on the homefront

The Maurer household has been bustling lately! Jude and I are continuing to feel better, and it looks like we're both back to our normal-ish selves. Jude has at least two more teeth starting to come through - equaling a grand total of six! He's chewing on things (notice I said "things," and not "food." He's not very discriminating about what he decides to chew on) like an old pro and is eating cinnamon/flax seed waffles as I type. It's actually getting to be a bit of a struggle to get him to eat off of a spoon because he'd much rather just feed himself.

He's also taken two steps by himself when walking from Mommy to Daddy! He's such a good (and fast) crawler, though, so I have a feeling it'll still be a little bit before he finds the need to walk. We're finding that the more independent he gets - the more content he gets. Don't get me wrong, he's already learning the art of the temper tantrum, but it's almost like he's always been an independent little toddler trapped in a baby's body. Now that he can cruise around and get where he wants to go - he's pretty much a happy kid!

Jude's starting to extend his naptimes (praise GOD!). Previously, he was taking 3-4 naps of 30-45 minutes each. Just long enough for me to just get into whatever work I needed to get done. Once we switched him from (4) 6oz bottles to (3) 8 oz bottles, he started taking one nap in the morning of about 1.5 hour, and one nap in the afternoon of about an hour. I can't even begin to tell you how nice it is to have longer breaks to get work accomplished!

I've read that Mommy and Daddy attachment usually peaks between 12-18 months, and it looks like we're full on into that stage. He still does pretty well when I drop him off at the nursery or when we leave him with a sitter, but he's not a big fan of me leaving the room or getting up to do something else when I was playing with him. And some days he'll be playing just fine by himself, but as soon as he hears the sewing machine, his whining kicks into overdrive. I can almost hear him saying, "What?! You're doing work?? Mommy! You're supposed to be playing with me!" I pray this is just a phase, but as long as I'm able to get work done while he's napping and for the spurts that he's content to play by himself, I think we'll be just fine.

The three of us are gearing up to take a trip to Cincinnati for Jude's first birthday! We're so excited to be able to see both families at the same time and are so looking forward to celebrate the birth of this kiddo.

This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Jude, but Shawn and I finally got a new (to us) dishwasher! Our old one turned on and made lots of diswashing-like noises...but alas didn't actually work. But now....NOW, my friends...

No more washing dishes by hand! No more ugly drainer on the sink! No more hand sanitizing bottles, sippy cups, and pacifiers! No more washing dishes three or four times a day! Oh the joy!

On a slightly less exciting note (and only slightly because I'm abnormally excited about this, too). I sewed a jacket! To understand how exciting this is to me, you need to know that the last time I attempted to sew clothes was in high school. I decided to make a pair of pajama pants. Except when I was finished - it only had one leg.

So I was really nervous to try another project like this, but I figured I'd been sewing for awhile now and had learned quite a bit along the way. A jacket was a lofty goal since it had darts, lining, gathering, buttonholes, collars, and lots of professional sounding stitches that it turns out I was already doing, but just didn't know the names of. Here's a very poor quality pic of how the jacket turned out:

Without my hand on my hip like that it's a little flufflier than I'd like, and the buttonholes are nothin' to write home about, but I did it! I made a jacket! And you know - it's actually pretty good. The sleeves are the same length, the lining (brown polka dotted) is in correctly, the darts are even, the collar lays flat - as I told my Small Group girls on Wednesday - it's a real LIVE jacket!


I kind of have this "thing" for jackets and coats and I usually buy one or two each season. How cool is it that not only can I make my own - but I can pick out my own fabrics/patterns and make it as funky/classy/trendy and I'd like!


Oh man. Go ahead. Just call me Martha Stewart. Without the whole jail thing, though.


And finally - to please the grandparents - Judeabug with some funky hair: