Missouri weather

I don't think I will ever get used to this weird weather here in Missouri. It has been 10 years since I lived in Iowa. At least in Iowa, in the summer you get hot weather, the fall it was nice, but chilly and the leaves fall right on schedule. Winter you get snow starting from November and ends around March. Spring is the usual chilly, wet weather. Here in Missouri, in December you can have all 4 seasons in one day!!! Take today as an example. Woke up to beautiful Spring like weather. Temps must have been in the mid 50's. By 10, it was summer temps, close to 70. Nate and I played out side. Mrs G from next door asked us to come and play with her son and 2 nephews. I raked leaves. I opened up the house. Beautiful weather! We ran a quick errand, stopped to see my dad. It started cooling off a bit. Got home. After lunch I vacuumed and Nate played with his trains. Around 12:30 or so, it started getting really cold. I closed up the house, put Nate to bed and half hour or so later, it was hailing!!! Can we say fall weather anyone :). By this time it was down right cold out there. Not too long after the hail stopped, it was snowing. Big fat snow flakes. So we went from Spring like weather when we woke up to winter weather this after noon. Only in Missouri does this type of weather happen.

I used to bemoan the fact that this weather was weird. Never thought I would get used to it. Still don't think so, but I found something positive about winter weather. Once in a while, in the middle of December or January, it is warm enough to open the windows for some nice fresh air to get the stink out of the house. I love being able to open windows, having a nice breeze freshen up the house. I think I would go nuts if I couldn't open my windows at all during the winter. So, I putting this on record, "I like the Missouri winter weather"!

This Thursday, I am going to my first sewing class. We are going to be making a bag. I found some pretty material. It is black with creme floral. It reminds me of the new paper line in Close to My Heart stamping catalog. As soon as I remember to get my catalog from my sister-in-law(consultant for Close to my Heart), I may order the paper set. Absolutely to die for!

I have been wanting to change out the look in the bathroom. My mom says that I should freshen the paint in a room every 5 years as paint fades. So, I did the front room this past fall. Not that the paint was fading, just didn't have the right shade of yellow to begin with. Now it's nice warm yellow and it looks much better. I found a pretty color for the hallway. It also has the ugly original yellow from 4 years ago. Back to the topic of the bathroom. The color is purple. Nice heathery purple. I used the colors in my shower curtain as inspiration. My sister-in-law bought that curtain and some towels as a apartment warming gift when I moved into my apartment. I love the curtain. Pretty colors. I have found some fun bathroom scene pics. I think I need to update the color. I was thinking of changing it to blue and white. Found a nice curtain at Target with green, yellow and white and blue. I would accent with some nice pics and then a shelf above the toilet with cobalt blue bottles. Buuuut, ever since I saw that black with creme paper I want to make my bathroom that! I would paint the walls a creme color and there is a shower curtain at Target that would work perfectly. The only thing stopping me is that the bottom half of the walls are white beadboard/wainscoting. I don't know if the creme and white would look good together like that. Any have a thought, please let me know!

I will leave you with a pic. It's of Nate last Tuesday when he was so sick. We hadn't been to the doctor yet, but I pretty much knew it was ear infections. He is watching videos on my laptop. We don't have a tv in the front room. It's in the back room but that room is so cold. I let him curl up on the couch with all his blankets from his bed! Poor kid didn't feel well. He stayed there all morning. They only time this kids sits in one place for very long is if he is as sick as a dog!


Have a wonderful day!

Letter to my son

Dear Nate,
You amaze me daily with all the things you can do! I was watching you climb all over your climber in the basement, you blew bubbles with me, you can go up and down the stairs like a champ now. I can understand you more and more and your vocabulary is exploding! You are such a big boy now. Not a little baby anymore. There are some days that I wish I could hold you forever not let you grow up. I thought that when you were a baby that was the best time, but now I think is the best time of your life. You are so much more independent but still love to give hugs and kisses. You are starting to help with things in the house like helping me fill up the big humidifier and then try to fill your little one by yourself! You know how to turn on the faucet in the bathtub. I love when we are apart and when you see me, you get a big smile on your face and come running to give me a hug. Oh how I wish you knew how much I treasure that.
You will always be my baby!
Mom

I just needed to brag a bit about my boy tonight! He is the love of my life. He makes me laugh. I truly treasure our time together as mama and son. You know, he doesn't call me mama, or mommy, he calls me mom. At times I am a bit sad. I am not ready to be plain ole mom. I do have to laugh when he says, "Silly Mom"! We have the best time together. We are always exploring when we are out on the town. We take life slowly and enjoy our time together.
There is a country song by Kenny Chesney called "Don't blink" here is the chorus words: Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap
and you wake up and you're twenty-five
and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads next thing you know your better half
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you'll pray that God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink

I don't want to blink! It seems like I just came home from the hospital with Nate and now he is so big, doing things for himself. I feel the next time I "blink" he is going to ready for college.

As I read over that letter I wrote, I think I need to make a hard copy of it and give it to him when he turns 16.

I will leave you with this photo of Nate trying out daddy's slippers!

A yucky week

This past week has been yucky around here. Nate came down with croup on Friday and we took him to the doctor on Sat. to make sure we were doing everything right to keep him comfortable. DR checked his ears and said that one looked a bit pink. Said to come back if I notice a difference. By Sunday morning, the croup cough was gone but the cough started sounding worse. Poor kid couldn't breath well. He seemed to be pretty miserable. Jason was home on Monday and we hung around the house. I went grocery shopping during Nates nap. Tuesday morning it dawns on me that b/c this cough hasn't gone away or at least gotten better is that he has an ear infection. Went to the doctors again and sure enough, an ear infection. Off to Schnucks (local grocery store) to get the antibiotic. The stores pharmacy is letting you get the stuff for free this month. Usually we go to Walgreens. He has been on this stuff for 3 days now and I am noticing a difference. His coughing is getting less and he seems to be in a better mood.

Nothing else has really been happening. Just trying to keep up with the house with a toddler coming in behind destroying it!!! I signed myself up for a sewing class. It is for 6 weeks. The only project that we are going to do is a bag. Didn't know we were actually going to make somthing. Just thought it was finding out about a sewing machine, what it can do and how to use one. Well, I am sure I can put the bag to work somehow. After I complete the classes, I am going to learn how to knit. I don't expect to be very good at sewing and knitting, but it will be fun to learn and make something.

Been going through Nate's stash of cloth diapers wondering if I need to over haul it. I have been using prefolds, covers, pockets,a few all in ones and some fitteds. I know that I need to find a better way of organizing them. Right now they are in a laundry basket in Nate's room and some are in 2 baskets on a shelf in the closet and prefolds are in a diaper stacker hanging in the closet. I can't seem to find a way of organizing that works well for me. I am thinking of checking out craigslist for a cheap dresser and putting that in the closet. That would work great. Haven't found one yet. Another idea is to find a shelf that is like cubes and putting baskets in that. Haven't found that yet either although I know it's out there b/c I have seen it!! Anyways, back to his stash. I am thinking of selling all the pockets but they are great for Jason to use. Very easy, daddy proof. But with pockets, there is stuffing the absorbent inserts before using and I am getting tired of stuffing. I have 16 pockets that I have to stuff. Not fun! I like fitteds and covers so those will stay. I like the prefolds too. I have 2 sizes of prefolds. Premiums and toddler size. Premiums are for babies up to potty training usually. Not to many kids get into the toddler size. I thought my son had gotten big enough so I bought some toddler sized. Too big. I might sell all but 2-3. I have 12 altogether. 2 or 3 of them have stains and I cannot in good conscience sell them. Maybe when it gets warm here and the sun shines I can put them out to sun out the stains. Another idea is to take those toddler prefolds and have someone convert them into fitteds. Pretty much cut them and add elastic to the legs. She also adds some yummy fabric if you want. It does cost to have this done. I figure I sell all but 2-3 and get the ones I keep converted. That won't be as expensive. Fitteds and covers are pretty daddy friendly. I am hoping too that after the sewing class I take that I might be able to make my own fitted diapers then I wont' have to go and buy!

Confused? It took me a year and a half to learn all the words and such that come with cloth diapers. I can talk the talk when it comes to cloth diapers. I amaze myself :)

I guess that's all. Not very entertaining tonight. Just some thoughts I have been having lately.

Thankful

It has been almost a full week since Nate started sleeping in his new toddler bed. Haven't had any problems at all. He still takes naps, and sleeps all night and doesn't get out of bed till we come and get him! He did get out of bed after a nap and started playing and thats cool. At least he is keeping himself occupied!

Nothing too new on this end. Nate is getting into Snoopy! Snoopy cracks him up! Good thing Jason had a thing for Charlie Brown and Snoopy since we have at least 4 videos and can get more at the library.

We tackled the laundry room this week. On Tuesday while Nate and I were taking naps, Jason started cleaning up the laundry room. Nate and I came down later and started helping him. I was able to finish up the room that night. We were able to get rid of a bunch of junk and just reorganize that room. I know have room on the floor to sort laundry. I tackled the back room Thursday and Friday. I was able to clean off the shelves and declutter them. Looks much better.

We went downtown today to the Health Expo at the convention center. Nate hasn't ridden on the Metro Link yet so we parked at Hanely and took the metro to the convention center. Nate surprised me by being a wonderful little boy while we were going down there and back. He sat so quietly. He did go between us but that was cool. The health expo was good. We were able to get some good info on great stores. I found out more about the Sappington Farmers Market. Here is a web site to check out. I haven't looked at it yet as we got some info at the fair. I think I am going to check it out next weekend. www.localharvests.org

Nothing else going on. Guess I will post more on Monday.