St. Patrick's Day 2010

This was the best St. Patty's ever! I really enjoyed having a plan that didn't just focus primarily on booze and we had lots of fun and learned some new things. It was a great family day- though smaller than we had hoped because my sister and her family couldn't be there because of a feverish baby girl (who is better now- yay!). It was still good green fun! Plus it gave me a wonderful reason to bust out with my green flower hair toys again, I was delighted to discover that they included bells of Ireland! Woo-hoo!

I actually had clover or false clover (I'm not certain which) growing in my yard quite beautifully this day so I wanted to get some photos of Maximus in it- I was pretty pleased with my results, though Max was a little grumpy as this was directly after his nap.

He perked up some and I got sunshiney green pictures which were just what I was hoping for!

He was really exceptionally well-behaved about my fascinators- I think he's finally learning to be gentle- which is awesome.

I had fun finding a bunch of stuff around the house the decorate the mantle with- I actually intended to put up a wooden snake that we have, but I didn't get around to it. If you can see it, there's a photo right above those beads of my sister, best friend and her husband at a St. Patty's day parade where they were very festive and very much in their cups. I wish I could have been there but it happened right before my wedding so I was too busy.

The rest of our celebration involved our version of an "authentic" Irish feast- I did some internet research and this seemed pretty accurate- plus I'd always wanted to make a colcannon. What's a colcannon? you might ask. Well- here you go. You peel, cut, boil and mash some potatoes. Meanwhile in another pan you need to cook a mixture of shredded cabbage, diced leeks, milk, butter, salt, pepper and a little nutmeg.

Once that's soft but not browned you blend it with the potatoes and then you make a well and fill it with butter, stick it in the broiler until it's slightly browned on top. Then you're supposed to eat it from the outside in, dipping your bites in the butter well as you go. It was fun, and tasty, quite mild, I never would have guessed how much cabbage and leeks were in this.

This was just our side dish though- and that drink is a shandy- which can be any kind of non-stout Irishy brew- (I guess lagers mostly) mixed with anything from ginger ale to lemonade. There's apparently a lot of wiggle room with this drink and it was tasty, just like a lighter, sweeter more refreshing beer. ( I went with ginger ale as it seemed more accurate than lots of recipes that called for sprite). Our main dish was salmon with leeks which was super easy and quite tasty. All three bears enjoyed it. You just bake some covered leeks, dill and lemons in a pan, then once they're soft, add some salmon and scoop the stuff over it and put it back in to finish cooking. It was nice- I enjoyed the leeks combined with the fish quite a bit.

Jack made sure to bring me home something green for dessert- pistachio gelato with some green sprinkles for fun. Thanks Jack!

Once Max went to sleep Jack and I watched our Netflix movie: Darby O' Gill and the Little People- which I believe is Sean Connery's very first role. Lord is he cute in this flick- it's almost too much to handle. Plus, he sings! I was really pretty impressed with the small vs. big effects for such an old movie- they were really quite believable except for a few really obviously constructed big hands and the like. I think this would be a fun movie for kids to watch, I know I would have liked it when I was little.
And now I leave you with another cute pic of my boy. I made these little sticky appliques for his outfit and I'm still working out some kinks, but they sure made my pictures turn out better- I'm so glad I did this- I think it's the beginning of yet another "little hobby" for me. We'll see if it turns out to be any more fruitful than the myriad of other things I like to do. :)

Red Barn Nursery

I'd been seeing this charming nursery off the highway close to our home for a while now and had been meaning to go. We finally got around to it and were totally delighted! Firstly it is HUGE!!!! This picture is maybe a fourth of the whole space? All the plants were happy and healthy and the selection was great. What a pretty place to even just go and take a walk with your family- plus you can give a good home to some gorgeous little planties too if you like.

I had fun putting Max up on the big tables to check out the fleurs- he was pretty gentle actually- so that was nice.

There was this gorgeous hanging wandering jew- this has got to be one of my all time favorite plants- there are so many lovely varieties.

Max had grand fun when we got to the shrub area- he kept grabbing the pots and trying to run off with them. This first one that he's holding is a type of Nandina, (I don't know how to pronounce that i) but I'm glad to know the name because I want some of these for our front yard. They are evergreen, fine in sun or shade and they have every color of fall foliage in one bush all at the same time! They are just amazing.

He was also pretty jazzed about this hose on the ground.

Still in productive-sunshiney-day-happy-plant-mode I saw this lovely tree on our way home and had Jack stop so I could get a quick picture. I've heard many names for trees like this one and I just adore them. SO pretty!

We got home with our new little plant friends and set to work getting them into some larger containers - Max was very excited about playing with our collected rainwater.

We got a purple variety of sage, some sweet basil (yum!), catnip and a sweet 100 tomato plant. Very excited about all of these. There were so many different kinds of herbs there. I'm particularly interested in the lemon basil and the CINNAMON basil!!! Both smelled divine. They have some really nice mint variations as well. I have never had an herb garden and have always wanted one. I'm really hoping that it does well. Advice welcome!

A new leaf!

I totally adore group shots of my eggs. I know it's shamelessly self-promoting, but what else are blogs anyway? Here are a bunch of new ones with some older ones too.

Up until this point this blog has been primarily for the purpose of sharing new-mom news with whomever it may concern. Now that I have my "mom-legs" and things have settled a bit with everything else I'm trying to pick up the pace with my Etsy shop. SO, for all you readers out there, now there will be the occasional post of what creative stuff I'm up to and maybe how I'm trying to jazz up the shop.

This is, of course, with the given knowledge that I am pretty lazy and also still learning all the stuff that I should be doing- so it's only tiny little changes so far, but I'll get there-please be patient. :) I've already changed my shop banner, though I'm not totally set on the background color, and I've been tweaking my listings here and there too.

I have been able to steal moments here and there and make some new eggy-weggs which has been so fantastic. It makes me feel much better to be creating pretty little things that I'm pleased with. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started again- now it's on my brain all the time.

I feel like I have a pretty decent photography formula and I'm trying to come up with interesting names for everything because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (*you know who you are Miss Indie Proprietress Extraordinaire!) ;D* It's a little challenging but I'm enjoying it so far.

My dear dear husband, who is unfortunately betwixt jobs at the moment built me most of a shelf for my dye jars that sits like a hutch on the little IKEA desk that I make eggs at. It is the realization of a vision MANY years in the making to have all my labelled jars in sight and at arm's reach all at once. This coupled with my now complete set of electric kistka (the styluses I use to draw wax onto the eggshells) makes my set-up the absolute best it has ever been. Super happy about that- oh, I forgot to mention my egg organization!

I've had this set of drawers forever, and never really used it to it's fullest until now! I cleared all the crap out of it (most of which I will deal with later) and categorized all my eggs in the drawers. Awe-some!! So pleased with it and how much easier it makes it to find what I need/know what I have. Yippee!

My paper sculpture work area is another story......

One Year already

Max's first birthday has come and gone- we had two parties to divide up the crowd a bit and both went well I think.

It's amazing how much has happened this year and how much Max has changed. It's so hard to imagine life without him now that he's here. All the cliches are true.

We made a "ball pit" with the aid of the Douglases inflatable pool and it is still in the office as Max

enjoys it greatly.

I could not believe how much snow fell this year! Max got more snow in a few months than I ever remember seeing in 31 years of living in Texas. His first Christmas up in Dallas was white and even though he was decked out with awesome jolly roger galoshes he was very uncertain about snow, but now that he's seen it THREE TIMES he seems to enjoy it. He smiles when it's falling and he was quick to tromp around in it in his Aunt Selah's front yard. He likes to taste it too. :)

This post is not particularly well-organized, so you'll have to bear with me. For Max's first birthday party Jack and I made 116 meatballs, balled fruit salad and a ball shaped cake along with some olives, pearl mozzarella and grape tomatoes for the spread. A cheeseball and crackers were also generously donated by the Douglases even though a pink-eye quarantine kept them from attending. The crowd was smaller than we expected but the event was good times nonetheless. It was nice to see the Wallaces with JJ, the three of them are very sweet together.

In other now-that-my-son-is-a-year-old-news, we've started him on a toothbrush. We got this Abby Cadabby one because it came with it's own toothpaste and was much cheaper. The toothpaste says it's okay to swallow and flouride free so I guess it's okay for little ones, I'm going to check with the doc on Monday just to be safe. Before I thought about it though we let him try it a few times and he LOVES that toothpaste- he will essentially brush his teeth all by himself just by chewing on the brush forever.

Here's the first cake that I made- both were pretty tasty, but had their own issues. I'm learning the quirks of dimensional cakes. This first one was the prettiest though, even though the top half was largely hollow because it ended up with a giant bubble crater in it during baking somehow. I filled it with one of the mini cupcakes I made.

My look for party was a bit slap dash as well, but everything still worked out good. Jack and I had been sick for a couple of days leading up to this party so neither one of us was as fully prepared as we had intended to be- it's probably best that the crowd was smaller than expected.

I like that Max and I have almost the same expression in this photo.

Max mostly just ate frosting. Honestly I should have probably just put frosting on one of his little beach balls and saved myself a couple of hours.

There are so many great pictures of him, and this one's a little blurry but it might be my favorite just because of his sweet little glee-face. Plus he's holding my hand and that's always wonderful.

His Grand Bears got him a Dallas Cowboys "Next Draft Pick" t-shirt and a matching do-rag. We laughed and laughed......

His second cake ended up much sturdier but I didn't bother with multiple frosting colors so it wasn't as magical looking. Max of course didn't care one bit and enjoyed the frosting just as much if not more than the first go around. This picture is totally Baby American Psycho to me. I love it.

He is learning all the time, we're working on a first word, I will be so amazed when I can start truly understanding what he wants/means. It's an exciting prospect. I'm trying to throw in a little sign language, I feel a little guilty about not having done any before now, but whatevs- moving on. He drinks through a straw like a champ now, I think I have Plum Tots to thank for that, their fruit purees in little bags with nozzles on them got him into the sucking action and then it was just the transition to a smaller tube. I should probably buy more straws, he's much more efficient with them than drinking from a cup. We're still practicing that though. Next on the horizon are St. Patty's and Easter- I'm looking forward to both and hopefully will get some posts up about what we end up doing.

Cheers.

Sick bears

We all got sick.

I had the easiest time of it and Jack I guess had the worst, but Max's is lasting the longest, or at least some of the effects are.

Today is Monday- his first BM that I would call diarrhea happened on Tuesday. His stools aren't liquid-y anymore but they are still extra stinky.

Both Saturday and Sunday mornings, going in to fetch Max from his crib in the early morning Jack and I have been hit by this wall of poo-smell upon entering the nursery. Leakage hasn't been too bad, we've only had to change his sheets once but Max has gone through SO many pairs of pants and jammies this week.

So, presented with a very unhappy, mama-wanting baby covered in poo both mornings I have just stripped us both down and held him in the shower with me for a little while before nursing him skin to skin in my bed. It's actually been really sweet and nice bonding time- he gets very clingy and just wants to hold onto me and lay there in my arms with the water running over him.

I avoided having a repeat of this this morning because I took an extra trip in to his nursery last night to check on him and could smell that he'd dirtied his diaper with still HOURS left of sleep. So, we had to wake him and clean him up- he was not a happy camper. I ended up nursing him back to calm before putting him down, which I don't normally do, but I felt bad because we'd woken him up twice that night (once to bring him home- we hung out with friends late).

In the midst of all this he has really bad diaper rash from the extra acidity that was/is going on and apparently you're not supposed to use wipes, which we didn't remember until it was too late- don't know if I made his rash worse or not. Anywho- there are all kinds of home remedies for diaper rash and I've been trying a few things and also trying to let him have some good naked time too. So far it's still pretty bad. He actually bled just a tiny bit in one spot last night :(

I tried breastmilk on his rash, because that's supposed to be good- so far I've not noticed any change- I only did it twice though. Right now I'm trying egg whites- if I don't get results by his next diaper change I think I need to go and purchase some bigger guns. Part of me feels like putting thick ointment on raw skin isn't a good idea- like it won't be able to "breathe" and heal, but at this point I just want his little butt to feel better.

Also, trying to gear up for his two birthday parties that are coming up. I tried to buy stamps this weekend and was thwarted. Did you know that the powers that be have eradicated all the stamp machines from P.O. lobbies? This sucks. It was Saturday afternoon and I couldn't buy small increment stamps ANYWHERE.

I need a cheap little vacuum, and I wish we had an end table. Blah.

Favorite things

As a pretty sentimental creature, one of my favorite things to do as a mom is to quietly go in once Max is asleep and look at him/check on him. I'm a worrier and there's a niggling little part of me that would never forgive myself if checking on him would have prevented something bad from happening. Maybe I've been watching too much Law & Order SVU.....

But I digress- the point of this entry is to showcase how cute Max is when he sleeps. He cracks us up sometimes- that's right, Jack has joined me now in our nightly little check-up of sleeping Max. It started pretty organically, one of us would have to go in to fix his baby monitor receiver or something and we gradually discovered that he wouldn't wake up or be disturbed. The pre-sleep check on my part began on a bit of a whim, I have to walk past his door to get to my bedroom at night and he goes to sleep at 7 while I generally stay up until 10 or later (usually later). So I miss him a little and just couldn't resist going in to see him one last time before bed. I never intended to do it every night but I do now- I know I won't do it forever. This is just my little way of squeezing every bit of enjoyment out of his oh-so-temporary-smallness.

I assure you dear reader that Max has never woken up from either a night-time visit or having his picture taken. As of yet, he is quite a heavy sleeper, I might have Thor to thank for that.

This was taken back at our old duplex and I think it was actually a nap. Too cute with his little teddy. :)

I was really surprised to find him sound asleep folded in half like this. This was the trial tiny blanket that I tested out to see if he was ready to sleep with blankets. I had gotten the clue from him that he wanted to by him pulling things like towels or t-shirts into his crib if we accidentally left them within reach. Also, I found once that in the car on the way home he had pulled my sweater hoodie up into his carseat and was all snuggled with it.

These were my favorite jammies for a little while, they're so fitted on his cute little chubby body- they were the first sort of thermal style ones that he ever wore.

A variation on the folded-in-half position. I wonder when it is that we stop being so bendable foldable?

I had to call Jack in to see this one- so funny to see his little feet sticking out. Also, pretty solid evidence of how big he'd gotten. It's hard to realize how much they're growing when you see them constantly, but every now and then you gain a little perspective.

The one foot out variation- I just had to pet that sweet soft little foot. It's adorable all on it's own and kind of like a little hamster or something in it's doughy firmness.

He has since graduated to proper blankets and Jack and I will usually go in and cover him up once he's asleep. I have no idea how much he moves in a typical night, so our efforts may be a drop in the bucket, but it makes us feel better to have him "tucked in" before we leave.

He crosses his ankles pretty often, when he's eating, apparently when he's sleeping, etc. It makes me feel like he's my son especially in that little moment because I cross my ankles without realizing it quite a bit (they're crossed right now, actually). This was another night when foot-petting was required.

Sometimes I have to gently ease the blanket out from under his face because I worry that he's not getting enough air, but I realize that it's mostly just to make me feel better. He really does seem to enjoy sleeping with blankets so I'm glad that he can be trusted with them.

Sometimes Jack and I get so tickled by his position that we'll end up snorting and having to leave so we don't wake him.

Life in the Max lane

Okay- so I'm trying to do this more often- I know I've been lax on the blog front- so here goes- new leaf hopefully.

Max is nearly 11 months old and I can't believe how much he's changed and grown. It's amazing to watch. He is a total handful and always gets into everything. For some reason the lid to our guest room trashbin is one of his favorite things of all time- you can imagine his glee at combining it with a shoulder ride from Daddy. I know his glee is not evident in this photograph, but trust me, it's there. :)

Once Daddy gets home it's pretty much super fun happy play time. I typically worry about feeding him, keeping him safe and clean, that sort of thing and Jack is just better at playing than I am. We have our fun, don't get me wrong, but it's nothing compared to Daddy-time. Jack always gets the all-out shrieks of delight.

We're slowly but surely working on the casa. We want it to be a bit further along for Max's first birthday in February when we have the in-laws up since it will be their first time seeing the house. We painted in the kitchen and decided on the paint colors for the exterior and a couple of rooms. Outside: Sycamore, Sweet Maple, Shangri La, and Honey Moth. Here's the Bitter Chocolate that went up in the kitchen (as you can see by our convenient label) to much success.

We also purchased a pot rack recently and I love it- it was sadly from Wal-mart.com but it's a Coq Au Vin style and it's brown iron with a rooster and curlicues all over it- I love it. Max, as I said, is getting into everything. He walks for good little stretches now and cruises along like a pro on whatever is handy. He loves to stack blocks and has gotten them as high as three on his own- I'm pretty excited about his fledgling cognitive skills- they're really fun to watch. He's way more of a rummager/destroyer than Dicey. Here he is eating her toys.

In terms of me and what I'm up to I'm thinking about "extended" breastfeeding. The quotations are because what most women apparently dub extended is much longer than I will go, but technically extended in our country means anything past 12 months. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding until at least 2 years of age and this also greatly reduces my risk of breast cancer. I've read a lot of women's stories that say that their children self-wean sometime between one and two years of age. This is what I'm hoping for. I am not going to be creepy with my giant son breastfeeding when he really shouldn't but I am going to shoot for 2 years and see what happens. Also, in TMI news, after nearly 22 glorious months, my Aunt Flo has finally returned. *le sigh*