Mini Girls Weekend!

When Jeff and I started our baby journey in December of 2009, I made a profile on a Mom's chat forum and started lurking on the conception message board. It was a crazy world of wonderfully wild and amazing women with stories as varied as they come. I was fortunate to only spend a few cycles on that board and in March of 2010, moved to the pregnancy and baby boards and have made a home there since. For the past 15 months, I've chatted with the same group of women about morning sickness, ultra sounds, names, nurseries, child birth and now on to colic, teething, rolling over, and those crazy sleepless nights. There have been joys, heart breaks, funny husband stories, and lots and lots of cute baby pictures. I can honestly say I don't know what I would have done without these women. They. are. amazing. and I will never forget them.

This weekend, Charlie and I headed down to South Carolina to meet up with two of these fabulous ladies and their beautiful little girls. It was so great to finally meet them! We chatted, played with the babies, drank some wine (after baby bedtime, of course), shopped, went to the pool - just hung out. It was wonderful to get away from home for a bit and spend time with other Moms.

It was funny to see Charlie interact with other babies. Before then, he really hadn't. When he was in daycare, he was so little that he basically napped and hung out in his bouncer seat. Now, he can (almost) sit up, plays with toys, and can interact with others. Turns out, my kid has a pretty introverted personality - just like his Daddy. He would sit back and observe before getting involved, would rather play quietly alone, and would burst into tears when the girls squealed! I felt horrible, but it cracked us up. He just couldn't handle those wild women. :-P Boy, is he in for a rude awakening when he goes back to daycare in August.

I don't care if they're "just internet friends." I've got some of the coolest friends around and there are so many more that I hope to get together with in the near future. I need to win the lottery so we can have a massive get together. Preferably somewhere warm and sandy. ;-D Sound good, ladies?

Grab My Butt....on

Brown chicken, brown cow! That's right folks. Thanks to inspiration from a fellow Momma over at Loving Life, I now have a snazzy blog button! Your blog can be the proud owner of a "Home for Three" linky button by copying the carefully crafted html code from the little scrolly box on the side bar and pasting it in an html gadget on your page.

Want your own button? After an amount of time I would rather not own up to, I finally figured out how to post a linky button AND a grab it box. ::brushes shoulders off::

First, you need to make your button. From what I've read, most blog buttons are 125 - 150 pixels squared. I made mine with FotoFlexer. If you haven't tried it yet, it is awesome! Its a super easy to use, web based editing program for pictures. I saved it to my computer from the web, then uploaded it to my blog to host it. I then used that image url to plug into the following code...

To post just a picture of your button that links it back to your blog, the html is simple.

[a href="BLOG URL"][img src="IMAGE URL" /][/a]

To make it work, replace all of the [ ] with < > and insert your blog's url and the image's url.

To show the linky image and make the little scroll box so people can easily grab the html is a little more confusing.

[a href="BLOG URL"][img src="IMAGE URL" border="0" /][/a][p][textarea class="tiny" name="1" rows="3" cols="18"][br /][a href="BLOG URL"][img src="IMAGE URL" border="0" /][/a][/textarea][/p]

To make it work, replace all of the [ ] with < > and insert your blog's url and the image's url.

This code posts the image then creates a scroll box with the image's url inside it.

You might need to tweak things a little to make it work, but it is pretty cut and dry. Good luck!

The New Stats are In!

Yesterday was Charlie's 7 month weight check. After almost fighting with the nurse to balance the scale properly instead of just "guesstimating," he came up at 13lbs. 6oz! Up a whole pound from last month. He is still under the 5th percentile, but since he's making consistent progress and gaining each month its not a problem.

He's out of 98% of his 0-3 months clothes (he still wears some 0-3 mo. onesies to bed since they're long sleeved) and into most of his 3-6 months summer clothes. It was sad to pack most of his tiny stuff away, but it makes me so happy that he's chubbing up a bit. :-) We didn't schedule another weight check for 8 months, so his next appointment will be for his 9 month check up in August.

The Nature Boy Likes Water

With a streak of mid to high 80's this week, we took advantage of the heat and set up Charlie's baby pool on our "front lawn." Did we get weird looks for having a baby pool outside of the residence hall? Of course. Whatev.
















I put about 3 inches of water in the bottom, put him in a BG diaper with no liner, threw in some toys, and let him go at it. He played for almost 40 minutes, which is extremely long for his usually short attention span. His new favorite toy is the stacking cups that Aunt Chris and Uncle Mike got him for Christmas. At the moment, he enjoys trying to eat them and drink pool water from them. Stacking comes later.

Look at those wrinkly feet!

After a good splash, he laid out on the grass to dry off a little before going inside. As usual, he loved it.

As a side note, now that he's found his feed, they are pretty much always in his hands. Hey, whatever makes him happy!

I can't wait to bring him to the community pool to go swimming for real. He's going to love it! Good thing too, this summer doesn't look like its going to get any cooler.

Ooooooh New Layout!

Its funny how all of the things that I saw as okay for either gender are all of a sudden ridiculously girly for my little boy. That being said, the frilly blog lay out had to go! Go argyle!

Seven Months Old!

That's no typo. My tiny preemie cuddle bug is seven months old! We won't have an update on his stats until his weight check on Thursday, but we're thinking chunky thoughts. Maybe its my hopeful side, but he feels heavier and bigger to me. Whenever I pick him up, its like there's more there. I'm hoping all the oatmeal, fruits, and veggies he's been devouring over the past month have put on at least a pound. I'll post an update after his appointment!







This month, aside from really getting into solid food, Charlie has gotten better at baby chatter, sitting better when supported (read - doesn't immediately fall over), found his feet, tried a sippy cup, and has developed a love for being outside. Laying out a blanket with some toys on the grass in the shade is a sure fire way to get a chill baby. My little nature boy. We're going to set up his baby pool tomorrow and try that out. Hopefully, he's a fan of water because its looking like its going to be a very hot summer.




Another upcoming first isn't an exciting one, but necessary none the less. Next Wednesday, Charlie is scheduled for an outpatient surgical procedure to correct his moderate hypospadias. He should be in and out in a matter of hours and will be allowed home by the afternoon. The tough part is going to be not being able to feed him after midnight and trying not to be worried about the anesthesia. Despite living in a rural area, there is a great outpatient surgical center nearby that has a pediatric anesthesiologist and urologist. Seriously, how lucky are we? His urologist has assured us that though he'll be cranky the first 24 hours, he'll be back to normal shortly after that and heal up quickly. In the grand scheme of things, this is very minor and routine, but I'm a Momma; I can't help but worry! I know everything will be alright and once the surgery is done, poor Jeff can stop telling Charlie, "I'm sorry buddy - we'll get this thing fixed soon!" during every diaper change. :-P

Clone-a-Bib (in 20 minutes)

I really like making bibs - they're quick, easy, take very little fabric, and customized ones make great gifts. Yes, you really can do this in about 20 minutes. Maybe not the very first time, but once you make one, they'll fly by! I really find the hardest part to be picking a fabric!

Firstly, take a bib that you'd like to clone and trace it on your fabric. Be sure to trace it about about 1/2" larger around the edges for a seam allowance. That way, when you sew it, it'll be the same size as the bib you're copying. If you trace it exactly, it'll be 1/2" smaller all around. Here is your chance to make any adjustments you'd like as you make this "pattern." Want it to be longer? Wider? Bigger neck hole? Give it wings over the shoulders? Just draw it in! To trace it, you can use almost anything - pencil, chalk, sharpie, etc. The line is going to be inside the bib, so you won't see it anyway. I used a blue quilting marker that I had on hand. It shows up really bright and actually disappears with water. Nifty. Do this on both pieces of fabric you're using for your bib.

Guess what's next! Cut out both pieces of fabric. I used terrycloth as a backing for my cherry bib so it could soak up any baby juices it may encounter. You can use fleece (which is water resistant), flannel (which is soft), or even just matching/coordinating cotton on the back. Whatever you want.

Next, with right sides facing each other, sew around the edges with a 1/2" seam (remember how you left all that extra space when tracing?), leaving an opening to turn it inside right. Here's a "learned the hard way" tip: leave the opening somewhere on the bib that isn't curved. Trying to recreate that curve perfectly while finishing the seam is nearly impossible and it just ends up looking messy. With this bib, I left the opening along the bottom.

With the bib still inside out, snip into the curves being careful not to cut the stitching. This will allow the fabric to bend and lay flat when its turned right. With all your nice snips, finally turn the bib inside right.

After you've turned it inside right iron it flat, turning in the opening flaps so it all aligns with the edge of the bib. With a coordinating thread, sew around the bib close to the edge. This will close up the turning hole and strengthen the bib. You can do a straight or decorative stitch - its up to you.

 The last step for your clone-a-bib is to add the velcro closure. You can purchase velcro in black or white and in various widths. For this, one inch wide velcro works just fine. You have two options with placing the velcro - you can just put two little pieces that connect and close the bib or you can put a small tab on one side and a longer strip on the other. The second option allows the bib to grow with the baby.

Either way you decide, place the velcro where you want it and sew it into place with a zig zag stitch. Its important to get a strong seam since it will be tugged on over and over as the bib is used. After you place the velcro, you're done! The bib can be worn, drooled on, spit up on, and abused as normal.