Rewards vs bribes

Naptimes and bedtimes have been a bit crazy around our house lately for our oldest and drama queen doesn’t even begin to describe her sometimes.  This definitely becomes a problem while we are trying to balance both girls, baths, storytime, and all the other bedtime routine items.  We often find ourselves handing the baby back and forth to tagteam on our oldest.  Poor baby girl just goes with flow.  In an effort to try and make bedtime a much calmer time(like it should be) and not drive me to drinking,  we came up with a reward system. 

Taylor expressed wishes to Build a Bear the other day so I ran with the idea.  For each naptime or bedtime that she does not throw a fit or require us to come see her 42 times, she gets a sticker to put on the path.  After 30(hopefully less than 3 weeks) stickers, we will have 21 consecutive days of trying to have good behavior and she gets to go to Build a Bear.(plus I have a coupon that expires 3/31 that I hope we can use)  She has been so excited so far about making good choices and gets closer along the path.  Tomorrow will be her first time, since we started, that she won’t get a sticker.  I am wondering if she will understand the concept or not.  She amazes me with her level of understanding sometimes and I never know what to expect.  Let’s hope by the end of March our naptimes and bedtimes are back to less drama and are the calm, sweet, and snuggly times we used to have!  I’ll be back when it’s over to report progress.

ps.  if you are in need of a reward chart yourself, please let me know.  they are completely customizable to your needs.

elizabeTHursday

Watch out world… I can hold my head up and see you now!

Look whooo’s been sewing

I don’t know about you, but I love looking through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and dreaming of perfectly organized playrooms or bedrooms coordinated down to the diaper pail.  I tear out the pages of items I like or want to try recreating, but it rarely happens.  When I saw these adorable owl bookends I just HAD to have them! 

I even thought about buying them since they were so cute, but the colors weren’t just right for my girls’ rooms.  They do solve the problem of book issues in Taylor’s room and whooo doesn’t love an owl???  After doing a little internet searching for a sewing pattern and time spent debating fabric choices at Joann’s, I decided to break the sewing machine back out.  I took several sewing patterns, combined them, altered them a bit, and then came up with my own version of the sweet little bookend.  I only had intentions of making them for the purpose of a bookend, but Chris thought they would be cute as a stuffed animal too.(he still has the Pound Puppy that his Mom made him)

It’s not as fat as the PBK one, but it was an instant hit with Taylor and Hootie(without his blowfish) sleeps next to her at night.  I stuffed the bottom of this one with beans to help hold the books up and made an identical one without beans for Taylor to sleep with.  For some reason she picked the one with beans to sleep with instead. 

Once I made the first one, it went pretty quick for the next three.  I figured if Taylor had two, then Elizabeth would also need two.  Here are some simple directions for how to make your own version of this owl, but I hope to get some better directions done over the weekend.  You could probably complete this project in one nap time(if both your kids would nap at the same time) but deciding on fabric took me forever.  I used 3 different 18”x24” quilting squares(2 of the pink) to complete all four owls and still have scraps left over. 

Until I can get directions written this weekend, you can use these patterns and attempt your own owl.  Here are all the versions I created for my girls. 

Is there a special little one you know that might enjoy a little owl to love on?

Taylor Tuesday

Catching a ride with the best PawPaw in the world!

Bonus elizabeTHursday

Since I threw a few people off by accidentally sending Elizabeth's email out a day early, I figured it would be nice to have a bonus picture on the real day.  I really thought I was doing good and getting the email out in the wee hours of the morning so it would be a great way to start your Thursday.  I just missed it by 24 hours!  So here is our sweet girl so excited to be hanging out with Daddy.
Happy REAL Thursday!

elizabeTHursday

Even though the toys on her little chair are just exciting right now, I think my love for Sonic drinks has rubbed off on our littlest one.  I wonder if 'Happy Hour' will be her first words?

Taylor Tuesday

Taylor can be quite the little entertainer and this includes a slew of facial expressions too!  She was working on her dancing and musical skills for me while this photo was captured.

Valentine Wishes

Happy Valentine’s Day!

elizabeTHursday

Since it's been so cold out, Elizabeth has been wearing her hat more often.  Poor thing is starting to show signs of my ears(which stick out)(and yes I realize that everyone will be looking at my ears next time you see me) so when I pull the hat down far enough to cover them she looks a bit like a gnome.  On top of that, we keep seeing the commercials for Gnomeo and Juliet.  So one of Elizabeth's new nicknames is 'our little gnome'.

Taylor Tuesday

Taylor "Do you want to play with me?"

fabric rosette

I’ve been asked about my fabric rosettes before and forgot to post about how I make them.  Then I was asked again today, so figured it was a great time to share this quick project with you.  I can’t find the original post I learned from, but this is a great one.  I use hot glue instead of fabric glue and it works pretty good as long as you don’t hot glue the tips of your fingers.  To put more than one together like the one I did, then I glue then to felt.  When I made these, I just cut 1” strips of the fabric that I had left.  I can’t even tell you how long each piece was and I just rolled and glued.  I can’t decide if mine are going on a pin or headband.

Valentine Shirts

i love being the mom of two girls.

i love being able to put them in matching clothes.

i also hope that they think this is cute until they are in high school.

between carter’s and gymboree, I already have started to fill their closets with big and little sis versions.

after lizzie was born, I set off in search of matching christmas shirts and dresses. 

dresses were found and the girls looked adorable.

shirts were a much harder find since most started at 6 months and lizzie was still in newborn.

luckily this site carried itty bitty sizes and the girls were cute as could be in matching shirts.

i found adorable pants from gymboree on clearance and knew they would be great for valentine’s day.  i searched all over etsy for the perfect shirt/onesie but then decided that it was time for me to put the computer away and get the sewing machine out.  i had great intents on using the great fabric cutting skills of my cricut, but never found a font that i loved, so i drew the letters by hand and used one of my stamps for the heart shape.  with a little wonder under, shirt/onesie from walmart, and adorable fabric we had these.

i quickly learned that the easy part was over with.  i knew that the lettering needed to be reinforced to the shirt to survive all the washes lizzie’s spit ups and taylor’s applesauce disasters will put them through, but hand stitching was not in my future.  after some unpleasant sewing on two letters i turned to my mother in law for some sewing advice.  she had wonderful insight like: turn the shirt inside out to do the stitches rather than trying to turn it while pulled over the arm of the machine and she pointed out a few stitches that would do a better job of keeping the letters from fraying and would look cute.  there was still some learning done on taylor’s shirt, but i felt a little more comfortable once i tackled lizzie’s onesie.  i always buy extra fabric since i have been known to cut the fabric to the wrong size or wrong direction for more of the same project and ended up making myself some twist roses to put on a pin.  it will be my touch of red for valentine’s day.

now i'm started to plan what their easter/spring shirts will be.

elizabeTHursday

Elizabeth has a new hobby of trying to get hands(hers or someone else's) into her mouth.  I have to give credit to Chris for coming up with this photo idea after I showed him pictures from our 3 month old photo shoot.  Poor Mr. Bear!

3 months old

Can we already be at 3 months?  Some days it seems like Elizabeth just got here and I was getting ready for Thanksgiving and then she decides to have a party at 2 am and I feel like it’s been 6 months.  I visited the hospital yesterday to see a friend’s new baby and can’t believe how much Elizabeth has changed in just the few months she’s been here.  Wasn’t I just a few rooms down recently recovering with our little one?  Well time is flying by and Elizabeth, or Lizzie as she is also known around here, has been awake more this month and been a busy little girl.

• Not sure how much you weigh, but you are currently in size one diapers.  You must have had a growth spurt over the weekend, because you now pop the snaps in your footie pjs when you stretch.  Guess it’s time to move up to 3-6 month size clothes! 
• Nicknames: Lizzie, Sister, Little One, Littles, and sometimes Pickle(but only from Taylor)
• We battled a few weeks of colicky evenings and Daddy was convinced you didn’t like him a few times.  I am currently on a dairy free diet to see if that helps with your constant spit up and baby acne.  You definitely find new ways to make me feel like a rookie mom again. 
• Your whole face lights up when you see Taylor.  It never fails to amaze me how much you two already love each other.  I will remind you of this when you are 12 and 15 and fighting like crazy.
• This month you have started to grasp onto soft items.  You LOVE to grab my necklace and hair, my shirt while you are eating, your blanket, and sometimes Taylor’s hair when she’s trying to give you a kiss.
• The bouncy chair has a toy bar that lights up and you are now truly fascinated by the lights and motion.  There is also a swinging bird toy that hangs down and you can sometimes grab it.  This can keep you amused for quite some time and give Mommy a chance to eat. 
• You rolled over again for Daddy but never do this for Mommy.  Not sure what Daddy is bribing you with, but it seems to be working. 
• You found your hands and work very hard at trying to into your mouth.(see chair pics for a great example)  I see this as the beginning of many things that you will try to put in your mouth and we are already stressing over all of Taylor’s itty bitty toys.
• I have to admit that you probably don’t get as much tummy time as I forced on your sister, but you are starting to enjoy it since you can hold your head up for small periods of time. 
• You had your first playdate without your big sister.  You and Nola slept the entire time and the mommies enjoyed lunch and discussing the joys of our new babies. 

• You are still in your bassinet in our room, but I am hoping for a transition to the crib soon. I’ve learned that the trick to get you to sleep is to put you on your side.  Plus you love your seahorse just like Taylor does.
• You are a good baby and go with the flow on whatever we need to do.  I can almost always count on a good long nap from you in the morning but you prefer to play while Taylor is taking her afternoon nap.  I look forward to the next month and seeing what new things you figure out!

 

Taylor Tuesday

I love Texas weather!  Only here do we go from 80 degrees on the last day of January to a prediction of 16 degrees for tonight.  We had to take advantage of the warm sunshine and play at the park.  Seeing the smile on Taylor's face while we played outside makes me start to count down the days until spring!