Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, I'm sitting on the couch digesting and watching some TV, it feels mighty fine.  Now that everyone in real life has received our Christmas card, I thought I'd share it here.  I used Mixbook for these cards, and they turned out really nice! 

And I snuck a few more pics on the back, because I had about 300 to choose from.  This kid is photogenic, I'm afraid.  

And yes, Ashford did visit Santa and was a complete angel.  Or, elf.  

Random question - does anyone have an opinion regarding Nook HD+ or Kindle Fire HD?  I received a Nook for Christmas and I'm debating getting a Kindle instead since I have an Amazon Prime membership.  Discuss! 

6 months

Our baby is half a year old.  It really doesn't seem like it's been that long, but here he is looking all big. 

At his 6 month doctor visit, he was 15 lbs 15 oz and 27 inches long.  He's skinny, but strong.  He is now 'scooting' across the floor and crawling!  He is slow and shaky, it is hilarious to watch.  Curiously, he can't sit up unassisted yet, but I think it's because he's always on the go.  Who has time to sit around?

He makes some goofy faces and I love capturing them every day.  Boo!

A note about sleep...we had a tough time getting him on a schedule.  In my last update I mentioned that a couple days after he turned 5 months old, he just magically started sleeping 7 to 6am.  I think he was just 'ready.'  However, we did let him cry to teach him how to soothe himself, and we also carefully watched for his sleep cues to figure out when bedtime was.  As soon as he started rubbing his eyes, he was put in his crib.  Bedtime usually happens between 6:45 and 7:30pm.  In case you are interested, he naps from 9-11am and 1-4pm at daycare, not as long on the weekends.  Kid loves to sleep!  At night, he will sometimes wake up once, but cries briefly and falls back to sleep.  

He's not a big fan of solids yet.  He will eat purees, but hates rice cereal and oatmeal.  Fortunately, I don't really care if he eats cereal, and probably won't be buying any more.  I've been trying to give him finger foods a la Baby Led Weaning, but the only thing he seems to like is bread.  Yep, must be my kid.  Carb addict.  

I tried a new perspective with the photos this month, and I love these through-the-crib shots!

We have a thumb-sucker.  I'm trying to discourage it during the day, but at night I pretty much love that it keeps him happy and helps him fall asleep.  Is that terrible?  

We had another milestone last week - he fell off our bed.  I had no idea he could crawl backwards off the edge (from the middle!), so it was totally heartbreaking when I looked up from my laundry sorting to see him laying on the rug screaming after a terrible thump.  I guess I've learned my lesson.     

Making labels

Yesterday Shaun decided he wanted to make cookies.  From scratch, with the oldest baking essentials in the world, because I don't bake and there is no need to have fresh flour or brown sugar in our house.  I think our Baking Soda was from two years ago.  Along with the old products, there were old labels on my Tupperware containers that bothered me every time I saw them.  I promise that is not the reason I don't bake.  I don't bake because I'm lazy, AND I must eat all sweets in my general vicinity.  

The old labels were return address ones that I wrote on with a Sharpie.  Not very cute.  I decided after we bought new essentials at the store, that I would not put them into the containers until I had new labels.  So I went to the computer and drafted up some new ones in PowerPoint.  

The little pics are a font called 'Sugar Coma' from dafont.com, the text is 'Upper East Side' from dafont.  I wish I had some cuter paper, but I just used what I had...some dark blue-violet printer paper.  

I used my paper cutter to slice and dice, then ran them through my most favorite crafty device ever.  The Xyron create-a-sticker!

It is my favorite of the three crafty things I own: Xyron, glue gun, paper cutter.  Oh, and I have a hole punch.  So, I have four things.  It is the best of the four things.  Although, the paper cutter is pretty nice.  And I do love my glue gun.  Just forget I said anything.  So, I stuck all the label strips through the Xyron and they came out in this nice long strip of sticker. 

Then I just peeled them off the backing and stuck them on the containers.  

And here they all are in their home above the frig.  

I still have that other small one that I'm not sure what to do with.  It could maybe hold chocolate chips, but I don't think those would last long enough in our house to have a dedicated container.  I don't LOVE the new labels, I wish I'd used white paper or a patterned one from Michaels instead of the colored, but that adhesive is permanent - so I'm just living with it until I feel like soaking them off.  Which means, they are probably on there indefinitely.  Anyway, here are the cookies Shaun made, which are probably the best homemade chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted.  

They are soft, chewy, thick, dense, and full of chocolate chips.  Delicious.  I've had four already.  The recipe is here.