18 Weeks

Here's the latest belly pic. If you look closely enough, you may notice that my belly button has started to poke out. I'm not even half way through yet!

Being pretty much housebound, I'm going through serious thrifting and crafting withdrawals. Yesterday, I couldn't take it anymore. Since Charlotte was with her grandma for the morning, I jumped in the car and drove to the nearest thrift store (5 minutes away). While I felt sick driving and walking, it was momentarily forgotten about when I spied this miniature blue guitar for C.
(That's a 12 inch ruler next to it.) Charlotte likes her papa to play his guitar. She sits and strums whenever he puts it down. So, when I saw this mini blue version - I snapped it up for $3.00. When she woke up this morning, the first thing she said was, "Mine guitar!"

If baby #2 turns out to be a drummer, we may have the makings of our own Partridge Family band. Sans the patchwork bus.

Two Views

This is my view for about 90% of the day. Isn't it lovely? I mean it. While I am sick, my husband has not only been taking care of all the household and child duties while working full time, but he just painted our bedroom a soft shade of robin's egg blue. After 4 years of white walls, my dear H asked, "Do you want me to paint the bedroom?" (Incredibly, he has amnesia about the 387 times I've brought it up.) "Sure, that would nice" was my response. Done and done!

Here's a belly pic. I'm 3 1/2 months along. Yes, I cropped out my face again because my hair isn't combed, no makeup and I'm not smiling. Told you I'm a grumpy pregnant lady. Although, it's hard to be grumpy in my new blue bedroom :)

Baby Update - 12 Weeks

Hello, and yes, I'm still here. I've been sick and decided to not give you a play-by-play of how things are going. I've been very unproductive and so I have nothing to post in the way of craftiness, recipes, etc. My menu lately has consisted of Cinnamon Life cereal three times a day and mango-flavored coconut water - to stay hydrated. This is not a diet I recommend, if you can help it.

Baby is 12 weeks now and growing strong. Of course, Baby is also big for this stage of development. My husband and I are not surprised because we just grow gi-nor-mous babies. (Our first baby was 9 lbs 11 oz despite my not being able to eat any food for nearly the first half of my pregnancy.) We are both 5'5" or less in height. But our 2 1/2 year old daughter wears a 4t. I'll probably be wearing her hand-me-downs before long.

The ultrasound tech was kind enough to give us a 3D pic of the baby "just for fun". Wow!
Bad news: I feel like I've been pregnant for 9 years. Good news: Baby is healthy!

Cravings

Seven KFC biscuits in two days. Yup, I'm pregnant. And at least I'm able to eat something.

Thank you for all the kind thoughts and well wishes. Thank you.

Baby #2

Yes, we are excited to announce that we are expecting baby #2! At only 8 weeks, I know it's early to share. But, I've been absent from this here little blog and now you know why.

The photo looks a little "blob-y" but the head is to the right. We did see the already-formed arms, hands, legs and feet. Due date: December 9th.

After having hyperemesis gravidarum for the duration of my first pregnancy, we were positive that Charlotte would be an only child. Then we changed our minds. The desire for another baby just outweighed our fears of possibly having HG again.

Hyperemesis includes paralyzing nausea (my saint of a husband slept on the floor for 7 months) and severe vomiting for the entire pregnancy. This is waaay more than morning sickness. I was also unable to eat for the first 4 months of my pregnancy. Somehow, I, and the baby, survived on a few Ensure supplement drinks and Gatorade. Any food that I tried to consume would be immediately purged. Hyperemesis can also bring sleeplessness, depression, dehydration (warranting IV therapy), double vision (no tv or books!) and despair. The only relief comes when you give birth. I never suffered any post-partum depression because I was so darn happy not to be pregnant anymore!

It's a rough road and yes, I've been really sick. I'm a very happy mommy, but an unhappy pregnant lady.

Any prayers and positive wishes that you send our way are greatly appreciated. We are truly happy to be expanding our family!

Grandpa Makes Pop-Ups

Charlotte's artistic Grandpa made her this Wizard of Oz pop-up card. C loves pop-ups. Despite being opened and closed numerous times and being poked with little fingers, this one is holding up nicely.

You see, Grandpa docents at an art gallery. They recently held a Dr. Seuss exhibit and welcomed the pop-up creator of "Horton Hears A Who Pop-Up!" - David Carter. Our girl even received an autographed copy...

Thank you, Grandpa. Here's a peek at the inside of this incredible book...

If you're not familiar with "Horton Hears A Who" by Dr. Seuss, I highly recommend this tender-hearted story. Even at 2, she seems to understand the message, "A person's a person, no matter how small."

The Seuss exhibit spurned Grandpa's interest in homemade pop-ups and more shared craft time with our girl. I believe C made this Noah's Ark pop-up with the grandparents...

If you're interested in making your own, here's a link. It's a great project for all ages. It seems that once you get the hang of it, you can easily branch out with your own designs.

Triple Thanks

A couple of months ago, I was reading Cider and Faun when I stumbled across an offering. Andrea was giving away some tea she could no longer drink. I dropped my name in the bucket because my husband is addicted to Candy Cane Lane by Celestial Seasonings. She recently sent me a box of Candy Cane Lane and a huge bag of Mighty Leaf loose tea plus some postcards and a bookmark of her art. Her delightful etsy shop is located here. Thank you, Andrea!

Another special thank you to the Jane Austen fan writemeg for featuring one of my Pride and Prejudice bracelets on her blog here. You can also check out her etsy shop here. She crochets ipod covers, scarves and more!

And finally, thanks to Deusprovidebit for including my vintage orange napkins from acornpudding in their Impromptu Tea post.

It's a joy to connect with other tea-drinking Jane Austen fans. Thanks everyone!

Boring Ol' Clean Floor

Yes, this is a boring picture of my clean kitchen floor. I've not been the craftiest of gals lately. Sometimes, day-to-day life takes priority over therapeutic craftiness. So, I'll show you what I've been up to instead.

My floor was in dire need of sweeping and mopping. Within 1 minute of sweeping the floor, there were 17 crumbs of hot pink play-doh under one chair. After re-sweeping, I got out my spray bottle and a rag and got to work. My floor hasn't sparkled in a long time - thus this picture. It's proof that it was clean, once.

I use vinegar and baking soda to do all my household cleaning. No need for expensive, chemical-infused cleaners when a spray bottle of half white vinegar and half water will do the trick. I believe that Martha is a fan of cleaning with white vinegar, so who am I to argue with a walking domestic dictionary?

Since I am not a big tv watcher, it's rare for me to catch Martha's show (is it still on??) It was tough for me to watch her back before Charlotte was born. I can't get over the fact that she pronounces the "h" in the word herb. It makes me shudder. After all, she's not british. Even I don't pronounce it this way when I'm talking to myself (see #5 of this post).

Right after I finished mopping my floor on my hands and knees, I wrangled the dog and my daughter out of the kitchen and got distracted. My face felt dry due to recent windy weather. I went into the bathroom and smeared lotion all over my face, before I realized that I hadn't yet washed my hands after cleaning the kitchen floor. I guess if vinegar and water are good enough for the floor...

Bargain Breadmaker

My best bargain of the weekend garage sale roundup included this Breadman breadmaker for $5.00. I've been wanting to try my hand at breadmaking for some time, and now, for about the price of one loaf of bread - I'm on my way. There is a small manual included, but not much real breadmaking info. If any of you have breadmaking ideas or tips, I'd appreciate your input!

A few other scores include these two 4-5t sized coats for Charlotte at .50 cents each.
Lastly, I picked up this mega carton of Play-doh, 50 different colors in all, for $1.00. C's been rolling, cutting and squishing ever since! Hopefully, with my breadmaker, soon I will be too :)

The Never-Ending Candy Colored Scarf

This scarf has taken my nearly 4 months to complete. Granted, I haven't worked on it very often... but now that we're rounding the corner to spring, it's ready to wear. What's my excuse? I reeeally don't like to knit. I keep trying to like it, but I just don't enjoy it. Why don't I just stick to crocheting?

I used Lion's Brand Landscapes yarn in Rose Garden - two skeins. This is my own "pattern" of the stockinette stitch... 11 stitches wide.
- Row 1: k1, p1, repeat.
- Row 2: p1, k1, repeat.
- Repeat and repeat until you're sure you'll never be done with this blasted scarf.
- Repeat some more until you're sure that you never want to knit again.
- Finish off.
- Ignore the mistake stitches.
- Wrap around your neck and enjoy for 8 days until the weather will be too warm to wear it.

(P.S. The brown speckled Express sweater was thrifted for $1.00.)