made

This week's tally:

1 tutu

1 superhero cape

1 pair of scrappy clown pants

1 scrappy twirly clown skirt

1 teeny-tiny amigurumi yoda

Today is devoted to repairing the destruction of my house that occurred during all that crafting!

The clown pants and skirt were for the kids to wear to Vin's 2nd bday party, yesterday. I had the honor of attending my very first late night girls' sewing bee to help Kam sew the clown vests that each child received for a party favor. We had the best time sewing, chatting, and drinking margaritas (it was cinco de mayo after all). Derek had the next morning off, so my Mother's Day gift was getting to spend the night after the sewing bee and have a leisurely morning enjoying Teri's breakfast burritos and coffee before heading home. Sew lovely, I tell ya.

I took the leftover scraps from the vest making and made Jackson's pants and Kira's twirly skirt. Pretty dang cute and perfect for some clownin' around:

Yoda was a gift for my BIL. He said he either wanted Derek to make him a batch of pale ale or me to make him one of these. I've been wanting to try amigurumi, but have been kind of intimidated. So, I was happy to have the chance to try it. I didn't use doll eyes, but instead stitched embroidery floss for the eyes. I was going to harvest eyes from one of the kids' million stuffed animals. Those things are so anthropomorphic that I couldn't bring myself to cut into them! So, here's cutie little 2.5" Yoda:

And here's what Derek's IOU pale ale card looked like:

The best part of this crafting week was my kids showing me how much they pay attention to things. Vin's gifts were the superhero cape and the tutu (real men can rock a tutu. trust.).

I had the tulle spread across my bed while making the tutu. Kira walked in, took a look at the bed, and said, "tutu?". Yep, mommy's making another tutu. Cutie girl.

When I told Jackson that we had to run to Joann's to buy fabric for the cape, he said, "Don't forget to get the velcro.". And when I was cutting out the pattern pieces, he gave me a huge hug and said, "You're the best present maker ever! Anyone can buy a gift, but you like Vin enough to make him one!". I know someday Momma-made will probably embarrass him, but it's so lovely to know that he gets it, now.

Have a good weekend, y'all!

kira speak

some cute vocab I don't want to forget:

"oo turn, Mommy!" - your turn, Mommy. I LOVE this.

"uh oo" - Love you. At first, she said this in answer to us saying "I love you." Now, she'll tell us out of the blue. I'm so thankful.

empty - amazing how many ways she uses "empty" to get her meaning across.

"puler" - computer.

"rah-rahtz" - which is Yo Gabba Gabba. I think it has something to do with "robot". Anyway, rah-rahtz is her fave.

minnow - we have the book Would you rather be a bullfrog? and one of the questions is "Would you rather be a minnow or a whale?". One day, Kira shouted out, "MINNOW!" and it cracked us up. She loved the reaction, apparently, because she now likes to randomly shout it out. She also really likes to add it on when Jackson asks her to say something. Like, "Kira, say Daddy" - "MINNOW DADDY!" She thinks she's huh-larious.

"dat" "dere" "dis" - that, there, this. She uses these to drive me batshit crazy. Great that she knows them. Not so great when I have no idea what she's talking about.

"beh-dy?" - ready? She asks me this right before she does something that she thinks is awesome, like jumping, or dancing, or singing.

"morning!" - she says this about 152 times as she greets everyone walking down the hall to her classroom.

"doh-durt" - yogurt. Absolutely her favorite food.

"duh-ders" - crackers. Sounds almost exactly like doh-durt. She knows the sign for cracker, though, so that's how we figure it out.

And a story:
We were leaving the Dr's office when I realized that I locked my keys in the car. We had to call Derek to come rescue us (how he got to spend his lunch break on his birthday). So, Jackson, Kira, and I were waiting in the Dr's waiting room.

Kira: Mommy. rah-ratz puler? (Mommy, can we watch Yo Gabba Gabba on the computer?)
Me: No, baby. There's no computer here.
Kira (pointing to the TV): dere?
Me: No, baby. I'm sorry. We can't watch it there.
She thought for a sec and then her eyes lit up and she said: Mommy! Come on. Car. Home. Rah-rahtz puler.

Cracked me up! She was like, "I've totally got this figured out. We don't have to sit here. We can just get in the car, go home, and watch it there. Silly Mommy."

I don't know if I'd call her vocabulary approximations or not. I have to translate most of what she says, but sounds are getting clearer. Like "bed-dy" for ready was "belly" until very recently. She'll be having tubes put in and her tonsils (and maybe adenoids) removed soon, so it will be interesting to see how all of that plays into her language/speech. We still use lots of sign language, and she constantly has me asking her teacher what this or that new sign she's using is.

Sometimes she'll really surprise me with how she's able to communicate her thought processes to me, like with the Yo Gabba Gabba puler story.

The other day, I was getting her a drink while I was holding her. I put the lid on the cup and said, "Now what do we need?" and she said, "Straw." I need to remember to ask things like that more often. To give her the chance to show me what she knows.

I'm also starting to get little bits of communication that show me that she understands past/present/future. The other day, Jackson was off for a day of fun with his Beeka. I treated Kira and I to pizza for lunch. When Derek got home that evening, I said, "Daddy, Kira and I went to lunch today." and she said "Pizza" without any prompting. That was very cool. Jackson and I were able to talk about his day, etc, so very early. It's one of the things that I'm so ready for with Kira. We're getting there.

sibs

I've had these pics trapped in my camera for about two months, I think. The kids were outside playing and Jackson was trying to teach Kira how to ride the tricycle. I was able to get some shots without them seeing me, a little blurry with all of the trying to hide while doing it. Such a sweet moment between them. And at 5 and 3, it's nice to catch a sweet moment between the squabbles!

A note on the "outfits": This was one of those days when they steadily added to their jammies all morning. Stuff from the dress-up box? check. Random shoes pulled from the closet? check. Hand-me-downs from Bubba? check. Shirt on backwards? check. (And Jackson has had a major haircut since then, too.)

Just makes my heart fill up and pour out all over.

Wordless Wednesday - Springtime in Texas

it doesn't take much, y'all

Derek home roasts our coffee, so according to him, it must be made one cup at a time. I usually have my first cup immediately after rolling out of bed, stumbling bleary-eyed to the kitchen, and putting the kettle on. I'm standing there waiting for the water to boil the whole time.

But, my second cup usually comes a little bit later. I put the kettle on, run to switch the clothes out from the washer to the dryer, get sidetracked while folding the clothes from the dryer, go wipe someone's hiney, remember that I was going to do xyz, wonder who the hell moved my scissors (me)....And then, from the kitchen, I hear the wonderful whistle of the kettle, and get a little thrill...OH YES!!! I'M GOING TO HAVE COFFEE!!!

I may have been a dog in a past life.

wip wednesday

Thought y'all might want to see a few of the silly monster puppets I made for party favors for Jackson's party.

All upcycled materials (shirts, etc) and fabric scraps from other projects. We're going to hang them up as part of the decorations, then let each kid pick one to take home at the end of the party.

Not fabulous pics, but you get the idea.

glorious day

I swear I'm not anti-blogging. We've been wrapping up our winter with a celebration of fevers, snot, and ear infections. I promise you that I feed my kids a well-balanced diet chock full of vitamins and organic yumminess. They get sunshine (although limited this freaky winter) and fresh air. I can't get them well long enough to stay well!!!

MOVING ON. Today was absolutely gorgeous. gorgeous. gorgeous. gorgeous! Blue skies, light breeze, temperature in the 70s, lovely.

We went to the park for the first time in forever and soaked up the sun with lots of other cabin fever refugees. I met another mom who happily talked Down syndrome with me. Her best friend's sister is a 27 year old young woman with Down syndrome living independently with a little support in her own apartment with her own job. It was lovely to hear. (And really, that's what I want for both of my kids. Live independently. Be happy. Everything else is gravy.)

Other stuff going on:

-Kira has let me fix her hair for school three days in a row. That's big, y'all. Ponytails, pigtails, braids - and all have made it through the school day relatively intact.

-Kira actually peed in the potty last night. We sit on it ad nauseum, but last night she actually went. woo to the hoo, y'all. I think we're going to go hard core nekkid potty training bootcamp during spring break.

-We had to postpone Jackson's bday party due to the aforementioned fever snotty funtime, so we're looking forward to our re-scheduled event. Theme: silly monsters. It was too late to cancel the cake for the cancelled party, so I have 3 lbs of silly monster cake added to my butt. Red velvet cake in the fridge is a siren's call I cannot resist.

-I am the mother of a five year old. Not possible.

-Kira woke up this morning and called me "Wendy" for the first 10 minutes she was up. I revelled in the fact that she gets that I'm "Mommy" and my name is "Wendy". Then I reminded her that she's not allowed to call me, "Wendy".

-School is going really well for Kira. I need to do a speech/signing update. She's learning lots of new words, which is exciting. The lovely Malea sent us a signing time dvd and Kira almost instantly began using new words and signs. I didn't realize that the dvds also feature the word written out, too. I bet they'll be useful for sight reading. Has anyone had any experience with that?

I'll leave you with a quote my grandmother sent me: Do the best you can with what you have at the time you are doing it.

And some pics from the past few weeks:

poor little sickie sicks:

Kira in her sick nest, saying "cheeeeeeeeese," but not removing her eyes from the TV:

Tough guy:

Cancelled, but cute cake: