Front Hall

I skipped it when I discussed the other decorations, but there were a few items of note in the front hall. 

As I mentioned in this post, we had a guest book.  I think we missed a couple of people, but we have messages from most of our guests.  Naturally, we used a Seuss book for the guest book.

We also had some favors for the adults as well as goodie bags for the kids.We had a basket of red and blue fish soaps that I bought on Etsy.  The backs of the tags said, "Thanks for coming to my party."

The kids got goodie bags full of fun stuff.  I got the bags at Target in early August.  At the time they had a number of Seuss things in their dollar spot. I put name tags on the bags because I wasn't sure how a boy would feel if he was stuck with the last bag and it was a purple one.  There were 4 different designs available: Horton, Green Eggs and Ham, Cat in the Hat, and One Fish Two Fish.

Inside the bags were a number of items.  Also from Target are 2 pins, an eraser, and some silly bands.  (Yeah, I know Silly bands aren't so cool anymore, but I checked with one of the moms first and she thought they would still be appreciated.  Or she wanted to see them, at any rate.)  There also was a bookmark in each bag, which I picked up in Springfield when we went to the Seuss Sculpture Garden.  The activity books I created.  www.seussville.com has a TON of activity sheets that you can download- mazes, word searches, coloring pages, etc.  I printed off a bunch of them and bound them together.

The final item in the bags were these crayon rolls.  You can see it above when it's rolled up, and here it is unrolled.  I sewed them using a variety of different Seuss fabrics.

The Decorations

The first thing that people saw as they came to the house was this wreath on the door. It was really easy to make, but it took a LOT of balloons, which means it cost more than I was hoping.  I ended up using over 500 balloons.  Here's a tutorial on how to make them.  My only change was that I put 3 balloons on at a time.

Next up was the front hall.  This will be covered in a separate post as it wasn't really decorated, but it did have some items of note.

The next room with decorations included Truffula Trees (The Lorax) and a pennant banner that I made from The Cat in the Hat.  Before you freak out about me defacing books, these were old duplicate copies of books that I got on Craigslist.  They cost me about 50 cents each.

The Truffula Trees were made using the Martha Stewart pom-pom tutorial and then attached to the closet doors.  They were extremely easy to make!  The trunks are construction paper with marker.  I had thought about having Bennett finger paint the trunks, but I'm glad I went with this instead.

 

Each pennant is about 8" long and 6 " wide at the top.  And all of the pages from the book are included, although I wasn't always consistent about which way the fronts and backs went. After cutting all the pages I then used a zig zag stitch to sew them to a piece of ribbon.

I also had Bennett's Seuss collection out throughout the house.  People enjoyed looking at them and seeing all of the titles that they had never heard of before.  Many people read some of them.  And those who gave Bennett books as a gift were wandering around the house trying to see if we already had the one that they had purchased.  

The books that I had in the front window were books that he wrote using his pen names of Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone.  There also were two that he wrote but that other people illustrated.

In this room we also had a book that I've made for Bennett which includes a photo a day (for the most part) form the last year, as well as a small journaling card talking about what we did that day or any new skills he may have learned.  I had hoped to put all of that info on the blog, in a weekly format, but that obviously never happened.  People enjoyed flipping through the book looking at all of the pictures.  One guest was even surprised that I had included the most recent pictures up through Bennett's actual birthday, 2 days prior.  Thank you, CVS 1 hour photo!

Walking towards the kitchen I had the monthly photos that I took of Bennett with Paddington Bear.  I also found some Cat in the Hat wall clings that I had around the photos.  (With all of the decorations plus things we already had on the walls, I was running out of space!)

 

(This next photo was before I put up the clings, but gives an overall look)

In the kitchen we had more books on the hutch.

 

Over the beverages I had pictures from when we went to the Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden in Springfield.  Some of the photos include Bennett, and others are just of the sculptures.  This led to multiple discussions of when we went there, why is it there, etc. 

 

(Here's one of the photos.)

 

We then continue on into the dining room.  There were more books in the windows.

We hung one of Bennett's preemie PJs in this room.  How odd to think that these were big on him when he first wore them!

 

I came across a tutorial for Thing 1 and Thing 2 handprints.  I knew I wanted them, but since we didn't own fingerpaints I asked Bennett's daycare if they would make them for us.  So they did!  They also made a Cat hat!  He wasn't really a fan of the hat.  :(

We had another banner in the living room.  This one was Green Eggs and Ham.  Like the other, this one also included all of the pages from the book.

And of course more books!

(Unfortunately he never wore these shoes.  

They were too big and we thought he would be happier without them.)

There also was a slideshow running on the TV.  This was some of my favorite pictures from the past year.  It ended up being a little over 21 minutes long.  But this was also a nice conversation piece, and I think people liked it.

And I think that completes our tour of all the decorations!

The invitations

There were so many aspects of Bennett's party that I want to share, that it may be easiest to break it down into a few different posts.  Here are the invitations that we sent.  I worked with etsy seller, kcjones032, to create the invites.  Chris and I came up with the text and decided what images to use, but she took care of all the scanning and editing.  Definitely saved me some time!  The first photo is a grainy phone picture, but after that are scans of the actual pages.  (You can click on them to view them larger.)

These included images from some of our favorite Seuss books. Can you identify them?  There are 9 different books pictured.

A message to Bennett...

We had a guest book for everyone at Bennett's party to sign.  (More on that in a later post.)  Here's the message from Chris and I that was at the beginning.

It’s hard to believe that you are a year old already.  We’ve spent much of the past month reminiscing on how things were for us a year ago.  Although we had known about the problems with your heart since June, it was at the beginning of September when we learned how serious those problems were.  Being told that there is a 70 – 80% chance that your child may not survive the rest of the pregnancy or the birth is pretty sobering news.  There was a song by Pink that was on the radio a lot this time last year.  It has the line, “Have you ever looked fear in the face and said, ‘I just don’t care’?”  I can’t even tell you how many times I sat in my car on the way to or from work, an appointment, etc listening to that song with tears streaming down my face.  At that time we would alternate between planning for your future and planning your funeral.

But you are a fighter!  You arrived a little earlier than we expected, but even that first night you were astounding people with how well you were doing.  Daddy reported that when you were at the NICU at the Brigham (to be stabilized before being transported to Children’s) the nurses were all questioning something being wrong with you because you were doing so well.  We had been informed that you might be in the hospital until when your due date was.  This would have meant a 6 week stay, but you went home in only 3 weeks.  And your heart wasn’t what was keeping you in the Cardiac ICU for so long- it was just the fact that you were so tiny and not gaining much weight.

You had a number of medical problems, some more minor than others: tongue tie, GERD, bi-lateral kidney reflux, plagiocephaly, RSV, bronchiolitis, UTI, blood infection, etc.  But what has made you so awesome, is that with all of these problems, everyone has been astounded with how well you have recovered/ handled them.

MIX 104.1 has an annual telethon to support Children’s Hospital.  When you were born we talked about how we would have to become Dream Makers (a certain amount ever month) in honour of you.  Rather than just calling in, we went down to the hospital to make our pledges.  While we were there, we told your story to one of the D.J.’s and he later spoke about you on the air.  You also were mentioned on WKLB 102.5.  Daddy wrote an email telling of your ordeal and asking them to play Trace Adkins’ “All I Ask For Anymore” in celebration of your first birthday.

Constantly Daddy and I remark to one another how awesome you are.  And it’s true!  We can’t imagine life without you here.  Although you certainly are exhausting (we’ve gone from sleepless nights to chasing after you as you have learned to crawl and walk) we wouldn’t trade you for the world.

Happy 1^st birthday!!!

Love, Mumma and Daddy

Happy Birthday, Bennett!!!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Birthday Party Excitement

Bennett is now a little over 10 months old.  Where does the time go?  Recently I've started thinking about his first birthday and the party that we'll have.  At first I didn't want to have a theme as I think that theme parties can get a bit silly and overboard.  But then I came up with an idea for his party- and I'm going overboard.  But I love it!

I'm working with someone on Etsy to design his invitations and hope they'll be ready soon.  Although after all the work that I put into the invitations, I almost could have made them myself.  Oh well. A t least it's one less thing to have to worry about.

I can't wait until I can share pictures here, but for now I'm keeping it a surprise.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

3 - 6 Months- in photos

Here's a look at Bennett from 3 - 6 months.  Hard to believe how quickly time flies!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Week 17: Jan 13th - 19th

Jan 13^th

It’s official- you’ll be starting daycare next week.  Daddy dropped over the paperwork today.  You were a little bit fussier today than yesterday, but you’re doing so much better than you were last week.  And this evening you rolled over again- and Daddy was able to see it.

Jan 14^th

You had a good day today with Daddy.  Looks like the new meds for your reflux are working.  You ran a few errands- stopped at Dr. D’s to pick up some forms for daycare, Babies R Us, Target, Lowes and then you spent most of the day at home.  When Mumma came home from work we all went out to dinner.

Jan 15^th

Mumma had skating in the morning so you hung out with Daddy.  She then ran a couple of errands and then went to have her hair done.  Andrea, her hairdresser asked to see pictures of you, and loved your chubby cheeks.  When she got home, you hung out with Mumma for a bit while Daddy spent some time in the basement.

Jan 16^th

Today was another quiet day at home.  You and Mumma slept in while Daddy worked on a model.  Over the past few days you seem to have started to notice your hand- staring at it as you move it around.  Interestingly, it seems to be only your left hand that you notice.  Daddy thinks that you may end up left handed.

Jan 17^th

Because it was a holiday (MLK Day) Daddy had the day off from work.  Your new daycare was open, but we decided to wait until tomorrow to have you start in order to save some money.  You had a pretty good day with Daddy, but when Mumma came home you decided to get a bit fussy.

Jan 18^th

Well we all survived your first day of daycare.  It was very snowy today, so when we dropped you off, you were the first kid to arrive.  It sounds as if you had a good day.  You ate well and only had a couple of fussy periods.  Apparently you had one spit-up incident so bad that you got the teacher’s back pocket.  When we got home you were pretty tired.

Jan 19^th

Happy 17 weeks old!  It’s hard to believe that you’re almost 4 months old.  You were supped to get a Synagis injection this morning, but it’s been delayed due to an insurance snafu.  However, because of this you were able to spend all day with Nana and Granpa.  You also got to see a few of Nana’s friends.  She sure does love to show you off!

A few random things...

Because I have a bladder of steel (I think I just went about 7 hours) I sometimes forget that Bennett's diaper might need to be changed more regularly.

Chris and I like to try to guess who will come closest to a certain number.  Usually this is at restaurants as to what the total of the check will be.  In this case, it was how many stuffed animals Bennett was going to get for Christmas.  (He also got a couple of other stuffed items that due to other features of them we classified them as "toys".)  Daddy won.

Bennett has now rolled over from front to back a few times.  Daddy didn't want to believe that this had happened since he didn't see it.  I took video one time and he claims that I photoshopped it.  Last night Daddy saw Bennett roll over, but no luck today.  Now Daddy thinks that Bennett only rolls when I'm around.  :)

Because we are Anglophiles, we want to teach Bennett British English.

I make milk.  What's your superpower?  Because of this, we had to get a new fridge/freezer.  It's full and we're out of space again.  When I transferred milk to the new freezer I had 489 ounces, or 3.8 gallons.  At this point I have even more.

Bennett will finally be starting daycare on Tuesday.  We had planned for him to start on Jan 3rd, but we procrastinated a lot with our daycare search.  However, I think we'll be happy with where he's going.  (And if he had been born on his due date, this might have been when he would start anyway.)

I had great intentions of updating this blog every week.  Obviously that didn't happen.  I'm still planning on playing catch-up though.

I still plan on writing thank you notes for shower gifts.  The envelopes have all been addresses since early October, maybe even September, and I think I put stamps on the envelopes in November or December.  So if you don't have yours yet, your gift(s) are appreciated and the notes are coming.  Eventually.

I miss my pregnancy hair.  Now I'm back to shedding.  A lot.

I generally don't read the books about when your baby should hit certain milestones because I don't want to be upset if he's late (which is pretty much a guarantee that he will be due to his preemie status).  However, because of this I don't really know what to look out for or know what I should be helping him to do.