Handmade Holidays: Holiday Party #1

Hubby had a company holiday party this past Sunday so there was minimal crafting done, with all the pumping and prepping and showering that I had to do prior to leaving Steven with his grandfather. This was really the first time that I have left him alone. I have left him once before, for an hour for a drink with friends but he stayed home with his Dadda. This time, Hubby and I were both out from 6:45pm until 11:21pm. Not that I kept track of the time or anything.  

It was tons of fun, James even bought me a new outfit and I got to wear shoes that we bought two winters ago for the first time. I absolutely love the top that we bought (thank you Target), it was light and airy, glittery and just drapey enough to cover the baby belly without being frumpy. James insisted on wearing my Van Gogh- Doctor Who skirt from Hot Topic, very cute and not something that I would have bought without him, but it turned out to be really comfortable. 

The food was awesome, the people he worked with (he just transferred to another store so we have another party next week!) are awesome and fun, we danced and other then a sore on my toe the night was awesome. Halfway through, my best friend (since fifth grade) went over to the house and dressed the baby up for bed and she finally put him to sleep, after my dad tried twice! They both said that it wasn't too bad so I am hopeful for next week. On the other side of that, Steven might have been horrible and they are nicely lying to me. James' mom told me when she was over that James was four before she left him with anyone else. They left James with his grandmother and she swore that he was happy and perfect the whole time, while his aunt tattled and told his mother how he wailed the entire time they were gone. I imagine that it was somewhere in between. My friend also bought Steven two new pajama sets and she sent me a picture of him in it, which made me cry in front of a table of James' coworkers, embarrassing but I missed him!!!

very blurry because of the poor lighting, but yey us!

Terrified face on my little reindeer baby!

One of my favorite ever pictures of us

Holiday Season Starts!

     This past month I have not been a great blogger, but I have definitely been working on being a great momma. Steven and I spend every day together, lots of one on one time just hanging out with each other. I am trying to figure out how to put a baby on a schedule when I have no real schedule and no real solid reasons to stick to a schedule. But it is a work in progress. Here's hoping that I can figure it out in a reasonable amount of time *fingers crossed*
     So as of this past Sunday, December is finally here and the Christmas season really starts. We had 11 people for Thanksgiving dinner and are now planning a dinner for potentially 27 people on Christmas day. It is a very good thing that I enjoy hosting and prepping and decorating and setting a cute table! Tomorrow I will start the hand made holiday presents countdown and I am debating doing a Doctor Who month in January, with crafts, episode reviews, lots of pictures and maybe a cosplay or two.

I hope every one had a blessed and thankful Thanksgiving with loved ones and is looking forward to a love filled holiday season! 

The Thankful Project: Day 20

     So I kind of fell off the grid for the past two weeks, I apologize. Between the baby and prepping for a Thanksgiving dinner for 11 and a Christmas dinner for 18, the sewing, crafting, cooking and cleaning have been taking a front seat over blogging. I haven't even had time to obsess over Pinterest in forever, "First World Problem" if I ever heard one. I have put together a quilt for baby this past week, all I have to do is tie it and bind it, which may even get finished today....how exciting! Since I had a loosely based Harry Potter "nursery" area, this quilt is also a little Harry Potter themed, it has little owls all over at least. But I am going to pair it with the first Harry Potter book for Steven's Christmas present from just his Momma. I am also half done with handmade curtains for my nephew, they were supposed to be for last year but the pregnancy made me so tired that I made very little last year. Potentially foolishly, I also singed up for an ornament swap that I have the idea and all the supplies, I just have to sit down and make them to send them out by the end of this week! So, I figured that the only way that I would get back on the figurative horse was to buckle down and dive back headfirst.
     I love this Thankful project so thank you so much Chasing Happy for linking everyone up to share the ideas, people and things that we are thankful every single day of the year but giving us a platform to shares those thanks. I don't know if anyone else has seen on their Facebook pages that people are actually complaining that others are listing the things that they are thankful for this month, but I have had a handful of complaints (none directed to me) but I am a little shocked on how critical people are about other sharing their thoughts. It is a little confusing how we seem to have a culture that needs to constantly put others down for something, real or imagined. But anyways....on to today's Thankful Project prompt: Something about your significant other or best friend.
     I absolutely love James' sense of humour, all the way down to his gorgeous crow's feet by his eyes from smiling so much. When he smiles and those crinkles are thrown up, its perfect. I am not a funny person, I can't tell jokes, I can't tell stories and I do not have the quick wit that can make up for it, when we met, I was still stuck in the "older sister" humour of just poking fun. It is a work in progress. But James still finds me funny and he more than makes up for my lack of humour. When we go out, I try and play off of him as much as possible, but he is quick on his feet. He takes jokes like a champ and has no problem making himself the butt of jokes to get a reaction from the people around him. I am sure part of that is his amazing self confidence that I am completely lacking but he runs with it like no one that I have ever met. This pure self confidence in his own humour is something that I admire so much. He will laugh so hard that he cries, until his stomach hurts and I love that. It is dorky and the internet has not helped his humour of silly videos at all. He is perfectly happy watching hours of America's Funniest Videos and youtube videos of cats falling off of tables, and while I sometimes find it confusing how it can continue to entertain him for hours, I appreciate that he just enjoys life enough to still find these things funny. He helps me keep it real, however much that sounds like a cliche. I can get so wrapped up in everything that I think needs to get done that I forget to enjoy life a bit. He helps keep me grounded and to just smile.

Thank you, James, for keeping it fun, no matter what!

   

Mayhem Fest

piano bar in Orlando where we got the singer to play the Time Warp and did the dance...embarassingly awesome

A movie theater standie that James had to fit into....with me assisting and eye rolling

The Thankful Project: Day 3

Thank you again to Chasing Happy for hosting the Thankful Project. 

Today's topic is to discuss a place that you are thankful for. I was kind of unsure exactly what that even meant to me, so I took a bit longer to even come up with a list of places that I could be thankful for. 

As quiet and blah as it looks now, in the beginnings of winter, this I will miss.

When it comes down to it, as tumultuous as my childhood may have been, I think that the place that I am most thankful for is the backyard of my parents' house. This was, hands down, the place that spend the most time growing up. My father's somewhat extreme style of parenting during the summer, after my parents were divorced, was to send us outside at 830am, we were able to come inside to use the bathroom, to eat at noon, and then not until 6pm. We were left to, mostly, our own devices to amusement and to not injure ourselves. I can't imagine sending our kids outside now, unsupervised, for hours on end but my brother and I had no complaints at the time about it. 

Marley playing on a fallen tree during Hurricane Sandy, thankfully none fell
on the house, but we lost three trees.

Up until I was in middle school, my brother and I would pretend that we were Native Americans. We built teepees out of old sheets and giant branches that we pulled out of the surrounding woods, branches that were six to eight feet tall, all tied together with old clothesline and childish determination. We would collect acorns and chestnuts and poisonous red berries, pretending to eat them all. We would make bows and arrows out of yarn and shoe laces. We glued empty water bottles to the bottom of a piece of wood to make a raft to navigate the stream in our woods, treacherous as that stream was, we could have managed the two foot wide by six inches deep stream without the raft. Also, side note, Elmer's school glue is not water resistant, do not use it for rafts in the future. 

Then in sixth grade, I met one of my best friends, Ryn and we had history class together where we learned about Ancient Egypt and I read The Egypt Game.( I highly recommend that book, like insanely so, that and The Phantom Tollbooth) Then our native village turned into an ancient Egyptian palace. My little brother was a pharaoh, we made robes out of sheets, headdresses out of cardboard, memorized hieroglyphics, mummified a doll and buried her in my backyard under a dogwood tree, complete with turkey dinner and silver plated dishes. 
We fullfilled our Harry Potter fantasies by building a Hogwarts out of plastic milk crates and handmade wands and spellbooks. Under the pines trees we would relive all our favorite moments from the books and wonder why we never got a letter delivered by owl messenger. 
This was the yard that we had a pool in for a long time, that we were allowed to spend entire days in, until we were wrinkly and uncomfortable. A yard surrounded by woods that fed our imaginations, we created cities and towns, jurisdictions were separated for my brother and I, territorial boundaries that we were not allowed to cross, marked by swept up leaves and pricker bushes. 

As a mostly adult, I have our kids now play in the yard. We continue to have bonfires, whether they are legal fires or not, I am not sure still. James, the kids and I built a giant Wicker Man one year and lit him on fire. I picked flowers to weave in and out of the branches and we stared at the giant wooden man until he was ashes. My brother and I would try to keep a single fire going to weeks at a time, cooking hot dogs and waffles over the flame for our amusement. We had random gardens that never amounted for much food outside of the dozen or so tomatoes we would eat as soon as they ripened. We have always ate summer dinners outside, have hung hammocks between the trees to laze about. This is the first place that I ever "laid out" in the sun to actually try and tan. It was this yard that my brother was stung over two dozen times because bees hate him and he was a clumsy six year old. This was the yard that we had my two ever birthday parties in, one in first grade and one in sixth grade, were a girl stepped on a nail and it went through her foot in the woods. This is where we had my graduation party, where my grandmother parked her RV when my youngest brother, Colin, was born so she could spend time while my parents were in the hospital. This is where I kept my first ever pet rooster named Dani California and where he would chase Colin down because they were the same height. 

 This is the red maple that my brother and I would climb right before a thunderstorm to ride the storm winds in the branches before it started raining. And under these same branches, all lit up with holiday lights, is where I said yes to my wonderful and amazing Hubby when he asked me to marry him. 
So this yard, above all other places so far in my life, I am the most thankful for. 

The Thankful Project: Day 2

Again thanks to Chasing Happy for hosting this thankful linkup. 

Today's prompt, "A role that you've played," was a little more difficult for me then yesterday's prompt. I am thankful for being able to be a partner to my wonderful fiance, thankful for being the "favorite" granddaughter to my Pappy and Nana, thankful for being the only sister to six brothers and mother to my wonderful baby, Steven. But I think the role that I am most thankful for is that of stepmother.

I met James' two children when they were two and four year of age, so I wasn't there when they were babies but I have seen them grow over the past five years. It is the hardest thing that I have done, almost harder then being a birth mother, is carefully treading the water of being a stepmother, especially when their own mother is very loving and very involved. I had a really hard time coming to terms with being the stepmother for the first two years that James and I were together, I loved being the fun person but I am a strong believer that children need schedules and routines, which turns me into the strict, mean one (according to Hubby). I have my own Type A, obsessive personality that does not coincide well with children to begin with, but I have grown so much as a person, become so much more patient (I had none to begin with), understanding and I listen so much better then I did when we first met. 

James' daughter, (my stepdaughter or my soul-daughter, as James calls her) was the easier fit when we first met. I was fun, with crazy coloured hair, cool clothes, danced in public and I wore a cat collar as a necklace so for a two year old girl who wore tutus and pink cowboy boots regularly, it wasn't hard to get along. As she has gotten older and started acting like much more of a teenage, we have conflicted a little more. James says that I am harder on her, more strict and hold her to high standards, which may be true. I worry about the culture of lowered expectations for girls, that it is okay to just be cute or pretty, but I want her to know that it is just as important to be kind and to be smart. I am thankful that she has taught me how important it is for girls to have positive role models, she has taught me to see the world through the eyes of a little girl (I hated pink, glitter, and dresses as a girl) and I hope that she has the patience in the future to help me learn more patience and to breathe before acting. 

Hubby's son, on the other hand, was a much harder sell. I was scared to push too hard, he was quiet, a little angry and very set on being with his father, understandably so. I have six brothers, so I always figured that I would sync so well with a son, but it was so much harder than I had expected. It wasn't until recently that he and I have started to have our own inside jokes, our own conversations, our own little system and agreement on how our relationship should be. It started with him learning how to spell and we would play the spelling game. Hubby or I would give him a word and he would try spelling it. He wanted harder and harder words, to the point where I was just reading words out of the dictionary to challenge him more. Since then, we have settled that we are both good spellers, so we have that in common. He and I both get ready quickly when we have somewhere to do, while James and Eve take their time. Griffin and I call them the Delinquents now, because of their shared lackadaisical attitude sometimes. Grif and I both tend to be a little more serious and introverted naturally so I know where he is coming from. As I have gotten older, I am trying to become more of an extrovert, but naturally I just need quiet me-time. I am thankful that Grif has taught me that boys come with their own basket of problems, but none are insolvable. He has taught me how much fun video games can be, that sometimes it is okay to just wear sweatpants and no socks every single day (it is no reason to increase blood pressure over) and that being a stepmother can just be as simple as being companion souls sharing life's journey together and not overbearing, anal retentive craziness, at least most of the time. 

So thank you, Eve and Griffin, for helping me to learn how hard and how easy it can be to be a stepmother, that we aren't all evil, and that there is always enough room in my heart to love our happily blended family. 

The Thankful Project: Day 1

 While planning out the next month for  my blog, I stumbled across Chasing Happy and her wonderful Thankful Project and the prompts with link-up of everyone else sharing what they are thankful for this month (and hopefully the rest of the year as well). My new year starts on November 1st after Samhain, so a month devoted to things that I am thankful for sounded perfect and then it will work right into the holiday season and the time that I get to spend with family. So here we go:

Thankful Project: Day One: A person

Hands down, the person I am most thankful for is my fiance. My family helped shape me into the person that I am, but Hubby has made me into a person that I am happy with and can make others happy. Like more young girls than most would care to admit, no matter how smart or pretty or accomplished I ever was, I battled with self-image and self confidence. While I am not saying that Hubby has cured me and that I am now a ferocious, confident, devil-may-come kind of woman that I would like to be, I am so much more confident in being comfortable as a person than I was before I met him. As scandalous as it sounds, we met while he was my boss at a past job. I took the job seriously enough to move from part-time to full-time but he motivated me to become a manager, and not the benevolent despot manager that I had known previously but a fun, understanding but down to business kind of boss that encouraged workers and still impressed upper management. I took jobs with people that I didn't know, in towns that I had never been in before, managing an entire store of people that I had never met and aiming to be knowledgeable in every area of that store. It made me see that retail isn't all bad and that I had the ability to be a leader that I had never really felt before. I would love to say that everytime he tells me that I am beautiful that I agree, but I don't but I walk every day with the confidence that he thinks that I am beautiful and smart and worth all the grief that I cause him. He makes me thankful for our family, for my family, for friends and for my ability to love someone so much that I miss him every morning from not seeing him while I was asleep. 

He will kill me for this picture, but this man helps me make bread...he is wonderful!!! 

Family Trip: Washington, DC and Roaring Spring, PA

This past weekend Hubby has some vacation time before his mother came over to visit from Ireland on Tuesday (ahhh mother-in-law visit). Since Steven's godfather lives in DC he hasn't seen Steven since he was born, we wanted to visit him and my grandparents. So we left Thursday night for the five hour trip to Roaring Spring to see my grandparents. We stopped at Cracker Barrel (my favorite!) for dinner, I had fish that was amazing and we got there in time to have a full night's sleep. Then we spent Friday hanging out at my grandfather's wood working shop and picking out new winter riding boots for me. (we found the perfect ones at Target). We went for a little walk around town with my grandmother at stopped at the famous spring to snag a few pictures. 
We left Saturday morning for the three hour drive to DC and had a relaxing visit with Godfather and family. Visited a new comic shop and had lunch at Red Robin. Then left Sunday afternoon feeling well socialized and less stresses about visits that we had been lax on. It was a great little vacation and perfect couple time before MIL came into town. But there is even better news coming later!!!

Altoona and Washington DC Trip in a weekend

finally trying some tummy time, much to Baby's dismay

Happy Friday and start to the weekend! Hubby's vacation started today, so as soon as he got out of work yesterday, we packed up the car (two hours later) and headed down to my grandparents' house for a quick visit and a pit stop before we head to Washington DC to visit with Steven's godfather/James' best friend. James was quick to get out of work a little early and with his mother coming to visit next week (gasp) he spent a little bit helping me get the house all in order. We also have Monday to get everything perfect, get grocery shopping done and some food made that I can just throw in the oven while she is here. I am so absolutely nervous about a week long visit from the mother-in-law, but we have met before and she is so nice but I am still super stressed about what we will do while James is at work. We have a couple things planned for when she is here, including a visit to the Statue of Liberty and maybe the Bronx Zoo, if I can convince James. Today we are spending the day in Roaring Spring, PA, the place where they make composition notebooks, at my grandparents' house. Dinner tonight, a nice sleep and then driving down to DC for a great visit there. Wish me luck in getting everything ready and still being able to enjoy this little vacation with the Hubbs!

Look at that serious face!

Attachment Parenting: Independent or Entitled Children, Or is there a happy medium?

what I wake up to every morning

     James and I have been arguing the difference between healthy attachment parenting and Steven just training us to do what he wants through unhealthy attachment. Arguing is probably a strong word, James tells me to let Steven cry for a bit if we know that nothing is wrong and I give him puppy-dog eyes because I hate hearing the baby cry. But he has a point, does self soothing at his age (6 weeks) really help his independence as a growing child and later as an adult?
     James worries that we are creating an adult that cannot survive on their own, that complains until they get their way, an entitled individual that perpetuates the entitled generations that we have now. Children, and adults that do not understand hard work or earning their keep or living within their means or having to wait on something. I understand that, and I have seen children grow up who are like that, but I have seen children who seemed very spoiled grow into very independent, individualist adults as well.
     My thoughts are based purely on my childhood. We were not a family that hugged or touched or coddled. My parents divorced when I was seven and while some siblings grow closer during a divorce, my brother and I just pulled into ourselves. Not to say we were freakish and not socialized or had complete inability to carry on social interactions, but we had (and still have) plenty of issues. Even now, I have the hardest time hugging my parents, it generally feels awkward, the same with hugging my brothers. My grandparents, James and the kids are about the only ones that it isn't too weird. I am a one arm hugger for everyone else, to me that is showing the proper social interaction with little commitment. Because of that and knowing how hard it is even now for me to connect to people, I argue that it is more important at this stage of his life to know that we will always be there, that he can trust us to never leave him and if he needs us that we will come. I figure that independence is achieved in a healthy way by children slowly reaching out to try new things on their own with the complete awareness that a parent will always be there to come back to, if needed. I want the kids to know that he can always come back. When they are learning how to walk or swim or ride a bike, they can go as far as they want, but as soon as it is too much, we will be there. When they are older and start driving or dating, if the situation is too much, that we will be there to talk to and sit with. When they are adults, I will cook them dinner on their birthday, we will help them look for interview clothes or a first house or explain the different settings on a drill (I am still figuring it out). But I definitely think that that trust in your parents is built at this age.
     I wish that there was a way to figure out exactly what style of parenting has the best chance of creating a functional adult out of your child, but each child is different let alone never knowing how each will react. In the end, I will completely agree with James on this point, our job is purely and simply to create happy adults.

This was sent to me on Facebook and it is a perfect thing to share:
Promise to My Daughter by Lisa-Jo Baker
    This absolute pulled on my heart strings. A friend from college (who just announced that baby #2 is on the way) shared this on Facebook and I almost didn't even read it. I am so glad that I did. Even though this is to her daughter, the thought is universal no matter the gender of your child. I loved this so much, I loved how it is almost exactly what I tell Steven. He is just realizing that he can fall, so when we put him down he reaches out really quickly. Every time he does that, I tell him that I will always catch him, no matter what. That I will always be there for him when he thinks he is falling or when he is unsure of himself.

Tuesday Recap: Lazy Day and Curtain Progress

I stalk this kid so much when he sleeps

     Yesterday was James' kind of day off, he started the new job on Monday and then texted me half way through the day telling me that he would be working an overnight shift Tuesday into Wednesday. When Steven first came home, James had to work a few overnights and I stressed thoroughly about being home alone with him at night. Last night went so well, that it definitely was no different then when James has a day shift.

milk coma face

     We spent most of the day just hanging out, I try not to create too much of a crazy honey-do list for his days off, although it does happen and as soon as he wakes up from his nap, he will be on today's list. It was nice that he and Steven were able to spend some not-crying time together. There are days where I start to worry because James only sees Steven during his nightly temper tantrum about falling asleep. We then ran out to the post office before they closed where there was junk mail and a lovely letter from James' mom thanking us for mailing her pictures of the baby and telling us that she will be coming over towards the end of September (soooo much pressure!!!). We then went to the dollar store too look for more stationary, I am surprisingly running out, stopped at McDonald's so I could get a caramel frappe and then came back home in time to eat dinner and watch a few episodes of How I met Your Mother before James had to start getting ready for work.

where I sew now, thank you dining room!

naptime! Video games are hard work

     Steven had fallen asleep on him and when James got in the shower, I nursed him and he went back to sleep. My younger brother then took him while he was watching tv so I could get some sewing in, but he complained that Steven was too sweaty so I laid the baby down in bed and finished hemming one of the panels. I kept checking on Steven because he usually wakes up to eat and then freak out that he is too tired to fall back asleep, but he was quietly sleeping away. I ran into a stumbling block trying to design the curtains so instead I crawled into bed with him and fell asleep watching Alphas. Steven slept from 7pm until 5am, he woke up nursed, I changed his diaper and we stayed up for two hours, playing and talking. I made my morning coffee (almost four hours earlier then usual) so when he fell back asleep at seven thirty, I had a really hard time and ended up zoning out to BBC's Robin Hood show. Steven woke back up around 930, ate, diaper change and I cleaned up a bit, walked around aimlessly (because I can't do anything too involved or loud and because I can't remember what I am doing all of the time) and then James finally came home around 11am. Steven and I met him outside, still in our pajamas where we stared at our pumpkins for awhile and then we came in to make hamburgers for breakfast and spent some of Steven's awake time playing Capcom vs Marvel on the 360, which was pretty fun. They both then fell asleep, when I stealthily took many pictures of them, posted them here and on Facebook to ensure that as many people as possible saw how cute the two of them are together. Since they fell asleep, I took out a turkey to defrost, caught up on my blogs to read, checked up on Pinterest, found a perfect pattern for a RenFaire chemise and drank more coffee.
     Hopefully, they will wake up soon to take a walk and pack up some things to go into storage before we watch Supernatural tonight and I can get some more sewing in. Tomorrow, Baby and I both have doctor appointments so we will update about that and see how much of an argument I get into with the doctor over not vaccinating the baby.

This is why younger brothers should not be trusted with small babies, I asked him to hold Steve during our yardsale and turned around to see my sleeping infant cuddled up in a old copy paper box. *sigh* I did leave him there until he woke up, I wouldn't have done that a month ago!

Monday Recap: Couplehood and the Perfect Mate

     Yesterday was James' first day at his new store, while he had been in the store over a year ago, a lot of things have changed including the entire management team that he would be part of now. It was a little stressful and while he is trying to figure out where he will fit in, I am attempting, probably unsuccessfully, to keep the stress that I cause him to a minimum. 
     Yesterday, I tried to be loving and caring but we are trying to get over a bump in our relationship. The way we socialize with other people is so very different that it can sometimes lead to confusion and a complete miscommunication. I am a rather introverted person, so when he spends a lot of time talking to other people, I feel abandoned. He is very much an extrovert, an amazing personality, and great charisma, all things that I find so very attractive, unfortunately so do a lot of other people. As far as his work is concerned, it has made his job so much easier, but socially I am the one with the problem generally. I am happy keeping my social group to five or so people and never really branching out, it is something that I am working on. I was making some headway while I went back to school, but since staying home getting ready for baby and now with baby all day, my socializing has shrunk considerably. Since James tries very hard to make me happy, I think he has been subduing his extrovert nature to try and meld more to my introverted ways but it tends to make neither one of us happy. 
     So we did end up having a conversation when he came home because he noticed me acting odd. But we talked and came to a bit of an understanding. We then talked about his work and his new coworkers, moving (yes it is still in the plan book), the kids (I am too strict and he is too lax), cooking and television. We made up and went to relax and watch television for a few hours, while I am not a huge television person and if we never had tv when we have our own house, I will not miss anything, I do understand how watching something that your partner enjoys can be a bonding activity. He watches True Blood with me (omg the season finale on Sunday was crazy) and last night we watched Monday Night Raw together. I like watching the characters and talking about the storyline with him, while I would rather watch Property Brothers reruns (they are so very lumberjack sexy) or back episodes of Doctor Who, once in a while I can handle wrestling if it means connecting with him about something that he enjoys. We went to bed relatively at the same time, which hasn't been happening lately-another point in the earlier conversation- and spent a quiet night, all three of us cuddled up in bed. Although, James supposedly was less comfortable because Steven and I tend to be bed hogs. James woke up today with his entire back side hanging off the bed, me snuggled as close to him as possible and Steven with an entire half of a queen size bed. 
     When we laugh about silly things like that, all still together in bed, I have such deep seeded love for this man who has given me a family to be proud of, encouraged me to grow in every aspect of my life and loves me for the person that I am, even when I don't know who that is. He is so strong so much of the time and I hate when he needs me to be strong and I get too worried about overcooking the pasta, or finishing a load of laundry to let him vent to me from time to time. I am so much of a better person than when he and I met, but I love that he needs me and that makes me want to be an even better person for him, every single day of our lives together. I am grateful down to my core for him. 

Thrifting: Books and School Clothes

     I absolutely love thrift shopping. Up until I was pregnant, thrift shopping was a hobby, a place for me to go on dates with friends and grab a couple cute finds, then it was the only logical option with how much I was growing and how picky I am with how things fit. Although in the end, maternity pants (from Salvation Army: Motherhood Maternity brand) and long cut tank tops from Old Navy and Target were the only things that were comfortable. With now three kids, clothes shopping could be an epic expenditure if I bought everything of theirs for retail price. 

My most recent trip to Salvation Army was with my older brother and my niece and Steven so the two or three hours that I used to spend shopping through every item was not an option. With fall coming up, warmer clothes in Eve and Griffin's new sizes is a must. Griffin is in a size 10, but there wasn't much in that size on this trip, but I did find three great Old Navy brand 12s that totaled $6. They will be stored away until a few months (possibly weeks, kids are like that I've learned) and be perfect for Griffin. Eve is a tough little cookie to shop for, she is 8 years old and has a couple older friends, so fashion is starting to become a more important factor in her clothing choices. Gone are the days were green leggings under a Snow White dress with pink cowgirl boots passed as an option. With that in mind, I have been trying to buy a little more generic girl clothes and when she is with me, she can pick out the more radical options. I found two great Children's Place pants, size 8 for length and with the brilliant elastic/button waist cinches to fit her size 6 waist. One hot pink that can button up to capris and the other an emerald green corduroy flare leg. They both fit her nicely and can be paired with almost any of her tops or shoe choices. Overall, that trip was successful. While I didn't get anything for Steven, Hubby or my awkward postpartum body, these five finds made me feel accomplished.

I know that I have posted before about how much I love our library's thrift store, but seriously, I love it so much. I have only been once since Steven has arrived and I was still hurting too much to pay too much attention to the brilliance around me. This will explain the second stack of books from that trip where the only book that I picked up was Crocheting for Dummies, the rest are the Hubby's choices, although I may read the Magic the Gathering books, fantasy books are my favorite genre.
     The trip before that I was much more involved thus my choices: The Good Housekeeping Needlecraft Encyclopedia, Making Dolls and Doll Clothes, Hogwarts Yearbook, two baby books, three Supernatural books (Hubby and I are huge fans), two vintage hardcovers and three young adult novels for my nieces birthday present. Hubbs picked out the two Dilbert books (after five years together, I didn't know that he was such a big fan), a home improvement book for when we finally move into our own first house, and a book on Irish fairy tales.  These two trips cost us around $20, and while I do not have the voracious appetite for reading that I had as a child, I still read too much to warrant always running to Barnes and Nobles when I finish up a book. As much as I would love to, do not get me wrong, I love the bookstore, but I can not justify spending $100 on books like I used to when my grocery budget every week is that much. Twenty dollars once a month or so is plenty to entertain our whole family in the literary department. Do not ask how much we spend on movies every month though, then my frugality ends and Hubby's love of the movie theater takes over. It's fair after I look at my stockpile of fabric, ribbon, patterns and books. Mostly.
     And here is my obligatory baby photo for today. Steven has grown so much already in the three weeks since he was born. He spends much more time awake, laughs in his sleep and fusses when he hears my voice. We co-sleep every night, when I am up to it, we try to put him in his swing to sleep for a couple hours but when he wakes up to nurse he usually stays in bed with me. Last night was the first night that Hubby "forced" me to let Steven cry it out. Every night since he was born, Steven has about an hour of freaking out crying that a diaper change, nursing, swaddling or holding will soothe. So last night, he had to sit in his swing until he relaxed. We both watched him the whole time, for the most part, there was a good chunk of it that I was in full blown tears with my head under a pillow because I couldn't pick him up. But after only five minutes or so, he stopped and Hubby held him for a bit then I nursed him and we all went to bed relatively happy. Hubby thinks that I was ridiculous but I am terrified (completely unfounded terror btw) that if we let him cry that he will have severe trust issues as an adult and will not want us to be a part of his life. James assures me that it will not be the case but I still worry. I keep telling him that Steven is only three weeks old, that he shouldn't have to cry because I am right there all the time. But it would be nice to be able to go to the bathroom without the door open or a baby in my arms, so I see his argument. As I am writing this, he is peacefully laying and practice nursing in his sleep. I can't wait to see his first true smile and hear him laugh but I am already sad that he is starting to lose his baby smell and that he has grown so much, solidifying the fact that he will continue to grow and will one day be too big to hug me in public. *Big sigh* For now, Steven and I have the blessed option of staying snuggled all day together doing anything we want or absolutely nothing.

Family Adventures: Rye Playland

   This past Tuesday, the Hubby had a day off and with the kids home from school for the summer, we try to get out and do something once or twice a week. When I was working, Hubby and I both worked retail and when the kids were in school the chances of days off aligning were slim so we try to take advantage of the opportunities when they arise. He and I chatted the night before about doing something with the day off and the nice weather. Fortunately, having a two week old has yet to stop us from doing anything. The day Baby Steven came home from the hospital, I got stir crazy and we spent two hours at Target that evening. Since we have a year long membership to the Bronx Zoo (even though it is over an hour away and our days off schedule) so we try to go there a few times a year to actually make it worth the cost. Outside of that, the Bronx Zoo is in my top five favorite place to spend the day, so I always vote for it. The five (ahh it's now five!) piled into my little Escape and started driving towards the zoo. As we drive over the Bear Mountain Bridge, we drive into one of the scenic pull offs so I can nurse and the kids can look over the Hudson, while there Hubby throws out the idea of going to Rye Playland instead. While I was not against the idea, I have a small control issue that freaks when plans change like that. In my head I am freaking about not having sunscreen (we never need that at the zoo), no swimsuits, not enough lunch packed, no towels, no changes of clothes, and what was I going to do with Baby! Needless to say, after about half an hour of high blood pressure, I was fine and we were almost to Rye.
     The day turned out wonderful, I practiced nursing in public which is still an awkward event for me, not at all for Steven who likes to make his loudest sounds while under the nursing cover. (to the left: picture of Steven and I in front of the bell tower at the park, highlighting why I shouldn't wear red and that I need to start working on this baby weight) E and G had tons of fun, even James went on most of the rides. There are two pretty neat roller coasters that the kids really enjoyed, while most of the other rides are pretty normal fair fare. We didn't even get to the beach since we didn't arrive at the park until noon and by six or so I was too tired to keep going. From the crowds, I figured that most people spend the day on the beach and then go to the park towards the evening. We had almost no wait on any rides all day, where the kids were the only ones on some of the rides and around five the lines started getting pretty long, not Disney long but too long for us to wait to go on rides that we had already went on at least once.
     Our biggest issues were the kids not wanting to leave by the end of the night and G getting bumped one too many times on the bumper cars and the seat belt leaving a mark on his neck. They went on that ride twice, E was too small to drive alone so James had to ride with her. They seemed to have a good time overall by the end of the visit, well worn out and only a minimal amount of cotton candy was consumed.

The park had a log flume where the rider only gets a tiny bit wet, but they then included this lovely bridge where you can stand after getting off the ride to ensure that you are completely soaked when Momma does not have a change of clothes at all. While that was a worry of mine, James went right on the ride with them and while he initially stood to the side, I think the kids might have talked him into standing right where the most water can soak you. I am sure you can tell which of the over six foot tall figures is my hubbs. Positively, it was warm enough that all three of them were dry by the time we loaded up the car to head home.
     The drive is a little long for us, but if you live closer, I am sure that it is a very convenient play park. I really liked the option of purchasing a "spectator" ticket for me. Since we had the baby, I wouldn't be going on any of the rides, so for half the price the spectator ticket was perfect. The prices for the tickets were really fair considering that it is unlimited rides, all day from 10am until 10pm. They don't let full packed lunches into the park, but you can pack in a cooler and go out to the car and bring the food into their picnic area which is right on a lake that you can also rent paddle boats on. The lines were fair for most of the day but we did go on a weekday so that might have made the difference. Next time, I will definitely plan on going to the beach for part of the day. The park bracelets also let you leave and come back, so I guess you could go to an off-site restaurant to eat lunch or dinner and still come back if you wanted. Over all, my official personal scoring would give the park a 7 out of 10. Distance kind of killed a bit for me and my lack of preparedness might have influenced that score as well. But I would not mind going back and I would recommend it as something in that area to do with kids, at least from age 3 through 14.
     We are starting on redoing three bedrooms in our temporary house so hopefully some before and after pictures will be on their way as well as baby updates, and as soon as I can, sewing and crafts!!!