Links

Since my camera and computer are still unworkable and I am using Joe's netbook, therefore unable to post lots of fancy updates with pictures or bookmark pages I want to go back to, I'm going to use this to bookmark some pages I want to go back to.

http://themaskedmommy.blogspot.com/search/label/Peg%20Dolls
http://www.etsy.com/shop/theenchantedcupboard?ga_search_query=little_peg_people&ga_search_type=all&ga_page=&order=&includes[0]=tags
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/06/12/peg-dolls-from-dollar-store-crafts/
http://themamadramalogues.blogspot.com/2010/05/crafty-project-little-fairy-peg-dolls.html
http://www.etsy.com/listing/54438889/6-families-of-7-free-storage-bag-do-it?ref=sr_gallery_14&ga_search_query=wooden+dollhouse&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=2&order=&includes[0]=tags&includes[1]=title
http://www.etsy.com/listing/54386597/wooden-doll-furniture?ref=sr_gallery_26&ga_search_query=wooden+dollhouse&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=2&order=&includes[0]=tags&includes[1]=title

It's a....

Once again, time has gotten away from me. About 20 minutes after posting my last update, my computer died :( I've had my beloved Powerbook for about 5 years and the only problem I've ever had is that the power cord keeps getting tripped over or the computer gets dropped and the power cord gets bent. We've replaced it twice, but I knew that one day the power cord would be the death of me, and, unfortunately, that day has come. Part of the cord broke off inside the computer. It's too far inside for us to remove. Hopefully one day we'll get around to playing with it and maybe luck will be on my side and we will be able to save it, but for now, it's sleeping. Which also means I've lost about a years worth of pictures of Rosemary and haven't uploaded any new pics since March. Oh this makes me sad. So until I get around to setting it up so I can upload pics onto Joe's netbook, I'm only going to do quick updates with big news.

Sooooo........ we had our 20 week ultrasound last week, and Rosemary is going to have a little brother! Both Joe and I felt all along that it was going to be a boy, so it really came as no surprise (we both have pretty good intuition it seems!) but actually getting used the the reality that this baby isn't going to have cute little pigtails and pretty dresses has been weird! I guess I need to learn boy things. It seems we'll have to start adding cars to our toy collection and choosing a haircut for our little boy. The doctor also said it looks like I might be a little further along than the dates we were given so it's possible Baby Boy will celebrate his birthday in September. Who knows- maybe he'll share his birthday with his cousin Malachite!

Rosemary was recently switched to a transition bed. Her crib is convertible so we have it in the "daybed" mode. It's been an adjustment for her and we often find her asleep in her doll cradle, on top of the toy box, or in the middle of the floor since she can now get out of bed on her own. It's super cute and would be even cuter if I could post a picture of it ;) We've also started potty training. It's a work in progress. I'm starting earlier than I planned. Knowing she'll probably regress when Baby Brother comes, I wasn't going to push it, but lately she has not so delicately let me know that she might be ready. I'll spare you the details, but just know that I have cleaned up my share of poop and pee lately. It's been lovely (haha)! So hopefully things will progress with that and who knows- maybe we will only have to buy one set of diapers come October!

March

I have lots more pictures from March, so I'll try to only choose a few to share.

Joe had a business trip so I spent the week of St. Patty's Day visiting my parents. We tried introducing Rosemary to the leprechaun, but she wouldn't go anywhere near him. We also took her to lunch. The tutu she's wearing is the one I made at the Moms Night In tutu party!



When we got back in town, the weather was so beautiful that we decided to spend a day at the beach with Rosemary's friend's Lukas and Noah.



The next day, my parents came into town so we could celebrate Easter a little early. The first thing we did was make an appointment for my mom and I to take Rosemary to get her 2-year pictures taken (at 27 months). She was so good that she got to ride the carousel!

The next day, my in-laws came to help us celebrate our early Easter and we dyed Easter eggs. It was Rosemary's first time and she LOVED it!



You're probably seeing a lot of this face. It's her "smile for the camera" face.

My mom made this adorable bunny cake!


On Saturday the weather was BEAUTIFUL so all the ladies (me, Rosemary, my mom, and my MIL) packed up the car and headed to the beach. We ended up at the causeway, but that's close enough! Rosemary knows that it's very important to apply lots of sunscreen.



We also tried to stay in the shade.

Here are both grandmas and Rosemary.

While we were enjoying the nice weather, the men were working hard. My parent's neighbor actually gave them their old wooden playset that their own daughter had outgrown! My dad single-handedly took apart almost every single board, brought it to their house, packed it in a U-Haul, hauled it the four hours to our house, and started putting it back together in our backyard. On Saturday he finally had some help from Joe and my father-in-law and together they were able to get the entire thing put together in no time.



When we came back from the beach, this is what we saw.


Here's the proud grandpa, and my hero of the month, pushing his little girl on the swing.


We ended up switching the bars with a bucket swing. It was a good decision. We've had the bucket swing for almost a year but never had the time to build a frame for it. I'd say this playset is a little more impressive than a simple frame for a swing! And Rosemary obviously loves it. It's almost impossible to get her off. And it has this effect, which I LOVE:

The day my parents left I threw a little "baby sprinkle" for a friend of mine who is having her second baby. Due to a last minute change of plans because of the chance of rain, I hosted it at my house. I've been looking for an opportunity to make a diaper cake so I decided to give it a shot and I was pretty happy with the way it came out!
I was nervous about having that many kids over at once, but thanks to the swingset it was a success!

That's about all I can remember for now. I've also been blogging for a couple hours so I think I need a break.

Time to Play Catch Up!

Wowzers! I can't believe it's almost April and I haven't updated this blog since January! I have a very good excuse. I've spent the past three months in a constant state of nausea, exhaustion, and much of it with my head in either the toilet or a plastic bag. Yup, Joe and I did it again! We're expecting baby #2 on October 1! I can't believe I haven't posted this yet as it's kind of only the second biggest deal ever in our lives! Anyway, I'm please to announce that I'm already starting to feel human again. I'm about 13 weeks along so this is very good news. With Rosemary I was sick until 20 weeks. The last time I threw up with her was actually the morning of my 20 week ultrasound when we found out that our little girl was going to be, well, a little girl! Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. I am convinced this baby is going to be a super good sleeper and not experience a bit of colic. Hopefully the fact that I'm barely out of my first trimester and already able to brush my teeth without, well, you know, is just one sign that things are going to go easy this time!

So I'm going to try my best to catch up on the happenings of the past 2 months. I'll focus on February in this post.

Let's start with Valentine's Day. As a special treat, my playgroup made Valentine's for the residents of a local nursing home and then a few of us took our kids to deliver them in person. It was surprisingly an incredibly fun time for both the kids and the residents! I didn't get that many good pictures, but here's one that shows some of the excitement. I swear the lady sitting down had to be part of A League of Their Own. She was playing baseball with that pool noodle and even fencing with one of the little boys in our group! She was a trip!


Back home on Valentine's Day I was quite under the weather thanks to Baby #2 so we had a quiet day at home and then went to Five Guys for lunch. Here are a couple pictures of Rosemary and daddy in their hats.


I took Rosemary for her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese in February. It was way more fun than I was expecting! I didn't think she'd really enjoy it yet but she surprised me and had a great time! Here she is saying "Cheese!" with Chuck E. himself:

I also had the idea to do a make your own cape and tutu Moms Night In with the playgroup. Here's my first attempt at making a no-sew cape. Not too bad, but I wish I had gotten pictures of the capes the other moms made. WOW! They put my simple little red satin to shame! I think Rosemary is some sort of super heroine here. Armed with her paint roller.

Winnie-the-Pooh Day!

On Monday I had the playgroup over for a party in honor of A.A. Milne's birthday. The theme of the day: Winnie-the-Pooh!

Before the guests arrived, Rosemary unleashed her inner Picasso by painting with water on her easel. I kept it up with a couple of Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends paint with water pictures during the playdate and some of the other kids took their time to become artists.

After everyone arrived we crowded around our dining room table and made Winnie-the-Pooh masks. Here's Rosemary working hard:

And here she is with her finished product:

I tried to come up with a themed meal. I ended up with some themed snacks instead. Here's Rabbit's Veggie Patch:




Here are Pooh's Hunny Buns:


After lunch the kids played while the moms has an opportunity to catch up. Here's Rosemary taking care of her baby:
It was a really fun playdate! I hope to be doing more like it in the future. In March I'm planning on hosting our second annual Plant A Flower Day playdate. Last year we planted sunflowers. I think I'm going to stick with that because they grow so quickly and so large that the kids can really see their efforts pay off. I'll be sure to blog about it when I do!

Just a typical Sunday

This has ended up being a pretty fun family weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera ready to go so I missed Rosemary's first geo-caching adventure. We went to two places around here, and found one micro-cache. It's so funny to hear Rosemary say "I like geocaching!" Maybe she has a future as a cartographer, or an anthropologist, or a city planner. Someone who uses GPS!

I also got a little gardening done. I cleared a tiny part of our yard that was affected by the recent freeze (and a few months worth of neglect). I still have over half the yard left, but it felt good to get as much finished as I did! I have more plans for a spring butterfly garden and I cleared out the bed where it will hopefully go, so that was good.

This morning we went to a birthday party for one of Rosemary's boyfriends. It was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed party. I wish I took pictures! Rosemary got her nose painted like Minnie Mouse! She had a lot of fun, too.

I spent much of the weekend preparing for a Winnie-the-Pooh themed playdate I'm hosting tomorrow. Anyone who has known me for any length of time might think their eyes are playing tricks on them, but you aren't seeing things. I said Winnie-the-Pooh. Yup, I'm a mommy now. I host Winnie-the-Pooh playdates. It is A.A. Milne's birthday. See, it's all related to literature. That's not much of a stretch for me ;) I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow so you can see the craft I have planned for the kiddos!

I thought these pictures were kind of funny. This was Joe and I working tonight.

He is so seriously focused on his big engagement.

I am so seriously focused on cutting out Winnie-the-Pooh heads.

You might notice the paint splotches in the background. We are FINALLY picking out paint for the living/dining room. I think we're going to paint the hall as well so most of the house is one color. The two colors we're choosing between are Behr's Gobi Desert and Harvest Brown. They are so similar it's really hard to tell which one we like better. Lighting makes a huge difference. I'm hoping we'll get the house started next week so I'll post pictures! I can't wait! After we paint we can add little decorating touches. I'm thinking some teal would be nice. I can't wait to get this house all finished and cozy on the inside! Yay!

Here's a little picture from earlier in the week. I took Rosemary to the aquarium with our playgroup. I finally figured out how to turn my flash off so I get pictures of the fish!

Two year old reflections

I don't have any pictures today. I'm having trouble sleeping, even though I'm beyond exhausted, so I thought I'd blog while I sip my Sleepytime Tea.

Rosemary is going through a very clingy phase. It got to me earlier today when we met our playgroup at the park and Rosemary wouldn't even walk up to the playground. She waited for me to walk back and pick her up. I started to get a little frustrated and I went and got her and sat down next to a friend and her little boy with Rosemary on my lap. That's when she started getting more comfortable and eventually got into a pine needle throwing contest with the little boy and as she warmed up she became less and less clingy. By the time we left she was climbing up and going down the slide all by herself. She just needed a little encouragement and some love from mommy. She fell asleep in the car but woke up as soon as we walked into the house. It wasn't a peaceful wake up. It was a crying, whining wake up. I laid her down on our bed and rubbed her back until she calmed down a bit. Then I mentioned that we had cranberries and she perked right up. It's such a weird age. She's starting to whine a LOT. She'll cry or moan "mommy, mommy, mommy" repeatedly. I've started telling her that's not how she gets my attention. It's like she forgets that she can talk, but as soon as I remind her she becomes this sweet little girl who asks politely for whatever it is she wants. Earlier today she wanted to get on her swing but the buckle was already buckled. She was crying when she walked up to me. I told her to use her words and she instantly stopped crying and said "Fix the buckle, please, mommy." And she was perfectly happy. I just have to remember to be patient. And as for the clinginess, it probably won't be long before she doesn't want to cling to me and that'll be even worse! I resolve to not get upset when she clings to me instead of instantly running up to her friends and joining in the fun. She's my little girl and I love her so much. If she would rather sit on my lap or have me pick her up in my arms, then I'll do it as long as she'll let me!

Some of my favorite things Rosemary does/says right now:

- "Can I hug my mommy?" She says this when she wants me to pick her up and carry her. I thought it was so sweet that she wanted to hug me all the time, until I caught on. Although I do miss "Up-a-daisy my mommy" which she used to say.
- "Ding dong" This is what she calls a hanger. Go look at one. Picture a bell. She's pretty smart!
- Sing "Sing, sing a song!" or "La, la, la" whenever she hears music. This is adorable. Whether at church (which we're trying to take her to) or in the car, she tries to sing a long!
- Her daily bathroom ritual. At least once a day I give her some free time in the bathroom sink. The first day she dumped out a new pack of at least 300 piggy-tail rubber bands into the sink, which was full of water. When I found her, she told me she was "cleaning" them and was so proud of herself! Another time the water was still running and the sink was just about to overflow. She had one of her mermaid dolls in the sink. I rushed in and turned off the water and she told me she needed the water because her mermaid was swimming!

Ok, the tea is starting to kick in so hopefully I'll be able to catch a few hours of sleep tonight. My sinuses have been bothering me so I haven't had a peaceful night's sleep all week. Let's hope tonight is the lucky night!