As yet unnamed!

A Kittens Tale Block 1

Hurray! I finished my first block tonight. Good timing as my second block arrived this morning in the mail. The post lady had come and gone but then an hour later she came back and it came through the door. It looks like a cute block so I'll have to start it this week. I have to admit the applique of the tails and paws took me forever. I struggled as they are smaller pieces than I usually applique. They don't look great/perfect but then I guess that's the beauty of something handmade: it doesn't have to be perfect! At least that's my excuse. I think block 4 of Little Bluebirds is going to be on it's way to me soon and will probably arrive sometime in the second week in March. So, I think that will be what I work on next. Wonder if I can get a lot of applique and stitching done in 10 days and get it done before the next block arrives? 

Kirk went to the Chelsea match today so I took the kids to the park after their naps and then Noemie and I did some painting when we got home before dinner time. She usually loses interest after about 5 minutes but today we painted for 30 minutes. It was a lot of fun, very messy and I made the mistake of painting Noemie's palm so she could make handprints on the paper... she kept trying to paint her hand after that but luckily nothing ended up on the walls. She was one tired little girl tonight though as Kirk took her to the park earlier in the day for a good run around.

Charlie's been a good baby and has been sleeping through the night for 11/12 hours for the past 6 weeks I think? Hard to believe he will be 5 months old this coming Friday though most people think he's 7 months old as he's a big boy!

Nearly forgot...

today's new word for Noemie was light though of course she says "ligh". I'm surprised it took her so long to say it considering turning lights off and on is one of her favorite pastimes. She asks you to pick her up so that she can reach the light switch! 

Easter project 1 and other stuff

I finished the stitchery on what will be Noemie's Easter bag last night. I haven't ironed it or anything just yet as I'm trying to work out how to make a bag using the instructions in the pattern booklet. Luckily Easter is still several weeks away as I'm totally confused at this point. I've started Charlie's stitchery as well so hope to have that done soon. I think I'll get out my sewing machine to make the bags when the time comes. 

Today and yesterday I had a slight change from sewing and did some more Christmas pages for my 6x6 album. I managed to finish 10 pages in the past two days and have 6 more to go and then can call it done. Will be great to finish a project for a change! I totally want to get back to pages for Noemie and Charlie's album but then I also want to stay on top of my various BOM projects...I need to finish the Kitten Tale's block tonight as I got a dispatch email that Block 2 is on it's way so it will most likely arrive tomorrow. Can't get behind this quickly! I haven't started block 3 of Bluebirds yet, at least no sewing has taken place. I've cut out and prepared all the applique pieces and cut the background fabrics but need to trace all the stitchery stuff. Maybe this weekend? 

I'm now also wanting to work on my dollhouses again. I watched a show on Channel4 this evening called Hello Dollie which showed the Kensington Dollshouse Festival I go to each year, along with Caroline Hamilton's collection (she was the lady who started the festival and it's now being run by someone else) and then also showed two other miniaturists. Have to admit the stuff from the two other miniaturists was totally not my tastes but I love Caroline's houses as I've seen them in her book. Seeing the gorgeous minis have of course made me miss working on my dollhouse so I'll have to find some time to work on it again soon.

Another aaawww moment!

Photo taken this morning right after breakfast in the kitchen. Noemie loves that Charlie interacts with her and that she makes him giggle, which in turn makes her giggle. I am really looking forward to when he is able to sit up and even crawl so they can play more together. I'm sure when the time comes I will be whining that it's all non stop with two kids running around all the time but still, it will be nice for them to play together. 

Had two hospital visits today. One for Charlie for a scan. At our 6 week checkup with the GP, she commented on how Charlie was "fat" out to the sides rather than a pot belly that is apparently the norm. So, she referred him to get a kidney scan in case there was something wrong and in light of the fact Noemie was born with a kidney problem, they were being safe. Fair enough, we went for a consult a month ago, the pediatrician was also fairly sure nothing was wrong but booked us in for a scan, and that took place today. All clear, nothing wrong, so that was good news. I rushed home from that appointment and we then went back for Noemie's follow up after her routine kidney scan last week. Again, all was well, no change and nothing needs to be done medically. They will scan her next year again just to confirm all is still well. She's been on a low dose anti-b since birth and we've been told to stop that now as well as she no longer needs it. It was to prevent urinary tract infections but the Dr was no longer concerned about any of it. So, all in all very good news. The only bad part was that everything was running late! 

Wanted to congratulate my parents on their wedding anniversary today. I believe they have been married either 39 or 40 years though they were together 5 years or so before they married. I think that's pretty impressive that they both managed to deal with each other for all of these years (only joking!). Hopefully Kirk and I will have that many years together as I have lots more driving him crazy left to do!

Woosh! Where did the day go?

No photos today... not sure where the day went but it's now nearly 9pm. I had a haircut this morning and then in the afternoon we all went to play in the park. It was really nice to get out and about with the kids. Or really, with Noemie. Charlie was fast asleep in his stroller. Did absolutely nothing creative today either... so I think I might have to go upstairs now and do something-- like quilt!

Today's new word for Noemie: Slide. She LOVES the slides at the park and goes on them over and over. As she goes down she says "beep beep" and then runs to go up the steps again saying "slyyyy" (her way of saying slide). 

Plodding along...

Not a whole lot to tell today so am just going to share some photos taken this weekend of Noemie practicing the piano shortly after her nap. She originally had Kirk standing next to her to hold her Ritz crackers and smoothie in the sippy cup but he decided to put the music ledge to better use. Sorta like how you could use the CD Rom drive in your computer as a coffee cup holder.

"Bubble" and fat farm update

Noemie kept asking for "bubble" today so our nanny and I took turns blowing bubbles for her. It started after dinner time and lasted through her bath. At one point Noemie had a cute little bubble hat on her head and seemed to think it was all very silly. Charlie enjoyed them while were playing with them down in the kitchen earlier on. He was totally mesmerized and watched them fall and also watched his sister giggling and trying to pop them all. We gave Charlie a bath toward the end of Noemie's bath and she insisted on holding him. Of course she wasn't totally holding him as he'd end up under water like Paul has in the past and that wouldn't be too good. Noemie was quite impressed with the belly on Charlie and she spent a bit of time poking and squeezing and he I think was just focused on not drowning. 

I had my fat farm weigh in this evening and am pleased to report another 3lb loss for the week so my total is now 21.5lbs in 7 weeks. WW gives you a little silver 7 sticker for each half stone (7lbs) you lose so I got my 3rd one. Of course that now puts me at 11st4.5lbs (158.5lbs- yay finally under 160 though still the size of a small whale) so I'm still stuck with my non round number. I had been aiming for a 2.5lb loss to end up at 11st5lbs. Nice tidy number. Oh well, better than not losing! So my goal again for my next weigh in is to lose 2.5lbs. I'm 1/2lb from my pre-Noemie weight which is pretty cool. I'm glad it's taken me less than 2 years to lose it despite having another pregnancy in between! I still have 28.5lbs that I want to lose so got a while to go yet! I had to take my weight loss ticker off of my blog as it was about triple the length of the space I have so it no longer showed my weight loss progress tonight. Will have to find another way... maybe a permanent post at the top of my blog? 

Nanny number 2 is here tomorrow and Wednesday. And our cleaning lady comes tomorrow afternoon as well. I think the end is near for her though as she's just not doing that great a job as she used to. Also the fact I can't speak to her due to her complete lack of English (and my complete lack of Polish, though to be fair we are in an English speaking country) is a bit of a problem. I can't tell her what I want done, or what I'm not happy with and I have to get my nanny to translate for me. It's going to be a tad awkward to ask her not to come anymore as my nanny will have to translate that for me as well. Or I could try google translator but with my luck it'll probably say something like "please come daily from now on". 

Will leave you with a photo of Charlie in his room after his bath, before milk/bedtime tonight.

Roll over! Roll over!

The first photo was taken yesterday of Charlie trying desperately to roll over from back to front. He was getting really pissed off, grunting and screeching because he just couldn't figure out what was stopping him from rolling over. Of course it was the arm that gets stuck underneath, Noemie went through this as well but it took her a bit longer to figure it out. Looking at the photos of her doing the same thing, I can't get over how alike the two of them look! Anyway, this morning after breakfast, Charlie was on the playmat again and was back to practicing his rolling. He'd get close, then fall back and get pissed off. We were all cheering him on, Noemie was running around him and woo hoo, he did it. I missed taking a photo of the roll as I was too busy cheering him on, but I did manage to get a shot of his little face beaming with satisfaction that he rolled. He hasn't tried it again since. He was the same way when he rolled from front to back the other day... does it a few times and is like "ok, been there done that, what's next on the list?" I guess it's sitting up? Stay tuned! 

A few months ago I posted about a quilt pattern I had bought along with all the fabrics for it. Needless to say I haven't started it yet as I've been working on other stuff. A lady called Ranette left me a comment on my blog ages ago about how she too had the pattern and had done a block so far. I started visiting her blog, she still visits mine and when I mentioned maybe doing this as a BOM, she left me a comment saying she'd join me. So, we had a few emails today and we're starting on March 1st. As she's done one block, I'm going to do it this week so I am all caught up. Our goal is to have all the blocks done (12), scalloped edges added and the entire thing quilted and ready to use in time for the holiday season 2010. We're both working on plenty of other stuff so we figured holidays 2009 would just stress us out. I'm so excited to be working on this with Ranette as hopefully we will both motivate each other. 

In the past Bren and I used to do something similar with our miniatures, picking a project to work on and complete within the year. We also set little goals throughout the year to finish various other things off and it worked and we got lots done. As she and I are meeting up at the mini show next month, maybe we'll both get back to our minis as well and get some more done this year!

Gorgeous weather!

It was a really beautiful almost spring like day today so lots of time was spent outdoors at the park. Kirk took Noemie out to play for a long time this morning while I stayed home with Charlie and then in the afternoon all four of us went out for a while. We took Noemie's pink football with us and she spent quite a while picking it up and throwing it and then practiced her footwork. Charlie snoozed in the stroller for a little while then watched his sister play. I can't wait until he's able to run around with her and they can play together! 

Two more photos taken this afternoon as the light was pretty nice. Noemie took a pause from her busy footie playing schedule to pay some more attention to Charlie. He wasn't too amused as he was half asleep when she started pulling on his hood and patting him on the head and sometimes all over his face. Both kids were pretty tired this evening and fell asleep pretty easily. Hopefully it's nice again tomorrow so we can spend more time outdoors. Really looking forward to the Spring and Summer time when we can have picnics in the park and just be out and about. 

Before I forget, Noemie's new words for today: bubbles and pizza. Not sure if she's said ball before but if not, that was new too but I am pretty sure she said it the other day. Pizza she actually said last night when I gave it to her for dinner. She said it for Kirk tonight and as it's one of his favorite foods, he was very excited. When we put her to bed we looked at a picture book and we asked her where the airplane photo was and she flipped through several pages and found it and pointed at it. Same with pizza. And a hat. So sweet how quickly she is learning now after taking her sweet old time before she started saying anything! 

Time for me to get stuff done. I spend way too much time online. Blogging I don't mind as it's my reference for when I go back to scrap photos and the grandparents enjoy reading about N and C. Editing photos is fine too as they get printed and scrapped. Otherwise, while they are entertaining, forums probably aren't a very efficient use of time. I just have so many projects I want to get done but seem to spend more time chatting about them than actually doing them! Off I go!

Awwwww

They love each other! We put Charlie in the laundry basket this evening and Noemie pulled him around the hallway. Must've been hard work considering how big and heavy he is! Charlie was just smiling and giggling each time his sister looked his way. She's sweet in that she takes the time to pay attention to him each day, strokes his head, hands him things, takes things away of course and says "night night" to him each night before they each go to bed. I am sure in 6 months time I will be writing about how Charlie drives Noemie crazy. They are just so cute together :) 

I keep meaning to respond to comments people leave for me on my blog but then forget. So, off the top of my head: Heather, I don't often feel hungry on Weight Watchers and rarely snack. I figure out what things I can eat within my daily points allowance and usually I end up with several left over each night. It helps that I don't generally eat junk anymore like cookies and stuff which I think was my big problem in the past. I can't eat just one so I eat the entire pack. Now I just don't have any at all and I don't miss it. If I do need to snack I have a yogurt, fruit or even a cup of tea. Jane, I think Charlie is indeed teething as he's drooling loads more and chews on his hands constantly. The red cheeks though seem to be something both kids have in general. They spend a lot of time out and about at the park getting fresh air so I think that has a big effect on their rosy cheeks. Thank you to everyone else who comments on how cute the kids are. Of course I totally agree!  

Today I finished putting together the Kitten Tales block so tomorrow I will do the applique kittens and the yoyos as my yoyo maker has been posted so with any luck they will arrive tomorrow. For tonight I am going to go work on an Easter project for Noemie. Must get working on it as I also need to do one for Charlie. We don't celebrate Easter per se but I do love the commercial aspect of it all with the cute chocolates and stuff so I wanted to make these bags and give the kids little things each year. I started the bag for Noemie last year but can't find it now so am starting over. Luckily I hadn't done much on it!