William: Three Months!

Guess who has found his hands?

As cute as he is chewing on his hands (or our hands or his blanket--whatever he can get to his mouth), I'm not a fan of all the drool that comes along with it. And we're pretty sure he isn't going to be teething early or anything; according to Darrell's mom, Darrell was a drooler from day one, so apparently this just runs in the family. Joy.

Aside from the increase in drooling (and slightly more frequent spitting up--yuck), everything is still going well with Mr. William. No formal doctor's appointment this month, but we're guessing he's pushing fifteen pounds. Size two diapers are starting to get snug on him, as are pretty much all three month clothing. We still don't have much for a consistent day-to-day routine, but lately he's fallen into a pretty consistent habit of eating, playing, then napping (of course, the length of each activity varies from time to time, but I'll take any sort of consistency I can get at this point!).

And speaking of playing--my how things have changed in that department! He is so much more alert and aware (and smiley!) now, which makes it fun to just lay around and play with him. It's amazing how well he can track objects that we hold in front of his face, and he's even able to track us if we are in the same room as him (and believe us, he's definitely figured out who "we" are--while we were out of town for my sister's wedding there were times when he refused to be held by anyone but Mom or Dad). Of course, this increase in being alert means that naps are a little bit more of a battle because he just wants to keep looking around, but I suppose there are worse problems to have.

A benefit to his increased awareness is that he is much better able to entertain himself and be content without needing to be held or carried. Darrell and I pulled out his high chair this month, and have actually been able to enjoy meals together on a regular basis while William hangs out kicking and talking (and usually chewing on a blanket) in his chair. I use the phrase "talking" lightly--most of his sounds are still indistinguishable from his cries/fussy noises, but we've definitely noticed a few coos (more like happy sighs at this point) and we even got a giggle out of him one time.

As far as nighttime sleep goes, William has gotten a lot better (most nights) in that department. For whatever reason, it was nearly an instantaneous change after he got his two-month shots; apparently he decided "I was man enough to handle those shots so now I'm man enough to need fewer feedings in the middle of the night". Most nights we get at least one five hour stretch, and there have even been a few nights where we've gotten six and even seven hour stretches. I try not to let myself expect those kind of nights, though, because it seems like as soon as I do he throws a fussy night into the mix and is up every two and a half hours. And there's nothing worse than going to bed expecting to get a solid chunk of sleep and then having that ripped away from you.

I'm sure I could think of plenty of other things to brag about (and probably others to complain about too), but it's getting late and pictures are more fun. So here you go!

Big Smiles!!

Think Before You Ink

Doesn't just apply to body art....

Not just one, but two grammatical errors. Brilliant.

Lake Time!

Well, it only took until the middle of June, but we finally got William down to my parent's lake cabin! We didn't get a chance to see how William liked the water because we weren't there long (just a quick stop to put the pontoon in on the way to one of my brother's baseball games), but we did get him out on his first pontoon ride!

Showing off his fancy new life jacket!

We're on a boat baby!

Hanging with Mommy

Chilling with Daddy (and trying to stay out of the wind)

Aside from some fussing when my dad lowered the throttle and it got really windy on the boat, he didn't do too bad! It took him a little while to get used to the life jacket, but he did okay with it after a while. Next mission is testing whether or not the life jacket actually works to keep him afloat in the water--call me a mean mom but I'm excited to give it a try!

Wedding Success

Well, the weekend was a success. William was a champ on the wedding day (not so much during the days before when we were trying to set up, but whatever), I didn't bomb my Maid Matron of Honor speech (at least not terribly), and Amanda and Nick ended up as husband and wife (after a brief snafu trying to find the marriage documents). Not surprisingly, the biggest fail of the weekend was that Darrell and I didn't take a single picture; something about being busy working, being in the bridal party, and watching William kept a camera pretty much out of our hands. So no pictures to share right now, but as soon as I get some I'll do a more extensive recap. It was a wonderful weekend (although we're glad to be home!) and we couldn't be more excited to have Nick as a part of our family!

Wedding Wednesday: Timeliness

Alternate title: Don't put off stuff to the last minute and spend the week or two before your wedding freaking out.

I know I ended my series of "Wedding Wednesday" posts a few months ago, but in light of my sister's upcoming nuptials (just a few more days!), I decided to throw one more into the bunch. Because this week has been nothing but phone calls and last minute runs to the store and packing up half our house to travel to the wedding (granted, most of that is stuff for William, but I digress). And that's not even the half of it; apparently once we arrive at her place she has a (fully-booked!) itinerary for us for the next three days. Now, I fully understand that some of the stuff needed to wait until the final days because they are dealing with perishable items (flowers, food, etc), but I do know that a fair amount of the stuff could have been done in advance--and would have resulted in a lot less stress if it were.

So here's my two cents. If you know you are going to be in a difficult wedding planning situation (living in different cities, moving, starting new jobs, etc), throw out those "recommended" timelines and get as much stuff done as soon as you can--and start delegating tasks sooner than a week before the wedding. There's no reason that printing the programs should be a stressful ordeal (but it will be if you've waited until the very last minute to get them printed  and then are unable to get a hold of your finance to approve the final proof before the print shop closes. Unnecessary stress). And even though the store says it will only take three weeks to get your shoes dyed (or design and ship your wedding band), get those things done a lot more than four weeks before your wedding. Things might get lost in shipping or come back damaged, and now you are SOL. There is no harm in having those things done months in advance; it's not like the shoes will "go bad" before the wedding. And it will be much easier for you (and your family!) to enjoy your wedding day when you haven't spent the entire week beforehand stressed.


Disclaimer: Please don't think that I'm trying to imply that I'm perfect when it comes to managing my time. I'm definitely guilty of last minute stress before events; the chaos leading up to my sister's bridal shower is proof enough of that. And I certainly don't mean to be insulting my sister; many of the hiccups that have happened have been out of her control (although, to be fair, if she were getting the things done sooner than a month or two weeks before the wedding they wouldn't have been nearly as big of deals). But the bottom line is, regardless of the fancy wedding timeline that tells you to print your programs a month before the wedding, throw that out the window if you know your plate is going to be full with other tasks in those final months (or if wedding planning is going to be competing with another major life event). Paper products and material goods will not spoil, and the sooner you get them done the fewer things you have to stress about. 

June Randoms

So Darrell and I recently got iPhones (a little behind the times, I know). Since we end up taking a fair number of photos on them that I don't always get around to sharing, I've decided that at the end of each month I'm going to try to remember to post them in one hodgepodge post. Not surprisingly, most of them are of William... He's just so darn cute!

Darrell marching with one of his Shriner units, the Fife and Drum. He's in the middle of the first row--it was his first time marching with the fife; he used to just carry the flag because he didn't know the songs

One of William's first smiles caught on camera!

Just hanging out

Cutest little Twins fan

The shirt says it all

Love this face!

Three different kinds of sangria at my sister's bachelorette party--yum!!

Morning play time with Mommy--I couldn't pick just one favorite!

Entranced by Uncle Nick's piano-playing skills

Best. Shirt. Ever.

Homemade Tile Coasters

So far, this whole attempt at being crafty has been pretty successful. Not only are the crafts turning out well, but they are also pretty darn cheap to create, which definitely increases my satisfaction with them.

We made these coasters as favors/prizes for my sister's bridal shower, and they were super easy.

Supplies used (all but the tiles, which we found at a hardware store for twelve cents!):

Cork, Mod Podge, Foam Brushes, and Waterproof  Clear Acrylic Spray. You'll also need scrapbook paper or whatever you plan to decorate the tiles with.

Directions (sorry I don't have pictures to go with the steps; we were a little rushed the day we were making them!):

Glue cork to the back of the tile (I suppose I should have included super glue as one of the supplies. Whoops!). I just glued a small square of cork to each corner, but if you could do as much as you feel is necessary.

Cut your paper to fit the tile--we found that it worked best to cut the paper just slightly smaller than the tile so that we didn't have to deal with excess hanging off the edges.

Apply a thin layer of mod podge to the tile. If you use too much mod podge at this step the paper will curl as it dries (you could also use a spray adhesive for this step, but I opted not to because I didn't feel like buying another item if I didn't need to).

Place your paper on the tile and cover generously with mod podge (don't worry if it makes the paper look a little milky-colored; it will dry clear!).

Allow to dry, then coat with waterproof acrylic spray.

That's it! Super easy, reasonably cheap, and totally customizable! The possibilities are endless; I even had guests at my sister's shower sign extra pieces of paper so I can turn her "guestbook" into coasters. Hopefully I'll get that done before her wedding (which is next week already!), but I'm not making any promises.