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So, my bigger apricot has proven to be a bit picky these days. It’s so frustrating, because he used to eat just about anything. Well, he’d eat anything except rice, of course. Or pretty much anything that wasn’t pureed to death. Okay, so he has a bit of a texture issue. I’m assuming that I didn’t feed him enough of a chunky, crunchy variety of foods. My bad.
I’m paying for it now. It’s near impossible to get him to eat any other veggie besides a sweet potato.
Brocolli?
“Yucky, Mama.”
Carrots?
“I don’t wike it.”
Spinach? Don’t even think about it.
A while back I read about green smoothies on my friend’s blog. Basically, it’s exactly like your regular smoothie, except you add some baby spinach. I started making the “shakes” and Wylder was in heaven. No griping about anything but the brain freeze. They are good! You’d never know they contained the “yucky” green stuff.
Anyway, in celebration of the beginning of summer, I decided to get a little crazy this week and make them into popsicles.
Genius, I know.
What kid would turn down a popsicle?
Not this kid!
I just throw a handful of any kind of frozen fruit I have available, a cup or so of fruit juice, and a big, bad bunch of fresh baby spinach leaves in the blender. If I feel like it, I’ll put a bit of yogurt in there, too. So easy. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze away!
I used lots of blueberries this time.
Blueberries with strawberries, peaches, pineapple, and mango.
So cold.
So good.
There’s something so gratifying about tricking your kid into eating veggies.
But just let it be known, if you ever trick me into eating mayonnaise…our friendship is over.
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Excuse me while I interrupt this program and get a little sentimental. My precious apricot is already three months old. We’re proud to call him a Smitty.
There’s a whole lot of gummy-smiled cooing going on in our world.
Wylder has gone from calling him “baby bludder” to “my baby.”
“Mom, look at my baby.”
“Mom, be careful with my baby.”
“My baby! He’s awake!”
“Mom, my baby said nah.”
“Mom, my baby said guh.”
“You changing my baby, Mama?”And it’s impossible for him to say it without giggling.
He’s definitely in love with “his baby.”
We are, too. We can’t help it.
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First of all, thanks for all the kind words said about our loft reno project. I was completely blown away by everyone’s niceness!
I’ve decided to kick off this series of how-tos with a little rundown of the photo wall in our TV room.
First of all, here’s what it looked like in the first place.
I wasn’t ever happy with the wonky map behind the couch. We hung that thing thinking that it would straighten itself out eventually, but just like my two-and-a-half year old ginger top, it needed more than love and encouraging words to be whipped into shape.
We’ve had so many unique experiences in our lives, and tons of photos to prove it, yet they had always camped out in Iphoto their whole life. So sad. We thought displaying random photos from various times in our married life would not only be a good way to showcase our adventures, but also be a great conversation piece.
The hardest part was probably deciding on what photos we would choose out or our ginormous collection. I admit, this was a task that I was too overwhelmed to handle.
Naturally, I left it in the freckledy hands of Jbird. I had to come to grips that there would be no telling what photos he’d actually choose. Since he was doing all of the time consuming work, I had no other choice than to be okay with his selection.
No griping. I get what I get and I don’t throw a fit.
Luckily, he only chose a couple of questionable photos. One was of our friend’s actual fingers after the unfortunate table saw incident, and the other of him in a Speedo.
Not sure which is worse. Meaty, exposed fleshy finger innards or meaty, exposed fleshy white man thighs? You tell me.
Moving on…
In order to get the look we wanted, we had to resize the photos to 4"X4” (including border).
Using Photoshop, we left two inches of white space on the right hand side of each photo. That way, it was pretty cheap getting them all developed (at Walgreens) as 4"X6” photos.
All we had to do was cut off one edge of each pic to get a perfect square.
Then, I took a level and made a chalk line on just two sides of the space I wanted to fill.
After I had one column and the bottom row, I just eyeballed the rest, using regular corsage pins to tack them to the wall.
I think it turned out really cool. It does, indeed, make for a great conversation piece.
It’s just a little sad that most of the conversations end with “Gross! Are those fingers???”
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Well, folks, we did it! We finally tweaked, organized, straightened, and swept our place good enough to snap a few pics that we can be proud of. I’d like to do a more detailed series of each room and some step-by-step DIY tutorials later on, but today I’ll giving you the whole shabang in a nutshell.
Let me back up. When we moved back to western Oklahoma about five years ago, we were on the hunt for a house that suited our family of two. We knew we’d be here a while because of Jbird’s job, and we wanted to settle down close to family. After not having much luck in the house hunting department, we realized that the seemingly unattainable big city loft-style living could actual become reality in this small town.
Shortly after, we found an amazing place to transform into the home of our dreams. Built in the 1920’s for doctor and dentist offices, the downtown building happened to be just right for our budget.
You really must see the beginnings of this crazy undertaking. I encourage you to take a look at these before reading on.
As you can see, my sweet, skinny, wonderful Jbird had quite a vision. One that gave me heart palpitations just thinking about its enormity. One that, at times, made me want to kick him in his precious nutsies. But, I can honestly say, I am glad he/we pressed on and made it happen. I am so blessed to get to live in a lovely home that we can share and enjoy with family, friends, and the occasional innocent pedestrian that lets themselves in only to find my husband and son eating Marshmallow Mateys in their underwear. I love it.
I also love that during the process, in the midst of the craziness of tearing down lath and plaster in the wee hours of the morning, I wiped the sweat from my dusty brow and saw this. It was the only thing taped to a lonely board waiting for the ol’ chopperoo.
Doesn’t get much cooler than that.
The almost two years of sleep-deprived Jbird looking like a human-sized dust bunny was totally worth it. Take a look.
Shoot! How’d that get in there?
I am so grateful for my hardworking, loving husband for following through and making our dreams come true. I am honored to share this wonderful place with my three best boys.
Come see us sometime!
Special thanks to Caleb Wilkerson from iamgravelveins Photography for these amazing shots! Also, thanks to Adeline for helping me choose and tweak. Love you guys!*Go here for more photos
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To continue the Christmas crafties recap, I thought I would tell you about another cool gift idea that you could whip up for little people in your life.
Yes, I know it’s April and Christmas was in December of last year. But, the amazing thing about me is that it feels like yesterday, so it doesn’t count. Could be because most of last year I was pregnant and brainless, so I’ve already pretty much blocked out most of that time in my life anyway. This is a good reminder of the happenings that went on during that chunk of my existence.
So, here’s to stringing out Christmas for the whole year! Who’s with me?
Back in November, Cylina (the one who taught me all my sweet knitting skills), forwarded this plush alphabet magnet tutorial to me, thinking I’d get a kick out of making these for my nieces and nephews. She was right. I got quite a kick out of it. Still have bruises. Maybe you will, too.
The beauty of this project is that it really doesn’t take as much time as it looks. The most tedious part is cutting out the stencils. If you can run a sewing machine, then you can do this!
At the risk of stealing little Bunny Foo Foo’s coined phrase,
hop to it!
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My mom, sisters, cousins, and friends just couldn’t let the welcoming of my second ginger top slide through the cracks. They wanted to celebrate my sweet boy, so they asked if they could give a “meet the baby” get together. I have never been one to say no to a good party, so of course, I obliged…with Arlo’s permission, of course.
Oh my, oh my, ooooooohhhhh my. I can honestly say it was the sweetest, prettiest party I have ever been to. I can’t even begin to explain how beautiful it was. I admit, I got a little teary eyed. Granted, I was coming down off of my c-section pain meds and had all kinds of hormones flying around my body, but I am convinced that I was touched purely by the love that was behind it.
So pretty. So thoughtful.
Since I had spent the last three months of my pregnancy knitting like a madwoman (under the tutelage of my dear friend, Cylina), they thought it would be appropriate to do a knitting themed party.
Sidenote: Seriously, the knitting was so intense sparks were literally flying. Ask anyone. Unfortunately, this velvet-headed little dude came out a lot larger than expected, thus having to forego most of his pom pom hats and booties.
Jars of yarn balls in muted, natural tones, yarn wrapped vases, and white branches created such a fresh and elegant table. Cappuccino punch, yogurt covered raisins, candied almonds, dates, brownie bites, cupcakes, white chocolate pretzels were just some of the amazing treats.
Psalms 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Hand embroidered felt bunting, adorned the salted caramel chocolate cupcakes. I’m not kidding ya. It was pretty stinkin’ awesome.
Cookie “buttons” as favors. Yup. My family and friends are THAT amazing.
Arlo let out a huge sigh of relief when he realized that his sweater outfit was the absolute perfect choice for this occasion. Trust me, he had been stressing.
Unfortunately, he partied way too hard and indulged in one too many cups of cappuccino punch. Guest of honor or not, a man’s gotta let out some steam every now and then.
Perfect. Personal. Touching. Beautiful. Unique.
All words to describe this celebration. All words that describe my dear friends and family who helped and attended.
Thank you Lori, Cylina, Milli, Mom, Amber, Jodi, and the brains behind the whole operation and party planner/giver extraordinaire…Ginger.
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I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since yet another redhead has entered my world!
We are all in love with our littlest apricot, although it has been a pretty big adjustment with the bigger apricot.
Don’t get me wrong. Bigger Apricot has shown no sign of malice, anger, bitterness, or jealousy of any sort to Little Apricot. In fact, there has been nothing but warmth and love shown to his little velvet-headed brother.
It’s more just an overall crazy in all other areas that keep Jbird and I looking at each other with “what in the heck world?” kind of faces.
But, seriously, I’m sure these responses are totally normal for a two-and-a-half year old new big brother. I mean, I’m sure it’s extremely common for a first time big brother to use toilet water to fix his almost one year old cousin’s hair. I’m sure every mother gets to witness her toddler continue to use his own urine from his celebrated potty chair experience to fix his own hair, too…all on the same night. I’m sure this is all normal, typical responses during major life shifts such as this…
Anywho, it has been a bit of a workout for me and Jbird, but soooo worth every minute of it.
Little Apricot adores his big brother, but is just having a hard time these days adjusting to his “old man phase.” You’ll be glad to know, however, that after a few hours of consoling and counseling, he has come to grips with his fate and realizes that this time shall pass.
In the meantime, we’ve put away all mirrors and postponed any playdates until further notice.
Oh, and as for Woody and Jessie?
They are adjusting beautifully.
Thanks for asking.
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He’s here! He’s actually here!
Arlo William Smith made his entrance February 11th at 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and 21 1/4 inches long.
Here’s is a video Jbird put together for me. Enjoy!
Arlo William Smith from Jason Smith on Vimeo.
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