Cross Eyes???

Took Brody to the doctor this morning because he's been a little under the weather - snotty nose, slight fever, nasty cough.  Another kid at daycare was recently diagnosed with RSV, so I was feeling a little paranoid.  Anyway, he doesn't have RSV (whew!), and the doctor (not our normal doc, btw) said his lungs were clear so the cough was just from drainage, but he does have a double ear infection.  Amoxicillin for 10 days and he should be all better.  BUT, she has me a little freaked out because she thinks Brody is cross eyed.  :(  Seriously?  How could I not have noticed this before?  I love staring into his big sparkly brown eyes and I feel like a terrible mother that I haven't noticed this before.  Well, I shouldn't say that...I have noticed in a couple of pictures that sometimes one eye seemed to be "lazy" (for lack of a better term), but I assumed it was just the way the camera captured his eyes at the moment.  But look at this picture....

Yah.  See his right eye?  That's the eye she said she noticed it in.  So, we're scheduled to see a Pediatric Omthamologist.  Only thing is, they can't get him in until June 1st!  So till then I guess I just have to be paranoid....hmmph.

Eating update

Brody LOVES his rice cereal now.  Just look at him go!!

More Pictures

Sorry the last couple of posts have been just pictures of Brody.  I know he's not hard to look at though, so I don't feel too bad.  haha.  Plus, I am planning to post another project tutorial soon for ya.  So be looking for that hopefully yet this weekend.  Till then, enjoy these pic's I took this morning!  I was playing around with editing quite a bit today...would love to get some thoughts/opinions from everyone anyone!
Oh, also I'm sure you've noticed the ads on the blog now.  Just something I'm playing around with.  The one for Diapers.com I added for those of you with little ones.  If you haven't used them to purchase diapers yet, I wanted to recommend them to you.  I have only ordered a few times myself, but I love the 2 day free shipping (for orders over $49) and  if you are a new customer, and you use the code listed in the ad, you'll get 30% off your diapers for 3 months.  Score!  Anyway, just thought I would share that code, for any interested.  :) 
On to the cutie-pie now...



I think he looks like he's thinking "Seriously mom?  Pictures again??"




Love those sparkly brown eyes!




The original file of this was TERRIBLE...with a capital T.
So I went crazy on the color distortion, just for fun, and ended up love it.
What do you think?




One of my favorite classic Brody looks. 




That's a framer!




Brody has been making such funny noises with his mouth lately
and this is what he does with his lips when doing it.

Ok these last three in particular, are the ones I want opinions on.  I loved loved loved this picture but couldn't decide which editing I liked best.  So here are three different options of the same exact pic...which is your favorite?




Black and White

 



Major light boosting  with grey vignette

 



Pretty much SOOC (Straight out of camera)

 



Happy St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our little leprechaun!

Silhouette



Sorry about the terrible reflections in the frame

 Here's the third project we worked on during our garage nights.  I love this project but have to give props to the hubs for this one.  He did all the intricate cutting because he has the steadier hand.

Supplies we used:
Camera and Editing software
Scissors
Exacto Knife
White Colored-Pencil
Black Card Stock
Picture Frame


First we closed the white curtains in Brody's room on a sunny day so that the light would shine through.  Then Jeff held him up so just his silhouette would be in the pic, and I snapped away.



Unedited pic #1



Unedited pic #2

 Then I did some editing on the computer and increased the shadow to get a nice dark outline of his silhouette.

We went with pic #2.  Then we printed it off, cut it out, and traced the outline with a white colored-pencil onto black card stock. We weren't sure what to do about all the spikey baby fine hair and the eyelashes in the pic, but Jeff did a simply amazing job of free-hand drawing and cutting it so it would look "normal".  I mean, check that out!  He used an exacto knife to get a better finished cut. Then to get the typical silhouette look, he extended the shoulders a bit and polished up the bottom.

Then we stuck it in a white frame and hung it on the wall above his crib. 

We love love love it! 



Ignore the empty picture frame on the top left...
it is a place holder and will be replaced with
 another project I'm working on tonight!



I love how you can even see the funny little bump on the back of his head!


One thing we might have done differently for next time, is when we took the photo, we probably should have taken Brody's onesie off so we had a better image of his shoulders.  Jeff had to free-hand a chin and neck because of this, but it ended up turning out pretty great, we think!      What do you think?  Anyone else done a silhouette like this?  I just love the look of it!  I think I might do one every year of Brody to see how he grows.

Arts n' Crafts - Take 2

Here's the second project we did during our secret rendezvous's in the garage.  :)

I had a couple of copies of the local newspaper from the day Brody was born.  I knew I wanted to keep at least one to go in Brody's keepsake bin (whenever I get around to starting one for him...eeek), but I wasn't sure what to do with the other.  I couldn't throw it away, so instead I decided to get creative! 
There is no theme to Brody's room right now because it was created without us knowing whether he would be a he or a she, so it's very neutral and geometric .  And it'll stay that way probably until we move.  Unless of course we stay in this house longer than we currently plan, in which case, his room will stay that way until he needs a big boy room!  Anyway, that said, we seemed to have received a lot of stuffed giraffe's as pre-baby gifts.  I like them.  Something about their oddly shaped bodies and super long necks make me giggle.  I definitely don't want Brody to have a giraffe themed room or anything, but I decided the giraffe would be my choice of inspiration for this craft project! 

Materials I used...
8 x 10" picture frame
Black sheet of card stock
Old newspaper
Scissor
Glue Stick
Mod Podge
Sponge Brush

First, I google image searched for a cute giraffe print that I liked.  Since I was going to be cutting delicate newspaper for this project I didn't want to pick an image with too many skinny legs or anything that would make cutting really difficult.  So, I chose this cartoon version...


Isn't he cute?

 Next I resized the image on the computer to be proportionate to my frame.  Print out a couple of copies and got started.  Basically I did a lot of cutting and tracing to begin with.  Cut up the giraffe image, trace onto newspaper, cut out newspaper, etc. etc.  Which left me with pieces like this...

We wanted the pieces to have a layered look and not just one big outline, so we cut out each piece of the giraffe individually and used all different types of print from different sections of the newspaper.  I also wanted to incorporate a few special pieces of print (like the date), so I added them in with the layers.  See...

Next I took a glue stick and glued them all together onto a piece of paper.  Then cut out the image as a whole and placed it onto the black card stock. 



The orange spots didn't make the final cut on our giraffe.

 Then I brushed on my Mod Podge to complete the picture, stuck it in the frame and I was done.  A personalized decoupage newspaper art project!  It doesn't have a home in B's room yet, but it will...soon.  :)

Nifty Thrifty

*I'm all for giving credit where credit is due, so I should start this post off by saying that I got this idea from another blogger...thanks to Katie over at  Bower Power!

Anyway, I spoke on a past blog post about Jeff and my date night in the garage.  We had a few of these nights where after Brody went to sleep we worked on some projects.  We called it "Arts and Crafts hour". Hahaha.  Anyway, here is one of the projects we completed.  I call it the Nifty Thrifty because it started out as a $3.38 thrift store purchase...

It was a gold 11 x 14" picture frame with a cardboard mat and a really ugly print of a little girl petting a lamb.  We named it "Mary had a little Lamb".  And I can't find my before shot, which irritates me, but trust me, this thing was a beauty (insert sarcasm here).  So, to freshen it up, I got some supplies (fabric, scissors, spray adhesive, and some white spray paint) and got to work.   

I took apart the frame...



Power tools + Red wine = Fun times!



Then cut some fabric to size (I used a grey suiting fabric on sale at a local fabric store for $3 a yard, score!), and wrapped it around the mat. 

Using spray adhesive and scissors, I got this...

While letting the adhesive dry, Jeff spray painted the frame with white spray paint.  Once those were done I just had to decide what I wanted to put in the frame.  Since the new theme in our bedroom is going to be about travelling, I decided to type up some of the places we have visited and sights we have seen.  I just used Word to create it and chose several different font types to make each place or sight stand out.  Then I took the print to Kinko's to have it sized to fit the mat.

Next we put everything together, and voila!

Looks much better than it started out as, and for only $3.38, I couldn't be happier!  It currently resides above our bed on our new shelves that Jeff built when he made the ones for Brody's room.  Here's a shot of it now, but just ignore the other pictures in the frames....those are just place holders for now.  :)

Note...ignore the yellowed lamp shade...it will be replaced soon!

Thoughts?  Anyone else have a neat thrift store purchase makeover they care to share?  I'm loving the idea of buying something used at a super cheapo price and making it look like new again! 

5 Months



About two weeks ago I thought to myself...hmm...what will I write about on Brody's 5 month blog post?  It just seemed that not too much had happened since his 4 month post.  HOLY COW!  Did he ever prove me wrong!  There is lots to catch you all up on.  So, if you are interested...grab a cup of coffee and a comfy chair, because this might take a while.  :D

• I went in to check on Brody one morning and I could have sworn I was losing it.  Brody was flipped around 180 degrees in his crib.  I kept thinking...did I put him down a different way last night?  I generally always put him down in the same direction...not always...but usually.  I was pretty confident that I had put him down that night the "normal" way, so I just couldn't understand why he was turned around.  Oh well, I thought, and eventually convinced myself that I had simply just lost it, and I must have put him down differently.  But then the next day when I went in to get him from his nap I figured it out.  HE did it!  That time he was only turned 90 degrees and I KNEW I didn't put him in there like that.  Little monkey likes to do circles in his crib apparently.  He kicks his feet up in the air, twists at the hips so his legs fall to the side, pushes his feet off the sides of the crib, and scoots himself around.  What a funny little boy!  And sometimes now he even just lays there on his side and falls asleep like that. 

• This past month Brody has also gotten really good at picking things up.  He's been able to grasp items when put into his hands for a while now, and he'd even kind of grab for things in front of him.  But it always sort of seemed like by accident he would actually get them.  Once in his hand he always puts everything into his mouth, of course...he's mastered that skill.  But it seems like this past month he's actually caught on to the fact that HE can put things into his hands by himself.  He reaches for the toys on his exersaucer now, and actually plays with them, which is so fun to watch.  He stares at this clear ball that spins and little beads inside of it dance around.  He watches it so intently, then gently puts his hand on the ball and starts pushing or pulling it to watch the beads move.  It's so neat to see that little brain working.  He also reaches out for his bottles now.  And if you put the bottle near him, he'll put both hands on either side and stick it right into his mouth.  We are so impressed that our 5 month old can now feed himself.  Heck...what does he even need us for?!  hehehe
• Brody continues to be a screamer.  This is his favorite way to communicate with us.  It's quite hilarious and we love it. 
• Brody also started his first taste of solid foods the other day.  I've posted about this progress here, and not much has changed since then.  He still seems disinterested in the rice cereal.  Just the other night though, he was in his exersaucer while Jeff and I ate dinner at the table, and Brody was SO interested in what were doing.  He was staring at us just watching each time we'd stick the fork full of food into our mouths.  I kept saying to Jeff..."Look!  He wants to eat with us!".  So last night I tried to feed him rice cereal while we ate dinner again, thinking he's be more interested.  It actually worked for the first couple of bites, but then once he figured out it was nasty ole rice cereal, he went back to his usual turning away from the spoon.  Hmmph.



Flippin' Burgers with Daddy



Go Hawks!

• As of last Saturday (February 26th), Brody officially rolled over for the first time!  Well...for the first time from back-to-tummy, anyway.  I am most excited about this milestone!  He rolled over from tummy-to-back a long time ago, but that's easy peasy baby stuff.  haha.  My big boy is rolly polly olly now.  He does what I described earlier and kicks his legs up in the air, lets 'em flop to the side, then pushes himself to roll onto his stomach.  From there he has even pushed himself back onto his back!  We couldn't be more impressed with our son!



That's it for the new exciting stuff, but here are some more things to mention...

• Sleep schedule is still the same with a bedtime between 8 and 8:30 PM, and awake at 6:45-7:00 AM. 
• Still getting 5 feedings a day, with 6-7 oz. of milk.  We have added one cereal feeding a day, which right now is minuscule.
• As far as pumping goes, I've officially decided it's time to call it quits.  :(  This makes me sad, but I am just not producing enough milk to satisfy Brody at feedings anymore.  When I pump throughout the day,  I only get between 4 and 5 ounces each time, and since he takes 6 oz bottles, this just wasn't working.  So, a few weeks ago I stopped nursing him altogether (except for his first morning feedings on days that I'm with him, because I seem to have enough milk to satisfy him then), and feed him bottles during the day even when I'm with him.  So, basically I only nurse him 3 times a week (Wed, Sat, and Sun mornings).  For a while I was still pumping 4 times a day (down from 5 about a month ago), but now I'm down to three times.  Once at 5:00 AM, again on my lunch break - usually around 12:30 PM, and again after B goes down to bed for the night - around 9:00 PM.  I'll continue to do this until I feel like my supply has gone down again.  So...all that being said, we were giving B one bottle of formula for his night feeding, and I was able to produce enough to make 4 other bottles for him for the day.  That is not the case now, and I'm only able to produce enough for 3 bottles, so I've started tapping into my frozen milk supply.  Man does it go quickly!  Since this bullet is already a mile long, and many of you have probably already stopped reading this, I'll make it even longer with a side-story about frozen milk!  The other night I grabbed one of my 6 oz. frozen bags of milk, placed it in a cup of water to thaw and get ready for the next days bottles, and I left it there.  I went to  bed and didn't notice till the next morning that it was still sitting in the cup of water.  I could have cried.  There is nothing quite like having to throw away 30 minutes of your life (that particular 6 oz happened to take me two pumping sessions at 15 minutes each to get).  Ugh!  What a waste, and all because I was forgetful and probably too sleepy to remember to put it in the fridge.  Mmeh!  (that's my pouty noise).   Ok 'nough talking about "the girls"...if I even still have your attention.  :)
• Brody loves to play in his exersaucer, roll around on the floor, watch Gussy, scream at his parents (in a good way), and smile smile smile.  He's a very happy little guy, and we just love him to pieces.  



I make a handsome fireman!



Playin' with my Auntie Rae





Brody's view of his momma about 70% of the time now.  Haha



I love when he grabs his feet like this.



This isn't a great pic, but I had to post so you can see those chunky thighs!!