Two months old and other things

 Grant turned two months old this week.  At his 8 week check up he was:
14 lbs 1 oz
25 inches long
head 16 1/4 inches
putting him back around the 95th percentile instead of off the charts. (Yea!  Those numbers aren't the end all and be all, but I would feel better if he slowed down just a little on the growing thing so there was no endocrine worry.)  He also is showing much better muscle tone. (double yea! for that).

He  now:
smiles
laughs
watches the kids
is fascinated by the tv (ahem)
kicks his legs and moves his arms to make his bouncy chair rock and sing
sleeps all night
is on reflux meds (hello kid number three with gut problems, I am convinced I just am not giving them good gut flora in utero)
is still the sweetest boy

On Thanksgiving my dad says to me, "so, about your kids.." "Yes?" "Haven't you noticed that they are all clones?" LOL And then at the ped this week the ped says, "You know, I cannot believe how much they all look alike! Each one looks *just* like the other ones." "Yea, I have heard that before." LOL

 Junebug is closing in on two. And holy macaroni is the girl opinionated.  Right now we must wear pajamas ALL BLOODY DAY LONG. And the same pair of pajamas for three days in a row. The thrift gods smiled on me yesterday and sent me a "shhhhhhhhhh space!" shirt which is actually a DAYTIME shirt. She wore it for 3 whole hours before asking for the pajamas again.

If you happen to the proud owner of anything choo choo, fish or shhhhhhhhhh space related in a size 2, I AM your buyer. For real. (Just shoot me an email. I am already buying it on ebay, might as well buy it from people I know too. LOL)Yes, that means boy clothing (there are some girly fish things, thank goodness). Her wardrobe demands are exhausting.

 Selfishly it makes me want to moan. I waited a long time for a little girl, I now have two boys, and I STILL don't get to enjoy the pretty little girl things. Stupid? Yes. But come on!  We live in a damn pink girly palace for goodness sake. I had such high hopes...

We have spent a lot of time at home this week. (Everyone in town is desperately sick with this damn coughing thing, which we cannot get rid of either. And every day there is a fistful of letters from the school nurse with "we have a confirmed case of x,y,z in your classroom. It makes me want to hide out at home.)  But Sam started asking to go bye bye yesterday, so I promised her we would go out today.  Off to the Goodwill we went. I swear I thrift nothing but clothes and books for the kids right now (which is good too, as Grant is outgrowing everything so fast and I need the thrift gods to be generous with that stuff).  BUT I did find four pottery barn teen pillow cases this morning.

I could use them as pillow cases, but wouldn't they make the sweetest quilt?

You know, for my non girly girl. Who only wants trains and fish and rockets. Not pink polka dots.

LOL.

A stocking for Grant

After many years of using very small vintage Christmas stockings, I decided to make us all new, bigger, matching stockings last year.

 

Imagine my horror when November rolled around this year and I realized there would be no matching stocking for Grant!

 

Thank goodness Joann still carried the fabric I used. (Even though it is slightly a different color than last year's fabric.)

 

I knew I needed to make his stocking on Thanksgiving weekend when I had Dave here for a long period of time. But of course I  had to find the other stockings to make myself a new pattern. Wouldn't you know they were in the LAST box I pulled out? I guess the upside is that everything that is getting put out for Christmas is already out now. Except that the trees need ornaments.

 

 I picked this boy revelling in the snow for him.

 And used a fancy stitch on the machine to make the snowflakes. (I was going to hand do those, but who has that kind of time when it takes days to just find the stockings to make the pattern with!)

It's sort of crazy cool to see how many stockings are on the fireplace now. :)

Flea Market Sundays

It wasn't freezing this morning and despite my TRYING for 3 hours to ignore the call of the flea market, I couldn't do it.

 

So off I went. (Kidless because both Jack and Sam have been burning up with fevers for at least 2 days. Trying to keep them away from Grant is fun. Not.)

 

 This is a kid sized printed quilt. It was laying on the ground and the guy was walking all over it. When he asked what he could help me with I said "why are you walking all over that quilt?" "That? It's just a dirty old blanket I paid a dollar for."  "Umm, it's cute." "Okay, then, take the dirty thing for 2 dollars then." Don't have to tell me twice. LOL

 This is a BIG old biscuit tin. The guy selling it was chatting up another guy about the lack of scrappable cars right now. I butted in and volunteered that I have a scrap heap in the driveway as we speak since we bought a second mini van. (It's Dave's old truck. With three kids we can't use a truck that only holds two people.)  So, maybe I found a buyer for the truck. Wooohooo.

 I bought this from my FAVORITE flea market dealer. I don't buy a lot from him lately, but we are friendly. It is pretty worn in the middle, but he sold it to me cheap, cheap. The top is older than the quilting though. The back, binding are a cotton poly blend and the batting is poly.

 It is still sweet enough for me though!

Okay, baby crying again, so off with me.

 

Happy Sunday to you. (Dreading the start of the this week with sick kids and doctor appointments and Dave back at work. Ugh.)

On this day

 

 

I am grateful for these six little feet today

 

That run and jump and laugh and play

 

And show me every single day

 

The power of faith and hope and love and joy.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

 

 



Kid overload

I know mall portraits are so passe, but I still do them with the kids.

 Grant at 6 weeks. They wanted him curled up in fetal position and as I learned during that pumpkin insanity - this baby just doesn't do that.

 He is SO VERY redheaded!

 This past weekend we did all three kids together. I made Dave go with me (I usually do this stuff by myself during the week.) I was TERRIFIED about trying to get Sam to cooperate!  But she was actually okay. I think it helped that she had just watched Jack get his pictures done a month before and then Grant a week before.

 She did CHEESE! okay for the first two or three and then she was all over the place.

But that's okay, it only takes one shot.

And I did manage to find coordinating outfits, thanks to that Gymboree addiction.

Sam is having a HUGE language spurt. She went from barely saying three words to saying nearly a 100 words. And 2 and 3 word sentences. Among those are "darn it!" which is funny.

I ordered her some gymboree fish stuff from Ebay and what do you know? This morning she got dressed without arguing.  Yesterday we tried on no fewer than 7 shirts before settling on something with dogs on it. (I tried alligators and birds and frogs and who knows what else to no avail.) I tried a craigslist ad to see if I could turn up anymore of that fish stuff and no luck. It's not that easy to find fish clothes in November Sammi girl!

This is right about the age where it started to be obvious that Jack was super smart. I am curious to see what happens with her in the next few months. (Not that it matters if she is like Jack or not, but simply because as a teacher and a biologist I find this child development thing sort of fascinating.)

*And a note on those curtains. I remember buying them before I was even pregnant with Jack. And I can remember (oddly) exactly how much I paid for them in the antique mall. I will admit that it is a little strange to look at them  - they sort of scream "oh how naive I was then" to me now. It never, ever occurred to me at that point that I wouldn't be able to have exactly as many kids as I wanted to have when I wanted to have them. Obviously that's all different now. Even with a good outcome.  Ugh.

Grant's vintage school themed nursery

Okay, the pictures are going to have to speak for themselves here since I have one crying baby, one toddler who just spilled juice and one "din" that is covered in oil from the driveway somehow (?WTH?).

 

A few notes: the curtains are vintage, I bought them before Jack was born and used them in his room too. I couldn't find enough chalkboards for the chalkboard collage I pinned, so this is what evolved. The light is a stop gap - it was a $2 brass and glass fixture from Habitat restore that Dave took apart and we put a Lowe's shade over it. It's not enough light, but I still have yet to find anything I love. When we change his room to a toddler room the dark gray GOES. The alphabet knobs were a lucky Michaels clearance find (50 cents each!). Everything else is garage saled/thrift stored/ebayed/left over from Sam/used for all three kids.

 

The end. LOL

Flea Market Sundays

Oy, it's been a hectic week. I have been sick for two weeks and I spent all week hacking my darn head off and trying like mad to keep up with the kids and the house. I think things are finally on the downside thanks to some homeopathic cough medicine.

 Grant turned 7 weeks old this week. These are blurry because he is starting to get busy!

 Spending more time awake, interacting with the kids and grinning like mad when he hears my voice.

 And he is starting to get pretty. His eyes are cleared up, his skin is evening out and he is taking on that gorgeous baby look that his sibling both had.

He and I went to the flea market by ourselves this week.

 I have been passing up plenty of Christmas stuff unless it is something I don't already have. Like this pair of instrument playing Elves/Santas.

 Or this completely crazy and awesome little silver tree.

 Or more piles of glass garland. (Yes, I have plenty, but when it's cheap, it's gonna be MINE!)

 I also picked up a fisher price cash register for a dollar. The buttons don't work anymore and I am considering taking the back off and seeing if we can make it work again. We have nothing to lose for a dollar, right?

 Lord knows I have plenty of quilts, but they are still my number one love right now. I bought this one at an estate sale. It's pretty rough (it has a big hole up there where it is hanging on the line), but it was super cheap. I *think* I have enough true cutters to try making a slipcover for my chair now.

 Besides, the pink sailors are too fun to pass up.

 I paid a little more than I should have for this one, but the quilt well has been dry lately.

 She's a beauty.

Now if only I would deal with the pile of them that has accumulated in my laundry room of all places.

Shame on me.

Happy Sunday to you! Be back (I hope soon) with Grant's room and the recent portraits of the kids. I know, I know, you are waiting with baited breath! LOL

P.S. Not many folks were interested in the Jooners giveaway?  There is still one upgrade if you want it. Email me.

Mending holes in the thighs of jeans, but cute!

 One of the things I look forward to the most after the babies are born is wearing my favorite jeans again.  Imagine my horror when the inner thighs ripped out last week.

I googled and googled and googled this morning, but all the blog tutorials tell you how to patch them sensibly. From the inside, so you can't see the repairs.

 Having ruined my favorite college pair in a similar fashion, I already knew how uncomfortable (and frankly worthless) those stupid iron on denim patches are.

 So I just did it my way.  Instead of one HUGE patch on the inner thigh I cut up several small rectangles. Stuck them on with Steam a Seam (not the light stuff). Iron.

And then start quilting. Vertically and horizontally. Sew, sew, sew, some more. Then resume wearing favorite ratty old jeans. :-)

 

 

Flea Market Sundays

It's been 70 degrees here for four days. Lovely. And much needed. Of course that meant I went to the flea market this morning! I was there earlier than I would usually be because I was up early with Grant.

 

And it paid off. I spent every dollar in my pocket for the first time since spring I think.

 I bid on several of these old Halloween costumes on Ebay and always lost. I found this one sort of wadded up in a suitcase. When I inquired about the price the little old man told me "Oh, my wife put that there in the '90's. She's been gone since '99 and I never even looked in that suitcase. It's a pretty little thing, isn't it? How about $3 dollars?"  Sold.

 The very last thing I bought was this bear picnic basket. Too bad the bear is gone! I remember this from when I was a kid.

 Grant's collage wall really could've used one more chalkboard, so I didn't leave this one behind. I think this week I should finally show you his room, huh?

 Ever since seeing Laurie's tree full of birds I am determined to never let one of those birds pass me by. These are the candy container variety.

 I picked up two strands of glass garland and the woman said, "Oh I have more of those in the truck if you want them." Umm, yes please! Bought them all.

 The fancier ones are hard to find.

 Love.

 I bought pottery. I haven't bought pottery in ages because my shelves are full. But I have the matching piece to this one in aqua that I paid a MINT for. This one was way, way too cheap. And sweet. I paid a mint for the other because I love it so.

The last thing I need is more blankets around here, but this silk baby blanket is so soft. Sammi drags blankets around all day, she has decided all her dolls and her "baby" must have blankets too. (And her security blanket is now her "din". LOL) So, this one can go to the Sammi pile.

A good, good morning indeed.

And just in time, since the temperature is due to drop 40 degrees today. Jack is praying for snow!