I Like My Typography Bold

Going Away

Too much to do, no time for blogging.  Still writing letters to the kids and posting all the time on twitter and facebook so catch me there if you want to keep up with the fam.  I am deleting this blog very soon.  thanks everyone!

The Office

and im not talking about the show..

im sorry about the crappy formatting - i seriously cant find where to doublespace this type in the typepad editor.  i hate it, my formatting is always messed up now.

when we moved we had two dumping grounds...where everything went that we didnt have time to unpack or sort through.  well after ruby was born i was so excited to finally get something done....and here we go

BEFORE

notice the nice giants wallpaper border from the previous owners

AFTER

the cabinet on the very left houses all corys records, and this is his desk with his turntable and imac.  his guitars are in between with another one in the closet.  im thinking about getting him more stands so we can display them instead of them being in cases.  eventually ill replace the see through drawers too because it looks messy.  that owl was bought to scare away a woodpecker we had when we first moved in.  i hate it, its creepy and cory seems to think its super cool.  we didnt have a ladder large enough to put it up and then the woodpecker went away anyway so now it lives in our office, lucky me.

BEFORE

AFTER

lots of mixmatched baskets for all kinds of stuff.  extra paper, beading and scrapbooking supplies, photo equipment, receipts and a basket of goodies for simon that i keep.  i like to buy things as i see them for him but dont want to come home and give him 5 things, so they go in there for a rainy day.

BEFORE

AFTER

our old kitchen table...its so tall simon cant get in the chairs...so we moved it here for a craft/art table for me.  he can walk under it without crouching - that should tell you how tall it is.

BEFORE

AFTER

and some details.....

im going to expand adding to this wall.  on the left is a drawing i did in high school and on the right a print cory bougnt me for christmas 07 - its looking outside from a nyc cab, i love it and it makes me happy its finally up on the wall.

i decided to go with a mixture of baskets because i like variety.  its kinda creepy if everything is the same.  plus that would mean i would have to go buy a bunch of one kind.  these i all had already.  i love the metal ones.

commarts and design books

this houses hardrives and more design stuff.  also has boxes for ruby and simon momentos that im keeping.  

corys desk

this is an old cigar box that was my grandfathers.  and the british driving cap he always wore (he was from england)  the two medals are from when he was in the british army and there big hanky is his with the letter "H" embroidered on it and the top hanky was my grandmothers - i never met her, she died when my mom was 14.  I keep them all in this box and still they smell like him.

my dad made this for me when i was born - laura has one too.  ive always taken it with me since i left home.  i love it.

this is a photo book i made in college.  its out of roof tin.  the inside has black and white photographs of some old buildings in southern GA

a look inside.....

and well i cant post without putting up my cuties

i love processed food

Simon and I made valentine cookies... he was pretty in to the sprinkles part, well and dough eating of course

i mean i cant help it.  i so desperately want to be one of those people who eats all this really good for you organic food.   I want to brag about never succumbing to the temptation of a ding dong hostess cupcake.  i mean when i found out that lettuce had many different kinds and my preference was for the most unheathy...well i pretty much gave up.  i mean seriously im eating lettuce and its still not good enough.  stuff it.  arggh.  i love the world of hot pockets, candy and pizza rolls, frozen mac and cheese and peanut butter crackers.  lets be honest how can you not.  now i KNOW that if i really really really put my mind to it i could do without.  sigh.  maybe thats the crappiest part, im eating it because i want to and not because its the only thing there is.  i have to constantly live with the fact that im making bad choices.  whoa is me - i just had a croissant pocket for lunch btw.  The cruel world will hit me soon when I start weight watchers again, but for now everything i eat better come from a wrapper.

simon  - the boy who wouldnt speak and then was diagnosed with apraxia - got put in timeout today in preschool - for talking too much during circle time.  when cory cam home and told me this i was grinning.  pretty ironic.  man that boy has come a long way.

the weather here has been amazing and its soooo nice to get outside.  i have lots to update...ill get on it and post soon.  for now, enjoy mr. s.

the boy tells it like it is

another post...i know, after you get over the shock watch this

Postpartum Nesting?

Is that possible?  I am insanely into getting this house set up.  It is all I can think about.  We got a new kitchen table.  Why?  Well our kitchen table is my favorite piece of furniture that we own.  It's a really nice huge square table, very high, and has really high chairs.  like bar size chairs.  Well this poses a problem as Simon is now getting to the age where he should be eating at the table and not in a high chair seat.  Soooooo we got a new kitchen table.  It is rad.  It has yet to be set up though because in order to do that we have to move the old one.  The old one will become my craft/art/work table in our office.  our office which has been "the dumping ground", only second to the disaster that is happening in our garage.  It is killing me to talk about this and not run away from my computer to one of these places to organize right now!  I am getting off track.  So back to the table.  In order to get the table in the office we need to remove the hot NY Giants wallpaper border from our office.  Success-I finished that today.  Removing wallpaper is very very satisfying if you ask me.  Now all that has to be done is some touchup painting and then on I go to work on the office with my new table.  I am in a great place where I am ready to get rid of things.  I want a simplified life and I only want things in this house that we are using.  I am done saving things just in case I need them down the road.  We had 4 rubbermaid -the smaller office type ones- full of cords.  cords.  one more time - cords.  Now I am not sure who really needs that many coaxial cables. Gone...those boxes are down to two, one for computer related cords and one for tv/videogame/random cords.  If I didn't know what it went to, it went in the trash.  I have filled 6 trash bags so far and a nice big box for donations.  It is feeling good.  So whats the downside to this craziness that is happening ... well I dont have alot of time to invest.  Now of course I am not working, Im on maternity leave....but we added a 2nd kid to the arsenal so i kinda want to hang around her.  Not to mention if Simon gets in the office, well the donation box is emptied and carried off who knows where and things just start appearing in the trash.  You see what I'm saying here...so I basically have naptime to work on the office.  That is also tricky because Simon is in the next room and hasnt been sleeping well since Ruby arrived.  I think he thinks we are playing with her while he has to nap.  We started putting her down in her bassinet first and having simon say night night to her and then he goes.  That worked splendid for about a week.  Then 3 days ago he just wouldt settle, so Cory has been laying on his floor while he goes to sleep.  This also started happneing last night at bedtime, so Cory again would lay down on his floor until S went to sleep.  ahhh, adjustments.  I fear this will get to the "cry it out" phase soon, as cory cant spend his evenings on simons floor waiting on him to fall asleep.  my heart cant take it right now though.  im more thankful than ever that we did the paci removal prior to rubys arrival because honestly i would have never been able to handle it now.  no way.  not possible.  I am too easily jarred after baby #2 although it's getting alot better.

so we are all adjusting to life with 2.  a totally different adjustment than one.  not harder or easier just different.  we are definitely more easy going and comfortable about having a newborn.  We have forgotten some things but they come back and we aren't as tense about them.    and both realized fast that we need breaks.  that hasnt been too hard since im off right now.  cory will take the kids to his moms or ill go to my parents, or a friends...you get the idea.  we will have to continue that when i go back to work.  as well as scheduling sometime for us.  its a good thing we moved close to family.  

I tried getting a nice shot of Simon and Ruby - referring to the shot above. Well within two seconds of putting her down next to him which he looked seriously  tense about, she flailed her arms and hit him in the face.  it totally freaked him out.  we kept trying picking him up talking to him about it - would you like to go back down and lay by ruby so mommy can get a picture?  Simon "YYYYYup", put him down and this happens.  I guess it seems like a good idea but his emotions take over and he wants out, lol.  

I was cleaning out Simons clothes today and realized he has hardly anything for when it starts getting warmer...i really really really need to go shopping.

Ketchup or as Simon says Ketbull

yup...i know, i seriously owe u an update... here we go

Ruby's birth story and one week letter im combining....why not just tell her, her birth story - im working on it - will post soon... but i will say, she is simply amazing...gorgeous and such a great great baby.  i cant believe she is real.  love that she looks like simon, but doesnt.  she furrows her brow alot and i wonder if that means she will be serious.  it appears that she has dimples on both sides, but its hard to ttell since we really only get gas smiles right now.  she also has a herniated belly button...i was really hoping she wouldnt.  its not nearly as big as simons was though so we are hopeful that it will close up and suck in and she wont have to have surgery.  They usually don't do it until they are 4 or 5, and I can already guarantee that ill be a nervous wreck when simon goes in...i deny that it is going to happen for now ;)

from content to sad...poor girl

so we have been up to alot, as you can imagine.  ruby was born and by all acounts i had an easy labor.  recovery has been slower than i remember though.  when i had simon we lived in the loft where everything was steps away.  here we have a downstairs and an upstairs and I wasn't really thinking about that.  Plus the day after we got home I felt great, so i started organzing and got way out of control.  Not being able to do anything with this house since we moved in I was so excited to do something.  Well all of that plus up and down the stairs many times completely killed me.  The next day I could barely walk...so for days i then i had to pay for it by yet again sitting around.  lesson learned.  i have resisted picking up simon as much as i can and limited my trips up the stairs.  i have started working on the office but alot of it right now is filing and sorting and i can do that sitting down.

i wanted to make sure i got some pics of me an ruby so i set the timer and put the camera on the floor...going to try and use that timer more often

so i mentioned the office...thats my first project on maternity leave...its a HUGE mess, with stuff dumped all over and crappy mismatched furniture.  today ill have to take some pics so you can appreciate the before and after.  it really needs to be painted and the giants football border removed from the top of the wall from the previous owners...ugggh, how i wish we could have done that when we first moved in.  i also had a harddrive fail...the one with all my usic on it.  decent timing because at least we have everything out of storage and i can access my cds to start re-ripping, i can hardly anticipate the fun.  i have lots of other things on my to-do list...another big one is photo books....i want to scrap some and then just do photo books to catch up.  my journaling is so much better when i scrap the event after it happened and not wait a year later.  yeah i know, go figure.

love that simon let me take photos of both of them...im going to try some more soon

Simon has started whining and its driving me mad.  I absolutely cannot stand whining.  Other than the whining he has been wonderful with the arrival of Ruby.  He will not really touch her yet.  He is very hesitant about that.  So we ask a time or two a day but drop it when he says no.  he will tell us who she is, and ask about her if she is in the room.  Cory has been getting up with him and i get to sleep in some with Ruby and when he comes upstairs he puts his hands up (as in to say "where is") baby ruby.  When we change her he runs to get her diaper and and wipes...hes a very good helper.

While I was shooting Ruby in her room I let Simon hang out with me.  He found this mirror and this hat and had me dieing laughing trying to fit it on his head...he totally looks like an elf

So I am going to talk about some pregnancy stuff, maybe not as easy to talk about because it's things people can be very judgmental about.  So read on if you want, but keep in mind if you want to think something about me or say something, you can rest assured I have already beat myself up about it way more than you ever could.  Again in parenting we are reminding ourselves to follow our gut and not what others think.  

i stopped breastfeeding and we switched ruby to formula.  in under a week.  i fought it...ruby and i tried, but it only made meal time a huge struggle where she spent alot of time crying, as did i.  and we still couldnt get it to work.  yes maybe had i stuck with it, it could have worked out.  but it just wasnt working for us.  and i needed to stop...for her, for me, for all of us.  this of course is a tricky subject in motherhood.  there is so much pressure for moms now to breastfeed.  as cory and i have both said before whatever side of the fence you are on you can find research to back you up.  im not going to go into all the details on this but i did want to put it out there.  

good times with the godparents

facebook i love you.  ive been on facebook for a long time and i still find myself enjoying it.  who knew status updates would keep me in touch with people.

one of my favorite things simon does right now is answering his own requests or questions with the word "okay".  i will need to get this on video because its so hilarious.  

Read book - okay!

More Fries - okay!

the power with which he says it is the best part

simon still loves clothes, especially pjs, so the other day i took a box and made him a dryer.  so far its a big hit.  today we almost had a disaster when he started to climb on the dryer, but i caught him in time - whew crisis averted.

what we did yesterday

Ruby is here

Ruby Kathleen Byrom

I will be writing her birth story soon.  She is beautiful, amazing and seriously people, I only had to push 3 times.  This pregnancy was very rough on me, but in the end the outcome is goes so far and above...well I mean just look at her.

I of course will be taking more tomorrow.

Proud Godparents... and yeah they are awesome...we love them...thanks for coming guys!

festive in pics

holiday highlights - man this christmas has been awesome.  i cant even describe how fun it is with simon.  we are so amazingly lucky.  

saying "up"   love how he waits until im super pregnant to become so attached and want to be carried.

christmas eve at gaga's house

simon was really into presents this year.  it was a hard job for us to keep the kids from unwrapping everything before all the presents were passed out.  christmas chaos, woohoo.

huge fan of tigger and pooh lately, so of course this was a huge hit

I love how simon is staring up at Santa...he was totally into him!

only simon and peyton wanted to sit in Santa's lap.  they all however were cool with getting a candy cane.

at home, still excited before bed.  christmas makes kids crazy!

santa came

i don't know how he knew but he went straight to his stocking and tore into it and there is his santa bag full of loot

not really supposed to know how to pedal yet but he seems very interested

"a tar"  also known as a guitar...love this, the two musicians together.  have you ever seen so much seriousness over a Spongebob Ukulele

could be one of my favs.  simon is eating off the spatula while cory shows him the way the pros flip a burger

me and my boy checking out one of his new puzzles.  

off to Mumsie and Pops where Simon was very excited to hand out presents

a carrier for simons coloring books and crayons ... he got a lot of cool things here today....including a huge play doh set...i think we might need to break that out tomorrow.

reading with Uncle Steve...can you take this much fun?

Happy Holidays everyone....we had the best one ever, as every year should be.

Simon-

Well you are two.  Honestly kid I just can't believe it.  Your father and I have been talking alot about how far you have come since Jan.  That is when we starting noticing some things.  You my boy have exceeded all expectations and I don't mean just speech.  When I learned we were pregnant I was beyond excited, dreaming of what was to come.  Then I found out your were a boy, and you couldn't contain my excitement.  Growing up I had always wanted a brother which then translated into me wanting a son.  I kept thinking of all the great things we would do together as a family, wondering what you would get from me and what you would get from your dad.  Who you would look like and whose interests you would have and what new ones you would bring to us.   Well all the imagination never even came close to the real thing and who you are.  You are a litte person, a little boy and alot of my happiness.

There is alot to be said for speech though.  There is nothing better than walking home from work and you running to me screaming mommy.  something i dont take for granted since it took awhile to get there.  I actually didn't think it would come this fast.  Your speech therapist said that at some point we would finally see a verbal explosion instead of just sounds.  This has happened in the past few weeks and it has blown us away.  I was prepared for words but maybe not phrases and maybe just not as fast as you are going.  So because you can't always say what you want I don't think we realized how much was actually going on up there.  All I can say is that I am glad we always encourage and push you.  I believe this combination of us, your speech therapy and your preschool is what has brought us so much success.  you count to ten.  you know so many colors - blue, red, black, white, orange, yellow, pink, purple and green.  you know so many things and point them out constantly.  you are learning manners and saying please.  you can name so many characters - pooh, tigger (ti-cor), eeyore, darby (barbie), roo, roos mommy, lumpy (pe-po), rabbit (babbit), holly (hoyyeee), annie, june, leo, quincy (kincee), tasha (tata)...i could go on and on but some of these I have to tell you about so I can remember them too.  You have started saying phrases too, like "i eat" and "hi momma"  "hi daddy"  "bye daddy"  

some random things im loving that you do right now....

stand at the window when i leave and i can see you saying bye mommy, you do the same if you hear my car drive up.

coloring for a long time - you pick a color turn a page color some, turn the page -color, then switch to another crayon.  im impressed with how much time you will spend coloring.

randomly counting to 10 while you play.  you can be sending cars down the ramp and then all of a sudden you are counting to 10. 

clapping and saying "yeah" when you get to 10

saying "pet" when you pet yoshi and giggling when he kisses you.  

walking down the stairs at bedtime with your daddy - hand in hand

pointing out and saying your features- eyes ears nose, and doing the same on me.

stacking your magnet letters on your desk and then just going kinda crazy swinging your arms madly to knock them all over the floor.

putting together your foam puzzle 

i wish i could put into words how sweet you are.  climbing on the couch and putting your head on my shoulder, giving lots of hugs and squealing our names.  My words just doesn't do it justice.  

Of course there are things that come with being two that are tough.  Temper tantrums happen ... full on throw yourself on the floor, end of the world torture.  luckily though these dont happen everyday and seem to come in phases.  tough love is hard though and its so hard to not just scoop you up and give you what you want, not because its easy but because you just look so devastated.  and well sometimes yeah it really would be easier.  

there is also alot of testing and general curiosity.  you are so fast at things...espcially things you arent supposed to be doing.  whether its getting into boxes and unpacking things you arent supposed to, accidently unwrapping a present, and just general grabbing and exploring of everything.  

Our world is all about to change with the arrival of your sister Ruby...hold on kid...here we go!

Love, Mommy

checking out pics on Uncle Steve's camera

Randoms...

people who leave two car lengths in front of them in bumper to bumper traffic deserve every single name i call them

i think christmastime should be about 3 months long, its so fun

i miss sleeping all through the night

Simon made his first ornament...a felt christmas tree with buttons and sequins...its in a prime spot on the tree

i kinda waddle

i wish i never read harry potter -  so i could read it all again for the 1st time

i love instant messaging

Don't they look like bookends?

Why do you prepare more for the first child?  Man Ruby I am sorry your mom is so slack.  We really have crummy timing on this birth stuff.  I just realized that if I want to stay sane, I may want to finish with her stuff BEFORE christmas.  Unless I want to be in the store the same time people are returning things like mad.  sigh.  well one good thing is that we got a few gift cards so this morning I am online buying her some stuff, necessities that I just haven't gotten around to.  I think she has enough clothes, but honestly I have no idea, lol.  I have at least washed a huge load for her.  I need to do at least one more if not two.and then you know, actually put it away.  She moves sooooo much more than Simon did.  Thi whole pregnancy has been a different experience, thats kinda weird to me.  There are some great pains and general uncomfortableness that i remember from SImon too though, woohoo!  For the third time my visit to the dr has ended with me needing to gain weight.  I mean seriously, WHY can i not have this problem when im not pregnant.  and its not like im trying to not gain, im not watching anything i eat!  My last visit i was 34 weeks (tomorrow I am 35 weeks and i refuse to say im still 34 -i am seriously counting down) but she was measuring at 33 weeks.  so if when i go next week she is measuring small they will do an ultrasound.  im not really stressed though because she moves like a maniac and the dr said its only a week off right now.  plus as he pointed out, simon was a small baby.  and did i mention that she moves allllll the time.  i just want to make that point clear.

im going to do some serious wrapping this weekend, i love wrapping

Twinkle is not the same as blink

Why is it so hard to find lights for the tree that blink.  Shouldn't they always blink?  They say twinkle on the box but its misleading.  We put our tree up tonight.  Usually we do it the day after thanksgiving, but i caught a vicious sinus thing this week and Simon had been experiencing the same.  Add that on to being 33 weeks pregnant and well poor Cory, I am surprised he didn't go out for christmas lights and not come back.  I was really bummed to be sick during my vacation from work, but man I am not sure I would have made it to work, so I guess now I am thankful.  The tree looks great.  Simon put some ornaments on...then was super upset when he couldn't take them back off and put them back in the packaging.  awesome tantrum following that. but look how sweet it is here, lol...

I got Simon to wear his Santa hat for a few seconds

and who doesn't love the halloween themed shirt at christmas time

Thanksgiving was great...the weather was perfect for the kids to play outside and they are all old enough to run around so it was very entertaining.  I was feeling very tired and crummy but just couldn't stop shooting because the kids were just so fun and cute.

He must really be pondering something here

I don't usually put photos of relatives on here, I should ask my SIL if she minds, because her kids are so cute and I usually have some cute ones of them and Simon

I am almost done with my christmas shopping...insane.  But I got an early start just in case anything happened with Ruby and I knew I would not have the energy to shop towards the end of the month.  I started making jewelry a few weeks ago and I have been having a lot of fun with it.  Simon's speech therapist is a recent breast cancer survivor and so I made one for her with some survivor beads and and ribbon...I will take some shots this week and show some of them.  It has been fun just diving into something totally new.  I mean really it is what I needed, a new hobby, lol.  

We took Simon to see Santa, and it went so well this year!  We have the picture from last year and have been showing it to him and talking about Santa and did it work? - well here is the comparison...

I like that this Santa has such a classic suit.  He is very soft spoken and I love that too.  

Cutting it short... I gotta do a few things before heading to bed...busy week at work this week.