Mothering Moments

I wish I had a lot of great advice and things to say about being a mom. I'm still pretty new and getting the hang of the whole thing.

I don't get to observe the way my child learns and discovers new things on a daily basis because I am at work. It does make me sad that I have to hear about it second-hand, but I would not change how much I enjoy being a mom.

Luke is getting so much better at talking. Although he can't describe everything he's done during the day, he does come running to give me big hug as soon as I get home during the week. And sometimes, when he feels like it, he will say "I love you, Mom". Those are the moments that are brightest in my day. The ones I love and enjoy.

What are some of yours?

Zippa-dee-ay and Heidi-ho

As usual I’m posting weeks after the event – Luke’s 2^nd Birthday. I can’t believe it has been two years already. I remember after he was born going through his baby clothes and seeing size 18 months and thinking my child is never going to fit into this. He is such a loveable guy. One of my favorite phrases he says is "Mom, I hold ya". He says this to me when he wants to be picked up. I'm glad Luke is a cuddle-bug and will let me hold and squeeze him tight still.

Luke's party theme was Disney’s “Cars”. He loves Lightening McQueen which he calls Ka-Chow. I ordered a cake from TOP Foods bakery with Lightening and Mader on it. It was a bit spendy,but Luke LOVED it and I must say it was quite delicious.

High points of the party:

Luke received a Matchbox Cars Carwash. Oh, how he loves his cars. It came with a schoolbus which he likes to carry around.

He loaded up on clothes for the spring and summer growing into a size 3T.

Luke got his very own Lightenting McQueen flashlight.

Stating the Obvious

I color my hair not only to perk up my drab natural color, but to cover up the gray I have. There is a lot, especially my temple area…it’s frightening how much I have. If you have met my mom you know where I'll be in 20 years. I think her hair is lovely, but I’m not ready for that right now - so colored it is!

My last coloring was in January so my grow out is pretty scary. No one can see my graying temples if I wear my hair down, but when I pull it back you can see the grays in all their glory. Now, I’m confident enough to not worry about it and wear my hair however, but when my husband points it out?

Scene:

Eating dinner with my parents on a Sunday evening.

Chris: “Tam, you’ve got quite a bit of gray hair there on the sides.”

Me: “I know – thanks for pointing it out.”

Chris: “It’s not that bad.”

Me: “It must be if you can see it from across the table.”

Yikes people! I think it's time to take action.

Happy Easter

March swept on by like nobody's business, don't you think? Here is a little picture post of our Easter. Like always, I didn't pull out the camera for everything.


In his basket, Luke received a Thomas the Train shirt and shorts, a bubble blowing gun, a Lightning McQueen sticker book(he calls him Ka-Chow), foam alphabet and numbers for the bath and peeps which he called ducks. The picture he didn't look to excited about it, but Chris had just started a show and so Luke would not look at the camera. Luke's grandpa and grandma Miller gave him a new Lightning McQueen car and Mader and he loved playing with those. In between conference sessions Luke, his dad and grandpa went for a walk. If you look closely, you can see him holding his new Mader truck. He loves his cars.

Coffee Filter Wreath

I usually don't make or hang wreaths except at Christmas time. I've just seen so many fantastic ones in the blog world lately I'd hate not to give them a try. This one I worked on last week and gave to Christina for our birthday. I saw someone use coffee filters as a heart center on a wreath here so I thought why not do a whole wreath using them. Did you know you can buy them in brown? Not being a coffee drinker I was unaware. Before my office at work had it's fancy coffee making machine they just used white filters.

I started by folding the filters in half, then in half again and smooshed it together a little and then hot glued it to the wreath. I started on the outside and worked my way inward. It took me two evenings (after Luke was to bed) to complete. I'd recommend wrapping the wreath first with fabric strips or ribbon because the Styrofoam did not like the hot glue very much.


I was so excited to see a tutorial on how to make some really cute paper flowers on a site I frequent: Little Birdie Secrets. I got out my trusty Cricut and lucky for me I had a cartridge that had a flower in the dimensions they suggested. Yippee!! The flowers were just the thing to give this wreath an added touch cuz I thought it was a bit boring before.

I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt. I'm going to make another for myself after my blisters heal from the glue gun burns. I got two this time - ouch!

Mommy's makeup

Most weekday mornings Luke is up at the crack of dawn watching me get ready for work. Some days he'll sit on our bed and eye me from a distance while drinking a sippy cup of milk and other times he's in the bathroom standing on the toilet seat cover wanting to go through my makeup bag. I tell him that it's mommy's makeup and it's for girls, but I do find it cute when he gets a hold of my foundation sponge and pats his cheeks. Chris doesn't find it as cute.

One evening last week when I got home from work Luke was watching Cars with his dad, but followed me around while I was putting things away. I sat at the computer for a moment in the front bedroom and than got up and went down the hall to our room to sort and file some papers. Luke stayed in that room happily talking and than all went quiet. I called to him a few times and then figured he went back to the movie with his dad. I'd say 5 or 10 minutes went by and then Luke came in with this stuck on his finger sayings "mommy more".

The tube was hallowed out and his face and hands were covered. My first thoughts were, "What else has been covered in lipstick besides Luke?!?!" I knew where he got it so I went straight to the front bedroom to find the disaster, but there wasn't one. Just one small hand print on my fleece jacket and a few smudges on the desk. That was it - what a relief!

Later that evening I did find a small line of lipstick in the carpet. Thanks to the trusty Internet I found a product (Goo Gone) that took it right out. Another relief. All I can think is that Luke ate the lipstick since his clothes nor anything else was covered in plum (the shade name). Hopefully the makeup thing is a phase he'll grow out of, but now I know not to leave any lipstick tubes out in plain sight. Lip gloss is okay since he can't unscrew the wand yet.

Luke let me take pictures before I washed him down - got to capture the moment!

Lightening up and other projects

I'm working on lightening up our front room. The major obstacle is our large dark green couch. Instead of putting a slip cover over it I thought it would be easier to find or make light colored throw pillows. I found some great fabric at JoAnns. I think it goes rather well with the couch and should brighten it up nicely.

Things I have planned for the front room: Re-paint the front room to a lighter shade of yellow. Build wood mantel for fireplace (already re-painted it back to white) Sew pillows Find fun knick-knacks to pull everything together.

If I didn't have enough to do during my evening and weekend time I ran into another idea for a bed headboard using a interior door which would be less construction than the Knockoff Wood one I had originally wanted to do. Christina and I headed down to Seattle to Second Use and found ourselves a door for $25 each. We had to cut off a panel to make it the right measurement for a queen size bed. We need to use a router for the 4x4's and my brother wasn't home to help with that so it's been pushed to another day to complete and paint. Here is a picture of the door cut to size. Forgot to pull out the camera for the before. Oh well.