Ups and Downs

      Wow. I had an interesting week. I had a large number of bad moments, and a few good moments. And, with my weekend training for school, a lot of really emotionally charged moments. But, while I want to be honest, and share that yes, I do have bad moments, (Actually, a lot of days they seem to outnumber the good moments.) I would rather focus on the good moments. Some of you will have seen this on facebook already, but on... Monday(?) morning, Jessica came up to me and said that she needed to go pee. Considering that I hadn't changed her out of a nighttime diaper, I told her to just go in her diaper. To which she responded... "I'm in underwear!". I looked, and sure enough, not only was she in underwear, but it was dry! Talk about accidental night time potty training. At least it turned out well. However, I intentionally left her in underwear at quiet time and it didn't go so well. "I peed through my diaper!" *facepalm* "you're not in a diaper!". So, I'm thinking, maybe still not ready yet.
       Wednesday morning was quite hilarious, and definitely a "drops of awesome" moment for me. (Look up "drops of awesome if you don't get the reference.) So, it was breakfast time, and as per usual I was going in and out of the kitchen, giving Jacob a bite every time I came in. Well, one time I was taking a little longer to come back, and suddenly, I hear dripping from the kitchen. Needless to say I rush to the kitchen to see what was going on...

Licking the milk out of the bowl.

See Mama! I CAN feed myself!

 Yeah, apparently he'd decided I was taking too long, so he'd get it himself. And, also apparently, I'd left him close enough to the table that he could pull himself closer. However, here's the awesome part. I don't normally feel like I get much of a choice in how I act. Most of it feels/is very reactive, and I think later. I'm working on that. But I remember, very distinctly deciding that it would be better to just take a picture and laugh at it, instead of getting angry and yelling. So that's why we even have these adorable pictures. Yay me!

And then on Friday, I again took the kids swimming. I'd bought a set of tickets, so I figure I need to go at least once a week to make sure they all get used. But also, I don't want my kids to be afraid of the water, and I want them to be able to be safe in it. So they need to get used to the water, and once or twice swimming in a summer just doesn't cut it. Anyway, it was similar to last week in that Jacob was not a fan. He wouldn't even let me hold him on my lap this time though. He had to stand and cry the whole time. I bounced him a little and he enjoyed that a couple times, (but not so much others). So, I still have some work to do there. Here's hoping that by the end of summer he'll actually enjoy the water. Jessica loved it again. This time she saw someone running in the water and decided to imitate them. Then, when it was REALLY splashy, she got very surprised. So cute. She also, at one point, slipped and went under the water. Now, the water only comes up to her knees where she was playing, so I wasn't terribly worried, except about her reaction. She was a little scared, but I hugged her a bit, helped her wipe the water from her face, and then she was back playing again. Yay! Success! She was originally very scared of water 2 summers ago, last summer was better, and now, she's our water baby.

Busy Week

      This past week was a little on the crazy side. But I'm willing to bet that much of that was my own doing. It was the week of Jessica's dance performance, but that was really just 2 things on 2 days. So, a lot of what I've been doing lately has actually been sewing. I've basically been making something every day. At the beginning of the week it was swimsuits! And I'm going to brag about it a bit, because I'm quite proud of it. I made a swimsuit for Jessica and one for myself. And, funnily enough, I'm more proud of Jessica's than my own. Yeah, mine was more difficult and took longer, but I had an exact pattern made to my specific measurements to follow. (From here) Jessica's I had a pattern, but it was for a spaghetti strap suit. Well, I didn't want a spaghetti strap suit for her. I wanted the regular tank one piece suit. So I decided to draw the top part of the pattern myself, and I think it worked out just great!

Here's the front of Jessica's swimsuit. (It's actually far more orange than pink, but oh well)

And here's the back. Note the very complete bum coverage. I modified that part of the pattern too, and was quite proud of it.

       Sorry, you're not getting a picture of my swimsuit. I'm not that confident. ;) Though, I do like the way it looks, and the way it looks on me. But just not well enough to post it online. 
I've also done a few other projects, like making shirts and shorts for the kids. Jessica had shirts, but no short pants, and Jacob had neither. Well, now they do.

For example the shorts and t-shirt in this picture. Well, Mom helped me on the shirt.

I've also been doing some "modifications" to clothes we had. Cut off shorts look way cuter like this.

Cutoff shorts with fabric as the hem. Super cute, and makes them long enough.

And this pair of pants looked far worse in its original state.

This is a before and after picture all in one. I had a pair of blue jeans that didn't seem to fit very well (note the left side of the picture) so I decided to try something I saw online. I bleached them and dyed them a light maroon color. Then, oh, about a year later, I've actually taken them in like I wanted.

So, I turned the not very flattering grey-blue jeans that were too long and fraying at the bottom into much cuter light maroon skinny jeans, that actually fit, and don't cut off circulation to my calves. Yay! I felt very awesome after this one.

And even shoes get an update

Okay, flip-flops, not really shoes. Here's the before. A normal, $1 pair of flip flops.

...And here's the after. Much, much cuter. And far more comfortable without the cheap plastic sticking to my skin and giving me blisters.

     And then, also this week, since we all had new swimsuits (though I bought Jacob's) we went swimming. (Why have swimsuits if not huh?) It was kinda interesting. Last year Jessica was terrified of the water, and Jacob loved it. This year, Jessica was having a blast running all over in the kiddie section. Jacob however was not impressed. He would not allow me to set him down. So we sat in the very VERY shallow water and I splashed his hands, and occasionally scooted down a little deeper. Way fun still though. And since both kids are still currently free (At the PG pool) its fairly inexpensive for an afternoon's fun.

     And then ballet.  It was great. It was kind of a mix between a "real" ballet and a child's ballet. Most of the people were the students, which means they were younger, but all of the "stars" and most of the more prominent roles were from the audition Ballet Utah companies. I believe the prince was actually from BYU as well (but don't quote me on that, because I'm not sure. The little dancers were so cute and hilarious in their little dances, and the older ones were gorgeous to watch. And then, of course, we have my adorable little bunny rabbit. It was interesting though. Jessica got to sit with us through the first 2 acts, as she was in the 3rd act. She did not seem too terribly interested in watching the other dancers and was trying to climb all over everywhere (thank you very much Mom for helping). We were also EXTREMELY worried about Jacob. The ballet didn't start until 7pm. That's bedtime. We even made contingency plans so that Nathaniel could take him home early if need be. Well, not needed. Jacob was ENTHRALLED the whole time. I think we may have put the wrong child in dance classes. ;)

My little bunny (without her ears) who for some reason won't smile at the camera.

And so... here is her little dance (filmed at the dress rehearsal, so maybe I'll try to post a snippet again when I get a copy of the whole ballet)

Randomness

     Okay, so I've got a fair bit of randomness to write about with a few pictures here and there. Some of the fun things about toddlers. (Okay, and crazy stuff).
     So, the other day we were coming home from shopping, or the park, or something, and Jessica asked what we were going to do when we got home. I told her I was going to "try to regain some sanity". Well, the rest of the day, Jessica kept asking me if I had my "sandidy" back. Cute and funny, but because it was about every 2-3 minutes, not really helpful. ;)


     This past Saturday we went to a birthday party, and they had face-painting there. Jessica LOVES having her face painted, and was extremely excited.

Though, she has difficulty smiling for pictures

     Jacob was a little unsure at first, but after watching everyone else get their faces painted, he was very much so willing (and even begging)

"mom, that tickled"

     The previous weekend, we'd gone to another birthday party at a park, and I found this picture on my phone...

"Please help..."

     I've also been spending a lot of time recently sewing clothes. I realized that I had no short pants for Jacob (and 2 pairs for Jessica) and about 2 short sleeve shirts for Jacob. That wasn't going to suffice it for the summer. ESPECIALLY not here in Utah. So, I got out my fabric (and bought some more, and raided my Mom's) and made some clothes. The first few I tried without a pattern, and they worked... but not quite as well.  Having a pattern makes them look a lot nicer. Here is the first little outfit I sewed for Jacob this summer.

"What are you doing mom?"

    And the last little story... So this morning we're all just going about, doing our stuff, when I overhear something Jessica said, and decided to ask her about it. Here is the conversation.
                        Jessica to Jacob: "We're going to have a new baby!"
                          Me: "Oh really?! How is that going to happen?"
                           Jessica: "When it comes out of your belly!"
                               Me: "...."

Ah, the life here in Toddlerhood. ;)

Tired

     So, I know I haven't written for a couples weeks, I've just been tired.... and overwhelmed, and the blog just seemed like one extra thing to do, so it hasn't gotten done. So... It still feels like that, but I did have a cute/cool story to tell. So at least I'm writing for now, even if I don't write much.
      Thursday I decided on a whim to take the kids to the aquarium. A lot of you probably realize what a big thing that is, for me to do anything on a whim. But anyway, while there, we were walking past an exhibit when Jessica says "a king snake!". A little surprised I look over, and sure enough it was the King Snake exhibit. I was all kinds of surprised, but then I remembered, the last time we were there (3 or 4 weeks ago) the animal encounter was the king snake. They brought out a king snake and talked about it, and then let the kids all touch it. Still pretty amazing that she remembered it 3-4 weeks later.