Big and Little…..quilts that is

I recently finished a very challenging quilt project (well I am almost done, will have to bind them when I get them back.) I completed two identical queen size quilt tops, one for me, one for my mom. When I began the project it seemed like a good idea. Nearly two years later, I am questioning my sanity. I completed a few other quilts in this time as well, but have had this hanging over my head for awhile now. I have one top off to the long arm quilter already, and will get her the second one this week.!

Starry Path quilt top

Now for the little. I picked this litttle pattern up at the quilt show I went to a few weeks ago. It is made with little 2 inch bear paw blocks. (they are 2.5 inches here with the seam allowance.) I think they are so cute! The quilt will be about 20×24 inches when finished.

Animal Lover

Elizabeth has always been an animal lover- real and stuffed. She has never been very into dolls (unlike Sarah.) She is very nurturing with her animals, pretends to feed them, take them to the vet etc. She has handed all of her dolls over to her sister for now.

Elizabeth on her Birthday

We recently got an American Girl catalog in the mail. Elizabeth has poured over it. When my sister was visiting, it was there favorite thing to look at. (She doesn’t have an AG doll yet, just an imitation one that she thinks is an AG doll.)

Today she wanted to look at the catalog with me. She said “Mommy, I know the names of ALL the animals. All the pets.” I said “that is great Elizabeth, but do you know the names of the girls?” She said “No, just the pets.”

The perfume incident

As I was unpacking from our trip home for Thanksgiving, I left one suitcase with all of our laundry. I seemed to have left a bottle of perfume in it and did not know it. Around lunchtime, Elizabeth came running into the kitchen yelling “mommy, Sarah is spraying my.” I started to smell something, and realized it was perfume! Sarah had found the perfume and had liberally applied it to herself. She smelled horrible! I quickly fed them lunch and threw them both in the tub. It took another bath the next day to completely rid her of the smell.

I told my mother about it, and she reminded me of an incident where I sprayed myself with perfume while I was being babysat by a neighbor. I guess history repeats itself.

A clean house

A clean house would be so nice. Somehow, I seem to be unable to make mine that way. Clutter, clutter everywhere. The girls are like mini-tornadoes leaving a wake of play food, purses, shoes and paper. Yesterday I walked into the kitchen and there were 4, count them 4 purses on the floor. None of them was mine. I take that back, one of them was mine, but I have not used it in awhile. It was stolen by a kleptomaniac 2 year old last week. My mother-in-law assures me that one day I will have a clean house again, and that I will miss all of the messes that my children make. I am sure that is true. I saw a mug that says “A clean house is a sign of a wasted life.” I guess I should embrace that philosophy for the time being. I would just like to get more than the required kitchen cleaning, laundry folding, bathroom cleaning done that is all I seem to get done these days. Well, off to scrape play dough off of the kitchen floor.

Happy Birthday Sarah (only about a month late)

So I am a slacker. In my defense I was having some computer issues, ha ha. Miss Sarah turned 2 on the 13th of September. My how time has flown! It is hard to believe it was 2 years ago that we welcomed her to the world. She has been such a sweet, pleasant child, a definite blessing to our family.

We had a fun party for her at our house with some friends and grandparents. Her favorite gift by far was a pair of Cinderella shoes that Elizabeth gave her. She did not want to take them off, and tried to throw them into her crib to sleep with them. She loves prancing around the house in them.

Here is Sarah- just born

About 2 months old

About 7 months

Sarah- age 1

18 months

Sarah’s Birthday Party

School has started

Fall, glorious fall. School has started once again, and this morning I get three, count them three mornings of almost freedom. Going from two kids down to one seems like freedom at this point. Elizabeth is very excited about her new school. Once again, the only things she tells me that she does at school are have a snack and play outside. She did offer up some information the other day about the “behavior chart” that has made a big impression on her. I believe she is one of those kids who believes her teachers are the most fabulous things ever, and she greatly wants to please them, so she seems to want to stay on “green” and not get in trouble. She absolutely loved her teachers last year, and hopefully will have a great relationship with this year’s teacher as well.

Sarah is a bit confused as to where Elizabeth has gone, and asks me “where’s Lizzie” all morning.

Here is a picture of Elizabeth on the first day of school, showing off her new glasses that she gets to wear to school.

Is there a Lieutenant Commander in the house?

Why yes there is! Bill was promoted this week. He finally put on his oak leaves. He found out he was selected last August, and had to wait until this week to finally have his time to be promoted roll around. The girls and I went up to his office to help with it. The ceremony was held in the Commodore’s office. Of course, Elizabeth provided the humor. She enjoyed playing with the Commodore’s battle coins, and right after the ceremony, she walked up to us and said “Mommy, someone said I could have this,” holding a battle coin. The Commodore looked a bit concerned until Master Chief told him it was not one of his, and that he had just given it to Elizabeth. It was pretty funny. They gave her one of the Squadron 6 Battle coins which she thinks is pretty cool!

I know a great game

“I know a great game.” This is what Elizabeth said to me at dinner. She then told me that the game is “The listening game. Mommy will tell us what to do, and we will listen and do what she says.” (Is she for real?) I said “that is my favorite game”! She said “we should play this every day” (Is it Christmas today or something?) I said “why yes we should .” Now, we apparently only played this game for about 2 minutes, but it was a fabulous 2 minutes. Maybe tomorrow we can play for longer.

Tough as nails

Little Sarah seems to have quite the pain tolerance/indifference to injury.  Examples: Sarah got her finger pricked at the pediatrician a few weeks ago, she did not cry. She did however scream bloody murder that she could not get the band aid off of her finger later. Our front door is black and faces east. It gets VERY hot in the morning. Right after we moved in, as I was carrying the girls outside one morning, Sarah’s arm accidentally brushed against it. She said “bump” which is what she says whenever she hits her head, falls down, etc. I didn’t think much of it. Later, I saw that she had an angry red burn on her arm. I felt H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E. It was there for over a week. She fell down in the driveway the other day, scraped her knee a little bit. She got up, said bump, brushed her knee off and ran off. I am hoping that this high pain tolerance, no drama approach to injury continues. On the other hand I have Elizabeth who gets upset over a small scratch for about a week, telling me over and over about her owie. It is also a little concerning, because I am afraid she will get a bad injury (like the burn and also the cut she got on her toe when she pulled a closet door across it in Hawaii), and I will not realize or know how bad it is.  For now it is just one of those things about kids that just makes you go, hmmmmm.

4 year old philosophical debate

We have new neighbors, and Elizabeth’s new friend spent the day with her yesterday. They were happily playing play-dough in the kitchen, cutting out shapes with cookie cutters, and I overheard a very deep, intense discussion.

Friend: My mommy says a diamond is not a shape.

E: A diamond is a shape.

Friend: No it is not a shape

E: It is a shape

and so on for about 3 minutes.

It was all I could do to keep from laughing at the intensity with which they were debating this topic.

Our little curly girl with her head of stone refused to give in and calmly, but firmly held her ground. I hope this is a skill that serves her well in life. It will probably frustruate me to no end in about 10 years

On a side note, Elizabeth had her school physical today and all was well. Hard to believe that she is 44 inches tall! Only 4 inches from being 4 feet!