Articles from February 2013

February 28, 2013

Another Cycle Down - TTC Update

I never imagined I would be in this place. Ever.  But, I’m guessing no one does. I've tried so hard to remain positive over the last year, so hard. But, I am totally defeated. Another cycle has come and gone in our TTC journey -- but, not without seeing two pink lines. {Morgan doesn't like me to swear on the blog so insert expletive of your choice here}. Let me say that I took the tests early. Stupidly early because I feel like it is the only part of this whole process that I get to control. I get to pee on that stupid stick whenever I want, and that helps me deal. Anyway, I wasn't expecting much from that first test and after 5 minutes it was negative. Nothing. But a couple minutes later -- the second line showed up. I’m obviously not new to the TTC world, I know it could have been an evaporation line and that the test has to be counted as negative. Except I've seen 20 evap. lines in my time and this line was pink as can be. I thought “I’ll test again
February 27, 2013

Easter Egg Garland

Easter Egg Garland
The other day it occurred to me that Easter is just over a month away. For the first time ever, we are hosting Easter at our house, so I obviously need to pull out the cute and decorate! I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew I had to makes it!  To make you'll need: paint chips, a tiny hole punch, and ribbon.  First, take each paint strip and cut ovals. I used large square samples and cut them using an oval shaped scrap booking tool I have. I was able too get four eggs from each chip. Once you have all the eggs you want cut out, arrange them how you would like them on the garland. I just did this on my kitchen floor -- feel free to judge how dirty that floor is,  maybe that will be my motivation to finally mop! Anyway... Once they are arranged, punch the eggs with the hole punch. I chose a rainbow pattern, but you could do it anyway you like. I wasn't too concerned about the punches being straight since I wanted them to hang a little lopsided,
February 26, 2013

Room Tour: Kids Bedrooms

Room Tour: Kids Bedrooms
Compared to our master bedroom , these two rooms are in their "natural" state. We haven't touched a thing in either of them since moving in. Although, that needs to change soon.  Right now, Henry is in the "nursery" where we hope any future babies will move into. It's the smaller, warmer room. Plus the furniture was assembled inside the room, so to take it apart just to move it next door and assemble it again is a lot more work than I want to do.  But, Henry won't be moving into the new room for a couple months and in the mean time we need to paint the smaller room. Right now, like much of the house, it is only primed. So, all the dirty, sticky, boogery, gross hand prints are not coming off the walls. The room is starting to look pretty disgusting.  This leaves us with a dilemma. What do we paint the room? We obviously don't know when/if a new baby will ever move in there and what that baby's gender will be. So do we go stark
February 25, 2013

So, This One Time...

So, This One Time...
The other day Henry woke up from his nap after an hour and a half and was just  screaming. I grabbed him and took him to the couch where he likes to cuddle for a few minutes. Much to my surprise, he quickly fell back asleep! And stayed that way for over an hour! I love bonus nap! This NEVER happens. So, like any good mamarazzi I snapped a ton of pictures on my iPhone.  He looks so peaceful napping. I could have stared at him all day! To see more pictures of our daily lives including from tot school , follow me on Instagram ! Pin It
February 24, 2013

Letter E Tot School

Letter E Tot School
*Disclaimer: This post was written before we started our Montessori Journey, see our current Montessori approach to language .* This week we got back into letters after our break for Valentine's Day. I was hoping our return to letters at tot school would be a little better than it was, but Morgan came down with the stomach flu and Henry had a lot of no nap days which meant I didn't get much time to prepare for this week. So, I'll admit the work was pretty uninspiring, but Henry still seemed to have a lot of fun. When we started the week, Henry was able to identify the capital letter E and say E. By the end of the week, Hen has also started to identify the lower case e. This was also the first week Henry said {unprompted} "J is for John" which shocked me since we haven't gotten to J and we never talked about how to spell John {who is one of his best friends}. Following that he has said "E for egg" and "H for Henry." The first
February 22, 2013

Easy Painted Wicker Baskets

Easy Painted Wicker Baskets
With this big new house, I'm learning that decorating is expensive! So, I've been trying to come up with cute, creative, and cheap ways to decorate. Painted wicker baskets are my new obsession!  They are so easy! And cheap - I made both these for under $10! Want to make your own?  Pick up some cheap baskets. I found them at Goodwill for under $2 each! Then, just spray paint them any color you'd like. I used regular indoor/outdoor spray paint. Let them dry. It's that easy.  For me, I chose to use two coats on the smaller basket, but only one on the larger basket. They are sitting right next to each other on my console table in my entry way. I wanted them to coordinate, but not be super matchy-matchy. I think making them slightly different colors really helped with that! And I love how they turned out!  Pin It
February 20, 2013

Work-At-Home-Mom Dilemma

Work-At-Home-Mom Dilemma
The other day someone {I'll do this person a favor and not say who it was} called and asked what I was doing. When I told this person "I'm working" the response was "oh yeah, changing diapers and feeding babies."  Hmmm. Not only is this grossly undervalue what stay-at-home-moms {SAHM} do, it completely undermines the fact that I'm not really a SAHM. I'm a work-at-home-mom {WAHM}. In between the hours of playdates, classes, cooking, tot school , cleaning stuff, I work. I have a boss, deadlines, invoicing, writing, editing that I need to do. I constantly feel pulled between these two worlds -- unsure of where I really fit. And at that second, I happened to be 150 words into a legal article.  Lately, I've found myself envying both SAHMs and working moms. Society has clear expectations for these categories. But, I don't find that to be true of WAHMs. In the age of Pinterest , SAHMs are these amazing, busy, crafting machines -- or
February 18, 2013

Valentine's Day at Tot School

Valentine's Day at Tot School
Henry is 23 months old. Ever since I shared our Valentine's Trays last week, I've been so excited for this week of tot school! I went way over board preparing for Valentine's Day and we ended up having ton of fun. We had two small Tot School Parties over the week and Henry and I really loved having all his friends over. I spread the trays all over the room to give kids room to work, I also included a sensory bin in addition to the trays. It was really interesting to watch how different children, all around 2-years-old approached the activities.  I get so used to how Henry does things, I really loved watching these other kids -- all little girls. The girls were much more patient than Henry and a little more gentle with the materials. I also noticed that the girls were a little more willing to check out all the trays where Henry really kept coming back to the ones that immediately caught his interest. Furthermore, the girls all seemed to care about being "
February 14, 2013

Heart Broken

Heart Broken
Happy Valentines Day! I am so in love with my life right now. So, in love. I mean, look at this kid. I'm one lucky, lucky woman. He's going to break so many hearts. Especially mine. Look at him a year ago . Heart.Broken. Pin It
February 13, 2013

Yellow Birthday Party -- Inspiration

Yellow Birthday Party -- Inspiration
It is that time of year again, Henry's birthday is right around the corner. ::sobs:: So, I'm in full party planning mode again. Last year, we did robots . This year's theme was easy -- Henry is obsessed with yellow. So, what could be better than a yellow-themed party?! Pretty much nothing! He's going to flip. I thought I would share some of my inspiration for the party. I have no clue what I'll actually be able to accomplish between now and the party, but I'm going to try! I love the yellow here. I want to find a bunch of shades of yellow and do this somewhere in the house. But making this many paper chains is sort of daunting. I'm super in love with the idea of adding balloons with the paper chains, I'm just not sure that balloons even come in that many shades of yellow. I would love to do something super pretty and a little more grown up in our living room. Probably for the fireplace. But maybe that's not the best fit for a 2-year-old&