The Sheltons Come to Visit

Courtney and Zeke drove over from Durham last week to visit. We miss living across the parking lot from the Sheltons and were so thankful they have remained in touch since we left. Courtney took these cute pictures of the boys so I thought I would share them. Zeke was born about a month and half before Owen.

Dogs sniff each other to get to know one another. Owen puts your toes in his mouth. Court caught him in the act. Doesn't he look like a deer caught headlights?
Zeke is all smiles for the camera. Can you tell that Court takes a lot of pics of him? Isn't he such a cutie? I just love his little chunky arms and legs. :)The boys getting ready for bed. Owen had just had his bath.

Thanks again Sheltons for coming to visit. We had so much fun. Please come back again!

He's Got Issues

Sleep issues that is. This time its waking up too early...5:30 to be exact. For the last two weeks, Owen has been waking up somewhere between 5:15-5:45 every day happy as a lark. He talks to himself, plays with his stuffed monkey, and rolls around his crib. I've been trying to not go upstairs to get him hoping that he'll go back to sleep. Eventually he gets tired of being by himself and will cry. I then eventually wander up there in a sleepy state, feed him and try to get him to go back to sleep. Most of the time it only last for 30 mins then he gets up and hangs with Jeremy while he gets ready for work. I have even tried feeding him in our bed in hopes that he'll fall back asleep while eating. This does work however as he sees it as playtime with Mommy and Daddy. Any suggestions about helping him (and us) get more sleep. 5:30 is not my ideal wake up time! In combination with this, he is still crying a long time to go to bed. We put him down between 7-7:30 and he cries for over an hour or more. Most of the time I have to nurse him again and then he'll go down about 9. Any thoughts?

I'm also afraid he may be allergic to milk. We tried giving him yogurt and the first couple of times I didn't notice any reactions. The other day though I noticed that he had red splotches around his mouth. I wasn't sure if it was the new batch of peaches we pureed or the yogurt so I tried it again the next day without the peaches. Again the splotches reappeared. I tried to take a picture of them.

There were no other symptoms...no swelling, crying, diarrhea, shortness of breath. We even tried another brand but we had the same reaction. I called my sister-in-law b/c my niece is allergic to milk. Owen does not have any of her reactions but to be on the safe side we're going to hold off on milk products until our next well visit in 2 weeks. I guess I may have to nurse longer than anticipated now. We'll see..I'll keep you updated.

The Many Faces of Owen

Look at Me

Look at me..I can stand all by myself on the ottoman.

The tv is so distracting.

Yeah I know I'm cute.
Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh, this is old news now. Give me something more challenging.

No he didn't pull himself up to here but if you stand him up he can stand there forever. Maybe he's going to skip crawling and go straight to walking.

Miller Family Fun Day

Saturday was the 1st Annual Miller Family Fun Day in Beulaville. My cousins thought the family doesn't see each other enough so they organized this evening of food and games. The weather wasn't ideal but it didn't stop us from having fun. We played volleyball, cornhole, and had many races including sack races and the 3-legged race. Sadly Owen became overwhelmed with all the new faces so I spent most of the evening holding him. Enjoy the slideshow!

Things worth noting these days...

1) My left wrist is in a brace. It started hurting about 2 weeks ago so last Friday I went to the doctor. I have this weird knot/hard place on it and the doctor says it could be a calcium deposit but is not sure. He told me to wear this brace for 10 days to give it some rest and come back. I didn't think the brace was going to do anything but yesterday I didn't wear it and it hurt again. Still not sure what the deal is.

2) I got a haircut on Monday and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Ever since leaving Raleigh, I can't find someone who can do it right. Sadly, I can't drive back and go to my old girl because she moved to NY. You should have seen me when I left the salon...I looked like Carol Brady. The top was a little more fluffy but seriously it had this shape. I'm still working to get it looking decent. This haircut also revealed the mass amount of grays I have. Looks like it's time for a dye job.

3) I've been really bored lately. Now that Owen is on a consistent schedule (well until last night) I have a lot of downtime. (He takes 2 2-hour naps) There is only so much cleaning one can do. I could sew but I'm out of fabric and I don't really need to spend money on more. I did a lot of reading for a while but I really would like to do something more active. Any suggestions?

Diaper & Wipe Clutch

Only 1 more sewing class to go! Remember a few weeks back when I said I was working on my own pattern? Well here it is. I was trying to make my own diaper/wipe clutch. Most clutches I have seen have you insert the diapers vertically and I wanted to turn my the other way. I took the basic concept and changed it to make it my own. While this one isn't perfect, it's a start. This one holds travel wipes and 3-4 diapers. There is some modifications I want to make, like adding interfacing to make it stiffer and slimming it up a bit. Stay tuned!


I've been searching for new projects lately and here is some I want to try.

This is a bigger crayon roll than my original one. It would be great for older kids who want more colors.
Along the same lines, I like this one and how you can incorporate the crayons with a sketch pad.

For myself, I would love to create this wallet.
There are many others but I won't show them all here. Any suggestions? I'm always looking for something new.