One Month

My Baby is one month old! Where has the time gone? He continues to be pretty mellow, even if he hasn't been the best sleeper for the past couple of nights. Hopefully he will get back to sleeping well soon! He has started "talking" a little and has smiled at us several times. What a joy to have this little boy be part of our family!

Christmas Shinanigans

This year was Leif's first Christmas (just like any other day for him- sleep and eat ;). It was Asher's second Christmas, and I'm not sure that he completely understood what was going on, but he had a lot more fun than he did last year. 

He really got into tearing the wrapping paper and loved getting new toys.

 He got quite a few really fun gifts that he has loved playing with since, but the clear winner on Christmas day was his "popcorn popper" from Uncle Brent and Aunt Niccolle. This thing went everywhere with him as he pretended to vacuum the floor.

I thought I was quite clever to pack Austin's present in a big box with packing peanuts so he wouldn't know what it was. It wasn't as clever an idea when Asher and his cousins decided to throw the peanuts all over the room. But it cleaned up pretty quickly and they had a lot of fun doing it. 

All in all, Asher loved being able to eat candy for breakfast, have his cousins over all day, take a shorter nap, and have new toys to play with. But by mid-afternoon he started having a melt down. His "popcorn popper" had to come everywhere with him, but for some reason was making him upset. He wouldn't calm down when I rocked him and sang to him, but did calm down a little when he got to take a bath with his cousin, Ben, and play with one of his new tubby toys. He went to bed by 6:30 on Christmas and we were glad to have some peace :)

First Tubby

Leif had his first real bath last week. He usually only cries when he is hungry, getting his diaper changed, or getting his clothes changed. So I figured that he would not be very happy with being naked and wet at the same time. Happily, I was wrong. There were a few moments that he seemed a little fussy, but for the most part he was very happy and didn't cry the whole time I washed him. :)

Seventeen Months!

 We finally got snow! It was too slippery on the sidewalks to stay out long, plus we couldn't leave Leif alone inside for long, but Asher liked being out and seeing the snow. Maybe we will get to play in it soon. I tried to get some pictures of Asher to document turning 17 months old, but he wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get any. But then he got caught up in one of his favorite games of "cooking" and stayed still for about 10 minutes and I was able to get some shots. He likes to get out all the pots and measuring cups while I am making dinner and pretend that he is cooking something too. Sometimes he gets everything out long before dinner time and just makes lots of noise banging the pots together. I always wonder what he thinks he is making :)

The first 2 weeks

I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since Leif was born! In some ways it seems like it has been so much longer with all the changes we have made. But in other ways it seems like he was born just a few days ago. He is still so tiny, but he is eating well and putting on weight. Asher has adjusted to having a new baby so well and Leif fits right into our family. Here are just a few of the many photos we have taken lately.

 My mom spending some time with Leif when he was 5 days old

 He's such a sweet little boy

 This one is sweet too- just a little crazy :)

 He adores his brother, but has a hard time being calm and gentle

 Asher is starting to love books, but he prefers to read them on his own rather than have me read them to him.

 Here is Leif at 2 weeks. He is alert for quite awhile during the day, but definitely gets his share of naps in. I love this sweet little guy and feel so blessed to have 2 amazing boys (3 if you count Austin ;)

Leif

 We welcomed Leif into the world.

 He is a little smaller and lighter than Asher.

 Asher came to the hospital to pick up his new brother and mom.

Asher putting his brother, Leif, to sleep.

Unveiling of the Quiet Books

We're winding down to when this new little baby is going to join our family. I have also completed most of the projects that I frantically wanted to finish before he got here. Now its just time to enjoy one-on-one time with Asher and wait for labor to start :) I finished almost all of the projects I wanted to, but I only wanted to take pictures and share my most time consuming project- 3 quiet books. Actually, I only have pictures from the two quiet books that are for our boys because the third is a Christmas present. Get ready for lots of pictures, even if they aren't very good and some of them are sideways (I really can't figure out how blogger decides which direction to put them)
I got most of my ideas from quiet books I saw on other blogs, I just changed them to be more how I liked them. Some of the pages are my original idea- both covers are original (of course with lots of input from Austin). Also, I'm quite proud of the fact that I only used patterns for a couple of the pages and the majority of the felt was cut free-hand. I've gotten pretty good at cutting shapes from felt over the years and doing it free-hand saves lots of time. I used wool felt for this project because I'm hoping it won't pill as much with all the use these books will get. I used Pellon for the actual pages (that's why they are all white) because I read that it tends to hold together better than felt.

Quiet Book #1: Geared toward older skills. 

 This is the front cover

 The classic barn page

 The doors open with barn animal finger puppets inside

 A page to learn shapes and colors

 all the shapes are velcroed on

 Asher has been really into tools lately, so hopefully he will like this in coming years too

 A little set of tools to fix things at church or around the house

 The clock hands are moveable so kids can change the time

 I was just going to do the analog clock, but thought having a digital version with lots of numbers to change to match the analog clock would be fun and educational

 A veggie garden- complete with beets in honor of Austin's grandparents :)

 You can pick the veggies and put them in a basket

 Every boy needs a truck in their quiet book

 The wheels are removable to practice buttoning skills

 Classic Noah's ark page with a zipper to practice that skills

 More animal finger puppets inside

 A paint pallet with a brush so kids can pretend to paint the rest of the book

 The colors are all attached with velcro so they can be moved around

 A cute little forest scene

 The strawberries and apples are attached with snaps and the tree has a flap that opens to reveal an owl

 Tic-Tac-Toe

 I really hope none of these little playing pieces get lost because they were time consuming!

 A laundry line and washer to dress a little boy

 I hope both of our boys end up with blond hair :)

 Cupcakes with velcro tops to match the number with the number of "sprinkles" on the cupcake

 This page doesn't do anything special- the kids can just trace the letters and maybe we can play a game of find things in the quiet book or in the room that start with each letter

 This is the back cover and my signature page- I thought it was quite fitting with my favorite color and favorite animal. All three of the books have this as the back cover.

Quiet Book #2: Geared toward younger kids

 Austin insisted that I make the cover of one of the books with a viking ship. I kept saying no because I thought it would be too hard, but it ended up being my favorite page of all.

 A horse just to feel the texture of his mane- made from yarn.

 A monkey

 The banana velcroes and peels down

 A sweet little owl.

 Both of her wings lift up with a baby owl hiding under one.

 A frog

 His tongue has snaps so he can "catch the flies

 An alligator with a zipper for a mouth

 He has fishes numbered 1-10 in his mouth

 The giraffe doesn't do anything except have buttons to feel the texture

 The fish snaps on and off- he doesn't move, but the kids can practice snapping.

The lion has all kinds of textures in his mane for feeling.

Even  though I'm very proud of my quiet books, it feels kind of strange to have them done after working on them for so long.