Turkey, Colds, & Hats

What have I been up to? Amira of course is keeping me busy, and then there is work, Thanksgiving, and another craft sale.

I have been making hats every day, but I am still worried about how much product I will have by this Saturday.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving. Complete with my first Turkey.

Which Amira loved. She ate as much as she could despite the fact that she was sick and having trouble eating. She has a virus on top of her ear infection that won't go away. She started a new medicine and I am hoping it helps, we all could use a full nights sleep.

Here is my plate, I thought it was so pretty with the red beet, purple cranberry sauce, green brussel sprouts, yellow squash, orange sweet potatoes, white turkey, etc. I should have done a dinner color story!

So the rest of my week will be about getting ready for the sale this Saturday. I will be featuring hats (as seen below), pillows, and paintings.

Eyes, closed-good idea. Goodnight :)

Sick Week

So earlier this week I mentioned that Amira was having trouble sleeping. We thought this was just from teething, but then her little eyes became red and puffy, and she was sent home from school. I brought her to the doctor, though I thought her red eyes were just from her stuffy nose. Which they were, but all of this congestion caused a double ear infection!
She got her first prescription of amoxicillin, which I was very nervous about giving her since I am allergic. I picked up some benedryl to be ready just in case. But she is not allergic as it turns out & is feeling much better.
I on the other hand have had a light cold drag on and on and on. And for the third or fourth evening I am having coughing fits on top of a sore throat. Very unpleasant.
But if Amira can still run around and have fun with two ear infections, I can surely push on. Though I did stay home from work yesterday (but infecting my co-workers with something potentially contagious is unacceptable.) I finished up a few baby blankets. And as you can see, I am burying Adrian with yarn. Poor Adrian, he is stuck taking care of the both of us right now! Maybe tomorrow I will wake up and be like new and pack up his lunch for once:)

Color Story:
Amira and I took a walk this morning since Tuesday's I don't have to go to work. We saw:
White; Pink; Red; Orange; Yellow; Green; Blue; Purple; Brown; Gray; Black.

Thirsty Flowers

So, I have been fantasizing about doing what I love these days, professionally speaking. My husband and baby make me immensely happy and grateful, and I have a pretty good job at an institution I respect. I recently got my MBA and thought a year ago that I would be applying for some high powered job, but I seem to be paused instead and lacking direction. Obviously having a baby changed lots of things about my life. But I didn't think being a mom would make me desire to pursue the dreams I had when I was 20.

Part of it is, if I have to be away from Amira, I would rather that time be spent doing something I find directly meaningful, instead of peripherally important. Part of it is, being an artist, a designer, a crafter, is something I could do from home, I could have flexible hours, work at night when she is asleep, work at my pace and not worry about "face time."

But here I am, and I don't know how to get to there.

So I am a little all over the place, trying to find a new direction.

Today, I drew a flower. One that I am watering, but the relentless heat is continuously drying. I do these from time to time. They are an exercise in looking. I have always enjoyed botanical drawings. There is a close connection between the object and the art. Nature has so much pattern and rhythm, and we frequently stylize these features. A close study of the object reveals all the flaws that prevent the pattern from being what is imagined.

Time for Play

Yesterday I got almost everything on my list done-(the rug still needs to go to the cleaners, and there are a few more fruits to cook for Amira.) We even had time to play on the porch!



Today I have to go to work in the afternoon, so we don't have anything on the agenda except for the normal getting ready items:

1. Shower
2. Pack lunch for me and Amira
3. Pack bags
4. Leave on time

And with my new clean home maybe I can do a little drawing?! My guess - Amira has other plans:)

Bedtime...zzz...Waketime
Last night I was supposed to put Amira to bed. I don't know if her habits are changing, or if her teeth were bothering her, or if I just was doing something wrong, but I could not get her to sleep! Ugh, this is the 3rd time this week. I get her calm, I get her to lay in her crib with her eyes closed, and I stir her up by attempting to leave the room. After an hour of this I came to get help from Adrian, (who usually peeks his head in by this point) only to find him asleep in the living room! I suppose I should have taken this cue to go back to the baby's room to keep Amira on some sort of sleep schedule (part of sleep training right?), but instead we decided to play a little in the living room. Adrian had no choice but to wake up and we all lounged together before Adrian successfully got Amira to go to sleep.

I agreed to watch The Road with him-I was sure he would fall back asleep and I could change the channel, but he stayed awake throughout it. The film was pretty good, but I was on edge the entire time-I find I am less and less able to watch any suffering, even when I know it's fiction.

This morning I woke up early and was able to make a cup of coffee, do a little crocheting, and help Amira practice walking around before I went to work-and we let Adrian sleep in (until 7am-lucky guy!)And now it's bedtime for our baby again! Yes, Adrian is in the bedroom with her while I am typing this...

Food!!

Adrian, Amira and I all need our lunches packed in the morning-and this is quite a feat. Amira usually leaves with the best as we plan her food in advance. We cook and freeze fruits and vegetables in ice cube trays over the weekend so we can just pop them out for her in the morning before leaving for work and daycare (aka "school").


Today Amira had: sweet potatoes and peas; spinach, pears and spaghetti squash; snap peas, beef and carrots. Mom and Dad had left over pizza and wings and of course a piece of fruit each. I also keep a variety of snacks in my desk at work like oatmeal and microwave popcorn. And I extremely dependent on the wonderful treats members of my team bake on a fairly frequent basis.


Amira enjoying trying to feed herself:)


I know she gets herself pretty messy, but she has to learn somehow right? While she was mashing banana and cantaloupe in her mouth, I tried cleaning up the kitchen a bit and found this dried pepper in our vegetable bowl!

You can see how long its been since I have had a chance to clean out the vegetable bowl by how many onion and garlic peels were at the bottom. Well, that and how long does it take a peper to dry out like that?

After that I fed Amira her meal with a spoon. She has this habit of pressing her feet against my knee during meals. Now I know why people love little baby feet so much!