Best Teacher Award

When I made the quilt for Spencer it brought back a flood of high school memories. You see, I saved all my elective classes for my senior year so I could have an easy and relaxed exit from high school. Two of my favorite electives were taught by Mrs. Ferron. Sweet Mrs. Ferron helped me learn how to make my first quilt in her sewing class. Then in child development she freaked me out as she lectured on epidurals and Spina Bifida. She was Woods Cross's adorable grandma figure who patiently attempted to mold every high school girl into the perfect little homemaker.

Flash forward to 2011. I've shown you a glimpse of my new sewing obsession. The obsession that has caused me to have fond memories of my days with Mrs. Ferron. The obsession that has caused me to "accidentally take a wrong turn into the fabric store's parking lot" -- or at least that's how I explain it to Jeff.

A few days ago I was rummaging through fabrics, waiting for one of them to speak to me. You know, like on Project Runway or something. Fabrics speak to me now. Now that I'm an aspiring sewer...perhaps seamstress is a better word for what I am aspiring to be.

A fabric finally spoke. And just in time because had it spoken one second later I would have missed the opportunity to be waiting in line behind Mrs. Ferron. Okay, I don't know if it was really her, but it looked a lot like her. I didn't say anything to her because it's been almost 5 years since I've seen her and I can only imagine there are a few Mrs. Ferron look-a-likes out there.

But Mrs. Ferron or not, it made me laugh because I realized her classes of child development and sewing might have been my most influential classes of all my education as I was standing in the fabric store with my baby. I guess high school wasn't a total waste of time. Or I've just reverted back to my high school self. Either way, props to Mrs. Ferron.

I Lure My Baby With Fingernail Clippers.

My mom was skeptical of the extent of Eli's crawling. For the other skeptics out there, just watch:


And while you're watching videos, here's another one. We get a kick out of Eli because when he sees something he wants, he goes for it. It's also funny because you can see his thought process as he's "honing in" as my mom calls it. He spots his target. He stares it down. Then he attacks. Eli absolutely loves bread. I had just fed him a piece of bread and then decided to film him because he was being so cute. In the midst of my filming he found a crumb he couldn't go without.

Noteworthy Week

At the beginning of this week I stared at Eli in awe as he learned how to go from laying on his belly to sitting up. I texted Jeff while shaking in excitement, "Mark my words, he'll be crawling by the end of the week."

Throughout the week his little body has slowly been figuring out how to get places, and as of yesterday I am officially saying Eli has learned how to crawl. I don't have video proof yet, but how about a picture of the learning process?

 Another thing he did absolutely melted my heart. Every day of his life I would repeat "Ma ma ma ma ma" over and over again to him. I was determined to have him say mama before he said dada. Well, much to my dismay, he learned dada first. And he thought it was really funny to repeat da da da da da every time I encouraged him to say ma ma.

This week he FINALLY said ma ma! Later when Jeff got home from work, Eli immediately said "Da da." I think he's even figured out I'm mama and Jeff's dada.

The past few weeks he has loved walking along furniture. This week it evolved to running around the furniture. He is so busy all the time. He gets into everything and has about a 5 minute attention span.

To finish off this noteworthy week, Eli was on his best behavior today at church. While we were singing a song in sacrament meeting we looked down and saw Eli waving. I thought he was just waving at all the people, but Jeff noticed he was waving at the chorister leading the song -- thinking the chorister was waving to him. I never realize how much of what we are trying to teach him actually sinks in until he pulls stunts like that off. He's getting so fun and I love seeing him learn new things!

When the Cat's Away

My mom has certain expectations of how people should park in her garage. She will let you know if you park too close to her. She will let you know its hard to carry the groceries in, or that she can hardly open her car door, or that you pulled too far up and haven't left enough room in front of the stairs. Parking in the garage is an art in the Thomas home.

After two months of my mother's subtle hints on how he can perfect his garage parking, Jeff decided to start pulling in as far away from my mom's car as possible...only to hear this comment, "Jeff, why do you park so far over? You're the first one gone in the morning and the last one to get home. We hardly even notice you're there."

Mother-in-laws. You just can't make them happy can you?

My parents decided to take a last-minute road trip and I had to laugh when I noticed Jeff taking full advantage of the empty garage:

I'm sure my mom will be parking the same way after we move out.

I've been taking advantage of the empty space as well. My parents' room has now become my workroom. I'm addicted to sewing these days! I made the quilt for Spencer and now I've been working on pillows for our new house. Yes. I don't want to jinx it, but we have a house in the works. It's adorable. I love it. It's perfect. I lay awake at night dreaming of decorations for it. 

This is a throw pillow I made (that still needs to be stuffed) for our room. Yellow, brown and white are the tentative colors.

After making Spencer's blanket I fell in love with the idea of a dinosaur themed room for Eli. We've been sleep training Eli and he needed something to soothe him at night when he wakes up so he can go back to sleep. I noticed he liked a fleece tie blanket my parents have so I decided to start the dinosaur theme off with a new comfort blanket for Eli.

Speaking of Eli -- his latest trick is to stare in awe. Over the last week we have noticed him look at things with his mouth open. It's so funny. I went on a walk with him yesterday and I am not exaggerating when I say he had his mouth open and was looking amazed by his surroundings every time I peeked at him. He's such a goofy little boy! Gotta love him.

Narcissus

Eli has been learning a lot of new tricks lately. He's becoming more and more aware of the world around him and is becoming quite a social butterfly. He particularly gets a kick out of watching little kids. Namely, himself. 

We went house hunting a couple weeks ago and decided to let Eli get out of his car seat at each house. Every time Eli caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror, he would vigorously flap one of his arms to wave hello. Does he wave to anyone else unprovoked? No.

My other favorite thing he does when he sees his reflection is kisses. I have caught Eli kissing his reflection several times. Does anyone else get kisses? No. He only has eyes for himself. Can you blame him?

A Quilt For Spencer

A few weeks ago we had our second annual Excell girly girl weekend. Tana was in charge of it this time and she decided to have a sewing adventure. We all brought material for blankets and had a blast sewing the night away.

I made a quilt for my sister's new baby, Spencer. He was born today! I'm so excited for him to come home from the hospital so he can meet us and his new blanket.

Happy Birth Day Spencer. We already love you! And we already broke in the blanket for you.

Single Mom

We're officially a few weeks into Jeff's first busy season of the year. Eli and I send him off at 8:00-8:30 in the morning and if he comes home before 9:30 at night we get excited he's home early.

So I've been living the single mom lifestyle for a little bit. Well. Single mom living with her mom. With a husband who comes home at night. But still. We've had some long days. My brother called me an accountant widow. Whatever you want to call it, me and Eli have been missing Jeff all day.

When my aunt asked me to babysit her four kids last month I was a little skeptical. I can hardly handle my one kid. Add four more to that?!? I guess I'll try.

Boy am I glad I tried. Would you believe me if I said having five kids is easier than having one? Allow me to explain through a series of pictures:

My ten and eight-year old cousins told their mom they were clearing their schedules for the week of Eli's stay. They jump out of bed if they hear Eli up in the morning, they giggle at his every move, they beg to feed him, they do laps and laps around the house with him and they cater to his every cry. 

It's been nice to have a little break from my monotonous daily tasks of being a "single mom" and get some help with Eli. Thanks girls! Maybe I'll survive tax season after all.