It's Tuesday?

I'm still on Monday! Hubby's sick, kids are little monsters (but I love them anyhow!) and I can't seem to sit down and post all the great things I've been working on!  Let's face it, for me sewing is my meditation, my relax time, me time--you get the picture.  Without it I'd be a bigger monster than I am these days!

So on the monster theme, check out the tutorial I wrote a while back on how to make your own monster stuffies!

Mommy Monday—gotta work on the math!

Sunday morning, husband is sick and barely able to talk. Oldest child has fed youngest child, so parents got to sleep an extra hour—as did MissyD, the 4yr old.

Usually, our daily routine begins with the youngest waking up the whole house, so to say that Sunday morning was a departure from that routine is an understatement!

When MissyD finally woke up, she crawled into my side of the bed and asked (in a whisper) if I could make her breakfast.

Of course I could, up she got and went straight to the dining room to wait for me to complete my morning business.  Once I got to the kitchen I realized that the oldest had already fed the youngest (hence the extra sleep) and left food for MissyD too.

Great!

MissyT is playing dollies quietly and I ask if she’d like some more raisin bread and maybe some milk.  At the same time I’m putting another slice in front of MissyD, cut in half.

You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now?

Right away I hear “I wanted a whole piece mommy!”

OK, no problem, here’s a whole.  MissyT’s is cut in half, but she was still playing with her dolls and totally engrossed, so I got away with it.

Then I take the cut in half piece of bread and give each girl a slice.

Now in MissyD’s mind: her sister had three pieces on her plate, and she only has two.

You see where I’m going with this?

There were no tears, but the look on MissyD’s face said: “this is so wrong!”  No amount of reasoning would convince her that both plates had the same amount of food on them.  She sat there pouting, refusing to let me cut her “whole” piece.

Being the good mother I am I gave up and went to check e-mail.

Fifteen minutes later in comes MissyD asking if I could cut her bread in half.  Once the newly cut bread was in front of her, she did the plate comparison again.  Satisfied that she and her sister had the same amount she proceeded to eat, smile and chit-chat.

Ah, balance restored.

Then the MissyT finally makes it to the table—remember she’s two.  She proceeds to tell me that she already had one whole piece, now she’s having another whole piece and a half, for a grand total of two and a half pieces! (the child is beginning to scare me!)

MissyD  tells her that she’s having 3 halves, not a whole and a half.

Balance turned upside down, spun around and smacked on the ground.

“YES, Girls, you are both right!”

Blank looks given to mom.  Mom distracts kids with offer of chocolate milk.

Ah, balance restored….except for that little math thing….guess we missed teaching a child math…probably should do something about that….hmmm, think I could get the two year old to teach her older sister?

more Halloween de-stashing: ghouls night out vest

I'm afraid to even try to figure out when I bought this vest panel.  I know it was sometime in the last 10 years!

It's a Daisy Kingdom panel, I bought matching "ghouls night out" fabric to make dresses for my girl (now girls!)...it's still in my stash...next project!  Really!

I found this bubbly, swirly purple which didn't look too bad with the other colors in the vest and decided to line the vest (even though the instructions don't call for a lining).  All I did was trace the cut out vest peices onto the fabric and cut, sew the lining same as the vest, and put the two together!

Overall, it turned out cute.  I'll be wearing it to the classroom parties I'll be headed to in the coming weeks.

Halloween de-stashing...Hello Kitty Dress

How cute is a Halloween Hello Kitty dress?





Dang cute!

My two year old is loving it.



I'm linking over to http://cheapchichome.blogspot.com/  & http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/ & http://www.amylouwho.com/   and other linky parties found on the right!  Come and join the party!

Thank you Kim for featuring me on Cheap Chic Home!!

Gymnastics suits

My littlest girls are going to gymnastics. So much fun and joy to be had on their lesson days!

But has anyone out there looked at the prices of gymnastics suits? Even ballet suits?

I don’t seem to recall them being that pricey 6 yrs ago when I bought outfits for my oldest! Too bad those don’t yet fit the littlest of my bunch!

Any who, I also bought a bunch of patterns to make my suits years ago, which needless to say never got done. The patterns have been sitting forgotten in my pattern stash boxes. So imagine how surprised I was to find this one when I recently took to organizing my patterns and pulling out what I wanted to work on this fall and winter!

The thing to remember with BURDA patterns is that there really isn’t a seam allowance. Generally, for me, this isn’t an issue since I tend to cut big.

Round one,  I didn’t cut big enough (or take into account the diaper: child when will you potty train already!)

Round two turned out better, but still a tad tight on the Miss. D.  When I make these again I'll go a size bigger for her.

I finally settled for the blue for trim…but I think I will have to run an elastic through it. The neck line just bags a bit too much without it.

I also think I’m going to do an applique on each suit….maybe an owl? Or bird silhouette?

What do you think?

Mommy Monday: WHO TAUGHT THE TWO YEAR OLD TO COUNT?

I’m a mom to 4 little monsters (it is October, they deserve the title), and so I’m dedicating Mondays to all those crazy mommy related things I talk about on the playground, with my friends, with other mommies, to random strangers, to whoever may be or may not be listening…because sometimes, mommies have to VENT share too. :)

So welcome to the first edition of Mommy Monday: 

I’ll brag, my kids are smart.

Maybe in the smarty pants sort of way, but we’re proud of them anyway.  They each have their own quirks and they all have a real thirst for knowledge.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with what they know and where they learned it from.

Being a mommy is sometimes exhausting, and sometimes my brain goes numb.  Did I teach them that?  Do they know this? After four kids, the repetition of each age and stage blends into one another, so I end up relying on the older kids to teach the younger.  Not always the smartest thing.  A couple of years ago I was saying the 2 yr old has the humor of a 6 yr old boy (and it hasn’t gotten much better since).

When I try to realistically look back at all those ages and stages, and evaluate my emotions about them for each child, I realize just how differently I’ve reacted to each child:

1. When missyM, my oldest was able to recite the alphabet and recognize random letters before she turned two, we were proud.


2. When we realized MrA, the second child, had such a large vocabulary before the age of 3, we were relieved (the child didn’t talk until 2 and then had a speech impediment, so we were always asking him to use a different word to explain his garbled sentences.  Like the time he couldn’t say “turkey” instead translated “you know that bird we have for Thanksgiving.”)


3. When missyD recognized all her colors and started telling us what “matched” around the age of 2, proclaiming herself a budding fashionista, we were amused.


4. When missyT, the fourth child, the youngest, the one who picks up everything from her older siblings does something at, above or below the curve, we just roll our eyes, sometimes burst out laughing or just thank the Lord that this is our last child to raise.

Number four is our stubborn child.  The one I fully expect to give us headaches as she goes through all the fun girl stages.  Hopefully she surprises us only in good ways (knock wood, say prayers, wish on stars...well you get the picture).

But while on the subject of surprises, who thought it would be a good idea to teach that child to count?

missyT: "I want a two egg omelet."

Me: "OK "(as I take one egg out, I know from past experience two eggs is too much for her)

missyT:  "not one egg mommy two!" (Standing at the fridge, ready to pitch a fit)

Me: (too early in the morning for missyT’s fit) "OK, mommy’s cracking another egg, see two eggs."

missyT: (nods looking satisfied, sits to wait for omelet)

Me: (cut omelet in half, serves her up a half)

missyT: (looks at plate, looks at me, puts on angry face and yells) "NOT HALF OMELET! WHOLE OMELET. NOW TWO PIECES!"

OMG! Seriously?  She knows the difference between half and whole?  You bet she does.  Once she got the other half on her plate she happily munched away, sending me the evil eye every so often.

Really, did we really thing it would be a good idea to teach this child anything when it always comes right back to bite us.

I can’t say she’s the best fit pitcher in the world, that honor would go to our son when he was her age.  But it’s never fun to start the morning with her throwing one, and being the stubborn child that she is, we can’t talk her out of her fits once she starts.  It’s her way or no way.

And it’s hard not to give in to the little terror.  Which is funny, because I never gave in to the three before her.

So of course, the morning went according to missyT’s schedual.  I swear she’s smarter than all of us combined to be able to make us all jump at her command.

Of course she only ate half of her omelet…and took a good long time to do it.

 MissyD said it best to all her preschool teachers today:

“daddy had to drive me because my little sister was screaming”

Teachers: “do you mean crying?”

MissyD: “no, screaming.  Nothing gets done when she’s screaming”

Out of the mouth of the 4 yr old…I couldn’t have said it better myself.