Giggly Girl!

Our Little Britches is a total gem! She smiles and often squeals with delight when you tickle her or kiss her neck, but before today her true laugh has eluded us. We've caught a glimpse of it every now and then like when we are playing on the bed or when the dog does something funny. On those occasions she would let out a "ha, ha". That's it! Two ha's put together. I wasn't even really sure those were real laughs, so I hadn't recorded any of them in her baby book, but today's date will go down in Little Britches history as the day she first laughed and laughed and laughed some more.




We had friends come over for dinner. They arrived not too long after Little Britches had gone down for a nap. The extra commotion woke our sleeping princess, but she was in a good mood. It was early enough in the afternoon to give us time to walk to the park that is about a mile away, so we set off on our field trip. About half way to the park Little Britches started to cry in her stroller, which she rarely does. I didn't know if she was still a little tired from her shortened nap or if she was hungry, since it had been just about 3 hours since she ate. Daddy carried her the rest of the way to the park and that seemed like it was what she needed. Our friends have a one year old daughter who started to swing. We put Little Britches in her own swing and she started to cry. She is not normally so fussy, so I knew we were dealing with tiredness and hunger. These were certainly not the circumstances that I thought would lead to her first laugh. I finally sat down in a swing to just have something to do while I talked. Daddy handed Little Britches to me and she started to gnaw on my wrist. I started making hints and starting towards home, but to no avail. The husband of the couple that was visiting with us sat down in the swing next to me and started to swing. When he wanted to slow himself down he let his feet drag through the pebbles below the swing set. Little Britches let out a BIG giggle! I didn't believe it at first, but every time our friend would drag his feet through the pebble Little Britches would laugh and laugh and laugh. Well, Little Britches's Daddy would not be left out, so he started to swing while dragging his feet through the pebbles, too. The more he dragged his feet, the more she laughed.



It was a sweet, contagious, wonderful, joyful laugh. I hope I hear it many more times in the coming days, but each time I hear it I hope it reminds me that even less than ideal circumstances can render sweet moments that I will treasure forever, if I am on the lookout for them.



Thank you Giggly Girl for that sweet laugh today!

Thank you God for the abundance of blessings that you continue to pour out in my life!



(Here is a picture of us swinging just prior to the giggly moment.)

 

Dressing our little Jacket

Well, better late than never. As promised Here are some resources that helped me as I made Little Britches's outfit for homecoming. First of all I started out with the dress. I have made several of these and I really like that they have the onesie under them so that they don't ride up. I looked at several tutorials and pictures.  Then I kind of used a little from each of them to make our dress. Check out the tutorials and pictures here,  here, and here.   There is some very cute stuff out there!

Then the outfit just did not seem complete without a head adorment so I took this tutorial and made a flower.  I attached that flower to a ribbon.  To get the ribbon to stay on her head, intead of just making it the size of Little Britches's head I made it a smidge smaller and added a short length of elastic as the connector.  I didn't use this tutorial, but it is the basic idea. 

Now that Little Britches was all decked out I needed to cover her feet since this was an event outside in October.  I didn't want to have to be picking up kicked-off socks all day so I decided to make her some shoes after looking at this shoe tutorial.  I friend asked me if the shoes were reversible.  The ones I made were not, but I had remembered seeing this tutorial that gave instructions for a reversible version.

All in all I think the outfit turned out pretty cute.  None of it was too hard and I just did it during several nap times over the week. 

Currently I am starting work on Christmas gifts.  If you have never gone to sew mama sew and looked at their handmade holidays blog posts, you should.  They are full of great ideas. 

Lessons from Homecoming

Well we did travel back to my alma mater for Homecoming this weekend. We also spent the day with Little Britches's G.G. (Great Grandma). All in all it was a fun trip. There are a few things I learned from Homecoming.




1. First and foremost I am old or at least older.

I went to a small school where the students had professors from more than one class and would often be invited to their houses for get togethers and such. When I started school I made a special connection with one of the professor's daughters. She was 6 the year I started school. She is now TWENTY! I don't feel THAT much older than when I left college, but obviously I am.



2. No matter how much time has past there are still places that cause the mind and heart to reflect.

I spent 4 wonderful years at Howard Payne University. I had great roommates, classmates, and teammates. I did things I never thought I would or could do. I learned things I never thought I would or could learn. I was pushed, challenged, loved, and encouraged. All those things came flooding back to me as I was on campus this weekend. And when my husband asked where the nearest restroom was I remembered exactly where they were! Some things you never forget!



3. Grandmas can spot cute babies from a mile away.

While at times I felt old(er) and a bit out of touch, I was thankful for my new phase in life. Being a mommy gives you lots to talk about with others, especially grandmas. I was holding Little Britches while we watched the parade go by and every grandma that past us stopped to say hi and say how cute Little Britches was. All day as we walked around and saw people ladies would come over and start telling me about their grandkids. I listened and loved it, knowing my parents were probably out In public somewhere doing the same thing to some other mom. Of course part of the reason Little Britches might have gotten so much attention was because she was dressed so cute as you can tell from the picture. I will blog about how I made her outfit soon.

4. God has blessed us more than we could have ever dreamed possible.

This picture was taken as we sat on the very same bench that my husband proposed to me on more than 8 years ago. I could never have imagined then what I would have now- a life full of blessings beyond measure. My cup truly overflows with goodness. There will always be a part of me that feels at "home" when I go to Howard Payne. I did so much growing up there, but now I realize that I am still growing and in other 10 years (I graduated in '99) I will feel even older, but will most likely feel even more blessed.



5. Traveling with a baby is work.

I don't really think this needs much explaining. :)

Boo!

Yesterday I put Little Britches's Halloween onesie on her.  It was cute, but it just needed a little something.  I had bought some tulle in hopes of making her a cute little lady bug costume before Bella got her the cute poodle outfit.  I decided the black tulle would be perfect as a quick tutu to go with the Halloween onesie.  So I took the tulle and used my rotary cutter to cut it into long strips about 2 ish inches wide.  I then cut those strips in half so they wouldn't be so long.  I wanted a short tutu.  I then tied those strips onto a black grosgrain ribbon and then tied the ribbon around Little Britches's waist.  Oh so cute! 

Here's the proof:

Kyle o Meter 5K

This Sunday I ran in a local 5K.  It was a part of the Kyle Fair.  Lots of friends from church also  ran in it.  I wanted to place in my age group, but I knew that meant I couldn't do any walking, and my running hasn't come without a little walking lately unless I am on the treadmill.  My problem is I have not logged enough miles since the birth of Little Britches to be able to feel my pace yet.  I start out way too fast.  I used to not do this.  So I started out at what I felt like was a good pace.  There were no mile markers, so I couldn't really judge.  I held that pace all the way to the turn around at the cattle gate.  (I did mention this was a local race, right?)  On the way back though I started to give way mentally and started to fatigue a little physicially.  There were some rolling hills on the way back that tempted me to walk, no taunted me to walk and I gave in.  I did finish the race in 29:30, which is about a 9:30 pace.  This is the pace I would like to do the 1/2 marathon in November.  I must log some more miles before I can reach this goal, but I am on my way.  Here are the results in case you want to size up the competition for next year.  See you out there!

Hook Em and Burp Em

Well I have been a busy bee.  Last week I sewed Little Britches an entire outfit- dress, headband, shoes, and a matching burb cloth.  The outfit's colors are blue and gold, otherwise known as yellow, in honor of my alma mater's homecoming this weekend.  I will take pictures this weekend and let you see my handy work.  Before I started that project however I made a burp cloth for game days at home.  You see, my alma mater is a small school whose football games are not televised or even reported on the news, so we cheer for the local university's team that has an excellent football team.  We needed that special burp cloth for those times when game-day snacks just got to be a little too much. ;)  Here are some pictures of Little Britches on game day and her new burp cloth:

The weekend recap

Well, weekends around here are busy! 

On Saturday I did go for a run.  I decided to cut my postpartum body some slack and run/walk my runs until I don't feel like I am going to die.  That might mean I don't quite run all 13.1 miles of the half marathon in November, but I am okay with that for now.  So I set off Saturday morning with my ipod and ran a song and then walked a song.  I did that for 40 minutes and covered four miles.  I was feeling good so I went to the end of our street and back for a total of 4.76 miles.  Not bad.  I actually felt like I could keep going for a while if I needed to.   I need to do a longer run tonight, but it has been rainy here all day, so I might do it tomorrow night.  After the run Little Britches's dad and I did a few things around the house.  Boy is he getting some stuff done!  The house is looking great.  There are those few areas that have to look worse before they look better when you are cleaning them out....we have one or two of those areas right now, but we also have several areas that have come out on the other side of that process and look fantastic. 

Also on Saturday Little Britches's Bella came for a photo shoot and quality time.  Here a few of the results.

It was a little chilli outside on Saturday and I did wake Little Britches up from her nap to take these pictures, so no smiles, but no crying either!

We then met Papa D for dinner and dancing...well not too much dancing, but dinner anyway.  After such a full day Little Britches slept all the way through the night.  Woo hoo!  Sunday was also full, as it usually is with church stuff and she slept through the night again!  The two days daddy can be on duty- slept.  Monday night, when daddy is sleeping because he has to get up for workout and work.  She woke up at 11, 3, and 5.  I love her, though and will miss those sweet night time visits soon enough! 

I am currently "working" on a few sewing projects, meaning they are rolling around in my head.  I am going to make Little Britches an outfit to wear to my college's homecoming at the end of the month.  I will be sure to post pictures as I go.  Well I hear someone waking up from their nap, and it is not me, so I better go get the doll and feed her!

This weekend we are headed out of down for the day to visit with cousins.  That should be fun.  I will let you know.