Sewing. I'm doing it.

True fact:
I took exactly six weeks of "Home Ec" in 8th grade.
True fact:
We did not sew a blessed thing.
True fact:
We "cooked." At home. And brought our dishes to school as homework, because our class met in a kitchenless trailer.
True fact:
I signed up for my first online class ever to motivate me to move beyond the straight stitch on my admittedly fancy machine. Click on that little picture to the right if you'd like to join me.
True fact:
I made that rectangle up there. I used the sewing machine to do it. Go me.

Bethany - Seven Months.

Bethany being six months old has been, without a doubt, the most amazing period of her life so far. She's learned so many things in a short amount of time. The weekend we went to Florida she learned how to clap and blink. We don't see much blinking any more, but the clapping continues, and is beyond precious. (Of course, I might be biased.) Here she is, immediately post-clapping. You can see the glee. ;)
We've had the opportunity to see lots of friends this month. Kenzie (above) is the daughter of our dear friends Erik & Naomi. Kenzie is a big Bethany fan, and worked hard to help her sit still for this picture. She also tried to help Bethany learn to dance. Let's just say we're still working on that particular skill set.
Uncle Dr. T. was in Atlanta for a wedding, and we got to spend a bit of time with him one evening. Bethany loved to look at him and smile at him, but this is about as close as she wanted to get. Bethany has now met almost all of the Tulane crowd, so the three slackers (ahem, Bear, Wascom, & Raegen) need to get their act together and come visit!!
Our little girl is a stander-upper. She's liked this for a long time, but now she's to a point where she can support most of her weight without collapsing while we hold her. This is fine, except when we need her to sit in our laps and all she wants to do is stand. She does not handle disappointment well, and generally lets everyone in the vicinity know that we are refusing to meet her standing needs.
To celebrate our nation's independence, Bethany decided to become an independent sitter. She's pretty good at it, and still has the occasional head-bonk. Combining clapping and sitting might just be her favorite hobby.
(I just love this picture.) Bethany's favorite part of Goodnight Moon is "the quiet old lady whispering hush." She thinks it's spectacular, and usually gives us a big smile, then goes about her business trying to eat the book.
Baby pool = massive failure. Enough said.
Aunt Julie & Aunt Melissa came up to Atlanta to take some of Bethany's six month portraits. We were SO glad to see them, and the portraits are gorgeous, as per usual. You can see those here and here. We are forever grateful to have friends like the two of them. :)
Since BEB has become a sitter, bathtime has gotten more interesting. This is the day she first realized she could sit up in her whale tub. You can guess how she's feeling. The slobber is just a bonus for you.
More friends! This was a great day. :) Two of my friends from Macon, Laura & Jenn, brought their daughters, Susanna & Allie, to play with Bethany. They are a bit older, but Bethany was entranced by them, and just could not figure out what she was supposed to do. It was probably the calmest I've ever seen her. Here are Susanna & Allie in Bethany's room - the group would not cooperate to get a good picture of all three girls.
And the (terrible) family shot - more fun to look at the camera than at the mirror, I'm afraid.

Phew. I'm exhausted just reliving all this. Maybe next month we'll have a tooth to show you!

Bethany - Six Months.

Well. I'm late again. Hold the applause. Here's Bethany on her first Memorial Day. She's also celebrated her first Flag Day and her first Fourth of July, but we'll try to keep Ye Olde Blogge in chronological order.

Our little cowgirl had a lot of adventures shortly before she turned six months old. Aside from looking beyond cute in Daddy's hat, she worked hard at starting to eat solid food.
We planned to hold off solids till six months, but she was getting pretty agitated watching us eat, so we went ahead and started letting her have rice cereal. (That's pictured above in the bouncy chair.)
The cereal went pretty well, so she moved on right around the time she turned six months, and we discovered that we have an avocado fiend on our hands. Fortunately, one of those puppies cranks out a LOT of baby food when you freeze it in tiny portions, so she's not eating us out of house and home just yet.
Bethany continues to be a pretty happy baby most of the time. She's sleeping acceptably in her crib, nursing well, and more and more interactive while she plays. Her favorite book right now is a Little Golden Book called Animal Orchestra. It was a very random find at Little Shop of Stories, and we're pretty smitten with how she reacts when we read it to her - she literally lights up. She also lights up after showing off her newest tricks - rolling! We thought she mightnot ever be a roller, since she took so long to do it, but she proved us wrong.
We have survived our first "illness," a very short-lived stomach bug that Bethany basically slept off, and enjoyed lots of visits from friends and family. She heard her first live music at brunch with Aunt Kinsley, and tries to imitate some of our words. Bethany also adopted a new laugh, which involves crinkling her nose. We love it, which makes her do it more. We've started a library habit that goes pretty smoothly, as long as she doesn't have to be silent. Silence is NOT BEB's forte.Personality, on the other hand, we have in spades. :)

Bethany - Five Months.

Bethany turned five months old last Thursday. You should be very impressed I'm so on top of her monthly post. :) The big news in the last month is that she can now grab her feet AND stuff them in her mouth. Naturally, though, she will not allow this to be captured on film. You can see her abiding love of Sophie above, when really I was trying to get her eating her feet. She can also point her index fingers, but not actually at anything. We think she might be trying to raise her little fingers, too, which is bad news for our many OU fans.
Bethany and I made our first road trip to Macon, where we got to visit with Nana, Grandpa B, and our friend Erin, who made this amazing Smilebox show for us. It is about the neatest thing ever, and we are very grateful that she took the time to do it. As for the road trip, it went fairly smoothly, with the exception of my second-worst Chick Fil A visit ever on the way home. However, I am in no hurry to travel that far again by myself!
Of course, Bethany reads a lot. She loves all of her Eric Carle books, which is no big surprise, since I once befuddled by psychologist uncle by "reading" The Very Hungry Caterpillar before I was "developmentally ready." :)
Bethany has also engaged in her first protest activity. Due to extreme budget shortfalls, the Georgia Legislature threatened to end the summer program where Lindsey and I met. Thanks to Facebook, and the picture above, Bethany was able to voice her opposition to the cut. (In case you care, partial funding was restored, no doubt in part to our cute kid.)
Since the weather has gotten warm[er], we spend a lot of time on the porch swing. Sometimes this helps us get out of a bad mood, and sometimes we just enjoy it. One great thing about where we live is that there are a decent number of animals to watch, and even some exotic ones to hear from the zoo at the park. Bethany may have a future as a botanist, since she tries to grab every plant that is anywhere near her. We're hoping this is not an appetite for destruction.
Granny was able to come down and visit last Saturday, and she and Bethany had a very nice time. Of course, Bethany refused to cooperate so that I could get a picture of both of them smiling. Granny brought her a new crinkly book, which has been a big hit. (I told you, she's a reader.)
And finally, the "five month" portrait, which I should admit was actually taken on Mother's Day.

There is more to my life than that baby.

But not much. :)

One of our big adventures for this summer involves me learning to eat more some vegetables. In order to do that, we made the rather enormous decision to buy a CSA {Community Supported Agriculture} share. Every week, we'll be picking up a box of fresh-grown veggies from Scharko Farms at our friendly neighborhood farmer's market. Our first box arrives next Thursday, and I'm pretty excited. Of course, when it's entirely full of things I don't eat, the enthusiasm may dim somewhat. Fortunately, we split our share with our friends Mark, Shelly, & Conner, and Shelly is an amazing cook, so hopefully she'll be able to inspire me. (No pressure or anything...)

Eventually, Lindsey would really like us to have a decent garden of our own, but that will involve some massive tree surgery on the giant oak that shades pretty much the entire backyard. This year, he's content with three heirloom tomato plans from a coworker.

I am also sort of determined to start making "stuff" again - I've been missing it, and I have a few crafty ideas up my sleeve. Since they're all supposed to be speedy projects, maybe I'll get them done by September??

Happy weekend!

Bethany - Four Months.

Figured I should do the four month post before she turns five months. :) At her four month checkup, Bethany weighed 14.4 pounds, and was 26 inches long. Her head also measured in the 98th percentile. We are attributing that to her immense brain, not just an enormous skull, though the truth remains to be seen. As you can see, our first St. Patrick's Day as a family of three was marked by wearing an inappropriate symbol, and enjoying a very rainy day. Wildness and craziness all around. (Ha.)

She continues nursing like a champ, and decided shortly after turning four months old that she no longer wished to be swaddled at night. This was not happy news for mommy and daddy, because she still has a pretty strong startle reflex, so she is up much more at night than she had been. She also wants to sleep on her side (like the grown-ups in this house do, we think), so that adds a layer of excitement to her nighttime flailing.

Ignore the sunglasses that ruin this otherwise sweet picture. Now that the sun occasionally shines in Atlanta, we spend a lot of time walking around the park. We have also enjoyed several outside restaurant meals, which are much better for babies than trying to be quiet and still inside a restaurant, or at least Mommy thinks so.

Bethany celebrated her first Easter with lots of friends in town (more on that in a later post), including her first Tulane Girls' weekend. We really missed Aunt Raegen, but Aunts Feather, Caro, and Lala were here to indoctrinate her. The indoctrination was very successful, and we cannot wait to get EVERYONE together to meet her.

On Easter Monday, she also was able to meet Uncle Ralph very briefly, as he was in Georgia to attend a practice round at The Master's with Grandpa B. & Uncle Andrew. As you can see, he still has the magic touch with babies.

{Notice in the family picture that only one of us is getting cuter.} Bethany continues to amaze us with what she tries to do and what she won't try to do. She has no interest in grabbing her feet, but does grab everything in sight and shove it in her mouth, including very small things that we don't realize she has the dexterity to grab until she does it. She also refuses to roll all the way over, but then sits up in the bathtub.

She really likes sitting on the couch (because she thinks she's just a short grown-up; I can't wait to tell her how wrong that assumption is!), and spending time on the porch swing. Her eyes are still very light, and we can't tell if they're going to be more grey or more blue. (Or mess us up completely by turning brown.) Her hair is getting longer and thicker, but still maintains a buzz cut look overall. She talks A LOT, and recently mastered what I like to call the Vikings-Are-Coming-to-Pillage-Our-Town shriek. Overall, she remains a very sweet and easy-to-care-for baby, and we are VERY grateful.

Since my child has put herself to sleep...

... thought I'd share some photos of her (finally) (almost) finished bedroom.

We caught a lot of flack from folks when we didn't know what gender our baby would be, and we told them the room was blue. LOTS of people immediately replied with, "well, you'll have to change that if she's a girl." Um, no. It turns out that we like the color, really like it with red accents, and guess what?? Our baby has remained a girl despite the blue room.

We'll start with her crib, which came from IKEA. Notice how pristine it looks? Notice how there are multiple death traps near it? (Soft toys, hanging blanket, pillow...) That's because she's only used it for the occasional nap, and now she's starting to hang out in there a bit while we're in her room so she'll get used to it. This is the secret to having an immaculate crib - don't use it! Print on the wall is by the amazing Black Apple, and the pom poms are a MonkeyBean creation from my first shower. (Awww.) The blanket you can't see was mine, made by a great-aunt, and has the tightest crochet stitches I have ever seen.

Next we have the rocking chair, source of immense angst for my younger brother. Mom had a different chair for each of us, and this is actually his. However, when we moved to Georgia, Mom put my rocking chair in his room, so he's attached to that one. Thus, I have his for Bethany. Confused? Imagine how I felt when we tried to sort all this out when I was 9 months pregnant. Yeah. The gorgeous afghan was made by Lindsey's sisters' step-grandmother. More Black Apple art on the wall, and another print by an artist whose name I've forgotten, so I'll have to look that up and report back.

This is the crazy amount of stuff I have temporarily put on her bookshelf. I know that it will all have to go when she starts pulling up, but for now, I like it. You can see some of her MonkeyBean newborn portraits, as well as a Pete the Cat print - he's riding the St. Charles streetcar, of course. A whole bunch of vintage books, a vintage baby bonnet, a doll I bought in Prague, and a little ceramic box made for me when I was little round this out. You don't want to see the shelves - trust me.

The color on this shot is off, but you can see the canvas piece Kinsley made for Bethany, as well as my very clever (ha) use of a picture display mobile for Bethany's art cards. This is hanging above her changing table, which is really a pad on top of a dresser. Couldn't get the whole thing in a remotely decent shot, so you'll just have to imagine the dresser. Bethany loves to stare up at both of these things, since they're black, white, & red.

Finally - gratuitous cuteness.

Backing Up... Christmas.

We had a lovely Christmas. Lindsey's mom came for Christmas Eve, and gave Bethany her new friend, Croshetta Mouse. Croshetta is very popular, and Bethany will actually give her a little hug. We made it to the Christmas Eve service at church, and she did well for about 15 minutes, then got hungry. We left to nurse, and then made it back in time for Communion and to visit with everyone afterward. There may also have been cookies involved. Ahem. Moving on.

Christmas Day, my parents & brother came to Atlanta (with barbecue in tow - woot!), and we had a very relaxing afternoon. Uncle Andrew also started Bethany's college fund. She clearly takes after her Grandpa B. - she was more excited about the check than her toys. Next year, we'll buy her a 16-column pad to track all of her expenses. Ha.

Shortly after Christmas, she also demonstrated her rapidly increasing upper body strength with this awesome trick:

Like I've been telling everyone, she's advanced. :)

And finally, because I kept forgetting to link to them, our friends Melissa & Julie came to take Bethany's newborn portraits when she was a week old. Here is the link to the previews - they are FANTASTIC.

Back in September...

My good friend Lauren (who is already Auntie Lala to precious little James, and will be Auntie Lala to the Brownie as well) came into Atlanta for a little reunion weekend before, you know, our lives change forever. That's us in the top photo. She was able to arrive in time to attend a fabulous shower thrown at the MonkeyBean Mansion. Having friends who are photographers is very helpful, and Melissa ROCKS for taking these amazing pictures, even though it meant she didn't show up in any of them. BOO! I'll let them speak for themselves, with just a little captioning for fun.

Here you see Kinsley, with her extremely awesome cupcake, and also the tissue pompoms that Melissa & Julie made - three of them are going to be installed today (!) in the baby's room.

And here are Julie & Natalie working hard on making little bibs for the Brownie. You can almost tell that Natalie is pregnant in this picture, but now she's not! (Baby Avery arrived on the 18th - yay!)

Because Amy asked so nicely...

Here is the most recent decent picture of the Brownie. We've had one more since this one, but even the midwife who "took" it said that it looked more like a Halloween decoration than a baby. Turns out this 3-D technology isn't perfected, and if some other body part is in front of the face, you get a spooky image. This one is actually from September - sorry.

At this point, the Brownie was head up (boo!), but now s/he has complied with modern medical practice, and is head down, so that's one less reason to end up with a very unwanted c-section (yay!). At the last appointment, I also got to watch him/her doing practice breathing, which is pretty cool to see.

We have had several lovely showers, and people have been very generous, so we feel like we're in good shape for the Brownie's arrival in about a month. I managed to forget the camera at every single one of the showers, so I am at the mercy of others to have the time to download photos and send them to me. I am being patient, since I still have photos from APRIL on my camera. Ugh.

I am aiming for massive progress in the Brownie's room this weekend - we moved a bunch of furniture out and did some rearranging on Halloween (in between giving uncostumed teenagers one piece of candy each - boo again!), so it's almost time for the decorating & organizing, which we all know is my favorite part, vastly preferable to actual cleaning. You might get lucky and get to see the results of that in photographic form, but it also might be March before that happens.

Happy Wednesday!

Assorted news.

To answer the questions of our adoring fans....

I am feeling fine. Not great, exactly, but fine. Way better than earlier in the summer when sleep was my sole activity. I am VERY fortunate to have work that allows me to sleep a little bit later, and work in bursts rather than sit in a cube and try to function. And, of course, it is MUCH easier than feeling this way with a roomful of seven year olds.

The Brownie will be a surprise, gender-wise. Everyone has varying opinions about what they think, some based on actual evidence (the overabundance of female cousins in our families) and some based on proximity (everyone else is having a girl so I am having a boy). It will be interested to see who is correct!

Name wise, things are up in the air. Because we both teach, a LOT of names are eliminated due to unfortunate connotations. Of course, I never intended to give my child a name with three capital letters and multiple apostrophes, but even those old standbys like Justin and Joshua bring back shudders. (All elementary teachers know that the J-names are never a good sign.) One friend of ours is calling the baby Oswald. I can also guarantee you that is not on the list.

I am so ready for it to be fall that it's not funny. I am saying this even though I do not have one single pair of maternity jeans that fits, so my jeans-and-sweater uniform is potentially going to have to be on sabbatical this year. We'll see what happens.

Happy Wednesday!

So sometimes I don't blog for a month and half.

And it appears that the world continues to move on without me. WHO KNEW??

Regardless, absolutely none of you wanted to hear the "I hate my job" that has become my everyday for the last couple of months. Now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can ignore the idiocy that I deal with every. single. day.

See last we talked, I have torn up our house with the goal of doing some massive rearranging. Then, I lost any desire to actually DO that rearranging, so now we just have a torn-up house. I'm thinking I'll overcome this soon - the question is HOW soon. We are going to give away a bunch of stuff. This has already begun, and I know it will make our lives easier. I'm even being harsh with the classroom stuff. I GAVE AWAY AN ENTIRE BOX OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS, PEOPLE!!! Some of you will have to pick yourselves up off the floor right now, so I'll wait.

******************************whistles to self**************************************

Now that we've all recovered, I will tell you about my new favorite thing: www.pearbudget.com. It is fantastic. We've always been good about living within our means, but aside from tracking things sporadically, I've never been super sure where all the money went. Now, I know, for sure, that we're only really blowing money in a couple of areas. (Namely, food.) This is much easier to use than Microsoft Money (what I used in college, when I really had to know where all the money was going - only back then, the categories were a bit different, but I digress). It also makes you input everything yourself, so you feel the burn. My BFF Dave would be proud. Further news: Lindsey has quoted Dave's radio show to me THREE times in the last week, which is pretty funny.

The farmers' market opened this week, but we weren't there, because we were here seeing a preview of Ken Burns's newest documentary on the National Parks. Oh my heavens - it is spectacularly gorgeous (of course), and tear-jerking! I think I cried three times. He's done an amazing job of making it almost an inclusive history of our country, too. Did you know that a Japanese immigrant was instrumental in getting support for the Great Smoky Mountains national park? I didn't! Very cool stuff - it'll be on PBS in September, and I know that I am the only one dorky enough to dedicate 12 hours of my life to it, so you don't have to lie and tell me you're going to watch it. That's okay. I'll just tell you about it. :)

And I know it's dreadful to post this much text without a picture, but I'm on the work computer (SHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!) and there are no pictures on here. I should give you some pretty waterfall to look at soon, but that might be July. Ha.

Hearts, hearts, hearts.

Valentine's Day was never my favorite. I had fun making valentines until about fourth grade, and then it was just a drag. It was never very exciting later, either. Now, I like the crafty aspects of it, but could still really care less about the holiday. Yesterday, I looked at a list of restaurants with prix fixe menus for Valentine's, and NOTHING. Nada. Zilch. Absolutely none of it looked good. Seriously - why stuff a perfectly good fillet with OYSTERS? Yucky.

The worst of the worst? Places that advertised a "rose for the lady" at every table. BLECCCCCHHH.
With all of that said, I had a blast making my cards for Sarah's swap, and stupidly forgot to take a picture of them. Things are going swimmingly for Lisa's swap package, as well, and that one should be on its way to her shortly. Here's the mantel, currently, waiting on this year's valentines to arrive and cover it even further in crafty goodness. I decided that the Christmas card holder could continue in service for an extra couple of months. Besides, the cute dress card that Sarah made last year covers up the Christmas star at the top. Aren't I tricky...
Props to Sarah for the bottle brush tree & button tree idea/direction - those used to be Christmas decorations, but I've decided to make them work year round.