Valentine's Day

I thought I'd try things a little differently this year and post about Valentine's Day after everyone else has moved on. :)
Or maybe I'm just way behind.
Either way, here is my Valentine's Day post.

Lee and I have *gasp* never been out to dinner on Valentine's Day.  For our first Christmas together I gave him a grill [I know, great gift, right? He gave me a duvet cover.] Anyway, so for Valentine's Day, shortly thereafter, we decided to grill lamb chops.
And then, on my two hour drive up to Richmond from Rocky Mount, I stopped for gas and locked my keys in my car. With the car running.
And then, I forgot to put the bread in the oven.
And then, [if you know us well, this is not a surprise] we got in a huge fight.
About the bread.
This was the first major fight of our relationship. Happy V-Day, US!
And then we got over it, and we've been grilling lamb chops every year since then. Except last year, when there were no lamb chops to be had.

And every year we laugh about my having forgotten the bread, but I don't think I've ever forgotten the bread again [on Valentine's Day, at least. On other days, bread is no guarantee.]

So another Happy Valentine's Day to Lee!
I'd rather fight over bread with you than eat it with anyone else.

Baby Boy Love, Cont'd

Ok, so what was I saying?
Oh yeah. I love that boy.

We have a telepathic relationship whereby we have the following conversation on a daily basis:

L4: Mama, what is she doing NOW?
Me: I don't know, buddy. I just don't know.
[We share a knowing glance.]
L4: I'm going back to sleep now, k?
Me: Ok buddy. You do that.
L4: [snoring]

I'll make it quick...

Because there's nothing that wakes up a sleeping baby like a Mama who sits down to accomplish something.

I have to say this about my littlest Valentine: before he was born, people told me it would be different with a boy.  Mothering would be different, I mean. And I could never quite imagine what they meant. But now I get it. And I love it.

And now he is demanding his mama, so I'll have to tell you more about it later.

She reads!

Daddy: MB, what does your shirt say?
MB: Uuuuummmm, I hawt MB!!!!!
Daddy: Nope!
MB: IT DOES!

And she's sort of right. She's gifted that way.

There's always something...

That's sort of my mothering mantra. What I learned after fretting over everything with MB when she was a baby was that if I'm not worrying about one thing [naps/eating/OMG she just coughed weird!], it's another. Always.  You [Lee!] might be reading this and thinking that's a pretty pessimistic view, and it may be. But the other side to it is this: whatever I'm worried about at this minute will soon be over. And looking back on it, I will have forgotten what I ever worried about.

My baby has eczema, which I know, is way down the list of infant ailments to fret over. But I married into this sensitive skin business, and I don't have much personal experience. When I wake up in the morning and my happy baby's face is an angry color, I panic.

And then I picture him, twelve months old, hanging from the ceiling, chasing MB around and saying Up! Up! Up! twenty times to twenty-one times saying Down! Down! Down! 

And then I breathe out, slather his little body with Eucerin for the third time in a day, and watch him coo with delight as my fingers tickle his second chin.

And my heart sort of explodes a little.

Hands-on

Mary Bullock was a little Sicky Sickerson last week, so she was out of school for several days. I love that girl to pieces, but the two of us together all day for days and days on end-- especially stuck in the house-- is not good for either one of us. Or the house, which looked more like a disaster area than a home.

So in our never ending quest for activities, we headed over to the Hands On Children's Museum. I'd purchased a membership on Groupon a month or so ago and finally had the perfect opportunity to check it out.

She went from crying to smiling in less than an hour and for not very much money. I'm not going to say it's the awesomest place I've ever been, but to a two year old who loves a) choo choo trains b) grocery stores c) fire trucks and let's not forget d) not having to sit around watching Mommy feed that baby, I'm sure it seemed like Shangri-La. And that's good enough for me!

You asked

And by you, I mean, Taylor. The rest of you might not care. Except Molly. You care about everything MB and L4 related. :)
So-- the nursery. The nursery that I fretted, nagged, cried, and swore over? It's not done. I'm not sure it will ever be done. I prefer to think of it as a work in progress, sort of like me. I'm sure we'll keep ticking projects off of the to-do list right up until the time this room is ready to be turned into something else!

First, a repeat picture of my squirrel.  I posted the first picture of him with his giraffe here, just so you can see how big he is getting. So-- this is his crib. The outside of the bumper is Amy Butler Full Moon Dots in Cherry.  Here is a better picture of the bedding-- taken the day we came home from the hospital. The inside is super soft minky dots. [I want to cover my entire house in minky dots. I rub my face on MB's pillows when she's not looking.]

I chose this fabric because it coordinates with the Amy Butler Wallflower print that I used for MB's bedskirt.

Finding fabrics that coordinated for both boy and girl was a little tricky, especially since I am not skilled enough to make decisions about color and scale and design-y things like that. Amy Butler prints are coordinated enough for dummies like me. :)

The curtains are sailcloth panels from Target that got an upgrade from Grandma Moose [my mom]. She is my go-to seamstress for baby rooms, much to her dismay at this point. I'm sure every time her phone rings now, she's willing me to just buy something from Pottery Barn Kids already.  Ahhhh-- but I could never be so easy. [Which she should totally know by now, having raised me. =)]

Just a few weeks ago I finally got around to doing the "art" [if you can call it that] for the space above the changing table.

I wanted [and actually convinced Lee to get] a Sugarboo print for above the changing table. I've wanted one forever and thought it would be perfect for this space-- until the day that MB stuck her hand into a tub of Aquaphor and smeared it all over that very wall while I was changing her diaper.  And then Plan B was hatched. It's a canvas covered in burlap and painted with fabric paint, so even if it one day gets covered in poop, [and I am positive that day will come sooner rather than later] I can toss it and do something else and not shed tears over it.

We finally got around to hanging Lee IV's car mobile a few weeks ago. And by we, I mean Lee III.  I am no help on these projects.

[Another idea hijacked from Sugarboo and executed by my chief seamstress.]

And that's about it, unless you want pictures of the piles of toys and dirty clothes on the floor. Let me know if you do-- I like to keep it real around here. ;)