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Maddox loves helping me in the kitchen. Whenever I go in to cook he says “help”, and “up” (because he wants up on the counter). I’ve been NOT buying a learning tower or similar kid platform product. People say its totally amazing and I should get one, but I just can’t get over the idea of a big ladder type furniture thing living in my kitchen 24/7. Enough of the house has already been taken over by kid products, not my kitchen too!

I usually just plop him on the counter and we get to cookin’. For apple pie makin’, we brought in his little blue table.  It worked out pretty well and he stayed a bit cleaner.

In this photo he is taking the stickers off the apples.  It bothers me that some apples have stickers – even these organic ones.  Yuck to stickers on fruit.

Honestly Maddox made a great deal of the pie himself (with much guidance).  He is getting better at measuring (scooping), not spilling wet ingredients, not eating too much of the ingredients as they go in the bowl, stirring, and opening packages. To prepare the apples we have a handy gadget that peels, cores, and slices all by cranking a handle – so Maddox is able to help with this step too.

For a year now, I’ve had a ‘Stash of Stashes’ in our side table drawer. They were from The Pretty Little Things Club. The other day Maddox pulled them out and decided it was time to for the family to wear moustaches. We were instantly on board – who doesn’t love an impromptu moustache party??

Next time Lily will have to get in on the moustache action! Because she was only a 2 weeks old, we decided to let it slide this time.

A quick post to show off some photos from today.  Lily is now 6 weeks old and growing fast! Her chipmunk cheeks are starting to come in, along with some leg-roll buds. She is smiling now, which totally warms my heart. I’m thrilled to have my little baby here at last.

1 month check-up stats (taken at 5 weeks):
Weight: 10lbs 7oz 85%
Length: 22.5in 90%
Head Circumference: 37cm 50%

Lily is becoming more alert and interactive by the day. Its crazy how fast she changes. This time (presumably because of toddler distractions), baby’s growth and development seem accelerated. I’m afraid if I sleep or blink that I will miss a precious moment that I can’t ever get back. For this reason I stay up way too long in the middle of the night just admiring her and wondering who she will become. It really is amazing all over again! It absolutely blows my mind that I made this little life inside of me. I feel so blessed to have such a beautiful, healthy, and loving little family.

She ranges from 1 week to 1 1/2 weeks old in these photos. Enjoy!

Treat season is upon us!

These have fewer calories than the original, and are twice as sweet!

I know its not even Halloween yet, but I’m starting to keep my eye out for thoughtful Christmas gifts. This caught my eye as a nice gift for a knitter (with a baby).

It is a kit for making a striped baby blanket. The hardest part about ordering yarn or fabric online is matching colors.  Purl Soho took the guess work out of it and even selected multiple palettes to choose from. Deets here.

September 25, 2010

2:56 pm

8 lbs

My due date for this 2nd pregnancy came and went without much fan fare. I am now more than a week over due, which I’m strangely okay with. I was a bit in a hurry around my due date, but now I’ve settled back into a routine of just being pregnant.  (Of course this means I will be totally caught off guard when I have to run to the hospital.) If she needs more time to brew, then so be it. I don’t even have an induction date scheduled at this point.

A few months back I remembered that Maddox was born on the Harvest Moon (September’s Full Moon), so I looked up when this September’s full moon was thinking this second baby might have the same sort of lunar pull. When I saw that it was so far past my due date I immediately discounted that as an option. It never occurred to me that she would actually be this late! Now that today is the full moon, the Harvest Moon, it just seems too poetic not to hope that she makes her debut tonight.

“Babies born whenever a full moon occurs are said to live an extended and fruitful life. This is due to the full force of the moon’s brimming over with magical elements.”

Also instead of another Virgo, it looks like we are fully into Libra territory.

The theme for Maddox’s 2nd Birthday Party was generally monkey, banana, yellow. As with many parties, the crafting before hand is the most fun part. I love the idea of little party goers having some prize or special gift to take home with them to remember the day. For two year olds, crayons and coloring seemed the best idea.

I made monkey shaped crayons and each kid was given 2 different colors wrapped in a little celo bag with yellow Japanese paper tape. For the crayons I melted down Crayola brand crayons (I heard other brands are no good for this sort of thing), and used a Monkey shaped plastic chocolate mold. I knew I wanted to make shaped crayons for about a year now so I’ve been scouring Craigslist and hounding parents for their used crayons.  This search method was a big fail. Back to school time at Target was the real key. I found Crayola 24 count boxed crayons for 25¢ each.  What a deal.  So to keep things easy I bought 24 boxes.  Then I sorted them all by color into each of the 24 boxes.

Maddox helped me to peel the paper off the crayons and break them into small pieces (his favorite part). Strangely, he hasn’t taken it upon himself to break up all of his crayons since this project. We did lose a few in the early days, but he knows the difference now between craft project and coloring.

I melted the crayon pieces in baby food jars partially submerged in a pot of boiling water, then poured the melted wax into the molds and popped them in the freezer. The only cracking problems I had were when I used pieces from the “found” Crayola crayons. So my advice is to stick with brand new crayons and don’t mix.

The coloring books I made using a lightweight yellow card stock. Using our printer, I added the image of the Monkey from a quick internet search for Monkey Coloring Pages or something like that. The inside paper I cut to size, then sewed together with the cover using my sewing machine. (I didn’t want the little kids to have access to staples, and the sewing worked really well.) I then rounded the corners of all the pages and the covers and smacked on a strip of brown book binding tape. Voila! Toss in some monkey stickers and cup shaped like a monkey head and you’ve got yourself a little monkey party loot!

I’m so excited that I actually finished the baby’s quilt before she arrived!  I think it turned out pretty well too.  The back fabric is a tad billowy, so next time I might pre-wash the quilt front before sewing on the back. All in all, not bad for my first real go at a quilt!

For the back I used a super soft light brown Minky. It is nice to the touch and the bumps keep it interesting.