Our "At Home" Photo Shoot

Jas asked me the other day if I wanted him to take a few pregnancy photo shots of Elise and I with the Nora belly...just us here at home, casually, doing our thing.  He knows me, so of course I thought that was a great idea :)

So here we are in our element.  Me, 38-ish or perhaps 39-ish weeks pregnant.  Elise, playing, rolling around, saying hi to Nora, loving her some books, and getting cranky about being asked to be in pictures.  And Jas having the tough job of trying to capture it all.

But I have to say, I think he did a pretty swell job.  I like that we did it at home, just like when Brooke took some pictures of us while we were awaiting Elise's arrival...same place, in front of the red dresser :)

(Oh, and please overlook my baggy shirt...I'm seriously re-wearing the same 4 shirts over and over until she comes, ha!)

(that's her new favorite thing to do...sit on that stool and browse through her boxes of toys and books)

And finally, you know how we like to keep it real...here ya go.

She was sooooo over it.  So we called it a day.

Alright, Nora, please come anytime now...can't WAIT to meet you.

Series: Post {Nap} Cuteness

On Thursday's E doesn't get her normal two naps (I'm still surprised she will take two...holding on to them!).  We attend a mom's group every Thursday morning and we don't get home until sometime close to lunch.  Usually we eat lunch and then shortly after I put her down for one good nap.  She typically sleeps on these days until well in to the afternoon.

Today she woke up and her little shaggy-headed, post-nap self screamed "photograph me, ma!" So I did.  Really, can you blame me? ;)

(little crumb face)

Sweet memories of my animal cracker-eating, tower-building, tiny napper :)

Reminding Myself...

Some (mostly simple) things I'm thankful for today...

* bright colorful mugs
* a cute little energy-filled toddler (even though she's going through a squealing stage)
* friends who send random messages of encouragement
* chai tea
* my crockpot!
* a husband who is willing and eager to help
* family coming soon
* naptime
* being nearly full-term
* coloring (it's SO not just for kids :)
* baby hiccups
* a fun-to-be-around language tutor
* and pictures of sunny days to help me keep in mind that they will come again :) (NO. MORE. SNOW!!)...

Just needed to remind myself of some of the little things in life after a week of passing around sickness, a constant feeling of no energy, documents being stolen (all being worked out, however), and MORE snow.  Haha.  Could've been a whole lot worse, but sometimes you just need a visual pick-me-up, right?  Here's to a new week and a fresh reminder of His grace abounding.  Happy Monday!

{Almost} Eighteen Months

Not sure where the past year and a half went, but wow, it went.  We're closely approaching 18 months with Elise and I just want to post some of the things I don't want to forget about her at this age.

(In no particular order)...

*On most days the girl seems fearless.  She'll typically go to people easily, try new things, etc.

*She is a great eater!  Nine times out of ten she'll eat what's put in front of her, occasionally she'll have moments of resistance, but overall she eats well.  She's also learning to use a spoon and a fork like a champ, but the bib is an essential for clothes-protection :)

*She knows where to go potty and how to go about it.  She doesn't love her diaper these days, but still isn't quite sure when she's going pee-pee or poo-poo.  I get the feeling she's close to being ready to potty train, but with major transition coming (aka little sister), I think we'll wait another couple months and then give it a go.  

*Like in the pic above, she'll hardly sit still long enough for a photo!  This was the only one I got at an attempted photo shoot with her (and note, there's no smile ;)

*She still loves Alex (her monkey) and needs to have him for nap along with Gigi the gingerbread girl.  They're her two fav's.

*Big Blue or Big Clear (her paci's) are also nap time/bedtime staples.  I really don't think she needs them, but again, with transition around the corner we'll wait a couple months before saying bye to them.

*While we're still learning our colors, she knows many animal sounds and repeats a ton of what we say...her vocab is quite expansive (at least in my opinion ;)  She's also learned around three of four Slovak words/phrases that she uses regularly...too cute.  A few of my Elise-vocab favorites are "puh bak" (when she wants to put something back), "peeesss" (please), "bubee" (blueberry), "ov eww" (love you), and "gapes" (grapes).  Love me some baby language.

*She sleeps 7:30/8 at night until 6:30ish in the morning.  She's still clocking two naps a day, but they're anywhere between one hour and an hour and a half.  I keep wondering if she's going to give one of those naps up soon, but so far she's sleeping well for them, so we'll keep at it until she lets us know otherwise :)

*She LOVES to dance.  And the girl can straight move.  Music is a big thing for her and currently her favorite song is Ellie Goulding's "Anything Could Happen."  Perhaps we have a musician or dancer in the making?  We shall see!

*She'll mostly keep a hair tie or clip in these days and her hair is getting long (you can especially tell when it's wet...)

*She's quite ticklish but her favorite time to be tickled is by far under the "ave" or cave that we make out of blankets or the bedspread.

*Finally, we try to limit her screen time (I think she could be easily addicted...just sayin'), but we do let her watch some YouTube videos.  Her current favorites include anything about trains, colors, dogs, and ones that have good music.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but it's good for my mama heart to jot these down for future remembrance (even if it's just for me :)  Really, we're just thankful for this chick and the added adventure, love, challenge, and fun she brings to our lives.

36 weeks!

...and it's looking like she's on track to hang in there for a potential four more weeks (hopefully not longer).  We'll see!

But before the deets, here she is in all her belly-glory :)

It appears that she is still head down and in good position for delivery, supposedly.  She's currently weighing in at a solid 6 pounds 4 ounces and should keep gaining in the next few weeks.  Elise was 8 pounds 8 ounces when she was born, so I'm curious to see if Nora will be more or less.  There's now about a five day discrepancy between my two "due dates," so I'm just going to say she'll come when she good and ready...hopefully before April 19th (that's when Jason's parents leave and we hope she'll be here for at least part of their stay!).  So that's our prayer...earlier in April :)

I'm still feeling (fairly) well...back aches, sleeplessness, occasional heart burn, and tiredness.  Oh, the tiredness.  I only have one daughter, but being the toddler that she is, I promise you she has more energy in her pinky toe than I do in my whole body these days! ;)  Jas is a great help, however, so together we're making it.  Thankful for that man.

Sweet Nora, we can't wait to meet you!

A Little Photo Shoot

Our friend, Paul, who has quite the creative eye took a few family photos for us the other day.  I'm not sure, actually, that we've ever had family photos done, so this was quite nice and needed.  He did a great job given that it was certainly windy (and quite chilly too) and it was closing in on E's nap time.

And I just wanted to throw that last one in here in the spirit of keeping things real.  We were cracking up because A) it was cold, B) we felt like quite a few of the shots we took could've been on the Awkward Family Photos website, and C) Elise was quite distracted by another little girl driving a rechargeable car in front of our building.  That all added up to some very hilarious shots to say the least!

Thanks, Paul, for capturing at least a few decent shots of us ;) We appreciate it!

I think we'll get my father-in-law to get a few more family shots (hopefully without all the wind and cold) before Nora arrives when they come in a few weeks.  Seems kind of crazy that we'll soon be a family of four...say what!?!??!!?

Getting Our Sled On...

As you may know, Slovakia in the winter is pretty typically filled with snow.  Particularly this year, well, in my opinion, at least.  We've had quite a few big snows.

Which means that during the last big snow Daddy ran out and bought Elise a sled.  This was her first time sledding and she seemed to like it.

But instead of talking (er, writing...) about it more, I'll just let these three little videos speak for themselves :)





And this last one makes me giggle...ha!  We did eventually figure out that she needed to be sitting forward on the sled and then she would go better through the snow (apparently we were a little slow...)



Ah, snow.  E loves you, but mama is ready for some sun.  Seriously, ready.  Bring it on, sunshine, let me see what you got!

Some New Living Room Art

If you follow me on Instagram (palmerponderings), you may have seen a few pics of a painting I've been working on...and now I can say it's finally finished!  I've been working on it for some time now (in the evenings after E goes to sleep, random days when I had more energy/time, etc.) and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

We had a painting I had previously done hanging above our couch.  I liked that painting alright, but it just wasn't what I wanted there longer term.  As in, it was ok, but not my favorite.  Then I saw a post on one of my favorite blogs which led me to this tutorial and I was inspired.  And so it began...

I followed the tutorial pretty strictly with the gridding, but after some intense challenges thanks to an already used and slightly warped canvas (yes, I'm cheap-o and painted over the old painting), Jas had to step in and help my mathematically challenged self.  Even now, however, it's still not perfect, but really really hard to tell unless you were to look up close.  I ended up being ok with that.

After completing the grid I took my original cup (read the tutorial for more specifics, she explains it pretty well) and filled in the "petals."  Then I went to town randomly painting all the fun colors.  I stuck to a color scheme mostly that I thought would go well with our living room.  Once the petals were finished and it had dried I took some washi tape and went around the edges (this was my alternative to painting the edges for a finished look).  I love the washi tape on the sides.

One other note, she left some of her petals unpainted in the tutorial (because it more closely resembles the painting in which she herself was inspired by), but I preferred them all painted, so I just went for it.

And with that, it got hung on the wall :)

It looks a bit crooked in the pics above (and we have horrible lighting for picture-taking), but in real life it's not.  And while it's certainly not perfect, I think it makes our red slumpy couch (ha!) look better.  Not to mention I am a fan of it over the previous painting, for sure.  So, all in all, I'd give this project two thumbs up!

Any one else out there working on a painting or an inspired project?! :)