mommy n me

                                               (my quilting adventures adventure)
I had this brilliant idea to enroll merit and me in a mommy and me pilates class. so i enlisted my fellow mom mel and her son fiver (merit's boyfriend) to join me (plus it was a buy one get one free class so we split the cost). I didn't really consider that the class started right around her nap time but we got there and she was in a great mood so i figured it would all be fine. right. i didn't get one leg exercise in before she started fussing. and fussing and fussing. so i fed her. then i tried to do something else. fuss. so i changed her. cried. we did a little baby yoga and she liked that. we did some face to face time with the other children in the class. she LOVED that. she even loved the babydoll the teacher had to demonstrate on. but she did not love mommy doing pilates. she's just starting to sit up on her own so i had her sitting next to me for some of the excersies. and of course, she got tired and her pumpkin head connected with the hard wood floors before i could catch her. and she SCREAMED (and i almost cried i felt so bad). which made this other kid start screaming. then fiver started screaming.  needless to say, i'm sure the other moms in the class were pissed we ruined their pilates time. and i felt like a bad mom for having her pacifier out the whole time, no toy for her to play with, no soft blanket for her to lay on, letting her hurt herself.....needless to say, we will not be going back. i'm not going to pay someone for me to hold and feed my baby when i can do it at home for free. plus the little bit of pilates i was able to do absolutely wrecked me. i could barely walk yesterday. i'm still sore today. man i'm out of shape. BUT i got a new entry card for my gym. my goal is to start back this week. but that means getting up very early. we'll see how that goes. i'd like to do a pilates class there (sans baby).
one thing i did realize after pilates class is how much merit likes to be around other kids her age. they cracked her up. even the baby doll, being around her size, fascinated her. unfortunately we don't have many friends with kids her age. so i'm looking for some sort of play group that she and jack can go to (b/c jack is also going stir crazy and needs some adult human contact). being home with us all the time is not helping her socialize. so, like blair, we will be scouting for some good baby hang out spots. just probably not at CTC after her experience.(sorry blair)

i've been participating more  in the patrick henry charter school, working in the meals committee and the curriculum committee. i'm very excited to be involved and think i can even get jack involved, which will be fun to work on together. we're getting great feedback from the new governor, but not so much from the mayor so this wed i'm planning on going to the city council meeting were they'll be discussing the school to see what he has to say (along with the real estate tax assesments. should be interesting) its a great opportunity for richmond city schools and its a shame that the school board and the mayor can't get behind it as much as they should.
i'm also trying to be a more involved alumna of my high school. chesterfield county had threatened to cut funding from GSGIS, which would essentially force the school to close (b/c they are a public school and get their money from the students' home counties). so far it looks like they won't be cutting funding, but letters are being written and donations being made to try to keep my high school going.

i had my own quilting adventure (if you read fleur's blog post). i found this incredible alice in wonderland fabric. so incredible that i just want to frame it. they also had great embroidery supplies. i found exactly the two sublime stitches patterns i wanted (with no shipping and handling!) i'm even getting requests for tea towels! and i agree with jenny, we definitely need a sewing circle started. (see above for my first attempt at embroidering a bib.)

and speaking of fleur - congrats on baby number two on the way! i'm very excited for them! and congrats to erin over at baby danzig for her new bun in the oven! like i said, all these babies are giving me baby fever. please pass the condoms.
and welcome jack to the world of blogging. its good to see something come out of the soccer obsession.

and an update to the name change: b/c i've purchased airline tickets in my present name, i will not be changing anything for awhile. so Dr. D it is for now

D to L

i'm changing my name. there: i said it, i posted it, its out in the virtual world so now it must be done. i'm usually pretty good about making decisions. and pretty happy when i've made one. i felt for sure when i got married that i wanted to keep my last name. sure, its difficult to spell and say and its long. but its unique and people love to say it and call me by it (why i don't know b/c if you say it wrong, you aren't my friend) and i do love it. but then i had a  kid. and we're trying to travel and eventually she'll be in school and she'll have to learn how to spell it and explain to people why mommy and daddy's names are diffierent (not that that would really matter much). maybe i was just being lazy and didn't want to go through the process. or i was falling back on my feminist ways where i really wanted to keep my own name and be my own person in our marraige, until i realized (and i'm stealing this from a friend) that being a family is being a team - you need a team name and a team motto and a team shirt. and i'm not really part of the team if i don't have the team name.
the part that i was the most worried about when making this decision was telling my dad. he was so happy i was dr. d. but when i told him, he didn't seem to care much. i don't think he was actually listening. or maybe he really didn't care. at least my diploma will still say it. and he has two sons.
so i'll keep my name as  my middle name (i'll probably keep my middle name too or else there would be no more AND and i love the AND). so you can still call me d. b/c it will still be my name. i'll just have another after that.

cross stitching rpatz

holy crap. team edward anyone? I am SO making this. who wants one?! just me? yea, probably.

last night mom and dad and baby got to go hang out with our favorite other nancy mom and dad, sam and mel. merit was fascinated by her boyfriend (or best gay, b/c sam predicts broadway camp in his future), Fiver.  she just laid on the blanket with him and stared, in between bonking herself in the head with the hardest plastic toy they had. i think she was just confused that there was actually someone around that was her size. she's used to her cousins all being much bigger than her. sam made us "american" size sushi (read: enormous, barely fit in your mouth but delicious!) and we had cupcakes from carytown cupcakes. the reese pieces cupcakes were incredible! in fact, i'm going today to get another. the red velvet and chocolate weren't too shabby either. so a good night. its nice to be around people who are also first time parents with a baby nearly the same age as ours with the same sort of philosphy on parenting we have (sort of ghetto crunchy with a little bit of bougie thrown in). and mel and i are going to take the babies to mommy and me pilates next week - i'm very excited!
speaking of pilates i swear i am starting the gym...next month. NO! just kidding. I have to go get my swipe card replaced and then i am so going back to the gym next week. i feel like a bum. especially since i'm able to get into work a bit earlier, i'll be able to leave earlier to go to the gym thereby beating the crowd at 5pm and getting home at regular time to hang with the baby before daddy goes crazy.
i made my major joann fabrics run last weekend with my mom. the new one out 60 off of 288 - ridonkulous! its the biggest, most fantastic craft/fabric store i've seen. i spent way too much. i kept seeing cute fabrics that i had no project for but had to buy. but i got supplies for my little felt projects, a baby quilt and a baby bag. i'm very excited to get started! i'm also going to order some more embroidery patterns and some tea towels and napkins to embroider (b/c thos ethings i cannot find. suggestions? just plain linens?). and we've cleaned up the back room so i actually have room to start sewing. the sewing machine was being used as a storage space for awhile.
and in other news, we got cable!! and a dvr!! i get to watch bones twice a night, robot chicken, jersey shore, nip/tuck....its very exciting. i'm neglecting my netflix, but i was doing that anyway. i don't know how i lived almost three years without it. dear cable, i love you. love, amy.

why is a raven like a writing desk?

Everyone is pregnant! I can count 5 close friends due this summer and about 3 or 4 other people I know having babies soon. as some nosy lady at joe's asked us "is there something in  the water?" Congrats to everyone! I'm actually jealous - I loved being pregnant. But I have a sweet little baby to enjoy for a couple of years before any ideas of brothers/sisters starts creeping in my head. In fact, at my annual checkup my ob/gyn kept pushing the IUD on me. Literally said the word IUD or some form of it about 10 tens times within the 10 minute span he was in the room with me. Does he just not want to see me any time soon? Did Nancy ask him to give me one to guarantee she wouldn't see me? I started getting a complex.....
enough about my lack of birth control methods.

 Merit went to the doctor this week - 75% for everything (yup she's still a fatty, but she grew 2 inches in 2 months!)! She also got her first hep b shot which did not agree with her. fever, poor eating, really poor sleeping. i had the fleeting thought that we had ruined her and she was going to be autistic. but she's back to her normal cheerful, chatty self and all is good. I like that our pediatrician has her on a slightly different schedule (its their own delayed schedule, no dr. sears or anything). I considered doing a delayed/dr. sears schedule but we decided to go to south africa and I didn't want her a) unvaccinated or b) bombarded by vaccines right before our trip. Also, the scientist in me knows that vaccines are important and good, and the risk of adverse effects is miniscule. but the protective mama in me still sometimes has apprehensions about what we chose to do.

i finally got out of the house to hang out and drink. We went to Varietease - a burlesque show hosted by Ms. Magnolia Jackson Pickett Burnside - whose champagne opening number i will be looking for on itunes (along with the boobies song that narrated the game during the show). It was quite fun, but i will never look at aunt jemima the same way again. I want to go back!

i'm itching for some new tattoos. its good that i can't get anything until after i'm done nursing b/c i want a few and this will give me time to consider what i want carefully and save my money.  i'm undecided as to whether i want to discuss what i want or keep it to myself. why are tattoos like baby names?

As my schedule continues to allow me free time (not as much as i'd like, but enough), i went on a major shopping trip to joannes today for sewing and crafting supplies. now i just need a few more embroidery patterns and textiles and i'm good to go for quite some time! pictures of projects to come......

and speaking of being crafty, here are some new crafty links - i can't wait for her to get older and make some things herself, or request her own projets for mama to do:

-ornaments

-magic lanterns

-crafty site
(i think this is my new favorite site)

-embroidery blog

-another embroidery blog

-alphabet pillows

new year....

another year down. in my old age (!), i definitely don't do much for new years and have usually been content hanging out at home. this year however, we have to hang out at home (ahem 4mo - i don't want to subject anyone else to babysitting duties on new years) and its driving me crazy! its more the fact that i can't go out than that i actually want to. and i like the idea of hanging out with friends with kids, but we would have to put her down around her bedtime and i'm not crazy about  waking her up in the middle of the night to take her home. so i guess i'll be hanging with the hubby, playing games, eating party food amd hopefully drinking some sort of champagne containing drink. what is everyone else doing?

jack has slowly been introducing the idea of moving her into her crib. i just can't do it. although i sleep on a spot of mattress that is barely as big as i am (b/c little miss sleeps with her arms and legs spread eagle and takes up a huge amount of space for such a little bit) and my arm and/or neck hurts every morning from the akward position i sleep in to feed her i just can't bare the thought of NOT having her next to me all nite. she's definitely not ready yet - she still wakes up at least 3-4 times to eat and there is no way in hell i'll be getting up to go to her room to feed her every few hours. but it makes me sad that she sometimes naps all alone in that crib... i know its inevitable and i really thought i'd be much more ready and willing for her to move. its just amazing how i thought i would never want her in the bed and now i don't want her to leave! but TRUST i will not be letting her stay in the bed once she can make it through the nite herself. its just too soon right now.

i'm very excited i made a ben franklin run yesterday and am ready to start some serious crafting! i bought felt, crfating glue, embroidery hoops and thread. i can't wait to start embroidery. blair bought me a  cute baby embroidery kit from sublime stiching that i'm dying to try. i already have a ton of ideas for gifts for people (and myself) - sublime stiching has some fantastic patterns (the christmas time, veggies, and space ones are my favorites) and i'm on the lookout for more. i have to find some fabric transfer paper b/c most patterns just come as pdfs and i am not fancy enough to do anything freehand. and even though christmas is over, i want to make some felt ornaments (i just didn't have the time to finish them before). i think it would be really fun to try to start some sort of crafting group.....

 i've been reading a lot (mostly sookie stackhouse books). i got this great book about food and the science of food that i can't wait to read - although its more of a read a little at a time than a sit down. i'm determined to get through all the books on my bookshelf before i start trying to get into any new books (from the library or whatever), but i keep finding new books i want.

so in the new year these are the things i'm determined to begin/do/continue:
1. crafting and sewing
2. gym (my membership starts back up in january)
3. reading
4. focusing on my time at home with jack and the baby (since i have no distractions from school any more!)
5. making new family traditions

jack's sister got us a membership to a sort-of-csa she belongs to called  fall line farms, which i am soo excited about! i say sort of  csa because once you join, you basically just shop. there is no minumm or max, you don't have to order every week and you aren't forced to make use of 2lbs of beets or arugula like some other csas that don't give you a choice. it is by far the best way to shop local i've seen and i don't have to beat the crowds to the farmers markets. we've been benefitting from her membership since this summer (we get all letfovers and most of what she makes) so i can't wait to have my own. its also great b/c you get to pick and choose what you want from a number of partcicpants: they have a great baker, all kinds of beef/pork/chicken,pastas and cheeses and you just pay as you buy.  highly recommended!

and congrats to katie and jamie!!! can't wait for this wedding!

happy holidays!

yea snow!

so christmas town at busch gardens was very nice - no ice skating penguins though (sorry katie). there were live penguins and you could get pretty close to them, but they were just hanging out. there was a huge christmas tree that lit up in time to carols that i loved, until merit decided it was time to eat and we tried to rush out of there. i ended up having to feed her in the freezing cold outside the old timey photo cabin.but it was fun. maybe 10$ fun, not 20$ if i were to return.

and now we're preparing for christmas...the snow fell this weekend which was exciting - white christmas! merit thought it was hilarious that everything was white, but we didn't stay outside much. unfortunately she's still a little young for playing in the snow. and we have no good snow clothing for her so we did not stay outside very long (plus her father was over it in about 2 minutes).
we'll be driving all over the city for christams eve/christmas day but at least we get to spend christmas morning at home, since everyone is coming to our house for breakfast. i'm trying to think of some good traditions to get started, now that jack is a little more willing to participate in the festivities (the baby is making him soft!). we're def going to try to start up the fire pit and do smores xmas eve, beyond that i'm a little stumped. i'm thinking next year she'll be able to help me develop her own traditions, as she'll be a little older and more interactive. she's still kind of a blob right now. a cute blob, but still a blob.

merry christmas!

christmas crafting and cooking

Fun christmas crafts:
snowflake curtain
 gingerbread man ornament
 door silhouette
mistletoe

 I think i need a shopping spree at ben franklin and joanne's. now that my dissertation is TOTALLY done and submitted and graduation is next weekend, I can concentrate on the more important things: sewing, trying to be crafty, cooking and baking. in addition, i want to make merit her costume for our xmas cards (you'll see....). i think i've decided to make a great diaper bag with some of that fabric i bought at ikea - pattern from amy butler's little stiches for little ones. this is a big project that i'm not sure i trust myself with, so i may try to start with a few small things and enlist some real sewing help form people who know what they're doing. i have a quilt that i used when i was little that i'm going to rework with the same fabric i used for her pillow, so she has a matchiing set. i also have some hemming to do and a shirt to make.  i want to use the canvas wall clock idea to make a wall clock backed by the other piece of fabric form ikea. it's just so heavy, you can only do but so many things with it.

we have our xmas tree up - loves. and tomorrow, as long as the weather lets us we'll be going on a tacky light tour. i also want to go to christmas town at busch gardens - rumor has it they have actual ice skating penguins (as in real, live penguins). i need to do a little xmas shopping - but thanks to a cookie swap and secret santas, i only have two people to buy for in addition to jack's gifts. i'm thinking of making strawberry shortcake cookies and chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies for our cookie swap. mmm cookie swap.

and we took the blueberry to meet santa. she did really good, didn't cry once - just looked a little confused, i think.