Owl Family

My niece Abbie Lynn turned 3 in October and was having an owl-themed birthday party. I thought it was the perfect time to dust off (literally) my sewing machine and do a little project! First, I spent a little time during one of Addison's naps on Google looking for a simple pattern. I found this blog post. Perfect! Then I got to thinking, maybe instead of making one owl, I would make an owl family. There are 5 members of her family (mom, dad and three little girls) so I first printed the pattern regular size, then I took the file and shrank it by 25% to make the pattern a little smaller:










Next it was time to see what kind of fabric I might have that I could use. Turns out there's a lot in my two tubs!










Below are the "daddy" and "mommy" bodies I cut out:










Next the three little girls:










Then I chose some contrasting/coordinating fabric to use for their wings:










I cut out the circles for the eyes (I used white and dark brown felt) and used the suggestion from the blog to just use iron transfer paper to affix the inner circle of the eye to the white part. MUCH easier than me trying to delicately sew them on!










Then I cut out the feet and beak from some felt as well. Next I laid out the eyes and beak and sewed them on the front piece of fabric. I just used a dark brown thread and a simple zig-zag stitch. Then I pinned on the wings and feet:










Then after laying the back fabric onto the front (right sides facing) I did a quick stitch around the entire owl, leaving the opening for stuffing between the two feet. *note, don't put the feet too close together or you'll have a difficult time turning it inside out. Yes, lesson learned on the first one I did!

After I stuffed them, I opted for the lazy way out and just machine sewed them closed instead of hand sewing. I think they still turned out okay!

Dad and Mom:










and the 3 little girls:










Then I had decided that they might need a home so I rounded out the project with a basket that I found at the Goodwill:










Overall, the project cost me very little. I got a giant bag of stuffing for about $3.50 (on sale at the fabric store), the felt was in the neighborhood of $0.50 a square and the basket from the Goodwill was $2.00. Everything else I already had at home!

Photo Book

Short preview of what we've been up to for the last 6 months!

Click here to view this photo book larger

catching up!

It's been a while! Here are some photos to catch up on the last month or so.....


Addison and her toy we decided to name: Mr. Froggerton












Addison, her Easter dress and her Easter Bunny....which is now her favorite toy to look at. She'll laugh out loud when you show her the bunny!












Addison and her crazy hair day.












Rockin the jean jumper.












She loves her bumbo seat!













Party dress/ballerina outfit....depending on her mood :)

baby words

Addison "talking"...partly to her toys, partly to the ceiling fan!

stuffy nose, shots and jet lag...oh my!

Poor little Addison was feeling TERRIBLE yesterday. The pic to the left was after I FINALLY got her to fall asleep late in the afternoon. She got a stuffy nose while we were in Seattle then I think she was really out of sorts with all the travel. Even though she's not really on a schedule the time changes probably didn't help. Then Tuesday she got her 2 month shots! Wednesday was suppose to be Ben's day to stay home and watch Addison while I went and worked at the store, but he quickly volunteered to go to the store in my place! It was for the best. She just needed her mommy time I think. She had a small dose of baby Tylenol and a HUGE night of sleep so I'm hoping for better days in the very near future.....

Mei Tai = Awesome

My wonderful, amazing friend Em made me a Mei Tai baby carrier. She brought it with her to Seattle and I got a lesson from a pro on how to use it. Em was gracious enough to let me borrow two other baby carriers - a wrap and a ring sling - when I saw her in December when I was still pregnant. After baby Addison arrived, I was having very little luck in using those. Part of it was she just wasn't liking being in there and the other part was that I was pretty new at trying them and was most likely not getting her in there very good either. All that amounted to them not working. However, when we got Addison in the Mei Tai, she loved it! I am SO happy :) I wanted to be a cool mom like Em and "carry" my baby everywhere. I took her out in it every chance I had in Seattle and have since used it a couple times already now that I'm back in St. Louis. It made my trip to Target yesterday a breeze! I hope this continues. Em, you're the best!

Addison's Big Trip

This past weekend one of my very closest friends, Suzanne, got married in Seattle. I was so happy and honored to be in the wedding party. Now, there was no question that I would also be bringing Addison. This would be her first big trip!!

Right now is one of the busiest times at the stores so there was no way that Ben would be able to come with me. I was a little stressed out about the thought of flying with a 2 month old by myself, but I was up for the challenge!!!

First up, getting on the plane from St. Louis. I had a 6 am flight on Thursday morning. Should be no problem, right? I've had the super early morning flight many times and the airport is a ghost town that early. Boy was I wrong! I completely spaced the fact that it was Spring Break time. There were a million people at the airport. Yikes!!!! Ben dropped me off and it was about 4:50am. First I had to go through the ticketing line. I had two bags to check and had to get Addison an age verification boarding pass. There was no way to skip this step. The line was moving very slowly and I was beginning to get nervous. I finally got up to the counter and got my bags checked and the boarding passes set. By this time, it was 5:45am. Crap. Now I had to get through security. I run over to the line and explain to the woman at the beginning of the line that my flight leaves in 15min and asked as nicely as possible if I could move ahead to the front. No dice. So I enter another very long line. Luckily this line is moving faster, but still not fast enough. I am certain I will be missing my flight. Now it's just a matter of whether there is another one I can get on. With the help of a really nice gentleman behind me, I get the stroller, car seat, diaper bag, baby formula and me an Addison all through the security scans. I can see my gate as I'm throwing my shoes back on and shoving the formula back in the bag. Addison is mad at this point because I've waited to feed her in hopes of her eating during take off to help with the pressure. I can see that the plane is still there as I'm sprinting over (looking like a crazy person, no doubt!). Seems I wasn't the only one and there is a family of four running right behind me in the same direction. SO SO lucky to get on the plane! whew! I did, of course, have to sit in the middle of two people but Addison stopped screaming the second she got some food and she did great during the flight after that. Only a couple small moments and I was able to quickly calm her down.

Our layover was in Denver and Addison was happy to have some time to stretch out her legs. The second leg of our trip went smoothly and once in Seattle, the Enterprise rental car folks were awesome.

The wedding was so great!! It was a wonderful reunion of the four girls I shared a house with and were teammates with in college - Suz, Leah, Em and Amy. And on top of that, I got to see my two wonderful friends from Portland! Gayle and her husband Bryan came up on Friday as Bryan was taking photos for the wedding. Gayle was wonderful and watched Addison during the wedding ceremony and in between the ceremony and reception so I could do all of my bridesmaid duties. Addison had a great time at the reception--playing on the floor and kicking her legs and even joining me on the dance floor (sometimes awake...sometimes basically asleep!). And then Sunday my friend Alyson and her boyfriend Brad drove up from Portland for the day to meet Addison and hang out. I have such wonderful friends!!

Addison got a stuffy nose Sunday (maybe caught the cold Ben had? maybe caught something from the hundreds of people she was exposed to at the airport? who knows....). That was sort of a mess. My first time having to use that snot sucker thing and you can only imagine how much she loved that. Being able to walk around outside on Sunday with all my friends I think helped her a little too. Sunday night was still a little rough, but I kept her propped up which helped the snot drain better I think. She was, however, a bear on Monday. I was "that lady" on the plane with the baby that cried almost the entire trip. Yikes. At least Amy's flight was about 45min after mine so I had her help all through the airport and security. Thanks Amy!

Here's a couple quick pics:





Addison stretching out before the wedding in her cute yellow dress. Yes, in the pic it looks like a belly shirt (!) but it really was a dress :)











Mike and Suz riding in the bus after the wedding ceremony. We took some pics at the public library in downtown Seattle. A very cool building! You also can't quite tell from the photo, but the sun was out. Unusual for Seattle that time of year. I'm so happy it was a sunny day for their wedding--they deserved it!! Congrats Mike and Suz :)







This is from the AWESOME donut shop/coffee shop, Top Pot, that we went to not once, but twice while in Seattle. Thank goodness my friends have as big of a sweet tooth as I do!

super baby

My favorite photo yet and one that I don't think really needs an explanation!!

Superbowl Party!

We went over to some friends for a superbowl party. Her first real party was the Big River staff party. So technically this was her second party. She was a perfect angel the entire time. The kicker was the next day. Probably one of the worst and longest day yet. She was fussy ALL day. I told her if she was going to act like this after every party then she would be grounded (ha ha!).
Here's a pick of her and dad:

the third week

So we went back again to the pediatrician at the end of the third week. Addison had finally gained some weight and is now up to 8 lbs 1 oz. Yay! Turns out she was getting very little breast milk from me as she ended up taking in as much formula as a typical 'formula only' baby would AFTER she would try from me first. The pediatrician said I could try to continue to breast feed but the likelihood of my milk supply significantly increasing at this point was slim. I said fair enough. I may not be using the best mommy practices but to ease the frustration on everyone I decided to just switch to formula completely. She eats from a bottle like a champ so there are no issues there.

Other milestones this week--the umbilical cord stump finally fell off! Next was my attempt at a "real" bath. It was interesting, awkward and she mostly hated it. I think bath time will be a little more fun when she can sit on her own!




This was my set up...I opted to put the baby tub down in the bath tub because on the kitchen sink/counter it was so high and I am so short that it just seemed more awkward.






....and she hated just about every minute of it! When she first felt the warm water I think she was vaguely interested in what was happening but then immediately began screaming. Yes, personal hygiene is such a torturous thing :)

week two

Two weeks, already?! or Two weeks, that's it?! Not sure which goes here. This was the first week of just me really. Ben was "home" but not really. He was working a lot and still had meetings and other store obligations so he was busy/gone still most of the day. Eating was starting to get sort of easier. She would eventually latch on, but often it was still a chore to get her to calm down enough to focus on eating. I was also still pretty sore so that probably wasn't helping that sometimes I would flinch when she latched. At the end of the week we went back to the pediatrician. He wanted to do another weight check just since she had barely gained after the first week. Well, at weigh in she was still only 6 lbs 15 oz. Not good. So doc suggested that we start supplementing with an ounce or two of formula after every feeding. Looking back at that week it kind of makes sense that at times she just was really full and thus frustrated and/or fussy because of it. A big thanks to Emfamil for sending us a million samples so we got to try it out without even having to buy any formula at first. After trying several different bottles, the current one we've settled on is the Doctor Brown's brand. She eats really well from it and I do think it helps reduce the amount of air intake, making her little tummy more comfortable. One more week and we'll be back to the pediatrician again--hoping she is getting a little baby fat on her!

The end of this week we also got a nice treat with the weather--40 degrees 3 days in a row! I absolutely HAD to take advantage of that. So Addison and I tried out her stroller. She LOVED it. I was worried because the sidewalks in our neighborhood are far from smooth with lots of bumps and uneven concrete but she slept the entire time. Granted, she didn't really get to look around because I had her so bundled! One of the days we even walked to Target and I picked up a couple small items. Now if we could have just gotten that weather to stick around.......



Yes, the seemingly infant-sized coat thing was still ridiculously big on her!

week one

Yes, it is as hard as they say it is. The first night was ROUGH. Lots of crying (mostly from baby) and lots of frustration. As the week progressed, though, we started to get a little more use to everything.

My mom was wonderful enough to stay with us that first week. She not only got in a lot of grandma baby holding time, but made us awesome dinners, did the laundry, went grocery shopping for us and came with me on all our errands.

The feeding part was probably the hardest. Breastfeeding to me is really difficult. We were having a lot of trouble "connecting" which was making both of us very frustrated. Several times I just pumped and then fed her via the bottle because I couldn't handle the difficulty. I did go out once later in the week and talk to a lactation consultant. She was VERY helpful and gave me some simple tips that did help with the latching.

At the end of the week, Addison had her first doctor's appointment. She was seemingly very gassy and thus most likely causing a lot of her tantrums. The doc suggested an over-the-counter medicine we could give her and they really helped almost right away. Also, she weighed in just a little over what she did when we left the hospital. Something I didn't know was that they loose weight those first couple days so when we left she was 6 lbs 11oz. When we were at the doc's that Friday, she was 6 lbs 15oz. Nothing to be too concerned yet at that point.

The other thing we did when my mom was here was give her a sponge bath. They can't be submerged in water until the umbilical cord falls off. She was not too happy with me:

two days in the hospital

Yes, that's how long we stayed. Just two days. It was nice to have the help of all the nurses. Ben and I watched almost the entire first season of Modern Family (GREAT show by the way, I highly recommend watching it if you don't!). He only left once to play his indoor soccer game on Sunday afternoon. Addison and I took full advantage and napped while he was gone :)
Ben's parents, Frank & Linda, were there almost the entire time during labor. We made them go home for a while on Friday night (against their will!). It was nice to have them be there and then be back to visit again on Sunday. We also had his brothers Jon Carl and Franklin, sister Evelyn (and BF Ray) and his uncle Kevin come visit. Our friends Adam and Sara also came by and of course, her pseudo uncle Matt stopped by after being out at the store on Saturday!
My younger sister Jeanette just couldn't wait and drove in from Lexington, KY on Sunday night and stopped by the hospital. My mom came over that night as well and then they both came back by Monday morning to help us pack up and head home.
Then the true parenting test begins..............

happy BIRTH day!

On January 15 we welcomed our beautiful little girl into the world:
Addison Leigh Rosario

7 lbs, 3 oz - 20 1/4 in

Here's my recount of the entire birth experience:

I had gone into the doctor's office on Friday morning (the 14th), after having been there that previous Tuesday as well. Still wasn't dilated at ALL and was at that point 3 days past full term. My doc did quite the uncomfortable exam that included trying to manipulate my cervix a little since nothing was budging. He said it was the hardest cervix he's encountered in over 5 years. Yikes! So after they did about 30min of monitoring the baby (to make sure her heart rate, etc was okay) and then they checked/measured the amount of fluid we decided to wait it out through the weekend but schedule to go in to be induced on that Monday. So we left the office thinking Monday it was......

I didn't have anything scheduled the rest of that day (and was already off the work schedule--just doing some stuff from home) so Ben said I should spend the rest of the day/weekend to rest up in anticipation of baby coming. So I was hanging out on the couch and around noon or one I really started noticing that I was having some pain in my lower back and that it was sort of coming and going. At that point, really only 10-15 min apart so I figured it was some braxton hicks contractions or some kind of false labor. Then by about 3p I really noticed that these pains were steadily increasing so I started making note of how long and far apart on a little scrap paper sitting beside me. I had read about back labor but I thought that if this really was back labor, then I would feel some sort of contraction wrapping across to the front as well. I sent my friend a text who I knew had back labor with her first child to ask if in fact you only feel it in your back. When she said yes I knew I must actually be having contractions!

At that point it was a little after 5p and they were coming between 3 and 5 min apart lasting about 40sec long. I decided to call the doc just to see what was going on. After all, when we left the office that morning NOTHING was happening. Plus, while I was uncomfortable and it sort of took my breath away, it wasn't anything I couldn't handle at that point. After talking to him (luckily he was taking on call phone messages since it was after the office had closed) he suggested we go into the hospital because he said regardless, we were going to induce Monday anyway so if nothing progresses naturally, we would just induce that night. Yikes--it was really happening!

So we grabbed our hospital bag and a few other random things and headed out to the hospital. We got checked in and settled and at that point, I was barely dilated to a 1 (you have to get to 10) but the contractions were getting a little stronger. The on-call doc talked to my doc and he decided that they would give me the epidural right away, break my water and then try to "manipulate" my cervix again. This time it wasn't painful though thanks to the epidural!! So we spent the next of many hours of monitoring and checking to see if I was dilated. Finally they decided to give me pitocin to try to get labor going. After some more hours of contractions, lots of changing positions (especially ones that would try to help position her more on my cervix) and some occasional oxygen intake because her heart rate was kind of on a roller coaster we were now at about 3:30a and I was still only dilated to a 2. At this point they were getting more concerned about the baby since her behavior was getting a little sporadic. This is when they started talking to me about the fact that a c-section might be in the cards for me.

At that point, even though I didn't want one, I was open to anything. I just wanted baby to get out safely and be healthy! Luckily my doc was a big advocate for me to have a vaginal delivery and he was in contact with the nurses/on-call docs all night (which was awesome). He decided if I was willing, then he was willing to have me wait until 6:30a and if nothing had progressed, we'd just have to do the c-section. Of course I said okay. When they checked me at 6:30a I was a 7, almost 8--hooray! Then, within the hour I was fully dilated to a 10. As soon as the nurse gave the word there were seemingly a million people in my room almost immediately. It was kind of crazy. One nurse gave me about a 2sec rundown on what to do when it was time to push. Then another one said my doc was on his way over (his office is close to the hospital) but to deliver the baby with or without him! Then it was time to push.

Ben held one of my legs (and mostly stayed up by my head!) and another really awesome and encouraging nurse had the other. I pushed for about 30min and out she came!! The cord was around her neck so they cut it immediately but it only took her a very short time to start screaming, even though she was a little blue. No troubles after that! I didn't really even have to push for the placenta. Don't know if sometimes you have to or if it just comes out. I kind of just laid there in an overwhelming haze while they cleaned me up and stitched me up (just a little tearing). Whew! Then very shortly after that I got to hold our beautiful baby girl in my arms. What a wonderful feeling :)

Tacky Christmas!

Long overdue post...but in its third year, our now annual holiday party took a big step forward (or at least tacky) by creating a photo frame. We were inspired by my good friend Suzanne who did something similar at her Chili Cook-Off!! Maybe next year we'll add some props.
Until then...for your viewing pleasure:

Tacky Christmas 2010