Hostess Club: January

Close-up of the eye.

Shaker Card

Glittery card... I will use this one for a little birthday girl at the end of January

These are the two cards we did for my hostess club here this month. One is a glittery card that is SO simple; we used adhesive letters and numbers and simply pressed down into a pile of glitter until the letter or number was thoroughly covered. The other card is a "shaker" card. It's cuter in person. The heart shaped eyes of the skull and crossbones are cut out and the card is designed so that you can see glitter and beads behind the eyes (which are covered with a thin clear paper) when you shake it. It looks and sounds cool. It makes for a fun, special, birthday card. Instructions for basic shaker card design and another sample can be found here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/shaker_card/. The stamp set I used for my shaker card also comes with a bow you can stick on the head of the skull. I have heard that skulls and crossbones are popular on girls' clothing and accessories. This isn't something I have seen but I am not yet in the Secret Club regarding girls clothes. Kevin is actually trying to block my membership into this club. ;)

Table Manners

Lila loves to eat. It doesn't matter what we are presenting her; like her poor mother she is not very picky. Lately when I have been feeding her she has repeatedly lunged unexpectedly for the bowl and started to lick the bowl and chew on it. I don't know if she thinks it's a more efficient way to eat or if she thinks she's an animal but either way it's really messy and I don't think Emily Post would approve. We're trying to do things right with this baby and start her off with better manners than the boys but Lila is largely uncooperative thus far.

Speaking of the boys... at dinnertime I have been reading manners hints from a children's cookbook my aunt sent them. Most of it we have discussed before but they needed a refresher. I find that since they have so little time to eat lunch at school (somewhere under 10 minutes) they really shovel their food into their mouths like little cavemen. I have tried to convince them that no wild beasts are coming to take their food from them. I have also had to remind Cullen that saying "I can't believe you eat this" is not how you speak of something your mother has lovingly prepared for you. They haven't learned my trick from my youth of feeding the dog my unwanted food. I won't tell them and if they do it I will act shocked and horrified. I'd better start practicing.

Photo Frame Clipboard

I actually did this project a few months ago. I used one of Stampin' Up!'s 9x9 clipboards and decorated it using the "Rock-a-Bye Girl" Simply Scrappin' kit (there is a boy version too!). It was really easy to do and I have also done several for gifts. The kit comes with so many components that it seems like I have barely used any of it. I also used it to decorate a 14x14 plain white memento box that I got at Wal-Mart. Whenever I have a keepsake item for Lila (like a card or her hospital bracelets) I tuck it in the box. One day when I start to scrapbook again I will put some of those items in the scrapbook but for now I know it's in a safe place!

Just "The One"

This has always been something that grated my last nerve but today it happened again. I was trying out a new gym and talking to another mom in the nursery. In explanation of something that she did that she thought might be a little over-protective she said "Well, I just have the one..." as in the one child that she was possibly overprotecting. I have no problem with parents doting on their children. I do it myself. I am also a little overprotective. However, don't act like my child's specialness is diminished each time I have another one. I may have three but we don't live in the olden days when Ma and Pa had spare kids in case one died. All of my children were wonderful gifts; none of them is the human equivalent of a spare tire. I will admit that when I was pregnant with Carson and Cullen was just a little guy I wondered how we could ever love another human being as much as we loved our first baby. I soon learned that there was enough love in this old heart for many children. Cullen was about four when a friend squirmed about me putting her child in the third seat of my vehicle. "It's more dangerous in the back; can you put Cullen back there?" As if that wasn't bad enough on it's own she then proceeded to say "I only have (insert child's name here)". So my child is expendable because I have backup? Now they do aggravate me on occasion (OK, multiple occasions daily) but even at their worst I will never run screaming from danger and throw back one of the kids screaming "Here, take this one! Me and Pa had some extra younguns!"

Why are our children so amazing?

Lila got two teeth yesterday. You would have thought she climbed Mount Everest or won the Nobel Prize I was so darn proud. Teeth! She grew TWO teeth! After a few hours I thought about it in perspective... doesn't everybody's baby grow teeth? How many babies around the world probably popped out a couple of canines yesterday? Yet why is it so amazing when our own children do the most mundane things that children pretty much all do? I haven't grown out of it with Cullen and Carson. I am still amazed by the things they do and say (although sometimes they need to go into time-out for the amazing things they do or say). Lila being my third hasn't lessened my amazement with her "accomplishments" at all. In fact, I think the spacing has made me even more impressed with her. I have decided that this is something that God has instilled in parents to serve as a protective shield around their children. Isn't it nice knowing that your Mom will always be proud of you or that your Dad will always think of ways to keep you safe? I think God makes us impressed with and enamoured with our children to help them feel good in a world that sometimes can be a little rough. I even think it's cool that "parents" of pets have this same feeling. It must be inborn. Did I mention that Lila grew two teeth? Two. My baby is so efficient. I am sure I will post a picture of them as soon as they are visible in a photograph.

The Non-Traditional Christmas Letter

I actually love getting Christmas letters with Christmas cards. I enjoy getting to know my friends' kids through these yearly letters and hearing about their jobs and vacations. However, I often wonder about everything that is left out of these letters. I didn't do a Christmas letter this year but here are some things I would have probably left out...

• We got our first call from the principal last month when Carson punched a schoolmate, causing him to bleed (OK- so this kid had been teasing Carson for months but my first grader did hit someone and this is never excusable).
• My eldest son, i.e. the offspring of an English teacher, made a D on a book report he worked on in class for three days. The worst is that it was barely a D. He said he got "distracted" and I was thinking "for three days?" He is going to have to rewrite it over the holidays. I am such a witch.
• All of our animals are somewhat crazy. One of our cats now uses the sandbox as a litterbox and we can't use the sandbox anymore. It is about to be remodeled into a playhouse with the sand dumped into the woods behind our house.
• We went to the Gulf Coast this year and that's it. No wild vacations, no romantic getaways, no pictures with Mickey Mouse. We stayed in Prairieville. We go to Baton Rouge every few weeks; does that count as a vacation? I didn't think so.
• Lila is really cute but she must be held 90% of the time and she poops like there's no tomorrow. She also drools.
• I am a housewife. That means I do a lot but talk about a big yawn to describe in a newsletter! And what woman doesn't do all that I do? It's kind of like writing "this year our whole family breathed and had pulses every day!!!" Big whoop-de-do.
• Our hobbies... well, that's always hard because we really don't have any hobbies that truly count. Is child-rearing and all that it entails a hobby? Kevin goes to the LSU games but that couldn't really be counted as entertainment this year (at least not for LSU- maybe for the opposing teams). We watch TV together and like reality TV... wait, are you falling asleep as you read about our sad existence? I am going to start making up hobbies. This year it will be tornado chasing and sky diving.

Here are some of my other favorite things I have read in people's newsletters in the past that made me chuckle: one described their son as "trying his hardest" at T-ball (read: he sucks), another described their job as challenging (read: I am not up to my job title), yet another described their job as "comfortable" (read: boring as heck). I also know that anytime someone describes their child, husband, or life in general as too perfect that they are lying.

Not a creature was stirring except two little mice!

Carson and Despereaux

Both boys and their mice in their little exercise balls. Jake also had to be part of the photo! The mice make him nervous.

Cool place for two little mice to live! They sleep in the upper level.

Here are some shots of the boys and their mice. Despereaux is white and is Carson's mouse. Darth Vader is primarily black and is Cullen's mouse. Both are girls despite their masculine names.