Do you need a laugh?

Then you might want to check out this video.  Michael and I both laughed a lot about it. 

Naps

Simeon is working on giving up his nap.  This is hard in many ways.  For all my kids, they’ve been almost ready to give up naps, but the last step to napless-readiness seems to be to actually give up the nap and go from there.  That means that they’re not quite ready to give it up, but they’re almost ready, which means that we have some rough afternoons.  Also, I appreciate the blocks of time to do things (including get a nap of my own) that come from having the youngest nap.  The girls do an hour of quiet time each day, which is made (not by accident) to coincide with naptime, so that means that I have an hour of time to do what I need to do to recharge from the morning.  The other rough thing is that, when he does get a nap, he isn’t ready to go to bed when it’s bedtime.  Which means he pops out of the room repeatedly. 

[Simeon recently conked out in the car and didn’t wake up when I brought him in…or during the next 30 minutes of noise and normal life.]

On the other hand, Simeon is good at doing quiet time already.  I put on a CD for him and explain that when it’s over he’s done, and he spends his quiet time looking at books and listening to the CD.  So I really can’t complain too much about that, except that he often has a potty break in there, and it’s usually about 5 minutes after I’ve fallen asleep for my own little nap, hoping for 15-20 minutes.  Still, it’s been the smoothest transition to quiet time we’ve had yet.  And, when he doesn’t take a nap, he falls asleep right away upon being put to bed. 

It’s strange to have the baby growing up so much.  He reminds me that he’s not the baby, Quinque is the baby.  He’s a big boy.  And too many times I have the feeling that he’s right.  He can put away silverware, clear and scrape his own plate and put it in the dishwasher, wash his own hands, open doors, water plants, put together puzzles.

The thing is, each phase has its joys and difficulties, so I’m happy to say goodbye to each phase in theory because of the difficulties, but I watch my kids grow and realize that I can’t stop them, and I can’t get the joys of that particular phase with that particular child back.  It doesn’t matter that there’s another child in line to become that age – having multiple kids doesn’t mean that I’m immune to this feeling.  I don’t want to get to the day that Naomi stops saying Cingorilla.  I don’t want to get to the day that Hannah decides that “made at home” isn’t some kind of great honor and distinction.  And I have mixed feelings about Sim giving up naps. 

This isn’t any kind of new discovery, of course.  It’s another mother being reminded to enjoy things as they come.  

More things I’ve been making

This I made for my sister.  It’s just like the bag I made myself, only more colorful.  She says she likes it.

This is a 20-minute Tote from the Purl Bee.  It was a bit longer than 20 minutes, but I don’t think the woman who did the tutorial had three kids “helping” her.  This one is for my niece.  I also made one for Naomi and one for Simeon.  Naomi’s has fairies on it, and Simeon’s has construction equipment.  Naomi’s holds her Cingorilla doll and Sim’s holds his cars.

This is a pull-over-the-head bib that I made from a pattern from a new book I got:  Growing Up Sew Liberated, by Meg McElwee.  This is for my nephew for his birthday…late.  I am enjoying this book, and got a walking foot on the author’s recommendation so that I could do knits more easily.  Let me tell you, it’s a revelation.  I have always been afraid of knits, because the few times I’ve used them, they have been the nastiest things to work with.  But the walking foot…ah, the walking foot!  So easy, so lovely.  I have a feeling I’ll be making lots more knits.  I mean, just check out this tutorial – another one of Meg McElwee’s creations.  How can I resist?

Father’s Day

We took a hike Father’s Day afternoon.  The weather was overcast and a bit chilly, but we weren’t to be deterred.  This summer may all be like that, and if we’re not willing to go out in weather like that, we may be inside all summer. 

When we told the kids we were going into the mountains for a hike, there were mixed reactions.  Hannah was excited, Naomi started to cry, claiming that she was scared of the mountains, and Simeon said he didn’t want to fall off the mountain. 

However, by the end of the hike, a good time had been had by all.  We deliberately chose a fairly easy hike, since children and a pregnant woman were involved.  It was 1.2 miles to the waterfall, and then, of course, 1.2 miles back.  Incredibly, Simeon walked probably 2 of those.  Then he suddenly said, “My legs are SO tired!  Will you carry me?”  I declined, but Michael was willing.  Some of the tiredness of Sim’s legs might have been related to his penchant for jumping.  Both up the trail and down the trail, he jumped off rocks (most of which were about 2 inches above ground level) and over things. 

Hannah liked to be ahead of everyone, despite a tendency to tell us every few minutes that she was tired and hoped we got there soon.  She stopped when I pointed out to her that it wasn’t too much fun hiking with someone who complained all the time.  She seemed to realize the justice of this, and switched to talking about other things.

I think Naomi’s favorite part was singing on the way down the mountain.  And skipping and running.  Her legs weren’t tired, I guess!

It was great to get into the wilderness a bit, and fun to do the hike together.  Pictures?  Well, that would have required remembering the camera, which we didn’t do.

We stopped for dinner on the way home, and everyone slept very well that night. 

Hannah loves to create

She loves crafts!  Any type!  Any time!  I like crafts, but I have to admit that I’m much more picky about the type that I like, and ones that create yet MORE clutter for our house are not the type that I like.  So making another egg-carton caterpillar isn’t really in my line.  However, sewing stuffed animals for cousins for their birthdays is something that I can definitely appreciate. 

I recently got the book Hand-Stitched Felt, by Kata Golda, from our library.  It’s full of fun projects that have also inspired other ideas in fertile brains, and many of them are doable for an ambitious 7-year-old who has a parent who’s willing to help get through rough spots (and look up how on earth to do the blanket stitch on Youtube – they helpfully have a video).  Some of them are doable by Naomi, too, and I’ll show those in a later post.

The local girl cousin had a birthday at the beginning of the month, and Hannah decided that she needed to make a stuffed mouse from the book for her cousin. 

My poor mother, who taught me to embroider, will be happy to hear that, with this project, I was finally forced to learn how to do a French knot.  And Hannah learned, too, much earlier than I did.

She stuffed the mouse herself, too.

And embroidered the face.  She learned the blanket stitch from Youtube in order to connect the stuffed parts together (I don’t think that was one that my mom ever tried to teach me), and the whip stitch to connect the head to the neck.

Local girl cousin seemed to very much like the mouse, which was pronounced to be a lot like Angelina Ballerina.  Hannah has decided that she’s going to make herself a dog, a bunny, a mouse…and maybe a boy dog, bunny, and mouse.  For some reason, I’m hoping that she’ll be needing to make more gifts than things for herself. 

Busy

We had Michael’s parents and sister in town over the last weekend, and had a lot of fun.  Of course, I didn’t actually take any pictures.  What?  I know.  I realized that after they left. 

I also wish I’d brought my camera to the community garden where we have our own 10x20 plot.  I hadn’t been there in a few weeks, having covered everything with weed barrier and left it until I was ready to plant.  Well…the weed barrier partly blew off, so we were faced with a long, 3 foot wide strip of 2 foot high grass with weeds underneath.  When we were finished, we had cleared that all out, planted potatoes, melons, and beans, and covered the potatoes with straw.  It was a very dramatic difference and I had a lot of help. 

Naomi, in particular, was an extremely diligent and motivated gardener, following behind my grass-pulling efforts (the grass more than filled a wheelbarrow) and pulling all the little weeds.  She must have done that for about an hour and a half!  Then she asked for further jobs.  Hannah was very into planting, as well as ridding our plot of any grubs and slugs discovered.  Sim liked that I gave him scissors and asked him to trim the grass next to the path, where it’s hard to pull.  He also liked using the hoe.  If you want to add adventure to your life, give your 2 1/2-year-old a hoe and put 3 other people, also working, in a 10x20 plot with him.  Miraculously, nobody got hurt.  

I’m also still trying to get the garden at home set up, and this weekend is Father’s Day.  I’ve begun having dreams that are very clearly “you’re not ready for the new baby to come yet and you should be” nesting dreams.  They’re not very fun – new baby, no diapers, new baby, didn’t make it to the hospital, new baby, no name yet, etc.  For the most part, we have what we need, but there are a few scattered items that we haven’t gotten yet, so I need to make my list and get everything ready.  At least, my nesting instinct seems to think so. 

I have some pictures of more creations, but they’ll have to wait.  Some of them are ones that the girls made – they’re very cute!

Another creation

I think I might have bitten off more than I could chew on this one.  When the nice weather hit and I wanted to take all the kids out to play and do gardening, we had a plethora of little girls’ sunhats – all very cute – and the girls had a great time deciding which one they would wear. 

We only had one bucket hat that was remotely the right size for Simeon.  It turns out that we don’t actually have gender neutral headwear.  This hasn’t ever been a problem, because we had hats galore for boys smaller than Sim is now…I’m not really sure why.  Hand-me-downs?  Gifts?  Purchases by me?

Sim wore the too-small turtle bucket hat that day, but I decided that I’d make him a hat.  I searched about on sewing blogs and realized that bucket hats aren’t that tricky.  One blog had a really cute one made out of worn out pants, and a pocket was even part of the design.  So cute!  I then recalled that Michael had worn out some pants…maybe they were still around. 

A phone call to Michael confirmed that he had pants and jeans that were worn out in a certain spot in the closet and that he wouldn’t mind if I completely cut them up.  So I found some cargo pants and began my project. 

Okay, it turns out that making this hat without a pattern was more tricky than I expected.  And the fact that I used the waistband for the hat (which I think, in an unbiased way, is totally cute) meant that attaching the brim was not going as smoothly as I had imagined.  And then there was the bobbin tension.

So I took a break.  I left the project for several days and let it steep.  When I came back, I suddenly had the patience to make the brim fit the hat.  And I realized that I should try rethreading to see if that fixed the tension issue (it did).  And I finished the hat. 

Here it is.  It’s much cuter on Simeon, of course, but I forgot to get a picture of that before bedtime, and there’s no way I’m waking him up for a picture. 

Since it’s a hat from worn out pants, it already has that lived-in look.  It is definitely NOT girly.  Simeon likes it. 

What you don’t see are the funky seams underneath…and you never will, because I wasn’t foolish enough to make a reversible bucket hat on the first try!

What I learned:  This might be a good project to actually have a pattern…it would have been a lot faster, I’m sure.  Also, that Simeon’s taste in hats is not fussy or discriminating.

Update

Weather:  Gorgeous

Activities:  Mostly outdoors, especially gardening

Children:  Thrilled to be wearing short sleeves and NO TIGHTS (except Sim, who doesn’t ever wear tights), pleased at the prospect of selecting which hat to wear outside, rediscovering all the hideouts in our yard, rediscovering the sand box and its rules, such as NO THROWING SAND, SIM!, watering plants, running around, dirty and tired by the end of the day

Garden:  3 yards of compost spread about and making new garden beds out front (with especial thanks to my hero, Michael, who did the majority of the moving), many things planted, seeds sprouting, lettuce going crazy, blueberry bushes and strawberry plants blooming away with the promise of later production

Inside:  Not getting more messy, because we’re almost never there, but not really getting more clean, because we’re almost never there

Parents:  Pleased with all that’s getting done, enjoying the weather, worn out in a very good way by the end of the day

Recommendations:  Rhubarb Orange Jam from Canning for a New Generation:  SO GOOD!

Perhaps I should have seen this coming,

but I didn’t.  Now that Naomi has seen the opera, she spends a lot of her time singing VERY high notes…loudly.  This can be a bit hard on the ears if she’s singing in a small, enclosed space such as the bathroom.  She used to do some of her loudest and highest singing when everyone was in the bathroom as the kids were brushing and flossing and getting ready for bed.  Not a recipe for happiness, unfortunately.  I feel something like an ogre when I request that she sing not quite so high, but I also don’t want to sustain ear damage.  I’ve explained to her that outside or in large areas, it’s not a problem, and she seems to be moderating herself accordingly.

It’s not always too loud or too high, though.  She often makes up songs about her life as she goes about her day.  And she made up a play that she did for Michael’s birthday that involved dancing and singing and was really cute. 

She’s also working on her vibrato off and on.

Day 5 of Staycation

Okay, it’s well over now, but I still have to share Day 5, which was Sunday.  We went to Mass, then picked up doughnuts, then headed for the ferry!

Doughnuts are important on Sundays, of course.

We got to the ferry in good time and drove the car on.

Then we checked out the view from the ferry.

It wasn’t raining, despite forecasts of rain for all of Michael’s time off.

Sim, on the 15-minute drive from the ferry dock to the forest theater that was our destination, fell asleep.  Then he slept in the car for 40 minutes while Michael and the girls had lunch.

\

When Sim woke up, he and I walked down the trail to find Michael and the girls and the seats they saved for us, because we were going to see…

Oklahoma!

We got there early enough that it was a bit boring, waiting for the show.  That was despite finishing lunch and looking around.

The girls didn’t really want to walk around much, being in perpetual fear that the show would start without them, although we assured them that there were 20 minutes before the show.

The theater was really, really cool.

The seating is on the hillside above the stage.  It’s basically large steps cut into the hillside.  There’s a 1/4 mile hike down to the theater.

Michael got a commemorative bandanna.

(Simeon’s look of intense concentration lasted the entire show.  He held almost completely still, too, which is saying something for a boy of 2 1/2.)

Simeon had gotten the soundtrack for Oklahoma! for Hannah for Christmas, which meant that the kids knew all the songs already, and were very excited when we told them we were going to see it.

Not so excited, though, that they wanted to talk to the characters at the intermission.

This cowboy tried to greet Sim…who was not very talkative, apparently.  Notice Naomi clinging to Michael with all of her strength.

Afterwards, the audience was invited to come down and meet the cast (which we didn’t do, the kids being too shy to speak to them) and check out the backstage area and generally get a look behind the scenes.  The kids did like that idea.  They were taken with the log that you can crawl through.

They also liked how the house front didn’t lead to anything.

And they thought it was really cool when they found the smokehouse set that was used in the Poor Judd scene.

Hannah and Naomi agreed on all the parts and characters they liked best.  Sim, after hearing that the girls didn’t like the bad dream part, decided that was his favorite.  None of them liked Judd, though.

It’s really cute to have them sing the songs together.

Afterwards, we took the ferry home, having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Everyone enjoyed the whole day, what with the ferry, the show, and the ferry again.  We got home just at bedtime and everybody crashed.