Noodle Soup

PSA time

I have been working on my digital photo organization this past week, and during that process came across some pictures I haven't looked at in a while, and haven't been ready to scrapbook or share. I think I'm ready now.

*warning: deep thoughts ahead*

 

 

 

 

 
I can't believe it's been 4+ years since these were taken. In my mind, it's still like yesterday, and also a lifetime ago.

In May of 2006, when she was 2 years old, Taite fell out of a second story bedroom window, rolled down the slope of our roof, bounced off the hood of my car, and landed in our driveway. I stood in the driveway watching it happen. It was completely surreal...there was no way it could be happening, and yet there it was. And like a nightmare, my feet couldn't move fast enough to stop it. My mind has replayed it a million times.

Taite was upstairs with Kendra, supervised, sitting on her bed, eating jelly beans. I had just come back from the gym and was standing by the driveway, waiting for the house painters to pack up their truck so we could escape the paint stink and go get some dinner. Taite started to jump on the bed, Kendra told her no and reached for her, and Taite lurched away into the window screen, which popped right out. Kendra screamed, I looked up, and there was my baby rolling down the roof.

Thankfully, she only suffered a broken arm, a gash in her chin that required stitches, and a bunch of minor scrapes. Her arm needed surgery to set it, and we spent three days in the hospital. It could have been so much worse. The doctors and EMTs said it was my car that saved her, designed to absorb impact. And it had only been parked there for about 10 minutes when she fell. The grace of that is not lost on me.

So why am I telling you this?

Well, first of all, secure your windows if you have little ones. I was told that falls like this are very common during the warm months - as in more than 4,000 kids are admitted to the ER every year for falling out a window. I am a "good mom" - I buy organic produce, slather my kids with sunscreen, make them wear bike helmets. It never occurred to me that my child could become a safety statistic. If it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours. Take precautions. There are a few different gadgets you can install. I think window stops are the easiest, most economical option - little screw-like things that go on the window track and stop the window from opening more than 4". It's a drag in the hot months to not be able to open the upstairs windows all the way...but it's better than the alternative. If you don't mind the look of bars, you can install window guards on the outside and still be able to open the window all the way.

The second reason I'm sharing this is because I want you to know (and want to remind myself) that it's okay to have pictures and experiences you're not ready to deal with. It's even okay to have pictures you never scrapbook. I have photos of Taite in the hospital that look absolutely horrible and I can't think of any good reason to print those out and put them on a page. She knows the story, she remembers somewhat, and we talk about it sometimes. Since the beginning of time, stories have been passed down verbally; not every story has to be shared in a concrete, visual way to be acknowledged.

What I am ready to do is print the photos of her cast. I can talk about how we fancied it up with my acrylic paints, and how having a cast on her arm did not phase her in the least, and how the same spunk that made her adaptable also got her put in time-out for clobbering her brother with an armful of plaster when she got mad. I can find a portion of this story I am comfortable sharing in my scrapbook, without having to show the photos that make me cringe. There is no right or wrong amount. It's up to me.

Am I sugar-coating it by choosing a positive spin? Being unauthentic? Writing revisionist history? I don't think so. I think focusing on the more positive, lighter aspects tells a story of it's own authenticity in our family: things are what you make of them. An awful thing happened, but it shaped us, and we painted that cast and carried on, and we're okay.

Winter is make-believe in California, and other observations

Here in California, where we pull out the sweaters and Uggs when the thermometer dips into the 60s, actual, frozen, wintery weather is regarded as sort of a fairy tale. Snow, icicles, frozen ponds with skaters -- those are fictional entities to kids who are accustomed to spending Saturday afternoons on the beach in February.

Behold exhibit A: The weather outside was 78 degrees last Saturday, and my kids were indoors playing "Winter", complete with a frozen pond and a Littlest Pet Shop ice skating party.

 

 
Aside from the ingenious idea to freeze a plastic container of water for an ice rink, and the inherent cuteness of my kids, I realized these photos tell several different stories.

• Littlest Pet Shops are possibly THE defining toys of Taite's childhood. She has gotten a lot of mileage out of these bobble-headed critters over the past few years, and her collection of pets and accessories is pretty impressive. They are to her childhood what Barbies and the Lundby dollhouse were to mine.

• Littlest Pet Shop is something Reece and Taite enjoying playing together. With the boy/girl and age difference, there are few toys that interest both of them, so that's big. 

• Each and every one of those 150 or so pets has a name, and the kids remember them all. Yet, they forget where they took off their shoes.

• There is almost always a pile of crap junk on the corner of my family room fireplace, as seen in the background of the first picture. (Who am I kidding with the 'almost'??) This used to really bug me when I would take a photo and realize it was "ruined" with clutter in the background. But I have come to terms with the fact that this is how life is with kids. My fireplace will be clutter-free when they're all grown up, and I will probably miss that pile. Or, at least the time in my life it represents. And then I'll look at pictures like this and smile nostalgically.

• Both kids are into sleeping in Dad's big t-shirts lately, even though they have really cute Nick and Nora pajamas.

• Playing Littlest Pet Shop is a pretty standard Saturday morning activity around here these days, along with watching Spongebob, and making pancakes.

Amazing how a couple of pictures can encapsulate so many different snapshots of our life!

Faster than a speeding bullet

Today was superhero spirit day at school. And, because I'm me, I found this out at around 10pm last night.

Reece had no problem rounding up an old Batman cape this morning and shoving it in his backpack until he assessed whether any other 4th graders were dressing up. (They were, so he did).

Taite, on the other hand, would have been better suited to a Disney princess spirit day, based on her costume inventory. What to do. I have a Wonder Woman costume (as you may know), but it's way too big for her. This was going to require some thinking on my feet.

Faster than a speeding bullet, I appropriated the Wonder Woman cape and an old white t-shirt from her closet, and ferreted through my fabric scraps.

I ironed some Wonder Under (aptly named for the occasion) onto a couple of scraps and cut out a 5" circle and a 4" letter T with my trusty Cricut (have I mentioned how much I LOVE this machine?? I have another recent ode to the crafty powers of the Cricut on the Ella blog, in case you haven't seen it yet.)

I stitched on a little star applique for fun, and Wham-o! Pow! Zap! Superhero cuteness, no phone booth required.

 

As she walked into the classroom, she definitely had that little spring in her step that only wearing a superhero cape can give you. Makes me wonder why I don't wear that cape around the house from time to time. Because, seriously? We all know who the REAL superhero was in this story. ;)

Mission accomplished

Reece's 4th grade California Mission project is officially behind us. 

Three down, one to go. 

The history of the missions, and the accompanying report and projects, are a huge part of the California 4th grade curriculum. Thankfully, the students now do the bulk of this unit in class, liberating me from the sugar cube architecture and outlandish projects of the Justin and Kendra era. (I recall a trip to Kendra's mission that involved me toting video equipment while she played roving reporter circa 1769...in the pouring rain.)

Here is Reece, with his painted tile of Mission San Diego Alcala.

 

Sidenote: That is supposed to be a cross on the top, but the brush he was using was rather thick. When Taite saw it, she said, "You did a good job on Texas". I spent about three seconds marveling smugly over my kindergartner's advanced cognitive ability to recognize the shape of Texas. Then she informed me she garnered that bit of knowledge from Spongebob, and my exalted parenting status plummeted back to its previous level.

Six

Taite turned six on Friday, and celebrated with the COOLEST big sister ever.

Kendra invited Taite for a sleepover in her dorm on Thursday night. 

 

They ate breakfast at the campus cafeteria on Friday morning, Kendra's roomies did Taite's hair and nails, and then Kendra & a couple of friends took the birthday girl to Disneyland.

 

 

 
 
Later that evening, we met up at Farrell's for a family celebration. 

Taite said it was the best birthday ever. Also, she thought college was pretty cool, so I don't think I'll have any trouble convincing her to get good grades for the next 12 years. ;)

ETA: 

I can't believe I forgot to mention that Taite lost her tooth at dinner right before we left to drop her off with Kendra. So the Tooth Fairy had to visit her in the dorm...I'm sure that was a first! Taite woke all the sleepy college girls at 6:30 a.m. to let them know the Tooth Fairy had, indeed, been there.

This little piggy stayed home

That’s right folks, this little piggy has the swine flu. It was pretty awful yesterday…the washing machine was working overtime, if you know what I mean. Bleah. She’s taking Tamiflu and doing much, much better today. As you can see, she has her sense of humor back already. Yay for pharmaceuticals!

I have some things on deck to blog about, including another installment of Word On The Tweet, but you’ll have to stay tuned because right now I have laundry to put away. Lots and lots of laundry.

Halloween happenings

I’m emerging from my sugar coma to share some Halloween pics. Would you believe there were only TWO mini Heath Bars and ONE Dubble Bubble in the entire haul this year? What’s up with that?? I’ve been consoling myself with M&Ms and Kit Kats for the time being.

Reece and Taite were gross/scary/cool, and adorable, respectively, as a punk zombie skater and Shirley Temple.

 

 

We passed out mini chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s, wrapped like mummies. (And yes, that is her real hair. Thanks to the 10 years Kendra spent performing with Kids Are Music, I know how to rock the sponge rollers!)

 

The ceremonial Sorting of the Loot is always a highlight of the evening (and is typically preceded by the ceremonial Removing of the Sweaty Mask):

 

 “Surely, you’re not going to eat all of that candy.”

“I am, and don’t call me Shirley.”

 

That joke just never got old all night long!

Recycled cuteness

This top hasn’t fit Taite for 2 years, but I couldn’t bear to get rid of it because it’s so darn cute.

 

Yesterday, the creative light bulb went on over my head, and I decided to repurpose the adorable design on a shirt that fits her.

Here’s what I did.

First, I cut off the front of the tank top. I will admit it totally freaked me out. I think I have some sort of latent issues remaining from the repercussions of cutting a hole in my stylin’ Jan Brady-ish plaid pants when I was 4. Anyway, I held my breath and cut.

 

No one scolded me, so I continued on by cutting a piece of Ultra Hold Heat N Bond to approximately the same size, and ironed them together per the directions. And yes, that is a paper towel you see in between the fabric and the ironing board. Dude, I am on my 3^rd ironing board cover this year. I have learned.

 

Next, I cut out the design more exactly. This is much easier to do AFTER the Heat N Bond is on there because the paper gives it some extra stability. Also, it gets rid of the edges that sometimes don’t bond as securely.

 

I peeled off the paper backing and ironed the design onto the front of a $5 Old Navy t-shirt, secretly wishing I had one with a nice, big stain on the front that I could feel really pleased about hiding. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

The Heat N Bond instructions say not to sew after adhering because of the thickness of the adhesive, but I usually do anyway and haven’t ever had a problem with it. Especially with this appliqué being particularly thick and heavy, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to budge. I used a regular straight stitch and went around all the edges.

 

Then I added one charming girl in an owl skirt (I made that a couple of months ago), and bingo – recycled cuteness!

 

Sew and Tell - The Embroidery Edition

After making Taite a skirt out of some cute matrioshka fabric, I came across this adorable pattern from Sublime Stitching.

 

I know! So cute, right?

But I had never embroidered anything, EVER. Still, the pattern was only $5, a t-shirt from Old Navy is only $5, and embroidery floss and a hoop would be relatively inexpensive. I figured it was a small enough investment to make it worth a try. If it sucked, I could always throw it out.

Well, guess what? It doesn't suck, if I do say so myself. It's actually super cute!

 

(weird up-the-nose photo angle...sorry)

The most fun part was choosing my embroidery floss colors from the gargantuan display at the craft store. I was in color heaven! And the embroidery part wasn't hard at all. The instructions were very easy to understand, and Sublime Stitching offers a lot of really helpful info on their website, including a link called Total Beginner Instructions. I had to learn what stabilizer is, and go get some, but other than that, I just ironed on the design and basically traced it with the thread, using the simple stitch in the instructions. It took me about two hours to finish while watching TV, and I enjoyed having something busy to do with my hands so I didn't feel so much like a couch potato while catching up with the DVR.

Putting 40 Top Tips to the Test

Today was the first day of school for my kiddos – the perfect time to try out some of the tips from Rebecca Cooper’s new photography e-book from Ella Publishing.

My first day of school pics are typically pretty mediocre, but thanks to Rebecca, I was much more conscious today of lighting, background, & perspective.

Here are a few of my favorites.

The requisite ‘front door shot’…only this year I remembered to have them step forward, out of that annoying slice of sunlight that’s usually across someone’s face.

New school shoes are a very big deal around here, so I had to document that.

Taite in her sparkle-tastic Sketchers Twinkle Toes…

…and Reece in his super cool Ecko sneakers. Notice he already has a slightly scuffed toe, and he has been wearing them for 10 minutes.

This was a first for me, shooting up the front steps of the school. (ETA: Shooting the photo from below the steps...I was not shooting up the school!) Love it! This may become our new traditional shot. Much more interesting than that front door.

This one just warms my heart. Can I get a collective “Awwwww”? Big brother leading little sis by the hand on her first day at “big school”. Sheesh, I’m getting all teary again.

I had my camera zoomed in and focused, and called Reece’s name while he was waiting for his classroom door to open. I snapped this photo in just the instant he looked up, before he could go all goofy 4th grader on me. This is one of those ‘glimpse into the future’ photos, I think. He looks so grown up!

And finally, a detail shot of the backpacks. As nostalgic as I am about my elementary school lunchboxes and fashion trends, I’m sure Reece will one day appreciate a record of what constituted a cool backpack, circa 2009.

What would the first day of school be without a pop quiz? I’ll leave you with the page I did yesterday, amongst the madness and mayhem of back to school preparations, using the fab quizzes & sketches download from Ella Publishing. I printed & cut out the journaling spots in the morning, and had Reece fill in the details just before dinner. Once the kids were in bed, in between a last minute grocery store run for paper lunch bags, and baking my traditional back to school school brownies, I threw this page together. With minimal brain power, I was able to complete it in less than 30 minutes, including the time I spent obsessing over whether my circles were even. (That top right one is not, but I'm mostly over it now.)

I’m thinking I’m going to swap that photo for the one of him in the hat from this morning…since he mentions his hats being the coolest thing about him.

Has anyone else tried a quiz page yet, inspired by Angie & Wendy's book or eZine article?