The Dells.

We went on our first family vacation. I grew up in Wisconsin and for some reason had never been to the Dells myself. Crazy, but true. So it was an experience for me as well. Some of my husband's family joined us there and a good time was had by all. Here is Erin in daddy's socks.

We had two babies in one condo on two different schedules. It made things definately interesting. Also with the little ones in tow it made our choices for activities limited. I wanted to go to a waterpark, but with how fair Erin's skin is and her two nap a day schedule, it didn't make sense to spend $40 a person to stay for 2-3 hours.

The resort we stayed at had an indoor and outdoor pool and Erin loved them!! She also had stairs to play on in the room. Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa also came for a couple of days and let the two couples with the babies get out alone.

Scott and I went to a Japenese restaurant where they cook infront of you. We also had some sushi. I ordered the california rolls. . . which were delicious. Scott went for the raw stuff. We had an excellent time.

After family was gone we had the room for a couple of days to ourselves. We also visited the Deer Park where you get up close and personal with the deer and can feed them. Erin wasn't scared at all and pet them when they got close enough. The food we bought for the deer Erin was convinced it was for her. She kept looking at me and saying "more?"

We are going back next month. This time my mom will be joining us. We will have to figure out sleeping arrangements because she snores very loudly!

I enjoyed myself. It was hard for me when Erin didn't sleep well because of the noise of people in the room. I had two fans going as well as a blanket at the bottom of the door, but sometimes she didn't sleep very long. Sleep deprived babies are not good for mommies sanity. I did manage to calm down and relax. It was nice to be out of the house and out of town. I would have loved the waterpark, but dragging around a tired, crabby baby isn't my idea of fun.

I got some knitting done. I had to rip out the sweater I had started because it is knit in the round and it got twisted when I joined it. I thought I had been so careful. I guess not.

I am starting to look forward to fall. Now that Erin goes to bed at 7pm instead of 10pm like last year, we should be able to have some fun fires outside when it gets cool. We have plenty of scrap wood to burn.

I also got my hair cut before leaving for the Dells. It was just so frizzy I needed to cut it off, and I did. Nice and short in the back!!! Much better for this hot, humid weather.

Tag, I'm it.

These are the rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

I was tagged by Monica who was tagged by Vanessa. I know absolutely no one else that blogs, and I don't have the heart to tag Monica back and make her think of 8 more things to post about herself. So the tag stops here it seems.

Anyway here we go into the weird life of Stephanie:

1. I didn't start drinking coffee until I met my husband at 22 years old. He drank coffee and I really liked the idea of enjoying coffee with him. I now adore it.

2. I look extremely boyish in my gradeschool pictures. Once someone asked my mom what her son's name was.

3. I love lists. I really love crossing things off my lists!

4. I am extremely sarcasatic.

5. Texture with food is a big deal with me. I gag on things that are very mushy even if it tastes good.

6. I love to run.

7. I look forward to getting older and seeing how time changes me.

8. I worked three jobs when I graduated High School. Walmart, Taco Bell/Pizza Hut, and the local bakery. I would go to work at 7am and not be done until 10pm. What a crazy girl I was!

My Baby is 1!!

How did it happen so fast??

We spent the last week doing parties for Erin. Not that she will remember, but I will and I want to make them all special. All of her family enjoyed it and lots of pictures were taken.

I made two cakes, one for each party. One of her very first words was "kitty" so I made kitty cakes. It was my first venture doing a layer cake and I was nervous. But they both turned out great. I made an orange one and a grey one. Erin loved them both and kept asking for more. The grandma's wanted to give her a lot more than mommy allowed. This was the first time she had so much sugar!



She got lots of fun new clothes that I am excited to dress her up in. We also got cash to buy a bike trailer so that we can get out together as a family. I think she is going to love it. Perhaps her favorite gift though was a card from Uncle James and Aunt Kris that played "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid everytime you opened it.



We did have a beach trip planned for the day of her birthday, but that was postponed due to our area being in a tornado watch. But we went the next day and she spashed around and kept leaning over her floatie that I had to hold one side up so she didn't keep dunking her face in. So Erin's first trip to the beach was a success.

Swimsuit

Hello everyone. It seems I blog about once a month. I would like to do more, but there are so many other things to do. =)

Had a little photo shoot with Erin in her new swimsuit yesterday. She is so pretty. She loves to crawl around in circles in her whale pool. I think we will have to make her first trip to the beach on her birthday next week. We will have a busy week. Next weekend we are going to Grandma's for a visit and a birthday party with aunts, uncles, and new cousins. Then another uncle is coming to visit over her birthday, so there will have to be another party. Not to mention the 4th of July is in there too! The weekend after that we will going back to Grandma's for her new cousin Anna's baby shower. Whew! Hopefully I will not be too busy to take tons of pictures.



I am so excited for my baby to be turning one! I'm trying to come up with ideas for a birthday cake to make it memorable. The World Wide Web is so nice researching those kind of things. Plus I got this great cake cookbook for Christmas.


My vegetable garden is growing like mad. Unfortunately, so are the weeds. I have been making stabbing attempts to get some of them out. It doesn't look like I have done much at all. But the plants that I want to grow in there are doing great. I just ate my first cucumber out of there yesterday.




I have been working on my knitting skills too. I had all the pieces knit up for a tank top, but was scared to start the finishing. To my surprise things are going pretty smoothly. I do need some more practice as sewing seems though. I also got some fun knitting books for my birthday. They should arrive next week.

Along with my gardening, knitting, housekeeping, and baby care, we have been doing some remodeling of our house. Just recently we put up a closet organizer in our walk-in closet in our bedroom. We had a little mishap with one of the shelving brackets, but with a little trip to Amazon.com we found some extras to order and they should be here Tuesday. Then another project can be crossed off my list.

And by the way, I need a haircut. So if anyone knows of a place that I can go that they will help me pick out a cut that is right for me let me know!

Until next month. . . .

Busy

Life has been busy but good. We had a garage sale last weekend and did well. It was also our 4th anniversary. We had the grandparents come so we could have some help with the baby while we had our sale, and go out for dinner.

A lot of the bigger things that we had for sale went, so we were thankful for that! I needed some bigger items out of the house because we are quickly running out of room now that we have baby. The more mobile they get, the more room they need. Thank goodness we got our fence built in the back yard. (another of the projects that we have been busy with) We built the fence with 4x4 posts and lattice. I have to say it looks really nice.

I also moved 2600 lbs. of rock into my backyard to create flower beds. It looks amazing. I planted a bunch of perennials as well to have a colorful garden every year. The only annual I planted is dalias. They get nice and big and so colorful. I bought a fountain on clearance last year and it is perfect. I take my coffee, breakfast, and knitting outside then turn on the fountain and relax under our pergola (after baby is down for her first nap). It feels like my own little resort.

Other than all that, just cleaning, purging, and re-organizing my house. The clutter drives me crazy, so I'm experimenting with different solutions. Time will tell what will work for us. I do have to admit that becoming a mother has helped me be more organized.

We are off to my husband's parents this weekend to visit since everyone has a long weekend. My sister-in-law is going to have a baby any minute so it might be a Memorial Day baby! I can't wait to meet her, little Anna Jordan.

Spring

I finished my sweater!!! That last April snow storm gave me the motivation to finish it up in hopes of wearing it. Of course as soon as it was finished it got warm out. I will have to wear it some evening is all. I'm pretty pleased with it as my first one. I have started a capelette for Erin. I'm just winging the pattern, we will see if it turns out. Also scouring the internet for fun summer baby patterns so I can make something for her to wear. I will eventually get a picture of the sweater on here.

We will be tilling the vegetable garden next week. Then I can get my onions, potatoes, cabbage, and peas planted! I am so excited to have endless fresh veggies. Our grilled chicken salads with everything out of the garden (minus the chicken of course) are the best.

Erin is trying to hard to say "kitty". I guess I didn't think she would try to talk this early. It is so cute though. She pulls herself up on everything and is starting to walk along it. So many things to learn, and she likes to learn them as fast as possible.

I can do it MYSELF!

Right now Erin has let me know that she wants to be more involved in the feeding process. She loves to pick up little pieces of bread and eat them. So I have started looking for things that she can eat herself and not choke on them. I've already had a couple of scares with choking. The first was a piece of tape that she found on the floor and she gagged on it and threw it up. I cried. Second was pureed green beans. I had to yank her out of her highchair and tip her upside down and thump her on the back. Deep breathing, but no crying. Third was her finding a stray strand of carpet that I had to dig out of her throat. Needless to say I'm a little jumpy now when it comes to any little cough she makes.

Plus I'm trying to find healthy things to introduce, not just easy things. I won't mind giving her mac and cheese every once in a while, but I want to mostly provide foods that are full of nutrition. So the other day I picked out whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and a ton of veggies from the store. Now to come up ideas on how to make it interesting for her, non-chokable, and flavorful.

I am also trying desperately to make meal time an enjoyable time, not a punishment. My husband and I love food and cooking and I want to pass that along to my children. I can tell when she really likes something and she loves to eat with us.

Rhythm

My days have a rhythm to them now. We get up and play, eat, play some more, then nap. So I measure them by first nap, second nap, and third nap. But my days with Erin are full and enjoyable. In the past 2 weeks she has turned into a baby. Not just a newborn or infant, but the kind of baby that you seen on TV that is exploring their world (generally by putting whatever they find in their mouth) and interacting with the people around them. She makes sounds at me and I make them back. She thinks I'm hilarious and I think the same of her. We are the perfect mother-daughter couple at the moment and I have hopes of it staying that way forever.

Has there been any mother-daughter relationship that hasn't gone through the "I hate you" stage?? God I hope so, I hope ours doesn't have to. I'd like to think that I will be approachable when we get to that stage, no matter the topic. I think one of the worst things a mother can do is to not instill trust in their daughter that they are able and capable to make good choices.

Thankfully that is a lot of tea parties and bedtime stories away!

I'm an Auntie!

My husband's only sister had a baby boy on March 12th! His name is Walker. So little. So cute. As soon as he gets a little older Erin will have somone to play with. It was weird holding such a little baby again. He was 6 and a half pounds when he was born. I had trouble beliving that Erin was ever that small!

All I know is that life changes dramatically when you have a baby. A lot of those changes are good. But it can also be hard when you would like to just go do something for hours by yourself to relax. I think that I will get more time to get out without the baby once she is done nursing. Once she is on her own as far a food goes, then daddy can help out a lot more.

Erin will be 9 months old next week. It really does go fast. She isn't quite crawling yet, more of a scoot. But she is pulling herself up on everything! I predict lots of bumps and brusies in her future. And lots of magic mommy kisses to make it better.

She has also started to play peek-a-boo with me which is so so cute. She also loves to smoosh her face into mine right before she goes to bed. Such a goofy girl, she makes me laugh.

I'm still working on my sweater. Now that the weather is warming up and I won't be able to finish it. The directions were not very good in one part however. It told me to skip something to knit the back, which I did, and failed to tell me that the shaping was what I needed to skip but still put those rows in. So the back is about 2 inches shorter than the front at the moment. I was frustrated so I started on the sleeves.

We also have a list of spring-summer-fall projects a mile long. It will be different doing projects with a baby this year. We will have to work hard during her naps and then break while she is awake. If anyone has tips on how to motivate a husband to get started on said projects, I would love to hear them. Here is the pergola that we put in last year. One of our most enjoyed projects yet.

Da, Da??

So I get pregnant, am horrendously sick for 8 weeks, get big and uncomfortable. I go into pre-term labor and am stuck in the hospital for a week and then bedrest after that. I give birth and take care of this little life 24/7 for the past 7 months without hardly a break . . . and she says Da Da first!!!! I even intentionally would say Ma Ma every time I got her up from naps or throughout the day. My husband Scott always would say Ma Ma to her so that she would say that first. But no, it's Da Da and she can't seem to say it enough.

It really is very cute though. I don't really feel bad about it. Little girls are supposed to love their daddies. Once she gains more understanding and verbal skills she'll being saying Ma Ma all the time. I can't wait.


And whomever ordered this cold weather though can take it back! I was enjoying our mild winter. I'll take snow, but the sub-zero temperatures can stay away.

My sister-in-law is due next month. She's having a little boy and I am so excited. She is going to make me an aunt. I'm trying to pick out very thoughtful gifts, ones that I wish someone had given me or that I knew about. Every mother needs and deserves anything and everything that will make motherhood easier.

Here's a picture of our little puppy. It is impossible to keep socks on her. She thinks it is a game to take them off and stuff them in her mouth. With a face like that who could get mad.

Phases

All babies seem to be are series of new phases. They are growing so fast and learning so much that if you wait long enough the phase passes. Erin has learned how to roll over and for a little while she could only roll over to her tummy and then get stuck there. Not too much of a problem during the day. But at night trying to get her to go to bed was less than fun. Going in there to flip her over didn't do much good either because she had to keep doing her new thing and would roll right back over and start to cry. I think she has become okay with sleeping on her tummy now. I snuck in there around 4:30 am this morning to check on her because she had usually woken up earlier than that to nurse. She was fast asleep on her tummy. So cute!

She is doing so so well with sleeping. Gone are the 30 minute naps from hell. She usually sleeps about an hour and a half now. Those were some long days when naps were so short. Plus she wasn't rested or happy. I didn't realize that babies can't handle being awake that long for so long. She will be 7 months old this weekend and can only handle being awake for an hour and a half, two hours if I push it. It makes it nearly impossible to go anyhwere. By the time you get them up, change a diaper, nurse, feed solids and play a little it's time for bed again.

Making baby food has been fun. Erin's favorites right now are apples and pears. She generally likes any fruit. The green veggies make her gag though. If I mix them with sweet potatoes I can get her to eat them.

I am so looking forward to getting out in my garden this spring. It doesn't seem that far off now that the stores are carrying seeds and starter pots. I love it when they bring the seeds out! I need to get my plans for my vegatable garden done. I won't be starting any seeds this year though. Not enough time and not enough room. I'm just going to buy them. Erin should be crawling by the time I need to get out and starting planting so we will have lots of fun outside!

Sleep. . . or the lack therof!

Parenting is not for the faint of heart! And beware, for those who adore sleep like I do. With any luck you will get a baby who falls naturally into a pattern of sleep where they quickly sleep through the night and get the idea of naps. With any bad luck you will find yourself with an adorable little person who doesn't seem to know the concept. Unfortunately we have found ourselves with the latter, and I am one of those people who adore sleep. Miraculously I have survived over 6 months on a very broken sleep schedule. Recently my husband and I have undertook the vast task of teaching Erin what sleep is and how to go there. It has been a rough road. An emotional rollercoaster.

You can see that what they are begging for is sleep, but that they haven't learned the skills to relax and drift off. So you coax and try to leave them to it and teaching them this usually involves a lot of crying. Things have started to progress with her. She really is a fast learner. We also recently took the paci away because she would wake up after 45 mins of sleeping and want it back after it had fallen out.

The next hurdle it to wean her from night nursing. Lord knows that the girl isn't wasting away. She's as plump as a peach. I have heard that some babies just drop feedings on their own, but not our princess. One baby step at a time.



On another topic, we still have no snow! This is the weirdest winter ever. Usually there is tons of snow by now and the temperatures below zero. Just recently did the temperature go below 30.

I have also began working on my first big person sweater. I'm excited about it. I almost have the front half finished. I am using 100% merino wool in an eggplant color. I really hope that it turns out.

Where's the snow?

It is December 17th here in southern Minnesota and no sign of snow for Christmas. I keep singing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" hoping it will work like a raindance. No luck yet. This is Erin's first Christmas and she deserves to have snow for it. I'll keep singing I guess.

I haven't put up our tree yet, no decorations either. Life with a baby is sure different. I love Christmas and making the house look festive. But first things first, showering comes before decorating.

I bought pre-made cookie dough from Festival Foods to lighten the load. Now all I need to do is bake them. Finding a spare moment to do that is the key.

However, things have gotten better here in our household. Erin's evening colic is over and we have mellowed out as well. She has become the sweetest most fun baby. I am really enjoying her a lot right now. She makes me laugh with all her noises. Her favorite at the moment is grabbing her feet with her hands and grunting. She is getting so big.

On the extended family front things aren't going so well. My mom is bipolar and she seems to hit her manic phase in the fall. She is back in the area after her escapade of living on the streets in Florida. However, she brought back a man she met there and won't come to my house because I told her that I'm not comfortable with her bringing him here. So it may be some time before I see her and she sees her only grandchild again. I keep telling myself that she is not well and that is why she is being like this. I need to be thinking of my family though and keeping them safe.

At least my husband's parents don't suffer from a mental illness. We will be celebrating Christmas with them. I am looking forward to it!

Here is our Christmas family picture. Hard to believe that Erin will be walking and talking by next Christmas.

My Little Squishy

My baby girl has been doing so many new things. She has started 'talking' a lot more and now has figured out she has a tounge. So when she starts making noises she moves her tounge in and out. It is very cute. She has rolled over from her tummy to her back, but I'm pretty sure it was an accident. There are also some teeth buds coming in for her. It doesn't seems to be bothering her too much thankfully.

Any attempt to get her to sleep in her crib has been abandoned. She will sleep maybe 30 minutes in there. So during the day she generally sleeps in her swing and at night if we can get her to go the first stretch in the swing. After that she sleeps in bed next to me. That usually works pretty well except when she wiggle and grunts all night long!!! Geez.

I just went through her clothes today to weed out the ones that are too small. I have a paper bag already full. Unfortunately there are some that were only wore once and some not at all. But that is how it goes, they just grow so fast.

I'm trying to keep sane with this extremely huge change in my life. I don't have much time for myself and in the evenings it is especially hard. My husband just worked nights over the weekend and one of the nights I didn't get a chance to eat dinner. Getting our little one to sleep is a hard job.

I'm hanging in there and trying to do some things for myself too so I can be rested for baby duty.

Feeling Crafty.

I made this desk for my laptop. I was in desperate need of a place to put some things, do my bills, and get my computer off the dinner table. We had all this scrap wood just laying around in the garage and I was feeling ambitious. Plus I needed something new to do besides nursing a baby, changing a diaper, or rocking a baby to sleep. So I thought up a simple, easy design and used or power miter saw and made my cuts. After I put it together I decided that I wanted a shelf and that it would look good in glossy black. I really like it and got great satisfaction in creating something I needed and will use every day.

Erin is doing great. She is smiling more and more and likes to 'talk' to me in the morning. What has been a marvelous development is that she will sleep 4-5 hours for the first stretch when I put her to bed at night. Hopefully it will continue.

We are treating her for thrush for the third time. It is very frustrating to keep battling this. This new medicine should do the trick though. As long as we stop giving it back and forth to each other.

Other than baby news I'm hoping to have a fire tonight. It should be a perfect night and baby has been sleeping so good the first stretch. Some baby free time will be nice.

Passing Time

What a cutie!!! This picture is a little staged.
Grandma put the thumb in her mouth,
but she kept it there to suck on. The sleeper that she is in for this picture she has quite grown out of. She loves to eat so she is growing so fast! She has also started to give me little smiles here and there and smile when I kiss her chubby cheeks. It is really fun to have her interact with me.

Well last week my mom and I made a dent in my tomato surplus. We canned whole tomatoes and ended up with 20 quart jars!!! I won't be in need of canned tomatoes from the store this winter. It is nice to know they won't be wasted. However, further and further into the season the more neglected my garden gets. I'm sure there are pounds of tomatoes out there needing to be picked, but I think I have run out of patience to dig through the towering, sprawling tomato plants. My cucumbers never did real well this year, I think it was way too hot. That's okay, I still have some leftover pickles from last year.

I've been knitting again. I got a fun winter sock pattern from a magazine and it is pretty easy as well. I was able to make a pair from one skein of yarn. I made the first pair for my mom and I'm working on my pair now. They are just cozy for the cool weather that is coming shortly. I'm ready for it!

Patience

Anyone thinking about becoming a parent needs to check their ultimate patience level. This picture of my precious little girl is what I would like to call The Infant Gauntlet. Why is she crying??? Who knows. When will she stop?? No clue. Can I do anything to keep this from hapening?? Probably not. Total helplessness. . . not a fun place to be.

It seems that as soon as we get her figured out it lasts two days and then she changes. How am I ever supposed to get the hang of this if she keeps throwing curves?? It's a cruel, evil game she is playing and I don't want to play anymore. But I love her, am addicted to her. If I get to go anywhere without her I miss her. She's got me wrapped around her little finger and she is only six weeks old!

These are some pictures of the flowers from my garden. I love plants. It just facinates me how things grow from little seeds just because I put it in dirt.

My friends say my backyard looks like a tropical oasis. I just like having a pretty place to relax. We have been at this house for two years now and I just keep working on landscaping a little more every year. Thankfully we have our truck so I can get rock and mulch in bulk.

I got a new knitting magazine yesterday. It has some projects that I am interested in. I just don't think I like sticking with one project for very long. I think I need to start a couple and then I can grab one to work on it when the notion hits me. I also want to work on using other yarns, besides Walmart special. It has been nice getting cheap yarn so I can practice on. But I think I am ready to advance.

I can feel fall on the way and I'm excited! We haven't been able to have fires this summer. . . it's just been too hot. So I'm looking forward to cooler weather and sitting around the fire and smores! Mmmmmmmm. . .

Harvest Time!!

Harvest season is great, and tiring. This is just a sample of what is coming out of my garden now. I should pick about as many tomatoes today. Needless to say I need to start canning, assuming I can find some time before they all rot. I'm trying to find a great salsa recipe because it will use up the most tomatoes and peppers.

I just can't believe how good my garden does here. I don't have pepper plants I have pepper trees. And my tomato plants have caused their cages (which are supposed to support them) to fall over. I tried cabbages for the first time this year and they turned out so pretty. I am also very proud of my first attempt at watermelon. Generally melons don't do that well this far up north, but I must have the touch. =)

Isn't it pretty!! I can't wait to eat some.

Baby Love

New mommyhood is great. And scary, exciting, frustrating, and the most rewarding thing I've ever done all in one. Erin Victoria is beautiful and I'm in love with her. I love how she smells and the sounds she makes, I lose track of time just staring at her.

A lot of my other hobbies get put aside because I am consumed with taking care of my new baby. My garden is full of weeds and produce that begs to be picked. I'm lucky if I finish a row with my knitting. My long lost love, sleep, eludes me. I have to be reminded either by my husband or my growling stomach that I haven't eaten lunch.

So far Erin and I have recovered from childbirth together, learned to breastfeed together, conquered thrush together, cried together, and fallen asleep together. I am already scared that she is going to grow up too fast. Ahhhhh. . . baby love.