On the Verge...

I have a shop on Etsy . You may not have known that, because it's been something that I have been very apprehensive about actually pursuing. One of the reasons is that I make a TON of different things, but I know I should probably just do a few things and do them really well. However, I've had a hard time committing to those few things. How do I know that those are the few things that people will want to buy? What if my pictures aren't professional enough? What if I want to start making something else? What if people don't want to buy my stuff and I look silly? How will I have time to do it with everything else that I have to do? And then I realized... the great thing about selling on etsy is that you can make it whatever you want it to be. I can do less sometimes and more at others. I could stop completely or slow down. I could also list a bunch of different thing and figure out what people want that way. I can start with whatever pictures I can get and prog

"Who needs consistency when you've got me!? " Our... well, my ... life has changed quite a lot in the last few weeks. With all of the crawling and pulling up and climbing and grabbing and cat hair , I just can't leave my child unattended anymore. For the moment, he is safe for a few unattended minutes at a time in his high chair or his walker, but those are getting more and more sketchy by the day. So that has made the productivity level drop significantly. Also we are fluctuating between two different schedules on any given day. The last two weeks have been comprised of what I like to call the A Schedule and the B Schedule. The A schedule is as follows (because I know you all care so greatly... but this is more for posterity's sake than yours, so... there...) 6:00a - Wake up, nurse 7:00a - Back to sleep 9:00a - Wake up 9:30a - Breakfast 10:30a - Nap 11:30-12:00 ish - Wake up 1:30 - Lunch 2:00 - Nap 4:00-5:00ish - Wake up 5:00 - Snack 7:30 - Dinner 8:30 - Bed

You know those email updates you can get during your pregnancy? The ones that tell you how big your baby is in fruit terms each week? Maybe you don't. Anyway, they exist. And I got them throughout my pregnancy. And then they continued after Abram actually arrived (weighing about as much as a large watermelon). So each month, I get an email update about what my baby might be/should be doing at that age... although, sadly, there are no fruit comparisons anymore. So the other day I got his 8 month update email which stated that babies this age tend to be abnormally fussy, probably because they are developing and changing so much. Well, boy, has that been the case. Fussy: yes. Sleepless: occasionally. Changing: before our very eyes. Within the last two weeks he has started: saying "ma ma", consistently doing the for real crawl, pulling up to standing, going from crawling to sitting, walking in his walker, and eating finger foods. And he's gotten his two top teeth.

Ok. So they are really just sounds. But they happen to be sounds that sound like words. For awhile it was "dada" which, of course, made Quinn feel pretty special. But guess who's turn it is now??!! That's right! Mom Mom's. I think my favorite part is that it's not "ma ma". It's "mom mom" with a very round "o" :) I think he's getting the feel for his lips. What a cute Bubba.

Both Quinn and I are musically inclined. Although neither of us do much any more except playing hymns and worship songs on my wonderful little travel guitar every once in awhile. Quinn is actually quite good at the guitar and used to play the banjo. I used to play piano, but haven't had the opportunity in awhile. I've also been told that I have a decent voice, but I'm not sure how much I agree with that one. Anyway, all of that to say that we did play the guitar around Abram a lot when I was pregnant and up until he was a few months old. It has waned a bit, but we pulled out the guitar the other day and he was fascinated by it! Maybe all babies would be, but we was wanting to touch the strings and drag his fingers along them. So perhaps we will have a little guitar man on our hands. Two of his grandpas are great musicians (piano and trumpet, mainly - although I think Grandpa Dan might be able to claim proficiency on multiple instruments). We'll see! Also, I had

My first tutorial! Today I made a few little tie onesies for two friends that just had boys and I decided to do a tutorial, since it's so easy! Here is Abram sporting his at his first wedding. Also, there are many cute things out there for girls, but not many for boys. And sometimes a baby needs to look a little dapper, but a tuxedo is not required. So I thought that this quick little homemade project for a boy would be fun. This is more of an experiment than anything else. It's a super easy project and not one that I thought of myself. There are many people on etsy that sell these, and I am unsure about creative ownership issues. So I have never made them to sell, only to have Abram wear or give away. But you could make it with a sewing machine and basic skills or even basic hand sewing skills. Hand sewing is will obviously take longer, but not much. *Here are the supplies you will need: -Ruler -Scissors -Pen -Heavyweight fusible interfacing -Onesie -Fun fabric -Thread r

Abram's top two teeth have come in in the last few days. And even though there is some disagreement in the medical community about whether or not teething can cause fevers and diarrhea, my son had both before the second one final broke through this time. So I thought this round of teething was over. He got his first two at 4.5 months and these two at 8 months. I breathed a sigh of relief when that second top one finally appeared, hoping things would go back to normal. Then , he woke up early this morning, really fussy, did not want to nurse (and he's biting!), and he won't let me near his mouth to look at what's going on. He's literally angrily pushing my hands away when I get anywhere near it. But he's chewing vigorously on stuff. And no fever or diarrhea. So, I don't know. Maybe it's more teeth. Maybe he's just being a punk. Maybe there's something really wrong, but I sure hope not. I gave him some children's Tylenol and put h

"Hey baby, let me show you my moves." Well, you've all seen the videos, so you know as well as I do that we now have a very mobile baby. He doesn't have the traditional crawl down (although he is trying), but he is almost as unstoppable in army crawl mode. So now he likes to spend even more time on his tummy than he did before. This means that I must to try to be better about vacuuming and keeping the floor clean. Chelsea came today and she helped me out a ton with the floors and with Abram (some of these pictures are Chelsea originals...) She spent about 30 minutes in the pool with Abram, who spent the whole time on his belly dragging himself around in the water, splashing, and chewing on his toys. As if we didn't already have an issue with him putting things in his mouth, he has officially been teething this week (fevers, diarrhea, and all). His two top teeth have broken through and I'm hoping that will all cool down for a while. He's been chewing