it's a . . .

well, we’re almost to the halfway point! we had our ultrasound yesterday and have included some of the pictures above.

we also found out that we’ll be having a little brother for the little dude! (although he’s not too convinced!) if you ask him, he still says: “baby brother, sister”. (and no, there aren’t 2 in there!) he’s also informed me that we need to name his baby brother “doctor baby”.

the new little bean is quite the mover and shaker and it was tough for the technician to get any decent pictures. she must have tried for 15 or 20 minutes at the end just to get a good image to give us, but gave up as he decided to turn his back to the "camera".

art school

tuesday was a sad day as it was our last day of art school. the little dude loves it so much and will miss it terribly, i'm sure. i took the camera on tuesday to take a few shots of what goes on at school. i should have taken it a different day as the projects were limited since we wouldn't have time for anything to dry and take home. normally there are many, many more "wet" projects.


face painting. of course it had to be "mick*y mous* cl*bhouse", so mommy drew on some classic ears.


top: getting ready to do a full-body tracing. top right: the little dude adding "features" to his face.
bottom: my little lefty at the easel doing a collaborative painting. bottom left: again, contributing his part to the group project.


top: "cutting" play-doh* and driving "dumper trucks" through it for fun!
bottom: looking at some grass throug the magnifying glass.


ending the day with his favorite parachute! he freaking LOVES this thing.

easter

this year was the first time that the little dude really understood what easter was all about. for weeks before if you asked him what the easter bunny was going to bring, he would say "num n nums" (m&m's). he was pretty excited about the whole thing. we wrote a note to the easter bunny and left it by his basket before bed. the easter bunny even hid the little dude's basket for the first time! i think he may have to hide it a little better next year because he found it pretty quickly.

here are some photos of the little dude digging into his stash of num n nums.



we went to my aunt and uncle's house for a gathering with our extended family. we always have an easter egg hunt. it's the first time he really enjoyed that too. he got to collect 7 eggs with tons of goodies inside. i love the photo on the left with his squishy excited face! too funny.



overall, we had a blast. it's so much fun when the kiddos start to understand all the holidays. oh, and the little dude got to wear his big brother shirt that i posted about. everyone loved it and now the entire family knows our news! too bad i don't have a photo of him in it without his jacket on! oopps!

modishoppe

i've been a real slacker in posting about this, and i feel horrible. the whole preparation for the national stationery show is really kicking my butt! i can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since i've posted anything!


anyway, i'm excited to announce that marzipan inc. has partnered with another online retailer! modishoppe is now open for business and you can find a few of our things there! go check it out. it's full of great stuff!

odds & ends

last week the little dude thought he'd show off his decorating skills in the living room:



tuesday the remainder of my valentine's day gift showed up in the mail. (the hubby didn't notice the 4-6 week shipping time when he ordered it) i love it. i've already tried it out twice. you can order one here.



and finally, here's the shirt i mentioned a few posts back. it's for the little dude to wear to easter next week. he will wear it to dinner and it will be how all of my aunts and uncles will find out about the "new" pregnancy. we did the same thing for the little dude. we announced it at a graduation party where my hubby wore a shirt that said on the front: "knock, knock. who's there? i'm a. I'm a who?" and on the back read: "i'm a gonna be a freakin' daddy!" everyone loved it, so we're continuing the tradition with this one. our only problem is that i'm already showing so they're going to have to notice the little dude's shirt before they notice my belly! anyway, here it is:





it's by no means perfect since i've never really done anything like this before. but, it's cute enough and will hopefully hold together well enough to wear to easter and then maybe the hospital when the little bean actually arrives.

oh, speaking of which, i had my 16 week appt. on monday. everything is still looking good. the little dude can now tell you what the baby sounds like. it's so cute. he does this: "swish, swish, swish" sound. he so excited every time he hears it.

seriously . . .

when most kids are busy actually playing with their toys, this is what my son does:


we were in my office this morning and he came running up to me saying "line up, line up, line up". so of course i have to go see what he's talking about. this is what we found at the other side of the office. not only were his toys lined up in a perfect little row, they were also arranged from largest to smallest, ending with his little bowl of cheerios. he was so proud of himself posing for the picture with his perfect little row.

i know people don't believe me when i say my kid has OCD, but seriously, every day is full of stuff like this. the hubby says "we should get him checked out", but i'm not so sure what they'd say. i picture them looking at me with that lady-your-crazy look in their eyes and saying: "you mean your kid organizes stuff, and your worried about this?" i mean really. there are worse things in life.

date night

the little dude and i had "date night" tonight. daddy was off doing a consulting gig for the second night this week, so i decided it was time for us to get out of the house instead of sitting around waiting for him to get home.

we went to two craft stores. one, to return something i previously purchased, and the second to pick out fabric for a t-shirt i'm making the little dude. (i'll post pictures of it when it's finished.)

after the craft stores, i thought it would be fun to do fast food at a place that has a playland. the little dude has never been exposed to "playland fun", so i thought it was about time since he's a big 2 year old now. i must say that he loved it. however, i knew from the moment we stepped in, i was doomed. the room was completely closed off to the rest of the joint and it had a nasty, nasty smell to it. i'm not sure if it was my pregnancy nose in action or what, but it was bad. the fact that the heating vents must have been turned up full blast in that room made it 100 times worse. nothing like bad smell multiplied by excessive heat. mmmmmmm. yummy. just the kind of place i want to eat my dinner.

just to add to my pain, it's now snowing here. yesterday was 70º and we were outside wearing t-shirts. today it's in the 30º's, and raining/sleeting/snowing. oh, lovely wisconsin weather.

ok, so this post kinda ended on a downer. i didn't really mean it to. it was supposed to be about spending time with my little dude. so i'll officially end it like this:

i love you little dude! thanks for going on a date with mommy tonight.

focus

i have completely lost my focus.

there is so much to do before the national stationery show in may, and i'm not accomplishing anything! i really don't remember it being this bad when i was pregnant with the little dude, but man, i can't concentrate on anything! i think i have pregnancy brain, or pregnancy ADD if there is such a thing. i have so many projects/new products/deadlines that are half finished that it's absurd. the littlest thing will break my focus and get me working on something completely unrelated (and often times not as important). usually when i feel like this, making a list helps me out. i've tried making one of those lists about 5 different times just this week and i can't even get anything down on paper because i'm so overwhelmed that i don't know where to start.

anyone else go through this? how did you break through and actually accomplish something? HELP!

heartbeat: 101

as of tomorrow i will officially be 12 week pregnant. it's a good feeling to have made it to this point as the risk for miscarriage drop dramatically.

on tuesday i had my 12 week check-up at which the little dude and i got to hear the heartbeat of the little bean. luckily my nurse was able to find it almost immediately upon setting the probe on my tummy. i remember with the little dude that every second that went by while they searched for it seemed like an hour. it was very reassuring.

i was able to get the heartbeat recorded on my cell phone so that the hubby could hear when he got home. it's very faint and hard to hear, but it was nice for him to be able to be a part of it.

i'm sure there's probably a way for me to get it off my phone and onto my blog for the world to hear, but honestly, i'm not that tech savvy, nor do i care to spend the time researching it. so, sorry about that. you'll all have to be ok with photos and stories.

cooking school

man, i've been gone for awhile. things have been so busy around here it's crazy.

so the little dude and i have gone to cooking school for the last 3 weeks. it's at the same place as art school. we have both had so much fun. i think the little dude is definitely going to be a creative type. between art school and cooking school he's been in heaven.

here are a few photos of the things we've made in cooking school over the weeks:


top left: fruit and yogurt parfait
top right: hand squeezed lemonade
middle left: bagel face
middle right: cinnamon and sugar bread
bottom left: alphabet soup
bottom right: fruit soup

it's great because most of these "dishes" included teaching opportunities. for example, the alphabet soup was really called "counting soup". the ingredients needed to be counted out by the students. so, 1 scoop of tofu, 2 scoops of carrots, 3 scoops of peas, 4 scoops of corn, etc. etc.

i'm sure the little dude will be disappointed when next week comes and we don't get to go anymore. we'll be sure to sign up when the next session comes around.

my crazy kid

i know i've mentioned the little dude's obessive compulsive tendencies on my blog before. here's more proof:


out of the gigantic box of 96 crayons, he picked out each and every one of these colors. as he chose each of them he would say "orange". then if it met his requirements, he would say "yup". if however, said crayon did not meet his "orange" requirements, (being a shade too brown, pink, or yellow) he would say "nope", and then put it right back in the box where it came from.

i had to take the photo as proof to the hubby, as i knew he'd never believe me if i just told him the story.

gross....i know

the food cravings have been going strong for a few weeks already.

when i was pregnant with the little dude i had one craving that i hoped wouldn't come back a second time. unfortunately it has....



yeah....i know. my hubby is totally and completely grossed out by the whole thing. he cringes every time he sees it pass my lips.

i'm not quite sure why i crave them. i'm pretty sure it's not because it's filling some vitamin or nutrient void....are there even any in them?

the people who write fortunes . . .

on new year's day, the hubby, the little dude, and i went to our local chinese restaurant for lunch. at the end of the meal, we received our standard fortune cookies. after opening them and comparing, the hubby and i gave each other one of those looks.

here's why:


of course i saved them for good luck. exactly 7 days later i got that positive result on my home pregnancy test!

i think the people who wrote those fortunes need a raise!

a christmas miracle!

ok, so i don't even know where to start with this. so....how about this:


ummmmmm......yeah.

so back when i was writing my goals for the year and talking about how the hubby and i hadn't achieved the goal of conceiving in 2006, well i was lying. unknowingly of course. it turns out i was pregnant, i just didn't know it yet!! and in 2006 even....a few days before christmas.

seeing as how we have had major problems conceiving in the past, i don't even bother telling the hubby when i'm going to be testing anymore. it saves me the trouble of having to tell him about the negative test results which just make me more sad in the long run. so, when i took the above test and that little "pregnant" message came up, i nearly had a heart attack! i've never had a positive home pregnancy test before so i didn't know what it felt like to see that positive message. (with ivf, you're not supposed to take home pregnancy tests because you can get false results from all the drugs your're on)

so, i am running around the house wondering how i'm going to tell the hubby since he doesn't even know i'm taking the test and i don't really just want to call him at work and be like: "we're pregnant", so i took this picture and sent him an e-mail. i called him up and made sure i was on the phone while he opened the attachment. here's how the conversation went down:

hubby: "what's this?" (hahaha! that's how not used to this we are in this household!!)

me: "what does it look like?"

hubby: "how is this possible?"

me: "well, you see, we had sex."

hubby: "but....but."

and it went on and on like that for about 5 minutes. both of us in total and complete shock that we had sex and it actually worked! not something we're used to happening around here.

so i called my dr. and went in for two separate rounds of pregnancy tests to make sure my levels were rising. after a week of torturous waiting, we got the news that it was in fact a true pregnancy. for the last few weeks we've been talking about it, but at the same time being a little skeptical about it. after all, how could this have possibly worked?

yesterday i went in for my first ultrasound. the dr. said everything looked really good and healthy, so if we wanted to share the news, she felt comfortable saying "go ahead". so here i am....and here are some pictures:

(really sorry about the horrible quality. not sure why the scan is so bad)




i guess there's not much left to say!

thanks!

thanks to everyone for your suggestions on our "bodert" situation.....however, i'm on to bigger and better posts! check back in a few minutes!

bodert

as many of you who are parents already know, there are many words that you child comes up with...many of which you have no idea what they're talking about.

for months now, the little dude has been saying "bodert" (short "o" as in box). we have NO earthly idea what it means. he says it very randomly...never the same situation twice. we've asked him a million times what he's saying and all we get in return is more "bodert".

so, any of you genius baby translators out there want to give this one a shot? help a mama out!

first day of "school"

the little dude all decked out waiting for "school" to start. it's all i heard about all morning before we left. he was so excited.

today was our first day of "school". toddler art time at the john michael kohler arts center. it was amazing and so much fun. the class is for 2 and 3 year olds, along with a parent. the class lasts 6 weeks and will be focusing on the theme of "snow". . . . an appropriate topic considering we just got 3 inches yesterday. today we painted pinecones to look like they had snow on them, painted a picture with black paint on white paper (black, to represent tracks in white snow), started a "snowscape" which we will work on for the next 6 weeks, and strung beads on pipecleaners. at the end of class, the teacher read a book about snow.

i think it was as much fun for me as it was for the little dude. it's also nice for me because i don't have to get out, or clean up any of the mess! we go for an hour, make a mess, and leave! that's my kind of class!

the arts center also offers preschool for children starting at 3 years old. we're definitely planning on sending the little dude as soon as we can. it's such a great place.

big boooyyyyy bed

today we switched the little dude's crib into a "big boy bed". this basically means that we took one of the sides off and lowered it to it's lowest setting. this also means that he's able to get up whenever he wants and wander around the room or into our room. i'm a little nervous to see how this works. we tested it out during nap time today and it went pretty well. for the first 15 minutes or so you could hear him bouncing around and squealing like a little girl. so i finally went up and peaked in only to find him standing at one end with his hands on the railing, counting "one, two, three, boooyyyyy" and then falling to his butt. repeat about a million times. i think he was a little excited about being a big boooyyyyy. pretty cute. after a serious talk about how we sleep in a big boy bed and not play, he drifted off and slept a nice long nap. he woke as usual with his rocking motion and didn't get out of bed before i went up to get him. i'm not sure how long he would stay put if i didn't go get him. i guess we'll see in the morning when i don't want to drag my butt out of bed!

a few more

so after i published my list of goals i, of course, thought of a few more. in addition to the ones in my last post, i'd like to accomplish the following things:

business related

1. after increasing traffic to shades of violet with strategically placed advertising and search engine optimization, my goal is to increase my business by 500% by the end of the year. that may sound like a huge number, but considering i didn't do a whole lot with it this year, it's not as much as it seems.

2. get, and stay, organized. i've started the organization project already and am really, really excited about it. it's not that i'm ever totally unorganized, or a messy person, but there's always room for improvement. i love the feeling of everything being clean and in it's place. so far my filing cabinet and desk have been pretty much organized. i'd love to get the rest of the office/storage space organized as well. (this will not be a small feat as it involves our entire basement)

personal

1. talk to a financial planner about our future. we currently have a 401k that has been rolled over into a "temporary" account that i had when i worked in corporate america. it's been sitting "temporarily" for 3 years now. while it's making pretty decent money sitting there, we should really explore our options more. this goes for the hubby's 401k, the little dude's college fund, etc. etc. etc. i just want to know that we're doing the right thing with our money so that we can live comfortably later in life.

2. make out a will. now that we have a kid, it should really be done. i'm a little embarrassed that we don't have one already, but hey, that's life. along with this, we need to look at our life insurance and adjust it accordingly.

3. re-do our personal budget. now that we have one of my student loans paid off as well as medical bills from ivf, we need to adjust our budget accordingly. i'd like to reallocate the money used for those things to pay our car and my other student loan off this year. (and maybe actually give our self a little "fun money" for once!)

ok, i think that about sums it up. i'm sure i'll think of more later.

so far 2007 is off to a pretty good start. while my list of things to do is a mile long, i'm slowly checking them off and making progress. i'm determined to make 2007 a great year!

welcome 2007!

i know many people hate resolutions because they say it’s impossible keep them. while i agree to a point, i also think it’s important to have some goals. attainable, realistic goals. none of those: “i’m going to eat only fruit for lunch every single day in 2007,” resolutions.

so here we go:

my goals for 2007 (and a little recap of 2006)

1. continue to grow my business at a comfortable pace. after last years huge sales goals, i realized that i’m quite happy where i ended up for the year. while i narrowly missed my main sales goal, i have also realized that i’m pretty pushed to my limits. i’ve hired help for the things i can, but there is so much in my business that other people just cannot do for me. (ie. design work) i think that while my child is still young, i just need to focus on making enough money to pay myself a decent salary and not try to over do it. i think i’ve hit my limit of how much i can possibly get done in a day without going insane. i just need to stay here for a while and worry about growing my business in little steps as i can handle them.
2. increase sales at the national stationery show by 30%. i know i just said i wanted to stay where i am, but increasing my sales at the nss doesn’t necessarily take a lot of extra work on my part. it’s all about marketing the right way to the right people. (hopefully i can figure out that equation.)
3. last year i had a goal to get a retail site up and running. that goal was easily and quickly achieved with the help of nicole at smart & lovely. this year i need to spend a little more time and money marketing and advertising the site so people actually know it’s there! i also need to work on my keywords for search engines. (something i know little if anything about….and don’t look forward to doing)
4. send out press releases and new samples to media on a more regular basis. (this is the same as last year. i still need to be better about it.)
5. get published in a “real” magazine. (again. same as last year. something i’m working on being better about. (see goal #4))

personal: key goals
1. last year i made a goal to lose 10 pounds. i tried really hard and went to the gym for the first couple months of the year and got nowhere. i mean not a pound. then the nss came and i got busy and put weight loss on the back burner. then somewhere around september, i thought i better give this weight loss thing one more try before the end of the year. i’m happy to say that i’m down between 8 and 9 lbs. in just a few short months the pounds have started falling off. without going to the gym! i’ve made several changes that have helped achieve my loss. first, i have been trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies in my diet. second, smaller portions sizes. third, i go walking at least twice a week. outside in the summer, inside at the local mall in the winter. i was really hoping to make it to 10 before the end of the year, but christmas really did me in. hey, i’m happy with 8 or 9. i’m down a whole pant size and my belt is 2 notches tighter!! yippee! so, this year’s goal is to lose at least another 7 lbs.!
2. last year’s goal of spending more one on one time with the little dude didn’t work so well. i’m constantly guilty that he’s entertaining himself all day while i work. i really want to try to work it out so that at 3:00 every afternoon, i’m done with work and spend 2 ½ hours with him one on one before daddy gets home from work. now that he’s older, he can start “helping” me with dinner and things like that which he enjoys. i’ve also signed us up for “toddler art time” at the john michael kohler arts center (where the hubby and i were married). i’m super excited to start this with him as it will be mommy and little dude time once a week doing art projects. it starts january 16th and goes for 6 weeks. if all goes well, maybe we’ll sign up for another session after that!
3. as you can probably tell by my lack of mentioning it, last years goal of trying to have another baby without infertility assistance (ie. ivf) didn’t go so well. i struggle with whether or not i should talk about our infertility on this blog. this blog was started to talk about being a business owner and mother, i’m not sure if it fits. i know that it’s obviously part of being a mom, but i’m not so sure if everyone wants to hear about it. we’ve tried several things this year to try and help but none of them have worked. we’ve recently started another option which i’m hopeful about. we’ll see. so, if you have an opinion on whether you’d like to hear about it or not, leave me a comment and let me know. otherwise i’ll continue to leave it out.
4. spend less time watching t.v…..again!!

welcome 2007. i have a good feeling about you, i think we’re going to be good friends!