{Not} Living Vicariously

Project Life - Week Two

Moving on to week two of "a year in the life of Tadpole" we have the following:

I love the picture of him in his spaceship pajamas. They only fit the one time, but his grandpa sure enjoyed seeing him in them. Grandpa had wanted to be an astronaut when he was younger, ended up a pilot and loved every minute of flying. We also share his first book. As a children's librarian I have strong opinions on what is appropriate for a young age. Black and white/high contrast board books are my favorite for the newborn. I buy a couple of them for every new baby in my life, including my own. He is blowing kisses in the lower left, showing his gang signs in the lower right. His daddy sure enjoyed getting those pictures. I also share more food gifts from loved ones at church and the sticker from his one week checkup. While a one week checkup is not the norm, he had lost enough weight before we left the hospital that the doctor wanted to see him and make sure he was back to gaining. We had put enough back on by now that we didn't need to go back until the one month checkup.

Week two also included the gift of a newborn photo shoot from Aaron's cousin Leanne. She came up to visit one day and sent me off to take a much needed nap. When I woke up they were nowhere to be seen. That is because she was taking photos of him in his nursery. Leanne truly has a gift and I am a very lucky recipient. It is a joy to watch her work.

Next is week three!

Created by Becky Higgins, "Project Life provides an ultra-simple solution that helps us get those pictures into albums without draining our time, energy, and wallets." Learn more about it here.

Project Life - Week One

As mentioned a few (okay many) weeks ago, I decided to Project Life my son's first year. I've been working on it in bits and pieces and Week One is finally at a point where it can be shared. Phew! Only 51 more weeks to go . . .

Before I share the photos however I have to make a few disclaimers. 1. My photo skills are not the best (poor guy is going to realize this once he is old enough to look through his book). 2. The lighting in my house is not conducive to taking good photos of pages in a photo album. 3. Working on pages days or even weeks after that time period makes it really hard to journal. 4. My goal is to improve all three of these issues.

Additionally you'll see some repeat themes throughout the weeks. I have a date card showing that my weeks are from Tuesday to Monday because Tadpole was born on a Tuesday. There will always be one card "naming" the eight photos. And I didn't worry about chronological order of the photos, I went with however best they fit the layout.

Week One Side One

Here you see his birthweight, yes he was a big boy! I also show my push prize and birthday charm. Then you see the infamous breast pump. I really did try and sometimes I'm still sad it didn't work out (like today when we had to leave church early because I forgot to pack any formula!) however we did move on. Last on this page you see his first bath courtesy of his Aunt. She gave us the very good advice you see mentioned above.

You will also notice that some of the journaling cards are either not filled out all the way yet (this page) or are blocked from view (a future week). This is, of course, for safety reasons.

Week One Side Two

On this page you see photos from the few days we were at the hospital. Our room had great lighting from the windows, which made for horrible picture taking. At the time I didn't realize how dark they were. Oh well, this is "life" and we are enjoying it. You also find out that my husband is better at swaddling (I've been told this is true in many families), that my mother-in-law bribed all the hosptial staff with very delicious cookies, that people kept bringing us food once we got home, and that we had trouble naming our little boy. We had three names picked out and were fairly convinced one of them was his middle name and just had to choose which of the other two was his first name. Yeah, not so much. His middle name became his first name and one of the others became his middle name. And that is just right!

Created by Becky Higgins, "Project Life provides an ultra-simple solution that helps us get those pictures into albums without draining our time, energy, and wallets." Learn more about it here.

Favorites from Week 13

This was a fun week. We went to see the cousins and Tadpole had his 3 month photo shoot with cousin Leanne. My father also came to town and got to meet his grandson. We aren't sure what what his name will be, he says to let the kid decide. Some photo highlights are

He is 15 lbs and 23 3/4 inches long now.

His (second) cousin E enjoyed some camera time. I do so love him in his overalls however these are getting too tight. I must go find the next size up :-).

One of the girls took this beautiful picture of his eyelashes.

Some quality time with Grandpa/Papa . . .

And we are starting the proper influences early. Size Matters Not!!

Such a fun week . . .

 

Repeat Business

Not often do I finish a book and immediately want to start it from the beginning again. In fact, I can't remember the last time I felt that way. However . . . this past week it happened to me. I had all these good intentions of reading lots for pleasure in between feeding Tadpole and naps while I was home. That definitely did NOT happen. However over the course of two dentist appointments, I did manage to read Code Name Verity (9781423152194) and all I can say is WOW!

I am not talented enough to write a review of this book without giving away the twist so I'm just going to state that the twist at the end is so well done, I immediately wanted to start it again so I could watch for all the clues as the plot progressed. I highly recommend the novel and am glad it has won the awards it did (and I don't always feel that way).While I did not immediately start the book over, I'm definitely getting a copy for my "keep" shelf (and it will be the hardcover because I like this cover much better than the paperback edition).

PS - the only other product I can think of that made me feel this way right now is the movie The Usual Suspects. This has that same feel of clues sprinkled through the story.

Week 12 - a bit late

Shame on me, I've been too busy playing mommy to sit down and blog. However he is napping and I'm stealing a few minutes at the computer . . . week 12 included May Day (this month's cookie photo)

We also prepped for a 5K (but it rained so that didn't happen)

And Tadpole had fun singing with his babysitter . . .

This coming weekend Tadpole turns three months (where has time gone?!?!?) and I'm hoping for some great photos with the family.

Homemade Onion Soup Mix

I use onion soup mix regularly and especially when I'm doing a freezer cooking session. I got tired of buying the envelopes and found a recipe in a book called Make-a-Mix (978155561739) by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward, andMadeline Westover. I have since modified their recipe to exclude the Bon Appetit Seasoning as it contains MSG. If you are interested in trying mine, it is as follows (this makes one envelope worth):

4 t. instant beef-bouillon granules

8 t. dried minced onion

1 1/8 t. onion powder

1/8 t. celery salt

I make this up in bulk and use 4 generous tablespoons whenever a recipe calls for the envelope. And that is my version of onion soup mix.

Someday I'd like to review the entire book for you and tell a family story about this title.

Baby Book #1

As I mentioned earlier, I'm working on two baby books. I'm going to share bits and pieces from the traditional one today. This is the Eric Carle's Very Special Baby Journal (9780399246678) and I was nervous about getting it at the beginning since I couldn't find images of the pages online. Therefore this is going to be a photo heavy post to share images of several of the pages. There are many more pages that will not be shared because I've already filled them out with a bit too much personal information to show online however you will be able to get the gist of the book from the following.

There is also an All About Mommy page - mine is filled out. I am insisting that Daddy fill out his so that Tadpole has his daddy's handwriting as well in his baby book.

There are lots of places to include pictures. I shared this one as I wanted you to see how the borders are reminiscent of Carle's style.

Again there is a page about my family, again it is already filled out . . .

This page is fairly self-explanatory . . .

I had to laugh at this one, I know four showers might seem excessive, however they were four very distinct groups and it just worked out that way. I adapted the page for our story.

Again you see my part filled out. Daddy swears he will do his as well. I hope he gets around to it before he forgets his "thoughts & feelings".

And I really hope he fills this one out before he forgets the parts I "slept" through!

There is also a page for handprints but our hospital would only put in the feet for us. I did the hands at home, not nearly so well!

This was a fun page to fill out. I had help from various friends and family as I'm not culturally aware in some aspects. Fashion trends? Me?? Ha!!! Thanks to Katrina that was filled out . . .

And one more page for photos. As Tadpole does not have any two legged brothers or sisters, I keep threatening to put in pictures of the dog and cat. Just wait and see. I'll do it too!

All in all, I'm glad I have this book. It has a lot of fun art, matches our style (and his nursery), and is very traditional in the details. Soon I hope to show off some more of Baby Book #2 which is Project Life. Let me know if you have any questions . . .

 

11 weeks old and such a cutie

We had a good week this past week. I went back to work and everything is just fine. Tadpole doesn't even realize he isn't with family when he gets dropped off in the morning as those watching him have been a part of his life since he was born. I'm very happy with how that has all turned out. As is usual, I'll just share a few favorite shots from this past week . . .

A co-worker gave Tadpole two frog outfits and this is him in one of him. A bad joke of his daddy's is "my rootin' tootin' son can make this frog say RIBBIT!" (We had to put him on his tummy so as to snap the picture.)

He got his first boo boo on Sunday. We think he scratched his cheek on my name badge, not his fingernail. It was a traumatic experience for all of us. Poor guy had also had his first shots on Friday which just about made me cry. That is the worst feeling I've had so far.

He is also getting quite good at the whole smiling and talking bit. This was after his bath and he was totally happy with the world. I'm so glad our boy enjoys his bath time now. Especially as he is so freaking adorable in his towel . . .

Ignore me in this photo - I hadn't had my shower yet and we were having a lazy time.

Hope you enjoyed this week's gallery. His boo boo is healing nicely and there will be more pictures soon!

Going back to work - the freezer edition

Anyone who knows me well knows that while I love to cook, I'm a huge fan of cooking in bulk and then having ready made meals. Two weeks ago I practiced getting Tadpole off to his daycare in the mornings prior to me going back to work last week (I actually meant to write this post days ago, what a joke!). He did half days and I got lots accomplished: dentist appointment, took the dog to the vet, and I also turned 12 pounds of ground beef into lots of tasty goodies. I'm not sure why I only ever bother to blog about the ground beef sessions, but once again that is what I have to talk about.

I took this

and turned it into this

That would be hearty meat sauce (good for sloppy joes, lasagna, etc.), chunky beef chili, meatloaf AND meatballs, a Telluride Black Bean Bake, meat for chimichangas and also meat for Ole casserole (neither of which I have online anywhere).

I even had enough left over to make a taco pizza casserole, a variation on this, we had for dinner the following night.

Week 10 is done

And what a week it was! Tadpole starts to get a personality and I went back to work today. Some favorite shots from this past week include

eating feet (on a toy giraffe)

sleeping (in a) bag baby

sitting up by himself (with a little help)

and

starting to be inquisitive.

Hope you enjoyed . . .