Sometimes I'm crafty

I've always loved projects. I stayed busy with my girls all summer, but I think I was missing something for me. I needed my brain to be working a bit harder. I read a TON of books this summer, some really good ones too (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry was my favorite), but I just needed something else. I needed a project or two. Lately I've been working on a few that I'm really excited about. 

I started making a growth chart for the girls a while ago and I made a lot of progress on it this summer. I stitched the numbers and the measurements in black thread that I got from my Grandma Joyce (she loved working on projects too). I wrote their names out on paper first, in cursive, and then traced it on the fabric. Then I stitched their names. I love how they turned out! My next step is to sew up the sides, hang it with a dowel, and then add a whole bunch of crocheted flowers up the entire chart. I have about a dozen flowers done and I'll be able to attach them as I make them. In my mind it looks awesome, but it's not quite there yet. I think I'm going to buy some oval shaped wooden buttons for writing their heights and ages, then I can sew them on as they grow. I found a bunch of fun colors of yarn, I just need to get those flowers made!

I found some really soft, chunky yarn and thought, "I should make a blanket out of this!" Well, I ended up making TWO blankets so they can each have one! It's only been the last few months that I've been getting back into crochet. I think the flowers for the growth chart got me hooked. Ha! Hooked! (You crochet with a hook, in case you didn't know.) I've never crocheted granny squares, but wanted to try them. I ended up going a little crazy and now I'm making two blankets! I have all of my squares finished, and I finished sewing one together today. Now it needs a border. I'm very excited to be done with these and hope the girls love them for many years. 

 Lily loved the blanket! She grabbed it to her face and then said, "Purple!" and pointed to a purple square.

Violet just woke up from nap and wasn't too happy! Sometimes you just need to cry!

I'm just barely starting another blanket, but this one I'm going to take it slow, especially now that I'm back in school. I bought a crochet book a while ago that has really helped me with stitches and techniques. I made some funky coasters from the book and I've always wanted to make the blanket (afghan) on the cover. It's similar to granny squares, but the shape of the "squares" are hexagons. I found some amazing acrylic/wool blend yarn that I absolutely love. The colors are so vibrant and just perfect for this project. It's called Sheep(ish) since it's 30% wool. What a fun name! The colors are red(ish), plum(ish), robin egg(ish), etc. I've made two hexagons so far and I can't wait to make more. I'm going to try not to get too obsessed and rush. It's actually quite relaxing to work on these after the girls have gone to bed and Ryan and I are just chillin on the couch. 

Now my mind is going crazy with other project ideas: scarves, gloves (with that sheep(ish) yarn!), baskets, pillows, gifts. We had a funny idea that I should crochet a cactus and take it to my class. I should have students "water" it and every few weeks make it "grow" and even add a cactus flower one day. It could be pretty hilarious, especially if they buy into it as a "magic" cactus. Maybe they're too old to have fun with that, but it might be fun to try!

August 2014 - 19 months old

8-1-14 Summer is almost over! We’ve spent so much time together, and it will be hard to adjust to going back to work. We’ve spent many mornings at Liberty Park walking and swinging, and we’ve visited the Tracy Aviary and Hogle Zoo several times. We’ve visited Great Grandpa Jay a few times, too. We’ve been to the aquarium and went on a few hikes. We’ve played outside and gone on walks. We’ve been going to the library every Wednesday for Book Baby/Toddler Time. I will miss doing all of these fun things together, but will look forward to spending quality time together every afternoon and weekend.

8-1-14 When we went to check on the girls before we went to bed, Lily was lying on her back on all her stuffed animals and she was up against the side of her crib with her arm out. I moved the animals and Ryan touched her hand to move it. Lily opened her eyes, clapped her hands, said, “Yaaayyy!" and then went right back to sleep!

8-3-14 We scheduled our pictures to be taken this afternoon in the mountains. The skies were dark and as we were taking the first family shot, it started raining! It didn't let up so we went to Murray Park instead. We had so much fun! Violet had to hold a flower, in fact every time we are outside she looks for flowers! At one point Lily had a flower too, and when she was done with it she dropped it and stepped on it! We hope the pictures turn out!

8-5-14 We love playing with the chunky Lego blocks! We have a base with wheels and they stack the blocks as high as they can. Then they say, “Choo choo!” Violet especially loves the blocks and says, “I did it!" every time she adds a block! Lily loves dumping the blocks out of the bag! Luckily they both help clean up!

8-7-14 They are talking so much! Lily says Bu-bu for blueberries, and Violet says Uh-puh for up. Lily's good with animal sounds. She says Mau for cats, moo for cows, and woof for dogs. She says Bi-bet for Violet. Also cookie, Ah-no for I don't know (or Oh no), hat, pees for please. Violet says down, and she'll try to say a lot of words if you ask her. She gets really close on them too! She's said thank you, bird, flower, and she says woof every time we see a dog! Both say all done, swing, outside.

8-8-14 We went to Murray Park again to play with Grandma and Caryn and the kids. Violet found the one dried leaf on the playground and held it the whole time!!

8-12-14 Violet said “I love you" today! It was so sweet! I just got them home from Mary's and I told the girls that I was happy they were home and I love them, then Violet said I love you in her sweet little voice. Before we got in the car at Mary's, I asked how their day was and Lily immediately started jibber jabbing away in baby language! I said, “Really!?" And she just gabbed some more.

Violet has been talking so much! A lot of it is jibberish, but even that is more frequent now. We've been putting her thumb bracelet on so her mouth is freed up to try new words! Lily has been cracking us up, as usual. She’s talking up a storm, and dancing. When she dances she tilts her head to one side, looks slightly down, and spins in circles. Sometimes her hands are behind her back. It’s adorable.

8-13-14 I've been reading a little about potty training lately and found it interesting that many cultures train for poop first because people usually go at about the same time every day. When we got home this afternoon, Lily hadn't gone yet so I thought I'd try it. I stripped her from the waist down and brought her potty out to the main, uncarpeted area. She was eager to sit on it, which is great because she hasn't been interested for a few weeks. I had a bunch of new books from the library that kept her engaged. Violet sat on her potty a little bit too! The last book was a train book and they LOVED it! I read it three times in a row! There's a big picture of the conductor on one of the first pages and Lily kept going to that page shouting ductor! By this time I was making dinner, she'd been there on the potty about 30 minutes, but still happy about it. She kept kissing the conductor and it was so cute! I grabbed the camera and was recording when Ryan got home from work. She stood up and we were surprised to see a lot of pee pee in the potty!! Yay, go Lily!! She was so proud of herself and we were very proud too! She sat on there with daddy a little longer, but still no poop. Ryan and I talked tonight and decided we're going to try training her over the next few days, at least for daytime. It would be crazy to train them both at the same time so we're glad Violet isn't quite ready, although she is comfortable sitting on the potty which is a good sign. We have the girls' 18 month appointment tomorrow so we might ask the doctor what she thinks, although we might change our minds considering our experience with her.

As for Violet, she's been wearing her bracelet most of the time, and I've noticed that when she's not wearing it I can tell her to take her thumb out and she will. I think she doesn't even realize she's sucking it so the bracelet has helped her do other things. She's still talking a ton and said I love you again tonight, this time to Lily.

8-14-14 This morning Lily was not interested in sitting on the potty. We went to the girls' 18 month appointment and the doctor thinks they are doing really well! Violet weighs 18 lb. 5 oz. and Lily weighs 19 lb. 10 oz. Violet is a half inch taller than Lily! It's funny that Lily was taller when they were born, then Violet passed her up, then Lily was taller again for a while, and now Violet's in the lead! Dr. Cox said most people don't potty train until 2-3 so we shouldn't try, but Ryan and I know Lily and we think she's ready. The girls just got one shot each and didn't cry at all! Amazing! They had silvery Band-Aids and each got an Elmo sticker. That made their day! Ryan had to go to work and I took the girls to the store before we went home for lunch. At home, I said, it's time to go pee-pee on the potty! When I got her diaper off, it was dry! It was from first thing in the morning before breakfast! She sat right down and peed! After lunch, she sat again, and this time went poopy! We all get so excited when she goes. We take it to the toilet and they both wave bye-bye as it flushes down. Then they wash their hands and turn off the light, which is their new favorite thing! I have to turn it back on for the second baby to turn off. After nap, she was wet and wasn't too interested in the potty. She sat on it, but not for long. We went outside to swing and had puzzle time. Violet is really good at the shape puzzles! I got dinner ready and just sat down when she started screaming, “I pee pee, I pee pee!” and was pulling at her bib. I quickly got her down and she peed! I think going 3 times in one day is a great start! We'll see what tomorrow brings! If she's not interested, that's fine, we don't want it to be a power struggle, but if she's willing and it's a positive experience, we're going for it!!

8-15-14 Lily said “I love you" to me today! J Violet is so funny when she's hyper. She’s been getting hyper and so silly, mostly at night! We went to The Dodo restaurant tonight. They always eat really well there. Anyway, I thought Lily had a big piece of cheese in her mouth and I asked Ryan to get it so she didn’t choke. He pulled at it, but it wasn’t cheese, it was the wadded up straw wrapper! Ryan pulled it out of her mouth like a magician pulls on a scarf! It was hilarious!!!

The girls are really good at saying Yia yia for Grandma, and Lily says poppy for Grandpa!

8-17-14 Today we took trax to my mom's house for dinner. The girls were super excited to ride the choo-choo! We waited at the platform for our train. The girls were in their stroller. We watched one or two going by before ours came and the waved at every one. The platform was under construction so we didn’t have to pay on the way there! Once on the train, they kept saying choo-choo. The train operator came out of the front at one of the stops and smiled and waved at the girls. Then they kept saying ductor, ductor. My mom met us at the station and we walked to her house. It was hot and uphill, but we made it and were relieved to have a yummy picnic dinner outside on the deck. The ride home was nice too! They were so good all night!

8-18-14 Lily gives lots and lots of kisses to everybody and everything. She was kissing Daddy through the glass on the back door while he was out grilling. She clicks her tongue when she gives a kiss so she opened her mouth and clicked her tongue against the glass! Violet was busy “cooking” in her kitchen and serving it on a plate. Sometimes she’ll bring it to us to try!

8-19-14 Lily calls Mary Me-me. As soon as we got home from Mary's, Violet sat down to read.

After bath I was holding Violet and we were looking in the mirror. I said, “Who's that?" and she said, “I-let!" She said her own name! Now they can both say Violet, but not Lily yet.

8-22-14 They loooove books!! We are reading every chance we get! Animal books, Elmo books, baby books, train books. Board books are still preferred. They've ripped a couple of paper books, but nothing too much. They love their Olivia books!!! They are always asking for those! They say, “O-lia!” Those are paperback too, but they love them! Lily's favorite is the last page where Olivia is going to bed. She says, “night, night.” She points to Olivia's family and shouts mama, dada, baby! Violet loves Olivia just as much!

This was my last week off! I worked 3 days and was home with the girls for 2 days. They were perfect. Monday we went to the park and played in the backyard. Wednesday we went to the library and shopping with Grandma and Andrea, Addy, and Harrison. I'm ready and not ready to go back to work. I think that's just how it should feel.

8-24-14 Today is Sunday, I start school tomorrow and I'm in bed with a cold!! Yuck! Violet has it too and Lily has sneezed a few times. I have a feeling it's going to be a long week.

Lily has been walking on her tippy toes. When we read the peekaboo book, Lily says all of the animal sounds. At the end there’s a mirrow, we ask, “What does Lily say?” She says, “Ya.” She really does say that a lot! Haha!

8-27-14 They both learn so many new words every day! Today Lily said her own name! She sticks her tongue out and says it! So funny! Now at the end of the Peekaboo book she says “Lily.” They both know A LOT of animal sounds too! They love the animal magnets on the fridge and they'll pick an animal and say the sound, but Violet's favorite is the gold fish! She always brings it to us to show. Maybe because Elmo has a goldfish named Dorothy.

8-30-14 I wore my Where the Wild Things shirt today and Lily pointed to the monster and said, “Dada!" When I told Ryan, he said that she points to the monkey in Eric Carle's book From Head to Toe and says, “Dada!" I asked, “Lily, is Daddy a monkey?” and she said, “Yeah.” Violet said Apple today at lunch and continued saying it this afternoon. She likes practicing her new words!

8-31-14 We got our pictures back and they are soooo cute! There are over 150 of them! It’s funny because Violet has the same unsure look on her face for the first shots and you can see her slowly warm up to Natalie and start smiling more and more. I can’t wait to get the disc in the mail so I can print some and share them!

Now they both know a lot of animal sounds! We have a Clifford book that has animals on a farm. They know all of the sounds except the mouse. They both know eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, head, and belly button, and they say them all too! I really think they are learning one or two new words every day! It’s so hard to keep track of them all!

 Book Baby/Toddler Time and Miss Lisa. We'll miss you!

 Everybody loves Liberty Park!

 I love sleeping baby pictures. They are my sweet angels!!

Elmo says, "Ah, help me!" Lily ALWAYS gathers up her dollies and sleeps on them.