Baby Blankets

I've been meaning to get some sewing projects finished for a while but just haven't had the time. Since Daniel has been gone all this week I thought it would be a perfect time to lug the sewing machine out and get to work since I could just set it up on Daniel's nightstand. That way I wouldn't have to put it away everyday just to keep Stephen away from it.

I had a plan to make some swaddle blankets for the new baby. I bought a nice soft flannel sheet at DI for a $1 and thought it would make some really soft blankets. We have a lot of receiving blankets but they are kinda small when it comes to swaddling. So I wanted to make 4 blankets that were a generous 45"x45".

My first problem was trying to cut them out. I didn't have a place large enough to spread the sheet out (king size) and I was not relishing the thought of having to mark it all off, etc. Then I realized that the tile in our kitchen was a decent grid ;) So I hurry and gave it a good mopping. It worked rather well - I only had to do some minor snipping touchups.

I tried out some different edges for each of the blankets. I wanted to make them more unisex just in case we have a girl in a few years. When I finished the red one Stephen wanted to be wrapped up in it and so tried the new blanket out.

Stephen's a bit too long of course but other than that it worked really well. I told him to pretend he was sleeping like a baby so that's what he's doing in the picture on the right.

They are all finished except one (the last one on the right). I gave it a foldover finished edge but nothing fancy because I'm going to try a navy blue crocheted edge on it instead. I figured it would be a good project for General Conference next weekend.

We ended up with 4 really soft blankets and matching burp cloths for pretty cheap since the material for each set was only $.25! Gotta love DI.

The other project I did was much simpler. The one type of blanket I wished I had with Stephen was a large blanket I could take with me to the park or the church or friend's houses that was big enough to spread on the floor for him to roll around on and play on. Something with a cute pattern to keep him interested when he was on his tummy, etc. Anyway, since we have lots of receiving blankets I took 4 of them (that were the exact same fabric) and stitched them together to make one big blanket. It seems to be just the right size too.
I have been wanting to make something for this baby for a long time. I was working full time right up until the day Stephen was born and so I didn't have the opportunity to make anything special for him. I have always felt bad about that. Luckily we were blessed to have loving friends and family who gave us many gifts and made sure we had everything we needed to make sure Stephen was always very comfortable. This next baby will continue to benefit from all that generosity but I am glad I've had time to make some special things just for him so it's not all hand-me-downs ;)

Broccoli & Onions

Stephen is an OK eater for a toddler. I hear that they can be pretty finicky. For quite a long while he wouldn't touch fruit for some reason. In the last few months that changed, thank goodness. He LOVES grapes and apples and will tolerate peaches, apricots and strawberries. Veggies have always been his thing, though. His favorite vegetable is broccoli - I'm very glad too, because it's one of mine :)

This cold sore infection made it so he couldn't eat solids so we were back to puree's. Well getting back into solids has been really hard for him for some reason. He tried eating a few things when his gums were still hurting and I think he just had bad memories. So we've kinda stuck to cottage cheese and applesauce as well as the old puree's. In the last couple of days he's finally gotten back into eating broccoli. The other night Stephen saw me get the broccoli out of the fridge and while I was cutting it he kept singing "brock-eee! brock-eee!" He cracks me up.

I made broccoli, onions and chicken in a light cream sauce. It's one of my favorite meals. I gave Stephen plain ol' broccoli because that's usually all he wants. After looking at my plate he wanted an onion of all things. So I gave him one and he liked it. Then he wanted chicken and sauce. I was shocked. He usually doesn't want to eat the same food I'm eating. So we've had broccoli, onions and chicken everyday for 3 days now (I made a lot so we'd have leftovers and since Daniel is out of town all this week I don't have to worry about changing the menu). I just hope his love of broccoli and onions continues so I don't have to deal with him picking the onions out of everything I make ;)

IKEA Bib

I am really loving these bibs we got at IKEA. They are perfect for toddlers who don't always get that spoon to their mouths with the same amount of food they started with. I didn't relish the thought of having to strip Stephen down every time he ate just to preserve the outfit I'd put on him that day. These bibs solve that issue - he's basically wearing a smock that is super easy to clean. They say to hand wash and I do some spot cleaning after each meal but then every once in a while I just throw them in the washing machine on the "hand wash" cycle - they dry in like 15 minutes. I love 'em and they were only $2 a pop!

Crookneck Squash Recipe

This post was inspired by my dear cousin Erin Wood. Her blog post about cookin' up garden veggies kept me going during the moments of despair ;)

I don't know what it is about my neighborhood and crookneck squash but we get bags of it left by our front door all the time. Daniel loves it but it's not my favorite. I prefer zucchini but no one plants it here. What's up with that?! It's like a Mormon garden staple! Due to pregnancies and renting, we haven't been able to plant a garden so we depend on the kindness of our neighbor's bounty to fill our need for garden freshness.

I've diligently tried to come up with ways of preparing crookneck squash so that I enjoy it. If I make something that I think I could get used to, Daniel always asks why I'm not just steaming it like before since that's his favorite. I've never hit on a big win/win for us . . . until now. (It's not super healthy but it's close ;)

I'm sorry that I don't have specific measurements - I kinda made this up on the fly. Maybe once I've made it a couple more times I'll be able to be more specific. I don't even have a name for it yet. If you have an idea - tell me.

(For those of you who are wondering what crookneck squash is, it's a type of summer squash. It's sometimes called yellow summer squash or yellow squash. Some varieties are more bumpy or warty while others are super smooth. The smooth kind is what I like best because the skin is thinner but the neighbors all plant the heartier bumpy kind with thicker skins. The nice thing about summer squash is that you don't need to peel them - you can eat everything - seeds and all.)

Crookneck squash, sliced
Chicken tenders
Onion, sliced
Mrs. Dash (spicy)
1-2 cans petite chopped tomatoes (with green peppers)
Sour cream
Cheddar cheese, shredded

Cover the bottom of a casserole dish with a few layers of sliced summer squash. Then place the chicken on top and cover with sliced onion. Sprinkle with Mrs. Dash to season (we really liked the flavor of the spicy Mrs. Dash but I'm sure you could use the regular kind or any other type of seasoning you enjoy).

In a separate bowl, mix the tomatoes with the sour cream until it has the look of the type of sauce you like (you may want to add a little milk if you think it's too thick). Pour the sour cream and tomatoes over the onions. Cover the casserole dish with tin foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese and bake for five minutes or until the cheese melts.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do! I'm making it again tonight so if there's something I forgot or if I decide to add something else that really improves the flavor I'll let you know.

3 word sentence

Stephen has been adding adjectives to his words such as "big car" or "red ball." Mostly it's "big" regardless of the size. Then he started adding "my" to things - his favorite being "my chair." For some reason, he's all about chairs lately.

On Saturday when Daniel came home (he'd been out of town for 4 days) Stephen was so glad to see him that he gave him this super long hug. Then after about a minute he said, "daddy! My daddy!" I think Daniel started tearing up - it just melted his heart.

Well this morning he was putting his feet in daddy's shoes which is one of his favorite things to do. This time he said "shoe . . . daddy shoe . . . my daddy shoe." That's his first 3-word sentence ;)

update

Stephen slept 11 hours last night and only woke up 3 times. Hurray!!!!!!!!

Initial infection

So I thought Stephen was cutting some more teeth since he had a runny nose, was slobbering like a faucet and started waking up a few times at night. Boy was I wrong!

One night he had a fever and the next morning a fever blister. Sadly, that was just the beginning. The next morning there was another one and then three more ending with a total of 9. Since I've never had a cold sore - I had no idea what the initial infection was like. Wow - poor Stephen has had fevers every night and bleeding gums so bad that he wakes up every hour or two (when I'm lucky) and sometimes with his mouth full of blood. It's awful. He's in so much pain he can't eat very much either. Then all day he is extremely cranky which is so not his personality. When the pediatrician told me this would last 10-14 days I wanted to start crying.

It's been very difficult for me to watch him struggle through this. Course that may be because I'm exhausted myself. Waking every hour isn't so fun on a prego mama. As soon as Stephen starts wailing I have to move fast. If he cries too long then he wakes himself up too much and it takes forever for me to get him back asleep. But as soon as my feet hit the floor I have to go to the bathroom - even though I went an hour before. And as soon as I finally head back to bed then the baby decides he wants to wake up too and starts kicking up a storm. So needless to say, I don't fall back to sleep so easily.

Luckily today he woke up happy for the first time in over a week. And he's been happy all day. I think we are climbing out of this thing finally. His gums still look really sore and swollen but he's eating a lot better. His cold sores/fever blisters are looking nasty but I'm told that they are supposed to look like this before they go away. They are all yellow and crusty. Yuck!

Oh and here's an ironic thing, I had an appointment today to have Stephen's pictures taken at a studio. Yeah, that ain't happening. Can you imagine?! It's bad enough I took digitals.

The "Petting Zoo"

On Labor Day we headed over to Ayla & Mike's house (Dan's sister) for some FHE fun. They have a bunch of animals - their back yard is basically a petting zoo. They have horses in a pen but the goats, turkeys, chickens and rooster just roam freely (as well as dogs and cats).

Stephen was pretty excited to see all the animals - especially since we've been concentrating on animal sounds so much lately. They have some very sweet and friendly goats but Stephen was a little shy with them, I think they seemed a little too big for him to feel super comfortable. The turkeys got a little too close and started pecking at his shoes. They also like to go after anything shiny like rings, watches, belt buckles, etc. So Stephen mostly chased after the chickens.

This turkey is getting ready to go after his finger. We had to get a little aggressive to keep her away from Stephen.

Stephen says chicken pretty well but then all of a sudden he started signing it too. The wierd thing is that I never taught him the sign. We watched a signing video a few months ago where they showed the sign for chicken but I figured that it would be a little obscure for him to learn - I guess not in his mind ;) So this is a shot of him signing chicken as he goes over to grab this black one.

Here's an action shot of one of the turkeys going after Dan's ring.

And finally a little video of Stephen's petting zoo experience: