Things I've Been Working On

In the past couple months, I've spent almost more time at my sewing machine than anywhere else. Here are some of the things I've been working on. 

A diaper stacker to coordinate with the bedding my mom made. I love these greens and browns. 

The "girl" quilt. The circles are hand-appliqued onto the background. I finished the boy squares, but didn't get around to putting them together. I guess it's a good thing Teya was a girl. 

The bed skirt my mom made. She also made new bumper pads with green minky and a coordinating green polka dot. 

Initially, I wasn't planning on doing anything new for this baby. But then I felt bad because I'd made something new for the other two and didn't want this baby to feel left out (like she'd really know the difference). I found instructions for recovering the carseat, grabbed a spare car seat at our MBASA clothing swap (just in case the recover failed miserably, I didn't want to be without a car seat cover), and deliberated for months over a good gender-neutral fabric. I finally decided to do the black minky I'd been hanging on to for a few years and this adorable red & white polka dot. 

the inside of the carseat. I also made a coordinating cover that snapped to to the top of the carseat and covers the baby. 

A group of friends from MBASA (the MBA spouse association) got together and decided to make quiet books. We each chose a page and made "copies" for everyone. Because it was so much fun, we ended up doing two rounds. Round 1 had 14 members and round 2 had 19 members. With that many pages, I decided to compile two quiet books, one for the toddler and one for a preschooler. Here's the toddler one. Portia's already obsessed with it.

Match the shapes

Mom's purse and the Apple Tree (Portia was so excited to see a wallet and real chapstick in her purse)

The tool box and the Barn (I need to finish making the other farm animal finger puppets)

The car pages (complete with real toy car)

Notebook page (I need to put the paper in the top pocket) and ice cream sundae.

Gumball machine and Frog pages

Train and Teepee pages (with compass and toy Indians)

Oven and cupcakes pages (so far this is Portia's favorite page)

Tie the Kite Strings and Ocean pages

House (I need to put family pictures in the windows and doors) and Alligator pages

Lion Texture page

And Here's the Preschool Book

Button Flowers page

Dress up Pages (I did this one for round 1)

Clock and Braids pages

Mailbox and Shoe pages

Tic Tac Toe (I did this one for round 2) and heart puzzle pages

Robot and Piggy Bank Pages

Memory game and Bead Counting pages

Weave the Cherry Pie and picnic basket pages (Palmer loves the food on this one)

Noah's Ark page (I need to make the finger puppets for this one, too)

These projects were so fun to put together and I have a storage bin full of projects yet to be finished (or started). But the thing I'm most proud of is this little cutie. 

Teya sleeping during the day. We're still working on getting her to sleep more than three hours at night. I haven't really started Babywise with her, other than the feeding/sleeping schedule. I'm a little less rigid with this one and I'm not sure I can handle letting her cry. So I've made my own night time drama, I guess. :-)

Portia's most oft repeated comment about Teya is, "She moved!" Being the shrimp that she is and given that she's not the most active baby, I can see why Portia (and others) don't think she's real. She actually looks chunky here but really her clothes are just too big. 

I'm sad that I just missed a smile with this picture. She smiles a ton. I don't believe it's just gas, but she really only smiles when she's asleep, so I'm inclined to think she's smiling at her dreams.

Don't let this fool you, either, she's mad that I took off her clothes. But I had to show off my little shrimp's chicken legs. I love that her little onesies are newborn and are still too big and too long for her. We love having this calm child around. She's been such a good baby so far.