sewin & swimmin

This summer, Kate & I have been working on some skills. I have been working on sewing. Below is my third project. I can't tell you how pleased I am with the outcome. This project was so brain consuming that I didn't have time to take pictures of any steps other than the finished product. Can I just say again that sewing can be forgiving? This dress has some unsightly parts on the inside, but the outside is cute as a button. The funniest thing: When I showed Josh the finished product, the first thing he does is look inside. Then again, when I showed it to Kate's grandma, great-aunt, and great-grandma, they too, all looked on the inside. Jen observed, "Why is that the first thing sewers always do?" I wanted to ask, "Why was that the first thing Josh, NOT a sewer, did?" The project took a day and a half, and I did a lot of ripping out seams & stitches. Cutting & marking were challenging, especially since I changed the size I was cutting half way through and had to re-cut & mark some pieces. It would have been much easier if I had known how little I would use the marks. When push came to shove, I did most of the alignment by eye, because in the end, that's what matters! I sewed & seam ripped three button holes, which was not very kind to the fabric. In the end, I only ended up w/ room for ONE buttonhole. But, I think sewing is a good hobby for me. I don't mind ripping up stitches & doing it again. My shoulders & back & eyes might mind, but it makes me feel good that I can redo it better. I'm excited to try the next project now that I understand some of the rudiments of garment making. I will say, though, that with the paltry selection of cute, modern fabrics at Joanne's does not inspire me! I'm not sure whether the time, effort, and money I put into a dress could possibly work out to cheaper than I could buy a cute one at the store. I am going to keep going because it's fun, and I want to get better at it! I also have a lot more respect & charitable feelings for dress prices. It used to make me gag myself when I turned over a tag in a store like Gap or Gymboree to see a $30 or $40 price tag. Now I know why! Fabric, finishing, patterns, everything costs more money than I thought. :-)

Katherine Boo has been working on lots of skills -- the most remarkable of which is swimming! We finally figured out a configuration that lets me relax when we go to the pool & lets her have the most amount of fun with the least amount of water in the mouth! She loves to paddle about to all of her favorite relatives. She stands on a ledge inside the pool and says, "three, four" & then jumps (really) into the pool. She's been practicing putting her face in the water to blow bubbles in the bath tub, and it's actually paying off in the pool.
We started off with just the innertube connected to a tank. But, she kept dipping into the water if she got off balance, so then we added......

swim wings & she's good to go!

Other new skills:

fingerpainting & coloring. Literally overnight, she holds a crayon correctly & gets some pretty good marks out of them. she loves to color & paint & asks me for these activities with frequency when we're at home.

building with blocks. Also, overnight, she no longer solely wishes to destroy towers of blocks that mommy builds. She delights in building & stacking & fitting together.

talking. Her language is exploding. She uses sentences a lot & we're starting to work on some Spanish words. Her first Spanish word that she used all on her own was "agua." She knows where her nariz, boca, and manos are, & can pronounce them, but doesn't use the words on her own. She says nasis for nariz. Sometimes she says agua water. It's amazing how quickly she can pick up a new word or phrase. Some of the hilarious 'adult' things she says are "ashy" (actually) and "I think."

playing w/ dolly. She recently began mothering her baby doll & wanting dolly to be with her in the crib at all times. preferably with her baw-tul. She's quite good at finding the dolly's mouth & putting the bottle on the mouth, after I explained that a baby bottle doesn't go in the eye.

singing. Another exploding skill. She knows many words in Jesus Loves Me & You Are My Sunshine. She knows almost all the words in the first verse of Holy, Holy, Holy. . So cute. She has a special sing-songy voice that she uses, too.

My next post is newish, too, folks. I know, when it rains it pours!

I couldn't post links in my comments, so here are two links re Jennifer's questions.

Similar inner tube at Target & Babies R Us. The one at Target has a crotch strap which looks potentially uncomfortable, but could solve the problem that Kate's has, which is that it rides up if she doesn't keep her arms down. That's one of the reason's the swim wings help. They make her arms fat & keeps the float down. Also, I saw that same float cheaper elsewhere online. The Babies R Us is a whole swim suit with a tube in it. I like the ease of Kate's over the head design. Easy off & easy on. Somehow I can't find one like it online, but I really think I've seen them in stores at Target or Babies R Us, somehow, just not online. Or find it used at a consignment or resale shop, like I did!

Pattern is Simplicity Easy to sew, #3511