Kristen's Birthday

Kristen had her birthday last week and we all got together for a party...

I made this dress for Kristen from a pillowcase... If I had known I was going to sew the pillowcase in to make it skinnier, I would have cut it first and sewn her name on with the machine... but as it is I didn't and I sewed her name on by hand because I have a nasty habit of catching the back of the dress when I stitch things like this... I used fusible interfacing on the back of what I appliqued on so that it won't fray.

I took pictures of the girls coloring on the white boards at the party but since they had work information on them too I probably shouldn't post them ... let's just say, they had fun. There were flowers, Earth, people at the party, and a Princess land complete with just about everything. :) My nieces are so creative.

I love love LOVE being able to attend their little birthday parties and other family gatherings. Though I miss attending my family gatherings, at least we moved somewhere with family so that I still have gatherings to attend (I hope that made sense)

Our New Apartment

I know we've lived here for 3 months now, but I have yet to show you our apartment!!!  I have a lot of family that wishes they were here to see the place in person so I did a video tour... I explain all (most) of the crafts I have done around here so if you are curious how I did something, watch the video.  I also took pictures so that when I print my blog in the future, something shows up (cause videos don't ... sadly ... wish it was like Harry Potter... moving photos in a printed album would be AWESOME).

Video

Pictures
Remember, you can click on the picture to make it bigger...

Entry Way

Kitchen

Living Room

I have to tell you about this real quick...

This is my favorite shelf on the book shelf.

My dad got me these mini HP action figures and my sister told me to not open them because they would be worth more later still in the packaging and I only wanted them for display.

I told this to Eric and he asked me if I wanted to open them and I said yes... so I did

the end

Aaron's Room

Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Fast Mover...

On Saturday, we spent most of the day helping Eric's brother Michael and his wife move... There was a little bit of down time so we shot a video of Aaron showing off his walking skills. He is sporting his usual one sock on, one sock off look.

Then we took some time to play with Aaron - Aaron be in our arms as we jump, be thrown around, and play with a mirror... this video shows you all 3! The high ceiling makes for lots of fun.

Lastly, I was around the corner when Michael hollered, "Hey Jessie, does Aaron do stairs?" I replied, "We don't have stairs so I'm going to say no." "Are you sure?" was the response... I came running and Aaron was already on the 4th step.

Man am I glad we don't have stairs... 

Sleep...

Since Aaron got sick in January his sleeping schedule has been way thrown off... He's been staying up late, waking up tons in the night, and getting up early.  It has been hard not only on Eric and I but on poor Aaron. So yesterday, I read 2 books about baby sleeping habits. I read Mommy Rescue Guide: Getting Your Baby to Sleep by Cynthia MacGregor and Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg. I didn't find much in the first one... just possible reasons why he isn't sleeping, but nothing concrete. The second one, however, talked about how many babies wake in the night from habit (like when he was sick, he would wake up tons) and they don't know how to go back to sleep on their own (especially if they are rocked to sleep, like Aaron is) AND how to fix the problem -- bingo!

I am now trying to have Aaron fall asleep without needing to be rocked or patted. This involves getting him ready for bed with a more consistent routine (pajamas, read a book, etc.) and then (or in the case of a nap, begin the routine here) laying him down in the crib, telling him I love him, and walking away. He, obviously, does NOT like this... not one bit. So after about 6 times of going back in, laying him down, and leaving I will sit on the floor and sing to him with a hand on his back (you have to start somewhere... I can't expect the poor kid to quit me cold turkey!) and he'll slowly drift to sleep.

I make sure to have comfort things in the crib: A soft blanket, a pacifier, and a stuffed animal -- all of which were in the crib before but I never made sure Aaron was aware of them. Now, he uses them all. He pushes himself up against the bumper so he feels something at his back. He wraps one arm around his lion (thanks Kristi!), the other around the pillow. Under his quilt is a soft blanket that as he's falling asleep he will sometimes rub his face against it.

The fruits of this? Last night he still went to bed late -- 11 (we had a baby sitter for the evening so Aaron had a hard time going down) but he did not wake us up once... not at all. He woke up for the day at 8:15 this morning. HALLELUJAH! I know that I still have a lot of work ahead of me (like getting him to go to bed at 7:30 instead of 11 and stay asleep till at least 6:30) but man is it good to already see results.

8 MONTHS!

 Can you believe it? This little guy is 8 months old!

Let's see some comparison photos of 8 months ago to now:



I can hardly believe they are the same child! He is soooo much fun and I love him soooo much! I simply cannot imagine my life without this amazing addition!

Mama's Little Hero

Over the past few weeks, Aaron has become extremely attached to Eric and I ... very few friends have been able to watch him without him crying the whole time (besides Gramma Ane, only one has managed it -- and it's because they have 3 boys that played with him). Once we get there, he is very happy and back to his normal self (sorry friends!!!).

He has become particularly attached to me... Which is so fun! When he is sad, Mama usually does the trick. I love how in the evenings he is happy to sit on my lap and eat whatever I'm eating. Or when we've been apart for a bit he is so excited to see me and crawls super fast toward me (even if I was just at choir on the other side of the room...).

p.s. The shirt I'm wearing in these pictures? 

Yeah, I made that, without a pattern ... I'm quite proud of it, actually. :}

I love how he stuck his tongue out at Eric. 

The Movies

Eric and I have been on a movie watching spree and yesterday Eric said he felt it warranted a blog post :}

I wish the Oscars had been today rather than last Sunday... Each Oscars, some of Eric's family will get together and guess who will win what... and had the Oscars been one week later, I think we would have done much better.

Each of the movies we watched without watching trailers... we didn't actually know much of anything about any of these movies.

Last Saturday (before the Oscars), we watched Warrior. It was really quite good. I loved how at the end everything tied together ... the boxing story as well as the story taking place outside of the ring.

Then we watched Contagion which wasn't up for an Oscar, but was still very good. Seriously folks, get your food storage and above all, wash your hands!!!


We also watched Moneyball which was another good movie. We enjoyed watching even though neither of us knows much about baseball... we each knew enough to fill in the gaps for the other, which was nice.

There was a Groupon for the theater right by us called Cinetopia that provided 2 tickets to any theater plus a large popcorn for $18 when regularly it is $50... so we jumped on that! We went and saw The Artist in one of the Movie Parlors. I wish I had brought the camera! Allow me to describe the Movie Parlor - When you walk in you see 3 rows of recliners., behind those you see 2 rows of couches, and at the front you see 3 very large, very comfortable, circular couch ... things. Obviously, that is where we sat. This theater seats 25 people at capacity so it is very fun! We laid down and snuggled on our couch thing and enjoyed watching the movie. We were very close to the front so due to our angle a few things were skewed (everyone had big feet, big hips, and the door frames widened at the bottom) but we hardly noticed. After the movie we went out on the private deck attached to our theater to look over a pond/small lake. It was gorgeous! This movie was really well done. We walked away from it feeling like it wasn't actually a silent film because each character seemed to have a voice. I think this movie was my favorite of all the ones we saw (not just because of the attached experience).

We then rented Hugo last night. I think this is the movie that we knew the least about... we knew it was set in Paris and that half of it was computer generated and the other half was real -- that's it. But we enjoyed it. I think we were expecting more of a child's movie but that was not the case. It was a very deep movie that portrayed many of man's innermost desires.

Ah, good movies ... now that we have more movies under our belt, it is time to prep for Mass Effect 3!

Time to save the world.

Oh Dear...

I was standing on top of the dresser in Aaron's room fixing the curtains while Aaron played down below. We had his youtube playlist playing on the laptop.


When I finished with the curtains I hopped down and turned to see this:

YIKES! This box is in there for Aaron to bang on like a drum... not to pull over to the dresser and climb on! He was pulling the laptop toward himself when I grabbed the camera.

He's started trying to climb everything recently. He'll grab on with his hands and lift his foot trying to reach a foothold (which are usually too high, thank goodness). When his leg gets tired he'll lower it and switch which foot he uses to try and reach the next level of the bookshelf or the chair cushion...

Sorry this last one is blurry - he was smiling (which I wanted) which makes him wiggle...