Odds and Ends

Six years!  It only took me six years to complete a craft project!

Back when Heather was pregnant with my nephew, I was so excited at the prospect of becoming an Aunt; and I wanted to make something for baby Lance.  So, I bought all of the supplies to make him a quiet book.

Before I knew it...  two years had passed and the quiet book was not finished.  I was pregnant with Reagan, and changed my game plan.  I decided that the book would now be for baby Reagan.

Four years from that point in time, the book was finally finished.

And the only reason it is, is because my friend, Stephanie, invited me to take part in a quiet book group she was doing.

The idea was that everyone would make several copies of a single page for the quiet book, and then we'd exchange our pages; the end result would be a quiet book.

When I got the email there were 8 other addressee's.  I thought, "I can handle making 8 pages".  When the finally tally came in 21 people had signed up for the book!

Yowza!

I muddled through and finished 21 pages.

No one that contributed to the book reads my blog, so that I can say this.  Some of the pages were total crap.  Near the end people were trying to get out of their commitment.  And it was obvious that a half-hearted job was put in to some of the other pages.  But, on the flip-side.  Some of the pages were very well put together, and so creative.  I guess it all comes out in the wash, right?!

I took the 21 pages I acquired, and made them in to two books.  I finished my never-ending quiet book project.  And now I have 3 books.
Even though they all turned out well  I'll never do it again. 

The book with the barn is the one I did completely by myself.
The ocean page in the middle, is the one I made for the quiet book project.

It took nearly a year, but Reagan is finally 100% potty trained.  She even gets herself up in the middle of the night if she needs to go.  I never thought I'd see the day.

I just need to remember that with Reagan I need to do everything "cold turkey".  This method always works best with her.  I took away the bottle, and her pacifiers; and never let her have them again- and it worked.  The slow-weaning of baby things will never work for Reagan.  I had let her wear a pull-up to bed for far too long.  I was really lazy, and hated the thought of having to change her sheets on a daily basis.  Turns out it only took a few accidents for Reagan to realize that she wanted to make it to the bathroom all of the time.

Reagan found her Easter dress, and put it on all by herself, the other day.  Her hair had been done earlier in the day, I don't know what happened?  She's completely given up naptime, so on this particular occasion I let her make rolls with me, while the other two were sleeping.  She obviously, had a good time! 

I think Elsa and Cohen are going to be good friends.  Elsa is innately more maternal than Reagan.  She loves her baby dolls, and her baby brother.  She is always trying to climb in the crib with him.  And when I let her she plays with him, and shares a binky with him. 

My darling girl is such a joy!  And hilarious too.  She has her Daddy's sense of humor.

She spends the better part of the day singing, and dancing around the house.  I wish I would have had a video camera handy the other day.  She saw a commercial for P90X, and she was imitating the workout she saw on the TV.  What a crackup!

She likes to go outside and ride her bike.

Where did this little girl, with the blonde hair and blue eyes come from?  I don't know where she got her looks from, but we'll keep her!

And then there's my little boy.  I can hardly believe he will be 6 months old next week!

Too bad he is still sleeping like a newborn.  The kid seems to be hungry all of the time.  This includes during the night too.  He isn't a fussy baby.  But twice a night feedings are getting really old.  He's taking baby food now.  In fact, he loves it!  He can't slurp up his pureed squash fast enough. 

And he's bottle-fed.  I would think this would be the perfect equation for a baby to sleep through the night?!  Not so.  It won't be forever. 

I repeat this to myself on a regular basis.  And I am also lucky enough to have a husband that helps out in the middle of the night.  So I know we will all survive this.

One thing I do love about my house are the lilac trees in my backyard.  Lilac's remind me of my Grandma Imlay.  Growing up, she had lilac trees in her yard.

My lilacs are blooming early this year.  I wish they didn't have such a short life span.

I went out to take the picture of the lilacs and I discovered my old iPhone on the back porch.  I'd imagine it has been out there for at least the past two nights.  Fortunately, being out in the elements didn't destroy it.  I think Reagan must have left it out there.

Nick and I got new iPhone's a while ago, and I've let Reagan play with my old one.

Here is Reagan smiling and telling me that my iPhone is OK. 

Lucky for her...