The Greatest Show on Earth!

Illustration courtesy of Ryan.

Originally submitted at UncommonGoods

All rock stars have to start somewhere. This colorful and modernly designed drum set helps stimulate hand-eye coordination, increases children's concentration skills and also provides them with a way to release stress. Your little musician will become a better listener by learning other beats, …

LIL’ DRUM SET

Perfect!

By Bierorama from Kansas City on 8/26/2011

 

5out of 5

Pros: Good Sound Quality, Engaging, Durable, Lasting Fun, Easy to Use

Best Uses: Entertainment, Creative Development, All Ages

Describe Yourself: Parent Of Two Or More Children

Was this a gift?: Yes

We purchased this drum set for my nephew’s second birthday, despite the negative reviews. We assembled it and had no issues with it being flimsy or having poor sound quality. It was loud when my husband, a drummer of roughly 20 years banged out a tune. The sound was clear and not annoying in the least. My nephew loved it! He could sit at the table or on the floor and play it. Even my own kids, almost 3 and 7 loved playing the drums.

(legalese)

2010 marks the first year that Emma wrote her own Santa letter. It is fairly illegible unless you know her handwriting but too stinking cute not to share.

I’ve decided to put my newly found interest in sewing and crafts into a little side-business.

Thanks to my mom, I now have an old but sturdy and reliable Singer sewing machine. I decided I would try to make a first birthday shirt for John since I didn’t want to go with the generic Babies-R-Us shirt. It took lots of research for this left-brainer but I finally figured out how to do it. It took me a long time but the shirt turned out well. Now I’m homing in my skills and working on little details. Behold, my second shirt and a matching tutu:

I made this for one of Ryan’s coworkers. She chose the phrase and the colors and voila! In the future, I would like to use higher-quality shirts (nothing against Gerber!) in various colors (I think pink would have been nice here). It was tedious working with such a teeny tiny shirt (0-3 months) but good for the experience.

Onto the tutu. I like the look of the waisband here but I’m going to start experimenting with elastic waistbands instead of ribbon tied in the back. I like the look of the ribbon and will figure out a way to incorporate it into the tutu somehow along with some other embellishments. We’ll just say that Emma, and possibly John, will have lots of tutus when all is said and done.

Lastly, the diaper cakes. I made one for Monica and Quentin‘s baby shower back in May. Their nursery theme is “Snug as a Bug” so I went with insects for the diaper cake. It was a three tier cake made of size 1, 2 and NB diapers (each tier was a different size). The layers were then wrapped in a receiving blanket (off their registry) and secured with layered ribbon. Paper “grass” separated the layers and had brushes and combs in the shapes of insects “crawling” on them. It was all topped off with a bunch of roses made from socks and a bumble bee nail clipper. Again, behold:

So, please spread the word. If you know of someone who is having a baby soon or are looking for a baby gift, let them know about me! I promise that my prices will be reasonable once I come up with them and I’m pretty much a perfectionist when it comes to this stuff. I can also simply do the tutus or shirts individually.

Thank you! 🙂

Wow. 3/4 of a year old! John doesn’t visit the doctor until the 14th so I have no stats yet.

At 9 months old, John:

…is pulling up on anything and everything.
…can cruise around and walk with support.
…has had his second haircut.
…has six teeth and is working on numbers seven, eight and nine (one’s a molar!).
…loves playing in the dog’s water and swimming at the pool.
…will be taking his first flight next week.
…waves hello.
…loves “Hush Little Baby” and the random songs I make up.
…eats egg yolks, toast and anything else he can get in his mouth.
…can get from a crawling position to sitting unassisted.

Emma and John in the (very) early morning

On June 14th at 8:22pm, August Stanley Hoffman decided to make his entrance into the world three weeks early. He weighed in at 6 pounds, 14 ounces and 21 inches long. Mom and baby are healthy and everyone in the family is flying high!

Monica’s water broke Sunday morning and they made their way to the hospital, despite the lack of contractions. Monica was induced around noon and quickly completed labor by about 6pm. August was being a little stubborn in the birth canal and after some assistance from the doctor, finally made it! Stan and Marilyn were in Seattle but walked off the elevator at the hospital just as Quentin announced “It’s a boy!”

Here are just two photos Ryan snapped and you can check out the rest on our Flickr page:

August about 1 hour old

Marilyn and August

I can’t believe we’re just 4 months away from his first birthday!

At 8 months, John:

…can stand unassisted while holding onto furniture (only for a couple minutes and he really only enjoys it when he’s standing at the bathtub while waiting for it to fill).
…can get from sitting to crawling.
…is chewing his food.
…has six teeth (and is working on #7 and #8!).
…is still doing the army crawl.
…loves his first train set.
…is taking steps while supported.
…occasionally waves (you’re super lucky if you catch him doing this).

According to my e-mail updates, John should start cruising this month. I think that’s a bit ridiculous because at 8 months, a lot of babies are just learning to sit and crawl. I’m really trying to keep him on his feet as much as possible because it would be nice to see him walking early (not to mention it would save our backs!).

Thanks, Jessica, for the photo!

We’re in trouble when it’s time for John (and Emma, too) to start dating…

I feel like we’re at the doctor’s office on a weekly basis. I guess that happens when all four family members see the same doctor.

Both kids went to the doctor yesterday. Emma was having her ears rechecked and John was having two vaccines. John was only supposed to see the nurse and save us a copay but he took a tumble off the bed Monday afternoon and landed smack on his nose and mouth. To get off topic, I was trying to get the sewing machine working so I could fix one of Ryan’s shirts. I just got so involved with what I was doing that I forgot that John was on the bed behind me. When I heard the thud of him hitting the floor, I thought I was going to be sick because, even before turning around and seeing him, I knew exactly what had happened. He did the silent cry for a few seconds before he could get a real scream out of his bleeding mouth. All I could do was sit on the floor and cry with him. We were so cautious with Emma that nothing like this ever happened with her. John seems to get banged up all the time.

Anyway, I switched John’s appointment from seeing a nurse to seeing the doctor because his little nose was so swollen and bruised and his gum around one of his front teeth was bleeding. Since it took us a week to figure out Emma broke her arm when she was two and a half, I thought John may have a broken nose or loose tooth and we’d never know it.

Emma went first and her ears are all clear with the exception of some wax in her right one. The doctor was going to tell us what to do but we all forgot about it.

John’s nose and mouth are fine. His nose is just bruised, all six of his teeth are firmly planted in his gums and his lip is just swollen. Then came the shots. Luckily, they have two nurses give the shots so they can be done at the same time in two different legs. He recovers very quickly from the prick but, man, does he have bad reactions to the vaccines themselves. His eyes were red-rimmed all evening, he fusses almost non-stop and he woke up four times last night to nurse. This morning wasn’t any better and I expect he’ll be like this for the next couple days.

John gained a pound since we were in last (three weeks ago, I think) and is up to 18 pounds even. Surprisingly, that puts him in the 25th percentile for his age. He’s obviously gone through a growth spurt which explains why he’s reverted back to several night feedings for the past week.

Emma weighed in at 31.4 pounds! Looks like we may be shopping for new car seats soon (finally)!

I’m a few days late on the post but it’s been a busy week. We had to reschedule John’s vaccines this month because of his bronchitis.

At 7 months, John:

-weighs 17 pounds even.
-has had his first haircut!
-has three teeth and is working on the fourth (we call him Snaggletooth)
-is sitting up on his own (he only falls when he gets really involved in what he’s doing–and when my back is turned).
-is crawling like an inchworm (or frog). He gets up on his hands and feet, lunges forward and drops to his tummy.
-gets up on his hands and knees and rocks.
-eats everything under the sun. He’s started working on his pincer grasp so he’ll be eating REAL solids soon.
-took his first bath with Emma and LOVED it. I’d post photos but I read an article about a father who was charged with child pornography because he had photos of his son in the bathtub.