February Projects

It's the last day of the month so I'd like to share my February projects with you!

1. Shopping Cart Cover

I've been wanting to make one of these for a long time but decided I couldn't wait any longer when I caught Nathan sucking on the front of the grocery cart. Gross! I have a much more complicated pattern, but I found this simple cover online and decided to try it out. It doesn't fit all shopping carts perfectly, but it was SO easy to make!

(Not a great picture of Nathan, but for once, I wasn't taking a picture of him)

2. Living Room Curtains

My living room windows have been needing some color for a while so I added a splash of red. My mom found this red panel at Ross for a dollar (Go, Mom!) so I did some adjusting (cut the top off and added ribbon ties at the top) and made this curtain to hang in between my boring white panels. It's not perfect, but it was easy, and I love it!

3. Couch pillows

At some point I am going to recover our yucky little love seat, but in the mean time, I started by making a few little pillows. Again, I'm all about using leftover fabric, so these pillows are made out of an old tablecloth that had a few holes in it. And leftover ribbon from the curtains. You might be able to tell that I still need to stitch up the sides where I stuffed them.

I didn't finish a few little projects I had planned for this month (what was I thinking: lots of projects in a short month?) but I got some great things accomplished!

I'm so excited for March!

Not Right Now

Heather's sick.

Nathan's teething.

Ryan's got A LOT of studying to do.

We'll blog later.

Baby Signs

For a while now I have been wanting to teach Nathan a few signs to help us communicate better. I want him to be able to express himself and to minimize frustration as his language skills continue (begin) to develop. I don't want to go overboard. I don't want sign language to take the place of vocalization. But some words are just hard to figure out so I want to give him another option. I've chosen a few basic words to teach him and I have decided to do this by focusing on one word a week. I will repeat the sign every time I say that word. We only started this week. Right now he just laughs at me every time I make the sign for "hungry" (we talk about food a lot). I'm hoping that, eventually, Nathan is able to communicate his feelings to us through both signs and words.

Have any of you tried this with your kids? What have your experiences been? Any good books out there? Let me know!

A Valentine's Weekend

We had such a fun-filled weekend! My mom and sister, Leslie, came down from Washington to stay for a few days.

On Friday night, I hosted a Nickel Auction for our Ladies Night Out. We had a lot of fun! I sold a few things and bought a few new things too. I want to have another one some time with more people but I'm glad we got to do it while Mom was in town.

On Saturday, Ryan and I went out to lunch and he surprised me with a beautiful pot of tulips, which I will most likely kill. After lunch we walked around Kohls and did a little window shopping. We tried not to spend all our time looking and clothes for Nathan ("Let's just pretend we don't have a baby right now") but that didn't work. Either way, we were grateful to have free babysitters so we could have a date. We know they just come to see Nathan anyway.

On Sunday, we all got to celebrate Valentine's Day together. My Mom always makes holidays so special and fun. She had a little gift for each of us when we woke up that morning. Nathan even got a new book about puppy love. We all shared a yummy candlelight dinner that night and then munched on brownies with fudge, strawberries, and whipped cream. Valentine's Day is about love, and I love food.

What a wonderful weekend! I'm so grateful for all the people who love me!

Now it's time to get ready for St. Patrick's Day!!

P.S. Check out my link to coupons.com! They have some really good coupons! I like their huggies coupons and yoplait.

The video I promised

Nathan standing in crib from Ryan Bartron on Vimeo.

Nathan's Newest Trick

"I can't believe you thought I'd never be able to stand up without your help!"

"How dare you!"

"I sure showed you! Ha!"

Video to follow.

10 Months Old

Nathan is 10 months old today! He's got so much personality and he makes our lives so interesting. Here's 10 fun facts about Nathan:

1. Nathan still loves his binky. Usually when he goes to sleep he has one in his mouth, and one to play with. Often, when I check on him at night I find him fast asleep with a binky clutched in his hand. If he has a binky in his mouth and you hand him another one, he automatically removes the first one and switches. Sometimes he sits and switches the two over and over. Also, he just discovered that his binky will spin like a top on a hard surface so we've been having a lot of fun with that! Can you tell he loves his binky?!

2. Nathan has a ceiling fan in his bedroom and for the last month or so, it has been on a lot because his favorite thing to do is to watch it go around and around. I always turn it on for naps and when he goes to bed at night, then when he is asleep I sneak in and turn it off and cover him with lots of blankies!

3. Nathan loves trying new foods. He loves graham crackers and his "puffies". I think he's got quite a sweet tooth. With me and Ryan as parents, how can he not?!

4. Nathan loves to talk. He is kind of quiet in public, but once he gets going, he won't stop. Again, sounds a lot like me and Ryan! We love to hear him jabber. Lately, he has also developed a really funny "fake" laugh. Sometimes I'm sure he's just mocking me.

5. Nathan loves to dance and sing. He loves music! I'm so glad!

6. Nathan thinks he knows how to play Wii. We recently purchased a Wii and Nathan loves to hold a "remote" and wave it at the TV. That's what Mom and Dad do!

7. Nathan is so close to crawling that I am afraid to turn my head because I'm afraid I'll miss it! He gets up on his hands and knees and he'll go a few inches, then he gives up. Still, he gets around pretty fast doing his army crawl.

8. Nathan still has no teeth. I'm not complaining. If he wants to wait until he is weaned to get teeth, I'm just fine with that!

9. Nathan loves cars. Now that the weather is getting a little nicer, we like to go outside and watch the cars drive by. He loves to wave his arms at the cars as they drive past. He got some toy cars for Christmas and we taught him to make car noises, but now anything that he can push around makes a "brrrm brrm" sound.

10. Nathan likes to wave to people. Especially his Daddy when he comes home each day. Sometimes his wave is small and polite, sometimes it is big and wild (sometimes both hands), and sometimes he just shakes his fist.

I'm sure I could come up with a million more things about this little man that we love! He really truly is an amazing boy. He is so good and sweet and funny and wonderful!! We are looking forward to celebrating his birthday with lots of family in just a few short months!

I had a really hard time getting him to sit still for pictures!