Best or Worst Mother in the World?

I fear your conclusions after reading this post, but it must be documented for posterity. And perhaps to facilitate psychotherapy sessions later on. 

Fix-it Felix

It started out so well. I was fixated, pun intended, on making Leepo his own Fix-it Felix costume for his birthday party. It was easy enough to do with some stick-on patches and puffy paint. The only snafu occurred was when I was running out of time and that's when my gold metallic spray paint failed me as I was trying to coat that plastic hammer. I tried to spray and it came out as gold dust, then plugged up the nozzle. It was the night before his birthday party so I sent Tim out to the store just before it closed to get a replacement. His man-brain (which I normally love and appreciate!) made the executive decision to get the spray-paint in a different finish. When he came home with a hammered, antique shade of gold I was approaching a bridezilla tantrum. This is Fix-it Felix and his GOLDEN hammer, sucka! You give me some shabby chic finish instead?! (Guess who woke up at 5:30AM to get some paint, spray like a mad woman, and hold a hairdryer over a plastic hammer while hiding in a hot garage?)

It was all worth it when Leepo woke up and got his surprise. I mean, look up at his face of delight with that hammer and outfit. Totally worth it, right?

Well, more surprises were to come. Which leads me to. . .

I don't know what's wrong with me. But whatever it is, my brother has it, too. We hatched a plan prior to this party that was so funny to us that we had to go through with it.

Here's how it all went down. 

Wreck-it Ralph

First of all, do you know who Fix-it Felix and Wreck-it Ralph are?  They are characters from the Disney movie named after the latter. Ralph is a bad guy in a video game, but he wants to be good. Unfortunately, he ruins everything he touches.

Enter the birthday cake.

Leepo was already testy because we sang Happy Birthday to his sister first. I didn't plan on that, but my brother needed some time to get dressed where he wouldn't be spotted, and this is how we stalled. I quickly learned then and there that this whole shared birthday party business is not cool. Not cool at all.

After Beanie blew out the candles to her large and beautiful cake, we presented Leepo with his own cake. It was noticeably smaller than what his sister had, plus the decoration was a mere smiley face. Disappointment flashed on his face only briefly as he compared the two. He was going to make the most of this, as best he could, until. . .

MY BROTHER ENTERED THE ROOM, PROCLAIMED THAT HE WAS "GONNA WRECK IT," AND SMASHED THE CAKE TO BITS WITH HIS LARGE FISTS.

Cake stuff went flying. Children were screaming. It was epic.

Of course we explained that it was a joke and that there was a real cake coming out, but judging from all the snot-stained shirts on the parents that day, I'm not sure if everyone appreciated our sense of humor.

As for Leepo, he calmed down eventually. He had his birthday pie (he's not a fan of cake, actually), opened presents, and had a pinata. It was all good in the end, really! So what if he's wetting the bed now?*

Note: We have scattered iPhone photos from this event that show crying children and/or clinging to their parents, but they're a hodge-podge of images in poor lighting. I'll come back to paste together what I can, but keep in mind I'm also busy trying to patch up shattered hope and dreams. Priorities.

*I kid, I kid.

Out and About

The kiddos in a field of wild chamomile, on the Mississippi.

We've made a resolution to get out there and do more stuff with and without the kiddos. We have a bunch of fun things planned for the summer months and I'm really looking forward to it.

One thing I realized is that mothers need to be very organized and pro-active about planning activities for kids. While I think it's important to have unstructured playtime, there is also a lot of value in taking advantage of educational programs and activities nearby. There were several options available through our local park district, but of course the good and cheap stuff went quickly. Now I know that early May is the time to start signing up for activities. 

The buddy-system is always good for keeping commitments, so I invited my friend Mimi over and we went through our calendars to make play-dates for our kids. Our goal is to enjoy as many activities as possible, for the lowest cost, and to save on transportation by car-pooling. We'd also like to spend more time in the city, Chicago.

A goal that Tim and I share is to do more road-trips. Now I must confess something, we got a minivan. Egads, what has happened to us?! Here's the deal, though. I see it more as a party wagon. -I'm Latino, we travel in packs and this vehicle is fulfilling my destiny, OK? Anyway, we went on a maiden voyage with our new ride (named Donatello because it's green and looks like a ninja turtle) over Memorial weekend and it was glorious.

We went to a town called Nauvoo (IL) on the Mississippi, though we stayed in Keokuk, Iowa. It was perfect for my boy, Leepo. They put on demonstrations of how things were made in the mid-1800s, with the actors dressed in period clothes. We learned how bricks, wagon wheels, ironwork, ropes, bread, clothing, and candles were made. As for souvenirs, we were given our own brick with an impression of the town name, a ring forged from an iron nail, ginger cookies, and Leepo got to keep the rope he made himself.

Let's lasso everything in sight. 

More important, we survived our 4 hour car ride and managed to have a bit of fun during it. This is what helped:

Stay tuned to see what adventures lie ahead!

Work in Progress Home Paint Scheme

Original

Blocks of paint color options denote the samples I'm looking to test drive first. Any thoughts, comments, or recommendations?

Note to potential burglars: I am not showing doorway entries and this scheme is not true to scale or layout. Also, we invest in things like tile, not TVs or jewelry. How did you end up on a design blog, anyway?

"Final," click to enlarge

Taupe is Dope, Yo

Benjamin Moore's Taos Taupe 2111-40

I can't get away from this color in its much lighter shades. I really can't. I never knew I needed this purple undertone monster in my life until now.

As such, I did some investigating and came up with this really great how-to-work-with-taupe summary from this forum, by DonnaMP14 :

Taupe Loves 
- Pure white paint 
- Dark stained wood 
- Purple undertoned natural linens 
- Stones that contain grey or blue 
- Metals such as silver, chrome and stainless steel 
- The companionship of grey or brown 
- Dramatic accents of green, purple or red 
- Clear glass 

Taupe Hates 
- Anything that contains yellow, such as buttery paint 
- Golden woods, such as oak 
- Yellow-hued linens 
- Tan leathers 
- Stones that contain beige 
- Accessories that hint at yellow, such as dark cream porcelain.

Good stuff, huh?

Made my Kid's Halloween Costume!

Major milestone. I made my son's Halloween costume.

Did it require sewing? No. Was it done out of necessity? Yes.

In September, I asked Leepo what he wanted to be for Halloween. I asked him this because I loved hearing him say "Sammy the Skunk." So cute. So easy to purchase at a costume store. But one day things changed, "I want to be a PILL BUG, Mama." What? "A pill bug, a rolly-polly." Are you sure? Like, really sure? "Oh, yes, Mama. That is what I want to be."

Ugh. Well, you just know you're not going to find a pill bug costume hanging on the rack. (Did I search in vain, anyway? Yes.) And it's true that this blog was forged with the DIY spirit, but when it comes to sewing I'm a total dunce. (I intend to learn, but under less demanding circumstances.) So, not being a seamstress, I went on Facebook and asked around about how to address this situation. My friend Laura clued me into a "mommy trick," it's all about the hoodie.

U Create
(No, this isn't the costume I made. Keep scrollin'.)

Yes, a simple zip-up hoodie can serve as the base for a limitless variety of accouterments, and thus create a custom Halloween costume. So where did I go next? You guessed it. Goodwill. For just a couple of bucks I left with a grey toddler hoodie and I began to feel optimistic.

My next stop was Hobby Lobby for the remainder of the supplies. I learned from another friend, Carin, that if you download the Hobby Lobby app on your phone, you can get a 40% discount on one item, or sometimes your entire purchase. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to grab, but I knew I had to factor in a few things:

• Like the mullet, the pill bug magic is all in the back. That's fine, but it's not conducive to sitting in a car seat. I would have to make this part of the costume easily removable.
• This animal is monochromatic, so I'd have to introduce interest by choosing grey pieces with different hues. 
• My materials had to be light-weight because I'd be gluing it all together. 
• We live in the Midwest, this costume better work with a winter coat, too. 

I spent way too much time in that store pondering (enough time to notice the intriguing male customer population there), but ultimately I came home with the following stuff:

Styrofoam for the shells, pipe cleaners for the antennae and legs. 

To make the pill bug armor, I proceeded to cut the styrofoam balls into quarters with a bread knife (this part got a little messy). Once I had them, I took these pieces and wrapped them in felt, which I simply glued into place. I'm sure the type of person who loves the challenge of an awkward shaped Christmas gift to be wrapped would appreciate this, and even have a system for how to do it. I, on the other hand, just tucked and glued where I could.

Since the back of the costume would be seen from all sides, I affixed foam half-circles to the top of each shell with a tab. What you're seeing in this next picture is the backside of a 'shell,' and I'm gluing a pipe cleaner and holding it in place with another piece of felt.

Finally, things were starting to take shape. I used regular glue to attach the shells (with legs) to the large swatch of fleece I purchased, in addition to creating foam pieces in the front. Prior to doing this, I had cut the fleece into an "I" shape so that there'd be tabs at the corners. The idea was to make a smock that could be tied together over the hoodie, and easily removed for when we were traveling in the car from place to place. It goes without saying that I cut out a hole to go over the head.

DONE!

Once the 'smock' portion of the costume was completed, all I had to do was attach the antennae and googly eyes to the hood. With bated breath, I then performed a dress rehearsal with Leepo. Gladly, I was given the thumbs up sign and we went on to have a spooktacular Halloween with my family.

Leepo on his way to treats with my Aunt Bubu.

This was the first year that my boy got it. He was running door to door yelling sweetly asking "Trick or Treat!?!" and showing great pride in his stash. I have to say, I was also feeling pretty good when people commented on his costume and gave me kudos for being clever about it. If only they knew, it was so easy a doctor could do it!

And it was all worthwhile.

Teaching the Kid(s) How to Read

On my list of things to start on my maternity leave, I included the task of teaching my son, Leepo, how to read. I think we're off to a really good start, so I'll share what has worked well so far.

This is obvious, but we started with the ABCs. We sang the alphabet until it was memorized, then we went through this stack of flashcards as often as we could many months earlier. I just love the Eric Carle letters because they're so vibrant and display all different kinds of animals. I admit to using fruit snacks as an incentive, though I have mixed feelings about rewarding kids with foods (am I laying the ground work for eating disorders later on?).

Once Leepo mastered letter cognition with the accompanying sound, we moved on to this nifty paint chip idea I found, where else?, on Pinterest.

Here you see my son playing with word stems that contain a window view box (got these from Lowe's) on a color sheet that contains first letters (from Home Depot). We sound out each component first and then put them together. I think he's starting to grasp the concept now.

The only thing to warn you about is that since these are paint chips, and they're good quality paint at that, even permanent marker will smudge off. Also, be warned about unintentional curse words. The nice thing about using a fold-out book for the initial letters is that you can plan ahead and separate out Tr for truck and F for food if you know what I mean.

Some high yield word stems:

-it
-ig
-at
-oy
-ook
-oon
-ite
-ing
-ove
-ack
-ob
-eep
-ain
-est

Does Strivectin Really Work?

Earlier I commented on using Strivectin to address some late-in-the-game stretch marks that popped up after my darling daughter decided to extend her leg through my abdomen. I'm writing now to report on how that turned out.

Well, let me tell you, those red marks are now practically invisible! The skin texture is also looking pretty good, too. (If you're looking for pictures, I'm sorry. You'll have to take my word for it.) I'm going to explain what I did to get this outcome. Keep in mind, everyone's skin is different and I think it was a combination of things that helped.

As soon as I saw those red lines, I went to Costco and picked me up a tube of that Strivectin. I read that it had 'proven results at eight weeks,' but to be honest I didn't do the research. I would have liked to compare it to Mederma, which is tons cheaper, but this was the only brand I had heard personal testimonies about so I went for it. (I told myself that a tube of lotion is way less expensive than a corrective procedure down the line. --Am I that vain? Possibly.) I proceeded to do exactly as the directions instruct and apply this stuff twice a day EVERY day, week after week, making sure to really rub it in.

Around this time, I was reviewing rehabilitation techniques for skin burns. It struck me that a component of the early skin recovery process includes breaking up adhesions and getting rid of slough. While I can't recommend this, I personally decided to go over my stretch marks with a loofah sponge in the shower each day before applying any lotions. (Note: This is not a pleasant sensation.)

During the day, between the Strivectin applications, I wanted to keep the skin moisturized and flexible (to avoid even more stretch marks) so I continued to use my favorite thing ever: Crabtree and Evelyn's La Source hand lotion. It smells so good and really leaves the skin feeling smooth and supple.

I did all these things diligently for eight weeks. I also remembered to lotion-up while I was in labor, because that is when a lot of skin damage tends to occur, especially during pushing.

Like I said above, I am really pleased with how things turned out and I feel that my neurotic efforts paid off. I'm sharing this in case it can help anyone else who doesn't care for this potential memento from pregnancy.

Nursery Scheme?

Is this crazy?

We're about to find out. The pink pattern on the right is the crib skirt currently. I ordered the curtains on the left and am itching to find out if this is going to look fabulous or tragic. The nesting bird in me needs some closure here.

I have to say I really envy people who know how to mix patterns. It is such an art form! Let me know when someone comes up with a surefire equation, an algorithm for how to do this right the first time.

For now, I'm studying the following:

• BHG
• Real Simple

Update: Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely hooked it up with this post! AT outline here.