Half the World in Sweetness

To Fly

Posted on 11 May 2012 | 3 responses

Soooo, I never intended to take such a long pause from this space. It just happened that way, as life usually does. And I never expected to come to this place, with such a break … but I have. Astrologically speaking, I guess I could blame it all on the stars and the eclipses and the changing of the tides. Who really knows. Either way, I feel things shifting. Creatively speaking. Our busy lives also forced me to take a break from the store and Etsy, which I definitely needed as it allowed me some insight into the future. Or rather, the color of the future I would like to see. This is probably all so vague. Allow me to ramble a bit and maybe I’ll start to make some sense. I started ‘Half the World in Sweetness’, this blog, back in August of 2009 as an unscripted entity. A place on the internet that I could call my own and also get all weird and artsy in the process. An online sketchbook, digital library, a collections of sorts … call it what you will. But with time, it changed and shifted and morphed, eventually evolving into a very literal thing. I love to write. I love to document. But I can’t help but feel that the artist in me has taken a backseat for the past couple of years. And this makes sense, considering J’s college schedule picked up which left him out of the house more and me with the kids all of the time. With Julien in school, I was finally able to reclaim some of that time back. When Vera was born, it became practically nonexistent. But as an artist, that need doesn’t ever leave you. It gets pushed back and moved around in order to tend to other, more urgent, life-related items. But it never leaves.

J graduates in one week. One week. A 30-something father of two and first time college student, he will be walking across that stage next Friday. An Honor graduate. With his gold cord and his cap and gown. Our lives are about to change. This chapter of our lives that we have known for the past 4 years will, very soon, be over. I look forward to having him all to ourselves again. And both J and I are eagerly awaiting the days where we can be creative and just make shit  … once again. They are coming. Finally.

So where does this leave me and this blog and my weird change of mind that suddenly happened this week? Well, I’m going to be focusing on some new projects. Some new art-focused projects. I’m starting some new accounts and will be posting over there while I work on it all. This blog will still be, as I love that it acts as a documentation of our world. But it probably won’t be as regular as it has been in the past. I guess as a blogger, you come to the point where you have to decide if you want to make it into a money-making thing or if it is solely for your own amusement. I wrestled with these questions a lot over the past year and I can wholeheartedly tell you that I am not in this for money. Or sponsors. Or popularity. I love that you all enjoy this space. And that’s more than I ever expected. But I’m content just letting it exist as it is. A space to collect various projects, musings, photos, moments, memories … and the like.

I’ll post some links to the other projects soon. I’ve got to figure some kinks out first.

xo

Shop Update

Posted on 1 May 2012 | 1 response

A few new items just added to the shop. Many from our treasure-hunting stop in La Crosse. More to come throughout the week. Go and get your cute on!

SHOP

Girls

Posted on 25 April 2012 | 1 response

Almost 9-Months-Old

Posted on 23 April 2012 | 2 responses

Where has the time gone?? More and more, J and I find ourselves asking this to one another. These days, with the boy about to turn 7 and the baby girl quickly approaching 1 (only 3.5 months away!) … we are finding it a bit hard to come to terms with how fast our lives are moving. Yes, it is difficult. And yes, this year has been full of stress and a juggling act like no other … but still. Sometimes I stare at my children and become saddened by the fact that they are growing up so quickly in front of my very own eyes. That I cannot do anything about. That those days and moments are so far behind us now. That I cannot even clearly remember every hug and kiss and cuddle and smile and cry and …

Bittersweet, I tell you. It’s all just so bittersweet.

So our little Veev’s is a little over 8.5-Months-Old now. Approaching 9-Months rather rapidly. So much has changed and transitioned and developed over this past month. So much. She is now fully mobile. Still army crawling, but trying to get up on all fours a little more. I’ve caught her in some moments of textbook-type crawling, but not many. Honestly, she just seems bored with the whole thing. So she moved on from it. To standing. The little lady is now pulling herself up on anything and everything around her, so that she can stand. It’s all rather sudden and pretty scary, as we are not ready for this stage at all. She is into EVERYTHING! Like a little cat. In more ways than one. Following me around the house. Pulling out papers. Grabbing out cords and swinging them around. So playful. But also so mischievous. Such a curious little girl. She has a definite sparkle in her eye and that silly little grin is always an amazing sight. So without further ado, here are some things that Miss Vera has been up to this past month:

• She has two bottom teeth. They came in at almost the exact same time and she was just a bear to deal with. Teething sucks. That is the one thing ‘they’ don’t ever tell you about. And our kids do not deal with it gracefully at all. She just gets SO out-of-sorts for days-on-end. Her entire schedule becomes disrupted and it feels like the whole house gets turned upside down. Today, I also noticed that one of her top teeth is now emerging which made me super sad. Noooooo … stop growing up so fast! Soon, we will have no more gummy smiles … and I LOVE gummy smiles. Sadface.
• V adores her brother. She watches him and flashes him her biggest smiles. She laughs at him and basically wants to be near him all the time. She tries to play with him and bops her head when he plays the piano. I love this. My only wish would be for Julien to pay more attention to her back. It kind of breaks my heart to see her so happy and trying so hard to interact with him, yet Jules just kind of sits there and ignores her. Now don’t get me wrong. He is a fantastic brother. He is loving and sweet and caring and great with her. But he is also a 7-year-old boy. A busy boy. With a lot of ideas and things he wants to do. Sometimes I feel like he sees her more as a burden … but maybe that is just my own experience soaking through to color my perception.
• She is eating better … but not great. We had a few scary experiences with her choking that rattled us a bit too hard. V seems to have a very, very sensitive gag reflex which makes that whole eating situation a bit problematic. She takes too big of bites and shoves too much in her mouth. Her pincer grasp is improving and she has a steadfast focus, so I know it will get better with time. For now, I cut her food up very small (almost to the point of it being mashed). Her favorites include plain greek yogurt (the girl will inhale almost an entire serving), cheese (she gets mad if only you are eating it), chicken (both purees and little bits), peas, and strawberries. She tolerates banana. And we think she has an issue with carrots, as she always breaks out in a horrible diaper rash after eating them. That and her cheeks become bright red. We also realized that Julien also seemed to have an issue with carrots when a baby. He would get really angry and scream and cry after eating them. Huh? Strange …

• She is still nursing, but we are also bottlefeeding. I guess it’s about half and half. And you know what? That works so much better for me. I still only plan on nursing until her 1st birthday at the max, but if we end before that I know that I’ve done a hella great job. I persevered throughout all of the hardship and I’ve made it a long, long way. Sometimes we can surprise even ourselves.
• Her hair is growing in so much more now. It is light with a blondish hue and a very slight red tint. It’s also starting to get much thicker and wispy.
• She loves bathtime and playing with the water.
• She also loves music and will dance or bop her head along to it.
• Vera is a dream to take out anywhere. This is a major difference between her and Jules … and a major plus! Summer is going to be great since I prefer to be out-and-about most of the time. She loves walks in her stroller, swinging at the playground, car-rides, trips to the grocery store, etc. Definitely makes my life easier in that way.
• She is hella chatty and will easily raise her voice in order to be included in the conversation.
• Her sleep schedule continues to suck. No sugarcoating that one. I do have her on a slight nap schedule, but her naps are usually only about 30-45 minutes in length. We finally have a bedtime schedule set, with her going down anywhere from 6:30 to 7 … but she continues to wake-up 2 to 3 to sometimes even 4 times a night. Honestly, I would like to think that this has a lot to do with the cramped quarters of our house. She is in our room again, because she wakes her brother up if in his room. If any bit of noise is made when we go to bed, it wakes her up. She is also very attached and wants to be next to me in our bed instead of in her crib. Which is lovely … it really is … so much love … but I’m never able to get any uninterrupted sleep. When she is next to me, I am never fully sleeping and she will wake more often in order to nurse. We know that our time in our tiny house is coming to a forced end soon. We love it here, but the truth is we need more space. So come August we will be moving. Possibly downstairs, maybe to another block or another house … we are not quite sure yet. We’re still figuring things out. But that’s another story for another day.

Miss Vera will turn 9-Months-Old on May 4th. That means another check-up with Claudia. Can’t wait to see how much she weighs and measures. Pretty sure it is time for a carseat upgrade as the current one is getting a bit snug. In the meantime, I’ve got a little boy about to turn 7 on Saturday and big birthday bash to get ready for. Updates to come soon. xo

This Past Week

Posted on 22 April 2012 | 1 response

Ohhhh, my poor little neglected blog! I have had absolutely zero time to devote to it (or to anything else that is fun). For the past couple of weeks, it’s been nose to the ground – focused on completing design project after design project. I am so thankful for the work. But it really is difficult to balance (and manage) everything. I have been basically working full-time from home, but without any childcare help. This leads to a lot of late nights due to all of the tight deadlines. That’s publishing for you. Always, the tight deadlines! The designer being the last part of the book design process, thus needing to hurry it along in order for the book to get to the printer and thus published on-time. It’s been super stressful. But I’m slowly come out of the ginormous pile of work I took on. Little by little.

The big news is that somebody turns SEVEN next weekend. SEVEN!!!! When did this happen?! Recently, my Jules has grown into this tall and lanky and skinny little boy. A boy. No more baby fat in there. Just all arms and legs. He was the biggest, most fattest, most adorable little baby boy ever. And I never thought he would grow to be tall and skinny. It’s strange. And despite how challenging his early years were, I really am missing my little baby Jules. It all just went so fast. Time completely slipped out of my grasp and the little baby is forever gone. The sad part about it all is that I am now living a similar path with Miss Vera. She is challenging and demanding and cries a lot and when you are in that, it is so hard to savor it all. I know that someday soon, I will be looking at her. All tall and lanky. Missing the fat, squishy baby who would squawk and squeal and grab onto me so tightly as if her life depended on my existence. I know that time is so fleeting. And that is the saddest part about having children. That they grow. And you will never, ever get those days and hours and minutes and seconds back. Ever again.

So this past week was full of work and design projects and more work. But there were a few gems along the way. Highlights included a friend taking me to a super secret thrift spot, where I found a nice collection of Little Golden Books. Vera still isn’t crawling properly (according to the books), but she is super mobile and starting to get herself into a bit of mischief! This girl has a sparkle in her eye and a bit of troublemaker spirit. Her newfound mobility started early in the week, where I left the room briefly only to return and find her STANDING … in front of the TV with a fistful of cords, waving them in the air. Then later in the week, this happened …

She was crawling around the room like this. Ridiculous! And hilarious. After she had enough of that, Vera immediately craweled over to the big box that had just arrived and proceeded to pull herself up to standing. Just like that. No big deal at all. Just … you know … standing!

After some play with the big box, we opened it up and look what was inside! Vintage goodness! A Fisher-Price camcorder, 8 cartridges, and a Movie Viewer Theater. The cool thing about these cartridges is that you can actually pop them open and put your own Super 8 film in them. We plan on trying to find a Super 8 camera so that we can make our own video projects. Super lo-fi. So many possibilities! Although, Julien wondered why there wasn’t any sound. I told him we would have to make our own sound with his keyboard and our voices. A nice Friday Night family activity. On a side-note, my Mom said we had the exact same toys when I was really small. No wonder I gravitated so strongly to this set.

What else? Julien had his first soccer practice, which was enjoyed by all of us. He had a ton of fun and Vera loved being outside and watching all of the activity. Saturday was spent at my parents house making magical wands and collecting other goodies for Julien’s upcoming Harry Potter themed birthday party. It’s going to be a fun one! The kids are really, really excited. They are all big Harry Potter fans, with 3 or 4 of them currently reading the series of books. All 1st graders! Such little geniuses.

All in all, hoping you all had a less stressful week than I. I’ll be back to blogging more when all of the activity dies down a bit. Believe me, I wish I could do this instead of that. But money calls … so the other things still have to wait. xo

Images:  New Toy / Little Golden Books / Trouble / Big Box / Vintage Goodness / Invitation Making

This Past Week

Posted on 14 April 2012 | 4 responses

You GUYS! I had no idea you could take photos with your smartphone and then DOWNLOAD to your computer!! Where have I been?! Do you realize how much easier this makes my life! So a couple weeks back, J and I joined the rest of the country/world/universe/ and upgraded to some fancy new phones. Vera decided to try and eat and then THROW my phone and it finally had it and died. I wasn’t very happy about a new and expensive purchase, as it seemed completely unnecessary and frivolous. At heart, I’m a cheapskate. But really it’s just because I live in fear of being broke. We have to pinch pennies more times than not and it’s always super, super stressful. Anyways, our old phones were just that. Old! They were the free phones given out about 2 or 3 years ago. And that was fine. They made calls. They had an alarm clock on them. They had a clock. That was about it. And that was all we needed. Or so we thought …

Enter new fancy phones! With cameras! And video! And text messaging! And … Instagram! I can now be a better Mom because I have Instagram!

Completely kidding there. However, I had the phone for about 2 weeks before J dropped the bomb on me one night that we could actually use the USB cord that came with the charger and plug it directly into the computer. WHAT?! My mind was blown. So I just tried it out. And it was simple. And lovely. I’ve hated this phone from the beginning. I like simplicity and this device is just so overwhelming to me. But being able to use it as a camera has helped me to love it a little bit more. I don’t think I’ll ever be in love with it (my laptop holds that spot) … but it is definitely an enhancement.

So this past week, the boys have been on Spring Break. Julien had an allergy appointment in La Crosse which required the entire Avery Family Magic to wake up at 4 am and trek it the 3+ hours from one side of the state to the other. This is our 4th time making the trip and I am pleased to say that Julien is doing so much better with his allergies. The treatment is bringing all of his levels down and he isn’t as sensitive to the molds and pollens and grasses as he was before.

I had a sneaking suspicion that Jules may have an issue with Yeast due to him sometimes being very spacey and with a lack of focus. He sometimes can’t remember what you just said or appears as if he tunes out. It’s not all the time. But it’s enough for us to notice. And no – it isn’t anything like ADD. But more like a thin veil or brain fog. When I brought this up to his Doctor, she looked back at his chart and saw that his 1st Doctor had not tested him for Yeast. So she added it to the skin test. And sure enough, he came back with a mild reaction to Candida Yeast. So it has now been added to his drops and sadly, the little guy has to stay away from sugar for awhile. Not a very fun conversation to have with an almost 7-year-old who already cannot eat anything with gluten. Unlike the gluten though, this won’t be forever. Just until we get his little body back in check. He got so messed up in his early years, that I feel like we are only slowly making progress towards getting his health restored. But the bright side is that he is doing much better! Much, much better! In fact, he only had to use his Asthma inhalers once this past Winter and that is truly amazing. And for that, I am super thankful!

After his morning appointment, we drove around La Crosse. Went out to eat. Then went over the Mississippi River into Minnesota (Julien’s request!).

We drove for awhile. Then turned around and went back over the bridge into Wisconsin. Tried to find the infamous Guadalupe Shrine (there are signs everywhere so we were intrigued) but found a thrift-store and went treasure hunting instead. Checked into our nice fancy hotel. Watched some History Channel. Took the kids swimming (Vera’s 1st swim!). Tried to figure out how to put V to bed while we were all still awake in the same room. Julien eventually passed out. J and I then had a quiet party where we drank some beer and texted each other back and forth. Shhh! Nobody say a thing.

After a rough night of V continuously waking, we got up … ate breakfast … played …

Packed up … watched more History Channel and then leisurely headed back to Milwaukee. Stopped at our favorite rest stop (it has a PLAYGROUND!) and then finally made it into Milwaukee by late afternoon. In the end, it felt really good to get away for a night. But it felt equally as good to return home to our city. Awwww … that beautiful industrial landscape!

Have a lovely weekend, dearies! xo

Images:  Angry Baby / Goodbye, Hotel / Brave Soul / Into Minnesota / Playtime at the Hotel / Hello, Milwaukee

Milestones

Posted on 4 April 2012 | 3 responses

Today marked that glorious day when Kiki and Jules made its 100th sale.

One. Hundred. Sales.

Wow.

Thank you! To everyone who has offered their support and advice and wisdom and help and kindness and friendship. And to anyone who has ever bought something. I say … thank you. From the bottom of my heart. I am truly humbled. Grateful. So now, as a showing of my thanks, please let me present to you a sale!

For the next 24 hours, get 50% off your order by entering coupon code: CONFETTI at checkout. This includes everything. But hurry! At 9:30 pm tomorrow, the sale will end. And Cinderella will find herself back at home. With a pumpkin as a ride.

Ready. Set. GO!

SHOP

7-Months-Old

Posted on 2 April 2012 | 2 responses

Catching up. Vera turns 8-months-old in 2 days. That means I still haven’t gotten around to posting about V’s 7th month. Time is a-flying! So before I move on, here is some of what went down (at some point) during the past few (plus) weeks.

• Vera now has two bottom teeth. She seemed to be teething forever before they finally broke through. The right one came first, shortly followed by the left one a day or two later. They are sharp little buggers and she has bit me on more than one occasion.
• I forgot that babies essentially teeth for like 2 whole years. And it sucks. The constant crying and screaming that is associated with the pain and discomfort they feel. My kids do not do well with this. They are whiny, screamy, and grouchy. To say that it is not very fun, for anyone, would be an understatement.
• Vera is continuing to expand her palette. With her new teeth, she is able to eat some foods that I was too scared to give her before. She is still working on her pincer grasp, so she can’t always get the food into her mouth. However, she is getting a ton of practice and I’m sure she’ll get it soon! We sprinkle some peas, shredded cheese, corn, avocado pieces, and bits of banana on her tray daily. This entertains her for a tiny minute as she loves eating, but soon gets frustrated that she can’t get it all into her mouth.
• The transition from nursing to bottle-feeding is going much better. V loves her bottle now and will take it happily. She was refusing it for a long while, so we would go back-and-forth between nursing and bottle-feeding. I no longer have to nurse her to sleep (and have been trying to break this habit anyways) but more times than none she does cry when put down for a nap. This girly is very inconsistent with her sleep schedule, despite my daily attempts to get her on one. It seems like we flip-flop between good days and bad days. So it can be a bit maddening and disheartening. The truth is that I will never know the joy that others speak of regarding their ‘easy’ babies and how they will go right to sleep or how they are happy and content all day. My kids are not like this. I thought Vera would be different from Jules in this sense. But she’s not. She is very much the same.

• We attempted to move Vera into her crib in Julien’s room. That was always the plan. That they would eventually share a room. But of course, this plan entirely BACKFIRED on us! Instead, V reverted to her newborn habits and began waking every hour. Screaming. Crying. Not sleeping. Everytime we would put her down to sleep, she would carry on and scream as if we had abandoned her. After a week of hell (the final straw being that Julien woke up and had to sleep in our bed) – I woke up one morning determined to move her crib into our room. However, the crib would not fit through the doorway! So I took the door off its hinges thinking this would help. Nope! Still not fitting. An hour later, I was so pissed that I took part of the crib apart and then forced it through the doorway. I rearranged our entire bedroom to make room for the crib. The whole house was a disaster. I got it into our room and moved it into place. Then I grabbed the tools and started to put the piece back on that I had taken off and … a huge chunk of wood fell off and the CRIB BROKE! At that point, I admitted defeat and just started crying. Vera was crying. I was crying. The whole house was a disaster. Super super super bad awful terrible day. Now that she is back in our room, V is doing much better. She no longer screams like we abandoned her. But her sleep schedule still sucks. I constantly feel like I’m missing something or doing something wrong and perhaps that is the entire reason she sucks at sleeping.
• Sigh …
• She says “Hi” and “Dada” … She also started saying “all done” when finished with meals (it sounds more like ‘ah duh’) … She is very talkative with her baby gibberish and extremely expressive with her moods and emotions. Veev’s is also very aggressive (double Leo??) and she grabs my face and hair and yells and generally just tries to command attention. As a girl, I hope this serves her well and allows her not to take crap from anyone. To stand-up for herself. To say no. To be a leader. Traits that she will have to grow into. That will serve her well later in life. I’m hoping …
• She went from rolling over to trying to crawl and is now army crawling all over the house. Quickly. She goes after anything left on the floor … books, video games, food, markers. So we’ve been on super hawk watch trying to get Julien to pick-up after himself. Trying to keep everything out of her reach. She can kind of sit-up unassisted but only for a short time before she topples over. I can tell that she really really wants to walk and am sure this is the next milestone to be quickly reached. Julien was walking at 10-months. I would love if she waited longer, but know that is probably not the case.
• V has discovered a furry red monster named Elmo and he makes her smile so big. It reminds me so much of my little Julien baby. This boy LOVED Sesame Street and will still sit-down and watch an episode. This makes my heart so happy as I love Sesame Street just as much as the kiddos. It is the show I grew up watching as well.

I think that is about it. Now onto the 8th month!

Shop Update

Posted on 1 April 2012 | 2 responses

A whole slew of new items have been added to the shop. Super magicalness awaits!

SHOP

Hello? Hello?

Posted on 31 March 2012 | 2 responses

Yes, we are still here. Alive and kicking. Somebody figured out how to crawl this week and is now into everything! The past few days have been full of rearranging, moving rooms, moving rooms back, breaking cribs, quick babyproofing attempts, grabbing said baby before she eats books/cords/whatever is in her path, consoling said baby as she reverts back to newborn screaminess and no-sleep habits, oh and a lot of design projects too. Sometimes the blog has to take a backseat to real-life dramas. But we’ll be back soon. Right after we clean-up the shambles of a mess over here. Until then, please standby …

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