Sammi walks

For the past week or so Sammi has started walking more and more each day. I suppose soon she will give up crawling!
This is where she hangs out while I get Jack on the bus. Look at the look on her face!



I cannot sort out how to rotate the video, but you get the idea.

Now if only she would stop putting every little thing she can find into her mouth...

A new bed for the growing up boy

About 2 years ago I scored a full sized version of Jack's twin bed for $10 at the flea market. I tucked it in the basement for "later."

Then this summer I cleaned out our basement. We had our old queen sized mattress down there and it was in my way. It occurred to me that Jack could be sleeping on it instead of it waiting to get ruined in the basement.

He was super excited about getting the "good bed" (he loves that mattress) and has been bugging me about moving into it for months.
When I saw the Land of Nod's* new beds pop up on facebook I new I wanted to paint it anything but white. (For once.)
Dave picked out the paint. I really wanted something brighter, but spray paint colors are so darn limited.

And actually it works perfectly with the maps behind it.

And the quilt I made for him from Daddy's shirts awhile back.

The bed takes up a huge portion of the room, but let's be honest, my kids never play in their rooms anyway. When we left behind the little house for this house we inherited tons of other places to play. I think when Sam leaves the crib I will just move her into a full sized bed too. I have another stunning vintage beauty in the basement just waiting for her. :-)

However, the desk we made him? PIGSTY! LOL Do not be fooled by the photos. I had to clean up for 30 minutes in there so you wouldn't see a bunch of crap everywhere.

Sam is Snotty McSnoterson right now. And crabby. So she is hanging out with bear and watching country music videos. :-)

*I love land of nod, but seriously, $649 for their version?

P.S. Thank you for all of your good wishes. I am still trucking along over here. Tired and GAGGY. That can go away anytime now thanks. Any moment now Sam is surely going to start imitating the gagging. Ha.

Today I...

Today I transferred from the higher risk fertility specialist clinic to a regular OB.

That's not meant to be cryptic - we are indeed expecting another baby.

I am one foot in two worlds. The first is HOLY SHIT YIPPPEEEEEE! I never thought we would have even two kids and I am, indeed, successfully pregnant with another baby. The second is HOLY SHIT! Sam is still a baby and is this really happening (it just seems way too easy*)?

I guess once they know exactly what combination of drugs it takes to get you pregnant and keep you pregnant it works?

This is my sixth pregnancy and not a single other one has gone as smoothly as this one appears to be going.

So, there you have it.

I am suffering from gagitis and exhaustion but nothing else.

We expect to have another sweet baby in late September.

And PLEASE not a word of snark shall be spoken here. I have lost four babies and still feel very nervous. But I believe in transparency here. And I believe that if more women would speak up about their fertility struggles actual progress might be made. So it felt wrong to keep it a secret much longer.

Now I must click publish before I lose my nerve.

*I still needed fertility drugs and I still need plenty of drug support to deal with the MTHFR and the progesterone deficiency. This *is* a miracle to me, but it's also another miracle of modern medicine.

Let's play dress up with vintage baby clothes

Well, two weeks later and I finally have some photos of that big stash of vintage baby clothes I found for Sammi!
For starters, it's a BIG pile. These are the ones I didn't take pictures of.

Onto some of my favorites (oh get warm soon weather! so these will still fit Sam for a little while).
A perfectly aqua gingham sunsuit
with a ruffle butt.
A perfectly green sunsuit
with a ruffle butt.
A sweet yellow striped top
with a little bear with a bell!!
A pink ruffly sunsuit
with the sweetest roses on the ruffles.
A faded little blue dress
with rows of french knots.
A shirred pink sun dress
with flowers and rick rack.
The sweetest little blue blouse
with tiny little checks and a peter pan collar.
A nylon tiny pink nightie. (GET OUT!)
And a sweet print little sun suit.

How much fun is playing dress up with Cheeks?!?!

Paper dolls

We left Jack with Oma last Saturday morning so we could do a little junking sans whining.

Among the things I picked up was a stack of paper dolls.

They are sweet even without their outfits on.
There are dresses for different nationalities (and pjs too!).
I have a sweet spot for the Native American ones.
But they are all fun.
There is date appropriate* clothing - that romper is so sweet.
A gypsy.
Hmmmm, maybe I have the hat with the wrong dress.
Birds on a pinafore.
And the pink jammies with the bunny. I die.

31 outfits plus accessories in all.

I didn't tuck the collars for the photos because they are in mint condition and I was scared of tearing them.

I think I will frame them for Sammi's room for when the doll quilts have to come down. Which is soon I think. She wants to grab them and touch them and they are hung up with push pins. (Which she will certainly eat.)

Maybe tomorrow I will get off my rear end and show you all the fabulous clothes I found for Sam.

Or maybe I will just sit here and watch Sammi play on the couch some more. LOL

*I think they are probably late 30's - early 40's?

caught on tape

Two or three days ago I went into the living while Jack was eating breakfast and found Sammi on the couch.

I started to scold Jack for leaving her up there and he immediately started asking her how she got up there.

Then I realized that yea, she wasn't up there when he was up there.

I pretty quickly realized she was getting herself up there.

But she was sneaking when I wasn't looking.
Now she is OBSESSED with getting up there.
All morning long it has been up down up down up down up down.
And man is she ever proud of herself for getting up there.


Dave said to me on the phone this morning - "What are we going to do about that?" I replied "nothing." He replies "it's dangerous!*". My response was "have you ever met our child? Just how on earth would I stop her?"

I mean this baby has my bullheadedness 100%. If she wants it she is going to scream and moan until she gets it**.

She and I spent all day yesterday arguing about what is hers and what is mine. LOLOL "no no no! Mine!"

With that I have to go change ANOTHER poopy diaper. I just changed one 15 minutes ago. How many times a day can such a small person poo for goodness sake? I am pretty sure I change 8 poopy diapers a day.

*Yes, sometimes she tumbles getting down. But honestly. She will have to sort it out.

** How much fun is our house going to be with THREE of us with that bullheaded trait? Jack is the king of it.

My vintage valentine

Last week I was moaning on facebook about how I never find good vintage clothes for Sam and the ones on Ebay/Etsy are SO darn $$$$.

And then last weekend I hit the mother lode.

For an unbelievable price.

In it was this little valentine dress. Even Dave gasped when he saw it.

It needed (and still needs one) some repairs. The lace trim on the bottom and the collar was totally tattered. I would have to completely remake the dress to replace it, so I just very, very carefully (think a full hour later) trimmed it off.
And then I spent 2 days bleaching the collar and stain treating the rest.

But isn't it sweet! (Never mind that it needs an iron. And the buttons on the collar still need to be replaced because one is missing. I just ran out of time.)
I mean come on! She embroidered forget me not on it.
I cannot get Sam to stand up so you can see it, this was the best I could get.
But holy cats it is adorable.

My sweet vintage valentine.

Now if the fairies would come and repair the rest of the lot. Oh yea, and bring back my energy. I am dying over here.

P.S. Sorry there is nothing of Jack. He's at school (on a big field trip with JET actually). We did make a pinterest valentine for his classmates. Which I forgot to take a picture of. I am telling you, I do NOT have my crap together right now.

Worth blogging too

I put this on facebook yesterday, but it's worth having here on the blog.

Apparently *I* had the cheeks too.

:-)

(My mom sent over a load of old photos this weekend, they are fun.)

*Yesterday Jack informed me that someone won the $300+ million dollar lottery. I replied "wow, that's a lot of money." "Yea, I bet their husbands can take a year off work now." Then after a little thinking he says "So, if you win the lottery do kids still have to go to school?" LOL

Heart to Heart 2012

Okay, time to reveal the heart to heart valentines from 2012!
Katie made pretty 3D hearts. You will have to go see her photos because we were one short so I didn't get one to keep, but they sure were sweet!

Shara made candy boxes complete with felt chocolates;
Desi decorated felt hearts;

Jane made the sweetest birds (Jack tried to steal it!);

Lisa made a different version of the arrow!;

Rachel made rose pins;

Stefani made art plaques;

Kim used the cutest little vintage stuffies to make these hearts (I had a hard time choosing which one I wanted!);

Mikey made love spinners;

Mel made sweet little banners;

Courtney made bakers twine buntings (these are going on my dollhouse);

Coleen made quilted hearts;

Tiff made sweet pipe cleaner girls;

Michaele made pretty pink balls;

And Hope made felt fortune cookies (I have NO idea why blogger refuses to let me put this below her picture).

They are all very sweet and I appreciate your participation ladies and gent!

Happy Valentines day to you all.

(Wait until you see what I thrifted for Sammi for Valentines Day. I die.)

P.S. If you want a link and didn't get one email me your link please? I have to use a different account to look in my email and I have already been at this an hour. With two screaming kids. Oy.