Crafty post #2: Hand ornaments

This one I found on Pinterest.  These are so simple and cute.  We made these on Thursday.

What I used:
small red glass ball ornaments
green paint
permanent marker
baby wipes for cleaning the paint off of their hands

How I did it:
I used the marker to write their names and "2012" on them before putting the handprints on them.  I did Meg's first because she was in a good mood (or so I thought).  I strapped her into James' booster seat and put a big bib on her.  I painted her hand with green paint and had her hold the ornament.  She is a little young for this one.  James was way easier because I could tell him to put his fingers around it and let go.  Her's are very messy, but still pretty cute.  She also cried at least half the time.  The baby wipes worked great for cleaning their hands after.  I don't think we got paint on anything we weren't supposed to.  James had so much fun.  It went pretty fast and he wanted to do more but I didn't have any more ornaments.

New pictures

In case you haven't seen, I posted a bunch of pictures from November today.  Link: https://plus.google.com/photos/112839565689445992474/albums/5816245875559189281

Our Advent Tree/Calendar (first of my crafty posts)

As I said in my last post, James was given a book of Christmas crafts and I'm planning on doing one Christmas activity per week until we leave for VA.  This week we made an Advent calendar.  I didn't follow the book exactly, but pretty close.

What I used:

12" x 18" cardboard

4 pieces scrapbook paper (2 matching blue, one brown, one green)

20 small boxes (most advent calendars have 24 but we're leaving on the 20th)

wrapping paper

scissors, glue stick, marker, tape

How I made it: 

Glue the blue scrapbook paper onto the cardboard.  Cut out the tree and trunk and glue it on.  Wrap all the boxes in wrapping paper.  This took the longest time.  The book recommends matchboxes.  I didn't have enough of those so I used whatever small boxes I could find.  Matchboxes would have been easier because you can slide them open after wrapping them.  But they are also very short which limits what you can put in them.  I took them in another room to stuff and number them so that J wouldn't see what is in them.  I stuffed them with M&Ms and little nativity ornaments.  There is a special treat on his birthday and on the last day.  J helped me tape them to the tree.  Every day in December he'll get to find the right number and get a treat and put up an ornament.  The great part about having the mini nativity ornaments in there is that we can talk about  a different part of the Christmas story each day.  

Christmas has arrived!

We've already celebrated Christmas with the Atkinson, Jrs.  My family will be going to Virginia for Christmas this year and Trey's will be with Amy's family, so we had Thanksmas this year.  Thursday we had our Thanksgiving meal and did Thanksgiving stuff.  Then Friday we put up a tree, ate our Christmas meal, read Luke 2, and opened presents.  It was super fun.  Because I knew we'd be starting Christmas early, we decorated the tree at our house before Thanksgiving.

James got to help pick out ornaments and put them on the tree.

We also wrapped presents that week, of course.  I let James help me with the last few.

I'm going to try to do something Christmasy with James every week until we leave for VA.  I have a book of Christmas crafts and activities that has some great ideas.  We've already done one this week.  I'll be posting about that one soon.  see book here: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Crafts-Sesame-Street-Parragon/dp/1445407884/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1354201155&sr=8-6&keywords=sesame+street+christmas+crafts+book

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by James

Twinkle, little star
How I whatchu whatchu are
Up above the sky
Twinkle, little star
How I whatchu whatchu are
Up above the whatchu are
Twinkle, little star
How I whatchu whatchu are

And The Itsy Bitsy Spider:
The itsy bitsy pider went up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the pider out
Down came the rain and washed the pider out
Down came the rain and washed the pider out
Down came the rain and washed the pider out
Down came the rain and washed the pider out
...

Chickens have teeth!

   James loves to tell stories.  I encourage him as often as I can.  He tells stories about what he has done, seen, or heard, or just makes them up.  He just told me a story about shooting at a buck as Matt was telling an incredibly similar story to Trey over the phone.  As Matt would add details, James would feed me the same details in a very excited and convincing way.  Yesterday after his bath he was laying on the floor while I put lotion on his legs.  I was telling him that I had to put stuff on his legs because of his eczema.  I think he may have heard eggs-ema because he started talking about chickens:
James Mom
   "the chickens get me"  "they get you?"  "yes, they have teeth and they get me!"  "where was this?"  "at the FARM!"  "what farm?" "over there...in the new car...(or something like that)...and Christian's mom open the gate"  "Mrs Kelli?"  "no, Christian's mom"  "Kelli."  "no, Christian's mom!" (whose name is Kelli)  "so, Christian's mom opened the gate"  "yes, Christian's mom open the gate and the chickens get my fingers"
   It was quite a story.  It was longer than that, but it's hard remembering all the rambling and putting it into comprehensible phrases.  I had no idea where he came up with all this.  To my knowledge, he hadn't gone to see any chickens lately, especially with Kelli and Christian (his friend from camp).  I told Matt this story and he laughed the whole way through.  Afterwards, he told me that James really did go see chickens with Kelli and Christian.  That was while I was at my conference September 27th, nearly two weeks ago!
   Oh, and Megan said Mama!  It was more like Muhmuh, but I'll take it.  :)

And the little one said, "roll over!"

Our baby girl is 3 months old today.  Two days ago, she roller over for the first time...right in front of my face!  It was during tummy time and I was taking a picture of her trying to roll over when suddenly she was on her back.  If only I had been recording it.  She mostly sleeps through the night now.  She and James go to bed between 7:30 and 8.  She wakes up around 4:30-5 and James gets up about 6:30 most mornings.  Her naps during the day are less consistent.  We're working on that.  She's waking up again now so...bye!

2 Months

She is growing so fast.  As I'm typing this, she is almost three months old and I'm just now getting around to filling you in on her two month stats.
Weight: 10 lbs 2 oz
Length: 22"
Head: 15" (the size of James' head when he was born)
Sleep: usually wakes up once each night, but sometimes sleeps all night (8pm-6am)
Eating: very good
She also smiles a lot and has just begun to laugh.  There is a video of me tickling her and her laughing on my Facebook page.  James is one of her favorite people to watch and it's obvious that he loves her too.  I wish I had time to get on here everyday and tell you all her sweet stories.  2 kids and 2 jobs plus a husband and a house to clean keep a woman busy.

James and Megan

One of the questions I am getting a lot these days is, "How does James like his baby sister?"  My first answer is always that he loves her...usually.  When she cries really hard he gets upset and cries too.  When he would rather have the attention of someone who is holding her, whether it's me, Matt, Gigi, Heidi, or whoever else, he's not her biggest fan.  But usually, he loves her.  He asks to hold her at least once a day.  Sometimes when she starts crying he says, "that's my baby crynin again."  He alerts me every time she cries or spits up.  When she cries and I don't immediately respond he finds a pacifier and gives it to her.  One of the sweetest moments is when he is going to bed and remembers he hasn't given her a kiss goodnight.  He has to find her and kiss her before going to bed.  A few minutes ago he found a giraffe toy in her room.  He brought it into the living room holding it to his chest while rocking and shushing it.  He made sure it was secure in Megan's bouncy chair before going outside to play with daddy.  He remains the sweetest little boy on the face of the Earth.  And I see a glimmer of hope that through all the challenges we will survive this.

Weights

Just a quick update.  When we left the hospital on April 10, Megan weighed 6 lbs 7 oz.  At her appointment 2 days later she was already back to 6 lbs 14 oz.  We had her 2 week appointment yesterday and she weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz.  She's eating well, gaining weight, and overall doing very well.  Still settling into breastfeeding.  It comes with its challenges, but we're getting good advice and getting better every day.  This girl is so strong.  She started lifting her head day one.  She's already trying to roll over.  And check out her tummy time workout:

Is it any wonder her name means strength?  Yes, I'm a little biased, but who wouldn't brag on this little cutie??

My little Easter bunny

I'm sure everyone has heard by now, but here is the official post:

Megan Isabel Wall was born on Sunday, April 8 (her due date and Easter Sunday) at 9:59am.  She weighed 6 lbs 14.5 oz and was 19 in long.  That's almost 2 lbs less than James weighed at birth.  She is absolutely perfect.  They kept us for 48 hours after birth to watch her for any signs of Group B Strep.  She had no issues, so we came home on Tuesday.  The worst part of the experience for me was of course the needles.  It took 5 tries to get the IV in and 2 times to get the epidural right.  Once we got that done, everything else went smoothly.

Her name:  Matt picked the name Megan which means "strength".  Isabel was my Gran-Gran's (my father's grandmother) middle name.  Isabel means "God's promise".

James loves her already.  He wanted to hold her in the hospital right away and he asks to hold her several times a day.  Every time I let him hold her he tells me to take a picture.  As long as the camera stays close by, I have a feeling we'll have a lot of sibling pictures.  He was so excited when we got home and couldn't tear himself away from her side.  He seemed a little upset with me though.  He didn't want to have anything to do with me.  We're doing better now though.

We had her first appointment with her doctor yesterday.  She lost 7 oz before leaving the hospital and she has already gained it all back.  I guess I'm doing something right.  She is a very good baby.  When she's awake, she's usually content to sit and look around.  She sleeps great right now.  Most times I have to wake her up to eat.

I can't believe she's finally here.  I have to keep reminding myself I had a baby a few days ago.  Matt is staying home to take care of us this week and Gigi will be coming next week.

Big Boy Bed!

On leap day, James got a big boy bed.  We ordered it from Amazon.com.  It's a toddler bed, so the mattress is the same size as the crib, but it's lower to the ground and he can get out of it himself.  His crib will convert into a toddler bed, but we didn't want to buy another crib for baby sister.  I took the crib apart and put the new bed together myself, at 8 months pregnant by the way.  James helped.  He put the screws in the holes for me.  Not always the right screw in the right hole, but we got it figured out.  As soon as I got the mattress on it he laid down on it and started kicking his feet saying "I like a new bed! I like a new bed!"  Then I got the sheet on it and he laid down with his night-night, told me to turn off the light, and started pretending to snore.  Too cute.  That night he was so excited to get in his new bed until he realized he had to stay there.  He got up about 4-5 times before going to sleep.  Not bad for the first night, I think.  Tonight he didn't get up once.  He occasionally wakes up very early in the morning and comes to my bed.  But it's better than him screaming until I go get him.  And the morning is much better because he can get up when he wants and doesn't have to wake us up first.  Usually he comes to the side of my bed and says "Mommy, get up!"  Today I woke up at 7:something to tiny fingers tickling my neck.  He refused to leave me alone until I got up.  I tried to get him to leave me alone and pester his father, but he said "Daddy's sleeping."  I have taught him to respect his father's sleep, but not mine.  Probably because I'm not usually sleeping while he's awake.

I want...

Woke up this morning at 6:45 to "I WANNA POTTY!!!"  Our boy is talking and communicating very well.  "I want" sentences are coming out everywhere.  "I want to read a book."  "I want to come in."  "I want to do dat." (this one I hear every day.)  "I want a kiss."  "I want to shoot a deer."  He also enjoys saying the alphabet.  He got an alphabet game that goes on the fridge yesterday.  He loves it.  He recognizes the letter "O".  He names several others on his own, but can't recognize them.

We are also working a little on the potty.  Trying not to push it yet.  Just getting him used to it and letting him learn how.

His favorite things right now...trains of course, tractors, talking about hunting, Gigi and Gpa, presents, animals of all kinds, books.