Ten Things Tuesday

1. We went to storytime today, and got some more books, too. It's always nice to have new books. Sam sure likes them. We also borrowed two DVDs - narrated stories. One was narrated by Bob Hoskins, the other by Danny Glover. We watched them at lunch, well, more listened to them. I think they were a little too old for Sam.

2. It sure has been raining hard lately. As we were driving to the library, it was a mixture of some kind of frozen slush coming down.

3. My coffee budget is overdrawn, so I have to wait to buy Starbucks. I'm having a really hard time waiting. It's just so easy to stop by the drive-thru on the way home.

4. My Mom is in the hospital because her asthma is being a nuisance. She will hopefully go home today or tomorrow.

5. Sam's doing this cute thing right now: shrugging his shoulders, leaning his head to one side, and grinning. So cute! I'll try to get a picture or a video.

6. He can now sign "toys" and "play".

7. He weighed 27 lbs the other day on our scale. Sometimes it seems like it reads light.

8. I'm planning on going to a Women of Faith conference in October. Exciting!

9. We're going to start a parenting class soon. It's for parents of 13-17 month old kids. It's once a week for 10 consecutive weeks. A few families from our baby class will be there too. I'm excited to meet some new families. I'm looking forward to hearing about different discipline techniques. And I want to hear lots of food ideas.

10. I can't wait to finish the quilt. I look forward to sewing on it every day. It's been so fun!

Climbing the Chair

Sam has been trying to climb stuff in the house lately. I was about to say everything in the house, but, so far, he's been staying off the bookcases, the toilet, and other dangerous pedestals. Which reminds me, we need to attach some pieces of furniture to the walls. Anti-tip straps for active boys: good. Big furniture falling over: bad.

Anyways, he's been trying to climb up on this chair we have in the corner. He has had to ask us "up", and we'd lift him up onto the chair. Now he can do it himself. It is so fun to watch him figure stuff out and accomplish things.

Now, you could say that we're sitting back and laughing at him while he's being very brave and trying very hard. But, really, I'm restraining myself from helping so he can learn on his own. This video was preceded by multiple attempts to talk him through it and sitting on the floor right next to him. And, yes, he did bump his head a little, but we all get some bumps going down the road of life. I am so proud of him that he accomplished this big feat all by himself. And he thought ahead and brought reading material!

After a 4 year hiatus, quilt progress

I started a rainbow colored quilt for my nephew before he was born in October 2006. I designed it to be pretty complicated, and I ended up getting frustrated with how much time it was taking. The other day, I saw a really neat kid's quilt on a magazine at the store. I took a quick picture of it on my phone as inspiration. Since then, I've been working like mad to get this one done. And, taking into consideration a great suggestion from John, as usual, I started sewing the blocks assembly style.

Here you can see the orange triangles all lined up. There are 80 pairs.

Here there are 40 sets of 2 pairs of triangles.

Here are 20 blocks, pre-pressing.

I had about 7-9 blocks of each of the 6 colors finished from my work several years ago. I need 28 blocks of each color. The above pictures show one color being sewn up. I also finished the red, and I am, at the moment, about a half hour away from finishing the yellow blocks. Then I'll be more than half way done! I'm so excited to have made so much progress. I'll dig through my old pictures to show the neat stacks of fabric all cut out from the beginning. I love bright rainbow colors. It's been really fun working with these fabrics.

Incidentally, I've stolen this quilt away from my nephew. It will now belong to my immediate family; I'm being quite selfish about it and hoarding it for ourselves. Sorry.

Park and nap

I didn't get many pictures of the park on my camera. I'll ask John to post some from his camera. Wait, maybe he did already.

He was sleeping so soundly this one day. He had slept over 3 hours, and it was getting close to dinner time, so we had to wake him up.

Laughing Box

Sam got a kick out of snapping a box together and watching Papa jump!

Ten Things Tuesday

1. How many weeks has it been since I've done a TTT?

2. I started studying again this week. I put my application in the mail for the last two exams. Oh, and I found out I passed the first exam!

3. We've had some really yummy Dinners Done Right meals lately. One was a fish with a mustard sauce and mushrooms. John didn't think he would like it, but we both loved it. Another was chicken breasts with some kind of salsa marinade. One other was burrito bowls. It was a slow cooker meal with chicken, beans, corn, and salsa over rice in a bowl.

4. All three of us went to a really fun park on Sunday. The play equipment is very fun and imaginative. I hear it gets pretty crowded in the summer.

5. Anyone know were to get good men's slippers? John's last pair from Eddie Bauer is worn out, but they don't sell them anymore. He usually doesn't like the inexpensive furry ones they sell at Christmas.

6. It's been nice to be home with Sam again. Since we're finally felling better, we've been able to do Mama/Baby things like playdates, go to the park, and go to library storytime. He was absolutely mesmerized by the storytime lady today. Evidently he needs more exposure to group activities.

7. We've seen a few TV spots about Disneyland and Disneyworld, etc. lately, and I am really looking forward to when the kids are the right age to take them. I've been to Disneyland three times at different ages. It will be so much fun to experience it through their eyes.

8. I can't post a picture yet, but I'm looking forward to Easter so Sam can wear a cute outfit we got for him!

9. I'm trying to clean out my studio (which is also our bedroom right now since we're in remodel mode) and my side of the office. It's so hard to get rid of stuff. But I just keep telling myself that if I haven't touched it in over a year, I probably don't need it. In my studio I really need to get out all the supplies and the bins, then go through and get rid of what I don't want, then logically sort all the supplies. I'm betting that it doesn't take up that much room after I go through that process.

10. I don't know what kind of flowers to pick out for the front walk and the horseshoe bed. Any ideas for some low maintenance flowers that have lots of color for a long period of time?

Socks

Sam attempted to put on some socks that weren't his.

A few pictures from my birthday

We went out to Red Robin for my birthday.

Sam likes to color.

He helped me open my gift.

Here's an extra picture... He really likes trying on Papa's hat.