Meet Ernie

No, we didn't name our yet to be born baby Ernie. Although.....never mind. =)

Ernie is Joey's new imaginary friend. According to the above picture Ernie is either incredibly short or Joey has him in a choke hold....verdict is still out on his size.

Ernie has been around in the Callon family for awhile. His first friend was Uncle Robb when he was a kid. Recently Ernie was introduced to Joey by Grandma Airplane and he has been part of our family ever since.

A few things you need to know about Ernie:
-He's messy. And according to Joey, Ernie must have learned this from Uncle Robb because apparently Joey's messy room the other day was courtesy of Robb and Ernie.
-He gets Joey into trouble.
-Ernie sleeps with us at night, because Joey says Ernie hogs his bed.
-Ernie is fast. He apparently makes it from Yelm to Puyallup in two seconds flat!

Aside from Ernie's obvious "flaws" he is a well loved addition to our family.

Joey and Ernie watch "Phineas and Ferb" together. Joey assured me that Ernie took off his shoes to lay in my bed. Whew!



The other day I was sitting in the office and Joey was playing in the family room and all I hear is....
"Ernie! No, I am reading the directions!" (They were building legos).

However, we need to work on a couple of things with Ernie.

For one, he needs to clean up "his mess."



And two, Joey's laundry basket needs to be utilized properly.

40 weeks

* How Far Along: 40 weeks exactly.
* Size of baby: Babycenter.com says about 7.5 pounds and 20 inches long. I am guessing this baby is taller than 20 inches though.
* Total Weight Gain/Loss: I am so not giving exact numbers here. For one I don't know that answer and two....because I have at least gained as much weight as I did with Joey.
* Maternity Clothes: Yah...still in those. But the selection is small. Thank goodness the weather has been amazing, I don't have to cram myself into jeans! However, I am thinking a mumu would be perfect attire right about now...Josh would disagree though.
* Gender: A boy. And judging by the intense heartburn I get...a very hairy one.
* Movement: He doesn't move around quite as much, but when he does it is almost painful. There is no room in there for him, so he pokes and prods until he is comfortable. It's been difficult deciphering his regular movement from Braxton Hicks contractions, but I do know that my stomach has never looked more funny then when he stretches out in such a way that my stomach is high peaked on one side and flat on the other.
* Sleep: I dread going to bed at night. Getting to sleep is the hardest part. I sleep best from about 2am on. I can't get into a comfortable position to fall asleep and my new addiction to Words with Friends probably doesn't help either.
* What I miss: I miss feeling healthy and energetic. Not that I am not healthy, but when I get up in the middle of night there are times where I can hardly walk and my knees hurt from the weight gain.
* Cravings: Desserts! I probably have eaten more dessert in the past two months then I have in the past 3 years. Let's just say that Josh makes this delicious Peach Blueberry crumble that I affectionately call the "Gobble Cobbler."
* Symptoms: Heartburn, back pain, Braxton Hicks, swollen feet, ridiculously long and healthy hair.
* Best moment this week: Making it to 40 weeks and not really fussing about today being the due date. I wanted to bake this one as long as possible. With the whole 2 vessel thing it was important for me to make full term with this baby. And with the way things look, perhaps an overdue baby. No big deal though. I am excited to meet him, but am glad to have him develop a little longer.
* What Joey thinks: Sweet Joey is just so eager to meet him. We rented a couple of books from the library about being an older sibling and what happens when a baby comes into the house. His only suggestion is that he doesn't want the baby to cry because that will scare him. Poor Joey, looks like I will be double comforting in a short while.

Scene and Heard Sunday

Not a very eventful week this past week. It's probably a good thing though.

-We bought a new car this week. Traded in our Toyota Camry for a Mazda 5. I haven't even taken a picture of it yet, but I can tell it's going to work out perfectly for our little family. The best part about this car is that it has sliding back doors and captains seats for the car seats to fit in smoothly. It also includes a 3rd row of seats, and the whole back folds down if needed. Joey was pretty adamant about wanting his car seat in the way back, but after trying to install the latch system we realized the way back does not include the anchors needed for his seat. We could easily just use a booster seat since he meets the legal requirements to sit in one, but we invested in a nice harness car seat last summer that will allow him to sit in it up to 85 pounds. Safety first; although I can't imagine Joey will be willing to sit in it once he hits kindergarten, but we can visit that scenario when the time comes.

-I crafted quite a bit this week. I made a present for the assistant director at the daycare I worked for. She is moving up to Bellingham and played such an integral roll in Joey's preschool experience that I wanted to thank her. I made this pencil vase with chocolate dipped Oreo's shaped into apples. Thank you to Pinterest for this idea.



I finally got around to making Joey's travel map for him to hang in his room. It's an on going project that sewing pins and collector travel pins can be added to over time to commemorate his travels.



I also made him this really neat Crayon Wreath (thank Pinterest again). My Mom is notorious for keeping everything, so when we were at her house the other day I dug around in her closets and pulled out a huge box of crayola crayons (from when we were younger) and embroidery hoops from her sewing days (back in the 70's!). With the super powers of a glue gun, this wreath was fashioned together in no time. I am thinking of making monogrammed crayon art for Joey and Baby in their bathroom. I picked up 4 24 packs of Crayola crayons for 39 cents each at the store the other day, so I am in full on kid decorating mode!



-I also am working with Joey on keeping his room and things organized. He just received this HUGE box of Legos from my sister and even though we all told him not to mix any other toy in with the Legos, low and behold he dumped all the contents of his piggy bank and about half of his collection of hot wheels cars into it. Guess who had to go through and sort that out? =)



Last night I helped him clean up his room and put things back where they belong. Beside the fact that his room still looks cluttered, it at least is organized. I immediately took several pictures of his "clean" room. I printed the pictures out and pasted them on a piece of paper and hung it up in his room. This way he has a clear expectation of what I want him to do when he gets sent to his room to pick it up.



-I scored a Babytrend jogging stroller for $10 at a garage sale on Saturday. Actually, my mom scoped it out and I came right over to claim it. The only thing is that they couldn't get the front wheel back on and they gave me full disclaimer that it was "as is." I had no problem with risking $10 for an otherwise good condition jogging stroller. And I knew between the many handymen in my family, one would be able to fix it. The fork was slightly bent, so with a little hand and tool bending, Josh and my Father-in-Law were able to fix it and it works perfectly!

-Yesterday we all headed down to Yelm for a family dinner. Josh's Grandma, Betty flew in on Saturday to visit. Betty is funny in an old lady kind of way. She wanted to watch Jeopardy yesterday, but I had a hard time explaining to here that it didn't come on until 7:30 (it was only 5pm). She argued with me that in California, it came on at 7 and that I was wrong. Here in Washington we do it backwards though. I immediately found the Game Show Network to hold her over until 7 though. Hopefully that worked.
Joey loved talking to her though and showing her all his cool trinkets and treasures. At one point, Robb washed his car in the driveway and almost all of us were out there watching it dry, eating popsicles...except for Betty, she was cold. (It was atleast 85 degrees that day). =)

Nursery/Craftroom reveal

It's here. It's here. It's finally here.
After several months of prepping, planning, and actually doing, I have finally finished the room that mixes two of my favorite things: babies and crafts.

Seeing that this is our second child we were both more realistic about how much the nursery would be used and had no qualms sharing a space that engulfs our office and craft room and the babies room, when he is sleeping.

Aside from the shelving unit on the wall and next to the desk every other furniture piece was either up-cycled or reused for this room. The idea was to be a frugal as possible and Ikea was my choice for the shelving that would house my scrapbooking and other craft items.

Here is a before picture....




My "blue print" (I can't find what I did with the nursery side blue print)



After....





The color scheme inspiration was courtesy of this Alexander Henry fabric that I used to make a chair pillow and the 4 fabric covered cork boards housed on the walls that double as functionality and decor. Every other color element in the room somehow "matched" the colors on the fabric. Thankfully this really allowed to go ahead with primary colors for baby boys nursery.



A couple of the rooms elements that I am really pleased with are ones I created or re-did my self.

The desk is still that ugly industrial desk from the before picture, but a coat of white spray paint on the legs and contact paper on the top transformed it into something that I could deal with. It's big enough to sew on and do scrapbooking, but not to big that it takes over the entire room.



This beastly $5 garage sale lamp went from this...



to this...



The changing table actually used to be a desk/hutch from Ikea. My mom was selling it, so I convinced her to give it to me as my birthday present. This is my first real attempt at a painted piece of furniture and I am super happy with the finished product.





All the nursery art/decor comes courtesy of my freehand or from my beloved Silhouette. Pinterest really helped to inspire me to find decor that I deemed cute, boyish, and meshed well in the room. I am in love with the C.S. Lewis quote and knew I had to incorporate it into the room somehow.





The mobile over the crib was inspiration from SewSheSew's blog. Her's was made out of fabric, but I went for the good ol scrapbook paper and modge podge approach.



You like that curtain? Little secret...it's actually a shower curtain that I bought for the boy's bathroom, but it ended up matching so well in here that I went with it.

I was amazed to find that I had so many craft items and projects at my disposal. When I started unpacking those boxes and putting things away I opted to keep like items grouped together and for the most part visual so that I wouldn't forget what I had. I am so notorious for buying a craft medium that I already have.




I've linked up to these fabulous blog parties!

Scene and Heard Sunday

Wow, I cannot believe how exhausted I feel. I am not surprised, but I suppose at 39 weeks I am pretty much dunzo! Wouldn't this week be a great week to have a baby? =)

-Things have definitely slowed down this week. The 38 week appointment was standard and they didn't check my cervix but I can tell my body is definitely practicing with the contractions. I keep putting off packing hospital bags. It probably has more to do with the fact that I have about 3 outfits that I re-wear time and time again (since they are the only ones that fit) and I don't want to have to pack one away for the return trip home. That being said, I am constantly keeping up with laundry and folding so that everything is orderly when the time comes to give birth.
For the most part I stay close to home slowly getting prepared and re-prepared for baby's arrival. Poor Joey is going a little stir crazy, but he has had no qualms watching Toy Story 3 for the billionth time! Tomorrow I will have my 39 week appointment so hopefully I will find out a little more information with dilation, etc.

-Nursery/Craft Room reveal: It's almost time to unveil the finished product. I spent the better part of this week working on nursery art and putting finishing touches together. I need Josh to hang my magazine holders today and print some pictures out and everything should be done. Of course I could keep going with this room, but then I would never finish it. Here's another little sneak peek for your viewing pleasure.



-I like to leave notes written with chalkboard pen on our bathroom mirror for Josh to read every morning when he wakes up for work. Usually they are motivational quotes, or an inside joke, or just something random. The other morning Josh left one for me that cracked me up. Short backstory: Joey and I do prayers every night. At the end I always say, "I love you all the way to the moon and back." Because we have all been going to bed about the same time Joey does Daddy's prayers for him. Basically they consist of Joey recounting our prayers, but he mixes up the words and songs and sometimes even meshes them together. Anyways, the note on the mirror read this yesterday morning...



It's hard to actually read, but it says, "I lift this all the way to the moon and back, Amen."

Joey mixed "I lift this all up in your name" and our "all the way to the moon and back" saying. Goofy kid!

-On Saturday I attended my friend Lisa's wedding down in Olympia. We've known each other since we were 14 and 15 years old playing club volleyball way back in the day and all the way thru college. It was good to see here and some of our other friends that I haven't seen in quite some time. The bride was beautiful and the ceremony was as well. I have never been inside the Capitol Rotunda, but the mix of marble staircases and the ceremony decor made it the perfect scenery for celebrating a marriage. The reception was held at Medicine Creek Winery and it was fun catching up with some friends there. I have to admit that I was a little jealous that I couldn't partake in the delicious wine offerings.

The beautiful ceremony at the Capitol Rotunda


The Bride, Julia, and I.


Julia and I


-Sunday we headed over to my brother's house for a bbq with his friends and coworkers. Joey loves going over there to see his roommates dogs and to play with toys there. I had my brother take a picture of us and he titled the following photo, "the calm before the storm." Let's hope that instead of a storm we have a couple blustery winds.

Scene and Heard Sunday

-This past week marked my 37th week of pregnancy. My doctor's appointment on Tuesday was the standard, "check my weight, blood pressure and baby's heartbeat" type of appointment. I am curious to see if I am dilated and I did ask the doctor when that happens. Typically he does it at the 39 week appointment, unless I am contracting before then. This whole week I have been having contractions that are sporadic and typically come every other day or if I haven't been drinking enough water, so perhaps I will get checked this Tuesday for my 38 week appointment. Baby continues to move quite a bit, but not constantly like before. Poor boy, he has hardly any room in there to move around!

-On Tuesday Joey had his second dentist appointment in his life. Originally I was taking him to a kids dentist, but found out that my dentist takes kids as well so we switched him over. He did so well there and let them take "pictures" (Xrays) of his teeth; well at least the front ones, he didn't like the things he had to clamp down on on his side teeth. When it came time to clean his teeth he was such a trooper and had to tell everyone that the lady tickled his teeth. He received a "dental prize pack" including a new toothbrush and floss, which he proudly uses every day. He also joined the No Cavities Club which enters him in a drawing every month for a prize for the remainder of the year and a pick from the treasure box. I was so happy that he didn't have cavities. We brush daily, but I always hear stories of parents being completely shocked when their kid's well cared for teeth have severe problems.

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-Joey has been Daddy's big helper in the yard and garage the last couple of weeks. It is funny because on Josh's day's off I hardly will see Joey because he is so busy following Daddy around and helping him. Somehow Josh was able to snag a UPS hat from a driver and gave it to Joey. Joey loves it, but isn't keen on wearing it all the time. However, with the hot sun, this Mommy made him put a hat on for extra protection on one of the day's they worked outside.



One of the things that Joey and Daddy like to do is have their "watering" time. Since it's summer I have been letting Joey stay up late to wait for Daddy to get home (around 8:15) so that they can go water the plants and the yard. It's become a nightly ritual for all of us and it has definitely benefited our grass and the flowers that Josh and Joey planted a couple of months back. Our Lilies look amazing and they smell just heavenly walking up to the door.



-Thursday and Wednesday were dedicated to sewing items for baby. I am so grateful that I have my Mom and Mother-in-Law to help me. They both know so much about sewing and have been able to help me in areas that I am unsure of. The confidence boost I get from their teachings has really helped me garner a love for sewing. Typically I get frustrated and want to quit when it comes to sewing, but now I feel like I am on some sort of sewing high that I don't want to come down from. I posted previously of the items I made this past week that you can find here.

-On Saturday Joey and I attended a Big Brother/Big Sister class at Tacoma General Hospital. It was geared toward helping siblings understand the basics of baby and some tips on how to help Mommy and Daddy. The instructor took them on a tour of the labor and delivery and postpartum sections of the hospital, plus a swing by of the cafeteria. They also watched a really cheesy and corny movie that had the kids giggling and the parents feeling sort of uncomfortable. At one time the weird guy instructing the video briefly explained breastfeeding and exclaimed it to be delicious and tasty and then licked his lips. We got what he was trying to say, but the early 90's video still warranted some uncomfortableness that only an adult would pick up on.
Joey did so well at the class and not to brag, was the best behaved there. I also may be biased but, the cutest one as well. He learned how to hold the baby and even told unrelated stories of Toy Story 3 and how he hears the babies heartbeat even though the instructor had simply asked if there were any questions. He had the room laughing and at one point a Dad turned to me and said that he thought my son was just so great.



-After the class Joey was invited to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. He's been there a couple of times with my sister, but I haven't been since I was little. It's definitely an interesting place and was crawling with kids. I liked that it was affordable and that it was geared towards the younger kid crowd (7ish and under)so I didn't have to worry about Joey getting trampled by a 10 year old not paying attention. Joey won lots of prizes with his ticket redemptions and I even got to put in a couple of games of Ski Ball.

Joey and the birthday girl, Eloquine.



Joey and Chuck E. playing.



-Yesterday we had all of Josh's brother's over for a BBQ. Uncle Robb had been saying that Joey was ready to take his training wheels off of his bike a week or so ago and I had said that I needed to get him a better helmet before that happened. Well, yesterday Uncle Robb and Andrea came with a brand new helmet for Joey and someone was eager to get those training wheels off and it wasn't Joey.
Although Joey wasn't quite sure about the wheels coming off Robb did such a good job helping him brave through it. With persistent work and help from Uncle Robb and our friend Craig, Joey has started to get the hang of riding without help. He needs assistance getting started with the momentum and he can go quite a ways balancing himself, however he has completely forgotten the concept of brakes and uses his feet to stop himself now. It's definitely going to be a "practice makes perfect" sort of thing, but Mommy and Daddy were so proud of him for getting the basics early on.







Josh made a delicious dinner of BBQ Bacon wrapped Chicken, corn on the cob, and a very tasty Peach Blueberry Crisp for dessert. He loves watching Food Network and really goes all out for Sunday dinners. He reminds me of my Dad though, excellent excellent cook, but they both use every single dish in the kitchen and there is always a much anticipated wait for dinner to be served.

Getting ready for baby

I have been a Sewing Machine!

Pun totally intended.

I have always admired the slings that I see mother's wearing their babies in. I was also a bit envious because I didn't even dream or imagine this stuff when Joey was a newborn. Of course they had Baby Bjorns and I used one while I coached volleyball but it always hurt my back and Joey never looked comfortable in it. I came across some really gorgeous slings on etsy.com when I first found out I was pregnant again. The one I really wanted was over $60, only because it was made with Amy Butler fabric. I found some more modestly priced ones for around $30 which I contemplated about here. However I couldn't decide on the fabric I wanted and I realized I just didn't love either one enough to commit.
Enter in my obsession with Joann's craft store. I found the cutest gray hounds-tooth fabric that I knew would look great on something. I dwelled on it for a couple of days and found a really neat baby sling tutorial on Pinterest.com from The Poplar Porch blog that really simplified the process and dumbed it down enough for me to get how to sew it.
I thought a yellow Chevron striped fabric would go perfect with the gray fabric and so I went on a very short search for it at Joann's and came up with nothing, but I did find a yellow dot fabric that matched well. I took the fabric over to my Mom's and she helped me sew my first sling together. My Mom has sewed since she was a little girl and one of her last projects was sewing me my homecoming dress sophomore year of high school. It was really neat to see her "light up" doing this project since it's been quite awhile since she has sewn.



Here I attempt to model it with a stuffed animal and a self portrait. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it turned out awesome. The fit is not right yet since I have a big baby basketball in the way, but it should be fine post birth.

My adventures in sling making gets even better. I made another with left over fabric from the car seat canopy I also made. Depending on your measurements, it only takes two yards of two coordinating fabrics and some thread and you got yourself, not one, but two slings. So after purchasing and sewing I only paid about $15 total in supplies for two baby slings. Technically, I can make another sling for nothing if I pair the two remaining pieces I have left over from the other two slings. Baby shower present? =) The second one only took about an hour to whip out, since I knew what I was doing.

In addition to sling making I also have created some blankets, diaper/spit up cloths, and a reversible car seat canopy.

The picture below shows both finished slings, a guitar blanket, and the cloths.



I didn't use any web sources for the blanket since those are pretty basic to sew, but I did research what fabric to use for the burp cloths (flannel for absorbency)since I wanted to pair them with the cute fabric I bought on fabric.com awhile back. The guitar fabric was originally intended for the car seat canopy but I mistakenly bought jersey knit fabric and it's very stretchy and hard to pair with regular cotton fabric so I reworked it to make a blanket instead.

The car seat canopy was fun to make, but took a little bit of time. It may be because I did it with my Mother-in-Law and we love to chat, but also because we were brainstorming how to do the ties. I get a little overzealous when I sew and go too fast, but I was really glad to do this project with her because she had some really good tips for me. I used this tutorial from the Vanilla Joy Blog. The instructions were almost like making a rounded blanket with ties to tie on the car seat handle. Since I was making it reversible (using the gray hounds tooth and teal dot fabric from the slings) it was a bit complicated getting it to all work together. None the less though, the canopy came out beautifully and it's probably my best "sewing in a straight line" accomplishment to date.



I unintentionally matched it to the car seat fabric. I say unintentionally because the guitar fabric was my first pick and the teal polka dots fabric was actually purchased to make a hospital gown with, but I have ditched that project...for now.



Lastly, here is a sneak peak at part of the nursery. I sewed up this blanket with the adorable Owl Fabric and a chenille underside. It turned out surprisingly well, considering sewing with two completely different fabrics is difficult and the chenille fabric kept slipping and moving on me. I do plan on finishing it with blanket binding for more of a polished look, but I may just leave it the way it is for now. Mainly because I have never sewed binding on before and it looks good the way it is. I would hate to mess it up!



And what the heck, may as well give a tiny reveal of the curtains (hint, it's a cotton shower curtain from target) and the neat paper mobile I made.



I linked these projects up to....