Welcome to the year 2010!

Ben caught one crab yesterday and boiled it right up. His friend brought along his two kids to play with Lauren. The girl was five and the boy was 3. Lauren was worn out and fell asleep on the couch at 6. It worked out rather well, though, she was in a good mood and stayed up to count down to midnight like she had been wanting to do. We all went to sleep about thirty seconds later and are feeling pretty good today. Oh, except for Natalie. She threw up on me this morning at 8:30. But she's been doing fine since, so I don't know what that was about. I cleaned the downstairs bathroom, vacuumed upstairs and down and am working on my second load of laundry already, and it's not quite 1:00.

I spent a huge chunk of time yesterday (too much time, really) looking at the website Making It Lovely. Thank you Jen, for sending me a link to her site. My goodness! Such talent! Such a creative eye! She started right away at month one taking monthly pictures of her adorable daughter in the same spot. She's up to month 8 now, I think, and it's such a cute idea. I guess I could do it for Natalie's second year if I start on Sunday and do it every month on the third. There's still a lot of growing in the second year.

I joined two 365 groups on Flickr. The goal is to take a picture every day and post it. I've been a lot better with my camera lately, so I'm hoping I'll keep it up. Of course, the pressure of joining a group specifically for that purpose may hinder me from picking it up. Again, it's not quite 1:00 and I haven't picked up my camera yet today. OH MY GOSH! I haven't taken any pictures since LAST YEAR, Y'ALL! Hee hee hee. That will only be funny today. If I'm still saying that at the end of the month, I will really be panicking.

Did I mention that I finished the pillow I was making for Natalie? I did. And I got a good jump on appliqueing on the letters for Lauren's pillow yesterday. I mostly finished the L, A and U. Of course, once I pinned everything on, Lauren decided she did NOT want a butterfly like I had laid out, and that she wanted a rose like Natalie has. Hopefully I still have the template for it, it should be easy enough to do again. I'd like to get it finished soon, but it seems like every time I sit down and really am starting to make headway with stitching someone needs me urgently. Sigh. I guess that's motherhood.

Oh, and looking through Making It Lovely inspired me to get the girls' room more in order. Yesterday I went through Natalie's drawers again (didn't I just do that, like, hours before?) and cleaned out the stuff that's too small. I am saving very few items, I think I only set aside two things, and will be boxing up and sending out the other things to friends with baby girls. A few of them, though younger, are already getting close to Natalie in size. I just make small girls, I guess.

But back on track, I set the crib to the lower height yesterday since Natalie is sitting up on her own and starting to pull up on her knees. The goal for this spring is to have her sleeping in her own bed at night. When I lowered it, I had to take out the storage bins I had underneath since they no longer fit. More stuff to go through! Yipee! I also am so SICK of the crappy brown dressers in their room. Lauren's is in the closet, so it doesn't bother me as much, but Natalie's is the first thing when you walk in the door. I think I'm going to paint it a really really pale pink, add a new top, use some Modge Podge and a cute fabric across the top (which I am thinking might be neat to replicate in new curtains?) and then make a new bottom with feet so it doesn't sit directly on the carpet. I have the idea all in my head, but without sketching it out, scanning it in and posting it here, I don't know that I'll get the idea across. But I hope I do it, and I hope it turns out cute.