Move over naptime, there’s a new schedule in town.
One that might include a few moody tears
Maybe even a tantrum or two
Where will this journey end?
I don’t know yet…

Our current remedy…
late afternoon popcorn
to divert and distract
Noah and I have a mutual affection for the stuff.
In his words: “mmm, these popcorns are buutiful.”

What a great weekend, a fun girls night for me, play date for the kids & then came the 12 hour bug for poor Cami that forced us to stay in. After staying in bed for a while, she was bored and so we had a good old fashioned crafternoon the two of us, perfectly filled with pink, purple & red. To say that Cami is excited for valentine’s day is an understatement.

So we made a story egg, fairies, gnomes and little hearts. Using thrifted felt from wool sweaters and paints in those valentine shades.

Cami tried out this tutorial called Fun with Foam I found from pinterest:

It was a great first try and was pink so made it to the festivities stand.

A little bit of painting…

And also some printing for me. I’ve started using a fuchsia color to print with. A bit girly and a lot of fun. So for those maybe not-so-girly prints like this helicopter, they actually do look quite cute and girly!

{this moment}
a single image
a simple, special, extraordinary moment
from the week
held close to my heart

Today was such a warm day, 65º and sunny. Noah and I spent a ton of time outside. Building ramps, running around and playing with his stomp rocket. I realized both he and I were sporting our sweet dandelion dream gear, so when my little sister came over I asked for her to take a shot so I could share what we wore.

Me:
VW Bus Shirt: Dandelion Dream
Jeans: Mossimo Brand

Noah:
Africa Love Shirt: Dandelion Dream
Super Noah Cape: from my sweet friend, Love Your Lizzie
Jeans: Thirfted
Shoes: Converse

There are a couple more things I’m loving right now. For Christmas, Chris got me a gift-certificate to this amazing etsy shop. About a month before Christmas, Chris and I were talking and I told him that we were skipping giving each other gifts since we are paying down this adoption. Since he’s not a big gift person, I didn’t think he’d care much. Well, he insisted and looking back I’m thankful. Sometimes when we are apart, its nice to receive a card or a gift from Chris just to know he was thinking of me. He thought very well, this bag is totally the style I love!

Sweet Tatiana, of Alloit, contacted me a couple weeks ago to send me a sample of her natural soap and products. She’s a small business owner and a mom so I immediately fell in love with her.

Besides the delicious smelling soap, she also sent me some samples of Susan Brown’s Baby line. My absolute favorite was the Nourishing Lotion. Noah has sensitive skin, and this lotion is fragrance free and full of rich shea, jojoba, cocoa, and moringa butters. You can learn more about Alloit here.

Warm weather, sweet camera bag & natural delicious soaps… a few things that I’m loving.
How about you?

Its amazing how much you can teach with perler beads. Focus, color, patterning, staying on task. Camille is great at choosing different colors and patterning with perler beads. I just started trying this with Noah to see how he would respond. He will sit working away quietly for about half an hour, an amazing testament to this fun little craft/activity. I haven’t gotten to him putting on all the same color and pattern, or even completing one yet. I am basically trying to encourage him in his fine motor skills, which I see happening bit by bit.

Chris was here this weekend. We really did soak in our time together with him. The house is an absolute disaster of laundry to be caught up on, floors to be swept, mail and paperwork to find its place. As I’m litterally staring at all this stuff right now, giving myself the pep talk I need to get to work, I’m thankful that we did no work this weekend, that we spent the time just us: playing, snuggling, coffee talks, reading together, and going out together. Our time is short together, especially at the age our little ones are right now.  It reminds me of this quote I read over at my friend Nicole’s blog:

Cooking and cleaning can wait till tomorrow,
For babies grow up, we’ve learned to our sorrow.
So settle down cobwebs, dust go to sleep,
I’m nursing my baby and babies don’t keep.

Short are these days, so perfect homes completely dusted, organized and magazine picture perfect can just wait. We’re gonna love these little ones while they are just that… little.

short, sweet, soaking it in.

I couple weeks ago I found some super cute washi tape on etsy and I knew I could put it to good use. Cami & I have made watercolor envelopes before, but today we made little ones that she can store tiny notes in. They are a different style fold, and of course held together with cute washi tape.

Here is what we used:
• Watercolor paintings
• Paper cutter (or scissors)
• Washi tape

Using the paper cutter, I cut the watercolor into 6×6 inch squares. Then with the opposing sides we folded the corners to the center.

Folded the opposite corners, and the folds were complete.

Because washi tape is so easy to tear, Camille had fun securing all the spots that needed tape by simply tearing the size tape needed and sticking it down (tearing off additional pieces as need be after the tape was placed on the envelope).

For the top of the envelope (the part that you fold over to enclose the letter or surprise) Cami folded washi tape over the edge to give it a finished and complete look.

We made four little envelopes tonight. Adorably easy, and cute! Two of which Cami has already declared are going to be holding valentine surprise for me and Chris. “A surprise” she stated, “but I’m not going to tell you what it is.”

Oh the suspense…

Chris and I have two close friends, Doug & Erica. Erica and I have been roommates, in each others wedding, they even came to visit Chris and I when we were stationed in Hawaii.

Doug and Erica also felt led to adopt as Chris and I have. Its been quite a journey, as adoption is, for them to come to where they are now. Adopting from the same country as we are, not one but TWO little ones.

We are so excited for them and know that they will be so blessed adding these little ones into their already beautiful family. As you know, adoption is expensive… its crazy to me sometimes how much it costs. Erica and Doug have partnered with Just Love Coffee, the same coffee company that Chris and I did for Lainey Love. Its great coffee, fair trade and helps bring an orphan into a forever family.

I’m a huge coffee fan, and see this as such an amazing way to partner with families. I bought some of their coffee just this morning. I’ve also linked their shop on the side so that you can come back and purchase it whenever you want.

Coffee with friends, what could be better? Why not help a little one, or in this case two, in the process.

Today I am…

Wishing, my fingerprints weren’t so worn out, so that I didn’t have to send off and spend extra time getting more adoption clearance letters.

Wondering, why San Diego’s clearance letters are SO expensive, and why I never get a person I can talk to, just forwarded form letters.

Listening, to Ingrid Michaelson, thank you Pandora.

Making, the most of this dreary weather. It is meant for naps, reading, uno & mr. potato head.

Loving, this necklace.

Feeling, sleepy, very very sleepy.

Working, on cleaning this house.

Smiling, because Chris is visiting us this weekend, a short 48 hours but we’ll take it!

Wondering, if I should schedule it with fun activities or leave it open ended.

Hopeful, the weather will be good.

Updating, this blog. I’ve had a few people email me asking questions. I’ve finally put up a contact page and I’m updating the other pages that are up as well.

Hello & Happy  Monday, hope you are enjoying yours!

PS. I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for your comments and emails on my last post. It was so encouraging and nice to hear from others who’ve had similar struggles. Thank you.

I’ve written a few times about Noah here. What an amazing gift he is. I’ve been torn on what to share about him, because he is so wonderful. Also, wondering what at age three is really something to be concerned about and what is just a physically active boy personality.

One thing that Noah has yet to grasp is his colors. I’m still working through ideas on how to encourage him in that. We have several color books and they just don’t seem to work, but we still read them along with other books he loves. For Christmas I made these little peg people with matching cups. They follow a lot of the montessori games and ideas, which I really love.

I bought the wooden peg people and cups at the craft store and simply painted them with watercolor and finished them with beeswax polish.

Noah seems to match very well. I can see his little mind working. He also cracks me up because he’s intent on the little peg guys going in upside down.
During Christmas, his little cousin played with the matching set and made sure all the heads were sitting out of the cups. Noah shook his head that wasn’t the way to do it and corrected her “mistake”, flipping them upside down.

I still have yet to get him to name all the colors correctly. Everything is Blue… everything. Any good ideas, books or other recommendations for connecting the names of the colors with the actual colors, I’d absolutely love to hear.

I love this last little picture of my guy, curls and all. I should also say that if you are looking for some sorting/color activities that etsy is full of some different games/activities like this. You can search “montessori game” or “montessori sorting” and you’ll find a lot of really cool shops, like this one.