Seeking Imperfection

On March 24, 2011, two weeks early, we welcomed a new member to our family, Kaden Alexander. He came fast and furious - I started having contractions at home around 2:30 in the afternoon. I had a scheduled OBG appointment at 4:30, so my friend took me, even though the contractions were getting worse. At that point I was already 5 cm dilated, and the doctor sent me on to the hospital. I got there around 5:45, and Kaden was born at 7:37 pm. I barely got my epidural - at a little after 7, so that helped a little at the end, but most of the labor was painful and intense, and a little scarey since it was all happening so fast.

Not long after Kaden was born, Roland called his mother, who had Paige, to tell them he was here. The first thing Paige said was, "Can I talk to him?" So we put her on speaker phone and she told him she loved him, and he turned and cried at the phone a little. It was so cute. She also told me she loved me and to "get good rest Momma," which made all the hospital staff in the room say, "awww..." :)

When we were trying to find a name for him, Paige only liked two of our choices, and Kaden was one of them (I have since found out it was her 2nd favorite though!) She'd asked me randomly once if we could name the baby Alexander. Roland didn't really like it, but every once in awhile Paige would ask me again, and tell me that Daddy could "just get used to it." LOL So in the hospital, Roland suggested Kaden Alexander for the name - and Paige was thrilled when she found out.



The next day Paige came to meet him. She's doing really well becoming a big sister - much better than I thought she would. She doesn't like it when he's crying and I can't get him to stop, or when she's got my full attention and I have to go check on him, but for the most part she seems happy with her new brother. She's learned how to make a bottle and helps pick out his clothes, etc. So far, so good. :)

So, two weeks into this we are doing ok becoming a family of 4...or 5, since "Aunt Michelle" lives with us too. :)

In the interest of imperfection (and due to the fact that I had a heat induced migraine yesterday) I am posting my Summer Tuesday Tip on a Wednesday. Better late than never, right?



Have you heard of Kids Bowl Free? This program gives kids coupons for two free games of bowling every day - although you do have to pay for shoe rentals.


Mother-Daughter Fashion Statement

This summer and last summer I signed us up for the family pass, which allows up to 4 adult family members the same two free games a day for one payment of $24. We tried this last year for the first time, and my daughter seemed to enjoy it. I was actually surprised when this summer rolled around and she started asking, "When can we go bowling?" So I guess she liked it more than I thought.



It's not something we do every day, or even every week, but it is kind of a nice option to have in your bag of tricks for a rainy day, or a really hot one.



For more summer fun ideas, be sure to check out Mommy Topics Summer Family Blog Hop.

I really was planning to post more often...and then the strep/mouth blister/infection disaster of 2010 hit our home, and has been wreaking havoc with my little girlie.

But on a brighter note, I came across this new little blog hop last week:



and was determined that I would join in today. So here I am!

Do you have an A.C. Moore near you? It turns out that A.C. Moore hosts a free craft for kids, ages 4 and up, every Wednesday from 3-5 all summer. I would however double check that your store is participating and that they have the same hours.

The first week I went with Paige they were making crowns, using these sticky mosaic squares. They gave each child a crown, some sticky squares in different colors, and a grid that assigned each color a number. It was kind of like a paint by number, but using these little squares.



Although my daughter loves crowns, I didn't think she'd last too long doing this as her attention span and her patience often leave little to be desired...much like her mom. However, I was amazed when she spent all TWO HOURS working on this project, and did the whole thing herself!

I was SO PROUD of her - and was tempted to go find and buy every sticky mosaic thing I could find...but who knows if she'd ever be interested in this again?



Last week, the kids made "buttons" - which I would call "pins." They had a cardstock circle that they could decorate, and then stick into a plastic pin cover. I do have a few pictures of this, but they are still on my camera, and in the interest of being imperfect, I am not going to wait until I'm not feeling too lazy to download them, or this will never be posted.

Paige wasn't as enthralled with this craft, although this was about when she was getting sick. She told the lady teaching the craft, "my mouth is full of boo boos." I dismissed it then...but turns out she was right. :(

Tomorrow they are making "Silly Bands Holders" whatever that entails, who knows.

So if you have a kid who likes to craft, this might be a fun, free, air conditioned activity for you - all things I enjoy in a good activity. :)

So many times I have a great idea for something, but never follow through. I've even gone so far as to say that I am an "idea person" or am "great at brainstorming." I love all kinds of wonderful ideas I find online, and I often think, "I could do that," and yet I never do. My perfectionism tends to keep me from going forward. "If I can't do it perfectly, then why bother?" Lately I've been having to tell myself over and over that doing something is better than doing nothing. For example, isn't it better to have an imperfect present for your husband for Father's Day, then none at all?

A couple of weeks before Father's Day, I saw this great idea for a present at Alpha Mom - a super hero kit. There were fun labels to download and adhere to favorite snacks that turn them into "hero snacks."

I thought how much my super hero comic loving husband would enjoy this gift. Then I thought about how the wonderful free label downloads are in color, and I don't have any color ink. I thought about how they used a fancy wooden photograph box to package everything, and how it was highly unlikely that I would get around to finding something similar (or want to pay for it). I thought about how all the snacks are in beautiful little glassine envelopes, and how I probably wouldn't manage to find those either.

But I knew that my husband would really love this idea, and I "forced" myself to print out the labels in black and white and just go to the store, by some of his favorite snacks, and stick the labels on the fronts with scotch tape. I then hunted around for a box that all the stuff would fit in, and ended up with a big cardboard box that had held chemicals for the pool in it, and shoved them all in there. I also added a new beach towel (super hero cape) and almost let myself freak out about not having a cute tag for it that would match everything else. Instead I put Paige to work making a tag for it that we stuck to it. I also was able to snag a superhero shirt to add in.


(speaking of imperfection, why the heck is this picture sideways?!? Oh well, better something than nothing...)

I got Paige to help me stick everything in the box and tape the box closed, and then had her add a couple of star stickers to it. She fully enjoyed the process and was so excited to give the gift to him, and isn't that really what it's all about?

This year I am having fun with Becky Higgin's Project Life. It is a scrapbook/photo album kit that is made for you to take a picture every day for a year. There are many different ways to use the kit, and I've had fun looking at what others are doing with it.

The Mom Creative hosts "Project Life Tuesdays" where you share how you are doing with your Project Life. I've been wanting to join in, but I keep forgetting. As it is, I'm posting this late on Tuesday...but better late than never!

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Paige's first "friend's" birthday party. We had the party at a plaster painting place. Paige painted a butterfly. I have a ton of great pictures from the party. This is her cake, which is a cupcake cake. Each guest got a cupcake, a Hoodsie, and a juice box.



Monday, March 1, 2010

Paige's preschool class was studying dinosaurs in February. Today Paige brought home a dinosaur "diorama." I didn't even know that kids still did dioramas!



Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Paige has been having trouble sleeping again. She doesn't want to go to bed and often wakes up several times a night. Lately she's been very hot when she wakes up, as she likes to burrow under a lot of blankets but also overheats easily. She didn't want to change into something cooler...but we convinced her to when she got to wear one of Aunt Michelle's shelter shirts, just like her.



Wednesday, March 3, 2010

An after dinner snack for me...one of Paige's cupcakes and a Hoodsie.



Thursday, March 4, 2010

Paige worked on thank you cards for her birthday party. She wrote the names of her friends on the envelopes and used a couple of her stamps to decorate the envelopes. She's in her new green nightgown again.



Friday, March 5, 2010

Roland's Christmas Darth Vader is still lurking on top of the refrigerator, next to a "porcupine" that Paige made in preschool in the fall, and some junk that has accumulated up there. Time to clean the top of the fridge.



Saturday, March 6, 2010

One of Paige's cousin gave her a kid sized pizza making kit for her birthday. Today Paige and Daddy made pizzas.



So that about wraps up last week here. Thanks for visiting.

I'm not sure how it happened.

How - and when - did she go from this:



to this?



Happy 5th Birthday, Paige Girlie!

Oh, and note her "5 Shirt" - one of the things I've wanted to "try" for a long time. I had a hard time with it and needed some help with the sewing, but it's a beginning, and she LOVED it. :)

Seeing as I was missing in action most of October, here's a quick recap:

October was spent playing in Puppa's yard (my dad) at my nephew's birthday party.



Then there was the trip to the pumpkin patch and the hayride the next morning. That's Paige in the purple coat and my nephew, Justin, in the red coat.



Then we made our yearly trip to King Richard's Faire, where Paige and her cousin, Evan, became knights and ladies of the king's court.



There was also Paige's first "friend's" birthday party for a friend from preschool. Then that afternoon we made Halloween cupcakes and decorated them with all kinds of candy and sprinkles.



Then of course was Halloween, where my little girl was her favorite mermaid, Ariel.


I hope everyone had a great October.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

When all else fails, and I don't know what to take a picture of, I end up with one of Paige. Good thing she's so cute. She's wearing a pair of her favorite jammies. Even though it is summer, she keeps insisting on wearing comfy "fuzzy" jammies. She's very sensory. Good thing we have AC.



Sunday, June 28, 2009

I signed us up for the free kids bowling program. Today Michelle and I took Paige bowling for the first time. She seemed to have fun, even though she would get a little frustrated with gutter balls because her mom is too cheap to pay for the bumpers which aren't free.





Monday, June 29, 2009

This picture pretty much sums up the month of June.



Tuesday, June 30, 2009

My other stand-by for a photo if Paige is unavailable is one of the cats. This is Michelle's cat, Doyle. And really, what's better than a cat in a basket?



Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Paige took swimming lessons for the first time this summer, at a lake in New Hampshire. You wouldn't know it from this picture or the date, but it was COLD. I was ready to take her home for hot cocoa in front of the fire after this picture.



Thursday, July 2, 2009

I took Paige for some more bowling on my own. That was tricky because she was apt to wander away while I tried to bowl. She actually got a little better this time. To try to keep her from getting too frustrated, I would keep telling her, "just keep trying" a la Dory from "Finding Nemo"..."just keep swimming." Her outfit indicates just how wonderful and July like the temperature was.



Friday, July 3, 2009

Finally, the sun came back. This is a cute tree in our yard. Turns out we have two little fruit trees in our yard. We also don't own a lawn mower.

Paige and I took part in the Super Summer Swap hosted by Super Heroes and Princesses and Life of a Dairy Queen. Paige was matched with a four year old girl in Oregon named Mason.

Paige was so excited to get her package which consisted of a Pez dispenser, four princess card games, a kindergarten workbook, a sticker book, and a small Ariel doll. Paige has had me read the letter to her from Mason several times. I'm going to have to get a map to try and get her to understand the distance between Oregon and Massachusetts though. She really wants to go visit Mason and can't seem to understand why we aren't just heading over there!

This was a lot of fun, even though I sent our package out late. I hope Mason forgives us! You know, I've only participated in two blog swaps, and they've both been for Paige!!! I'll have to find one for me sometime - it looks like fun!


For some reason, Blogger is insisting on putting this photo in upside down...but you get the idea.



Paige has learned how to play Go Fish and Old Maid thanks to Mason!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

A few weeks ago, my mother came and saw our new house. She walked around the yard and pointed out plants she knew as she went. She happened to notice that we have a bunch of strawberry plants around the side of the pool. Paige has been very interested in these, and we have been checking them, looking at the green strawberries, waiting to see if any turned red. Saturday we found one red strawberry and she picked it.



Sunday, May 31, 2009

On Sunday, Michelle went to volunteer at an event at the shelter. When she came home she had a shelter name tag on. She changed out her name for Paige's, and let her put it on. She was so excited. What a great prop for when she asks to play "Animal Shelter."



Also from Sunday:

The day before, Saturday, Michelle had taken Paige to the shelter with her. Paige convinced Michelle to buy her a small blue lamb. It is a dog toy, but Paige finally told Michelle that it was for her stuffed dog that Michelle had bought her at the shelter on a different visit. Michelle decided she couldn't deny that kind of logic and got it for her. Paige has fallen in love with Lambie, who she brought outside to swing with her. I stuck her up on the swing set to watch, and Paige loved it.



Monday, June 1, 2009

There's no real significance to this picture, other than I thought she looked cute eating her "circle bread" as we call it, and it happened to be the only picture I took that day. So there you go.



Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Tuesday gives us two pictures, as I decided to document our current "sleeping plan" before I went to bed in her room. First a quick picture of Paige sleeping. She's wearing new Hello Kitty jammies I'd bought that day. She loves Hello Kitty and they are red, which is her favorite color, so I had to get them. I also like that in this picture you can see, from left to right, Taggie, Brown Bear, Douglas (the panda) and Dolphin. These four go everywhere with her right now, and there's a little song that goes with getting them ready for bed. She sings as she places them in order, "Taggie in the front, Brown Bear in the middle, Douglas in the back, and Dolphin in the back too." Then I'm allowed to join in for the chorus of "la, la, la, la." There are always four las, which she counts out on her fingers. Then I say, "and everybody schooch, to make room for Paige." You can also see her new friend Lambie on the other side.



Second, here's my current sleeping arrangement - the cushions from the couch on the floor of her room. I have sleep apnea and need to wear a CPAP when I sleep, so that's the funny looking contraption on my pillows. You can also get a glimpse of the Ariel curtains that I made for her - my first sewing project on my sewing machine, and, well, pretty much ever.



Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Roland brings us Wednesday's photo. We have a squirrel that will come up on our deck, and walk right up to the screen, even if our cats are sitting there. At one point we had a Rubbermaid bin with birdseed in it, and he lifted the top and was eating out of it. Roland has named him "Ballsy," and now everyone, including my four year old, says, "Hi Ballsy" when he's on the deck. For some reason on this day, he jumped up on the screen of the slider, just to further torment the cats, I guess. I came home and Roland told me to check out the last couple of pictures on the camera, and this is what I found.



Thursday, June 4, 2009

Wednesday night, Michelle and Roland had discovered some Powerpuff Girls cartoons that are offered in the "extras" stuff we can access "On Demand" from our cable company. Paige loved them. One of the episodes was about bad dreams, and the Girls eventually beat up their dreams. Michelle taught her "Powerpuff Paige" kicks and punches so she could beat up her dreams too. That night was the first night she slept through the night, in her own room, by herself, without waking up at all or needing to get one of us. Thursday morning, Michelle asked her to pose with her super punch pose.




Friday, June 5, 2009

For Christmas, Roland gave me twelve envelopes, one for each month. In each envelope was a piece of paper telling me, "Date Night Tonight. Dinner at..." and then there's a picture of the restaurant logo. Well, I've been opening them each month, but we haven't actually gotten a chance to go on our date night until Friday. I opened the envelope and it was for Chili's. When our dinner arrived, I surprised him by pulling out my camera to take a picture of it. He asked me what I was doing and told me I was crazy. Then I convinced him to share the Chocolate Chip Cookie Molten Cake with me. I told him, "you know I'm going to take a picture of that too?" and I did. He thought I was crazy, and I reminded him that crazy is one of the things he loves about me.



So that rounds out week two. I've noticed that most of my pictures from this week are of Paige, and I don't necessarily want this to become an all Paige album - but she's my favorite model. I guess I'll have to see how it goes, as I'm sure all weeks will be different.

Anyone else take any good pictures of the day this week?

I've been intrigued for awhile by the idea of any one of the versions of Project 365 in which you take a picture a day for a year. Knowing my perfectionist tendencies though, I've been afraid to commit to doing this, as I'm afraid I'll beat myself up if I say I'll do this and then forget or start slacking.

Then a couple of weeks ago I had an idea - I'll start slowly by trying to take a picture every day of the summer, as identified as Memorial Day to Labor Day. The problem is now trying not to be a perfectionist about what album I choose, or picking just one photo for the day, or even about the photos themselves. This is going to be a challenge for me.

Even though I'd planned to start on Memorial Day, I have a couple of cute ones from Saturday and Sunday too, so I think I'll start there.


Saturday, May 23, 2009.
Playing on the deck in a bucket of water.



Sunday, May 24, 2009
Being artsy in my backyard.



and here's where I already have trouble choosing one photo to represent the day. So here's picture number two - Paige and her quarters (she's been getting a quarter every day she feeds the cats in the morning) that she used to go buy a beta fish. She got a red fish, named it Ariel, and insists it is a girl (even though it is not.) Poor gender confused fishie.



Monday, May 25, 2009
I've already posted this one, but I love it. New sandals, and she's wearing pajamas too, by the way, to go out and play.



Tuesday, May 24, 2009
Only a couple days in and I didn't have a picture! I knew this would happen. So I had Roland take one of us.



Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Paige has been having trouble with constipation, and thus is scared to poop on the potty. She tried on Wednesday, so we made a big deal out of it and made Pillsbury Cinnabon Cookies. "I tried to poop on the potty cookies" didn't sound so appetizing, so Michelle suggested "Courage Cookies." I like that and think it might be something to do every time we do something courageous around here. We'll see.



Thursday, May 28, 2009
I took Paige to story time at the library. The local library is having a story night every Thursday for a few weeks, and the stories are being read by "local leaders." Tonight's story was read by a fireman. To explain the first picture - last summer, I think it was, Paige fell down in the library parking lot. To stop her crying, I brought her over to these flowers outside the library door, and told her they were "Feel Better Flowers." They've been the Feel Better Flowers to her ever since - she tells me all the time she wants to smell the Feel Better Flowers. Tonight she wanted to smell each one, and helped me to take this picture.



Picture number two:
The fireman read two books about dragons (as they breathe fire) and then a book about firemen. Then the kids did a craft, making a really cute fire breathing dragon.



Friday, May 29, 2009
I had a bad day at work, and didn't have a picture yet, so I asked Roland if we could go get ice cream and took this blurry photo there. I'm thinking I don't want all of the pictures to be of people or events, I want some to be objects or items that represent the day.



So I've actually followed through for one week! Wish me luck for week two.