Baby Quilt

This little booger is not going to be happy about sharing his parents with his new baby brother. I guess it's time to learn to share? Only 1 more month...

Here's my new quilt for the baby. It's simple - I just made up the pattern. It's lightweight for that July baby, and soft.
This one only took me a couple of weeks!!! I guess these little ones go faster than that queen size I've been working on.

I love the stripe binding turned out....

Smarter than all the other babies!!!

I (like every other mom on the planet) think my kid is unbelievably smart. It wouldn't matter if he stared out of glazed eyes all day and still couldn't walk at age 2, I would still harbor my delusion that my kid is brilliant. What can I say? Doesn't he look brilliant to you? Of course I still haven't figured out why the only thing I can get him to eat is ice cream and Trix cereal.

Actually, let me be specific. He will only eat the red and purple pieces of the Trix cereal. Hmmm... Maybe this is evidence that contradicts my brilliant kid theory.

So when the school called me and told me that Andy would be graduating to the 2-year-old class at 22 months, I took it as proof positive that he was the most brilliant kid on the planet. After all, he mastered everything there was to learn in the Waddler class in just 4 SHORT MONTHS!!!

Geez, lets get serious here. It's a lot of work to learn your colors and all your animals AND their signs AND their sounds. All of this while you are learning to talk. Okay granted, when he says rhinoceros, it still sounds like a sneeze, but who's counting!

Anything I can find that continues to feed my mommy delusions will be gloated about. All evidence to the contrary (and anyone who dares to suggest it) will be buried.
Okay, so maybe I should just be really happy they are moving his classes now instead of his birthday (which is very close to my due date.) Typically changes to his routine are accompanied by sheer misery in our household until he adjusts. The last time we changed daylight savings time, I got 3 hours of pure hell from him every day for 2 weeks. Thank God his bedtime came before I had to listen to any more of it. I might have hired a babysitter every night, and I can't afford that.

Here's the new elephant I made. Isn't he cute? No, I'm not smart enough to figure out how to get that picture to rotate.
Wait until you see my matching car seat cover....

Mothers Day EARLY

My kids aren't good at keeping secrets. You can usally tell that they are about to pee themselves, and that turns out to be a dead give away that something is going on.

I thought they were taking me out to eat... I even sat my husband down and reminded him of how much I dislike going to a decent restaurant with all my kids. I told him that was NOT a good Mothers day anything!

But they totally surprised me on this one.

We might be getting close....

We might be getting close to those terrible 2s! Really, he must be the smartest kid in the world to totally con his mom into thinking he's not capable of behaving badly. After all, who would think THIS would throw a tantrum???

Right now it's only bad when he's tired. I don't think he gets enough nap at school. Last night I got the full show... arching his back and hitting his head on the floor. GEEZ!!!

Isn't that the life I've always dreamed of? A newborn and a kid in terrible 2s? YES, THATS IT!!! Nooooo, maybe not.

I have to say, he has successfully fooled me into believing he's the perfect kid. There's no way I could make another one this good.

I'm under a lot of pressure here!

Help!

So I made my quilt blocks and now I'm trying to figure out what to do with them!!! The "personality" of this one is different than I originally thought it would be. I guess that's the fun of it, right?

I'm trying to figure out which of these options will be best... I've simulated what these would look like, and took pictures. Maybe if I post them on the web, they right answer will suddenly become clear?

Option 1: just sew the blocks together as they are. Then put a border on them (not shown.)


Option 2: Dark lattice. I thought this would really make the blocks "pop" but now I think it might make the quilt to dark.

Option 3: background fabric lattice. This would add some negative space and maybe make it look less cluttered?

I can't decide... They shouldn't let engineers do creative things. We always get stuck.

New Camera

I bit the bullet and did my part to pull us out of this blasted recession... I bought a nice new camera. Don't you hate it when you order something and the next day the price drops??? Anyway. I love it.
I'm not so sure it's a good thing if you can see the details of the food still on my child's fact in such vivid clarity. Oh well. There you have it.

Next investment? Photo shop. Maybe that will get the spagetti sauce off.

Master Easter Egg Hunter in Training

This weekend the kids worked on teaching Andy to hunt for Easter eggs!

He picked up the concept pretty quickly...
It took him a while to figure out that you have to take the wrapper off the candy before you eat it. :)

Andy has his Easter egg hunt at school this week. We really want to go, but the school is saying we can't come! They said the kids cry if their parents come and don't take them home. We told them we will be happy to take him home after the party so he won't cry. We'll see if they fall for that...

Now he's all ready. He understands how this egg hunting thing works. The kids wanted to teach him that it was a race and whoever got the most eggs won. We had to tone that down a bit... We explained that the 18-24 months class isn't as competitive as 2nd grade and we shouldn't hurt the other babies' feelings.

Now I just have to find Andy a cute little Easter outfit, and he'll be all set. I've already got his Easter basket made up with lots of goodies! This age is so fun - $3 worth of bubbles and Andy is going to think this Easter thing is really cool. Just wait until he gets to grandmas....

Best Idea Ever

Okay - check out the shoes!!! Not only are they the cutest things ever... BUT THEY SQUEAK WHEN HE WALKS!
At first you might think this is about as pleasant as a root canal. On further investigation, you will realize how hard it is to keep up with an energetic 2 year old at the zoo. I can't quite bring myself to put a leash on my kid. These shoes, however, allow me to locate my kid with minimal effort, even when he's hiding on the other side of a bush. These shoes require constant movement by the child in order to be useful tools, but that does not seem to be a challenge for us.
I would not recomend having him wearing squeaky shoes in the house... that might endanger my sanity.
In case anyone is wondering, the merry-go-round is not so merry. It's downright scary. For some reason, it always looks fun from a distance!!!
I managed to make it to the fabric store.... Aren't these great? I looked and looked and looked to try to find something appropriate for a baby boy, but so far I'm definitely in a pink and green place. Are you sure this is going to be a boy??? I guess 2 ultra sounds should be conclusive...

Hi!

I'm a very lucky girl... I get a whole weekend without kids. (except for the one that considers kicking me in the bladder at 3am to be quality entertainment) Mr. Andy gets to spend sometime with grandma and grandpa and the horses...

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to act for a whole weekend with almost nothing to do. What on earth will Scott and I talk about? I'm sure we'll think of something. :)

I really like this quilt... For some reason, I'm in to pinks and turquoise and brown... I'm going to have to be careful - I'll create something that came from a really bad part of the 80's that most of us would rather not admit being a part of . I guess it's really time to start looking at those baby boy fabrics! No more time for quilts!!! How does blue and brown sound together???
Tara gave me flowers this weekend...

Now, I would like to say that I have found one of the truly horrible tortures in life: Important meetings/interviews while pregnant. More importantly, shopping for business formal clothes while pregnant. This is not good!!!
I have survived the shopping experience and come out relatively intact. I had to hem my own pants, but hey, a girl had to do what a girl has to do!!! My meeting was this morning, and I think it went okay... I just wish i didn't look like a bloated marshmallow. I'll try to post pictures of the outfit later...

16 weeks to go!

Mark your calendar

Mark your calendar, put it in your Outlook, and sync with your Blackberry...
My little boy will be born on July 15, 2009.
Isn't that too easy? Figure out the gender and the birthday all on the same day?
Almost seems like it can't possibly go perfectly according to plan - having babies just isn't like that. It's against the laws of nature. You are supposed to get surprised about when they come, what gender they are, etc.
So I guess I'll put this disclaimer on it...

Further updates as events warrant!!!

It's a BOY!!!

It's a wonderful, healthy, baby boy!

We will have 2 little boys almost exactly 2 years apart. I can't tell you how excited we are!

At first the technician said it was a girl! This little booger did not want to show his goods. I told the lady that he was just being difficult - it was just proof he had some Sherman in him. Eventually (after 2 trips to the bathroom and touching my toes multiple times) he gave us a peek. It would be really funny if we bought a bunch of stuff for the wrong sex of baby.

You have no idea how gratefull we are to have a healthy baby!

So I guess my previous prediction of a baby girl and my whole theory about mom "just knowing" was a bunch of crap. Or I guesss it's a theory that is 100% right 50% of the time?

Now for all those ultrasound pictures that only a mom can love... (and grandparents - who this is really for)

Now this one (below) is the "proof positive" that it's a boy. I'm not exactly seeing a turtle, but I guess they know what they are talking about! This is taken from below the baby's butt and is looking up between his little knees.
Now for the 3D versions.... Sometimes these are harder to interpret than the 2D versions.

This is 2 hands in front of his face... and the next one he has one hand on his forehead.

A very messy desk

Don't you love how my little pregnancy counter at the top of the blog says "Jennifer is 20 weeks pregnant. ONLY 140 days to go!" Seems like if it was "only" a couple of days it would be like less than 20 days. Right? Ha! Not a chance. So we are half way...

Some people love being pregnant. I am not one of those people. I think those people have a couple of loose screws.

Pregancy is like an after-market add on to our bodies. It works, but it ain't pretty.

How do you know it's been a bad week? When your desk looks like this.

I was at work for 14 hours yesterday. I ate peanut butter sandwitch for lunch. Imagine a pregnant woman too busy for lunch?!?!?! I really hate it when that happens.

I have a new team member starting on Monday and I'm so excited! Maybe I'll have time to make my desk look better. Okay, so maybe I'll just surf the internet or go shopping OR EAT instead of work on my desk. A girl has to have priorities.

Yes, I hid the food that was on my desk before taking this picture.

So in the afternoons, the kids in our neighborhood all come out to play, and us moms sit on the curb and make sure they don't poke eachother in the face with little flags.

During one of these afternoons, we were discussing how hard pregnancy and the first year or two of the kids' life is. It's amazing - up until I had Andy, no one ever really explained how bad that first year sucks. It's a conspiracy. No one tells this to non-moms in the hopes of conning them into the same sleep deprived hell that the rest of us have been through. So for now, I'm thinking that this will be a worse trip through the first year if I already have a 2 year old to care for. (No I didn't JUST figure this out, and yes I DO know how this happens.)

I'm glad it's Friday...

By the way...

I'm certain it's a girl!
I don't put much stock in all the "old wives tales" that predict gender of the baby. However, I think the mom "just knows" what it's going to be. This intuition can be skewed if the mom really wants it to be a certain sex, but in general, I think it works.
How do I know?
Because I went to the fabric shop, and I picked out a lot of pink stuff.
Sounds crazy, but when I was 18 weeks pregnant with Andy, I was drooling over the boy bedding and couldn't stand all the girl bedding. I thought it looked like cookie monster puked Pepto Bismal on it! At the time I was really hoping it wasn't a girl because I was going to buy her the bedding with the airplanes and trains on it. Now I think that somehow I just knew...
So now I know... it has to be a girl, otherwise he's going to get pink and green stuff in his bed. Or maybe purple and green.... I haven't decided yet.
As for "old wives tales," the one that says you get sicker with a girl has got to be true. If there is one that says you get fatter, that one is probably true too.

It never fails...

It absolutely never fails that if he's been quiet for more than 120 seconds it's time to go figure out what he's in to.

In this case, he got tired of his bowl that had all the marshmallows eaten out of it and decided to help himself to more cereal.

Just too cute

I'm looking foward to this weekend. Reduced kids (step kids are at their mom's) and no huge plans.
I guess you know when you are getting old - a weekend WITHOUT plans sounds like more fun than a busy weekend!!! Maybe I'll even get to sneak off to the fabric store.

It's more likely that I'll get to go to the park.

Isn't he handsome!!!

This is crap!!!

Getting morning sickness when you are 4 months pregnant just isn't right. I didn't get sick when I was pregnant with Andy. During my 1st trimester with this one, I felt aweful, but never puked. NOW I can't keep my breakfast down!

They are worth it!!!

I've heard people say how they love being pregnant. They must have very different experiences than me! I wish I could get this baby without going through the pregnancy. It takes so much energy - especially energy I would prefer to spend on Andy or pretty much anything other than being tired and sick.

For now, I guess I'll just eat my breakfast twice.

More cool ideas than time

I love attempting to do cool crafty stuff, but very seldom does it turn out like I want. Even more seldom do I actually have the time to work on anything! One day... when I somehow have a bunch of time... and fewer kids.... OK MAYBE NOT ANYTIME SOON!!! I can still dream.

Here's my latest list of stuff i would like to attempt....

Isn't that cute? Here is the cool part - its made out of a scrabble tile! Here is the link for how to do it...

http://www.makeandtakes.com/links/scrabble-tile-pendant-tutorial

Apparently you could add your initial or rhinestones or anything else you could think of!!!

Now for my favorite... I love quilts and this one is just too cute. I think the 2nd and 3rd layers are cotton flannel, so it would be so soft...

This would be so easy to make! I love the colors - that's the part I always have a hard time pulling together.

I really want to find time for this... Couldn't you find some cute fabrics and make these super cute? You could spell out the baby's name.

Here's the link for this one...

http://www.bhg.com/crafts/sewing/accessories/diy-baby-blocks/

Maybe I'll have some time soon. Maybe before the baby comes?

The second one isn't as much fun

I read somewhere that no one cares when you are pregnant for the second (or more) time. It's not nearly as big of a deal. Man, I had no idea how accurate that was!

During my first pregnancy, my husband filled up my car with gas and made sure I had plenty of time to rest.

This time, I don't think he's noticed that I'm pregnant yet. I actually told him that the other day, and he said he noticed that day that I was yelling at him...

Anyhow - this one is harder. I'm really struggling trying to everything done and not be completely ehausted all of the time. Being prego with a toddler ain't easy!!!

Today grandma brought my son a huge truck that holds a bunch of matchbox cars. He promptly sat down and sorted them out into piles accordign to color. Hmmm... looks like those engieering genes have doomed him. Poor kid - going to be just like daddy. :)

I've got parent teacher conference this week at his school. I think I'm nervous!!! Maybe I'm scared they will tell me my kid is less than perfection? Isn't that horrible? Every once in a while, I wonder why parents (especially me) get so excited thinking their kid is perfect. In the end, I don't know that perfect kids make better adults - and I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean their parents are any happier or love them any less... so I should just let the whole conference thing go...

Where's the "Undo" Button???

We were watching some old home videos the other day... My husband informed me that he noticed that an awful lot of them were at some obscene time between midnight and 6am. He said he wasn't sure he wanted to do that again... Could we stop being pregnant now?

I pointed out that there wasn't an "undo" button on the currently installed program.

This is my son playing with his toys at 5am. He had been awake since 3, and was going strong, even though I had the lights out.

I think you forget after a while how bad sleep deprivation is. Something in nature definitely doesn't let remember when you are considering another baby. Then all of a sudden you are pregnant and wondering what the heck you were thinking...

Then you remember how great your children are and how it is always worth it. You also remember that you already have kids, and your sleep is going to be interrupted for the next 10-20 years anyway, so why not go for the whole enchilada?

Still, I can't help but get more nervous as the due date gets closer and the more I suspect that this baby is a lot easier to care for inside of me than out.

By the way,I still reserve the right to be cranky when I'm tired...

New Blog

I've decided to try blogging. Maybe it's a good stress reliever? If nothing else, I will be able to post tons of pictures of the new baby when it comes for friends and family to see. I think that's a worthy goal... Maybe I'll even make new friends. Please, let me know if you like it!!! (or even if you have ideas for improvements...)