Vintage Bottle Brush Trees

This holiday season, I've been obsessing over vintage Christmases. I grew up in the 90's but the city I grew up in still had a lot of houses, buildings, and signs from the 50's and 60's so everything midcentury feels very nostalgic to me and reminds me of home. Pair that with Christmas and I think we have the perfect combination.

After obsessively searching and pinning "midcentury modern Christmas" images, I kept coming across the beautiful pastels and silvers in vintage Shiny Brite ornaments. This set the stage for my color scheme this year, and so I decided to make my bottle brush trees match.

I started out with a bag of trees from Michael's, plus some leftover from last year. Dipped some in a 3 parts bleach, 1 part water solution. Rinsed them throughly in soapy warm water, and then waited for them to dry.

To make the light green trees, I just took them out of the bleach a bit sooner, and to really rinse out the bleach or it will continue to lighten the green as it dries. And for the pink ones, I just dipped them in a water and red food coloring bath.

Super easy, cute, and gives me that warm fuzzy nostalgic feeling. Also, please excuse the bad lighting, as I made these at night in the garage while baby slept!

9 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days and Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

 

Mars is 9 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days.

On the morning of baby's first Thanksgiving, we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and put up the Christmas tree. He loves the tree, but at first, was afraid to touch it. After we showed him that it was ok, he couldn't keep his hands off! We had to put some baby friendly ornaments made of felt towards the bottom just so he has something to tug at and pull off. At night, we went over to the in-laws for a turkey dinner and Mars got to spend some time with his cousin before they move to Denmark. 

Lately, Mars has been playing little games with us. He likes to repeat behaviors to get expected reactions out of us, and it's so cute. One game that we play, is that he'll bite my finger and I'll say, "Ouch!". He thinks it's so funny and it's really cute, but probably not the best game for teaching about biting! 

Yesterday, we went to his cousin's first birthday party. I can't believe she's already one! Pretty soon, it'll be Mars' turn! At the party, Mars had a blast chasing around balloons and socializing with everyone. Who knew he would be such a party animal! 

9 months and 7 days old

Mars is 9 months and 7 days old.

Can you see his first tooth in the top picture? So cute!

Last Friday, we went out to dinner with my former student and her mom. Out of nowhere, just sitting in his high chair, Mars started clapping! And since then, it's been his favorite thing to do. The other day, I went out with him in the Ergobaby, and the moment I took him out of it, he started clapping his hands. I guess he wasn't able to clap since the Ergo separates his hands, so he was extra excited to do it once he got out! 

I haven't been blogging very much lately and it's for two reasons. (ONE) When Mars isn't trying to mash the keyboard while I'm typing, he's (TWO) crawling away from me and getting himself into dangerous situations. So I'm gonna be gone for a little bit, but don't worry, I'll be back and with even more fun things to share!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Going Out: The Academy of Sciences

Last week, I took Mars to the Academy of Sciences for the second time. The last time we went, he was still a sleepy infant. This time, he was a lot more alert and aware of his surroundings. He loved looking up at the butterflies in the rainforest room, and at the giant fish in the tunnel aquarium. 

The Early Explorers Cove playroom was the best part. It was big and baby-proof so I just let him crawl around and play.

Here he is with his friend, Jasper.

And of course, every time we come we take a picture with Sue the t-rex. Next time, I want to let Mars crawl around the African Hall and see the penguins and dioramas up close. He'd probably enjoy that :)

9 months old

Mars is 9 months old!

His newest thing is trying to feed me his food (he's trying to feed me carrots in the top picture). He's also getting a little better at cruising on the coffee table, couch, or tv unit. He does't fall and bump his chin anymore so that's good. Sleep is also getting a lot better now that we're feeding him a big meal of solids before bedtime. He's been waking up just once to feed now! 

Also, I had been working on making a baby photo book for Mars' first 4 months and I am FINALLY finished! There were so many pictures to sort through, in the end, I just packed them all into 49 pages and clicked "order". Now to make a book for months 5 through 9! I feel like we take so many photos and they just live on the computer. While I enjoy having photo documentation of every little detail, I miss the days of developing a roll of film and having photos to put in an album. I feel like that's so much easier than sifting through all the photos to put in a digital photo book for printing. One of these days, I think I'll load up my analog camera with film and start taking film photos again. 

This weekend and next weekend, we have plans for two different Friendsgivings. I'm excited to try out some new recipes since they're both potlucks!

Going Out: My Birthday!

This picture was taken last year on my birthday:

And here we were for my birthday last weekend, dirty dishes and all:

I had a really nice birthday this year. We went into the city for brunch and ice cream, took a two-hour nap after we got home, and had a delicious homemade dinner with meat we bought at the French butchery.

Chicken and waffles at Hard Knox Cafe.

Red guava and cookies and cream ice cream from Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous.

Amazing looking meat from Olivier's Butchery.

It felt like any other weekend but just a bit more special since we got to do things that we normally don't do. I'm not really into going out and doing things big for my birthday anyway, and since this was my first birthday as a mom, there's really nothing I want more than to spend time with my little family. Maybe in a few years when I turn 35 we can do something big, but for now, this is just fine :) 

8 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days old

Mars is 8 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days old. 

He started cruising along the coffee table this week and his little tic-tac of a tooth is getting bigger and bigger everyday! With his new mobility, he is getting more ouchies throughout the day. The other day, he had FOUR little falls that made him cry! Nothing he doesn't get over quickly, though. That's one of the things I love so much about Mars. He wakes up smiling every morning and doesn't really get upset about things. He only cries when he bumps his head sometimes, or when he wakes up in the middle of the night. He's just an easy-going, happy baby and we are so lucky. 

This past week, I've upped Mars' solids game. I made a huge batch of oatmeal and pureed a batch with carrots, another with pears, and another with apples. For every meal, he's been eating two ice cubes of oatmeal along with some kind of finger food. He loves it! He loves to eat and gets super excited when I put him in his high chair. However, more food definitely means more poop. But on the positive end, his solid poops are a lot easier to clean!

Happy weekend, everyone!