Projects and More

I have been keeping busy with a bunch of projects lately. I made this menu from an old mirror we had hanging on our bathroom door. I hated how the mirror made the door hard to close so I pulled it off, spray painted it with chalkboard paint and ordered vinyl lettering to add to it. I love how it turned out. I found the idea here.

 I also made this skirt for Ember. I got the pattern here. It was pretty easy and I think it looks pretty cute.

 I did a little photo shoot with this guy and actually got a few smiles. He is so much fun and seems to be pretty photogenic.

 This little girl is not quite as photogenic but every bit as cute. I have to try pretty hard to get a good picture of her. She hates to stand still to get her picture taken and wants to look at the pictures right away. The best pictures are those when she doesn't realize I have a camera out, but then she isn't looking at me. Occasionally she will actually look at the camera for a split second if I am lucky.

Speaking of this little girl, she is getting to be quite opinionated and has quite a temper. I hope it is just a phase because it isn't much fun. When I picked her up from nursery yesterday the leaders told me, "She is going to be a drama queen isn't she?" Not quite what you want to hear from someone who has been watching your child for the last two hours. I was more than a little embarrassed.
She has decided that we are no longer allowed to call her Ember and she picks a different name every so often. Recently she has been Percy, the green train from Thomas and Friends. Before that she was Otto, a robot from a book we got at the library. She has been Mickey Mouse, Mater, and a bunch of other characters. You would think we watched a ton of TV, but we accidentally threw out the cord to hook our
TV up in the move and haven't bothered to replace it yet so we don't watch any. Occasionally we will put on a movie or let her watch something on YouTube. It is so funny how quickly she internalizes the characters she sees and becomes them. We will read a book once or twice and suddenly she is that person and is telling the story about them over and over. Everyone has been telling me not to discourage it since it is part of her imagination but I am wondering if there needs to be a limit since she goes into a fit if you call her the wrong name. I guess we need to work on being more polite. Maybe we should do something like she has to be Ember when we go out of the house or something. Anyone have any better ideas? I hate to discourage her creativity but I also don't think she should be allowed to throw a fit because someone called her the wrong name either.
Update-We have been making sure she gets a nap every day and that seems to have calmed down the tantrums a bit. She has had a little cold and has needed the extra sleep. She is much more pleasant to be around since.

3 Months Old

Steele is now three months old and he couldn't be cuter. We are getting quite a few big smiles now and he seems to be happier than ever. He doesn't quite know how to grasp at things yet but he is much more interested in toys and his surroundings. He loves to stand on my lap still and is getting better and better at it.
He has been sleeping a ton lately so he must be going through a growing spurt. He gets so upset when he has to wait a few minutes for his food. It is positively hysterical. You would think it had been a week since he ate last, not 3 hours or so. Ember is getting more interested in him and this morning she came in and asked if she could give him a hug. She even rocked him for a bit when he was sitting on his chair. Admittedly, it was quite the wild ride for him, but I love that they are starting to interact more. He will stare at her very intently and that is about all so far. I am sure they will have fun together soon.