Summer is almost over for my girls but the adventure of learning to walk has just begun for my little 16 month old Corban! Yes, it’s that time! He’s been cruising along tables and climbing stairs for a few months but now is when the real fun of letting go begins. He has yet to take his first steps and rarely even stands for half a second on his own. His physical therapist guessed that he may be walking by now… but not quite yet!  He can walk when pushing a little wheeled walker and he can walk when holding onto two strong hands. Our latest trick is trying to get him to walk with holding onto one strong hand. He seems to have this incredibly high pain tolerance we are all amazed at (even his physical therapist). He falls but barely whimpers and just keeps going! It must be a NICU thing.

So… the question is, when will our little guy take his first 20 steps? The closest one to guess the right answer wins $100 off their next order. To enter this contest, just add a comment to this blog post.

Make your guess as soon as possible, because the entry closest to the exact day with the earliest time-stamp will win $100 off her next order at AmyAdele.com. Even if someone else already beat you to the punch with their guess, don’t hesitate to still enter. Every subsequent person who also guesses the right weight will get 40% off their next order.

Here’s a clue… both my healthy (non-premature) girls didn’t walk until 18 months so don’t be too surprised Corban is taking his time, especially considering his early arrival.

Ok… so I don’t know why but my boy loves to look out windows. These shots were taken at his favorite spot, my office window. His physical therapist was loving it too because he’d practice getting up on his knees there.

And then there’s the fingers… Oh how he loves those two fingers! He was quite addicted to them. My parents had to pay thousands of dollars and I had to endure 3 years of braces because I loved my fingers, too… so I’d rather nip it sooner than later. We’ve tried putting lime juice, lemon juice and even vinegar (yuck!) on those fingers and he didn’t flinch… not even a wiggle! But just saying plain old “no” and pulling them out of his mouth stopped the routine. We’re still amazed that was all he needed.

We started printing return addresses on our envelopes a while ago. However, we bought this new fancy printer that will allow us to print Amy’s designs on the front. How cool is that?

Here are a few examples:

• Amy’s Tulips Stationery and the matching envelope.
• Happy Daisy Row Stationery and the matching envelope.
• Fire Truck Invitation and the matching envelope.
• Girl’s Pottery Party Photo Invitation and matching envelope.

Over 500 invitations and thank you notes now have a matching envelope. Best of all, the prices are super low. Please check them out!

We sell a lot of the little red crab stationery so I thought an invitation and other items would be good to add this summer. People love their crab and lobster parties, ya know! My husband’s aunt asked me to do a crab fest invitation for her so I placed my little red crab in a basket and put him on a table then added her text and she liked it just fine. When I went to prepare the design that would go on the site, my 11 year old daughter, Emily, took one look and said, ”Oh Mommy… he’s too cute to eat!”

She’s often right about such things when it comes to my new designs and I value her honest opinion. As much as I loved my little red crab, I wondered if my customers would think the same thing. So I created two designs… one with the little red crab in a basket ready to be cooked and another one that was similar but with no cute faces showing. I sent it out to a few people and the majority said… nope, he’s too cute to eat! Geesh! I couldn’t leave my little red crab out to dry… what’s a girl to do? I really wanted my little red crab on an invite so I thought about it some more and came up with the perfect solution. I added my little red crab on an invite after all… just not in a basket ready to cook. That way my customers could think what they wanted… they could use it for a crab fest or just a simple kid’s party invite. Then for the serious seafood lovers, I did another invite with lobsters in a basket, but NO SMILES. Time will tell what will work best for my customers. I’m just glad I figured out my seafood invitation dilemma.

My mother (who gave me the nickname, Bumble Bee) still buys me bumble bee stuff. This photo shows Corban really loving my latest bee gift… a giant stuffed Bumble Bee! I love these giggly moments!

So, my birthday is right after Corban’s birthday. I said I wanted to go to a park as a family so we packed up the kids and went to this great park with a big pond (or a little lake–whichever you prefer). We hiked around it (it was only one mile) and then had a picnic lunch! Nice and sweet… just my speed. This photo shows him sitting in one of those trendy little baby seats and yes, it’s on a table (we were right there, I promise). I don’t use it anymore because he just climbs right out of it. But perhaps I should try it again… he’s a little fatter now.

Wow! It’s been awhile since we’ve posted to our blog so we’ve got some catching up to do. I know we sent out an email announcing Corban’s first birthday, but the photo I included in the email was taken before the celebration. So check out these messy face and birthday joy photos! He was a bit shy when it came to the cake, but he was able to get a little messy. Soon after his birthday the helmet came off. Yay!! Yes, the big blue helmet is gone for good! I am so glad to be done with it. He wore it 23 hours a day, for about 4 months. The reason he had it was because his head got all flat and his ears shifted after laying in the NICU for a month in the same position. The helmet helped shape his head back to normal so he won’t look funny. We figured if he might be the smallest kid in his class he doesn’t need a funny-shaped head too! Poor guy.  But that’s all behind us now!

-Amy

Right now AmyAdele.com has over 100 gift tags & calling cards on sale at 50% OFF!

Choose from calling cards for babies, girls, boys & grown ups, too.

Click to see bugs & animals, floral designs, and simple borders. Even our Christmas Designs are on sale!

Enjoy the savings. It all ends at midnight on Sunday, June 27th.

The results of Corban’s Weight Contest are in. Did you win?

Congratulations to Shellee Seely, our $50 off winner, for her guess of 10 pounds, 13 ounces. She only missed a perfect guess by a single ounce.

Kudos to our 40% off winners as well – Andrea Dingler, Cristina Miller, April Price, Andrea Lamer, and Megan Grant all guessed within a quarter-pound (4 ounces) of the correct value.

Click here to review the original contest posting, if you want to review how close you came to winning as well.

How time flies – Amy’s son Corban is almost 6 months old!

We thought that his phenomenal progress was sufficient cause to celebrate with another contest. Many of you enjoyed the contest we had in April to guess Corban’s homecoming date from the hospital, so we hope you’ll have fun with this one too!

Here’s how this contest will work…

Corban will have his 6 month doctor’s check-up during the last couple days of September. To enter this contest, just add a comment to this blog post. Guess what Corban’s weight will be (in pounds and ounces) when he has his check-up at the end of the month.

Make your guess as soon as possible, because the entry closest to Corban’s exact weight with the earliest timestamp will win $50 off the winner’s next order at AmyAdele.com. Even if someone else already beat you to the punch with their guess, don’t hesitate to still enter though. Every subsequent person who also guesses the right weight will get 40% off their next order.

Only one guess per person, please. Additional guesses will be disqualified. All entries must be submitted by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Friday, September 25th, 2009. Corban’s actual weight and the winners to this contest will be announced in an E-mail Newsletter on Friday, October 2nd. The prizes awarded will be in the form of a unique promotion code that you can use at checkout.

Want to go ahead and order now instead of waiting to see if you won? That’s great! If you place an order between Friday, September 11th and Friday, September 25th and end up winning this contest, we’ll give you your choice. You can have a promotion code for a future order as described above, or we’ll refund you the applicable discount amount from an order you placed during these two weeks in September only.

If you’ve just found AmyAdele.com in the last couple of months, you might want some additional background information before you make your entry.  Here are the past blog articles we’ve posted since Corban arrived on the scene in late March, a couple of months early.

• April 17th – Newest Addition to AmyAdele.com!
• April 24th – Corban Homecoming Contest.
• April 28th – Update on Corban.
• April 30th – Corban home from hospital.
• June 12th – Amy Update on Corban.  (Hint: Corban’s June weight is mentioned here.)

Good luck!  :-)