A Little Late Night Sewing and Blogging

So, I'm fully aware that I'm posting this at 2:45am, and that most sane mothers of infants are wisely enjoying their slumber right now (assuming their blessed enough to have a sleeping baby) but I'm wide awake. Matt not being home has kinda thrown my sleep schedule out the window. I've been getting to bed anywhere from 1:00-3:00 in the morning this last week, so I figured if I was going to be awake anyway, why not do something I've been putting off that I can't do when Melanie's awake?

I've had the fabric to make myself a knitting needle case since before Christmas, I just haven't taken the time to do it, so tonight I did it! It only took a couple hours, and I must not be too sleep deprived, because I only had to use the ripper once, and I think that was due to vague instructions, not any real error on my part. So here it is. I may add a flap with a snap closure to one of the top pockets to allow me to keep my point protectors in there as well, but that will come at a later date and time. I may also change to a brown ribbon for the closure, but I didn't have any on hand, and the teal matched well enough for now.



This little adventure in sewing has just made me that much more excited for when the room in finished downstairs and I can keep my sewing machine set up all the time. Then I can go sew for a while in the evenings once Melanie is asleep without having to drag everything upstairs and get it all set up, only to make sure it's all put away and hauled downstairs before she's up again. I can hardly wait...

My Little Kleptomaniac

Our Melanie is turning into quite the little thief as of late. Here's the evidence against her.

The thief in action - how heartless to leave a little 88 year old woman without her walker!

Looking for a getaway via Tobey at Grandma and Grandpa's house while wearing her stolen goods - Aunt Laura's scarf. She pulled it down from the bannister, put it around her neck and proudly paraded around the house with it for a good 20 minutes. I didn't think I'd need to knit her a scarf so soon, but maybe I should for play time if nothing else.

After taking Aunt Laura's scarf she snuck into grandpa's briefcase and snatched his Tic Tacs. Silly baby - stealing from 3 different entities within a 24 hour time period is considered a felony!

Run away with the yarn! Aaaahhhh!

Trying to destroy the evidence.

Apparently she likes to wear just one sock when she's in a thieving sort of mood. She's missing her right sock in the Tic-Tac picture as well. Hmmm. Maybe that should be a distinguishing caracteristic used to come up with her criminal pseudonym - any suggestions?

Sweet Dreams

Just thought I'd share a picture of the cake I made for an RCIA function we had this evening . I wasn't supposed to bring a dessert, Matt had signed us up for bringing bread so I could use the bread machine (but more likely because he just likes bread, but alas, he wasn't there to enjoy the herbed-dill french bread I made). I've been looking for an excuse to make this cake, so I brought it in addition to the bread. It's called Blackberry-Raspberry Truffle Cake. Three layers of chocolate cake, each spread with a blackberry-raspberry glaze, then separated by a chocolate truffle layer between each cake layer, topped off with a cream cheese/whipped topping frosting and garnished with toasted pecan pieces on the sides. It was pretty tasty, but I don't think I'll put it in regular rotation. I'm not a big fan of whipped topping frostings as a general rule, but everyone else that tried it really like it. It was pretty though, and all gone! Thank goodness for that, I don't know what I would do with that much cake to eat and Matt not home to help me!

And he's off...

Well, I just dropped Matt off at the airport for the first business trip he's taken since Melanie was born. He'll be in Victorville, CA for 1-2 weeks, depending on how well the weather and the plane cooperate with the testing.

I really hate sending people off on business trips. Ever since I was a kid I've had this dislike of work related travel. My dad had to travel pretty regularly, so you would think I would be used to it, but the opposite is true. I get incredibly anxious any time someone has to leave on business. As unreasonable as it may have been, I always worried that my dad wouldn't make it home. If the weather happened to be even slightly overcast that anxiety was amplified ten fold. And this anxiety is strictly tied to business travel. I've never felt this way about people going on any other sort of trip. I know it's irrational. It's silly at best. I have friends that bravely send their spouses off to the Middle East to fulfill their duty to our country for months at a time, and here I am stressing out about a two week trip to California.

As I was pulling away from the curb at the airport I could feel the tightness growing in my chest. I took deep breaths, tried to reason with myself, but all the same I could feel the anxiety coming. I spent the entire drive home telling myself I was being silly, and Matt would be home before I knew it. All the same, I was glad I had made sure Matt kissed Melanie goodbye and that I had gotten that last hug in.

Melanie and I are home, and I'm doing ok now, but I know these thoughts will creep into my mind in the days to come, and I'm going to have to muster whatever it takes to overcome them when that time comes. All this, and Matt's plane hasn't even taken off yet...

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was pretty uneventful at the Stockemer house this year, which doesn't really differ from any other year for that matter, there just happens to be a baby now. As mentioned in a previous post, Melanie and I went to the doctor in the morning. We then went to my parents house to take everyone their cards and to help mom with a knitting delema (she dropped a stitch, but we saved it - whew!). Mom and Amber were off at the Nifty Nut House, which for native Wichitans is the destination candy shop of choice. More selection than the mall candy stores, and cheaper to boot. So as they selected the sweets they wanted to bestow on family memebers, Melanie and I had some social time with (Great) Grandma McHugh. Melanie is especially fond of grandma's walker (I'm working on getting a picture my little walker theif in action), so that provided quite a bit of entertainment while we waited. Oh, by the way, I was given toffee peanuts, Matt was given a 2 lb. bag of Reese's pieces (the last time he was given one that large it took almost 3 months to finish!) and Melanie was given a cute church outfit for spring since she can't have candy.

After Melanie and I took our post-visit naps, Matt came home and we went to visit his Grandma and Grandpa Palmer, followed by a trip to his parents house. After having some fun with Grams and Gramps, we headed over to see Granny Em to deliver her card as well. By this time it was almost 9:00, so we headed home to settle in for the evening. Matt even took on the duty of rocking Melanie to sleep after I nursed her, seeing as my ailments were starting to get the better of me, so he sent me off to bed and tended to the little one himself : )

Here are a few pictures of Melanie in her Valentine's Day outfit. I bought this at the beginning of January, thinking a 9 month outfit would fit her by the time she was 10 months old. I was wrong. The leggings are still pretty long, the skirt is way too big and spends as much time turned around backwards as it does forwards, and the onsie and hoodie still have several months worth of growth in them. Despite the outfit being too large, I subjected my little one to wearing it. It was just too cute not too!

Horray for Valentine's Day!

This picture really captures how much Melanie does NOT look like me.

Melanie and her Valentine's Day gift from Grams and Gramps. When you press his paw his ears wiggle and he says a little diddy about wanting a hug. Last night Melanie wasn't so sure about him, but today she was happily carrying him around and cuddling him like he's her new best friend. Tobey will be jealous.
And finally, on Wednesday night I came home to this little surprise. Matt had worked late, so during PSR I had Matt's mom watch Melanie. Well, when he got done at work he ran to the store and picked up some strawberries and chocolate and did the obvious with them (the picture isn't very clear, but they were BIG strawberries). And he opted for potted tulips, so I can plant the bulbs in my garden this spring. What's even more impressive, he actually thought to get out one of the "pretty" plates to put everything on. What a guy!

Melanie has been a bit under the weather this week, so we haven't been having the usual amount of fun. Monday she woke up with a fever over 101, but other than that she didn't really have any symptoms, she just wanted to be held all day, which is kinda unlike her since she is quite the independent adventurer. Not even a bath would lift her spirits. I went ahead and sheduled a doctor's appt. for Tuesday just in case the fever persisted. So Monday was spent holding a baby and not getting much else done. That's ok, because as I suspected, the laundry was still there waiting to be washed on Tuesday, and the kitchen patiently anticipated a thorough cleaning (darn!).

Tuesday she still had a fever, but not quite as high, and she was more herself again. Only now she was sticking her finger in her left ear and had a bit of a runny nose, so we went ahead and saw the doctor. The official word was "she has some upper respiratory junk that involves her left ear". So apparently not an official ear infection, and some congestion was involved, so we were given our first round of amoxicilian (he didn't want to give her a decongestent seeing as they're trying to stay away from that with the kiddos). The simple fact that Melanie made it to 10 months old without having to go to the doctor for anything aside from her scheduled growth checks thrills me, but nevertheless, I knew the day would come. So we started her on her meds and looked for improvement.

Well, she started to act like she felt better, playing more independently, not needing me to be within a three foot radius of wherever she was. That's good, right? Well, apparently amoxicilian gives Melanie diarhea. No fun. We made the correlation on Wednesday, so Thursday we were back to see the doctor. Only now her congestion is quite a bit more prevalent. And when I woke up, I had the scratchy throat and congestion. The doctor confirmed my suspicions, that Melanie and I are sharing. No fun, because since I nurse Melanie that means I can't take a decongestant either. So Melanie is on a new medication (which doesn't smell nearly as appetizing as the amoxicilian did) and I'm toughing it out on menthol cough drops. I am allowed to take Mucinex or Robitussin, but I opted to take a nap yesterday afternoon instead of going to the store to get some.

Now, for a change of gears, these are just pictures for the sake of pictures. No real reason, I just thought they were cute. And as any mother will tell you, after spending several days with a feverish, clingy baby that repeatedly wipes snot from one corner of their face to the other before you can grab a tissue, you need to be reminded that your child is indeed capable of being cute.

Melanie looking especially like her dad, minus the applesauce/prune residue on her face, of course.

What a big girl! Every day I am more and more amazed at how big she's getting. There are days where I feel my baby slipping away before my eyes, but then, having a little girl to play with is turning out to be pretty fun too!

I find this last one pretty funny. I think it looks like her head has been cropped from a different picture and put on a smaller baby's body. I know it's just the shadow adding to the big head affect, but it still makes me grin.