The Discovery Zoo

We had the chance to finally make a visit to Fort Rickey with the kids. This was a first for Nolan getting to be up close to a variety of animals. He'd squeal in delight at just about each one.

My little country girl

Eliza was very fascinated with these ducks. It took a good long while for her to understand that you can't run up to the animals and not everyone wants to be pet.

River Otter

Eliza quickly caught on that the sheep and goats would eat leaves off the tree.

The Peacocks were allowed to roam the grounds as they pleased, even if it was right on top of the table you were snacking on.

Finally, one wasn't skittish to let Nolan check him out.

We spent just a few hours there in the afternoon and ended up getting a season pass for myself and put Eliza on it as my free child and there is no cost for Nolan at the moment. I just have to take the kids there a second time and the membership has paid for itself. It will be a great place to bring a picnic lunch and let the kids get out of the house until the zoo closes at the end of October.

Because it is just outside of where we live, it is a great activity for young ones to enjoy without the high costs of alternative entertainment. Free parking is another plus! 

Taking it Back!

An early morning traditional breakfast at the grandparents

When we recently inherited an additional baby gate, we were able to finally take back the kitchen again.

I have now turned into an old married with children woman who gets giddy when she is able to open and load/unload the dishwasher without fear of little hands helping. And when I say helping, I mean grabbing at the biggest and sharpest knives and trying to find snacks left on the dishes.

Now I can sweep crud into a pile and not worry about someone thrashing their hands through it, sending it flying back into the crevices I swept it out from.

I no longer have a little 17 month old throwing a fit at the base of the pantry shelves because I will not allow him to sustain himself on graham crackers all the live long day.

I no longer have to kick "Little People" or play food or whatever the heck toys my kids find amusement back into the family room.

Oh...and I no longer have to fear my legs being bitten/scratched/pinched during meal prep while a meltdown is reaching the same intensity as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant fiasco.

The downside is having to run hurdles around the kitchen. I've gotten pretty good at the plastic dish toss into the sink because I am too lazy to unlatch the gate being held closed with a bungee cord. Either my kids have outsmarted it, or this $70 gate wasn't built to last more than 2 years : /

Excuse me while I go sign up with the local track team...

Better Late than Never

It took me awhile to get these done, but I am glad I still went through with it. I had fun with the chalkboard markers to display her 3 year stats. I am glad they wipe easily with a wet cloth as I made a few goofs in doing the typography by hand.

Unlike her 2 year pictures, it was a nice surprise to have Eliza cooperate with me in being posed. Dhe'd mimic some of my hand placements with easy and then of course "I see I see" right afterwards.

But the phrase I had to continually tell her was "Tongue back in the mouth!"

Some other tidbits of fluff 3 year stats are:

Current Obsession- Air Planes (air naines)

Potty trained- AM & PM

Say hello to just about anyone

Can forward roll

Loves the park and climbing on daddy

Is becoming increasingly more aware that mommies and daddies have different private parts

Daily songs sung- Anything Frozen, Peg + Cat 'We Solved the problem', Jesus Loves Me, I've Got the Joy Joy Joy.

Most repeated phrase- I hungry 

Current Friends- Evan, Lydia, Brett, Dorothy

Can count to 10

Knows her basic colors (loves pink)

Peddles a tricycle

Enjoys her swing and almost has the motions of pumping her legs, but lacks leaning her body

Brushes her teeth on her own

Likes to talk to grandparents on the phone

Super Fun: Pintrest Test

There was a recent birthday party for a 3 year old boy that we were invited to. When asking the mother what he might like, even she was a little perplexed. He has an older brother who is 3 years ahead of him. He has benefited by being the first and getting most of the traditional gifts through the years. There are no shortage of boy hand me down toys.

Yet, this little boy loves Barney!

So I decided to craft up a Barney inspired superhero play costume.

In taking to Pintrest, I found this pin the most helpful in providing a free printable sewing pattern for the cape.

I purchased a few sheets of craft felt, while going with 1/2 yd of purple felt from Joanns. Velcro and elastic were already on hand. Use your own child for gaging just how long of cape you want, and don't be afraid to jazz the bottom hem up. I made mine come to a point in the middle, but sky's

the limit.

Although you can't exactly see it, I tried to jazz up the mask (channeling my inner Ninja Turtle) in painting some white tulle with black acrylic paint to put in between the layers on the mask where the eye holes were. Also, in giving the felt some strength, I used a material used when making baby shoes or fabric baskets that gives some extra strength (almost cardboard like). You could even used a sheet of craft foam I bet.

I did more hand sewing than machine, as felt is very forgiving. Use a hot glue gun to glue on the front mask portion, as fabric glue does not work well when gluing felt on felt.

Hexagon Quilt Binding Tutorial

If you were wondering about how to do a fancy quilt binding, here is an inside look at how it is done and links to free resources.

Find the pin here about how to do paper piecing so you can make oodles of pieces to sew.

Find the Paper piecing hexagon printable as a pdf file. Be sure to print it on heavy card stock so you can reuse the pieces instead of printing more out.

 

Once I had all the hexagons, I hand sewed them together by using a simple loop stitch, which is basically a lazy blanket stitch. You just don't push the needle through to catch the last stitch closing. When you have your chain, take the iron and press it in half, being sure to fold it with the outside pattern on the inside.

Pin your binding to the raw quilt edge with the pattern on the inside and run it through the sewing machine at 1 quarter inch inseam. The real time consuming part is doing that same loop stitch as you pull the points up to each other and close it up. For the corners, I ended up leaving some excess hanging off to be like tassels.

Most of my thread color was a blue/grey color, as I am finding out just how powerful the color of grey can be when trying to find a balance with your colors and patterns mixing. It is like a universal thread color when you can't match it exactly. 

Hand sewing isn't as scary as some may think. I found it to be very relaxing while sitting with the hubby and watching a movie or sitting in church. Give it a try :)

Go Crash Laugh!

      

These toy Cars from Target have been a lot of fun at the grandparents house lately. Nolan finally figured out how to pull them back and let them fly off the coffee table. Their laughter is quitcontagious to one another. 

Sometimes its the simplest facinations that become the home run memories.

Quilting for a Blessing

"Pinwheel Garden"

It was a labor of love to create and sew this quilt for an upcoming addition to a special family. After a lot of sadness and questions, they will be welcoming a little girl come August.

While my mother was visiting, we checked out some local quilt shops where I found the grey free motion pattern and the pink batik print in between the pinwheel.. Everything else was found reasonable at Joanns (Calico Prints).

Every time I do a quilt, I try and push myself to try a new technique or challenging pattern since I started sewing almost 3 years ago. It was a talent I envied others who could sew. Envy continued to grow until it pushed me into a new world. I remember being deathly afraid to buy any fabric and try and make something of it, after finding out what fabric ran in price.

This quilt is about 50/50 done on machine and by hand. The binding is what took me almost as long as cutting and sewing the pinwheel blocks. Look for a follow up post on just how to do it with a link to a free printable.

Color!

Nolan is starting to enjoy crayons...beyond eating them at least. We tape some blank newsprint to the table. This will hold his attention for maybe 15 minutes before he takes interest into what Eliza has. 

Coloring makes ya hungry!

Summer GQ Edition

Messy Monday

No, this is not a planned DIY sensory activity....

This is Nolan finding my cake flour. The kid moves fast but I am glad I was almost out to begin with!

Nolan Mini Post

After going through with being on a 3rd pediatrician with in the same medical practice, I had finally had enough and decided to switch to a new doctor who wouldn't see us as just another overload patient dumped on them after the other left. I am glad I did, as we had a great first time experience with the staff and Dr.

Nolan recently had his 15 nearly 17 month well baby visit.

Height: 32.5 inches (72nd %)
Weight: 22.4 lbs. (12th %)
Head: 53rd percentile

This is the first time that we've hit all three parts of the growth chart. We go back in 2 months.

*Images provided by the Walmart parking lot where I was heavily influenced by my mother to take and send her.

Yoga: Tantrum Style

Tantrums have been very....interesting in the Geddes house. Nolan landed in 

time out for biting his sister....or was it hair pulling?

Fathers Day: Tool Man Edition

Lots of good times were had this Father's Day. Matt was put to work to rig up our redneck swing set. It was almost half the cost of the cheapest medal kind found at Walmart. Not to mention the fact that we didn't need the slide and the swings are the hard plastic bench kind that don't hug little ones hips, so they slide off mid swing. 

The biggest expense of this was buying the 18 ft of chain, costing $30. The belt swing was $20 and we already had the baby swing as a hand me down from last year.

We drilled right into the very large tree trunks. Both the chain and hooks are rated for 800 pounds. The only difficulty was having one tree to be of softer wood. That problem was fixed by putting the hook on the other side of the trunk so the tension would be pulling differently. 

I love having the shade of the trees over the swings and using nature as the posts. This was another reason we were gun shy of getting the metal variety and trying to keep the A-frame posts to stay in the ground. As much as we would have LOVED to have a nice expensive wooden set, or even metal...but I'd hate to spend money on it and then find out we had to move. Plus not having all the tools, the cost of making our own wooden with expensive from pressure treated wood and the outrageous cost of the hardware kits didn't make sense.

Now to just teach Eliza how to pump her legs so I am not held an all summer long prisoner of pushing her ;)

Growing

Guess who moved into a big boy chair!

Nolan is ever increasingly making it known that he is not a baby anymore. After many cries and screams being placed in his highchair and more than once, climbing the table/chairs and falling....it was becoming evident that some things needed to change.

Nolan can now climb into his seat with ease. This is the same chair Eliza started with, which seemed better suited for toddlers anyways. I also find less food hidden during clean up :)

I usually transition my kids out of their crib before they realize they can climb out of it. Both kids have done this at around the 15 to 16 month mark and done pretty well.

But Nolan is a WILD sleeper.

Here's proof

One night even resulted in a bloody nose :( We've since solved this problem by placing two jumbo pool noodles under the fitted sheet on each side. So far this has really helped in giving his unconscious self some guidelines as to where the bed ends.

For the first time since I assembled the crib getting Eliza's room ready over 3 years ago...the crib has been dismantled and placed in the garage. Surprisingly, there we no tears from him nor I. I saw it as a corner of space being freed up for toys.

Nolan saw it as no longer being imprisoned while Eliza could escape.

He also can say bye, nanna (banana) and I want that. I hope this language trend continues since learning eliza had a delay.

What next little boy...potty training? 

Let it Snow

In the time it took me to make some phone calls in the office for doctor appointments......someone found the baby powder.

Guilty as charged

Nolan not being too thrilled in slipping in powder

It was everywhere...

The kitchen floor....

Hallways...

Brother's hair...

Under the dinner table...

I didn't know all this had happened until Matt came through the door from work and an angry "Eliza Ruth" was uttered. Both Matt and I took quick action in removing the dustings. 

You would think they would be child proof caps on the stupid things.

What can I say...this girl works fast. But hey, at least the house smells fresh, right?

Is that Sand?

Nolan rocking his Halloween costume of Charlie Brown

After scoring this sand and water table for free on the side of the road, it was time to find some sand to fill it. Oddly, Walmart only carried the colored kind of pink or blue. What happened to the plain stuff folks? Crayola makes this and they don't disappoint in the richness of this blue.

It is a constant battle with Eliza to keep the sand inside the table. At one point, I caught her rubbing two globs of it on her legs as if applying lotion. Oh my child.

My driveway now looks like someone murdered a Smurf...

Pintrest test: Got Slime?

Once again, I have taken to Pintrest and tested out a kid friendly activity: Non toxic edible slime!

After my past with the youth center, I've made all sorts of dough and gak varieties. They are great, except if you have young children who will might taste test it.

Find my pin HERE

It took two trips to the store to make this stuff work. Be sure that if you are going to cut corners and buy the house generic equivalent...make sure the ingredient is 100% psyllium. I bought the generic for Benefiber, which is not the same as Metamucil.One will thicken while the other will not. I wasn't able to find a clear powder at Walmart, but they do carry one that is not flavored. Be prepared to spend $8 to $10 for a canister.

We used simple food coloring instead of Kool Aid.

Microwave- I found it takes a varying degree of time and testing to find a slime consistency you like. Not cooked enough will stick all over your hands and cooked too long will cause it to break into pieces which do not melt back into each other. 

It was an interesting experience watching the kids play with this sensory play. Nolan had more fun watching Eliza play with the stuff than touching it. The attention factor came in around 20 minutes. Not bad, but not as long as this mommy would have liked.

One canister will give you plenty to do this activity and then some since you use 1 Tbsp of powder to 1 c. water. Best to throw it out after use as it will grow mold.

Terrible Whats?!

I came across a blog which I've visited before called Scary Mommy, and after someone posted this link, blog entry resinated heavily with the season of life I'm in. Feel free to give it a read through since I am unable to copy and paste portions of it.

I had overheard folks talk about how age 3 was worse than 2, but kinda brushed it off as delayed terrible 2's.

Well......

It.is.true...

I think the language difference is totally accurate. There are times where I want to rip my ears off after hearing the same statement or blasted Frozen song over and over. Is there no escaping?

Oh...and the bladder issues.

I know where the bathroom is in the majority of places we shop. And when we reach the room of relief, she suddenly doesn't have to go. Graah! If you've ever tried to fight a three year old to sit on a toilet and stay on...it just ain't going to work. Then if you are at home and casually state your need for the bathroom, all of a sudden....

It.is.the.biggest.potty.emergency.of.their.life!

You are pushed aside as your child runs to the toilet as if they were being chased by zombies.

Lastly...tantrums.

I think this explains it all.

Any bets on how the 4's will be?

Pony Castle

My daughter is very much in the My Little Pony phase right now. After her birthday cake, the figures were the leftover gift. They can be fun to play with, but are limited as to what you can do with them besides comb out all the hair.

This wooden castle was found at my local Michael's craft store for around $20. I did however found out that this is the EXACT one from the Melissa & Doug collection found here on Amazon. It makes me wonder if there are some restrictions because of this of why you can not find this castle on the craft store website.. (all you find are castle bird houses)

More to come when finished (warning, you may learn more about My Little Pony than you'd like)

Throw Back

Who on earth are these people?

Boys and Girls

I am often told that since I have a boy and a girl, that I should quit while I'm ahead.

"I'm so glad I had all boys, they're easier"

Since I've had experience with school age kids, I've seen the sweet and sour of the sexes.

And let me tell ya.... There.is.no.difference!

I came across an article here that highlights a few boy "specifics" that one must be prepared for when raising boys. A few gave me a chuckle since I've encountered parts of it in my daughter. She has been my dare devil, playing in the dirt, wearing food in her hair kind of kid.

Both of my children have come with similarities and unique differences. Eliza is stubborn, but Nolan took it to a whole new level.

If we do decide and God grants us a 3rd child...if God is taking any requests..."Penis for 500 Alex"

Now don't get me wrong...I love my daughter, but she is enough girls in one to handle. The frilly stuff is fine and dandy, but I've fallen in love with robots, trucks and bowties :)