"Happier at Home"

I just finished Gretchen Rubin's Happier at Home and I loved it. I had heard of her blog and first book The Happiness Project but had never checked them out. I wish I had a long time ago!

I think that we have quite a bit in common and that I could benefit from replicating some of her ideas. I, too, am an "underbuyer" whose life would be happier and a lot easier if I would just buy the things that I want instead of pinching pennies all of the time.

I'm going to get started on my own mini-version of a happiness project. Her project encompassed the months while her young children were in school. I think that the next 4 months would be ideal for me since Baby Girl will be joining us in February.

October would be the perfect month to focus on Liam. He turns 2 years old exactly one month from today. His life is flying before my eyes! I feel like I am lazy with him sometimes, especially the last week or so when neither of us have been feeling very good. We sometimes do the same activities for days without doing anything new or even leaving the house. I think we would both be happier if we did something new or especially fun or went somewhere every day. So here are my resolutions for the month of October to make myself happier with regard to Liam:

• Do something new or especially fun or go somewhere every day
• Get Liam's room in order 
• Sort through his baby clothes
• Do a birthday photo shoot 

Hopefully the shoot will go better than last year: 

Fun at Home

This summer, like all the Florida summers before it, has been so hot. Couple that with pregnancy hot flashes and Mama doesn't want to go outside. There are only so many times we can go to the library, so I've had to get creative to keep Liam entertained at home.

I've set up random scrap boards in the living room as tracks for his cars, but the ironing board was handy this day.

As I'm sure you can imagine, it didn't take long for Liam to start sliding down, too.

And then some silly combination of the two.

Liam is at an age where he wants to do everything that Dan and I do, though he's around me more often. Dan is less than thrilled that Liam likes to put on makeup and do his hair.

Liam loves to play hide-and-seek. He doesn't really understand it yet, so it's more like chase than anything else. Here he is hiding:

One day, when Liam was hiding behind the couch, Dan called him sneaky. Liam thought that was hilarious and says it often. I moved the couch away from the wall a bit so that he could "climb in the tunnel." Then he was even more sneaky:

Then he figured out how to climb on the back of the couch:

Sorry for the red cast, but I don't care enough to fix it. 

 He likes to "surprise me when I'm sitting on the couch.

I love this smile so much.

Liam is looking over my shoulder as I write and saying "Sneaky Liam in Couch!" He's getting quite the vocabulary, is very cleaver at putting words together and is curious about words. He asks "What's that?" or "Name?" dozens of times a day. He is still a toddler though and often I have to remind him to use words to tell me what he wants instead of whining at me.

We are trying to talk about the new baby often, but I know he won't be able to grasp the idea. He knows "baby sister in belly" and that the room next to his is "new baby room." A few days ago, he gave my belly kisses and said "baby sister come out!"

It's a...

Girl!

No, one exclamation point isn't enough.

It's a GIRL!!!!!1!!!

Dan and I are both very excited. He never doubted for a minute that it was a girl though. He's been calling it a girl for months. I loved that we didn't find out with Liam, but it is really nice to know this time. I know we're going to need some dresses and hair clips and bows. The urge to nest and get the nursery all set up has kicked in all of the sudden. I never felt that way with Liam, which probably explains the blank canvas on the wall of his room and the mess that we call the closet.

Old Wives Tales

When I had Liam, we did not find out that he was a boy until he was born. In the interest of not fighting over boy names for the next 5 months if we don't have to, we are going to find out if our baby is a boy or a girl tomorrow. Here's what the old wives tales and other gender myths predict:

Chinese Gender Chart: Girl
Craving sweets & fruits, opposed to salty snacks & protein: Girl
Breakouts on face: Girl
Carrying high: Girl
Carrying in the front: Boy
Wedding ring hung over belly moved left to right: Boy
Craving savory foods: Boy
Pillow faces north: Boy
Headaches: Boy

Mother's intuition? Until last week, all of my dreams about the baby were that it is a girl. Last week I dreamed about our gender reveal and the balloons were blue. In that dream, I was really excited for Liam to have a brother. I guess my mother's intuition is confused, but we'll find out soon enough.

The Sequel

We are expecting again! Baby #2 is due on February 5, 2013. I am almost done with my first trimester and feeling pretty good. I don't have much of an appetite and I feel sick after I eat, but it's not really that bad. I've had 2 ultrasounds where I saw the heartbeat and I heard the heartbeat on the doppler at my last appointment.

Playin' in the Rain

Liam loves the rain and thunder. He says "rain," "clouds" and "boom boom!" We had a nice rain shower without the usual lightning, so I let Liam play in the rain on our big, empty back porch. 

And one photo that I cropped and color corrected. I almost never use the on-camera flash, but I needed it to fill in the shadows on his face. It's a little bright and a little flat, but it was better than the shadows.

He's getting so big. I can hardly stand it.

Card Making

You know it's time for a new cutting mat when you have to tape the paper to the mat.

I actually ordered a new mat, some sketch pens and adhesive cardstock while I waited for these pictures to upload. I'll let you know how the sketch pens and cardstock turn out. 

After tinkering with the cutting mat, I was able to make this cute little card for a baby shower this weekend. I am really happy with the way the card and envelope turned out. The print & cut feature on the Silhouette machine is my favorite. I used 3D dots to give the butterflies a little dimension.

Last name blotted out for privacy.

I'm not that creative, so I usually do the same things in all of the cards I make: a nice quote inside of a curly frame.

Inside of the card.