I  have been planning on sitting down to write a bit all week and whenever I did get the chance to work on the laptop, I was either on Etsy, or editing photos {that didn’t turn out the way I had imagined… so DELETE!} or maybe even getting sucked into Pinterest for a little while… it’s soooo easy to get sucked into the creative goodness that is on Pinterest!

I have also been keeping true to the word that I think has become my word of the year… busy. I have been on a cleaning, decluttering and organizing kick again and tackled our bedroom, the playroom and the kids room {though, shhhh, there are still kids clothes to be put away}. The only rooms that I haven’t tackled are the bathrooms… those will be done next week along with a quick run through in the basement. =)

I added some more totes and tutus to the shop this week. I also made a few more tutus in other colors yesterday. I took a few product photos of them, but they didn’t turn out the way that I had hoped they would. Ray bought a new lens for the camera and it will take me a few practice shots to get all of the settings down right. I always forget just how much I love using the DSLR over the “regular” camera, until I have it in my hands again and see the difference in the photos… I really should use it more and not just for product photos!

Have I mentioned before that I need to keep busy? Oh I have? Well I do… to prove my point, remember the knitting that I showed off two posts ago {I’ll wait while you check it out again… – insert Jeopardy theme song here- … you’re back? okay =)}? Well that mustard cowl no longer exists… I finished it and then decided that it was both too wide and too short… so it was taken apart  to be re-knit into something thinner and longer. I did the same with a cowl that I crocheted last week in a plum colored yarn… I didn’t like the finished piece, so it was undone and re-crocheted. I am happy to say that I finished that one this morning. =) I am looking forward to putting the mustard yarn back on the needles and knitting something new… I may start on that tonight.

With that said, I am going to go put yet another load of laundry in the washer {I’m all caught up with the clothes, bedding and towels and have now moved onto the rugs… if this keeps up I’ll have nothing to clean next week. haha!! ;) } Noah also just woke up and needs some loving… he is fighting a fever and has spent all day on the couch so far… I don’t see that changing anytime soon today either.

I wish you all a happy and healthy weekend!!

After taking quite a long break from sewing and doing anything at all with regard to Noby Designs {thanks to everything that has happened these past few months}, I’ve finally gotten off of my butt {figuratively} and opened the Noby Designs Etsy shop!!!

I have a few items in the shop right now and will be adding in the next few days… including new totes! I’m so excited to finally be moving forward with this adventure and can’t wait to see what the future holds!

There’s enough for me to do around the house – besides the usual laundry and general cleaning, but not all of the things that I would really like to do are appropriate for the current weather or they are not a good project for me to do while the kids are awake and under foot… so I’m limited in my current “home” project selection. To keep myself from having time to think though, I have started getting creative again. The knitting needles and crochet hooks are out and being used, and my new sewing machine {a gift from my husband and MIL for Christmas} is getting broken in.

I started crocheting again before the holidays. I made both of my nieces hats as part of their Christmas gift, I started a hat for Noah {which I just remembered I should really finish now that winter has finally arrived} and I crocheted a hat for Abby. Since the holidays, I have crocheted a cowl (infinity) scarf for me…

Abby claims this as hers and likes to steal it from me when I’m not wearing it…. I think a pink cowl scarf matching her hat will be on the hooks in the near future!!!

This WIP {work in progress} is turning out to be a labor of love.  It is the first time in a long time where I am actually knitting with wool again {as opposed to cotton or acrylic yarn} and I love it! It is so soft and squishy and I can’t wait for it to be done… which it would be already if I hadn’t had to rip half of it up because I noticed two mistakes that I just couldn’t leave… though believe me I tried! I’m knitting this cowl as a ribbed scarf and once it’s done I’ll sew the two ends together to make it nice and round.

The last project that I have on the needles is one that I had originally finished and started binding off with the intention of having it be a little scarf for Abby… but when I found it  picked it up again this year, I decided that the pattern was just a little too much for her and am finishing it for myself. =)

The thing that I like about knitting and crocheting as that I can pick  up the project and knit a quick row or two in between doing other things… I can’t do that with sewing projects. I have been working on a few of those though too while the kids are napping.

I am finally finishing up a tote for my sister the bride to be {Yay!!} and am sewing both Noah and Abby two new totes… Abby is getting a smaller Toddler Tote, since she doesn’t have one yet {gasp!!} and Noah is getting an even larger tote to hold everything he needs for preschool now that it’s winter. There are also a few smaller projects on my list of things to sew… ones that I hope to get to soon. =)

This was Abby’s first real experience with snow… she didn’t really get into it much last year. She’s loving every bit of it so far though and I can’t wait to take her out side to play!!! {and yes, she is wearing her Santa shirt in January and if you look closely around her neck, that gold band is the mask to her Halloween costume… all she’s missing is the purple sunglasses that she had on earlier… in the house of course!! =) }

She just loved putting her fingers in the snow and then telling me that it was “cole“!! I think she was expecting something a little warmer ;)

Noah is an old pro with snow already, so it was nothing new for him. He has been waiting for snow all winter though, so the excitement in his eyes this morning as the first flake started to fall was priceless. He loves the snow! He’s been wearing his boots {in 40/50 degree weather} for the past few weeks days in hopes that it would snow soon. That day has finally arrived!! Yay!!!

I love how two little bowls filled with snow can keep them quiet {with the exception of the 101 questions from Noah why and how snow melts and freezes}, happy and entertained for 10 minutes while I finished getting dinner ready. I may actually miss this about winter once the snow is gone… but that will be the only thing that I’ll be missing!!! =)

She is really starting to open up and we just think that it’s great. She’s still working on her words, but is at least trying to say more and is starting to speak in 2 and 3 word sentences!!!

One of the things that we did yesterday was surprise Noah with a new gift. One of his Christmas gifts needed to be returned and it just so happened that we saw the perfect new gift for him at the store… based on the title to this post, I’m sure that you can guess what it is… he got a kid tough camera that he just LOVES! Just an example of how much he loves it… with in a few short hours, Noah had taken 570 digital photos with his new camera!! 70 in the first hour this morning!!!  =)

While most of the photos turned out to be blurry or unrecognizable {thank goodness, because I know that he took at least 1 shot of Abby’s successful trip to the potty}, there were a few that turned out pretty well for a 3 year old.

I love looking through his photos and seeing what he sees. It’s a little different to see things from his height and perspective… it also made me realize just how much he looks at my stomach!! ;)

Well, Abby is done with her nap now, so that’s my cue to stop writing. =) Til next time…

I’m just a little black rain cloud
Hovering under the honey tree
I’m only a little black rain cloud
Pay no attention to little me
Everyone knows that a rain cloud
Never eats honey, no, not a nip
I’m just floating around over the ground
Wondering where I will drip  

We rented the new Winnie the Pooh movie for the kids this past weekend and the Honey Tree video was included on it in the bonus section… something that I’m very happy about since it is one of my favorite Pooh moments. This song has been playing on repeat in my head today… both a good and bad thing, but at least it makes me smile. I’d be lying if I said that today has been an easy day so far.

It was officially Ray’s first day back to work… he was supposed to go back yesterday afternoon, but ended up staying home after getting the news… so it’s just the kids and me today. It’s been going well for the most part, but there are definitely moments. I’ve been trying to not be sad or cry in front of Noah and Abby, and have been doing good for the most part. I failed at nap time though.

I had let Noah lay downstairs on the couch and put Abby up in her room. Both were playing around and refusing to sleep and I was trying not to get frustrated. At one point I looked at Noah and asked him to just close his eyes, he didn’t have to sleep, just close his eyes… he proceeded to leave his eyes open and laugh at me {forget the terrible two’s – three’s are soooooo much harder!!}… at which point I just started crying. I had had my fill and couldn’t handle any more… crying came as a natural release, because – let’s face it – I’ve been doing quite a bit of it since yesterday. Noah thought that I was goofing off and proceeded to laugh even harder at me… and call me silly. I should have gone upstairs and put myself in a “time out”, but I couldn’t move. Instead I sat there and sobbed for a minute or two until he realized that his mama was not playing around and came over and hugged me {not my finest parenting moment, but god that hug felt good!}

We sat there for a little while and then I told him that I was just sad… and you know what? He looks at me and asks me “Is it because you bwed fru your pants?” – I wasn’t sure that I had heard him right, he had said it so quietly so I had him repeat it. Sure enough though, that’s what he said… the thing is that the night before Christmas Eve while we were running a last minute shopping errand, I did in fact start bleeding {sorry if that’s too much information for you… just keeping it real}. It wasn’t for a very long time or anything that had alarmed me too much since the same had happened when I was 6 weeks pregnant with Noah, but it was enough of a reason for me to call the Dr’s office after hours and tell them what was going on. At the time we thought it might be my body getting rid of the second fluid sac… now I know better. At any rate, Noah must have been paying attention to the phone call, since we didn’t really talk about it in front of him afterwards. So…. I let him know that I wasn’t sad because of that and then he asked “The baby?“… I couldn’t lie so I said yes.

Yesterday, after the ultrasound screening, we drove straight to my ob for a consultation. Instead of having everyone come with me, Ray kept the kids with him in the car. It bothered Noah that we weren’t all together though and after a few questions, Ray ended up explaining that we had made a mistake, there was no baby and that’s why mama had to see the other doctor alone. Afterward, when Ray told me this, I agreed that it was the best explanation… we thought that anything else would just get too complicated for a preschooler. The thing is though that Noah had seen the first ultrasound photo and knew that there was a baby in there… while he accepted Ray’s explanation yesterday, I don’t think that he really believed it. So when his next words this afternoon were “Where’s the baby?” I had a hard time continuing on with the “there was no baby” explanation… instead I told him that the baby had to leave us. The look on his little face was so sad and he whispered “but I fought dere was two babies” {he was in fact convinced there were}. My heart – and eyes – melted again and we talked {and hugged} for a little while, before he finally agreed to lay in my arms and fall asleep… with me humming the melody to the Baby Mine lullaby from Dumbo.

I don’t know where I’m going with this post… I wanted to originally write about something completely different… I guess I just felt to need to write… and while I don’t plan on  this topic being the only topic that I write about from now on, I guarantee that this will be the last post of this nature. I do have to go now though… I have the cutest little 3 year old sitting next to me singing his ABC’s and wanting to paint a dinosaur. =)

Our little family survived the holidays. It was a busy, busy time and the kids were spoiled by all. =) The toys have now found their new homes in the playroom, the Christmas decorations are all put away {with the exception of 3 plates and some towels that are in the wash} and the house looks a little more normal – though slightly empty – again.

Today was the day that I had been looking forward to since December 8th… the day that we got to see our little bean again. We had the first trimester screening test scheduled for this morning and I was looking forward to getting that little nagging feeling out of my system – I guess I’m a bit of a worry wart until I can actually start to feel my children move in me. While I had that same feeling with Noah and Abby, it was a bit more so this time. So this morning we bundled up the kids and off we went to see our little bean. Surprisingly, everything moved quickly at the office this morning and before we knew it we were in the room being prepped for the ultrasound. The tech was taking her time looking at everything but the baby, and it was making me anxious… I went there to see our baby, not my ovaries after all. When she finally did zoom in it, I got that feeling again. I watched as she took the baby’s measurement, then again and yet again. Every time the measurements came back 2 weeks too small… not good. I looked for the tell tale fluttering in the center, asked a question… I can’t remember now if I asked “How’s it look?” or “Is everything alright?” or something else along that line.{Edit: Ray let me know that what I had said was “It’s not looking so good, is it?” – I would have never remembered that} The answer that I got though was the one that confirmed everything.

I am a bit of an emotional mess right now. It’s crazy how quickly you can become attached… how quickly you start dreaming and planning and then “poof” all that is gone… and yet at the same time, I feel relief…. at not having to worry about the what if’s anymore – there were so many “what if’s”… but then in the following minute I hate that I am not given the chance to worry. I know that everything happens for a reason, but it’s so hard to see what that reason is right now.

So, it’s been a hard day here for us. One that was filled with many, many more hugs than usual… which is a lot, because there are many hugs given here on a normal day. It’s a day that I will gladly see an end to in a little bit. I do want to end this on a bright note though…

Abby said her first real sentences to Ray and me the day before yesterday “I wuv yu maami” “I wuv yu daddie“….. music to our ears!!

Two days from now, our family, like so many others, will be in the middle of the holiday crazies. Once again we’ll be packing the kids up and driving to visit the families… 4 stops in all during the two Christmas days… it gets to be a bit hectic and stressful, so I thought I would wish you all a very safe and Merry Christmas a few days early.

There’s still much to do. I’ve only baked two batches of milk chocolate chip cookies so far {Ray’s request – he doesn’t like the semi-sweet morsels}… I have a double batch of regular chocolate chip cookies ready to bake waiting for me in the fridge. I’d still like to get at least 1 batch of sugar cookies and 1 batch of oatmeal butterscotch cookies baked, but we’ll have to see if that gets done in time for Christmas… otherwise I know what I’m baking next week. Besides the baking though, I still have 1 handmade gift to finish crocheting and 1 gift that I still need to sew together… and then all of the gifts need to be wrapped.

The first trimester sleepies are still kicking my butt and while I am enjoying my daily naps and more relaxed lifestyle, I can’t help but feel like I am falling behind in so many ways. I’m 10 weeks along today and am hoping that my energy levels will rise again in the near future. We had our first peek at baby #3 two weeks ago and so far everything looks good with him/her. I can’t say that everything is fine and dandy though… the OB saw a second sack filled with fluid which will need to be monitored and since Abby was born at 35 1/2 weeks, this pregnancy is also considered to be high risk. I guess the chances of having a second preterm birth are pretty high if you’ve already had one before, something I didn’t know. Sooooo…. that means that I will definitely be listening to my body more this time around and this pregnancy will be watched more closely by my ob’s as well.

It’s a bit scary to think about everything that could happen, so I try not to and just concentrate on enjoying being pregnant {since this will be the last one}… sleepyness, occasional queasiness, crazy hormones, breakouts and all. I’m also looking forward to the 2 checkups I have coming up the first week of January… 1 of which will let us see the little bugger again. I hope that when they take another look inside, that we not only get to see a healthy baby, but that we also see that the extra sack hanging out in there has taken care of itself and not turned into a twin like Noah was predicting from the very beginning. Not that I wouldn’t love a 4th child… I would, but it would just make everything much more complicated than it already is.

So with all that said, I will continue to take a little unscheduled break from blogging… at least through the end of the year. I hope to be back in full force {and more} once the New Year rolls in, but will have to see how things really work  out once we get there. I do miss blogging and everything that goes along with it though and will be happy to get back into a “normal” groove. Until then…

I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas!!!

This past Saturday was testing day at Noah’s Taekwondo school. Since he has only been going there for 3 weeks, we were told that he wouldn’t be able to test this time. We were okay with that and Noah even said that he would like to go and cheer on the other kids. Then late last week, his Grandmaster gave him his testing pre-qualification form! Noah was allowed to test after all! This came as a pleasant surprise. I guess the Grandmaster saw that Noah is focused and trying his hardest to learn everything {and is doing quite well at it if I do say so myself} and decided to give him a chance.

On Saturday morning we did our typical Saturday morning thing {breakfast made by Ray – yummy eggnog french toast!!} and then got ourselves and the kids ready. I don’t know who was more excited… Noah or me!! =)

Here he is before we left. He’s swimming in his uniform and it’s the smallest size!!! I have to roll the sleeves 3 times, the pant legs twice and the waist at least once. The shoulders of the uniform are at his elbows, and I don’t think he could look any cuter!! =)

He was so proud to show off the 4 patches that I sewed on for him. He has the Korean flag on one sleeve, the American flag on the other. The International Taekwondo Federation patch and his “Tiny Lions” patch {the group he’s in} are on the front. The writing on the neck of his uniform is his name written in Korean.

Noah is in the front row – the class he is in is for kids between the ages of 3 and 6… needless to say he is the youngest there.

Here he is showing off his punches… The Grandmaster is seated in back {below the poster} and is watching Noah… I’m not sure who Noah’s looking at though!!

 **  That face makes my heart sing! **

As part of their testing, the kids also had to “spar {or fight}” each other… lots of air kicks and punches. The boy supervising them was maybe 11 and already a black belt!!! That could be my son in a few years!!!

After everything was finished {and a quick potty break thanks to daddy’s watchful eye!!} Noah passed and is able to move on to the yellow belt! He was also awarded a “courage” patch for having the courage to go there and test with all of the others although he was so new at this.

Noah was so happy, Abby was so tired {and fell asleep within seconds after being put in the car}, and Ray and I could not have been prouder of our little boy. He did a great job all around.

Thanks for subscribing! I'd love to hear from you! © Michaela for Mama Michie's Musings, 2008-2011. |One comment |