Pink Saturday: Lazy Summer Days

As the summer heat rises, I've noticed that someone likes to sleep more and more.  Not that he's sleeping well in all this warmth, but definitely more willing to consider a nap.  I think that it's his summer getaway plan.  But I've noticed something. He has a newfound love of pillows.  I don't really know where it came from, other than perhaps watching other people laying down, but whether propped up on one and chillaxing, or curled up beside one, Mr. Babypants likes him some pillows.

Really likes him some pillows.

Loves curling up beside them, playing with them, sometimes burying his face in them.  Loves him his pillows.


But it makes me wonder.  When should one start introducing pillows to their wee one.  He's only 14 months old but seems to be coming down pretty heavily on he side of "Likes Pillows, Prefarably Pink."

Do you think he's big enough, and are you enjoying your pillows these lazy summer days?

For more Pink Saturday, head on over to Beverly's Pink Saturday, and have a great weekend with your pillows.

Pink Saturday: UFO

I love to quilt. my love of quilting is deep, wide, and abiding. This is one corner of a quilt I had begun to put together for my daughter about a year and a half ago. I was trying to decide which prints belonged together in each block, and how those blocks would relate to the rest of the colors.

I would lay the would be blocks out on my bed and spend hours arranging and rearranging them. My goal was to finish before the baby was born because I knew I wouldn't have much time to quilt with a new baby. Of course, when I'm pregnant I'm scatter brained and easily tired, so the quilt never got much farther than this before Snapdragon was born.

Well, it turns out I was right. I had no time to quilt with a new baby.

The problem is the ironing. I could, for a while, put Snapdragon in his sling and spend some quality time with my sewing machine. I could even get some cutting in, but alas, an iron is just too dangerous to be using while babywearing, and if you've ever pieced a quilt block, you know that they're pretty high-maintenance in terms of ironing.

Alas, this UFO is languishing between the pages of an old IKEA catalog (see, thy are good for something) and mocking me ever so quietly whenever I walk past.

Do you have any UFOs taunting you? Better still, any advice on how to create the time to get this project done?

Natural Consequences

As any parent veteran parent will tell you, you can't protect your children from every possible danger, and though you try to redirect, minimize risks, and babyproof, not everything can be made 100% safe.

Even in an empty room with no electric outlets, there will still be the floor for baby to hit her head on when she falls, or perhaps some texture on the walls to scratch himself on when he tries to explore them.

In the end, babies are a curious lot, and that is as it should be.

They put things in their mouths. The touch things. They grab things, they pull things. They crawl out the door while you're turned away, and they open cupboard doors and get into drawers.

One of the advantages of traveling and staying in hotels is that they have very minimal clutter. This is a great relief to me, because it makes it easy to nearly childproof the room upon arrival.

I can walk into the room, put the garbage cans up on the counters and dressers, and barring a cord-tastrophe, the room is pretty much fine for an infant. (I'm not going to talk about the overpowering and disgusting cleaning chemicals, because that's an entirely different subject for a different morning.)

HOWEVER, I can't make any environment 100% baby proof, and my curious little boy is learning how to. How to open doors, how to crawl fast. How to take his diaper off. How to find mama. How to UN-baby-proof. How to open drawers.

This particular hotel room has long modern metal bar pulls on the drawers. They are particularly easy and tempting for a baby of a full 11 months. Upon realizing all he had to do was grab and apply the slightest pulling pressure and the drawer would open, he decided he'd found his favorite new toy. He smiled and laughed and clapped as he pushed the drawer closed and opened it again, learning all he could about the mechanics of drawers.

Seeing the logical outcome, I picked him up, moved him across the room and tried to distract him, and for a moment, he was distracted, but soon I heard the tell tale sound of the drawer opening again and a squeal of delight. So I picked him up and put him by different toys, but even faster he found his way back to that drawer. I tried propping a suitcase in front of it, but alas, he still managed to open it, and it was hard to walk through the room, having to step over he suitcase.

Well, as I'm sure you saw coming, he decided that the pll wasn't as much fun as playing with the drawer itself, and when he leaned in to close it, fingers still wrapped over the top edge, he learned that some toys bite, perfecting How-to make mom freak out. In my head, not out loud.

Opening the drawer and picking up my screaming baby, checking to see if his fingers were broken (only one bleeding) I was secretly grateful that he had figured out that was dangerous, that it hurt, and that he hadn't been hurt worse.

This morning, when setting him down again, I placed the larger suitcase in front of the drawer.

Well, he managed to displace it too, and again was at it with the drawer, very carefully opening and closing it with the pull. I thought, "huh, it seems he can learn a lesson the hard way." I thought too soon, as moments later he had shut a lonely finger in the drawer again, and was screaming for me to help him get loose from the mean biting drawer.

Eventually, he will learn to be more careful with drawers, but I'm afraid it's going to be a hard learning process, for him, and for me.

Have your children been learning anything the hard way lately? Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Crawltastrophe

Well, we're not to full out crawltastrophe just yet.... but we're getting there.

Today Snapdragon has gotten into and "played with" the following:

The diaper pail - lid and dirty diaper

The garbage can - used tissues and a cloth diapers instruction sheet

My shirt - he now seems to think he can crawl over to me when I'm down low and "open the fridge door."

My loom - the shuttle and wool yarn

Mongoosine's odds and ends box - an ATC and a magnifying glass

My mother in law's jewelry box - a button, three pair of earrings and a pin, all heart shaped (I hope that was all)

Diaper bag - my day planner

Bathroom organizer - multiple entire drawers and all of their contents. Yes, the drawers were on the floor- i think it was mostly sample sized creams. I had thought they were empty.

Laundry - Reds and Whites. This is why my whites might look a bit pink.

Laundry room - clothespin & a bottle of bleach. Why do we even HAVE a bottle of bleach?! No, he didn't get it open, but nonetheless, eek!

So, why didn't you tell me that boys get into everything?

Perhaps it's just decade induced forgetfulness, but I feel like Mongoosine didn't get into nearly so much at this age.

What did your kids get into today?

Aloha Friday: Pets?

Sayin' Aloha tot he Aloha Friday phenomenon. On the islands, or so they say, people like to take it easy on Friday, so here goes.

When Snapdragon was born, I got all paranoid about the cats who like to sleep on my face and the fact that they were going to be both bigger and sharper than the baby. Since then they've been living mostly in the garage. Don't worry, Spouse sleeps out there too *, and yes, it's insulated, heated, cooled, and no longer used as a garage. Should I call it the family room? It's supposed to be being turned into one... just that transformation is really, really, r-e-a-l-l-y s--l--o--w.

So here's my question. Do you have pets, and if you do, did you make any changes regarding them when you had kids?

*he can't fall back asleep without the TV on, whereas it wakes me up.