Can you ever really have too many hats???

Well it’s no secret that Eli will be getting his Doc band, aka “helmet” next week so I’m trying to think of fun ways to make it a little less conspicuous. Yesterday, after making up my mind to settle in bed early and give this “Girl with a dragon tattoo book” my undivided attention and hopefully get into it, (I’m almost 150 pages in and STILL waiting for it to suck me in. Grrr. But anywho) I had to do one more round of blog stalking and stumbled upon a tutorial for a “lumber jack hat” that I just had to make like, right Now. The book was just going to have to wait, again.
This blog is called Delia Creates and she has a lot of cute tutorials so I’ll probably add her to my favs and check back frequently for more fun inspiration. The tutorial for this hat was based on a head measuring 18 1/2in around, and I realize that’s for an older child (her 2 year old to be exact) but I figured it would be perfect to make Eli a hat on the larger side so that it would fit over his helmet next week. They say the doc band makes the baby’s head sweat more easily because it’s on 23hrs a day, so who knows, maybe he won’t even need a hat once that puppy is on. Either way, he can most likely wear it next winter. Here he is modeling his new, oh-so-soft-and-cuddly-I-want-one-for-myself hat:

Is this hat fun or what?!

It’s a fleece hat with a sherpa lining for the bill and ear piece. The sherpa is typically super exprensive but I found this little beauty in the remnant bin on clearance a while back so I got a great deal on it. Let me tell you, when I saw this hat and read that it called for a faux fur or sherpa lining I did a happy dance because I knew I already had it on hand. Woo hoo! For those interested in making your own, Check out the tutorial here .

Alrighty, time to get back to making dinner. Toodles.

-Linds

Another Sunday Fun day :)

Just your daily dose of Eli:

Any toofers in there? Nope, not yet.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

-Linds

This is how boys play…

One of Aaron’s flying buddies and his wife came over today to meet Eli for the first time. This buddy helped Eli play with his fabric cube and showed him its full belly-laugh potential by tossing it in his face. Eli found it hysterical! Me personally, I don’t care too much for things being thrown in my face so he must get this from his Daddy, or just being a boy. I wouldn’t know, I grew up with a mom and sister and I assure you, we never threw things in each others face (If we did, it was by accident and then we darted into the bathroom and locked the door so the other one wasn’t able to retaliate. We used to drive each other Batty doing that! Remember Steph? Good times, ha ha). Anywho, take a look:

A baby laughing NEVER gets old, amirite? **Sigh, boys will be boys

-Linds

My thieving son, being spoiled by grandma…

…Takes after his Auntie Stephie apparently in the thievery department . We were at grandma’s house today and she handed him some new toys grandpa had bought him to play with while at their house and one went missing. We found him like this:

Double fisting. But wait, where’d the blue toy go? Oh it’s stored in the pocket of his bib! Ha ha. Sneaky, sneaky sir.

We always have a good time at grandma’s because he’s spoiled rotten AND she feeds me

Anybody else get an uncontrollable urge to munch on that bald looking head? (There IS hair there, it’s just platinum is all) I can’t even begin to tell you how yummy the back of his neck is. Mmm Mmm!

A couple of my favorite people

Not a whole lot going on around here, so sorry about the lack of updates. He did just get fitted for his “helmet” yesterday. They had to put a white stocking over his head & face and take the 3D pictures. I wanted to get a picture of it on him but they moved so fast and I didn’t know if it was allowed. He looked like the littlest bank robber you ever did see! You would have thought he was used to wearing stockings over his face because he didn’t once try to yank it off or cry. Just wave the flashy, spinning light thing in his face and he’s golden-- you have his complete, undivided attention. Too funny. I guess in the past they used to do molds of the babies heads but now they do these fancy schmancy photo digital moldings. Next, we wait 2 more weeks for them to make it :/

So that’s it in a nutshell. Stay tuned for the reveal in 2 weeks. You guys will have to send me suggestions on fun ways to jazz it up .

-Linds

Eli getting dunked…

Auntie Stephie joined Eli and I at swim lessons today and managed to capture a video of him getting dunked. He goes under like a champ. This kid has not cried or fussed ONCE while in the water since we started our lessons 3 months ago. He makes me so proud. Sorry about the poor video quality, it’s from her phone:

We love Mondays around here. This is our last free session of lessons, next he graduates to “diaper divers” (makes me giggle every time I say that) which will cost a pretty penny but I feel worth every cent. Jeremy clearly knows what he’s doing, gets results and is SO good with the kiddos. I feel it’s my duty as Eli’s parent to make sure he’s not afraid of water and if God forbid he ever fell in, would not panic and at the very least, be able to float until help arrives. After listening to Jeremy describe the different infant reflexes and how to work around them, I realized that even though I like to swim and can, I know nothing about teaching my son how to swim. So needless to say, if you can’t tell already, I highly recommend swim lessons and starting young


-Linds

New Fabric block for Eli

Yesterday I had a craft day with my sister and friend Leslie and it was fun because we were all working on different projects and helping each other out in the process. Leslie made a paci-pouch, which I didn’t get a picture of but looks like this:

(Image stolen from Etsy…and lets face it, idea too)

I Showed Steph how to make my small foldable wet bag (perfect for soiled bibs, clothes or cloth diapers when out and about) for a gift for a preggo friend (which I can’t show you in case she reads this) that turned out SUper ca-uute! And lastly, I made Eli a textured/taggie fabric block. I used a whole bunch of different soft/fuzzy textured fabrics and taggies and threw in a couple jingle bells inside. Overall, I’m very happy with the way it turned out, although I envisioned it a little smaller. Oh well. Here it is:

Different views of all the sides

Ok, now for the test. Does Eli like it?

Checkin’ things out….





What do you think Eli?

“Huh mom? I didn’t hear you, I was too busy playin’”

Can momma have it?

“No way, Jose! Mine!”

I think he likes it

-Linds

My SU-per Baby!

This is how I place him in my awesome “C” pillow (it’s a preggo pillow that is just that, an oversized “c”, ha ha):

Happy, content.

I walk into the bathroom, blow my nose, return to this:

The shenanigans my mobile 6 month old gets into in 2.5 seconds. I think he’s playing possum…

But don’t despair, he can handle it. He’s SU-per baby!!!!

Ha ha ha. This kid cracks me up. Never a dull moment in the Scicluna household. I think he’s ready to join Grandpa Terry in his weight room and start doing some bench presses…just sayin’.

Alrighty, better get to bed. I got a craft date with my girls in the morning. Na night.

-Linds

Wanna trade?

A friend from facebook is a crocheter (word right?) and she saw the crochet hook roll I made my mom for christmas and wanted one. Well she makes the most adorable knit hats, sooooo (see where I’m going here? Sneaky, sneaky sir.) I offered her a trade and she agreed! Woo hoo! Eli is now the proud owner of a super cute new hat

(Hat handmade by Donna Jo Thacker)

Side view with the cute little animal buttons.

Just having a grand ol’ time on the floor…with his shoe.

Thanks Donna! I hope your crochet roll serves you well and you like it as much as we love our hat. Aaaaanytime you wanna trade again, just let me know

-Linds

My latest mommy must-have…

Ok so remember I showed you Eli’s fold and go bib, inspired by this blog post over at “B is for boy!”? Here’s her version:

Pretty freakin’ awesome huh??
I’ve since made a total of 3 now that Eli’s eating and drooling pretty regularly and needing bibs. I’m.in.love. I’ve tweaked her pattern/tutorial a bit to fit my own needs. For example. I removed the side tabs and just put the snaps directly ON the bib so it snaps up tighter:

No tabbies, just snaps

At the brilliant suggestion of my friend Ariana, I added a pocket to the front that droops perfectly to catch the crumbs and missed-mouth-completely foods.

Droopy pocket in action

Just a front view of the pocket.

I added terry cloth (aka towel) to the back to make it more absorbent…

Terry cloth back, with pockets for silverware…

Ok and for the grand finale of cool discoveries, (Drum roll please…..)

When you’re all done using the bib and it’s covered in “achies” (pronounced “uh-keys” as in gross drool/spit-up/not-good-for-babies stuff. Here, I’ll use it in a sentence for you, “don’t eat that Eli, that’s achies.” ok lets move on) You fold and snap it up the opposite way and trap said achies and dirty spoon inside until you get home and can throw it in the laundry or hamper! Woo hoo! How freakin’ amazing is that???

Bib folded “wrong” way to keep the dirty side from touching clean stuff in the diaper bag

Happy momma doing the happy dance over here.

-Linds

I think Eli likes avocado…

-Linds


p.s
Ok, so I lied. I’m pretty sure I’m going to hell because I laughed so hard, I nearly peed myself. You notice how his mean AUNTIE steals his beverage when he goes for it?? His face clearly says, “give me the damn cup, I NEED to get this taste out of my mouth!” Yep, definitely going to the place below. In an attempt to redeem my good momma status, I DID give him a large nanner so he still loves me  
Sorry if the above exorcist moment made YOU vomit :/

Eli’s mini me…

^^My current baby…

                         ^^ My very first baby…

My Auntie Glenna’s hubby, Mark (I have to say it that way because it gets confusing, I literally have like 20 “uncle Marks”, no joke,) Once commented that Eli looked like a cabbage patch baby. I have to admit, I think he’s right. Ha ha ha.This was my very first baby as a kid. Her name is Judith Mona Muuuuah! Still love that doll.

Just thought I’d share my laugh for the day. Hope you all have a great weekend!

-Linds

Teach’em young, I say….

Eli just finished his yummy homemade butternut squash. He’s a happy camper right now“Yeah mom, I swallowed it ALL, ahhhhh.”

Ok bud, time to clean up. Wipe your tray table and don’t forget your face…

Good job!

So far we’ve tried sweet potato, butternut squash, rice cereal, baby oatmeal, avocado, and nanner (formerly known as “banana”). He’s loved them all and scarfs up every last bite, (except for the avocado, he just liked to play with that one, but then again I haven’t tried it since). Next month, my son’s pediatrician is hosting a “big boy” foods class where she teaches how to introduce foods to baby withOUT a spoon or using “baby” foods. Interesting, I know. I thought using a spoon at a young age helps them get the hang of things later on and works on coordination? I suppose jumping right into finger foods does that too. Heh. I remember someone telling me about how she teaches not to use pureed baby foods but going straight to finger foods, and wanting to learn more about it. The class is for baby’s at least 6 months old. Currently, when I make Eli’s food I add just enough breast milk to allow the food to be a thick, sticky consistency (so I could tip the bowl upside down and it wouldn’t run out, just sit there in a glob) because he doesn’t seem to care for the runny stuff. But, watching my kid eat (it’s recommended you do that, you know) he puts it in his mouth and swallows. No mashing it around his mouth to savor the heavenly homemade goodness. That kind of makes me nervous when I think of giving him tiny cut up chunks of big people food and him going straight for the swallow. But I’m sure she knows what she’s doing, after all, she has 4 kids of her own and she’s been doing this for a while.

So any mommas of 6 month+ or about to be 6 months as of February 7th, want to join me at 10am in Genoa? Hmmmm? Anybody…?

cricket….cricket…

Alrighty then. You snooze you lose. I’ll of course let you all know how it goes

Ok Eli, say “buh-bye” :

-Linds

Update on Eli’s head…

This post is for my silent lurkers, wondering whatever happened regarding Eli’s flat head mentioned ages ago…?
Ok so remember I had mentioned the “not so good news” about Eli’s head having a flat spot on the back right side at the 4 month update? Our pediatrician had given us a referral to have his head checked out for a free consultation with the head specialists . Well Aaron and I wanted to wait a bit and see if it would be able to correct on its own (and also wait until the first of the year to do it if it did indeed need to happen because I had jumped onto Aaron’s insurance after my maternity leave so late in the year and I wanted this bound-to-be-super-expensive helmet expense put towards THIS years deductible. Hey, I gotta be practical in this economy!)
So it DID improve a lot on it’s own since he is a lot more mobile these days and no longer tilting his head at night to suck his thumb attached to his short, stubby arm. (Grrr, still bitter about it since he did that for maaaaaybe 3 weeks tops—enough to do permanent damage.) His head is less “cone-y” but it still has an undeniable flat spot that is there to stay, unfortunately. So we had his head photos taken today and did the consultation and we’re pretty certain we need to do this for him. They are going to get back to us in the next day or two regarding insurance coverage and potential cost.
Here are Eli’s mug shots. I laugh out loud each time I stare at that face in the first slot. Aaron wanted to photo shop it and put “wanted” above it. Ha ha ha. Mommy loves you sweet pea

Some of the pics make it difficult to tell because he’s tilting his head or leaning forward but it’s there. She said that this flatness has lead to a slight shift in Eli’s forehead, and ear alignment. She thinks Eli will most likely need to be in it for 8 weeks. (Crossing our fingers that it’s shorter than that and NOT longer!)
The bummer of it all is that we’ll have to do weekly appointments initially, and then it’ll be every 2 weeks, but it’s out in Lombard! Waaaaah! That’s like 45 minutes away—(so an hour and a half in the car for you mathematically challenged peeps. ) Waaaaah! But she was telling me their furthest client drives in each week from Kentucky!!! Holy canoly! Ok. I’ll stop whining now.
You should check out their website if you’ve never heard of a DOC band *coughbeckycough*. They tell you what the DOC band is all about, how it works, and they show some pretty amazing befores and afters. Did you know that prior to the “back to sleep” campaign, plagiocephaly (the correct medical terminology for miss-shaped heads) was 1 baby in 300, but now post campaign its 1 in 10?!? The studies have shown that the rate of SIDS has dropped so significantly and that abnormal head shapes can easily be corrected non-surgically that they feel the benefits of back to sleep far out way this risk. Interesting huh?
Alrighty, that’s the update in a nutshell for now. Toodles!
-Linds
P.S
They made him strip down to his diaper for these pics, good thing he had on his fancy schmancy Huggies jean diapers . Dressed to impress, oh yeah!