A Sewing Success…Barely

I had to make Caroline a new nap mat for school since Sophie (our dog) was kind enough to destroy the one we’ve had for the last 8 years.

No, I didn’t have to buy one but I thought , “I can do that. No problem!”

I am a fool.

An over confident fool who needed to be talked off the ledge several times during the sewing process.

I based my design from this nap mat which would have ended up costing me $64.

So in that instance, I am not a fool.

My nap mat came in right around $33.

Because we couldn’t find any Wonder Woman fabric, Caroline chose these flamingos.

There is no tutorial because I didn’t think many of you would want to rip out stitches and sew parts of the nap mat together that aren’t supposed to be.

(the orange blanket is sewn into one side of the nap mat )

(there is a green foam pad inserted into the nap mat – it can be taken out so that the fabric part of the nap mat can be washed)

 

I will tell you this, Caroline loves her nap mat, but there has not been one single nap taken on it at school.

I think she just bides her time and plans what she will play with once that unnecessary quiet time is done.

 

Pitching a Tent

Our house is where bed linens go to die.

It is beyond ridiculous. Enter my closet and you will find an abundance of old comforters, worn sheets, mismatched pillowcases, and scratchy throws. We could probably open a homeless shelter in our backyard if we so desired. We don’t.

Actually we have more sheets than all the other linens combined. We have inherited sheets from our parents, been given sheets as a gift, and received my sisters’ old college sheets.

I choose to ignore any subtle hint they are sending about the state of the bedding in my house.

The sheets leave our house at a very slow rate. If they ever escape it was via the Goodwill box so we have a large stack of sheets in my closet. Stack might be a nice term to describe the linen mess. It is actually a huge pile of sheets thrown every which way. I believe being able to see your closet floor is highly over rated. Technically, I think the experts call it protecting your carpet. After all, I do have children pooping in my closet.

After reading about Fort Fridays on All About Boys I was inspired to make good use of the old sheets and create a massive tent for the kids. The size of the previous tents constructed have been restricted to the size of the sheet, often leading to yelling and complaining, “He pulled the tent down!”  Factor in space taken up for chairs to hold the tent up and the actual sitting space is quite limited.

So….I started with 1 king top sheet, 1 queen top sheet, and 3 pillow cases.

I sewed them together on my machine in a haphazard fashion refusing to pin anything. It took, ten minutes at the most.

The result was a massive section of material roughly 10 feet x 25 feet. I could be exaggerrating here. I am just taking a guess. Put a queen sheet and a king sheet together and you will have the exact measurements.

The pillow cases spaced out created nice entry points into the tent.

When I peeked into the tent I saw this – Alex reading to Caroline while she sat quietly and listened. I am now putting him in charge of nap time.

The boys have requested I add another sheet onto the tent. I will certainly comply if it means more time pretending and less time asking to play the computer.

Any tents in your house this summer?

Photobucket Weekend Bloggy Reading

Towanda

My inner Towanda almost came out last week.

Let me explain.

I picked up my 2 yr old from day care and was informed she did not take a nap. Well, I needed to remedy the situation since we had a late night ahead of us. I decided to drive around, ignoring her, while she fell asleep. I knew she was tired and just needed to be strapped down in order to rest.

For the last two weeks my daughter has insisted upon “Pop Pop” being played in the car. That’s her way of saying “Turn on the Mary Poppins soundtrack or heads will roll.” My boys have endured countless playings of “A Spoonful of Sugar,” and “Jolly Holiday.” They just may come to believe Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke are family members.

Truth be told though, nothing annoys me more than when I realize I am singing along with “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” and I actually dropped off all 3 kids fifteen minutes earlier.

So there we were. Driving and driving. It took twenty minutes and eight replays of “Feed the Birds,” but she finally fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her up I continued listening to “Pop Pop.” I determined it was a small price to pay in exchange for the precious nap time she desperately needed.

Four minutes after Caroline’s eyes closed I came to a stoplight. I waited patiently trying to mentally map out my next 30 minutes of driving before I would need to pick up her brother.

A young man on a motorcycle pulled up next to me. I noticed his lack of a helmet and was worrying about his safety… when he turned on me. Without warning he needlessly started revving his engine. LOUDLY. Not once. Not twice. But continued to rev it for the rest of the stoplight.

What’s he planning on doing? Racing the minivan?

The moment the light turned green, the Fonz took off, screeching and roaring down the road.

And then it happened.

A loud shrieking sound from the back seat. All parents know the particular cry I’m talking about. It is the cry that says, “I wasn’t ready to wake up! I’m still tired! Now I ‘m really pissed off because I’m strapped down in this seat crying! I haaaaaaaate you!”

My inner Towanda wanted to come out.

If not for the fact that I would have had to explain to my husband why the front of my minivan was smashed in and that he needed to pick me up from jail, I just might have gone after that motorcycle.

Tap, Tap, Tap

It’s a sad, sad day in our house.

It’s a day that I wasn’t ready for.

Let me back up.

It was nap time for Caroline.

Or so I thought.

After I placed Caroline in her crib she insisted she was not tired.

She disagreed with my plan by pounding on the wall and screaming.

I let her scream for 10 minutes, perfectly secure in my parenting abilities, knowing she needed rest.

And then the crying stopped.

I knew it. She’s exhausted and has finally given into sleep.

For a moment I sat on my bed with a bag of chips continued folding laundry.

But then I heard an unfamiliar “tap, tap, tap” sound coming from the baby monitor.

I walked over to the monitor and pressed the video button.

It took a moment for the image to come up.

While waiting, the “tap, tap, tap” sound continued.

What could that sound be? She had two baby dolls and a blanket with her in bed.

The monitor’s picture finally came up.

Clear as day was her crib.

But…Caroline was not in the crib!

I searched the screen desperately, telling myself the bars of the crib were some how obstructing my view of her body.

No, no, no. This can’t be happening. I need her to take naps still. I need her to be contained in a box with no hope of getting out.

I walked upstairs to her room and tried to peek under her door to no avail.

The carpet was blocking my view.

Surely she must have brought a toy into bed with her which I didn’t notice. Surely she must have the skinniest profile ever and is sitting in that crib tap, tap, tapping away.

I finally gathered enough mental strength and opened her door.

There she sat on the floor trying to put the pieces into a farm puzzle.

“Tap, tap, tap.”

After a moment she noticed me.

An enormous grin spread across her face.

She said, “hello.”

My face didn’t quite say that.

Needless to say we’re off to IKEA tonight to find a little bed for her.

I’m thinking of customizing it with straps for nap time.