Pepper Scraps

One year ago we met. Your daddy and I adored you even before you came into this world.

The day started early as you had a scheduled debut. You were going to be evicted from your snugly abode. And we were excited. The day also started with snow, in March in Oregon, a very rare thing to happen. We called the hospital to see if we could come in early so to make sure we didn’t get stuck on our hill or on the hill up to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital and they were ready for us. We got comfortable in our room and we got to listen to your heartbeat and your kicks as you kicked the monitor.

In the operating room it was strange for mommy, because with your big brother it was such a shock to be in there that I remember very little of being in there. But then I also got sick this time. Don’t know if it was nerves, not eating, just being more aware, the constant morning sickness that never went away or the spinal.

But then you were in the room with us, complaining about leaving your nice warm home for this bright cold world. Daddy got to watch you as you got weighed and monitored and then I got to see you.

In our room we got to have you near in the hospital’s funny little plexi-glass bassinets. And for hours on end you laid all swaddled there and in my arms, humming. You almost sounded like you were singing to yourself, trying to sooth yourself. I loved listening to you, to the first sounds you made.

Your brother adored you right away, running into the room to see the baby. And everyday he loved coming back to see his brother. And on your first car ride together as we tried to figure out how to shuffle you both to the car we tried taking Zane out first. He ran to your car seat and started dragging you along with him.

Now you have learned so many wonderful and spectacular skills. I love to watch you “run” up and hall. I love when I catch you playing with your brother.  I love to listen to your little babbles as you try to learn to talk. But even without words you are learning to communicate. You hold out your hand and give a little motion to tell me “give me”, “I want”, or as I like to pretend you are saying, “Please”.

We cannot wait to see what the Lord has prepared for your life. To learn more about you and your unique personality. To watch you grow and change. To see how you and your brother grow closer and become bonded together as brothers. We love you so much!

Filed under: Milestone, Uncategorized, Zarek Tags: birthday, letter, wishes, Zarek

This month Zarek is turning one year old. For Zane I planned such a great birthday party. I wanted to make sure that Zarek’s birthday is just as grand as Zane’s was. I will be sharing with you my plan step by step to make the Perfect First Birthday Party.

Choose Your Theme

The first thing you need is the perfect theme. This can be the most fun part of the planning or the most frustrating, but it’s all in how you look at it. There are some great websites to give you ideas. One of my favorite’s is:

Birthday Party Ideas

Think about some of your little one’s favorite things or your favorite things to do with your little one. Obviously a one year old doesn’t tell you in words what their favorite things are. But think about their favorite food? Do they have a favorite toy or stuffed animal? Do you always read the same book to them every night? Or you can do a theme around a color, the theme of their room, or just something fun.

Some Ideas For You

Some of my favorite themes:

• Balloons (Zane’s first birthday theme)
• Camouflage Green or Pink
• Bubbles
• Prince/Princesses
• Cupcakes
• Bugs
• ABCs
• Animal Crackers (do everything in animals)
• Fishy
• Butterfly
• Nursery Rhymes
• Circus
• Trucks/Construction
• Cowboy/girl
• Dinos
• Dr Suess
• On the Farm
• Winnie the Pooh
• Rainbow
• Rubber Ducky
• Stars and Moons
• Star Wars
• Sunshine
• Tea Party
• Train Party
• ABCs
• Robots
• Pirates

Be creative think outside the box.

Six Categories

Write down 3-5 of your ideas for themes on the top of a piece of paper.  Write these six categories under each theme:

1. Invitations
2. Decorations
3. Games/Entertainment/Craft*
4. Cake
5. Food
6. Goodie Bags

*With a one year old you may not play games but you may want your guests write notes to your little one or have trivia about your little one or about the theme.

Brainstorming

Now it’s time for you to brainstorm for each theme you are considering. Write down quick ideas for each of these categories. Just write basic ideas down later on you will expand your ideas once you have chosen your theme. What you want to do is see if you can fill up each category and see which theme you start to get excited about, that sounds the most fun.

Zarek’s Example

Zarek is going to have a Cheerios themed birthday party. Here is a rough draft I created to plan his party.

1. Invitations: Modify a picture of a cheerios box with the party details
2. Decorations: Yellow: yellow balloons, streamers,  plates, etc.
3. Games/Entertainment/Craft: String Cheerios on a necklace, slide show of the year
4. Cake: I’m thinking about making a round cake to look like a big cheerio
5. Food: Cheerio Rice Crispy Treats, Donuts, Cheerio Chex Mix
6. Goodie Bags: Single Servings of Cheerios, Cheerio Cereal bars, Spoon and bowl

This is all about having fun with your theme. Don’t feel like everything has to match. Your one year old will never know that they didn’t have all yellow balloons. Or that the cake wasn’t perfect. Take the stress out of the planning, just have fun!

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, all about party invitations and decorations.

Filed under: Birthday Party Planning, Meme, Milestone, Zarek Tags: birthday, entertaining, Party, theme, Zarek

I’m hoping that soon there will be rainbows on the horizon soon in our lives. We are living in a storm of problems this last few weeks yet at the same time there are some really amazing and great things happening too. And when you add rain and sunshine together you get rainbows.

The boys are testing my mommy skills and I’m getting to my limit. If Zarek is not throwing up on me or I’m not changing a icky diaper, Zane is having alergic reactions to who knows what having us run to the ER. And I think he must like the ER because he decided this morning to eat 1/2 box of benadryl.

It was mommy’s fault for leaving the benadryl out but I’m also running on almost no sleep. Saturday night (1:30am) Zane awoke just inconsolable.  In the next half hour we were rushing him to the ER with head to toe hives. You know it’s bad when the nurse tells you if he starts having breathing or swallowing pull over and have an ambulance take him the rest of the way.

We stayed at the hospital till 4 or 5am got a shot of steroids and some benedryl. We got home and I stayed up with Zane to watch him and make sure he didn’t scratch. But after staying up I just couldn’t get myself to go to bed. So I got a whole 1 1/2 hours of sleep on Saturday and Sunday.

And it didn’t stop with the weekend. Monday I screwed up not looking at my schedule. I was just too tired Sunday night and I’m always scheduled at 10am.  Nope I was scheduled for 8:30am.Which threw off my whole day.

I have a family member who has been arrested for some nasty stuff. So glad that we rarely saw them anyways, maybe once a year. But it’s been hard just wrapping my mind around the whole thing.

On the good news though business is really picking up for me on my graphic design jobs. It’s been amazing some of the great jobs that have been coming in. I’m going to be having a huge site reveal in the next few days which is very exciting.

Filed under: My Life, PT Work, Zane, Zarek Tags: bad mommy, bad news, Design, Zane, Zarek

Poor little Zaney isn’t having a very good night. We are struggling with potty training after getting sick last weekend. So far tonight he has fallen out of bed (hard), wet the bed, and had another accident. I would put a diaper or pullups on him but he just takes them off.

So here we are in the middle of the night, early early morning with him on the couch and me on the big chair. Hopefully he will feel like going to bed in a little  soon, so mommy can get a little sleep before Zarek wakes up.

Sometimes it’s hard being the mommy. Always worth it but hard.

Print out some mommy cards for the next time you have your little ones over for a playdate or just meet a mommy you want to meet up with again.

I forgot to mention that I was featured at The Frugal Homeschooling Mom, I got together with her and made a coloring sheet. I will be making more in the near future so stay tuned!!

Filed under: Crafts, Febrauary Freebies, Freebies, Meme, Uniquehorn Designs Tags: card, February, Mommy, potty training, Printable, Zane

Yesterday was the Chinese New Year and now we are in the year of the Tiger. So I have created a fun little note card for you to be able to print and write a note to a friend!

Filed under: Uncategorized