Strings and Sealing Wax and Other Fancy Stuff

The hard part about trying to do a crafty thing each day is materials. I can't afford to go to the craft store for each day's project, but I do want to make things with Eli that are worth the effort, so I have to be creative with what I want to make.  For instance, I wanted to make this hand tree, but I certainly didn't have the right fabric.  So, I rummaged through my craft boxes and amongst the "strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff" I decided I could do the same thing with a canvas I bought on sale at Joann's months ago and scraps of scrapbook paper.  (Coincidentally, I recently met the wife of Leonard Lipton's biological son - RANDOM.)

Our first go at the hand tree was for a postcard exchange that we are participating in.  It was pretty rudimentary, but we had fun making it.  

The second time we used Mod Podge, and cut up the background paper to be a little more scrappy. Eli passed me the leaves and I put them on.  I love hand print art!  Here it is:

Easter Basket

Today my friend Sarah came over with her two boys to make Easter Baskets.  We thought it would be a great craft for our older boys to do, but it turned out way too messy, so it became a Mommy craft day while the boys played with the costumes.  We had fun, regardless, and the Easter Baskets turned out great. 

 First we heated 2 1/2 cups of sugar with 1 cup of water over the stove.

We even got a little help from Buzz Lightyear and a Dragon.

 Then we soaked crochet cotton in the sugar water and wrapped it around balloons.

 This is about halfway done.  We used about 300 yards of thread between the two balls, and probably could have used more.  We will wait for them to dry, pop the balloons, cut out a hole, and put them out for the Easter Bunny to fill on Easter morning.  Tons of fun!

Pinch Proof

These two boys are going to be blessed with the luck of the Irish today!

 We've had a great morning.  Eli made sure Daddy didn't go out the door without his lucky green shirt on, then he picked out clothes for himself and Silas.  His favourite thing to wear these days are baby leg warmers on his arms. Luckily I had a pair of green ones for today.  After breakfast we broke open a bag of balloons, blew up all the green ones, and spent half an hour trying to keep them from touching the floor.  Then, with Eli holding the camera, we went on a Green Scavenger Hunt.  His job was to take pictures of everything he could find that was green.  He had so much fun, and by the end of it I think actually knew what green was! Here are his shots.  I just love the perspective of a two-year-old!  I can't get enough of the shots with his cute toes sticking out at the bottom. Notice the sweet purple flowers in the grass in the last shot.  He took all the pictures himself, with no help from me.

Feeding the Birds

My first indication that we had a problem was when Eli started climbing up the stairs chanting, "Who's the cat? Who's the cat? Who's the cat?"*  I knew our troubles had escalated when I went around the corner in front of him at the grocery store and he cried out "Ca-Caw!"*  I decided I needed to take action when he was playing with Silas, who started to cry, and Eli said, "He's broken, I don't want to play with him any more."*

Then, my friend posted a link to a documentary on marketing to children, Consuming Kids.  It was all over.  I knew it was time to turn the television off and find something else to do with our days. 

So, out came the artillery.  I needed ideas, and I needed inspiration. I pulled out this book, called my mom for ideas, and made a list of things I want to do with Eli.  So it began: we put the DVDs in the closet, pulled out the double stroller, and went out to gather materials for our first morning of our new regime: we are going to fill our days with creative learning experiences, not movies!  And this is what we came up with:

There is a house down our street with an enormous pine tree in front of it.  From that pine tree hundreds of big, beautiful pine cones have fallen.  So, off we set down the road to collect some of the pine tree's offerings.  Eli went through several for every pine cone he picked.  Some were too small, some were too poky, some were smashed on one side, some were too big.  Finally he had picked five ravishing cones, and we were off to the grocery store for more supplies.  We needed peanut butter and bird seed.

We got home with everything we needed to make our little bird friends in our yard a snack. 

I wanted Eli to feel like he could do it himself, so I changed his shirt, gave him the spoon, and told him to dig in!

Silas watched from his Bumbo.

Eli enjoyed the peanut butter as much as the birds will, I'm sure. 

After we covered the pine cones in peanut butter, we rolled it in the bird seed, tied some wool yarn around it, and took it outside to hang for the birds.

We dropped the rest of the seed on the ground for the birds to eat, and went in to clean up. 

All in all, it was an incredibly successful day!  Eli didn't even ask once if we could watch a movie, and after it was all done he napped, without question, for two hours. Now, if I can just keep it up, our house will be littered with beautiful artwork and crafts made by Eli, and the ceaseless movie quoting will end!  Please feel free to comment with any brilliant ideas you may have for me! 


*Madagascar
*Robots
*Toy Story

When Three Became Four

The moment that Eli was placed on my chest (my arms were still strapped down to the table - what a wonderful memory) will forever be etched in my heart as the most emotional, wonderful moment of my life.  The primal instinct in me roared.  Despite the surgical birth we had just gone through, I didn't want anyone else to touch, or even look at my son.  I abruptly told Jared that he was not to worry about me, but that he wasn't to let our baby out of his sight.  I felt that every experience I had ever had culminated to that very instant, and that being a mother was all that I was ever meant to be.

I never felt the huge transition that some people say becoming a parent brings.  I don't know if I was blessed, or if the craziness that was my life when Eli was born didn't allow me to think much about it, but he and I didn't have much problem adjusting to each other. I felt prepared to take on the roll of motherhood, full throttle.  As the months since Eli entered our family have flown by, I have rarely felt overwhelmed or unprepared.  Sure, there have been moments of stress and worry, but in general I think I have handled it all pretty well.

Then came number two.

Who knew that this would be so much bigger of a transition for me, physically and emotionally.

In the first few days of Silas's life, I was dealing with, dare I say, disappointment of his birth, postpartum hormonal changes, and, most affecting, the emotional needs of my sweet two-year-old.  Up until the moment of Silas's birth Eli had been my best friend, my constant companion, and, other than Jared, my number one concern.  But suddenly all the rules changed.  He couldn't jump on the bed, because the baby was sleeping, nurse when he wanted, because the baby was nursing, scream, talk, stomp, or do so many things he had been allowed to do just days before, because of this new little creature we had brought home.  To be honest, I couldn't blame him when he asked us to take the baby "back to the hotel."  I found myself dealing with some of the same growing pains: never mind the surprise that the middle of the night feedings were, I wasn't prepared for the guilt and emotional exhaustion I would experience. I felt torn between the bonding that I wanted to do with my new sweet baby, and spending time letting Eli know that he was still just as important to me as ever.

Yet, here I sit, with my sweet, precious, wonderful baby boy sleeping beside me, and I can't imagine our family without him.  I feel like I have had to learn a whole new set of rules with him: he sleeps differently than Eli, nurses differently, plays differently, but each change is exciting and fun.  Juggling naptimes, bedtimes, nursing, meals and meaningful play has been an adjustment, that's for sure.  But, when Silas gently wakes us all up with his coos and smiles, and then Eli squeezes in between us to make him laugh, I know why we so badly wanted another child.  The joy that Eli's pronouncements to Silas that "if you see any bad guys, you tell your big brother, and I will get them for you" are worth more than I can express.  Silas's giggles when I run my hands across his back, or his squawks (for that's really what they are) of joy when he splashes in the bathtub, or his happy leg kicking every time Jared comes home from work bring so much happiness to our lives.

Sure, I just don't have time to spend hours staring at him, memorizing every feature of his face and recording every thing he does, but I am so grateful for the relationship that we do have, and am eternally happy that we didn't give into Eli and bring him back to the hotel.

This boy loves his daddy!

My darling husband is just about finished law school... just about.  Right now he is doing an internship with the Spokane County Prosecutor.  Basically, much to Eli's joy, he spends his day in front of judges putting 'bad guys' behind bars.  Yeah!  But, like most legal interns, sometimes he has to bring his work home.  Last night he came home with a trial to prepare, and told Eli that he would play with him just as soon as he made a few phone calls.  He then barricaded himself in the 'office.'  Well, I was preparing dinner, so I told Eli not to bother his dad and went about my business.  A few silent minutes later I went looking for our little super hero, and this is where I found him:

He is staring at the door, behind which his daddy is making those important phone calls.  When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "Waiting for Daddy; we are going to wrestle."  I just love how much he loves his dad!

A Picture a Day keeps Resentment Away

My little sister just got married.  She married the most wonderful, romantic, caring, amazing (did I mention wonderful?) man in the world.  We love them both!  Anyway, protocol dictated that she make a super cute slideshow, following her and her sweetheart through their childhood, teenage years, and short sojourn as young single adults, with the big finale of the very few pictures that they have of them together, since they were engaged for like, a minute.  I actually didn’t get to see the finished product, because my dad was sick of standing in the line-up shaking hands all night, and couldn’t stand one more thing on the program, so axed it at the last minute.  Sad. 

Anyway, the point of telling this tale is to make a point, I swear.  You see, when Chloe was collecting the pictures for her super cute slideshow she was astounded to discover just how few pictures there were of her. Like every other 7th child, she found, that despite what a beautiful child she was, there was very little photographic evidence to prove it.  I, of course, offered the picture of her at age 3 that found its way into my super cute wedding slideshow (I guess I must have been just as beautiful, since my own mother couldn’t tell us apart at age three, even though there is 8 years between us, and at age 3 I would have been wearing some awful brown, while Chloe was wearing neon pink, blue and yellow.) 

Due to the wonderful emergence of digital photography, I probably have as many photos of the first 5 months of Silas’ life than there are of Chloe’s entire childhood. Still, I think I have about half as many pictures of Silas than I did of Eli at this point in his life.  And, more often than not, if the camera does come out, it is to take even more pictures of Eli.  It seems that drooling just isn’t as exciting the second time around (I have an uncanny amount of pictures of Eli drooling, which is about all that babies do at 5 months old.)

"After much deep and profound brain things inside my head, I have decided to..." (King Julien the Thirteenth, self proclaimed Lord of the Lemurs) make a New Blog Resolution!  My resolution, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, is to take a picture of each boy every single day.  I’ll admit that not every picture will be fabulous, but at least then I will have a greater chance of having a few fabulous pictures of each stage of their lives.  So, the pictures you see here were taken at the quilting store, with my phone, but taken none the less.  I’m not going to post the pictures every day, but every once in a while I will, just to prove that I have not abused the power of the New Blog Resolution, which power, I’m sure I will discover, is immense!

See you later, Crocodile!

To Infinity and Beyond

I’ve heard of terrible things happening to some mommas when they are home alone without daddies. You know, the common terrors of stay-at-home moms: bad guys lurking behind couches, scary monsters hiding in the closet, ceaselessly dripping taps and inconsolable babies. Well, I have the fortunate blessing of being protected by my very own Space Ranger. That’s right, I am the grateful recipient of the devotion of Buzz Lightyear - Space Ranger. Some may be surprised to hear this, because you may not have seen him when you are around, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: Buzz moonlights as my eldest son, Eli. But don’t be fooled, when I need him, Buzz is here to laser the bad guys and perform other necessary acts of rescue. His space ranger training is so advanced that sometimes when we are going out of the house for the day he knows his services will be needed and dons his uniform so that he will be ready to ward off the dangers of the world. His presence is so formidable, that I have yet to be bothered by any bad guys while grocery shopping or picking up my dry cleaning. And the best part is, he is willing to be paid in macaroni and repeated viewings of his favourite film, which happens to be Madagascar at the moment. I would offer his services out to other moms in danger, but Buzz has reminded me time and time again that he is my boy and doesn’t want to be anyone else’s boy. So, hopefully other mothers will be blessed with their very own Space Rangers, Batmans, Spider Mans and other good guys, because I assure you, my day is so much better for having Buzz near.