Its Spring!

bikes! boys! Spring fever! Spring has sprung! Easter! Sunshine! Gardens and landscaping!
We've had lots of 50 degree days now, which is all good news as far as we are concerned at this point (I'm totally playing ignoramus to the elephant in the room called global warming). Its time to get ready for summer.

First on the agenda, get Owen back on his bike! Both boys are riding on two wheels. Collin is confident and excited to ride all over town. Owen learned how to ride last summer and was doing really well, until toward the end of the summer he took a spill at the park when a lady nearly pushed him off his bike (an adult, who was very very concerned about her own wellbeing, so much she'd push a kiddo off his bike even after he says "passing!" and carefully almost maneuvers around her. Ugh). Anyway, he wasn't happy about it and even though he rode home that day and rode a few more times that summer, this spring he was NOT feelin' his bike. At all. We tried everything. Praise, social pressure, bribing, reinforcement, you name it, we were trying it.

His reluctance was strong. He did NOT want to ride. We really wanted to get him back on the bike though, so we persisted and I'm happy to report a few weeks later he's asking to go on bike rides! It took a lot of Drew running along side him, and lots of praise, but he finally got the hang of it again and was off on two wheels.

We're working on the confidence part, and I don't forsee the overpass hill in his immediate future, but baby steps toward riding are good so when we head out for our first camping trip, he'll be read to roll.

Snuggled in all those attempts was Easter weekend. We celebrated with brunch at Axel's as we typically do, and, no church. Thats right. We didn't go to church. I'm not certain where we are with the religion business, but neither one of us clearly is feeling like we need to be in a pew each Sunday morning at this point to be spiritually connected to God. Maybe that will change in the future, but for now we're happy with it. Easter was a mostly of the pagan variety for us- eggs, rabbits, etc. 

We did have a blast coloring eggs and on Easter morning the boys were super excited to find eggs and use the clues the Easter Bunny left to find their baskets.

30 week! Baby ninja strikes again!

Ten more weeks. I can barely believe it. When life is moving so quickly within our family, its amazing how easy it is to lose hold of time and suddenly you are ten weeks away from the newest baby.

We’ve taken to calling her baby ninja now. I imagine dressing her up in a tiny back ninja suit for her first Halloween. It makes me chuckle. She kicks hard. Harder than either of the boys ever did. So hard it hurts, but even with her painful stabs I’m thankful for her wild and crazy tumbling routines. They remind me that we are healthy and she’s doing well in that tiny cramped space.

At 30 weeks they say she’s about the size of a butternut squash. I feel like she’s a butternut squash smashed into the skin of a basketball. So snug.

Baby ninja has given me a host of pregnancy symptoms/conditions/states of affairs that have escalated these last 5 weeks and are all new to me. The first and most pervasive is the lack of sleep. Not because I’m not tired. Boy am I tired (more on that next), but she’s got this uncanny ability to wake me up every hour or so because she’s making me so uncomfortable. Its awful. No sleep for this momma even before she arrives!

I had assumed that all that being tired was due to the lack of sleep (because if you know me, you know how much I love sleep) but it turns out at our last doctor’s appointment that I am anemic! Anemic means my iron is low, and low iron is characterized by being very out of breath and very tired. Both things that are very true!! So now I’m on iron pills for the rest of the pregnancy, but I’m still not certain how much of my tiredness is due to the iron issue and how much is due to the fact I just can’t sleep. Sigh.

When I’m not trying to sleep, trying to catch my breath, or trying to figure out where to get my next side of beef, I’m complaining about heartburn. Ish. Its the same as the boys, super annoying, super awful. I pretty much grin and bear it because I’m anti-drugs while pregnant, but its not a picnic. Its exacerbated by the things I love most- lemons- which I drink my water with, religiously, and it makes everything taste not so good because an hour later I get a second version. Paints a nice visual for you, doesn’t it?

I thought I had escaped the fun of leg cramps, but alas, I haven’t. In fact, the last week, every morning I’ve woken up with leg cramps that were pretty intense. It seems always when I think I’ve eclipsed the window for said pregnancy ailment, I learn that the window just shifts in this pregnancy.

But its not all complaints! So far she’s given me no back pain, which is fantastic, because with the boys I had a ton of back pain. And even though I’m not keeping a close eye on my eating (for example, today at a birthday party I had a piece of cake, and now as I write this I’m eating ice cream) I’ve gained about 10 pounds so far. I realize she’s about to head into a huge growth spurt, but 10 pound at 30 weeks doesn’t seem insurmountable, which is good J

My colleagues at work though are likely getting really tired of seeing me in the same 5 pairs of maternity jeans (rotated M-F) and 6 or 7 maternity shirts. Sorry guys. I’m not willing to buy anything new, especially with spring just around the corner. As soon as its warm enough, I’m sure I’ll move to dresses instead of stretchy maternity jeans.

Things are feeling good though and I’m not very stressed, which is also good. I probably should be- there is a lot to do before she arrives and work is ramping up to be at an all time highest level of busy, but I’m okay with all of that. I thrive on being busy at work. At home there are two different lists ongoing- the crazy pregnant wife things to get do around the house before the baby arrives list, and then the before the baby arrives because the baby needs it list.  Both are sorta done, and we’re making progress so I’m happy about that.

On the crazy preggo wife list reigns two big projects: finish the mudroom and landscape the front yard. Right behind those two tasks are clean out the garage and then buy a new car. Every day I get a little bit more anxious that the Jeep is going to die and I’m going to get a call from Drew that says something like “ meet you at the car lot to buy a new car!” But we've ticked off most of the other things on this list- finished the boys built in toy boxes, made or ordered curtains for all the places that desperately need them, finished baby ninja's afghan for the cradle, washed windows, did touch up painting, lots of odds and ends that are all part of nesting.

On the list of things we need to get for the baby before she arrives I still have some work to do! All the essentials are here so if she came tomorrow we'd be fine, but I'd like to get a diaper bag, changing pads, you know, those sorts of prep items that are important at some point :)

I'm hoping though, and feeling like, she'll be on time and not early. I really want to go to Erik's wedding, and that trip is planned two weeks before she's due and I was recently invited to Ohio state for a May 16th meeting, so fingers crossed things stay just the way they are supposed to be up until her due date. At this pace, and with any luck we'll have two more updates before the official Ninja's arrival. 

Crafty momma....

Er. Or pintrest fail momma?
Don't approach her with scissors momma?

The post on the nursery is all the final product, but before the final product there were lots and lots of trials.

First, I made the boys curtains. That went pretty well, until I got to the window seat and mis-measured the fabric. Woops. I had to piecemeal a white piece to the back of the seat cushion. Hopefully no one spends much time looking at the bottom! And, as a bonus they are already using it, which makes me happy :)

Second, was the nursery curtain. Here's where the real nightmares began. I knew that I wanted to make a ruffle valance and pinterest offered at least three "easy to do" tutorials. They made it sound so easy- you get your fabric, cut and sew into long strips that are at least twice as big as your window opening, you determine how you want to fix them to the curtain, get the ruffler, ruffle them and sew them on! Voila! Ruffle valance.

ha ha. That shit is funny.

First, have you ever seen a ruffler? It looks like some sort of torture device. Exhibit A.

And of course, because I'm cheap I ordered the 10.00 version from Amazon, which worked splendidly exactly 0% of the time. Ruffler =10, Alisha =0. It was quite an adventure. Lots of messing with needles, tension settings, threads, fabrics, you name it, I fiddled with it on my sewing machine. I could get it to sorta work on a setting I had absolutely no use for, but on the setting I needed it to work, I couldn't get it to do anything but jam up. Not to mention, the tension on the back of the fabric looked like I had tied about 10,000 knots. It was awful. I thought I could bust through it in one evening, a few hours at most since the tutorials made it sound so easy! 1:00am later, I was still working my sweat shop to get the thing done (Drew on cutting and mercifully, Drew's mom on ironing). I couldn't quit of course, so that night I put that sucker up at 1:30 am.

I wasn't done there though. I mean, I'm a total glutton for punishment, so I decided a quilt was necessary too.

I encountered this round of crafting more apprehensivly. So far its going okay. Not wonderful. Quilters make it sound like lining up fabric seams is cake, like you can always so easily make each seam perfectly aligned. I'm here to tell you I can't. I'm always trying to figure out the secret and mostly always failing. Sometimes they accidentally line up, and I think I did something right, but then I can't replicate it. Another good thing about the quilt is that I'm already constructing the top quilt! That was half the battle with Owen's quilt- piecing hexagons was a nightmare for his. For this one the blocks are triangles and easy to take on bit by bit (even if they don't line up perfectly). So, if I keep up a pace of 20 blocks a week I should be able to get the top quilt ready in about 5 weeks, with a few weeks left to baste, get the back fabric, sew and quilt the thing together!


Alongside the quilt were two more craft jobs- much smaller and easier. One is the bunting for her nursery with letters on it. These were fun to make- I found a font I liked, used it as a template, interfaced the letters and sewed them on banner triangles. Then I pieced them all together to make the alphabet with bias tape.  The second was a boppy cover- these are super easy to make. A zipper and a hunk of fabric, an hour or so later, and voila! boppy cover! I used the same pattern to make Owen's years ago and hung on to it. I'm glad I did!



The crafting continues. Before long the top quilt will be finished (maybe two more weeks) and we'll be closer and closer to baby ninja arriving!

Nursery Preparations

For each of our kids I've tried to personalize their nursery. They each get their own space and I'm pretty meticulous about picking it out. I have this commitment to making sure that they each come into this world surrounded by a room filled with love and many homemade things that they'll appreciate, I hope, years down the road.

This time wasn't any different. I took to picking out baby ninja's nursery decor at about 25 weeks and have been working to slowly get it ready for her arrival. And, true to nesting form, as I typically do, I've bitten off a bit more than I can chew.  This time it was an afghan, a curtain, a quit and a bunting banner. So far, we have the curtain and afghan ready to go, and I've started the quilt. This time I hope to finish it long before her second birthday (which for the record, is when I finished Owen's -- I started his before he was born too!).

Here's the progress so far. We're finding our way to making it a happy place.
I especially lover her birdie mobile and the mirror that I'm sure, once she's big enough, she'll admire herself in.

 We're still working on table top stuff- eventually I'm sure there will be a video monitor on this dresser and a small lap to go below her ABC print (which I scounted on minted.com until I have a big enough coupon to get it cheap).

 Here's the ruffle valance I made. It uses the same fabric as her bedding (which I had made and ordered, I'm not that crazy to take on bedding too).

 Eventually she'll have a bunting over her crib with her name on, but since we aren't sharing her name just yet I'm not putting it up.

And here's the Etsy birdie mobile I love so much and her mirror. Across the room is her changing table and rocker, but I haven't worked much on that side yet, so more updates with all the pictures when its finally finished.

Loose Tooth!

Some things in childhood you really have no control over. Loosing teeth is one of those things. Collin has been asking for almost a year now about when he will lose a tooth. The other kids in his class have been loosing teeth for a whole year- some in Kindergarten and Collin has been waiting patiently. Every so often I ask if he has any lose teeth and he says no. It was a ritual of ours.

Until one day he said yes.

I happened to be away in Florida at the time and during facetime he shared his news. A loose tooth! A new world. A transition out of early childhood.

And here it is, still just loose.

I couldn’t recall how long it takes for a tooth to go from newly loose to ready to fall out. It turns out for Collin its pretty long, because its still only partially loose and we’re about a month since its started to really wiggle. Maybe that means sometime in April it will fall out.

Enter the tooth fairy. A whole new world for us.  What does the tooth fairy do you ask? I’m not really sure. What does she bring? I’m not quite sure about that either. We’ll have to wait and see.

For now, we’ll mark down the first wiggle: February 24^th, 2016.

Wiggles are on our way though, through one of the many doors into becoming a big kid and losing more than teeth, moving away from the little bits of early childhood bright eyed excitement. And so, he loses a tooth and I lose a little bit of the baby left in him.

Collin's First Grade Winter Concert

We live in a time when no holidays that have religious connections are celebrated in schools. It makes me sort of sad that my boys don’t really get the chance to enjoy the magic of various faiths in celebration at school. We’re not even religious, so its not a religion in schools plug. Instead it’s a celebrate diversity in learning about others plug. Instead of worrying about not offending anyone and therefore celebrating nothing, I wish they celebrated everything. I wish the could experience Hanukah, Christmas, Divali, Kwanza, Ramadan, Chinese New year, all the bigs of all the faiths and denominations. I think it always helps open their eyes to the magic that is stored in tradition and heritage.  But, they don’t. Instead they do this “winter concert” thing where they sing a few songs and sorta pay homage to a few cultures.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the concert itself because the kids are so excited to be able to show off the songs they have been working on for months. They stand in the risers, a tiny bit nervous, waving at us sitting in the seats just ahead. They steel themselves for their masterpiece performance where they try their best, even if that is just humming along

.

This year they sang a African folk song, a few Spanish songs, a French song, and a few standard American fares. At first grade they are adorable- enough independence to take pride in what they are doing, enough playful joy to trumpet on, even if they are out of tune.

They sang the Ants go Marching and were so enveloped in their own pace they left the recording behind, which made for a sort of double layered version of song and tune. Again, adorable and so full of inspiration about what it is to be committed to a task, that for them, meant pushing forward with or without their accompaniment.

In the end, we really enjoyed the concert and I found myself thinking- do I really have a first grader standing in those risers? How did we get here? And you know what, it turns out there was a song for nearly every season of our lives.

When the boys were little we sang our share of nursery tunes, a fan favorite was the wheels on the bus during lunch time. I made up songs that made no sense to introduce vocabulary, I sang about making lunch, making beds, changing diapers. You name it, there was a song. We did music together and I still find myself humming the hello and goodbye songs from those groups.

In toddlerhood the songs became a mix of soothing remedies and purposeful ballads. The clean up song entered our repertoire, and soon behind were the Daniel Tiger varieties of “Try new foods, they might taste good” and “If you are feeling mad and you want to roar, take a deep breath and count to four.”

The preschool welcomed us, and we were still singing songs, this time to finger plays, adventures in books, and many more. Character profiles appeared in our world and suddenly songs from Disney movie’s we’d never seen were attractive to the boys. The Lion King soundtrack ran often, even though we’ve still never watched the movie.  Pandora also entered their lives, and a whole new world of children’s music, classic music, and “momma’s music” opened up.

And so, the winter concert reminded me that for every tradition, moment and adventure in our lives, season to season there is a song. I hope it continues, as when I hear those songs now, I’m transported back to those moments. I hope someday, when I hear the Ants Go Marching I’ll be transported back to first grade, where my oldest shared a piece of his heart on the risers in his elementary school with us.