Six Months - Yes, Really

Little Sprout is officially half a year old today!  Our sweet girl is amazing me every day with her newfound skills and happy spirit.

 This month, the girl decided to speed things up and mastered the art of sitting up independently, crawling, and pulling herself to a precarious standing position in her crib, all within the space of two weeks.  

 The siblings are starting to realize that they had better put away their stuff or baby sister might get a hold of it and destroy it!  Little Sprout loves demolishing pancakes, bread slices, crackers, and pretty much any food she can get her hands on.

 She has some favorite toys now - this IKEA bear being one of them.  She also has a yellow Toad (of Super Mario fame) that the Nerd gave her way back at Christmas.  She loves that thing - slobbery legs and arms are evidence of that.  Little Sprout is also becoming quite attached to a certain animal-print blanket.  Of course, it is a thick, fleecy blanket - so perfect for summertime.

This is the face of a definite mama's girl.  She loves her daddy and grandparents too, but if I am in the room, she wants me.  Unfortunately, breast feeding has become a bit of an issue this month.  She still loves nursing and hates bottles, but at the beginning of this past month, she decided she didn't like one of my breasts and chose to only nurse on one side.  I've tried hard to keep my milk supply up, but I can tell it is quickly diminishing.  I think it will soon be time to wean, but stubborn baby girl hates bottles and refuses to take them.  Anyone have any good ideas on going from breast to bottle?  My other kiddos never had any trouble with it, although this is the longest I have ever been able to nurse one of my children.  

Ah, my heart aches as I look at these pictures, knowing how fast they grow up!  I will try to hold fast to the moment today...

Dear Fisher Price

Dear Fisher Price,

Apparently I am a difficult child to entertain these days. I have the cutest pink bouncy seat, but generally I am pretty fussy in it. Don't bother to turn on the vibrate option - that really gets on my nerves and I will let out several piercing screams to let everyone know just how much I don't like it. My parents got me a swing because swings were a "godsend" when their other children were babies. It's okay, I guess. If all my toys are lined up on the bar just right and the insanely annoying music is NOT turned on, I might enjoy my time in the swing for five or ten minutes. Then I get carsick and make sure Mom knows it's time to remove me from the swing.

My parents are not the brightest people on the planet. It takes them a while to figure out the right things for me. I don't know why because I try to let them now as loudly as possible what the wrong things are. They did finally figure out that I do like to be upright as much as possible, leading them to get me one of those Bumbo seats. It's fine and all, and I do like looking around and watching my siblings argue and throw Hot Wheel cars down the stairs. Only thing is, my neck can't support me for very long and I grow tired of the Bumbo seat quickly.

So Friday night Mom and Dad went to Toys R Us to scout out birthday present possibilities for my older brother. While there, they decided to go check out the baby section to see if possibly there was still some entertainment option left for me. Dad was talking animatedly about exersaucers. Hello?! Remember the whole my-neck-can't-support-my-head-for-very-long issue? Then they saw your Discover and Grow Kick and Play Piano Gym. I was immediately very interested in the bright colors of your product. Dad remembered some cute time in the bathtub when I was kicking my legs a lot and giggling so he thought I would like this piano gym. (I don't specifically remember this moment as I have a lot of cute moments.)

Anyway, my mom, cheapskate that she is, immediately looked at the price and said no way. (And really, Fisher Price? I mean I really wanted that piano but even I thought $55 was a bit steep.) Dad saw a sign that stated the piano gym was on sale for ten dollars off. Mom suddenly remembered that she might have a coupon for it and dug out her embarrassing coupon notebook to look. Now they were looking at a $40 piano gym. Wouldn't you know it, my parents stood there for twenty minutes debating whether or not to buy that piano gym?? If they had just taken a moment to look at this face,

they would have purchased it right away. But thankfully they finally did decide to buy it (whew!) and I got to play with it the next day.

I'm not sure what my favorite part of my new toy is. The mirror makes me laugh, and I think the animal rattles are adorable. I could just eat them up! (and I try to, on a regular basis...) My brothers and sister love to watch me pound out a tune on the piano with my feet, no doubt wishing they had such talent. Oh, and when I accidentally roll over? My mom can just lay the mirror and toys down and I get some valuable "tummy time,"' whatever that is.

So thank you for saving my desperate parents and for giving me something that is actually fun to play with. (Yes, I know I'm not supposed to end my sentences with prepositions, but give me a break. I'm only three months old!)

Keep up the great work!

Sincerely, the Drama Princess

****no, I was not contacted by Fisher Price to endorse/do a review on this product and certainly was not compensated in any way (although, FP, if you're interested, I really want that musical dino!). We simply want other desperate parents to know there is hope out there. And it is worth every dollar.****

Twenty-Five Weeks

(sure hope you all are enjoying the view of our cracked bathroom mirror each week. classy)

The Baby: According to Babycenter, Little Sprout now weighs about a pound and a half. To demonstrate this weight, they use the comparison of a rutabaga. Oh yeah. I just was making something with rutabagas yesterday - so I totally get the comparison. Anyway, her skin is starting to smooth out, and if she will have any, her hair is growing too! All three of my other younguns were born with quite a bit of blonde hair; I think it's safe to say that Little Sprout will do the same. Unless she decides to be a redhead. There is a possibility of that.

Me: I certainly do not want to whine and complain, as this has been the "easiest" pregnancy I've had so far. However, this week was a bit tough with pregnancy migraines hitting me over the weekend and confining me to my bedroom for a solid day. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who took care of the kiddos and my children's church responsibilities and pretty much everything I normally do so that I could take that time to "sleep it off." Then, apparently summer finally decided to make an appearance here in western Oregon. The past few days, the temperatures have been in the nineties, which makes sleeping at night a little uncomfortable. We don't have any air conditioning in our bedroom downstairs - just a fan that blows all those wonderful allergens right to me. The living room does have an air conditioner - so I am claiming that as my bedroom tonight.

The Siblings: It is becoming increasingly harder for the kids to sit in my lap for story time or "ow I just got a boo-boo" time. The Spud especially is not happy about sharing his favorite place with this unknown sister of his and sometimes will stalk off in a huff when I ask him to sit next to me instead of on my lap as usual. The Drama Queen has been most aware of Momma's limitations lately and will remind me that I should probably not get on the floor to play with the kids cuz remember how hard it was to get up last time?!

The Plans: Nothing new. I am trying to get everything ready for homeschooling the Drama Queen this year; so that has been occupying most of my planning time.

Next week I get to go in and take the glucola test. Oh joy to my soul! And the weeks just keep marching along. . .

Tutorial: Fluffy Flower Headband

Last week I mentioned in my weekly pregnancy post that I had finally completed my nursing cover. I had a few strips of fabric left over and decided to make Little Sprout a cute little flower headband for all her newborn fashion needs. I mean, how many other babies have hair accessories to match their momma's nursing cover? It turned out pretty well - so well in fact that I am pulling out some more fabrics to make her a whole set of these. And I'm thinking Big Sister and Momma wouldn't mind having their own modified versions of this flower headband.

For this fluffy flower headband, you will need: two coordinating fabric pieces (mine were just leftover strips from my nursing cover project - you won't need much!), a small piece of 1/4 " braided elastic, a sewing machine loaded with matching thread, a glue gun, a sharpie, and a soup can.

(Please excuse my model's look of disinterest. She has been around for 20+ years and has cheerfully taken all sorts of modeling abuse.)

So, first you are going to make the stretchy headband. Measure your baby's head (or the head of a doll reasonably similar to a baby's head) and double that to get the length of your fabric. Then cut out a strip that long and about three inches or so wide.

Next, fold your strip of fabric in half as shown with the wrong side out and stitch a 1/2 inch seam along the cut edges.

Using a safety pin, turn your tube of fabric right side out. Don't bother to press it - you will be scrunching it up soon enough.

Cut a piece of elastic that is just a little less than half the length of your fabric. Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic and begin threading through your fabric tube. When you reach the halfway point, before the other end of your elastic disappears into the tube, sew down that end of elastic as shown.

Continue working the safety pin through the rest of the fabric tube until it comes out the other end. Scrunch your fabric until you like the way it looks, and sew down that end of the elastic/fabric as well. Make sure that on both ends, you have sewn through the fabric AND the elastic, so that the elastic will stay in place.

Match up the two ends of the fabric tube and sew together in a 1/2 inch seam. Trim down the fabric edges as shown.

Now, you are going to start working on your flower. Using a soup can, veggie can, hair spray can, or whatever you have, trace out 17 circles on the wrong side of your contrasting fabric. The larger your circles, the larger your flower will be. Cut out all 17 circles - you don't have to be too exact here. Just make sure to cut off all black marks as they will show in the completed flower.

Take one circle and fold in half and then in half again, with the right side of the fabric out, as shown.

Sew that folded circle in place on the stretchy band right where you stitched the two ends of the band together as shown. Sew diagonally across the triangular point of your folded circle.

Fold another circle the same way and sew it to the headband directly underneath the first folded circle, as shown.

Fold a third circle and sew to the headband directly next to the second folded circle. It should look like three-fourths of a circle, as shown.

Fold a fourth circle the same way and stitch in place. Notice that your stitches make a square or diamond shape. This is the first layer of your flower.

Now you will sew on the second layer of your flower in the same way. Place the first "petal" as shown in the photo above so that the petals will not be directly lying on top of each other. Continue folding circles and stitching them in place until a second layer is completed. (Four folded circles make one layer.)

Add a third layer of petals in exactly the same manner. Your flower should look like this.

Next, take another circle and fold it in half and then fold it into thirds, as shown.

Make a dot of glue with your hot glue gun at the center of your flower and press the point of this new folded circle into the glue. (use tweezers or the tips of your scissors so you won't burn your fingers!)

Do this three more times with the circles folded in half and then into thirds. Glue them in place with the hot glue gun.

Finally, take your last circle and fold it in half and then into thirds, as you did with the previous four circles. Place a dot of hot glue in the very center of your flower and press this last folded circle firmly into place.

And there you have it! An adorable, chic hairband for the equally adorable infant in your life.

In a future post, I will show you how to modify this headband to make it suitable for an older girl and even an adult. (my headband does not have as full a flower for example, and my daughter's headband has a removable flower.) Happy creating!

Dear Spud

Dear Spud,

We had an agreement. Many times you nodded your cute little head and smiled cheerfully up at me while I instructed you to take your time growing up and to not rush toddlerhood. I explained to you that you were my baby and that you could be my baby as long as you wanted.

And you were doing a pretty good job of adhering to your promise until this week. I took you to the doctor for your nine-month visit (albeit at ten months old) where Dr. Leslie informed me that you were a happy and healthy little guy. She showed me several charts to explain your growth, noting that you were now a whopping 19 pounds! Then she went on to say that perhaps in the next few months, you might start trying to pull up on tables and things and even "walk" around furniture. Apparently you took that as a challenge, for not long after we got home, I was amazed to find you had pulled yourself up in your crib.

Throughout the rest of the day, you continued to show off your new skill, pulling up on the couch, the table, and anything else that looked sturdy enough to hold your weight. The next day, you started to walk around the furniture, easily moving from couch to bookshelves to chair. May I remind you that you are only ten months old?? You have plenty of time to do all these crazy grown-up things, Spud!

Someday you may wonder why Mommy took so long to cut your adorable curly hair. Ahh, that is still a "baby" thing I can keep for at least a little while longer. I am afraid that if I cut those gorgeous curls, your hair will grow back all straight and suddenly you will look like a toddler. I'm not ready to give my baby up yet!

So, we had an agreement, Spud. I'm just reminding you to stop growing up so fast.

Love, Momma

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