Do you understand?

So lately Guy has been trying to communicate more and more. And most of the time he is successful. He is doing pretty good for his age. But there are still times that I don't understand what he is wanting or tying to say. And I wonder how much of that time it is my own fault.

For example, last night he woke me up in the middle of the night standing by my bed. I was tired and impatient and didn't really want to know why he was awake in the middle of the night and didn't really think about it too hard. I just handed him off to my husband, who then took him crying back to his bed, and shut the door so he would stay there. I didn't think anything more about the situation until this morning I noticed that one of his blankets was on the floor next to my bed. It appears he brought it in with him. I then started wondering why he was coming in in the middle of the night. Was he cold? Not feeling well? Just couldn't sleep? I don't know, and I won't ever know, and it is all because I didn't take the time to find out. At this point I felt bad. I need to try to do a better job to understand what he is needing.

The other time recently that I didn't understand his needs or wants was on Saturday. He was sitting on the kitchen floor. He only had one sock on, and his pants had come off and were on the floor beside him. His other sock had come off at meal time, and I had previously found it by the table and put it in the wash. Well he pulled at his one sock and was saying "sock" so I thought he wanted it off. I took it off, and then he held up his pants, and said "pants". I told him to take his pants to Daddy, and then proceeded to take his sock, and put it in the dirty clothes. Well he picked up his pants and started crying coming after me. I figured he was trying to say that he wanted Mom to put on his pants. So I put on his pants, and he continued crying and pointing at the laundry room door. I then realized that he had been telling me he wanted his other sock on. So we fished both socks out of the laundry and put them on and then he was happy.

My blog goal for this comming year

So as 2008 is coming to a close, I have been thinking of things I can do better or differently in 2009. One thing that I have decided to try to do is to put posts on my blog more often. I have been quite busy the last little bit, and have neglected the blog. I'm going to try to do better, I am going to try to make more posts, shorter in length, so that I have time to write them, and you have time to read them (if you are interested).

However this may mean that when I post there might be a few new posts that show up about the same time, because that is when I have a block of time to sit down and post. So if you are a regular reader of my blog, make sure you take a quick look to see if there are more than one unread post, when you find new posts on my blog.

I may still have some long posts, due to the subject nature of what I may be discussing, but I will try to keep them short and sweet. Hope you enjoy reading my blog this coming year.

When she responds like this, it makes it worth it.

About September I decided to make blankets for my kids for Christmas. For Guy I found a car print fleece, and decided to make a fleece blanket for him, which wasn't too hard. Cinderella's blanket however was a different story. I found a Disney Princess print, that I knew she would love, and decided to use my new sewing machine to quilt it. I have done some machine quilting before, but it was on a very small object (a child size coat), and a long time ago. But I figured I could do it. So I bought my fabric, and had my supplies. However I couldn't work on it while she was around and I was feeling nauseous and exhausted being in my first trimester, so I didn't make any progress on it. I kept telling myself I needed to work on it, but never seemed to find the time or energy.

The last preschool lesson I was scheduled to teach before Christmas was the week of Thanksgiving. I figured I would get that out of the way, and then devote my attentions to her blanket. However my kids health, and the schedules of the other mom's involved in preschool kind of foiled that plan. So it wasn't until about 2 weeks before Christmas that I even started on the blanket.

I started on a Saturday, when my husband was home. I locked myself in my bedroom, where my sewing machine is and started sewing. I got the front put together that day, but realized that my fabrics were different widths, and so then I had to figure out how to trim it down to size and not mess up the pattern.

Through the next week I worked on it every possible evening when I had the energy to do so. However I reached a point that I couldn't go on in my room. I needed to baste the front, back, and batting together. I had read somewhere that if you use a basting spray it is a good idea. And I for one would highly recommend it. It was definitely the easiest and time effective way. However this blanket was huge, and I needed to lay it all out flat to baste it together, which meant that Cinderella had to be sleeping, or gone. But I needed my husbands help to move the couch and stuff, so I couldn't have him take her anywhere.

I had a friend come to the rescue the Saturday before Christmas, when I told her of my plight. She offered to watch my kids for a few hours while I got that part taken care of. Thankfully within an hour we had it all put together. We retrieved the kids and I sewed for the rest of the day. By the end of Saturday I had all of my strait lines quilted. However, I still needed to quilt around all the princesses and their names in the squares. I had no idea how long that would take.

On Monday night, after we finished family home evening, and put the kids in bed, I once again retired to my room, locked the door and started sewing. I sewed until about 11:00 that night, and finished the quilting part. I just needed to make my binding and sew it on.

I figured I could make the binding during the day on Tuesday, and then sew it on Tuesday night. That way I wouldn't have to worry about it on Christmas Eve. However the kids had other plans for me on Tuesday. In the morning we spent some time playing on the computer together. I had turned it on hoping to distract them, so I could work. Unfortunately for the quilt, they wanted Mommy to play with them. So I did. When we were done, I took them to the library. I had a movie on hold that I was hoping to turn on in the afternoon and to get their attention, so I could work. We got home from the library, had lunch, and I got them down for quiet time.

While they were having their quiet time, Cinderella started coughing. She had been coughing earlier that morning on the way to the library. It was a scary sounding cough, and I had stopped at the store to get some Vic's VapoRub. It helped some, but not enough. The problem with her cough was that it was accompanied by a wheezing sound. I was afraid the problem we had experienced in November was back, and didn't want her to have to suffer through Christmas if not necessary. So I called the Dr.'s office and was able to get her in that afternoon. However she wanted to watch the movie that we got from the library, and I knew that if I started it right then, and left as soon as it was over, we should be able to get to the Dr's office on time.

However I had forgotten about yucky icy roads, that hadn't been properly plowed. We arrived at the Dr's office about 15 min. late. And had to wait another 30 min. before we could see the Dr. Thankfully he was still able to see us that day. He diagnosed Cinderella with a type of asthma that happens in children, and prescribed some meds. We then had to drive to Fred Meyer to pick up the meds. Let me tell you, Fred Meyer, with an icy, snowy parking lot at 5 pm on December 22, is not really a place you want to be. At least I didn't want to be there. Thankfully we got home by 6, where Daddy had dinner waiting for us. By this time I was tired and ornery, and had no desire to do any sewing that night. Thankfully my husband took pity on me, and helped me make the binding. Unfortunately we didn't have the binding all the way made, and ready to go on the quilt until about 11:00. Which meant it was time to stop.

Well due to yucky weather, my husband worked from home on Christmas Eve, which I used as a means of getting some sewing done during the day. I decided that I could spend some an hour with the kids, then go and sew for an hour. My time with the kids ended up being more than an hour a lot of the time, but that was OK. But I did get the binding sewn on the front of the quilt during the day. Then after we got the kids to bed, my hubby took care of most of the Christmas Eve stuff for me, while I continued to sew. I finally had the whole thing finished about 11:00. So we wrapped it and got it under the tree.

I was just glad we got it done in time. I wanted to make sure she really appreciated this gift, as much as she would, so we had her open it first. Her reaction made all the work and stress totally worth it.



Some quilting tips for anyone who is thinking of doing a machine quilting project and hasn't done any or much before:

1. Make something small first. Like a wall hanging or a table runner. The biggest problem I had with this quilt was the weight of all the extra fabric. I extended my table as much as possible, and tried to keep as much fabric on the table as I could. But having so much fabric, and not having really quilted on that machine before, made it more difficult.
2. Use a basting spray. If you don't make sure you baste really well no matter how you choose to do it. The basting spray was really quick and easy and did a really good job of holding my fabric together.
   
3. Make a separate binding for the quilt, but make sure that your width on your binding is uniform. Mine ended up very uneven, which made it so that I needed to fold the whole binding to the back to cover all my seams.
   

Meet Moosey

Moosey, was the first toy Cinderella ever got. In fact I think we got it while I was still pregnant with her. One of my husband's sisters had been a tour bus driver in Alaska that summer, and had gotten it for our baby.

As Cinderella got to the age that she could play with it, we had it as our diaper bag toy. It was the toy pulled out on car trips, or when we were at church. Cinderella loved that toy, but I don't know that it was any more of a favorite than any other toy was.

Until now. About 3 years later, a strange attachment has occurred between Cinderella and "Moosey" the name it has been dubbed recently. One night she decided she needed to take the moose to bed with her. A few nights later, we couldn't find it, and suddenly it was "I need Moosey!" I think there has only been one night since that time that she hasn't slept with it. One day a couple weeks ago "Moosey" along with her stuffed bear that she sleeps with, disappeared.

We could not find it anywhere. It was late and she needed to go to bed. But she couldn't go without Moosey. Unfortunately we were not able to find it that night. The next evening however, Guy decided he wanted to play in the dish cupboard. One of the kids favorite places to play. He opened the door, and low and behold there was Bear and Moosey. And since that day, if I can help it, Moosey never leaves her bed.

Isn't it funny the attachments children can make to toys?

Beep

Our alarm clock goes off to a CD every morning, and when you turn it off it makes a "beep". Ever since we moved Guy to a bed, he gets up every morning pretty close to when his Daddy does. I've wondered if he listens for the alarm. My question was answered.

Saturday night about 1:30, I was awakened to hear Guy's little footsteps running into our room. Then I heard a groan, and turned to see him climbing up on the bed right over Daddy. It was clear from the look on Daddy's face, that he had not heard the footsteps. Guy ended up in the middle of our bed. I picked him up, and felt that his face and hands were cold. I asked him if he was cold in his bed. He said "cold bed". So I put him in our bed for a few minutes to warm up. He laid down next to me, and stayed that way for about a minute. Then he sat up, and pointed to the alarm clock and said "beep."

I told him, "No, Guy it isn't time to get up yet." He then started to sing the ABC's in his Guy fashion. He doesn't say the actual letters, but you can tell what he is singing. He stopped right about where G should be and said "Beep, beep" pointing at the alarm clock. I thought that was so funny. He knew the alarm clock played music then said "beep" so he was singing a song and then stopping mid song, like the alarm clock does, and said "beep".

I told Daddy, that Guy was ready to get up, and what Guy had done. Daddy looked at the clock, and told Guy he needed to go back to bed. So he took him and put him in his bed, gave him his pacifier and blankets, and shut the door. Thankfully we didn't hear from him for the rest of the night.

Our Ultrasound

We are having a girl. Cinderella is super excited. She wants to call the baby Sleeping Beauty. This however will not work to my standards of a name. But it will work for a blog name. So now we will have Cinderella, Guy Smiley and Sleeping Beauty.

What do you think?

So I go in for my ultrasound this evening. Hopefully we will find out the babies gender. I put a poll on guess the gender up on my blog. But forgot to announce it. So if you would like to vote, you have about 5 more hours to get your votes in. I'll probably let you know tomorrow what I find out.