The Notebook

Unfortunately (or fortunately) this is not a review of the movie/book. This entry is about a notebook Elijah got for his birthday this year. We were in Target one day looking for (cheap) birthday presents for Elijah, so he would have quite a few to open. At this age it's not the amount of money that matters, but the amount of gifts, so we took full advantage of that. He got some stuff from the dollar section... little cars, coloring books and self inking stamp that say "awesome". Then we hit up the clearance section of craft items. Not too much there, except for these cool Cars and Toy Story activity backpacks that come with crayons, stickers, coloring pages, etc.

Right next to the craft aisle is the stationary aisle, so I was browsing there for some things and I came upon this:

A notebook... to be his very own. Since he loves to write in -everyone else's- notebooks, I thought he would love it, but apparently I wasn't realizing that he is only turning 3. We wrapped it up and when he opened it, this is the expression we got.

Nothing. He flipped through the book trying to figure out why it was blank. As he flipped he gave the expression that Joe is imitating in the background (without the smile), about every 30 seconds. He was annoyed... "Was this some sick joke? Why would my parents give me a book with no words or pictures? Very funny, people, very funny..." is what his expression said.

I explained to him what it was for after a few minutes of him scouring the pages for any possible words that might be on it. After he heard, the notebook was promptly put on the floor and he moved onto the next gift. A day or so afterward I re-introduced it to him and he has been drawing/coloring in it ever since.

So if you are looking for something inexpensive to get a 3-5 year old, a notebook is a good way to go... however just make sure the little boy or girl knows what notebooks are used for, first. :-)

DYL - Sick person edition

These past few weeks have been full of sickness. The week before last Elijah had strep throat and he apparently passed some of it on to me. Last week I thought I had caught it, but before it turned horrible in my throat it traveled to my sinuses and became an awful head cold instead. Fun times and 3 days off of work and I was on the mend, kind of. Today is the first day I can actually breathe normally again, so in honor of yuckiness this is a Declare Your Love for things when you are sick.

I would like to declare my love for the...

Vicks Waterless Vaporizer

This thing is the best thing ever for little kids... and adults too. It's completely safe for infants and pregnant women, which is the best part. There is this little square pad you stick inside that is "soaked" in vapor fluid and the fan blows it out into the room (it lasts about 8 hours per pad), so your sinuses are cleared without having to put the Vicks directly onto your body. I also like that it has different settings, so you can set how much vapor is released. We have used ours for over a year and it's still going strong... We just have to remember to buy the refill packs of the pads and we are ready for any sickness that hits... but hopefully that won't be for a long time.

So what do you love when you are sick?

Elijah's Turning Three! Yipee!

Happy Birthday to my little man who is turning three today!

Here he is hanging out with his favorite doggie, at the park.

He has become such a big boy and so helpful too. He is a delight and we love him very much. He's turning into a wonderful young man.

New Years Resolution - In Review

As you might (probably not) remember, I posted our New Years resolutions in this post. Well, I must say after reading over it, we did relatively well. The goal of not eating out at all, of course, failed. However, we have cut back a lot and only eat out once in a while, on weekends mostly. We have figured out cheap and quick dinners and instead of ordering out for pizza, we get frozen instead. So even though we failed I feel like we are slowly getting to where we want to be and hope to continue that this coming year.

My goal to pay more attention to Azalea went well too. I made sure I acknowledged her when she greeted me at the door, each night, and gave her a little pat on the head, if I could. She is the type of dog that likes to be near people, so just letting her sit in the living room with us and watch TV made her happy. On November 1st she was tremendously happy, though, when her favorite person... My brother-in-law, Mike, moved into the basement. I was quickly relieved of my resolution, per her request, and was replaced by him. So until Mike and Reach move out she could really care less if I pay attention to her or not. Oh well...

Elijah's resolution to eat more things could have gone better, but he made a valiant effort. He started eating more fruit over the summer. Apples, Grapes, Strawberries and Blueberries were his favorites. Apples he will still eat in the winter, however the other ones he only likes when they are in season, so I'm guessing he won't be eating them again until next summer. He also ate some other new stuff, but he still isn't eating the same dinner as us, most nights. So we'll see what the new year brings, food wise, for little Elijah.

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All of that leads us to this year. Joe and I have a joint resolution/goal, this year. It is to to really get a hold of our finances. We kind of started in the middle of last year and we are already seeing an improvement. If we continue to do really well this year we should be able to afford a down payment (and mortgage payments) for our own house next year or the year after. Our own house has been a long-term goal for us, so that is definitely motivation to continue doing well with it.

That is all from me today. I hope everyone has a good week and weekend... and year. :-)

Such A Slacker... Merry Christmas, BTW.

I must admit that I have been neglecting this already hardly-ever-posted-in blog. I have a good excuse, I promise.

And here it is:

This little baby has made it hard to even just do the regular household chores and the almost-3-year-old has me tired out by 8pm. Add that to working full time and you get no blog posts for a few months. The baby is due July 23rd. Hopefully I can squeeze in a few blog posts before then. :-)

As for the here and now, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Wall Hangings - A Preview

If you have been following the whole remodeling of Elijah's room, you'll know how I wanted to buy some scrapbook paper to frame instead of buying posters. A few weeks ago I found some at JoAnn Fabrics, it's from DCWV, a stack called "The Grade School Stack".

It was perfect AND 50% off, so I had to get it. It has a "Sesame Street" feel to it with the colors and ABCs and 123s. A few of the pages even have open spots for pictures and journaling, so we could make a simple scrapbook page with the pictures of him with the characters from Sesame Place, if we wanted to.

I think my favorite paper out of the stack is this one though:

It's so fun and colorful. I also love how each picture corresponds with the letter next to it. I actually have already framed the ones I am going to use and Elijah loves this one the best too. He sits there for 20 minutes at a time saying the letters and the corresponding picture. And as much as I hope these will stay up on the wall, after I hang them, I have a feeling little hands will find a way to get them down. But oh well, I guess that's why I thought ahead and bought frames with the glass that is almost like plastic. :-)

I hope to have another entry soon about his finished room. The main thing holding up the "finishness" of it, is that I can't find curtains that I like for a decent price to save my life. So once that is done and I buy the things to hang up his art work, the room will be ready for showing off. So until then...

Just be patient, I'm a work in progress...

Alan Jackson said it best and it certainly applied to Elijah's room a month ago... When I started this blog entry (oops). First we had to clear out his bedroom, so it could be painted. Joe had to move furniture to other rooms, we had to move Elijah into our room and then the rest of the stuff got piled in the middle of the floor and covered with a drop cloth. This is what the room looked like the day after Joe and his dad finished painting.

They did a wonderful job! (That long thin white thing that is resting against the wall with the closet is the molding that is on top of the blackboard portion of the wall.) That next Friday and Saturday (it needed two coats), Joe and I painted the blackboard paint. This is what that looked like before the molding was put on.

Oh my, what a sight! No carpet, painters tape around the edges and uneven paint job on the top of the blackboard, nothing on the walls, no curtains, no plate covers, no light switch cover. What a mess! Fortunately, everything was falling into place and even though it looks a mess, it's just a work in progress and we could finally see it taking shape.

That Sunday we put the molding on... with my dad's help. Then Monday the carpet people came bright and early to install that. Once the carpet was installed it really started to look like a bedroom. We moved his toy box up there a few days after and soon the other furniture followed. Plate covers and light switch covers were "installed", his dresser was fixed and moved in there and his bed was moved in there that next week. So now he's sleeping in there and he loves it, but I think when it's really completely done he'll love it even more.

We ended up buying one other thing for his wall. It's a wall plaque with his name on it. We are going to do that instead of putting up the train letters. However, you could say this wall plaque is special because of what's on it... BUT Joe has sworn me to secrecy... Even Elijah hasn't seen it yet. I guess everyone will have to wait and see it when I post the pictures of how his room looks when it's all finished. Hopefully that won't take another month. :-)

A Letter to Elijah

A few days ago I was looking for something in my personal folder, on my work computer, and I found this scrapbook page. I had actually forgotten all about it until that moment. Now that I look back, it was a good idea to write those things down. We often forget about what kids do and like at certain ages and this is a great way to remember.

The journaling reads:

Elijah,

Where do I begin? I have loved you even before I knew who "you" were. I was so happy the day I found out I was pregnant. I prayed for you for months before that (and ever since) and you have certainly been a blessing. I loved feeling you kick inside me and move around. Although it hurt sometimes, I even loved feeling your little foot pushing outward in my side. I won't say it was all wonderful being pregnant with you. You didn't like Mac & Cheese, one of my favorite things to eat before I got pregnant and I gave up eating my favorite thing in the world... An Italian cold cut sub. But you were worth every minute of it. You are the best thing that's happened since I met your daddy. I love watching you grow. I swear, every time I get home from work you've grown more and more. You seem to love to learn new things... studying them with your eyes and grabbing onto things like mommy's hair and Azalea's nose. And of course as soon as you get ahold of it, it goes right into your mouth. You love playing with daddy a lot too, he could make you giggle all day. You two are so much alike, it's scary. As you grow it's hard not to think about what you'll be like when you're older. What things you'll like... who you'll hang out with... what kind of personality you'll have. Sometimes I sit and think about what it will be like when you're a teenager, but I quickly jump back to reality, because you'll be a teenager before I know it. I want to enjoy these moments now before they're gone. I love spending time with you and listening to you "talk" on and on and on. I'm so glad the Lord blessed me with you. He certainly knew what he was doing.

Love, Mommy

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I talked to Joe about finding this and he suggested I do one for every year. By default, I missed last year, but from now going forward, I plan on doing one every year. Then when he turns either 18 or 21 I'm going to print them out, put them in a scrapbook and give them to him. If we end up having more children, I hope to do one each year for them also. We'll see how it goes, but I love to journal and write letters, so it should be fairly easy. :-)

BTW, I'm sorry I've been AWOL from the blogging world for a while. With Elijah's room project going on, my sister getting married in Oct and working full time I have barely enough time to breathe. However lots has been developing with his room and I hope to be updating about that very soon. Have a great week, if I don't post again before then.

Transformation of a Bedroom - Part 3 - What Should I Put on the Wall?

We're almost done the planning portion, which is exciting, because the next portion is the doing portion. After all the research and decisions it'll be nice to finally see the finished product.

A few weeks ago we were all ready to order the carpet at Lowes, so it could be on it's way while we were working on prepping the room. So we go there and established quite quickly that we will not be getting the carpet I wrote about in the last entry. First, I had the wrong measurement for the room. It's actually 10x11, not 9x10. Second, instead of being able to get 10x11 like we needed, we would have to get 10x12 because they come in 12' rolls. So that bumped up the price to about $270. I couldn't bring myself to pay that much money... I just couldn't, not unless I looked at every other option before doing it... And that we did.

We looked at the "in stock" carpet at Lowes. Better prices per square foot, however it was about the same price because they came in 15' rolls. After basically chalking Lowes up as a last resort, we headed to Home Depot the next day. This is why I love Home Depot more than Lowes. There "in stock" carpet comes in 12' rolls and we found carpet we like for $.85 per square foot. It's a little darker than I would have liked... it's more of a sand color than an off-white color, but it still goes with the paint color. His room will just have an "oceany" feel to it. If we end up going with this newly found carpet it will be $181 for carpet and premium padding. We shall see what happens when we go to get it.


Now onto "What Should I Put on the Walls?":



This was my original idea... Hanging his art work on a clothes line with clothes pins. however when I was searching the internet I found all sorts of different ideas stemming from that one.









This is one of the favorite ones that I found. I was going to hang it along one little wall, three tiers high, like this and use the binder clips instead of clothes pins. They will probably look nicer and hold better.









I also like this idea, but it's on a wall with a window, so I feel like it would be too much curtain rod for one wall. However when we move I might do this instead of the clothes line, depending on how the room is laid out.







To go along with that, there will also be a clock that we already have.


We also bought these little train letters years ago that spell Elijah. We just need to paint them.







I also was thinking about getting him a growth chart. I wanted a big bird one, but there were none to be found, so I googled Sesame Street Growth Chart and up popped this from Wal-mart (my home away from home). We can even personalize it. It's a resonable price, but not cheap, so Elijah might be getting it for his birthday, since we are probably doing a Sesame Street theme for his room.








We're not changing the colors of the room or anything, but while we were at Sesame Place (a post about the trip will be coming soon) we saw these cute posters, however I was cheap and didn't get them. So, instead, I'm gonna see, if I can find some brightly colored alphabet or Sesame Street scrapbook paper and frame it to hang on the wall above the chalkboard.

Right now I'm thinking this sounds like a lot of stuff, so I guess when we start getting everything put in there we'll start with the stuff we already have and go from there. I hope you enjoyed hearing about the planning stage of this project. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to start putting things together, so I can update with the progress. Have a great day!

Blues Clues Anyone?

About a month ago Elijah and I started watching Blues Clues, since I like it and I felt that he was old enough to understand the concept. Some things he's still too young for, but he loves finding the clues. So one evening he was sitting in the living room alone, while I went upstairs to do something. When I came back down the stairs he said, "Monnie (mommy)" stretching out his arms and hands, showing me his palms, "I have clues!". It was apparently some sort of revelation to him. I, of course, praised him for his observation and told him, yes, he in fact has "clues".

How long was he was sitting down there thinking about that? And what 2-year-old makes that connection? Who knows... Sometimes I think he is a 4-year-old trapped in a 2-year-old's body.