End of a thumb era?

Since she was small enough to find her thumb, it has been a near permanent fixture in Sof's mouth. It has been enough of a constant, that it's now just part of her persona.

I had sort of hoped the habit would diminish on it's own (wishful thinking, I know), but now that she's getting older it is time to take action! Enter :

We started this morning, so she has the weekend to get used to it, and so far she's trying to tell me it tastes good (hah!!), but the gagging that ensues after she tries to suck her thumb tells me otherwise. 

One Little Word - A Resolution?

Since I was a teenager l I've done New Years Resolutions, and like most people who do them, they're blown within weeks. Clearly, planning on totally recreating myself every January is completely unrealistic.

Then about five years ago I read about Ali Edwards' One Little Word Project, and it actually seems like something I could accomplish. And for the last five years I've had every intention of following through with this concept as a scrapbook project, yet by the second week of January I've completely fallen behind. Last year I used the word Breathe, and though I didn't do any scrapbook project around it, I definitely benefited from it, especially when my darling children are driving me crazy!


I thought about keeping "Breathe" again this year, and actually following through doing some projects with it; but this year I'm really focused on changing my lifestyle, so this year I'm going with the word "Focused".

At least it's easier than a laundry list of resolutions....maybe :)

I just like this picture, Mia walking on her own again two and half months after her last surgery. She's just too darned cute, and she is my inspiration to be focused.

Like an old friend...

...that's what I've become to think of my blog. Someone I rarely talk to, but start right where we left off.

It was our first traditional summer vacation, and I loved every second of it!!  Even with summer school for five weeks, we had plenty of time to relax. I can't say I was thrilled that Matthew had to attend summer school, but it really was the best thing for him. Not only did he bring his grades up, but he got used to the middle school campus, and come the first day of school, he wasn't nervous at all! It did help that his hero, Greg Heffley, is also in middle school; and Matt would get a locker, which apparently was the secret to his academic happiness.

The other huge adjustment has been dealing with a toddler in the house. I can't believe it's been a year since we've moved, and since then we've gone from having a cuddly baby to a runaway toddler!

As of July she's finally walking (actually, running), and I've never been so thrilled to see one of my children start walking! Despite having to overcome some challenges with her BCF, it's actually nice to have a baby start walking when they already understand basic one-step instructions.

In the last few months we've gained another member of the family (more on that later...), and my creative endeavors have turned to cooking! Everyone under my roof shuddered a little bit, but most have been supportive, and I'm please with my success so far.....

Summer is coming!

We successfully survived Mia's last casting, she is such a phenomenally patient toddler! The only thing she couldn't do, which she enjoys, is climbing up on the couch, the casts were just too heavy.

And now she's back on track, crawling as fast as her legs will carry her, and toddling with support.

Plans for the summer are well underway, this will be our first traditional summer break from school, it will be so nice to have a long, relaxing summer! Matt's already signed up for extra academic classes, golf, and tennis; Sofia will be continuing dance lessons, and start Girls Scouts. And they're both signed up for their first scrapbooking class, Matt was polite enough to only give a 3/4 eye roll when he heard that news!

Another one step forward, two steps back

Yesterday was our quarterly visit to Shriners for Mia's feet, and what should have been a 15 minute check-up turned into a four hour ordeal. Her dorsiflexion has been getting worse over her last two visits, and it was time to go back to the casts.

She was a tremendously good sport about the whole visit, considering she missed a nap and her lunch was very late.

She also didn't make a peep during the casting process, but she's always sort of liked it. They're warm and cozy for the first ten minutes or so, and I think she's like that. Things don't go downhill until she realizes she can't move her legs. As of now she has to wear them for at least a week, we'll know more after her visit next week. So far she's only had a few moments of outrage about her casts, she's been fairly easy to distract with the Baby Channel, and my iPad. Pretty soon I'm sure she'll realize how immobile she is, as the casts are about 1/3rd of her body weight, and her outrage will flare again; but I also have no doubt that she will have figured out how to scoot around, despite the added weight, by tomorrow.

Fingers crossed the casts will come off next Monday, and stay off!!

Another busy week

But really, are there any other kind? We've been through kid check-ups (with shots, but no tears!), an out of town funeral, and a trip for Sof to Grandma's for the weekend.

It seems we've been going to funeral after funeral lately, the older two are really getting the hang of a Catholic funeral mass! This time we lost our great aunt Teresa, the last of that generation in my husband's family. We will miss her a great deal.

On the home front, I've been trying to continue work on getting the house "done," which basically has involved painting, hanging things on walls, and generally driving my poor husband nuts! And also working more on getting through my stash of scrapbook kits, with a fair amount of success. I've decided to grab a kit at random, and just work through it until it's used up.

I'm almost done with this kit, there were a few other layouts done with it, and I'll be working on cards this afternoon. And with the weather being gray and dismal, I'm looking forward to having a lot of creativity time this weekend!

My dirty scrappy secret....

...though I love this hobby, in the last year I really haven't had the time I would like to create. Sadly, each purple bag represents a monthly kit, waiting to be used. I guess their only consolation is how pretty they look, waiting to be used.

My very secret stash, my JB stash. Now that my craft room is completely cleared out, and I have a table space to work on, I might be able to work through this stash.

Small Creative Steps

One of the baby's favorite activities is wandering the aisles of Lowe's in the morning. I'm not sure if it's the music that's played, or what, but even in the foulest mood she's happier wandering around their appliances, electrical and construction. In our wanderings I found fabulous outlet/switch covers, and what a great way to spruce things up.

I get so frustrated when this happens, you take a picture of something really cool, and the result doesn't do reality justice! The rising sun last night was enormous, and the boy wanted a picture of himself pointing to it. You'll have to trust me that it was much bigger in person!

Progress!

Time has flown since last summer, we've been working hard to make our a new house a home. This deck was the last bit of the backyard that needed to be done, and it's such a relief to have it finished! Sofia, the ham that she is, loves the stage-like quality of the deck, and is furious that we've since added furniture. 

Happily, we've not only made progress on the home front, but Mia has made wonderful progress with her feet. She's moved into real shoes for a few hours every day, and hopefully she'll be walking soon!

Now I just need to catch up on my crafty projects, things in that regard are incredibly behind!

"Don't use the baby as an ottoman...."  As I was sitting and trying to think about what to post, this is what I hear my 10-year-old say to his 5-year-old sister. It sums up very well what the last six months have been like. A lot of love and a fair amount of chaos.

This seems mundane, a bookfair all boxed up, and ready to go back to Scholastic, but it's the last bookfair I'll be involved in before we move. I'm truly going to miss this, helping to run this for the last few years has been wonderful.

Now my focus is on what we're moving to, it's something I never would have expected, a house this big, it's as close to a "dream house" as we could have wanted. I'm continuing to keep my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly.

In January both me and Matthew celebrate birthdays, and we celebrated at Disneyland once again. This time we included great friends, and our newest addition...as it turns out, Disneyland with a 4-month-old is actually pretty easy!

The view from our room at the Grand Californian, and worth every penny! Being this close to the park during a four day stay, with three kids in tow, is invaluable. Plus the view is awesome!

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving...

On Monday we'll be heading back to Shriner's for removal of Mia's casts, and she's scheduled to be fitted with the brace and boots. Hopefully, all goes well!!

Babies and Photobooth are just a great combination!

It's been a long, long time since I've posted, but here is the reason for my absence...

...Amelia Mary Cathryn, who arrived September 1st via emergency c-section, weighing in at 7 lbs, 10 oz!! So far she is not only beautiful, but the best baby! It's been an adjustment, getting used to being a mom to three, but I'm fortunate enough to have wonderful children.

At our 20 week ultrasound we found out Amelia has bilateral clubfoot, her feet are turned in, and curve around her bottom.

She's been treating successfully with Dr. Lerman at Shriner's Hospital, and we're in the final stretch of casting. In three weeks she'll move from casts to her boots/brace for the next four to five years. It was a daunting proposition when we learned of the treatment plan, and it certainly hasn't been easy, but it hasn't been the horrible experience I expected. I'm so grateful for the family support we've had, without it this would experience would have been overwhelming.

After a few months of feeling really worn down with the first trimester of pregnancy, I finally had the energy to start spring cleaning, my office was first on my attack list!

It's been a shamefully long time since I started creating this kids space in my office, I bought this table at the end of last summer, with the intention of creating a space in here where the kids can play. There's an easel right outside the door we can drag in for painting projects, and enough as been done in two days that there's already paint on the carpet! That's when you know it's been a fun day!

And fortunately I've got a large supply of Play-Doh, because this seems to be Sofie's favorite way to play with it.

Matthew made some gorgeous flowers out of pipe cleaner and some old Heidi Swapp blossoms lingering, I'll post pictures in a few days.

A lot has been happening in the last six months, mostly happy things, but definitely things that needed some time away. Most happily we're expecting our third child, and I'm exactly 20 weeks today! I finally feel like I'm coming out of the first trimester stupor to rejoin the land of the living!

I started the Ali Edwards "A Week in the Life" Challenge last week, but ran into some obstacles in getting the project finished (I'm not sure it would look the same with absolutely no pictures!). It's a great challenge, and I need the kick in the pants to get some scrapping done, so it's going on my calendar for a week in May, just so I can make it a priority. Here are some of the pictures I did manage to capture:

Sofie's first day on the bus. She's ridden it for a week now, and so far has not made it home without falling asleep.

My mom might disagree, but I love this picture; she prefers posed photos, so I'm sure I'll hear about this! Part of the last week was spent visiting with my grandma, and soon she'll be living close by full-time, so we'll be having more of these moments!

This is a terrible photo, but it's late, so it is what it is! I'm just thrilled to have accomplished this much scrapbooking this weekend, considering it's the first real effort in months.

Tomorrow I'm starting a weeklong project, to both make my life in my office happier, but to get a lot of scrapbooking done in the process. I'll be posting a "Before" photo tomorrow, and on Friday I'll hopefully be ready to post the "After"...fingers crossed!

I love this picture of John and his cousins, Lisa and Allison, so much I had to repost it here, and it's definitely now in my pile of pictures I want to scrap.

I think what I love most about this picture is the expression on John's face, and how much Sofia looks like him; this is the same expression she gives me when I catch her doing something naughty!!

We've had a wild, wonderful summer, and now we're back to work! School has started, and it's time to get back to our "normal" schedule. I can't believe Matthew is already a 3rd grader!!

There's less than a month until Sofie is 4 years old!! With the help of my mom, grandma, and "Auntie" Cathie, I've planned what can only be described as a birthday extravaganza! Here's a hint of some of what's been planned :

And today is the first day I've been able to get some scrapping done since June, I'm hoping to finally get back on track.

Since taking two months away from blogging, scrapping, and spending time with my friends, it's time to get back into the swing of normal life. Last January my sweet son was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, and since then it's been a roller coaster learning to deal not only the condition itself, but the cycle of medications and their side effects. Two months ago we hit a wall with his first medication, and since then we've been working to get back to some sense of normalcy.

I just want to extend a huge thanks to my friends, especially Cathie, Diana and Patti, for being so patient with my anti-social behavior, I'm incredibly grateful!!

Happy Tuesday :)