little lovelies handmade

My mom's big birthday surprise was an overnight jaunt to Disneyland. We went with my aunts and had a fun kid-free time, though everyone else said it is much more fun going to Disneyland with Monkey and Peanut in tow. As their mother I had to heartily disagree. It was quite wonderful to be kid free for the day. We stayed at the Grand Californian where they upgraded us to a suite for free; gotta love the off season. January sure is the time to go. We walked onto every ride we went on and managed to do 13 rides and have all our meals at sit down places, which I truly think is a Disney miracle.

Now I am home and back to the grindstone. Blah blah blah. I have to get ready to update Glitter and Grunge this week and I have nothing to offer yet. I need to start recruiting artists and crafters for Handmade Parade, which will launch a website similar to Glitter and Grunge in March. I need to go through pillowcase challenge entires (which are great! There is still tons of time to enter. Entries are due feb 15) and email them off to our judges to look at. I need to look into more pre-schools for the kids in case our first choice doesn't pan out. I have too much to do and between pregnancy tiredness and dreary weather I have no desire to do any of it. Blech. I just want to lay in bed under a blanket and read.

capitol shoes

so, when did typing without capitol letters become the thing to do? when i first started blogging i noticed that a few people did that, or at least never capitalized "i" when speaking of themselves. it was kind of cute in a mildly self deprecating sort of way. but i have noticed the number of bloggers who are not using capitol letters seems to be increasing and for some reason now it bothers me (except with those first few pioneers). dude. your english teachers are rolling in their graves. capitalize your letters, man.

I can't keep that up. It was surprisingly hard to remember not to capitalize. Maybe I should respect those lowercase folks for their tenacity at teaching themselves how to forget a valuable typing skill. I wonder if they forget that they are not blogging and accidentally turn in a document for work or thesis paper in all lowercase letters.

Another bloggy trend I have noticed and have yet to jump on the bandwagon with are the never ending pictures of people's shoes. Are you all just trying to rub it into my face that you have cuter shoes than me? Ok, I get it. You win. Your shoes are cuter. I never get the urge to take pictures of my shoes unless I am with Lauren. Actually, I only get the urge to take pictures of her shoes, because they really are cuter than mine. Always. Every time I see her I want to steal her shoes. Lucky for her she is a dainty size seven (or something tiny like that) and not a size nine gunboat like I am. I would certainly steal her shoes in that case. Lauren, if by some freak of nature you do happen to be a nine, don't tell me, because I will knock you down and steal all your shoes.

This weekend is my moms birthday (the celebration). It's a big one five-oh. And do we have some plans for her. I'd let you all in on the secret, but there is a slight chance she may read this before the big reveal and we can't have that. I have miraculously kept this secret for a whole month (seriously, that is a big deal) and I ain't gonna blow it now.  She may actually pee her pants when she finds out, though. I'll have to remember to pack her an extra pair of pants...

Anyone else tired of the writer's strike?

I am, I am! I know that it is for a good reason and means millions to those picketing, but if I have to watch one more reality show or re-run....thankfully reruns of The Office never grow old, but lets not test that theory, hmm? Maybe we should get a life and not watch so much tv, but where is the fun in that?

If you can't tell already my whining about various things will will grow exponentially as I do in the next few months. Yippee that I have so much to complain about, no? I try not to complain about politics or religion on my blog, but you never know what madness the hormones will bring out that day. Should be interesting at the very least... I am kind of loving the war between Hill and my pal B.O. or rather I am really enjoying the pundits take on said war, but who isn't? Poor John Edwards. Nothin' worse than being a third wheel. I was kind of rooting for him and his hair. Can you imagine if Edwards and Romney were the candidates? that would be one pretty pretty race. In the hair department anyway.

Ok. I totally didn't sit down to blog about how great presidential hair could be. I was going to tell you about the great weekend in the snow (it was great) and that we have little bean's first picture. It was really fun going to the appointment with the kids. My mom recently re-entered the work force after 30 years and so we lost our daytime babysitter as a result. We thought the kids would be a disaster in the doctors office, but they were great and were so excited to see their little "jellybean" on the unltrasound.

Monkey was even able to recognise the beating heart (it was still a tad abstract for Peanut to understand) and he made sure our friends saw the pictures when we arrived at the cabin Friday night. Proud brother already! Oh and both kids are convinced the Bean is a girl, even though Monkey says he wants a brother (he does know the difference. He just says he would like to have abrother, but the baby is a girl). We'll see. If he;s right maybe I'll start charging for baby predictions. Any takers?

(I know this is blurry, but just look at that happy little face! He was in heaven playing in the snow!)

Mother Joys

Yesterday Lauren and her daughter came over to play and have lunch. She also brought her button maker so we had fun sorting through her fabric stash and making fabric covered buttons. The kids had fun antagonizing each other, which resulted in us playing referee a tad more than we planned. Monkey can be a real stinker when he wants to be. A couple of times I noticed him pretend burping or some other stupid boy trick and he would just giggle when Piper would scream or tell him he was gross. She should feel like family, he treats his sister the same way. Hopefully we'll be able to have another playdate, but we'll work on the Monkey Manners before next time.

The new thing for my kids to do right now is to fight over who gets to sit on Mommy's lap, and sharing just isn't an option. They fight while actually on my lap, which really isn't as fun as it may seem. Little do they know that in a few months there won't be any lap to fight over.  I'm sure they'll still try and as a result of being in such close proximity to the fisticuffs, Bean will come out punching.

I can't shower in peace. As soon as they hear the spray turn on in the shower I am inundated with requests to shower with me. Heck no dudes! Unfortunately we are a one bathroom abode, so I have to leave the door open so that Monkey can use the bathroom if he needs to. This leads to continual opening of the shower curtain "Just to say hi".

Thankfully they are as cute as they are infuriating. It keeps us all alive, doesn't it?

See I have been crafting. I probably should have cleaned up a little and ironed the little bag, but you know, 'I didn't feel like it' is sort of becoming my mantra around here. I am being good, though and purging my craft room because I'm going to loose it. We have figured out a place for everything except my sewing machine, but I also have a few ideas, I just don't know if there will be room for them. Tomorrow we have another ultrasound because last time Bean was too small to get a heartbeat. I won't have time to post an alien baby picture until Monday because we are going to the snow tomorrow, which is big news here.

Monkey has been listing off all the people he is going to throw snowballs at, something that Peanut is completely flabbergasted about. Every time he says he is going to throw one at her she scrunches up her face and looks insulted, then looks to me like "mom! Defend me!" But of course I am saying how fun it will be to get to throw snowballs at our friends, which confuses her further.

I am pretty sure Monkey is going to love the snow in a major way and that Peanut will last two and half seconds. We'll see, though. Hope it meets their expectations; we have been talking about this trip for a whole week.

Beautiful Movies

Some bloggy friends of mine have been participating in a Beautiful movies week and since I like to buck the trend, while still being a follower, I am going to add my picks, but all in one post. I don't have the patience or the stamina to post everyday for a week about it. Remember the ABC's of Me? Guess "Me" only goes to "I" cuz I lost steam after that. The bag was a Christmas gift Aaron's mom made for me. I keep meaning to show it off and keep forgetting, so I figured now was as good a time as any. She hand stitched all the embroidery details herself - so cool!

In no particular order, here goes:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Big Fish
Stealing Beauty
Lars and the Real Girl
Happy Accidents
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Room With A View
Edward Scissorhands
Newsies (ok, so that one is actually 15-year-old-girl-in-1992 beautiful, but whatever, it has Christian Bale singing and dancing. What's not to love? )

See? There is a reward to finishing my lame posts. You get to see what poor taste in movies I really have!

Guess Who Came to Dinner?

Barack Obama. That's right friends, Barack Obama rang our doorbell to try to get these two republicans to vote for him so we invited him in for dinner and a movie. We chatted it up with ol' B.O. over dinner and then sat down to watch Northanger Abbey. After the movie was over we chatted it up with B.O. till bedtime, when it became clear that he was one of those "overstay your welcome" types. You know, the ones who stay another two hours even though you said, "wow! It's 10 already?" five times. We even changed into our pajamas, and then he finally went out to his car, only to return a few minutes later in his pajamas with a box of See's candy and a vintage suitcase.

It was about then that I woke up, so I'm not sure if our new friend moved in with us or not. Frankly, things were getting a little awkward. I told Aaron about it when I woke up and said it must be sign that we should become turncoats and vote for him. He wasn't quite on board with that idea. I think maybe I have a subliminal crash on him. When I was pregnant with Lily I had extremely vivid dreams that seemed to follow a freaky storyline. So perhaps this is a one time deal fueled by the fact that while I was at Lauren's last night someone from Yolo County Democrats came by with an Obama '08 fact sheet, and that the first Jane Austen movie was on tv.

Don't worry Faith and Faith. It's unlikely that I will go blue. But maybe we should be glad that the elections are in November, well after the pregnancy hormones have died down...

ps I promise that we will go back to regular crafty posting and not mention anymore pregnancy related meltdowns or dreams. Unless it is really ridiculous and must be shared. Maybe I will actually post something of crafty interest.

She's Hormonal

So at 5:00 this morning I woke up to two unpleasant sensations. First was ice cold two year old feet on my back. Second was the ever present hunger/nausea associated with making Little Bean. I tried really hard to ignore both, but soon Peanut began trying to stick her little feet down the back of my pants to warm them up. Ever since we put her in a toddler bed she has been migrating to our bed between 5:30 and 7 each morning. I have never regretted moving a child from their crib so much.

The weird putting her feet in the back of my pants to warm them up thing is a new trick of hers. She has been doing it for a few days, and really, I would have thought she'd stop by now since she gets in trouble every time she does it. But, no. She's gonna push this one on me for awhile. Bully for me. Why don't they ever do things like this to Aaron?

It was clear there would be no more sleeping for me this morning, so we got up and had some mini bagels with cream cheese. A half an hour later I was still sick, so I had half a pineapple (it was tiny. though I have been known to eat half a large pineapple...). A half an hour after that I still felt sick, so I had to get up and make the breakfast that I should have in the first place - one with nausea halting protein. Duh. So now I have eaten my egg and lo and behold I finally feel normal.

Oh and to further prove that I am a hormonal freak, I was reading this blog which mentioned this special. Since my local PBS station rarely has the really good programming I checked, prepared to be disappointed. However, I was thrilled to find that they will be playing all six days of it. I was so thrilled, in fact, that I cried.

And yesterday I was so irritated with Aaron for something so inconsequential that I won't repeat it here and I didn't talk to him all day. Oh yeah, the irrational meter is at its highest. Thanks goodness he found it more funny and cute than irritating.

Yes, folks. This is gonna be a peachy nine months.

Handmade Parade Vintage Pillowcase Challenge

Handmade Parade is hosting its first ever Vintage Pillowcase Challenge! Vintage pillowcases are just the right size to make a myriad of things. We see purses, toddler dresses, and shirts made from vintage pillowcases, but what else could be made from them? We can't wait to find out!

If you would like to participate, the contest runs from January 15th to February 15th. Just send a picture of your creation(s) to handmade_parade@yahoo.com and a panel of judges will take a look at your entry. The winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to Reprodept, Superbuzzy or Sew, Mama, Sew! Hop on over to the Handmade Parade site to see the complete details.

If you would like to participate or just spread the word for us (we'd appreciate that!) Missy made some great blog buttons for us. Feel free to grab one!

Rainy Days and Growing Pains

Yesterday was delightfully sunny, a nice change after several days of windy, rainy madness. I guess the reprieve was short lived, because today has been gray and overcast. It is not your normal overcast sky, it's a sky full of steel gray storm clouds, just waiting to let loose. Last week the rains would come in spurts. The clouds would roll in filled to the brim. As soon as it rained it really did seem as if they had lightened their load and were relived that the 70 mph winds whisked them away. I actually don't mind the wet weather. It is a good excuse to stay in our jammies and cuddle on the couch.

Last night was a Sac Craft Mafia meeting, which was fun. We are experiencing some growing pains, the kind that come from the lovely problem of getting too big too fast. It will be interesting to see how the year plays out. It was super great to see friends I hadn't seen since before the holidays and to meet new ones. It makes the 7th at 7 a night to look forward to.

I think Little Bean and I are having our own growing pains. Today was the first day I felt some morning sickness. Basically if I get hungry, rather than feeling the normal hungry stomach, I feel nauseous. I'm not a first thing in the morning eater, but waking up sick to your stomach will change that habit fast. It can make it hard to not gain a billion pounds over the course of nine months, when munching all day long keeps you from wanting to hurl.

On a much less disgusting note, we told the kids the other day that we were going to have a new baby and it was growing in mommy's tummy. Since my brother and his wife and three of our closest friends are all well into their pregnancies they understood the concept (very loosely). This morning during breakfast both kids declared they too had babies in their tummies. Monkey's is a boy named "Mac" and Peanut's is named "1,2,3,4". And now pulling up mu shirt to say "Hello! What's your name?" is a regular practice. I need to train them to talk through the shirt. My tummy is not willing to be shared with the world, or even the greater Sacramento area.