I realised this afternoon that my darling little son will soon be 9 months old.

That’s 9 months that I’ve been a new mommy. That’s 18 months since we first found out we would be a family of 3. That’s too fast.

I feel neglectful and apprehensive. I’ve been neglecting the blog since Shannen’s birth and I’m very apprehensive about returning to work in less than 3 months! I want to be a stay at home Mom very badly. I always pictured I would be one. I almost regret taking the top-up at work, because now I owe them 6 months of work. And that makes me feel guilty for thinking it. I’m sure everything will be fine when I go back. A few rough bumps for Shannen and I but nothing we can’t handle.

Shannen's new Haircut

I’ll just really miss this face…

Yuki

We said goodbye to a dear friend recently, he was one of our beloved cats. He was only 6 years old. His favourite things were laps, fish, getting dirty and eating grass. It was a real blow to us when it happened. It wasn’t a slow affair, although the day felt long and heavy. It came suddenly, late morning and by 2 in the afternoon he was gone. It still feels really surreal. And I expect him to start complaining that he can see the bottom of his food bowl at any moment.

Yuki was taken from us by a freak chance. It wasn’t an accident, it was a body malfunction. He had an embolism. It’s not common for cat’s his age, in fact, it rarely happens in cats younger than 10. But it happened, and it cut off all his blood supply in his back legs and tail. He howled in pain and it was only a matter of minutes before we took him to the vet. It was too late anyway. You can’t stop an embolism, you can only prevent.

Yuki is sorely missed in our house.

Yuki, dyed pink with Kool-aid

Do I know what time it is? Yeah, I do. It’s the time of the night where I should be happily sleeping alongside my darling husband and son. Instead, I’m wide awake with a throbbing headache, restless legs and a brain that won’t stop thinking.

I’m making lists, recounting the days events, trying to figure out what to do for dinner and Brent’s lunch, all the while it’s 1am and I know I should be sleeping because I have to be up for a 9.30 Strollersize at the mall. And I have to put on dinner in the crockpot before I leave the house {plus have a shower, do my hair and make-up, get the munchkin ready and still eat something}.

But I can’t stop my brain from working. It works overtime at hours such as these. This is the Witching Hour in which {ha!} I get my best ideas, inspirations and stories. I’ve already decided that I’ll write two children’s stories, alter two maternity dresses and a sweater I bought, sew a quilt for Shannen to play on and some new pillows for the couches.

Could I manage anything else in this restless head of mine? Probably. Will I ever get sleep? Maybe. How do you help yourself settle when you’ve got too much on your mind?

The last couple days I’ve had very little sleep and I feel like I’m running on fumes! Shannen has been waking up every 2-3 hours, and I can count on one hand how many nights I’ve gotten 4 or more hours of sleep. I feel really bad, but I think it’s because he’s teething and because he uses breastfeeding to comfort himself. This, of course, is not healthy for me, as this little amount of sleep has caused my brain to stop functioning at even its lowest potential. I wish there was an option to help get him in a better routine at night, without breastfeeding to fall asleep and get him to sleep longer through the night.

Of course as a practicing AP mom, I refuse to leave him alone to cry it out, and there seems to be little other options; and I’m concerned for when I got back to work in 3 months! I guess we will have to just keep plugging at it until he gets down a bedtime routine that works with both Mom and Dad!

SO, other than the frustrating lack of sleep over the past 7.5 MONTHS, I’ve been up to my eyeballs in crafting projects and house projects. My current house projects are making a couple quilts and arm-rest hangers for the couch, as well as painting a mural on our pillar wall.

My newest addition to the website, though, is a full original pattern that I plan to make more Amigurumi dolls from. I had been planning on making a doll pattern, but nothing had inspired me until I needed to make a present for a good friend! The pattern is rightfully called “Halfling,”and depending on interestI may make it available. There are still some kinks to work out, because there are some parts of the doll that I don’t really like and would want to change.

Halfling Pattern

Wow! So many things have been happening lately, it’s really hard to keep track of it all, let alone keep up with the blog. I will be more of an active presence here, though, it’s a goal for this year!

Shannen was absolutely spoiled this Christmas, by friends and family – of course we only got a few pictures because I completely forgot my camera on ALL occassions — talk about a big screw up! My parents got tons of photos and video, but I’m upset that we didn’t get any with Brent’s parents!

One of Shannen’s newest toys is this comfy Lion, which he seems to have taken a very big liking to!

Shannen's new buddy

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! 2010, here we come!

Last year I got pregnant and I had blogged about it, showing off my growing belly and any updates. Since my posts got lost in my database somewhere, and I haven’t been able to fish them out, I’ve decided to just update the blog with some images, and then some new images of my little four month old Master and Prince of Fuss!

November 11th

Feb 10th, 27 weeks pregnant

April 7th, 35 weeks pregnant

May 12th, 40 weeks pregnant

And exactly 41 weeks gestational age, my little man, Shannen Marcus, was born on May 23rd, 2009. Here is the little angel himself, and a favourite of mine of Shannen and his daddy.

Shannen Marcus - 6lbs 7oz

Shannen and Daddy

And of course he’s only been growing since those first images. He is a healthy 14 lbs now and is teething, likes to chew on everything, is trying to figure out how to sit up and crawl on his own and he loves it when Mommy sings and claps with him. He is still breastfeeding wonderfully but gets easily frustrated when there is too much mil, or when he has a bit of gas.

3 days old

June 6th

First Smiles - July 1st

More Smiles! July 19th

Posing! Aug 20th

1st Hike up to Elfin Lakes - Aug21

First Cabin trip up to Whistler! Aug 29

First Tickles that result in smiles and laughter! Sept 7

Brent and I just adore our new family member to little bits, and so does the rest of his extended family, including Uncles, Aunts, Grandparents and GREAT Grandparents! He is one special little guy who brings a lot of love, laughter and some frustrations, too!

Unfortunately, my blog has been set back quite a while. I exported all my blog posts – or so I thought – and yet it’s missing at least 7 posts. Possibly 10. I’m thoroughly disapointed, because it also lost my current theme, yet I backed that up as well. I’ll have to go back and find the newest version.

This all happened when two days ago I decided to update the blog to version 8.4 – hoping that it would stop the 80 posts of spam I was receiving each day. Unfortunately this is what happened instead. Please be patient, I am trying to upload what I can.

We have not started on the baby’s room yet, but I literally just came up with the BEST IDEA. I wanted to paint a mural on the wall, and have accenting animals, pillows, a little rug and blankets. Originally I was going to do a “tree/forest/mountain” theme. Now, I think the theme has become more defined. And I’m really surprised I never thought of it before!!

Because of a really awesome blog I was browsing by Merwing {website}, I always end up in the Flickr pages to see more images. Well, I came across this absolutely ADORABLE embroidered lampshade, the pattern of which came from her book, Doodlestitching.

More Images, and here.

How come I never thought of an Asian/Japanese theme before?! It’s both of our favourite theme! I just feel really brilliant after a long absence from my own brain. I’ve already started to plan out a little quilt, rug and some pillows, and I think I will be purchasing her book. It’s just absolutely fabulous, with gorgeous embroidery designs and patterns. I really reccommend checking it out at her website, or on her Flickr pages!

I’m also thinking Asian dragons HAVE to be involved in this theme. I love them too much to not include at least one! So, there’s my AH-HA moment for the week! I’m off to doodle <3

I finally uploaded photos! My computer went a little psycho on me, so I had to reformat the whole thing. OF COURSE, I also had to find out that my CD drive was busted, and couldn’t properly load the new Windows. So I stole one of Brent’s drives {he has two, thankfully} and I was able to load windows. And like all things that we think will be easy, I had to re-download a million and one drivers {ALWAYS keep your CD’s folks!}

So now I have to find my copy of Photoshop again, and until then all the work I want to finish on my website is on hold. On the plus side, my files are all good and my computer lovingly held out while I uploaded photos! <3

Wedding Photos

Honeymoon Photos

Enjoy! <3

…is very much what I have posted below. If you want to take the test yourself, try it out here.

As for my results, I dare you to say it isn’t me! LOL

Your Brain Usage Profile:

Auditory : 57%
Visual : 42%
Left : 35%
Right : 64%

Stephanie, you show a slight right-hemisphere dominance with a moderate preference for auditory processing, an unusual and somewhat paradoxical combination of characteristics.

You are drawn to a random and sometimes nonchalant synthesis of material. You learn as it seems important to a specific situation, and might even develop a resentment of others who attempt to direct your learning down a specific channel.

Your right-hemispheric dominance provides a structure that is only loosely organized and one which processes entire swatches of reality, overlooking details. You are emotional in your reactions and perceptual more than logical in your approach, although you can impose structure and a language base when necessary.

Your auditory preference, on the other hand, implies that you process information sequentially and uni-dimensionally. This combination of right-brain and auditory modes creates conflict, as you want to process data more rapidly than your natural processes allow.

Your tendency to be creative and free-flowing is accompanied by sufficient ability to organize and be logical, allowing you a reasonable degree of success in a number of different endeavors. You take in information methodically and systematically which can then be synthesized rapidly. In this manner, you manage to function consistently well, although certainly less efficiently than you desire.

You prefer the abstract and are a theoretician at heart while retaining the ability to be practical. You find the symbolism in a great deal of what you encounter and are something of a “mystic.”

With regards to your lifestyle, you have the mentality which would be good as a philosopher, writer, journalist, or instructor, or possibly as a systems designer or social worker. Perhaps most important is your ability to “listen to your inner voice” as a mode of skipping over unnecessary steps to achieve your goals.