I Love Embroidery

She's done! I've been working on this stitchette from Wee Wonderfuls for several days, and I was thrilled to finish her today. I'm making a Christmas stocking for O, and this was the first step. I know its not really the season for Christmas crafts, but I knew that if I waited it was unlikely I would finish it in time. Now the hard part...finding the perfect fabrics to finish the stocking! O really enjoyed watching me embroider. She said "uh-oh" each time I stuck the need through the fabric. This is the 1st time I've embroidered anything in almost 4 years, so I had my Klutz instruction book right beside me. O enjoyed looking at it while she sat beside me on the couch. It was a wonderful way to spend a quiet afternoon with my girl. I promised her that I will teach her to embroider in a few years, and she seemed pleased :) When I was trying to take this picture, O kept turning the fabric over. She was much more interested in the mess of fabric on the back than on the front. She also kept calling the girl "Marg," which was really sweet (Marg is her cousin and best friend).

Learning to Pour

Look at that concentration!



O practiced pouring today using popcorn kernals. She did a great job, and she absolutely loved it! After pouring the kernals into the bowl, she poured them back into the pitcher using a funnel. This was so much fun! She was very focused on this work for quite a while.

Crocodile Rocker

We gave O a Crocodile Rocker game from Hearthsong for Easter. To play the game you roll the dice and then choose a piece that matches the color on the dice. Then you balance the piece on the crocodile. O is a little young to understand exactly how to play the game. We take turns putting the pieces on the crocodile. We talk about the colors and build tall towers with the pieces. O likes to turn the crocodile right side up to make a little "ouse" for the pieces (she into "ouses" these days). She also puts the crocodile on her head and calls him a "at."

Displaying O's Artwork

I am so happy that we FINALLY have some of O's artwork hung up in our den. I've had one painting framed for more than a month, but I couldn't find matching frames. We finally found them, and we now have 6 of O's paintings framed in our den. They look great and O is so proud! She even helped hammer in the nails and hang the paintings. She kept complaining of the hammering being too "oud," so I held her ears for her while she and dada hammered.

O's Cardboard Chair

I got the idea for making a chair out of cardboard boxes from Family Fun magazine. I couldn't find the magazine when I finally had the boxes I needed, so I didn't follow the directions exactly, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I hot glued the boxes together (after filling them with leftover packing styrofoam to strengthen them) and decopaged wrapping paper onto them. It was a litte tedious to place all of the strips of wrapping paper on the box. Luckily, my mom helped because I was getting a little bored with it. After it dried, I put a layer of mod podge over the entire chair, let it dry, then did a 2nd layer of mod podge. I thought about involving O in the process, but she showed no interest in it, and I'm pretty sure that she would have just wanted to tear the paper :) For some reason, O thought she should go night-night in the chair. She kept saying night-night while trying to sit sideways. She pushed at the sides and said "move." I think she wanted it to be a couch :)

*After reading this post, my mom said she is pretty sure that O was trying to make the chair recline since it resembles the recliners at her house. Also, O has seen Guh-guh sit sideways on the recliner. O's grandpa had a great idea...I should make an ottoman for O's chair. I'm putting it on my list!

Egg Carton Fun

Egg cartons are great for sorting. Today O got her egg carton off her shelf and put shells in it. She was very engrossed in this work. I prompted her to take the shells out and put them back in the basket after she was finished. She counted as she put them back...2, 3, 4, 6, 9. For some reason she refuses to say 1 :) See Montessori Mama's blog for more fun things to do with egg cartons.

We Love Fuzzi Bunz!

A friend from a mommy site that I am a member of sold me 15 Fuzzi Bunz diapers and inserts for 36 dollars!!! I am still in shock! They are used, but are in PERFECT condition. She found them at a thrift store for 1 dollar each for the diapers and inserts, and she was kind and generous enough to sell them for what she paid for them (plus shipping). Five are mediums, so we can use those for O now since she still wears a diaper at naptime and nighttime, and the other 10 are smalls that we'll use with our next baby. When O was a newborn, we primarily used prefold diapers since we were new to cloth diapering and didn't know which cloth diapers we'd like best (and we didn't to spend a ton of money, since everyone said I wouldn't stick with it...wrong!) I love cloth diapering, and I honestly can't imagine using anything else (although we did use disposables on occasion...cruise and beach vacations where we did not have access to a washer and dryer). I am so excited that we won't have to use prefolds with our next baby. Although they weren't that difficult to use, fuzzi bunz are much easier, and they are not as bulky. Thanks, Victoria!!! O was a little surprised when I spread the diapers out for a picture, and she insisted on being in the picture!

Jan Brett Matching Cards

Thanks to Mom over at What Do We Do All Day? for this idea! I printed these animal matching cards from Jan Brett's website last night and laminated them this morning for O. She was feeling a little fussy and overtired when I first showed them to her, but she cheered up when she saw the picture of the "orse." She rode a horse at an Easter party last Saturday, so she's into horses these days. We had fun matching the cards, and we are looking forward to matching them again soon. I think O will also like matching 3d animals to the cards. Since she enjoys matching so much I have plans for a few more homemade matching games- mommy/baby matching using pictures of animals and mommies and babies that we know and a family and friends matching game (thanks for the idea Auntie EB). The family and friends matching game will be great because it will help O remember family and friends that we don't see very often. I think that I'll use 2 different pictures of each person instead of an exact match to make it more challenging and fun for her.

Felt Cookies

Since O will be getting a kitchen set for her 2nd birthday in July, I decided to go ahead and start making felt food for her. I had a great time making these cookies (with my mom's help because I CANNOT do a decent blind stitch!), and they were super easy to make (except for the blind stitch). O doesn't get to eat cookies very often. In fact, I think she's only had one chocolate cookie in her life, but I know she'll love pretending to eat them. Next on my list to make are fried eggs, pancakes, bow tie pasta, ravioli, linguine, cheese quesadilla, cupcakes, carrots, carrot slices, banana slices, bread, tomato slices, lettuce, cheese, etc. I think all of those foods will be fairly easy to make and then maybe I'll branch out to the more difficult items. If anyone has any experience making felt food, I need all the suggestions and advice I can get. I found a few pictures and patterns on Crafster that I'll use as inspiration, and I'll also look at pictures of felt food at Etsy for ideas.

We're Home!

O and I are finally home after more than a week away. We had a GREAT time at her Grandmama and Grandpa's house, but we are glad to be back. O was super excited to see her daddy, our cat, and her toys and books. I'm ready to get back into our routine!

Color Matching

My mom has a fun game where you match different colored bears to dots on a card. I thought O would love it since she loves to match, and she loves dots. She matched one or two bears before getting bored and moving onto the next thing. We'll try again tomorrow to see if she is more interested in the task.

Our Doll Family

Here they are! Dada, O, and Mama. O has had lots of fun playing with them. She wore Mama and O in her back in the sling, and she had O get her milkies from Mama. Very cute!

No Spill Bubbles

I gave O some no spill bubbles for a late Easter present. She's had fun being able to be more independent with blowing bubbles. (I usually don't let her hold the bottle because I don't want her to spill it and waste it). Now she can carry the bottle around and blow bubbles independently, and she's practicing her fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination while she has fun!

Sewing Dolls

I was inspired by the beautiful dolls made by JojoEbi and decided that dolls would be a great Spring Break project. After I made the first doll (with my mom's help, since I am a novice), I decided that O would LOVE to have a family of dolls. Today we worked on the Dada and O dolls and finished the Mama doll. My sister was excited about the dolls, and she quickly made one for her daughter. Hopefully, I'll have a pic tomorrow. We've had a great time making them and working together. My mom, sister, and I all have different things that we like about sewing, so its good that we can work as a team. We are going to try to have monthly sewing/craft days.

Spontaneous Matching

O has really been matching everything lately. She had a monkey book and a small plastic chimpanzee in her Easter basket, and when she took the chimpanzee out of the egg she put it up to the book and said "match." Last night when we were reading a book, O noticed that the baby bear in the book had a cup. O was also holding her cup, so she put her cup against the picture of the cup and said "match." Today while I was sewing with my mom, O got out her playdoh and picked up a playdoh container with an orange lid. She said "orange, match," and she ran to match it to an orange key on her little piano. At my sister's house, she matched felt to thread. I LOVE this! Its so cute, and I don't want to forget any of it. I'm so glad that I have this blog to keep track of things.