15 months

Wow, time is really flying by! Owen is now 15 months old and he's really showing us what he knows. We will go for his checkup next week so I'll let you know his weight/height then. We enjoyed a little snow this past weekend and while Owen didn't get to see it while it was falling, he did have fun walking in it and seeing it the next day.

New skills:

• says lots of names - he likes to do "roll call" throughout the day asking for various people he knows and I tell them where they are (ex: Owen, "Dada?" mommy, "he's at work")
• points to many objects, people, and pets on request (actual and in pictures)
• he says, "hot" when I am about to give him a bite of his food
• he said "cold" when he touched the snow
• when I open it, he races for the freezer to grab ice (not really a skill but it shows his hearing is pretty darn good from the other room)
• he knows where "Mammy's" house is - he can get there on his own! (but luckily we are dutiful parents and are not yet letting him cross the street by himself)
• he rolls cars all over the house - on the floor, on a chair, on a counter
• he reeeeeeaches up for stuff on the counter (typically a phone, remote, or other contraband), grabs his prize, and runs with it
• he can hold and drink out of a regular cup with "some" spilling (this is best left in the tub since "some" equals lots if he decides to practice pouring) - but we hold the cup for him at meal time so he actually gets more water in rather than on him
• he pretends to talk on the phone - placing the phone behind his ear (so cute)
• he will hug a stuffed animal
• he will try to hug the cat (sometimes with a little too much love)
• he will let me know with signs when he's "all done" or when he "wants more" with no prompting
• he is almost running everywhere and tends to move faster when he's managed to secure something he's not supposed to have
• his vocabulary is very large and no, I haven't been writing all of his words down (I know, I'm surprised too)
• he says, "woah" or "wow" when he sees something that impresses him

Here are a few pictures - two from our "snow day." It is getting increasingly difficult to get a smiling, non-blurry picture of Owen lately... (I've been struggling with Christmas pictures for four days now so who knows what kind of picture will be in the card)

Happy Turkey Day!

I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you had lots of great food to eat (I know we did). Here are a couple of pictures from the day.

A boy who loves his blankie... (he had pulled it over with him and sat in his chair but when I walked in with the camera, he immediately jumped up to see his picture so this was as good as I could get)

Outside!

Owen loves to be outside! We've been going out into the backyard and he walks around and climbs on the steps and just has a great time. He will stay out there forever and usually cries when it's time to come in. He's turning into a little boy and is less of a baby now - think more dirt, less clean...

Here are a few pictures from our outside fun.

14 months!

Owen is officially 14 months old today! He is such a happy little guy. He loves to go for walks in his stroller or his car and really loves walking with "Manny" and "Zo-eee", our neighbors. He actually cries when he go by their house if we don't stop to take them with us!

Here are his accomplishments this month:

• he has pretty much mastered the art of walking in a span of about 3 weeks and has no intentions of slowing down as far as we can tell
• he pretends to drink out of a cup and will sometimes give mommy a turn too
• he loves to put objects in a container (last month it was dumping them out, now it's putting 'em in)
• he loves to try to interact with other little ones - he is fascinated by them really wants to reach out and touch them, especially their hair!
• he stands and "dances" everytime he hears music, even if it's just a commercial
• he is quite the parrot and will repeat lots of words, famliar and otherwise
• he knows lots of animal sounds and will now point to a few animals and objects in pictures on request
• he has just realized that when we are eating something (i.e., candy) he would really like some
• he uses the sign for "more" as a universal "eat" and "more"
• he points to what he wants
• he still loves his books and will sit down a few times a day, take a break, and just "read" his books!

I can't think of anything else right now. He is such a little charmer and makes everyone smile. Here are two pictures I just took - the one with the sunglasses is from Ben's soccer game.

Happy Halloween!

We had such a wonderful Halloween! We had perfect gumbo weather and a pretty good gumbo according to the taste-testers to go with it. Owen was a turtle, mommy was a kitty cat, and daddy was a scary prisoner. We had lots of trick-or-treaters, partiers, and even a few celebrity guests! Here are a few pictures from our fun night.

Owen's got his bat bag and he's ready to hit the road for some serious trick-or-treating

Our little family's second Halloween!
Some of our trick-or-treaters ready to hit the pavement

Oh, and look who attended our party - sans kids as she's just too busy to deal with them (but she's having the nanny do something, anything, with them at this very moment)...

Amber's costume was my absolute favorite and I think several other people thought so too. She perfected the "Kate" walk, stance, and facial expressions for the night and you had to do a double take when you spotted her. Amber, you win Best Costume for Halloween 2009!!! (Sorry, Jon took the prize money when he cleaned out the bank account so there'll be no trophy for you)

13 months!

I'm a few days late with a month 13 update on Owen but you won't be disappointed! He is taking steps on his own now!!! I was on the phone Monday and looked down at him and I watched him take his first step to me! I was thrilled. He has only shown me his new trick - he just gets silly and starts to laugh when I try to make him walk on his own for other people (or the camera) to see. Yesterday evening he took 5 steps in a row and then dissolved into giggles as I scooped him up and shrieked with excitement. I did get a few steps with the video camera but it's kind of hard to video and help him walk so the bit isn't that great. Hopefully I can get a good video in the next couple of days to post. The picture at the top of the page is one of many that I took while trying to get a "Fall" photo at the local nursery. Let's just say that Owen was majorly impressed with the number of trucks that drove by during our little photo shoot. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the road (a mere 20 feet away) to look at the camera and I didn't get a single picture of him smiling because he kept saying, "vvvvvvm vvvvvvm." I'm going to try to take him back and maybe I can get at least one with a smile and eyes on the camera. We'll see... trucks are quite an exciting thing to watch!

Milestones at 13 months:

• eating everything that we eat (except leftovers more than once - he actually knows it by sight and won't eat it if he's had it twice in a row just previously) and loves his fruit; he actually ate a few bites of the tips of roasted asparagus the other night (it was on my plate so of course it was a must have)
• he will, on request, say the sounds for the tiger, horse, cow, cat, dog, car/truck/motorcycle, and pig and will repeat the sounds for lots of other animals/things
• he will point to my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears but is only truly pointing to nose and eyes on request
• he will sometimes make "sweet eyes"
• puts the circle into the circle space in a shape sorter (all by himself!)
• likes to take lids off of containers and tries to put them back (sometimes succeeding, just depends on how difficult they are to snap)
• loves to put things in a cup or small container, take it out, put it back, ...
• puts one cup inside of another
• tries to stack one block on top of another
• says, "ba?" (which means, "what's that?") and points to EVERYTHING!!!! sometimes I don't even have enough time to answer between "ba?"s
• he LOVES LOVES LOVES to dance - we took him to Bach lunch last week and he had to sit down to dance because his legs were getting so tired from standing and dancing!
• babbles all of the time and has recently begun babbling in phrases
• makes tons of facial expressions - he especially likes to make a very serious face with pursed lips and then he bursts out in giggles if I mimic him or show I think he's funny

I can't think of any more things that really stand out but I'm sure there are lots. The biggest accomplishment as of late is definitely the walking. It's so exciting to see him moving like a "big boy." Here are a few pictures I thought were cute:

our resident monkey (aka, "what happens when daddy let's me climb wherever I want to")

Scrap Buster Scrap Bags

A blog that I love, Sew Mama Sew, is having a contest this month http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=966 and I decided to enter. For those of you who read my blog but aren't interested in sewing, please ignore this post and check back soon for more family postings. For everyone else, here goes... If you try this project, please let me know about any questions, problems, or mistakes you encounter.

I have a lot of scraps - a lot! Little pieces, big pieces, skinny and fat strips, etc. I don't like to throw those small bits of fabric (some smaller than 3"x3") but I wasn't using them up quickly enough. I really wanted to store them by color because it makes it easier for me to use them. My first storage method was plastic bins, then brown paper bags and while these were "organized" they weren't exactly attractive. So, I decided to put those many scraps to work and make something that looked pretty good sitting out on my craft table (or at least better than brown paper bags). These bags use lots of your scraps and it does not matter at all what size scraps you have - tiny to large will come in handy for this project. You can make these bags to hold fabric by color or even by pattern - if you like plaids or stripes, make a bag out of those scraps too. I also think these would make great bags to hold toys such as blocks, small cars, and play kitchen toys. The bags are reversible and if you can turn the top down to make a cuff and make them shorter. In honor of the SMS contest, I decided to call these my Scrap Buster Scrap Bags. Now you can make some too.

Bag measures approximately 10" heigh x 8" wide x 4" deep when finished.

Materials you will need:

sewing machine
iron
sizing, starch, or steam
scissors
pins
pencil
acrylic rulers (a 24" long ruler as well as a square ruler)
rotary cutter
cutting mat
thread
a collection of scraps in various sizes in a single color or pattern (such as plaids or stripes)
3/4 yd of medium weight iron-on fusible interfacing - I used Pellon brand Craft Fuse iron on
coffee, candy, or other treat for nourishment - sewing is hard work and you must keep up your strength!

1. Gather your scraps together and press all of the scraps you think you will use.

You will be making two large pieces of fabric from your scraps for each bag. These pieces will measure 26 1/2" x 13" when cut.

2. Begin by sewing like-sized pieces together and then adding larger pieces to these "log-cabin" style. Continue in this manner until you run out of larger pieces to sew onto your main piece.

Tip: Remember to press your seams as you go - whether you press them open or to one side is up to you - you want to be able to press the entire piece flat when you are finished sewing.

Tip: You don't have to trim your seams unless they get in the way of your sewing.

Tip: You can sew one large piece of fabric (if you have lots of long strips) or several smaller pieces and then sew these smaller pieces together (I found the latter to be easier for me because I had lots of small scraps).

3. After the pieces measure larger than 28"x14", press very well (sizing, starch, or steam will help create a bit of stiffness).

4. Cut each piece of fabric to measure 26 1/2" x 13".

5. Cut two pieces of interfacing to measure 25" x 12 1/4".

6. Fuse the interfacing to fabric: center fusible interfacing onto wrong side of fabric piece - making sure fabric is exposed approximately 3/4" on each short (13") edge and approximately 3/8" on each long (26 1/2") edge. Starting in the center of piece, fuse interfacing to fabric (following manufacturer's instructions for your interfacing). Repeat for second piece.

7. With wrong sides facing up, spray wrong side of short (13") edge of fabric with sizing/starch/water, fold down using edge of interfacing as guide, press. Repeat on both short edges of both pieces.

8. Sew side seams:

a. Fold piece in half with right sides together with raw edges to raw edges and folded edge to folded edge.
b. Pin in middle of folded edges and along raw edges.
c. Sew along raw edges with 1/4" seam allowance.
d. Repeat with second piece.

9. Make boxed corners:

a. Place first piece with opening facing up and corners running north/south.
b. Pull top corner of opening inward to make a triangle at the "north" corner.

c. Snip the fabric fold at this corner (the snip is made perpendicular to the sewn seam).
d. Finger-press the triangle and press seam open (with fingers or iron).

e. Using corner of square ruler, line up sewn seam with diagonal line on ruler, making sure there is an even amount of fabric on either side of line. You may have to shift the corner slightly to make sure the corner is a true triangle.

f. After making sure the triangle is even on both sides of seam, turn the square ruler so that the measuring lines are running horizontal, place the 2" line on the tip of the corner, line up vertical line with seam, and draw a sewing line at edge of ruler.

g. Hold corner of bag down while removing ruler and pin in place.

h. Sew along line, making sure to backstitch to lock seams.

i. Repeat for both corners on both pieces. This is what you will have (two bags wrongside out):

10. Turn one piece right side out (we'll call this piece A) and leave the other piece wrong side out (we'll call this piece B).

shown: (piece B on left, piece A on right)

11. Fit piece B inside piece A, folding boxed corners UP on piece B and DOWN and under on piece A. Match side seams of each piece at the top of the bag and pin in place. To help pieces fit, press down at seams in bottom of bag with your hand while pulling up on folded edge of piece A.

12. Pin edges together, beginning in the middle of one side and then every two inches place a pin. Fill in the gaps with more pins so that you have a pin every 1/2" or so. Repeat on the other side.
13. Sew along folded edge (top of bag) with 1/4" to 3/8" seam allowance.
14. Place the rest of your scraps in their new home and enjoy!