Eating with Judah

I am not a huge fan of messy faces, but I have to admit I am biased when it comes my son.  I just think his messy face is oh so cute.  This precious picture depicts Judah eating his lunch one day while being enthralled by whatever was outside the window and not caring about anything except for his food and entertainment.

Side Note:  Seems I may not have internet access too much longer or at least very limited use, but I will do my best to continue to update everyone on my pregnancy, the new baby, and my beautiful son and wonderful husband just as very best I can.  Thanks for reading!

Judah's Favorite Blankie

Judah has become very attached to a particular blanket that I had traded for on Etsy a while back. I decided to trade for this piece because I knew it would be incredibly soft.  I had to pick the least girlish print and this is what I came up with.  Judah adores things that are snuggly soft and on this particular morning he didn't want to let go of it at all, it was so cute.  So on this day it accompanied him to breakfast.

First Belly Picture, Second Pregnancy

I finally got Timm to take a belly shot of me.  I am at 14 weeks and 4 days pregnant with baby number two.  Keep in mind we had a late dinner : )

That Funny Face

Judah has the sweetest face on Earth.  Don't you agree?

Tasting his own "homemade food" gets Judah so pumped!

Tasting real food gets him pumped too!

"I must get close to the camera!"

Mom's personal favorite: That sweet smile.

Pretty Paper Peonies

I was asked to make centerpieces for someone's bridal shower in the near future and really had no clue what to do, until I came upon a neat post on Pinterest.com, paper peony flowers.  This is not a tutorial, but if you'd like to know how I made these centerpieces you may feel free to contact me or search online.  The pictures below are not the finished products but rather the step before.  I need to purchase some vases for these floral creations and arrange them properly, then they will be finished.  But until then, I just wanted to share with you what I created and encourage you to make more things by hand. Enjoy!

These little beauties will be interspersed within the white flowers.

A close-up of one of my flowers, particularly focusing on the underneath wrapping.

Pony Boy

One of Judah's favorite songs is "Pony Boy."  It is just a quick little rhyme that you sing while you bounce your child up and down on your knees as they smile.  He or she usually gets a big rush out of the very last bounce when you say "WHOA!" and give them a little drop between your knees.  It goes like this:

"Pony boy pony boy, won't you be my pony boy    

Here we go, to and fro, riding across the plains

Giddeeyup Giddeeyup Giddeeyup, WHOA!"

Here is Daddy and Judah getting ready to sing the song.

He loves it so much!

Judah has another favorite place he likes to bounce during the song, its on our legs.  What a work out!

Often Judah will climb on our feet unexpectedly and say "Pone" and that's our signal to sing the song!

"Pound It!"

One of Judah's favorite new phrases is "pound", as in when you say "pound it" and do a little fist bump. Since he's learned this new trick (from Grandfather Freitas), there is not a day or hour that goes by without seeing Judah raise his fist in the air and hearing him say "Pound!"

Judah Lately

SO MUCH IS NEW!

I can't believe how much my little boy has changed in literally a matter of  a few weeks! 

• He has gained so many new words in his vocabulary that I have lost count completely. 
• Judah loves his sign language and is starting to put two signs together to create his first sentences including "More food." & "Mommy more."  
• He also likes to put two words together now too, such as "No, Momma!" (when I put his socks on), "Momma down" (when he wants to get down), "Hi baby" (for some reason he always like to say hi to "baby", whoever that might be, because he's not looking at my stomach.)
• Judah uses everything from toys to stuffed animals to food as his pretend phone.
• He is beginning to express himself in so many new ways including whenever he wants to get down or out of something he will say "Down" as clear as bell and he tells us when he has a poop in his diaper by saying "Poop"  and then points to his diaper.  Potty training soon?
•  He is walking up a storm!
• One of his favorite things to do is hug his stuffed animals and say "Awwwww."
• As much as  he loves knocking over his towers he loves to build with his blocks too, stacking them one by one (four high has been his highest yet).
• Judah says his name clear as a bell now and recognizes it on his wall and sometimes toybox.
• We like to go through the alphabet with him on a regular basis and he repeats every single letter.  
• He likes to do the same with numbers. But his favorite numbers seem to be "eight", "nine", and "TEN"!
• He is beginning to perfect his animal sounds and body parts.  Occasionally he'll stop whatever he's doing and point to my "Noooooo" (my nose).
• Speaking of nose he now says "Bleh" for "Bless You" and sometimes he'll even say the "you" part.
• Whenever Judah sees food he wants, he automatically says "AMEN!" 
• Judah loves to draw with a pen on paper.  Pens & pencils are some of his favorite things ever.
• He likes to pretend cook and "taste the spoon" and serve me some too.
• My personal favorite.  He started saying "I love you" in both sign and verbally.  Both need perfecting but the meaning is still the same. "Ah-wu!"

So that is just a brief summary of all the new accomplishments on his list of milestones.

One piece of information that is new, but unfortunate is that we officially found out Judah has a peanut allergy.  It is only to peanuts and no other nut, and thankfully it is only very mild, but still worthy of carrying around an epipen.  Hopefully we'll never have to use it.

That seems to be it for now in Judah's world! Bye!

DIY Glass Jar Centerpiece

Now I'm not Marta Stewart or a writer for Better Homes & Garden, but I do like to save money and be creative, which is what brings me to my current blog post.  I decided after seeing some beautiful centerpieces at a wedding, I wanted to recreate that look for my own home.  The centerpiece at the wedding included three clear glass mason jars with real flowers in each jar on top of a curvy rounded wooden flat plank, just gorgeous!  Me, being on a budget, decided, do I actually have to spend money to make this?  The answer was, NO!  I took what I had and repurposed it, I felt so accomplished and creative. 

So here is what I did: 
I took one spaghetti sauce jar (believe it or not, they are real mason jars).  My jar happened to be the Atlas brand.  You unfortunately won't likely find the infamous Ball brand in your local grocery store, but they are beautiful though.  I then took an empty salsa jar and then one old jam jar I had stored in my cabinets.

The trick with repurposing old jars is getting the label, the glue, and the expiration date off. 
To get the label off peel what you can first. If you can't get it all off run it under hot water and that will loosen up the glue and paper, making it easier to rub off.  To get the glue off I used dish liquid and a rough scrubby sponge.  I'd put the dish liquid directly onto the stubborn glue and that would really help to lift the glue.  There is probably an easier way to do this, but this is what worked for me so far.  The easiest part is removing the stamped expiration date.  It will literally come off if you rub it with your fingernail, but save your nails and just give it a good rub with the scrubby sponge, it'll come right off!

The last thing you need is to put something inside the jars.  I used old artificial flowers I had in two varieties and placed a votive candle in the widest jar.  I also decided to place the jars on some repurposed door frame corners turned into coasters that I traded for on Etsy a while ago.  The end result is colorful and unique.

Pregnancy Weeks 10-12

Week 10 - To be quite honest this week was much like weeks 8 & 9 with nothing too crazy to mention, only the occasional nausea.  I did return to the doctor AGAIN because I literally had gone to the bathroom twenty times in one morning.  I was like "what is wrong with me?" He thankfully said that there was nothing wrong with my urine, but that I probably had some sort of irritation.  I was prescribed something to help soothe it so I wouldn't be in the bathroom all day and night like I was.  I actually never ended up taking it because everything kind of cleared up on its own in the next couple days and I haven't had any problems since, its been great! Living in the bathroom for any reason isn't fun.  I did get a quick ultrasound on one of their really old machines again.  Amazing to see that the baby has grown so much in just two weeks.

Click on pic to make me bigger!

Week 11 - This week was the week that would challenge me physically the most so far.  I have been so rediculously busy it is insane (hence my lack of updating) and if my baby can survive with the amount of sleep and food I've been getting this week, he or she can handle anything.  Between packing, going to a wedding, spending the day at my grandma's starting at 7am, and then spending the weekend in Maine in three different hotel rooms, needless to say I've been stretched far in my sleep.  As for symptoms, just tiredness from lack of sleep and occassional nausea.  Haven't felt much stretching or growth in my uterus at all, kinda weird.

Week 12 - I had my 12 week prenatal appointment this week.  There wasn't much to do or see, but I did hear my baby's heartbeat for the first time on the doppler.  First, I heard my heartbeat, then a minute later I heard the baby's and the heartbeat was so much faster, it was amazing.  He didn't tell me the exact bpm, but he said he liked what he heard and that's good enough for me.  The doctor did tell me that I will be able to find out the gender when I am 18 weeks, so just 6 short weeks away!  It'll be our Thanksgiving surprise.  
     Symptoms this week include stretching pains finally!  I have been even more nauseous than usual oddly enough and have found that I feel sore all over my body sometimes.  I can definitely tell my hormones are rushing with major emotions lately and I'm starting to mildly breakout for the first time this pregnancy.  I am still having cravings and am getting more hungry as time goes on.  My belly button is starting to get rather shallow and the hair on my belly is getting more noticeably thick.  I'm definitely in maternity clothes until further notice (yes, that means even post-pregnancy sadly, just like last time I bet).  Overall, feeling great though and glad to be ending my first trimester!

Belly shots will come soon!  I've been bugging Timm, but he's been awfully busy with school & grad school, so just keep him in your prayers.  

I am officially 13 weeks and 1 day today!