Six Month Update

Natalie turned 6 months old last week. Will someone please tell me how time manages to pass so quickly??!! One of the best parts of motherhood is watching my baby change and grow and learn new things all the time. There is never a dull moment!



These are some of the things Natalie has done during the past month:

-maintains better balance while sitting up
-can stay on all fours for a short time if we set her down in that position
-blows raspberries with her lips
-consistently sleeps from 7:30 pm to 5-6 am before feeding (sometimes she will wake up around 3 am and we give her the paci, but we decided to follow our pediatricians advice on "cutting her off" from feedings in the middle of the night to help train her to sleep and let me get more sleep, too)
-first trip to the water park (which she tolerated much more than I expected!)
-laughs more
-wrinkles her nose and makes a snorting sound which is hilarious!
-tries to drink out of a cup if we hold it up for her. It's adorable to watch her little lips moving trying to drink water! Talk about cheap, simple entertainment for her and us!

Her 6-month checkup with the pediatrician isn't until next week, but she weighed 16 pounds the last time I weighed her a couple weeks ago. I tried leaving her in the church nursery once, but she only lasted 10 minutes before they came and got me because she was hysterical. On one hand, I'm glad that she has a strong bond with me and I pray that we always have a close relationship, but on the other hand, I hope she doesn't have long-term separation anxiety. I know it's totally normal for her to have some separation anxiety, but I hope she decides that the nursery is more fun than clinging to dear ol' mom all the time :)

Natalie,
You are a blessing. I thank God for you each and every day and I'm still in awe that God gave you to us. You are beautiful, inside and out, and I can't wait to see what is in store for you. It's getting harder to remember what life was like before you were born, but that doesn't even matter anymore. My life is more abundant with you in it. You made my lifelong desire to become a mom a reality and with God's help, I'm committed to being the best mother to you that I can be. I love you!

*Fairly* Recent Projects and Such

Around Easter, I was bit by the sewing bug and got to work on quite a few projects. Here are pictures of a few of them:

Baby shower gifts for a former co-worker who is expecting twin girls in the next month! (owl design from www.appliquewhimsy.com)

(Design from www.planetapplique.com)

Nursing Cover

Receiving blanket made out of a flat-fold (unused) cloth diaper and scrap flannel

Shirt and ruffle-bottom capris for my niece (kite design from www.planetapplique.com)

Embroidered onesie (design from www.planetapplique.com)

Appliqued onesie (design from www.planetapplique.com) and diaper cover (I sewed a skirt, too, but haven't gotten a picture yet!)

Embroidered shirt for a friend's daughter for Father's Day (design from Embroitique on Etsy.com)

Suffice it to say that I have gotten over my fear of my embroidery machine and have finally broken it in a little! It's a little too much fun to sew for little girls! Now if we could just finish some house projects that seem to be dragging on forever.

The landscaping in our front yard is still not complete and the weeds are taking over again. We had a patio poured out back, which I'll post pictures of soon. That is still a work in progress, too. Thankfully, the inside of our house is coming along quite nicely. I scored a set of oak end tables at a yardsale this weekend for $15. Nothing else in our house is oak, but for the price, I can paint or re-stain them down the road!
They are in our family room, which has probably undergone the biggest transformation of any room in our house since we moved in. For the longest time, the only thing in the room was Alex's computer desk. But, we bought a couch from some friends after Natalie was born and it has taken shape little by little ever since. Here's the before:




And now 3 years later, the after:


Looking back, I can't believe how much we've done to change how this room looks. It has probably become my favorite room in the house since staying home with Natalie. We hang out in there a lot. Well, that's about the extent of my creativity these last few months. What kinds of projects have you been working on?