Yippee!

I am so excited…I have a finish On Friday, I finished Nathaniel’s birth sampler. My goal was to have it done by his first birthday and I more than made it.

Now I need to start on a Christmas stocking for him. I also have to start working on another birth sampler as Nathaniel will be joined by a new cousin at the end of the year. My little sister is expecting her first child around Christmas. It is exciting that they will be almost exactly a year apart. It will also ease my missing the teeny baby days already. We are way past that stage already. Nathaniel is almost seven months old and almost 22 pounds.

Today we took Nathaniel on his first trip to the zoo. We met my mom and sister and BIL there and had a great day. We saw tons of animals, but Nathaniel was most interested in the pigeons and the waterfall He had a great time.

Sorry for the absence:(

I have been such a delinquent blogger lately. Things continue to be busy in our home. Last weekend, I had the world’s worst tummy bug. I didn’t even get sick like that while I was pregnant. Allen was very sweet and took great care of Nathaniel and me. I am pretty sure that Nathaniel missed at least one meal that day. I guess I need to make a basic schedule for him to keep in the house, just in case something like this happens again. Allen tends to rely on me for all kinds of schedule keeping.

This past week I also learned a bit of what it is like to be on my own with Nathaniel. Allen had a radioactive iodine scan to see how well the radiation treatment he had last July worked. This is part of the follow up after having the thyroid tumor removed in 2005. It is no big deal for him, but it means he can’t hang out with us (especially Nathaniel and the kitties) for a couple of days. It reaffirmed how much I appreciate what a wonderful husband and father Allen is. I also realized how much Nathaniel really LOVES his daddy. When Allen got home, Nathaniel would light up and then get upset when Allen wouldn’t hang out with us. They are two peas in a pod. I am more and more in trouble every day.

This weekend Allen’s dad and his fiancee came to visit us. We had a nice weekend despite the heat and losing power for the second time this week. Nathaniel had fun with Granddad and I got some good stitching done. I am now about 3/4 done with the baby sampler. I plan on finishing it up and then working on Wendy’s Neighborhood RR. I should have both done by the end of the month YEAH!!

Here is Nathaniel’s birth sampler so far

And a couple of pictures of the man himself. Hard to believe that we celebrated his first half-birthday on Thursday

My First Mother’s Day

So this weekend was my first Mother’s Day and I had a lovely weekend. Allen’s mom and her husband came to visit us which was a nice treat. They had not seen Nathaniel since Christmas and needless to say he has changed greatly since that time. They really had a great time with him. On Saturday, they babysat while Allen and I went to the Melting Pot for dinner (Yum!!). My MIL just love spending as much time as she could with Nathaniel, so I had a ton of time to stitch. That was my main Mother’s Day gift Allen and I are also planning to buy ourselves a small video camera as our first Mother’s/Father’s Day gift.

So here are the fruits of my Mother’s Day stitching. First Deb’s RR. I finished the house and just need to do my little person/signature and tombstone. I am proud of how early I got it done this round

After I finished Deb’s House, I pulled out Nathaniel’s birth sampler. I haven’t worked on it in a while, but would like to finish it soon. I am about halfway finished at this point and really like how it is turning out. I think I am going to try and get at least one more band finished before moving on to something else and will probably rework my “rotation” and make this my focus piece for a while.

Allen wants me to blog about what he is doing. He is currently playing Grand Theft Auto IV and his character is taking a taxi ride through Star Square. He just got a girls number and is very proud of himself Allen is just a child in a 30-somethings body! I am so in for it when Nathaniel is old enough to start getting into trouble with daddy…and I wouldn’t trade it for anything

Finally some stitching

After several days of wanting to throw my camera and my home phone through a window, I have finally gotten at least the camera to cooperate. Unfortunately, my phone still breaks ever time someone calls it. Kind of defeats the purpose of having the phone, but our service provider doesn’t seem to understand that. AAAHHH how frustrating.

On to better things. After having a memory card error for almost a week, I was finally able to retrieve my pictures off my camera. While we were visiting Allen’s grandparents two weekends ago, I was able to do a bunch of stitching on Alchemical Romance. I am now almost to the halfway point on that piece. I love stitching on it as it feels like a bunch of tiny little finishes.

I have also been working on Deb’s RR. She really picked some pretty houses for us to stitch. This is one of the Morbid Pithies which you can find at theworkbasket.net. Deb also provided us with really pretty fabric to stitch on. I wish pictures did better justice to all the beautiful fabbies I have seen over the years.

Well, I should be off to try and get a bit of stitching in before bed…and maybe some ice cream too Bad Leslie!!

Can you believe it?

My “little” boy will be five months old on Monday (he really isn’t that little…he is a solid 19 pounds, but has grown alot in length, has lost at least two chins and has a neck now). The time has just flown by. Nathaniel is really thriving. Overall he is content and happy and already has his parents propensity to be curious and thoughtful. He is really having fun learning about how cause and effect works with his toys. Developmentally he is doing very well. He can consistently roll onto his side both from front to back and back to front. On three occasions he has rolled all the way over. His legs are amazingly strong as he is starting to support his weight with assistance and when on his tummy will push himself an inch or so across the floor. Nathaniel loves to hear his own voice, particularly at 6 in the morning, has a beautiful laugh and is just starting to try rice cereal. I am so proud of my sweet boy Take a look at some pictures we had done of him and of the three of us. They are the first formal pictures we have had done since Allen and I got married almost four years ago.

In other news, I have been stitching a bit. My time is so stretched with Nathaniel and the craze of fourth quarter of the school year at work. By the time Nathaniel goes to bed at 8, I am drained and don’t have much energy for anything. Work should start slowing down soon as we get closer to summer so I am hoping to get more stitching mojo. Currently, I am about half finished with Deb’s neighborhood RR and did four motifs on Alchemical Romance last weekend while visiting Allen’s grandparents. I hope to post pictures tomorrow, but it is contingent on my finding my little camera. It is still packed among all our stuff from the trip Traveling with a five month old is an adventure and seems to require a trailer

I think I’m back…

Woo, it has really been a long time. So long that WordPress has changed the look of the posting page. It has been a busy week. I had a ton of assessments all due last week at work which was a bit draining, but it is all done now. We are also working on getting everything together for Nathaniel’s christening which is this coming Sunday. I am not big into entertaining so it is a bit overwhelming for me. Despite all that, the little dose of anti-anxiety I started last week seems to be making a difference. I still have a good bit of nervousness and sleeping still isn’t perfect, but I am not feeling the almost paralyzing fear I was a few weeks ago. It is so freeing and I have more energy. Thank goodness
I am really going to appreciate that new found energy because Nathaniel is getting more and more active. His week of crankiness seems to be over (with no tooth) and he has been at least calm, if not visibly happy most of the time. He is finally showing signs of pushing up on his hands, although he is still pretty content to lay on his stomach and chew on his hands. On one occasion he actually almost rolled over. He has his four month check up tomorrow and I am exciting to see how the doctor thinks he is doing.

I unfortunately don’t have any stitching worth showing. I am still working on the grass on Deb’s RR. A few days ago, I did have fun tea dying some fabric for CCN’s Sweet Treats and LHN’s Heart of Americs. I really like how they came out…especially the one on the left.

Since I just mentioned I didn’t have much to show stitching wise it is not surprising to hear I didn’t do too well on my March goals. Oh well My April stitching goals are to make progress on Deb’s RR and Nathaniel’s birth sampler. I want to finish it before his first birthday

I can’t believe it…(pardon the long post)

My munchkin is four months old. I can’t believe Nathaniel is that old already. The last sixteen weeks, particularly since I have been back to work, have really been a blur. Over the last eight weeks, he really has become a little man and is making great strides developmentally. It really is amazing all that he can do now. He grasps at things with his hands, can “accidentally” transfer things from one hand to the other, puts things into his mouth, sits up well with support and lifts his head when laying on his tummy. His legs are also very strong and when on his stomach he can lift up his bottom and almost scoots his face across the floor. He gets kind of frustrated that his back end is ready to go, but his front end just isn’t quite strong enough. It really has been fun to watch him grow. The only bad developmental issue that I think we are running into now is that I am pretty sure that his teeth are starting to bud. A lot of people think I am crazy when I say that, but in the last ten days, the volume of drool he produces has multiplied a hundred fold and he chews on anything he can get in his mouth. In addition he is definitely less smiley and giggly than he was a week ago due to the discomfort. We will find out what the pediatrician thinks on April 8 when we go for his four month appointment. And as you look at the following pictures, yes he is a chunker. Last I weighed him he was a little over 17 pounds. I love all his rolls

Here he is “watching TV” in his crib

And here he is sleeping.

Her he is with Opa wearing the Hershey Park hat he got for easter.

And lifting his head…

Unfortunately, in other areas, it has been a bad week for me. Right before heading back to work, I started to have really bad insomnia and developed mild anxiety symptoms similar to what I had experienced when I was in college. I figured it was just nerves regarding leaving Nathaniel in day care and heading back to work after three months, but things haven’t gotten better over the last month. Despite the lack of improvement, I kept telling myself I could handle it on my own. When Allen and I decided to try to get pregnant, I was so proud that I was finally able to stop taking the teeny tiny dose of anxiety meds I had been taking since then end of college. After Nathaniel was born I knew that I would be a little more susceptible to postpartum depression/anxiety than your average new mommy, but I was determined to do it on my own. On Thursday the anxiety got to be so paralyzing and physically painful I gave in and headed out to the doctor. It was just too much to not sleep and have the discomfort of having my muscles sit in a tensed position all day. Three days of a teeny dose of anti-anxiety meds later, I am worrying less about stupid stuff and I can finally feel my muscles relax a bit. Typing this at the end of the day is a bit uncomfortable, but it is better than where I was a few days ago. I was totally spent after a day at work and the little energy I had left of course went to caring for and playing with my munchkin. Today was the first time in a while that I had the physical energy to stitch. I pulled out Deb’s RR and worked a bit more on it. Here is what I have so far.

It is a really pretty house from The Workbasket Morbid Pities series. I had a great time working on it today.

Finally a finish

So here it is, I finally finished Bine’s RR. It is the house from CCNs Forest Snowfall. I changed the color of the shutters, but otherwise it is pretty close to the original. I also got Deb’s RR in the mail today and had fun looking through all the goodies she included. I have picked out my piece already and will probably start it tomorrow. I usually like to get these done at the beginning of the stitching window, but had a hard time with this past round because of having Nathaniel. Although I definitely don’t have as much stitching time as I did before, I am typically able to get 30-60 minutes a night. I might even be able to stitch a bit in the mornings if we can ever get to getting up on time.

I wish I could get a picture of it, but earlier we found Cooper sleeping in Nathaniel’s car seat. Now he is having fun playing with the built in blanket which made a bit of a tent when he knocked the seat over. I think Cooper has finally accepted Nathaniel as part of the family

No stitching pics:(

I was so proud of how close I have come to finishing Bine’s RR that I was terribly disappointed when I realized my camera batteries were dead. Apparently, Allen drained it and filled up the memory card this weekend taking video of Nathaniel. So we will all have to wait until tomorrow to see pictures of my house. Maybe it will be totally finished by then…yay!

So as not to keep you photo deprived here are some cute pictures.

First up are my “nephew” and new “niece”. They are my sister and BILs dogs Hudson and Ridgley. I finally get to meet little Ridgley at Easter and I am looking forward to seeing how she does with Nathaniel. She is about his size so I am not as nervous about her being near him. I know Hudson would never do anything to hurt him on purpose, but he is so big and he loves to cuddle so much he might accidentally squish him Pretty soon I am sure Nathaniel will want to ride around on his back like a horse and Hudson will love it!

Next up is Nathaniel going for a walk. He looked so cute all bundled up. It was a really cool and windy day. He spent most of the walk trying to eat his sweatshirt:). It other baby news, he finally me a big milestone today. He has hated his tummy time so much, I never thought he would ever lift up his head or push up on his hands. He surprised me. Today after work, I put him on his stomach on his big bear. I turned my head for a second to grab my drink and when I turned around there he was with his head lifted up looking at me with a big smile on his face. I think he was super proud of himself!

Nathaniel giggles

Okay, my new mommy/back to work brain hasn’t been able to figure out how to get video up on my blog, but I wanted to share this with my blogging friends. Nathaniel is getting good at his new trick…giggling. It is such a wonderful sound. So, if you want to check it out, visit the video on my photobucket site.

Nathaniel giggle

He just loves to watch Allen act like a fool