Our cloth book

As I've looked back at old posts (and yes, I do that a lot, both for entertainment value and research), I've come to realize that as much as I like to pretend this blog is about and for the kiddos, it's just as much about and for me. I don't really mean for it to be that way, but I suppose sometimes I need an outlet as much as the girls need every detail of their lives documented and photographed (which is to say, not in the way we need air, but more than we need sequined cell phone cases).

And it's in that spirit that I'm posting pictures of the cloth book I made for Kalina and Elise. I realize this post is probably more interesting to me than to you, but I feel like I owe it to all the people whose cloth book posts I drooled over as I was looking for inspiration for my own. I'm also including a cute picture of the girls to tide you over to the next post, which will probably be another riveting sleep one, or possibly something about how Kalina can read (and I mean honest-to-goodness sound out) several words and how much trouble we're all going to be in when Elise can crawl because her appetite for learning is rather unstoppable. Plus I'm probably bragging a little, but at least it's about something other than my kids for once (excluding the previous sentence, that is).

The cover says Kalina, but I have made it clear that the pages are for sharing, as they are bound with metal rings and can be removed and exchanged. In the coming months, Elise will receive her own cover and set of pages, which will also be for sharing, but I'm pretty sure if I gave them to her right now they wouldn't survive more than about one car ride, or would at least be sopping wet by the end of it.

While the book is for the kids, I'll admit that it was also an excellent way for me to get acquainted with my new sewing machine and while away the long hours of winter (not that most of my "long hours" lasted much more than 20 minutes at a time). I also wanted to prove how much I love my girls in case this blog and years of devotion don't do the trick.

Kalina helped with some pages, while other I kept as complete surprises. It actually ended up being a lovely little project for us, as she got to help make some of the important decisions (the cover fabric, for instance, which she was insistent upon in the store and still remembered weeks later even though I'd tucked it away and hadn't done anything with it yet) and "keep track of"/play with the pieces.

I did often have to remind myself that it's just a children's toy, and that it didn't need to be perfect, and nobody (but myself) would be critiquing my work. Not that I could've made it perfect if I'd tried. It's already been tested at church, and with great success--most of the pages are right up Kalina's alley (I know what my little girl likes!), with a few that I've intended for her to grow into.

I did discover that some of the activities need a little more help from Mommy than I'd intended (the snaps are tough), but I'm mostly just grateful that Kalina's responsible to ask for help rather than tearing the book to shreds. Elise's book will, on the other hand, be more suited toward a younger audience. And will probably be made of titanium if I want it to stay intact. Voracious little learner, that girl!

I used cheap fabric/scraps, felt, a magic marker, lots of Velcor, snaps, a zipper, google eyes, magnets, yarn, buttons, ribbon and other assorted materials. Despite trying to keep it cheap, I think the book ended up costing a fortune, especially when you count the hours of freelancing lost. Anything for my girls! I enjoyed every minute. No, I will not make one for your child. :) And here's my description of each page:

Page 1: This page is about getting ready for the day. Untuck the bear from her bed, unzip the "closet" and help her find an outfit. Then, she can have breakfast, comb her hair, wash her face and brush her teeth.

Page 2: Make your own flowers! Each piece (petal, stem, center) of each flower is outlined in thread (I drew it with disappearing marker first and then sewed over that to create the outline). The petals, centers and stem pieces store in a pocket behind the background and can be placed on the design to fill out the flowers.

Page 3: The three removable birdie finger puppets (complete with google eyes) live in a nest. Their egg hats store up above in the leaf pocket. The nest, by the way, has a couple slits in it so you can stick your hand through and operate the puppets inside it.

Pages 4-5: On this spread, Kalina and Elise can choose an object (pennant, flower, flag, balloon, kite) and a ribbon to attach it to each tactile animal (suede, fleece, terrycloth, plush). Also, each of the objects buttons on, so they can be rearranged. Yes, there are 5 objects and 4 animals. You'll see why later.






Page 6: It's a garden! Snap an orange and an apple onto trees, and corn and a tomato onto plants. A carrot and a potato tuck into pockets. Once you "harvest" them, you can put them into the reusable shopping bag.

Page 7: I was going to sew the farm animal buttons onto this page, but Kalina had so much fun playing with them that I left them loose. They store in a pocket in the barn. The first time one of them gets lost, I'm sewing the rest on. The barn doors, hayloft, chicken coop, pigpen and haystack are all flaps for the animals to hide behind. There's also a pasture, pond and a windmill that really spins, kind of.

Page 8: Matt thinks these puzzles (a star, duck, sailboat and whale) will be too hard for Kalina, but I'm pretty sure she'll catch on so quickly I'll be glad I made them double-sided and all in one color. They store in the pocket. Page 9: I sewed magnets into this page to allow the girls to match up the words with the objects. I worked hard to use all the different vowel sounds, or as many as reasonably possible, and still keep the words short and recognizable. Kalina already knows "cat" and "dog" without breaking a sweat.

Page 10: It's Memory! I used scraps of fabric and see-through Velcro to keep them in place. These turned out so nice in person that I might make a few gift sets. Page 11: When Kalina's a little older (and Elise), I bet she'll be able to weave these strips of fabric into really cool designs. I know I would've.

 Page 12: Cuckoo! All the numbers are Velcro'd on so that Kalina can arrange them in order (or not). The hands really move. And if you tug the bird gently he'll kind of pop out. Pull the string below the clock's face and he'll go back into place.

Bonus: Don't tell Kalina and Elise, but I've arranged it so each of these numbers, 1-12, corresponds with a specific page or spread. Right now, they're in order (1 bear, 2 flowers, 3 birdies, etc.), but as the girls get older it might be a fun challenge to have them match the numbers to the pages.

The back has a big pocket and also a pencil holder.

[Taking a bow.]

A family visit!

This week, Kalina and Elise (and the rest of us) were thrilled to welcome the Kansas branch of my family as well as family friend, Angela, to our stomping grounds.

And while one child was all grins and twirls, the other would only tolerate about 10 seconds of attention from most of our guests before the puppy lip emerged and she had to be handed back to Mommy.

We had a lovely time, beginning with a barbecue picnic at one of our favorite parks and ending with a big chili dinner at Grandpa's house. We did, unfortunately, have to dodge Elise's naps and bedtime as much as possible, seeing as the girl was/is still recovering from Monday's sleepless night.

Between eye rubs, though, she lavished her share of grins, as long as she was safely in Mommy's arms. Kalina, however, soaked in the attention, providing our guests with a fairly comprehensive tour of her toys, and telling some of her best jokes. I think I had as much fun watching as she did playing.

Here are our photos from the occasion (my apologies: I'm not the best at candid shots, but you get the idea!) (thank you to Grandpa for submitting a few more!):

Photo 1: Elise was amenable enough to Angela, who made her flight despite a blizzard. Fortunately, we had some nice, warm weather waiting for her when she arrived and she thawed out quite nicely.

Photo 2: The group digging into barbecue.

Photo 3: Mixing up some corn muffins with Angela. Everyone agreed they were delicious, but who wouldn't when faced with Kalina? (Or Angela, for that matter!)

Photo 4: Kalina had an amazing time showing off for a roomfull of admiring relatives, and especially her Great Aunt Jo.

Photo 5: Cousin Renae finally got to hold Elise--for about 10 seconds!

Photo 6: The cooking staff.

Photo 7: A family dinner!

Photo 8: We couldn't all fit inside. :)

Pediatrician visit!

Elise is 6 months old! In between exlamations of "can you believe it?" and "quit growing, Baby!" we managed to squeeze in a visit to the pediatrician.

True to usual form (with newborns and infants, anyway), I'd scheduled Elise's 6-month appointment during her morning naptime. You'd think I'd learn by now: in the early months, schedule their next appointment for the most inconvenient time you can think of. After all the changes a baby's young life can bring, it'll be perfect 2 months down the road.

Plus, Elise has been having more sleep and nap issues lately, making the morning even more of an adventure. Long story short (because I can make any story that involve my kids' sleep long), I managed to get Elise down for an early-ish nap so that she had slept for at least 30 minute before I had to disturb her. I stuffed the baby into her carseat, rushed her out the door to the car (where Kalina and the diaper bag were already waiting), and made it to the pediatrician's office exactly on time. Which probably annoyed the receptionist, who likes us to be 10-15 minutes early for no apparent reason, but she hid it well.

The receptionist and I, by the way, are old friends now. We've chatted several times in the past week as I tried frantically to change the appointment time (no-go), and she at least pretended to earnestly want to help me. She checked me in today and we were almost immediately called to the back.

With her very normal amount of stranger and separation anxiety, Elise was not happy to be placed on the scale. The nurse is certain my kids dislike her (because she normally administers shots), but personally, I think they'd cry for anyone in that situation. The scale showed that Elise is up to 14 lbs., 13 1/2 ounces (can you get any more precise than that?), and is now in about the 30th percentile for weight.

Elise has reached 26 5/8 inches in height (75th percentile) and 41 cm for head circumference (15th percentile). She's growing just perfectly.

After we were done weighing Elise, we had a short wait for the doctor. I'd packed the diaper bag accordingly to keep both kids entertained, but, in fact, they entertained each other. Kalina barraged me with questions about what would be done to Elise, and Elise kept her eyes trained on Kalina because the toddler is always up to something unexpected and interesting and generally hilarious. We also all briefly discussed the bird picture on the wall and the baby in the mirror.

And then the doctor came in, and asked what Elise has been up to. A better question would be what isn't Elise up to? She smiles, giggles, babbles in vowels, rolls back to tummy, sits supported and thoroughly enjoys standing and bouncing. She still doesn't roll tummy to back, and hasn't ventured into consonents yet, but the doctor is worried about neither of these.

He politely inquired about Elise's sleep, something many people by now know not to ask me about because they're putting themselves at risk for a lengthy diatribe that no one can really follow. I'd been saving up some questions for him and was glad to get some answers. Yes, Elise may still need a middle-of-the-night feeding (or two), but yes, it's fine to do some sleep training. Babies this age are all over the map as far as naps and nighttimes, and we just need to figure out what works best for Elise and the family as a whole. It's stuff that I knew, it just sounds better out of a pediatrician's mouth than my own, and it put lots of my invented fears to rest.

I also got the go-ahead to boost Elise's solid food intake, since she seems to be enjoying what I've been giving her.

At about this point, Elise randomly cried in the general direction of the doctor, but calmed down quite quickly and didn't seem to mind him all that much afterward, as long as she was in my arms, at least.

The doctor then began his examination by looking in Elise's ears and eyes, and then listening to her heart. For the second time in a row, he did not hear the heart murmur! Yay!

And then I had to lay Elise down on the exam table, which brought more tears, but we were quickly done.

The whole time, by the way, Kalina intently asked questions about what the doctor was going to do to Elise. While at times this struck me as a bit sadistic, it at least kept her occupied and relatively happy.

Next, it was time for shots. Kalina was fascinated by the doctor's preparations. I hardly wanted to look, but was forced to describe every single detail. Fortunately, Elise only understands a few words--her own name, "blankey time" and possibly "cat," so she did not catch on to what was coming her way.

Naturally, I was dreading the shots, in addition to the rest of the day. Historically, Elise has not done well with needle sticks for a good 12 hours afterward. I was a bit relieved, then, to see that Elise calmed down within 5 minutes. I gently dressed her in her sleeper without laying her on the table again (how could I subject her to that horror again?) and we headed out.

Checking out at the receptionist's desk, Kalina received a train sticker and I got some free samples of Vitamin D drops for Elise.

The rest of the day was tricky, with one shining moment when Kalina volunteered to jump up and down to cheer Elise up. It worked. Elise was also known to smile when Daddy got home. We can't wait for our sunshine to come out again tomorrow!

Photo: Elise hanging out in Kalina's bean-bag chair. She's loved this cozy spot ever since she was a tiny newborn and I placed her there to keep her cuddled while I put Kalina down for naps. Elise used to almost fall asleep in it and I considered for a while transferring it to her crib. You almost never see Elise without something in her mouth nowadays, by the way. Kalina was surprisingly happy to share her old ring toy, which I forgot to transfer to Elise's room when it lay forgotten at the back of her cabinet.

Fear and no fear

Kalina and Elise are both growing girls, navigating the tricky stages of young life. While one perfects the ability to scoop with a fork, the other is learning how to swallow slightly thicker food. While one is learning that Mommy is cuddly and strangers are not, the other is happily running off with other (very well known) adults. It's fun to watch.

Perhaps one of the most interesting juxtapositions of the girls' developmental states right now is the way they interact with the knowns and unknowns of the world.

For Kalina, who has been just a little sunshine lately in all other matters, this means that very real fears are starting to creep into her life.

Recently, Kalina has been scared of:

White-tailed deer
Bugs

Spiders

Ants

Lint that looks like bugs, spiders or ants

Dogs

Vaccuum cleaners

A song on her children's CD called "Mr. Bassman"

Anyone not related by blood

Her camel puppet eating grocery lists

The truck things in stores like Target used to deliver goods to the shelves, especially when they beep

Heights

Random noises

And much, much more

Many of these I can certainly relate to.

Fortunately, Kalina has plenty of coping mechanisms for dealing with these fears. Most often, at the sight (or sound) of one of them, she'll either scale Matt or I until she's holding on by our necks or, if she's not on the ground, leap into our unsuspecting arms. We have yet to convince her that jumping from her perch on a large boulder in the general direction of Mommy or Daddy who may or may not be expecting to receive a toddler rocketing through the air, should give her more to worry about than a tiny spider.

If the threat is only minor (for instance, a worm), Kalina may simply head for high ground until a nearby adult can confirm that the area is safe again (by tossing the poor worm into the bushes, for instance).

All noises must be explained before Kalina can let down her guard. To try to take the emphasis off individual sounds, I've come up with blanket explanations such as "it was just something outside" or "it was probably just the cat" or "it was just a house noise." I downplay them as much as possible, because, frankly, I have no idea what that tiny creaking noise was, either.

And finally, Kalina takes great courage in the belief that everyone from the cat to her bugs made out of pipe cleaners to God will protect her from anything she's afraid of. "And Beancat will scratch under Kalina's bed so that Camel does not eat the list," she sometimes reassures herself before nodding off to sleep (thus combining two fears, but she doesn't see it that way. Maybe the two negate each other?).

And then there's Elise, whose 6-month explorations have her casting all fear to the wind. Elise does not worry if the trash she's just put in her mouth has any unsavory particles on it. She does not care that the hanger she's found to munch on could make her gag. And the baby certainly wouldn't mind if a spider crawled her way (heaven forbid), but would instead make a nice snack of it.

Which is why the rest of us now have to fear for her. Elise is now so persistent in exploring her brand-new world that it's hard to keep up. Like a starfish, she at times unexplainably ends up a few inches away from where we set her, and rotated 180 degrees. What if Kalina's "Don't Spill the Beans" game had been sitting out in that exact spot? This is just one of our concerns.

And then it seems that to keep the baby happy, we must shift her to a new location every 5 minutes or so. "Done!" she seems to yell as she voices her frustration in how boring all the toys and scenery nearby now are. And then she gets moved to her Exersaucer, and her Jumperoo, and Mommy's arms, and back to the floor. A million times a morning. The girl has a startlingly voracious appetite for new things (pun intended).

The only thing Elise never tires of is watching her big sister, and Kalina seems to take pride in being Elise's favorite. Kalina can do no wrong in Elise's eyes--instead, everything is hilarious. The pair, which has been known to reverse-coordinate naptimes more consistently than they coordinate them (do they send a memo? If so, I'm never included on it!) could become trouble for their mommy as they both grow even more.

Should I be afraid now?

Photo 1: Kalina attended Farm Animal Days today with Grandpa!

Photo 2: Pig wanted to see some pigs.
Photo 3: In the purse: Kalina's farm animals and one toy bug who wanted to tag along.

Photo 4: Our seasoned cowhand.

Photo 5: Look, no hands! Most of Elise's toys are sopping wet at any given moment. I make Kalina share her own toys with Elise, but secretly can't blame the toddler for her reluctance. I no longer make her share stuffed animals, because soggy ones are not cuddly at naptime. Gross.

Adventures With Two: Daddy's Business Trip

One of the things we stay-at-home mommies like to remind each other is that our job is like any other job, but without evenings or weekends off (although I do realize that working mommies and daddies who come home to kids don't exactly get much time off, either, except perhaps a lunch hour and a lovely commute, during which they get to sit and listen to music or audio books, but I digress).

And while our jobs rarely require travel, our husbands' jobs do, and then we really, really, really don't get any time off. Especially if the kids' naps are all awry.

It's even worse, by the way, for those of us used to having helpful husbands who walk in the door at 5:30 with smiles on their faces and the ability to talk to various stuffed animals and puppets without slipping in the occasional sarcastic comment. Not that I'm complaining about having a helpful husband.

So when Matt left on Saturday afternoon for his business trip, I knew I was in for a long week. He'd be home on Thursday afternoon.

My goals were to:

1.) Make sure Kalina and Elise suffered no major ill effects of their daddy being gone. Which meant I would be maintaining a calm, steady and cheery attitude for at least 14 hours a day. Think Mary Poppins, but without commercial breaks.

2.) Keep the house from becoming a disaster area.

3.) Try to get Elise a little more sleep (she was down around 12 hours a day at her low point).

4.) Not be ready to collapse in a heap of dust the second Matt walked in the door and in fact, continue to maintain the aforementioned cheery attitude.

5.) Have a little fun, especially with my friend Renee, who would be visiting.

And I think I made it!

Just for fun, here's Matt's Business Trip Week By The Numbers.


Nights: 5

Mornings I began before 6:00: 4

Times up at night: 14

Showers: 4

Loads of laundry completed: 2

Bags of trash taken out: 4

Real dinners prepared: 3

Starburst Jelly Beans eaten by me: 1/2 bag.

Starburst Jelly Beans eaten by Kalina: 8

Trips to Target: 2

Real naps taken by Kalina: 1 1/2

Toddler meltdowns: 0

Mommy meltdowns: 1

Minutes of television watched by toddler: 92

People who helped out a ton: 2

Overall, it was a good "trip," thanks mostly to all the extra hands I had, belonging to Grandpa, college friend Renee, and others. May Matt never leave again.

Photo 1: A picnic lunch at a local park with Miss Renee

Photo 2: Kalina has spent a lot of time with Grandpa lately!

Little Big Girl

The other day, I bought some size 4T shirts for Kalina. They are to last the entire summer, and hopefully even to next spring. The girl is tall, and especially in her torso, which means that she grows out of the lengths by the end of the season (and fortunately, usually not right in the middle). But the point remains: I bought some size 4T shirts. Next we'll be out of the toddler section, and cat shirts will be even fewer and farther between. Whatever will she wear?

Our little Kalina is growing up, and she and I remind each other of this fact on a daily basis.

"You're a big girl, you can clean up your own mess," I let Kalina know in no uncertain terms as she happily scatters dried beans far and wide across our living room floor.

And on the other hand, "Kalina is big, so Kalina can sit on the coffee table," she informs me as she happily climbs up. She's right: I believe that as you gain big girl responsibilities, you should also get some big girl privileges and it just so happened that climbing on the coffee table made for a really good one when I was particularly desperate. So now, she may.

Truth be told, Kalina amazes me on a daily basis--not only with her rather perfect grammar constructions ("Kalina got a book for Kalina's self" is one of my favorites), but also with her practical knowledge.

For instance, I'm pretty sure Kalina will be ready for her own apartment by age 12, judging from the way she already knows what goes into running a household thanks to maintaining extremely close proximity to me pretty much since birth, and lots of practice doing household tasks by helping with chores.

Kalina's chores at this age, by the way, are:

1. Emptying the silverware from the dishwasher and putting it away.

2. Feeding the cat.

3. Starting the dishwasher.
4. Cleaning up her toys when we ask her to.

5. Wiping up her own messes.

We help her, but these are things she can do mostly on her own, and we expect her to.

She also happily (sometimes weirdly happily) helps out with sweeping (she can form her own piles and step over them without tracking them around the house!), spraying any spray bottles I need sprayed, almost any kind of baking and cooking (she's especially good at convincing Mommy to give her tastes), starting laundry and transferring it to the dryer, dusting furniture and gleefully throwing any laundry we're folding off whatever surface we're using to fold it (okay, so she's not perfect).

But Kalina's personal growth goes far beyond chores. For instance, until very recently she's never been a "me do it!" kind of kid, preferring instead to have her requests fulfilled by her own personal maid (Mommy). But in the past few months she's been showing a bit more interest in such things as taking off her shoes and washing her own hands. She can even brush her teeth rather well, and spit out the toothpaste, although not at the same time.

Her play has gotten increasingly elaborate, and I occasionally overhear whispered conversations between Kalina's various animal friends that have to do with catching ice cream that falls from the light fixtures or searching for the ever-missing slice of toast and whatnot. It's cute. She can also now draw real pictures, and write real words, which are represented by lines on paper. But at least she knows they're there.

Speaking of words, although Kalina certainly isn't reading, she can tell you which letter some words start with, providing the words start with S, B, D or P. Her enunciation is improving, as well as her ability to toss around phrases such as "last but not least" and "eat up every last bit of grapefruit."

And of course, Kalina's propensity for mischief has grown as well. For the first time pretty much ever, I've been required to grow eyes in the back of my head to keep an eye on a very real person who has not yet developed a sense for "laundry soap is not for playing in" or "Mommy really, really doesn't want paint her nice placemats painted."

I appreciate the little things, too. I recently witnessed Kalina successfully keep a large blob of grape jam from landing on her lap while painstakingly eating a peanut butter sandwich, a feat of which I'm not only exceedingly proud, but exceedingly grateful.

After a recent conversation about the fact that Kalina can have ice cream because she's big but Elise can't because she's little, I asked her what she'd like to do when she's as big as Mommy. I didn't let her know that her options could include eating an entire pan of brownies or watching TV all day in her jammies. And so, Kalina simply replied that she'd like to take care of her friends. Maybe someday my little girl will dream bigger, but for now, I think her idea sounds just perfect.

Photo: We'll add cake decorating to Kalina's list of skills