A New Tradition: Thankful Thursday

So, I've decided to inaugurate Thankful Thursday on my blog. I realize that I have many, many things to be thankful for in my life: my family, friends, and faith first and foremost. And while I may occasionally choose to spotlight a particularly special person, for the most part, I want to highlight the little, everyday things in life for which I am thankful. Things that make me happy or proud or make my life a little easier...you know what they are for you. I'm just choosing to name them :)

On that note...

I decided to start with one of the most ordinary, mundane things I could thing of (sorry for the tiny pic):

Dreft laundry spray is MAGIC! I love it. Who knew that a product related to the overpriced baby detergent could get out EVERY STAIN IMAGINABLE. And it's even reasonably priced! I have yet to find anything that this little guy can't conquer: set in spit up, blood, spaghetti sauce, grease, ummm...OTHER things that come out of baby. Dreft laundry spray, this Thankful Thursday is for you!  Thanks for making my life (and my LEAST favorite chore in the world) just a little easier!

This is....JEOPARDY!

These are magic words at our house. Jeopardy has the power to calm Lucas down, no matter the situation. Teething bothering your mouth? JEOPARDY! Cranky and tired...let's watch some JEOPARDY! Sick with the stomach flu?  Let's watch several episodes of JEOPARDY! When that music comes on and the announcer says those words, Lucas stops whatever he is doing, crawls in my lap and completely calms down.  My theory on this (completely scientific, really) is this: when I was nursing, I started taping episodes to watch when I was up in the middle of the night. They were the perfect length of time and required just the right amount of concentration to keep me awake for those 2am feedings. My theory is that Lucas somehow associates that show (and all its noises) with happy, tummy-filling, calming thoughts. Regardless, Jeopardy (and our DVR) has been a huge blessing on several days. So, thanks, Alex Trebek...for lifesaving moments and for helping us raise the smartest preschooler on the block (or at least the one with the most useless trivia knowledge!)

Book Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

So, I have a goal to read at least 40 books this year. This would be between 3 and 4 each month. I thought I would help keep myself on track using Goodreads and by blogging about a few of them here.  "Incredibly Loud & Extremely Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer is actually the third book I've read so far this year.

This was one of those randomly chosen off the shelf books that turned out to be a great find. It is written from the perspective of Oskar Schnell, a nine year old boy whose father has recently died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Now, when I say it is written from his perspective, I mean, literally as if you are inside his head. Very stream-of-consciousness. And the stream of a smart, imaginative, young, and grieving little boy's consciousness is strange and sometimes hard to follow. When I started the book, I didn't think that I was going to be able to deal with the style, but after a chapter or so, I started to understand better and really got into it. (It helped that I think many of my past students must think this way, too!) This is definitely not a pick up/put down for 5 minutes at a time book, but it is SOOO worth the effort.

Just because this novel deals with 9/11 doesn't mean it is completely depressing, trust me! I don't want to give away a lot about the plot, but I do want to say that I laughed out loud several times and cried at least twice. This little boy is so innocent and also so deeply scarred by his father's death. Foer does a brilliant job of seamlessly mixing all these emotions that are so huge for such a little guy. His quest to find the lock that fits a key his father left behind takes him all over New York city and into contact with so many interesting characters along the way. Two thumbs up and high praise for this one!

Baby Buddies

Yesterday, Lucas and I headed to Grapevine to meet up with one of my best friends Leslie. Leslie and I were college roomies, she was the matron of honor at my wedding, and, even though we never see each other as often as we would like, she remains one of my best friends in the world. To add to the fun, her second son, Cooper, was born 9 days before Lucas. We hope they are destined to be good buddies...we KNOW they are at least destined to have their picture taken together about a million times as they grow up together.

Here they are right after they were born (Lucas looking very jaundiced!):

This is about 1 month old, when Cooper looked like a tank compared to Lucas:

This fall at a TCU game...lots more years of these pics to follow:

Our big boys yesterday at the mall:

Snow Day!

We didn't get any pictures of Lucas in the Dallas snow last week, so I thought I would post some of the pictures from the fabulous snow we experienced in North Carolina over Christmas vacation. Lucas loved the snow, especially throwing snowballs! He also thought our snowman was pretty funny. Here's hoping for more snow here in Dallas this year!

After our snowball fight. So cute!



Don't you love my fancy hat/scarf? And the snowy trees?



Dad, quit posing...we should really go inside!

Our snow man and our little man in the snow.

Family picture with Mr. Snowman



And this is what happened to the snowman the next day :)



Christmas Wrap Up: Crafting

I love Christmas decorations.  It's kind of an obsession. (no one's fault in particular...MARSHA BRESSLER!) Since we have only been in the house for three Christmases, I am still at the beginning of the process of collecting all the decorations I would someday like to have. The first year, it was pretty much just getting stuff for the tree (an 8 ft. prelit one that the previous owners of the house just LEFT in the attic for us...thank you very much!). Last year, I did the mantle and entertainment center...I would put pictures of those, but they are currently trapped on our desktop with the broken mother board.  Super. This year, I got to do a few more "crafty" things, like these:



These hung in the master bath. I love how shiny they were, but next year I want to add bows or something at the top to really finish them off. I also need to paint the backs so the wood doesn't show in the mirror.



Close up of the glitter!



I am proud of this one...I bought some alphabet blocks at a consignment sale back in the summer. They came in ziplocks, so I needed somewhere to keep them. I sewed this reversible back out of scrap fabric I found at JoAnn's.  Super cute!  And very useful so far!



My mom also helped me with a very special project...Lucas' first stocking. For as long as I can remember, my sister and I had these felt stockings that were hand sewn by my mom and grandmother. We were soooo sad when we finally had to replace them a few years ago. So, one of the first things I wanted to do was make one for Lucas. Mom and I started when I went to visit in October, and I finally finished a couple of weeks before Christmas (not in time to get it embroidered with his name, but, still...) Here is our masterpiece:

I enjoyed this little Buscilla kit a lot. So much, that I bought some little snowmen to sew for Lucas' bathroom mirror.  There were six of them, but I only have a pic of this one:

My crafty Christmas post wouldn't be complete without a shout out to my sister-in-law Nancy, who made these AWESOME fabric blocks for Lucas. They match the quilt that she made him for his baptism gift. I love them...next time we have a kid, he or she is getting a LONG name so we have even more cute blocks!

Christmas Wrap Up: Baby's First Christmas

So...I know I started this blog AFTER Christmas, but I was just looking through all our Christmas pics, and there are just too many good ones not to share a few!  So, get ready for a few Christmas-y posts to come :)

Lucas' favorite things about his first Christmas: ribbon, paper, and stickers, snow, and jingle bells!

 This was the only ornament Lucas really bothered on the tree...the jingle bell ball!

 Caught red handed trying to open a present...darned sticky labels!

 Looking like a little man on his way to Christmas Eve service.

 Papa helping me read my new book from Santa

 My first stocking: cars, books, and shakers!

 Playing cards with mom. (I love this pic b/c I have one just like it of me and my grandmother when I was just about Lucas' age or a little older).

 Christmas Eve

 Enough of this present stuff...when do we EAT??? (Thanks, Becky and Jeremy for the bib!)

Family picture (on the couch this year since we were recovering from the stomach bug!)

Favorite Foods

Since we first started feeding him "real" food, Lucas has proven himself to be a very adventurous eater. He loves spicy foods - barbecue sauce and salsa. Phil gave him a lemon the other day (yes, I know...good job dad). He made a face after tasting it, but went back for several more tastes. He prefers his green beans with Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar (don't ask how I found that out). He eats just about everything that I feed him and is always eager to try new things off of the big peoples' plates. Currently the only thing he won't eat is plain cheese.  Weird. He grilled cheese, cheesy pasta, and string cheese, but a bite of cheese off the block...NOOOO!!! (This aversion began when he had a stomach bug a few weeks ago...don't really know what the connection is). This week's favorites include: pears, turkey meatballs (made by mom with wheat germ, sweet potatoes, and applesauce), grilled cheese, and any flavor of yogurt. I'm trying to keep his diet healthy and varied, in hopes that he will continue to be a good eater (and maybe a good little sous chef) as he gets bigger.

 Ahhh...so good!

More, please!

Creative Aspirations: Winter Wreath

Inside my own head, I am a very creative person. Now that I am not working full time, I am attempting to turn those creative thoughts into actual projects. I am learning that this is going to take more than a little practice! If you are a fellow crafty person, feel free to read along with my craft aspirations posts and help me out with any suggestions you might have.

That said...I am actually quite proud of my latest project, a winter wreath for my door.  After de-Christmasing my house, I decided that I was in dire need of a wreath that wasn't too fall-y or spring-y. I LOVE making floral wreaths with ribbon and such, but I decided that I was in the mood for something different. After a little blog hopping, I found several examples of yearn wreaths. So, I borrowed a little of this and a little of that, added some felt flowers, and...VOILA!

The darker color is hard to see on my shady porch, but it is a gray based purple. (GO FROGS!) This project was super easy, and I love how it came out. I do wish the wreath form was a little fatter, but this one was on super sale, so good trade off! I just wrapped yarn very tightly around the form. When it was completely wrapped, I added the random extra layers, so it didn't look so neat and perfect. Then I cut circles in various sizes out of dark purple to make the flowers. You need six circles of the same size to make one flower. One of them serves as the back "template". You take each of the other 5 and fold them in half and then the halfs into uneven thirds and arrange them in a circle on the template. (Next time I will take pictures of this process...learning, learning). I hand stitched them together...partly for the "handmade" look...partly because I could fit all those layers of fat felt into my sewing machine :) They are pinned on to the wreath with straight pins.  Close up...here!

Add a little ribbon to fancy it up, and...DONE!  I really enjoyed making this and would love to make some more. Anybody want to hire me?!?

10 Months Old!

Well, it seems only appropriate that my first "real" post would be about some milestones in Lucas' life. Those of you who keep up with me on Facebook know that I have chronicling Lucas' growth this year in monthly pictures with two of his stuffed animals.  Here is his one month picture:

Look at that scrawny little guy! (SO CUTE!) Anyway, Lucas turned 10 months old today, and my, how far we have come:

I am so looking forward to taking all of these pictures (along with lots of others from each month) and turning them into a photo book after he turns 1. I have been keeping track each month of his favorite things and major milestones that I will include in the book, too.

This past weekend, Lucas reached BIG milestone...he is now a walker!  He doesn't do it all the time, since crawling is still much more efficient.  But, he is now pretty confident taking 8-10 steps at a time whenever he wants to.  It's so cute watching him do his little toddle across the room. We are working on getting a video, but that little red light just mesmerizes him so much that he can never do anything else while it is on.

Other 10 month things to remember...you can say "mama" pretty consistently (especially when you are tired or sad!), you love to point at things and have us talk about them, you love to knock down block towers, still love balls and climbing, talk A LOT in your own language, love to pet the doggies, still love pears and grilled cheese the most, but won't eat plain cheese anymore, think riding in the grocery cart is the highlight of your week! 

I can't believe it's only two more month until Lucas is 1...time to start party planning :)

Jumping Into the Blogosphere

Well, the day has finally arrived. I have jumped into the world of blogging. I'm here mostly to share about my daily life so that far away famiy and friends can keep up. I also hope to keep better track of the little, every day adventures in Lucas' life that are so easily forgotten in a year's time. I also feel like I should be writing a bog as much as I love reading everyone else's.  I hope you enjoy (and bear with me as I learn the ins and outs of the process!).