I got the idea to do this photo shoot when The Captain was little. I didn't do it with him because he's a boy that would have just confused people. Not that his gender has limited his dancing abilities.
Anyway, I totally lucked out that my second was a girl. Also, I lucked out that only one of my pre-cut peach tulle pieces was used for the February wreath because that meant I could make this in about one hour. (I mean the tutu, of course. I made the baby, too, but that took more like 9 months. Babies are much harder to make.)
Please forgive my complete lack of editing. I was too excited to wait. Don't worry Grandparents, there's one on the way for you. A cute one. One I didn't post. But one I did edit.
It's been a little bit since we checked in with the kiddos. So here's what's happening at our house:
The Captain
He's a potty training fiend. He's doing so well. He made it through the night once without wetting the bed. He is pretty good about going poop on the potty and recognizing when he needs to.
The difficult thing is, he's really good at holding his pee and going to the potty is not so exciting anymore. Consequently he will just refuse to go and after so long has an accident. That has only happened once or twice. Usually, with some creative toddler reasoning we can convince him to at least sit on the potty at which point he immediately starts to pee and says something great like, "Look, Mommy, I did have peeps in me." Yup, sometimes I do know what I'm talking about, Kiddo.
I can't believe he's doing so well after only a month and a half. Good job, Buddy.
He's generally a good helper these days, too. And though we have more full-blown tantrums, he usually listens to my direction to breathe and calm down before asking/talking to me again using a nice voice.
Joy
She just had a 6 month check up. She really is our petite princess, weighing a whopping 13 lbs. 9 oz. 8th percentile. She's 26" which is 64% about. So my job is to fatten her up a bit. Solid foods to the rescue. I mix up her rice cereal with breast milk, something I didn't do for The Captain, and I added feedings without taking away any nursing time. That means it feels like we're back to newborns since I'm feeding her every 2 hours or so. Luckily, she's cute and alert and fairly independent so that's the only thing that is newborn-esque.
We will be taking 6 month pics for the grandparents soon, so look forward to that in the mail.
And apparently, we're throwing a party for The Captain's birthday next month. I'm starting that planning early since my time is usually otherwise occupied (hello 4 entire Old Testament books in one week. Ahh!). Good thing for Pinterest, I can steal other people's brilliance for awhile.
I think Virginia Woolf would be very disappointed in me. After weeks of internal debate, a few chewed off fingernails, and a couple reality checks I am giving up own of my most prized possessions--a room of my own.
My beloved sewing room is no more. Goodbye wide open floors for cutting, perpetual chaos and at least two or three project continually stroon about. Goodbye my naptime sanctuary. I'm not giving you up because I no longer have time for any projects, though I don't (yet the project list keeps growing, and somehow I do occasionally get to cross one off). I feel the cause is just. I'm giving my daughter a room of her own.
To ease the pain, I got to do something I have wanted to do since we moved into this house . . . paint stripes on this wall. So here is a review of the project that only took me a week. And I'm proud to say I did all the taping myself, though The Captain helped to take it off.
First we taped big and small stripes and painted them. In hind sight, we wished we would have done the small stripes blue, green, pink instead of green, pink, blue. Would have had a cooler effect, but oh well.
Here's the whole wall.
Now without the tape. Pretty sweet.
But we're not done yet. See where we're going with this?
Pin striping.
Voila!
And the close up.
Best little girl's room ever? Well, I leave that up to you to judge. We have been known to do crazy kid rooms around here. . .
it's another one that I didn't have instructions for online. Consequently, what looked pretty straight forward was actually a little difficult. So I'm going to do something I might not again, which is post my finished wreath first. Because my instructions won't be at all useful if you don't want a wreath like mine.
And these are the other versions to emerge:
For these you need a thin hoop and lots of strips of tulle. Simply tie the strips on the hoop and add a ribbon.
For my version you need:
10" embroidery hoop ($3 @ JoAnn's)
4 pieces of tulle, 22" x 2 yrds. (I bought some bolts online for $12, so everyone chipped in $5)
straight pins
rubber band
glue gun & sticks
a tool to help you glue. Mine was that green dough cutter. Because tulle has holes. And hot glue is hot.
Sparkly, curly q's ($1.50 after Christmas sale @ Walmart)
scissors
Valentine ribbon (already had)
Total $9.50
1) First spread out the tulle and layer the colors whatever way you want them in the final wreath. Mine was red, white, red, white.
2) Next fold the tulle until it's half of it's original length, or 1 yrd. Use the straight pins to keep it the shape you want.
3) This step is the hardest. Arrange the tulle in a circle on top of the bottom of the embroidery hoop. Since the idea is to close the hoop over the tulle and fold the tulle over, you need to fit the tulle around the hoop at half of the height, or about 11". This is difficult because you have half the tulle sticking up in your way.
This is where the rubber band comes in.
4) Rubber band the tulle in the middle and close the other half of the embroidery hoop over the tulle. Take off the straight pins.
5) Fold the tulle over the embroidery hoop. Use hot glue to keep the tulle flat and in the position you want.
6) Cut the curly q's to the length you want. Glue them onto the embroidery hoop so they stick out in the middle of the wreath.
7) Put the ribbon around the wreath. Tie a bow and hang.
My favorite part of my wreath is my ribbon. I already has this transparent white ribbon that I couldn't really use for sewing. I also had lots of tiny buttons I bought in a lot sale on eBay because the rest of the buttons are good for I Spy bags (that's another post). Anyway, I cut out a heart on paper, put the ribbon over it and glued the buttons around it. I love how it turned out.
Okay, so this is not really a national holiday, but I bet it could be. I assume, based on my in-depth knowledge of females, that they would rather break some boy's heart after V-day than before. Because you already have those plans made and the perfect gift you bought a week or two before . . . yeah, definitely break up the day after Valentine's.
I know so many people (my 17 yr. old version of myself included) who get bitter about Valentine's Day. I used to call it Single Awareness Day in college. I personally have had some very crappy Valentine's Days. The two most memorable happened after I was married. But I've also had some awesome Valentine's Days. And lots and lots of unmemorable ones that, well, I obviously can't remember.
To combat the cynicism, I usually choose to dress for the occasion. It's amazing what a pink ribbon can do for the spirits, not to mention a well-planed, detailed outfit. But I still thought Valentine's was a big commercial crock set up by greetingcard companieswho just want to earn money again after Christmas sales . . . until I read a great article in, of all places, a parenting magazine I got a free subscription for.
It was written by a husband/father directed at men and it stated that while, yes, you can look at the holiday as another potential romantic failure waiting to happen, why not look at it as a day to celebrate love instead. Because while wives may prefer random flowers, or romantical outings, or spontaneous "I love you"s, husbands aren't always good about those things. So at least there is one day a year specifically set aside to remind husbands (and wives) that they can do more to show their love.
That's why this year I decided to do a little love tribute for V-day on my blog. Because I can certainly use the reminder to do more to show my husband and my sweet kids how great they are, and that I love them lots and lots. Hopefully I shared some love with you too. Because I do love you too. Because Valentine's Day is about friends and family and random acts of kindness from strangers, all of which I have.
So forget the bitter and hopeless and embrace the love that really is all around. And Happy Valentine's Day next year. (I'm getting a head start.)
If I was a wiser woman, or slightly more in control of my life, I would break all these random thoughts into individual posts and expound on them, thus creating a week's worth of posts and happy grandparents, but alas, I'm not that woman. So here are some random thoughts on this February morning.
Joy is a ridiculous child. Some children have quirks that only come out when they're tired. For example, some are biters, or get clumsy, or start yelling. Joy wants to be upside down, but only when she's tired. It is a strange and observable fact documented by outsiders. When she starts arching her back and grinning up a storm from her view of the underside of my chin, it's time to pull out the blankets for a good swaddle and a nap.
Since we've started potty training, we've emphasized the importance of washing our hands. We've talked about things that are dirty and why we have to wash our hands. To help The Captain be a successful hand-washer, I sing the ABC song every time we wash our hands so he rubs his hands together long enough for the germs that only toddlers could collect to go away. Consequently, a week or so ago, he started singing the ABC song on his own. In fact, he loves to sing it to himself in bed instead of napping, or yelling it while running around the house. So I asked him to sing it for the camera. I didn't caption it because I have no idea what he says at the beginning. In the middle he talks about how Grandma and Grandpa love to see his trucks. Also, his sigh at the beginning kills me.
Apparently, people listen to me. This is a strange idea for me as not many people in my past did. But I've had two examples in the past 24 hours to remind me to be careful.
1) The Captain is on a name kick. He loves to tell people his name and ask people what his name is and what their name is. We've been working on introducing him to the "last name" concept. And he's doing really well. So he knows his first and last name. But I haven't worried about middle names. Apparently that was a mistake. Johnny was putting The Captain down for bed yesterday and talking to him about his name. He told him his full name and The Captain freaked out and said, "I'm not [insert full name here]. That's not what Mommy said."
2) In seminary today, we were talking about the dangers of "steadying the ark". I brought up some more controversial topics in the church (i.e. gay marriage and women & the Priesthood). They said, "women don't need the Priesthood, we're equal to men without it. That's what you taught us." Wow, the referred to lesson was the first of this year, if not last year. I had no idea they were listening. I guess my coordinator was right. You must be very careful what you say as a seminary teacher because they take everything as doctrine.
It's scary, but it's nice to know someone is listening sometimes.
