Too nice to stay inside

Josh came home a little early yesterday giving us just enough time to walk around Lake Calhoun before sunset. The air was crisp, but the sun was shining, and it was above 30 degrees. We have spring fever now and can't wait to spend more time outdoors. After our walk, we headed home to a pot of vegetarian chili (now my favorite chili recipe!) and cornbread. It was grand.

Up for a Challenge

After finishing a quilt project like the one I made for my friend's wedding present, it's always nice to work on a few instant gratification projects like the sleep sack I made Harper, or these two lovely Figure-8 scarves:

Both of them are made out of fresh, fun fabrics designed by Anna Maria Horner. The one on the left is made of two layers of voile, and the one on the right is one layer of voile and one layer of cotton velveteen. I prefer the all voile one as it is less bulky and drapes nicer. The velveteen one is nice paired with my red coat when I'm heading outside...wait, this is not what my post was to be about.

A couple years ago, my friend Amber made a beautiful vintage dress to wear to a holiday party I hosted. I immediately purchased the pattern and some fabric and got as far as cutting all the pieces out and transferring markings. Fast-forward two years, and I'm finally digging the fabric back out of my stash and making it my goal to finish it by Easter so I can wear it Easter morning. Let's just say this dress has many many pieces and many many directions. It's definitely do-able and not too difficult, just more challenging and time consuming. Here's where I'm at:

If you can't tell, so far I have just the front put together. Next is the back, including a zipper and four more pleats (making a huge skirt!), yoke and facing, sleeves, and hem. So far it seems to fit well on the mannequin, but I haven't adjusted the measurements in two years either. 

Hopefully it won't be long before it's all put together. I'm just excited to be working with this gorgeous fabric by Art Gallery again. I'm thinking I may have to find a cream cardigan to pair with it...Easter isn't always sunny and warm here in Minnesota.

The Tuesday Times

I realized I haven't posted many pictures of Josh with Harper. I suppose he's usually the one taking the photos. I can definitely see more of Josh's dad in him now that he's a dad too. He'd probably deny it, but it's true. Josh and Harper already love to roll around, play ball, and be tickled to bits.

Sunday evening, Harper was feeling himself so we decided it'd be fun to get out of the house and head over to our friends Jenna and Andy's house to watch the Superbowl. I think I watched three plays out of the whole game but instead played with these two adorable babies. Charlie and Harper are only a month apart and are similar in abilities, so I think they really enjoyed having a playmate.

Harper has a dance move! He recently started rocking back and forth when music is playing or when we sing to him. He also started saying, "ba-ba." I'm not sure if it means anything to him yet, but we're working on consonant sounds instead of the usual, "yah-yah-wah-wah."

Happy Tuesday!

Under Attack

Poor Harper has been sick for two weeks. It was two weekends ago that he was plagued with high fevers and an ear infection. The fever lasted a couple more days during the week, and we thought he was finally in the clear by the next weekend...until a rash started developing on his cheeks and hands. Josh ended up taking him back to the pediatrician last Wednesday to find out he had Fifth's Disease. It sounds much worse than it actually is, and it's apparently very common. It didn't itch. Harper just looked like he had slapped cheeks and a red chin for a couple days. This whole being sick thing was starting to get old. Then, this past Friday while at my friend Katie's house, I noticed Harper had this huge hive, weird looking rash under his left knee and on the inside of his leg. He was starting to feel warm again. I put him down for a nap, and Katie and I had a much needed girl's night with homemade pizza and a movie. After Harper woke up, we checked out his legs and the hive was now on his right leg in the same spot, and he had a fever of 103 degrees. Seriously?! It was obviously bothering him by now, and this time it was itchy. Josh called the nurse line (for the 10 millionth time in a couple weeks), and we ended up thinking it was a reaction to me letting Harper try some feta cheese. That night we got no sleep. Harper refused to stay asleep for more than 30 minutes in his crib. We ended up rocking him all. night. long. Thankfully, my wonderful girlfriends Corynn and Jamie came to the rescue to help out with Harper and so I could get some sleep. Harper still had a high fever, and the hives kept traveling and varying in size. After talking with our pediatrician's nurse, we concluded it wasn't a food allergy and rather hives in conjunction with another virus. Our stock of baby meds is starting to grow. We canceled our weekend plans and just worked on getting Harper healthy once again. He slept much better last night, except for the hour and a half around midnight where he refused to sleep and just wanted to play. Today, his fever is gone and we only noticed a small batch of hives right away in the morning. Thank goodness. We are sick of Harper being sick, and I'm sure he's sick of being sick too. His little body's been working overtime. Pray he gets a break here for awhile!

Sledding BUST

Sunday was a perfect day to be outside. Even though it still wasn't above freezing, the sun was out and the air was still. Josh and I have been wanting to take Harper out in his sled for a while now, but every time we have the chance the temperature dips below zero or it's not light enough outside. Needless to say, we were super excited to take him for some fun in the snow at Lake Nokomis. Harper couldn't disagree more. I'm not sure if it was because he was still tired after an abbreviated nap or if he genuinely didn't like it, but he kept throwing himself back with a wail as in the picture below. Oh well. I think we got our first taste of trying to take your kids somewhere they don't want to go. I certainly remember giving my parents a hard time when they wanted to visit museums instead of the water park. We've crossed over.