Best Weekend Ever!

We are having so much fun with Jack and Keri. Keri picked the best weekend ever to visit because the weather is perfect, Larry actually has the whole weekend and Labor Day off (which is a miracle), and there are so many things going on around town this weekend. Larry was working on Thursday so the rest of us spent the afternoon at Homestead Park. Creed rode in a real swing for the first time. Doesn't he look comfortable and laid back? Jack had fun squirting Keri

And we spent the evening introducing them to Graeter's ice cream. Today, we started off exploring the Book Loft, one of my favorite places in town. We all found books that we couldn't resist. Then we stopped by the Topiary garden. It's Georges Seurat's, A Sunday On The Island Of La Grande Jatte laid out in bushes and who can visit Columbus without seeing that?

We lunched at the North Market where we picked up more yellow watermelon to share with Larry since it's his favorite and he was missing out on the fun.

Contrary to what this face might indicate, Jack did enjoy it.

After the boys napped we went to COSI, the children's science museum here. The last Friday of the month is Family Friday Night, when they stay open from 5 to 9 pm and admission is about half the price. Here's Larry on the high wire.

The ocean exhibit is one of my favorites and Creed was mesmerized by all of the water.

And Jack loved playing with the water table in kidspace

They even had a baby water table for Creed!

The weather has been perfect today. I wish it could be like this every day!

And right out on the Waterfront was the first Waterfire of the year. A few times during the year they have floating bonfires out on the river and they usually have a band playing, but once a year, BalletMet does a preview of their seasons during Waterfire and we happened to catch that tonight. It was so fun.

And to finish our perfect night we stopped for Jeni's Ice Cream!

Now we just have to plan the rest of our weekend. The Buckeyes are playing and Keri and Jack need to return to Texas with Buckeye Tees, and Gallery Hop is this Saturday and I'm told the arches will be multicolored this month, There's also the Greek Festival, but I have this thing about paying to go to a festival so I can pay for food, on the other hand, I'm told the Greek Festival s worth it. Shakespeare in the Park is still running. The Renaissance Festival is just beginning and where else can you come in contact with a crowd as "interesting" as a Renaissance Festival crowd? See what I mean about all of the things going on around here this weekend? on top of all that I think Keri and Jack might like to see Amish country, the Columbus Zoo, and the Airforce Museum in Dayton. Any of you have any favorite things to do with visitors?

Guess who is here . . .

We're so excited that Larry's sister, Keri, and her son Jack are in town! Many adventures are sure to follow! We can't wait!

Thewigglybridge

So you may remember my amazing friend Jessica Zozz who created all of these AMAZING things for Creed, which she gave to me at the baby shower that she was hosting? Well, months ago I showed her these knit baby pants that I am in love with. Then Saturday, Donny and Jessica treated me to a birthday dinner and Jessica handed me a little package with little knit pants inside for Creed! I love them and from the looks of it, I'd say Creed does too!

And they have stars on the bum! You know how I love stars!

And now for her next trick, the Amazing Jessica Zozz has opened her own etsy shop called Thewigglybridge and she's even making up her own patterns to sell there! Check it out if you have a chance!

A Good Deed Left Undone

I was cranky today. I went to bed around 2 a.m., but couldn't fall asleep until after 3 only to be woken up over and over again by Creed, who decided around 5 a.m. he was not to go back to sleep for another hour and a half. This afternoon I was on my way out to meet Katherine when I looked down and realized I was covered in spit-up. Then while I was at Katherine's someone sideswiped by car. The damage was minimal, mostly black stuff from their car that rubbed off and some scratches and a dent, but I was so annoyed. Who hits someone's car and just drives away?

Onto this evening, I been searching all over for a cute outfit for Creed because Candice is going to take new pictures of him while we're in Utah. I went to get this outfit with some gift certificates that I've been holding onto, but when I got there they had the hat in every size but Creed's, and they just started carrying it and the hat is the cutest part. I hurried over to Joann's to pick up some white paint for trim on fairy doors and they didn't have any. Seriously, they have zillions of colors of white paint, but not one single drop of plain old white paint. How is that possible? I decided that at least I could get some brown fleece to get started on Creed's Halloween costume and the woman at the cutting counter told me that every color of fleece BUT brown was on sale. Ummmmm, ok . . . It was just not my day.

I stopped at Panera before heading home because I was starving and wanted to pick up a bagel and you know what the girl at the counter told me when I went to pay for it? "Oh, don't worry about it." I asked if she was sure and she replied with a smile, "Yep. Have a good night!" Suddenly, that one tiny dose of kindness changed my day. It was only a little bagel, but I no longer felt like the world hated me and I drove home with a smile.

Does it ever occur to you to do something nice for someone, but you decided that you just can't afford to? That happens to me all the time. I keep finding myself wishing I could budget a hundred dollars a month just to do random nice things for other people. Someday, when Larry's a real doctor, right? (I know he's a REAL doctor, but he doesn't have a real doctor's salary) Here are a few of the things that I would love to do:

• Send someone dinner the day they get back from a big trip so they don’t have to go shopping (let them know you’re doing this ahead of time).
• Buy someone something on their Amazon wish list or etsy favorites and send it to them out of the blue.
• When you’re buying something for yourself that you are excited about like a new book and you know someone else who would like it, buy two and deliver the extra.
• Go delivering when you’re feeling down. By multiples of anything; pints of Ben & Jerry's on a hot day, your favorite new soda that you just discovered, fresh picked apples from an afternoon at the U-pick farm, sunflowers from the farmer’s market . . . then spend an afternoon sharing the love and delivering them to any friends that you catch at home.
• Pay for the person behind you when you’re picking up fast food or pulling into special event parking.
• Sends friends good mail just because.
• Your friend was just telling you about something that they want to learn to do? Sign them up for lessons or buy them supplies to begin.
• Download songs that remind you of a friend or a trip to burn a CD for those it reminds you of.
• Discover a new magazine? Surprise a friend with a subscription.

What are some fun things that you would do for others if you had a little extra money to spare?

Baby boy

He still has no name, but Marissa and Baby Boy are home from the hospital. My mom told me that he looks like a Borup (my maiden name) and I didn't know what that meant until I saw his pictures and I have to say I agree. I'm going to have to dig up the only baby picture that I have of Marissa because I think he looks just like her!

Meet Mr. Right

I'm pretty sure that I have one of the cutest babies in the world!

I heart Halloween

Halloween costumes have been popping up all over town, and today I noticed that Pottery Barn and Pottern Barn Kids have their Halloween decorations up on their websites. I've never seen a Halloween advent before! So fun! They also have a "spooky Halloween tree" similar to the one that I already have. Maybe it's lame to admit, but I always feel so cool when Pottery Barn decides to carry something just like something that I already own.

I got to share my birthday

I was lucky enough to share my birthday with a lot of wonderful people. First, with Larry who locked his keys in his car so Creed and I got up early and brought him a key and then we all went out ot breakfast. Have you been to Rise & Shine on Fifth in Grandview? I've never even noticed it before, but we got the most amazing french toast coated with coconut, granola, and brown sugar. Yummy!

Next I got to share my birthday with my friend Rachel, who spent the day with me helping me get Creed to start taking naps now that he's on a new reflux medication that seems to really be working (which was the best birthday gift of all).

Then back to Larry again after he woke up from his nap. He took me to see Becoming Jane since I've been looking forward to seeing it and it was well worth the wait. What a beautiful movie! I highly recommend it! After all of that romance, when we got in the car to go pick up Creed, Larry popped in one of my old tapes and Adam Sandler singing "I Want to Grow Old With You" started playing and I got teary and because I was so impressed with Larry for the thought he put into having that ready after a romantic movie. He totally took credit for it and it wasn't until 10 minutes later that he felt guilty and he fessed up that he didn't plan that at all! He didn't even know what was on the tape, he just found it earlier and stuck it in my car because my CD player is jammed. I laughed, but then he got a slug on the shoulder for taking credit in the first place!

Then I got to share my birthday dinner with Larry and a sleeping Creed. Once we picked up Creed there wasn't much left open, but we stopped at Donatos because we have been saying for quite awhile that we should try one of their artisan pizzas at the experimental Donatos at Mill Run, but we're always too hungry when we get pizza to experiment witha small pizza. Well, what better way to celebrate my birthday than to start my list of 27 new things to try this year? We ordered breadsticks and the chicken carbonera artisan pizza on ciabatta crust and it was SO GOOD! Larry is a connseur of pizza and he said it was the best pizza that he's had in years.

And finally, I got to share my birthday with my new nephew!!!!!!! Marissa had a baby boy around three o'clock in the afternoon. He was 7 lbs 12 oz. He doesn't have a name yet and I don't have any pictures so more about that later!

Creed goes on a date

I love seeing Creed and Audrey together because since they are the same age, they are doing all of the same things and it's so fun to see how the interact. Nikki and Audrey spent Thursday afternoon with us after taking me out to a birthday lunch (Nikki said Audrey insisted that they take me out). I love looking at these two sets of blue eyes! And doesn't Creed looking like he's being sly and trying to grab Audrey's hand? In truth, he's about to try to eat Audrey. He seems to really enjoy sucking on her elbow. Friday night, while Larry and I went out on a birthday date, Cat & Ken babysat Creed and Audrey so Creed had his first date (completely chaperoned of course). This is how the date ended so they must have had a pretty good time.

Thanks Cat and Ken for babysitting so we could go out, and thanks David and Nikki for sharing your babysitters!

Back to school traditions

So you know I love fall, buying school supplies, and family traditions so I have to share a few back to school traditions that I recently came across. They are directly quoted from comments posted on Ali Edward's blog.

• Throw a Bus Stop BUFFET!!! Bring some doughnuts, bagels, hot chocolate, juice and milk for the young students and their parents to enjoy as they wait for the bus. This is the perfect way for your children to get to know their classmates, and a great opportunity for you to meet their parents. This photo moment can be collaged into your Back to School book.


• We do the 12 days before Kindergarten....they hang their new backpack on their bedroom door and get a little surprise every morning until it is the first day. Most of the days it is a picture book, or supplies that are needed for school.


• For dinner on the first day of school, I dress up like a lunch lady and serve up a menu of pigs in blankets, pears, peas and a juice box served on cookie sheets lined up like lunch trays.

My family had the normal back to school traditions, buying school supplies with mom, taking pictures on our porch the morning of the first day of school every year, but these ideas are so fun! And even though I'm not going back to school, I just used my birthday coupon to buy myself this back to school coat. It's a peacoat, but it's made out of sweatshirt material and it's sooooo comfortable. I couldn't resist it once I saw it in brown!

To Everything There is a Season

Well, this blog hasn't been too introspective lately, which is a little sad because this is basically the only record that I'm keeping of my life at the time and there's so much that I want to remember. So here is a brief summary of my life lately.

I love being a mom, but it is hard. Really, really, hard. I'm trying to keep in mind that Creed is not your average baby. Most babies sleep a lot more and most babies don't spit-up gallons per day. It's leaving me with a serious lack of free time. I knew I would no longer have a lot of time to myself, but I imagined nap times leaving me with time to write or clean or blog or sew and early bedtimes full of more of the same. No such luck. I feel like I have to put off so many things that I would love to do to take care of Creed instead. Yet, I look at that cute little face everyday, and I know that I'd much rather put off everything else and enjoy the chance I have to lay on the living room floor reading stories to him.

I'm sure that I would be complaining a lot less if Larry was around, but we barely see him right now, and I have moments when I need a break, and I know there isn't going to be one (this is a particularly bad month, other rotations will be much better). I haven't gone to bed before 2 a.m. this month because once Creed goes to bed around 10 pm, that's the only time I have to do things, and I hate to relinquish that time to sleep.

All of that said, I've heard a million people state that they love their kids more than they ever thought they could, and I thought I understood what that meant until I had Creed. He is wonderful and perfect, and I'm more in love with him everyday. I really do love him more than I knew that I could. I've also felt myself falling more in love with Larry over the years, but watching him be a dad and cuddle with Creed has magnified all of those feelings that I had for him. We just wish that we could see him a little more! A lot of the pictures that I've been posting here have been for Larry so he doesn't miss out on the things that Creed is doing. I took this picture so he could have a visual when I explained to him how difficult Creed was to feed yesterday when he was really excited about squash baby food.

I wish that I could say that was what Creed did when I let him play with his food, but that was all me trying to get it in his mouth. He was so cute I couldn't get frustrated and just embraced the mess. This picture shows exactly why we've taken to stripping him down to his diaper when we feed him. We tried a bib for awhile, but he was so interested in chewing on his bib that we couldn't get any food in his mouth.

I thought that I would have a problem with the days getting repetitive and feeling bored, but I don't. I can't cram enough in every day, and Creed is constantly doing something new. The past few days he learned how to cough and I think he likes the sound of it because I've been hearing many little fake coughs over the past three days and he is completely healthy and smiling when I look at him. He also keeps flipping over onto his stomach in his crib and then crying until we come in his room and flip him back over. I decided to try taking him to a dollar movie with me today, assuming that I would probably have to leave, but needed to try something else new to add to my list before my birthday, and he was perfect. I got to watch the whole movie and he didn't make a peep!

After the Fourth of July I always look forward to the end of summer because fall is my favorite time of the year. I'm especially looking forward to it this year because September is going to rock. We have fun trips planned and we're looking forward to lots of Larry time, and Marissa is due to have her baby any day. Then there's our annual Halloween party to plan, and let's not forget the Buckeye football season is starting (note to self, find Creed some buckeye gear). And bring on the fall weather!!!!!! I can't wait!

Too much HGTV!

Now that we know we will be selling our house next summer, I'm looking at things around here differently. Today I was staring at our house numbers because they are looking pretty shabby (this picture is from a year and a half ago and I edited the house numbers out). We thought we needed to replace the numbers, but we don't want to patch up holes from where the current numbers are hanging, and I realized that we can just spray paint them, which got me looking at the rest of the house. The shutters have faded so much since this picture, and I was never crazy about the blue in the first place. We're going to have to repaint them before we move so now I'm thinking why not paint them soon so we can enjoy the new color for a year? Which is where this post comes in. Have any of you done this before? Do you have any advice?
What color do you think that we should make the shutters and the door? I'm thinking black shutters with a red door. I love red doors. What would you do?

Our weekend in photos

The highlight of our weekend was the annual Jackie Chan movie fest at the Erney's. Traditionally the Jackie Chan Fest has taken place during the gray days of February, but this year they saved it for August on the Eve of Elle leaving for college!!!!! That's right folks, Elle, my adopted Columbus little sister who was 12 when we moved here is starting college!!!!! Sheesh, I am old! I was so fun to hang out with the Erneys and Hudsons on Elle's last night in Columbus. I wish I had remembered to get a picture of the whole family, but at least I caught the Erneys before the end of the night. And what's a post without a million pictures of Creed. First, here he is trying so hard to pinch the monsters off of his pajamas.

And here he is very excited for his green beans

After church today with Larry. Look at those blue eyes!

More time with dad. I just had to include this picture so you could see his thunder thighs!

In the tub today he finally had enough hair for a tiny Mohawk

And here he is just hanging out with one of the burp cloths that my friend Melinda just sent after hearing about Creed's spit-up, which was so thoughtful and much needed. Seriously, why didn't I think of making him burp cloths out of towels? That much absorbent fabric could have saved some of my clothes!

Party Hats

I love making fun party hats for special occasions, especially first birthdays. They are really easy to make and look so cute in pictures. Many of our friends are turning one soon so I decided to make a few today and figured I might as well take pictures in case any of you want to try your hand at making one. I was making two and mixed up which one I was taking pictures of so sorry for the fabric switch in the middle. These hats were both for girls, but you can make these for boy too, just use more masculine colors and trim.

Supply list:

• Pre-made party hats (or you can make your own with paper, tape, and elastic. I just happened to have these one hand so I figured I would use them and save myself a few steps)
• Enough fabric to cover the hat
• Spray Adhesive
• Coordinating trim
• A really light weight stuffed animal or finger puppet
• A glue gun
• Tape
• Extra paper and glitter are optional for decoration
• A needle and thread First, snip the top off of the party hat and save it to put on top of the stuffed animal
  Next, carefully tear open the party hat
  
  Remove the elastic if you're using sheer fabric like I did so you can cover the white side of the hat and the pattern won't show through. Save the elastic for later.
  

  Roughly cut out the fabric using the hat for a template and leave extra fabric on all of the edges. Do the same for the tiny hat for the stuffed animal.
  

  Coat the wring side of the fabric with spray adhesive (I recommend doing this outside because it's sticky and messy). Lay the white side of the party hat on the fabric and smooth the bubbles out. Then clip the corners and fold the fabric over and press it down. Do the same for the mini hat for the stuffed animal.
  

  If you want to decorate the hat with a number give the hat a minute to set while you cut a number out of cardstock. I just free-handed this, but you can print out a number and trace it if you need to.
  

  To coat the number with glitter use a paintbrush or a finger to coat the number with Elmer's glue.
  

  Sprinkle glitter over the number and press it down a little, then wait for it to dry a little.
  

  You a hot glue gun to add trim around the bottom of the party hat
  

  I cut a pom pom from the trim and glued it to the top of the mini party hat for the stuffed animal too.
  

  Use the glue gun to glue the party hat back together.
  

  Now place the stuffed animal of finger puppet in the top of the party hat and use a glue gun to put the part hat back together. I slipped an extra piece of paper in between the party hat and stuffed animal so that I didn't get glue on the stuffed animal and I pulled it out after the glue dried.
  

  Now glue gun the glitter number on the front of the hat. I've also decorated hats using alphabet stickers to spell out the child's name instead of the glitter number.
  

  Thread a needle and stick it through both sides of the mini party hat
  

  Then tie the party hat on the stuffed animal or finger puppet
  

  Tape the elastic strap back on the hat
  

  And walla, a cute party hat for the birthday boy or girl!