Nesting Project 1 - Carseat Canopy

I made this carseat canopy over the Christmas break. I didn't know the gender of the baby for sure so I wanted to make something gender neutral and instead of paying for fabric my mother-in-law let me pick some from her fabric storage. It is very summery.

My sewing skills are more than beginner but still very basic. I was contemplating to buy one but they are quite pricey in my opinion. I found a pattern that was very simple to follow. Here is the link to pattern that I used: http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2010/04/car-seat-cover-aka-greeter-deterrent.html


Finished product

Olivia and her Crafts

Mike helped Olivia make the caterpillars. Mike let her paint them.


I made this jingle bell craft with Olivia for Christmas

So we started a new activity in December and that was doing crafts and even though most days it is just coloring with crayons, markers or paint, Olivia has really enjoyed it. I have noticed she really enjoys painting though. And even though Mike or I have to do most of the craft now she does enjoy playing with them afterward. Hopefully she will get more comfortable cutting and gluing.

I get a lot of my ideas from this website: No time for Flash cards - http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/
I bought my supplies based on her list: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/supply-list

Awesome Bread Pan

One of my frustrations with making bread is it is usually too tall to comfortable fit in a sandwich bag which is pretty inconvenient. I found this awesome bread pan that make longer shorter loaves that are similar to store bought bread. Some people on amazon had to increase their recipes to 1.5 but the recipe I use actually rises really well so I didn't have to modify it at all. I thought this was a great find and I haven't had any problems with sticking either. Here is the link to the Norpro 12 Inch Nonstick Bread Pan: http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Inch-Nonstick-Bread-Pan/dp/B000SSS4CA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1294597649&sr=8-4

My dear Olivia

My dear Olivia is growing up so fast. We would like to potty train her and since Mike stays home with her it would be easiest if he was in charge of it for the most part. We did pretty good for the first two days. We were taking small steps letting her wear underwear for a couple of hours each day and rewarding her with stickers for peeing in the toilet. I honestly think she is physically ready but needs a lot of reminding at this point. And I know Mike will be slightly embarrassed for me to write this but I think it is Mike that isn't ready to do the potty training. It is a labor of love and it requires constant discipline. A three day weekend is coming and hopefully I can work with Olivia and get a good foundation down.

So this Christmas Olivia really understood the concept of receiving presents. Two days ago she said to me "Mom, I want a present." Wow. That caught me off guard. Then I had to explain to her that we really only receive presents on our birthday and Christmas. She hasn't asked again so hopefully that answer will suffice.

I bought Olivia two new books on being a big sister and having a new baby in the house and she really enjoys them. Now she calls herself the big sister instead of a big girl or a mom when she plays with her dolls. Hopefully that won't wear off too quickly once the baby arrives.

Olivia loves to help out around the house. I let her help me load the dishwasher, mostly just the silverware. When I cook I will let her help me mix or stir. It takes a lot of patience because a mess usually follows but I figure I should monopolize on this opportunity to make cooking and cleaning fun. Recently she loves to help me wash dishes in the sink. She already loves the water so it should be a given. She drags the kitchen chair over to the sink and helps me scrub the sink and scrub the dishes. She enjoys it but the worst part is when we are done. My goodness she throws a tantrum like I just spanked her butt. All I can say is this is definitely a growing experience for the both of us and I suspect Olivia has had to learn a lot of patience for me as I have with her.

Pregnancy craziness

I have a lot of things I would love to post about but I just don't have the discipline to do it. I also wish I would have taken more pictures but that didn't happen either. But I guess I have to start somewhere.

As of late I feel like a bottomless pit for food. Sigh... I was hoping to not gain too much weigh during this pregnancy, keep it under 40 lbs but Thanksgiving and Christmas aren't friendly too most people let alone a pregnant woman. On the bright side pregnancy sickness has gone away but they have been replace by other pregnancy ailments.

Before New Years I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish. But just recently I have this strange desire to make a lot of stuff. I know it is nesting but this didn't happen with Olivia this early in the pregnancy. I want to decorate the girls' room, get the nursery ready and pull out clothes but I still have 5 more months. I have been following some sewing blogs and have this new motivation to sew my own stuff. It is weird for me.

Pregnancy brain has really ramped up this month too. Just when I didn't think I could get any dumber, I really surprised myself. The sad thing is I hope the people at my work don't think I am this forgetful. Which leads me to the belly. Before Christmas I could easily hide my belly. Not anymore and it seems like my belly seems to grow overnight. Clothes that fit last week don't fit this week. It seems so small but I hate to spend a fortune on maternity clothes. All the maternity clothes I had were for spring/summer so I am trying to be very creative by layering and buying a few items.

I feel like my brain works a million miles an hour but I can't seem to accomplish much. As you can tell by my post one topic leads to another very very quickly.

There are a lot of external factors going on that I can't control but sometimes worry me. Mike finding an engineering job, the economy, the value of the US dollar, etc. And that is why I love to sleep usually. If I am not having crazy dreams or suffering from insomnia, I don't have to worry about anything.

It's a girl

So we found out yesterday that it was a girl. I was hoping for a boy because Mike was really hoping for a boy. With foot zoning you can tell if it is a boy or girl from about 12 weeks and every time I had checked it was always a girl but I was holding out hope for Mike. Mike wasn't disappointed at all.

Personally I am super super excited. I think it will be really fun for Olivia to have a sister that is so close to her age. I realize that there will be fighting and such but hopefully they can do stuff together and share things when they are older and be great friends when they are older. I have two sisters which is great but we are really really far apart in age (7 and 9 years) and I have always wished we were closer in age for many reasons but one of them being we were never even close to being in the same stage of life. And when I was storing all of Olivia's baby clothes, it really made me want to have another baby girl.

I also love love the birthing center we go too. I really can not believe how different the experience has been and I thought I had a fantastic OB/GYN. With Olivia's ultrasound the tech was going so fast and we just felt so rushed. With this baby the midwife took her time and explained every picture and she spent at least 25 minutes with us so we could see the baby from all views and see how much she was moving. It was so nice. And even though I see a different person every time each midwife takes my appointment as an opportunity to get to know me personally and learn my situation and why I came to the birthing center.

Merry Christmas

I am so excited for Christmas for many many reasons. This is the first time Olivia is really going to understanding opening presents. She will be receiving a couple of gifts from Santa so I can't wait to see how she responds to that. We started a few family traditions that I think everyone has enjoyed overall. But most of all I am excited to see my family and spend some time relaxing.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday.