On the Verge...

I know. I probably shouldn't call it that. But it makes sense. He started to figure out how to use a fork the other day and yesterday I let him go at a cup of yogurt with a spoon. He did remarkably well! I think, as adults, we forget that using a fork and a spoon take different kinds of movements and positioning. At least, I forgot, until I started to try to get my 15 month old to feed himself. This was more toward the beginning of the process. Again, like the forking, it degenerated and got significantly messier. Here he is about 5 minutes later. The problem with this in between stage of kind of getting it but not really getting it is that now he is really possessive of his fork and spoon. So if we let him try to feed himself at any point, we aren't going to get the utensil back in order to help him speed up the process without an inappropriate mini-tantrum. I am not a fan of those and hopefully we can prevent them more as he gets older. The solution now is to have

Today Selah is 31 weeks and Abram went in for his 15 month well check (a few weeks late). The fact that this will be an update on both of them made me realize that pretty soon that's going to be the case for most posts. I get long winded when I'm just updating on Abram! What's it going to be like when I have two kids doing new things and being cute for pictures?! I guess we will all find out soon enough. 31 weeks feels like a lot and a little at the same time. It's like we are in the very beginning of the home stretch. When you get into the home stretch you feel like the end is actually closer than it actually is and with this girl quickly running out of places to go, I'm starting to look forward to the end a bit more. She keeps going out instead of up. This is good for my diaphragm, lungs, and breathing, but not so great for my belly button. I blame it on Abram and the fact that my abs never came back together after him and so they haven't done a good

I think it's finally hit me. My nesting is kicking in with this girl. We prepared to have a garage sale today that we ended up cancelling last night because we had too much to do still and hadn't even gone through some parts of the house. But it was for the best. We've found a lot more to get rid of and now we just have to go through and price it all (we're over half way there already). So we are aiming for next weekend. Hopefully the stuff will move and we won't just be stuck with it in our garage instead of in our house. The interesting thing about getting rid of stuff - and I mean reall y clearing out - is that when you start to pull things out from all of the closets and and cracks and crevices that you had them in, it actually feels more cluttered that when you had more stuff. Because it had just been hidden. I've gotten really good at hiding stuff. It hasn't been until the past week or so of garage sale prepping that I have become aware of cert

Did you do Cotillion growing up? I didn't. But I had friends who did and it baffled me. Why on earth would some kid from Fort Collins, Colorado need to know how to dance the Foxtrot or learn how to properly greet people of various ages or distinguish between multiple forks at dinner? Multiple forks? Whoever heard of such a thing? Didn't you just lick your fork clean and set it aside for the next course? And by "course" I mean turning your plate from the salad to the meatloaf. At any rate, I never learned these things. But watching Downton Abbey recently has made me wish that I had not only learned them, but was actually able to use them. This was not supposed to be a post about Downton Abbey , but while I continue to ramble on about it we are on the topic , it's a really good show that makes me absurdly think that it would be more glamorous to live in wartime England rather than my own millennial life. If you haven't seen it and you are a person, y

My first real Seat Sling took me 3 hours to make. I have now made 4 total. The last one took me just under an hour and a half! I'm like a factory. So I've got 3 ready to go. I want to list them on my etsy shop, but I need pictures. Because of the nature of the product, I can't take the pictures alone. I need a model or a photographer. Preferably a model, so I don't have to be the model... On an Abram note: He is still enamored with the little Bible. Quinn is really trying to teach him to be gentle with it and it bothers him quite a bit when Abram is not. Overall, I think he's being very gentle for a 15 month old handling a book with tissue paper-like pages. He's held it for a total of at least a few hours now and none of the pages are ripped - just a little crumpled. I got these pictures of him today and the combination of the button up shirt and Bible kind of make him look like a baby preacher. He was in a really good mood this afternoon and was

See? I'm back already. I told you we left town so our house could have some work done. It did. And then we all discovered a malfunction in the sheet rock on the ceiling of our room when the texture and paint failed to adhere and the ceiling started cracking and falling to the carpet. Luckily, we hadn't moved anything back in yet, because we were waiting for the paint to dry. So our friend is back for the next few days, trying a new tactic to get the ceiling to "stay up" this time. If we were smart, we would have grabbed clothes from our closet before he arrived on Monday. We did not have that foresight. So now we can't get into our closet. We can maneuver into the bathroom if absolutely necessary, but the closet is a no go. This is what our room looks like: Our closet is behind that plastic. Trust me. There's no way to get in. I've tried it. So I was able to get to our dirty laundry in the bathroom and we had some in the laundry room already an

This was too perfect. I turned 29 yesterday and Selah and I were 30 weeks yesterday. Lots of 30's and almost 30's around this house now. I know I've been MIA for awhile. So let's start with a quick explanation and some pictures/videos of the Bug. We were visiting my parents in Colorado while some painting and construction work was being done on our house. I am awful and didn't get any pictures of my parents. Can you believe it!? We talked about it, but it never happened. They were working during the day and we only really saw them one day and a few nights. But I know Abram was really glad to get to see them and spend even a limited amount of time with them. Here are some pictures: This is right before he pooped in the bath for the first time since my harrowing constipated infant experience. And let me tell you, I'm really glad I wasn't in this bath with him. It was super gross. We sent this picture to Quinn for Valentine's day along with a sto

Never will I be so presumptuous as to actually call myself brilliant, so I'm sure I will always just be on the verge of brilliance with a hint of lack of common sense. However, I had a eureka moment just now and thought I would share with you, get thoughts, and ask for more. You may have read one of my recent posts about The Seat Sling . Well, you've all given me some great support and encouragement and suggestions. My friend whose church going problem brought the whole thing about tried it out this Sunday. She stayed the whole time!! Praise the Lord, it seems to be the problem solver it was intended to be. I've only had a brief confirmation from her that she stayed the whole time, it was easy to get on and off, and that she used the pillow vertically (which is another good reason for it not to be attached to the sling itself). I want to debrief with her a bit more about it when I get home from visiting my parents in Colorado. Then I think I may slowly start to purs

Two posts in one day!! Who am I? Design Mom ?! I didn't want to put two totally different topics in one post. I know I do that sometimes, but for organizational purposes, I thought I'd do it this way today. Basically, I just wanted to share this video I got two days ago. I was trying to capture some of Selah's crazy gymnastics (they guessed this girl was 2 lbs 13 oz on Wednesday!!) But what I ended up capturing was the first real "conversation" that Abram and I have had. Until now, he's been like a parrot or a mime. He either repeats things that we say or if we ask him a question he responds with a head nod. He won't say "yes", but he'll not his head all day long. But this day, I asked him a question and he answered! With words! Watch: Yea!!! We are conversing!! Just so you know, Quinn and Abram's favorite game is "I'm gonna get you", which is why Abes heard Daddy come in and ran for my lap. I'm the safe zo

... or maybe, just maybe , I'm jumping the gun :) A good friend told me the other day that she and her husband have been leaving church after the worship because she can't sit for an extended time in the folding chairs. Our church did a great thing and bought inexpensive folding chairs for our sanctuary in order to 1)save money and 2)be able to use the empty room for community type events in the neighborhood during the week. This is awesome. I support their decision and so does my friend who is leaving after the worship (and watching the previous week's sermon from home). But she is pregnant. She already had back problems and now (of course!) they are worse. My back is just starting to bother me and I know that there are many pregnant women with back problems and normal people with back problems who whimper inside a little every time they enter a room and see folding chairs. Until now, I had just sort of reconciled myself to the fact that sitting in a folding chair was