Cap and I are in Texas! We are enjoying being here and I think his Pops and Grandma (name not yet determined) are LOVING it! We are in San Angelo till next Friday. I hopefully will take more pictures than I did the last time we came to Texas. So far, we are not off to a great start!!
The Big Red Ball
We had another crazy LEAF weekend! Our good friend Hannah stayed with us which is always the best part of Leaf. I can't say that I am sad another one has come and gone. I will enjoy the beginning of our very slow off season at our sweet little Farmhouse.
Cap's first tooth sprouted last Thursday. Then the next day, he decided it was time to do some crawling! We all know now how this little guy is though. He conquers something and moves on very quickly. He will be off roaming the floors when he is in the mood again. I am confident of that!
Here are some newer pics. Enjoy!
We eat a lot of popcorn in this house and
Cap is starting to want to be part of the action!
He have a new/found red ball in our living room.
He loves it!
Cap for Cap
One more recently handmade goody for the boy. Sweet Pea Pilot Cap from Meg over at Sew Liberated. You can find her at http://sewliberated.com/ . She has an inspiring blog and 2 cute boys if you want to check it out sometime. Enjoy!
Goodies
Most people who know me, know a big part of my heart is in boys. I know that could have changed with the announcement of "It's a girl", but right now I do have a handsome little boy named Cap. I am so thankful for the two great guys I have in my life!
The thing about having a boy though, being a 'stitch maker' and all, what kind of cute and practical things can you make for them??? Well, my search has begun! I guess it began a long time ago, but now I have enough energy and some time here and there to do it. So hopefully sprinkled in this little blog of mine you will find some homemade goodies for your little man too!
First up is the long sleeve raglan tee. The pattern comes out of the book "Sewing for Boys" 24 Projects to Create a Handmade Wardrobe. It is a great book! I look forward to experimenting with several of the patterns in this one. It was relatively easy to make. A very unfinished look to it which I LOVE! I used lost and found shirts from camp. I plan on making a few more once I gather up some more old t-shirts. You could probably make a few in one afternoon once you figure it out. I am terrible at instructions and patterns, so if you are good at it you could make them much faster. Enjoy!
7 Months and some change
7 months
For some reason, 7 months seems so old to me. 6 months was a big one since we started to introduce foods then, but this one seems different. This has been a great month. Filled with enjoying each other, learning more about "us", exploring and observing, sleeping, spinning and 360s. So these are some things to remember:
- wears 12-18 month clothes, at least 18 month if it is a onsie
- sleeps in his own room now
- has added yogurt and a plum to his eating list but still devours his sweet potatoes
- gives me great hugs
- waves goodbye (to himself that is, he has no idea what it means)
- gets on all fours and is thinking about crawling...may be??
- no teeth
- still LOVES to stand
- fascinated with the blinds in the living room
- looks up or out the window when he hears the geese flying by
- loves to be swung
- great whole body laugh and smile
- tries to pull himself up on just about everything, only successful once I think?
- loves animals right now
- thinks the pillows on our bed are hilarious right before bedtime
- likes to rub his feet on the ground outside
- fascinated with reflections
- really watches the little bit of sign language we have introduced to him
- knows when I say 1...2...3 something awesome is about to happen
- ticklish feet
- if he is on his belly and want to get to you he tries to swim over instead of crawl, and I mean swims hard!
- can sit and play with the wood stove in the living room by himself for a very long time, likes the rug he sits on equally well, thanks ma!
- sings very loud at an evening service we have been going to
I know there is much more! Looking forward to another month with my family of 3!
Enjoy the first thing in the morning pics...he was not that into it!
these are actually in reverse order, oh well
this one is a sneak peak of my next post
i took these first thing in the morning
i don't think i will do that again!
seriously, he is huge right!!!
look at those sleep morning eyes
he is waving bye to himself:)
Kate's Quilt
A week after camp ended, I somehow found some extra time to make my good friend Erin a blanket for her newest little one Kate. This is only the second one I have made. The first one is Cap's that I made right before we got pregnant. It was fairly simple to make. My own design using the fabrics I already had. I thought it turned out great looking. I am hoping it will last through some good wear and tear and many many washes! You can see this cute little girl and her handsome brother at http://themenschfamily.blogspot.com/ . Enjoy!
Better Days
On the post I did over a week ago I said we had big stuff going on around the Ball household. I think I made it sound bigger than I thought, because no LaJuan no kid number 2 yet! I kind of made you wait that one out though huh! Ha! So nothing that big going on but just good ole' family stuff happening.
Since about mid-July Cap stopped taking longer than 30 minute naps. He went from 2 hour naps twice a day plus some small "Cap Naps" to a few short ones pretty much overnight. He was still sleeping pretty good at night so I just told myself I didn't care as long as there was good night rest.
Over time, our good nights started digressing. He was needing us sometimes 2-4 times a night. Then Cap started getting so cranky during the day. He needed to constantly be entertained or held and even then nothing would satisfy him. I just didn't understand why he would fall asleep if he was so tired. I started to get so tired of the constant entertainment that I would just drive to town everyday and let Target, Wal-Mart, or the mall entertain him. It seemed to be the only thing that worked for a while.
It is funny how America tells you that you can have a baby and your life doesn't have to change much. They make these great baby carriers (which I love ours!!!) and everyone makes you believe that you can just strap your kid on you and keep doing everything you previously did before "the Kid". I did that too, well, to a point. I will say your productivity level goes from +100% to about 15-20% in my opinion. But here we were if Cap was sleeping we would just grab him strap him to us and off we went to do our thing. If Cap was about to fall asleep and we were at home, we would quickly put him in the car so we could go somewhere, and then wake him up once we arrived to our destination. It was pretty selfish really. I was made to believe that this was okay and this is just what you do once you have a kid.
After another rough day alone with Cap while Bryce was at school I texted my mother-in-law Joyce if I could give Cap some Ambien (sleeping pills). I was joking of course, but I was not in a good place. I was exhausted and couldn't imagine doing this for the next X amount of years. Through some God appointed events Joyce led me to another mom in South Carolina who went through some of the same stuff we were going through. I talked to her on the phone on a Wednesday night and by Thursday I was implementing some of her help to get Cap to take better naps during the day. She was given the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Babies". I ordered it from Amazon immediately but couldn't wait for it to get in and read before working on changing our lives around.
Day 1: 4 short naps in his crib. Lots of crying it out. I don't have a tough time with this. It may sound cold hearted, but I know it is for the good of everyone involved. I was helping Cap learn how to sleep, learn how to self soothe and those are too huge things!! This will be the first of may hard things we teach Cap. (Studies show that freshman in college who had trouble sleeping or trouble staying asleep had trouble sleeping as infants and toddlers also. Wow!)
Day 2: A little bit of crying. 4 naps, but getting a little longer.
Day 3: No crying. 3 great naps. 2 of them long. Entertained himself for a long time. Calmer. Noticed the small and big things like he used to. Played with 1 thing for half an hour by himself.
Day 6: We moved him out of our bedroom into his own room. Slept through the night.
Day 19: We have only gotten up twice in the middle of the night since moving him out of our room. When he does wake up in the night, he soothes himself back to sleep. He is asleep no later than 7pm and sleeps typically 12 hours. There have been several mornings I had to finally wake him up at 7:30ish to protect his morning nap.
I probably can't explain how this whole sleep thing has changed our life, but it has. I had no idea you had to teach your kids how to sleep. I just thought if he was tired he would sleep. I also thought I had to keep him up late in order for him to sleep through the night, and I was wrong about that one too! I wish we would have read this sooner, but I am so thankful we have it now. We will be able to use it for years to come as Cap gets older and eventually there is another Ball in the house. For the first time in almost 7 months, the thought of another kid doesn't make me sick to my stomach!! Ha! If anyone needs help in this area or know someone who does please send them my way!!!! There is so much more that could be said no just about sleep, but what that eventually does physically and emotionally to you as a mom or dad. We are enjoying each other much more these days and dancing a bunch!
Now here is an evening at our house. Enjoy!
Cap seeing bubbles for the first time.
Then here are a few in a row of him trying to
touch the bubbles, which he found fascinating.
Then a walk around the property.
We visited the horses and fed them some
wild onion.
Now time to play in some water.
This might be his favorite thing most days!
He just saw his reflection.
Now he is trying to suck it of course.
This has been the pose of the month for us.
"Hello ladies, care for a cup of water? Omelet perhaps?"
Cute happy boy!!!
Tick Tack
Here is a little something to get you followers through till my next post. I was doing so good, and then..well...days and days later here we are again. Until next time!
Cap watched me work for a LONG time.
He seemed concerned.
Concerned face up close.
Followed by great times with his dad.
in sickness and in health...I do
The coming of Cap and God calling our hearts is quite a beautiful story. In the midst of warfare, death, new beginnings, exhaustion, dreaming...He was whispering to us. He was preparing our hearts for different adventures, new desires, and a fresh faith. It is a long, yet short story, but that part of the story is not the objective of this posting. I guess this posting is like another love story. The kind of story you buy because the book cover and the quick thumbing of the pages is just-that-captivating. Once you start to read the book, you realize it is much more than the smart looking cover and good one-liners you read in the store. You are now investing your time and yourself to something much bigger than reading a few chapters a day.
Marriage is hard. It didn't take me long to realize that a God-centered marriage was going to be something you have to work on daily. The thing that really shocked me about marriage, is how the ugly in the deepest depths of you, you thought didn't exist, can come out. You always hear people say about their significant other, "Oh, he/she brings the best out of me". Well, true. Definitely true. I would also say he/she can bring the worst out in you. I know in the 4 1/2 years Bryce and I have been married I have said some things and done things that shocked me. I had no idea I had that stuff in me!
Over the last month, God has been really speaking to me through gardening. It started out in Colorado helping Joyce with her beds at the house. I love beautiful flowers and gardens and would be so happy with flower pots all over the place bursting with colors. Every spring I plant and organize flowers with where we are living. I get everything right where I want it according to how much sun each one needs, get it looking pretty, and then walk away and barely touch it. I forget about the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance that has to happen if you want beautiful flowers and gardens. I pick the hundreds of weeds at the beginning of the season and get kind of upset a month later when they are everywhere once again! If you want something beautiful to grow, it takes some things for that to happen. Planting a seed is great, but it needs more than that. Bringing the plant home is great, but it doesn't stop there. For something beautiful to grow takes time, yourself, checking in, fertilizing, pruning, weeding, loving, watering, paying attention to the surroundings. Windy days dry out my hanging pots, which means I need to water them more when it is like that.
All of that brings me to my next thing. Marriage. Cap is like a new marriage. Actually, I can't think of the word right now, but he like one of those pre-determined marriages that you don't know each other yet kind of thing. Let me try to explain this a little.
When I started this marriage with Bryce just like when I started marriage out with God, it was a little awkward. We weren't always dancing to the same song or even the same dance. Sometimes I would accidentally step on his toe or try to lead when I should have been following. As the song continues it becomes more graceful. We flow back and forth calmly and smoothly. He can give me the look and I know I should twirl. Sometimes I break into a side crazy girl dance but he knows now how to keep the beat and bring me back in on the right count. There is a great dance going on and we are learning every day how to add new moves and steps and add a little more funk and spice to what we already know.
I guess with Cap, we have those amazing days where we dance and dance to different songs together, laugh and play, I set him on the toilet he goes, he looks across the room at me and giggles and smiles. Then we have those days where I have poop on my pants, the music is way too loud and static-y, Cap's not happy, I am exhausted, and our dance is not so pretty. You can be a good parent, and your kids will still cry. In fact, you are probably a good parent if your kids cry if that makes any sense.
Through several circumstances and events over the last couple of weeks (or since I started writing this on September 16) , I was given permission to let myself fall apart. It was okay to have some of the feelings I was having and let myself cry. I feel like I have great bits of wisdom for first time mommas out there, and may be just for mommas in general, but what I have learned this month has been ever so helpful to this new life as a mother. It has brought me back to the place dancing with my Father, right where I need to be. We must spend time together on the dance floor so that we can move ever so gracefully to the rhythm of new tunes that will inevitably come our way. I want to look at new music and instruments with great expectation not fear. I know in the arms of God, with His hand firmly on my back, this dance will be beautiful and one that does not want to be missed.
I have fun pictures coming later on and big stuff going on in the Ball household to share later also.
