Small Fry is at the stage now where when he’s tired, he’ll climb up to where I am and snuggle in for a nap. No prodding from me required :). Yesterday, I didn’t even bother moving him from the couch; I just let him slumber there while I worked on a new quilt. But don’t worry – I checked on him often to make sure he didn’t roll off!
For the record, these two pictures were taken at different times during the week.
Enjoy the weekend!
–Wendy
That’s right: my baby is 1! So instead of the normal Picture of the Week, I’m going to share a photo essay of his first year. Some of the pictures you’ve seen before, some you haven’t. Enjoy :).
Have a wonderful weekend. Mine will be full of cake baking and decorating and a party :).
–Wendy
Small Fry has been very into mimicking lately. His latest trick has been wrinkling up his nose and making a snuffling sound. And when you do it back to him, he just gets going more and more. It’s really funny :).
Have a wonderful weekend!
–Wendy
when Mommy gets distracted:
Doesn’t he look guilty?
I was sweeping the living room yesterday and forgot that Small Fry is officially a crawler now. Munchkin had left his ink pad out on the floor of the dining room (adjacent to the living room), which I didn’t notice in time. Loose ink pad + crawling baby + distracted mom = disaster waiting to happen!
Fortunately the ink came off the floor and the baby with just water and a rag. It’s still underneath his fingernails a little, but it’ll eventually wear off. I hope.
Inspired by Soule Mama.
A Friday ritual. A single photograph – no words – that capture a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, remember.
If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find.
Have an amazing weekend!
–Wendy
We picked the kids up from Club Mud on Tuesday (more on that here) and hubby and Seahawk put Small Fry down in the grass, expecting – at least on hubby’s part – that he would hate it. Well, he didn’t. He loved it. So they helped him walk until we got to the sidewalk. Small Fry is still shoeless (I don’t believe in putting shoes on kids until they walk outside often enough to need them), so he had to be carried once we hit the hot pavement.
It won’t be long now until Small Fry is walking on his own. All he needs is confidence.
Happy Mother’s Day to all who are moms. May God richly bless you and your families.
–Wendy
My sister-in-law just had a baby on September 19th (a week after his due date). He’s my second nephew, joining the ranks of 5 nieces (none of whom he’s related to, although he does have loads of girl cousins on his mom’s side of the family – he’s the son of my brother and his wife). My first nephew is also the son of my brother and his wife, ironically enough, which means my mom is blessed with 5 grandsons and no granddaughters.
But enough about the family make-up. A new baby means, of course, a baby gift!
Here’s what I started with:
And here’s what I made:
When it came time to start crocheting, none of the patterns I looked at “floated my boat” so to speak, so I just did a basic one row of single crochet, one row of double crochet, repeat. Even with such basic stitches, I thought it turned out pretty :). Let me know what you think of it.
Cheers!
The post title pretty much says it all. gDiapers are awesome. For those of you who haven’t heard of them, they’re a hybrid diapering system. They use a reusable cloth outer, a breathable, waterproof, reusable liner, and your choice of insert: either a cloth one that’s washable (obviously) or a flushable one. That’s right: flushable diapers!
I first learned of the system when there was an ad on the side of my gmail for them. I was still pregnant with Small Fry at the time, and my husband and I were just starting to become more environmentally conscious (if you don’t think recycling matters, take a trip to your local landfill and see how much garbage is produced in your area. I dare you not to become environmental after that!), so the idea of diapers that you could flush away instead of sending to “Junk Mountain” was very intriguing to me. I clicked through and fell in love with the concept. The only hurdle was the price: a starter pack for newborns was about $150. Now, that’s no *so* much when you consider what you get (18 cloth outers in two sizes and 160 flushable inserts), but I was trying to convince a skeptical husband (recycling our cans and paper was one thing; spending over $100 on diapers was completely different!), so it was a pretty major problem for me.
I didn’t end up getting the newborn pack.
We used disposable diapers for the first six weeks, which I hated after having learned about the g’s. But finally, we were able to find out that we could buy the individual pieces at Babies *R* Us, so I was able to talk DH into going there to get a “starter kit”: 2 pairs of the outer pants and a pack of 40 flushables for $45. It was priced at $40 on the gDiapers website, but once you added in shipping, it was a wash.
So, we’ve bought the two pairs of “little gPants” and our first package of flushables now. I started using them to diaper Baby E right away, and after just a small learning curve (these don’t have the little yellow line that turns blue when wet like the Pampers we’d been using), I was convinced that I didn’t want to go back to disposables. The problem now? Two pairs of the pants isn’t enough for full-time gDiapering. And extra pants are between $15 and $22 apiece.
What was a crafty mom to do?
Find out how to make my own covers, of course! I found a couple of tutorials and tried the YouTube one first. The pants came out looking okay, but they just weren’t good enough to use as a diaper. So I tried the written one. I was skeptical at first, mostly because of my experience with the other one, but oh my, these new ones are *nearly* as good as their store bought counterparts. Because I’m not a professional seamstress by any stretch of the imagination, there are obvious flaws, but not so many that I feel the need to buy “official” gPants.
Including all my mistakes, I was able to make 4 of the covers for about $40. That doesn’t sound like much savings, but I’ve got enough fabric left over to make at least two more; I just need to pick up some more Velcro. Once I get those done, that’ll make the homemade ones about half the price of the purchased ones! (They’ve got a 6-pair pack available for $79.99.) Win!
My hubby’s cousin is expecting a baby girl about a month after our Small Fry is scheduled to arrive (4 1/2 weeks and counting!). Her baby shower is coming up in just under 2 weeks, so I made this blanket for her.
I didn’t make up the pattern; I got it from here. But when I was first starting to stitch it, it wasn’t exactly what I expected, so I took a couple of pictures along the way to explain to you guys what to expect so you’re not as surprised-slash-almost-confused as I was. In order to make the additional pictures make sense, I’m going to include the instructions here, but remember, I did not make up this design.
Supplies needed: Crochet hooks (sizes noted in instructions), yarn (1 skein of “Caron International 1 pound” or other brand to equal 16 ounces/454 grams, 812 yards/742 meters), yarn or tapestry needle (for weaving in the ends), time, and love.
With a size K-10.5 (6.5 mm) crochet hook, chain 94.
Row 1: Turn. Skip the first chain. Single crochet (SC) in each additional chain – 93 SC total.
Row 2: Turn. Skip the first SC. Double Crochet (DC) in the next one. DC in the skipped SC. Continue to end of row. Chain 1.
Row 3: Turn. SC in each DC all the way across. Chain 2.
Rows 4-68: Repeat rows 2 and 3.
Edging: SC all the way around the blanket, except for the last row of SCs you did as part of the blanket. When you get to that row, slip stitch to the first SC. Switch to a size J-10 (6.0 mm) crochet hook. In every other SC all the way around, {SC, chain 1, SC}. All three of those stitches happen in the same stitch. When you get back to the beginning point, slip stitch together. Fasten off and cut yarn. Weave in ends.
So that’s it :). I hope you enjoy making this project as much as I did!
We got a Boppy pillow when my second son was born in 2006, and it was so much nicer than just propping up the normal pillows for feeding time (which I did in 2003 when I had my first son). We’ve kept it, and now will be using it when Small Fry arrives next month. However, for a long time, it was Munchkin’s favorite pillow, so it’s a bit stained – that just means it’s been well loved, right? 🙂 In our new quest to not spend money that doesn’t need to be spent, I decided to use some of the Pooh Bear fabric that I got for super-cheap the other week to make a cover for the Boppy. This served the dual duty of refurbishing something we already had rather than buying new as well as making the pillow match the rest of the nursery. Win-win!