New Project

Here is mom modeling her second attempt at a felted cloche hat (with Joseph). You really wouldn't want to see the first. It would make either a nice fruit bowl or the worlds largest yarmulke. The pattern still needs a bit of tweaking, and then there is the matter of determining a reasonable price...

The Two Joes

The two most important people in my life.

Second Class Citizen

Shimmy inadvertently becomes part of the pile while sorting through laundry.

A Day in the Life

Stephani (our Parents as Teachers Rep) comes to visit us every six weeks. She visited last Wednesday, and as usual she says "Tell me about a day in the life of Joseph." And as usual, I reveal for Stephani all of my evils: "We wake up sometime between 7 and 8am, Joseph plays in his highchair while I put on a pot of coffee and flip through a magazine or catalogue...Joseph wakes up from his first nap just in time to watch me make my lunch and eat it, and then we watch Days of our Lives together!" Stephani assures me that there is nothing wrong with trying to inject some amount of normalcy in our days, but it gets me thinking, and the conclusion I have come to is "I love my life now."

When I discovered that I was pregnant with Joseph I had just completed my MBA about a month prior. I had great ambitions, and as mentioned in an earlier post my dream has been to run my own business. I wasn't at all disappointed when I found out I was pregnant...quite the opposite! But it did throw a wrench in my plans for the future just a little bit and things have been uncertain ever since.

I am very lucky that Joe and I have been able to work things out so that I have this time to be home with my son and watch him grow and develop, and that I have this little hiatus from the professional world. As a result, a new creative side of me is emerging that I never knew existed; not to mention that I have the luxury of putting some relaxed consideration into what I want to do with my life. But the greatest surprise of all has been that I love being a stay at home mom.

I love that when I describe my days it is "We" doing everything together. I love nursing Joseph, playing with Joseph and giving him baths. I love having a quiet, peaceful afternoon at home while I knit and Joseph plays quietly on the floor a few feet away (when that actually happens). And I love that it is nice out again and we take walks together downtown and stop at a couple of shops or to a cafe for lunch, or just stroll through the park. I even love having the time to keep a tidy home and improve it decoratively.

With the novelty wear off? Admittedly I do have days every now and then where I long for something more; be it adult interaction or the ability to express myself creatively and receive any sort of unbiased feedback. But after six months I should say that I doubt that this feeling will wear off, and I silently dread the day that our safety net runs out and I must return to the working world.

For now, I try my hardest to cherish every moment I have with my family, and accept this time together as the greatest gift I shall ever receive. As I type this, Joseph is just behind me in his pack'n'play squirming and squealing playfully. It won't be long before those squeals turn into bored and annoyed squawks. And then (drat!) I must rush over to cuddle and entertain my son. I am one lucky gal.

Birds!

I have no idea what I am going to do with them, but they were fun to make. Any ideas?

6 Months Old

Joseph is six months old today, and he has made some huge strides in his development recently. He is almost crawling, he is as good as sitting up on his own, and we finally got him to sleep in his own crib by a combo of the Ferber and Common Sense methods.

Success

We have been attempting to give Joseph solids for some time now, about once every week and a half or so and starting of course with rice cereal at the suggestion of our pediatrician. But like the doctor said, and all the manuals say: you must watch for signs that your child is ready (ie. holding head up, swallowing food instead of pushing it out, razzing, etc.)

So far Joseph has only seemed marginally interested in solids; more skeptical than anything else. He was indifferent to rice cereal, gagged on mashed avocado, but somewhat enjoyed Gerber bananas and peaches. However, he mostly just moved the food around with his tongue and ultimately pushed most of it back out. Not to mention that he really didn't seem to understand that he must open his mouth to get the food into it from the spoon. As a result, we haven't really been very enthusiastic about solids and have instead assumed that Joseph is just not ready yet.

Well, yesterday we had success in the solid department. I mixed up a bowl of rice cereal with formula and Gerber peaches and Joseph almost finished the whole thing (about a 1/2 cup worth)! What this means for us is that we can now get a little more excited and adventurous with foods. I recently purchased a first foods cookbook and am waiting to receive a food mill and freezing supplies in the mail...and then we'll really be cookin'.

blik in the Bedroom

No this is not a euphemism. Although we did go a little blik-wild. I am posting this so Joe can see what I did with the bedroom blik and hopefully gain his approval.

All bliked Out

Keeping Busy...

Here are a few projects I have been working on (I am channeling my energy into non-business things lately). The knitted things and tees I will most likely sell. I also finished blik-ing my office. I am not an artistic person (unlike Joe) hence the blik-ing. I think it turned out pretty good, though. Gotta go, more blik-ing to do!

Go Pack!

Almost Crawling (Please Don't Grow Up)

As you can see, Joseph James is more than ready to start movin'! He's almost hit the ol' 6-month mark...
My heart is so full it's breaking. I love my family. I love being a Dad. I'm starting to understand that "love" isn't a strong enough word.

JJ's New Friend

This morning JJ discovered a bear in his crib. It is a cream one that says "God Bless Baby" that my mom got for him. It has been in his crib for a while now, but today is the first time that JJ noticed him and since he has not let go. Incidentally, this has also been JJ's quitest morning in a very long time. God Bless Baby, indeed!

The Mommy Sweater

This is a sweater that I knit for Joseph while I was still pregnant. He can finally fit into it, so I put it on him today. It may look a little girly on him, but I think it is cute. Boy...what a weird feeling!

Just Because...