some of this

here is anna with her grandmother ann... you can kind of tell how she holds her head up-- my babies hold there heads up very early and often, perhaps it is b/c my babies have smallish heads... i was really hoping anna would be more of a snuggler and while she will fall asleep while you hold her(unlike e) she likes to hold that little head up and look around if she is awake. and at less than 6 weeks old she is standing in our laps! someone needs to tell her that she is too young to do that!

don't know if you can tell, but my kiddos are wearing there matching outfits in this picture from the beach. perhaps i'll post more beach pictures later-- uncle thomas took the ones by the sea, so we will have to wait to get those.

breaking the law

yes-- i am guilty! i have broken the "back to sleep" law a couple of times... elisha wouldn't ever lay his head down when he was on his tummy- he wanted to see everything... a big time sleep fighter. but little bit has fallen asleep on her tummy a few times. i just thought i would share w/ y'all the cuteness we are missing out on by sleeping our children on their backs. our parents got to enjoy the little bottoms up in the air and smooshed cheeks everytime we were asleep. but since b/c of safety against sids we miss out on it-- here you go... the smooshed up cheeks and chin resting on her little hand...

the precious little feet curled up undeer her bum...

and cutest of all-- the sleepy stretch with her bottom up in the air.

now, should you decide to throw caution to the wind and put your little one on his tummy to sleep-- don't blame me ... i merely documented the cuteness so that you wouldn't be deprived... now off to swaddle her and put her on her back...

little bit

this is how our little bit spends most of her days (and nights!)-- swaddled up with a paci... what could be better besides perhaps being in a sling close to mama?

(and yes- that is a $15 swing from a consignment sale that i covered and made a nifty blanket/velcro harness type thing to hold her in while swaddled)

2 yr old ears...

...be careful what you say around them!
elisha pulled the thermometer out of the drawer and said," mama, eye?" as he held it up to his eye... i told him that no, it was a thermometer... you put it under your arm our in your mouth-- then quietly to myself i said," or if you are really sick-- in your bottom." at this point he was putting in under his arm pit. but within just a few minutes he is trying to put it on my bottom! i put an end to that, only to see him a bit later, bend over and try his own... needless to say the thermometer was quickly taken away. oh - the things that happen while a mama is just trying to dry her hair!!!

2nd party

here is my precious two year old at his birthday party-- a bunch of little ones and a slip and slide and baby pool= lots of fun and entertainment for all!

don't you just love that cherry bathing suit? ridiculous for one of her size, but we couldn't resist! notice how e and i are opening our eyes so big-- he has started closing his eyes for pictures when we tell him to smile, i was telling him ( and - showing i guess) to open his eyes ;-)

anna's photo shoot

here are some... well, really a bunch of lovely photos that Julianne Hamilton-Hodges took of anna when she was almost 3 weeks old. i think they are great- really capture these early days... she already seems older, they change so fast! she also seems bigger-- she is growing like a weed- but not in a lanky way, our little lady is in the 75-90% for weight ;-) between her big full tummy and those chubby cheeks you probably could've guessed it!



BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

Julianne is open for business- so let me know if you are in the atlanta area and want her contact info!

happy day elisha!

here is our spirited little man sporting a mohawk ... he is so much fun- we are so thankful to share life with him!

hard to believe it has been two years since we first met, and also hard to believe that we've only been parenting him for two years-- it seems like it has flown and at the same time like it has been forever!

in your own words, my little poopsey "happy day" ... you are your favorite number--- 2!

happy day andrew! (enjoy the twilight of your twenties)

happy birthday to my handsome husband! i know your birthday has been a bit overshadowed by the births of our children-- but i want you(and the world apparently---as if the world actually reads this silly blog!) to know how glad i am that you were born 29 years ago! you get dressed up- even when you don't like to and you dance with me even at times when you don't feel comfortable about it ;-)

you are the sweetest father there could be to our son-- and a great story reader/ teller...

and the newest thing you are to me is- a loving father to my (our) little girl...

i love spending this life with you-- and lately -seeing your face look at me through the eyes of our little girl ;-)

happy day- as elisha has been saying

(you must know we love you by the fact that we are waiting til you get home to start eating the cake... despite many tears from elisha, and therefore many tears almost shed by myself)

her

her... "will you get her", "just look at her", "do you hear her?"... i have been surrounded by boys at home until now. it is new to talk about "her"... new and very nice!

anna jane (she will just go by "anna") is well loved by all the boys in this house- including otis ;-) elisha has been so sweet to help her pat his beloved ducks head and he has even given her a truck a couple of times when she was crying ;-) thank you for all of your prayers over this transition for our family- i feel like things are going well! i will have to post about miss anna's arrival- wow! is all i have time for right now...

anna- we have enjoyed our first three weeks with you in our arms!

can't help myself!

we are going to the beach at the beginning of june and i just thought these would be so cute... i don't know why i have a compulsion to match my children.... but i do! these are almost ridiculously preppy- seersucker and sail boats... but seriously what could be cuter on children at the beach in the summer...? i am loving the wood grain pattern on the fabric i used for the boats.

these are two of the pillows i made for our sofas while the boys were away. the birds make me so happy! and i even sewed them w/ velcro hidden on one side they could be taken off for cleaning-- very necessary w/ kids... i have already been thankful for the cleanability of our leather sofas(elisha got a stomach virus a few weeks ago :-(

ready

so... i know i'm a few days from being 38 weeks... and i have been planning on having this baby late all along; but i have changed my mind. don't get me wrong- my list of projects to do is still long... but i feel like whats left doesn't really have to be done. i just want to meet my baby girl. and i don't want to be pregnant anymore... lets get this show on the road, you know. i looked at my calendar and decided that i could handle another week b/c i have a couple of fun things planned- including a much needed hair appt.--- but after that i'm ready. i'm even considering packing for the hospital! for some reason i have an aversion to packing for these special occasions... my sisters were irritated w/ me b/c i had hardly packed for my honeymoon and so they had to dig through the back of my car to find shoes and other random things that i hadn't quite gotten around to packing ;-) and i had some stuff packed for the hospital w/ elisha- but not everything...i should have finished packing when i could still think, in early labor... but i guess i felt like that would jinx it or something? anyway, this time i want to have things packed well and i want to be clean... having a marathon labor and then surgery and a long hospital stay was not conducive to showering--- and i can tell looking back at those pics ;-) i know it sounds superficial, but i think i would've felt better had i not looked so raunchy!

while we are on the subject of labor- i wrote down some lyrics from my favorite band-over the rhine- i want to think of these while i am laboring " though we love to numb the pain, we come to find that it's in vain. pain is our mother- she makes us recognize each other" i have been rereading "birthing from within" and while some of it can be hokey and the birth art stuff certainly isn't for everyone- it is really great to think of our perception of pain... one suggestion she has is to be very curious about your pain, notice where it stops and stops, how it changes... if you are so bold to do that you can take the fear out of the pain and then it isn't as bad.

one last note-- another quote from "over the rhine" that i will be hanging on to- in labor and the months following ---" ...listen to me baby- we can sleep when we're dead..."

oh so cute!

i have been wanting to make this pillow for the nursery for months now and finally got it made... i think it is so cute!

last weekend andrew took elisha on a "guys weekend" ;-) he drove him to greenville,al to spend some time in the woods and with his grandparents and great grand parents... i was feeling uncomfortably giant to travel and a need to rest and nest. it was odd to be alone- but very nice! i got a lot of unhurried uninterupted shopping done at ikea and walmart, went to a yoga class, took a nap, made a cushoin for our window seat and pillows for our sofas... i'll post those later. but here are some pictures of e having fun on his daddy weekend.(a special thanks to nana for helping daddy w/ elisha, especially while he was turkey hunting ;-)

egg hunt etc.

these are some pictures from the easter egg hunt we did when playgroup was at our house yesterday... it was so funny to watch e figure it all out... before our friends arrived i handed him one of the extra eggs and he opened it. he followed me around the house saying "egg broke, egg broke... mama trash" then i let him see me put a sticker in it and close it back--- his eyes were so wide open... he was amazed! at the bottom of this post is a funny video clip of him hunting for eggs.

here is a family of geese that walked up our driveway the other day. we hear them all the time and we've seen them at the lake nearby and even hanging out in a nieghbor's yard, but monday the two adults had 7 cute babies w/ them and walked all the way up our driveway! i was so glad that i looked out the window at the right time... elisha and i had a great time watching them-- and otis enjoyed barking at them, which of course caused them turn around and lead their little ones away...

nesting...

here are a couple of my nesting projects- a bean bag chair... yes, i used the link i mentioned in a previous post and it wasn't difficult at all. i filled it w/ the inside from a $20 one form target, but mine is fairly large, so i will be adding to its filling whenever we get packages packed w/ peanuts. i think this will be a great place for elisha to sit and look at books while i nurse the baby-- at least that's the plan ;-)

this is the chest of drawers i made for anna-- yes we have named our little girl... i'm not sure if i have shared that here or not... but her daddy picked out a lovely name ;-)
i bought a chest of drawers from craig's list and then covered it w/ pages from a mother goose book from 1960 that i got at an estate sale for less than $1... it was time consuming for sure- but we all just love it. it is fun to read the bits of nursery rhymes- some of them are very quirky!

we're still here

i have been avoiding my blog... i have been so busy round here and haven't been able to keep up w/ all i have to blog about! but here i am and i will breeze through a few of the things i have been busy w/ so you will believe me... below is a lovely silk sling for a friend. hard to tell how pretty the fabric is from the pic... it is iridescent silk w/ copper and light turquoise cross weaves-- so pretty! here are a few of the cloth diaper things i have been working on. i have learned to knit from a pattern and couldn't be more proud of myself ;-) wool makes a great breathable waterproof diaper cover and now our little has several knit just for her! and the cream one is sewn from a handmedown sweater... it shrunk, but we'll get good use out of it!

i am dreaming that this peach tree in our yard will actually bear fruit( and otis will stop the squirrels from eating them all before we do)... our neighbor warned that it may be too old... but it has certainly bloomed for us-- thank you peach tree!

here are some of the daffodils we planted the day we closed on the house... nothing makes me happier at the end of winter than to search the ground for daffodil shoots. elisha and i have enjoyed walking up the hill to smell our happy flowers!

stay updated for my chest of drawers project.... it is finished and beautiful. i am busy at work on quite a few other things too. not the least being the little girl who is filling up my tummy more and more every day! i let elisha watch "a baby story" with me the other morning- kind of crazy b/c he picked up the remote and turned it on and the was a waterbirth. i was worried he might be upset b/c the mother was obviously uncomfortable as she pushed the baby out... but i just talked him through it " look she has a baby in her tummy just like mama-- let's watch, she's going to push the baby out of the tummy and we'll see it... she's pushing so hard to get the baby out... look at that tiny baby-- now they can hold it!" anyway i guess it registered b/c today i was carrying him upstairs for his nap and he pointed to be belly and said "baby" and then pointed to my face and said "push"... i think he's ready to see this baby he has been hearing so much about ;-) well we are too... but still have a good 5-7 weeks.

inspiring blog

i'm under the weather... doesn't that sound kind of nice-- when actually it is just miserable... i'm sick w/ a bad cold again, but somehow saying that i am "under the weather" makes me feel like it isn't so bad. that is my reason for not posting much at lately.
but i just stumbled upon a beautiful blog that i intend to follow from now on http://www.aholyexperience.com/
and this old post on her blog is just what i have been learning lately! http://www.aholyexperience.com/2008/09/of-steam-escape-and-pressure-work.html

late valentine

i thought it was so clever that elisha had thought to put his valentines in the shutter slots... he had a lot of fun coloring them and handing them out.

it was CRAZY... but worth it

as you can see i racked up at the gwinnett county consignment sale... and i got even more stuff--- tons of board books for 1 or 2 dollars each, several great parenting books, a baby swing for $15, a little in bed co-sleeper for $10 and a "gypsy mama" cotton gauze wrap sling for $20... which you usually spent $50 to get used! i got all 60 items for under $200. i think we are set for the summer... but i can't help myself- i have to check out the boutique armoire sale. i lost track of time b/c my cell battery died and didn't leave until 7, then got lost coming home-in the dark w/ my toddler... neither of us having had dinner(plenty of snacks for e to keep him happy while i shopped, though) we were halfway to athens before i was sure of my mistake. we didn't get home until 9!!! but i think it was worth it. i'm so excited about the little silver ballet shoes especially ;-)

i want to do this:

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/how-to/how-to-bean-bag-chair-067948

check it out-
i've been wanting a bean bag, but not wanting to pay for one, esp. not an ugly/tacky one... now i'm inspired. maybe you will be too!

why i love a paci

... not for myself mind you- for my son... he has been a big fan of the paci from the get go, and now we have a very workable situation where the paci stays clipped to his sleep sack that only comes out for sleeping. it is one thing that makes him glad to be spending some time in his crib... he will hang out happily in his crib for quite a while after he wakes up - i guess b/c he loves the quality time w/ his paci and knows that when he calls us to get him out he will have to leave it behind ;-)
but the real reason for this post is that e just fell and took a pretty good bite into his tongue. this is not the first time that he have dealt with a bloody mouth- and the best thing is the paci b/c it soothes him, but most importantly it applies pressure to the wound and helps stop the bleeding. when he almost bit through his lip i was so thankful for it b/c he was not letting me hold anything up to his lip, but the paci did the trick!