Dress-up fun

Halloween

I got a minor scolding for my lack of posts. Life has just been busy and kind of un-post-worthy. Well, I guess there have been things worth posting, but I haven't had time! Nap times aren't reliable anymore (and usually, once I finish putting Levi, then Lucy down for naps and read a book/play cards/or do a puzzle with Nate, Levi is already awake again), and that's often my blog posting time.

Today is Halloween. This is the first year Nate has been really aware of Halloween, especially because his school seemed to spend the entire month of October talking about it. Jon and I have been talking with Nate about which holidays honor God and which don't honor God and/or "glorify people," so that seems to be sinking in. Nate dressed as a pirate--a hand-me-down costume--for the school parade. Although I've never sat down and thought out what my parenting tactic will be regarding Halloween, at this point we're purposely not mentioning it or talking much about it at home (to show it isn't a big deal or something worth spending a lot of time on), and when Nate brings up something about it they've been talking about at school, we acknowledge whatever cool thing he's mentioning and then sometimes use that to discuss the things we as a family want to celebrate. (Wow, long sentence--all to say that we are making Halloween a "not a big deal" thing in our house.)

Vivi Reborn guest giveaway

Pretty necklaces on this giveaway today... Hope I win! :) Vivi Reborn GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

On the potty train

Lucy is officially potty trained, and it was way easier than I had anticipated. I thought her feisty/spunky/opinionated personality would clash with the fact that this was something I wanted her to do. But we started training on Thursday with basically no accidents. We had a couple of accidents on Sunday (including a bad one in the mall food court), but that's it.

For the record, I tried potty training her about 5 to 6 weeks ago, but after half a day that included 6-7 accidents and no successes, I stopped. Then, in the last 2 weeks, I noticed she was waking up dry from her long afternoon nap. That, apparently, was the breakthrough her body needed, because this time was a cinch.

The title of this post is from what Lucy said to Jon's sister on the phone: "Auntie Jenn, I go on the potty train!"

I was going to post a picture of her, but the latest one I have is a close-up of her underwear, taken from behind. The one I have before that is this:

Another comfy dress

Finished this dress last night. It was made mostly from some of my old (stained) maternity shirts--I love how thrifty that is!

Kid pics

Nate with a new chicken nugget he can eat!



Lucy showing her new skill: looking cute with big-girl underwear (second day--so far so good).



Levi. What, you think it's too small to be a playpen?

Levi update (11 months)

I wanted to get a quick post on here to update on Levi. He's sleeping better than he was back during the reflux-vs.-teething debacle. I have since decided that was teething and not the prevacid; this was confirmed to me this week when Levi slept terribly for several nights again, and he has a couple new teeth coming in. Anyway, in general his sleep is a little bit better. He's still feeding once at night, but he's often sleeping all the way until that feeding instead of waking multiple times before then.

He is an eating machine. He never did like pureed baby foods, so I kept nursing him and giving him bits of table food, and now he is eating 3 large meals a day, exclusively table foods. (He's also still nursing a few times a day.) Yesterday's foods included pancake, banana, meatloaf, diced peach, and kidney beans. Although it was annoying at 6-8 months when he was still almost exclusively nursing, it's so nice now that I never had to buy or deal with baby foods.

He started pulling up to standing this past week. It's funny that he doesn't know any way to get back down except to just let himself go, no matter what might be on the ground behind him. (Ouch!)

Go Levi!

Inspiration of a sewing sort

I haven't felt inspired to write on the blog too much the past couple of weeks--sorry! The inspiration I have been feeling is more toward the sewing machine than the computer. Here's something I finished today:



It's from a pattern I bought on Etsy, and I'm now stockpiling tons of old t-shirts to make lots more dresses.

I also finished the quilt top for the quilt for our bedroom. Yep--a queen-size quilt for my first attempt! I really love it. I ordered some batting and am waiting for a sale/coupon to buy the fabric for the quilt back.

Casey and I also bought all the fabric we need for me to make 5 "travel quilts" (one for each of our kids). The idea is that, whenever you go on a family trip, buy a patch in the souvenir shop at your destination, and then stitch it onto the travel quilt. It'll be a fun keepsake for the kids when they're older and can see all of the places they've visited.

Time for the kids' dinner, so I'm off!

P.S. I should explain that the Clippers are (is?) Jon's favorite basketball team. That's why I made this dress for Lucy.

Top teeth!

Art

Nannie requested a post. (I don't blame you, Nannie: I hate visiting a blog and seeing the same post day after day.) So here are some pictures of Nate's recent artwork.


I give the one above the title, "Boy with mohawk points with a thousand fingers to UFO"



I couldn't find any good pictures of his handwriting, but he has just started doing lowercase letters in addition to his usual uppercase.

Daddy is the best

Jon probably doesn't need our gym membership... He has his own exercise routine at home, including free weights. :)

Videos

All 3 kids the other morning before school:



Levi this morning just starting to pull up:



And Lucy starting to use the computer this week. She DID get a haircut last week, but the video this morning shows her pre-"curl-calming lotion" and barrette:

Time to retreat

Our church's women's retreat is this weekend. I have gone for 5 or 6 years now, sometimes taking a baby along, too (Nate when he was 10 months, Lucy when she was 6 months). Taking the baby prevents it from being a true retreat, but it's still fun. Levi is 10 months old right now--still nursing and "needing" me like a baby does--but my wonderful husband is keeping all the kids, including Levi, at home this weekend so I can enjoy the retreat alone. If you think of it, would you please pray that Levi is extra good for Jon and that he takes the bottle? :)

Dangerous but fun; spectator too

Fancy Nancy

I know a bunch of you know what Fancy Nancy is already. We've had the book for a while for Lucy, and she just recently really started liking it. As I'm reading, she likes to complete the end of each phrase, and I just love how she says words like "chauffeur" and "Merci" in her little froggy voice.

I couldn't pick from these two videos, so here they both are:





And look how cute this link is!

Sleeping arrangements

Levi has been sleeping in a pack n play in our room since he was born. But with his poor sleep over the past few months, we are probably getting even less sleep because of the shared room. I love the idea of kids sharing a room, but when they're babies and/or not sleeping well, the logistics can be difficult! I didn't want to move Levi into Lucy's room (just next door to ours) while he's sleeping like this (i.e., not sleeping). And of course I didn't want to move him into Nate's room because 1) Nate isn't a wonderful sleeper to begin with, and 2) it's on a different floor than our room. So yesterday we moved Lucy's bed up into Nate's room, and they'll share for a few months (or however long it takes for Levi to sleep through the night consistently). Levi slept in the pack n play in Lucy's room, and we'll set up the crib in there for him this week. As for nap time during the day, when all three kids have a "rest time," I will try putting Lucy into our bed so Nate can still have alone time in his room.

Jon and I were anticipating a long evening as Nate and Lucy adjusted to the new arrangement. But it wasn't as bad/long as I thought it might be, and both kids were asleep within an hour or so. (In fact, I think Nate fell asleep first.) I love that this is inadvertently teaching them a "life skill." It will be nice when we go places (e.g., Mimi & Grandpa's) or when they sleep over at friends' houses, because it won't be foreign to sleep with someone else in the room.

OK, random post, I know. :)

Snippet

I painted my nails red before Jon and I went to a 30th birthday party last night (adults only--it was so fun!). Lucy saw them and asked, "Mama, why'd you paint yourself?" I told her just because it was fun and I was going to a party. So today she asked if she could have her nails painted just like Mama. I'd painted her nails once before in a barely-there pink, but this time she wanted to go all out. So cute!

Oh, and I didn't get a good picture of it, but Levi looked so cute for the 0.3 seconds his hair stayed put when I wet it down the other day (pic below). You can also see he's wearing a shirt, shorts, and shoes that used to be Nate's... When Jon cleaned out our whole garage over Labor Day weekend, he discovered a big box of Nate's baby clothes size 9 months and 12 months--just in time for Levi! I had been wondering where some of Nate's baby things went that I hadn't found yet. :)

Big girl pajamas

Lucy is sooooo sensitive to tight-fitting clothes (around the arms, wrists, waist, ankles, neck, etc.) and is apt to throw multiple daily fits about certain articles of clothing. Well--most articles of clothing. That includes pajamas. So I was proud of myself when I realized she could wear gowns to bed. (It took me a long time to figure this out--don't know why.) We picked one up today at the Carter's store on sale; when Lucy tried it on in the store and I asked her if it bothered her, she triumphantly declared no! I quickly washed and dried it so she she could wear it tonight. We put it on tonight for bed, and what do you know? She threw a fit (seemed like the shoulder seam/underarm area was the culprit). Great. She got over it, but still--goodness gracious, child!

Regarding the "tactile sensitivity," I do think Lucy has some sort of sensory issue regarding stuff touching her. Her aversions go beyond normal 2-year-old tantrums. So I've looked into "brushing therapy"; I'm going to get a brush this next week and try it, because I don't know how many more clothing-related tantrums we can take!

The big 2-7

Happy birthday, Greg!

Can it be true that you are growing up? :)

First day

Tomorrow is the first day of school. Nate's signed up to take the bus in the mornings again, and last week I signed the IEP addendum paperwork for his new daily schedule:

8:30-9:00 IBI classroom (special ed)
9:00-12:00 Preschool Connections ("regular" class!)
12:00-1:30 Lunch, recess, work time in IBI (special ed)

I'm hopeful that the number of transitions will be OK for him, and I'm so excited about the "full time inclusion" in the neurotypical class. Preschool Connections, run by the Parks and Recreations department, doesn't start until 9/16, so the first four days of school will be different from this. We'll see if that's detrimental....

I'm nervous. I'm nervous because of how badly Nate was behaving toward the end of the school year (May-July). I had thought it was classroom related, but by golly the bad behavior has continued straight through the summer. The disrespectful attitude. The whining. The blatant disobedience. So I'm nervous because he is out from under my supervision at school, and I can't discipline immediately when it is called for. I'm going to pray with him each morning before he leaves, but I'm still nervous!

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 2:14
Do all things without complaining and disputing,

Proverbs 20:11
Even a child is known by his deeds,

Video equality

Levi was featured yesterday, so here are Nate and Luce:

Nate the amazing reader:



And the only recent video I have of Lucy:

Video

Levi almost clapping. :)

Levi/reflux update

I took Levi to the doctor yesterday morning (he wanted to check Levi's ears to rule out infection), and the doc thought this new trouble might not be the Prevacid but teething. If that is so, then it is some MONSTER teething. Just in case, I have stopped the Prevacid and am giving Levi his old Zantac dose until this night-time craziness stops. Then I will try the Prevacid one more time and see what happens.

This week's pictures:

Skirt fun

Skirts are pretty much the easiest clothing item to make, I think. I made this pink/green one a few weeks ago, and the jean/print skirt I finished over the weekend. For that one, I cut up an old pair of capris, used the existing waistband and zipper (after cinching the waistband to make it a bit smaller), and cut a few more panels in a fabric I like. I sewed the panels together and finished it off with a bias hem.

A monster named Reflux

Back when Levi was in the hospital at 7 weeks with that virus, they did an upper GI and found he had reflux. He has been on Zantac ever since, with good results. When he was about 6 months, I thought he didn't need the Zantac anymore; he wasn't fussy before the dose was due, and we were about to start solid foods, which sometimes helps naturally. So I stopped the Zantac, but after a month, the symptoms were back with a vengeance. (I figure it took that long for the damage to reoccur.) I started the Zantac again, but I fear it was now too little, too late. That month of no medicine did too much damage, and now he was waking up a ton at night, crying in pain. I tried letting him cry it out for several nights, but he would cry and cry and cry literally for hours, never going back to sleep unless I fed him. (I know--that isn't crying it out! But I think everyone would agree that letting him cry for 3 hours is too much; I only did that once.) This has been going on now for a couple of months, so I asked the doc for a stronger medicine. I started Levi on prevacid last Wednesday with high hopes. The first night was a normal night. The second night was a dream. He woke up crying at a normal time, but I let him cry and he went back to sleep, not waking to eat until 4:45. (This is not good for a normal 9 month old, but considering how things had been going, this was GREAT.) The third night was awful--way worse than even the "normal" way things had been going. I put him to bed at 7:00, and he awoke crying at 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, fed him at 11:00, awoke at 1:00 and cried on and off for hours, awoke much more and fed a couple more times but by that time it all just runs together. The fourth night (last night) was the same (awful). When he wakes up at 9:00 p.m. and 9:30 and 10:00, I know it's going to be a bad night--so much so that I just dread even going to bed myself, because I know I won't get any sleep.

The Prevacid was supposed to make things better, not worse. I'll call the doctor tomorrow. So far, what I've seen online is that Prevacid has some milk ingredients in it that might bother some kids, and it also seems to cause gassiness in general. I'm not sure if that's what's going on with Levi, but whatever it is, I just want some sleep!

Bedroom decorating

I've been thinking about making my first quilt. I've been dreaming of different fabric combinations and thinking that the quilt should go on our bed, and I will redo our bedroom around it. (I've never decorated our bedroom in this house; it's the last room to be addressed! But I was inspired recently by friends.) I think the quilt will be quite busy/crazy/happy, and then I'll make the rest of the room soft and calm. Here are the 12 fabrics for the quilt (mostly reds, greens, teals, and blues, with some yellow. Most from Heather Bailey, and one each from Valori Wells, Anna Griffin, and Anna Maria Horner):



And the colors I'm going to sample for the walls:

Glidden's Barely Jade
Behr's April Mist, Tide Pools, or premium plus Frosted Jade

I'm hoping for a muted teal/bluish grey/jade. Those colors might end up being completely not what I want, but that's where I'm starting.

And the different styles of chandeliers/lights I would love to try if Jon can stand to part with the ceiling fan:



I'm also going to try rearranging the furniture and put the bed up against a different wall. I already have 4 panels of white curtains I will put up behind the bed (like Sara and others have done--except there really is an unused window/sliding door where mine will go. Yay--I get to take down those vertical blinds!).

I've ordered some of the fabrics for the quilt. I'm waiting for a bit more Paypal money before I order the rest, and then I will get started!

Pictures

I took the kids to Kiddie Kandids yesterday on a bit of a whim, with no appointment. Lack of appointment has never been a problem for us before, but this time there was an hour-and-a-half wait. I had dressed, matched, brushed, and primped all the kids for this; I wasn't about to turn around and go home, so we had lots of time to kill. We walked through Target, where N and L each got to pick something from the dollar bins. We ate the lunch I had brought in the seating area in Target. We walked through Target some more. We rode the carousel (at the Spectrum). We went into the pet store. Man, an hour and a half is a long time with three kids, especially when you're trying to keep them and their clothes clean! So, we made it to our picture time exactly at the same time everyone's energy was depleted and Levi was ready for his nap... great! Regardless, we ended up with at least a couple of cute pictures (several cute ones of Levi and one picture of all three kids where all three were a) looking at the camera, b) not crying, and c) not scared). Here are the two I bought.