A Random Day to Remember

So today started off like any other day...oh wait, no...I got a shower in before taking Mark to work.  Anywho, we got out a little later than we really wanted to, but we still got Mark to work on time.  After dropping him off, Canon and I went to Walmart to exchange some razors. We went to the razor aisle and I picked out the new ones and started taking Canon back toward the Customer Service area when I noticed he had something in his hand.  It was a disposable razor head.  I guess one of the packages must have been opened and, of course, he found it.  It took me a little while to get it away from him, trying to not just rip it out of his hands for fear of cutting him.  I did get it out, but he was not happy with me.  I kicked it under the display rack so he wouldn't reach for it again.  I looked for a cut but couldn't find one.  Phew!  Then I exchanged the razors and was heading out when I noticed Canon's finger was bleeding. Ugh!  So I asked a worker if they had a first aid kit so I could clean him up.  He was such a good sport with the antiseptic wipe, but he tried to not let me put the band-aid on. I got it there though, and he's had it on ever since.  So, nothing too dramatic, but it still frightened me.

Then after we got home, I didn't want to take him inside so soon.  It is such a gorgeous day outside, so we went for a little walk.  Canon saw a helicopter for the first time; he stopped to bark at a dog across the street; he picked up little rocks and carried them down the sidewalk.  He even walked up the walkway and up the stairs to the front door of a nice widow that we met who lives on our street.  So I let him ring the doorbell and we had a short little visit with her.

When we left her house, we walked down another street to give Canon some new scenery, and there was a little boy who came running out from his backyard to come meet Canon.  The mom and little sister came out front too, and we made some new friends.  We even went to their backyard to have an impromptu play date. So fun!  So, now we may end up having some new friends in the neighborhood...for the next 3 months or so of us living here.  The mom even informed me of a program they do at the local library that I think would be really fun to bring Canon to...so we may end up seeing them on a regular basis.  I'm kind of excited for it!

We didn't get home from dropping off Mark at work until after 11am.  Canon ate a little bit of lunch while watching Veggie Tales before taking a nice nap.  So, not completely typical, but it was a nice day.  Yay for great weather!!

Long Weekend/Fun with Fondue/Mark's Birthday

So apparently in Eastern Mass, the court systems had an "Evacuation Day" where they closed the courts and had a day off.  Here in Western Mass, they didn't close courts, but Mark was allowed to take a day off, but he got to choose which day to take.  His original plan was to take off today (Monday the 21st) because it's his birthday... Happy Birthday, Sweetie!!!... but he decided to take off Friday instead.  Why?

1) Because Canon and I went to Maryland for a couple days so that I could go to court as a character reference for my friend Theresa in her custody hearing.  We left on Tuesday afternoon and returned on Thursday afternoon, so we hadn't seen him for a couple days.  I wanted to be able to really spend some time with Mark instead of coming back home just to be alone with Canon all day again. (No offense, Canon!)

Fun with a camera on the plane to MD

Mom, let me take the picture!!

It's so nice to have the whole row to ourselves to let Canon play.

We didn't have a crib for Canon to sleep in, so it took a long time to get him to fall asleep at night.   I placed stuffed animals all around him so that he wouldn't roll too far and bump his head on the bed posts.

2) Mark is really into the NCAA March Madness Tournament right now, and he wanted to watch a game that he recorded and didn't get to yet.  He knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid all the news about the game if he went to work, so staying home would allow him to watch the game and not have it spoiled for him.

3) But the factor that somehow placed the most weight for Mark's decision was that the weather was absolutely beautiful.  It was so nice outside, so we took a family trip to the park!

Woo hoo! This is so fun, Mommy!

Daddy playing in the tubes with Canon

Look up here, Mom!

Fun with the Slide

Enjoying a lazy morning with Daddy

On Saturday we celebrated Mark's birthday with a fondue party with a couple families from our ward.  We spent pretty much the entire day preparing for the party, so I didn't get many pictures. But, he did open his presents that day.

Thanks for the new clothes, Mom and Dad Dahl!

Mark hasn't been able to wear his wedding ring for a few years now because it's too small.  Since it was all beat up and looked nothing like it did when he first got it, I got him a new one.  Of course, it's the wrong size, but at least he was able to open it, try it on, and then take it back to order the right size.

The Fondue Party that night was a success.  We had about 10 people total eating shrimp and beef cooked in oil; ham, crackers, and veggies dipped in cheese sauce; and cookies, pretzels, strawberries, and bananas in chocolate sauce.  So yummy!

Turns out that it was a fabulous idea that Mark took off Friday instead of Monday.  This was the view from my windows today.

So much for Springtime...snow = sad :(

The Finished Product

I think I forgot to show you all how the baby quilt turned out.  I gave it away at the baby shower a couple of weeks ago, but here is the finished product.  I kinda messed up the edging, but I don't call myself a professional quilter... so this was a good experience for me to learn from, and I think it still turned out pretty cute.

Daily Ritual

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home

Glad as I can be.

He picks me up and holds me tight

And then counts One, Two, Three.

He then will spin me really fast

All the way around.

I grab on so I can't do what?

Fall to the ground.

After Mark gets home from work every day, they usually do something like this in the kitchen, although Canon seems to enjoy it more than he did in this video.  I guess he was camera shy this time!

A New Quilt

Mark was throwing out one of his old  button-up shirts because the elbows were getting worn, so I decided that I'd like to use it for something crafty.  I got an urge to do some sewing, so I set off for Joann's to make a baby blanket for a baby shower I'm going to this Saturday.  They just had a baby boy, so this is what I picked out.

You can't go wrong with puppies for a boy's blanket!

These stripes are a "sister fabric" of the puppies.

Just a little something that would make it "pop"!

Put them all together and I think it will be a cute combination!

 So then I had to design the quilt.  Afterall, I only had a week and a half until the baby shower.  I had a few ideas floating around in my head, so I thought I'd better get them down on paper before making a decision.

First was the simple blocks to incorporate all the fabrics evenly.

Then a more complicated, yet cuter design.

This is what I finally decided on though.

I got all my pieces cut out and ready to go.

This is the layout to give you an idea of how it will turn out.

Once I had sewn 6 of the 12 blocks, I found that I was running out of blue strips.  What?  I counted them and had the right amount cut.  I looked a little harder at my design and realized that I was sewing all the blocks the same, but that's not how it was actually designed per se.  Since the bottom and right edges of the blanket were lined with blue, I had to cut more blue and red to line the left and top too.  I think it turned out even cuter than I designed it originally, and I'm quite pleased with it.

I now only have to layer the blanket with the batting and the back, tie it with yarn, and then edge it with the red bias tape I got.  Hopefully this won't be very difficult or time consuming (which I don't really expect, but who knows what might come up?)  I was originally thinking of using some denim that I have left-over as the backing, but then I realized that it was just too heavy for this cotton blanket.  I have enough of the red fabric, so I'm going to use that as the back, but I was really hoping to use that for another quilt.  Oh well, I guess I'll have to go find something else for that one.  Finishing this quilt takes precedence. Wish me luck in getting it done before Saturday.  So far, I've made great progress, but it's not done yet... and I still have a baby and a house to take care of.  :-)

New Phone

Ok, so after that strange phone experience, confirming that our family plan DID have a phone available for an upgrade, I decided I needed to get a new phone. Since the store wasn't open when we got there, Canon and I walked over to the nearby CVS to get a couple essentials and to pass the time.  While there a nice older man bought Canon a large sucker.  Since it was a nice gesture, and he didn't ask before purchasing the candy, I said it was alright to give it to Canon. (In my mind I was thinking, "This is a sticky disaster waiting to happen!")  The sucker seemed to occupy Canon enough to not try to get out of the shopping cart, which was nice.  Then as we left I knew that I needed to take it back so that I could hold onto his hand to walk down the slippery sidewalk.  We ran into that man again (whose name was Eddy) where he tried to get Canon to give him a high-5, but to no avail.  We thanked him for the sucker and made our way back to the AT&T store.

Canon certainly had a blast exploring that place, and it was quite difficult for me to keep him out of things he wasn't supposed to be getting into.  At least everyone in the store kept saying that he was just so cute and didn't seem to mind his energy, but as his mom, I had a hard time trying to think- choosing a phone and everything that came along with it.  I showed the AT&T guy the video of what my phone was doing and he said that the water damage that my phone experienced would do that sort of thing.  *Note to self: DO NOT let Canon play with your new phone!  Drool is more destructive to a phone than dropping it into the toilet because when a baby sucks on a phone they force the water inside.  The water damage also affected the SIM card, which meant that I had to transfer over 1/2 of my contacts manually. UGH!  That's ok, now it's all fine and dandy. It's just a simple phone, the "free" one you can get with all the deals AT&T has nowadays.  (I say it's simple, but I still haven't figured out how to set my speed-dials yet!)

Yay for a new phone!!

Oh, remember that sucker?  Yeah, I let Canon have it a little more once we got home, but there was no way I would let him eat the whole thing...that's way too much sugar before a nap time. 

yummy sucker

My Phone Scares Me

I've been meaning to blog for a little while now, but I couldn't really think of anything to really talk about.  Mark told me that meant that I probably didn't really need to blog. I guess nothing exciting happens when all I do is stay at home with the baby.

I mean, Valentines Day was nice but nothing really extraordinary.  We traded babysitting with another couple in the ward.  We watched their little girl on Saturday, and they watched Canon for us on Monday.  I tried to be all cute by making Mark a cream cheese pie (and a few tarts with the remaining filling).  I topped it off with cherry-pie filling (to make it red) and tried to add a whipped-cream frosting on top.  I expected it to work like other frostings/icings with my cake decorating kit... but I was sorely mistaken.  I had plans to make it all pretty and write "I love you" in a heart shape... but that was a total disaster.  This is how it turned out in the end.  Not too horrible, but not nearly as cute as I envisioned.  At least it still tasted great!

 Here are the tarts I made with the remaining stuff. These turned out pretty good too!

For Valentines Day, Mark and I ate at Texas Roadhouse and totally stuffed ourselves.  We were thinking of going bowling after, but since we were so full, and it was all the way across town we decided not to.  We considered a movie, but nothing in the theater interested us enough to pay for it.  So we walked around the mall for a little while.  Eventually we bought me a new camera.  We had been looking into cameras since Christmas and finally just bit the bullet and bought one.  Yay, Happy Valentines Day to me!

Really, other than that (and Canon is sprouting 2 more teeth), there's not much to report on the blog.

However, something that I was not expecting happened today... and I wouldn't say that I was pleasantly surprised either.  In fact, I'm pretty annoyed at it. 

Watch this!

Sorry for the weird glare.  My phone is an LG Shine, and it's like a mirror. I guess I should've used a different angle to record this video.

I noticed it at first just after Canon went down for his nap.  Then I tried to get in touch with Mark and his mom to let them know what was going on. Then Canon woke up after only 1 hour. Ugh!  Looks like I'm going to have to get a new phone, and I'd go and do it right now if only I knew all the personal info I needed for the family plan we're on.  For now my phone just scares me, but I'm sure I'll have a new one up and running in not too long. *sighs*  

Wait, who said nothing exciting happens when all you do is stay at home with a baby? *grins*