Photo Friday

Happy Friday! Baby Anya is one month old as of yesterday, and of course I have no idea how the month has flown by so quickly. At her well baby visit she weighed in at 10 lb 11 oz, and was 23 inches long. This is fun because they looked up Lewis’ chart and he was also 10 lb 11 oz at one month, and was 23.5 inches long. He was an inch longer at birth though so he had a head start on his height.

Our poor little girl is all covered in a ridiculously terrible case of baby acne. When the first several dots showed up on her tummy and face last week I thought “oh, baby acne, no big deal” but as more and more dots showed up we started to wonder if maybe it was some other kind of horrible rash. Her tummy, chest, back, face, and even her scalp are completely covered, and it is starting now to spread onto her arms as well. The doctor has confirmed that it is baby acne and that we can’t do much besides gentle baths with plain water or a mild soap and just wait for it to clear up on it’s own in the next few weeks. She doesn’t really seem bothered by it, but I’m not sure if we’d know she was anyway since she can’t exactly tell us or attempt to scratch her own back or anything.

Lewis is enjoying our daily walks outside and the fact that he can climb off the stroller and explore while I push Anya back and forth nearby. He’s also enjoying turning the house upside down and dumping out every toy he owns while Mommy is trapped on the couch with a constantly nursing baby and can’t come clean up the resulting messes. He is also clearly loving the color red which he is wearing in nearly all these photos.

Playing with some “Sculpty Sand” which he is really loving and has been asking for frequently.

Sparklers for the 4th of July!

I love her intense gaze whenever she’s studying someone’s face.

It’s beautiful to see how much these two already love each other. ❤

All set up for a water transfer experiment.

A beautiful mix of art and science. Lewis really enjoyed this, and I’m sure we’ll repeat it in the future with different color combinations and maybe different jar arrangements.

She’s already starting to look so big/long and losing that newborn look. Her giant cloth-diaper-butt means that she’s going to outgrow all her 0-3 month onsies ridiculously soon.

Happy 1 month baby girl!

Baby smiles make me smile. 🙂

Fun with chalk in the rain.

Photo Friday

Hello! Anya is 3 weeks old this week, and it is amazing how quickly time is passing! (I know, talk to anyone with children and they’ll tell you how the early weeks/months/years just fly by and are gone before you know it, but this is definitely feeling much faster than it did with Lewis.) We’re still getting along pretty well with Daddy at work. Depending on how Anya times her naps in relation to her brother’s I don’t always get a nap of my own, but luckily she only wakes about twice each night so I’m not as terribly exhausted as I could be. The house isn’t clean, but it never was anyway. Toys are everywhere and dirty dishes are piled in the kitchen as usual. Give me another five years and maybe I’ll crack the code on keeping up with the housework.

We’ve gotten a little better about managing to get outside too. I’ve used a combination of the Moby wrap, ring sling (still getting used to this), and stroller, or leaving her asleep in her bouncy chair in the living room while Lewis and I play outside the front door. Easiest so far seems to be going for walks with her napping in the stroller and letting Lewis run and play alongside us as we go along. This also has the added benefit of getting me a little exercise, and also makes it easy to keep her shielded from the sun.

Meeting Grandpa for the first time. ❤

Calm and quiet tummy time, busy taking in the world!

Two very serious babies.

Yum! We found some black raspberries while out on our morning walk. Lewis was very excited to “go berry picking.”

Baby girl sleeping in the stroller.

A yummy snack of yogurt and foraged berries.

Lewis’ view of the table as we got our art project ready.

Fireworks prints for the fourth of July.

Spray tan? Oh no, that’s just “zombie paint.”

Photo Friday

Happy Friday once again everyone! We have been enjoying some lovely family time recently. We had a very nice trip to VT where we got to see all of my family, and Lewis adored having so many people to play with and keep him entertained, plus the benefit of a nice yard to play in. We got back here Tuesday and Chris had work the next two days but he got a surprise day off today, which means an extra day I can put him to work helping get this apartment back into some semblance of cleanliness. 😉 It also means extra fun times spent playing together as a family. This morning we went out and puddle-splashed for a while, and Lewis also had an excellent time chasing Daddy around the house pretending they both were monsters. As might be expected most of these photos are from our trip to VT, with a few from the past couple days in our own home.

Fun and silly bouncing game with Auntie Anna.

Easter morning Lewis was excited to have a “treasure hunt” to find his Easter basket. Not sure what all the silliness in this photo is about, except that it is fun to be silly!

Stories and laughter with grandma. ❤

A fun (but windy) family walk, and a bit of silly stepping by Lewis.

Wearing a hat we discovered in the house, and using a watering can to water all the snow because it was “thirsty.”

Smoothing out the snow with croquet mallets is important work.

A photo of Higgins, taken by Lewis.

Back home in his perch by the window. This is the perfect place to spy on neighbors and also to wait for Daddy’s car to pull in in the evening!

Collaborative watercolor painting by Mommy and Lewis. We covered just about every inch of the paper, which is now hanging on our wall.

Inside My Body: A Photo Series by Lewis

As you’ve seen in some of my previous Photo Friday posts, Lewis is very interested in photography. He loves to steal my camera and take photos of things around our apartment and also of Mommy and Daddy.

One of his recent favorite areas to experiment is “photography in motion.” He’s been snapping a lot of photos while spinning in a circle or running from one room to another. He’s also been requesting Daddy and I to get photos of him running, jumping, waving things in the air, etc. As you can imagine, none of these are the best photos and most turn out with some level of blurriness.

However, earlier this week he went down a different, and very interesting, track with his photographic experimentation.

This photo, apparently, shows the inside of my belly and the little hole the baby will come out.

He has been pretty interested in the ultrasounds I have had to look at the baby, and from time to time asks me to lie down while he rubs random objects over my belly, giving me an ultrasound. He’s also rather fascinated with the idea of x-rays taking pictures of the bones inside our bodies.

Another view of inside my belly.

One day while playing with the camera he told me he wanted to take a picture inside my body, and I think he mentioned wanted to photograph my bones as well. I replied that that wouldn’t work very well because a regular camera is not an x-ray machine.

A few minutes later he had picked up an empty yarn cone from the floor, and was very carefully pointing the camera inside of it and snapping away taking photos. He happily commented “That inside Mommy’s body! That little hole baby come out!” And he continued taking photo after photo.

Once he had taken several photos inside the yarn cone he started experimenting with other objects and containers as well.

He took a few shots inside one of our funnels, which is white plastic around the top and red rubber for the narrow part.

At some point he commented that some of the photos showed different body parts. Some were in my nostrils, some inside my head, etc. I’m not really sure which is which, and if you asked him today he’d probably have a different response anyway since toddler creativity/imagination is so fluid and always changing.

The green one is inside a bright green oval shaped plastic container. It is probably the least body-looking of his photos, and he only took two shots inside it out of his total 22 photographs. After trying the green container he went back to the yarn cone he had started out with.

I really loved seeing his creativity and ingenuity with these photos, and watching as he experimented and learned as he went along. His focus and concentration while taking the photos was really amazing to watch as well!

 

Photo Friday

Happy sunny Friday everyone! We have all finally started to emerge from the cold that was working its way through our household (minus some lingering coughs) and have also had a full week of beautiful play-outside-every-day weather! Lewis is loving puddle jumping, squelching through mud, and finding sticks and other treasures that are emerging from the snow drifts. Mama is loving not having to bundle us in so many layers, longer and more frequent outside play times, and sidewalks that are actually navigable by stroller! (There’s a bit of an ice sheet still left in some places, so at times it is more like ice skating down the sidewalk, but it is a huge huge improvement over lumpy messy frozen inches of snow and ice and slush that a stroller had no chance of rolling over.

The combination of daylight savings time and miserable coldy toddler did throw nap time and bedtime into a bit of a rough patch for about a week, but we are back on track now and Lewis is sleeping just as well as ever. Mama, on the other hand, is fighting with the lovely fun of pregnancy insomnia and lying awake in the night thinking of all sorts of random things plus occasionally being kept awake by the kicks and acrobatics of a growing baby. At least I can still fit in a nap for myself during Lewis’ nap time most days if I need it!

Lounging on the couch snuggling his current favorite stuffed animal.

Lewis photography: a portrait of Daddy.

Back to rice in the sensory bin. He loves making constructions with funnels and old yarn cones to pour the rice through.

He requested I take a photo as he poured.

Look, there’s grass peeking out from the snow!

Puddle splashing and I love toddler outfits.

Another Lewis request, to take his picture as he ran through the room. He looks so big here!

Painting the egg wash onto our Irish Soda Bread this morning.

Photo Friday

And I now return you to your regularly scheduled post of Lewis-cuteness on a Friday!

We had a couple of “warm” days this week when Lewis and I were able to get outside while it was all the way up to 15 or 20 degrees and no wind, instead of the -25 with windchill that we’ve been having! We played out in the snow on Tuesday and walked the the library Wednesday, and were both very happy for the chance to get out of the house. Yesterday and today have returned us to the land of mega winds and sub-zero temperatures however, so we are stuck back inside. Here are a few photos of how we are keeping busy this week!

A bubble bath, and a look of intense concentration as he watched the water pour out the holes of the cup.

Lewis has recently started actually building things when given different types of blocks and building materials, rather than just waiting for us to make a tower he can knock down. I was washing dishes as he played and when I came over to see what he was up to he proudly told me he had made “Uncle Kenny on his ski mountain.” (These are magnetic Tegu blocks. We love them!)

Bubble blowing! This was a favorite outdoor activity in the summer and we are now loving it as a way to keep busy inside as well. Lewis is getting better and better at actually blowing the bubbles!

In-air shot as he leaps onto a pile of pillows. Wheee!

Another action shot.

A glimpse at our messy living room as well as the ridiculous number of pillows we own, seen here fashioned into a very long caterpillar.

 

Photo …. Sunday!

Well, I’ve missed posting on Friday again. I think that is something like three weeks in a row that I have missed, so I’d better play a little catch-up! Not sure what is up with me and Fridays, it always seems to be something different that makes me miss out on posting. This week I sat down to do it a bit late and Lewis woke up a bit early and so it didn’t end up happening. Another week I just completely forgot that it was Friday and the thought of a Photo Friday post didn’t cross my mind until a few days later. And of course there are the days where I am just worn out and would rather have a nap! I am starting to feel a bit more energy though and have been napping less often and managing to feel a bit more productive. (Although I’m sure soon enough my belly will start ballooning and I will once again be feeling exhausted….)

We’ve been having lots of weather that is cold, snowy, and windy. The snow this year is deeper than I’ve ever seen it in this area, and it seems to keep coming down. We make it outside to play a few days each week, but most of our time has been spent cooped up indoors. We’ve been keeping busy with lots of art projects, sensory play, hide-and-seek, and indoor chasing games. We’ve also enjoyed some Valentine activities this past week, including a valentine sensory bin, valentine bath with red bath water, and baking some heart shaped (and airplane shaped and cat shaped) sugar cookies, then decorating them with pink icing and red sugar. So…. here are the photos I know you all have been waiting for!

Finger paints on cardboard – a full body painting experience!

I shortened the handle on the carpet sweeper so Lewis could clean up his own mess after playing with rice in the sensory bin. He loves it!

More painting, this time with watercolors.

Baking soda and vinegar experiments with Daddy!

Lewis has been practicing his photography skills, and I love finding gems like this on the camera! I should probably look into getting him a more kid-safe camera of his own.

Can anyone guess our current favorite color? He wears this pants as soon as they come through the laundry, and the shirt nearly as often.

Valentine sensory bin with dyed rice and random red, pink, and purple objects.

Another Lewis photo. Maybe I can get him to take one of my big round belly!

An Announcement!

Well, I think it is time to finally tell the blog world: I’m pregnant! I keep feeling a little silly for not having posted about this yet, but I’ve been posting so little in general I just haven’t seemed to get around to it. And I wanted it to be a dedicated post of its own, not just a blurb on one of my Photo Fridays.

We’re 20 weeks along and just had our second ultrasound on Wednesday. It’s a girl!

This is the less-alien looking of our ultrasound photos. It looks pretty similar to one we have of Lewis, but I imagine most peoples blurry ultrasound photos of baby-in-profile look pretty similar?

I’ve been extremely exhausted pretty much all along in this pregnancy, which partially accounts for the fact that I’ve been doing hardly any blogging. Lewis is still a great napper and naps at least 2-3 hours a day which normally is an awesome time for me to blog, do housework, create art, drink tea, etc. but for the past several months these activities have all been pushed downwards in priority while I use his nap time to have a nap of my own. I can probably count on my two hands the number of days since October when I’ve missed a nap. I kept waiting for that magical second trimester energy to show up, but apparently I’m not so lucky this time. I am extremely thankful to have not suffered from any morning sickness though! And also to have a wonderful and understanding husband who helps out with things when I can’t keep up and doesn’t mind me collapsing exhausted into bed early each night.

We are all very excited about this new baby joining our family in June. Even Lewis seems interested and excited. He gives my tummy plenty of snuggles and kisses, and likes to pretend he is a doctor giving me an ultrasound. 🙂

We got Lewis a special shirt to help us announce the news to all our family.

Christmas Wreath Toddler Art

Surprise! I’m writing an actual blog post about an actual thing I did with Lewis! I’m actually not sure when the last time is that I did a real blog post. All I’ve been doing is the Photo Friday posts, and I haven’t even kept up with those very well. So, here goes!

Lewis and I always have fun making decorations for various holidays, and earlier this month we decided to make a wreath for our door. Why spend $20 on a wreath when you can make a lovely one yourself?

I scouted for ideas on Pinterest, and decided to go pretty free-form and just give him materials and let him do what he wanted with it.

Most of the Pinterest posts I looked at suggested using a paper plate to make your wreath shape. We didn’t have any paper plates on hand, so instead I took a big piece of green craft foam stuff (is that even what it’s called?) and traced a big circle on it with a smaller circle inside. Then I cut along the circles in a somewhat scalloped/bumpy pattern to make it more wreath-y.

Squirting glue and placing decorations takes great concentration.

I set up the table with the wreath, a bottle of glue, a dish of green paint, and a tray of decorations including buttons, pom-poms and cut pieces of sparkly pipe cleaners. Most of it was Christmas themed colors, but I included some more rainbowy colors of pom-poms in case he wanted a bit more variety of color. Then I invited Lewis to join me in creating.

He tried out a few decorations, then decided it needed some paint.

I had also brought a tube of golden glitter to the table, but told him that Mommy would need to help with adding that. After adding a few decorations and a bit of paint he asked for glitter, so I sprinkled it on the wet paint and showed him how it stuck. He added a couple more decorations and a little more paint, but mostly he just wanted help adding more glitter! I got him a second paintbrush and showed him how he could “paint” the glue around the wreath so that more glitter could stick, then we added more together until it was just right.

Lewis and his beautiful wreath.

The next day, once the glue and paint were dry, I added a big ribbon to the wreath to finish it off, then hung it on the door. Lewis was invited to help choose the ribbon, but was more interested in running around the apartment dragging ribbons behind him, so I chose a golden one for him. I first tried stapling it on but I only have a mini stapler which couldn’t punch through the layers, so instead it got stuck on with a piece of Gorilla Tape.

 

Prettiest door in town!

Lewis has been having a lot of fun with other holiday activities and preparations as well. His favorites so far have included Christmas Play-doh, stealing ornaments from the tree, and helping me make (and eat!) chocolate covered pretzels and peppermint bark.

Yum, chocolate!

Photo Friday

Happy November everyone! Halloween last week was great fun. Lewis really enjoyed trick-or-treating. He loved seeing people’s decorations and of course is loving getting to try all these new candies he’s never gotten to have before! We’ve been allowing two pieces a day (one with morning snack and one in the afternoon) but he frequently attempts to weasel more out of us. We had a bit of an “adventure” on the way home from trick-or-treating. I pushed the stroller over an uneven section of the sidewalk and bump-snap, off came one of the front wheels! Not really surprising as this stroller has had a lot of pretty heavy use for 2+ years now! I’m still debating whether to just order a replacement wheel part (about $25 with shipping) or invest in a whole new stroller. Decisions, decisions. I was very lucky that Chris had taken the day off work and was along with us when the stroller broke. It would have been quite a pain trying to juggle carrying Lewis and pushing a broken stroller one-handed the rest of the way home!

This week we’ve been enjoying some really lovely fall weather, with just a touch of rain mixed in. Mostly it has been “warm” and lovely for playing outside, although the time change is messing with our schedule! Normally we go out and play for a while in the evenings, but now it seems to get dark almost as soon as we can get out the door after Lewis’ nap, so we are working on adjusting and trying to fit in more morning outside time. Unfortunately Lewis’ neighbor friend J is at school during the day so we haven’t been getting to see as much of him recently as we’ve been used to.

Anyway, on to the photos!

Trick-or-treat!

World’s cutest little scarecrow.

Lewis helped me make some pumpkin oatmeal cookies, but then he wouldn’t eat any. More for me!

He requested that I take a picture of him with his Hobbes.

Went to the library for story time Tuesday, only to find that they were closed for election day. But then we found some dried milkweed plants in the parking lot and had a lot of fun tossing the fluff in the air!

Back at the library Wednesday for story time session #2. Lewis got mad when I tried to bring his hat with us, but later decided he’d like to wear my hat. On top of his hood.