The Baby in the Mirror

The Finished Product

Here are the pears. Felted, stuffed, and embellished with leaves and stems. I will be posting these on etsy later today!

Would you buy this?

I feel a little weird about pairing my "business" with this family blog. All the same, what are your thoughts on this new pear design I came up with yesterday?

PS-They are not quite finished yet. You have to use your imagination to picture what they will look like finished.

Mr. Photogenic

O.K., say it with me:
"Awwwww!"

Have you had a good laugh today?

Happy Easter

There aren't too many pictures of the three of us together. As a matter of fact, the only other ones that we have were taken on Thanksgiving or earlier. This one was taken yesterday, and although it was hard to get Joseph to look at the camera I really like it!

To all those new parents and parents-to-be out there: It is really easy with a new baby to forget to get pictures of the whole family together and only take pics of the baby. It takes effort to remember and have family pics taken, but I am glad we did.

Joseph Likes...

I have discovered that one of the most amazing things about being a parent is watching your child's personality slowly unfold before your eyes. The transition from newborn lump to little boy is so gradual that I hardly even notice it until I find myself saying things like "Oh, Joseph doesn't like it when..." or "Joseph just loves it when...".

Here is a list of some of Joseph's current Likes and Dislikes. I am sure that if we look back at this list in just a few months it will seem like a completely different place and time. I hope to record such lists again in the future so that we may see how our little boy evolves.

Here goes...

Joseph Likes:

Mommy and Daddy, kitty cats (especially Shimmy), fruit, banging, jumping, being tickled, hair (especially Mommy's), pulling, grabbing, rolling, nursing, moving, his stroller, rides in the car, sleeping, Mommy & Daddy's bed, TV, toys, books, phones, remote controllers, noisy rattles, music, babies, faces (especially noses), crinkled paper, magazines, junk mail, baths, his fingers, prints on fabric, his teddy, being carried, Target, Phoenix (the band), napkins, keyboards, coffee mugs, eye glasses, dangly earrings, yarn, neck kisses...

For a list of Joseph's dislikes scroll down.

Joseph Dislikes...

Gas, waking up alone, carrots (and most other vegetables), strangers trying to make him smile, being tired, "Joy to the World", Michael Penn's "No Myth", cold wind, having his face wiped, being bundled, tight neck holes, boredom

Our Beautiful Boy

Chaos Ensues

Is it ever amazing/amusing to be on this side of the lens. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago at Aunt Jane's and cousin Alex's birthday party. Note Joseph's handful of that poor little darlings hair. He does it to me all the time.

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!