CREDITS:

Digital scrap items in the header, layouts and sidebar are by Miss Mint at PeppermintCreative.com or Jen Wilson at JenWilsonDesigns.com

Thursday, January 17, 2008

May Cause Drowsiness

Those are the best three words a mother with a sick child can hear. It's printed on the side of Aiden's decongestant perscription that I have been giving him for this runny nose that hasn't quit, even after a week and a half. I woke him up from his nap a little early so I could go to the mom's brunch. Bad call, he was squirmy and fussy the whole time. He's now home, sloshed out on medicine (which, thankfully, did cause drowsiness) and dead-to-the-world asleep. Ahhhhh, now I can think straight and get something done!

Scrapped this one last night. I liked how the picture is almost a black & white so I scrapped everything else in monotone to let the photo really stand out.



"This": Aiden's first word may have been "outside" but it has been replaced with a new favorite word. This. EVERYTHING is "this". Or more like "diss". It's cute but it's all he'll say. Well, that and "Dada?" about once an hour. The only good thing about "this" is that I can now haul him in to the pantry and show him different snack options, to which he will enthusiastically say "THIS!" with lots of "sss" whenever I present the correct food item that he is craving. Lately that has been Ritz crackers or applesauce. Otherwise, all I hear is "this" and "Aye-da", which has replaced the cuter pronunciation of "Aye-dee". Brian and I made a huge deal about adding the "N" on the end of Aiden and now he pronounces his name without the N. Still, it really is neat to hear him trying to talk. I'm sure it will continue to be cute until he learns the word "no".

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

First Word

After I got all my hybrids photographed and over to Miss Mint, I decided to go back and scrap some of the things that will need to be among the first pages in Aiden's album. Here is the layout I did of my pregnancy:



I used to tell Brian that I was so pregnant it looked fake. Honestly, I had the perfect beach-ball-under-the-shirt belly. I really had fun doing this layout in bright colors, including PINK! (It's me in the pictures any ways......) Now I have to go upload this in the gallery and credit everything, which is going to take forever since I used about 17 different product sets!

Yestderday I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some dry adhesive to help my hybrid projects go faster. I can't believe I ever got through life without glue dots!!! I bought the E-Z dot dispenser, which is the greatest thing ever, and a roll of mini glue dots that you peel & stick. I love them. I may never use a glue stick again! Embellishing my projects is going to be really easy from now on.


Guess What Grandma: Aiden said his first real word. (I'm only counting it if he says it on his own and seems to understand the meaning behind it.) Early this morning Aiden woke up crying and I went in to change his diaper. While on the changing table he grabbed the closed blinds, pulled them back and peered outside. He often does this and I was just happy he was holding still for the moment. Then he said "Uht-side". I froze. "That's right, Aiden! Outside!" Had it not been three-something in the morning I probably would have gotten a lot more excited but Brian was asleep and I wanted everyone to be back in bed with as little fuss as possible. But there you have it. Aiden's very first REAL word that he communicated spontaneously on his own. I should have guessed his first word would be "outside".

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

For Brian

Blog posts are no fun for me unless there is something scrapped that I can post along with it! I pulled myself away from scrapping MORE hybrids to finish up this page:



Brian is a super dad. With super muscles - I can't hold Aiden for very long with all of his squirming but Bri can go for hours! Aiden really loves you, babe. It's heart warming to see him squeel and bounce when you get home, anticipating the play time he knows is coming.

Right now Aiden is asleep but when he wakes up we're going to run our errands. I can't WAIT to have everything completed this afternoon! I'll post pictures as soon as we're allowed to. ;)

Monday, January 14, 2008

Are YOU a Victim of Expectations?

We all have those days where the expectations of the world get to be too much. (You know, a sparkling clean house, days spent teaching our children to read while completing beautiful crafts, cooking gourmet meals in our tightest pair of jeans with our hair flowing soflty and jewelry glittering when our dear husbands get home to kiss us and the faces of his flawlessly clean children before he goes off to enjoy a relaxing evening in front of the TV with some of the homemade cookies you just baked while you go work out for three hours.) Yeah, right. Check one or two of those off your list every day and then do something more fun!

I actually finished the cleaning a bit early this afternoon so I indulged and gave myself a facial. Not just a little scrub, I mean a six-step facial. My skin feels great and it was so nice to have some pampering time. (I just let Aiden crawl around and empty the contents of whatever drawers he could manage to open. *SIGH* Boys....) I guess it was on my walk this morning that I realized my to-do list of house cleaning, exercise, scrapping and everything else could be put on hold. I got some of it done, but I really had more fun just playing with Aiden and reading to him this afternoon. Much more productive in the long run than trying to do my hair perfectly and squeezing into something Brian might like so I could get it splattered with the baby food carrots Aiden had so much fun spitting on me.

Let's not be victims of expectations. Instead, let's be the trendsetters of new expectations: Experiences, not appearances, are what really matter. I will forever remember that today was the first day Aiden sat still and let me read him a whole book. Then reached over AND GOT ANOTHER! I'll forget I spent the morning cleaning, I won't remember what was on my to-do list for today and I can promise I won't recall what I was wearing. The only thing worth recalling is that my busy-body little boy finally wanted me to read to him.

Monday: Housecleaning

Of all my personality traits, I find my need for schedules and my tendency for a slight amount of messiness don't really go together for anyone but me! I'm a to-do list fanatic and really do work best when I have a set project to accomplish for the day. Lately I have finally felt like I am getting in the swing of things and have a pretty set daily schedule. I know a lot of my friends will call me on Fridays to ask what I am doing and then answer themselves "Nevermind! It's Friday, you're grocery shopping!" I really do like my grocery shopping day. I think Aiden does, too. He's always so happy to be pushed around the brightly colored aisles.

Another scheduled day that has emerged is my monday housecleaning day. This was more out of necessity than anything, since we tend to relax and not stress about much more than the kitchen on weekends. By monday the house is ready for a fresh dusting and some windex. (Thanks to Major and all the tile, EVERY day is vacuuming day...) Funny thing is, I am really beginning to like my cleaning day! It's to the point I sometimes cringe as I get my pans out to cook dinner on my freshly scrubbed and gleaming stovetop. I am such a MESS when I cook. I honestly try but I can't help it. I slosh, spill or boil over something just about every evening. This is part of the reason why the kitchen gets a second scrub-down on Thursdays.

Now you guys know me and it's not all work and no play over here. (Believe me, Brian thinks it's quite the opposite!) After my monday housecleaning day, Tuesday and Wednesday are fun, get-out-of-the-house days. I run any errands I need, take Aiden to the park, go hang out with friends, have playdates, go to the mall or Hobby Lobby....and just enjoy the best things about being a stay at home mom. And I know I'm not the only mom that will tell you that oddly, it makes me really, really happy to take care of my family. (Even if I was up at 3:45 with the baby, have already wiped a runny nose who knows how many times this morning and had pears spit all over me at breakfast! LOL!)

PC Stuff: I feel like my blog entries are so boring without something pretty to look at! For now I have been working on a couple new hybrids and I REALLY wish I could show you some pictures. Those will come soon. For now I am really looking forward to the new kits & paper packs. I LOOOOOOOVE Valentines day!!!