handmade baby

Handmade crib sheets are my new obsession.  I've made three in the last week, and if I didn't have three other kids to play with and take here or there, I'd probably open an etsy shop and do it full time!  They are so easy!  I have one more to do from the material I bought at JoAnn's the other day, but couldn't wait to share them...so here are a bunch of pictures of the new crib...or cuna, you might hear the kids say.

Using this tutorial from MADE, these take maybe one hour to make, start to finish.  The hardest part is using a safety pin to thread the elastic all the way around the sheet. which anyone can do.

But I guess the real hardest part is choosing your material.  There are so many choices!!

I started out with no theme for the baby room (which is our room, too, by the way.)  I wanted neutral walls and neutral stuff so I could decorate with color and change it when I wanted to.  But slowly, a theme of red emerged...with underlying tones of birds and the orient, somehow.  I'll show some pictures of the whole room soon....which we all LOVE, including the cat who is trying to take over..... but for now I'll just focus on the sheets.

This black/flowered one is my favorite.  It may be quite stimulating for a baby, but we'll see.



(Teddy Bear was Isabela's as a baby, given to us by Aunt Amy, I believe. Still one of my favorites.)

Here you can catch a glimpse of the mobile I whipped up.  More on that later.



Now this one is my favorite.  Neutral gray with white flowers, just in case the black is keeping her up at night. (ha,ha!)





I think I'd like to lay in there, wouldn't you?





And now this one is my favorite.  Red with super small white flowers. Somehow, as the room came together, red matches everything....turquoise, brown, yellow, pink, green...it's amazing.  I've always been a little scared of color, but am finally finding some courage to make choices I love.



So which one is your favorite?  (Oh, wait, you haven't seen the last one yet.  I'll try to finish that off tomorrow.  It's completely different!)

Sweet dreams, baby!

the roaring 20s

The annual daddy/daughter dance took Isabela back to the roaring 20s.  Her school was built then, it's actually their 90 anniversary, so it's a celebration year.

I'm glad she has this tradition with her dad each year.



Even though they may not dance the whole time....the dads tend to chat and the girls run around giggling... I imagine, it will always be something to remember.



Here are some links to the past dances...

2012: the sock hop
2010: first dance

2011 never made it to the blog, but I found some pictures.  Looks like dad and Izzy have changed over the years!

land, ho!

Is it me, or is this the best likeness of a famous explorer you've ever seen?


Do you know who it is?  None other than Christopher Columbus.  Joaquin lives for projects like these.


And an interesting fact we learned:  Columbus had two sons, Diego and Fernando!  (That's Diego's middle name, if you were wondering.)


I'm sure that's a fact we'll never forget.

one long weekend

Our three day weekend was full of drama, as I knew it would be.

By Monday afternoon, we'd all pretty much had it.  I packed the kids in the car to get us out of the house and drove off not knowing exactly where we were going to end up.

The kids played hysterical laughing games as I was driving, but sadly I was in no laughing mood.  I listened to the radio wondering why I wasn't laughing like that.

We ended up at a local elementary school  that has our most favorite playground.  I parked the car with a view of the playground and the kids jumped out yelling "thanks, Mom!".....while I stayed in the car.  Diego turned around questioning, "Are you dropping us off, Mom?"

I reassured him that I would simply be waiting in the car and gave instructions to stick together.

They were ecstatic.  I'd never done that before.  I wasn't hovering or monitoring or yelling out be carefuls.  I WAS, however, watching intently from the car through a dirty glare on the window that didn't give me the best view of them.

There was another mom on the playground, and I wondered what she thought of my lackadaisical parenting.

But I also noticed that my kids were capable and even helpful to one another.

Joaquin came running back to the car about ten minutes after we got there.  The parking lot was pretty far away, but I had rolled the window down and could hear him yelling "Mommm!" as soon as he started back.  It turned out, Isabela had gone down a slide and sat in a puddle of water.  I told him she had two choices: to go home or keep playing.  He ran back to report and the wind carried his voice back to the car, "Mom said you have three choices."  I was eager to hear what this third choice would be.  He said, "You can go home, keep playing, or keep playing with no pants on."  That got me laughing to myself in the car.

Another family soon joined on the playground, but I remained in the car, glad to have some quiet time to myself and happy that my kids were old enough to play on the play equipment without my help.  Five minutes later, Joaquin was running over to the car again.  Diego had peed under the slide!  I hadn't considered that possibility.  Well, he wasn't wet, and it was too late to do anything, so what could I do? And secretly, I was glad I had stayed in the car.

Isabela decided she'd had enough of her wet pants, so she came back to the car to sit with me, but the boys were exploding with energy, so I told them to keep playing.

I watched Joaquin help Diego on the zip line.  Then Diego taught Joaquin a fun way to slide down the parallel bars.  And again I was pleased and proud with how well they played together without me being there.  Sometimes it's freeing to get mom off your back.

But all good things must come to an end.

I saw Diego slide off one of those rolling barrels and heard the high-pitched scream he emits when hurt, but not really.  By the time I had waddled down there, all was well again.  I let them show me all their tricks they'd been doing.

I knew it was time to go when peeing under the slide sounded like a good idea to me.

The boys came back to the car happily and we all headed back home in a better mood, playing word rhyming games, try and make me laugh games, and the best...make up your own joke games.  That last one is hard.  I gave an animal, a mouse, and we had to make our own joke about it.  I think the best I could do was:  What did the mouse do with the cheese?  Made a hole in one.  I laughed even harder because it was so not funny.

Next time we have an awful day, I'll remember:  get outside, be an uninvolved parent every now and then, and tell silly jokes.

happy valentine's day!

I've been preoccupied lately.

Rearranging the rooms in our house one by one.

Making crafty things for the baby.

Wondering how life is about to change in a little over a month.

Valentine's Day was upon us, and I hadn't done anything except buy a small gift for everyone.  But something inspired me to pick up my favorite book about being a mother and creating a happy house...Mrs. Sharp's Traditions by Sarah Ban Breathnach.

The evening of February 13th, I spent forty-five minutes reading the simple, loving suggestions she offers for everyday life....then flipped to the February section.  Valentine's Day.

She laid out ideas for the whole day, but I didn't even get past the first paragraph.  Something about making the table beautiful and festive with a table cloth and cooking a special breakfast.  I realized I had thrown in the towel on a special valentine's day too early.  This would be easy.  In the dark of the night, I got right to work.


With the table set, I still had to sew their valentines.  I'm not sure how this idea came to me, except that it's easier to sew and cut paper than material.



Brown grocery bags cut in giant hearts, sewed shut with the zigzag stitch on my sewing machine.  Inside each was their little gift.



And it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without strawberry shortcake.


I was surprised when Joaquin said, "Don't we eat this every Valentine's Day?"  Hmmm. Maybe we do.  Maybe we have traditions that I don't even realize.

The kids were eager to rip into their cards.  I told them with a smile, "You have to break my heart to get the gift," and the kids were quick to pick up on the double meaning.



Their school valentines had been done way ahead of time.  We'd searched pinterest far and wide and each one chose what they'd like to make.

For the boys in Isabela's class...a ruler.


And for the girls...a toilet paper tube!  Poor Isabela had to wrap these things THREE times.  She had put gum and an eraser in each, only to get a note from the teachers the next day that no food was allowed, even gum!  So she unwrapped them, took out the gum, then redid them.  But her precious brother Diego found them the next day and thought he'd help with the scissors.  (I knew he was too quiet!)  He had unwrapped each of them, eager to discover the erasers inside.  So one more time, she wrapped them up.


Joaquin had chosen a cute valentine filled with Swedish Fish that said, "Glad we're in the same school."  But we figured his class couldn't have candy either, so we went with balloons and drew fish faces on them.  They were a big hit...but he came home with a bag full of candy anyway!


Juan Pablo even had a beautiful planter of succulents delivered to me and sweet note, "I didn't forget."  The most amazing part is I'd been wanting to buy some succulents and hadn't even told him!

Every day isn't always special.  The many responsibilities of being a mom have been bogging me down, lately.  But if I get over trying to be a good mom, and simply try to enjoy life with my family, it's doable...and a lot more fun,

Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need. 
Sarah Ban Breathnach 

Happy Valentine's Day!

belly shots

Just wanted to let everyone know we're still here.  We had some minor, no make that major, computer problems this week.  You know what happens when a three year old repeatedly puts a strong magnet on your computer?  Well, you don't want to find out.

But we're back...with a new rule:  No kids are allowed to use the computer.

Diego and I took some fun shots the other day...just wanted to get some proof that we really are having a baby soon.



Diego takes a good shot.



I take pictures like people drink tea...with their little pinkie sticking out.



A view from above.  Yep, I can still see my feet.



About seven more weeks to go!