The Quiet Book: Weather Page

Here's the latest page for the quiet book. It's a weather report. (Yay for science skills!) The weather symbols are stored in the little pocket. They velcro onto the page, so he can display whichever one he wants. The ribbon on the thermometer moves up and down (it's in a loop through the back) so the red line can go up and down like a real thermometer.I'm eventually going to add a couple more weather options, (I haven't tackled a snowflake yet,) but this is enough to start with. I'm pretty pleased with how this page turned out. Most of the pages I've seen online and either copied or modified. This one is straight from my little brain, and I think he'll like it.

My New Craft Project: The Quiet Book

I decided a while ago that I wanted to try my hand at a quiet book. Caleb is at an age where he needs to sit still and be quiet sometimes. (aka, Sunday evening services.) I kept seeing these online, and I thought it would be something I could do. If you've never seen a quiet book, they're soft activity books for kids that usually have something to do on each page like buttons, zippers, velcro, etc. etc. Making one of these is very time consuming, so my goal is to finish by his birthday. I think I can do it faster than that, but I'm not making myself any promises. I have two kids to wrangle, and only one of them naps! Here is my first set of pages. This is a two-page spread with the numbers 1-10.

The numbers are fused on, but I also added a decorative stitch. The words are embroidered, but please note that I haven't embroidered anything since around junior high. I only remember one stitch, so no trash-talking my embroidery skills!

Each number has a cord with the appropriate number of beads. I was initially going to use pony beads for everything, but check out the adorable Noah's ark themed beads I found. Cute, no?

Educationally speaking, this set of pages enforces numeral-to-word recognition, fine motor skills (from moving the beads across), simple patterns, and counting numbers while corresponding to concrete objects. I know, I'm sorry, but I was a teacher after all.

Hopefully this will go well. I'll try to post my pages as I get them done, so you can follow along. Have a crafty day!

So If You're Wondering About the Speed Showering...

... no, I'm still not fast enough. If you ever think to yourself, "self, did you push that bag of flour far enough back on the counter?" Life lesson #49: always double check the flour.

Have a flour-tastic day!

Speed Showering and Rocking Chairs

It's always a risk when you decide to take a shower while the kids are awake. You have to weigh the pros and cons. Sure, you'll smell a little better, but how much of a mess are the kids making while you're gone? I'll show you! Despite my best effort at speed-showering, Madeline still had time to break into the cabinet and liberate half a bag of chips. She got the clip off, dumped them on the living room ottoman, and went to town chowing down. Please notice that Caleb is munching on a chip, too. This is amusing because the second I poked my towel-wrapped head into the room he said, "Oh no, Momma, Madeline got the chips out." Thus he tattled while eating some of the evidence.

On a different note, Madeline is now in her toddler bed instead of the crib. When we moved Caleb to a bed it took him months to get brave enough to get out of bed once we put him in. It was glorious. It took Madeline about 15 seconds to realize nothing was holding her in, and she's taken full advantage of it. Although she still hasn't realized that playing the toy piano is a dead give away that she's up. Heheh. Lately, we've often found her like this:

She loves to be rocked before bed, and she would prefer it if we'd just rock her until she was asleep each time. I don't want that to be the only way she goes to sleep, so I always put her in bed while she's still a little awake. Several times a week I'll go to check on her and find her fast asleep in the chair. She gets out of bed, grabs a blanket, and rocks herself to sleep. How cute is that?

Have a chip-filled sleep-tastic day!

The Aquarium

We took the kids to the aquarium today. As it turns out, my daughter is afraid of fish! Who would have thought? She spent the entire first half of our visit making faces like this:

and crying if we got too close to any of the fish. Luckily, she warmed up to them after a bit... as long as we didn't go too close. Caleb, on the other hand, loved it. He was right up front at each little exhibit.

We finally hit a turning point somewhere around the stingray tank. Caleb was standing on the bench looking in, and Madeline decided to join him. I think it was her favorite spot. We stayed there quite a while.

By the end of our ramblings Madeline had settled down into her normal, happy self.

Have a fish-tastic day!

Too Hot Outside?

Go spray your children with water!

Etsy Shop

So I'm thinking about opening up an Etsy shop soon. I'm just not sure if I have the time to devote to it right now. Any opinions? Either way, for now I'm just taking orders for different things on a word of mouth basis. Here is an example of the cute gift bags I'm making to package my superhero capes. The great part is that they're reusable! I think I'm going to make some for wrapping Christmas presents this year, too. :-)

Sewing Project

This is my first try at a new clutch pattern. What do you think?

My Mini-Me

Madeline takes every opportunity to borrow my cell phone. She's sneaky... she'll find it in my purse, or she'll climb things to get it off the counter. Yesterday she stole my phone, opened it up, and proceeded to talk to someone while she played. I'm pretty sure I heard her say something about Elmo, so maybe that's who she was talking to. Either way I laughed when I saw her holding it up with her shoulder. The multitasking starts early!

Recent Craft Projects

Lately Caleb has been playing superhero a lot... I blame SuperWhy. Anywhoo, we found him a pair of pajamas that were supposedly some kind of generic superhero. He spent the entire evening flying around the house... so proud of his new "cape." But the cape that came with the jammies was tiny. Sad. Very un-super. So being the Mommy I am, I decided to make him his very own Super Caleb cape. I think it turned out pretty darn cute. I couldn't forget his sidekick, Super Puppy. He got a cape, too. How fun is that?
In other random craft news... Know what this pile of stuff adds up to?

New hair bows for Madeline! I know some day she'll outgrow the whole bow thing, but for the moment she loves them. She even wants one if she's in pajamas. My girl is a girlie-girl. What can I say?

Have a crafty day!