Etsy lovin'

I've been daydreaming of decorating. You know, the fabric, the art, the little touches. Those things I used to do before we decided to gut a house and build it again.

So I've been Etsy therapy-ing.

Technically not decor, but nonetheless this card appeals to my inner geek.

I want Claire's room to have this polkadot bird.

This tunic is actually meant for an adult, but I think it would be a super cute little girls dress. Will I ever take the time to make cute things like this for my kids before they're too old to want to wear them?

Aw, I loved my Russian nesting dolls. I think Claire's room actually needs this matryoshkas print.

Love this linen runner.

A little abc love.

And a sugardrop baby.

















For now, I'll take comfort in our awesome new plumbing. Yep. It's great, that new plumbing.

Ohdeedoh

I just found the cutest blog... Ohdeedoh. Design and kids, my two favorite topics!

One post in particular made me laugh, it was on tips for living in a small space with baby. One reader commented with reason #437 to breastfeed; it takes less space!

Five Minutes Peace

This is a very cute book, one of my favorites on our kid bookshelves. The brief synopsis? Mama Large (a title I can certainly identify with right now) just wants five minutes peace to drink her tea.

This morning I was laying in bed, attempting to will myself out of my cozy spot, when in came the parade. Thane had discovered and was trying out the moon shoes my mom had picked up for him at an auction we went to yesterday (remember moon shoes?), Seth waddled along in swim flippers and snorkeling gear, and Claire was bringing up the rear having lost her pants and waving a pair of her bloomers (the ones for under her dresses) she had found somewhere along her travels and wanted help donning. They did a quick circle around the room, up over the bed and back out whence they came, only with Claire now wearing bloomers and playing the snorkling gear like a flute. They reminded me of Mrs. Large's brood, especially little Claire bopping along behind like the littlest elephant. Bearing chaos in their wake but you can't help but laugh.

Meet Sugargaze Twinklerain Hutt

What do you think? Do we have a winner? Surely our baby could pull off a name like Sugargaze.

I've been lost in the blogosphere, specifically the baby name blogosphere. Check these out:

www.youcantcallitit.com
My current favorite blogger commentary on everything baby name.

www.behindthename.com
Whose random name generator, upon selecting the fairy category, provided the lovely option above.

www.babycenter.com
Their baby name finder section offers the option to keep your own baby name list on the site, with cool tools like the baby name explorer, where you can view a web of suggested names or sibling names, based on other people's preferences with a similar taste in names as your own. Hours of fascinating web-based procrastination at your fingertips.

I'm still hoping Troy will come around on Ezra for a boy. I love it. Unfortunately, he pretty much hates it. Boo to that.

The icky sickies

We've been down and out at our house. One at a time we succumbed to a gross flu. Blech. (A word of caution for non-mamas, this post contains the nitty-gritty mommy talk! With words like puke.)

My weekend of facebook statuses (statusi?, lol) went something like this;

Thane has the pukies. Maybe it was the sub?

~

Oop, Seth and Claire are sick, definitely not the sub. Troy and I are crossing our fingers we don't get sick.

~

Troy's down now. Maybe I won't get sick?

~

I'm sick. Ugh.

But I'm back to vertical, a little bit of the achy headache feeling left but in general very much better! A few good things came of our 'downtime' though.

1. New Brunswick's telecare program is awesome. You call in, talk to a real live nurse, and they advise you on tips for what you're dealing with, and mostly whether a trip to the doctor is necessary. I called this time for poor little Clairey, I've never had such a little one with the pukies. She just seemed too little! I wasn't really thinking we needed to visit the doctor, but I was wondering how quickly dehydration can become a problem for such a tiny person. The nurse mostly said to just get water into her (they also mentioned that pedialyte, 1/2 Gatorade, or popsicles will do as hydration in a pinch for the kid not wanting the water), but she also gave concrete numbers about when it's okay to try food at all (bland food, 8 hours after the last throw-up), and when to worry about dehydration (no wet diapers in 8 hours). Also, you can probably get back to real food in 24 hours. Nice little tidbits of info to have under your mommy belt. It was also nice for me to hear that just water and no food really is okay when dealing with a stomach flu, sometimes I feel like you should eat something just so you'll have something to throw up? Pleasant mommy-talk, I know.

2. Troy and I work well as a team. On Friday, I'm sorry to say, I was really worried that if whatever Thane had was viral, I did not have time to catch it. We had a big fundraising event at the gallery on Saturday that I could not picture how I would be able to call in sick for. So Troy took over sick care duty like a champion, while I only asked if there was anything if I could do from afar. Then Sunday afternoon when Claire started up, Seth was only 20 minutes behind and we had two little pukies on our hands. Our Sunday couch held two parents, two buckets, and two sad little babes. There was only one incident of Claire puking on poor Seth. Sunday night Troy got hit with it, and Monday I held down the fort, the laundry, and even mowed half the lawn while the three of them recouped, sleepy and sore. Tuesday we switched and Troy brought me water on the couch, juggled the kiddies who were feeling better, and even finished the lawn!

3. While watching A LOT of Ellen this weekend, Gwen got added to our baby name list. This was sparked by an appearance of Gwyneth Paltrow on the show, for her part in Iron Man. We really like this name, it might be a winner! Would you spell Gwyneth that way, or Gweneth, or Gwenyth? I'm looking for the most common spelling, the way you would naturally spell it if you heard it...