Countdown to Noon NYE Party

My little bonus baby turned three on December 30.

This blog was born back in 2007, when my twins were born prematurely.  (Blog was "born" -- har har! Hilarious!)  Tulip & Turnip was a way of chronicling for friends and family our journey with premature twins, but has grown into so much more than that.  I have been very open about our struggle with infertility.  It took several years, lots of dough, and eventually IVF to conceive Charlotte and Gavin, who are now four and perfectly healthy.

When they were about 13 months old, Michael and I went out for Chinese food.  I saved the fortune from my cookie that night because I was intrigued:  The love of your life will appear unexpectedly.  A week later, we found out that Nathan was on his way, with no intervention at all (other than the divine kind).  One of the FOUR loves of my life.  I'm a lucky lady.

Since his birthday is so close to New Year's Eve, we decided to have a "Countdown to Noon" birthday party.  I knew there was no way that I was staying up until midnight, so the kids weren't either.  This was their chance to experience the festivities.  Here are a few photos of the celebration.

The giant purple monstrosity hanging from my ceiling is a balloon drop, i.e  two Dollar Store tablecloths "sewn" together with yarn.  It worked!

I made the little memo book and crayon favor based on something I found here via Pinterest.

My Birthday Boy

I can't believe this little guy is 2 already.  Such a blessing, this kid is.  He's almost always this happy.  Even when he's mad (and he does have quite a temper), he's so ridiculously funny.  I just know he's going to be that kid in school that everyone likes.  Even though Charlotte and Gavin beat up on him a little, there's a whole lot of hugs and kisses in there as well.  They think he's pretty neat, too.

His party is on Sunday, but we still wanted to celebrate with some birthday cake!

Last week, on my hunt for stocking stuffers, I found these in 5 Below:

I didn't know what I was going to use them for, but I bought them anyway because I thought they were so cute!  And then the stars aligned, and I read this post from Serena, and I knew exactly what to do with them! (Okay, so her cake was WAY cuter....whatever!)

I started with a yellow cake from a box.  Short on time, you know?

Here's the yummy buttercream icing recipe I used, except I halved it:

Buttercream Icing (yields 5-6 cups)
1 cup butter
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk
2 tsps. vanilla
8 cups confectioners sugar

Cream the butter and shortening together until smooth.  (I had my mixer going for about 10  minutes).  Gradually add sugar, milk, and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.

Then I added all of the chocolate cones and mushrooms for the winter-wonderland vibe.

Okay, it's not nearly as pretty as Serena's.  But Nathan liked it! And that's what counts!

Nathan's Fire Truck Party

Even though it's going to be a small gathering, we still decided to have a "theme" for Nathan's second birthday.  Since he's starting to get into trucks, particularly fire trucks, we decided that would be easy enough.

I designed the invitation using a fire truck graphic from  JW Illustrations. Jessica does terrific clip art. It only cost $1.00 to download, bringing the total cost of the invitation to a whopping: $1.00.

More details are coming!

Rehabbed Dressers

During this whole big-kid-room transition, Nathan wound up with the bum end of the deal -- no bedroom furniture.  It's a long and involved story, starting with us not knowing his gender when I was pregnant and therefore buying white furniture, and ending with us deciding that the white furniture that occupied his room would become Charlotte's.  You probably don't want to know the details -- you only need to know that he was furniture-less.

As I was relaying this story to my Mom, she mentioned that she had some old dressers that I might like to use.  They had been in my sister Audrey's room.  As I mentioned in my previous post, we are definitely being cost-conscious with these room-redos, but I also LOVE the idea of reusing and repurposing furniture.  So I went shopping in Audrey's old room, and much to my delight, the two old dressers were charming and small,  just like Nathan's room itself.

But they needed some work.  My mom bought one of them at an auction back in the 70s.  Even then, it needed some work.  I'm sure it dates back to the 30s, at least.  Somewhere along the line the top had been damaged and was replaced with a thin piece of wood -- that piece was now stained and splitting at parts.

 The front of it appeared to be in pretty good shape, though:

The other piece of furniture was a dresser that had been in my family for a while.  My grandmother had bought it second-hand, so I'm not sure how old it is.  Probably around the 30s as well.  I have LOVED this piece since I was little, especially the detail on the top drawers.  This one needed some work too, mostly on the top.  There were some watermarks and stains:

Both pieces have beautiful dovetailing at the corners of the drawers.  They just don't make 'em like they used to!

So I had my work cut out for me.  And I was pretty nervous about it, too, because both of these pieces are so special to my mom.  I didn't want to screw it up.  Here's what I did (sorry I didn't take pictures -- I wasn't sure anyone would be interested!  Next time I'll know better....)

1.  Sanded both pieces down with coarse sandpaper.  It took me about an hour.
2.  Went over both pieces with fine sandpaper to smooth it.
3.  Conditioned the wood with Wood Conditioner and let it sit for 15 minutes.
4.  Applied the first coat of Minwax Stain in Walnut and let it sit for two hours.
5.  Applied another coat of the stain and let it sit for two days.  It took a REALLY long time to completely dry.  I don't know if I applied it too thick, or the humidity affected it.
6.  Applied two coats of Polyurethane to protect the wood.
7.  Bought some raw wood drawer pulls and stained them in the Walnut as well.

They turned out so much better than I anticipated.  I'm so happy that we used these pieces rather than spend on money on something new.  Nathan's room has such "cottage charm," and these dressers fit in perfectly.  Here they are in their new home:

These pictures don't do them justice.  I know, I'm terrible at taking photos.  Katie needs to give me some pointers.  


Anyway, I'm not sure I'll ever buy a new piece of furniture again.  Rehabbing was fun!

Happy Easter!

Yes, I'm Aware of the Whole "Back To Sleep" Campaign

I have been blessed with a 5-week old insomniac. I haven't read a whole lot about newborns, but I've read enough to know that they're supposed to sleep. A lot. Apparently Nathan hasn't read a whole lot about newborns either, because he is awake about as often as Charlotte and Gavin. This leaves me little time to get much of anything done. There are crumbs on my floor, laundry piling up in the hallway, and dishes that need to be put away. (Notice, however, that when I get a free moment I'm here, typing, instead of doing any of those nagging chores. This is not lost on my husband, who reminds me that I'm on the computer too much every time I complain about the house being a mess. I then remind him to shut up.)

I suspect that Nathan has reflux. Gavin had it as well, and Nathan makes all of the same grunting and groaning noises that Gavin did. I think Nathan wants to sleep (his eyes get all red and puffy, and he fusses) but he just doesn't seem to know how to get himself there. Either that, or he's so uncomfortable that he CAN'T sleep.

I've tried swaddling him with his hands up. I've tried swaddling him with his arms down. I've tried rocking. I've tried shushing. I've tried singing. I've tried swinging. I've tried letting him sleep in his carseat. I've tried letting him sleep in his bouncy seat. Nothing seems to be making a significant difference. So I'm about to let you in on a secret. The other day, I actually let him sleep on his belly. Now, before you go calling Children and Youth, you should know that he was supervised. It was during the day on the couch, and I was with him the whole time. But he actually slept for hours! That's hours longer than he usually sleeps!

So fess up, mothers. What's your take on belly sleeping? I know some mothers (who wish to remain anonymous) who have said they did this all the time. My defense is that I have a monitor that comes with a sensor pad. I bought in when the twins were in the NICU and had occasional bouts of apnea. You put the sensor pad under the crib mattress, and if the child stops breathing, alarms go off. Michael and I didn't actually believe it would work, but it does...amazingly well. We "tested" it all the time. So if I put Nathan on his belly once in a while, I feel somewhat reassured that I have the sensor pad.

Anyone else willing to admit that they allow belly-sleeping? Or tell me that I'm crazy and should be reported

Introducing Nathan!