The Maag Menagerie

A blog to follow the lives of Josh, Christina, Dylan and Baby Maag.

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Custom blackout panels for Vivian's room.

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Here's me being annoying to get my Princess V to smile at me!

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Vivian is 1 month! 

Vivian was 9lbs. 15oz. at her 1 month check up.  She's growing nicely.

I have to say she's a fairly easy baby or I'm not as high strung and nervous as I was with Dylan.  She's already put herself on a schedule and takes a 3 hour nap midday which usually coincides with Dylan.  She goes to bed around 7 or 8pm which is also Dylan's bedtime.  That being said she is a newborn and does wake up numerous times at night but doesn't cry for to long.  She's rarely fussy unless she's hungry, needs a diaper change or tired.  Just this last week she started smiling and recognizes me when I talk to her.  She makes my family feel complete and I love her so much!

PS. I had to throw an obligatory pic of Dylan on her post because He's just so darn cute and he will always be my first baby!

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Dylan's 2nd birthday had much less fanfare than his 1st with a newborn in the house.  He didn't seem to mind.  Sally and John were here from Texas to help us celebrate.  Sally was also here for Vivian's birth and and godsend in helping me around the house.

I had planned on sewing Dylan a custom tepee but Vivian got in the way of that.  Instead I sewed him a custom floor cushion that glows in the dark for his space tent.  He was actually more into his balloons than the tent.  He loves the tent now and it's his personal club house.  Daddy is VIP there - mommy and sissy are invite only.

Dylan in the past week or so has finally had the language explosion we knew he would!  He can easily repeat words we say to him and his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds.  He has also entered the terrible twos which I am sure is worse because of little sister's arrival.  His favorite word currently is NO!

All in all he really is a good kid (I can't say baby anymore).  He's super sweet and affectionate.  Really wants to please and doesn't want to get in trouble.  Josh is awesome with disciplining him and giving him love equally. He definitely doesn't mess with Daddy.  Mommy on the other hand is a work in progress and a bit of a push over.

He continues to love the outdoors, animals, and most of all books (he does love Peppa Pig and Curious George cartoons too).  He had such a blast with his grandparents visiting and became John's shadow after one day!  He may throw a tantrum here and there but is quick to literally kiss and make up.

He continues to be in the 98% for height and weight.  He was 36.5" and 33 lbs. at his 2 year appointment.  

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Vivan's birth on 2/15/14 was night and day to Dylan's birth.  I had my membranes stripped on Valentines Day and went into labor around 9pm.  We headed to the hospital and I was dilated a 5 when we arrived.  I got the epidural right away and labored until 7am when my doctor showed up.  She was born after 2 pushes!  I felt like I won the lottery.

Dylan's initial reaction to her was pretty indifferent.  I'd say that had lasted for about a month.  He now gives her kisses and points and says sissy!  I've been so busy learning the newborn thing again I haven't made time to post.  I'll be doing a 1 month post for her soon.

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Welcome Vivian Emma to the Maag Menagerie. She was born after 10 hours of labor in two pushes. 22.5 inches and 8lbs. 12oz. She's pretty mellow and a great little eater! I'll post more pics and updates soon. P.S. Dylan is tentatively curious but also slightly indifferent when meeting his little sister. Daddy is already wrapped around her finger. I am enjoying my second baby and feeling much less neurotic than I did with my first!

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Good to know!

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DIY travel changing pad. I also added a layer of PUL inside so it's waterproof. Best part is you can just throw it in the wash!

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I don't have an invisible zipper foot so I need to make sure I keep this tutorial!

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DIY lampshade cover. I recently bought new nightstand lamps from Target. The lampshades as you can see were lackluster and somewhat ugly. I made these lampshade covers (2) in less than 90 minutes. The best part is they are non destructive to the original lampshade covers (I tried to show this in the last pic)! PS. I tried to get a close up of the fabric which is really cute (small orange polka dots with tiny navy polka dots) but the pictures don't do it justice. You can get even more creative and add trim to the bottom and top of the covers 👌

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Dylan's newborn cloth diapers are clean and ready for little sister! Check out my store www.theclothmenagerie.com if you're curious about cloth diapering!

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Made a baby play mat this afternoon.

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Getting ready for baby Maag's arrival! She will be staying in our room for the first few months. I made her the felt cloud mobile for a little mini crib decor.

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DIY pattern weights. After I have the baby and get close to my pre pregnancy size I'm going to try my hand at sewing clothes! I have two really great books (Colette and Burda style sewing handbooks) I've been reading and will use when I start. They both recommend using pattern weights when tracing and cutting patterns. So I made my own with scrap fabric and BB gun bullets.

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DIY padded pouch! I blogged about installing a zipper for the first time a couple of weeks ago... Ta da! I wanted to make a padded pouch to protect my new samsung nx300. My other hobby is photography and while I love my DSLR I needed something smaller to throw in my purse. I love that the pouch is padded and lined. I'm looking forward to making more but in some other fabrics (oil cloth might be cool and waterproof).

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Reversible DIY Padalily

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Dylan's new laundry bag. Probably going to embroider one side with a dinosaur or his name 😊