Laughing Boy!

Here's the video I wanted to share in my last post!

My Baby Is a Monkey

Yesterday Samweli turned 8 months old. Now that doesn't make him a monkey, but (even though he's not walking) he also CLIMBED into his stroller and turned himself around yesterday. See the picture below? No "seatbelt" on because I didn't put him there! Why would I let him do this? I...ummm...had stepped into the other room for a moment. Ahem. I guess I'll be more careful from now on. :) I'm just amazed he didn't lose his footing and fall, although he did this morning when I was trying to video him doing it on his own again. Haha.

Yup, he climbed right up in there all by himself and then
turned himself around. You think he wanted to go for a
walk or what?

In the past few days Samweli has also reached some other exciting milestones. He clapped for the first time during praise and worship Sunday morning. :) He also crawled a few feet yesterday (which I think he's been capable of doing for a long time, he just doesn't seem to care to do it unless he's on a hard floor). He has also started sleeping in his own room through the night, and much to my dismay, won't sleep in with me anymore in the morning, even when I bring him into my own bed.

Since he's sleeping so much better on his own now, Noe and I decided to make some cookies after he went to bed the other night. Normally there is NO cooking happening when Samuel sleeps. Pots clanking, chip bags opening, and breaking ice out of their molds have always been sure-fire ways to wake up our sleeping baby. We quietly set to work mixing all the ingredients. That's right, we didn't even use a packaged mix - we did it from scratch. :) Unfortunately we accidentally used the tablespoon instead of the teaspoon for the baking soda and salt, so our cookies tasted kinda "saltine cracker-y". What I loved more was that Noe wanted to make mega-sized cookies so he put huge scoops of dough onto the cookie sheet. Our cookies came out looking like cow patties. Look:

Yum yum!

And to celebrate Samweli's 8 month old birthday, if you can call it that, I got a new serger! NO, the serger's not for me, it's for him, really! He will now be pooping on things that are much more finished around the edges. Haha. My gifted serger was giving me quite a few issues when I sewed the soakers for Samweli's diapers - not catching all the material and all - and this one seems to work like a beauty. I'm so excited! Below is my serger and my most recent diaper.

It's pink and cream colored! How cute!

Camo cotton outer - hidden PUL - suedecloth inner

In my next post, I'll show you how to cut your clothes drying time and save money with a super-easy, kid-friendly project! Of course, I have to finish doing it myself first so I can test out that theory. Hehe. I also have a funny video of Samweli, but had trouble uploading it, so maybe I can get it up in my next post.

Didn't get enough of my kid yet? I've uploaded a few new pictures in the Family Photos section of my blog (click on the tab under the blog title at the top of the page).

Following and Comments - Fixed

I'm so excited because I have 2 followers...that's right T-W-O! Haha. I'm laughing at myself right now, but it's kind of exciting. I'm closing in on Lady Gaga (you know she IS the most famous celebrity right now). Compared to her twitter account, I only have 9,999,998 to go before I catch up with her! We can do it, you can help! Woohoo!

In all seriousness though, I know that some of you "follow by email", which is cool, but it's just that I don't know that you're reading my blog, because there's no way to track who has signed up to get email updates of my posts with Blogger. What Blogger does do is tracks how many times my page has been pulled up. Now get ready, this is getting exciting - I've almost reached 500 page views. Honestly, this is actually exciting to me.

Did I mention that one of my two followers is a random blogger lady who was helping me troubleshoot my followers/commenting issues? :) I'm just pointing that out because I found out that some of you have tried to "follow" or "comment" on my blog and have had trouble doing it. I think the problems are fixed. *fingers crossed* If you try to do either/or and it doesn't work, please let me know via my facebook page. I think it's easier to do everything if you have a google account you can sign into, which is why I chose blogger in the first place (because I do - have a gmail account). But I'd love to know if you tried to leave a comment and couldn't.

To all of you who have (or at least have tried), thank you!

I just want you to know that as I finish typing this post, the 4 o'clock news is reporting how Lady Gaga's fans were told to stay home because of blah, blah, blah, something I didn't finish listening to. I get that she's popular, but seriously - do her concerts/cancellations really qualify as news?

I Can Sew...Really, I Can!

My sister asked me the other day, "Becky, have you always been this creative and we just didn't know it?" My answer - I guess so! I have spent the last week just sewing my little heart out - seriously! I've been staying up until 2am cutting and sewing and thinking about what I'm going to sew the next day - I just can't seem to help myself. The funny thing is, I think I'm actually pretty good at it. Who knew sewing could be so much fun? You seriously need to try it! Here are some of the more recent things I've sewn for the ladies going to Tanzania this month:

Wetbag for beach days

Jewelry Pouch

Jewelry pouch opened - this turned out AWESOME!

Bedside Organizer

Bedside organizer "in use" (a different pattern, obviously)

On another note - my baby sister, Laura, left for Tanzania this week, so I want to spend a little time reminiscing about how absolutely amazing she is. I can't express how proud I am of her. She's got such a quality about her. I can't describe it, but I think that means that it's just the glory of God shining through her life. Laura will be spending the next month serving the Lord on the mission field. She worked so hard to make this trip possible. She sent out letters (which seems to be the most popular way to raise money these days), but didn't stop there. She handcrafted cards and sold them at our local market (if she were to calculate her time she probably would have made maybe $.50 an hour working on them), she put flamingos in peoples' yards for almost a month, and worked all year to put some of her own money toward her trip. When did my little sister grow up? All of a sudden she's a mature young woman!!! And very beautiful too, may I add. She didn't even quit working until right before she left, and she's only going to be home for a weekend before she heads off to college (where's the selfishness in that, right?). God has blessed me with an awesome sister, and I am so looking forward to all the ways He is going to use her as His vessel in the future.

Samweli and Auntie Laura, the night before she left

And COMING SOON: You may have noticed the new tabs below my blog title. These tabs work, but for now they go to pages with nothing. Eventually, I'll be getting my project pictures and cute photos of Samweli posted under these headings so even if you miss a couple blogs you can catch up that way. Or you may just want to show off my cute baby to your friends and it will be an easy way to do it (I don't like facebook's new picture viewer, ick). OR - and this is a big OR - you MIGHT see something that I made that interested you and want to go look at it again so you can try to make it yourself! Like I said, eventually, that will get posted. Haha.

Here's a few new pictures of Samweli to keep you tied over until then: