swaddled in love...

This is my third year to hold the....

3rd Annual Swaddled in Love Blanket Drive

Today being February 1st kicks off the drive blanket drive.  The use of sweet, soft blankets help ease tensions for the moms and dads whose little one is the incubator.  If you would like to donate new or gently used blankets or clothing, please contact me.  Our last two blankets drives were a huge success, my fingers are crossed that our 3rd Blanket Drive will bring in even more blankets!  Our census stays in the 70's, so we need lots of blankets to surround all of theses babies with love!  The blanket drive runs the entire month of February.  

30 before 30....

Most people dread thirty or the big 3-0, but I am kinda excited about it.  There is just something sophisticated sounding about the 30's in comparison to the 20's.   I have decided to make a list of 30 things I want to do before I am thirty.  It is sort of a random list of fun, but why not finish out my 20's doing things that make my heart smile?

1.    go on a hike on a beautiful fall day
2.    start my long attempt at learning to sew
3.    read Ethan through the toddler list at our library
4.    start Pilate's again (can we say peaceful)
5.    watch Ethan walk on the beach
6.    surprise my hubbie with a candle lit dinner for two cooked by me
7.    hang curtains in our bedroom
8.    rename my blog (more to come on that one)
9.    for one solid week nap when my toddler baby naps
10.  have one day alone to sit in the sun and read....alone
11.  plant flowers
12.  have fresh peonies in my house on our anniversary, just like I carried in our wedding
13.  wine with girlfriends somewhere fabulous
14.  have dinner on our patio this summer barefoot
15.  go to the symphony

take a break...this list is long

16.  use a fun textile somewhere in the house.....(curtains, pillow)
17.   journal on my old laptop...I did this a lot in college
18.  give someone a simple gift....just because
19.  challenge for my RN III at work
20.  leave the tv off for an entire day
21.  go see the ballet with my mom
22.  sleep with the windows open {i love the sound of a summer night}
23.  take a bubble bath....with candles and a gossip magazine!
24.  spring picnic at the park with ethan and david
25.  drink hot tea from my Kate Spade teacup
26.  bake something yummy
27.  host a dinner party
28.  swim on a hot summer night
29.  take alex on a walk {just him and i like old times}
30.  sit still for 20 minutes in a quiet house and not do a single thing---going to be the hardest one yet!

see honey, there is still hope!

Sincerely,
Scarlett

lust list....

a little something for datenight {i heart anthropology}

necklace from Piperlime

this spring get up for my little sailor from miniboden

courtesy of JCrew {of course}

this Timex...perfect for summer

anything with nautical strips

 Wellie's for Mr. HomeBuilder hubby

Why not tag on a pair for myself in my favorite color 

and of course for our little bear, too!

iphone case {mine just so happened to break after finding this cute one}

can you tell I have a mild case of spring fever already and it is still January.....sigh

sincerely,

Scarlett

18 month photographs...

Here are a few of Ethan's 18 Month Photos taken by my photographer friend Tarrah.  Needless to say Ethan wasn't passing out smiles like he normally does, but we were happy with his sweet little serious face.  Thank you Tarrah for spending the morning with us.  Family and friends this is your hint to send me what photos you want and the size you want.  The photo from the last post was taken by her as well.  

 

little bear...

Many of you have heard me call Ethan, bear.  Yet, no one has ever asked me where the name came from or what it means.  First of all, I have never been big on nicknames.  Maybe this sprung from my own name being difficult to shorten to a nickname.  When Ethan was a wee little bear and we spent many hours a day nursing.  That is when the name just came to me.  He was round and cuddly with a sweet face....like a teddy bear.  He reminded me of that cute little bear BabyGap puts on all of their clothes.  Hence, the name bear, baby bear, or lately little bear.

nine frames...

Last week I finished hanging my frames finally {after a big oops of ordering all the photos as horizontal prints and realizing I had planned on hanging the frames in a portrait style}.  It was incredibly hard to pick 9 favorite photos to frame from the thousands I have on my mac, but it quickly got narrowed down by having to pick vertical ones.  I still am on the fence about changing out the black and white photographs to colored ones.  I am the biggest fan of black and white, but I have found that they have a hard time capturing those sweet rosy cheeks.  What are your thoughts:  b&w or colored?  

My next project is to tackle our closet.  Ugh.  Particularly our dresser that houses every tee shirt that has come into our lives since 90's.  I attempted this while we packed to move into the rental house, then again as we moved into our new house ~ without success.  I realized this needed to be done when we had no hangers after Christmas.  I have slowly been making piles for yard sale/goodwill, but I need to do a knock out job.  Goal~out with old and in the new:   Spring clothes are already calling my name.  

here's hoping I can get our closet to look more like this!

19 months....

Ethan is 18 months....oh wait, no he is actually 19 months. 19 months snuck up on me and has been off and running--- quickly. Ethan at 19 months:

• still working on those I teeth, yes still. Just a smidge of his top ones have broken the gum


• learning the work "no" occurred in our 18th month, now we are using it on a regular basis! wink


• is a quick little runner, sometimes mommy forgets how quick he is now days


• has typically one large meal a day


• gets very excited over anything "Thomas" (the train for you girl moms). I thought he was going to take Thomas wellie boots off a little boy at the library the other day!


• is very particular about what book he wants you to read to him. Lately, it is "Going Lobstering" a book that details lobster buoys, life vests, and the appropriate sizes of lobsters that are 'keepers'. Maybe he will be a fisherman?


• loves to look at photos of family and friends, especially of his cousins


• the geese in the neighborhood are quite the entertainment to him! He now flaps his arms and acts like he is flying imitating them


• can't get enough of Alex our dog! truly a toddler's best friend


• loves pickles and cheese together, just like his daddy. He will take to the fridge and point and grunt until a pickle is found and placed on his tray.


• we are in the process of weaning the paci. Any mom who has done this to a paci lover knows it can be a bit of challenge, especially in those long line moments at the mall and the 5pm grump hour. Goal= by 2 years no paci at all.


• weighs right around 27 pounds, 33 inches tall and growing by the second. Wearing 2T pants and 18-24m shirts.


• loves to play with his new firetruck and trains with his daddy

• imitates everything: especially funny when we let him watch American Idol for 5 minutes and he was imitating everyone screaming! Funniest little guy ever!

• worked so hard, but can now finally jump and get air!

hard at play

Ethan's concentration face

favorite little chair to sit and do some independent reading:)

bubbles in the big tub

a stop and rest with alex

where he spends 70% of his day....cooking up a storm

"morning mommy"

protest face

blue berries in his ears, funny kid

hazel or brown? Mommy's vote hazel, Daddy's vote brown

BFF

a little boy + a lovable dog = best friends

Ethan was a little under weather the week leading up to Christmas. Everytime I turned around, my little boy was cuddling with our sweet golden retreiver, Alex. Lately, Alex has been Ethan's favorite play mate and cuddle bug. It is a good thing Alex doesn't mind an elbow in the face or a tug of the tail.

winter cleaning...

You may be wondering what I have been up to with the lack of blogging in the new year. I kicked off 2011 with a few busy shifts at work and a loooong list of projects to do around the house. I felt like the tubs all needed a scrub, the floors mopped, the sheets changed....you know the stuff that gets pushed aside during the rush of the holidays.

One of the first projects on my "20-eleven" project list was tackling the playroom. I noticed that Ethan was not interested in playing in the playroom even will all this new toys. I decided it was time to use those "cubbies" that we built in when we were drawing up plans for the house for storage of toys. I pulled several toys from the playroom and put them in the storage "cubbies." I plan to start cycling the toys when he seems uninterested with what is out. It worked like magic....I guess too much of a good thing, can be too much sometimes. Cleaning and re-organizing the playroom is just the start. I hope to eventually add a bookcase and more storage for all of those new toys. David's project list may be getting longer....

Early in the days of designing our house, I put up a big fight for Ethan's bathroom: the toilet needs to be completely out of the way of the tub when you have little ones to bathe (recessed). Well, David listened and I have enjoyed Ethan's bathroom, but it needed more color than a shower curtain. I used the adorable bath wraps from Potterybarn that Ethan has outgrown and his bath mitten to add color to the room. I found this adorable print on etsy. I picked this particular silhouette because it was called the "wyatt" and it reminds me of the way Ethan marches around when we dance to music. I ordered my nieces the same thing for Christmas. It was one of my favorite gifts I gave this year.

Speaking of David, he has been busy tackling one of the projects that has been on his list since we moved in. He had wired the house for surround sound/speaker system and installed the speakers and receiver. I have loved listening to it already, and we still have a couple speakers to buy for other rooms in the house. I must say having a handy hubby has its perks.

This week I hope to tackle this blank wall in the family room. I have been wanting to do a symmetrical arrangement of photos since the drywall went up last Spring. I have been adamant about having Ethan's milestone (newborn, 3m, 6m, etc) photos taken but have little displayed. I have them safely stored on smugmug with lots of plans to use them. My dad surprised me for Christmas (with help of my mom) of ordering the rest of my 8 frames to finally complete the wall. Hanging them symmetrically, will be, to say the least, a challenge. Oh and picking just 9 photos to hang! I will let you know how it goes.

snow day.....

We are loving the snow old man winter has given us this year. We have spent the day playing in the snow and then warming by the fire....then repeating the entire process. Thank goodness Nana found that snow suit for Ethan! He was warm and toasty when it came time to come inside. Ethan had a blast sledding for the first time with his next door neighbor, Hannah. Our senior golden, Alex, acted like a puppy again frolicking in the snow. I'm just hoping this lovely snow doesn't give me too much trouble getting to work in the morning!

check out my bibs

lunch: pipping hot french onion soup