Frances and other sundries

Per is a big Frances fan. He also likes Berenstain Bears, Little Critter, and anything remotely resembling a backhoe. And even things that are really nothing like backhoes, but are big and yellow. Such as school buses. He goes crazy for 'em. Oh. And he loooooves Mickey Mouse.

We were reading Best Friends for Frances (though A Bargain for Frances is still my favorite Frances book) this morning and there is a passage that is so funny to me. Here's the scene: Frances and her little sister Gloria are going on a Best Friends outing, No Boys allowed. This is because her friend Mr. Fat Albert said she couldn't play baseball with him and Harold. Frances is quite put out by that, so Frances and Gloria parade past Albert's house with a wagon containing a large hamper and a sign declaring their intended BF outing. Albert rushes out, quite sure that the large hamper is full of food.

And here's the passage:

"What is in that hamper?" asked Albert as he came running out of his house.
"I don't know," said Frances. "Nothing much. Hard-boiled eggs and whole fresh tomatoes. Carrot and celery sticks. There are some cream cheese-and-chives sandwiches, I think, and cream cheese-and-jelly sandwiches too, and salami-and-egg and pepper-and-egg sandwiches. Cole slaw and potato chips, of course. Ice-cold root beer packed in ice, and watermelon and strawberries and cream for dessert. And there are other things I forget, like black and green olives and pickles and popsicles and probably some pretzels and things like that. And there are salt and pepper shakers and napkins and a checked tablecloth, which is the way girls do it."

Have you ever heard of two small children (though they are badgers, and perhaps they metabolize differently than humans) eating THAT MUCH food in one sitting? I especially like the last sentence where Frances informs Albert that having napkins and a checked tablecloth is the way girls do it.

I mean, earlier in the book, Albert gives a list of what is in his lunch for his wandering day, and it's no small lunch:

"It's nothing much," said Albert. "Four or five sandwiches and some apples and bananas and two packages of cupcakes and a quart of chocolate milk."

Yeah.

Nothing much.

And by the way, who eats cream cheese-and-chives sandwiches or cream cheese-and-jelly sandwiches? I guess I need to have a more adventurous palate, but neither combination sounds very appetizing to me.

It Takes A Village

Now, I know I am not the only person out there who feels the truth of this equation.

That being said, I want you to know that it takes a village to do my laundry. Or, it would. If I had a small village at my disposal. Any takers?

There are several steps involved in the whole grueling, never-ending process.

First:
I have to work up the motivation to actually begin the laundry. This sometimes includes some motivational internal dialogue with myself, and sometimes not. I find it's easier if I don't think about it. I just make myself get started. That seems to work well most of the time.

Second:
The sorting and gathering.
Laundry is generated in every room in my house. Literally.
Okay, so it's not a house. It's a small apartment. But still.
The kitchen generates towels, dishcloths, washcloths for children's faces, and bibs.
The front room... well, let's just say that Per sometimes likes to take off various articles of clothing here. Socks. Pants. Shirts. Depends on his mood.
The hallway is the site of our diaper pail. Since I cloth diaper our two boys, there is a huge amount of laundry generated there.
Per's bedroom and our bedroom are pretty obvious. Laundry central.
The laundry room is the landing place of much of the kitchen laundry that is damp. It sits on the dryer until I am ready to begin a load.
And the bathroom -- towels, washcloths.

And can I just interject here: sometimes the basket in our room gets so full that the laundry begins to climb the wall. Literally. It has been as high as the light switch before, and very occasionally, higher. I am a bit ashamed of that fact, but for the sake of honesty, I thought I'd best admit it. That is one of the reasons I sometimes cringe when it's time to fold.
There. Is. Just. SO. Much. Laundry.

So you get the picture.
Doing laundry requires me to gather all items needing to be washed from these various rooms and to sort them into their proper loads.

Then I have to put the laundry in the washer. Yeah, yeah. You know how laundry works.

Third:
Sometimes it's a Herculean feat to get the laundry started in the washing machine. The washing/drying process usually goes pretty well once I have it started. But sometimes I stall out. Or forget that the laundry is meant to be going. Or whatever. I have two kids. Life happens.

Fourth:
Once the laundry is dry, it generally gets put into a laundry basket and transferred either to my bed (the strategy here is that I will not be able to get in the bed until the laundry is folded and off the bed) or the couch in the front room. Usually the couch wins out, since I am prone to scooping up the laundry from my bed and depositing it on the couch so that I can go to bed without folding it. May as well save myself a step, you know?
It may sit on the couch for a number of days. Or not. Depends on how motivated I am. Usually not very, sadly.

Fifth:
The folding. Grrr. Enough said.

Sixth:
The putting away. This is sometimes the most difficult part for me. It's like, I'm so close to being finished with this load of laundry (or loads, more likely), I can taste it. But I just can't make the time to get the laundry transferred from its clean, folded state in the basket back to the drawers and closets where it belongs. Sigh. I frequently find Zak digging through the basket for socks or pants or whatever. And I've done that myself, too.

One final note:
While I mostly enjoy cloth diapering, the diaper laundering process is something I am still fine-tuning. I recently started hanging all of the diaper laundry on a drying rack which means it takes quite a while to dry. So there're another few steps to the routine -- it comes out of the washer and I have to hang it up. Then I have to wait for it to dry, usually 24 hours or so, in the meantime hoping that I'll not run out of diapers for either of the boys. Then I have to take it off the rack, sort out the inserts for Per's diapers and the inserts for Tripp's diapers, plus the little flannel liners I put in Per's diapers. Then I stuff and fold the diapers. Then they sit in little piles in the laundry basket until I get them put away in their respective rooms.

And, did I mention? As soon as I get a load in the washer, someone dirties something else. Without fail. Sometimes it's me that does it. The piles begin again, ad nauseam, ad infinitum...

So, wanted: A small village with nothing better to do than do my laundry...


P.S. There is a basket of laundry sitting in the front room RIGHT NOW, waiting to be folded. And I could've been folding it while I was writing this post.
To borrow a phrase from Per, "So silly Mama."

Favorite Things

Tripp is a great sleeper. He has been sleeping for 6-9 hours at a time at night! What a lucky mama I am!

Isn't Per adorable? That is my old Raggedy Andy pillowcase from when I was little. I love when he sleeps in til 9 o'clock.

BountifulBaskets.org. $15 gets you all this. It's a co-op that operates in 8 states. I think you save something like $35 per basket. You can't see the green beans and plums since they are in plastic sacks in the back. But they were there. And they were gooood. All of the produce has been really good. It has been nice to have such a huge supply of fruits and veggies without paying grocery store prices.

Finally catching some of Tripp's first smiles on camera. He is so happy first thing in the morning.

King Peregrine. It has a nice ring to it, huh?

It Goes So Quickly...

And now he's two months old...

Worth Your Time

As I sit here looking around the kitchen with dishes piled on the counter, the remnants of today's lunch preparation (bread, peanut butter, jam) still sitting out, the floor that needs to be swept and mopped, the dishwasher that needs unloading... I feel a little stressed. I feel as though I will never catch up. Because the kitchen is sort of the least of what I need to take care of today.
After a morning of my two-month-old needing to be fed and cuddled, and helped to sleep... and my two-year-old laying on the floor sobbing despondently because all he wants is for Daddy to hold him, and Daddy is at work... I wonder if I'll make it. Whew. There are days, and there are days. I am not the only person who has ever felt like this, I know.
Instead of cleaning the kitchen, doing the laundry, emptying wastebaskets and vacuuming carpets while the two boys are both finally (blessedly) sleeping, I hopped onto my reader and checked out what is going on in the blogosphere. And I found this post at my fabulous sister-in-law's blog, which led me to Laurel's blog (who is my sister-in-law's sister-in-law and who I have always admired, though she doesn't know that). And can I just say to each of the excerpts from her new book: Amen and amen. I am excited to read her book -- mostly because who doesn't need a little reminder now and again of these simple truths? I certainly needed it today.

I especially like the quote about individual worth -- because I needed to be reminded of that today. My house will get cleaned, my children cared for -- and that is my purpose right now, my divine mission, is to care for my family. What I do has lasting value.


Here's a place to pre-order if you're interested. And you should be. I think it's going to be fantastic! Here are the excerpts:

FAITH
"The reality is that faith isn’t about me. It’s about Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ has a pretty impeccable past record…not just in my life but in the countless lives and experiences of God’s children. That is why if my faith is really centered in HIM, then I’m always okay. Always."

DIVINE NATURE
"Regardless of who your parents are or how they have chosen to raise you, you have inherited qualities from your Heavenly Parents that are 'in your blood.' It's just who you are."

INDIVIDUAL WORTH
"Trust that God has a divine mission waiting for you and JUST for you. Trust that He, even now, is orchestrating details of your life to help you fulfill what you were sent to this earth to perform."

KNOWLEDGE
"The most important knowledge you will gain in this life will be the knowledge that is put into your heart and your mind through life's experience by the power of the Holy Ghost."

CHOICE & ACCOUNTABILITY
"Every choice has a consequence. But, the Lord loves you enough and trusts you enough to let YOU choose throughout your life. And a daughter of God who understands who she is has the power within her to make good choices and then gets to enjoy the consequences of those choices."

GOOD WORKS
"One of the characteristics of God's daughters is that we have a natural inclination to nurture other people. We want to love them and serve them and help them. It's one of my favorite things about being a girl. And it's one of the things that makes a girl beautiful."

INTEGRITY
"That is the epitome of integrity--not simply acting right when you have the chance to act wrong, but acting right when you have the chance to act...right."

VIRTUE
"The culminating experience for a daughter of God who lives the values is being as close as possible to her Father in Heaven and to her Savior as she enters the doors of God's Holy House--the temple."

On the right track

Zak was reading the Ensign the other morning while eating breakfast and he walked out of the kitchen for a minute. When he came back in, this is what he found.
Notice that in each of these pictures, there are different pages showing. Per was reading.

I love that he loves to read!

Tripp's First Official Bath

We can't leave Trippton out of the "first official" posts. He had his first real bath (as opposed to sponge baths) the other day. He was actually pretty good about it and didn't cry too much.
This is the post-bath picture. I have a picture of Per wearing this same outfit on this same couch, but he was doing bunny hands and frog legs in it. Tripp is all about stretching out and taking up space. No curling up into a tiny ball for him. He is a good little baby!

This is the closest he gets to curling up. I thought this was really cute.

Okay, seriously.

So Per has been needing a haircut for a while. We knew this. It's really cute when his hair is freshly washed and dried, but after he's slept on it... it gets a little crazy.
Plus, it was always hanging in his eyes and bugging him. So we decided this last Saturday to do something about it.

Per was not impressed with the spray bottle of water. This is the only picture that shows that I was present for the event. Look right above Zak's left hand. Or right below Per's left arm. That's me. And Tripp.
Per felt a little more confident once Grandma took over the process. But he still needed Daddy to hold him. He will always be a Daddy's boy, which I think is great.

Add in an Otter Pop, and the whole process actually becomes fun. Look at that cute face.

Per has recently mastered the "thumbs up" and is very proud of his accomplishment. What a cute little guy!
For those of you wondering if he still has a mullet, the answer is ... yes. Sadly (for me), yes. Zak's response to this is: "His mullet is the coolest thing since fried rice." I am obviously not up on what's cool, as I was totally unaware that fried rice falls into that category. Whatev. In a few more days we'll cut off the mullet and he will have a normal haircut.

Per's First Official Haircut

One of these things is not like the other...

mul~let (mŭl'ĭt)

n.

1. pl. mullet or mul~lets

a. Any of various stout-bodied, edible fishes of the family Mugilidae, found worldwide in tropical and temperate coastal waters and some freshwater streams. Also called gray mullet.

b. The red mullet.

2. A hairstyle that is formed by cutting the hair short on the top and sides allowing it to grow longer in back.

Tripp's First Few Days

Trippton and his cousin Seth. Seth is two and a half months older than Tripp. See how fast they grow? I think it's funny that they are both looking the same direction. Must've been something interesting over there.

Tripp on the Bilibed. He was pretty okay with it during the day, but the nights were another story. We are soooo glad that he's off those lights.
What can I say? I love these two boys.
Per loves his little brother. He is always asking to kiss Baby. He can't say Tripp, so he calls him Baby.

So cute!

Introducing Trippton

We are so happy our little guy is here!

There are more pictures on FB, so head over there and take a look.

And naturally, many more pictures will follow as life settles down and we get back to some semblance of a routine.

Tripp has been on the bili lights for the last several days, so sleep at night has been pretty impossible. (Though here I should give Zak credit: he has stayed up with Tripp for the last few nights and only woken me up when he needed to be fed. Zak is a champion!) He was finally taken off the lights yesterday and last night we all got a good (for a newborn) amount of sleep. He is already so much fun as he becomes more alert and Per loves him a lot, despite the few incidents of hitting/kicking/etc that have occured since we brought Tripp home.

We sure love our boys!

My Current Reading List

In anticipation of the blessed event, I find that I am having trouble with any really deep subjects or books that are terribly complex. I am therefore shamelessly resorting to some fluff reading. The first two books I checked out based on the fact that Maggie Stiefvater has them on her Goodreads shelf and gave them good reviews. The last one I just picked up randomly. I have read a few others of Alyson Noel's books and liked them okay. I'll let you know how they turn out!

Waiting

Yep, this is my left foot. I know that I am in dire need of a pedicure. Can't reach 'em to do a pedicure. Sorry if anyone is grossed out. It's here as proof that even though I can't see my feet anymore, the sun still can. Also, you can see that the only shoes I can wear are flip-flops. Nothing else fits anymore.

Um, besides, who wants belly pictures of a nine-months-pregnant woman? That's so last week.
We are down to the last few days before our boy makes his highly anticipated arrival. I am alternately excited and freaked out. Excited for obvious reasons, freaked out because I am a bit nervous about the switch from one child to two. Also because I had such a long labor with Per and am not sure what to expect with this second boy. I am hoping very much that this labor and delivery will be shorter for lots of reasons.
I had a list of numbers that I was going to share. Things like exactly how many days are left til my due date, how large the fetal girth is (has any other pregnant woman actually measured her "waist" size?? DON'T do it, it will not be helpful), my current weight... But seriously, who really needs to know those things? And really, I was never going to share my weight with you. Let's be serious here. The important thing is that I am feeling really good (compared to how I could be feeling) and still usually have enough energy to do the things I need to do, and even some of the things I want to do. So I think things are pretty good, all things considered.
Here's hoping this babe comes soon!

Yet more crafties...

I made this pillowcase for Per in preparation for his eventual move to a big boy bed. I am still perfectly happy to have him in his crib, as he cannot get out of bed by himself (nor has he tried, thank goodness). He loves the animals and tractors on the pillowcase. He likes to sit on pillows. Obviously. I love the expression on his face in this picture. He really, really, really loves the book The Wheels on the Bus. It's a Raffi sing-along book. Definitely one of his current faves.

This is a bag made from this tutorial. It's made from a pattern that comes directly from a plastic shopping bag. It was pretty quick to make and is really handy for trips to the library. One day I might get ambitious and make a whole bunch of bags so that I can stop using plastic and paper at the grocery store. That's the goal. But for now, baby steps.

The beautiful interior of the bag. It has a handy pocket on the outside which can be used to fold the bag into for easy storage and/or transportation. Right now that's where I keep my library card when I make trips to the library. Like I said, very handy. Especially as many maternity clothes do not have pockets.

This is a bag I made from a pattern borrowed from Barb. I love the fabric on this one! It's from JoAnn and I think it's part of the Heidi Grace quilting collection. The red with white polka dots is not, but the other two fabrics used are. I love the way this bag turned out.

I especially like the flower on this one. I used pinking shears to cut out the fabric to give it a shabby look that will be less prone to fraying.

This is my latest bag, made from Simplicity 2685, which I got on sale at JoAnn for $1 recently. I had no idea when I bought the pattern what fabric I was going to use, but I had purchased this Moda print from the Tweet Tweet collection just prior to the pattern purchase and decided it would be perfect. I really love the way this bag turned out!

It's a little hard to see, but there are pleats in front and back. And I love the oversized button! Even if I did have to sew it on by hand because my machine doesn't have a zig-zag stitch wide enough. The pattern calls for you to use a heavy canvas or duck cloth as interfacing. I decided to use Thermolam instead and forgo the duck cloth since I didn't have any, and I did have Thermolam. I also added several pockets on the interior for my cell phone, pens/pencils, etc. in addition to the one zipper pocket that is original to the pattern. Zak calls this purse a suitcase, and I admit, it is on the large side. But I think it's wonderful! I love having so much space. I can throw so much STUFF in there... and often do so.

I'm not sure why this picture is oriented weird. I didn't take it this way. And I'm too hot and tired to try to figure out how to switch the orientation. Anyway, this is my little list-taker that I made to match the purse. I haven't been too matchy-matchy with most of the bags I have made recently and have just kept using my old list-taker til now, but as I will soon be coming up on an event that will severely curtail my sewing time (welcome though the event will be), I decided to make a new list-taker to match my new favorite bag.

Here's an interior shot that shows all my little pockets. This is SO handy for grocery shopping, or any other kind of shopping, for that matter. I keep a small legal pad and pen in there, and have pockets for coupons and other papers that I need to carry around with me but that I don't want to get all crushed and bent in my bag. This was the first time I did anything fancy on the outside (adding the rick rack was much simpler than I thought it would be) and it's also the first time I used a small magnetic closure instead of velcro. I LOVE the magnetic closure, and it was actually a lot easier to put in than said velcro. All in all, I am very happy with my little list-taker.

I have done several other sewing projects that are not pictured here, simply because I didn't take pictures. I made a baby shower gift for a girl in my ward who is due a week after me -- it was burp cloths with fabric and ribbon sewn on. They turned out really cute, and I'm sad that I forgot to take a picture before I gave the gift. I've also made a few changing table covers (our plastic pad on our changing table barely made it through Per... we needed something to put on it so that it can hopefully make it through this next little guy), and some flannel liners for Per's cloth diapers. I have found that having the liners in each diaper makes cleaning up poopy diapers MUCH easier. So. Those are my recent crafties. I have lots of ideas for things that I plan to make. Those things will probably be made over a longer period of time after the baby is born. I'm always looking for new projects!

I'm being told by people that I should start an Etsy shop. Yes? No? Are the things you see on my blog things that people would want to buy? I have a few ideas for patterns that I want to design. Give me some feedback, please!

Smoothie Boy

I made blackberry freezer jam a few weeks ago. We had a little of the puree left, so I made a blackberry smoothie to share with Per.

He really enjoyed it. I mostly like how it's dripping down his nose due to his enthusiastic drinking.

Also, this may not be obvious to anyone who doesn't know already, but Per has been sitting in a booster seat for a few weeks now. He had no problem saying goodbye to the high chair and hello to a little more freedom with the booster chair. He loves it! I find him putting toys on the table and then he'll climb up into the chair and sit and play there quite happily. It's fun to see him growing up!

I Just Finished...

Still a green smoothie boy

Clearly, Per still enjoys his green smoothies.
Drinking from a big boy cup requires intense concentration.

Sometimes it's easier just to dip the hand in and lick off the hand. Mmmmm.