Foot and Hand Prints Quilt

I have been too lazy to take pictures of this project, but finally I got on it.  These are squares for a quilt I plan to make for myself in a few years.  On their first birthday and again this year I took the girls' hand prints and footprints with fabric paint on 9x9 inch squares. 

The difference between footprints is more noticeable than hand prints.  Look how much D's feet have grown in the past year.  As you can see with T's hand prints, it's harder to tell which one was more recent. 

The plan is to do the same at least for the next year and possibly the year after, along with any new additions to the family.  Then I will make it into a queen or king size quilt for our bed. 

I regret not doing it when they were newborns.  You can see on the baseballs how itty bitty their feet were.  Their tiny hands were just precious too.  They grow so fast!

Toddler Beds

Well, now that pacifiers are gone, the next step to accomplish this summer was transitioning to toddler beds. This weekend we busted out the Allen wrenches and a power drill and got to work turning the girls' cribs into beds with a small and ineffectual railing on the front. 

At bedtime, I put the girls to bed as usual, walked away and grabbed a snack thinking, "that wasn't bad."  Then the screams started.  We had put the gate up so they couldn't leave the room, but Miss D pulled open the door and stood at the gate crying.  Miss T remained in bed throughout the extra hour and a half it took for them to fall asleep but she cried a lot too.  After two separate attempts on my husband's and my part, I ended up sitting on the floor near the door until they fell asleep.

Then around midnight, T started screaming again.  I went in there and discovered them both on the floor next to their beds.  T was screaming for me while D was snoring, completely oblivious to the fact that she rolled out of bed.  Later that morning, D woke up to go potty and didn't go back to bed for a good hour or so with me sitting on the floor by the door.  They woke up at 5am, so this momma did not get much sleep.

Luckily last night went much better.  They went to bed without a peep.  T woke up twice during the night because she rolled out of bed but didn't take long to go back to sleep.  I need to do something about her railing.  For now I'll roll up a towel and stick it under the sheet along the edge.  Hopefully that will help keep her from tumbling out.  I need to find another railing that runs at least the majority of the length of the bed.

I'm sure like with the pacifier, we will have good nights and bad nights as they adjust to the new beds and new freedom.   Hopefully the next few nights will be good ones.

Pacifiers, Popsicles and Popcorn

The last post depicted taking the pacifier away in a rosier light than reality.  We have had some minor setbacks, mainly Miss T crying a little at nap time and longer at bedtime.  There were a few nights where it was hard getting her to bed but she has been doing really well the last few nights.  She doesn't ask for her pacifier anymore, but is still learning to soothe herself without it. 

I told a friend about our experience and she decided to apply the same strategy in a different way that I thought was neat.  She took her daughter to a toy store and let her pick out a new doll.  Her daughter had to 'pay' the clerk for the doll with her pacifier.  Apparently the clerk wasn't thrilled and thought it was disgusting, but all part of working at a toy store I guess.

A few days ago, I tried making fruit popsicles for the first time.  I put a couple cups of watermelon in the food processor (we don't have a blender) and added a little lime juice and a few squeezes of honey.  They turned out yummy, very refreshing.  The girls loved them!

Today I made popcorn which I haven't made for a long, long time.  I used to snack on it all the time when I was pregnant with the girls.  But once they got old enough to want to eat what I was eating, I stopped making it because I didn't want them to eat it and choke.  But today I thought about the delicious taste of fresh popped popcorn and decided to go for it.  I make it the old fashion way, in a pot on the stove.  A little bit of olive oil and some salt and I'm good to go. 

 

The girls got to try it too, but I only gave them part of it once I had pulled off the kernel.  Yes, I am paranoid . . . dealing with a choking toddler is not something I want to experience, ever.