Life at my house

Seems like whenever I go for a while without blogging, I end up with a post like this.  Here’s what’s been going on, in no particular order:

We had our faucet in the bathroom sink bust on us.  One of the handles broke off, and with it gone, we had a four foot geyser in our bathroom!  It meant a trip the next morning to Home Depot and a lesson in how to install a new faucet.

J has learned to feed himself.  He actually does a pretty good job, moving the spoon to the bowl and back again.  But if you turn your back for just a second … Yes, that is oatmeal in his hair!

When my grandma gave us our Christmas presents early so she could see us open them, she probably didn’t think J would have to fight the girls to play with his book.  We all love it!

We did celebrate Thanksgiving, and I had two little helpers when I made my pumpkin pie this year!  They were so excited to eat it!  L ate a piece as big as mine, but poor S took one bite and decided she didn’t like it.  She got ice cream instead.

Are they ready yet?

This is J’s very first peanut butter sandwich.  Or, to be completely truthful, this is S’s peanut butter sandwich … which she didn’t eat for lunch, so I left on the table, telling her she’d have to eat it for snack.  J swiped it.  I found him crouching on the floor, munching away, happy as can be.

He was very pleased with himself.

We put our little Snow White to work.  Snow White and Aurora are regular visitors at our house, now.  (You can spot Aurora’s skirt, sitting at the kids’ table in the background.)  So I figured, if they’re gonna live here, they’re gonna do their share of the chores.  (And yes, I’m having her vacuum the kitchen floor – it’s much more effective than sweeping!)

There have also been more adventures in sewing at my house.  Starting with a project L has been begging for.  She played with a hobby horse at a friend’s house a few months ago, and since then, she’s talked about nothing else.  At C’s encouraging, I decided to try and make them, instead of buying them.  You can find all sorts of instructions on the internet, but I wasn’t happy with any of them.  I wanted a mouth on my horse.  And a white patch on his nose.  And if I went with the internet patterns, it was either one or the other.  So I grabbed a piece of tissue paper:

I found costume fur on sale, and my almost-final result is:

I’m trying to figure out the bridles now, and then I have to buy some large dowels to put them on.  They’re for Christmas, so I still have some time.

Also, I have a sleeping bag (not a camping sleeping bag, but the baby/toddler sleeping bag that you zip them into so they can’t kick off their blankets at night) that I’ve used for all three of my kids.  It’s gotten a little worn lately.

So, you might not be able to see without zooming in on this picture, but the place where I already fixed a tear under the right shoulder has torn again, shredding this time.  The fabric around the turtle has become threadbare, and the fabric at the top of the zipper is about to give out. 

I tried to find a new one at the store, but the only sizes I could find were newborn and 6 months.  So, I ran to the fabric store, and after much puzzling over it, I ended up with this:

J seemed to know it was his, and he kept snatching it off the kitchen table when I was working on it.  Most of the time that was okay, but I had be be careful to put it out of his reach when it had pins in it!

Sometimes I wonder what I did before I bought that sewing machine.  Seems like it rarely ever gets put away!

A few months ago I posted about how I hate when my kids have clothes that fit them in the wrong season … Well, it’s cold now, and I put J in that little fleece outfit again.  It won’t fit for long, but …

We bought L this rocking chair when she was a year old, and I’ve got pictures of her standing on the seat, holding onto the back and rocking.  S did the same thing when she was that age.  J climbed up into it the other day.  He’s too tall to stand – it’s too unsteady, and he’s too smart to try – but here’s him kneeling on it.

And to conclude:

I have a friend who’s joined the 501st Legion, and made herself this Imperial Officer uniform.  They were at a charity event in town, so I took the girls down to see.  At first, when I told them where we were going, they said, “What’s a storm trooper?”  But when I reminded then, “From Star Wars!”  S immediately said, “Oh, and Darth Vader, too!!!”  No.  No Darth Vadar.  Just a Clone trooper.  S was very pleased she got to hold the gun.