the original bottle. While I am all for reusing, I do not recommend this particular application. Although nobody said they had an odd craving for ketchup with their cake, so it was all good.

This was the happy child during his birthday lunch of chocolate milk and toast with jelly, still wearing his jammies. If I let him, he would probably indulge in this behavior every day.




The cake - he wanted a train and rather than do any of the actual train cake designs out there, I created the scene with tracks and used a vintage wooden train candle holder that my mom pulled out of her endless supply of vintage goodies.







And, yes, he did receive a hand knit sweater which I will have to blog at a future date as he has thus far refused to model it for proper photographing.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

New Favorite Jammies

I know we all like to hang out in our jammies every now and then, but I think my latest sewing project has put the Tot over the edge with his own desire to lounge. Well...he'd actually like to wear them in the sand box and all over town, but I've drawn the line.



These whipped up rather quickly using only supplies I had in my stash. I sort of winged it on the top and the result is a rather large neck opening, but he doesn't seem to mind. I was going to make the bottoms short, but kept them long because the try-on for size revealed how cute they are full length. The light fabric makes these the perfect summer jammies. (Albeit flammable for any safety freaks out there.)



I must say...it makes me so happy that he seems to love these over the store-bought jammies with the toddler-enticing, drum-playing dinosaurs on them.

Oh...and the vintage child's hanger in he first photo was my father's.

A lesson for you

The tot cannot stress enough the importance of keeping moisturized during the winter - the heat can be so drying, not only to your skin, but to your hair as well. A few squirts of Aveeno should do the trick.









Later the same day he managed to completely soak himself with water and then in his third outfit of the day, he ended up covered in flour from head to foot. This is how we stay busy in winter.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

as read by the Tot


Egg.
Leaf.
Pop.
Food, food, food, food, food, food.
Cocoon.
Butterfly.

The End


Isn't that beautiful? He often insists on reading his books to us after we've read them to him. Sometimes it's the same series of mumbled sounds repeated page after page, sometimes it's a few choice words or a single one, and sometimes it's a lovely poem. Almost always, it ends with "The End."

Week 1

I have loads of catching up to do and I hope that it will happen soon, but until then I just wanted to put this out there in the hopes that maybe I can recruit some others to play along.

If you're a flickrite, you've likely heard of this or other similar groups. 52 weeks - my kid(s) and me. The goal is to take a photo of you with your child(ren) every week for one year. I've thought about doing this for a while and now I'm going to attempt to make it a reality. So here's my first week...two pics, but whatever.



I got a remote for my camera for Christmas and you can just barely see in the second photo that the tot is the one holding it, so he actually took both shots.

If you've got a child, I invite you to give it go, share it on flickr, share it on your blog, share it wherever it is that you do your sharing. It doesn't have to be fancy and you can have someone else take the pic if you need to. No pressure, just encouragement to capture some of the daily moments that you share with your little ones. Hey, my first week is no make-up, straggly haired me and the tot in jammies - anything goes.

Bye, Bye, Baby

Two weeks ago the tot turned 2. I consider that the official end to babyhood and it is soooo clear that he has in fact made the transition from baby to boy. And I have to say...I love it! As much as I love babies and as much as I long for a little girl, I love this little boy running around.

As for the celebration, we had the festivities at my parents' house again. It was a fish theme. Yes, his name is Finn and the theme was fish. The cake, which looks sooo amateurish to me in pics right now, was a goldfish bowl.



Whatever...I blame the icing, but it was cute nonetheless. A marble pound cake for stability, chocolate rocks on the bottom, green fruit roll-ups made into seaweed, a couple gummy sea creatures not quite visible here, and of course goldfish (and starfish) crackers. I've decided that for future birthdays, the cake will be made the night before and decorated the morning of. Need more time to perfect it and to actually SEE it before the party starts. He tried to blow out the candle, but couldn't quite get it.



I know, it looks like I am pushing him down while I steal the show here, but I assure you I was just keeping him from landing face first in the fish bowl. Although, now that I think about it, I didn't get to blow out any candles on my birthday this year - probably the first time in my whole life - I was owed one (or thirty one).

You may recall the lovely birthday garland that I made for his first birthday. Well, I updated it with fish to replace the birds and then left it on my dining room table as I left town. :( I was sooo sad about this, but there wasn't much I could do but get over it.

We also had swedish fish to snack on and I made this fishing game for the little ones to play and take home as a favor. The game was a HUGE hit with the 4 year old in attendance. The tot wasn't really into it, but his 2.25yo cousin did enjoy cheating at it. I will say though that the magnets in this project were a total failure - not strong enough and couldn't be drilled through, even with a drill press, so I ended up using velcro with the addition of a large button on the end of the fishing line as a weight and surface for the velcro - worked like a charm.

One of his gifts was this apron and oven mitts that I made for him along with a chef's hat that was purchased.



I love them (the boy and the accessories) and I think he does too.



So, that's the birthday wrap-up and now we're less than two weeks from Christmas. We've got stockings, berry garland, and the advent calendar. Cards arriving from printer sometime next week. Tree arriving....?

Finn does chalk

Big boy - 18 months

Not too long ago, this baby of mine turned 18 months old. Sigh... I love the little boy he's becoming, but I'm gonna miss the little baby he's leaving behind.
The stats:
24 pounds and 33 1/4" tall - sooo tall, and handsome, too!

He walks up and down the steps like a big boy. He's adding new words all the time...sticky, dirty, juice (which he doesn't even drink), bib, bowl, book, duckling, quack, night-night (LOVE it), car, go, no. And that last one... for now he is using it completely appropriately when I ask him a question, but hasn't started using it to rebel - I'll try to enjoy it while it lasts.

Our only hurdle in making this progression into boyhood is that we CANNOT get the child to drink milk, unless it's coming directly from me or sometimes a sip from one of our glasses. We've tried chocolate milk, soy milk, various milk concoctions. Reminds me of this post, oh so long ago when we were trying to get little Finn to take a bottle, which never happened. This makes the whole weaning thing a bit of a difficulty. I may have to just feed him cheese, yogurt and ice cream at every meal.

The Guatemalan Irish Twins Session

Yep. And cute too. My last photo session was with Annie's boys who are about 8 months apart. So I had a two energetic toddlers on my hands, although each with his own unique personality. Oh, and a nice doggy, too. Seriously, these boys were a lot of fun (and I think they liked me too). Although, I did a little too much yelling with them and lost my voice for the next 24 hours. All part of the biz.

a day at the museum

I took this family photo at the Children's Museum, where we recently spent an afternoon with some visiting out of town family. Things started off nice and easy. Among other things, Finn enjoyed the bubble-making see saw with some of his cousins.


But things got really interesting once we made our way up to the third floor water play area. He had no notion of the joy he was about to experience.


Fish anyone?

Finn loves to splash in the tub, so I knew he would delight in this "exhibit". He splished...



and splashed...



and even dunked his face in a few times. He was thoroughly soaked to his toes.



I knew in advance that I should have a change of clothes if we planned on letting him play in the water, but I wasn't thinking about the shoes. He should have been wearing the provided sandals like his cousin Annie.


She wore the shoes, but refused to put on a raincoat.

Once he was done splashing in the pool, he went on to do some hydro engineering with the big kids.




By this point I think his hands were probably numb, but he did not want to leave the free flowing water.

However, the place was closing so we had to do our best to wring him out. He even got his first blowdry.



Our party included 7 kids ages ranging in age from 14 months to 13 years and I think all of them had fun. Actually, we didn't even get to enter the hands on art area on the first floor (which I love). It closed earlier than the rest of the museum, so I'd plan on going there first if you're interested.

Mmmm....doughnuts

Okay, so I'm late. I'm asking you to just play along and pretend this was posted a month ago. For the second year in a row, Finn and I happened to be visiting Nana and PopPop in time for Fastnacht Day - aka Doughnut Day, Fat Tuesday, whatever you like to call it. We always make homemade doughnuts and lots of them.

Who doesn't love deep fried dough?



Even the little ones lent a hand or two.



A little girl after my own heart. Yes, I had an affinity for eating raw dough.



I said "had". Honest. Oh, you ask where is my kid? My kid was in the next room dumping toys on his face.



He does this all the time. Legos, puzzles, you name it. What can I say?

Soooo...now you want to see pictures of the finished product. Ha, are you nuts?! I like to take photos, but I like engorging myself on fresh from the grease doughnuts even more, so the camera had to be put down. Turns out Finn's alright after all. He made an eager appearance in the kitchen in time to chow on doughnuts just like the rest of us.

Who's that girl?

I'm sure most of you will recognize this darling little lady known elsewhere as The Boss. She just turned one year old and I had the pleasure of photographing her cuteness to commemorate the occasion. She was soooo much fun!



Isn't she a doll?! No offense to any of the other little cuties out there, but I'm having my lawyer look into arranged marriages as I type. I may never have a girl of my own, so I gotta be prepared.

This next one is especially for her mommy. The Boss wants to let you know that she misses her spiky hair sometimes, too.



And despite her growing up, that picture still says baby to me, so Happy Birthday Baby A!!!

Baby Gifts :: Part Two

Geez, I'm getting really behind with the blogging. So, I'm going to try to start off the new year by catching up.

During my last week at home before the big holiday travel week, I visited the Kline household and got to meet the newest resident, William - on his first birthday, actually. As a gift for the new baby, I decided to make a project from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, the Birthday Pillow. But instead I made it an adoption pillow commemorating the joyous day that Will officially joined his new family. Aside from early technical difficulties related to the printable cotton fabric, this was a fun and easy project. The text is printed and then embroidered in matching thread. Here is the finished result:



Will really was as happy and smiley as Annie always says he is. I think the boys will have lots of fun together in the year to come!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today my baby turns one. A year ago I had this prescious little bundle...



...and now I have a curious, brown-eyed, trouble-making, armful of cuteness.


We had a birthday party for him over the weekend at my parents' house. It was a bird theme - I made a birdhouse cake and little bird's nest cupcakes.





The cake was...well, troublesome. In hindsight, I should have ditched the cream cheese frosting (it was a carrot cake) for something more solid, and I should have chosen a light color for the birdhouse. It was supposed to be burgundy and after many rounds of adding coloring, I finally gave in to what was a pinkish house because it was taking waaaay too long. (Enter guilt for making my son's first birthday cake pink.) I think the bird's nests, however, were absolutely adorable. The whole thing probably would have been a failure if it weren't for the help of my sister who has been doing her kids' birthday cakes for 13 years now.

Finn absolutely enjoyed his cupcake, including the little nest bits.


He ate every bit that wasn't lost in his highchair.


I also got these warbling bird whistles as favors for the kids at the party. I just loved these when I was little.



And here is the birthday garlard that I made:


A crappy picture...I know. If I get a chance I'll do some more in a follow-up. Anyway, this is something I will use over and over again. I can't take credit for the idea - I saw it here at Mahar Drygoods some time ago and have been planning to make one ever since. I just added the birds to the ends for this year. I think the supplies cost me less than $6, so definitely worth it and fun to make.

Foto Friday - Little Gold Digger

Here it is Friday already and I had more to post about this week, but just didn't have the time. Since I was photo-less last Friday (due to no fault of my own), I am quite prepared today.



This little slice of cuteness is my youngest nephew, Ethan, who happens to be wearing the suit that his older brother wore as ring bearer in my wedding a couple years ago. Of course I had to capture this display. It's totally innocent... he's just doing a little personal grooming.