Oh, hi

I thought it had been a few weeks since I posted, but, well. More than a few weeks. Summer has been so busy so far – full of camping trips and trips to the river, play dates and barbequing and for the whole month of July just doing anything to try to get out of the heat. 

The pictures above are an assortment of moments from the last two months and some things we’ve been up to. I have also been working a lot on the house – cleaning, donating, organizing (where did all of this stuff come from? I swear I don’t even know), and little changes and updates that wouldn’t look like much to an outsider but still represent a lot of work and improvement to us as we see it every day. I intend to update here more often and now that things are settling down a bit I probably actually will. 

How is your summer going? Hope it is lovely!

May

I’m laughing going through these pictures at how dreary everything looks – it was actually a really lovely trip! This is just what Washington looks like… a lot. I completely forgot to take pictures inside at all, but we stayed in a cabin on the coast and the beach walks were interspersed with retreats back to the cozy cabin for hot mugs of tea and coffee and far too many delicious snacks. K is obsessed with her little pink umbrella and was very pleased to have it at the beach for the morning we had a light drizzle.

Fixing Up

Glow in the dark stars // Moon lamp // Book ledges // Pendant lamp // Rug 

Basket (old, similar here) // Bed (vintage, similar here)

We’ve been slowly working on getting K’s big girl room fixed up and these are some of my ideas and for finishing up. Right now she has a floor bed which has been great for getting started in her room, but she’s ready for a nice bed of her own. I found a vintage spindle headboard and footboard at a thrift store for her last year and am now working on getting it sanded and primed, and figuring out how to make and attach new side rails. Considering painting it a light teal like this – she has the rug already and I love teal and vibrant pink together.

I’m also loving this pendant lamp for her room – I was looking for something whimsical but not childish and this might just be perfect. It is a little small, so we may need to find another larger version.

Small Adventures

April is racing by (but I should stop marveling about the rapid progression of time, because really, will it ever not be that way again?) and it has been lovely but also I'm longing for the pace to slow down just a little bit.

K is growing and changing so quickly and it is a wonder to watch but I also want to save little moments and keep them just as they are. She is really loving her main two activities (soccer class with her Bapa (grandpa) and gymnastics) and she is getting some real skills down at this point and she is so focused and determined in both. She talks up a storm all the time and can easily say anything she wants. We have started in on the whys - usually she'll ask "why?" 3-7 times or so, accepting a short answer each time before responding to that one with "why?" too, and then at the end she'll say "oh, yes, that's right mommy - penguins are birds but they don't fly" or whatever the last thing we were talking about was. She's pretty articulate with most of her words (for a 2yo) most of the time, but I love her special versions of certain words - balloons are "baloonies," zebras are "zeebies," pumpkins are "punkas" (she's still talking about Halloween), umbrellas are "brellas" and are VERY exciting right now (a little one just for her should be arriving Saturday and I'm sure we'll be out in the rain for ages to celebrate).

I've got a little bit done on my Time of Flowers kit (pattern only, here) and am almost ready to start the next design block (the light pink flower arch), but it's been a bit tricky for me because I am not skilled at cross-stitch and I mostly get a chance to work on it at night, and even with a lamp, it's easier if there is also daylight coming in the window.

Yarn Along

Well, I am still knitting the Fisherman’s pullover and it’s starting to go slow. I am through most of the cables and down to just three cables down each sleeve (this is the first sleeve) but I got a little burnt out on cables. Must finish it anyway! 

It has been a busy month, so reading has been limited to what books K wants read to her, but this current favorite is so sweet. It’s a little fable about the Easter bunny, and how all the other bunnies in the village work with their own special talent to make the most beautiful egg for Easter because the winner gets picked to be the Easter bunny’s helper that year. The little bunny, Hoppi, doesn’t know what to do and tries a little of everything but can’t finish because he finds a robin’s egg that fell out of the nest so he sits on it day and night to keep it warm. In the end, self-sacrifice and caring for others creates the most beautiful egg of Easter – the broken shell after the robin Hoppi saves hatches, and of course Hopi is the Easter bunny’s helper. 

The little side-stories in the boarders of Jan Brett’s books are always one of the best parts, and in this one, at the end, the pussy willows in the boarder turn into little bunnies and hop off – it is so precious. 

Knitting and reading with G. Sheller.

Easter 2018

We had a really lovely Easter morning of cozy family time inside, with hot coffee for us and much delight and excitement for K. She ran all over the house exuberantly searching for eggs stuffed with stickers and balloons, and out in the rain with an umbrella for the eggs we dyed together a few days ago. She had so much fun helping me make pancakes, fresh whipped cream and “bunny ears” – cut marshmallows in half and dip in pink sprinkles, but then she didn’t want to eat them and happily went down for nap at 12:30 (uh-oh). Shure enough, she woke up from nap sick and we spent the rest of the day (and the next few days) snuggled  up on the couch watching Curious George and Llama Llama, and trying to keep her hydrated and eating a little bit. She is feeling much better now and we are all so relived. 

Her Easter basket was assembled over the last year from clearance, sales and the dollar store and came in at just over $25 total which was more than intended but she loves everything. She got: new jelly shoes for summer, bubble bath which we were out of, bath crayons (she hates the bath but loves drawing, worth a try!), mini-pool float birds – these are meant for drinks but they are perfect for little toys to ride around in for the wading pool this summer, a wand, ladybug stickers, and a little bag of play makeup.

I struggled a lot with whether the play makeup was a good parenting choice, but ultimately decided that it is not the use of makeup itself that fosters insecurity or gender stereotypes, but the language we use around it. I only wear makeup a few times a week but she is all over mine and tries to take it to play all the time, so I decided to go with it. She LOVES this little kit and has been having so much fun carrying it around and asking family “excuse me, would you like your face painted?” then very gently pretending to brush on the pretend paints. When she gets a little older we’ll get her a kids face paint kit and this is great pretend play to practice. She also loves carefully brushing the pretend nail polish onto her fingernails and mine and that has been a great fine motor skills activity.

Happy Easter and happy Spring to all!

In March

Well, March flew past without any notes taken and documented, but we have been busy, and happy, watching winter turn into spring.

K started soccer class once a week which she loves – she’ll grab her soccer ball from her Bapa from Christmas and announce that she needs to practice and kick it (and throw it) all around the house. She’s also been doing a toddler gymnastics class at a local gym which has been very exciting. It’s a full gymnastics gym, not just for small kids although the littles do get designated classes and play times, so they have some more adventurous options including a few different kinds of trampolines (built into the floor and with great padding around them since they are meant for practicing flips) and a big pit full of foam blocks for landing in that she loves to jump into and “swim” around in.

We’ve also been doing the typical outings – children’s museum, zoo, park, play dates, throwing epic tantrums at the grocery store, etc. I never wind up with pictures from out as my phone is still broken – it had been fading for ages and then I royally smashed it up last summer and have been limping along with a non-functional camera and rather iffy sound quality during calls, but I have gotten my money’s worth out of it and it’s really time to upgrade now.

K is VERY excited for Easter tomorrow and informed me we would be leaving carrots out for the Easter bunny tonight “just like for the reindeer” and has been having a ton of fun with Easter preparations. It is so sweet to see how excited she gets for holidays, I have been trying to step up my game with fun traditions, crafts and foods we can do for each holiday because she loves them so much. For St Patrick’s day, she loved cookie decorating, green balloons all over, and rainbow fruit skewers as well as the family dinner we had. For Easter, cookie decorating was a huge hit, and egg dying was very exciting but it was pretty stressful for me (we made it through without turning either the house or the toddler rainbow colors but I should have known better than to do little cups of liquid dye). She is super excited for tomorrow morning, and then in the late afternoon we have dinner with G’s family.