2011: A Year in Review
December 31, 2011 at 10:00 AM | Posted in Baby Romaezi, Crochet | Leave a commentTags: bear, bunny, Crochet Hat, elf, pumpkin, sombrero, themed hat, turkey, uncle sam
Our year in review is pretty simple for 2011. Looking back, we only had one big, exciting focus this year. This is of course in comparison to years past which were filled with trips, evenings out and new hobbies. If our focuses hadn’t shifted I might be a little worried. Here is how 2011 looks in text:
January – March: Hospital life which consisted of video games for Kayvan and lots of hat making for me. Kamran was born 3/15 and spent a month in the NICU.
April: Kamran came home from the NICU 4/17, 2 days before his due date.
May: We enjoyed our little boy and all of the sleepless nights he brought us courtesy of reflux.
June: Kamran’s first surgery (and hopefully last).
July: Jamie went back to work.
August – December: These last few months flew by and were filled with Kamran’s first Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I think the visual year in is much more fun. HATS! I made Kamran a hat a month. Some fit themes, some were just cute. We will kick it off with March in a hat I did not make but considering this is the first time Kamran got to wear clothes, it’s pretty special to me. He has grown so much!
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
Kayvan, Kamran and I hope you all have an amazing New Year! Party safe tonight.
First Christmas
December 30, 2011 at 8:30 PM | Posted in Baby Romaezi | Leave a commentTags: Christmas, first christmas
I’m absolutely loving all of these firsts. Christmas is so much better when you have a kid!
Kamran isn’t to the point where he gets excited about Christmas, or even understanding what Christmas is. I look forward to the day where we get to re-live Christmas through his eyes. I can’t wait to make Cookies for Santa, or partake in the whole elf on a shelf trend, or making a Christmas wish list with him, I most especially cannot wait for his anticipation of Christmas morning and his inability to wait for a decent hour to roll around to run downstairs, see what Santa brought him and open gifts.
This year was the first year Kayvan and I woke up in our own house on Christmas morning. Last year was supposed to be our first for that but it had to wait just a bit. It was amazing to wake up, cook breakfast and simply wait for people to come to us. We got to sleep in our own beds and didn’t have to worry about racing around the beltway between various family member’s homes. They came to us! I stayed in my pajamas all day long and it was pure bliss!
Kamran made out like a 9 month old bandit. All of the gifts put him into sensory overload and he even had to nap in the middle of opening presents. It was so fun to watch him play with his new toys and even establish favorites. Since his recent obsession is standing up, I think the current favorite is his new little play table. Laugh and Learn Puppy captivates him pretty well too.
Happy Not Birthday!
December 29, 2011 at 9:43 PM | Posted in Baby Romaezi | 2 CommentsTags: hospital, not birthday, thank you
This post is coming a bit late. Rather than apologize for that, I’ll just accept late blog posts as a standard these days and roll with it.
When the clock struck December 1st, I was overwhelmed with anxiety about the 1 year anniversary of being admitted to the hospital. I’m sure it sounds slightly silly but Kayvan and I experienced a lot that day. I’ve spent most of the year pushing it all to the back of my mind, but as the day approached on the calendar, I found that task more and more impossible. As we were experiencing everything that day last year, I felt as if I was doing everything with beer goggles on. Slightly numb, slightly in shock and most certainly feeling like absolute crap. This is all thanks to magnesium, of course. I lived it, I had the conversations and it was all very real then but when I jump back into the memory now, sans magnesium (and beer goggles), the fear we lived is still pretty fresh, only now without the protection of being slightly in shock and with the added ability and time to over think.
Kayvan and I really have nothing to fear anymore. The fear is gone but I’m still processing the whole experience. I had to almost go into auto pilot to get through the hospital experience and well, auto pilot is no longer turned on and I’m free to over think. I wanted to celebrate Kamran, our special little man. So, I decided that we would embrace the day and dubbed 12/23 Kamran’s “not birthday”.
Mr. Kamran woke up in a fantastic mood, and waved at me repetitively like he does to everything and everyone these days.
As with anything worth celebrating, Kamran got a not birthday present too! I was so excited to give it to him because this would be the very first present he ever unwrapped. He loved it! Especially the part where he got to unwrap the present with his teeth. Oh babies and their sensory processing ways!
Throughout the day I received lots of love. This was oh so unexpected. The day started out from an e-mail from a fellow former bed rest momma who lives in Canada. It was so sweet, unexpected and both brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes. She totally gets everything I experienced because she went through something similar. Later I got an e-mail from one of the L&D nurses who worked the sucky Christmas hours it took to make sure I stayed pregnant and didn’t have myself a Christmas baby. Little did we know that she would be a fellow bed rest momma a few weeks later, so she gets it too. A bit later in the day I answered a knock at the door, expecting it to be the contractor who was scheduled to work on our deck. It was a man armed with flowers from the aforementioned former bed rest friend. I was so surprised that it took all I had not to cry in front of this man. I’m sure that would have made him really uncomfortable. Kamran’s twin-friends did a quick drive by later in the day with another not birthday present for him. He absolutely loved their gift and part of hit has turned into one of his favorite things to crawl around with. The blue cylinder from the shapes in a bucket toy (not sure how else to describe it). A huge thank you to everyone who called, texted, stopped by with gifts, mailed surprises (or flowers) and sent e-mails. It really meant a lot to me and made me feel a little less crazy for being slightly emotional that day.
No not birthday would be complete without a visit to the hospital to share goodies! We took Kamran by to show him off and say hi to our nurses. He LOVED all of the attention he got and absolutely hammed it up complete with big smiles to thank the ladies who got to listen to him every 4 hours.
All in all, 12/23/2011 was amazing and leaps and bounds better than 12/23/2010.
End of Year Do-Gooder List
December 7, 2011 at 1:36 PM | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Charity, donation, random act of kindness
This morning I was thinking about all of the stuff I need to get done before 2012 shows its face. I realized, I have a large list of do-good type items and thought I would share them with you. That way, I’m held to my deadline.
Visit the hospital with goodies for HRP and Labor and Delivery patients and staff.
Donate the mountain of clothes in my house.
Donate to the March of Dimes. Donations in December are being matched by the board of trustees, plus my company will match as well.
One random act of kindness.
Chop off and donate my hair. I’m going to need extra time for this one. I think I look better with short hair. I’ve grown to really like my long hair though. Maybe I’ll cut it for my birthday in January…or Kamran’s in March.
I’ll try to track my progress and send out occasional updates. So tell me…do you have any good deeds planned? Does anyone want to volunteer with me somewhere? Last Christmas a group of friends and I decorated the children’s ward at a hospital in DC.
Loopsi Daisy!
December 5, 2011 at 5:06 AM | Posted in Crochet | 2 CommentsTags: baby hats, crochet, etsy, loopsi daisy, name change
I finally did it! After pestering the heck out of everyone I know with “What do you think?” and “Are you sure it’s the right name?” I finally changed the name of my etsy store. I never really liked Hats n Hodgepodge so I was very happy when etsy announced tha they would allow users to change their store name–once and only once.
Loopsi Daisy is very fitting for not only what I do but me as well. It is a play on words. Crochet is a series of loops, of course. Then, if you know me then you know I’m an absolute clutz! I have dropped at least 5 items today–easily. Not to mention, when I crochet, I often find myself starting out all wrong, or with a color that my creative brain later decides is no good. So then, oopsie, I pull it all out and pretty much start over.
So head on over and check it out! http://www.loopsidaisy.etsy.com.
What do you think? Is it a good name?
Eventually I’ll make a facebook page too.
Fricking Baby Gate!!!
December 3, 2011 at 12:46 PM | Posted in Baby Romaezi, Sookie the French Bulldog | Leave a commentTags: Baby, baby gate, crappy baby gate, crawling, french bulldog, kidco baby gates, pets
When we got Sookie, we bought this cheap, ugly, worthless piece of a baby gate. You get what you pay for. It was like $15 on amazon. Neither Kayvan nor I could figure out how to work the tension part and make it work appropriately. So we opted to use the lean function. I tripped over this stupid thing when I was first pregnant and at that time Sookie was good enough with the whole asking to potty thing so the gate was banished to the garage.
Fast forward to a month ago. Our cat got a UTI and started peeing everywhere but his litter box and our kid started getting more mobile. Bad combo and kitty had to be kept segregated for a bit. Welcome back stupid fricking baby gate. Only this time, Kayvan insisted on leaning it at the bottom of the stairs.
Every morning, I would walk down the stairs to find that stinking gate sitting there mocking me. I had to pick it up and move it before I could go anywhere. Sookie also wouldn’t go down the steps with it there.
Finally I complained enough for Kayvan to tell me to order new gates for the house. Not that I needed his permission as much as I needed him to say he would install them. So, order new gates I did…on a Friday, and received them the very next day…a Saturday. Thank you for $4 overnight delivery, Amazon!
The new gates are black and shiney and mount to the walls. They are too tall for me to climb over. But then, why would I? They have a hinge.
Oh, and Sookie doesn’t exactly love being contained. This is her…cussing me out.
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