Valentine’s Day Shirts Available!

I have three new Valentine’s Day shirts/onesies at bythemillers.etsy.com:

I’m ready to come back from vacation and have re-opened Handmade by the Millers!

Make sure to check it out because I have added some new items! Here is a sneak preview…

Happy Friday!

I bet you thought I forgot about “Happy Fridays.” Well, I didn’t! And I’ll try to be better about them from now on! Here is a little bath time fun!

1.25 years old!

On Thursday Sam turned 15 months old and today we went to the doctor to get him all checked out. Poor little Sam has been SO sick this past week. He started the week with a fever on Monday night which continued until Friday! It was as high as 103.2 one morning. Now his fever is finally gone but he is super congested which means he is hardly drinking any milk (4-8 ounces/day compared with his usual 20!) and he is only eating mushy or pureed foods. He seemed to be feeling much better this evening so I have high hopes for a speedy recovery.

Sam’s stats:

Weight: 26 lbs, 4 ounces (75%)

Height: 33 1/4 inches (95%)

Talker: Sam is continuing to sign but I haven’t taught him any new signs. He is repeating words like crazy these days. Yesterday Ben said “do you want to go get tacos” and he looked at him and said “tacos!” So at this point it is hard to say how many words he really knows because a lot of words he is just repeating. But here are a few he seems to know for sure: bah (bird), mama, dada, nah dah (all done), tah doo (thank you), baba (bubbles, book, ball), nene (Henry), danana (banana), uh oh (does that count as a word?), ay (hi, bye), Ella (his cousin), nigh’ nigh’ (night night). He can also answer “what does a dog/cat say” with the appropriate noise. (This video was taken during the sick week, hence the less cheery demeanor.)

Giver: Sam loves to give things away. In fact, these days that is the best way to get him to come to you. I just say, “Sam, can I have that?” and he will pick something up and come bring it to me. If I say, “Sam, come here” he grins and runs in the opposite direction. We always say “thank you” when he gives us something so he has started saying “thank you” as he gives us his trinkets. It is pretty adorable.
Stacker: Sam loves stacking his blocks. He has a set of nesting cubes that he loves to pull apart, stack in a tower (with a little help of course), and then knock over. He usually can’t wait for the tower to be fully built before he starts knocking it down.

Climber: Sam has recently figured out how to climb up on the first step (the next step is blocked by the baby gate), stand up, and get back down. He is so proud of this new skill and has probably done it 100 times/day in the last couple weeks. This video is an earlier attempt. Now he can swivel around and stand up without holding on to anything. Sam also loves to push boxes or toys up against a wall or table and stand on them for a better view. It is funny to watch him figure out what things he can or can’t climb on. The other day he tried to “step” onto the cooler which is probably higher than his waist.

Reader: Sam still loves books! This past week when he was sick and upset, often the only way we could calm him down was to read him one of his favorite books. He likes to point to the characters as we read.
Dog Trainer: We hired a dog trainer shortly before Sam was born to help make Henry a little more manageable. One of the things she taught us, is to say “baaah” (in a low, rumbly voice) instead of “no.” Apparently it is more effective because dogs hear “no” (or “know”) many times throughout the day but they will only hear “baaah” when they are doing something wrong. Anyway, Sam has started saying “baaah” to Henry now too! If Henry gets off his bed while Sam is eating (a big no-no!) Sam gives him a big “baaaah.” The other day, Sam ran into Henry, who was sitting completely still, and fell down on his bottom. He looked right up at Henry and shouted “baaaah!” Poor Henry!
Eater: Sam has been practicing eating with a spoon! It is really messy but he is getting better at it slowly but surely. Do they make full body bibs?

Christmas Decorating Ideas

When I was in GA, Nikki and I went over to her friend’s house, who also happens to be an interior decorator. While we were there we got to cute holiday-house ideas that I thought I should share.

1-Framed Santa Pics: Obviously, over the years, we will build up quite a collection of Santa pics. (side note: Sadly, we don’t have one from Sam’s first Christmas because I was too scared to have him go sit in the lap of a germy mall Santa when he was just 2 months old and we were in the height of H1N1 season. Oh well. We started the tradition this year.) Nikki’s friend Keri had all of her kid’s Santa pics framed in matching red frames. They were different sizes (5×7, 4×6, square, etc.) but all bright red frames. Simple and cute. Nikki and I decided to copy this idea, but instead of buying all the same frames we are just going to buy a new red frame every year. I think it will have a cohesive feel because they will still all be the same color. Then at Chistmas time I can just clear off some shelf space for my collection. Hopefully it will be a simple yet festive display. Here is the first one:

2- The other thing I loved that Keri had done was create a scrapbook to house all of her family Christmas cards that she’s sent out over the years. This may seem like an obvious idea and maybe most of y’all are already doing this, but it hadn’t even occurred to me. I like to keep a copy of our holiday card each year, but so far I have just been cramming them in a drawer. So Nikki and I went to Hobby Lobby and got matching scrapbooks and black insert pages (so the cards really pop!). Keri’s scrapbook was red, which I do think would be more festive, but they didn’t have any red ones. I think black will be nice too. And with the festive picture in the front window, it will be obvious that it’s a holiday book. So now, every December I can pull out this book along with our other decorations and proudly display it for all to admire:

My goal is to write something on these pages (the year, maybe a sentence or two) in silver or gold pen perhaps…

3- This third idea is not from Keri but from a blog I read. It’s an advent calendar for grown-ups! Each day you get to pull down a different ornament to hang on the tree. The original idea is actually from Pottery Barn.

But at bowerpowerblog.com, they have instructions on how to make your own! I think I am going to use a bulletin board that I DIYed earlier this year. I was inspired by this one from Ballard that my friend Janna has in her home. I think it turned out really cute except that it has ugly little seam lines going through the cork because I used cork tiles (I couldn’t find big sheets of cork anywhere). I’m definitely going to copy their idea of spray gluing some nice linen on the cork. Then I can finally hang up the cork board in our living room. When Christmas rolls around this year, I will hopefully have all of my ornaments and number tags ready to go and can just swap them out for whatever I have up there at the time. I’ll be sure to post a pic once the cork board is up! In the meantime, here are a few pics of my Ballard inspired bulletin board in the making:

Thanks, Ben!

For Christmas this year, Ben gave me a new lens for my camera. I am SO excited about it. The awesome thing about this lens is that it has an f-stop of 1.8, whereas the lens that came with my camera only allowed me to get down to 3.5. For those of you not familiar with SLR cameras, the f-stop is what allows you to get that look where the subject of the picture is in focus and the rest is blurry. The lower the number, the closer your focus can be. The lens just arrived in the mail yesterday so I have been trying it out. I know I could use some lessons, but I am pretty happy with with I can already do now that I have this new, awesome lens.

Notice how in all these pics, the background is so blurry but the foreground is nice and crisp. I love that!

These are far and away the best pics I’ve ever taken of Henry. Normally you can’t see any of his features because he is so dark. Not sure if I should credit the new lens or good lighting. Let’s say both!

My best subject…

The best part about this lens is that it is really cheap for a DSLR lens. You can find it for around $100 online. The downside is that you can’t zoom in and out with this lens. But that is no problem for me since you have to be fully zoomed out anyway to get the lowest f-stop number. Here is the link to the lens if you’re interested in getting one for your Cannon. And here is where I learned everything I know about photography (which is admittedly very little).

Christmas 2010

This year we spent Christmas in Georgia with my sister and her family. Since Sam and I had no obligations, we decided to flee town on the Monday before Christmas. Unfortunately Ben had to stay in DC and work a few extra days, so we flew on our own. I was more than a little nervous about this 2 hour journey but it went well. Sam was a great little traveler.

We did all of the requisite Christmas activities: baked cookies, made gingerbread houses, played in the snow (it snowed on Christmas!), and visited Santa.

Ok, so that last one didn’t go so well. I blame Sam’s newly discovered stranger anxiety and the fact that he was tired and hungry after searching all morning for a Santa that didn’t have a 2 hour line! Ah well, I’m sure it will be fun to compare this early Santa pic with those to come.

Once again Sam had a fantastic time with his cousins. Asa (7) had fun reading Sam his favorite book, Me Hungry, And Sam and Ella (2 1/2) just had fun palling around together and “sharing” their toys. We did a shameful job of taking pictures while we were there. But here are some that we did manage to get. I can’t believe I didn’t get a single one with Asa (bad auntie!!).

Me, Nikki, and Rozy (Nikki’s other half-sister)

Yummy food on Christmas Eve:

Sam hanging with Daddy:

Having fun with my sister:

Trying to pose and looking drunk:

Family photo:

Princess Ella wearing/carrying literally every Christmas gift she received:

Blurry but cute pic of Sam and Ella playing with their toys on Christmas morning:

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011! And happy birthday, Dad!

I hope you all had an exciting night. At the Miller house, our night was pretty tame and full of food. We started out the evening with a delicious family dinner of cheese ravioli with Auntie Nikki’s butternut squash sauce. Sam loved it and signed “more” to get seconds!

But apparently that wasn’t enough food because after dinner Sam discovered the box of oranges sent by (great) Grandma Katie and (great) Grandpa Gene. We cut him off after downing two of them!

Then after Sam went to bed I got busy baking. I just was planning on making gingerbread cookies. I got a good recipe from my friend Nicole, and I figured this was the last night I could get away with baking gingerbread for a while. But then I talked to my mom who was busily making a flourless chocolate cake and that sounded pretty good too. So I made both.

And so, Ben and I rang in the new year at home, with champagne (or cheap prosecco from Trader Joe’s), gingerbread, and chocolate cake. Not the liveliest of new years, but enjoyable nonetheless! Happy 2011 everybody!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Last week we finally got a Christmas tree! Nothing gets me in the holiday spirit more than a fresh cut pine tree!

Sam even helped us trim the tree.

Actually he just pulled all of the “safe” ornaments that I had hung on the bottom branches. So despite my best efforts, we have a halfway bare tree. Oh well, it still looks beautiful.