Sew Mama Sew's Big Giveaway Day!

December 2nd is Sew Mama Sew's big giveaway day, they will be posting a whole list of blogs/shops that are giving something away!
Check it out on there website:
http://sewmamasew.com/

Wordless Wednesday...

Knitting is where it's at!!

At at local photographers request, I have rediscovered my passion for knitting and away I've gone. I'm discovering new patterns, new yarns, and that I have a lot less time than I'd prefer to be able to knit, sew and do an as sundry of other crafts! For your viewing pleasure below, a photo taken from Ali Johnson (www.alijohnson.com) recent newborn photoshoot wearing one of our knitted hats. In addition to a new pattern I'm trying out via her request. I've really enjoyed getting back to the knitting needles, look for new designs/patterns to be displayed soon!

Fuzzy, Fizzy, and just plain funky hats!

On top of being a mom and daycare provider, I also have my own craft business, The Giggling E. This is where my craftiness and creativity truly thrive! Among an assortment of hand sewn items from infant bibs to lovey blankets and I, along with my mother, knit an array of cute and funky infant-child hats. These have really begun to take off and I'm excited to say that a local photographer in our area has purchased a few to try during her newborn and infant photo shoots! I can't wait to share with you the lovely turn out of photos after her shoot this weekend.

Sweet Escape

Sometimes what we need is a simple sweet escape. My escape for the morning was cranking the radio to Gwen Stefani's, Sweet Escape and watching my 2.5 year old's eyes light up. He's always loved this song. He quickly fashioned his own "mic" out of some toys and went to dancing and singing what words he could make out "My own world" "sweet escape" and the blissful "woo hoos". And then he asked mommy to pick him up and dance with him like we've done so often in the past. Except this time, we both took our own turns "woo hoo"ing into the mic he'd made. Its moments like these that you've got to love being a little kid with your own little one!

The things they say..

As this blog continues to grow, I hope to bring you little tidbits that the children, in daycare and my own delight me with every day.

Quote of the week:

"My daddy will be home when he's done drawing.." -Ellison

Ellison's daddy is an architect. So essentially, "drawing" is what daddy does all day, amongst a few dozen other things! For the most part, he's got it right.

Turn 9 months and the temper does strike...

Madison had been munching on a pretzel, something I wasn't quite sure she was ready for so I removed it from her mouth. Moments later I realized she was having quite the meltdown, crying, yelling etc. I picked her up trying to soothe her. It failed to work. I stripped her as at this point she was quite upset and I thought perhaps something in her clothing or diaper was hurting her. At this point she was hysterical. I redressed her and tried to calm her again.

Then it struck me. The pretzel. Sure enough, I returned the sacred pretzel and the hysteria seized.

Don't mess with a girl and her pretzels.

It just no longer...

I should of known it wasn't going to be my day. It really hasn't been my week. To start off, my sweet baby girl got ahold of my keys and apparently in a very short (matter of a minute) amount of time soaked my car key remote and now they no longer work. The following day I managed to drip water on our video monitor and now it no longer works. The following morning my laptop cord began shorting and sparking so now it no longer charges. So for the mean time, the blog posts my be few for now until I manage some sort of resolution to my laptop situation.

The daycare morning hasn't gone that smoothly either and I am running on low fuel at this point. To top it off my nap reprieve has not been as my infant won't nap and I've managed to burn my lunch. At least this could be the beginning of a very easy diet plan!

Lets hope that things will go up from here! And I'll be back with more in the near future.

They grow so fast

Our youngest began her first steps a few weeks ago. She's now taking to walking a majority of the time over crawling!

Parenting, you'll always be learning as you go..

They say you learn something new every day. Parenting is certainly no exception. Every mother spends an enormous amount of time, loving, nuturing and protecting your little ones. I know I certainly do the latter more than others. By nature and some genetics I'm what you'd describe as a "worrier" throw parenting in the mix and you can watch that increase a notch or two. And the way to protect them you ask? Always be on the defense. This means always predicting, imagining ways in which trouble might arise and how to avoid or resolve that issue. Its like the simple things, you cover all your electrical outlets when your child becomes mobile, put all the breakables out of reach etc. We can scurry, scamper, baby proof, coddle them, hold their hands but the fact remains they will fall down, they will get hurt, and they will be okay. Last Sunday was one of those very moments. As my son scurried back and forth on a beach dock, my husband and I watched with careful eyes. And sure enough he slipped off the dock and fell right into four foot deep water. While holding our nine month old, my heart rushed to my throat completely panic stricken, I urgently snapped at my husband to move faster to rescue him. Unfortunately for my husband he could of been flying at the speed of light and it wouldn't of been quick enough as time seemed to have slowed to a painful crawling pace. It seemed as though he was walking thrpugh mud to reach him. He of course scooped up our frightened little one and he was fine. After this experience I spent a good deal of time strained about what I had just witnessed, feeling we hadn't watched him close enough. We should of been more careful. We should of protected him. I couldn't bare to think of what could of happened. Thankfully to my husband I was enlightened to a more important lesson in all of this. By the end of the day I had quizzed him as to why he hadn't been closer, why we let him meander so far from us on that dock. He put it so simply, that he had a made a conscious effort to stay close to him yet at the same time allow for him to have his own freedom and independence. It's reminded me the importance of needing to protect them theres also the significant need to let our children become their own individual, independent and unique selves. To not allow my own concerns, fears and worries cripple them by becoming their own. Lesson one complete. Lets hope at the end of this, I can pass the final exam.

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these feet are made for walking...

Not quite 9 months and walking! With two walking things are about to change!

Memory Jar

A good friend of mine enlightened a group of us to the concept of a "memory jar". A way of recording those precious and life changing moments of yours and your childrens lives. Upon waking up to my 8 months old fussing at 2am last night, I walked into one of those very moments to store in my own memory jar. To my surprise I walked in to my 2.5 year old sitting in the rocker next to his sister's crib reading a book to her. My reaction, "What heaven's name are you doing?!" He replied matter of factly "Reading Maddie Moo a story". A determined effort to soothe his crying sister. After retrieving her from her crib to feed her he hopped down and rubbed her back reassuring her it was all ok and began singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her. It brought tears to my eyes. With no objection he hopped back into bed and chatted with me as I fed her and reminded him that it was still time to sleep. Before she had finished eating he was fast asleep again. Yes indeed, a perfect moment to store.

Wordless Wednesday (thanks Steph and Lizzie )

A little too clean

Yes, it is true, things can get a little too clean around here. What do I discover in my laundry room, but a pool of hand soap covering my entire dryer, dripping down the front and into a puddle beneath it. And to completely describe this story I'll have to own up to the clutter that covered my dryer, a small pile of dirty laundry, a few bags containing sewing scraps and a few other misc. plastic bags. Yes all of which swimming in the quarter inch layer of hand soap. Oh this laundry was going to get really clean! Naturally I took the dirty laundry and tossed it all in the washer and was brillant enough to not place in any "extra detergent" seeing as they were layered already! Unfortunately as one might of guessed, this lead to the cleaning of the rest of my laundry room. A very sudsy and squeaky clean laundry room.

And a tip for all those in a similar predicament, vinegar will really cut back on those excessive bubbles that hand soap leads to! Now if only I had take a photo or two to remember it by!

Messy

Let’s face it, pregnancy, child bearing and rearing are messy. Anyone who has experienced pregnancy or childbirth can tell you, it is all down hill from there! Suddenly the things that seemed so private, uncleanly or crude bare no weight on that’s revealed during these stages of ones life. From the intimate moments of childbirth to the dirty Kleenex stuffed up your sleeves & dirty diapers, it is messy. You either learn to flow with it or you drive your self crazy battling it. And with this I bring you my little artist in training. A toddler, paint and a free canvas of paper outdoors, he couldn’t of been happier.

The Giggling E

My second love beyond motherhood is my craft business, The Giggling E, named after our son affectionately referred to as "E" a perpetual giggler. And as part of this blog I will be sharing my journey in crafting with you. As a crafter, I love finding new things to sew, knit, embroider and just flex my creative muscles. One of my latest creations for Father's Day was matching "grill aprons" for my husband and son.

Y Knot write them down..

I am constantly relaying all of my daily antics and hilarity of my adventures in motherhood, a crafter and as a childcare provider. My husband finally mentioned a blog, might be fun to record these events, a sort of way to log the memories of these days. I hope you enjoy joining along with our experiences!

My joys and loves...