Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was sort of normal, but not totally. I took Wednesday off to pull up tiles in our bathroom. I spent most of the day in a respirator with a heat gun scraping up tiles, and vinyl. It was not fun. Especially because I had to unseat the toilet to get up all the tiles, and the bolts were so rusted on that I had to cut through them to get it off.

Saturday was a very long day too. I watched Alice and Robert most of the day. Susan was at a women's conference from 3 to 8:30. She came home for dinner and to feed Robert. She really enjoyed it though, so it was worth it.

Bathroom Woes

Bobby mentioned asbestos in his last entry. The job is small and the tiles are in really good shape, but we've been taking precautions.

Yesterday, he finished removing all of the asbestos-laden tiles and prepared the floor/toilet for installation of the new vinyl. Woo hoo! Now to find a landfill that takes asbestos waste...

Drawing people

A page full of people. The clouds above their heads are hair/hairdos, except the person on the bottom right. Her hair is veeeeeeeery long and goes all the way around her. Alice has consistently called that one "Alice." She has asked for long hair like her friend Mary. Something about long braids appeals to her. I told Alice that Mary likes her long hair and has to brush it every day. Alice's response, "Mommy, can you cut my hair? Short. Right now."

Blue Flower Dress

I made a new dress. Sewed it myself very carefully using *almost* all the proper sewing techniques (pressing seams, pressing hems, adjusting tension and needles, measuring all things twice, etc.). I love it! It looks good, it's comfy, and I learned a little more about elastic and top stitching. I'd be happy to show you a picture of the dress if Alice could...just...stay...still!

Talk to the hand

Tee hee! That tickles.

A couple movies

We rotated some of Alice's toys recently (keep half in the garage, half out for playing, and switch them up every so often) and rediscovered the Hippity Hop. The Barneys gave it to her when we were at their house last New Year's Eve. It didn't take long for Alice to get going again...and run into a few things:

Robert can sit up by himself! What a feat! What a change! What a happier boy! What a happier mom!

(I stopped the video 2 seconds too soon. He fell backwards at the end and cried inconsolably for 10 minutes. Note to self: uh, figure something out to help this kid calm down after painful situations. Alice liked a pacifier. Robert, well, gags on them.)

Anyway, now that he's sitting independently, life with two kids gets a little easier.

1) They bathe together without any extra equipment. Less mess. Big babies are great, but they come with their own set of difficulties. For example, a 23-pound baby doesn't get held as much as a smaller baby. Sad, but necessary. He's too big for the clothes and equipment that usually suit a baby of his age. I like 5-month-olds in rompers, but they don't make many rompers for 18-month-olds, which is the size Robert wears these days. He's way too big for the baby bath, but incapable of supporting himself in the sink or big tub...until now.

2) When sitting on the floor, his toys fall easily within sight and within reach. Less frustration.

3) He plays well for a few minutes in one room while I pop in and out doing other things. Less lugging. He's as big as a 1-year-old, which means he doesn't get held much unless we're stationary :( And I don't like to be stationary when there's a whole house full of work to do.

4) On my lap, on the bench nearby, or on the floor, he's stable enough for me to free up TWO hands to assist Alice (or to do something else entirely *gasp*). Two hands! I didn't realize how much I missed that small degree of independence until suddenly it was restored.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has felt really crazy, but I think it was all yesterday, most of the rest of the week was fairly normal. We have been trying to get our house fixed up a bit lately. Part of that is getting new flooring in the entire house. Well in the bath room where we ripped out a wall we started taking up the old floor, so we could put down a new floor. well after taking up some of it we found out that there are what look like asbestos tiles under it all. So we had to go get a special face mask, and cover the floor in thick plastic. It is not really that dangerous if you don't pulverize the tiles, so it should not be a big deal for us to take the rest of the tiles out, it will just take a bit longer then usual, and we will defiantly not be doing that in the kitchen, which probably has them there too. Just means a bit more work, and money then we originally though.

Expanding Vocabulary

Driving along one day, Alice is goofing off in the back seat trying to get Robert to laugh. Suddenly she yells in alarm, "Mom! He's not responding!"

My first impulse is to screech to a halt and whip out my "Infant and Child CPR Quick Reference" card. Then I hear him giggle and Alice says, "Never mind."

************************

She hands me a piece of Scotch tape with 5 little rocks resting in a row on top, "Here, Mom. I made you a gallery." She made something similar with tape and acorns for her daddy, also calling it a gallery.

"Quiet" Time

Sooooo, I have a confession to make.

I'm setting a terrible precedent.

Ever since the brilliantly successful sibling play date, I've periodically allowed Alice and Robert to play together during "quiet time." I know, I know, that's breaking the FIRST rule of quiet time...playing independently. It continues, however, to be a positive and peaceful time for both kids and provides me with a small measure of freedom (i.e. I check in on them every 10 minutes). The kids do a great job of engaging each other. Case in point (sorry it's sideways):

I love those giggles mingling.

Remember when I was so worried about Alice developing a positive relationship with her future sibling(s)? There's still a long road ahead, of course, but I am relieved to see how much they enjoy each other. Robert idolizes Alice and Alice just oozes love all over Robert. This isn't something I taught her to do. In fact, much of Alice's behavior appears to have come hard-wired. It makes me look like a good mom. Ha ha ha! I feel like such a fake sometimes.

Anyway, I will allow this breach of quiet time protocol every once in a while until Robert moves to only 2 naps a day. Then we'll see :)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been very good. The middle of the week was mostly normal. But the end of the week was a bit different. We drove up to Chicago Friday night. We spent the night with some friends and were able to go to the temple Saturday morning while someone else watched out kids. It was a very relaxing trip. We drove home Saturday afternoon. Sorry no pictures.

Picking a project

When I'm too tired from the hard physical labor of taking down dead trees, hauling brush away, and carting 4 cubic yards of mulch to the backyard, I dream of relaxing at the sewing machine working on pet projects. This one in particular might find itself under the Christmas tree with a new set of tempura paints and big brushes:

Art smock for Alice

The key to my project happiness: only take on projects that I find practical, beautiful, and interesting (i.e. learning a new skill). That's why I'm kind of enjoying all this physical labor fixing up the yard. It's different. It's empowering. It's narrowing my fear of spiders to only the really BIG ones.

Big Butt Pants (Take 2)

I'm on a sewing kick, can you tell?

Here are the Big Butt Baby Pants again now 2 sizes larger (18-24 month), using a soft and silky solid knit (thanks for the freebies, Michelle!), a wider waistband, and a generous cuff in case he gets taller before he gets rounder (hm...possible?). They only took me two days to make :)

Here's the front:



The back:



The little man:

Nice army-crawl form, but absolutely no drive to move on his own. Much, much more comfy than those stiff stripey ones!

They're HUGE! I love to see him wear them, though. So soft and comfy. You should see him "standing" with them hiked up to his chest. Tee hee hee. Like this:

My little old man. He wheezes like one, too (gotta ask the doctor about that again). So, I'll go ahead with a denim version in the size between this one (way too big!) and the last one (way too small!). Think I can do it in one day? Robert's officially down to 5 outfits/onesies in his current wardrobe size (12 months), so I pulled out all the 18-month stuff I have. Fun stripes! And the return of the "Heavy Metal Shop" onesie. Oh yeah. This boy needs some pants.

"I won't look."

Alice, showy and talkative in so many ways, does not like to have her picture taken. I was allowed to take this one, however, because I promised to keep my eyes closed and not look. She's sporting some PJs she outgrew a year ago and a stylish Viking girl cap her wonderful Aunt Heidi made for her soooooo long ago as a Halloween costume. She's particularly fond of the braids.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was mostly a normal week, but we did have some fun. Alice and Robert were goofing off with a laundry basket, and some old cloths. Alice still thinks that she fits in some of them.

We also did out annual pilgrimage to Arthur Illinois of the International Cheese Curling Competition, which is part of the cheese festival. I waved my chance to compete so that Alice could take a turn. The first video is her practice roll. The second one that is fuzzy is when it really counts. But she did a perfect roll and got 4 points. For those who don't know cheese curling is when you roll a 4 pond wheel of cheese at a target and your teammate with a broom directs it towards the target. Below is a picture of the team. they got 11 points out of 12, and almost won, except for one member of the team that abandoned them to help out a team that was a player short that got 12. Susan was quite disappointed to have missed out on the free t-shirt, the picture in the local paper and bragging rights. But I think she is OK now.

Big Butt Baby Pants

I did it! Sort of.

The most recent experiment in my sewing adventures has been a pair of Big Butt Baby Pants developed by Rae Hoekstra. They are pants specifically designed for cloth-diapered babies. For those unfamiliar with the wardrobe requirements of cloth-diapered babies, here's a summary:

• Cloth diapers are bulkier than 'sposies, so you have to buy bottoms 1-2 sizes larger than you normally would for a sposie-bottomed child. No big deal, usually, but that makes the pants too long and the shorts look like high-water pants...kinda awkward.
  

• Current fashion dictates that pants must have a low waist and snug fit. Uh, low waist? Snug fit? Cloth diapers generally rise up higher than 'sposies, often to the belly button. A low-waisted pant with a big chunk of cloth diaper hanging over the top looks like low-riders...kinda awkward.

So, the Big Butt Baby Pants seemed a perfect solution. They are easy to make, too, so I "whipped" one out in 3 days (I'm actually proud of myself for this).

Ta daaaaaaa! Here's the front:

And the back. The funky, round panel makes it extra roomy:

(The fabric was a nice find at Goodwill...someone threw out a perfectly good set of homemade, light-canvas-like curtains!) The stripe symmetry was completely on accident. I like it, though. They should fit the little man, right?



Ugh! They're too tight! They accentuate the obvious: "Hi, I have a big bottom!" Not to mention they're pretty tough to pull on and off. Checking out the other picts posted of these pants and the kids wearing these pants, I think my mistake is a sizing one. This is the 6-12 month size. Robert is almost 5 months old. Well, he's a BIG 5 months (i.e. 95th percentile for length and well above 95th percentile for weight. The doctor's exact words were, "Well, he seems to be creating his own weight curve up here above the 95th."), but I thought a 12-month size ought to cover him, right? Not quite. His belly oozes over the waistband and he has a hard time bending over to sit.

Is this the face of a comfortable baby?


*SIGH*

I'm not ready to give up yet. The pants themselves look great and I'm proud of them. They could use a wider waistband, though. I'll try out the next larger size (12-18 months) in a lighter weight fabric and see if that helps at all. Perhaps a more neutral pattern/color as well...that will make Bobby happier, anyway ;)