project file

I just wanted to share some really simple projects that I've done lately. I haven't had much time for sewing, which is why it took me so long to make, or get around to making, many of these things.

First, I made the older kids summer pajamas. I HATE paying for pajamas, but I probably didn't save much money considering how cheap they have pajamas for sale at the dreaded Walmart. For these I bought a pack of 5 boys white undershirts to use as the tops. Fortunately for me, my kids are the same size so I only had to buy one pack. I dyed some of the shirts, while some I left white, then I appliqued designs from the fabric I made the shorts out of. Again, I only had to use one pattern (which I drew myself) because my kids are the same size. Though I did the hem of Alexis' a little shorter.


Those shirts are supposed to be black, but the dye didn't do the greatest job and I'm too lazy to dye them again. They are pajamas after all, they don't need to look that cute. I made three pairs for Tyler and two for Alexis. Which, of course, she demanded an explanation for. Does "Because." count as an explanation?

I also made Ryan a hooded towel, something I've been meaning to do since he was 2 months old. This is made out of a bath towel and half a matching hand towel. I added a pleat in the back to make it wrap around him a little better, and cut an "R" out of a really cheap washcloth and threw that on the towel too.

And then I attempted to take pictures of him using it, which really didn't go well.


This last project isn't a sewing project and is the one I'm most excited about. Ryan's room has been left mostly undecorated. We had grand plans for putting in a chair rail and painting the bottom half of the room orange, and then unemployment happened and we figured we should save our monies. But then we never got back to doing anything about it until a few months ago when I found this idea on a blog and knew I had to do it.

Jeremy cut the wood out for me and then I sanded and painted it. And then I attempted to nail one little nail in, which convinced him that he should do that part for me. He didn't so much love that, but he loves me so he persevered. And as he told someone yesterday, it was my project, not his, so it didn't have to be perfect. That's how we work around here.

After doing all the hard work of nailing, I thought he'd want to do the fun job of winding the thread around the nails, but he didn't think that sounded like fun. I'm here to tell you, it is FUN! Go make this, I urge you.




And that, among many other things, is what we have been up to lately.

4 words I don't want to hear in the morning...or anytime of the day

I made a mistake this morning, and boy did I pay for it. I think maybe my mothering brain hadn't quite turned on yet, or perhaps I'm just dumb. After we were all done eating breakfast I sat down to change Ryan's diaper. He, as usual, started crying and trying to roll away. I didn't have it in me to fight so I decided to let him crawl around for a few minutes without a diaper on.

"What's the worst that can happen?" I thought, "Pee on the floor?" This was Poor Thought Process #1.

After watching his cute naked bum for a few minutes I headed back into the kitchen to finish whatever I was in the middle of. I promptly forgot about naked-from-the-waist-down Ryan. This is Poor Thought Process #2.

About 10 minutes later, as I was in the middle of making my breakfast, Tyler starts frantically yelling "POOP ON THE CARPET! POOP ON THE CARPET!" I didn't immediately panic because I thought, "Oh, I guess a little leaked out of his diaper, I'm sure it's not much". This was Poor Thought Process #3. However, I quickly remembered that he actually didn't have a diaper on at all, and that the situation was probably a lot worse than I thought. I ran into the living room, a little afraid of what I might find.

There, by the toy box, sat my naked-from-the-waist-down son. He was sitting like babies usually do, splits style with his legs out to his sides. And in between his legs was a nice pile of POOP. Poop that he was clearly interested in, as I found it all over his legs, his shirt, his hands and various other areas of the carpet where he spread it.

I picked him up by the armpits and held him an arms length away from my body. Then I stood there thinking, "Should I clean the baby first, or should I clean the carpet first?" I really wasn't sure what to do, but then my brain fired up. I remembered that I have a daughter that practices her mothering skills (also known as, being bossy) all day. I carried Ryan upstairs, where I found Alexis hiding with her nose plugged, and quickly rinsed him in the tub. Then I filled it with clean water and instructed Alexis to sit there and watch him. As I went back downstairs I thought to myself, "Why is Jeremy never around when stuff like this happens??" But really, it's better that way. I'm pretty sure he would have thrown up, and then I'd have two messes to clean up.

And in a situation like that, it's always best to look on the bright side of things. So here's what I came up with:

At least there was no poop around, or in, his mouth.

Maybe if I tried harder I could come up with some more...

-------

In other news, it was Spring Break this last week, and we sure stayed busy. We went to a few fun places with friends, played with cousins, dyed Easter eggs, and Tyler even got to go out on the Rhino with Jeremy and my dad yesterday. We also started the week off by getting tubes put in Ryan's ears. Both ears were infected when we went in, which helped validate my decision to get it done. He did really well, though he did NOT like coming out of the anesthesia. And just this week he's started to make noises that sound like words, instead of just yells. Now I'll share a few pictures to help get your mind off poop.

Alexis and some friends twirling in skirts from the Church History Museum

Tyler and his best bud, Josh, doing their best to break this sound board

Playing at cousin's house

Pushing stuff around in cousin's backyard

Jeremy sunk that thing good!

don't feel sorry for him, he's okay with it

Just like being the oldest, there are advantages and disadvantages to being the youngest kid in the family.

Advantages: There's plenty of entertainment if mom's too busy to play with you, there are more people in the family that dote on you and constantly tell you how cute you are, you learn patience at a very young age, and mom and dad are a little more relaxed into parenthood by the time you come along.

Disadvantages: Why dwell on the negatives? All I'll say is, I'm pretty sure when Alexis was a baby she never had a sticker stuck to her forehead for several hours because some kid stuck it there and then mom was too busy to take it off.


I'm thinking of creating a special folder in my pictures file entitled "You can tell I have older siblings...". This picture could also go in there.



(In case you were wondering, I did jinx myself by going on and on about Ryan sleeping well. A few days after writing that he developed croup and hasn't slept well ever since. I think he's finally starting to get over it, but I'm not going to talk about that at all. I've learned my lesson.)