It was World Book Day on Thursday and Devin decided he wanted to go as Horrid Henry. I can’t take credit for his outfit though because, although I bought jeans and a blue jumper, Helen at work sewed a big yellow stripe on it for me. Still, he was pleased with it.
I still haven’t written my essay. I have finished watching season 2 of The Wire though. Seriously, I just can’t get into the zone. I’m going to have a go at writing something tonight when the kids are in bed but basically I’ve resigned myself to a late night tomorrow.
So, today we baked bread. Well, when I say baked bread what I mean is that Devin emptied a packet of bread mix (Parmesan and Sun-dried tomato) into a bowl and mixed it with some water before kneading and stretching it, shaping it, leaving it to rise and cooking it. He did a rather wonderful job and both he and Brodie declared it delicious.
I also received a rather wonderful present in the post yesterday. This gives me yet another opportunity to big up the amazingly talented ilovespoiltpig. My rubbish picture does not do this piece justice. I absolutely love it and have been wearing it constantly.
The deadline for the Alice in Wonderland swap organised by Meridian Ariel is fast approaching. I have a stickie note on my computer with ideas for projects but am undecided in terms of what to make. I think I may be having a crisis of confidence because I know that I’m not artistic in the slightest. I also realise that I wont have a great deal of time to make something, what with all my uni deadlines, but I want to make something cracking for my swap partner.
For the past (long) while, we’ve been having problems getting little one into her bed on time. This has had a number of horrific side effects; her being overly tired, resulting in tantrums, stroppiness etc during the day; husband not being able to concentrate on work in the evening; me not being able to study/read in the evening; and most importantly, me being very little child-free time during which to relax. We are all tired and grumpy. I have been reading a book called The Incredible Years by Carolyn Webster-Stratton and came up with The Race to Bed using ideas from it.
The first thing I did was nip to Ikea to buy a cheap clock for the kids bedroom. I then made a poster which displayed their bedtime. This way they knew, well in advance, that when the real clock looked like the one in the poster it was time for bed. There has always been a loose bedtime routine in our house but I decided to formalise it and turn it into a race. Each of the kids has a counter and when they complete a step of the routine, their counter gets moved up a notch. The green and orange posters are reward charts. Every night, when the race has been completed, child gets a sticker. If they stay in their bed all night, they get another sticker in the morning (I cut out 28 little gold and silver circles and used blu tack to fix them so that we could reuse the charts).
This worked like a dream for the first couple of nights. The race really captured their imagination. However, one week on and big one is bored of it (getting him into bed isn’t difficult though) and little one is back to doing her own thing and refusing to go to bed. There are a couple of reasons for this (I think):
It seems to me that bedtime has not yet been sorted out. There are less than 3 weeks before I go back to work and I would really like to sort it before then.
A few months ago I saw some beautiful Alexander Henry material on eBay and bought a couple of yards of it.
Now, I haven’t done any sewing in years but my intention was to purchase a pattern for a tunic from Amanda at Kitschy Coo and use some of the material for that, and leave the rest to make a padded sleeve for my aging iBook. However, my confidence wavered and I knew I didn’t really have the skills to pull either of these feats off. Then I saw some amazing Comic Book Hoodies Amanda had made for some lucky wee boys and decided that my material had to become a hoodie for Brodie. I sent the material over to Amanda and within a flash she had crafted the most exquisite hoodie a 2 year old has ever owned.
I can’t articulate how beautifully crafted and outstanding this hoodie is. It exceeded my expectations, which were pretty high anyway having seen Amanda’s blog and the garments she’s been making. So a huge thank you to Amanda from both me and Brodie. And, just incase you missed the earlier link, go visit her blog at Kitschy Coo.
