18 months!

DH had to take Little Miss for her 18 month checkup yesterday since I was sick. Unfortunately we seem to have caught a case of the rotavirus around here. Blech. Thankfully DD seems to not have had as bad a reaction since she had the vaccine.

I can't believe she's 18 months old already! Seems like just yesterday we were finding out that we would be having a little girl, and now she seems to be half-grown! At this checkup she finally made it onto the growth charts. She's been hanging out in the -1 to 3% since she was born. This time her weight of 20.5lbs put her at the 5% for weight! And her height of 32'' landed her in the 63%. WOW! I knew she had recently hit a growth-spurt since she skipped over 12-m clothes and went straight into 18-m.

She is into everything and loves exploring the house. She recently figured out how to pull out the dining room chairs, climb up onto them, and then onto the table! Seems like nothing is safely out of reach these days. We are finally starting to work on potty training as well. She just wasn't ready over Christmas, but in the last week she has gotten more interested and has told us several times that she needs to go. Soon I will take a few days off work and we will work on it - and hopefully we can say No More Diapers!!

She's talking up a storm and repeating everything we say (or at least she's trying to). She loves to sing and dance along with her shows. And she really likes it when Daddy pulls out the guitar to play and sing with her. She grabs her drum and bangs along, usually right in-beat to the music :)

She LOVES Minnie Mouse :) Here's a pic of her hanging out with Minnie while mom got ready for church. Sweet girl let her friend sit in her favorite spot and brought over her car seat to sit next to Minnie and hold her hand while they watched Minnie's Bowtique. She just saw this picture on the computer and said "Hi, Aly!! Hi Minnie Mouse!!" So cute!

Mommy Guilt :(

My child loves the babysitter more than she loves me or so it seems sometimes.

I came home from work the other day. After LONG 11 hours away from Aly. I missed her SO MUCH! All I wanted was to see her and get a big hug (its her new thing). Maybe a kiss and a smile.

Instead what I got was a dirty look while she ran to the arms of her babysitter. Outwardly I tried to laugh it off.

(inside, mommy heart broken)

She gave Miss K hugs and kisses. And screamed at me when I tried to pick her up. She ran after Miss K as she tried to leave, clinging to her leg and crying, then banging on the door screaming her name after she left. All the while I was trying to console her while wishing and hoping that she would want me as much as she wanted the baby sitter.

It was not to be.

The rest of the night she remained upset with me. DH had to feed her dinner and get her ready for bed. Because she could not even LOOK at me without screaming. She wanted NOTHING to do with me. And I was so sad :(


We all went to sleep and I had the most horrible night of sleep ever. No more than 1 hour at a time.


But in the morning the most wonderful thing happened. DD woke up and started calling for me from her crib. "Mommy! Momm....Mommm.....Mommy!! I went to get her and she had a HUGE smile on her face!! She reached out her arms to me and said "HI, mommy!! I la you!"


*mommy heart melted*

I love my baby :) It sucks that I have to be away from her for so long each day. But I do it so that I can provide financially for our family. And I know my daughter loves me :) And I am glad she loves her baby sitter so much. I couldn't have asked for a more sweet and perfect person to take care of my little one while I have to be away. I am glad they have such a great relationship. DD can only benefit from having more people in her life that love her so much.

Scrub That Tub!

Cleaning the bathroom is not one of my favorite chores. I am willing to bet that it's not yours either. As a mom that works outside the home, I either have to find time in my evenings to clean it or clean during the weekend. But I would rather be playing with DD, and since her room shares a wall with the bathroom I can't really clean it after she goes to bed.

So I've started cleaning the bathroom while she takes a bath. She loves the extra play time in the tub, and I can be productive while I am in the room with her for awhile anyway.

I have been buying these "Quick Erasers" from Dollar Tree. Two sponges for only $1! They are half melamine (magic) sponge, half blue scrubbie sponge. I prefer these as I can really use ALL of the magic sponge since they have the blue sponge to hold on to. The all-white quick erasers tend to disintegrate and get holes in them. These sponges will last for 2-4 good cleanings and remain in once piece.

But what I really love about these sponges is they let me scrub the tub while DD is in it taking a bath! That's right - no bad chemicals getting in the bath water. I add a bit of soap to the sponge and start scrubbing away while she plays. My grandpa gave me a wonderful tip - the same soap that causes the soap scum will also remove that soap scum. And its true! Shampoo, bar soap, body wash, or even baby wash. Just a bit on the sponge and get to cleaning. Older kids may want to join in the fun as well :)

Once I am done with the tub I use the same sponge to get the sink - the magic sponge really gets all the caked on toothpaste, hair spray, and dried saline solution residue. By the time I am done DD has been splashing enough that the floor is pretty wet. Perfect, since I need to wash that anyway! Using the same sponge I wipe down the floors. The quick erasers are great for getting up the hair spray residue that seems to get all over the floors (actually, everywhere!). Lastly I clean up the toilet using some Clorox wipes. Call me crazy, but I don't really want to reuse a sponge that I used on the potty.

This takes me about 15 minutes total. Perfect amount of time for DD to play and get all prune-y in the water. Clean baby + clean bathroom = happy mama!!

If you don't have kids, or if they are old enough that they can bathe on their own, you can keep a magic sponge in the shower to give it a good scrub while you are already in there. I used to do this while my conditioner was soaking in 1-2 times per week. It is amazing how much easier it is to scrub the shower when you are already in it and not worried about splashing water on yourself. Or am I the only klutz that can't clean the tub without getting soaking wet? ;)

DIY Toy Storage - No-Sew Canvas Bins

Christmas has left us with an abundance of toys and a shortage on storage space. We have a small house that quickly feels claustrophobic with clutter. And I like things to be tidy and organized. I went to Walmart yesterday to see if they had any baskets or totes that would work. The cheapest one was $20 and didn't look so great. So it was off to the interwebs to see if a more frugal solution could be found.

I found several tutorials for making canvas bins out of diaper boxes. Perfect! We have a million diaper boxes hanging out in the garage, and I actually had a canvas drop cloth out there too. I waited for DD to take a nap and then I got started. I read through several tutorials to get an idea of the process, and then changed things a bit. Mainly because I didn't want to get out the sewing machine to sew a basket liner. So my baskets are completely canvas covered.

No-Sew Canvas Bins

Materials:
Diaper boxes
Hot glue
Canvas drop cloth - or another sturdy fabric, approx 1 yard.
Tape measure
Scissors
Box knife
Iron

I started out with an empty box. Using the box knife I carefully cut off the top flaps and set them aside to use later.

Next I glued the short flaps inside the bottom to cover the gaps. One piece had to be trimmed to fit on my box.

Note: At this point I thought I might decoupage the outside of the box so I first covered it in white copy paper. Then I got impatient and decided to cover it with the canvas instead. So from this point on my boxes are covered in white paper but its a completely unnecessary step!

Now its time to measure the fabric. Here's where my tutorial starts to differ from the others. I didn't want to sew a fabric liner so I needed to have the fabric cover the outside and the inside. I thought the easiest way to do this would be to have two large strips - one to run length-wise (approx 11' x 52 '') and one to run width-wise (approx 18'' x 44'').

I set my box down on the canvas and measured allowing .5'' room on the sides to overlap. Once my strips were cut I ironed them smooth.

Then I began to wrap the box, starting length-wise. I turned the box over and started on the bottom. Centering the fabric, I began on one side and glued down the fabric, stretching it tight and pressing firmly into the glue.

 

I glued the bottom first, then each of the sides on the outside. Lastly I finished up by tucking the fabric inside and gluing it down. Don't worry about making it meet the bottom edge exactly. You want a bit of fabric left on the bottom of the box. It will be covered in the end.

Then I went back and glued down the sides, being careful to cut and tuck the corners to get them as smooth as possible.

For the next piece, I folded over the edges to get a nice, smooth seam and ironed it to keep the strip straight and uniform.

Again starting on the bottom in the middle, I began gluing down the fabric. Run the glue all the way to the edge and press firmly for a nice, tight seam.

Glue the bottom, outside walls, and then the inside. 

Almost there! This is what the box should look like once it's fully wrapped

 For the bottom, I used the two long flaps to make an insert. You could tape them together, but I was too impatient to go find the tape. It works fine without taping. Measure a piece of fabric to cover the flaps.

Glue down the fabric, stretching tight to get a smooth finish.

Now tuck the insert into the bottom of the box. It should be a snug fit. Press down well in all corners to secure it.

And that's it! This would work with almost any kind of fabric. A great way to reuse those diaper boxes (or paper boxes, or any other kind of box you may run across). DD has a bookshelf in her room that is just waiting to get some new bins! For now, I am thrilled to have the toys contained in the living room :)

I just made two more bins for DD's room during nap time. This may be one of my future baby-shower gifts. Buy a box of diapers, make a fun tote out of the box to match the new nursery, and then fill with the diapers from the box :)

Abundance of Gifts and Ungratefulness

These posts (here and here) really put into words what I have been thinking about for awhile.

I want to be intentional about the values I pass on to my daughter. But that means I need to live the example I want her to see. ouch

We are blessed to live in a place where we have religious freedom to practice as we see fit. We are blessed with jobs that provide for ALL of our needs and a good measure of our wants. I am blessed to have a husband that is truly a partner with me and we enjoy each others' company. 

My daughter is growing up in a home where she has more toys that she could possibly play with in a single day. She has a warm, clean bed to sleep in and an abundance of clothes in her dresser. There is always food in the house to fill her chubby tummy. She has two parents that love her more than anything.

Simply put - she's not going to grow up knowing what true need and desperation is. Not if I can help it.

But part of me feels like I am hindering her in some way. No, I am not going to make a toddler start earning her keep or making her own food. But how can one really know what a need is like until you experience it?

Christmas to our family is a time to focus on the greatest gift the world was given: Jesus Christ. But if it a celebration of Jesus, then why should we get gifts? I want my children to know the excitement of the season - the anticipation in waiting for the King to be born. I don't want that anticipation to be built around what they are going to personally gain from it. I want my children to learn to focus on others first.

And for Jesus' Birthday, he should be the one to get the gifts. Gifts of Kindness. Compassion. Generosity. Love.

Matthew 25:40

The Message (MSG)

^37-40 “Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

But to teach it to my child, its going to need to be a principle that I live. Everyday.  And that is pretty convicting.

I've been talking to DH about only giving gifts on birthdays (a celebration of that person) or anniversaries (a celebration of that couple). For the other holidays, especially religious holidays, we will focus our resources towards helping others. There's nothing wrong with having an Easter basket, but if I could give that $10 to fill a child's tummy, then wouldn't that be a better use and a better lesson for my kids?

Now I just have to figure out how to implement this consistently while still helping my children to enjoy the holidays.

Christmas

The holiday has come and gone, and now our house looks like a disaster zone. Baby girl was thoroughly spoiled this year by all of us.

Nana spent a month making an amazing tablecloth playhouse. I had seen these on etsy and told my mom that I wanted one to go over our table or a card table since our house is small and we don't have room for a house to be out all the time. My mom was able to look at the pictures, download some patterns, and made an elaborate playhouse for DD. Inside there's a kitchen, table and chairs, and a bedroom area. WOW! DD thinks its the greatest thing ever :)

Yesterday I spent time making bins out of diaper boxes to hold all of the new toys. I still need to make some more for DD's room. She's getting old enough to play in there and I would much rather have the toys live in her room instead of all over the living room.

We didn't really do Santa gifts or make a big deal out of Santa for DD. She would point to the ornaments on the tree or the doll on the fireplace and she knew who he was, but that's it. Still undecided as to what we will do in the future. But the more I look at it, the more I think its unnecessary (more on that to come later).

Christmas is coming!

We got a new tree this year during the Black Friday sales. It now feels like Christmas in here :) This is the first year DH and I have had a tree since we got married. It is nice to finally display all of the ornaments we have been collecting for years. DD is loving the tree - the lights, the ornaments, so many fun things to look at.

I made some stockings for us and we decorated the fireplace. As we were setting out the greenery and figurines, I pulled out the stuffed Santa and our Herbie elf and set them on the hearth. DD loves Herbie! She carries him around the house, pressing his hand and listening to him say "I want to be a Dentist!"

However, DD is a bit confused with Santa. I pointed to him and told her his name was Santa. She shook her said, said "No, Papa!" She apparently thinks Santa is my grandfather! Hahaha :) So much for that dilemma about whether or not to play up the tradition of Santa. I am not too worried about denying her some special tradition, especially since most of the world does not believe in Santa. Now I just have to worry about her being the kid that ruins it for others!