Productivity

My helper is sick, but she's still being pretty well behaved today. That is... if you don't count whining toward misbehavior. She's got a pretty stuffed up nose and I'm sure her sinuses and head feel pretty full too. She was even willing to stand under the shower for a good 10 minutes all by herself and totally ignored the toys in the tub with her.

Abby was really excited to have her daddy home yesterday afternoon. She wasn't sure what to think at first, mostly because Maize was really excited and all the barking scared Abby a little. But I'm pretty sure she was very glad to have her favorite playmate home. In fact, for most of the rest of the afternoon I got the cold shoulder in favor of playing with Daddy. Not that I minded a little downtime from being the entertainment for Abby.
Abby and I finished a flannel blanket for Baby Sister this morning. It is now a great source of confusion for Abby, since we made an almost identical (albeit smaller) version of this blanket for Abby's dolls with the extra material. I think she figured out that it wasn't a doll blanket when she tried to wrap the doll in the whole yard of fabric, which was a little too much for her hands and arms to manipulate around her dolls. We still have fabric for one more girly blanket and made this blanket initially for Uncle Nate and Aunt Courtnie's baby boy, but we decided to make him a more manly version, so Baby Sister is keeping this one too (which is a great match for her car seat). We have lots of other crafty projects to keep Abby and I busy while we wait for Baby Sister.

No Internet Worms Here

Apparently we were not victims of the internet worm, or maybe we were and we just don't know it yet. Either way, the computer is still working and Abby is still trying to play with it.

I slipped covered an old chair today - the quilted one from all the pictures. I'm not 100% happy with the result, but I am about 90% okay with how it looks, so we're just going to leave it at that. For an old $5 garage sale chair it's been through a lot. And considering I made the slip cover from scratch without a pattern, I think I'm doing pretty well. I just need to hem the bottom and then we will be ready to photograph it (with Abby in it of course).

So it is again April Fools Day. There was no white pony in my driveway this morning. I didn't even have the energy to try and trick any of you today. Abby already used up all the tricks in this house when she woke us up at 1:15 this morning and then continued to cry intermittently (both while awake and asleep) for the rest of the night. It was the first night in months that Maize did not wake me up, so of course Abby had to make sure I didn't get any uninterrupted sleep in.

Sew Much Fun

I know what Grandma Jennie will say - I should start a business. I have too many businesses already I think.

And, for Aunt Carol, who knows "The Soo", the house we are going to check out is on St. James Place, which is a cross street between Carrie and Spruce. The listing number is 08-810 (listed with Century 21). It is right around the corner from the bank, the stone church, and "The Castle".

Riding An English Pony

Abby has decided that her new pony has an English saddle, so she has been practicing her posting. For those of you who aren't up on the language of a horseman, posting is lifting yourself out of the saddle every other stride while a horse is trotting. Abby is getting very good at this portion of horseback riding. In fact, we have had no falls and Abby has not been bucked off in 2 whole days. She has really been practicing this horse riding thing!

















Our back porch bird seems to have disappeared. Perhaps it got out the same way it got in. If not, I'm sure I will find it when I take the recycling to the recycling station this weekend. I'm hoping it's option one.

We made Maize a dog bed yesterday with our new sewing machine. She liked it so well she slept on it for two whole hours before she went back to sleeping on the couch. I also finished a pair of fake "Ugg" booties for Abby, but they were still a bit tight, so we've started on some ballet flat booties instead. The first one was pretty big, so I may have to make a liner to help keep them on. And, besides all the crafting our floor must be cleaned so Abby the escape artist doesn't accidentally eat anything she shouldn't on her adventures outside the living room. So much to do, so little time!!!

Eruption!

Abby's top left tooth is just about to break all the way through into her mouth! We all hope that will help with some of the general crabbiness we have been experiencing lately. And hopefully she starts getting to bed better at night. We had another late night last night, but while she was crying I was figuring out how to make a baby "Ugg" bootie, so it wasn't totally unproductive.

















We've been testing out my new sewing machine lately - it makes incredible stitches, like the flowers that we trimmed Abby's blanket with. The pattern is just as cool on the backside of the blanket as it is on the front. We can't wait to take a trip to JoAnn's Fabrics to pick up some more flannel to experiment with.

We've also been experimenting with our new camera reflector (that Steve got me for my birthday). We tried hard to get some cute pictures of Abby in her Brazilian outfit from our friends Fred and Vanda, but the little squirt wouldn't sit down and was wiggling all around! She is officially an escapee as well. I have to get all of our downstairs clean since Abby can now cruise from the living room into the dining room at record speed. We've also got to get the baby gates and cabinet locks up as soon as possible.

We barely got the Buick home last night. Since it was running straight off the battery, we knew it would be close. Steve made it all but the last 6 blocks with headlights and taillights. Good thing I was following him! God was also on our side - the car made it into the driveway and died before Steve could turn it off. It was a very exciting adventure! And now we are on to the next adventure - catching the European Starling that somehow flew into our back porch and now is stuck. The fact that it got in there says we may have a hole in the wall or something. Yikes! I almost had a heart attack when it flew up into my face while I was trying to do a load of laundry (since our washer and dryer are also living on the back porch). This could be a real trick...