Merry Christmas!

Well, we are off to Long Island to visit my family once again! We leave as soon as Jonah gets up from his nap. I hope you all have a blessed and joy-filled Christmas!

Christmas cookies!

These are the yummy Christmas cookies my darling husband and I made. Jonah helped too; he napped.

This is the first Christmas in a LONG time that I haven't made cookies with Shelli. We would make all sorts of sweet and tasty morsels: sugar cookies, "UFO's", candy cane cookies, fudge, fingers (ooh, ah, fingers!!), ginger snaps, and marshmallows. Yes, homemade marshmallows. Well, not this year. Without my partner in cookie crime, I just don't have it in me to make all of the delectable treats. The sugar cookies came out just grand though, don't you think? Stephan did an excellent job, especially with creaming the frosting and tasting the cookies to make sure they weren't poison. You would think by the 8th cookie he would know if they were poison or not.

All I want for Christmas is a new carseat, a new carseat, see my new carseat!

Gosh, is he not the cutest baby you've ever seen?

Jonah has officially outgrown his infant "baby bucket" carseat. So mommy and daddy aren't getting anything for christmas but Jonah has the latest, greatest, safest, easiest to use, highly rated Britax Marathon car seat. It is good to use until your child reaches 65 pounds (no comments please about how Jonah will be that soon) so we shouldn't need another seat for a LONG time (translation, when baby number 2 arrives and NO I am NOT pregnant, are you crazy?!)

He seems to like it so far. It is far more comfortable and easier to use than the free one we got from the DOT (though we are extremely thankful for the free seat; actually, I'm sure our tax dollars probably paid for it since we got it through some New York state grant thing so its really not free at all. Is anything really free anyway?) I actually installed it myself, after Stephan cleared some things up for me. Basically, you just click it in. I tried reading and deciphering the directions but they were so ridiculously detailed and step by step that they made no sense to me at all. I just see the finished product and do it, just use common sense, really. I think only right-brained people would understand me... or am I left-brained? Wait, do I still have a brain?

Don't you love the cute christmas background?

No updates? How about butt wipes?

I have been accused of not updating my blog (thanks Robin!). Well, when there are no comments on my posts, I figure I am just writing for my own enjoyment so I will update when I get around to it. I do, actually, write this for my own enjoyment; makes me feel like I can get a load off or something; however, it would be nice to know that I had some kind of readership.

Anyway, so how about a great idea for make your own baby wipes? Some ladies and I were chatting in the nursery at church this past sunday and I thought it would be a good idea to post (just in case anyone actually reads this). I read this in the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. The book has some interesting ideas other than how to make your own baby food, including this about making your own butt wipes. This is what she says to do:

Mix the following:

2 cups water

2 tablespoons baby oil

2 tablespoons baby shampoo or baby wash (I plan on using Shaklee's Basic H)

1-2 tablespoons aloe from a houseplant

7-8 drops of lavender oil

Then she says to use a roll of strong paper towels cut in half (i.e. cut the whole roll in half) and take out the cardboard tube (I say to then use the cardboard tube to keep your cords from getting tangled, like iron, blender, etc.). Put the paper towels in a container like a round rubbermade container, pour the liquid over, turn the container upside down and let it sit. You can cut a small X in the lid to feed the paper towels through. Seems like a great idea. I haven't tried it yet though.

Let it sew, let it sew, let it sew!

So, I thought of something else I did pre-Jonah: SEW! And see, I am having time to do it again! Above is the shopping cart cover I made for him. He seems to like it; however, he still kinda leans a little too far in the cart and topples sideways. The cover is fully reversible and is made with really cute fabrics I got on SALE at Joann's. I used a pattern from a website called make them yourself. I think the pattern worked out pretty well, I would recommend the site too. She has a few neat ideas for shoes that I really want to try. Here is the link:http://www.makethemyourself.com/index.html



Another project I was determined to do was to make Jonah some sleep sacks. They cost $20 (or more) and its basically just fleece with a zipper up the middle. So off to Joann's, this fabric is soooo cute and was on CLEARANCE at $5 a yard. The fleece is fabulously soft and cozy. I made him a matching taggy blanket since he loves zipper pulls, ribbons, tape measures, and tags. They came out pretty good I think. I sort of used the directions for making the sleep sack from this website: http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/index.html

This is an AWESOME website with tons of great ideas for making baby and mama stuff . I am working on a diaper bag now.


I call this the "Super Doula Bag". I made this one for my super doula, Julia (or as I like to call her Julia the Doulia). Anyway, its basically just a totebag with a outside pocket made with coordinating cute fabrics.
Here is my wall hanging that displays the woodsy side of me. I made the shooting star blue because I saw a blue shooting star once, it was so amazing. Trees signify hiking, camping, etc. I always dream that someday I will have a little cabin in the woods. The bear just looked cool. I have seen bears while hiking and camping, but truly I would rather not... their claw marks on trees are enough for me...

Thanksgiving at the Green's

Jonah with Grandpa... this is who Jonah gets his middle name from.
Jonah got a great pinch on Unlce Monster's nose!

Uncle Stephen has a strage obsession with pointing to Jonah's nose.

Aunt Florence can't resist the cheeks!

Jonah tried turkey, but prefers sucking on apples and pears in his chewy thing.

I would write more in this post, if only I had the time. You see, its "nap" time in our house. Most moms LOVE nap time, I generally dread it. Currently my sweet potato is bawling in his room because something in his little brain woke him up after a brief 30 minute snooze. So now he is so sad and tired . I wish there was something I could do, really I do. With Jonah, it seems that he will either sleep or he won't... and there is very little anyone can do about it. I find it very difficult to concentrate or do anything while he is "napping"... so off I go to intervene. Maybe this time I can get him back to sleep.