Liam Christopher was born on Friday, January 17 at 4:29 a.m. He was 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 20 inches, and two weeks early! We spent the weekend in the hospital but are now home settling in as a family of four. So happy!
Much more to come. :)
Blog
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meredith lately
If you guessed that she picked out every piece of this outfit herself, you would be right. I’m also proud of the genuine smile in the last photo because these days she is very into saying “cheese” for pictures which results in a facial expression like the one up top.
While we were in the bath and she was washing my tummy…
Me: Do you think baby brother is getting too big to live in my tummy?
Meredith: Baby brudder share my room?
Me: That’s right, he will.
Meredith: Baby brudder wear biders (diapers)?
Me: Yes he will.
Meredith: Baby brudder nurse mommy?
Me: You’re right, he will.
Meredith: Um…maybe baby brudder nurse daddy.After I had caught her with marker all over her arms, shirt, and the wall…
Meredith: Mommy, wookit my tattoo!
Me: That’s a no-no Meredith, the colors are only for the paper.
Meredith: Keeo did dat. (Cleo is our dog.)When she had caught sight of a chocolate cupcake I was trying to hide…
Meredith: Uh-oh, poo poo right dere!
Me: Um yeah, don’t touch that poo poo.After a bath when I had wrapped her up in a hooded towel & she saw herself in the mirror…
Meredith: I be cute!!After we read Humpty Dumpty…
Meredith: Awww. Dat’s sad. He needs a bandaid make him all better.While driving…
Me (to David): Something smells like gas, do you smell it?
David: yeah, I hope it’s not my car.
Meredith: I toot gas!At daycare dropoff where she insisted on carrying an armload of food, some of which was my snack for the day…
Me: (hugging her) bye Meredith, I love you.
Meredith: stay mommy!
Me: aw, I have to go to work, you know that.
Meredith: no, stay!
Me: well may I have my crackers back now?
Meredith: no! Go to work! -
around here
Christmas decorations are all put away after a burst of energy last week, and I have reclaimed this little reading spot if I can ever wake up early enough to use it.
Meredith loves stickers lately and especially putting them on the walls. Thankfully they come off easily, and so far I find it very cute to come across the evidence of where she’s been.
Weekend breakfasts out while daddy sleeps in are becoming one of my favorite things.
Splurged on some of these swaddling blankets that everyone seems to love, and looking forward to testing them out soon. :)
I also caved and got myself a few more large maternity shirts. Even the ones I already have are becoming too short.
David and I spent the night at a hotel in town on Saturday. It was my birthday gift to him since he doesn’t care about stuff, but time together is very important to both of us and we never seem to have enough of it. I highly recommend this idea to anyone, but especially for parents of young children. Meredith had a blast staying the night with my folks, and we treated ourselves to dinner at a nice steakhouse and then enjoyed the indulgence of staying in a place that wasn’t our own. Even though we were fifteen minutes away it provided the illusion that we were out of town and it just wouldn’t have been the same if we had stayed at home. In the morning he slept in and I got a couple hours of watching HGTV while cross-stitching, so I left there very relaxed. :)
When we got home it was such a gorgeous day that I just had to take Meredith on a walk. She still loves riding in the stroller so this is one of our favorite things to do even though it’s been awhile since it’s been either too cold or I’ve been too tired to take her out. I had Braxton Hicks contractions basically the entire time but it was worth it.
Then I decided it was high time I got myself a pedicure. I can’t do my own toes anymore and things weren’t looking too great down there. So I chose a blue tint in honor of having a boy, pulled out my new Rainbow sandals to start breaking in, and treated myself.
It was such a great weekend, and despite not sleeping very well (I rarely do anymore) I felt relaxed and also invigorated. If only I didn’t get so worn out with work then I could easily make it to my due date feeling great! But I am very thankful for weekends and the break they afford me, and these last chances to spend time one-on-one with David and as a family of three.
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work in progress and cross stitch project organization
Since it takes me awhile to complete a crafty project due to my lack of spare time, most of mine are in a state of progress. I’m usually constantly working on something though, so I want to start sharing more of things in an unfinished state. Here is what I’m currently working on:
This is a Victorian flower found in an issue of Cross Stitcher magazine. I’ve been working on it for close to a year, only because it keeps getting put on hold. But I just have the bottom right part to finish now, and I don’t think it will take too much longer. Here is a close up:
I’m looking forward to getting this done and framed, and eventually hung up in our bedroom.
I also want to share with you how I am organizing my cross stitch projects now. Before this I just threw everything in a bag, and I had my floss in all different states – some new skeins, some wrapped on a bobbin. It was fine, but it got a little messy and hard to find things. For Christmas my mom gave me the DMC Stitchbow travel bag, extra binder inserts, and lots of floss holders. I’m in love with it.
Inside it has a large pocket where I store my pattern or book that I’m working from (seen on the right, above) and the threads that I’m using for the project get loaded straight onto the floss holders and into the binder inserts. It’s way less work than winding a bobbin and it keeps the thread in better shape, too.
There are also more pockets inside where I store floss that I had previously wound on bobbins, plus a small spot where I keep my scissors and the floss I’m working with at the moment. There is a felt strip attached where you can store extra needles, too.
I think this is an awesome way to store projects and I have already ordered the mini version for smaller ones. It works great for me because I try hard to only work on one thing at a time and I use almost exclusively DMC floss. I think it would still work well for other brands of floss too, or even to use a project card stored in a pocket and remove the binder inserts (which is what I plan to do when I work on this project, for example). Originally I thought I would be able to store all my floss in here, but it’s rather too small for that and it would take too much rearranging of the pockets to keep in order.
Anyway, I hope this was interesting to one or two of you! :)
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currently
wishing my husband a happy birthday
anticipating some alone time with him tonight and this weekend
pleased that my family got him Apple TV just in time for maternity leave
holding back from making any goals for the year since it’s so in my nature to do so, but still…
forming a list of things to do on maternity leave
really into cross stitch again and looking forward to sharing more works-in-progress and finished projects
contemplating buying this loom kit to try more weaving projects
sleeping poorly and propped up
taking down holiday decorations a little at a time
drinking orange juice every morning and evening
amused and exasperated in equal parts that Meredith hates changing clothes these days
grateful that the super cold weather will be ending soon
thinking that although it’s probably easier overall to be fully pregnant in the winter (hooray for no swelling), it’s pretty annoying to bundle up and leave the house every day
praying for energy daily and the ability to stay positive about working up until I go into labor
so ready for this next phase of life to begin
