Science Geek

So I know a lot of you probably read c jane and saw this post already, but it’s so so true, isn’t it?

The baby’s room is finally finished!

Three different views of the room.

Curtains

Vinyl stickers from WordPlay Designs

Crib with bumper pads

Yep, that’s right.  I’m a bad mom.  My three year old almost got himself and an 18 month old run over today.  We were all at play group getting ready to leave the church when we noticed that these two were missing.  Of course we looked inside for them first because there is no way they could go outside right?  But of course that’s where they were in the middle of the street with some women who had looked out the window at work and seen them out there.  Lucky for us, they were both ok, but we sure weren’t.  My first reaction was to be angry at my little guy, but I did eventually have that emotional moment, realizing what could have happened.  Seriously, we’d barely let them out of our sight.  I don’t know how they got that far in that short amount of time!

And I feel doubly bad because my little guy was the older of the two and probably led the little 18 month old out there onto the street.  Thank goodness they are both ok.  As for me and the other mom, I’m not sure how long it will take for us to recover!

Warning: you may not want to read this…I’m mostly writing it for me and for the baby.  I’ve tried to make sure that there is no TMI issues however, so Kenny and Joel, feel free to continue reading!

Finally, twelve days after her due date, our little baby girl has arrived.  The hospital called us yesterday morning to say they had a bed for us so we got our butts in there before they could change their minds!  The doctor wanted to start me on the drip immediately but thankfully I talked her out of that!  Lucky for me too because the nurse had troubles starting the IV (thanks for the great veins, Mom) and I’m sure it would have taken a few more tries but the doctor just said we could forget it for the time being.  After that the baby came so quickly, there really wasn’t any time to think about poking me again.  I almost wanted an epidural to deal with the pain of the needle digging around in my arm looking for a vein. (And yes I know an epidural wouldn’t have worked on my arm.)

In fact, the baby came so quickly that even though I warned the nurse and the doctor that she was coming, the doctor was still gowning up when she came and nobody was there to catch the baby!  Just under three hours from start to finish, I think the short labour was worth all the waiting.  I think I’ve decided though, that I will never, ever do that again!  The only thing that got me through it was being totally and completely high on laughing gas for the last ten minutes.  I remember people’s voices getting farther and farther away and thinking that I really liked it that way.  I hoped they would all just go away if I just sucked hard enough on that gas.  What a beautiful feeling.  After the baby came, I wondered if it was real…in fact, I asked if it had really happened.  I was worried it had all been a dream!  It still seems unreal, because I wasn’t really there!  But I have a baby in my arms, so it must have happened!  Shortly after the baby was born and I was still coming down off my high, I remember thinking “I’m so happy” and then giggling a little in my thoughts.  Good thing I kept that to myself…I think John and my Mom were already getting quite a kick out of my altered state!  It took me a really long time to come off that high – I was really sucking that gas back!

Anyway, we are thrilled to have a new member of our family and even more excited to have a daughter so we can finally call our family completed.  I almost have her room finished and will post pictures as soon as we are done!

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks (as I’m sure has everyone!)

Little Ril turned three last week.

John and I have been working on getting the baby’s room all ready.  We’ve painted, installed some molding and John has fixed up an old dresser.  That dresser was mine growing up and I forgot to take a before picture.  I’m hoping I can find one somewhere as I’ve had the dresser for quite some time. I’ll also take a better after picture once we bring it into the house.

The molding/chair rail isn’t a real chair rail.  When we moved into the house the builder left behind a wack load of the crown molding from the top of the doors.  We decided to use that as a chair rail instead of paying $1/foot to buy new stuff.  It sticks out from the wall a lot more than a regular chair rail would, but it makes a nice ledge.  It still needs to be painted but I think it turned out really cool!

I’m also planning on make some bumper pads (and possibly a slip cover for one of these ottomans) from my inspiration fabric:

Also, a friend of mine prints vinyl stickers and she’s going to print some of those deer to put on the wall above the chair rail.  And I’m planning some curtains probably just in solid brown and lilac.  I’m so excited to see this room starting to come together as I’ve has this idea in my head ever since I saw this fabric this summer!

Also, my sister had a little baby at the end of November and he’s the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.  He has so much hair! I love this picture of my dad holding him.

Hopefully soon I’ll have pictures of my own baby to post!

One last thing, John got a job, he starts in the new year.  He’s been working (thank goodness) as a temp with a residential electrician for the last 2-3 weeks, getting a taste of working in the cold.  As a commercial electrician he doesn’t usually have to work in unheated, uninsulated buildings!  His new job comes with a van and pays the same as his last job.  They also work longer hours so they can take 4 days weekends every other week.  Won’t that be nice?  And (and this is the most amazing thing for the trades) they pay over time!  It’s been a while since he’s worked for a company that actually paid overtime.  I’m just so relieved that he’s going to be working again.  It’s been a little stressful wondering where the next pay cheque was going to come from even though he only actually didn’t work for two weeks there was a lot of uncertainty – and I’m a total stress case.  John doesn’t worry, but I certainly do, enough for both of us!

I wasn’t happy with the blanket I made yesterday so I tried again today.  I like this one a lot more!

I also got to try out some of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine for the first time.  And I finally figured out why my machine has a start and stop button.  These stitches take a long time and with the button you don’t have to push down on the presser foot the whole time!  Genius!

This week I made a couple of raggy quilts (one for me and one just because I already had it cut out so I just put it together.)

I also tried my hand at this self binding receiving blanket.  It took some trial and error but I think I could do it again pretty easily.  These were the only two pieces of flannel I had that were big enough for the blanket so it’s not the cutest but there is pink on the outside flannel…it just doesn’t really show in the picture!

Tip Junkie is hosting a virtual home tour where you post pictures of your home all decorated for Christmas.   I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of my Christmas decorations and participate!

And MMB is also having a Holiday Home Tour.  It’s a contest.  Check out the other entries.

This is the front door.  I got this last week at Michaels for 50% off!  After this weekend we had a huge drift of snow in front of the door.  My husband got rid of it last night for me or I wouldn’t have been able to take this picture!

This is the mirror at my front door.  I bought the garland last year and this year I added the ornaments. Notice the little nativity in front of the mirror.

I bought this ribbon this year to put on the tree but I decided to wrap it around my railings instead.  According to the finishing carpenter we have over 100 feet of railing in our house!

This is the living room as a whole.

The stockings hung by the fireplace.

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from the store,

Maybe, Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.”  – The Grinch

Close up of the tree.

Tree skirt made for me by my mom.  This picture doesn’t do it justice.  It’s gorgeous.

Little people nativity

Nativity made for me by my mom.  Isn’t she talented?

Another nativity made for me by my mom.

O Holy Night tile.  I love this.

This is my boys tree upstairs in our bonus room.

Advent 1.

Advent 2.

Advent 3.

Mom, I think you should do this too!  I’d love to see picture of all your decorations.

I just spent two days making three of these.  I got the idea here from tatertots and jello.  She has a tutorial on there somewhere too but it’s not really necessary.   This is the first time I’ve ever worked with krazy glue and next time I will be much more careful!  I glued my fingers together and ripped some skin off pulling them apart.  Duh!

I’m so proud of myself this time for coming up with this idea for Caspian’s teacher…

We got her number 2 because she told Casp that her favourite colour was green.  I also bought one for myself in pink and red apples.  I hope she loves it!