As a baby shower gift, my friend from work, CS, gave me a make over and took photos of me, as well, as the family. I love my new style. I've had long curly hair for most of my life. I think my hair is shorter than it's ever been, except for one other time in my life about 14 years ago. I don't mind and think it looks wonderful. CS is quite talented in the styling department. (She's also a pretty darn awesome medical assistant.)
Another co-worker, a LPN at our office, did the photo editing. She is a wonderful nurse and did a great job editing the photos. The kids especially love their photos. There are many that we love so I'll try to pick my personal favorites.
So, why the yellow umbrella? Hubby's request. He and I enjoy watching "How I Met Your Mother". He has plenty of his own tales of finding the right girl. Some of his tales could rival the main character Ted's tales. He says I am his yellow umbrella girl. The umbrella was his Christmas gift to me this past year. I loved it. I thought the Double Take ladies did a great job capturing that. I really wanted a photo of the kids and me under the umbrella and one turned out okay. Baby was not looking at camera otherwise it would have been perfect. It was tough as we really needed the umbrella that day and it was cold for all of us.
Oh, and we've never had professional or even semi-professional photos taken as a family. It was cool experience. I am also including some photos we took of CS taking our photos. All were taken at our home or in the back yard. Yes, that view is what we see every day. Our wonderful photographer really captured our lives, especially the spirits of our children.
Warning...LOTS of photos.
I have a little helper these days when it comes to my crochet projects. However, I did also manage to pull together one sewing project in the past few weeks, too.
Some for birthday gifts, some for charity auction, and some just because.
First, our Plants vs Zombies family continues to grow - Pea Shooter, Snow Pea Shooter, Watermelon (the newest member), and Sunflower. The kids just love them, T especially. They work up pretty fast so instant gratification.
Next, a Bee. This was for my boss Dr. J. I thought it was cleaver giving an allergist a bee. He suggested I make one for the kids' plant collection. Cleaver! The bee was started on the day I had my hair/make up done and we had our family photo shoot. I look forward to sharing those photos with you soon.
Next a black and gold shawl for a charity auction for my nephew's school. The school colors are black and gold. It turned out so lovely. I took a photo of it being blocked out because I finished it about 2 hours before the silent auction started.
A baby duck for a baby shower gift.
Owl towels with owl trivet for Baby's sitter - she's pretty special to us so we went all out.
Last photo is how I get a lot of my crocheting done these days. She likes to watch my new "lite hook". This way I can crochet in the dark in the wee hours of the morning or late at night while everyone else sleeps and baby is often awake.
Nearly 4 years ago I did a very similar posting. Go here if you'd like to see it.
Now these wonderful PJs that my dear friend Nancy gave me have made it through three kids. They are still favorites and all the kids have enjoyed them. I am actually keeping several items like these and rather than turn them into hand-me-downs I will be compiling into quilts for each of the kids. Some of these clothing items are just too precious to sell or pass along.
By the way, the rocker and bounce seat have also made it through at least three kids (we purchased the bounce seat used for T and I bought the rocker new for T but it has been loaned to a few others; the rocker actually has to be tapped to get the vibration going these days but it's still good).
We have very few photos of Baby T smiling. He had horrible eczema so I think he was so uncomfortable from the itching all the time he rarely smiled. Hence, the covered hands and feet. Lil Sis had perfect skin, Baby Sis has minor eczema but not as bad as her brother's. She smiles more than the other two combined.
It is so fun to consider the differences and similarities both physical and social between these three.
So, let's look at the kiddos - T was about 3 months in this photo, Lil Sister was about 6 1/2 months (she was my tiny girl), and Baby Sister is about 4 1/2 months in these photos (much bigger girl). Photos start with oldest first. What do you think? Resemblance? I think our Kid 3.0 ties everyone together (I added two photos of her because I think in one she looks like T and the other she looks like her sis). Over all, though, looking at these, I think Baby most resembles her brother, for the time being at least.
I've been trying to memorize so many moments lately. My little babe, my last born, is growing up literally right before my eyes. I am a much wiser mama than I was with my first or even second born. I know now not to long for the latest milestone and rush through a stage because it just goes so fast. As I remove the clothes she has already outgrown from her dresser and separate them out for donations, hand-me-downs, and consignment I cling that much harder to the fleeting moments. Here is my growing list in no particular order:
- The feel of her soft, chubby cheeks. I love to put her cheeks next to mine, especially during bed time when we snuggle before she drifts off to sleep. It's heavenly.
- Her baby smell - kind of mix between t-gel (for her cradle cap), Eucerin cream (for her eczema), and her own little scent. Each of my babies always had a unique smell that I cannot put into words. I will say Baby's scent is closest to T's than her sister's.
- Her chubby, soft baby feet that seem to want to grab everything these days. Yes, she's at that awesome stage of trying to grab and touch with her feet. Love it! Love baby feet.
- Her wonderful, wide, grin. It's like she smiles with her whole body.
- Spitting - she just learned to make bubbles and raspberry sounds. We've started to need bibs because of this.
- Add to her spitting the grunting (not just BM grunting), she grunts for attention. It's quite deep like her big brother's used to be.
- Laughter - belly, grunting laughter especially when she knows I lost focus and became distracted by her smiles and charm. I sometimes get this in the middle of the night when I am not successful in getting her back to sleep and she knows she has won when I stay up with her and try to keep her quiet for everyone else.
- Love of the shower - we put her recliner bath seat in the shower (we have a HUGE shower) and face one of the heads onto her abdomen and she sits there soaking up the water while I take my shower using the other head. Instant happiness even if she is starving or tired or both.
- How very much love and affection she gets from all of us and those in our lives and around us. She is one of the most loved babies ever. Even her sitter comments that her husband will come home for lunch to eat with the family on days she has the baby just so he can hold her. I've even noticed her Grandma N holding her more than she ever held the other kids. Maybe it's because she is the last grandchild or maybe it's just because she is so beloved. (Grandma N also has great-grandchildren the same age so she gets plenty of baby snuggles but I think there is something to being "last".)
- The sparkle in her eyes when she sees me. I am still her most favorite person.
- How great the big kids are at entertaining her when I need a few extra minutes to finish something up and she has had it with the bouncie seat.
- How excited she gets to see her toys now, especially her books.
- Her baby Mohawk or "Baby Hawk" as we call it and her. I think she will eventually transition to "Lady Hawk". Her sister has always been referred to as "Princess" but she is not referred to as this in the least. As much as I try to flatten her hair down, it stands right back up. Her dad and I actually really love it.
- The cloth diapers. We have lots of different kinds but we've recently found how much we love good 'ole fashioned prefolds and covers. Stuffing diapers was taking way too long. These are just so easy to use and care for. It has cut our laundry time down for sure. Folks always ask us how cloth diapering is going. It's totally not a big deal at all. It's habit now. I have not yet rediscovered my joy for cloth wipes, though.
As I said, it's a growing list and I am sure I will add to it. For now, we're just soaking her up. I'm a little sad she is my last baby but honestly I am quite at peace with it. I've had great birth experiences, great pregnancy experiences, and continuing to enjoy the baby experience. I feel honored and blessed to have the children I do. Our lives are so full - full of love and joy (and laundry, too), but mostly full of joy.
