New Mattress Pad

I've never really been a 'list' person. But last week I had a lot of stuff I wanted to get done--cleaning, organizing, baking, etc--so I made myself a list for the week and I was able to do and cross off almost everything! It was actually helpful to have it written down so I wouldn't forget anything. And then there are the mental 'to do' lists, the things that you know you have to do but you don't bother to write down because they're always there, just waiting until you have the time. Parker's mattress pad is one of those things.
Parker doesn't sleep well away from home. At least, that's what we thought the problem was. Until one day, on our last vacation, we were talking about how we could help him. After checking out his pack 'n play, we realized that the "mattress" in the bottom is really hard. It feels like a light layer of batting on top of a board. Poor kid, no wonder he kept waking up! I wouldn't want to sleep on that, either! So that night we folded up a couple baby quilts on top of the mattress and then put the sheet back on, and he slept so much better! We decided that once we got home we would need find some kind of padding for his pack 'n play so the next time we traveled he would be able to sleep. I couldn't find one to buy, and I wasn't really sure how to make one that would be thick enough. So I decided to put it on hold for a while. But a few weeks ago Kyle and I got a new mattress and the problem was solved--I could use the mattress pad from our old bed and cut it down to make a pad for Parker's bed (Although after we figured that out, it sat folded up in our bedroom until now)!

But I didn't have anything planned for today so once Parker had been fed and was happily playing, I pulled out our queen-sized mattress pad.
I had measured Parker's little mattress earlier, so I got out a measuring tape and a sharpie and started marking.

And cutting.

I cut the smaller one out from the corner of the original pad--that way I'd only have to sew two seams rather than all four. And I decided to rip off the binding so I could re-use it around the smaller mat and keep the same look. It came off pretty easy once the first few stitches were out.

Since the corners of the original one were rounded, I traced around a cereal bowl to round the corners of the one I was making as well. Once I had the right size and shape, I sewed a zigzag stitch around the raw edges. I figured it would be easier to put the binding on if the edges were already secured and flat. And finally, I added the binding.

I didn't do the binding the proper way of sewing one side on first. I just held it in place on both sides and started sewing....SO I had to go back and touch up a few places where the stitches didn't catch on the back. :)

Not my prettiest sewing job, but it was quick and it worked! And once it's in the pack 'n play and covered with a sheet, nobody's going to see it anyway. :)

New Sewing Machine

Kyle totally surprised me this Christmas by getting me a new sewing machine! He had given me my old one about 7 years ago (also for Christmas!) and it still works okay. But I've done so much sewing on it that I've been having a little trouble with the tension lately, and I've never had it professionally cleaned so the parts underneath were getting pretty dirty and full of fuzz from all that flannel and quilt batting I've been putting through it. It was also a more compact size which, in some ways was great but in other ways it was a little too small. But I've made 6 1/2 quilts, a quiet book and countless other clothing/baby items on it, so I've definitely gotten a lot of use from it. But it's time to put it aside and start using this instead...

I turned it on to play with it a little, although I was a bit intimidated at first! Unlike my first machine, this one is all automatic and comes with over 170 stitches. Aside from the basic straight/zigzag stitches, it has all kinds of decorative stitches and three alphabets. I tried out a few (the pics are a little fuzzy)....

SO fun!! When Kyle bought the machine it came with a class session to teach the machine basics. I took the class yesterday and was surprised at how much it can do--it can even sew buttons onto the fabric! Now the only hard thing is deciding what I want to make first! :)

Speaking of buttons, I've been organizing some of my sewing stuff last week. Some of the baby shoes I make use buttons and I was telling Mom that I hate paying $3 for a card of buttons when I only need two of them. So she sent me some! She has a couple buckets right full of all kinds and sizes of buttons, so she filled a big ziploc bag and mailed it to me! I was so excited to get them! But since they're all mixed together, I thought it might get a little frustrating to dig through them all the time to find two that match. So one night when we were watching tv, I dumped them out and started sorting!

I cut out up a big piece of cardstock into small squares and once I had the buttons sorted, I used a needle and thread to put them on the cardstock, tying them on the back.
Now when I need a pair, they'll be easy to find. I had a lot without a match, so I put those in a separate container to use for scrapbooking or other random projects.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!! Okay, so I'm a few days late... :)
Our holidays were pretty uneventful this year! Our Christmas traditions normally consist of opening our stockings (each of us gets a new movie or two in our stocking, along with other goodies) and getting each other new pj's on Christmas Eve. So that night, we put on our new pajamas and curl up on the couch to watch a new movie. Then, on Christmas morning, we get up and open the other gifts. But since Christmas was on a Sunday this year we changed our plans a little. Our Sunday church service was an hour earlier than usual, so we thought that rather than get up super early and rush through our morning, we'd open everything on Christmas Eve so we could take our time. It was fun, but I have to say it felt a little weird, too...totally breaking tradition!
Sunday was nice, though. We picked up a pizza on the way home from church so I had the day off from cooking, which is always great! We stayed home, watched a movie, played with Parker and enjoyed our family time. Kyle's family got together that day but they met at his sister's home, which is about 2 hours from here. Most of them were staying there overnight, though, so we drove over on Monday morning to see them then.
New Years was kind of the same for us. Kyle and I were sick on Saturday--somehow we had both picked up a bad cold, so we didn't go out anywhere. Instead, we put Parker to bed then we watched a couple old movies. Oddly, they were both about married women who were plotting to kill their husbands so they could be with someone else. Kyle said he went to bed that night feeling a little uneasy... :)
I guess that sums up the past couple of weeks for us! Nothing too exciting, although we were okay with that, given that the weeks before Christmas had been a little stressful with Parker's seizure and being in the hospital. I'm sure everyone knows by now what happened, but we had the unhappy experience of finding out what a fibrole seizure is. Parker was walking around playing one minute, then laying on the floor having a seizure the next. I had no idea what was happening so I called 911. An ambulance brought us to the ER and it took a couple hours for Parker to come out of it completely and respond to any kind of movement or sound--it had the doctors pretty concerned. We were told that the seizures themselves are common but that the severity of his and the temporary paralysis it caused was not typical. Apparently a seizure normally lasts a few minutes, then the child is up moving around again and is fine. Because this wasn't the case with Parker, they did a CAT scan and x-rays to make sure there was nothing wrong. Thankfully, they all came back clear. Later they transferred us to the children's hospital where they kept him overnight to make sure he was okay. After a neurologist came to check Parker the next morning we were discharged, and he's been totally fine since.

And the fun part? It can happen again, at any time, until he's 6 years old. And there's no warning sign or way to prevent it. Scary! So we've been getting him back on a normal routine while trying to not be overly worried or protective...kind of a strange balance.
Anyway, the story does have a nice little ending... The week after it happened, we were sitting here at home and someone knocked on the door. Kyle answered it and I heard him saying something about Parker being home. I was curious as to who would be asking for Parker, so I walked out to see who it was. It was a guy and a woman from the fire department! They were two of the four paramedics who had responded to my 911 call. They had driven over, in their fire truck, to see if Parker was doing okay! They asked how he was and chatted for a few minutes, then they gave him a toy fire truck. How cool is that?! :)

SO thankful for our local fire dept. and paramedics! :)

New Slippers

Even though our winters here aren't that cold I still get a little chilled, especially in the mornings. I'm not a big fan of getting out of a nice warm bed and walking on cold tiles with bare feet! So when I'm at home, I usually wear slippers. I have several pairs, one of which quacks! :)
If you've ever heard the saying, "Mom's cold so everyone put on a sweater," that's kind of what it's like with me and Parker. When I'm getting him dressed in the morning I think that since I'm cold, he must be, too. Right? Poor little guy...I'm sure there are days when he wonders why he's wearing fleece pants and long sleeves when his father is walking around in shorts! And although he always has on socks, sometimes I carry him outside for a few minutes or put him in the car and don't bother with his shoes. But I don't want his little feet to be cold, so I made him a pair of slippers today! I made him a few pairs when he was a baby, and we put them on his feet all the time! They were so soft and easy to slip on and they actually stayed on his feet. The style is somewhat similar to Robeez, having elastic around the ankle. I found them on a blog: http://www.stardustshoes.blogspot.com/2006/10/cloth-shoe-pattern.html
The Stardust pattern is only size 6 months, so I found another baby shoe pattern here that was a size 12-18 month and I enlarged the Stardust pattern until the sole was the same size as the 12-18 month one I had found. Next I went through my pile of fabric and picked out some blue flannel with a dog print for the outside and blue fleece for lining. Then once Parker was down for his nap, I started sewing...

This pattern is super easy to make. It's only three pieces, so it sews up pretty quickly. I finished cutting out the pieces and sewed both slippers during his nap.







The sewing is finished and now I just have to add the elastic.

And they're done!

I wanted to put them on his feet when he woke up, but I decided to wrap them up for Christmas instead. :)

Christmas Sale!

Oops--didn't realize it had been a month since my last post! :) I've spent some time over the last few weeks sewing baby accessories! My sister-in-law went to a craft bazaar last week and had asked if I'd like to take anything to sell along with some cute little baby hats and headbands she had made. I couldn't actually go to the sale because it was a weekday (and she lives in Sacramento), so I gave her a box of stuff to take and sell for me. I made burp cloths, bibs, pee pee teepees, shoes, and coloring wallets (a small fold out mat that holds crayons and a notepad). She called after the sale and told me I sold a few things, so I'm happy for some extra Christmas money! :) And now I can use the rest of what I made for baby gifts or sell it online.
There was a Christmas craft fair here, too, last week. I didn't go to sell anything, but I went with a friend to look around. I love looking around at craft sales--it's a great place to get ideas for making gifts!
I was only planning to look, but I ended up buying a fabric book for Parker, and a necklace pendant. I kind of hate that I bought a fabric book, which is something I could easily have made but I haven't seen the fabric panels for it in stores. We like to read the story of Jesus' birth every Christmas, however, Parker has a hard time sitting still while we read from the Bible. So I thought it would be nice to get a book that has colorful pictures along with the story. And the best part is that because it's all fabric, he can grab it, bend it, chew it, etc., and he won't damage it. :) AND it's totally washable! Yes, it's the small things that make a mother happy! It is pretty cute, though...

A Busy Month!

I have a few pictures I meant to post in October but the last couple days of the month were a little crazy so I never got them on! I'll post them now instead...
October was a fun month this year. It started out with my parents coming to visit!! I was so excited they could be here and see Parker again--the last time they came was a year ago, when Parker was only a few weeks old. What a change! Now he's walking around trying to talk to them! What made their visit even more special was that they came for Parker's 1st birthday party. They got here a few days early which was a HUGE help. They were more than happy to entertain Parker while I made his cake and then Mom and I got everything else ready for the party. The next week we had plenty of time to visit and go shopping.

And we took a tour of Alcatraz on their last day here, too, something they had wanted to do the past couple times they've visited but it never worked out.






Then, about a week after they left, it was our turn to go on vacation--to Disneyland!

We went to Anaheim with two other couples the last week of Oct. We drove down on a Sunday afternoon and came back on Thursday. Our friend, Dana, had booked a house for all of us to stay in, which was within walking distance from the park. It was the perfect arrangement because each kid (the other couples each have a toddler as well) could go to bed in his own room and the rest of us could still spend time together in the evenings...and it was nice to have our own kitchen so we didn't have to eat out every night!
So Monday and Tuesday were spent between Disneyland and California Adventure. We only went on a few rides that weren't baby-friendly, so we just traded back and forth with the guys. They'd go on a ride together, then they'd take the kids so we could ride something.

Kyle said this was the most relaxing and enjoyable time he's ever had at Disney and I agree. Usually we're in a hurry to get from one ride to another and we don't take everything in, but when you go with babies you know starting out that you're going to do things slowly and take breaks for naps, snacks, diaper changes, etc. So we found that the slower pace was nice!

Thanks to Parker, we got to go on a lot of new rides this time! :) We tried the Little Mermaid (where he was quite taken with a life-sized Ursula), Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, the Ladybugs, Flick's Flyer, Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear, etc. Parker seemed to like them, but we couldn't help wondering what he was thinking of it all...the dark tunnels, flashing lights, loud noises and music... It was quite a contrast to the quiet days he spends here with me!

Wednesday we looked up a local park and zoo and took the kids there for the afternoon. The zoo had maybe...6 kinds of animals? :) It was the tiniest one I've seen but it was perfect for Parker!

And he got to pet some goats.

The park also had a pumpkin patch so we tried to get some pictures but he didn't want to sit still for too long.

And finally, Parker got to go out for Halloween! I waited a little too long to buy him a costume so there wasn't much selection. But the good thing about waiting was that I only paid $3.75 for it--and it's super cute! We had a choice between a monkey and a shark, and here's what we decided on...

In the afternoon we had a few friends over and the kids had a little 'costume party.' Aren't they adorable?? :)

And that evening we went to the home of some friends, where we decided to take the kids out trick-or-treating! We went to a neighborhood that was blocked off and it was crazy! There were people everywhere and at times it was difficult to keep the others from our group within sight--especially after it got dark! It was fun, though, and on the way back we stopped at a few individual houses as well.

As you can see, Parker did pretty well for his first time out! But, as he doesn't eat much sweet stuff yet, we donated a lot of it to church--they were wrapping boxes for Operation Christmas Child. They wouldn't accept chocolate, though, so I guess I'll have to take care of that myself... :)

Kyle's Birthday!

Kyle's birthday was November 3rd! He's not much for big parties, so we didn't do too much that night. We stayed in and I made him one of his favorites for dinner--a Mexican chicken casserole. Dessert was a mini apple pie with a candle in it! (sorry no picture!) :)

The next day, Friday, our Bible study group was coming over for a potluck so I had planned to make Kyle's birthday cake for that evening. I was up early with Parker, and after he had breakfast I started on the cake. Parker was happy to sit and 'help' me for a while...

Kyle prefers white cake, but I only had one white cake mix and the pan I was going to use took two mixes. So I made one white and one chocolate and poured them both into the pan at the same time.

I looked around a little for some decorating ideas but didn't see anything I liked so I made my own 'design.' :) I covered it with white fondant, then cut stripes of blue, green and white fondant and put them all around. I used cookie cutters to cut out the letters for Kyle's name and put that in the center, then made different sized fondant balls for around the bottom. Here's how it turned out:

And after our dinner party this is what was left--you can see how the two flavors were split pretty well!

Happy Birthday, Kyle! Love you!!