Thursday, April 28, 2011

New friends and a bit more

Amélie and I have made some new friends in the last week. As mentioned in my previous posts, it's been a challenge to meet stay-at-home moms in my area. I did look into other groups as some of you suggested and I will be attending a meeting in the near future when I have time. For now, Amélie and I have been socializing with moms and babies at the local museum.

{in "The Wonder Closet"- the area for itty bitty babes}

The Children's Discovery Museum is just three miles from our house and we've been really taking advantage of it's proximity since we got an annual membership a few weeks ago. I love the fact that we can jet over there for a quick visit any time of day. In fact, on Tuesday I had hoped to take her to story time at the library downtown (not the one two blocks away), but her nap ended up interfering with the time. So, while she napped I crossed my fingers she'd wake up in time for us to make it for the last hour of the museum. She woke up at just the right time, I fed her, packed her dinner, a snack for me, a blanket, and then drove over to the museum. After an hour of playing and walking around with the other kiddies (there's always lots of kids there), we left and had a nice little picnic dinner on the large grassy area in front before we had to go pick up the hubby from his stop. It was perfect.

{isn't the short handrail adorable?}

We recently even had a play date with some new friends. We had some play time in the park, a picnic lunch, and a nice walk around downtown Campbell. We had a great time and are looking forward to hanging out again. The girls are only a week apart in age. Amélie's always very interested in other kids and will watch their every move, but it was cute to have another little person with the same amount of interest in her. They got along wonderfully! 

{cuties}

{see...she loved watching her little friend}

Amélie also made a new friend for Easter. She was made especially for her. =)

{ i found a pattern on Martha Stewart, but I changed her quite a bit}



{I painted her face using delicate paint brushes}

We had a laid-back Easter sunday. We enjoyed...

our amazing roses from the backyard...


our sweet baby "flower"...


wearing our aprons...




dyeing some eggs...





playing with egg shells...


and eating some deviled eggs!


We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Monday, April 11, 2011

9 Months of Curiosity

Happy nine month birthday to our baby girl! Where does the time go?! In three short months she will be one whole year old!




We adore you sweet girl. You light up our days with your smiles. Life is more exciting and simply complete with you in it. We could not have asked for a more wonderful addition. 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

A Side of Rice and Beans

That's us. The hubby's been enjoying not just the company of myself and our little blondie bean, but also the daddy man. He came in about a month ago from Guatemala and has been keeping us company and doing lots of things around the house like picking up Eric from his bus stop, making awesome dinners, completely clearing our big yard area of a gagillion weeds, making plant stands for me, and a whole lot of other things we very much appreciate. We always miss him when he leaves; not because of all the things he does, but because we love his company. This coming week he'll be leaving us in order to move to Arizona. He's decided that being back in the States is what he prefers. He misses us (my brothers and I) and his new grandbabies. We're definitely happy to have him back closer to home.

{delicious dinner made by daddy man}

{visiting Bakersfield for our nephew's first birthday}

While the daddy man has been here we've been keeping ourselves pretty busy and our little girl has been growing and changing on a daily basis. I can't believe how big my girl is getting! I could probably write a detailed 10 page essay all about her changes this month, but I'll just provide a glimpse here. How about some to-the-point bullets?! 

{her 8-month photo at home}

  • She is getting so heavy? I can't wait to find out how much she's gained at her next appointment in a month. I'm going to guess 19 lbs. Our chunky monkey.
  • Two visible teeth! The bottom left came in first and is still working on coming out completely. The right bottom is just barely coming out, but I can feel it. She loves feeling them with her lips and tongue. 
  • Crawling in reverse (still not loving it) and would love to spend all day standing holding onto something. 
  • Still loves eating. She's tried lots of new things, but her faves are still yogurt and sweet potatoes. 
  • Talks and talks and talks. She gurgles, "dadas" all day long, squeals really high (we say she's practicing her Mariah Carey notes), loves blowing raspberries, and says "hey" and "hi" to everyone she sees. 
  • Happiest baby ever! She can definitely be a grouch when she doesn't get what she wants and can go from super cheery to big tear girl, but she is overall super duper happy. She adores people! Whenever we go out to she will stare at people just waiting for them to make eye contact with her so that she can smile and wave at them. Oh yeah, she's big on the waving of hi and bye. I can leave a room for one second, come back and she will have the biggest smile and will talk a lot. 
  • Dropped her third nap and her awake sessions have been stretched out to three/three and half hours. Since dropping her third nap, she now also sleep for longer periods of time. I love this! I can get so much more done. She used to take three 40 minute naps and now takes one 1 1/2 - 2 hour nap in the morning and an hour nap in the afternoon. We can actually go out and do more things too. She's also sleeping all 12 hours most nights. Sometimes she'll still want to eat once around 5:30am, which isn't too bad for me since I've slept a good length of time. (Okay the last two bullets weren't really to-the-point. oops)
  • Adores her abuelito. She can be pouting for me because she doesn't want to eat her lentils, but one look from her grandpa and she will be all smiles. 
  • Separation anxiety still present, but we're working on it. 
{yes, that blondie baby really is mine}

The hubby and I have been taking advantage of the daddy man being here by going on a date every weekend. It's been really nice. We've gone out to dinner and enjoyed a movie on every date. We love going to the movies, so it's been such a treat. Before the bean, we used to go almost every weekend.

{candlelit dinner in our backyard}

Life is really good. The house is all organized, so I'll be posting some projects I've completed on my neglected blog. I've been working on making things for my shop, but I've lost some steam with daddy man being here since I rather be spending time with him than crafting. Initially, my vision was to make pillows, but I've actually made a detour since I was inspired to make other things that I'm having more fun making. The Miscellany Shoppe is up, but not very exciting at the moment as I'm still learning how to set it all up. Basically, I'm making children's goods for celebrations or fun. I only have the bunting listed, but I've made fabric covered and sewn party hats and cupcake toppers/flags as well. The pillows...the cut fabric and zippers are hanging out while I have fun with playful fabrics. Any suggestions on items you'd like to see would be really appreciated. I'm already thinking of themes for Amélie's first birthday and one of my ideas has my brain swirling with ideas for things to make and probably sell in the shoppe. 

{some of the items in the shoppe!}

I honestly haven't missed work(the grading, the annoying kids, the politics...), but have had moments of nostalgia. I have always been very passionate about my teaching and truly enjoyed it. The hubby asked me if I thought I'd go back to teaching and I really had never questioned that I wouldn't. I will, but right now I'm doing the right thing for us. 

We're feeling pretty grown-up around here as we survive on one income and make big purchases like buying a new mattress and another car. Thank goodness for both, but more-so for the heavenly mattress! I was finally able to convince the hubby it was time to retire the cheap-y mattress he'd had since he moved to California, once it started to squeak. I'd been begging for one since before we got married. We're still shopping around for another car but I'm sure we'll be getting one within the next two weeks since the daddy man is leaving us and won't be here to help drop Eric off and pick him up from the shuttle stop while I stay home with a sleeping baby.

{the beginning of my garden with help from daddy man}

I gotta get back to blogging on a regular/weekly basis because I really don't like "dumping" memories in one post because I'm sure there are things I'm leaving out. I'm sure the next three, actually more like four months, will be full of things I don't want to forget. There are weddings!, birthdays, vacations, museum trips, and lots of outdoor activities we've scheduled. It's going to be busy!