Trick or Treat!

Things have been sort of crazy around here lately, but last night dh took some shots of the dutchkid for me, since I figured tonight would be a little chaotic. I’ve been told to expect 300 (!) trick or treaters here on post, so I’m hoping I have enough candy.

So, without further ado, I give you “Little Red Riding Hood, the princess”

The crown looks cuter on her, don’t you think? Originally we were just going to stick with Little Red Riding Hood, but my child is obsessed with princesses these days, so we just went with it. Here’s one more with a little bit more of the dress (she was feeling less than cooperative about having her picture taken).

The dress and cape are from a Butterick pattern (BP223). The cape was easy and turned out well, the dress not so much. I would have been much happier with a more fitted dress pattern, but this one is marked “fast and easy sewing” which should have been my first clue that it would look like a shapeless sack. I modified it just slightly as far as size and length and the elastic sleeves (hence the sewing machine oil incident). The crown is based on a lovely tutorial from Juicy Bits who is a very gifted seamstress, you should see some of the costumes she has made.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have some helium balloon ghosts to put up, Happy Halloween!

Finished!

I finished up the dutchkid’s costume last night.  As a certified procrastinator, I was glad to have it done with a few days to spare (although in truth it’s been half done for weeks).  Not without some sort of drama, as usual, with any sewing project there comes a point for me where some sort of minor disaster occurs.  When I had my sewing machine fixed a few months ago, they oiled the living daylights out of it.  It actually leaked oil for a while.  Can you sense where I’m going with this?  I forgot to double check before I put a sleeve over the arm of my sewing machine and got oil all over it.  The costume was probably 90% done at this point.  I felt like driving over to the place I had it repaired and throwing a rock in their window.  Yeah.  Happy Halloween.

But I managed to get most of it out, and while I probably would’ve been happier using a different pattern for the dress I am pretty happy with how it came out overall. I don’t have decent pictures uploaded yet, so you will have to make do with this:

At least the crown didn’t get sewing machine oil on it.

On a deadline.

My normal Sunday evening post has been interrupted by the upcoming holiday…

ie:  must. finish. sewing.

Pictures soon!

3 steps forward, 2 steps back.

I think that we have finally turned the corner on the potty learning.  I’m blogging this somewhat reluctantly, in case I jinx myself,  but I decided to write about it just in case somebody finds my blog and has a kid like mine.   It always makes me feel better to read that someone else didn’t have the potty prodigy who trained early and easily. 

I did not think this would be as much of a challenge as it has been… which goes to show you that I have much to learn about being a parent.  You would think after 2.75 years I would know better.   No one warned me how potty learning can be a long process, although after I started to complain a bit then I began hearing other parents say that they had a child who monkeyed around as well. 

Kids always seem to be out to prove they are one of a kind.  The dutchkid is no exception.  She was pooping on the potty shortly after she turned a year old and I thought we were well on our way to getting rid of diapers early.  Everyone I talked to said that peeing in the potty was the easy part.  Not my kid.  Only in the past few months has she had the awareness of her body during play and other distractions to say, “I need to go”.  Otherwise we would fall into a routine of me trying to cajole her into using the potty at regular intervals, which she immediately picked up on as something I could not make her do.  Try as you might, you can’t make somebody urinate on cue.  Even when you try bribery. 

I know I am fortunate that I haven’t changed very many poopy diapers in the past year, but wet pants, wet panties, wet car seat, and random wet furniture get OLD after a while.  I’ve been thankful that we have wood floors in this house (and laminate in our last one).  More importantly, I hated the power struggle that it had become.  So after we moved here I really laid off.  I figured that the transition of moving would throw her for a loop anyway (which it did). 

And finally, finally she started staying dry.  And going willingly when I asked without pressuring.  And then her teachers at preschool said they thought she was ready to wear panties to school (yay!).  I’m sure we will have several more accidents before she is super reliable, but I feel like the worst is over. 

So take heart, parents of reluctant pee-ers.  I am here to remind you that everybody uses the potty like a big girl (or boy) eventually.

Achievement

I mopped the entire first floor of my house today.

Just had to tell somebody, since dh didn’t notice until I brought it up.  What? The absence of ankle deep dog hair didn’t get your attention?

On the back burner

I used to be a nurse.

Well, technically I still am one, but I say “used to be” because I feel rusty, so much so that going back into the workforce would cause me to lose some sleep.  I stopped working when I was about 6 mos pregnant.  I originally had a fairly nice plan worked out with my employer at the time (6 mos off, then returning prn) but we moved… and then my dh deployed after the dutchkid was born so that was that.

I don’t really miss it.  Yet, I keep my license active.  My renewal is coming up and so I had to take some online CEUs.  I passed with ease, and it took me nowhere near the “30 hours” that it’s supposed to (thank goodness) so at least I remember something.   I keep asking myself why I care, and I decided today that other than the fact that I wasted an incredible amount of money on my college education, it’s because I am the kind of person who needs a back-up plan.

I would like to say I live my life carefree and let tomorrow take care of itself, but that’s not the case.  As a worrier, I make myself feel better by doing things like keeping my license active.  Something about being a SAHM makes me feel too dependent.  I enjoy it, and I am thankful that we are in a spot where I can afford to stay home… but you just never know.  Particularly since my dh has a job that’s a bit more risky than most,  I have a few more scary worst case scenarios up my sleeve other than the freak car crash or lightning strike.

So my back burner is on a nice slow simmer.  I’m employing Murphy’s Law of “if you waste time and money on it, you won’t ever use it”.  I hope it stays that way.

I am really starting to like it here.

Today as I was pulling out some spent annuals and planting some pansies in a flower bed, my dh asked me why I bothered to waste money on flowers when we’re leaving in 7 or so months.

A valid question.  Particularly for the frugal among us.

The first reason is because my funk is gone and I am so glad to do something productive.  And really, nothing cheers me up like flowers, anyway.

The second reason is because I really do like it here.  I love that we can walk to the park, and there are sidewalks for long shady strolls and quiet streets for the dutchkid to practice riding her bike.    Planting flowers makes me feel settled here, even if that’s only an illusion.  Plus, I still have this weird habit from when I was a kid of attributing feelings to inanimate objects (there’s a term for that but it escapes me).   So I like to think that it makes the house happy to be loved and for someone to take the time to do things like plant flowers.

And thirdly, well, this reason should probably be number one…  After we moved here and I planted flowers in the first place,  I received so many compliments about how pretty they were.  When I’m out watering, strangers walking by often tell me they like them.  All of the houses on our street are exactly alike.  For those of you not familiar with military housing, I don’t mean how some suburban neighborhood homes are all similar, I mean carbon copy exactly.   Some of my neighbors have great lawn furniture or spectacular playsets and some have immaculate “House Beautiful” interiors.   I don’t have any of those things, but the flowers are my stamp that this house is mine.

35 dollars well spent.

Don’t mind me.

I am grouchy.  I have been all weekend.  I have been unmotivated to do anything except sleep too much and just generally slouch around.  I don’t know why, except maybe it’s the weather (gray and gloomy with some rain mixed in).  I have no good reason.  So I am hereby listing 5 reasons that I should snap out of my self-indulgent funk.

1) My dh let me sleep in pretty much this whole weekend.

2) He’s been spending a ton of time with the dutchkid,  I even had enough time to finish that cushion my neighbors wanted me to sew.  And he didn’t have to go into work today because it’s a federal holiday and he has tomorrow off too.

3) I didn’t have to spend the whole weekend entertaining my mother-in-law

4) I played the piano at my church yesterday and didn’t embarrass myself

5) My siblings and I decided to give everyone a large “box of love and motivation” in lieu of gifts this year for Christmas (YEAH! Less Christmas shopping to do).

There.  I feel better already just having typed it out.  I feel so motivated that I am actually going to set my alarm clock so I can get out of bed to try to sweat out the rest of my bad attitude on a long run.  I hope your week is getting a better start than mine.

Like a sponge

My mother-in-law called this morning and she is sick, and decided not to make the long drive to see us this weekend.  I felt guilty that I am mildly relieved. 

The dutchkid was kind of bummed about it, although I think she was thinking it was going to be my mom because it brought up whether we were going to see Grandpa too (and my father-in-law is no longer with us).  I was looking forward to the visit just in that it’s fun to show off your kid to someone who thinks she is as brilliant as you do.   My dh had her all ready to show off her verbal skills.  He’s determined that she’s a genius because she does have a good memory and can “read” books that we have read often together. 

For example, we have been reading the lovely book called Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats.  We borrowed it from the library, but I think I’m going to add it to our permanent collection.  It’s a very sweet rhyming and counting book.  She can ”read” up until about number five.  It goes something like this:

Over in the meadow, in a hole, in a tree
Lived a mother bluebird and her little birdies three.  
“Sing!” Said the mother
“We Sing!” Said the three
So they sang and were glad in the hole in the tree.

I think that’s normal for an almost 3 year old, but it sure is cute.

Worrisome

I woke up yesterday morning with some strange numbness in my fingers, and although they weren’t swollen it felt like they were.  As the day went on it advanced to discomfort, and by the evening I could tell that it was probably a tendinitis issue.

I could’ve cried.  And when it hadn’t magically disappeared this morning, I did.   The only thing that has changed in my life recently is the piano lessons.  I have so been looking forward to this.  I’ve never had trouble playing before, and so I’m thinking that it is the combination of the time I spend on the laptop and suddenly upping my hours of practice (from maybe an hour a week to an hour a day).  I had my second lesson today and it was so discouraging to not only have barely scratched the surface of the pieces, but then have to tell my teacher that something is going on mechanically.

He was very reassuring and I think that we did identify some of my problem areas, technique wise.  I know I haven’t done any permanent damage, but I dread the upcoming work of trying to change how I play.  And from now on I will always worry about injury rearing it’s ugly head.   In my making-mountains-out-of-molehills mind, I saw my dream of seriously studying music circling the drain.  If I can’t handle the amount of playing I’m doing now, how on earth can I take on music classes full time?

We don’t have lessons next week, so I’m taking a few days to not play at all and try to recover a bit.  That’s hard too because I love the pieces I’m working on.  I realized that I forgot to say what they were, so in case you’re curious (Tressa!) here they are:

Clair de Lune (Debussy) I’ve worked on this piece before, but never had it truly in performable shape.

Consolation No. 3 (Liszt) So very pretty, although the accidentals as well as some rhythm stuff make me nuts

Raindrop Prelude D flat Major Op. 28 No. 15 (Chopin) I think this one is currently my front runner for favorite.  I love Chopin.