Paper Mache Turkey 2013

Making a paper mache turkey for a Kindergarten project.

Halloween 2013

Crafts at Grandpa's House

Painting his name letters for his treasure box.

I finished the vintage bell bottoms for Henry the Fifth. Simplicity Pattern 7204 purchased from ebay. I used vintage corduroy and vintage floral fabric for the pocket contrast and linings. The pattern is a size 4, so I added elastic to inside and shortened the pattern and added cuffs to make them fit. I need to move the buttons for the inner elastic since they are still too big!
Next time I may add another dart in the back to help fit them.

25 Things

I was tagged three times on Facebook! Here is my 25 Things list:

1. My 16 month old son was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, had open heart surgery at 4 months old, and now has a pacemaker. Luckily, it looks like he doesn't need his pacemaker anymore! We find out more in June. I am madly in love with my baby.

2. I swam on a relay across the Catalina Channel with teammates from Pomona College. We got a world record for the fastest womens team to cross. Our record is still on the website Catalina Channel Swimming Federation.

3. I was co-captain of my college swim team Junior and Senior year and waterpolo my Senior year.

4. I watch incredibly too much television. I have MSNBC on constantly and in the evenings we have a few shows we watch regularly. BSG, The Office, Burn Notice, Heros, 24, LOST, plus occasional other shows.

5. I found out that I love to cook after I graduated from college. I got a subscription to Bon Apetit and kept it going for 10 years. A few months ago I freecycled the whole collection to a woman who was thrilled to get them. I find that I use the internet for recipes rather than going back to old magazines.

6. I lived in NYC for 2 years working as an assistant coach at Columbia University and working a variety of Physical Therapy Aide jobs all over Manhatten. I think everyone should live in NYC for a couple of years in their 20's. The experience formed who I am today.

7. I gained over 60 pounds since college. No, it isn't all baby weight.

8. I have had clinical depression probably since I was about 12 years old. I didn't get true treatment until after graduate school. I sought treatment in college, but they sent me to a student who said, "Exercise helps depression." Those of you who swam with me will understand how that was not going to help as I already exercised an insane amount. If I ever become a millionaire, my Pomona College donation will be earmarked for a decent mental health clinic.
I have been on most of the medications on the market, and am still trying to find the best mix. I am currently seeking information on the hormonal aspects of depression and PMDD to find a safer way to control depression during pregnancy.

9. I desperately want to get pregnant again. My doctors want me to wait until the depression is better controlled. I want to be totally off of medication for my next pregnancy. My goals and their goals don't match.

10. I married the most incredible man. He is handsome, a genius, understanding, affectionate. He puts up with my crazy days. He keeps the house clean- that's the Navy in him. He is an incredible father to our son. Henry 5 absolutely adores him. A civilian worker thought he was out of earshot when she commented that he makes the new uniform look good. She was right.

11. I got married in front of the Beluga Whales at the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT.

12. I hated living in Hawaii. (But that might be the depression talking. I am willing to try it again.)

13. I would love to live in Japan. But if we move there, I would spend all of our money on fabric.

14. I love being a Navy wife. I am so proud of my husband and how hard he works.

15. When I was 12 I thought I wanted to be a physical therapist. Now I am. I prefer working with Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke and Spinal Cord Injury patients in Acute Care hospitals.

16. I am currently a stay at home mom. We thought I would return to work reasonably soon after giving birth, until we found out about Henry's ToF. Then I thought I would go back to work a couple months after his surgery. The delay is my need to catch up on CEUs.

17. I love to sew. I graduated from Pomona with a degree in Neuroscience and for graduation my mom gave me a sewing machine. I still have the same one and use it to make things for the baby and friends.

18. I have done several triathlons and want to get back into it for the approaching season. I did a half Ironman about 4 years ago. I didn't train adequately. I was the first out of the water in my age group. I was second to last in the entire field to finish. It was horribly grueling. The bike portion was so painful that I hoped I would get hit by a car so that I could stop racing without shame. I also had to pee really bad- so bad that I tried to pee my bike shorts while riding my bike- I knew if I got off I wouldn't be able to get back on. It didn't work- I found a port-a-jon by a nuclear power plant. After several years to get over the trauma, I have the urge to train properly and do another one. My husband says he never wants me to do another one because it was so painful to watch.

19. I joined a work out group at the YMCA.

20. I get so mad when smokers throw their butts out the car window that I sometimes give them the finger.

21. I drive too fast.

22. I want to go into my parent's basement and freecycle most of it.

23. I love having computers and electronics, but get really irritated when they are too slow or break.

24. I have travelled in Asia to Viet Nam (to visit Amanda), Korea and the DMZ, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the Pacific Islands Guam and Saipan. If we have to move to Guam I am starting a dog farm to take care of all the strays. I Viet Nam I was attacked in the Binh Thanh market by a 100 year old pint sized little lady because she wanted me to buy a diet coke from her. A few days later I realized what she wanted was the $50 she stole from me. The best pastry I have ever eaten was in Viet Nam. In Thailand I ate a cricket. I have never been to Europe.

25. I can't get over how much I love my baby. He is the light of my life.

First Haircut

Daddy went first.




His little curls are all gone. I saved a few.

Out of Heart Block and other tidbits

1. Just did Henry the Fifth's telemetry pacemaker check. The very preliminary result is that the pacemaker is just reading his heartbeat and not having to fire. This indicates he is out of heart block. The big official news will happen in June at our in-person electrophysiology appointment in June.

2. *Somebody* keeps farting so potent-ly that I keep checking his diaper for poops, but no poops. What up dude?

3. Henry the Fifth can now climb up and down the stairs. With supervision y'all.

4. Questionable vocabulary? Definitely has Dada down. Maybe Mama, No, Yes, Yeah.

5. Can definitely sign 'Finished.' At first he would grab our hands and make us sign it the way we were teaching him, but this week he started signing it on his own!

6. Decided he is willing to eat Gerber Cheesy Poof thingies, goldfish crackers, pieces of chicken tenders (Tyson white meat strips, YUM!), french fries, & tots. Yay, our kid likes junk food.

7. Incidentally/ accidentally discovered he is not allergic to peanuts. We did this by discovering that he loves the fries from 5 Guys. The next day it occurred to me that 5 Guys cooks in peanut oil. Oops. The GI doc said not to give him any more peanut stuff as early introduction can actually cause an allergy. And, he said that if the parent(s) have ANY allergy at all (such as my allergy to penicillin) he shouldn't have peanuts until age three. Sorry dude, you just have to wait for the awesomeness of the peanut butter/chocolate combo.

8. I will eventually post on the holidays - Turkey, Christmas, New Year. Here's a preview... I only gained 5 pounds. :) Hubby said to look at it in a positive light. It could be worse. Oprah gained 40.

Santa is Scary!

Germy toys are more fun than the expensive ones

Now that Henry the Fifth is running around the house, he has discovered lots of new toys.
He is a big fan of flushing the toilet and pulling TP off of the roll. We have been keeping the door closed, but he barges in if one of us is on the pot.

His other favorite in the bathroom is our tub. He can just reach one of the faucet handles and has been turning on the water for a few weeks now. His new trick is to open our drawers, take stuff out, throw it into the bathtub and turn on the water. Can't find my deoderant? Check the tub. Can't find my brush? Check the tub.

Recently, he noticed that the diaper champ has a handle. And as we all know, handles are for moving. Plus, there is a big hole. And as we all know, holes are for sticking your face in and hollering.

Today, he was kicking around his O-Ball like a pro soccer player, but then things got quiet. I went into his room and here is what I found...

Apparently, while he was acting all snuggly with me earlier, he was actually swiping my credit card off of my desk.

The truncated alphabet pillow.

The New Hipster

I made this for Henry the Fifth from Burda Pattern 9707. I have another one cut out, but sewing is really hard with a toddler running around!

The rug search that ended in a truncated alphabet

Neighbor Friend e'd me a couple of days ago because she found something I was looking for. I wanted to get Henry the Fifth a city street rug for him to play with all of his cars and trucks. Neighbor Friend found them at Home Emporium for $15. Awesome. So I went...And also got this excellent bamboo bowl I have been searching for.
I wanted something to keep all of my root veggies in- big enough to hold lots of veggies, attractive enough to have on the counter. I got it for $5 - woohoo!

I also found a couple mushroom birdhouse ornaments and an alphabet pillow for the baby's toy bench - the funny part is that the embroidered alphabet goes from A to U because they ran out of room. I might add the rest of the alphabet to the back lest my son show up to kindergarten missing the end of the alphabet.

First Pizza. Mandy the OT would be so proud!At the Pumpkin Patch

Halloween in our Hood

How we dressed for the neighborhood Halloween Party

How everyone else dressed

Birthday Gift and an Embarassing Photo

One of Henry the Fifth's little girlfriends turned one a few days ago. For her birthday, BabyH commissioned Mommy to make her "The Cutest Dress Ever." I think I succeeded. She is a little swimmer, so the mermaid fabric I've been hording was a perfect match for her personality.


She is the same weight as Henry, so the poor man had to try it on. He looks so strange in a dress.
I also sent some Green Bay Packers coffee sleeves to keep Henry on he daddy's good side.

Wet and Wild

My SIL gave Henry a water table for his first birthday. I hadn't even thought of it. Of course, a seasoned mommy would know what to get for a kiddo's 1st birthday.
Henry was playing with it inside until the other day. I took him out with a blanket to play inthe yard while I washed some selves off to bring in (to store my expanding sewing collection). Naturally, Henry didn't want to stay on his blanket, so he came over to the big puddle by me and got soaked.
When in Rome.... Since he was already soaked, I brought out the water table and filled it. He had a BLAST. He was hollering and laughing and splashing like crazy. Luckily it is mild enough here that he could play a while without getting too cold.
After playing his butt off in the water, he took off down the driveway. I followed, and he he ended up circumnavigating the entire house!! His poor little leg warmers are shot now.

Happy 1st Birthday to Henry the Fifth

Vanilla and chai cupcakes. Buttercream frosting hand made by my SIL.


Grandpa did a great magic show for everyone.

Pin the nose on the lion.


We gave him a new chomp and clack for walking with.


Wearing his new party hat and and bib. I made a matching burp with 'one' spelled out.

Henry's first cupcake was a hit.