Nine Months Holy Cow!

 Our sweet baby girl is not much of a baby any more. She's three quarters of the way to being a toddler! Have I mentioned how fast time flies? Every day Addie is more and more fun to be around. We go to swim lessons every Monday morning where Coach Eric has taught Addie how to swim underwater for seven whole seconds! On Tuesdays or Wednesdays we go to storytime at the public library where we sing songs, read books, and play with other babies. We even ran into our former AP, Cassie there one week! Addie loves her LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table because it does so many different things and she gets to feel like a big girl as she stands around it. She's not yet crawling (not that I mind!) but she still gets where she wants to go by scooting on her bottom or pseudo-crawling backward or rolling. It's fun going into her room every morning to see what crazy position she wound up in during the night. She's like her mama and prefers sleeping on her stomach whenever she gets the chance. I still put her to sleep on her back but she flips back and forth through the night. She's eating everything in sight and I'm so glad we did Baby Led Solids (or Baby Led Weaning). I'm not the typical parent; Addie has actually never had a jar of babyfood and has only eaten two pureed foods. She prefers to feed herself (stubborn like her mom) so we give her appropriate sized cooked foods that she can pick up. Her current favorite food is ground beef or roast... THAT she gets from her daddy. She also just learned how to drink from a straw so of course I ran out to Target the next day to get her a straw sippy. We'll be celebrating her birthday before we know it!

"No thanks Mom, I'd rather read." She grabbed this book off the nightstand.

Smile!

Such a happy munchkin!

::smack:: "So, are we almost done here?"

Daddy came in the room.

"I love my bunny SOOO much!!"

"And this is what I think of my bow." She started ripping her bows off at exactly nine months. Oh well, at least I got eight easy months of accessorizing her!

"No more pictures!"

Nursery Wall Letters

I'm the queen of procrastination. No wait, I prefer alliteration, so I'm the princess of procrastination. I found out I was pregnant in Feb 2009. I decided then and there I wanted my baby to have his/her name spelled out in wooden wall letters that matched the decor of the nursery. I hemmed and hawed and even considered spending almost $100 just so somebody could do it for me. On Dec 1, 2010 (a full month after Addison was born...) Zac and I went to Hobby Lobby and bought all seven letters, stencils and acrylic paint so I could begin my masterpiece!


A few months later, I decided I had no intention of painting, so what else could I do? Oooh, how about gluing scrapbook paper onto the letters!? I was brilliant! Surely, nobody else in the world has ever had my idea, right?! Then, I learned there's a technique for my lightbulb moment and it's called decoupage or modge podge. Oooh... ::cue deflated ego here::


My poor daughter has had to look at a naked wall above her crib for almost two months now (she co-slept for her first seven months). I also had a looming deadline of summer coming to an end in two weeks, which is another post entirely. Sigh. It was time I did something.


Materials needed: Alphabet wall letters (mine were wooden), foam brush, modge podge, pencil, scissors/exact-o knife, newspaper, glue gun, staple gun, ribbon

Choose scrapbook paper in coordinating colors. Addie's nursery is green and pink, but since the walls are green I chose pink for the letters.

Turn the scrapbook paper upside down and trace the wooden letters. Don't do what I did and trace them backwards. I guess I should add a giant pink eraser in my list of materials...

Have your letters ready to go!

My materials ready to go. See that blue and yellow thing? I thought that was a straight edge only to find out it's just a fancy pencil. Oops.

Once again, pay attention and don't modge podge the BACK of the wall letter. Jill and Ramona were really getting into it on TV and I got slightly distracted.

After modge podging your letter, put a layer of MP on the back of your scrapbook paper. Line them up and put another layer of MP on top of the scrapbook paper.

Let dry. Notice a letter that's missing? Yep, D. It's lost. I have no idea what happened to it but I had to run to Hobby Lobby the next day and get a replacement D. I guess that's what happens when you sit on a project for nearly a year.

I measured "five planks" for the ribbons that will be attached to the back of the letters.

There are various ways to attach the ribbons to hang the letters. I chose to already make the bows and then attach the ends of the bows onto the letters using a glue gun and then adding a staple from the staple gun for added measure.

I wanted the letters spaced out over the crib so what better place to lay them out than IN the crib?

I pulled the crib out from the wall, and nailed the "I" in the center. I stepped back to make sure I liked the placement and then added letters on either side of the "I" until I was finished.