Right Now...

Little Man's getting some tummy time on his sister's bed... He's got some really strong neck muscles~ he's lifting his head up all the time, just not right now...

Ahh... there he goes...
The sister's busy cooking something up in the play kitchen...
And, just as a warning to other parents, this is what happens to a 3 year old's room when you haven't been in to help her clean it up the entire 1st month of your newborn's life:
The camera doesn't even capture all of it... I have my work cut out for me.

I won't include a picture of myself right now: the clock says its 11am and I'm not showered, dressed, brushed my hair or teeth, or even finished my first cup of coffee. I *might* dress and brush my teeth before friends come to visit this afternoon. Maybe. But the shower? Maybe tonight... if I'm lucky.

One Month Old Today

Time sure is flying. Liam is already one month old. On the one hand, it feels like he was born yesterday... on the other hand, hasn't he been part of our family forever?

Liam's starting to settle in more and more... he certainly recognizes his sister's voice... he perks right up when he hears her nearby. His favorite place to be is in the sling right against mama's heart, so that's where he is much of the time. That's where he is now. He sleeps like a newborn... which of course means we don't much at all. He has the cutest little smile which, I swear, is intended at least part of the time. And he also has this amazing sad little pout, with bottom lip quivering, that I know he'll use to his advantage as he gets older ;) We're overcoming a bout with thrush which, as any breastfeeding mama who's had it before knows, has been quite painful for me. Luckily we seem to be on the mend. From the very beginning Liam's also had very noisy/raspy/wheezy breathing at times, along with some gagging... this has been quite frightening for us and brought us into the doctors a couple of times. Turns out, its reflux. Rory had this too, but it presented quite differently. He's on medicine now, which seems to be helping some. He's more comfortable and while his breathing is still somewhat loud, its gotten better. We were at the doctors a week ago for the thrush and he weighed 10lbs 7oz!!! The reflux has not affected his appetite!!

Yesterday, we had an early taste of spring, so we headed out for a short walk together as a family. It ended up being a very short walk, as there was quite a bit of wind, but it was wonderful to be out all together.

Pastels-- a messy adventure

WIP Wednesday...Folksy Flannels Frenzy

We're joining in on the fun....

Anna Maria Horner's Folksy Flannels collection arrived on our doorstep earlier this week, and Aurora and I are in love. This is some seriously beautiful fabric... and so, so soft!
These bundles are destined to be quilts for Aurora and Liam... with Aurora designing her own. I plan to give her the precut squares and let her decide their placement... we are both excited for this new adventure into sewing. For Liam's I'll be using the cool colors bundle and, because there's quite a bit of floral motifs, probably be sticking to a fairly modern and simple quilt design... some sort of strip quilt, I think... so it's not too, too feminine.

Aurora let out a loud gasp of awe when I opened up the package and she saw all the beautiful fabric. She asked for her picture to be take with 'her' fabric. Here she is showing it some love...
And, here, she's making sure to keep it warm with her blanket. Fabric must be kept warm, you know...
The fat quarters spent the rest of the day popping up in various play scenarios.... going to the fabric store, doing laundry, repurposed as blankets and slings for her animals, and worn as (in Aurora's words) a kerchief.

As excited as Aurora is about the quilt making, I'm a bit nervous. Either my sewing machine's not very good or I don't know how to use it properly... or, more than likely, a bit of both. But, the fabric is so inspiring, as is Aurora's enthusiasm, that I'm sure that even if it's not perfect it will be just right.

Let's see if I can remember that in a couple weeks when I'm tired, frustrated and cursing at my machine because it won't do what I want it to ;)

Oh, and there's a flickr group with some gorgeous stuff if anybody's got some time to kill (or it's 4:12 am and you're up nursing your baby, as I currently am).

Happy Birthday to my Valentine

Valentine's Day was my Pete's 30th Birthday!!! We didn't do to much this year... we were both too exhausted (as you can tell by our faces in the photo below).... but we did get together with our dear friends the Shorters for a delicious dinner and, of course, cake!

Little Mr. McCutie, Ian, was captivated by Liam. It was too cute.

Happy Birthday, my Sweet, I love you so very much!!!!!

Snow Day!!!

Finally, some more snow has come to Connecticut!!! Despite very cold temps, we haven't had any snow since around the beginning of January... and my little one LOVES the snow. So here's to a very happy snow day!



I stayed inside with the babe, so these pictures were taken through the living room window... not the best, but they'll do.

Most of our snow accumulation forecast is still yet to come... we're hoping for about a foot or so... yay!

Our Candlemas...

Candlemas was February 2nd. We celebrated last night, the 3rd. I'd like to be able to blame our belated celebration on there being a newborn in the house.... but, really, its just that I'm not all that good at getting things done on time.... oh well... Aurora doesn't know the difference, yet.

So, this was our Candlemas: rolling beeswax candles and a candlelit Pancake dinner... simple, but still very fun. We also talked a bit about Spring being on its way, and the return of the sun and why we celebrate those things with candles and pancakes. Aurora understood more of this than I had expected and commented that when Spring came, the bees would come, and we could thank them for our candles.... Oh, my sweet girl, you are always melting my heart :)

Rolling her first candle

Counting the candles... one for each of us, including Liam

Her first candlelit dinner

Our Candlemas table (we ate on our coffee/playtable, because our dinning table's covered with stuff at the moment)

And, for good measure, a picture of the babe this morning. I can.not.believe. he's going to be two weeks old tomorrow!!! His skin seems to be fairer than Aurora's and he's definitely more prone to baby acne and newborn rash... hence the redness in his face. His eyes are lighter, too, so I'm thinking they'll stay blue~ just like Daddy's :) Time will tell...

Braids!

an exciting day, when your hair is long enough to braid!