ASD - Atrial Septal Defect

So today's focus has been Butters. He's been coughing off and on for about a week, and with his ASD (Atrial Septal Defect - a little hole in one of his heart valves) this can be indicative of a problem with his baby heart. I took him to the doctor this morning, and sure enough there is some fluid built up in his lungs - a sign that blood is possibly leaking from his heart into his lungs through this little hole. No good. When we first saw the pediatric cardiologist back in July, they had said that we need to watch him closely over his first winter for pneumonia and other lung issues, and if he had them they may do the surgery to close the hole.
Now, this didn't really scare me at first. They explained that they use a scope that goes in through one of the veins in the hip and insert a small plastic piece over the hole to close it. However, my accountant of all people put the fear of God into me. During one of our meetings, I found out his son died when he was only three years old. To make matters worse, he died having the surgery to fix his ASD. OMFG. It took everything I had not to break down in tears in his office. Hearing a story about ANYONE losing a child at such a young age is terribly sad and makes me tear up to begin with, but hearing a story about someone losing a child due to a problem that MY child has makes me want to lose it completely.
When I first found out Jax had ASD, I found it ironic that Logan has the OTHER ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). So, I have two ASD kids with two different ASD's.

Aspies ask the most interesting questions...

"Mom, how do they get toothpaste in the tubes? The holes at the top are awfully small..."
Most of the questions Logan asks me, I just can't answer. We love Google at our house. Aspies think differently than the rest of us...they have their own little world. They change topics on the drop of a dime. They also have no filters. Whatever comes into their brains tends to come right out of their mouths...it's often funny, but it's often embarrassing and leads me to have to make apologies. Logan talks incessantly. Unless you have an Aspie, you probably can't understand how going through your day NOT listening to your child is a very valued skill. It's either that, or go crazy. Aspie's tend to have one or two things that they are very interested in, and that's normally all they want to talk about. They do not know how to have a two-way conversation. Logan receives speech therapy at school to work on this. He is unable to tell when somebody is uninterested in what he is saying as he cannot read facial expressions or social cues. He assumes that if HE is interested, you must be interested as well. Logan's interests are video games and Yu-Gi-Oh. Listening to him discuss these two things in detail all day long is both tiring and irritating. Yes, my child is irritating. I am not afraid to say it. I play the "Uh-huh" and "Yes" game often. I have learned to tune him out, but appease him enough to make him think I am listening. I really don't think he cares that I am listening most of the time - he just wants to talk, and get out of his system whatever it is he has to say. Again, not something most people can understand unless they deal with an Aspie.
Butters slept through the night. I, however, did not. When I crawled into bed around 11, I heard him moving around and was convinced he was going to wake up. Therefore, I couldn't sleep because I laid in bed just waiting for him to stand up in his crib and start crying. He never did...but because I have been so accustomed to getting up with him, I just waited...awake.
I have a b&b list a mile long...sewing, photography, sketching for spring, samples, wholesale packets...this will keep me busy all week. My goal is to cross everything off of this list by Friday.
b&b on Kare 11 - woo-hoo!

And...it's over.

It seems I spend months preparing for the holidays, and then they are over in the blink of an eye. Seeking out and buying the perfect gifts, decorating (admittedly I didn't do much this year), sending out cards (also skipped this one this year), WORKING (I did a LOT of this), cooking...oye. I have to admit I'm glad it's over, and I already started putting all of the Christmas decor away.
Butters and Logan are enjoying their new toys. Logan immediately retreated to his room after opening his 360 and we haven't seen much of him since. I've coaxed him out to eat, but I've let him go for the most part. Today we are back to his time limit of two one-hour periods of electronics time per day, so everything should go back to normal. Butters is loving his dinosaur walker and his kitchen...











So, we are loving the Step 2 Lifestyle Traditions Kitchen - it has lots of stuff to open and close which Butters loves, comes with silverware and plates, a coffee pot and pans (bonus) and is JUST his height for standing up. The link provided is to Toys R Us, however we got ours at Target for $20 cheaper. We love the Fisher Price Dinosaur Walker (also cheaper at Target) as it converts from a walker to a ride-on toy. Butters loves the lights on the top of the head that also plays songs. Our deal of the season was the Xbox 360 Lego Bundle for $199.99 from Best Buy (normally that price for just the console) - no longer available online, but still available in some stores. It came with THREE games - Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones - perfect for an 11-year-old.

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL holiday season!

Oh, Blogspot...

I've missed you.
I've been terribly busy...sewing, Christmas, Butters, Logan, b&b. There never seems to be enough time over the holidays to get everything done. I am sewing my Christmas gifts up until the last minute - Butters is getting his one-year molars so it is impossible to get anything done unless he is napping. This, however, is his new favorite activity:


Emptying the dishwasher keeps him occupied for up to an hour. He drags everything all over the house, chews the spoons, stacks the tupperware...and I let him. Whatever floats his boat.
I have developed a few new products for b&b including a matching Mama lap blanket and some tag sensory blankets. SUPER cute. This has kept me super busy. (sidenote - My Super Sweet Sixteen is on the TV and these brats are absolutely amazing)
Lastly, I think Williams Sonoma should do baby registries. Who needs toys when there are wooden spoons and pots and pans? There you go WS - a free million dollar idea. :)

Giveaways and CoolMomPicks.com

Wow - sooooo much b&b happenings!
One - Heather of the EO has an Andrew Collection giveaway going - make sure you enter! I absolutely adore her blog about sobriety, mommyhood and all things philosophical.
Two - Susan at DivineSecretsOfADomesticDiva has yet ANOTHER giveaway going for the Abby Collection newborn set - an amazing holiday gift for the eco-Mama to be! Again, go enter it! I love her blog - she doesn't mince words about motherhood. :)
Three - We had an awesome spot in the Cool Mom Picks (for less) email yesterday...and I'll give you the coupon code (Ooo-la-la). Use cmp25 for 25% off your purchase through December 16th.
Four - We've extended our free logo onesie deal through the 20th - receive a totally FREE b&b logo organic onesie with any purchase over $50! Just specify size and color (natural, pink and blue available) in the notes space of your order.
Five - Come see me tomorrow at UberBaby! This event runs from 10-6 and will be so much fun! Tim Mahoney will be there playing, Grace Wood will be doing photography. This adorable shopping area reminds me of Miami...heart it.
Phew.

Tiny Green Bubble Interview

I'm super stoked about this interview that was published this morning! I always wake up and google butters&beans to see what the media is saying (if they are saying anything). Recognition from such a great "green" website is absolutely awesome.

Switching pace - Butters needs to sleep. He is up for a bottle still at least three times during the night, and one of those times is always a one hour romping rendezvous with his toys. He is 11 months old, and therefore I've gone almost a year without a full nights sleep. I am taking suggestions, and am at the point that I will try just about anything. The list below is what we have already tried:
-Ferber Method
-super dark room
-turning the temp down (and up)
-white noise
-swaddling
-going down to one nap during the day
-limiting his two daytime naps to one hour each
-stuffing him with as much food as possible
-letting him stay up till 9:00pm
-baby-led schedule
-mama-led schedule
If you have any other suggestions, PLEASE email me at annevans@buttersandbeans.com. I'd do just about anything for more than four hours of straight sleep.

Infants=Scavengers

Babies are scavengers.
Apparently I had forgotten this in the 10 years that have passed between my two children.
Butters finds anything and everything on the floor - often this is little tiny pieces of fabric at my house, but he is not picky. Pebbles, stale puffs, crumbs, leaves...the stuff he finds in the carpet makes me feel like I don't clean my house, even though I vacuum almost every day. We have hit the point where I need eyes in the back of my head. My oldest was actually completely convinced that Nana had eyes in the back of her head. My mom would tell him when he was a toddler that she had eyes behind her hair in the back of her head. He, being a toddler, was convinced. He would try to move the hair on the back of her head to see them, but she would always seem to move away in time so he couldn't quite prove her wrong. Nana would be in the kitchen with her back to him, and it would often go like this:
"Nana, can you see me with the eyes behind your hair?"
"Yes, I can!"
"Can you close them please?"
This normally involved him doing something naughty.
Remembering this today made me really look forward to Butters being a toddler, but also made me miss the special interactions that I had with my now 11-year-old when he was little. People always say to treasure it while you have it...but I don't think you can truly understand why until you don't have it anymore. I guess it never really hit me until recently that I'll never have that with him again. Now, he prefers playing video games, talking on the phone to his friends and planning his next moves with his Yu-Gi-Oh deck. Don't misunderstand - he tells me when he has problems at school, and uses me as a sounding board when he needs to problem solve. But...it's different.

"Pigs in a Blanket" Facebook Giveaway!

Who doesn't love baby feet? I absolutely love this...make SURE you have *liked* our Facebook page and entered this giveaway! Here's the deets: go to our Facebook page, post the cutest picture you have of baby feet, and whoever has the most comments on their picture by November 25th at 9pm wins a travel blankie, bib and pant or dress of their choice! Make sure your friends are commenting and not just liking your picture! Direct all of your friends to our Facebook page by tagging our page (put the @ symbol in front of buttersandbeans) and telling your friends to *like* our page and comment!

Two pieces of b&b news...

First, the wonderful Ali Kaplan wrote up a great little ditty of an article about us in today's Pioneer Press! We so much appreciate her support!



Second, Butters has found a new favorite play place - the bathroom. Specifically, the bathroom next to the toilet. This skeeves me a bit for obvious reasons. He loves to unroll the toilet paper and attempt to flush the toilet. Yesterday, he managed to pull what looked like a snotty tissue out of the garbage and put it in his mouth...

Halloween

Halloween is always interesting...kids hopped up on sugar, dressed up as either scary little goblins or pretty little princesses. We always go to my Mother's house for Halloween because she lives in a neighborhood where there are a lot of kids and all of the houses celebrate, which means lots of candy for the little ones. My oldest loves it. He's 11, and loves being as scary as possible. My nephew on the other hand (he's 3), ran and screamed as soon as the first kids came to the door and had to go home. It was Butter's first Halloween - he was a dinosaur...



Also make sure you check out the Emmy Collection, on sale now at buttersandbeans.com!

Minnmoms.com

So thankful to Ali Kaplan for the great writeup on Minnmoms today, and to Keena Marxhausen with Hope Photography for the great pic!

It's Tuesday...I like you.

"Give him tuna...it's a great source of protein!"
I wish the Doctor would have been around to clean up THAT diaper.
On the bebe side, we're working on new foods. With only six teeth (yes, six, and yes, it looks funny) there isn't much he can chew so we're limited. He eats a lot of pasta, loves carrots, apples and strawberries...and then we throw in some sweet potatoes, bananas, puffs, o's, yogurt melts and chicken here and there. I've even peeled and diced grapes. We're going to try eggs tonight (bracing for another up-the-back-out-the-sides-on-the-floor-diaper).
b&b side - search engine stuff, PR stuff, inventory stuff...nothing all that interesting, so I'll spare you all. We are looking forward to an amazing holiday season!
On the "me" side, I'm in love with this blogger - read her blog, Facebook her, Twitter her...
http://www.extraordinary-ordinary.com/

Advertising

So this is kind of fun...we're working on advertising now. Now that the site is live, we can move forward. Forward motion is good; progress is good.



photos by teryn glenn photography

Love my little Elliot!

And yes, his eyes really are THAT blue - they are not Photoshopped! The new b&b pattern is pretty cute too... :)

Where have we been?

We have been busy creating the site and creating beautiful baby organics. Today is October 1 - and I am such a deadline-driven person it absolutely kills me that we are running behind. Realizing that not everyone runs on "Ann time" has been difficult...and "Ann time" can mean either super-speed or turtle-speed. I've been back and forth between the two for the last three weeks or so. There has been a lot of hurry up and wait...
The little ones in my house have distracted me quite a bit - and they are always the priority. Jax started crawling (or scooting, rather) about two weeks ago and seems to get from one side of the room to the other at the blink of an eye. We hit the point where all of the low-sitting breakables and possible ouchie things had to be moved up higher. His favorite things to do are to climb under the coffee table, seek out any and all cords and play climb mount Mommy. That said, there is pretty much no more working while he's awake (as I write this he is on the bottom shelf of the coffee table near my feet - see picture). He's been a little clingy as well, and anyone that knows me knows that I have a very hard time letting him fuss for more than 30 seconds before I give in and pick him up. That all said, naptime has been reserved for cutting fabric and working on copy for the website...things that need immediate attention to move forward.
So, we still have a bit of work to do on the site - writing some copy and dealing with some technical coding. I'm hoping this will be done within the next week or so. I have also designed a couple more super cute pant sets that need to be photographed...that should be done mid-next week.
Perfection takes time - I'd rather have a site that I am perfectly happy with, than a site that I am constantly re-evaluating in my head.

Fall 2010

Just a few pictures of what is to come! Media - please contact Lola Red PR @ (612) 333-1723 for pictures and more information. All items are made from organic and eco-friendly materials and will be available at buttersandbeans.com in October of 2010.

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Teryn Glenn Photography

Photo by Nancy Hauck, Liz J. Design Company

Photo by Nancy Hauck, Liz J. Design Company

Photo by Nancy Hauck, Liz J. Design Company

Photo by Nancy Hauck, Liz J. Design Company

Buzzing Week

A week of buzz - photo shoot in t-3, first pieces of production due tomorrow (dresses and pants finally coming in), PR, screenprinters, website programming going on...
Butters heart appointment today with the pediatric cardiologist - hopefully we'll have some answers about the hole in his baby heart. Feeling a little somber until we get through this appointment...

Break before craziness...

Well, almost a break. When I say a break, I mean my web developer is off today and I do not have any meetings or appointments. I have some media things to work on (media is hearting us already!), and some writing to do and some numbers to crunch, but that would be considered a break.
Tomorrow on the other hand is going to be one of "those" days. My Mother-In-Law gets in from Jersey (actually a wonderful thing - I adore her) at 1:30 so I have to pick her up from the airport, I have a meeting with my merchant account company at 3:00, and then we have the last of our cutting to finish up at 6:30. I also have to approve the final web design - just the basic design aspect of the home and secondary pages - so we can stay on deadline and move into the programming phase of development. This will mean a lot of emailing back and forth with my developer and constant checking of updates she makes to the current design. This may not sound like much to the average person, but you need to factor in all of the in between stuff like, um, kids? And having an extra person in the house. Janie is easy to have here - she is not one that needs to be entertained, but I know I'll want to sit and chat with her after she gets in and I won't really have the time to do that. Chatting will have to wait till Saturday...
Personal note is that my fat cat, Miles, thinks he's a dog. He's a huge Maine Coon, and is an indoor/outdoor cat. He does everything a dog does - meows to get outside and inside when he wants to, follows us around the yard and the house, hops up on the couch on our laps when we are watching TV, sleeps on his "bed" (a blanket on the chaise in the living room), rolls on his back so you can scratch his belly...I wonder if he was raised with dogs? He's the best cat ever and is huge but is so docile. "Beans" comes over and has tried to ride him on several occasions - failed every time unfortunately - and he just saunters away like it's not a big deal, but he's just not having it. Oh - and he chases and meows at the squirrels. And walks around the yard and pees on everything to mark his territory. Hilarious.

A little overwhelmed.

There is a lot going on right now, a lot to keep track of both in my head and in my planner. Bank stuff, budgeting, website stuff, media stuff, writing the bio/organics info, obviously production, the photo shoot, PR...a lot to handle. And then there's the kiddoos (priority) in between all of this. Lots of meetings...my phone rings constantly. I went over my phone plan last month by 2800 minutes - time for that unlimited plan. Luckily AT&T backdated my plan (one of the few things they've done right in the last five years).
Eight days till photo shoot!

Almost done cutting...

We are so close to being done with the cutting phase...which is kind of boring, so that makes me happy. There are two bolts left that haven't been cut and we are taking care of that tomorrow night. Thi and I took care of a lot of cutting last night - we finished up the bibs, travel blankies and large blankies. I am SO loving the fabrics and the way they are going to look finished. The fleece is so soft...there is such a huge difference in the way organics feel as opposed to regular cottons. Every time I roll out the bolts of fleece or herringbone I just want to curl up in them...
I've spent a large amount of time the last couple days writing our mission statement and our "Why Organics?" statement for the website. It amazes me the facts I've found about non-organic cottons. It takes one POUND of chemicals to produce three pounds of cotton? Amazing, and absolutely disgusting.
I finished up the cutest upcycled travel blankie made out of a turtleneck, sweater and pair of cords...darling, I absolutely heart it. I'd love to post a pic, but I know that's a major no-no. Must wait until October! The anticipation is killing me, and I know it's only going to get worse! I've gotten other big news as well that I can't share and it drives me insane - I'm a terrible secret-keeper...you should put the below stamp on my forehead!

More cutting...

I think this is going to be the news for the next week or so. It's quite a process, and there's four bolts of fabric that haven't even been touched yet. Yikeroos. We're going to be in a time crunch soon which is exactly what I didn't want. Photo shoot is in 11 days, and we need a least one of every piece in every size for pictures. I was cutting last night (with one wonderful friend that came over to help me) and got a few pieces done. I'm going to get as much as I can done today, and just keep plugging away at it by myself until we have another cutting night where all my seamstresses are here. We should be able to get the rest done at that point.
On the upside - the weather is MUCH nicer, the humidity broke and it cooled down. Only in Minnesota can you have a 40 degree temperature swing in a matter of 24 hours...feels like fall and is absolutely beautiful outside.

BIG news...

Butters has slept through the night for the last three nights. That tops anything I can think of... :)

Cutting, cutting and more cutting...

SO much cutting last night. All of us were on the floor cutting. My body is sore today from being squished into a corner to make room to spread the bolts of fabric out and cut at the same time. We were able to get 45 dresses, 36 pants and 12 bibs cut. Some has to wait as we haven't gotten the organic sherpa or the organic fleece in yet. The sherpa should be here today or tomorrow, the fleece next week (I'm hoping, they are behind on production). Now, it's finally time to start putting everything together. Thi had a few upcycled items done and LOVE them...super cute dresses. One she did out of an old flannel shirt, one out of an old pique polo mixed with a cotton t. A-dorable.

Shipments!

Got our tags and LOVE them! Perfect. Also got our fabric stamp - we are using our scrap fabric for our outer tags and stamping it with our logo to be as waste conscious as possible. I had to try it out right away and ADORE it. I also got our industrial snap press, which is exciting for me, but probably not as exciting to read about... :) I'll forgo the details and pics of that.

Where to even start...

On a personal note or a professional note? The professional side is fairly fun and light-hearted, so we'll start there.

Everyone will be here at 3:00 (T-minus 2 and a half hours) to start cutting the organics. We've already started the upcycled items, which I am SO looking forward to, but the organics are the big dog of our business. Elizabeth should have some sample herringbone dresses put together for me today, so I am absolutely STOKED to see them. I'm going to try to get a model over to the house so we can take some pictures and post them on FB and Twitter. It'll probably be a long night...we have over 200 pieces to cut.

Personal side is a bit harder to discuss. Butters' echo didn't come back positively. He has a small hole in one of the valves in his heart. It's called ASD, and is apparently fairly common and often heals itself over time, however it is obviously scary from my standpoint. We moved him back into our room last night - just more comfortable for me. Shed some tears yesterday, but try to think about the aspect that it is normally not a huge deal, and normally something that corrects itself. It also sounds though, like often they DO patch the hole through open heart surgery to prevent later problems. We see the Cardiologist on the 23rd and will find out more then.

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/CongenitalHeartDefects/AboutCongenitalHeartDefects/Atrial-Septal-Defect-ASD_UCM_307021_Article.jsp

And another cute logo...

Hearts. Thank you Liz J. Designs. :)

Not so bad.

Today wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It never is as bad as you imagine it to be right? Your mind builds things up to be terrible, but they always seem to work out okay.
Butters's appointment went great. He slept in a bit, which pushed his 1st naptime back a bit. Worked out golden. He waited so patiently during the echo, spending most of it sucking away at a bottle. We should find out the results tomorrow. I just keep telling myself that everything HAS to be fine.
Meetings went well. The web meeting was amazing - I actually got to look at a bunch of options for the home page that were based on my initial ideas. I feel like she took my ideas to another level and put a great spin on them...the artwork was beautiful and I loved the layout. It will be both visually stimulating yet simplistic at the same time - very boutique-y, which is exactly what I wanted and expected. I adore it when people meet my expectations as it doesn't happen all too often (the higher my expectations, the lower my serenity). We discussed the elements that I wanted to keep, and we'll look at a few more options next week. I'm loving the direction we're going in.
Outside of writing this, no working tonight. Eating za, watching The Office and going to bed early. I haven't done that in weeks. More meetings tomorrow, and Thursday production and cutting starts on the organics....that'll be a HUGE day!

Can I just sleep through tomorrow, please?

Normally I'm good with being busy, but I've been dreading tomorrow for about a week. I think it's the heat...it's just TOO hot for anything besides lying on the couch watching Law & Order reruns. I normally love heat; but this is that icky, swimming, muggy, sweaty heat. It's just gross and seems to put everyone, not just me, in at least a little of a foul mood.
Butters has a doctor's appointment at Children's at 10:30 - which, of course, lands smack dab in what would normally be the middle of his nap. In addition to that, they are checking his heart as it seemed to be a little enlarged on an earlier x-ray taken during an issue we had a few months back. So stressful it will be, both emotionally and physically. Probably not the best day for me to have piled on more stuff.
Then I have some IRS paperwork to sign, and then off to a PR meeting, and then rush back to a web meeting. All of that before 7. And, I have a stack of business insurance paperwork calling my name that I keep starting but easily get sidetracked from because it just isn't fun or interesting in any way.
So I should be in bed, right? Right.