DIY: Taggie Blanket

As I mentioned in my previous post, Noah loves to hunt out the silky tags on all of his blankets and toys. So with a napping baby and a little time to myself I decided to test my DIY skills on a homemade “Taggie” blanket. I’ve seen them in Target before, so had an idea of what I was going for.  This project only took me about 30 minutes, even with stopping to take a few pics along the way.

Supplies:
– 2 Coordinating squares of fabric, mine were about 14 inches
– Scissors, sewing machine, thread
– Ribbon (I used a few real silk tags from clothing or toys. I was afraid Noah would reject my masterpiece if he sensed the tags were fake.) 🙂

STEP 1: Face fabric right side-to-right side and pin tags between the two layers. I left part of the tag sticking out so that I would be sure to catch it with my stitch.

If you take a peek between the two layers, it will look like this.

STEP 2: Next stitch along the edge, leaving a small hole open to flip it inside out. Once you flip it inside out, use a pencil to poke down in the corners, so they are nice and pointy.

STEP 3: Once I turned mine inside out, I put another stitch all the way round about 1/2″ from the edge. Thought this would reinforce it and provide a little more structure.

BOOM! Ok, maybe I’m not ready for my own Etsy shop. But Noah likes it!

House-Hunting in Charlotte

We just got back from our second (and hopefully last!) house-hunting trip to Charlotte. The trip was full of ups and downs… the major down being Noah’s first trip to the ER.  Noah was a little fussy and cried for five minutes or so before falling asleep Thursday night. We chalked it up to being in a new and unfamiliar place, rather than in his crib. Sadly, he woke up around 11 p.m. with a terrible “barky” sounding cough and was gasping for breath between the coughs.  Dave and I quickly got him in to the car and drove to the nearby hospital (the same hospital where Dave had his appendix removed a few years ago). They got us right in and assured us it sounded worse than it was. He was diagnosed with croup (in addition to a double ear infection). The doctor ordered him a breathing treatment and some steroids to help open up his airway, it worked very quickly, but we had to hang out for another 2.5 hours for observation.  Now that we are home, he is doing great. On antibiotics for his ear infection, but back to sleeping normal and being his happy self.

In between taking care of Noah and catching a few hours of sleep for ourselves we saw several homes in the uptown Charlotte neighborhoods.  One clearly stood out as the one for us and we’re putting an offer in today. More details and photos to come once our offer is accepted…we hope!

Wearing his baby hospital gown and bracelet. Heartbreaking but adorable.

 

48 hours later… on the way to the airport. Well rested and feeling like a million bucks.

 

7 Months

Another month in the books for our little guy. Every day Noah is doing something new – sitting up, grabbing for his toys, eating new foods, growing out of his clothes… the list goes on and on.  Still no teeth, but I’m sure they will coming in soon, as he’s chewing on everything and putting everything he can get his hands on in his mouth. His favorites include the tags on his bibs and the strings on hoodies that Dave and I wear. Speaking of tags… this kid is obsessed with the silky nature of tags. He hunts them out on every toy, blanket or bib and holds them tight and chews them every chance he gets.

This month we started a new daycare which has made all three of us much happier. It’s closer to our house, more flexible and the teachers are all so sweet to Noah. There are a couple of ~16 month olds in his class as well and when we drop him off or pick him up they come right over to say Hi or Bye-Bye to Noah. So cute!

Beach and Snow in One Weekend

With temps in the 40s and sunny skies forecasted, coupled with two days with nothing on the schedule, we invited Danny and Rita out to New Hampshire for the weekend. After driving through the rain, they rolled onto Rainbow Dr. Friday night. Unfortunately, the sunny skies alluded us all weekend and we were treated to New England fog and drizzle. We took advantage of the warmish temps though to get out on a quick hike on the trails behind our house and a trip to the beach.  Saturday night we enjoyed a fun night out in Maine, enjoying delicious pizza and the bread samples at  When Pigs Fly. Before they hit the road on Sunday, we ventured over to Portsmouth and the Roundabout Diner. This place doesn’t look like much from the outside… but has fabulous food. There were at least 10 things I want to go back and try….but for now, I inhaled (and enjoyed) the eggs benedict with spinach and grilled tomatoes! Yum!

Danny and Rita in the snowy woods.

Wallis Sands.

 

Snowy and Sunny

The best way to follow a snow storm is with a sunny day. And so far, Dover does not disappoint in this category. Just after Christmas we got two size-able dumps of snow, followed by several sunny days that made for perfect hiking, snowshoeing and sledding opportunities.  At the end of our cul-de-sac is a fun little network of nature trails where Greylock can run off-leash and we can enjoy a nice walk or snowshoe.  Noah rides along in the Ergo…babbling most of the way.  It almost seems unfair to be taking Greylock away from this weather… which we know he enjoys a lot more than the HOT July-September days in Charlotte.

We also cashed in our Christmas gift money and put it toward a new camera and lens we’ve been eyeing for awhile.  We’ve been trying out our Canon Rebel T3 and 50mm f/1.8 daily since it arrived.  I dabbled a bit and took a photography course in college, and some of the principles are already coming back to me. I’m in LOVE with the lens.  It produces a beautiful blurry background and what I thought was going to be a challenge (no zoom) has actually forced me to move around and take better photos.

My favorite

Dave snapped this one.

We were playing around with the focus and snapped this one of Noah and The Happy Sun, his favorite toy. Doesn’t he look just like Dave in this pic?

Waking up from a nap.

Our other favorite subject.