Why? Why? Why?

I was really hoping we could skip this stage in Matthew's development, but as of yesterday we've officially joined the why stage of a toddler's life. I don't mind the 1st or 2nd why, but when I've already explained the answer and then he keeps asking why 3 or 4 more times I find it annoying. I guess it's good because he's wants to learn more about his life around him, but does every question I answer need to lead to another?

"That's dangerous Matthew" Why? "Because you could pull that big chair on your head and hurt yourself" Why? "Because the chair is heavy" Why? Why? Why?

I actually reversed it back on him today and started asking why back and he told me to stop it. I said exactly, it's annoying isn't it Matthew?

My patience is non existent right now anyways and this might just drive me a bit insane. I'm just hoping we have enough for him to do these last 2 weeks so I don't go crazy. I've bought a couple of fun activities for him to do while we are in hospital with Grandma & Grandpa and his Easter Basket is filled and ready to go with some fun treats, books, and movies as more than likely I'll still be in the hospital on Easter Sunday unless my recovery goes really well (let's hope-I'd love to be home on Easter).

Wish us luck on the why journey...how long does it last?

Butterfly Montage

Original blog about a butterfly montage



Second blogger who was inspired by the first blogger



I saw these projects on a blog I stalk and really wanted to do a butterfly montage in the baby's room. I looked in my scrapbook stash for a butterfly punch-no punch, I looked in my cricut collection for a butterfly to cut out in different sizes-no butterfly. I really didn't want to purchase more things that are actual hard physical scrapbook items since I've mostly been doing digital scrapbooking. I remembered that my friend Kris showed me these digital butterfly stamps and I also remembered that Costco printed posters and an idea was born. I bought these digital butterfly images that can be sized, re-colored, and stamped endlessly and decided to do a huge poster 20x30 with the baby's name and butterflies matching the colors in her room.

http://www.designerdigitals.com/ecom/product_info.php/products_id/4504
http://www.designerdigitals.com/ecom/product_info.php/products_id/5586

I designed the poster a couple of weeks ago, but have had a challenge getting the colors to match the colors in her bedding. I've printed some smaller samples of colors and the actual poster at Costco before I wasted money by printing a huge poster that I didn't like. Today I picked up my last color samples and finally have colors that match the colors in her room. I am uploading one more small sample of the poster tonight to Costco to pick up tomorrow before sending off for the large one that will come in the mail.

Every color in Photoshop has a unique identifier made up of letters/numbers. I would print the sample color and identifier so I would know what to use if it matched the colors I wanted.

The Hammonds gave me a GC to Ikea for my birthday and so I used that towards a frame for the poster and it pretty much covered it-so thanks for the great gift Ray & Em. The Ribba frames come in a myriad of sizes and colors. We picked white and the 2nd largest size.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50161854

Anyways, thought I would share what the poster looks like sans the name....I'll post some complete pics of her room once she's home and the frame is up in it's place. Her room has turned out way cute and I love it! It's definitely PINK!

Her name will be at the bottom of the collage in lower case letters in the dark pink.

I really want to do a poster now for Mattew's room, but just need to decide what to do. He has a dot theme in his room in turquoise, dk lime green, and chocolate so it has to be something that matches that.

Soon....My Last Day at Work (for awhile)

My last day in the office is next Thursday and my last day of working for 3 months is 2 weeks from today. I'm really excited to have some time off, but have a ton of things to get done before I leave. I think my boss might have a cow, but she'll manage and make it through without me. I have a lot of responsibility and take care of a lot of projects that our team does and most of what I do I've planned and will be done before I go, but there are little things that pop up here and there that I do that she is nervous that no one will know what to do.

I've been working on training manuals lately at work for my new person that reports to me, for our International team and for my team. I'm confident that everything will be in good hands while I'm off. When Matthew was born we were 2 1/2 months away from our annual convention and I was the only one working in events. I took a week off from my emails after he was born and then pretty much was back on emails and working from home. I was probably back in the office 2 afternoons a week once he was 7 weeks old. I'm so grateful that I'll have the time this time to be able to adjust to 1 toddler and newborn without the stress of work.

My babysitter is going to come in twice a week for about 4 hours to play with Matthew so I can rest with the baby and he'll love the attention from her. He really loves their family too (they live down the street from us) so I'm sure he'll go over there sometimes to play with their son that's close in age to him or they might even go swimming.

We asked Matthew last night something like if he was excited to meet his sister and he said "yep". Who knows if he understands the concept, but it will be interesting to see how he reacts.

Chicken and Mushroom Bake

Last year Jordan gave me the Rachael Ray magazine for Christmas which I love, love, love! He didn't renew this year but it keeps coming so I keep enjoying it.

I found a recipe in the most recent copy that sounded yummy so I made it last night. Really yummy and I think it will go into our rotation. It is a perfect recipe for using leftover chicken especially from a rotesserie. I simmered and shredded some chicken breasts since we don't currently have any chicken left over from anything.

Pretty easy and the only substitution I made was chicken broth for the marsala wine. I think next time I'll add 1 more container (for a total of 18 oz) of fresh mushrooms only because we both love mushrooms and I would have loved to have eaten more. The fresh parsley adds a nice freshness to the dish. I'm taking to work for lunch today-yum!

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/chicken-turkey-recipes/marsala-chicken-and-mushroom-casserole/article.html

Also, yesterday I got the news that my C-Section has been moved from 8:30 in the morning to 7:00 am on April 10th. We have to be there by 5 which means we have to leave here by 4:20 which means I have to get up at 3:30 to get ready to go. I'll definitely be ready for a nap by the time all of you are getting ready to head to work or are at work. We're excited though and that just means we get to meet our daughter sooner.

Also, a shout out to my brother-in-law Carl who arrives tomorrow for some Suns/Spring Training games with Jordan. They are going to at least 1 game a day Wed-Sat. I think Jordan's excited to spend time with Carl, to get time away from the office, and to have a bit of a break before this baby comes. We're pretty close to having the old office changed to a guest bedroom and I just need to put away my crap on my scrap table. It'll be nice to have a guest bedroom again in the coming months with the visitors we'll be having.

Sweet Matthew

We just love this kid to pieces. Most of the time he is so much fun and loving. He watched the Amazing Race with me tonight snuggled up right next to me. It's hard because when he gets silly he starts jumping on my feet/legs/body and being too silly around my belly. That usually ends the fun and he gets into trouble and then he can't sit by me anymore which puts him into tears. It's definitely going to be an adjustment with the baby and I just hope that he likes his little sister.

Anyways just a couple of fun layouts I've done of him recently. I can't wait to snap pictures of him with his little sister.


He makes faces like this on a daily basis. Like his mom you know exactly what he is thinking. His expressions are written all over his face.

Willpower

Last night I (Jordan) was laying on Matthew's bed with him reading him books, and he kept kicking my arm for some reason. It started to hurt after a while, so I asked him to stop. When he didn't, I threatened to turn off the light and make him go to sleep if he did it again. As Matthew is wont to do, he thought about it for about half-a-second before kicking my arm one more time. Trying to be a good parent by following through on promises, I turned off the light and headed out of the room, with a teary-eyed, pleading Matthew calling after me as I did. He was tired, so he fell asleep pretty quickly.

One of the amazing things about kids that age is that they quickly forgive, but apparently they don't forget, and despite what you think sometimes, they do learn from their mistakes. I was already on my way to work this morning when he woke up, but Karin told me that the first thing out of this mouth when he did was, "I was mean to daddy." He must have been thinking and dreaming about that all night. Poor kid. Tonight, though, as I lay there reading him the same books, he started again with the kicking, but the moment I asked him not to, it stopped.

As a parent I've had to learn a new level of willpower - in a lot of ways, not just this one. I have a feeling I'll have to find yet another level soon, because three weeks from tomorrow our baby girl will be here, and I have no doubt that I'll be completely at her mercy if I don't.

www.seethebestyoucansee.com

About three weeks ago, I was driving home listening to my usual sports talk station, and they announced a video contest sponsored by the Suns' team opthamologist promising free laser eye surgery to the winner. I've been wanting to have my eyes zapped for a few years now that my prescription has stabilized somewhere on the precipice of legal blindness, but I admittedly have not made it a budgetary priority. Maybe I've been waiting for prices to drop like they would on electronics, although when it comes to having someone take a laser to your eyes, I'm not sure you should chase discounts.

I waited until just about the last minute, to the point that Karin thought I wasn't going to follow through, but after camera/voice-over help from Ray during a lunch break, I threw this together. It's not exactly the work of Peter Jackson, but it might be on about the same level Dude, Where's My Car? (although maybe a tad better because the pain lasts exactly 60 seconds - due to the limitations of this contest - vs. 90 minutes).



Now I await the judges' ruling. Someone is going to pick a top 10, and then people registered on the site (www.suns.com/vision) will vote on the winner. I guess the top 2 will actually get the surgery, which gives me a sliver of hope given that I'm up against a firefighter who plays the "Would you want a guy with foggy glasses at night trying to put out a fire in your house?" card and kids wanting to give back to their selfless parents. I don't really have a good sympathy play here, so I'll have to rely on the Hollywood-quality production of my little movie. I mean, a lot more people saw Transformers than I Am Sam.

This is actually the second movie Ray and I have done and certainly can't hold a candle to the first. The Sock (written and directed by Ray and acted by me and an old sock), saw a very, very, very limited release sometime in 1996 I think and is now in the vault (OK, we can't find it).