Well, it's been an interesting summer! Mama of two keeps me way busier than I'd ever imagined. Speed is a honey, loves to smile and coo at us. He's quite the little talker. I'm so excited to watch him grow and learn and can't wait for him to be big enough to play with Peep a bit. He loves to watch her play and smile at her.

Peep is an amazing big sis. She gives little bro big hugs and brings him her blankie and Booboo bear (her very special things) when he is upset. It's heartwarming to see.

Our little newbie...

Our little man, Speed has arrived. Born at 11:55a.m. Friday after 4 hours of labor and one push (or four pushes, but the doc said he considers that a set and therefore only ONE push). I couldn't even believe it had actually happened at first it was so fast. Speed came out completely asleep and dangled limply in the docs arms for a moment. I was a little nervous until the doc and nurse started laughing about my little man coming out snoozing. :D

We are so blessed, he's a total sweetie and Peep's totally enamored with him.

Little Helper

Peep's been a big help gardening so far this spring. She loves to wear her bug boots from Nana. :D

We're just hanging out over here, waiting for baby two to make his entrance. I think he dropped last night, could be any day, could be two weeks...  The waiting game!

Big girl bed

Here's a pic of the Peep in her big girl bed. It's filled up with babies, books, etc. at all times. Sometimes she hauls them all out to the living room in between sleeping. It's a big job, but a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do!

22 more days 'til my due date!

I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow which is considered full term. So hard to believe! Hubs's boss told him one of his kids came 4 weeks early and Hubs said he started to hyperventilate a little. ha! It's going to be a switch  to have two kids instead of one, but I think we'll do just fine. I'm excited to meet our little man and see what Peep thinks of her brother.

Any other preggo moms out there? When are you due? What are you fears/excitements?

Peep speak, boy has it changed!

Peep is growing up so fast and talking more every day. Some of the things she's been saying lately:

-In response to, "Do you want chicken for lunch?" "I want a hoc (hot) dog... and chips."
-"I oh (lo) you Mama (Daddy, etc.)."  Love you
-Hubs kissed me goodbye one morning and Peep said, "I want a kiss!"
-On the phone with her daddy, "Hello Daddy! Book Daddy? (She says pointing at the book in her lap) Daddy doing? Workt Daddy workt? See you Daddy!"
-Talking to Nana and Papa, she turns the phone to her feet cuz she's taken off her shoes and socks, " See! My toes! My toes! See Papa/Nana?"
-Simmin/simmie pool - swimming pool
-Clippered the big dog - Clifford the big red dog
-Ning room - Living room
-Heard alot, "Come on Mommy/Daddy!" She's always wanting us to go with her to the "ning" room and play after meals. But she says it all the time, she needs someone (a brother?) to follow her around. :D
-"I cutesy!" When leaving the bank after all the ladies/tellers said she was cute. And modest too!
-"I pity gir!" After putting on a new outfit from Nana.
-"Abc, abc, abc, abc." She even fills in sometimes, she said, "l m n o p" and then "y" at the right time.
-She's working on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, first Tickle tickle star star star and now "Tinkle tinkle star star star."

Cute upholstered toddler bed...

I started to do a search for DIY toddler bed quilt, but before I could type quilt this super cute toddler bed picture popped up:

You can find the instructions on how to make it here!

We've already bought Peep a Step 2 Snooze 'N' Cruise Toddler bed:

And all I really want to do is make a little pillow and comforter for her, to make it more adult-bed-like for her. I'm not really finding anything, so I'll just have to come up with something on my own! I'll let you know what I figure out...

Interesting boy names

When I was pregnant with Peep and looking for girl names I came across some strange names (in my opinion, sorry if this is your name)...  Now that I'm looking for names again, here are the odd boy names I've seen:

Adoption
Annabelle (what?)
Annmarie (seriously, do you want your kid to get in fights at school?)
Beetle
Egbert
Gandolf (I liked LOTR, but come on!)
Pope
Sake

Melanoma

I had a mole removed last week; it was suspect for melanoma. Luckily I just found out it was benign. Everyone should get checked. Age doesn't seem to be a factor, heredity, nor whether you've been sunburned. There's no cure at the moment, all a dermatologist/specialist can do is remove the cancerous tissue and if that's not possible, melanoma can be deadly.

I almost hate to recommend checks because I know I dislike having chunks of skin removed for biopsy, but much better that than the alternatives.

Check yourself today!

30 weeks today!

Hard to believe how far along I am in my second pregnancy. Time sure flies when you have a little peanut to watch over.

I'm missing my desk job a bit, this nesting at home could kill me. Much easier when all I could do was tidy up my office in between projects with a few evening hours/weekends to dedicate to the house. Being at home my nesting is taking the form of deep cleaning the house, organizing the basement, tearing out our old juniper bushes in the front of the house, digging up lily bulbs and thinning them...  It's a bit much for my back, in addition to carrying around the baby bump. :D

Wow...

My baby a year ago!  My goodness, I can't believe how she's grown and changed.  Here she was just crawling and babbling, now she is running as fast as the wind and speaking in sentences, broken sentences, but sentences none the less.  I cannot believe how fast she's growing up!

Peepisms:
Buckle - bockoak
We say, "Who's this?" and point to her and she says, "The Peep!!"

*Spring Cleaning*

I've been galvanized lately!  After our trip to Florida, I could think of nothing I wanted to do more than simplify, simplify, simplify.  So I've been sorting (=giant garage sale pile), throwing out, organizing, cleaning.  It feels SO GOOD!  I want to keep this going.

I have some outdoor plans to put into place as well.  Build a chicken coop and get some chicks for laying hens and thereby organic eggs.  Set up a compost pile.  Build a jungle gym for Peep, Hubs has a telephone pole that he'd like to build into it.  Lots to do, lots to do before baby two arrives.

Florida

I told Peep the morning we were leaving that we needed to eat breakfast because we were leaving to go to Florida.  She went to the front door, reached for the handle and said, "Me me ah Florida."

Her speech and vocab have improved so much in the past week, it's incredible.  She's got a big thing with, "Oh no!" lately.  As in, "Oh no, my bucket (baby, blankie, penny, juice, milk, etc.)!"

An allehhh-yator (Peep's pronunciation) we spotted behind our cottage.

We laid her down in our inn room for a nap (in a pack n play, bless you Anchor Inn & Cottages!!) and we laid down to take a nap too.  Peep says, "Hi, Momma. Hi, Momma. Hi, Momma."  I didn't respond.  Then she says, "Momma sleep. Night night Momma, night night!" I hear her lay down.  Approx. 30 seconds later she stands up and repeats the process.  She did that, oh, 3 or 4 times.  I'm just laying there trying not to laugh out loud.

She ADORED the beach. She'd have spent all day there, no problem.  I don't even think she would have stopped for lunch. She waded into the surf, scooped sand with her shovel and bucket, watched people, picked up shells, followed seagulls and other birds around (that was too cute).

This kid...

The Peep in her Cousin It phase.

This is a conversation we had tonight:

Me: Peep, how old are you?
Her: Eighteen
Me: You're not eighteen!! How old are you?
Her: Two
Me: How about one? 
Her: One
Me: Peep, how old are you?
Her: Eighteen

LOL!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Heart cupcakes from Family Fun.  

I made this sheep based on the Shaun the Sheep pom pom tutorial from Craft Passion.  It turned out super cute.  Love it!!

More Baby Boy "pics"

Cutie pie! I think he looks a lot like sis.

Jammin', waving arms and legs around.

Valentine's Day Loveliness

Heart cupcakes from Family Fun, love love love, need to get some cute Valentine/glittery toppings.

Adorable felt heart garland from Craft Zine.

Sweet ideas collected by Remodelaholic, including pom pom flowers, too cute.

Loads of pretties from Tatertots & Jello.

Valentines you can print from Take the Side Street (with a quote I love from E.E. Cummings)

This wall heart collage on Honestly... WTF. Plus much more eye candy to be seen here!

Pom pom garland / scarf with a Valentine flair from Bubbly Nature Creations, super cute model. :D

You can buy these lovely Valentine-y hair accessories from Giant Dwarf.

Pom Pom Cuteness...

I just bought some pom pom makers and went on the hunt for things to make.  Here's what I've found!

Shaun the Sheep poms by Craft Passion

I love Shaun the Sheep, just found a Shaun the Sheep pom pom tutorial on Craft Passion!  I definitely need to make my own Shaun and Shirley, adorable!

Wow, unbelievable, a pom pom garland from Honestly...WTF.

A Christmas wreath and baby mobile from In Between Laundry, super cute.

Cute ideas from Girl Scout Troop 1379.

A ladybug, chick and caterpillar pom pom from Martha Stewart.

Can anyone recommend other cute pom pom tutorials?  I can't wait to get started.  I *might* have to go purchase some more yarn (insert evil laugh here).

Snowpocalypse Tuesday...

The dreaded winter storm has arrived and doesn't seem all that "monster" so far.  If it keeps snowing for 24 hours we might have something interesting on our hands, we shall see!

Peep is being as entertaining as she knows how.  :D

Peepisms:

Black olives - blackies (she adores black olives. I think she would eat an entire can of them if allowed!)
Poop - had a little friend over and someone was stinking. I said, J* did you poop? He said, no it was Peep. Peep said, J* poop!  Can't put one over on her any more. :D
Yogurt - ogurt
Pizza - peetzee
Computer - pooder (often heard, Daddy's pooder, Mommy's pooder, MY POODER!!)
Pen - pim  ;)

As far as me, well, I'm expanding rapidly.  Contrary to my hopeful belief that my maternity pants would stay up better as my belly got bigger, they are still sliding off. *sigh*  Can't wait for warm weather, I'll just wear dresses and forgo pants for the duration.

I want this in my kitchen!!

On Saturday I happened to catch b. organic on KCPT, such a cool show!  I told hubs that he was probably going to wish I'd never found this show, ha!

They made this gorgeous concrete countertop ->

And put down this amazing cobbled wood floor ->


I'm in love!!  Now I just have to convince hubs to help me do this to our kitchen.  :D

Caftans...

Doreto Batik Caftan Dress

I ran across the blog Corks and Caftans while doing a search on caftans, which I thought might be cute maternity/nursing wear.

Corks and Caftans mentions this Doreto Batik caftan dress as a must have and it is super cute, but I am a tight wad, so after searching Ebay to no avail, I started looking up patterns.  Here are some cute/interesting ideas I've found:

First this pattern looks super simple and might be my first effort.

This one looks pretty elegant and I don't know when or if I'd wear it, but I like it.

No pattern here, but it looks like a scarf sewn together with a neck hole added?

This one's cute, but might be more complicated.  I didn't open up all the individual pdfs.  Looks like someone (uhhh ummm!) needs to learn more about pdf making, eeesh.

Ham

Here's the pic I mentioned from the other morning where Peep had pulled her arm out of her jammies.  She is such a little crack up.  :D

Funny little girl...

My bright shining star, what a fun little person.

Yesterday I said to her, "Did you poop?" She's says, "I boop."  haha!  So then this morning we're at the doctor waiting for my appointment and she says, "I boop."  She just says it so matter of factly and it slays me.  And it was no joke, she did boop.  ha!

She's saying more and more words every day.  Yesterday she said duck, plain as can be after months of saying duh for duck.  This morning she said doctor.  She says color, but it sounds funny like cuhler.

Baby #2

We had our sonogram this a.m. and I'm so excited!!  We're having a little boy and so far, everything looks just fine.  I think Peep is going to be a wonderful big sis!

Peep speak...

It's so amazing watching Peep learn to talk...

Some of the words she puts her own interesting twist on:
Milk - molk, molko, MOLKOOOOOO
Snack - nack, nacko
Pumpkin - pumpball
Nana - papa, mom-o, nani
Dog - dado, dawg
Cousin - E-hee, E, E-an
J Cousins and J aunt, uncle - Geegee
Tractor - dracdoor

She says a bunch of other words and in the last few weeks has started repeating words we say, what a little character.

Some funny stories of late.

This a.m. I go in to Peep's room to get her up and instead of her usual speech (daddy, papa, booboo, baby, etc.), she says, "Uh oh."  I take a closer look and she'd pulled one of her arms out of her pajamas.  I went and got the camera and she smiled really big for a picture. haha!

Yesterday I was in the kitchen writing a grocery list and Peep runs up, hands me her diaper and says, "I take this off."  Then runs away.  I had to chase her around and around before I finally caught the naked little character.

I took her downstairs at my folks over Christmas and changed her diaper and took off her pajamas. She got away from my mom and I and went all the way upstairs by herself.  Once she got up there she started running up and down the house giggling and shrieking.  She loves putting one over on her Mommy.  :D

Good reads of 2010

I love to read...  When I was a kid my mom would take me to the library and I'd get a big pile of books.  A few days later when I'd read them all, I'd beg her to take me back.  I'm still reading, and thought I'd share some faves.  Here's 2009's list, and here's my 2010 list.  Enjoy!!!

Such a Pretty Face and Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb, she's SO good.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

Bread Alone by Judith R. Hendricks

True Colors by Kristin Hannah

The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen

The Reluctant Heiress by Eva Ibbotson

The Thing about Jane Spring by Sharon Krum