Day 14

Today was a very nice day - Valentine's day...and a good day at church, though I missed my sweetie. He and Henry stayed home cuz Nathan couldn't do much walking (neither could Henry, so they kept each other company). Then family came over and we had dinner and watched more Olympics.


Today I started working on the owl. I didn't like any of the owls on the other playhouses, so I found a different owl, and I'm going to use it.

Day 13

We'll see what I get done today. My poor hubby hurt his knee really bad at basketball this morning, so I'm going to take care of him. Joshy woke up before 5am this morning...so hopefully he won't have too rough of a day, too. Henry's fighting taking a nap - crying in his crib...but nothing's new there. *sigh*

Nope - no work on the playhouse done today.

Day twelve

Today I went to the fabric store and bought turquoise felt and white felt adhesive letters. I was then able to finish the mailbox that will be sewn on to the playhouse. The green part opens and I'll cut a hole in the playhouse, next to the front door, so they can open the door of the mailbox and put letters in! I think this was Jill's original idea from the playhouse I referenced in my first post about this project. http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html
We'll see if I get Buddy finished tonight. Off to put Henry to bed, play a game with Nathan, Tawnia, and Emily, and then watch the Olympics.

Well, Henry went to sleep, I lost miserably at Qwelf, and while we watched the Opening Ceremonies, I worked on Buddy. I was debating about whether or not I'd stuff him at all, or have him be detachable from the playhouse. I've decided he'll be sewed on and stay that way. I sewed a back on him, to hold all the small pieces together even better, but he's just got too tiny of a neck to be played with much at all. I hope Joshua likes him!




You can scroll down to compare the picture with the image I posted before. I don't want to re-post it next to it, cuz then the imperfections would be clearer. A LOT of work, but I'm happy with him, imperfections and all!

Day eleven

I worked on organizing all the scraps and pieces of felt today, but wasn't able to create anything. Hopefully tomorrow!

Day ten

Today I made some red flowers to match the yellowish flowers I made before. They're pretty cute. I also made the mailbox, except for the lettering on it. Buddy the dinosaur just sits there waiting and waiting for his turquoise detailing...

It was hard not working on it yesterday, especially since I wasn't feeling very well. I'm feeling somewhat better today, though, and having Tawnia come over was super helpful. Gotta love my sis.

We got some great news on the grad school front! Nathan got accepted to Portland State - we haven't gotten the letter yet - he called to see if all his application stuff was completed, and they told him he was accepted! I'm very excited that he's accepted, and nervous to figure out the financial part. I'm hoping he'll be able to choose between two (or all three!) of the schools, and that at one of them will work out money-wise. We should hear back from Oregon State and University of Washington by the end of the month, I expect. Once we make that decision, it will be nice to have some certainty for the coming year.

Well, it's 8:20...Henry is asleep, or at least quiet...and Joshua is talking and singing with his animals in bed, so there is still plenty of time for crafting. I'll update this and post pictures either later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on what else I get done tonight.

Day nine

I am banned from working on the playhouse today - as a self-imposed punishment for staying up way too late last night. I've been avoiding that for the most part since I started this project, but last night I was working on it until after 1am. Not cool. So I'll work on it again tomorrow.

Well, at least I am getting a lot done today. I keep looking at all my craft stuff in the haphazard bags and boxes covering our kitchen table, and I want to work on it, but instead I'm doing laundry, making a bunch of calls, filing paperwork, sending emails, organizing our tax documents for the past 6 years...all sorts of productive boring stuff. Also, looking at craigslist apartment listing in the possible cities we might be moving to depending on where Nathan gets accepted to grad school. Let's just say, I hope we get some good grants and loans.

Day eight

While trying to go to sleep last night (and feeling awful...thank goodness it mostly went away by morning!), I was thinking about different ways to attach things to the playhouse without using velcro...I'm going to try experiment today with what I came up with. Joshua wants oranges and pears on the tree with the apples, and I'll make those velcro since the apples are, but I'm thinking of using a different method for some of the other things. I'm not sure quite how difficult it would be to redo the squirrel, frog, and bird...I'm not excited about trying...so maybe I can make something else with my new idea and then deal with changing those later. We'll see.

Well, I got the 4 Monday reports completed this morning, and a bit of other stuff, got Joshy his lunch and down for a nap, and now I'm hanging out with Henry (who of course just woke up from his nap). I'm working on doing "Buddy" (I posted a picture of him a few posts ago). I decided to just make him the size of a regular sheet of paper, since he is a little T-Rex anyway...but I'm having some major challenges making him. I've got the eyes and mouth figured out...and they look decent...but the claws are going to be a lot of work. Making teeny tiny pieces of stuff with felt is difficult because it all starts to rip apart. Hence, the teeth don't look quite the same. I think it was ambitious to expect them to, though.

I don't like posting partially finished things, but since I don't have any turquoise or light blue to make his diamonds and triangles, I might post him partially finished tonight. We'll see.

Nope - I got Buddy all the way done except for the turquoise shapes, but I don't want to post a picture until he's done. Didn't accomplish any other stuff...but while Buddy looks a bit different from the picture, I'm still proud of how it's going.

My Dad has a job interview on Wednesday and I really really hope he gets it. My mom's knee is hurt bad and I really really hope it is able to be treated and heal. My brother is going to Europe and I really really hope he has a great time there.

Ok, I thought I was done at 11:30 or whenever I posted that, but then I decided to go and do something else. Here are my first flowers. I wasn't happy with any of the flowers I saw with the other playhouses, but I really liked the idea of having them come out of the window box pockets (like on Jill's house). I used pipe cleaners inside the felt stems and thought they would be more sturdy if I bent the long pipe cleaner like this and put a flower on each end. They should fit more snugly in the window box pockets this way. I like how they turned out!

Day seven

Today has been a busy, good day. Enjoyed church, had a good dinner here with friends, watched a few minutes of the Super Bowl here and there, and now the boys are going to bed, and I can work on my two hobbies as of late - crafting this playhouse and watching Lost.

Tonight I finished making two letters for the mailbox (I can't make the mailbox yet because Joshua wants it to be made of dark blue felt and I don't have any yet - also I want to get some felt letters to spell MAIL on it). But anyway, here they are:



Also, I broke my last needle threader. Argggg.

Day six

Ok so Henry is down for a nap...though he isn't actually asleep, so I may need to go in there and check on him...and Nathan and Joshua are at the library. I ate breakfast and put a load of laundry in, so now I really really want to get some more stuff done for the playhouse. We'll be gone much of the day, and the boys' naps are always flip-flopped lately - rarely overlapping much at all. So this may be my best little chunk of time.

Two more apples today, and my apples are complete!

And yes, the bottom one has a little green and yellow worm coming out of it!

Day five

Another day with very little time for crafting, so my only accomplishment for the playhouse was to fix the apple stem from my first apple so that it looks less like a pumpkin stem, and will match the other apple stems I made, though they haven't been put into apples yet.

Joshua also decided that on the side of the playhouse with dinosaurs, he wants there to be Buddy from Dinosaur Train, so this is what I'll need to make:

Day four

A very busy day...so just one carrot completed! That completes my carrot trio.

Day three

Today I have been doing a lot of tracing and cutting, but no sewing yet.

Both the boys are down for their naps, so it's a good time to do some work on this, but I had to make myself get a bunch of the apartment work done first: make 6 phone calls, sort out our online accounting challenge, schedule a plumber to replace a garbage disposal, schedule the turnover vendors for an apartment coming available, make new flyers and brochures and put them outside, respond to and file various emails, and get a mailing for a resident ready to go. There is more that could be done, but nothing else that MUST be done for work today, so now I feel free to do some crafting.

Off I go...

:::BIG time lapse:::

As of 11:35pm, I had completed 3 lettuce leaves and a green frog. One of the lettuce leaves will be sewn to the playhouse, and the other two will velcro on, so Joshy and Henry can pick the lettuce. They are bright green on one side and dark green on the other, with some wax paper in between to make them a bit crackly. I'm sure it's been done before, but I was proud to think of it ("it" meaning the wax paper...not the lettuce - that was from Jill's playhouse) on my own tonight. The frog will also velcro to the playhouse. I like him a lot. When I did a Google image search for green frog, Joshua really wanted to use this frog umbrella picture, rather than what I chose for the frog template.
Sometimes I overrule his ideas. It's for the greater good - I hope he'll appreciate it later.

I have a bunch of stuff (two apples with stems and one carrot with greens) cut out and ready to be sewn together...I just despise sewing the velcro rectangles on things...I need a better thimble and to make sure I use a strong needle. I bent one yesterday. It took me until velcro piece number 5 to think to pin the velcro on before starting to sew. *sigh* These are the kinds of things I would think of...if I already knew anything about sewing. Oh well. So I didn't pin 4 of them...there are a LOT more to go.

Day two

Today I finished two more items...a second corn cob and a yellow bird to perch on the "My Garden" sign that Joshua requested for one side of the playhouse.

Oh...did I mention I don't have a sewing machine? I'm fairly certain that TWO corn cobs is plenty for this garden I'm creating.

Day one

Today I went and bought a bunch of 9x12" pieces of felt in various colors, polyester fiberfill, some green pipe cleaners, big and small "good" scissors, some velcro, and a good supply of googly eyes. I came home and proceeded to get to work. Here is a picture of my first creation - a carrot.

By the end of the night, I'd made much more than a carrot! Here are all of my creations.
The corn took about an hour...my favorite was the squirrel!

My new adventure

I saw these felt playhouses online...it's basically a slipcover made of felt that you put over a card table, and it becomes a playhouse. I am going to make one, and it is going to be amazing. I'm going to track my progress on here as I accomplish things! Of course there will be pictures.

The first place I saw this type of playhouse was here: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/10/felt-playhouse.html

Though Jill posted links to all sorts of other playhouses, none were as creative as hers. I'm using some of her templates and then venturing off on my own! Joshua has been very opinionated as we've looked at all the ones on Etsy.com and he has chosen what things he's interested in. It will be a lot of fun. And hours and hours of work.

2010 goals

This year, I set a LOT of goals, but they are all do-able. I set a bunch of monthly goals (10 things I'd like to do each month!), and then 11 one-time things. Then I also made three goals that I want to accomplish multiple times. All of which have boxes by them, so I can have the extreme satisfactoin of checking them off! I have crossed off 7 things already!

Some of my goals are more personal than others, but I'll share some of them. Some of the things I want to do each month are write in each of the boys journals, and write in my own journal. I want to go on a date at least once a month, do my magnetic meal calendar I made (and try to actually go by it!), and stay on track with the scripture reading I'm doing online. I have it set up to complete my goal in a year (which ends in like September or something), so I'm going to make sure that I stay on track with that, and record my percentage at the end of each month. I'm not good at reading every day, but I've decided that's ok. As long as I finish in a year, and am caught up by the end of the month, it's ok if I read 5 days worth at once (each day is 18 verses), or whatever. This is on readthescriptures.com and it works for me. Thanks Jen, for that great resource!!

Anyway, other goals include Henry's first year scrapbook and Joshua's second year scrapbook (I'd love to get his 3rd year one done also...but I'm trying to be realistic). I also want to try to go on 4 hikes, get Joshua potty-trained, create a Sunday activity bag for Joshua (with his name on it and "only Sunday" books, coloring stuff, a stuffed animal maybe, snacks, etc.), move away from these apartments, leave stuff in good shape for the next managers, and my first goal that I'm working away at...

I have a weekly to-do list that I have split up with work on one side and home/family/church (personal stuff) on the other. I write a new one each week, but include everything that I didn't do from the previous week with a line under it, and so on. The stuff on the work side always gets done - either that week, or within a couple weeks. The stuff on the other side sits and sits and sits and sits...and I want to change that. I have stuff on there from months ago, and it's not difficult stuff, I just haven't put it as a priority. So my general goal is to put it as a higher priority, but my specific short-term goal is to get everything done that was on my list at the end of 2009, by the end of January. That was 10 things. They'd been on there for months. Last week, I accomplished 6 of them. I have already accomplished one this week, so that's only 3 more (and one is to post on this blog!). And seriously, the other two aren't really very difficult, and will get done by the end of the week. So yeah - I'm excited about that. Maybe some week I'll be at the glorious place of having done everything from that week AND all the other weeks. Amazing!

It's possible, though last week I added, "put up pictures," which is a HUGE task. We want to go through all the frames on the walls and put updated pictures in them (we have barely any pictures of Henry up (2, to be specific), other than on a big collage poster I made in November). I'm also doing a new little organization system for some of the small toys we have - I'm coloring big colorful labels on clean ice cream buckets (we have about a billion of them), for baby toys, play food, etc. I need to do one for bath toys, and maybe another baby toys one, and then I can cross that off. It is possible that won't get done this week. And THEN I'll be adding some of the goals from my year to-do list on there...but I'll try to wait until it is realistic that I'll be doing them soon...rather than letting them sit there for months.

Anyway, I know people would rather see pictures than read journal-type posts, but I started this blog to be a journal, and it helps me write it.

I do, however, have a goal (though it isn't written down anywhere, so I don't have to feel guilty for not doing it) of posting a 2009 monthly thing...of some of the major things that happened each month. I've seen that on three friends' blogs now, and I like it! On this computer, I only have pictures from April-October, but Henry will be moving into Joshua's room soon, so we'll have access to the computer WITH the pictures on it at the only times that I have long stretches to do things like a blog post with pictures (at night when the boys are sleeping).

I've had a cold since before Christmas - Nathan gave me his, then he got over it briefly, then he got a different cold, which I didn't exactly get...cuz he had a bad cough that I never got, but this cold just keeps hanging on.

I made a sweet fort today, while Joshua was sleeping, and we're in the middle of playing in it, so I'm going to post this and get back to the fun!

thinking...

I was in the car today, thinking about life being busy and stressful...about getting Henry to sleep (or NOT getting him to sleep, but trying to), about my desire for more freedom these days, how tiring this apartment management job is, etc....and all of a sudden I thought to myself that I am truly happy.

For the few in this world who haven't seen it...

There are still a couple of you who read this that aren't on Facebook, so enjoy this wonderful video of our dear little Joshy. I've never seen anything on Facebook get so many comments!! More are always appreciated :c)

Joshua!

Sorry no pictures because they are all on the back computer...but there are some good ones we've taken recently - I'll try to get some of them posted soon!

Joshua is seriously amazing...and a stinking genius. I hope that Henry doesn't feel like we're constantly comparing him to Joshua, like if Henry has perfectly normal language development, I don't want him to feel like we are disappointed in him because he isn't as extraordinary in his verbal-ness (yeah, I don't know where Joshy gets it...) as Joshua was. Anyway, I have awhile before he'll start resenting me, so I'll put that worry on the back burner for now.

So Joshua...he LOVES to sing, and he's a great singer. He can sing full songs, pretty much on key, and often with nearly all the words. He knows the whole ABC song perfectly, knows the first and second verse and chorus of "I am a Child of God," and can sing (I'm going to avoid putting more quotes cuz that's annoying) The Itsy Bitsy Spider, You are my Sunshine, The Lion Sleeps Tonight (actually I'm not sure what the actual title of that song is), Here we are Together, Albuquerque Turkey, Happy Birthday, Row Row Your Boat, Skidamarink-a-dink-a-dink (you know what I mean), Rock-a-bye Baby, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, some of Silent Night...man tons more - I'm probably forgetting some key ones, but I'm running on 4 hours of sleep, so be forgiving. One of the funniest parts of his singing talents is that he loves to change the words to the songs, and he knows he is hilarious, so he laughs at himself so much. He'll change it to, the itsy bitsy MAMA or ABCDEF DADA, or I am a child of EMMA-WEE...funny things like that.

There's no way I could even come close to listing all of his words at this point, but for some time now, he has been speaking in long full sentences, and he's really doing great with all his pronouns, tenses, etc. He'll be like, "Pees mama can you get me some mo cereal bar?" or "I don't want to push the boo button." He's also looking out for our hydration levels, often saying, "Mama, can you drink your water?" or our hunger, "Dada, eat your pizza!"

Today, I was on the phone with my supervisor, and he was climbing on his table, and I heard him say, "There is a lot going on!" I don't think I had said that yet today, but maybe. That cracked me up, though.

Several weeks ago, maybe a couple months...time is all hazy to me these days, he picked up the office phone, pushed the button that switches the ring tone, so it sounded like the phone was ringing, and said, "Minto Pawk Apawtments, this is Amanda." I laughed SO hard, and he kept it up, changing the last part each time, this is..."Joshy-wa" or "Baby Henry's Winnie Pooh" or "window" or "computoh." HILARIOUS! And he is perfectly aware that he's hilarious.

Months ago, at dinner, for some reason I said to Nathan, "whatever, chicken," about something, and Joshua was sitting there in his high chair next to us. He got a big smile on his face and said, "whatevoh chickadee!" We laughed SO much, and he said it several more times. After he'd said it several times, we were still smiling but had stopped laughing, and he said, "can we wapp again?" It was so sweet.

Also long ago, he was sitting on the floor with Grandma Palmer while she was building some towers with his blocks, and he looked at it and said, "Stonehenge!" because he remembered that the picture on the wall is of Stonehenge.

He's adjusting pretty well to having this new baby in our home, and has said some pretty hilarious things. The other day, he said, "Can Mama's tummy get big again?" I asked him if he knew why it wasn't so big anymore. He said, "Cuz Baby Henry came out." I asked if he wanted another baby - he said, "Yeah." I asked if he wanted Baby Henry AND another baby. He said, "Can Mama have ee-weven babies?" Eleven is the number he uses most often to mean a lot of something. If I ask him how many fruit snacks he wants, he either says 2 or 11. Sometimes when he counts, he counts one two fee eight nine ten ee-weven eight nine ten. Other times he gets the other numbers in there.

He can recognize and say all the letters and numbers 1-11, he knows his colors and a lot of shapes. He likes to bite a fig newton or a chip or a chicken nugget and then tell us what it now "is" such as a fig newton being a cow. I gave him a good little joke, telling him that a fig newton cow says, "moo-tun" and he thought that was pretty funny. I asked him what a crouton cow said, and he said (all on his own) "moo-tawn!" He bit a chicken nugget into a cow shape (in his mind at least) once, and said it was a "hot cow."

Oh man - ALSO, he'll be eating something...a piece of canteloupe or a little dill pickle, and he'll bite off a piece of it that looks like a door to him, and he'll tell us what is inside. Lately, Cookie Monster is inside, and he wants to eat him. So he takes Cookie Monster out, and I'll say, "run, Cookie Monster!" Joshy says, "Can I give him a hug?" all innocent. Then he gives him a hug and tells me that he just ATE HIS EYEBALLS!!! Crazy kid.

He LOVES to pretend. He talks on blocks as phones (usually to rubber ducky, talking for a bit and then telling him that he has to go to the store), brings us drinks in all sorts of things that look like cups to him, puts measuring cups and spoons in between the drawers and plays them like a piano, drives his dinner bowl as a steering wheel - it's so funny.

The other day, we were driving to Lafayette to go to Nathan's parents' house, and we drove by the library. I didn't mention it, but he pointed at said, "There is the library!" We've only gone there probably less than a dozen times, and I had no idea he paid so much attention that he'd recognize it as we went by. I don't think I paid much attention until about the time I got my driver's license!! Ok, a bit of an exaggeration...but c'mon - he's barely 2!

Another adjustment note - I asked him the other day, "Joshy, baby Henry cries a lot, huh?" and he said, "Yeah. Babies cry." Like...get used to it Mom!

I love Joshua - he is a great companion during the day...even though he does get into a lot of stuff. He's been acting out a bit more cuz he's feeling the change in my attention levels, but he is still a sweetheart and all his sweet little hugs and thank yous and hilarious things...and yes, his mischief too, get me through the day.

This blog

Back when I started this blog, my reasons were to vent and use it kind of as a journal, as well as post pictures about my little baby Joshua. He was around 8 weeks or something, I think (I don't want to go back and check right now), and I was just starting out as an apartment manager, and trying to figure out how to be a mom...all sorts of stressful and wonderful stuff. Then it became all about Joshua, and then when nearly all my blog readers were on Facebook, I pretty much stopped posting, except in big bursts of update posts. such is the way of many blogs - i admire anyone who continues to post consistently as time goes on.

Well here I am now, typing one handed while I hold baby Henry, who has taken a (probably short) break from screaming when he isn't sucking on my finger, feeling exhausted and frustrated. This little guy screams a lot - especially all night long - I think his little digestive system is giving him a lot of tummy pain - poor baby...hopefully this will pass soon as his little muscles strengthen and his system gets used to all the stuff it has to do.

I'm glad I had 6 weeks with Joshy before we were apartment managers - I probably would not have survived. Anyway...this is kind of my first week really being back, since mom was here the first week, I was "closed" and didn't do much work the second week, and emily was here last week. So I'm easing back into it - my current plan for the week is to have the closed sign up except when Nathan is home...which isn't much, but we don't have any apartments we can show right now, so being open isn't that helpful to people anyway.

My list of stuff to do is VERY short compared to what it was before emily came, when it had been building and building for weeks. There are only 14 things on the list so far this week, and i have done 6 of them already...before lunch on Monday - that's pretty good!

While having a toddler and a newborn is definitely hard in itself, i think i really could handle it ok without this job. The person putting the pressure on me, though, is me. both the owner and my supervisor have been very understanding - the owner said that the place probably wouldn't burn down if I went away for a week or two - I appreciated his support...it would be nice to go away for a week...sort of. Or maybe just take our home away for a week. That might be difficult, though.

But I can't really get away from the job, and taking a break still means dealing with all the stuff going on...like the big leak under the east building that is flooding one of the residents' apartments as we "speak". Hopefully the contractor will get here soon to tear apart her walls and floor *sigh*. These things happen. I'm just glad we've got a couple weeks before the move-outs start happening like crazy. We've got one on the 5th, I think, then the 10th, then the 21st, then two on the 31st...yikes. All those notices came during the week I was on "maternity leave".

And our home has way too many ants, even though they keep spraying.

I'll admit that when I see a blog post that is all text and no pictures, sometimes I don't read it...so if you read all of this, I'm impressed. I think I'll publish this one and then start a happy one about my amazing Joshua.