Upcycle: Pillow Cases to Bath Robe

 I have an old robe that I wear around the house all the time. It keeps me warm in the morning and cozy in the evenings. I just like being comfortable and I think that is wearing off on my son because he asked me to make him a robe.


Over Thanksgiving Tracy and Lori off-loaded some items for me to upcycle (when I got the time) and it included to king size flannel pillow cases. My original plan for the pillow cases was pajamas in my book Making Children's Clothes: 25 Stylish Step-by-step Sewing Projects for 0-5 Years but I decided to use them for the Beach Robe pattern by Dana at MADE. I figured that flannel pillow cases would work just as well as a beach towel and the pattern is for "experienced beginners" which is perfect for me!


I printed and cut the pattern, cut the pieces and took Steven and Lyla to Jo-Ann to buy bias tape for the edging. I have to admit that I fell into gender bias when it came to the bias tape choices. At first Steven was drawn to the pink, I should have just let him get it but I continued to prod him and show him other options. He looked at the purple, green and then zeroed in on orange. And then Lyla picked pink. She was determined (even though I didn't have plans for her robe just yet). Steven didn't throw a fit so I was safe!


I spent most of Sunday afternoon pinning, sewing, hosting a child on my lap, ripping, repinning, reading a story, sewing, rearranging pieces, sewing and then it was done! Just in time for pictures but no time for a shower tonight so that Steven could try it out for real. 


Steven never takes showers, he loves his bath. But now that he has a robe he is constantly talking about taking a shower. We'll see how long that lasts! I'll take a photo of the model soon.

A week of Doctor visits

Tommy bought a bunch of Groupons last year so that we could have some relatively cheap date nights in 2012 and then we found out that the YMCA has Kids Night Out once a month. This equals an inexpensive babysitter for the kids and couple fun for us! So we signed up for dinner at Blue Stem (whoa, that was super fancy) and Kids Night Out on Friday, January 13. That should have been our first warning. 


Tommy dropped the kids and I met him at home to head over to the restaurant. Five courses later we were stuffed and ready to get the kids. On the way there we discussed which kid would be sleepy and who would fall asleep in the car on the way home. When we got to the Y to pick up, Steven was draped over the shoulder of one of the staff, asleep and incoherent. Lyla was a cheery, happy girl, bouncing off the walls. Both of them got sleepy on the way home but it was at home when the fun began. Steven really didn't feel good, his tummy hurt and you know how that ended. Finally, we got everyone cleaned up and in bed. In the morning Steven woke up with a fever, sore throat and generally ickiness. Trip 1 to the doctor resulted in a diagnosis of Strep.


Our week then continued with Lyla's long awaited trip to Children's Mercy Hospital to get her broken tooth fixed. We prepared her by reading the online books and watching the video's that they Same Day Surgery center has on their webpage. It was really nice to have the visuals to show her what each step of the day was going to be like. She got to bring Tiny Baby and GiGi Giraffe with her and she picked Buddy the T-Rex off the shelf at the hospital to play with while waiting. She did so good while we were in Pre-op talking to the nurses and doctors. Then the came to get her and roll her away and the tears started to fall ... and I took a deep breath and returned to the waiting room.

After her surgery, she cried and cried in recovery. She was really upset but she took a break from crying to eat some orange jello. She finally got it out that she was upset because no one fixed her teeth. Poor baby didn't understand that she was sleeping when they fixed her teeth. 

On the ride home, she zonked. Her little body was so tired. I let her sleep in the driveway for awhile and then we went inside and watched movies. Trip 2 to the doctor resulted in a  root canal, crown, and five fillings, by the way.

The week carried on, Lyla was in full recovery mode eating everything in sight and Steven's throat was better. Then Saturday night hit, literally. We were getting the kids ready for bath and Steven was running from his room to the bathroom. He screamed and it was one of those sounds where you know something is wrong because it was followed by serious crying. Tommy and I both ran into his room to find him standing with blood dripping from his chin. We proceeded to run around in a panic looking for a cloth for his chin, a cell phone and directions to the ER. I called my doctor friend and she told us to take him to, none other than - Children's Mercy. Two times in one week! Trip 3 to the doctor resulted in four stitches (taking fours hours, home at midnight up the next morning by 8).

The week ended with me leaving on Sunday for a conference in Washington DC. While I was gone, Tommy took the kids to the grocery store to pick up a few things. While he was getting Steven in the car after shopping Lyla to a forehead dive out of the cart and on to the pavement in the parking lot. She was pretty banged up but this injury only resulted in a call to the nurse line to verify that she didn't show signs of a concussion. Thank goodness because I am not sure that we could take another visit to the hospital this week!

Activites for a cold day

Tommy was gone one Saturday and when its nice I usually take the kids out to the park, zoo or other activity. This day was pretty cold so we had to find inside activities to keep us busy. I read about object finding, color matching and letter association on a montessori blog and decided that we'd try it at home.

This was a fun activity that both Steven and Lyla could participate in while all I had to do was write letters on a sheet of paper, draw a square of various colors and outline some objects.

Those might look like "L"ions but the are really "C"ats.

A new bed

We've known for a couple of months that we needed to put Lyla in a toddler bed, ever since that time she climbed out of her crib and crashed on the floor before I could even attempt to catch her. Oh, wait, she's done that lots of times. And then there's her brother who thought it was funny to climb in her crib and jump around in it. Now, they always did this during the day, never at night; we must have trained our children too well because they never leave their beds without us in the night. Nevertheless, it was time to move Lyla out of her crib and into her Steven's old toddler bed. He won't let us forget that it was his.

She actually warmed right up to it. Her first night went much easier than we expected. She was a little hesitant when we put her in it after rocking but she settled in for a good portion of the night. I didn't mention that she is now in the habit of waking up between 2am and 4am insisting that she come to our bed. And she is very good at breaking down her tired mommy at 4am. 

She's only fallen out of her new bed twice (in the same night) and she seems to like it - except at 2am when it isn't comfy anymore!