Hitting a Wall with Sewing

Have you ever "hit a wall" before?  You know what I mean... trying to do something and you just get stuck?  I am always reminded of "Arrested Development" when Buster literally can't climb over the wall in basic training and his brother, Gob, motivates him to do it finally, and then punches him in the gut on his descent from the wall.

Well in June, I hit a wall.  I was working on car seat canopies/covers for my good friend here who was expecting twin boys.  The body of the car seat canopy was so easy and simple to make.  Then, I tried sewing the straps of death.  And my machine started freaking out.  And the velcro would cooperate in getting sewed on correctly.  So, I decided that I had plenty of time to work on it and I put it away in my sewing box for the time being.

I decided to use the sticky velcro instead of the sew on velcro to make it a little easier for myself.  All I had to do was sew on the straps.  I just kept putting it off because I was tired or lazy or just worried that I wouldn't be able to figure it out.  Well,  my friend had her twins almost three weeks ago, and since I've been a ball of nervous energy all afternoon (in anticipation of this Hurricane Irene), I decided to put that energy to good use and within an hour, I had finished them.

Sometimes I hit a wall.  It's important to regroup and give myself time, but I've learned that I need to keep going and I'll achieve my goals, whether it's a sewing project or actually cooking dinner every night of the week.  Hopefully I can get myself working on more projects, and get more organized.  I think it will help that I'll actually be more lively after the first trimester ends in a few weeks.  Then I can crank out a bunch of stuff for  the new baby and other projects before I get to the third trimester and lose all of my energy again!

Better late than never... Right?

Okay, so my birthday has come and gone.  I am now 26.  We had a lot of fun the weekend before my birthday.  My birthday was on a Monday (8/8) and so we decided to celebrate the weekend before. 

My sister came up on Friday.  I had a craving for Chipotle, so we ordered online and sent Rick to pick it up.  We watched "Psych" and just laughed our heads off (love that show).  Evan went to bed early, and I went to bed pretty early as well!  I was so tired! 

On Saturday we went to the mall.  We have a Mills mall about 10 minutes away from us, and it's probably the only mall in this area of Maryland because of how packed it is.  Seriously, no parking at all hardly.  And we were there only about 10-15 minutes after it opened! 

We went to Old Navy looking for maternity clothes.  I like buying maternity clothes.  Anyways, Sarah ended up buying me a black cardigan that was on clearance.  It was a size small, not maternity, but because of the latest styles, it looks good on me.  :) 

Holding up the ice cream cake.  It was almost too sweet for me!  Silly pregnancy hormones.

We then went to Motherhood Maternity, but it was still closed.  So we headed over to our favorite Frozen Yogurt place around here called "Yogurt Mountain".  It's one of those self-serve frozen yogurt places that has a lot of flavors and toppings and they charge you buy the ounce.  It may be as good as Golden Spoon, my favorite yogurt place in California.  We went back to Motherhood and saw that it was open.  Sarah bought me a super cute dress and I used the money my parents sent me to get a really cute tunic/leggings outfit and a sweater. 

I told myself I would never wear leggings, but seriously, it is SO comfortable!  We went home after that, ate our leftover Chipotle and Evan and I took about a 3 hour nap.  After we woke up, we went and got an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins.  We dropped the cake off in the freezer at home and then we took off to got to T.G.I.Friday's for dinner.  I was craving a steak, so I got it, had a few bites and that was all I wanted!  Rick happily finished it off for me! 

We then went home, ate cake a few hours later and then Evan went to bed.  Rick and I went and saw "Captain America" in the theater. 

Superheroes like to eat sweets too.

Check out that melted ice cream running down the arm, chin, shirt...

Very pleased with his ice cream cake.

On Sunday, we went to church, ate chef salad for dinner and had cake for dessert.  It sure was yummy.  :)  Of course, the only pictures that I have are of Evan eating.  He had a lot of fun with that cake! 

Rick made me wait until Monday to open up the gifts from him and Evan.  Evan got me a pastry brush (I can't tell you how long I've been wanting one of those!)  And Rick got me a pizza stone (a super duper nice one!)  And then, of course, they also paid for all of my celebrating the whole weekend.

Unfortunately, I am now on the "other" side of 26...the side that's closer to 30.  Crazy...

You really think that Evan is?

I took Evan in to a school here this past Wednesday for his evaluation.  Let's give a little bit of background information about this "evaluation." 

Back in April, Evan's doctor gave him a clean bill of health.  But she told us that she was concerned about a slight delay in Evan's speech skills.  She gave us a referral to a government funded educational program called "Infants and Children". 

I called and set up an appointment to meet with a lady.  She came to our house and basically gathered as much information as possible about Evan and our family.

They set up an 'evaluation' for him the following Wednesday. During the evaluation, they tested Evan on a variety of activities, including drawing, stacking cups, puzzles, reading (how he 'reads' books), feeding a baby, playing with a ball and stacking rings. 

Evan was a total brat.  One thing about Evan is he DOES NOT like people "telling" him what to do.  He wanted to wander around and explore the room that he was in, not be force to sit down in a chair (or held in my lap). 

So, by the end of the evaluation, he was ornery and ready to leave.  The evaluators left the room and came back to a much happier Evan who was roaming around playing with the toys on his own.  They proceeded to sit down and tell me that Evan because of a few things they noticed, is showing 'red flags' for being on the autism spectrum.


What were the red flags?

-He doesn't make prolonged eye contact.
       *Well, neither do I OR my husband.  Evan makes eye contact enough when we're looking at them.  I know that I never really make eye contact with people I don't know that well.  And Evan definitely didn't like them.

-He doesn't follow directions.
        *Um... yeah, well.  Let's see.. How old is he?  Oh, yeah.  He's only 21 months.  Wow.  Who knew he was already supposed to following directions and listening to them already.  Have I also mentioned what an impulsive and trouble-making child I have? 

-He doesn't imitate sounds.  
         *  Sorry, that's because he doesn't like you.  I don't go around saying "pow", "wow" and "bam" all day, so why would Evan imitate you?  Maybe the problem is that I don't talk "baby" enough around Evan. 

-He doesn't imitate behavior. 
         *  They gave him a baby to feed a bottle to.  Then they tried it with a stuffed animal because he didn't like the baby.  He was so annoyed and refused to do it.  That same day I made some french fries and pretended to feed a fry to his cheetah.  He smiled (while making eye contact at me) and then a couple of minutes later I caught him trying to feed his fries to the cheetah.  Hmm... doesn't imitate behavior?  Sorry if I don't pretend to feed his doggies and stuffed animals, but now I guess I will.  

-He doesn't point to the objects in the book when asked.
         *  But he does point to his belly button when I ask him, and his nose and mouth (still working on that one!).  And the other day, I asked him to point to the dog in the book and he did!  Amazing that he does this stuff for me, but not for the evaluators! 

-He tends to zone out when he's doing something. 
          *  That's genetic... All the way.  Rick and I are the exact same way we're doing something interesting, and well, EVERYTHING is interesting to our Evan.  So, it doesn't surprise me that he's doing that. 

I don't by that my little man is showing symptoms on the autistic spectrum.  Evan is usually such an easy going kid, and honestly, he was really having a bad day on that evaluation.  They gave me some options.  They want him to go to a class (about 20 minutes away) Kind of like a Pre-preschool.  At first I thought that it might be a good idea (it's free) but now that I've talked to Rick about it, I'm not so sure. 

First of all, Evan is far too young to be going to school, of any kind in my opinion.  Everything that they are teaching in that class, I'm positive that I can implement at home with Evan.  I just hate that I feel like I have to do it NOW! 

I have been planning on helping Evan learn his letters and reading and all that stuff, but now I have flash cards that I made with pictures and words on them to try to teach Evan the words.  I wasn't expecting to do it for a while!  I wanted him to learn to speak at his own pace and not be forced, but honestly, I now feel like a bad mom because of what the evaluators said. 

I held my own against them and told them that I disagreed.  I told them that he's far too young to diagnose something on the Autism spectrum.  I then told them that I knew they were going to say that was his issue.  They asked "How did you know?".  I told them I could tell by the way they so casually asked me, "Does he make eye contact at home with you?"  When I told them yes, I just don't think they believed me. 

And who were the evaluators?  No, not doctors.  Just a speech pathologist and a special ed teacher.  Thank goodness I have educators telling me this and not a medical professional!  Seriously, who would believe a doctor over them? 

Barcelona v. Manchester United

Saturday evening Rick, Evan and I went to the Barcelona v. Manchester United soccer game.  It was so hot, the traffic was terrible, and there were a ton of drunk people.  It wasn't so obnoxious as a game in Europe, I'm positive, but it was still kind of annoying.  My sister and a bunch of her friends were there though, and it was a great experience seeing some of the greatest soccer players in the world play. 

Evan snoozed through the first half, startling only when the cheers were loud when Manchester scored their first goal.  Rick wore a Spanish jersey, supporting Barcelona.  I was neutral.  I liked players on both teams, but my favorite Pro team is actually Liverpool.  So, hopefully I'll be able to see a Liverpool game. 

Drinking lots of water---it was hot!!!

Trying to stay cool.

Manchester United warming up

Manchester United warming up again... a little bit of a closer view. 

Chugging the water bottle.

Bleachers that Evan was playing in. 

Evan playing with the seats.  Little busybody.

Evan and I in front of the field. 

Rick and Evan in front of the field.

Barcelona and Manchester United coming onto the field.

National Anthem.

Evan under the shade of his shirt... that's where he stayed most of the half. 

Laughing at some of the soccer players. 

Evan sunbathing... such a hot bod.

Tasting Rick's frozen lemonade---he always had this face.

Our family and a random guy in the background.  Do you see Evan's face following the lemonade in my hand? 

 

 

A New Hair Cut

Rick gave Evan a haircut on Saturday night.  Evan's hair was getting super long, ratty and mullet-like, so we decided to finally cut it.  I think that it finally got to us.  It was a hard decision to make because I LOVE Evan's hair so much! 

We finally found the clippers (they were packed away in the storage closet we have) and it took a while to find them.  Evan was pretty good for Rick.  Rick did a great job with cutting it.  I don't cut hair at all---that's Rick's thing! 

This is Evan a couple of weeks before his home haircut.

This is Evan monster the morning that he got his haircut. Nice glasses, right?

Managed to put his glasses on correctly.  :)

Rick getting ready to cut it.

Evan was pretty upset at this point (the very beginning).

Getting it trimmed down.

Still having the long sides.

Trying to give daddy the puppy dog eyes.

kind of posing for the camera.

Evan really didn't like the way Rick had to hold his head in place. 

Drinking a little something.

Eww... hairy back!

Wasn't a happy camper, but he mainly just complained the entire time, no full out screaming.

My handsome boy before church the next morning.

My two handsome men. 

Anyways, we are pretty happy with his haircut.  Rick keeps finding random longer hairs to cut down, and I almost regret letting Rick cut his hair so short.  He looks so much more like a little boy now instead of my baby.  He's growing up too fast!  I love him so much!

Poor Evan :(

My poor little Evan has been sick this past week even though he doesn't act like it.  (except for all the LONG naps he's been taking).

Last week Evan had a diaper rash that didn't seem to go away very easily.  He was in his cloth diapers, that are usually pretty good about preventing rashes. Last Friday though, I woke up, grabbed Evan out of his crib, went to change his diaper, and he had blisters all over his bum.  I was definitely worried, so I gave him a quick bath to wash him up and I was surprised that he wasn't in any pain when he was sitting in the warm water (he usually complains when he has a rash).  I called the doctor and got in later that morning.

I didn't think it would be anything too serious because I am kind of a hypochondriac when it comes to Evan.  The smallest things send me to the doctor for him.  But, as the doctor was looking at him, she told me it was a staph infection!  I think she saw that I had a freaked out look on my face because she said that it was really common.  My thoughts were how in the world did he get a staph infection in his diaper area.  We got an antibiotic that Evan loves to take (He might be getting addicted) and an ointment for the actual sore/rash area.  My poor little guy has been getting his hands washed constantly, his pajamas he can only wear once and he is limited to wearing pants right now (even with all of the heat, but the rash spread to the back of one of his upper thighs, so no more shorts until that goes away).  I have been super paranoid and washing everything down with lysol (all of his toys and anything he may have touched).  I am also washing all clothes and stuffed animals at least 4 or 5 times with detergent before putting them in the dryer.  Rick thinks I am paranoid, but I don't want it to come back! 

And I think I finally figured out how he got the rash.   The doctor said that staph lives in our skin.  I think that the cloth diapers did it.  I don't think I got them clean enough in a washing.  I am really good about that most of the time.  I wash them at least three times before I put them in the dryer and I check to make sure that they smell (so I know the bacteria is out).  The last diapers that I washed took almost 4 washings, and I assumed that they were finished.  Pretty sure that I was wrong and that's how my little guy got this nasty infection.  Needless to say, we're not doing cloth diapers anymore. I don't want to risk this infection coming back!  My poor little guy!

Boring...

Life has been boring lately.  Rick is working.  I've only been exercising, cleaning, cooking, reading, etc.  Evan has been growing and growing, and is absolutely exhausting.  He is just such a little stinker!  

Church has been busy as well.  There has been a new primary presidency in our ward, and they kept me in as secretary.  I've been busy trying to help my fellow sisters get used to their callings, and trying to learn all the kiddos names.  Our primary is MASSIVE, so this is quite a challenge.  :)  I have most of the Senior Primary kids names down (or at least the ones I see every week). 

I'm also reading the new or most recent Kane Chronicles book The Throne of Fire.  It's the Egyptian mythology series written by Rick Riordan.  I don't like it as much as the Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus series, but I am really growing fond of the books.  I'm such a book nerd. 

In other news, Evan is getting a lot bigger.  His hair has grown out a ton.  He's getting a definite belly, even with all the running around he does and I feed him healthy stuff (the majority of the time).  I blame it on the fact that he is so short.  

I've also set myself some new goals in regards to being healthier.  I finished my 5K, which was a goal of mine, and now I am working to just getting in better shape.  The problem is that I have a sore right foot.  I think it's called Plantar Fascitis.  So after every time I do anything too strenuous (like run or zumba or step), I have a lot of pain and can't work out for the rest of the week.  So, I've started doing more low impact workouts, including yoga (the only video I have is prenatal and it's embarrassing how the women in the third trimester are so much more flexible than I am), biking and elliptical trainer.

I also signed up on this website to track my food and measurements.  I am also aiming to get in at least 8 cups of water a day (at the very very least).  Hopefully, I can keep toward these goals. 

I think it helps to have a visual in mind.  Honestly, I really want to exercise and eat well so I can be healthy.  Losing weight is a HUGE perk for me, because my weight is really stubborn about coming off.  I lose inches a lot easier than losing pounds. 

I've tried couponing, and it works okay for me.  I don't think I'll ever be a crazy couponer, because I really don't eat a lot of the food that they have coupons for.  So, I mainly use coupons on non food stuff, and that helps us here and there.  I think I'll still keep it up, but I find myself buying things I wouldn't normally buy because I have a coupon.  Just saying.  Glad it works for some people, but it won't be huge for us in saving money.  

That's about all that's been going on this week.  I know, boring right?  That's okay, when it's boring, I'm comfortable.  AND this week I have been feeling very comfortable.  That probably means something is going to happen to shake up my world.  Oh well.  Here's to the boring-nothing-going-on-at-all weeks!