Milestones

Our Week in Review

Every week I marvel at how much both kids are changing. This week was particularly eventful in personal milestones, especially for Grayden. For one week now he has been "baba" free at bed time. I started out as a staunch anti-pacifier parent when Grayden was born, but sometime between two and three months it became apparent that he was just the kind of baby that needed a pacifier. If he wasn't nursing he just wanted to suck on an adult finger and since he never tried using his own thumb this made it difficult to ever put him down without some major tears and drama. The breaking point was when we made a road trip down to Norfolk to visit our friends the Carpenters and, due to reason I don't really remember, Joe had to return to DC for one night of the three or four we stayed there. I was left "alone" overnight with Grayden for the first time and he freaked out almost as soon as Joe walked out the door. He was inconsolable for a good 45 minutes and I was frazzled. Deanna convinced me we needed to head to Target to buy a full variety of pacifiers to see which one Grayden would like. Though he didn't take to any of them immediately, eventually he liked a very ugly, old fashioned looking Gerber that was somewhat difficult to find anywhere but Target. When he started talking around nine or ten months one of the first things he did was put a name to the pacifier, calling it "baba".

I was still very reluctant to make him a pacifier addict and was careful not to allow him to take it everywhere we went. When he reached toddlerhood it seldom made public appearances and was a bedtime only comfort. Well, months turned into years and we kept putting off breaking the habit, with hundreds of excuses why we didn't want to rock the boat: a new baby in the house, selling our house and moving to California temporarily, a two month separation from Daddy, potty training, moving to Mississippi, eye surgery, Daddy leaving again. Obviously the baba had become more of a crutch to Joe and I than it was for Grayden! At Christmas we convinced him to give up his baba by leaving it out with the milk and cookies for Santa to take to the North Pole for a baby elf. At the last minute he backed down and only left one of the two remaining pacifiers in his possession. The last baba was a nasty, dirty, down right gross piece of plastic that I came to loathe.  I tried unsuccessfully to get rid of it back in January, the result of which was an epic power struggle that left us both beat down. I decided to set a new goal of leaving it behind when we traveled to California in June.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait that long. Last Sunday night Grayden woke up around midnight to use the bathroom and, miracles of miracles, dropped the baba in the toilet. I told him that was the final straw and it was not going back in his mouth. He was upset but after I offered a spot in my bed he relaxed and managed to sleep the rest of the night without fussing. The next night he went to bed a bit reluctantly but there wasn't any major drama. Since then he hasn't asked for it and has proudly announced to many people that he no longer needs it. I am now working up the courage to take Audrey's away as she just seems to be getting to the stage where she may be developing a true addiction to it.   

In addition to Grayden being baba free he is now working on night time bladder control. He has gone pull-up free for several nights and has gone two nights in a row without an accident. It has caused some sleep interruptions as he wakes up very cranky and sometimes refuses to get up and go. I've come to realize that  he is not truly awake as he doesn't remember these episodes in the morning. He actually has a history of these type of distressed wakings over the last couple of years and I suppose they are some form of night terrors.

Audrey is slowly making progress towards being an independent walker. She took a few steps the other day and promptly did a face plant that left her distressed. Once she builds her confidence she'll be racing around after her brother non-stop. She also has acquired a few words and is able to say ball, baby, diaper, more (for food), as well as Grayden, brother, mama and dada. I doubt anyone but me would recognize her version of these words but I can definitely tell what she is trying to communicate. She seems to remember Joe fondly and gets very excited when she hears skype ringing on my computer, crawling over to it looking for Dada.




The Project

• Fabric - 2 yards Swiss dot cotton, $6.99/yard at Hancock Fabrics
• Pattern -  McCalls 5522 , $1
  
• Notions - 5 buttons, pennies each. 
• Total time: About 4 hours
• Total cost:  $15

For my weekly project I had actually intended to complete a dress I started in my sewing class. As I was working on it this week I kept running into setbacks so decided to put it aside before my frustration boiled over into a major meltdown. So on Thursday evening I was left with the challenge of coming up with a new project that I could complete quickly and effortlessly. Since I really wanted to make something for myself I decided another blouse project was a good substitute.

I spotted this fabric at Hancock recently and immediately loved it. I am really addicted to teal and I've already professed in previous posts my love of floral so I just couldn't say no. As I was wondering what I would make from it I remembered I had a solid teal skirt I bought at H&M a few years ago that I never wear because I don't have the right top for it.  McCalls 5522 seemed to complement the fabric and the style of the H&M skirt. I choose view A, but since I didn't really like any of the sleeve choices on the pattern I decided to modify the balloon sleeve into a loose cap sleeve. I think if I make the same sleeve modifications in the future I would make them slightly shorter.

This has got to be my favorite project completed to date. I like the fabric, the style of the blouse and the quality of my sewing.  Because the fabric is so sheer I took the time to sew French seams and am really happy with the results. Luckily the textured dots on this fabric made it really easy to tell the right and wrong sides of the fabric when sewing the French seams. The one negative is it is just a wee bit snug. It fits well in the morning, but after a huge lunch a Darwell's it was a little constricting when I tried it on to take pictures this afternoon. I may have to wear it unbuttoned over a tank top but feel that defeats all the work put into the fitted princess seams. I would like to make it again so next time I'll either buy the next pattern size up or sew the seam allowances in the lower section at only 3/8" instead of 5/8".