Cherish Every Minute

I recently read a blog post about a mom's frustrated response to a reminder from a complete stranger to "enjoy every minute" of her motherhood because it goes by so fast.  I laughed as I related to this mom's negative response because I know how impossible it is to "enjoy every minute" of tantrums and sibling fighting.  Sometimes being a mom is not a very rewarding job.  I have spent hours preparing beautiful and nutritious meals for my kids only to have them complain about it and refuse to eat.  I try to nicely explain to my daughter why she can't push baby brother in his Jumperoo like he's in a swing only to have her spit in my face...literally.  I continue to interrupt my own sleep night after night as my infant refuses to close his eyes and get the sleep that he needs to be healthy and happy.  No, it's not always "rewarding".  And it's natural for us moms to get annoyed and even angry with all of the constant reminders from complete strangers to "enjoy every minute".

But sometimes these reminders are good.  And instead of resenting them, I have learned to try to be GRATEFUL for them.  Because with all the craziness of this same old everyday life, sometimes I lose site of the preciousness of life and I need the reminders.

My friend lost her baby last week and had to bury him today.  He was 12 months old....just learning how to move around and talk.  I think about the excitement she and her husband shared the day they found out they were pregnant, and again the day he was born.  I think about their joy when they saw his first smile and heard his first laugh, and the laughter they shared as they watched him joyfully smother his face with icing from his first birthday cake.  And my heart aches.  I think about how her arms are longing to hold him one last time...just feel that feeling of having him in her arms.  But the only way to feel it is to close her eyes and live the memory.  And my heart is forever changed.  Life really is short and precious.

The three children who live next door to me also experienced a great loss a few weeks ago, right before Christmas.  In just the split second of their mother losing control of her vehicle on the highway, their lives were forever changed.  She is in Heaven now, watching over them.  Her husband is now faced with the challenge of raising the kids by himself.  I'm sure they all think about the last time they spoke or embraced their mother, not realizing it would be the last.

And of course, there's Sandy Hook.  That was a day that made all parents hold our children a little tighter and give them a few more kisses when tucking them in at night.  Like many of you parents out there, I have pictured those children going through their normal morning routines, and giving their parents their last hugs and kisses as they headed off to school that day.

We take so much for granted, and life is short.  So, hold your babies tight.  Tell them over and over again how much you love them.  And really try to "enjoy every minute".  When they make a mess, be grateful that they are physically and mentally healthy enough to explore and have fun.  When they are nagging you to play with them or come see something when you're in the middle of something, think about what really should take priority.   When they are fussing and screaming, be grateful that you can hold and comfort them.  We're so blessed to have this precious time with our little ones, so let's go and try to cherish every minute of it.

In Loving Memory of Oliver "Ollie" Hinkle

Facebook Page in Memory of Ollie

Time to Re-Address My Goals

I've been totally slacking on my blog!  I always have so many ideas that I want to blog about, but can never find the time to sit and type them out :(  Things have been BUSY around here lately.  Amylou Baby sales have skyrocketed starting early October with Halloween items, then Christmas sales hit...on top of normal baby and birthday sales.  There was a time two weeks ago when I had a stack of 20 orders waiting to be completed within a week's time!  A normal workload for me is no more than 5 standing orders at a time, which is even sometimes difficult to do.  It hasn't been easy managing all of this while being a full time at-home mommy to my 4-year-old, 2-year-old, and 4-month-old.  I often scroll through my "Finished Work" album on Facebook and wonder how the heck I got all of it done.  Plus it just makes me feel good seeing all the stuff I have gotten done...maybe I should start taking pictures of all my clean folded laundry, cooked meals, and bags of dirty diapers and put them in an album too!  Just kidding...but the more I think about this the more I like the idea...

As my work load has greatly increased over the last few months, I've been forced to think about what my goals are and to think about whether or not starting this company was a good idea.  My goal for starting this company was to eventually have a job that can provide supplemental income for my family - a job I can do from home while my kids are at school, for which I can dictate my own hours, and therefore be involved with their school.  It will be many years before they are all in full time school, but I wanted to start it early to have it pretty well established for when that time comes.   However, I also wanted to start it now rather than later for selfish reasons - I just love doing all of it and it makes me feel good about myself.

Sometimes people ask me how I can stay sane having this business while being a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) too, but  believe it or not, the work actually KEEPS me sane...(and I pray a lot :) ).  Everything I make is a work of art to me.  It requires my creativity and skill, and all of my finished work feels like an accomplishment   This feeling of accomplishment is something that can easily go missing with being a SAHM.  We accomplish a lot of diaper changes, feeding, cleaning, life saving, etc, but it's never ending so it never feels like an accomplishment   Moms provide so much for their kids - even just by being in their presence and loving on them, but the results aren't seen right away.  There are no concrete finished products...children just keep growing and growing.

So, while I may not sleep as much as I used to (I have to do a lot of my work at night while the kids are asleep), I'm still going to keep going because I really just love what I do.  I love seeing happy faces when customers see their finished products, I love reading positive feedback on Etsy, I love e-mails from customers telling me how happy they are with their purchases, and I love doing "the work".  Most of all though, I love being able to do all of this while hanging out with these little munchkins all day.

Our September Getaway

As you may remember, I had a vacation status posted at my shop and on my Facebook page a couple weeks ago.  My family and I traveled to Wilmington, NC for my cousin's wedding.  My parents rented an awesome beach house right on the beach, and I got to spend the week before the wedding with them and all 4 of my siblings.  We all live very far away from each other, so it was AWESOME to spend a whole week together.  I have a brother in Korea, and one on St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands), and a brother and sister both in Colorado.  I live in St. Louis, close to my mom and dad.  We don't even get to all spend Christmas together anymore because not everyone can come home.

The vacation was a blast - so much family, and fun, and good food.

Big B LOVED the beach.  He had a blast playing in the ocean waves and building sand castles.  But he had the most fun sitting at the water's edge and throwing the wet sand into the water pretending it was poop (thanks, Aunt Margaret, for teaching him that!).

Here's my other little beach bum, Baby C. (Little A was freaked out by the beach so there are no pictures of her out there.  She preferred the comfort of the house.)

A rare family photo.  Here's my little family, with my siblings and parents:

 My SIBLINGS and me!!! (we look like we're really sweet and nice here, but we're actually all being really sarcastic and fake for the picture.  We're silly like that.)

  My adorable parents:

 Jonathan and Lyndsay, the bride and groom:

 The wedding day was on Little A's 2nd birthday.  We took some time in the morning to go out for a special birthday breakfast.  Chris and I had crepes.  Little A preferred a cupcake:

Check out my hot date for the wedding!

This Too Shall Pass

WARNING: There may be some stuff in this post that is "TMI" (too much information) for some people in regards to birth, breastfeeding, and potential new baby difficulties!  Don't read if any of this scares you or grosses you out!

Baby C is 4 weeks old today.  I wish I could say the time has flown by, but it really hasn't.  I've had to remind myself many times that "this too shall pass".  These have been some of the most difficult weeks of my life.  Baby C is not an easy baby.  In fact, I would go so far as to describe him as the parent-dreaded C-word...colicky.  In addition to this, my precious Little A is hitting her "terrible twos", and she and 4-year-old Big B have gone from being like "peas and carrots" to "cats and dogs".  They take toys away from each other and tease each other, and it's been really tough finding the time and energy to be a referee while taking care of Baby C as well.  I know everyone's world is being rocked with the addition of a new baby, and I did anticipate this, but I guess I was just hoping that things wouldn't be as bad if I expected the worst.

To add to all of this craziness, it's been rough for me physically as well.  In addition to all the usual birth recovery and not much sleep, I had about 2 weeks of sore, bloody nipples from breastfeeding, and a bad virus the last few days that hit me with a high fever and also somehow affected my breast, which made for some painful...no... EXCRUCIATING breastfeeding.  I thought for sure I had mastitis, but my doctor insisted it was viral.  I completely forgot how much it stinks to have a fever...I can't even remember the last time I had one before this!  When the fever first hit me, I thought for sure I was dying.  I just kept thinking about how I can't leave Chris with three babies to take care of as a single dad!  But, on a happy note, now that I'm over all my physical ailments, I'm hoping things get easier.  Baby C actually slept 7 hours in a row last night and I woke up this morning feeling like a new person.  I hope that this is the start of a turning point for us!

Thank God I have had so much help.  Chris has won the #1 best dad/husband award of the year.  And his parents, my parents, and friends have also helped so much with cooking for us and taking the big kids.  To all you parents out there with little or no help, I don't know how you do it!  I admire you!

My tiny little troublemaker:

"Who, me?"

Thanks to all the help from family and friends, I have had a few good days over the last couple weeks to work on some Halloween embroidery designs.  I'll post more as I get them done.  I am also going to put in an order for toddler girls' long sleeve shirts within the next week!

Introducing Baby C!

My beautiful baby BOY (Baby C) was born on Friday of last week, July 20th.  It was a couple days past my due date, and he was scheduled for an induction that day.  My water ended up breaking at 2:00 that morning, so we went into the hospital a little early.  I was so happy that I went into labor naturally because I have a fear of being induced!  I scheduled the induction because I was afraid the baby would get too big for a vaginal delivery.  My mom actually had to have a C-section with her 3rd baby after 2 vaginal deliveries because my brother was so big.  Baby C was born at 10:00 that morning weighing in at a whopping 8lbs, 13oz...a full pound heavier than my last 2 babies!  


Kind of an interesting side note...the hospital was crazy when we got there.  We had to kick someone who wasn't as far along as me out of their delivery room, and after Baby C was born, it took 9 HOURS until we were able to get our postpartum room.  Apparently there was a big baby boom the days surrounding the day I delivered.  The nurses calculated that exactly 40 weeks before, the Cardinals won the World Series, which is what they attribute the "boom" too.  All those happy celebratory Cards fans :)


We're so happy to have him home.  Tired from lack of sleep....but happy :)  Little B and Baby A (I should probably stop calling her "Baby" now...I'll call them Big B and Little A) are dealing well with the transition.  Both of them love their new baby.  The biggest challenge is to keep Little A off of him while he eats and sleeps!

Here are some newborn pics Bella Baby Photography took while we were at the hospital.  I had cute accessories ready for this photo shoot, which we forgot to bring to the hospital in our crazy rush to get there. But the simple blue and white blankets turned out beautiful.  Now if it had been a girl and I forgot the headbands and tutu...someone would have had to make a trip home to get them!

Here are some candid shots of the kids when they came to meet their new baby brother for the first time:

New Yellow Tutu

I'm still pregnant, but having lots of strong contractions, so it really could be any time now!  For those of you who don't know, I'm expecting baby #3 any minute now.  We don't know if it's a girl or a boy, but just in case, I'm bringing some fun girl stuff to the hospital for newborn photos.  Last blog post, I promised a lavender/purple tutu to match this headband:

But, I changed my mind and decided on yellow instead.  I've been on a big yellow kick lately with home decorating and clothes.  Here's the yellow headband I made for baby:

And here's the matching yellow tutu.  Fun, bright and sunny - perfect for a mid-summer baby!  I'll go ahead and post it on Facebook as available to order, and it will be posted on my website for purchase soon.

Happy 1st Birthday Amylou Baby!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AMYLOU BABY

Happy birthday to Amylou Baby!  1 Year ago today I officially opened up my website www.amyloubaby.com!  I wish I could do some sort of great promotion to celebrate, but unfortunately due to my very pregnant condition, I can't.  I will try to do a belated celebration sometime in the fall.  I have decided not to close up shop at all during the next few weeks, but there's an announcement on my Etsy Shop and www.amyloubaby.com now saying to please allow up to 3 weeks to get orders complete once they are placed.  Still need to post one on Facebook.

BABY NEWS

I'm 39 weeks today, and feeling very ready to pop!  The heat has been BRUTAL these last couple weeks and it's been difficult waddling after my very active toddlers.  Here's an updated picture of my belly progression:

12 weeks, 20 weeks, 38 weeks

And couldn't resist again...here's my husband's (I ask him to stand there for a practice shot while I get my settings on my camera right).  Hehe.

Here's what I'm bringing to the hospital for photos.  We don't know if it's a boy or girl, so I'm bringing a bunch of different things.  I got the newsboy hat on Etsy, and the chevron onesie is an Amylou creation (not yet posted for purchase yet).

I got this adorable diaper cover at a craft show I worked.  I thought this color could work for a boy or a girl if paired with the right hair (head) accessories.

 And here's another headband that I still need to make a matching tutu for.  I'm thinking dark purple underneath and lavender layer on top...I'll see what I can come up with tonight and hopefully post tomorrow or in the next couple days!

EMBROIDERY MACHINE UPDATE

Those of you who are Facebook fans saw that I recently invested in an embroidery machine.  I've been trying to use every free moment I have to learn how to use it.  I've come up with some very cute designs that I'm so excited to post soon.  Stay tuned!