The Times They Are a Changing

In just a few more days my weekends will go from this:

To lots more of this:

 

 

And this:

And some of this:

It's not that I don't love performing - I do. In fact, the little boy who came up to me after a show last night to get his picture taken with me, who told me I was his favorite dancer, he is the reason I love performing. It is fun to make people happy, to see someone smile because of something you did. 

But these festival days take me away from spending time with my boys.

My house is a mess.

I want to go apple picking.

I want to lounge around in my pjs on Saturday mornings like normal people ;)

Which is why I am glad the festival season is just that - a season. For the past month and a half I have been waking up by 5:45am every Sat and Sun (and Labor Day and Columbus Day) to spend the full day outside, rain or shine, hot or cold, and entertain people. It has been fun and stressful and exhausting and a wonderful learning experience.

And it is almost over.

I get to go back to church.

We can start having people over again.

I. Am. Excited.

Also tired.

Which reminds me, I should go do dishes.

Quiet Book

My niece's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I finished her quiet book in time for the party! :D

This was very exciting for me, so I'm going to show off pictures of how it turned out.  For some odd reason the first picture insists on being vertical, so I apologize about that.

I used some leftover yellow fleece for the cover.  Perhaps not the most hardy of fabrics, but it was a bright, pretty color that I liked, I already had it, and it didn't need any sort of hemming.  I found a children's belt at the thrift store and wrapped it around as fastener.  It is sewn in at the spine.  The inside pages are about 8"x8" so the outside might be about 9"x9".

The first pages are the "fabric doll" (think paper doll) pages.  I dearly love how the wardrobe turned out.

 Using felt for the doll and the clothes meant (again) no hemming, but also felt sticks to itself enough that I didn't feel the need to add velcro to them.  I used fabric paint to add details.

Next we have the clock with pipe cleaner hands.  My niece is 2 so this wasn't the most exciting page ever but I'm hoping her mom will be able to use it with her later on to practice telling time.

 I LOVE the finger puppets I found for Noah's Ark.  They go in the zippered boat and can "swim" in the water pocket.  I bought a package of 10 for about $3 on Ebay and will be using the other 5 for my son's book.

Pizza!

 The pocket contains felt toppings and the slices are velcroed to the book so they can be removed to be "served".

Not the most exciting pages.  I was trying to be educational.  Um.

 The pocket contains numbered squares to match with the ones on the pages.  Maybe a little later on she will be more interested.  Or not, time will tell.

LOVE how the crown turned out!

 The jewels have velcro on the back which sticks really well to the felt.

The last page is simply a pocket with a $1 photo album stuck inside.  I wrote a little letter for her which begins the book and then filled the rest of the pages with note cards and colored paper so she can either make her own book or mommy can put pictures in for her later.

 

I finished an awesome craft project! :D  I'm so very excited about this, but it would not have been completed without the aid of my hubby and my friend Stacey who were both wonderfully supportive and helpful when I was trying to get it finished at the last possible moment.  Thanks to you both!

I do not have a title for this post

My hubby and I got to go on a date last Friday.  It has been too long since we have been out just the two of us.  This was what the sky looked like as we headed to Le Bronx (which has wonderful pizza and calzones). 

 

I ordered a calzone.  When it got to me it had black olives in it, I know not how or why.  So I very nicely took it back up to the counter and asked for it to be remade.  The staff was very apologetic and got right on it.  While we were sitting and talking and my hubby was eating and I was waiting the manager came out and apologized again and offered me salad and offered me dessert and finally I said I would take a piece of carrot cake so he would feel better and because I love carrot cake like no one's business.  If I had been thinking I would have taken a picture of the cake because it was beautiful.  But I was hungry and it was yummy and I was eating and didn't think about pictures.

Yesterday was international Talk Like a Pirate Day.

 If you dressed up like a pirate you could go to Krispy Kreme and get a free dozen donuts.

 There are still 5 donuts in a box on my table.

 I am congratulating myself on my self-control.

 If I stay too long on the computer my self-control might fail.

 I have had one this morn, I do not need another.

Perhaps I should do something useful, like take a shower.

Being a mom is weird

Our Renaissance Festival season started Labor Day weekend, which meant an entire 3 days of being away from my son.  I got to see him in the mornings when I woke him up to feed him and by the time we got home at night he was already in bed.  I missed him dreadfully.  The first day, Saturday, was the hardest.  I thought Monday would actually be the worst in terms of missing him, but Mon we were dealing with heat exhaustion and dehydration issues and in between helping people get sent to the hospital I was trying to make sure I did not fall under the same problems.

Did not have a lot of time to go about missing my son.

Which I promptly felt bad about when I thought about it later.

My friend says that the festival weekends for her were a break from her son so that when she went back to him at the beginning of the week she felt rejuvenated and ready to spend quality time together and not just time.

Am I defective?  First, I feel guilty for leaving J and miss him all day long.  Then I am distracted by performing and work and everything and feel guilty because I didn't miss him as badly.  Then, when I do get home to him and we have all day together, I get frustrated because he has trouble napping and I hand him off to my husband when he gets home because I have run out of ways to entertain a tired, teething, tantrum throwing toddler.

Oh yes, the toddler tantrums: where J lays his head down on the floor - sometimes with his bum still in the air - and cries because I won't let him play in the garbage (or some other such thing).

Last Fri I taught J how to sign "Thank you".  Because I wasn't with him practicing all weekend I did not have high hopes when I told him to say "thank you" on Tue.  But he did it!  And will do it consistently!  He doesn't usually do it on his own, but anytime I tell him to say "thank you" or ask him "what do you say?" after I give him something he will bring his tiny little hand up to his mouth like he is blowing kisses.  Sweetest. Thing. Ever.

Speaking of, when he's in the right mood he'll give you kisses.  He'll say "mmm" and bring his face in towards yours.  Makes my heart melt every time.

He will bring me books and occasionally sign "book" when he wants me to read to him.  We have reached the point where he wants some books read over and over and over again (haha, drove my mom crazy on Sunday when she was babysitting for him).  I give up after the 3rd time and switch the book out for something else.  He's not always happy about it but we don't usually get tantrums there.

I love my son.  I love spending time with him and I love watching him grow and develop and change.  I'm so thankful for the opportunity to stay home with him during the day.  And I guess I'm thankful for the opportunity to see what it would be like to be away from him everyday.

But I'm glad that my weekends will once again be free come the middle of October.  I'm ready to go apple picking!

Changes

We are in a time of transitions.

The beginning of weaning is going on.  For the last 3 days J has nursed only in the morning and evening.  Let's see if this holds.

We are trying to see if J is ready to combine his morning and afternoon naps.  Saturday was a very long day for him and he ended up sleeping late on Sunday morning, which meant he didn't get a nap before church.  Well, he made it through church and most of lunch before needing to be put down and then slept for 3 hours (a complete combination of both naps!).  This morning he didn't sleep quite as late, but enough for me to decide to give the single nap another try.  We had mixed results.  J and I went over to visit my sister and her girls in the morning, which did mean I got to keep J up till after his morning nap would have ended.  He went down (fussier than usual due to tiredness and the fact that I didn't nurse him I think) and slept well - for an hour and 1/2.  Which meant I ended up putting him down again just a little bit ago.  How late he sleeps in tomorrow will help me decide whether to keep trying for a single nap or go back to 2.

Festival is about to start.  Which means the hubby and I will be busy every weekend for the next month and 1/2.  Which means J gets to spend Saturdays with Aunt Abbs and Sundays with Nana and Papa.  Which means I won't get to see my little boy hardly at all on the weekends.  I'm dreading it already :(

J is so close to walking on his own.  I will cry when he steps out hands free for the first time.  I will cry even more if it's on a weekend when I'm not there to see it.

I love this child.

Water fun

We finally visited the spray park last week!  J and I met up with my sister and her girls and one of our friends with the children she nannies.  Lots of wet fun ensued!

 My pregnant sister, Dee, and my beautiful nieces.

 Flower2

 Flower1

 Water!

 Got it!

 No, I got it!

 I don't got it...

 Snack time!

We had a lovely time :)

Stinking adorable

Well.  Now that it has officially been 2 months since my last blog...*annoyed face*...let me tell you about some of the awesome things my son does now!

- J can sign "more", "please", and sometimes "all done" and "milk".

- He repeats sounds, and especially loves to say "ka" when you talk about cars.

- He calls crackers "crack" which seems appropriate because they are his absolute favorite thing to eat and I have to put a strict limit on them otherwise he would eat nothing healthy.

- He says "Mama" and "Dada"! Sometimes he uses these words in his babbling, but other times he is very definitely referring to one of us!

- He loves to walk but refuses to let go of my fingers to do so.  "Cruising" - walking by holding onto furniture - is big in our house these days.

- When he wants to get up on something or see over it he pulls himself up to his tippy tip toes to try to make it.

- Naps have become somewhat consistent, although lately J has been waking up by 6:30am which is a tad early for this Mama.

- J talks a lot.  He will randomly have whole conversations with himself or come up to tell me something, hand me a toy and crawl away.

- He has discovered magnets!  Also, that they do not stick to cabinet doors but the dishwasher is a great alternative if he doesn't want to sit at the fridge.

- He loves to look at books - not at all a surprising development in our household.  Lately he has been "reading" to himself as he turns the pages - I am such a proud Mama!

 We just celebrated J's first birthday!

My son is stinking adorable.  And he is one year old.  Goodness cow.