We had a great holiday weekend. Today I wanted a quiet, low-key day to recover, but I felt guilty all day because I could not make up for the thrill Lya had with having everyone here the last five days. I just didn’t have it in me.

We have had five great nights of sleep. Yippee! She played hard all weekend which led to great naps and nights. Hopefully it was long enough to become a new habit. It feels great to get uninterrupted sleep again.

Lya still has a few more days of antibiotics and today was the first day that I needed to give it to her on my own. It generally takes both Nick and I to give her this med, so I was feeling a bit anxious about how I’d make it happen. So, I made sugar-free chocolate pudding and now we have a yummy chocolate treat laced with some antibiotics twice a day. She LOVES IT. Of course, who wouldn’t? She’s so stinkin’ cute. She smiles and nods after every single bite.

We put up our Christmas tree this weekend and rearranged the living room to make it work. I am really enjoying the new set up and holiday atmosphere. The tree is huge, but beautiful. I’ll post pictures at some point.

Completely unrelated, we are now getting three eggs a day. The yokes are ridiculously dark-closer to orange than yellow actually- and its creeping me out a bit. I don’t like egg yokes though, so its probably just me.

Wow. This was a super random post. No pictures tonight. While the memory card is full, I don’t have the energy to download them to the computer and get them onto the blog. I will do it sometime soon though because I’m really enjoying the bokeh created by the Christmas tree.

Happy December! (Can you even believe it??)

All night!

We slept through the night last night! Wahoo!

I’m not sure if that means the antibiotic is kicking in, the teeth are holding back or if it is just that the amount of energy this little girl spent impressing her aunt and uncles last night was enough to put anyone to sleep for a few days. But, we’re thankful.

This morning when I awoke and realized it was 7:00am, I couldn’t help but wake Nick and celebrate a bit. And then I heard this little voice from the other room say, “H, I, J, K” Ahh. The peace of waking up after a good nights sleep does us all well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday’s What I’ve Been Working On

I didn’t start any new projects this week. Instead I pulled out some pieces that had been cut out and were waiting to be sewn into squares. I am still a bit unsure of my plans for the one set and excited to see the second come together. Nothing too exciting to share. But here are a few pictures of the process.

We have family in town for the next few days and since my studio is also our guest space, I don’t expect to do much more than enjoy the holiday. Oddly enough, now that I have my sewing machine back, I haven’t been taking as many pictures. Hopefully I’ll make up for that this weekend.

This is the first Thanksgiving that we’re hosting family and planning a fairly traditional meal. Every year tends to be different for us. Maybe we’ll create a few new traditions this year. What are you plans for the weekend? What are your Thanksgiving traditions? Do they include anything related to Christmas?

Enjoy the holiday weekend! Happy Thanksgiving.

Explains a lot…

Several of you have asked over the last couple of weeks how we’re doing with sleep. Well, it has improved some–but not much. We’ve still been getting up several times a night, but luckily they aren’t always 2hrs at a time. Anyway, this week Lya developed a runny nose–following a stuffy nose from the week before–and I started to have this nagging “check her ears” feeling. So, yesterday I called and made an appointment for this morning before the holiday weekend.

Sure enough, we have an ear infection. (sigh) And her two bottom molars are peaking through with a point each. This explains so much of the craziness lately. I feel so bad that she’s been feeling so rotten. Not only that, but she had a big growth spurt (well, for her) over the last 2-3 months. Her body is just working against her for sleep right now.

Hopefully after a dose of antibiotics and maybe some teething relief, we’ll all actually return to normal sleep patterns.

Lya has recently become a bit more clingy with me, but she’s simultaneously kicked up her admiration of Nick. It is amazing how consistently he gets her shaking with belly laughs. She just loves being around him. Tonight we drove into town and met him for dinner because he expected to be working late. I sat at dinner and watched the two of them cracking up at each other and it was such a beautiful space. It always is so special to be able to watch the two of them together.

Two a day!

Two of our girls are stepping up. And here’s a hint. It isn’t her.

Or her. Because while these chickens were showing up for a photo shoot, their friends were MIA.(This one is kinda creepy, don’t you think? It’s the only one I can tell apart from the others. I call her yellow beak.)

After a while we were joined by a third and decided to go check out what the fourth was up to.

She wasn’t thrilled about being interrupted, but she was happy to wait on a few cracker crumbs with the others.

Its so nice how Lya is completely comfortable around them.

(Much faster than me in fact.)

Alright, time to let these birds get down to business.

An hour later, this is what we found. Two a day, for the last four days!

Our egg carton is quickly filling up in the fridge. At some point we’re going to need to gift some eggs. After all, only two of our four are laying so far. I’m just tickled to no longer have to pay for free-range eggs.

What I’ve been working on…

I truly meant to get this up yesterday and start a new routine: What I’ve been Working on Wednesdays. But, I didn’t. So, next week I hope to start. I am definitely spending more time making things again and I want my blog to capture more than just adorable pictures of my sweet child.

I have had my sewing machine back for about a week and I am loving it. Here are two projects I finished up this week.

Sleep in Peace. This is the wall-hanging I made for above Lya’s crib. Originally it was a tattered quilt that I received with Nick’s grandmother’s sewing scraps. I went rounds on how to put to this together, whether or not to add in other materials, etc. In the end, I only used the original quilt and I’m happy with the scrappy results. (But not the picture–I should have taken a picture outside before we attached it to the wall.)

The other sewing project I worked on this week was this set of rice mits that I’m trading with a friend/massage therapist. This is my first attempt, and if she was imagining something different I’ll be happy to oblige and keep this set for myself.

bedtime

I took this picture last night as Nick was reading to Lya before bed. I think that having Nick do the bedtime routine works for all three of us. Lately, I’ve noticed that Lya really misses him when he’s not here for bedtime. I always have naps and *usually* that involves rocking and singing the sweet babe to sleep.

I finished the wall-hanging I was working on. I’ve used my sewing machine a ton since getting it back and I’m happy to say it is working well. I finished the wall-hanging and we hung it this weekend. I meant to get some good pictures of it to post–but I’ll have to wait until another day.

On a completely different note, our chickens have started laying eggs. Or rather, one of our four girls is laying eggs. While we didn’t have any today, we did have one Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Needless to say, we’re pretty excited.

 

Friday’s 5

Five things I am thankful for today:

(1) Having my sewing machine back & working.

(2) Going to Yoga this afternoon.

(3) Dr. Suess’ tongue-twister books.

(4) A bright, warm & beautiful day.

(5) That Nick will be home for the next two days.

Have a wonderful weekend!

3 Reasons I’m Dragging

(1) Its rainy and dreary.

(2) Lya is a miserable sleeper at the moment.

(3) I’m sick.
Blech. Today is one step up from yesterday afternoon, but only barely. My throat isn’t as sore, but my baby didn’t nap. Again. Nick got home a little while ago and he’s feeling crappy now, too. Yikes. Last night was my night of rest–meaning he dealt with she-wh0-barely-sleeps. Guess that means its his turn to rest tonight. As for the sleep thing I’ve nailed it down to three things. (1) teeth (2) growth spurt and (3) poorly formed habits. As soon as us adults are healthy and build up a little bit in our sleep reserves, we’re tackling #3. I’m not sure what to do with #1 & #2 other than just ride it out. Well, who are we kidding, I could be completely wrong about those reasons anyway…

On the bright side, I got a call from the local quilt shop. My machine is ready to pick up AND the repair person experienced and fixed the problem this time. Or so I’m told. Thank god. I can’t wait to jump back into some sewing. I have two projects that are priority, so with any luck I’ll finish them this weekend and then have wide-open possibilities for what comes next.

snack

Lya *loves* graham crackers. They are apart of our every day. Rarely do I let her have peanut butter out of her high chair, but for some reason I did on this day. I also sat right next to her the entire time with a washrag so as to avoid having peanut butter on every surface. She didn’t seem to notice. She was just happy to have “butter” with her “cracker.”