adding to the noise

7 months.

oh my beauty, i blinked my eyes and suddenly you are 7 months old. just like that. you have gone from a happy, smiling baby to a happy, giggling, loving big girl. so much has happened this month. you are sitting up - mostly on your own. you are scooting around a tiny bit on the floor, but love spending time in your walker much more. speaking of your walker, you can get around. holy cow, my love. you are moving and chasing after the dogs and dragging the dog bowls on the floor and seriously, just amazing. you are also STANDING on your own when holding onto something. SERIOUSLY. you are my big girl.

you are so funny. you love being tickled. you love when mommy barks at you (because you love the dogs so much). you love reading books and will lean to get them when you're in the rocker with mama. you're starting to try to grab the characters out of books. you are eating food SO much better finally. you LOVE prunes and apples. you are SO vain and absolutely adore looking at yourself in the mirror. i just bought you the fisher price sing along stage and oh my gosh, you are in love. 

you love animals. we've gone to the zoo. we've played with animals at a fair where there was a petting zoo. you are in LOVE. you LOVE other babies and your cousins absolutely delight you and you delight them as well.

you are starting to get really into your baths and yesterday for your bath you were sitting up and playing with the water. i love that you love your baths. i hope you will be a water baby. 

you are starting to develop a bit of an attitude.... and you definitely get mad when you don't get your way and get frustrated when you want to do something that you can't do yet.

this month, i got the chance to spend 6 days with you. it was absolutely amazing. mimi was gone for four days of that, so it was a lot of time for us to spend together connecting again. it breaks my heart every day to have to leave you to go to work so when i got 6 days with you, it was beautiful. we spent so much time playing and cuddling. unfortunately, this month was also the first time that i haven't put you to bed myself (besides my surgery) because i had to work super late. my love, you woke up two hours after mimi put you to bed when mama was home. i swear, you knew i was home and you hadn't seen me yet.

you are SUCH a good girl. an absolute delight. although you are a little more weary of strangers lately, you still smile for pretty much anyone who talks to you. you generally take two naps during the day and go to sleep between 7pm and 8pm. when you're sleeping in bed with me (which you still do sometimes...), you will stay asleep when mommy is with you.... opening your eyes every now and then to make sure mommy is still asleep. i think it is because you know i need sleep. i can't believe how amazing you are. 

you are a giggly, loving, happy, beautiful, fantastic, amazing child. i am SO excited to watch you growing up. but man, i miss my baby.

a new crafty venture...

i'm really very excited about this new venture... i have been working on it for a few weeks in between madelyn's naps and my exhaustion.... i plan on adding other fun  baby/kid things in the future, but starting with my favorite thing for madelyn for now ...

baby headbands!

madelyn has NO hair and i searched and searched and searched for the perfect headbands for her, but i was SO not impressed with what was out there... the corny heidi swapp type flowers on headbands.... so overdone to me. so i made these and everywhere madelyn gets them, they get tons of compliments!

so now, i have re-vamped up my etsy shoppe, from the heart. 

please check it out and let me know what you think and if you'd spread the word, i'd be SO appreciative!!

and if you're in the market for baby headbands, i always do custom ones!! I know there's lots of colors not on there.... hopefully will be adding more as the days go on!

ps: madelyn will be 7 months tomorrow so i'll be back with all the amazing things she's doing now tomorrow!

we've been busy around here....

work is getting the best of me lately and taking up far too much time, but lucky me, i have a 6 day weekend that's already half over (ugh!) to spend with my princess! she's getting far too big far too quickly. she's almost sitting. she's standing holding on to things. she's eating much better. she's just big. and awesome.

we had a busy halloween. we went into the city to portraitbug to help kim out for their halloween party/portraits. there were hundreds of kids there. it was nuts. but madelyn loved it -- she loves seeing other kids. and then we went to visit some friends who were so excited to see madelyn all dressed up. and then we hung out with madelyn's cousins and went to go visit madelyn's great-grandmother. fun day! no trick-or-treating and the halloween parade was rained out. here's some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

too tired to say much more today.... this daylight's savings is killing me :-p

half a year has already gone by.

 
 

it breaks my heart to think that half a year has gone by already. seriously.... where has the time gone? how has it passed by that quickly? i feel like i have missed out on so much because i don't remember so much of it. my memory is definitely my flaw. it is one of the reasons i scrapbook... to not forget so much. but even that has basically gone down the drain with the lack of creative time i've had. 

i miss my baby.... but i am so excited at the little girl she is becoming.... the little girl that i see her becoming so quickly before my eyes. she is happy and loving. seriously. she smiles at everyone that will look her way and gives kisses and holds hands with everyone. she is a social butterfly and makes friends everywhere she goes. she is absolutely beautiful. stunning, really. i cannot believe that this little beauty is mine. she is funny. she makes me crack up. 

she is learning SO much every single freaking day. she has learned to sort of wave this month. it happened two fridays ago tomorrow. i was going to work and waving and she started to move her hands. of course, her momma broke down and started crying. she is a big girl. and she understands. she is learning "open shut them" with Mimi. she is starting to sit up and can sit really well if she is holding on to something but not so good if she's not.

 

she loves to read books with her momma. she loves to play with her toys. she LOVES her exersaucer. she loves sesame street. she loves being tickled. she LOVES the dogs. she thinks they put on shows just for her and absolutely cracks up watching them. she still loves her bumbo and her swing, although she is quickly getting too big for them. she still hates getting dressed and loves being naked. she loves her baths. she loves playing with her toys in her crib and sleeps currently with her lambie that auntie maribel bought her and her elephant that momma bought her the other day (as a present because she was sick and i felt awful...)

she's been christened this month. got to see her aunt and uncles. spent lots of time with "friends." had several photo shoots at portrait bug. been into nyc to go to portrait bug. been to a wedding shower. and a wedding. spent a LOT of time with mimi because momma's been working way too much. sent presents to auntie melissa to celebrate her beautiful daughter, maya, being born (madelyn's new bff).

Madelyn, my love, you are my everything. everything every day is for you. thank you for bringing so much joy to me. my entire back wall of my desk at work is made up of photos of you.... some people think it's too much. i say that it's not enough and that if i can't be with you, i will think of you continuously. i love you tremendously. happy half birthday, my beautiful princess.

it's been a long damn time.

but we've been busy around here.... here's a little recap of what's going on over here:

- i am working. a lot. and getting frustrated. a lot. have had some really crappy things going on at work and just have to BREATHE every day to get through it.

- Madelyn had her baptism and party following. She was perfect and beautiful and there is a story behind the gown and someday when I have a minute, I will tell it.

(Madelyn with her godparents --- her great uncle danny, her aunt rissa, and her uncle jarret)

- my sister surprised my family and came home for the weekend (from mexico). so did my brother (from buffalo). i was the only one who knew about both. talk about keeping secrets. jeesh.what and incredibly special thing for madelyn to have her WHOLE family there with her to celebrate.

(mi hermanita...)

- We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the bean... aka Madelyn's bff... aka the incredibly lucky daughter of the amazing, Melissa

- We did Madelyn's Halloween photos at Portrait Bug in NYC. Madelyn has three halloween costumes. Yes, that's right. 3. Two of them I bought recently because I couldn't decide between the two and then I was going through the clothes I bought when I was pregnant to take the next size out and I found another one. Eek. So... she will be a butterfly... and a fairy....and a princess. Ha. Here's a SMALL sampling. I am sure i will post more soon:

(check out the AMAZING hat that Melissa made...)

- Scrapjacked added three new designers!!! Congrats, ladies!

- Madelyn has been SPOILED by some amazing homemade things lately. One day, I shall blog about them. We LOVE handmade over here.

- I joined a gym. I know. crazy, right? But it's awesome. I have a group of girlfriends that I go with on my lunch break and as I've told them, I cannot AFFORD not to go because there's nothing I hate more than wasting money. Just waiting to see some good results.

- Madelyn is hilarious. She seriously cracks me up. She pulls her mirrors that hang on the crib into her bed with her. She's totally ticklish (those thighs, my gosh). She's still not sitting up and I am just dying waiting for it to happen. She will be 6 months next week (yea ..... where does the time go!??!)

- Grey's is on soon!

portrait bug.

i know i have told you all before, but i have to tell you again how IN love i am with Portrait Bug.... NYC's only scrapbook store that's also a portrait studio. I went there on Saturday with Madelyn for a crop... and got absolutely nothing creative done but had some GREAT time hanging out with Kim, the owner, and taking some photos of miss Madelyn. Madelyn was a bit tired so we had to cut our time short, but I cannot rave enough about how much I love these portraits. Kim was so awesome and professional and SO good with Madelyn (even when she pee'd all over the nice black backdrop!) Seriously.... I wish I could show you them all (but that's a lot and i don't want to post any FULLY nude here!) but here's a few (well, more than a few.....)




 (yes.... her toes are in her mouth and up her nose....oy... my girl loves her feet!)



(please excuse the fact that i look a mess.... i didn't expect to be taking pictures that day! LOL!!)

see what i mean!?! amazing. if you're in the area, you MUST take you, yourself, your family, your pet, whoever to portrait bug for some awesome portraits. ALSO, i got a preview of some of their holiday cards and they are AWESOME! i highly recommend them!!

5 months.

 

my beautiful little princess....(i am writing this a night ahead of time because i will be at work tomorrow) tomorrow you are five months old. tomorrow is your first month birthday that i am not spending with you because i am back at work and it absolutely breaks my heart. i know i will spend the entire day thinking of you and wishing i was there. i will still wake up tomorrow and sing happy birthday to you, as i do every month. and hopefully, at some point, i will get to take your picture with your birthday crown.... our little tradition.

you have gotten SO big. you are like a real little person.

you scream just to hear your own voice and it amuses every single person. you LOVE people and will smile and coo at anyone who will pay you attention. you especially LOVE other babies and have a ton of fun with your cousins and jack and the babies.

you still love your feet and want to have them inside your mouth all the time. and when they're not in your mouth, you're sucking on your mama's face... or biting my chin. i think you're definitely teething because EVERYTHING is going in your mouth these days, but no little teethies yet.

you're starting to really like baths.... i think you enjoy them much more now that you don't feel like you're going to drown in the tub since we have the mesh tub for you. you even took a bath the other day with your cousin, James. I think you really enjoyed that and he definitely did.

you are the most loving baby anyone's ever met. you LOVE to cuddle and give kisses. it breaks mama's heart to leave you every day for work but i know that you are having so much fun with Mimi.

you are starting to REALLY love your exersaucer. you still love your bumbo but you're getting a little too big for it because of your chubby legs. you're just dying to sit up and can pull yourself completely up when mommy holds your hands (really... i don't help you at all!) but you can't stay up.

you desperately want food. you still are not allowed to have any, but you took mama's cookie out of her hands the other day. it was very amusing.

you are the happiness in so many people's lives. you finally got to see your uncle ryan again. he really likes you and thinks you're a very fun baby and that's a great compliment because uncle ryan doesn't like babies. you video chatted with aunt rissa the other day. mommy is just counting down the days until she comes home. you're gonna be such a big girl by then. you've spent a lot of time with your uncle danny and he really loves you. and of course, you love your mimi and your momma.

you are a funny little girl. i think you know it, too. i think you're going to be a riot. and i think you know how to con your momma already ---- (like your fever the other day when momma was at work and i came home and took you to the dr.... and there was really nada wrong... you just knew your momma would come running when she heard you had a fever... mimi says you're gonna sleep with lightbulbs now! LOL)

you are sleeping SO much more now. at least for the past few days. maybe you're going through a growth spurt or as Mimi and i like to think, maybe you're just able to get much more comfortable now that you're liking your crib. you switch positions 8,000 times during the night but it keeps you happy and that's what matters. Let me tell you when you won't sleep though... when you're out. You have a HUGE issue sleeping when there's anything going on because you don't want to miss a thing. My little social butterfly.

You LOVE hanging upside down (weirdo!) but obviously, momma doesn't intentionally get you to do it.... but you do it anyways. funny girl.

i can't believe how big you are. next week we will go to the doctor for your checkup and find out how big you are. and we also have your christening coming up. so many things to look forward to. and spend every single second we have together.

i love you, beautiful. happy birthday.

get started early on your christmas shopping!

i am super excited to share some cool news with you all... if you remember, awhile back i talked about how in love i was with "the chalkboard tee" at the renegade fair in brooklyn. they are shirts for the kids that you can chalk on. you and i both know that the kids love to draw on well, everything, so what better than having a shirt that you're actually ALLOWED to draw on. if you're anything like me, you're always on the lookout for a cool gift that you don't actually have to walk into toys r us to get *shudder*

well, good news.... now you can get 20% off your pre-orders! go HERE

Just enter the code attnchalk at checkout.  This code is good for pre-orders.  All pre-orders will be shipped out on 12/10.

i think i may just have to get this one for mr. james, my nephew.

he'll love it.

go shop now!

a good day in scrapbook land.

lots of good stuff going on in scrapbook land today....

first off, there is a huge, incredibly exciting announcement over at scrapjacked. we are looking for our newest jacker! this is the first time there's ever been an open call for a new jacker so bring on the fresh talent! can't wait to meet our new jacker! go check it out!

secondly, today is the scrapbook expo in NJ. i'm pretty excited. it's typically pretty lame because no one wants to travel to NJ to showcase their goods... but i'm keeping my fingers crossed... and if all else fails, i have a cart just waiting for me to press the buy button of hambly goodness.

and finally, some more new pages.... got two more to take photos of..... i've been a scrapping machine lately, at least compared to the last year! sorry for the crappy photos... i'm too lazy to scan and stitch. oh, how i long for a 12x12 scanner!

have a great weekend, my friends!

20 weeks.

hello, love.... mama had to go back and count how many weeks you are because i have been such a slacker with writing.... bad, bad momma. all for good cause though.... the more time i spend off the computer, the more time i spend with you, right? right. you are currently sleeping so i am sneaking on to show the world the beauty that you are at 20 weeks:

see, beautiful.... i told you :)

you are getting SO big. moving and grooving all over the place. i will lay you down in your crib and when i go in to get you after your nap, you are flipped over completely the other way. you are just dying to be able to sit up and i caught you yesterday trying to use the side of the bed to pull yourself up.... but the second you saw me, you stopped..... i think you thought you were doing something you weren't supposed to ;)

we only have a few more days together because momma has to go back to work (yuck) on september 1st. my heart is aching knowing that i have to leave you. i wish i could spend every single moment with you. i can't fathom missing out on so much of your life. it is going to be a rough, rough day and i'm sure i will call Mimi a million and one times to make sure you are okay.

i think that you are teething because you are sucking on EVERYTHING. i feel like you could suck off my face at times. you are also giving LOTS of kisses.... it's the cutest thing in the entire world. you are such a lovie girl. i think you'd really like to eat, but aren't allowed to yet...

every day with you gets better and better... but you're growing up a little too fast. i cannot even remember what you were like as a newborn. it seems like forever ago.

we've been pretty busy the past few weeks. we bought a house and then it fell through... so that was pretty disappointing.... you would have had the most perfect playroom.... but something else will come along...

i love you, pretty girl. stop growing up so fast, please!