This past nine months has been nothing short of a fairytale. We decided early in on in the pregnancy of our daughter that we would scrimp and save to put away enough money so that my husband Dean could take the Parental Leave, as I hadn’t gone back to work in between kids. Best. Decision. Ever. To begin with, I have an amazing husband. He gives 110% at absolutely everything he does whether it be working and providing for our family or being at home full time and parenting. I will never forget what it was like to wake up every morning with my spouse beside me. I am crazy thankful for the gift he gave me pretty much every morning of sleeping in a little later since I had been the one getting up at night to nurse Hannah. I will never forget what it was like to get up with our kids, make a pot of coffee and just relax on the deck as a family – every day! I will never forget the texts I’d get from Dean while I was subbing describing how he was feeding Hannah with a medicine dropper because she wouldn’t take a bottle. I will never forget waking up on any random weekday and deciding to head down for Minot for the day to take in the Zoo and do a little shopping. This season has been the most amazing season of our lives. It is a rare blessing for a family to be able to spend almost an entire year together every day. I know I will see the effects of this time for years to come in our kids. My son had his dad to play with, follow and model himself after every day, all day for nine months. I can see already how his character has been forever influenced in such a positive way. My daughter has been cared for her entire infancy by both parents and has bonded as such. Unfortunately this season is ending for us next week but we will treasure it forever. If you ever have the opportunity to split a parental leave I HIGHLY recommend it cause everyday is pretty much a fairytale.
It never fails to amaze me how little kids loved to be chased and startled! My son cannot get enough of being chased. He especially loves it if you come out of nowhere and start pursuing him. He screams with delight and inevitably “turtles” somewhere waiting for you to catch up to him and tickle his little toes. My daughter makes you work for even the hint of a giggle from her and the most successful attempts are those involving popping your head from behind something and growling. While going back and forth from both these activities last night it reminded me of a game my brother and I used to play with my mom when my dad was on the road. It’s basically a version of “hide and seek” but with a few more elements of surprise incorporated into it. To begin with you need to go throughout your house and move major obstacles from the walkways. It’s then time to turn off all the lights in the house. Did I mention that it’s much more fun to play this at night? Once all the lights are out and you’ve determined the off limits areas (such as stairs) you need to pick who is “it”. Have the “it” person go to the counting area while you give each person hiding a blanket. During the hiding time you need to run and pick a place in the house to hide. It’s a little easier in the dark and with a blanket because technically you could plant yourself in the middle of the floor and the seeker still wouldn’t see you right away. Now the object if the game is for the hider to scare the seeker before the seeker finds them. It adds a great sense of excitement to the game as you’re pretty much on edge the entire time waiting for someone to pop out and startle you. You can make it a little safer by giving the seeker a flashlight but it makes it a little harder to hide and get the jump on them. I actually ended up playing this with my son the other night and he had an absolute blast!
It was just after supper on Sunday night when my two-year old looked outside and exclaimed, “It’s darken out there!” And yes, unfortunately it was dark out there, pretty much pitch black at a mere 7 pm! On the up side though it was still over twenty degrees outside and so we decided to go on an evening adventure in the dark. I suggest that while it’s so nice outside that you and your family do the same. When you have young children such as myself it’s not often that you venture out after dark. Especially during the summer when “dark” does not come until many hours after bedtime. This makes being outside after dark a great novelty for my kids. By just going on a simple walk around the block your kids can see everything in a whole new light (or less light at least!). Things look new and different and they can stop to gaze at the moon and contemplate his facial features. If you really want to amp it up though you can invest in glow sticks! On our Sunday evening adventure we first outfitted ourselves with glow bracelets. Our son had a fabulous time “cracking” them and seeing the light spread. We also had a glow “sword” which surprisingly provided a huge amount of light and it looked wicked cool! We packed our kids in the stroller and headed down the street towards the park. It was super cute just to see all our little bands of colour strolling down the street. The park was the highlight of the outing because there were no streetlights whatsoever and we just had our glow sticks to guide us. Because of the lack of light we did need to make sure we were right with our son wherever he went but we all had a blast climbing the play structure and zooming down the slides with our glow sticks high in the air. The great part was that it was just as much fun to watch someone play as it was to play yourself. Because we are nearing Halloween most stores have different glow stick paraphernalia for sale and you can stock up on quite an assortment. I hope you have the time to take advantage of this great weather and go on a glowing adventure!
Hannah has a lot of baby leg warmers that I have her wear with onesies so I wanted a little detail on the bum of this one. What better than a little ruffle bum?
Measure a piece of fabric twice the length of the area you want to cover. Hem the top and bottom and then make a gathering stitch down the middle (set your machine to the longest stitch and don't reverse. Pull the thread and gather it equally.) Then sew it onto the onesie.
Do the same with another fabric and sew it above the first ruffle. Make as many ruffles as you like, I stuck with two.
How cute is her little ruffle bum?
To embellish the front I made fabric "yo-yo's" out of the same fabrics. Cut a large circle from the fabric and then start stitching a 1/4 inch in from the edge all the way around. Then pull your thread and it'll gather into this little circle. When sewing it to the shirt I added a button to each one. I also sewed two little flower buttons by the overlap on the shoulder for added detail. Make sure they're on good - we don't want a choking hazzard!
