Six Months


Half a year. Oh I love this girl.

Looks much like last month.

But oh how things have changed!


The biggest thing is the moving. She’s moving! I was going to say scooting all over and rocking back and forth and trying to crawl. But I can’t. Because today, at 6 months and 1 day, she’s full on crawling. One hand in front of the other, crawling. Pry this piece of paper out of my hand, did you know there were crumbs on the floor, crawling. Oh how fast it goes. She is just so sweet and happy. There is one little thing… the sleep. Maybe she’s just too cool for sleep? I’m not sure, because she seems to need less than most humans I know. Did I edit these photos? No. Am I three months behind on Project Life? Yes. Is there laundry EVERY where? Yes. I’m not going to lie, I’ve got some dark circles under my eyes. Coke is keeping me going, though I am trying to break the habit, that and the enormous amount of Red Vines I’ve been eating in place of every other candy I want to eat. Yes, I’m still on no dairy/no soy. And we’re going on almost a month in the clear.
She has a rash that I can’t get rid of. And now she has dry skin on her knees from the crawling and pushing up. Day one of crawling yielded TWO scratches on her head! But the goopy eye is gone! It just up and fixed itself, just like the doctor said it would, a few weeks ago. I’m sure she’s glad I’m no longer coming at her constantly with little rags to tidy her up.
I know I said this before, but my word does this girl love her sister. Tuesday can accidentally fall off the bed onto her (oops) and ten seconds later Bennet is all, “Tuesday your dancing is so awesome, I love your singing, your smile, anything you say!” True she seems to like Bj and I well enough, but it just does not compare to the admiration shown for her sister.
Elimination Communication is going great with Bennet. At this point with Tuesday we had only just started the potty, and really not even that much. Bennet has been rocking the potty since right before she turned three months. I’m going to do a whole post on it, but the only problem we run into is that she definitely prefers the potty to going in her diaper (not that we blame her), so she can put up a fuss when she has to (the car, inconvenient shopping situations, walks). Do I wash less diapers? Somehow no. More on that later.
I would like to sleep more than an hour and a half at a time (sob), but I really can’t complain. It helps that I read blogs in the middle of the night while nursing/cuddling and often they are full of loss. I just don’t know why I’m so lucky. But I want to take every minute I can to enjoy it. So I just bury my head right in her little neck and breath it in and sigh. Sleep will come another day.
5 months, 4 months, 3 months, 2 months, 1 month.

Car Party for a four year old (not “Cars”)

So Tuesday wanted a car party. A car party? Well she originally said she wanted her friends to bring over their tricycles and bikes, but I explained that would be hard to do in the winter. So we settled on smaller modes of transport, little cars! I didn’t really plan much until the week before because I was sure she was going to change her mind. But we sent out four invitations in the shape of cars and we were on our way!
Car party invitation
I used a basic car shape on my Silhouette, and then welded it together to make a simple card. Using the print and cut feature I made the wording and Tuesday glued it in. She loved being involved in this and picking the right color of cars for all her friends.

I kept the favors simple, a roll of road washi tape and a matchbox car. Sciarrino found these awesome tubes so we had some tunnels they could race down.
cardboard box cars
The other activity we did was make these cardboard box cars. I had random stuff out, scissors, glue, glue sticks, and a glue gun (lots of glue options needed for pre-schoolers!). They went nuts putting stuff on their boxes to make the cars. Then we raced around upstairs on the “road”:
Indoor car party road
Since I decided on everything so late I ended up with black plastic table cloth from the party store. Do yourself a favor and use black paper with yellow duct tape.

Aunt Sciarrino came dressed as a road, which we thought was awesome. Good thing she brought extra tape for us so we could be decked out too!

And whats a party with out cake? I’m not above ordering a cake from the store (was totally planning on it), but one of her friends has a severe peanut allergy so that would have been too risky. Instead we got to create this masterpiece. Jelly Belly decorations 🙂
A great low key party. Tuesday had a blast. And did I mention it was  drop off party? As in the parents dropped off the kiddos. I think that made it seem extra special and fun (and we had Bj, me, Sciarrino and Kathy so plenty of adults). I think in the future I will keep parties simple like this, following the girls’ leads. It’s their special day after all!

And here’s to four

Oh my sweet “baby girl” is four! I can’t quite believe it!

She requested a green shirt with a green four, so of course mama had to deliver. I traced a hand drawn one of fabric so it was more like the “4” she is learning. A tiny bit of interfacing on the back of the shirt is making my machine appliqué on tees go so much easier by the way. I very lightly tack it down with an iron and then cut the excess off the back when I’m done sewing.

I sacrificed sleep the night before to make the shirt and decided at 11 o’clock that night that I should put up pictures of her first four years (and I didn’t even have them printed). As you can see it was very much worth it. Her Nana made her the sweet crown.

She loved seeing all the pictures and talking about when she was little. It was really fun for her to see pictures of her at the same age as Bennet, doing the same things (riding in the infant carseat, playing in the exersaucer, etc.).

Sarah made me this sweet banner from old game cards (and she’s selling them in her shop too).

We were able to have a big family dinner the night of her birthday. She requested homemade pizza, and got it. She was a bit overwhelmed by all the attention on her and started crying when we said it was time to open presents, but she came around.
I was going to post about her car party, but I’ll do that in a separate post, I’ve been drafting this one for a week as it is!
And of course, the survey at four years (see three years here).
1. Favorite color? Bright Pink
2. Favorite toy? Playmobil
3. Favorite fruit? Apples
4. Favorite TV show? Thomas
5. Favorite thing for lunch? Silly lunch (what we call muffin tin lunches)
6. Favorite outfit? Pink
7. Favorite game? Busytown
8. Favorite snack? Bunny Crackers
9. Favorite animal? Teeny Tinies (small animals I guess?)
10. Favorite song? Raffi
11. Favorite book? I’m Fast
12. Best friend? Mama
13. Favorite cereal? Gorilla Munch
14. Favorite thing to do outside? Clean up the garden
15. Favorite drink? Juice
16. Favorite holiday? Opening Presents
17. Favorite thing to take to bed? Teddy Bear
18. Favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Soup
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Homemade Pizza
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Finger knitter
21. What do you want to do when you grow up? Eat

Hot Rocks – Last minute gift for your kids to make

I LOVE this project.

We did this last year with our playgroup. While yes, it can be a little dangerous (the pin I found this idea from recommends ages seven and up). Yes, you get the rocks very hot (350 degree oven for 15 minutes). But I found that Tuesday could handle this well. She did it first when she was just three years old and now at almost four really understands that they are HOT. One little tiny touch and they get it. Make sure you are comfortable with this activity because I think that touching the hot wax would be terrible, it would be the burn that keeps on giving. That didn’t happen to us, luckily.

I had this project set up and ready to go for when Carmen and her family stopped by before they left town (sad face, we miss them!). Cardboard works great to protect the table. Take the wrappers off of crayons ahead of time (we soaked them in water to facilitate this). Having some foil down on a cookie sheet is a nice place to put the rocks once they are decorated (use tongs to move them once they have crayon).
You need:
River rocks and crayons (the glitter/shimmer are so awesome for this – target sells an exclusive glitter only pack, trust me, you want it)
Hot pads, tongs, scrap cardboard, foil, cookie sheets
We scrubbed the rocks (I went to get a bucket full at a local landscape place and they just gave them to us because it was such a small amount). Tuesday loved this part of the project.

Bowl of dirty rocks, bowl of warm water, soap, jug of water, potato scrubber, and rags. Cookie sheet with a towel on it for them to dry on. I would switch out the water when it got too mucky. Make sure your rocks are really dry before you put them in the oven. I’ve heard they can crack and explode. I don’t really know if this is true, but it made me nervous enough to wait until the next day to put them in a hot oven.
After experimenting with this last year I found it easier to keep the over hot (350 degrees) even after the 15 minutes was up and then slowly get the rocks out one at a time. Once they start to cool the fun is over.

I gave Tuesday an old knife to move around the rock on her work space. It’s fun to experiment with different strokes on the rocks, holding the crayons to the rocks for different amounts of time, overlapping colors, carving back into the wax, etc. The glitter/shimmer (i.e. silver) crayons are much more opaque than the regular colors.

I could sit and do this all day long. Bj says the crayons give off a bad smell. It didn’t bother us, but you may want ventilation.

Viola! Call them pretty things, or paper weights. Put googly eyes on them and make faces. Put them with a little bouquet. We keep some outside and they are holding up great. I think if you live in a very hot area that might not be the case, but we don’t have that problem.

Five Months

The last month seemed the longest and quickest at the same time. So much to do, so many fun things, so many people to see. Even though it was a nice long month, I still can’t quite believe that she is five months already! I really remember this time last year, the uncertainty, not telling anyone I was pregnant. The surprise Christmas present for the grandparents. And now here she is, five months old! What a year.

Not a lot of pictures this month. I took them on the 21st as it is. She was a bit fussy…

Miss Teething Pants.

And then I forgot to keep wiping her eye (I do it all day long, her tear duct is blocked), so it was goopy eye. Not a huge difference from last month. I doubt she’s gained much weight, I think she’s at just about 12 pounds. We continue to have issues with her digestion/food/nursing/who knows what. I thought our problems were solved and have been so diligent in avoiding any and all diary/soy (I miss you cookies). I did have a little slip up, who would have thought dairy was in wasabi paste? Not me!  I’m not sure what else is going on or if I’ll have to cut out more from my diet. It seems like half guessing game to me, which I don’t like. It only occasionally seems to bother her, but I find the blood in the stool to be disconcerting none the less.
In better news she is so happy! What makes her so happy? Why big sister Tuesday of course. You’d think Tuesday was a unicorn riding on a rainbow the way Bennet tracks her around the room and squeals with glee when she comes near. Tuesday is taking her “making Bennie happy” job very seriously and is always ready to give Bennet a kiss, make a little dance for her, or giggle with her. A-FREAKING-DORABLE. I can’t believe I get to watch these two grow up together, they are so awesome.
I have some serious back log of ideas/fun show and tells/updates, will get to them when I can. One more little post at least before Christmas if you need a fun last minute gift for your kiddos to make!
4 months, 3 months, 2 months, 1 month.

Family Love

Like many of you all I want to do these days is cuddle my girls. Never have I appreciated their funny faces, Tuesday’s silly sayings, and Bennet’s middle of the night wakings as much as I do now. I can’t stop thinking about the school shooting in Connecticut. Things like this tend to stick in my head, and it’s all I can do not to feel overwhelmed by the thoughts of what if, how can we change, what can we do.

(photo by my friend Angela)

I find myself glad that I don’t have to explain anything because they are so young and innocent. If only I could keep them in a bubble, I think. But I know that does more harm than good. So for now I am just enjoying absolutely everything about them, and trying not to roll my eyes when Tuesday screams (and screams) because her hair is caught in the carseat strap.

Back with some fun little projects soon.

Etsy and new quilts

What a fun December we’ve had so far, it’s gone too quickly. I’ll be back with some of the projects and activities we’ve been working on, but I wanted to give you a heads up that I finally listed some quilts up on Etsy. I had to wait for daylight + no rain + no children. A rare combo. I didn’t think I was going to get any daylight this week, it’s been so very dark, but the clouds were thin today and I made it work. Here are a few of my favs.

This one is actually earmarked for my photographer friend Angela She picked a different quilt and I just listed this one! I love the fabric on the back. So happy she’s getting this one.

Another back that I love:

It’s a Pottery Barn duvet I bought and took apart, I love the little bits of text throughout.

And the front:

I so love my labels.


I wanted to do something special since it took me a while to get these up. I’m offering free shipping until December 19th – and it will get to you in time for Christmas! Here is another link to my shop!
 

We’re so crafty

Sciarrino and I survived our first craft show experience! It was such a good learning experience for us. And I’m so thankful for all of you wonderful people who stopped by! It certainly made the long show (3 days!) go quickly. We had a couple versions of the booth as we moved things around and learned what customers wanted to look at most (all photos from my phone!).

and later…

Sciarrino and I also had our little mascot with us, as Tuesday says, “Bennet has to go everywhere mama goes! She can only drink mama milk!” Bennet was so great, mostly because my mother in law totally came through for me.

Seriously a special shout to Kathy for walking Bennet around, taking her out to the car to play, and generally being awesome. Oh did I mention she also sewed until 2 am with us and did pretty much any and all odd tasks we needed help with? Yup, she rocked. Bennet was happy to see other guests at the show as well, here she is with Sciarrino’s man:

Cute, right? She was pretty much in happy spirits the whole show.
So what did we learn? That this probably isn’t the show for us. It is a lot more traditional and we were definitely the most modern thing there. We were also some of the youngest proprietors. We had a great reaction to our stuff from the younger audience, it’s just that most of the people shopping were older (much, much older). I’m so glad we did it still. I think it would be hard to go out for one of our favorite craft shows never having had a booth at all before.
But before we attempt another show we are putting our stuff up on Etsy! Here is the link to our shop: Life in Color/Bear Design. If you look at it right this moment there are probably only a few things up. We’re slowly getting things up there, and figuring out shipping and all that jazz. In fact if you order from us make a note in the comments won’t you? We’ll make sure any extra shipping gets refunded to you!
So check out the Etsy shop and thanks again for all the support!