Dresses and skirts

I have been on a sewing kick lately. I have made 2 skirts and 2 shirts for me, and some clothes for Abby. I have a problem buying daisy dukes for babies, and those seem to be the only shorts that exist for little girls, so I make hers. I also make skirts and dresses.

On the left is the newest dress; a heather gray jersey 2-way stretch knit with ruffled shoulders, gathered skirt, a black and white bow with fuchsia sequins and a black and white waist band with fuchsia sequins. The top has an elastic band around it so that I can simply adjust the back velcro when she gets bigger and the top will expand with her.

It is important to me to make clothes that she can grow with because then it isn't a waste of fabric or time to make her clothes. She's currently wearing 24 month clothes, and she's only 7 months. It is also why I make the dresses longer. I don't like showing off her diaper, and I don't know how to make the pants that go under the dresses, so dresses get made longer.

Isn't this a cute picture of her in the dress with her headband on? She got her picture taken right before church and right after a nap so she's still happy and smiling.

Next up is her purple skirt. This started as a tiered summer dress and ended as a skirt. I cut the fabric, then waited 2 weeks to sew because things kept coming up. So the top of the outfit didn't fit her. So I cut off the skirt portion, put in an elastic band at the top, edged it with some ribbon, and now she has a happy summer skirt. The fabric is really lightweight so I had to double it (or line it). It's simply gathered with elastic, nothing dramatic. No tulle or anything.

My next project is a new top and dress for me. Hopefully I will get to cut it sometime this week and sew this weekend. We shall see.

Our potatoes are in!

Today, while we were outside to try and make everyone happy, I realized it was time to harvest potatoes. I use harvest slightly loosely, since I have about 10 potato plants in a planter box on the ground in our yard - I don't have to walk far (about 10 steps) to get them, and there are not a lot of them. But it is fun to plant them because they always grow for me (this is not true of everything).

Nicholas decided he wanted to help. After he pulled up a strawberry plant, thinking it was a potato plant - and no, I don't know how he got those mixed up - I put him on washing duty. He loves playing with the hose, so this would be perfect for him. See his surprised face when the water splashes from the potato onto him? This happened the first time when he held the potato too close to the hose while cleaning them, then it happened again and again. I figured he could only be surprised so long, but he loved it.

Hoses are great toys for kids in the backyard.

I heard a news article about how hoses are bad for kids these days. Yeah right, I lived through hoses as a kid. I had no problem with them. My son can handle the "problems" that come from a hose. I love hoses for kids - he loves them, he gets to cool off, he drinks water (for a change), and he gets clean. How much more can a mom wish for?

He put all the potatoes on the grass and then gathered them into his lap for a picture. He wanted a picture with "his" tomatoes.

He also spent some time inside today. We are dealing with a sick baby girl, so sometimes we have to spend time inside that I would rather spend outside. And here's a great picture to explain why I prefer outside - there are no toys to cause problems with. He gets rather creative with new uses for toys.
This used to be his bouncer, and is now his sister's. When the seat cover had to go into the washer this morning, he decided it was his new "exercise" gym. He hangs in the middle and bounces, then he lays himself over the top and bounces. Who knew bouncers for infants were really for kids?

Rolling and teething.

Abby is moving and teething. Unlike other children, Abby has to move by rolling. I joke that it is because she's so big she doesn't have the muscles to support her crawling. But really it is because she simply prefers that way. Plus, it is faster. I was standing about 20 feet from her, talking to Nicholas when all of a sudden she was pulling on my jeans. So she can move when she wants to. She would rather scream and cry until someone comes and gets the toy she wants, picks her up, or whatever she needs. Nicholas generally is the obliging one. I like to try and get her to stretch herself before I do it for her.

She's also teething. For those people who don't have a child who has gone through teething I will tell you this - kids are so different. With Nicholas he cried and whined, but with Tylenol and some teethers he would calm down and sleep. He didn't get sick or refused to eat. He just kept on eating a ton, drooling a ton, and the teeth came in. After which I would promptly get bit.

Abby, on the other hand, doesn't want to eat thank you very much. It hurts. Even with Tylenol. She's not a good teether. Yes, she likes to munch on teethers. But she prefers cell phones (if anyone is crazy enough to leave them out for her), fingers, shoulders, your clothes (preferably the ones that get ruined or see-through when wet), paper, and toes. When none of those are available, her older brother will do. Nicholas doesn't like this much, which results in some serious crying from Abby and a scolding by Nicholas. Nicholas says "Abby. mouths are for food only. And apple juice." (Can you tell we have gone through this before with him?) It is kind of funny. It would all be funnier if it was happening to someone else, or at some other time.

I'm still going to the gym most days. I had to skip today. I had great plans today. I was going to go to the dentist, then come home and get the kids, go to the gym, go swimming with the kids, do Costco, then do our UC Davis visit, then play outside. It's a nice day outside - not too hot. well, the dentist appointment turned into a root canal. So Costco and UC Davis got done, and the rest didn't. This root canal really hurts. It hurts even more when people "snuggle" against my face because they are tired and refuse to take naps when their sibling is still awake (both children refuse to go to sleep if the other one is awake - makes for fun at our house).

Anyways, that's the news from the Wunderlich's. I will try to be better about blogging, if only because it lets me get some of our funnier experiences out there for records.