Zzzzz...

At daycare a schedule is followed, which probably helps the children feel comfortable.  For instance lunch is at 11:00 and nap time at 11:30 (for two hours or so).  Of course you can't make a toddler sleep but you can provide an atmosphere of peace and quiet and encourage sleeping.  So on weekends K and E try to maintain this timeline, and I am doing the same.  It's amazing!  Randy walked through the dining room as e was eating her lunch today; he passed by a few minutes later and saw me eating lunch alone.  "Where is e?" he asked.  "In bed," I replied.  Most days it goes just this smoothly.  Her teacher told E one day that e was not ready to sleep at first but did walk around the room patting the other children on the back as they lay on their mats.  That must have been cute!

They're here!

The population of our house more than doubled Sunday night when e and her parents arrived.  The preparations paid off; things have gone smoothly this week.  Monday afternoon E heard e wake from her nap before I did, so she got her up.  When I walked into the room, e reached out for me and my heart melted.  Caring for a toddler seems to take more energy than caring for an infant.  Now that e can walk on her own, she doesn't stay in one place very long so I have to watch her carefully.  She really likes to look at our bookcases and pull out books, especially those with blue spines.  That's OK except most of the books have paper pages that can tear easily, so more careful watching is needed.  I don't want to keep saying no and am getting better at distracting her with her own books or toys.  She still has a cold; E says it's been around since e started daycare.  K also has a bad cold this week and even took a day off work to rest.

The peg board our daughters used some 30 years ago has been a big hit.  Not only do the pegs fit in a base, they can stack, or be put in a truck or cup, or slip through a hole in the back of the TV cart now being used as a table (just the right height for e).  We have managed to lose one peg this week, though.  I'm hoping it will turn up, but if not that's OK.  Whether it's with 23 or 24 pegs, little hands can have fun.

I follow several quilt blogs.  I don't know how these quilters manage to make daily posts; they must be very organized and disciplined.  They often mention household chores, or traveling to visit family, or going out to lunch with a friend, so I know they have lives outside the sewing room.  But they still provide their readers with descriptions of their latest work.  I seem to have trouble carving out a few minutes to keep this blog up to date.

Speaking of quilts, I decided to donate the "Raggedy Bull's Eye" quilt to the silent auction raising money for the East Bay Lutheran Youth Program.  It sold for $95 after a bidding war.  I enjoyed making it, the  youth program benefits, the buyer will enjoy it, and I moved fabric out of the house.  Everybody wins!

Progress

We are making progress!  I took the clothes stored in the crib to the Salvation Army on Wednesday.  I began clearing off the desk in my sewing room.  Yesterday I washed the toys that had been in boxes and also the new plastic cups, forks and spoons for e.  The car seat we ordered arrived, and we've been reading its manual as well as the manual for each car, trying to decide which car we will put it in.  We won't actually install it yet because the straps need to be adjusted to fit e.  I've spent time practicing and planning my church music for the next couple of weeks.  And my bill at Safeway yesterday showed we will have extra people around.

Today I plan to clean house and continue working on the desk, trying to put away or recycle those papers and pictures and other things currently in a laundry basket (my quick clean-up method).

Movies

We've been to two movies already this year.  Both were very good, though totally different.  "The Finest Hours" is based on the true story of a Coast Guard rescue in February 1952 of the survivors on an oil tanker that broke in half during a fierce storm off the Massachusetts coast.  Chris Pine stars and is believable as the young serviceman who knows his lifeboat and the waters.  Casey Affleck is the engineer on the tanker trying to keep it afloat.  Tense, even though we knew what happened in the real event.

Then a week or so later we saw "Brooklyn," which tells the story of a young girl who leaves her home in Ireland, also in the early 50's, to travel to New York City, specifically Brooklyn, where an Irish priest has a job waiting for her in a large department store.  She makes her way in this new land and falls in love, then returns to Ireland at the death of a family member.  Will she stay?  Saoirse Ronan has been nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of the young woman, and the movie for Best Picture.  I hope they both win!

Last night we watched "Love Actually," a nice way to spend time together on Valentine's Day.  Several different kinds of relationships are portrayed in this film by some really good actors.  And the music is fun, too.  Even though we'd both seen this before a time or two it still made us laugh at certain points.

Getting ready

Last week I worked on the little quilt with little squares, using my friend's sewing machine.  While it is very smooth and quiet while sewing, I missed my own, so I was happy to pick it up Thursday from the shop.  Now it also sounds smooth and quiet.  My goal for this quilt was 16 squares, which I have completed.  But yesterday when I pressed them and began to square them to 10 1/2 inches I saw that some of the 10 square columns are really too short, probably because it took me a while to be comfortable with Carol's machine, with knowing where the quarter inch seam allowance fell.  So it looks like some unsewing is called for.

This week I must begin clearing off the desk in my sewing room to prepare it for E to work on when she and her family arrive next weekend.  Other chores include cleaning up the baby gate (currently in the garage) for the stairs, borrowing Dena's high chair, taking clothes currently stored in the crib to the Salvation Army, getting ahead in my practicing (while e was content enough in her stroller last fall while I played organ, I'm not sure I can count on that this visit), cleaning the guest bathroom, setting up a diaper changing station, choosing the best room to play in, and on and on.

Time flies

Where does time go?  I've had good intentions...I last posted here on February 4, from Phoenix.  We had hoped to visit the zoo that day but had to wait for a delivery; when it finally arrived e was about to go down for her nap.  So we saved the zoo for Friday.  E and I finished a jigsaw puzzle and talked about her work, house, trips she hopes to take, in general had a lovely afternoon.  At the zoo e walked among the goats at the petting zoo, touching a couple but mostly just looking.  I think she enjoyed the giraffes, pointing at the picture of the tall animals then pointing at the actual ones.  A connection was made!  Back at home e and I played "Chase the Little Girl," or was it "Chase Grandma"?  Round and around the kitchen island we went, always just out of sight of each other, till one of us reversed direction and caught the other.  One big step, I think, is e learning to blow her nose, important because she has had a cold ever since she started daycare.  If you don't catch her soon enough, a giant sneeze releases a river of mucous (to put it politely) over her mouth and chin.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the "Black Bear" diner, where the portions are gigantic!  Soon after, K left for the Phoenix Open; one of his golf buddies had won two tickets and invited K to join him at the 17th hole.  We kept e up after lunch, hoping she would sleep in the car as we made the trip to the airport, and she did.  I arrived home in time for supper.

Groundhog Day

For several years now I have taken time on February 2 to watch the movie "Groundhog Day," starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell.  Murray plays a TV weatherman, Phil Connors, sent to Punxsutawney, PA to report on whether groundhog Phil sees his shadow on Groundhog Day.  Somehow weatherman Phil enters a time loop, repeating Feb 2 hundreds, if not thousands, of times.  It is a clever idea with lots of laughs as well as thoughtful moments.  This year I did not watch it because on Tuesday I flew to Phoenix to see e and her parents.

What a difference seven weeks can make!  e is so mobile now, walking all the time with her cute little sneakers (gray with white stars).  She recognizes many words and can point to the lion or shoes or her head or whatever when asked.  That first afternoon we were sitting in her playroom and all at once she sat in my lap with a book.  Precious!  She uses more sign language now, with signs for again/more, all done, eat, please, and probably others I haven't noticed.  She uses a spoon for her yogurt and such, though her hands and fingers are still the preferred method of conveying food to her mouth; yes, she eats yogurt with her fingers when she's tired of the spoon.  Sometimes she permits her mom to feed her, but mostly she wants to feed herself.  She smiles a lot but can fuss when she doesn't get her way, like when she stands by the refrigerator apparently wanting a cheese stick and E refuses because it's almost supper time.  At the same time, she usually can be distracted from her snit.

So while I'm not in a time loop like Phil Connors, I do feel like I'm repeating a bit of my life from last year.  And it's a good thing.