We’re BACK!

Hello world!

So much has happened in the Punky household in the last year and I was forced to take a break from crafting and blogging.

I won’t bore you with the details, I’ll just suffice it to say that I divorced my husband and took sole parental responsibility of my little punk.

I hear your condolences. Thank you, but we are happy, healthy, and blessed to have everything we need and most of what we want.

And I met someone.

I won’t make you gag on the sappy sweetness of all the wonderful things I have to say about him. I’ll just suffice it to say that he’s WONDERFUL. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better man. And he picked me–well, us!

I have lots of new things to share with you. And we’ll start with Isla’s 1st birthday party in the next post…

Loads of fun

What’s that in my laundry basket?

OH! It’s Isla!

Isla is my little laundry helper. Maybe “helper” isn’t exactly the word. She likes to sit in the laundry basket while I pile clean clothes in around her. Then she giggles all the way into the living room. Then I sort and fold. Then Isla gets out of the basket and flings all the neatly folded clothes onto the floor the moment I turn my back.

And that is why more often than not I just stuff unfolded clothes into the drawer or, even more often, pluck them out of the clean pile. Thank heavens for wrinkle releaser.

Read all about it.

I knew she was meeting her milestones early, but I never expected her to tackle the written word before learning to speak.

Ho adorable is that? My sister Katie used to do this for hours. She’d get outrageously offended if anyone insinuated that she was “pretending” to read.

Check out that lovely shade of neon toxic waste on the wall. My brother is the creative genius behind that paint choice.

I hope she loves to read as much as I do. What could be better than spending a rainy day curled up in arm chairs, devouring our respective works of literature? Just one of the many things to look forward to.

For Noah

I had the pleasure of making Laurel and the soon-to-arrive baby Noah a few things. I thought you’d like to see:

Tiny New Arrival

A few months ago a dear friend of our family had twins. At 28 weeks. I had always planned to make them something special, but their arrival a full 3 months ahead of schedule made me rethink my original idea. I wanted to make them something fast, just in case they didn’t have long to use it.

I stumbled upon these wonderfully clever little NICU safe onesies and decided I could use them for something special.

I just love the wrap around style with velcro closures. It makes dressing fragile little babies so much less nerve wracking. How I wish I’d had a few of these when Isla was tiny.

I was able to order these wholesale in white, pink, yellow, lime green, purple, and the royal blue pictured here. And not only do they carry preemie size (4-6 lbs), but also newborn (6-8 lbs) and 0-3 mos (8-11 lbs)! I cannot wait to put them up in the shop.

Speaking of the shop, I’ll be relaunching just as soon as I’ve made and photographed a few more samples of these onesies and the new style of playmats I have to debut.

OH! And I’m very happy to report that despite being born weighing 2 lbs, a punctured lung, and several surgeries, the twins are home, healthy, and have happily outgrown their gifts:

10 months

My little Valentine is 10 months old and –ladies and gentlemen– WALKING! It’s just phenomenal how she went from a few tenuous steps and toddling all over the house, all in the last week.

Have I mentioned that she waves? Today I came home and Isla was out in the yard with my mom and she got so excited! She walked toward me waving her little wave. So *sweet*.

And today I believe she said her first word. She pointed to Floyd (the dog) and said “DAH!” She has repeated the feat several times tonight and upone being asked “Isla, where’s you dog?” She will point at Floyd and exclaim “DAH!” I can’t be completely sure because she makes that same sound all day long. But she definitely knows what a dog is.

Blog Blog Blog!

What rolls down the stairs,

Alone or in pairs,

Rolls over your neighbors dog…

HA! Sorry. I couldn’t resist the musical outburst this post title prompted.

So it’s been a while since I’ve had the time to update. This post will be baby related and several more business related posts *should* quickly follow.

Little Isla is growing like a weed and learning new things every day. 

She’s getting better with her walking. She took SEVEN steps in a row while Skyping (or is it Skypeing?) with her Uncle Nathan. Yesterday I noticed she is doing the most ridiculously adorable thing — clapping for herself after every step. I gather she is copying me clapping after she walks.

She babbles incessantly and likes to point at everything, and nothing. My mom taught her to use one finger when playing the piano, as opposed to banging on the keys with both hands. What a smart little lady, huh?

Hey, how about another random picture here:

I love this one. So proud that I took it myself!

Isla *loves* blueberries. He friend Mia (14 months) calls them “boobies”. Her mother tells us that she stands at the fridge pulling on the handle yelling “BOOBIES!! BOOBIES!!” I can’t help but giggle whenever I think about blueberries.

Violet (the purple dog here) was a Christmas gift from my parents. Isla is enamored with this dog. It is terribly sweet singing about all Isla’s favorite things and using her name!

We’re also quite fond of things that aren’t toys. Paper for example:

And blankets:

And the dryer:

And that’s all for now folks!

9 Months

I have a 9 month old today. An 18 and 1/2  lb, 2 toothed, 9 month old who can take 2 steps! She’s over purees and only wants to eat what she can pick up with her own fingers.We have to spread out the pieces of food when we put it in front of her or she just grabs a huge handful and shoves it all in her mouth. It’s comical.

Walking is on the horizon…so I say again and again. I’m a little surprised it’s taken this long. But I can imagine she probably still lacks the muscle tone necessary. I can see her carefully considering taking a third step, but then she lowers herself to the ground and crawls to what she wants.

Paula and I decided we’d attempt a sewing day today. We corralled the babies in her kitchen and set up shop at the kitchen table. Isla and Camilla entertained one another for HOURS, right thru morning naps. When eye rubbing commenced we put them down for what turned out to be very long naps. The afternoon didn’t go quite as well as the morning, Isla quickly reached her limit. But over all a productive day.

And the productivity continued at home. Paula is so neat and organized. She always inspires me to attempt it myself. So while Isla napped I busted butt to get the storage closet re-organized (yet again) so I could tuck away all the rarely used things (i.e. the boxes of Christmas decorations), put away laundry, and pick up down stairs. Yay!

Steppin’ up.

Yesterday Isla tried to take a step! She only managed to pick up a foot and move it forward roughly half a centimeter, but a step is a step right? Zoinks! Walking is on the horizon. Is it crazy that I can hardly wait? There are so many ADORABLE things in her wardrobe that just don’t look so adorable pooled on the floor around a crawling baby. I know, I’m ridiculous.

The shop is back open and ready for business. And I’ve got some exciting new products in the works. So stay tuned! And if you have Punky Monkey gear don’t forget to post pictures on our facebook page. You never know when we’ll be doing a giveaway. The more you buy the better your chances to win!

Happy New Year to one and all!

AMENDMENT: Isla just took her fist actual STEP!!!!

Tooth #2

Isla cut her second tooth yesterday. Needless to say we had a fussy day. But she seems much happier today.

Teething however has apparently caused brain damage — for me that is. Last night we went out to Hopjacks (a local pizza/beer joint) to meet up with friends from high school. Isla was fussy and tired and not wanting to sit still. It got to the point where I just had to go. And I just got up and walked out — on the bill! I assure you it was completely unintentional. I realized it after I’d gotten on the interstate. Thank goodness my friends were still there and I was able to call and have one of them pick up my tab, promising to drop some money at her house on my way home. Talk about embarrassing…but good for a laugh. I contend that the wait staff was partially to blame. I hadn’t seen a waitress for at least an hour after finishing my meal. I can imagine with all of that beer on tap and an inattentive wait staff, they’ve had more than a few walk-outs.

It occurred to me today that Isla is responding to the sound of her name! I’m not sure when it happened, but she definitely looks up whenever she hears “Isla”. It’s just amazing to watch this learning process.

We had a fantastic Christmas, but more on that in another post. What I realy want to tell you is that Justin gave us the best possible Christmas present. Yesterday he joined the United States ARMY! Many of you are thinking how is that a good thing. I assure you it was a very big and much needed step for him. He is terrified. But he did it anyway because he knows it’s what is best for him and for us as a family. I am so very proud of him! Thank you Lord for an answer after nearly a year of prayer!

He will ship out on April 19th. It would not be more perfect. He won’t miss Isla’s birthday, but we don’t have to wait forever either. He will spend 10 weeks in Ft. Jackson, North Carolina in basic training. Then at the end og June/begining of July he will move to Ft. Meade, Maryland for AIT school fo 17 weeks. IF there are no delays we can expect to move to our first permanent duty station sometime in November. I am so ridiculously excited. Sad to think about leaving my family and friends, but thrilled for the possibilities and adventure that lies ahead.