Long time, No Post

Combed my hair with a
brush from Papa.

Well, it's been a relaxing few days at home, with hectic moments here and there .. as I begin to transition back to "life in Indiana" .. a stage my dear, sweet, loving husband has taken to quite well, giving me space when he knows I need it, and supporting me or loving up on me when appropriate as well ... how he knows the difference is magical to me, since I still have a hard time knowing if I want space or affection ... hahah =)  We've worked like a team to tidy up our little abode, which always seems cluttered and grungy compared to our parents' homes when we visit.  I can't wait to move out of our apartment to do more binging & purging of our home - I've got a laundry basket heaping with donations for the goodwill / salvation army / st vincent depaul thrift stores at the moment.  I'm about ready to go through T's closet to make up our package for the Women's Care Center, as well.  After tidying the freezer (yes, we went so far as to reorganize the freezer), I am finally ready to contact the milk bank again, as well! Hahah

Get it out of my house and into someone's who needs it.


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Marge - 50's Repo's

Gisela likes "French Roosters" ;-)

Mom's always loved
blue and yellow

Now that Christmas has passed, I can share about all of my holiday sewing / crafting!  I spent a large part of late Nov. thru early Dec. making gifts for the women in my lives - Marge, Gisela, Mom, Amanda and Kathy!  The idea came to me shortly after reassembling my sewing space. I was looking for quick and easy projects to make during T's nap times .. and for some reason the idea of pot holders came to mind .. and to create a gift, I decided to make some embellished hand towels, as well.  It was a ton of fun picking out 5 sets of fabric (4 different fabrics to each set) ... being as fabric selection seems to be my favorite part next to completing a project ... but when it came to embellishing hand towels ... I was at a loss. I was quickly rescued by a blog post that had the best idea for a quick hang-tie-addition to a kitchen or bathroom towel (ps. i adore this blog for many reasons). Not only was it feminine, but it was easy, attractive, and quick.  Once we settle into our next home (perhaps permanent? although not likely) I'll have to choose some fabrics for us!  I hope you enjoy these photos of the gifts I made for Margaret, Gisela and Mom ... I somehow completely forgot to snap pictures of the kitchen sets I made for Kathy and Amanda ...

Another gift I made was for our nephew Clark. I had posted about it awhile back with a few hints. Of course, I managed to wrap it up with out taking a picture ... awe man!  I was able to pull together my resources to make him a very trendy little t-shirt with a Spider Man tie ..!  I hope he likes it ... I thought it would be darling under a hoodie or sweater this winter, although I hear from my sister's boyfriend it was 45 degrees F. in MN today ... =) Practically T-shirt weather in itself.

Thomas acquired a new gift over Christmas!  He actually received some hefty Target gift cards from Kathy and Amanda that helped us make a giant purchase we were wary of a few months back ... after scouring Once Upon a Child like a nutt, I decided a decent exersaucer / jumparoo was out of the question for us ... but we indulged our desires (much like we did with the ritzy baby swing, now in the loving hands of our youngest nephew, Silas and his Mum Gisela) and bought a jumparoo.  Here's a video from T's first few moments enjoying his new "toys" ... he's really enjoyed it for exercise, calisthenics as Ry calls it .. hahah .. as well as for a little upright aid in pushing out a new solid-food-induced deuce .. poor little guy .. He's enjoyed new foods like pureed sweet potato, butternut squash, peas, etc. and soft solids of banana and avocado .. much more than he's enjoyed the poos that come along with them ...

Here are some links to some jarred baked goods I gave to Kathy and Amanda. I'm eager to try them out, myself and I've heard reports that the bread is tasty!

I renamed them with festive holiday names, and made labels using Word's Christmas themed pictures.  I think the names were Mrs. Claus' Favorite Quickbread and Rudolph's Christmas Cookies ... The labels were cute! Had I been thinking, I'd have saved them in my e-mail ... but I did not!

Quick Bread in a Bottle

Cowboy/Cowgirl Cookies

The recipes sounded delicious ... I especially liked the idea of adding oatmeal to a quick bread!


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Ryan saw progress toward a goal of his today with an electronic publication containing information on "December Computer Resource Usage Stats" as he put it ... There is a cluster of computers in the form of CPU cores within a server that is used by over 100 Notre Dame researchers from every field - math, engineering, biology, physics, chemistry, computer science - and this fall it became his goal to "dominate the server" with his research once he began a new project ... and well, his time came!  As you can see below, he was the top user of December.  Ironic, considering we were in Minnesota for half of the month. ;-) Atta boy. Now on to that New Years Resolution of yours ;-)

27 is the New Thing

last time I received a birthday balloon?
Gisela and the purse and high healed shoe ...
how old were we?!

Happy Birthday to Me ..! And my Twin!  It's been a wonderful birthday ... and only the 2nd I've celebrated separate from my twin sis, Marge.  One for each of us ;-)

The day began with a phone call from my sweet little nephew, "Hannah. I have something to tell you. Happy Birthday. What are you doing right now??" His newest 'thing' is to talk on the phone - he insists on knowing my phone number each time I say, "Hey, call me tomorrow ok??" then he says, "I know it starts with 5 .." and won't pass the phone off to my sis until he knows the remaining 9 digits ... It's pretty cute!

Text Whales - Mine had
little ^ hats on ;-)

We were set on going to breakfast at my favorite spot - Uptown Kitchen - but by the time I was done on the phone and showered (man alive I took my time and it was glooorious!) ... T was ready for a nap ... so The Boys (yes, both of them) napped while I poked around downstairs, prepped for our giant road trip tomorrow, and chatted with my mom ... texting my sister whales, birthday whales, whales wearing birthday hats ... ;-)

By the time the boys awoke from their slumber it was time to head off to lunch because Uptown was closing in an hour ..!! After perusing the menu, Ry ordered the chicken sausage hash (yumm with Rye toast) and I chose the Nicoise Salad - tempted by how delicious it looked after a friend of ours ordered it when we met for lunch back in August .. YUMM - It had artichoke hearts and calmata olives - two of my favorites - baby tomatoes, hard boiled egg, seared ahi tuna ... all over mixed greens ... with a garlic-parsley-vinaigrette ... which was to DIE for ... the perfect lunch.  Ryan and I shared bites <3 hehe  Speaking of yesterday's post where I mentioned mastering the art of one handedness?  T was a gentleman at lunch, fussing only for his own bite to eat.  Had we been farther along on the solid food route, he'd have been munching on some peas .. but I was able to give him a bottle while continuing to eat my lunch.

Ry was great about choosing a slice of cake for us - after watching Iron Chef last night and drooling over Chef Faulkner's peppermint chocolate cake ... that is exactly what he chose after I told him to "surprise me"!  Thinking of Marge, 500 miles away, we made the following video at lunch .. err .. should i say .. dessert!

In addition to the best chocolate cake ... with peppermint bark between the layers ... I received the best birthday present, too - Little T took his evening nap - albeit brief - in my lap.  It was so sweet to watch him doze off. I just love when his little lips make that "w" shape ... he is too sweet for words.  I can't wait for our family to see how grown he's become since we were last home at the end of October.  He awoke because Ry and I were continuing to send goofy text message to Marge while she was at dinner with her Ryan and my jiggling belly laugh jiggled T right awake!

zonk ... out he went!

look ... at those lips ...

I love when his tiny bottom lip
curls under and makes a little 'w' shape
lord isn't he cute?

Considering it's only our second birthday apart from one another in 27 years .... it's been a fulfilling and relaxing day all around.  We are totally packed and ready to hit the road for Minnesota tomorrow ... All we have to do is load the car!

6 Months is a (long/short) time!

Our first family photo <3

Today little T is 6 months old! I can't believe it!  The last 6 months truly have flown by ... as I'm sure many mommies can relate ... it's almost as if having a baby jams the 'fast-forward' button into place.

At this time (6:20 p.m.) 6 months ago ... my parents were just arriving at the hospital! I was so glad to have Margaret in town when I went into labour, and it was equally as refreshing and empowering to have my parents there, as well. (of course in addition to DH who was my steadfast boulder to care for me while in the hospital)

Here's a tiny glimpse into what we've accomplished as a new little family over the last 6 months -

• At about 10:30 p.m. we found out we would be having a c-section ... my first major surgery.
• T was born at 11:07 p.m.!! Welcome to the world, little baby!
• I began breastfeeding
• I enjoyed an extended stay at the hospital .. lol luxury? Maybe not.
• We slept for the first time as a family in our little home ... on the futon downstairs because I was way too scared to venture upstairs (and back down?) after my surgery!
• DH and I figured out (and adapted many times ... lol) the best way to change diapers ... and eventually began cloth diapering our little one!
• We had the most company in the shortest period of time ever - spending the 5-6 of T's first 8 weekends with family.
• We have perfected the process of bringing our little one to the South Bend Farmers' Market and have gone almost every Saturday we are in town - T has a fan club among the famers' and vendors ;-)
• We know the ins and outs of breastmilk pumping, storage, freezing, reheating ... 
• We've struggled through and been successful in meeting our *FIRST* Breastfeeding Goal of nursing for 6 months! On to the next goal! 9 Months!
• We've tag teamed sleepless nights quite effectively
• We've become an amazing 3-person team and family ... loving one another more than we knew we could.
• Thomas has learned how to - grab, pinch, roll, drink from a bottle, suck a nuk (independently .. lol) and get it into his mouth, stand, pull-to-sitting with a steady strong head, sit with minimal support, and many other milestones ... I've only cried for two of them ... hahah
• We have learned to do a number of things one handed with a baby in the other arm ...
• We've traveled to and from Minnesota twice - 3 trips by car, 1 by plane - another baby first.
• We've taken more pictures than ever before ... even surpassing our wedding day pictures, and there were TWO photographers snapping then!!
• We've mastered tag-team eating .. you eat while I juggle the baby .. ok switch!
• I've made my own baby food <3
• We've talked about when the next little one will come along ;-) 

Ohh man I could go on forever ... It truly is amazing how having a little one changes EVERYTHING. Our little gift =)  He is incredible.

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Another feat I've accomplished for the first time is how on earth to do a mail merge .. I printed a heap of addresses onto envelopes today to mail or Christmas cards.  It occurred to me that we are PACKING tomorrow to LEAVE TOWN for 10 days in just TWO DAYS! Eek! I can't wait..!  So to minimize craziness it dawned on me that I should probably mail out these gorgeous Christmas cards we purchased courtesy of JCPenny and Groupon ... We should also figure out what we're going to do with all of these pictures ;-) Oh wait, we already have some ideas!

Little T is up from his nap .. I love listening to Ryan chat with him over the baby monitor - that thing is almost always on!  Lately T has been just catching a glimpse of Ry and doing his little "Ahh heeee" laugh, grinning ear to ear. We can't figure out what it is that invokes these little laughs ... maybe it's Ryan's goofy face? ;-) hahah

c'mon mom .. i just woke up!

Happy 6 Months, Baby T!

Christmas Comes Early in Our House ...

I have a confession.  And my family already knows this ... but I must admit, I am terrible at keeping gifts I'm giving a secret ..!!! I always end up telling SOMEONE (usually the receiver or another family member...) exactly what I got them for Christmas, a birthday, housewarming .. you name it!  So Ryan and I have gotten in the habit of giving gifts early!  We claim it's so we don't have to tote gifts from Indiana to Minnesota and back to Indiana ... but secretly I think it's because we just can't wait! We are like children ..! Hahah

This year my Christmas gift from Ryan arrived and I guessed exactly what it was ... a new winter jacket!  I didn't open the package for a few days .. and every time I guessed about it Ryan kept a straight face and didn't let on to my accuracy in guessing .. but soon enough a cold day came through South Bend and Ryan said, "Psst ... open it already!"  He was pretty excited to see how much I loooooved my gift - a new coat is a surefire gift I am bound to love ... coats are to me as shoes are to most other women ... =)

My birthday gift arrived today ... and I'm particularly excited about sharing it with my little blogging community ... I'll see if you can guess what it is!  Here are some clues:

1. It's palm sized and plugs into my pc
2. It's going to be very fun to use to share info / moments / life on my blog ..!!
3. Family will be tickled to know I have one now, especially if we end up living farther from home before we live closer ...

Ryan really hit the nail on the head with this one!

Since I've opened all of my gifts, I let Ryan choose one of 2 gifts I have for him under our baby Christmas tree ... I recommended the boxed gift that was for both Thomas and Ryan ... call me a cheese ball, but I bought them matching t-shirts ;-) courtesy of Westmama Design on Etsy (thanks for the sale price on Dad's shirt)!  They are brown - both boys look handsome in brown - with a picture of a cuttlefish - and the text: Wanna Cuttle?  Ryan giggled ... which is a good sign. Usually I buy him a gift he isn't too hot on (like the watch I bought him a few years ago? It's become a paper weight .. he's hard to shop for!).  So we'll see if he wears it or not. =)

Here's another guessing game ..

1. The other gift I bought for him is a bit "lame" for the next 16 days, but come January it's going to be so cool
2. He already has one, but it won't be as unique or useful for the month of January
3. It's slightly cylindrical in shape ..

Yarr!  I'm excited about it because I now he will love it. And when February comes .. if he isn't too hot on it .. I know I will use it! Hahah

Sort of ironic that this post comes just a week after I mention how Christmas isn't about the gifts?  I guess I don't think this post is about the gifts .. it's about our little tradition of excitement to give and love on each other ... to admit that it's O.k. to slightly indulge each other in our wishes and wants this season even though we are a bit tight on money ... and be thankful for my successes in my E-Garage Sale, as Gisela named it ... hahah

The reason I post about our little "Christmas Comes Early" tradition is because this year (and maaaaybe next year) is the last year we'll get to indulge in this little escapade ... because we've got a little one in the house who will also want to open presents when Mom and Dad do!  .. and that will not be tolerated ;-)  How will I ever contain myself?? Hahah I'm excited already .. and it's already 366 days away! (is it a leap year?)

As I packed up some of Thomas' 0-3 month clothes today I thumbed through and gathered a few things up to donate to moms in need this season.  I am hoping to make a donation to the Women's Care Center before we leave town, and potentially to South Bend's Milk Bank.  Not only are we swimming in clothes that are too small for my little T, but my tiny freezer is beginning to overflow with both newly pureed baby food and breast milk.  We'll see if I qualify!  It's a pretty extensive testing process, so my initial donation may have to wait until the new year.  I am so thankful for our good health and the generosity we were shown this year as we prepared for our little bundle to arrive and as we have enjoyed his company these last 6 months .. and I am now eager to be able to pass on some of that good health and generosity to women in need.

So I started this project today ...

Today is the day of started-but-not-finished projects!

During Thomas' a.m. nap I started to mix the dough for those chocolate crinkle cookies that are tossed in powdered sugar before baking? Yeah .. yumm .. but the only chocolate I had in the house was "hershey's special dark" .. oh darn .. you mean they are going to have to be EXTRA chocolatey?  Drat ... I got the dough all mixed together and put in the fridge to set up before moving on to project number 2 ..!  A very special Christmas gift for a little Elf of a nephew who happens to looooove Spider Man ;-)

All you get regarding that project are pictures! hahah  Some time after Christmas I'll be sure to post about the gifts I've been working on ...

After making very little progress there, I ran upstairs to grab little T for some play time ... he always manages to wake up at the perfect point in time ;-) Of course the mail carrier had come already to deliver the mail .. and we LOVE getting the mail - including our first Christmas Cards of the season courtesy of our friends the Eggers & the Hundts ..! Thomas loves to get the mail, too ... mostly those adds that come every week that drive Mum & Dad bonkers! hahah

We had a delightful 40 minutes together before he started to turn into a pumpkin ... so we nursed, did some walking, singing and talking around the house ... and went upstairs for nap time.  This whole "prepare for nap time"  routine lasted about 2 hours.  I've started to nurse him to sleep .. and if he wakes after I put him down, I let him fuss for 5-10 minutes before I go back up stairs ... and I don't nurse him again .. I try to get him to settle back into sleep with the help of the nuk, walking, bouncing, swaying .. but the hard part is the fact that I can't just sit down and rock him in the glider with out him having a fit .. so eventually my arms get tired, the nerve in my back is all agitated and sore .. either way .. Somewhere in that window Project #3, which happened to be DINNER was started ... and never finished ... hahah ... and 2 hours later, I decided I had had enough, and obviously so did Thomas .. so we came down stairs and played for a bit before he started to turn back into a pumpkin ... to which we began to walk and talk, feel the cold glass door and windows, sing songs ... it just wasn't right, and he wasn't himself =( so I e-mailed Ryan and asked him to bring home a baby thermometer (we had lost ours) on his way home.

Little T didn't have a fever ... just the fussies ... and some odd stuff going on in his diaper area that isn't blog-worthy ... and he had been spitting up A LOT but hours after eating (here you can see him in the cutest Notre Dame onesie EVER ... that also happens to be cursed ... he either spits up all over it, like today, or happens to have a leaky diaper while wearing it ...) ... also uncommon for him ... and so I called the pediatrician who wanted to see him tonight.  Thinking it was something serious like a UTI or bladder infection we went in ... and low and behold ... he's FINE. Hahah - not even signs of a TOOTH coming in to his loud, fussy little mouth!  The pediatrician corrected some things in his diaper area and sent us on our way home, and my little pumpkin passed out, fast asleep after a record breaking bath time, by about 8:45 p.m.

So all of the little projects I started today wound up on hold - cookies, Christmas presents and dinner - and as I said to little t in the car ... tomorrow is a new day!