A different kind of 9 months.

Month 9

Month 8

Month 7

Month 6

Month 5

Month 4

Month 3

Month 2

Month 1

Brand new

He's currently crawling on the floor while Daddy is watching the Wildcard game.

A few fun facts:

- Steiger said "Dada" 3 days ago... but I'm not sure he knew what he was saying.

- He now hates to have his diaper or clothes changed. He lets me know.

- He crawls, but still Army style most of the time. It's more efficient.

- He has 4 top teeth, and 2 bottom teeth.

- Being outside instantly solves nearly all problems.

- He's a great communicator: happy, mad, sad... there's no questions about what he's trying to say most of the time.

- Being his mommy (and Jay's wife) is a true joy.


(He still likes the hair-dryer when going to sleep... but we no longer need it most of the day to keep him happy)

First... Christmas

I must say, this was my favorite Christmas ever... Even though we drove with a tired, screaming baby from Redding, and I didn't even have all of Steiger's gifts wrapped (bad mommy), there is just something utterly delightful about having an 8 month old and his wonderful daddy to share the season with. I mean really, does it get much better than these 2?



(Steiger was quite excited about his book from Grandma Shirley.)

We were back home this morning (we actually came home last night).
We had to have a family picture; the timer feature always seems to turn out pretty good, no? I believe Steiger's expression is entirely appropriate here.




We spent this afternoon at my mom's.

Seeing Steiger with Cousin Cooper almost makes me want another one soon; Steiger LOVES kiddos.




As always, Grandma Cathy's house was gorgeous, and the food was tremendous. I love being at her house at Christmastime.





Cooper has decided that Grandpa is his big buddy now. And Steiger was a sweetheart despite skipping his afternoon nap.





Steiger did not fight sleep at all tonight. All I could think, as I held him there is what a joy he is to know. Each year, on Christmas Eve, the Christmas story is read from Luke 2. My favorite verse, is towards the end of the chapter... Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.



I think I could relate to her a little bit this Christmas. Peace on earth, good will toward men... indeed.

The quilt that almost was, and the quilt that almost wasn't

This blog entry will have a bit of irony to it (situational irony, for those ex-AP students who might be reading). I am going to tell the story of 2 quilts here: 1 is the quilt with the notorious mint green thread on a dominantly sage green background, and the other is a quilt for my Grandma.

When I was sick with morning sickness while pregnant with Steiger, my mom saved Jay (and I) by feeding us (or him mostly, because I could barely eat). When I was too round and tired to pick up groceries, she picked them up and dropped them off. When, after 26 hours of labor and 4 hours of pushing and surrender to unplanned c-section, Steiger was born, she took on nursing duty for 2 weeks, reminiscing the days of sleepless nights she had spent some 30 years earlier.

So I made it my mission to show my appreciation. I found this great fabric line called "Glace." It's Christmasy, but not overly so, and I thought it felt like her house. So I bought it. The design evolved while I was up with Steiger (I started this in August, before he was predictably sleeping through the night), and I would lie there, distracting myself from my fatigue by planning the design. As a new quilter (this is my third quilt), I did not have an overly extensive background of experience to incorporate into my dreaming, but I came up with something I thought would be really nice. It's a disappearing 9-patch, on point, with icy-green flowers for sashing, brown bouquets for setting triangles, a deep red tonal for a skinny border, with my favorite -- a perfect "verglas green" damask set wide for the final touch. Red berries will make the binding (to be completed soon). The back is from the same line, but in flannel holly berries.
I took it to the quilters a couple weeks ago, so excited for when I could give it to her. My heart sank when I picked it up, and immediately saw minty/limey green thread all over the surface. I felt sick.

The quilt still looks beautiful from a distance. The border is directional. To all you students out there -- there ARE times you actually do use math in real life. I also used it to make the setting triangles, because it is a rather complicated equation to get them right (add, divide, and cut).

Here's a shot where you can see the blocks closer:


Now for the part that makes me sick still when I look at it. You can see the color is just all *wrong.* When I called the quilter, her explanation was that "You're not going to match all the colors in your quilt," (thank you Capt. Obvious... but the dominant color would be nice... and FYI, that thread matches NO colors), and "it was the green we had." (I would have happily bought thread and taken it to her, had I known). Ugh. You can kind of see it in these pictures.

On the flannel back

My solution to this is to take my mom to the quilters, and she can pick out some fabric she likes... and I will make her another.

Now for the quilt that almost wasn't...

My grandma Dine (Dad's mom) has been on my quilting list (longer than time I have to get done). I look for fabric for her, and had a couple things in mind. This November, she went in to have a heart stent. That turned in to a double-bypass. That turned in to a 5-way bypass. That turned in to opening her back up. That turned in to "she might not make it through the night." That turned in to a stay in ICU. Then the regular hospital wing. Then a rehab hospital. She's scheduled to come home on Tuesday. And this will be waiting for her. (If we don't take it to her today).

The back:

It's from a line called "Aster Manor." I had a small fat-quarter bundle, and made this quilt very quickly. In faith. She was in very critical condition, and I prayed and quilted. It might sound cheesy, but with each piece going together, I prayed for her. I'm grateful I have the chance to give this to her.

Here she and Steiger's Great-Grandpa Jim are with Steiger a couple months ago.

And now for a few of Steiger from last night and a couple days ago:

He gives "kisses" now too...

Daddy set up his high chair last night! (while Steiger played in the box)

Until next time... we're outta here! :)

Nesting

Finally! We got to paint the nursery today!!! :-D
The Father in law (Jay's dad) and Mother-in-law (Jay's Step Mom) came down today and helped. There is still some touch up work to do, but I am quite excited.

The dresser is almost finished being sanded (it was an old dresser Jay's grandpa made), Mom has found a small dresser to double as a changing table, and I plan to get fabric for valances tomorrow. I am also going to look for a rocker/recliner.

Here are some pics of the progress so far: