Happy 1 month birthday Sweetpea

Miss Clella Mae is 1 month old today. She gets more beautiful each day and is changing so quickly. She's almost too tall for her newborn clothes and almost too big for her newborn diapers.

2 days oldToday

She's sleeping so much better and longer than Peanut ever did. It took him about 3 1/2 months to sleep 4-5 hours at night and she's been doing this the last few days. I on the other hand wake up wanting her to wake up and eat for my own comfort, especially after the 4 week growth spurt last weekend. My milk supply increased, but at night there's those long stretches (over 2 hours) of no release and I'm too lazy to wake all the way up and pump.

Her personality is a lot like Peanuts. She's laid back, easy going, and only loud when she needs something. We're so blessed to have 2 kids and no colic, no reflux, no high-needs baby, and no serious problems.

Mike is working some overtime tonight and I'm working in our office area trying to get some stuff done while Sweet pea watches and grunts in her bouncy chair.

TTFN ~ Crys

Valentine's Day Tshirt Sucess

I've had appliqué success today. It's my second attempt at taking a plain tshirt for Peanut and decorating it for a holiday. The first was Thanksgiving which Mom finished the appliqué part so that doesn't really count for me as a success. Well people, if I had an applause sign, I'd be holding it up. After a call to Mom last night wanting to know why my machine wasn't stitching correctly, after trying what she told me, after cussing a lot and quitting in disgust because it wasn't working right, I've achieved victory over appliqué. My fancy Kenmore machine just wasn't stitching correctly so I hauled out my handy plain jane sewing machine that I have downstairs and it worked beautifully. Here's my finished product (and 3 days shy of a month ahead of time ;o)). You can't see the stitching around the heart, but it's there and looks nicely for a first attempt with curves.

My little assistant unthreading my machine. He was sitting so quietly next to me in a chair playing with a magnet and a screwdriver, giggling as I chugged along. He's such an inquisitive child, wanting to know how it works and tries to take apart and put together when we show him.

And I can't post a Peanut picture without a Sweetpea picture. She's a week old in this one, after her first bath at home.

Now I'm off to gather the stuff to sew a purse together that has been cut out since August. Maybe I'll get it finished today, maybe not.

TTFN ~Crys

Some pictures for Mike

Mike's on night 3 of his first week back at 911. He says it's really different from when we were both there, a lot happier place to be, and the benefits are unbeatable. Thank god for government jobs paying 95% of health, dental, and eye insurance. Especially for me with eyes like a bat and teeth full of fillings. It just sucks being a single mom in the evenings, especially at Peanut's bedtime and most of the morning and early afternoon while he sleeps. But Clella and I do get our huge bed to ourselves until he gets home so we have more room to stretch out. (Yes, we are "those" parents...you know the crazy co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding, baby/toddler wearing, delayed/selective vaccinating, positive redirection instead of physical discipline parents, and soon to be cloth diapering parents ;o))

Anyway, Mike wanted new pictures so here they are. I'm a terrible photographer. I'd love to take a class or 2 or 3 to learn more and to get a better camera to go along with those classes, but I just finished school and don't have a burning desire to go back. And I have a sister who is awesome with her camera so I'll just hit her up for some good pictures now that we're both back in Vancouver.

Peanut's angelic smile

Funny face Monkey.

Wet head hairdo.

Big Brother Peanut and Little Sister Sweetpea
Sweet pea in a milk coma.

Clella's face is filling out much quicker than Elliot's did, but she was over a pound bigger at birth than he was. No more please.A grocery bag I whipped up during Peanut's nap time. Uber easy pattern from The Creative Thimble that mom sent me. She always has the best links to free patterns found online. I'm going to make about 5 more so no more plastic bags when we grocery shop.

And finally, my favorite picture from yesterday. Future tree hugger or one of those logger guys who climb up the tree to cut the top portion off.......knowing who and where he comes from, I'm guessing logger guy long before tree hugger.
That's about it from our house. My sewing machine and serger now will be getting some use more than a quick few minutes here and there since school is over. We're friends again...YAY! I didn't realize how much I missed sewing and how much time school took until today. It was so liberating to sit at my sewing area and not feel guilty because I should be doing school work instead. Now if only I could actually get organized at my desk and file the stack of paperwork that calls my name each time I walk by.

TTFN ~ off to finish dishes and watch a show with a bowl of ice cream. Thank goodness for breastfeeding and the sweet sugar cravings it gives me. It makes it guilt-free to eat a bowl before bed when I tell myself it's for Clella's benefit that I'm eating these extra calories....maybe that's why her checks are starting to look chubby like mine.

~Crys

It's for you...

Peanut loves to play with our cell phones. Mostly to push the buttons and then act like he's on an important call when we try to get them back from him. Yes, his shoe is on the wrong foot (without socks, sorry Mike), but I left it on because he put it on all by himself. And he was so proud of it.

This afternoon, the call was for our sweet pea Clella.
Peanut rarely lets us take his picture with just a smile. Mostly, it's a finger, sippy cup, or his tongue in the way, or he turns just as the camera goes off. So, it takes many pictures and lots of frustration because my camera has a delay that makes me miss the perfect picture and I end up with lots of deleted ones. This one was too sweet to delete, the loves of my life.
We haven't really been doing much lately. I'm done with school tomorrow (WOOT!) and have a little bit to finish up this afternoon and tonight. My sewing machine keeps calling my name, but I have so many projects and things I want to start that I have a difficult time sitting down and actually accomplishing anything. Not to mention that our office/my sewing room is a disaster that needs about 3 hours devoted to it to organize, file, put away, and get clean. Ugh, where is my organization fairy when I need her.

And I'm working on Clella's birth announcements. Gotta get that perfect picture taken and then get them printed out and in the mail. I hope to get them finished this weekend, but we'll see how my camera operates.

And some not so good news, Mike has gone back to work at Portland 911. Today is his first day. We've been struggling financially since we moved back up here to keep it from happening, but the Guild just isn't taking off like we figured it would, health insurance rates dramatically increased (but we would of been accepted with another company for a few hundred less than our current company, whew), and the work just isn't coming in for us to afford not having a steady, reliable income coming in. We're hoping and praying this is a short-term fix that will let us pay off debt, build our savings back up, and that the housing slump for Portland/Vancouver area improves so much that work is steaming up our fax and email inbox.

So, while time with all of us together as a family is going to be very limited, I'm so thankful that we each were 911 dispatchers and that the City is short-staffed enough that they didn't hesitate to rehire Mike when he asked. And even asked if I was returning also. That did make me feel good to know they'd take me too, but felt even better when Mike told them that I'll be staying home with our kiddos. If I do have to go back to work, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, I'm going to get some projects finished, get my Etsy store set up, and see if I can get a little income coming in for play money.

TTFN, off to hit the books for one last night.
~Crys