Yes I know its Thursday BUT my babies have had a rough week. More on that below.
Rocks and Palms: Check! Plus a bonus for getting the compost dug in and the 439 flower bulbs planted. The front flower bed looks even better but alas no picture.
Jocelyn is getting four teeth in and has two blood blister pockets on the front of her top teeth.
(And folks, those are not oreo crumbs around her mouth. That's a bit of good, healthy potting soil.)
Needless to say, she is miserable. At the same time Ivy came down with a high fever, which was up to 103.9 degrees yesterday, and so we made a visit to the doctor. She's apparantly just got some bug and thankfully has no other symptoms other than the fever. So far.
I'm pretty sure she's achy though because she doesn't want to be touched and does NOT want Jocelyn climbing over her or shrieking anywhere near her. I'm trying to keep them both happy but both want to be held constantly so I'm spending a lot of time on the floor. So I figured that might as well be my project for this week. Try and make the sick babies happy. Or at least spend some quality cuddle time with them. No protest from me!
P.S. Happy 11 Months Old sweet angels!
My project last week was to make Jocy a bird mobile like THIS one from Spool and I FINISHED (see the word?! finished!?) it last night and hung it up above her crib today. Here she is!
This definately would have been one of those projects that I'd have given up on had I not made it my resolution, and I'm so glad I didn't (give up that is)! The fun part was picking out the fabrics and then matching them up. Ya know - the easy parts. Only after I cut the pieces of material out did I find out that I was going to have to be handsewing these birdies together. At least thats what the instructions said to do - I think because of the curves and turns in the pattern but who knows - I'm no sewer.
I sewed them at nights at the computer desk so I could listen to YouTube videos (this, this, and this one are some of the most interesting ones I watched. I know. I'm a nerd). After I stuffed the birds and then sewed their tails up (biggest pain in the butt of the project by far), I cut a bunch of branches from an old nasty Globe Willow that we are going to be ripping out of the ground anyway come spring.
I sawed them down to the size I wanted and then attatched the birds by using yellow thread to sew feet through the birds belly and around the branch (they still needed a dot of hot glue underneath though to give extra stability). The next step was really confusing - balancing the branches into a mobile. I found it easiest to work from the bottom up. I attatched the flying bird to the bottom branch with an eyehook and fishing line. Then I had to find the "balancing point" of the bottom branch and put another eyehook there to attatch them to the second branch. Then find those three's balancing point and attatch them to the first branch. Then find all four's balancing point and add an eyehook there for the line that would run to the ceiling hook. EEEEK! After it was all balanced I added a few leaves and up above the crib she went! Jocy loves it but I'm afraid its more stimulating than soothing. Instead of napping she talks to the birds and tries to grab them. Ah well, she adores it and it turned out pretty cute! ^_^
I'm a bit late celebrating the girls tenth month by posting these short video clips showing them in action as I intended on doing two weeks ago but here they are now! As far as their current personalities and favorite activites go, Jocy is walking along furniture and can let go and stand for a few seconds. She is a VERY happy girl and is laughing and smiling 95% of the time. She "kisses" her toy animals by holding their faces up to her open mouth, loves playing in the houseplant dirt, can't sit still with any toy for more than one minute, and is still obsessed with pumpkins (all the way back from the "Five Little Pumpkins" Halloween book that I used to read them). She also gets a kick out of touching eyes, whether it be her toys or mom's, and you'll get an extra giggle in there if you blink while she's touching your eyelashes. She can spot very tiny things that I wouldn't expect any baby to pick up on, such as the quail running in the desert behind us and the dandelion seeds floating by the window. While we were outside one day she was chasing a ladybug around the cement with her finger trying to pin it down. She's still only got two teeth (a relief for Mom since she's still nursing), and her favorite foods are crackers, apples and yogurt.
Ivy is crawling as well and "stands" on her knees to get up to things. She loves to shriek and yell when she's excited and scares herself sometimes doing it. She is super-smart when it comes to figuring out toys; she knows just how to put the plastic coins in the piggy bank and then pull the tail to see them come rolling out. One of her favorite toys is a Christmas ornament that has little jingle bells all over it and she will hold it up by its cord with one hand, and spin it with her other hand until its twisted tight and then watch it unwind and jingle away. She is developing quite a temper (gets that from Dad I'm sure ;) and will throw herself backward when she's not getting quiiiiite what she wants. Her beautiful-blues melt my heart everyday and change hue with the light just like her Dad's. Ivy's got eight teeth now and her favorite foods are bananas, green beans, and tofu cubes.
Both are sleeping VERY well now that they are in separate rooms and I've been able to let them cry it out (didn't work when they were in the same room because they just kept each other going). They travel around the house together and are beginning to understand the meaning of TEAMWORK (uh-oh). Yesterday after silence alerted me to suspicious activity, I found both girls in the bathroom, Jocelyn standing up to the toilet with her arms in the water and Ivy sitting next to her handing her toys. Ohhh girls....
Here they are, about 40 seconds each but very telling.
(They're in their dipes cause that's our tradition: taking pics with Mr. Pink Bunny each month on their birth anniversary to document their growth over their first year)
