And there's more!

I have discovered the joy (addiction?) of small projects.  I think I know I do much better at actually finishing projects when they take, say, 15 minutes rather than 8 hours.  I'm still working on Eleanor's baby quilt that I started when I was 6 months pregnant with her and I'm determined to finish it before Arthur arrives, but I have to force myself to work on it.  These little projects are much more fun!

Eleanor has outgrown all of her baby hooded towels and we don't have any for Arthur that aren't pink.  I got a few gift cards to Target so I decided to put them towards towels and make my own hooded towels.  I think the ones for Arthur are way too big for now, but I guess he can just use pink ones at first.  ;)  I followed the directions here to make the striped ones, and they really took less than 15 minutes each to make.

These next two were a bit more complex, but they weren't hard.  I sort of combined the directions from the other two towels with these instructions.

My new favorite onesie!  Even Hunter got a little excited over this one.

And Eleanor is all ready for Thanksgiving!

Fabric alphabet for the wall!

We decided to turn our guest room into a playroom, and one thing I really wanted to do with the room was to put the alphabet above the chair railing as a border.  I looked all over for vinyl clings, but they were either too expensive, too small, or I just didn't like them for some reason.  Then I saw this website and this website and got the brilliant idea to make my own alphabet...out of fabric!  Who knew you could put fabric on the wall with corn starch?  I did test this out with two letters and let them dry overnight, and then was able to peel them off with no problem at all the next day.  You could never tell they were there!  Oh, and the best part of this project is that I didn't spend a single penny, thanks to my great scrap supply.

Materials needed:

• Stencils of whatever shapes you want to make - I just printed the alphabet in size 600 Ariel font on my computer and then cut out all the letters.  Tedious, yes, but also free and very easy.
• A fabric pen that disappears when it gets wet.  I made the mistake of tracing my first few letters with an ink pen, and when I hung them up there was a huge ugly black outline.  Thankfully I tested a couple before doing them all that way!
• Fabric scissors
• Iron
• Starch (optional)
• Corn starch

Step 1

As I mentioned, this was to cut out all of the letters that I printed out.  Of course if you already have stencils that you want to use, that saves you some time.

Step 2

Pick out your fabrics.  I lined the alphabet stencils up on the floor (Eleanor called it a "choo choo train"), got out my fabric, and then figured out which fabric I wanted for which letter and lined the fabric up too.  Then I cut out a small scrap big enough for that letter and put all of the remaining fabric away.

Step 3

Iron each piece of fabric using starch.  I'm not sure if that's totally necessary, but I did it to try to avoid fraying as much as possible.

Step 4

Trace and cut out each letter of the alphabet.  Make sure you use a fabric pen that will disappear when it gets wet!  Also, be sure to trace the reverse of each letter.  This didn't take quite as long as I thought it would - it helps if you have something good to watch or listen to.

Step 5

Hang your letters up where you want them to go.  I'm really glad I did this because it helped a lot with the spacing.  I used masking tape, but that did pull some threads loose when I pulled it off.  Double sided tape might be better.

Step 6

Make your corn starch mixture!  I used the recipe from one of those sites I mentioned earlier, but I only made 1/4 as much so I didn't have a ton left over.

1 Tb corn starch

2 Tb cold water

Mix together, then add 1 C boiling water and mix

Step 7

Paint the letters with the corn starch mixture and put them on the wall!  I put the corn starch in a cup and just used an old paint brush.  I got the letters completely wet on the back and then spread them out on the wall.  It was really easy!  Also, if you mess up, you can just peel them off and try again.

Ta-da!

close up

Update:  Over 4 months have passed and the letters still look just as good as the day I put them up.  Also, my daughter loves them!

Projects, projects!

I don't know if it's pregnancy hormones or what, but lately I have been making one thing after another.  My motivation tends to come in spurts and I doubt this will last for more than a few weeks, but I'm pretty happy with the stuff I've made!

New nursing cover

I made one before Eleanor was born that I used with her, but I never really liked it.  And I think I paid $2.15 for this fabric, so that's not too bad!

The majority of boy clothes that I see in stores don't excite me, so I figured I might as well make some of my own!

Baby boys + ties make me laugh!

Go Clemson Tigers!

32 weeks, 6 days

Craft time!

Letters to go over Arthur's crib!

Doorstops, because we got tired of doors slamming shut when we have the windows open
(Free pattern available here)

New wipes for Arthur

(Still have about this many more to make though)

Flannel on one side, terry on the other

Blanket for Arthur

Baby blocks for Arthur!
(Instructions here)

First Day of School!

Eleanor had her first day of "school" today!  It's really more of a Mom's Morning Out type of program, but they do have a theme each week and they have a little story time and craft time every day.  This is at our church, and last year the program started up and you could just choose random days to leave your kid.  That was nice, and I used it several times and scheduled doctor's appointments during that time or ran other errands.  I was going to wait until Eleanor was at least 3 to start preschool, but when I found out they were turning MMO into a class, I decided this was probably a good way for me to get a little bit of alone time with Arthur once he arrives.  For now though, it feels pretty weird to have 3 hours twice a week all to myself!  I am using this time to cross things off of my massive to-do-before-baby-arrives list.  Like today, I thoroughly cleaned our master bathroom including washing the baseboards, reorganizing the cabinets, etc.  Fun times.  And yes, that was on my to do list, as is cleaning every other room in the house and finishing about a million craft projects.

All ready to go! 

Showing off her giant backpack!  They were supposed to have one big enough to hold a folder.  She doesn't mind wearing it as long as it just has her diapers and change of clothes inside.

She was a little uncertain when I left her, but she had a good time!

32 weeks!

I can't believe I'm 32 weeks now!  I'm not sure why that seems like so much more than 31, but with each week I am getting closer to delivering this little boy.  He will be here in less than 2 months!  I still feel like I have SO much to get done, but Eleanor starts preschool tomorrow (really a Mom's Morning Out program with some light curriculum) and goes two mornings/week, so hopefully I can really get some of these projects off my list.

Arthur is still pretty active, though not as much as he used to be; I think his real estate is getting somewhat limited.  I had a regular checkup on Friday, and everything was great.  Eleanor always enjoys listening to his heartbeat.  :)  My only complaint is that the pregnancy insomnia is setting in big time so it's been hard to get much sleep, but I can handle that.  Last night I was wide awake from 3:30-5:45 or so, and the night before that I think it was 2:00-4:00.  The exact same thing happened the last couple of months with Eleanor, and I honestly got better sleep when she was two months old than I did two months before she was born.  Let's hope the same ends up being true with Arthur!

One of my friends is throwing me a small shower (a "sprinkle shower") in a couple of weeks and I'm excited about that.  We don't need much, but I'm just glad that Arthur is going to be celebrated too and that I have something to put on the baby shower pages in his baby book.

I am getting excited (and nervous!) and I can't wait to meet this little boy!

Taking a break

We've decided to take a break from potty training.  Somehow the magical 3-day method turned into the 12-day method, and we weren't much better off than Day 1.  The most frustrating part was that there were a few days in there when Eleanor had very few or no accidents, but the following day she would have 9 or 10!  At the time I just reminded myself that it was normal to have ups and downs and that the most important thing for me to do was to be consistent and stay positive with her.  However, I am a human being and it was becoming exceedingly difficult to remind her to pee in the potty with a smile on my face and without letting my frustration show.  

(On a side note, Hunter and I have laughed at ourselves for now using toddler language when we're just talking between the two of us.  "Did she go pee pee in the potty when you put her to bed?"  This is the man who used to insist that he was going to use the words "urinate" and "toilet" with our kids.)  

So, after something like 20 loads of laundry, countless accidents, and major cabin fever on both of our parts, I finally give up.  I was starting to feel like we were pushing her, and I never wanted this to be a negative experience for Eleanor in any way.  Also, a few days of staying at home and letting her have accidents was fine, but she and I only left the house about 3 times in 12 days and I think we were both dying to get out.  In hindsight, I'm not sure that she was physically ready for this at 24 months.  So yes, I'm going to have two kids in diapers, but I know that's not the end of the world.  We'll probably try again once Arthur is a couple of months old and things have settled down around here, unless Eleanor initiates it herself.  She is such an amazing little girl, and I just want us to enjoy our time together without adding unnecessary stress.  And believe me, poop on the carpet (which happened for the first time today) = unnecessary stress.

My Chatterbox

It's no secret the Eleanor talks - non-stop - all the time!  Yesterday she started up at 6:45 AM and I don't think she stopped until we put her to bed over 12 hours later.  She "sang" to me while she ate her food, she talked the entire time she was supposed to be napping, etc.  Some days it's difficult for her introverted mother to not get a few moments of silence (I married somebody like Hunter for a reason), and gone are the quiet Saturdays that Hunter and I would both spend reading or working on a project in silence, but we're used to it now and we love this little girl so much!  She's pretty hilarious.

She has always loved books, and lately she's gotten quite good at "reading" them out loud.  Here are two of her latest favorites.

Reading A Pocket for Corduroy

Reading Blueberries for Sal

(Filmed with my iphone and kind of an awkward angle because I was sitting next to her, but you get the idea.)

End of summer pictures

This is how I found Eleanor the day after her birthday:

She had climbed up into the barstool and helped herself to one of the two cupcakes that wouldn't fit in the cake stand.

I totally forgot to take pictures at her (very small) birthday party until the end, but here are two!  We borrowed the cute table from a friend.

Eleanor asked for a snack for her and one for George.  So of course, Hunter got George a plastic banana.

Somebody got into Mama's closet!

(No idea why this picture rotated...)

Probably the only time you'll see a cat in a swimming pool

Wearing one of Daddy's shirts

Our family went to St. Simon's Island for a long weekend.  Once again, I almost completely forgot to take pictures, but here's a cute one of Eleanor with her cousin Julie.

"I see an M!"

Eleanor spread out a piece of newspaper, turned off the lights, asked me to turn on "The Rainbow Connection", and decided to lie down and "rest."

Potty Training!

Warning: If you don't deal with the bodily functions of small children on a regular basis (and maybe even if you do), you will probably be bored with this post!

We first started casually introducing Eleanor to the potty nearly a year ago.  I had one of those little potties that my mom handed down to me, and every once in a while Eleanor would sit on it.  For a while when she was about 15 months old we had some success, but then it went away.  I think she just really enjoyed sitting on it and being read to, and the true purpose was somewhat lost on her.

My friend Lynda told me about this method after her recent success, so we decided to go for it.  I read the whole book, got the supplies they recommended, and set aside 3 days when we had nowhere that we had to go.  Basically, what you do is keep your kid in underwear and a shirt (no pants, skirts, or dresses!) for 3 days - including nap time and overnight!  You remind your child CONSTANTLY to keep their underwear dry and to "tell Mama whenever you need to use the potty."  You also pretty much have to give your child 100% of your attention the entire time they are awake, because your goal is to catch them in the act and then put them on the toilet.  This way, they associate sitting on the toilet with pooping or peeing.  (The author strongly discourages pull-ups/training pants and sitting your child on the potty every 15 or 30 minutes to "try".)  So yes, this way is messy, but we plan to get rid of our carpet in the near future so I figured, why not?

Supplies

• Lots of juice!  Eleanor normally drinks water or milk, so the juice got her drinking (and peeing...) a lot more.
• LOTS of underwear - 20-30 pairs are recommended.  I thought this sounded crazy but went ahead and got 18 (some of them in a bigger size so she can wear them later, but they work well enough for the potty training days), and really we could have used more.  We've just been doing lots of laundry.
• Flushable wipes.  I know you can just use toilet paper, but these helped out in a few nasty situations.
• Two of these toilet seats
  
  They are awesome!  I got them from one of Amazon's Warehouse Deals for about $28 each instead of the list price of $100.  They had been repackaged, but who cares!  I really like it better than the little potty chair, because it doesn't take up floor space and it gets Eleanor used to using a big potty so going in public hopefully won't be a problem.  We decided it was worth the investment since there will be small children in this house for a long time.
• 2 Cosco step stools very similar to this one
  
  We turn it around backwards so that Eleanor can hold on to the rail in front of her as she climbs up.
• We haven't used it yet, but I also got one of these potty seats for when we go out.  I have it and some flushable wipes in a zip lock bag in Eleanor's diaper bag.

Day 1

About 15-20 accidents (including 2 dirty ones that miraculously never got on the carpet or furniture), 4 times that she told me she needed to go just a few seconds too late, and one time that she actually told me that she needed to go ahead of time and made it to the potty in time!  YAY!  No success with naptime or nighttime.

Day 2
Much better!  I think there were about 4 times that she made it to the potty with no accident.  I could tell she was definitely catching on.

Day 3
Total, complete failure.  Probably 15-20 accidents.  The only time she peed in the potty all day was when Hunter put here there right before bed.  This was a very discouraging day!

Day 4
Much better!  This was our best day yet, and Eleanor got 6 M&M's.  (She gets one every time she goes.)  When  she pees in the potty she says, "Get a caaaaaandy!!"  Then she gets to pick out the color and when you hand it to her, she says "E for Eleanor!" because she thinks the M on the candy is an E.  We both kind of hate the fact that we're using sweets as an incentive, but we started out with stickers and she didn't really care.

Day 5
Horrible morning, great afternoon.  Best quote of the day:  "El-nor pee peed on Mama!"  Yes, both Hunter and I have made the mistake of letting her sit on our laps while we read to her with no towel to protect us...  Also, she has woken up wet after every nap and every morning, but I didn't expect that to work out this quickly.

So, 3 days has now turned into 6 and will certainly be longer, but that's okay because we really don't have anything going on all week.  I'm learning that people weren't kidding when they said to prepare for setbacks, and I don't really buy the whole "Every child can be potty trained in 3 days" selling point in that book.  Still, we're definitely making progress, and we won't turn back now.  I did buy some pull-ups so we can eventually leave the house (I have some cloth versions but they're not 100%), but I don't want to use them if I can help it.  Eleanor starts preschool (2 mornings/week) next week though, and I'm not sure if they would be willing to deal with the messes we have had.  Who knows, maybe we'll make some major progress this week!  :)