breaking news—rollin' along

this morning i put lucy down on her blanket for some tummy time, and i left her with the boys to go grab the laundry. when i came back into the room, she was on her back. i asked the boys if either of them had helped her roll over (i know she doesn't like tummy time that much, so i thought maybe one of them had flipped her over in response to some fussing). nope. neither one had touched her.
so i put her back on her tummy to see if she would roll over again, and sure enough. the next time i looked at her (i was distracted by a loud and excited sam), she was on her back again! i tried for a third time, but since i was watching closely this time she decided she'd had enough of this business and gave a good fuss about the fact that she had turned herself onto her back twice now and for some reason i totally wasn't getting the hint that "this stinks and i don't want to do it anymore, mom!"
anywho, apparently lucy can flip herself now. which also means we need to be a little more careful where we leave the little bugger. *sigh* immobility is much easier to deal with.

the lucy project—month 3

lucy at three months old:

• smiles a lot and likes to make gurgle-y "g" noises. she almost sounds like she's trying to say "girl" (as in "i'm the sweet girl!")
• is most fascinated by her hands, her feet, the "crinkle" frog, the taggie book, and her brother (the ultimate toy). she has also recently become very good at grabbing things she's interested in.
• can hop in the jumpster. it's not her favorite exactly, she'd much rather be held, but she'll tolerate it. particularly if sam is willing to bring her play food to snack on.
• is starting to humor me with the tummy-time business. she's still not keen on it (she'd much rather sit propped up in the boppy or in my lap), but she doesn't fuss nearly as quickly as she used to.
• is still a master of spit bubbles. sam was never this drooly. it's kind of cute and kind of gross.
• likes to stand up and show off her "tall baby" skills. she's getting so big!
• still has the squarshiest, kiss magnet cheeks ever, and softest fuzzies for noses.

when she's not crying or trying to cover me in spit-up (or worse), i feel like i'm the luckiest mom ever. (other times i'm just the second luckiest.)

buckeye bucket list

in less than two weeks the henderson-jones clan will be arriving for a one week visit, and this time we'll be lucky enough to be hosting! there are so many things we'd like to do with these special relatives that we don't get to see nearly as often as we'd like, so inspired by missy, i thought sam and i should make a "buckeye bucket list" of things to do in our corner of ohio. this is what we've come up with thus far:

• lightsaber battles (i think sam intended this for oscar and himself, though others might be welcome to join in)
• go for a hike to the overlook and feed the birds (i'll have to go get some sunflower seeds for this)
• ride the train to tower city and see the christmas decorations (i hope they'll be up in time, as they usually are)
• make buckeyes (or find a place to buy them) to take back to mississippi
• go to the playground
• go to the indoor pool
• take lucy for a walk (at shaker lakes)
• play legos
• read something (preferably about star wars)
• share halloween candy (for dessert)
• have thanksgiving dinner
• have a fire in the fireplace, roast marshmallows, have s'mores

i'm sure we'll come up with more and there will be lots of things we won't end up having time for, but it's fun to think about enjoyable things to do (much more fun than the list of all that needs to get done before the visit. bathroom scrubbing anyone?)

image via pinterest

more stencils!

i'm attending a baby shower tomorrow at work, so i whipped up a few freezer paper stenciled onesies for the mama-to-be. it definitely makes a great go-to project because it's not as time consuming as sewing up bibs or the like, but it's still "personalized". so this is what i was doing instead of crafting fun halloween projects with the kids (my poor kids!) though sam and i did manage to make a couple of ghosties for the front door.

one of sam's ghosts (who, according to sam, has been eating blue cotton candy—on its lips and in its left hand—and is holding a toy—black thing in its right hand). he drew the faces on both ghosts all by himself and i think he did a great job.

halloween recap

our pumpkin (art directed by sam)

because our trick-or-treat got suspended until sunday, i never did get pictures of the kids dressed up on halloween (though sam was able to dress up and get treats at daycare that day!) i was actually glad that things were postponed until sunday because i basically would've missed the entire thing had it been held on wednesday (i don't arrive home until 7:15 or so on workdays and trick-or-treat only runs until 7:30 here). it would've also meant that mike would've been stuck at the door handing out candy and sam wouldn't have been able to really go out much at all. 
with trick-or-treat on sunday lucy and i were able to hand out candy and sam and mike were able to go door-to-door. apparently sam was all into it this year (i think this is the first year he really understood the whole "getting dressed up and getting candy" thing), and he had a great time. mike texted me as they went along and i was surprised at how far they'd gone in the cold. sam's costume was big enough that he could fit his sweatshirt underneath (though i guess with his hood up he looked a little more "ninja" and not so much jedi until mike had him get his lightsaber out).

sam, red-cheeked and happy, showing off his loot.

lucy wasn't exactly happy about her "snuggle time" being interrupted by all the kids coming to the door, but she was greeted with many smiles and compliments. several of the younger kids were so distracted by her cuteness that they seemed to forget what they were knocking on our door for. by the time sam and mike got back, the trick-or-treaters had disappeared and she was happily sleeping in my (then unoccupied) arms.

lucy tired out after all the excitement.

all-in-all i think this was the most excitement we've had over halloween thus far. i had originally hoped to do more as far as crafty things and decorations and such, but managing all that with an almost three month old (who always seemed to be ravenously hungry, wet, poopy, or generally grumpy when i had a list of things i wanted to get done) isn't as easy as i thought it would be. i suppose there's always next year.

halloween preview—sammy luke skywalker

the corrpro company halloween party was yesterday, so we took the opportunity to photograph sam in his finished costume for the event. this costume was by far the most involved i've done so far (i broke out the sewing machine for this, which is a big deal in our house). i don't think mine is quite as fantastic as what missy is constructing for oscar, but it was about as fancy as i could manage. missy posted reference material here, and i downloaded photos for my trip to the fabric store. i bought a pattern for the top (a karate uniform), but the pants were way too big for sam, so i had to make my own pattern for that. the belt is brown webbing with a prachute buckle (something sam could put on and take off himself), and has small pleather "tool pouches" for sam to put things in that he might need while fixing a droid, or some other task. the boot covers didn't exactly happen the way i thought they would partly because i couldn't figure out exactly how to construct them so that sam would be able to put them on by himself and partly because he decided at the last minute he wanted to wear his "work boots". of course, sam was completely satisfied with the outcome. to tell the truth, i think if he had just gotten the lightsaber, his imagination would have filled in the blanks without all the sewing and such. the highlight of the party for sam was the boy dressed up as a clone trooper. he thought that it was ultra cool to have another star wars character there and is already plotting for me to make him a red clone trooper costume next year.
sam has definitely been enjoying his very own lightsaber and takes it just about everywhere he goes including bed (and i believe he's had at least one reminder that it's not a bath toy). lucy has gotten a few clonks on the head (and assorted body parts), but i suppose that's to be expected when bad guys are peeking around every corner (you can't have a war without casualties). she's handling it all very well though.
lucy also wore her costume yesterday, but i didn't get a chance to photograph her before she got upset and needed a diaper change and a nap. i'm hoping to get a few photos on wednesday, so stay tuned for that reveal.

sam's previous costumes can be found here, here, and here.

fall 2012

we've been pretty busy this fall, though if you asked me exactly what we've been up to it's hard to remember where the time has gone. i think a lot of it got swallowed up with costume making, but we've been to the farmers' market, down to columbus, to the swimming pool, and all around town (particularly to the playgrounds). i'm really wishing i'd have taken the time to photograph the trees while we've been out and about as they've been more bright and colorful than i remember in recent years, but these days just getting out the door is all my brain can handle. i'd say the peak of color was last weekend, and in the last couple of days the trees surrounding our yard have basically emptied themselves out. we have been out clearing the yard of leaves at least three times since last saturday. the pile of leaves on thursday was particularly epic (for a plot the size of ours, anyway), and sam had a blast jumping in, slogging through, and having me bury him underneath in that crunchy, colorful heap. lucy watched the proceedings with a mostly solemn expression, but it was a lovely 78 degree day with a light breeze, and we all enjoyed being out in the sun (we probably should have enjoyed it more considering that the weather mavens are predicting chilly and rainy for the next week or so—blarrgh).
i keep thinking about missy's bucket list and all the fun things she's been doing and wishing we were having that many adventures. oh well. i guess we've got a little fall left, so maybe we can cram a little more fun in before it's over. in any case, having missy and family up at the end of november will definitely be the highlight of the season (and maybe with them here we'll come up with some fun to cross off, right?)