Brody grows up--1 month

Newborn/ One month


I'm sure I'll be saying this again and again for the next 20 years, but where did the time go? How can Brody possibly be a MONTH old? Those first few days are still vividly in my mind and the present....but all the in-between weeks have melted together and flown by! Now I understand why even people who don't like to take photos all of a sudden take tons of pictures when they have kids--because they don't want to forget anything. Not only do I not want to forget anything, but I want Brody to be able to see what he did when and where he went before he could remember.

When he was born, he was a floppy little noodle, and now, as my sister-in-law Cora says, he is an al dente noodle. He's becoming less noodle-like every day. As soon as he discovers a new muscle, all he wants to do is practice using it. He now frequently gets annoyed when he's held in the convention cuddly rock-the-baby pose--instead he prefers any pose where he can hold his head up and stare at people. And he likes to exercise his legs too--we hold him up and he will do "mini-squats", kind of like Jazzercise for babies.

He's moved beyond the new-newborn stage of being able to fall asleep anytime anywhere with no effort. He still can fall asleep anywhere and pretty much at any time, but sometimes he needs a little help. I've noticed he's started to get fussy right before he goes to sleep instead of just effortlessly sleeping whenever he feels like it. That's actually been really convenient though, because now I feel like I know when he's tired and can seize the opportunity to put him to sleep and establish kind of a sleeping ritual. I swaddle him in a velcro swaddler (the most amazing baby "gear" EVER), and sing the Lord's Prayer to him. Ellis and I wanted to pick out a hymn for him too, to be his lullaby--we never really picked one, but I've kind of been doing Be Thou My Vision by default. We'll see what we end up with!

P.S. I'm gonna try to do this more often :)

Broadus Edward Eifert

On June 11, our baby boy was finally born! In true Littlejohn fashion, he ran a little late, but he arrived in time to meet his Uncle Brad, Auntie Rache, and cousin Soren before they had to return to Scotland! And that's the important thing!

Ellis and I have both always loved the idea of using family names to plug our kids into the context of their families and also to give relatives a warm glow, hehe--Brad says this makes us the ultimate suck-ups. So we decided back when we first got married that we wanted to name our first boy Broadus Edward--Broadus is my dad's, grandad's, and greatgrandad's first name, and Edward has been the oldest Eifert boy middle name for 4 generations now. It took Ellis a little bit to convince me on Broadus, since it sounds really old and distinguished, sooo we decided on a more kid-friendly nickname--Brody!



Here he is with his dad, minutes after being born!



First family pic! We love his surfer blond hair! My OB told us that in his 20 years of practice, he has never seen a blonde baby with a head full of hair--every blondie he's seen has been bald or just a little bit fuzzy. But I guess since he decided not to share his birthday with his Grandad Littlejohn, he would at least copy his blond hair!



Cousins!! Soren didn't seem to know what Brody was, or what to do with him--but we're certain they'll be great friends!





Broadus Edward Eifert
born June 11, 2010 at 3:44 AM
6 lb, 11 oz & 19 inches long

Baby steps

Since I'm always posting pictures of things that I WANT to do, I thought I would just put up a couple pics of some things I actually finished! I've always been the girl reading 6 books at once and never finishing any of them, so when I finish something I get SO excited! And little though my projects be, I think I'm gradually getting a little better at finishing!

So first off, here's a little vest I made for my friend Christine's little boy, Evan.





And I've got just enough yarn left over to make one for Haymitch too! And then they can be matching sweater buddies together! Ha!

Then...I got a little sick of yarn this spring and got a new obsession in fabric...a couple friends of mine have been helping me sew, so this is the first of my simple sewing projects.


Just a simple white flannel blanket, but I love LOVE the birds on the other side! I've made a few other easy sewing projects--gotta get some pics on the computer!


And then finally, I crocheted a couple of baby blankets for a couple friends of mine. Here is my friend Allison's little cutie Benaiah posing with one of them!




OH.....
P.S. I just had my last day of work EVER last week! I'm sooo excited!! I'm so excited to get to stay home with Haymitch and go on walks and hang out with people and pick up tons of new hobbies!

P.P.S. In just 3 days we are hitting the road for Idaho and Washington for the summer!! Can hardly wait to spend the next 3 months with family and college friends!!! Now I'm gonna go to bed so when I wake up it will only be TWO days! :D

Ali's Awesome Giveaway

My crafty inspiration friend Ali always has these awesome giveaways on her blog. This time it's for a super cute little lamb....which I totally want as a unique stuffed toy for Haymitch! I totally don't want him to be the kid--like Emily used to be, haha--with a huge hammock full of stuffed animals, but something fun and homemade like this--esp. by someone I love--is totally different!

Sorry, this always happens when I'm at work. I stumble across some awesome idea and want to remember it, so into my blog notebook it goes. I'm so disorganized that if I wrote the idea down somewhere I'd probably forget it, but on the internet, it's saved forever, in a searchable fashion! Which is why I also have like 50 gmail drafts going with various ideas and reminders...at least that way I know where to find them--right, Cora? :)

So here's the idea--a diaper changing pad.



The reason this makes me so excited is because I already knew I wanted to make one, but I really know how to do nothing, so this step by step is my Dummies guide! yay!

Real Life Post!

So finally here is something in our lives we have actually done, and not just an idea I daydream about doing. It's not much, but it was a really fun Saturday project and made me realize how much I missed Saturdays growing up when we would do something huge like organize the basement or work in the yard. I don't know if it's "nesting" or what, but my latest obsession is wanting to totally revamp everything. Previously I had been content to let our mish-mashed Goodwill furniture remain in its current state until the end of law school when we will move and start from scratch, but suddenly everything feels like it needs sprucing up....so we decided to fix things in some small measure by painting a few drab pieces white.



So we hit Home Depot with a gift card from our wedding that we STILL hadn't used, and got some painting stuff, and then went to work on our tv table....for some reason the camera randomly likes to put in lines like a printer running out of ink....


....and our bedside tables!


Now both our bedroom and the family room look sooo much lighter and brighter...I should've taken before pics, but oh, well. But now that the tv table is painted, it just makes the bookshelf stick out even more...can't wait to get to that next! :)

One more idea, and then I promise the next post will be something in our actual lives.... :)


Ellis and I have been wanting a rug for our living room to help cover up the disgusting Village carpet, but the only rugs I remotely like are way more expensive than what we would spend--that is, like 20 bucks, haha.....sooooo I thought Apartment Therapy's this idea to stencil cheap rugs was pretty awesome!