Saturday, June 18, 2011

Visiting Violet

Samantha and I and, thankfully, Nonie, went to Baltimore to visit the newest member of our family, Violet. She is currently 5 weeks old and pretty darn cute :-)

Meeting Violet "Hey, you're smaller than me!"

Some of my cousins came to visit!

Cristy and Violet

Celebrating my brother's 30th Birthday!!

The babies and mommies at the party.

We went for lots of walks because there is a cool park very near their house.

There is a working farm at the park! So we saw chickens, pigs, goats, and sheep!

Nonie and her new grandbaby!

Nonie and both grandbabies!

Violet smiles, kinda!

Another day, another walk :-)

Pretty girl

Samantha learned how to treat a baby nicely...she's fairly good at it :-)

Pretty little girls!!

The Jackson cousins!

So we had lots of fun. The 3 hour plane ride...not so fun. Perhaps next time we should just buy her a seat and strap her in the carseat.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Summertime

I'm such a bad blogger. I love reading other people's, but so slow in updating mine.
So the updates on baby #2 is that he/she is not as easy going as Sam was. Still feeling a little bad most evenings, though I had a good day yesterday. I'm trying to figure out what is causing the certain symptoms I keep getting and, yesterday, battled them witih some medicine. I wish I didn't have to resort to that, but I am so tired of feeling bad and it ruins my evening by 4 or 5pm. So alas, a little bit of medicine yesterday went a long way. I got to finish Violet's quilt after Samantha went to bed when I would normally have been lying on the couch wishing the day to be done. Nathan tried a fun dinner of battered/fried chicken and onion rings. It was not quite as good as he hoped, but then he was so sweet to clean up all of the kitchen and do the dishes when he was done. I didn't complain when someone else cooked and cleaned. Yes, my husband is amazing :-)

Samantha's birthday party came and went. It was very enjoyable. We had more people than I thought (yes, I invited them all, but I guess I didn't expect everyone to come) and we didn't do everything I planned, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We mostly just relaxed and chatted inside, ate and did presents and ice cream sundaes. BTW, I still have 2 unopened bottles of whip cream if anyone is interested! I prepared for everyone to eat sundaes like I do, not like most people, haha. I sure have enjoyed the left over ice cream and toppings!

Sam still isn't walking and doesn't seem any closer than a few weeks ago. I think she physically could, she just chooses not to. She doesn't want to walk much with you helping her, but she does walk all day with her walker or cruising the furniture. And though occasionally she seems like it might be really cool and exciting to take a step by herself, in the end she sits down and doesn't do it. I thought I had a little daredevil, but she's pretty cautious about walking alone.

She babbles all day now and points all the time to what she wants. I've been trying to be more consistent with signing a few select words every time I use them, but she doesn't seem so interested in that either. My child is MISS Independent, I'll do it on my own time, thanks mom.

I do love that she is more interested in books again. Our naptime/bedtime routine now includes reading 2-3 books before being laid in bed (awake) and most of the time she is very attentive. She also goes to sleep on her own with little fuss. Much more pleasant times now!

I cut up some of my own t-shirts to start a quilt and then yesterday got a whole stack from a client to get started on a quilt. I think I'm still going to do my quilt first to make sure I know the best ways to get this all done, but it sounds like I may have more shirts coming my way after that. I am very excited that SOMEthing is finally, maybe a little, taking off. And I was very surprised at how fast Violet's quilt finally came together. Granted, it was cut out by my mom a few weeks ago, but all in all, I got it finished in just 4-5 naptimes after that. (Yes, everything I need to do alone is measured in naptimes) Of course Violet's quilt was a bit smaller, since made for a baby and not out of t-shirts, but essentially the same design, so it gives me a bit of a base for how long this will take.

And tomorrow Sam and I head off to MEET the new Miss Violet and hold her and snuggle her and take lots of pictures with her! Oh, and we'll get to celebrate my brother's big 3-0 and see my wonderful sister-in-law. AND my mom is coming with us, YEY!