Some sewing for Wyatt

I made this cube for Wyatt using these instructions http://missgioia.com/2007/03/patchwork-cube-tutorial.html


And this sock monkey...


And these furry monsters

Annnnd this was supposed to be a ball, but somehow turned into a star : )

So I made another one and actually paid attention while I was sewing. So now we have a star and a ball.

I want to make a few more mosters and then I think I am done sewing for Mr. Wyatt for Christmas.

Isabel lost another tooth!

She was so proud!!! And now she can sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!"

A diaper for Christmas

I made this diaper for Wyatt with Gingerbread men on it for Christmas. It reminded me of Ginger on the Shrek movies and also made me really hungry for some of my Aunt Sharon's gingerbread men! I was testing out a pattern for a friend and it turned out really cute! I put in hidden snaps too! I think Wyatt liked it because he gave his poo of approval!

I embellished Wyatt's prefolds by adding fabric to the middle sections. Here are a few pics. I used flannel and wovens and it only took me a few hours to do all of them!

Update on the kiddos

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I'll give a brief little synopsis on each kiddo here.

Cameron is doing very well in school. He is making new friends and is looking forward to his first "playdate" with one of his new friends.

Isabel went to another birthday party yesterday at the Painted Penguin. She made a Tinkerbell ceramic figure and all of the girls looked like they had a great time!

Parker is done with his first seven week session of phonology class. I have been trying to think of things to do to keep him occupied while his brother and sister are at school.

Wyatt just popped his first tooth. He is trying more solid foods and is crawling EVERYWHERE now and is into EVERYTHING. : )

I'm still trying to finish up Halloween costumes. I am only making Wyatt's (pirate) and parts of Cameron's (also a pirate). Parker decided to be a dragon and thankfully we already had a dragon costume. Isabel is going to be a princess and she already had a princess dress to wear. I'll post some pictures when they are all dressed up. The older two are looking forward to their parties at school on Wednesday. All three of them can't wait to trick-or-treat. They already pointed out that they are going to get tons of candy from our new neighborhood. I think they are right about that. We are going to buy lots of candy to hand out too because I think we will get a huge number of trick or treaters.

Wyatt Has His First Tooth

Here it is. : )

It popped through last week. It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. I didn't even know he was teething. Maybe the amber teething necklace is helping!

Fluffy Mail

Wyatt and I were so excited to get two dozen unbleached premium chinese prefolds in the mail yesterday.

Here is a picture before washing:

And here there are after three cycles through the washer and dryer. They are nice and fluffy.

Of course the very first one that I put on Wyatt, he initiated by taking a poo. That is the ultimate seal of approval. : )

I also made several prefolds for him out of old t-shirts. I used the instructions here http://fernandfaerie.com/sewing_prefolds.html

Here is a picture of the first one. I added some terry for "grip" for the snappi.

I have several more done as well. These are really nice because they are super soft and have just a little stretch so they fit really well.

Kasey is now a Bud man

It's official. Kasey Kahne is now sponsored by Budweiser. : sigh:

TGIF

Whew! it's been one of those weeks! Random thoughts for Friday...

We have a new pet now. It is a lizard and his/her name is "Lizzy." I'm not too worried about the lizard getting out of the cage and running through the house as we have two cats that would probably put an end to any grandiose illusions of escape that little lizard may have. I am slightly more concerned about the two dozen crickets that are supposed to be the lizard's food.

Wyatt is growing up! He started saying "da da" yesterday. :sigh: He also can maneuver himself around pretty well now. He even gets up on his hands and knees and is able to scoot a bit. We are in for some big trouble around here.

Cameron got 100% on his spelling test last week! He is doing well in second grade, but I am surprised by the amount of homework he has to do every night. It takes him 1 hour + every night. I feel bad for him. I don't remember ever getting homework until middle school and I turned out just fine!

Isabel is also doing well in first grade. Her teacher just loves her to pieces. She is starting to be able to read more on her own and she is really excited about that. We are currently working out way through the Amelia Badelia books.

Parker is not feeling the preschool love. He only goes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, but when I pick him up, he says that he doesn't want to go back. Hopefully he will like it more as time goes on. I think he really misses his old preschool. He says that he wants to go back there just about every day. : ( He says that even Nonert (his imaginary friend) has refused to return with him.

Ugh! It looks like it is going to rain and we have to walk the kids to school again. We have a flat tire on the van so we have been walking every day this week. Guess I should start searching for those rain ponchos....

I think that's all for random thoughts Friday. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

How to diaper a baby....

Some people have been asking me about cloth diapers so I decided to post "how to" instructions. Enjoy!

Step 1: Locate a baby in need of a diaper. Show baby something fascinating such as his foot to keep him occupied during diapering.

Step 2: Gather necessary diapering supplies: Snappi, cover, diaper and lay out diaper next to baby. Baby should still be checking out that foot. : )

Step 3: fold top of diaper down 2-3 inches

Step 4: fold both sides of diaper into the middle section.

Step 5: fold out the back corners of the diaper so they look like wings.

Step 6: Now here's where that baby comes in handy. Lay baby's bum on center of diaper then proceed with great haste to step 7. If you pause even for a nanosecond, baby will start to roll away like in the picture below. If that happens center baby on diaper once again and try to renew baby's interest in his foot.

Step 7: pull diaper up through baby's legs and "fan out" the front wings.

Step 8: grab snappi from nearby supplies. This is where we ran into trouble making this tutorial. The Snappi in question had mysteriously disappeared somewhere between steps 2-7. If this happens to you, don't panic. Question all available subjects who were in the vicinity of said Snappi. In our case, that would be one preschooler and one black kitten.

If your inquiry proves fruitless as mine did, remain calm. Go to back-up supply of Snappis to retrieve another one. The first one will turn up eventually in some odd place at some unforseen time in the future. It will be like a little like opening a Christmas present when you come upon it unexpectedly while vacuuming under the couch cushions or getting a clog out of the bathtub drain.

Step 9: Return to baby only to find that steps 1-7 must be repeated all over again. :sigh:

Step 10: After repeated steps 1-7, pull front and back of diaper tight at each side and apply Snappi.




Step 11: attach center of Snappi and voila, a diapered baby.

Step 12: Add cover of your choice.

Step 13: Pat yourself on the back for another successful diapering adventure. And, don't be sad that the journey has ended, because you will be able to enjoy the experience all over again in about an hour. : )

As Super Mario would say... "Here we goooo!"

I decided to jump into the world of blogging as a way to keep everyone abreast on what the kids are up to here in our new home. Hopefully everyone will enjoy reading about the goings on here in our household.

The most recent news is that our poor little parakeet "Birdy" died last Friday. My parents came to visit on Friday and my Dad looked into the bird cage when he arrived only to discover that, alas, poor birdy was no longer with us. I'm sure that she was alive the day before as I remember giving her water and talking to her for a few minutes.

After relaying the sad information to my husband, he asked if I had seen her on Friday at all. I couldn't recall hearing her singing in the morning. He said that he was playing the play station on Thursday night and heard a thump from her cage. He was going to check on her, but forgot to peek in her cage. So at least she went fast and didn't suffer.

So poor Birdy is gone. She lived 8 exciting years so I guess it wasn't a bad life for a little parakeet. We had a little burial ceremony for her. My Dad wrapped her in paper towel and was going to tape the towel shut, but couldn't find tape. He thought about using glue, but Cameron declared that the glue "wouldn't be good for birdy." We finally located the tape and were able to proceed. Isabel said a few words over her grave. "Birdy, thank you for singing that one last song to me!" Then a rock was placed over her burial site in the back yard and Isabel wrote "Birdy" on it with crayon.

I am actually surprised how much I miss that little bird. Every morning she would be singing away in her cage and kissing her little mirror. I wanted to bury her mirror with her, but was told that was just silly. So her cage sits empty in her usual spot way up high away from curious fingers and hungry kitty cats. R.I.P Birdy and thank you for singing that one last song. : )