A bag of Tulle and Wine.

So I've seen the new sew tutu tutorials all over the interwebs before and I figured that it would be the perfect quick 'n dirty Tinker Belle costume.

And after the Maleficent debacle I needed quick 'n dirty.

So I showed up at my friend's house for Knit Night (a group of my girlfriends gets together once a month and "knits" aka drinks wine and eats pizza.) carrying a couple packages of elastic, my tulle stash, and a giant bottle of wine with no other plan then I NEED TO BE DONE WITH THIS OMFG PASSTHEWINE.

The result?

Jennifer got a new hat.

I think I need to roll with tulle and wine everywhere I go from now on.

Without turning this into too much of a tutorial - because seriously there are SO MANY of these out there.  Google "new sew tutu" and you will be INNUNDATED.  Here's what I did:

I cut the 1/2" elastic into a 21 inch length.  I figured my daughter has about a 20" waist and I wanted some overlap.  Then I safety pinned it into a circle.  Probably sewing it would be better but whatevs.

Then I cut the tulle into 4" strips.  Since cutting tulle makes the baby Jesus cry I cheated and rolled the tulle into tubes first.  Then I cut those tubes into 4" pieces.  It doesn't come out perfect but it is SO quick and easy.  (hey there's a video for this already online!  Check itout.)

Then I put my elastic around a stand-in toddler waist:

What.  you use what you've got.

And looped the strips of tulle over the elastic in a slip knot (the same video shows this)

I kept going until the pizza got there and the result was pretty darn awesome:

I even had enough tulle leftover to make my friend's daughter her very own tutu:

Now I kindof want to make one in ever color of the rainbow.  And one (or 7) for myself.  

I'm not totally convinced it's going to work for Tinker belle, though... I have something else in mind for that.  Yes.

My mommy is insane.

Maleficent for Halloween.

So a few months ago Sleeping Beauty was on in the background while my toddler and I were looking at her photo album.  This picture from last Halloween came up:

And so I asked her "what do you want to be for Halloween this year?"

She responded without missing a beat: MALIFICENT.

And so it began.  From then on any time I asked her about Halloween she said definitively:  MALIFICENT HALLWEEN.  Later it expanded b/c when I asked her what her brother should be she told me BLACK BIRDIE.  Because, of course.  Maleficent sidekick is her black bird just like my daughter's sidekick is her brother.

Riding around the living room in a laundry basket is WAY more fun with a sibling.

 I was ALL OVER this costume idea.

Of course I decided to make these costumes because they don't exactly make Maleficent in a 2T.  Also I'm insane like that.  So we went to the fabric store (still one of her favorite places to go) and she vetoed the fleece I picked out "NOT VERY SHINY." in favor of this:

Shiny fabric, over a month to make the costumes, and an idea that was both hilarious and awesome?  Totally on top of this Halloween thing.

AND THEN.

I made this wonderful, lined, spectacular, shiny Maleficent coat:

And she refused to wear it.  What the what?  I didn't think too much about it and continued to make this awesome hat for her brother:

And we had so much fun putting it on him and getting him to crow like a bird.


Hilarity all around.

But she still wouldn't wear the coat.  Finally I resorted to bribery and got her to put it on thinking once she was in it we'd be good to go:

I DON'T WANT TURN INTO A DRAGON!!! GET THIS OFFAA ME!!!

And then that night she had nightmares.

I AFRAID MALIFICENT DRAGON.

Awesome.  I win at parenting.

Also:  CRAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPP

And just to rub some salt in the would my son grew out of the birdie hat less than a week after I made it for him.

Now she's saying that she wants to be Peter Pan because HE A NEEAH (Neeah is how she says her name and what she calls all redheads.)

I never noticed Peter Pan had red hair before.

The baby she wants to be Tinker belle.  Right.  I think I convinced her to switch - her as tink and baby as pan but still...

I'm less than a week away from our first costume event, I have out of town guests coming this weekend and therefore no time to work on this, and I refuse to just go buy a costume because I'm way to far down this path to turn back.

I'm going over to my friend's house tonight with a bag of tulle and wine.  Hopefully this will result in a Tinker belle costume and not just a hangover.

Sob.

Baby Feeding Funtimes

Thanks to Plum Organics for sponsoring my post about tips for baby feeding magic. What if you let baby choose what's for dinner? Check out their cute "Quest for Yum!" video and see what happens!

We are deep into the baby food these days.  Which, honestly, was something I was dreading this time around.  It's gross and messy and fraught with lots of decisions.  So I thought I'd share some tips for making the whole thing alot more relaxed and fun:

1.)  Trust your instinct / let them lead the way.  This is one of my fav. parenting tips in general but it is especially true for food.  They will let you know when it's time for the next step.  For example the recommendations on when certain kids can have certain foods?  Yeah I kindof ignore those.  My kid isn't even close to crawling and yet:

TEETHING BISCUIT CONTRABAND!!!!!

 2.)  PUFFS!!!!  I've talked before about how much I love the puffs.  They are the perfect starter food.  They dissolve so you don't have to worry about your kid choking (within reason.  I mean don't shove a whole fistfull of them in there or something) and they are great practice for the fine motor skills required to feed themselves. 

Even if they don't get it right the first time.

Or 100th time.

And can I just tell you how much I love the SuperPuffs?  They come in literally a rainbow of flavors.  For someone as color obsessed for me is So. Much. Fun. Plus it's a great way for me to explain eating a variety of fruits and veggies to my toddler.  Rainbows = YUM. 

My mom kindof has a thing for colors...

3.)  I don't feed my kids something that I wouldn't eat myself.  I remember a distinct moment when feeding my daughter when I opened package of somesortof processed meat stick thing for babies.  I took one look at it and threw it in the garbage opting instead to give her tiny bites of the turkey from my sandwich.  Since then I've been pretty strict about this one.  I don't eat piles of processed stuff so it just won't exist in our household.

4.)  Mix stuff you know they like with the new things they might not.  My son LOVES the pears.  Any of the veggies (especially carrots)?  Not so much.  But if I mix them together...

Everything is better mixed with pears is the baby equivalent of everything tastes better covered in cheese.

In this case he's eating and loving the Plum Organic Blueberry, Pear, & Purple Carrot mix.

5.) Keep their hands busy with something dishwasher safe.  I've found it to be much easier to feed him if he's not grabbing at the spoon.  When he gets a little bigger and less flail-y I'll just give him his own spoon to play with but for now he rocks the plastic keys.


And when he's done eating?  They go straight in the dishwasher.  Super simple.

6.)  It doesn't have to be made specifically for babies to be used to feed them.  Seriously, you guys.  It took me so long to figure this one out.  You can put baby food in regular people bowls.  CRAZY THAT!

7.)  Use the bumbo as a high chair.  It takes up so much less space than the GIANT PLASTIC high chair we had for our daughter.  I can clean the whole thing in the sink and make the whole thing disappear when not in use.  Simple.

8.)  I feed him when we eat.  Not only is it more convenient b/c we're in the kitchen anyways but it's getting us into the good habit of family dinners from day one.  Plus his sister keeps him happy:

9.)  Balanced over a week.  This one came straight from my pediatrician and has become my mantra.  As long as your kid eats a balanced diet over a week you don't have to worry about if they are eating one balanced meal (or eating it at all).  So much less stressful this way!

10.)  Keep it fun.  Heart shaped grilled cheese sandwich:

Enough said.

So yeah - the baby food phase has been ALOT more fun this time around.  And really is there anything cuter than a messy baby?

For more adorable check out this video by Plum Organics:

I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. To learn more about Plum Organics, visit their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PlumOrganics.

6 months.

So today is the little dude's six month birthday.

And once again I'm having trouble finding the words.  Watching him go from being so tiny and sleepy to this:

Well. It's been pretty amazing. He’s turned into this fun little person with his own personality.

He's super curious and wants to interact with and grab at anything and everything.


He's a chatty boy who vocalizes all the time. His main sound is squawking like a little bird but other sounds are starting to come, too. He tells whole stories and has long conversations with anyone who will talk back to him:

He has quite the temper. Gets immediately red-faced angry when he drops a toy or when something happens that he didn't expect. He gets done with things just as quickly as he's interested in them. And once he's done with a toy he is DONE.

He has a clear sense of humor - certain things just crack him up. Peek-a-boo? Slays him every time. Even if it's played by his sister running into and out of his view. And if you tickle his tummy or blow on his face you will be rewarded with lots of giggles.



He likes to play rough - already being thrown around for rough house with daddy.


And sometimes his doggie:

And when his sister pushes him around in the walker or bounces his bouncer he shriek giggles. So does she.

His likes and dislikes are also abundantly clear. Likes: grabbing at things, water, bathtime, bouncing, standing, bananas, rocking, wind, and his robots blanket. Dislikes: any food other than bananas and sometimes peaches, being frustrated, tummy time, and having to stay up past bedtime.

His favorite thing in the whole world, though, is water. He LOVES the water. Bathtime, being hosed off after a meal, the beach:


LOVE.

Yes. We put his bumbo seat in the waves. He was the happiest kid in the entire world that day.


And did I mention he hates tummy time? Well now that he's figured out this rolling thing he just refuses it. You put him on his belly and this happens:





Which makes him very pleased with himself.



And not to compare to his sister too much but he is such a different kid. Especially where bedtime is concerned. Most nights he goes down with out any fuss of problems. Unlike someone else who we were already deep into cry it out and all of that by now. However the problem comes when he has to stay up late. Dude DOES NOT LIKE being up late. He freaks out and the only solution is laying him down - preferably in his crib:


He likes his crib.

So yeah. Life has been pretty overwhelming these last 6 months. But pretty amazing, too.

Seven

Today is our Seventh Wedding anniversary.

We've been married for a crazy amount of time.  Long enough that when we look at our wedding photos I think "We look so young!"  So when we went to the Sidewalk Chalk Festival at the Cleveland Museum of Art a few weeks ago I couldn't resist taking some then/now pictures.

2004:


2011:
Both were taken in the same exact spot.

2004:


2011:


2004:


2011:


Last night we went out to the Greenhouse Tavern to celebrate.  Just a warning on that one:  if you order the BBQ Pig's Head you get an actual Pig's head.  Smiling at you.  With jawbones and teeth.  Delicious face but still... face.



And then went to a comedy show at Pickwick and Frolic.  And then since it was the first night out together w/o the kids since the dude was born we tied one on at the Velvet Tango Room.

Moscow Mule.  Best drink in Cleveland.

I love that my husband is up for ridiculous adventures as much as I am.  Even if they are currently more in the "lets order something weird and stay out way to late" vein then the "lets go hike up a mountain in another country" craziness that they used to be.  He's still my favorite person to adventure with.  I'd say it's been a pretty wonderful 7 years.