Already aboard the emotional roller coaster?

The emotional roller coaster has started young for wee Abner. Observe, if you will, a recent afternoon spent drawing.

happy

still happy

meltdown!!!

sad, but still good to do some colouring

no longer sad, just a goofball

????

Wide and stripey...just the way I like 'em!

Ever buy a hunk of fabric with absolutely no project in mind for it...purely because you liked the look of it and knew it had to be good for something someday?

I had a heap of heavy weight, striped denim kicking around from last year's Buy the Yard Sale and absolutely no projects in mind to use it on.

I can't remember what prompted me to make pants out of it, but that's exactly what I wound up making: wide-leg, stripey, massively hemmed, drawstring pants for Abner.

Unlike most drawstring pants that just tie in the front, these ones have ties on either side. You can kind of see one of the ties in the picture below. It's the little pink thing on her hip. I love this system for fastening pants for kids. If one side comes undone, the other side will still keep their pants up!

There was no pattern to follow. If you want to make your own...

1. Lay out a pair of pants folded in half on your fabric and sketch out the shape of the pattern piece from that, adding significantly to the width and at the top to allow for the drawstring channel.
2. Cut four pieces of fabric from your pattern piece.
3. The pants are then assembled just like any other pants, except that when assembling everything, you need to leave an opening at the top of either side seam (i.e. don't sew the entire side seam, leave a few inches unstitched at the top).
4. Fold in the raw edges of each section of unstitched side seam and stitch in place.
5. Then, fold over the top edge of the pants a few times to make the drawstring channel (i.e. the waistband) and stitch that in place. You should have separate channels wide enough to feed your drawstring through on both the front and back sides of the pants.
6. Feed your drawstring through so that you start and end on the same side of the pants. After you do both sides, you'll now have four pieces of drawstring hanging from the pants (two on either side). The ties can be pulled to cinch in the waist as needed to fit your child.
7. Hem the pants as desired.

I've since made a second pair of these pants to give to one of Abner's little friends. I hope he enjoys them as much as Abner has!

First photograph

I let Abner play with the camera for the first time the other day while we visited a local park. This was the first picture she took - pretty amazing if you ask me!

30 minutes of screaming and totally worth it!

What on earth could be worth 30 minutes of screaming? An entire night baby-free, that's what.

At just shy of two parenting years, TDSH and I got to spend our first baby-free night together thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. It was lovely.

The night was penned into the calendar weeks ago, but it wasn't until just last week that we settled on booking ourselves into a hotel downtown and spending as much time as possible doing non-baby-related activities.

Upon checking into the hotel yesterday afternoon, the first thing I did was sleep for 45 minutes (it was oh so awesome). We then went for coffee a took a walk through a section of town we hadn't visited in years. Of course we wound up at a pub for some beers (haven't been to a proper pub in two years...they keep kicking us out at the door...something about no admission for minors) and after much debate, we agreed upon dinner and a movie to round out the evening (Ghost Writer in case you're wondering...I'd say it's worth a rental, but be ready for the lamest ending ever).

This morning, we were awoken by the sound of room service delivering our steaming pot of fresh coffee to the room. Nothing beats lounging around a hotel room in a bathrobe and drinking coffee (for the record, my recent obsession with coffee has come to an end...I now remember why I never drink the stuff in the first place...caffeine is not my friend).

So where does the screaming fit into all of this?

Thankfully, it wasn't Abner screaming her way through her stay at Grandma and Grandpas! No, she saved it all up for mommy and daddy this afternoon after her nap (which took over an hour and a half to get her down for!!!!). Seems she was a little upset with us for abandoning her for the night. As soon as she woke up, the tantrum to end all tantrums kicked off with a vengance (it even involved rolling around on the floor kicking and screaming). She absolutely would not let either one of us out of her sight. At one point, I had to go get a load of laundry out of the drier so all three of us went up in the elevator and crowded into the tiny laundry room together with Abner screaming her way through it all.

The good news is that she finally settled down after we put a bowl of cheerios in front of her, but I did have to put her in the sling to make dinner (she's rather big for the sling these days!). All in all, there doesn't seem to be any lingering resentment towards us, so I guess we're all good to do a baby-free night again soon! Who wants to babysit?

Practical pointers for parents

If you were looking to hire an expert at something and an applicant told you they only had two years of experience to offer, you'd probably laugh them out of the room.

Well consider this...

Parenting: I have almost two years of experience at this point. I've learned so much and would like to share some tidbits with you all. Please don't laugh me out of the room.

1. Get dressed for your workday/special evening out at the last possible moment.
   Children have an unbelievable knack for making a mess all over clothes. Things to particularly watch for (depending on your child's age): spit up, actual vomit, poo/pee leaks, mucky hands, markers, and toothpaste (NOTE: toothpaste does not wash out well with just water!) Public Service Announcement: Workers of the world, take note -- Whether you have children of your own or not, please, do parents of the world a favour - let them know if there's spit up on their back before the meeting starts. 
2. Get used to repeating yourself.
   This one is pretty self explanatory.
3. Never vocalize your child's sleep habits.
   The very moment the words are out of your mouth, it's pretty much guaranteed that any pattern you've gotten used to will be out the window. Don't worry though, you'll still be able to brag about your little sweetheart sleeping through the night to your other parenting friends. The conversation will go something like this:
   
   Friend: "How are things going with little Johnny sleeping these days?"
   You: "I don't want to talk about it."
   Friend: "Really??!? That's awesome. So how many nights in a row?"
   
   See? It's like an unwritten code. Other parents just know.
4. Get used to hearing the same song over and over and over and over and ...
   Little know fact: The 'repeat' feature on stereos was originally developed because of toddlers.
5. Reduce your newspaper subscription to once per week.
   The very notion of reading an entire week's worth of news is laughable. Save yourself the money. Just get the weekend edition. Better cancel your magazine subscriptions while you're at it. Side note: Do start a subscription to at least one parenting magazine though...not for the parenting advice, but because babies and toddlers are obsessed with looking at other babies so a parenting magazine can sometimes buy you enough time to down one glass of wine - two if you're lucky.
6. Get used to repeating yourself.
   This one is pretty self explanatory.
7. Learn to appreciate the "distressed" look in furniture.
   As a parent, you will laugh when seeing dinged up tables selling for an arm and a leg at antique stores. You will smile knowing that you've achieved the exact same look just by seating your child at the dinner table each night - and it didn't cost you a dime!
8. Don't bother refinishing or re-carpeting your floors until after kindergarten.
   Take an empty pop bottle or milk jug. Tie a string around the widest part of it and suspend it from the ceiling so that the mouth of the bottle is facing you. Set the bottle in motion from side to side. Grab a bowl of infant cereal. Using a small spoon, attempt to get at least half of the infant cereal into the bottle (use whatever means of enticement you see necessary - train or plane noises may work in some instances). Now look at your floor. This is why you should wait until after kindergarten to re-do your floors. 
9. Kiss your personal space goodbye.
   If you're not busy explaining human anatomy to your kid because they decided to stand at the side of the tub while you shower (or, even better, while you pee), you'll be attempting to pry their head from your crotch as they bury it there at the approach of every single stranger you encounter.
10. Get used to repeating yourself.
    This one is pretty self explanatory. ;-)

According to Abner

"This morning, my daddy came out of my sock."
~ Abner

Just wanted to record this rather odd statement that Abner repeated throughout the day today. Maybe tomorrow she'll explain what her father was doing in her sock!