Turning a corner

Things have changed a bit around the McLeod household. For one thing, Hubby has been working at home every day due to changes in his company. He's not complaining and neither am I...it's been a long time since I've been able to put Ham down for a nap and run errands by myself. It's a lot easier on my neck and back to have a strong, helpful man around, that is for sure. We're still working out some logistical things, though, like the huge distraction Ham is to him...albeit a cute one.

However, we love having Daddy at home and now Ham insists on being put down in her crib by the both of us. At night, she has even stopped calling out to only me. Her sing-song voice is now, "Mama, mama? Dada, dada, dad-ee, dad-ee? Mama..?" You get the idea. It's kind of nice, for me anyway. Still breaks my heart though. I hate to hear her cry. I'm one of those mom's that feels like I need to be tied to the bedpost to keep me from going into her room if she cries longer than 60 seconds.

Ham now has three teeth showing! The bottom right central incisor came in first (spotted by my sister about a month ago). Had my sister not taken a peek, I might have never known it was coming. I had been joking that day with Ham, asking, "When are you going to get some teeth, kiddo?" Welp, I asked for it.

So, within a week, her top right central incisor began peeking through. It's weird, though, because the top tooth is now showing more than the bottom one. She has since started cutting her top left CI and I'm pretty sure she is now cutting a molar...whether it's upper or lower, I'm not sure. I can also see a canine reaching the tip of her gums. She'll be all snaggle-toothed. So, the drool abounds and she has her hands in her mouth a lot more.


I will say that she has been an angel compared to what could be a very painful experience for us all. I have given her Motrin when I knew that she was suffering and sometimes I give it to her before bed just to ward off her waking up because of pain (she woke up four times one night, screaming).

Poor thing. There are always trade-offs. She may be late getting her teeth, but they seem to all want to push through at the same time. I don't know how painful that is for Ham, but she has been a gem. Some days she is just quieter and a little more reserved. She still freely gives kisses, but BEWARE! She will try to bite you sometimes if you don't pull your lips away quickly enough!

Here is a chart of the eruption (love how they call it that) of first teeth and the common ages in which they come.
Some days I miss my excitable, happy-go-lucky, grinning little girl, but I know she always comes back as soon as a tooth pops through. She still gets giggle fits and LOVES when she can 'chase' her cousins around the yard in Mommy's arms. She especially loves it when they turn around and yell, 'boo!' That always gets a belly laugh.

I can't keep up!

*Foreword: Those of you that receive automatic e-mail updates saying a new blog has been posted, you may not be able to see when there is a video attachment or a picture embedded in the blog. To see all content, you may need to come directly to the blog site Did I just say that? That is all, thank you. (OH, WAR EAGLE!)

So, things have been absolutely wonderful lately. Ham is just getting cuter and more entertaining (if that is possible). She plays really well by herself, but I find myself looking for excuses to watch her all day instead of doing housework or run errands. I have the heart of an organized person, and none of the skills I desperately long for to be a clone of Martha Stewart-ness. (I do not want to be Martha Stewart, however.)

I have had another order for glasses. YAY! A girl from etsy.com wants me to do a wine glass and shot glass with the pink owl on it and Chi Omega written in black on the opposite side. I'm working on that today.

Also, I have now gone to the infamous Sips-n-Strokes twice in one month. The second time we went to the Vestavia location and the painting was really difficult and took a lot of time. We also ended up moving our table halfway through the lesson because...well...because of the 'sipping' part of SipsnStrokes, some ladies get WAY too loud. So, for the second half of the night, we couldn't see what the instructor was doing at all. We were pretty frustrated. Regardless, this is how ours turned out:

This is mine:

This is my friend, Mer's:

This is what the instructor's original looked like:

We will probably stick with the Highway 280 store because we had a great experience there.

So, as you can see, no one painting is going to turn out exactly the same. I decided I wanted some blue in my background instead of all brown and white, while Meredith followed the instructor at first, she then decided she didn't want a lot of black in the background and it turned out really cool and sorta abstract. Mine is more realism...which, I wish I could get out of that stage. I'd love to do some abstract and even cartoonish-style stuff.

Anyway, here is the finish product of the wine glasses I did for my friend Ashley's Bachelorette Party two weekends ago:



That was a lot of fun and it definitely opened up some doors. However, painting glass is a lot harder than I thought it would be! I'm glad for the experience.

BTW, Ham heard a bird outside this morning and she cupped her little hand around her ear to sign 'hear.' SOOOO cute!

No teeth yet. LOL

Bunny heads

Ham has been dancing for a while now. As soon as music comes on, she will begin to wiggle herself back in forth. She will dance if you hum, she will even dance if you whistle. A few months ago, when she began standing on her own for several seconds, she noticed she could clap and dance while standing. She loves jazz, classical, pop and even some country. She doesn't seem to know what to do with rap, however...and that's just fine with me. (Although I have immensely enjoyed some clean Eminem from time to time.)

Most of what Ham does is now pretty predictable. I know that if I try to look at her 'teeth' (she has yet to have any break the surface, even if I can see them lined up on top), she will scrunch her mouth up and look like a loggerhead turtle. You know, the upper lip protruding out a little in a v-shape? See picture (courtesy of Tony Rath). She does it EVERY time. I'll have to get a picture of that soon.

However, I still say, "Open. Ahhhhhhhh. Open for Mommy." She still doesn't. I am looking for something more like this:

Cute, huh? (That's a baby loggerhead turtle.) Picture, courtesy of Save Bahimi Bay (something like that.)

Anyway, none of this is the point.

Ham has this stacking ring toy. It's really cute and waaaay overpriced, so I got it with a gift certificate. Anyway, each ring is a bunny part (bottom is the legs, middle is the tail, and top is the arms). Then there is the head...which detaches with velcro. Ham has never been that interested in it. I would try to show her how it's done, and she would just look at it and move on her merry little way.

Well, a few weeks ago, I got it out one night before she went to bed and Hubby and I started playing with her and showing it to her. We started this really sadistic game of pulling off the bunny head and screaming. It got hilarious when we would say, "NO, NO, don't pull off my head, 'Ham!' Help, help!" Then Ham would decapitate the bunny and we would scream and she would fall back on the floor giggling hyterically. Since then, now she will pull the bunny's head off herself and give this little wee scream to imitate us. Ok, yeah, we're sick.

W/out our Internet for a week!

Ok, so it's been too long since I've written. I hate when I go this long because then you feel like you have to cover everything to play catch-up. I'm not going to do that. I'll just tell you some basics and then get on with it.

I have created two new pieces of art. One of which is Here:

I created an etsy.com account McTigerlily and am going to list this piece at a rather high price because, let's face it, when we create something we like, most of the time, we don't want it to sell. Perhaps I should be embarrassed for the price. However, I will say that I used some rather 'different,' luxurious materials to make it more interesting.

The stars are made out of Aurora Borealis Swarovski crystals and the eggs are six white freshwater pearls. I even calculated how much those embellishments would cost on their own and it was around $10. So, add a few dollars for the vintage wooden knobs for apples and the labor of love and I think $60ish isn't that bad of a price. However, it's only like, 7x6." It may sell one day, it may not. That's OK.

I've been doing some really fun stuff, creatively. I have made a few stamps. One is a little bird sitting on a vine and the other is my signature faerie that I've been drawing since I was 13 years-old. I'll have to post pictures of those later because our Internet is down and I'm having to use a wireless connection and I can't get on my computer to download the images.

That's been rough. It sucks to be looking at your computer, thinking of all the places you want to surf and all the important things you want to do like playing free poker advancing your career as an artist and not be able to do anything about it at the moment.

It's amazing how much we rely on the Internet(s) these days. We've tapped into an unsecured wireless connection from a neighbor (not illegal, btw...I don't think) and it's a pretty weak signal, but strong enough to get online every now and then. I find myself looking at the bars saying, "Come on, baby. Come on. YES!! Three bars! Connect, connect!" Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

On a different note, Ham is teething. I really, really, think she's teething this time. LOL. She has been chewing on things since she was 3 months old and we have had some false alarms, but now she really does have ALL the signs. She is drooling like CRAZY. I'm not talking a little spit on a block she's devouring, OH NO! I'm talking, when she's crawling from Point A to Point B, drool pours out of her mouth. She seems pretty surprised by it sometimes. That's the price of teething a little later than most babies.

Another thing is that this morning she began sneezing a lot. Her nose is runny (oh joy) and that is another sign. The last sign is not so lovely...as if the others are.... It's the other runny end that is getting to me.

BTW, why is it like that? I mean, the kid is going to be in at least some discomfort already with the teeth busting through tender gums, so why do we now have to treat chaffed skin on her butt, nose, and chin because of all the runny, sloppy, icky stuff that comes along with teething? Poor girl.

Welp, I have a lot to blog, but I'll start another post later. I don't want this one to be too random.