Wife Without Borders: Pinterest Projects

For about 6 weeks or so, Forest became quite the easy baby. He was on a predictable schedule, sleeping til an acceptable time in the morning, taking 2 restorative hour+ naps during the day and just an all around pleasant guy to be around. Jonathan even mentioned the possibility of giving him a sibling…someday.

I think this is why so many siblings are 18 months apart. Nine months rolls around and suddenly your baby is happy, sleeping well, and full of interesting and adorable little skills. Most aren’t walking yet, but their attempts at standing and cruising are just all so super exciting! Finally you feel like you’re somewhat competent at this parenthood thing so why not throw another baby into the ring?!?!

Well, don’t worry, our baby’s moment in the sun was short lived and he has guaranteed he won’t be having a sibling for a least a few additional months. Now he seems to be dropping to one nap at the ripe old age of 10 months (average is 15-18 months) and his schedule is totally bananas right now.

Some days he takes one great nap. Some days he takes 2 mediocre naps. And some days he takes a crap morning nap and then spends his afternoon naptime fussing and rooting around his crib for 45 minutes unable to doze off. It’s miserable for both of us.

I’m trying to roll with it, but he seems stuck in the purgatory of ‘still needs 2 naps but will only take 1’. And I have learned the hard way that no matter how hard you try YOU CANNOT MAKE A BABY SLEEP. Period. Realizing this fact is half the battle.

Still, it is hard to give up on my zen, predictable naptimes and gear up for a transitory phase that could last weeks or even months. Eeek! (Just so you don’t feel too sorry for me, he seems to be making up for lost naptime by sleeping longer at night so we are super grateful for that!)

Anyhoo, this whole post is really about how during the past few weeks of easy babyhood, I finally was feeling like I had the hang of being a Stay-At-Home-Mom (or, as the cool kids call it, SAHM). I was hosting play dates, making daily trips to the park, showering every morning, doing bible study, working out semi-regularly, running multiple errands in one day, baking stuff from scratch, trying new recipes, and even crafting. I was a regular Martha Stewart and I was quite enjoying myself.

Back in my housewife days, I used to do a blog segment called ‘Weekly Pinterest Project’ where once a week I committed to actually creating something I pinned onto my Pinterest boards. That weekly hobby fell to the wayside when I was promoted from housewife to SAHM, but I made up for lost time over the last 2 weeks when I made *four* things off of Pinterest, 3 of which were new recipes.

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I made this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread for playdate last week and OMG it was super delicious. I will surely be making it all fall long.

Then for dinner, I tried this White Chicken Chili which was simple and yummy, and doubled as a baby friendly meal.

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Forest has been doing fantastic with self-feeding and eats the same dinner as us on most nights. I love finding recipes that all 3 of us can enjoy.

This Quinoa Crusted Chicken Pot Pie was a similar success.

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It took a bit of time and effort to make on a day when Forest decided afternoon naps were for babies, so I didn’t feel like it was yummy enough to warrant the hassle, but I doubled the recipe so that at least it’s something I can pull out of the freezer and toss in the oven at a later date.

Jonathan really liked it, as did Forest so maybe I was just in a grumpy mood after dealing with a stubborn baby all afternoon.

As for crafting, I just wanted to do a simple decoupage initial to hang on Forest’s door. I had done a similar project a few years back, but used this as a refresher course:

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I went to Hobby Lobby to peruse the scrap book aisle and found this totally perfect print for my ‘F’ is for Forest project.

I think it turned out pretty cute!

Forest’s Halloween themed Birthday party is coming up and Pinterest is full of creative ideas for crafts and food. For example, here are some things I plan on making for décor: