Emskyrooney

When Paul and I bought our first house together, we spent a lot of time redecorating and renovating to make it more “us.”  We chose cherry cabinets, black granite counters, neutral rugs and couches and beautiful muted colors for the walls. I spent hours searching for the perfect fabric and then sewing curtains and matching pillows for the living room so that everything was coordinated.  And then the kids came along. And now our “perfectly coordinated” living room is splashed with accents of primary red and yellow and blue.  It’s full of raucous stripes and owls and polkadots. Our beautiful dining chairs and tablecloths have been replaced by shark cushioned chairs and wipeable placemats. And our once plain, beige walls are covered in artwork, chore charts and calendars. Our neutral carpet is strewn with toys… And our peaceful office is now called the “toy room.” Sometimes I yell and sc

I’ve been doing a little sewing here and there as sewing for baby girls is so quick and easy and fun!  Eliza’s new dress is the Geranium pattern by Made by Rae using fabric from Sarah Jane Designs “Out to Sea” collection .  There are so many ways to customize this dress and it turns out super cute! The bonnet pattern is also by Made by Rae and is called the Peekaboo Bonnet .   I use fabric from the same Out to Sea line for the bonnet as well.  Soooo stinkin’ cute (and yes, I’m totally biased). 

Eliza is 9 months old today.  I just looked back at LP’s “ Things to Remember ” from 9 months and they’re so similar!  Wonder if they’ll end up with very similar personalities (I’d better get some earplugs now if that’s the case!)? I mentioned in Eliza’s 8 month “ Things to Remember ” that our pediatrician was concerned because Eliza wasn’t rolling from her back to her front yet and so Early Intervention was going to come and assess her to see if there was some sort of problem or delay.  Paul and I weren’t terribly concerned as LP wasn’t really rolling around much at 8 months either- he must have done it just enough so that the pediatrician wasn’t worried! Anyway, when I went to get Eliza up from her morning nap on the day the EI ladies were coming she was laying on her stomach in the crib.  The little bugger could roll over all along!  When the EI ladies showed up that afternoon to do the assessment they laughed when I told them.  Eliza wouldn’t roll over completely for them withou

This morning I attended my very first “ Body Pump ” class at the YMCA we’ve joined.  “Body Pump” is basically group weight-lifting.  You use a barbell with various weights, an aerobic step, and pump it up to some catchy music.   Apparently people become addicted to the class.  I enjoyed it and will definitely go back, but the chance of me becoming “addicted” to working out is slim to nil. I think this year was the first year in quite a while that I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions or set any goals for myself for the year- at least publicly.  But I have been on a mission to lose the baby weight, plus a few extra pounds I need/want to take off and have actually been doing pretty well with it.  My goal has been to maintain a weight loss of 1 pound per week.   I know that I could go hard-core and lost it more quickly but I really wanted to make this more about changing my life style and habits and getting into a food/exercise routine that I could actually stick with. When I got p

As of May 17 Paul is four and a half years old.  That extra “and a half” is very important to him! At 4.5 LP is (still) a major chatterbox.  If he’s not talking, he’s singing.  If he’s not singing, he’s humming.  If he’s not humming, he’s asleep.  There is no mute button.  Our days are FILLED with “Mom, what does ____ mean?” , “Mom, why does ____?”,  “Mom, what is this?”, “Watch this,” and “Look at me!”  While we’re very glad that he’s so inquisitive it can be exhausting!  At 4.5 Paul goes back and forth between being right-handed and left-handed.  I’d say he’s naturally a leftie but is pretty good with the right too and often switches crayons, forks, etc. from one hand to the other.  Big Paul is teaching him bat leftie as apparently leftie pro baseball players make more money. LP’s current obsession is Star Wars.  He still loves playing Toy Story, dinosaurs, castle, cars and trains, but 75% of the time he’s walking, talking, breathing Star Wars.  For a girl who watched the

I’m finding myself a bit scattered about what I want to say on Mother’s Day this year.  While I love the idea of a day that’s meant for celebrating mothers who are so rarely thanked for all they do, I find it to be a rather bittersweet holiday.  Much like Valentine’s Day can be hard for people who long to be in a relationship with someone, Mother’s Day can be very hard for those who want so badly to be mothers.  And while I’ve been fortunate enough to be the recipient of Mother's Day cards, flowers, hugs and kisses for five years now, my heart still aches for everyone hoping and praying to celebrate it themselves one day- those waiting to receive smudgy cards with little handprints and cheesy poems, to be served breakfast in bed by excited little ones, to be handed a beautiful yellow flower (aka dandelion) because it’s a special day for Mama.  And so I think that Mother’s Day should be a day to celebrate all sorts of “mothers.”  Mothers of young children, mothers of grown childre