Wait for me!!!

Lately, so much of motherhood for me has been realizing how fleeting everything is. I am constantly thinking "Stop, wait, I'm not ready yet!" I can barely get one size of the baby's clothes washed and put away before she is growing out of them and it's time to break out the next size. A little part of my heart breaks with every bin of clothes I pack away.  This is a size and a time that I will never get back. Cognitively, I understand that this is what life is all about. We have an experience, we grow and move on to the next thing. I know that there are joys and things to look forward to with every stage of growth for my kids. Emotionally though...there is always that little bit of panic in my chest. It hides right behind my heart and gives it a little squeeze if I pay too much attention to it.
Stop.
Wait.
Freeze this moment for just a second.

My baby's beautiful dark eyelashes against her perfect baby skin flushed pink with sleep. The smell of her breath as she takes a deep breath and snuggles in deeper to my chest.

My toddler's precious pigtails bouncing as she runs across the room. Her looks of surprise and wonder as she experiences new things. Her tiny arms wrapped around my neck as I carry her body, heavy with sleep, up the stairs and lay her in her crib.

My preschooler's excitement to show me what he made in school that day. His little voice singing lullabies to his baby sister. How he asks me to snuggle him at night because he is cold and his little body curls up against mine.  "Mamma, hold my hand."

Please don't grow up. Stay my babies forever.

But that's not what this is about is it? Every day, we need to learn to let go a little bit more. They are their own people and they need to grow and experience and live.
I keep reminding myself to take a deep breath. Savor the beautiful moments of each precious stage (and even some of the not so beautiful moments...I do have a threenager you know!)

Ready or not.

Through the eyes of a child

I was 39 weeks pregnant with baby number 3 (39+4 to be exact).  I am feeling huge and puffy. I also have vertigo from the pregnancy (I'm painting a lovely picture of myself here aren't I?).
Lately the little man has been waking up in the middle of the night because he has to go to the bathroom.  Last night it was 3:30 am.  I stumble, dizzy, out of bed and grope my way to the door. I stumble down the hall and open his door. He gets out of bed with his eyes half shut, grabs my hand and we both blindly make our way to the bathroom. "It's really shiny out here" he whispers. That's his way of saying the lights are bright. It always makes me smile.
He finishes up and stumbles, half asleep, back into the hallway. He looks back at me gives me a little half smile and says "you're beautiful". He walks into my room and climbs into the bed. I climb in after him and he snuggles his little body against mine. "I'm cold" he whispers "snuggle me". As I wrap my arms around him and rest my chin on his little head, I try to freeze this moment. For a precious second in time, this incredible little person is mine.
We are so quick to find the faults in ourselves but are able to look at our children and see the beauty and perfection in them. That beauty and amazement we see in our children must be how they see the world, untainted by the judgement and overly critical eyes we train ourselves to see with.
I wonder what this world would be like if we could all look at it through the eyes of a child.

I just said what?!

Our brood has grown by one! I am now the proud mama of a three year old, a one year old and a one month old...yikes!! Things have certainly been busy around here!
My little kiddos make me laugh every day. Sometimes the laughs come from the things coming from my own mouth. I will say something and then pause after speaking and think "did I really just say that?".

Here is a little collection of the crazy things that I have said recently:

"Be careful you don't hit your sister with that moose!"

"I just said you don't hit you sister with ANYTHING and that includes dinosaurs!"

"No no sweetie, you don't put mustard on the baby's head" (For the record, it was fake mustard)

"Watch out! You almost knocked over the lamp with that chicken!"

"Sweetie, please don't lick the dog."

"It's 2am and the middle of summer, why are you standing on your bed shouting 'Ho Ho Ho'?"

"Excuse me, you don't hit mom with a frog."

Leave a comment with the craziest thing you have had to say to your little ones!

confessions of a sleep deprived mommy

So many nights I go to sleep feeling like I have failed.  I am tired. Treading water with my head barely breaking the surface.
The sink is full of dirty dishes.
I don't remember the last time I put on real clothes.
Shower...ha!
The laundry is clean but unfolded, piled on a chair. The hampers are full again.
The bathrooms are a little scary.
Dog fur tumbleweeds blow around my house as I wander from room to room wondering where to start.

There is never not something that needs to be done.
Today I spent all morning getting frustrated and yelling at my two year old.
Watch out!
Sit down!
You almost hit the baby!
Stop shouting!
Hold your bowl straight so you don't spill!
You have to use the potty so you don't wet your pants!
You need a nap, you are exhausted!! (That one applies to me too)
But there is no time for naps.  I have work to do on the computer so I can continue to be home with my two (soon to be three) munchkins.
The dishes need to be washed because we are out of spoons.
Lunch
Snack
Dinner

He has finally settled down and is down for his nap.
Parenting can be ugly business.  Every once in a while I feel like I have it all together (not lately). It is a humbling experience; exhausting.

Every day my kids make me smile
Every day they make me laugh
They are an unending source of love
There is nothing better than the feel of little arms around my neck and wet kisses on my cheek
Big smiles from the baby make my heart so full of love it hurts.
"I love you buddy" "I love you too Mommy" the unprompted response from my little man that always chokes me up a little bit.

I'm not perfect but every day I try.

The number one spot on my "to-do" list today:
Hug my little man when he wakes up and tell him I am sorry I lost my patience.
Tell him that I love him.

What seems like the blessing is really the curse.  It's not always going to be like this.  They will grow up and one day, they won't "need" me anymore.  They will have their own lived to live and at that moment I will look back on these days and give anything for little tiny arms around my neck and a tiny voice in the dark saying "I love you too Mommy".

Big Boy Room for a Little Man

My Little Man is getting big (insert sad face here). It was time to move him out of the crib and into his big boy room.  We had baby no. 2 in June and it is time to move her from the bassinet in our room to the crib in the nursery.

I decided to go with a superhero theme for the big boy room.  It was already painted blue so I am keeping the color.  A trip to Hobby Lobby and I found a bunch of metal vintage looking comic book wall art.  Bonus: it was all 50% off. Score!

I searched online yard sales for a toddler bed and found a Lightning McQueen for $75.  Eventually it will become a Bat Mobile but that is another project for another day.

We had an extra dresser that I wanted superhero knobs for.  I searched online and they could get a little expensive...we are on a serious budget here people!!  Making my own was really easy and they were completely finished in just a couple of hours.

Materials:
Wooden knobs from hardware store
Acrylic Paint
Mod Podge
Tissue Paper
Clear Gloss Spray Paint

If I am going to be honest, Apple Barrel is not my favorite acrylic, it is a bit too watery. I prefer Folk Art but hey, you make do with what you've got!

I painted all of the knobs an off white color and let them dry.  Acrylic dries very fast.

While they were drying, I did a Google search for the images I wanted and imported them into Power Point.
I like Power Point because it is very easy to manipulate the photos and move them around the screen.
I did a test print to make sure they were the right size to fit on the knobs.

Here is where I got really cheap. I found a piece of white tissue paper from a gift we had received from a friend. It wasn't too crinkled so I figured it would work.  I cut the tissue paper to be a little bit smaller than a standard piece of paper and taped it to the printer paper along the edges.  You don't have to go crazy here, just tape it enough so the printer won't eat it.
Press print.

 



It is really that easy.  Now remove the tissue paper from the printer paper and cut out the images.  I found it worked best to cut pretty close to the image or it has a tendency to wrinkle when you try to glue it to the knob.

After they are cut out, take a dried knob and with a paint brush, apply a coat of Mod Podge to the knob. Press the image on to the knob and using the brush with more Mod Podge, coat over the top of the tissue paper. Don't go over it too many times or the ink will start to bleed.

 



After the Mod Podge dried, I took them out to the garage and sprayed them with two coats of a clear gloss spray paint.  I left them to dry overnight.  I also waited overnight because the spray was pretty smelly and I didn't want his room to smell like that. 
The next day it was just a matter of unscrewing the old knobs and replacing with the new ones. 
My little man was so excited. Captain America (Packa Acka) is currently his favorite and he was so excited to see him in his room.
When I showed them off to my family, everyone thought they were porcelain...my secret.

Of course I don't have a picture of them on the actual dresser...that would be way to organized and put together of me :)

Have fun making your own...any image you can print out will work.  Trucks, ponies, Hello Kitty, shapes.  I imagine you could even do cute clip art of types of clothing (shirts, pants, socks) and put the knob on the corresponding drawer so little ones would know where to put their clothes away. 

Let me know in the comments if you try this and what style you made!

Happy Crafting!!

Photo Board Repurposed

My little niece turned one last week.  She is such a little cutie.  Her mom and dad planned an awesome super hero party for her. 

This was the dress they had made for her...so SUPER cute!!

https://www.facebook.com/memoriesby.sherry

When I asked my sister-in-law what she needed for the party she asked me if I could bring the photo board I used for my little man's party:

 

 

It just wasn't super hero enough...

 

 

The back was just bare plywood so I decided to make it look like a page out of a comic.

I bought white fabric with gray polka dots and two wide white photo mats that I later spray painted matte black.



I searched free fonts online and found a couple really cute ones.  The one I used for the words is called "Damn noisy kids".  It was perfect.  I used PowerPoint to make the words a big as possible and printed them on cardstock. 

I used some spray adhesive to attach the fabric to the plywood then stapled it around the edges. 

My favorite part was the speech bubbles (I had two speech bubbles and two thought bubbles).  Google image speech bubble, import into PowerPoint and enlarge so it fills the entire page.  Print and laminate.  After they are laminated, you can write on them with dry-erase marker so everyone can write their own message.  I might make more of these just for photo props because they are really funny...especially when you hold them over a baby's head :)

First Birthday CARNIVAL!!

Whew!! The last few months have been super busy!

In August my little man turned ONE!!  I have no idea where the past year has gone. 
We celebrated by having a carnival.  I started planning and building months in advance.  We had a popcorn bar with three different flavors of popcorn.  Party Popcorn- drizzled with white chocolate and little sprinkles. Butter Popcorn and Maple Bacon Popcorn...YUM!!!

We also did a hot dog bar for our main food.  It is super easy to just stand the hot dogs up in a crock pot and turn it on.  It keeps the hot dogs hot and no one is standing over a grill for the whole party.  For hot dog toppings we had: Cheese, caramelized onions, chili, onions in sauce, ketchup, mustard, relish...it was a big hit!

I made the little man's cake...vanilla with salted caramel buttercream.  I also made cupcakes with mini marshmallow "popcorn" on top.  It was a fantastic day with friends and family!

The biggest hit of the party was the COTTON CANDY!!  I thought the kids would be most excited for it but to be totally honest, it was the adults that were the most excited :)  We are all just big kids at heart anyway right?!

Here are some pictures from the day:

 And no First Birthday would be complete without a SMASH CAKE!!

 

Planning this birthday party was so much fun.  I definitely could have used another week to get everything ready but overall, everyone had a great time!