The Grandma card

Already es knows some things at our house are different than at her house.  For instance, we have not taken the side off her crib to turn it into a toddler bed (as her folks did to her bed at home), but she doesn't complain when I put her in it for quiet time after lunch.  (She may complain about quiet time, but not the bed.)  The few times she has spent the night with us she didn't ask to sleep in our bed with us the way she sleeps in "MommyDaddy bed" at home.    When she plays with the Play-Doh I put the white ceramic cutting board on the coffee table for her to work on, so she knows to ask for it;  at her house she works directly on the table.  On the other hand, when she was here Wednesday she asked for ice cream, which she does not do at her house, and I gave her a tiny spoonful with chocolate on top as she requested.  Since I see her at least five days a week I don't feel the need to spoil her with special treats as I might if I saw her once a year as my parents saw our daughters.  I try to follow her parents' wishes.  But once in a while I do play the Grandma card.

From lap to floor

One of the little challenges in caring for an infant is how to move him smoothly from one position to another when he is asleep.  For instance this morning ec fell asleep while sitting on my lap facing out into the room.  How could I stand up and walk across the room then lay him down on the quilt on the floor, all without waking him?  Experience helps.  I knew I had to slip my right hand under his legs as my left hand cushioned his neck and head, while kneeling.  Success!

After he wakes up and has a bottle, we will walk down to the farmers's market for some peaches, tomatoes and such.  Oops...I hear him calling!

Uncomfortable baby

There's nothing quite like holding a sleeping baby on your lap!  This morning ec and I went to the post office, Walgreen's and Kohl's, walking all around the shopping center.  He fell asleep before Kohl's. I guess my shopping was not exciting enough for him!  He took a bottle at 11:30 or so, guzzling it down yet stopping occasionally to cry.  He often does this on Mondays, when thawed milk fills his bottles.  He napped again later, but woke up crying hard.  I picked him up and he hushed, returning to sleep.  But when I tried to lay him down the screaming started.  So I ended up holding him for quite a while.  When my neck/shoulder got tired, I just eased his bottom down to my lap so I wasn't holding him up.  I didn't mind; I was trying to finish reading Option B by Sheryl Sandburg, an ebook due in a couple of days, so this provided some extra time.  He drank another bottle when he woke, without the ear-piercing sound effects.  We then sat out on the deck in the shade, looking at the wisteria and feeling the breeze.

Surprise!

When E returned this morning from dropping es at preschool, she parked her car on the street so she could get to the ladder easily when she had a break.  She wanted to trim the wisteria again; it grows on the trellis on the upper deck, extending tendrils toward the walls and roof.  Already it is back to where it was before she cut it a week ago, or maybe ten days.  And she didn't want es to watch this particular event involving a ladder and sharp clippers.  Soon ec and I left for the farmers' market, about a 15 minute walk.  We bought peaches, a lovely tomato, a cantaloupe, and a huge sticky bun.

When we got back the car was gone, so I figured E had either finished her trimming and put the car in the garage or had left on an errand.  Well, she had indeed been out in the car...to pick up es, who had vomited up her breakfast and been sent home.  She was fine the rest of the day, no fever, no more vomiting, no other signs of illness.  After light eating she did take a nap, after which she was treated to a video, "Cinderella."  She showed me where the DVD player was, then pulled her little teal chair into position for viewing.  She watched intently, commenting occasionally on what she saw.  I hadn't watched this movie in many years, so it was fun to see it with her.

I'm glad E was home so she could get es.  I haven't yet been to the preschool to drop off or pick up, though I will before long so I can learn the procedure in case I need to help out this way.

"Fractured"

Recently I finished this quilt, "Fractured" by Kathy Doughty.  I have collected fabrics with turquoise, pink, and purple for a long time, and I used a lot of them here.  The blocks were cut and sewn together in fall 2014 before I started traveling to Chandler to care for e, but then it languished in a stack of unfinished projects.  Finally I quilted and bound it this spring, but I don't think I have posted a picture.  While many of the paths can be traced around the center, I think some of my fabric choices could have been improved.  For instance, the second block from the top on the right side--in this picture there's almost no contrast between the two fabrics.  It's a little better in person, but not great.  It is 70 inches by 59 inches before washing.  Quilting is a rectangular, diagonal grid.

"Soul Searching"

A few days ago I finished hand-sewing on the binding for "Soul Searching," a pattern by Kathy Doughty.  The quilt was pictured like this in the book, with the colored patches reminding me of Christmas ornaments or Japanese lanterns.  Each color block uses 2 1/2 inch strips in various lengths from 24 different fabrics, almost entirely from my stash.  I repeated strips from the neutrals.  The binding is a black and white stripe.  I quilted in (fairly) straight lines about 2 1/2 inches apart crossing the colored strips perpendicularly, as you can perhaps see in the small picture.

But I saw another quilter's version where she had turned the quilt sideways and added another row of neutrals on two sides to make the quilt bigger and to put the colors away from the edge, and that's what I did.  It is 75 1/2 inches by 82 3/4 inches before washing and drying.

I find it a striking quilt!

"I don't want to go to school!"

Yesterday I arrived at E's by 7:15 as planned, but the kitchen was dark.  I heard talking and crying from upstairs, so I put my sheets in the dryer and sat down to knit.  Apparently es did not want to go to school or day care or the concert afterwards, and said so repeatedly as E helped her get dressed.  I stayed downstairs, not wanting to get in the way, figuring E would ask for help if she needed me.  Finally they came down and eventually left for school 20-25 minutes later than expected.  Since E didn't have a meeting till 8:30 she was able to stay with es at school as she began to eat her breakfast. Quite a while back E began to draw a heart on es' hand and one on her own to give her a visible reminder of how much her mom loves her and thinks about her while they are apart.  This helped on Friday, her fifth day of school.

We don't know what caused this reaction, but we can think of several possibilities.  Fortunately she has fun once she is there.  Last Friday her folks went together to pick her up.  As they entered the gym where the children were playing, es saw them and waved but kept on playing.  What a letdown!  And yet how lovely to see her interacting with the others.

Numbers

E returned to work five weeks ago today.  My alarm now goes off at 5:30 AM.  es is thirty-one months old today, and ec will be five months on Sunday.  Today is K's fourth day at his new job.  es has attended pre-school four days.

That first day I watched both children I went home exhausted, but I am now comfortable with the pace of each day.  I still get tired, especially on those days es doesn't nap because she tends to get cranky in the late afternoon, but I don't feel drained...usually.  These first two weeks of preschool I have come to E's house each day, except yesterday when the children came to me, hoping this would help them all get into the new routine of getting up and leaving the house early.  Starting next week, I expect to have ec at our house Monday and Friday, probably.  We'll see.

More numbers...years ago, perhaps 20 or more, I bought College Accounting, a textbook I saw on the sale table at Waldenbooks or some such store.  I don't really recall why I bought it, perhaps to improve my knowledge of bookkeeping for my teaching business.  Worksheets inserted in the book indicate I worked through part of it, then stopped.  Monday I brought it with me, and as ec napped I began to study it again, this time because I volunteered to keep records for our new housing project.  I have long enjoyed doing worksheets, filling in the blanks, solving problems, so I'm finding this study fun so far.

What day is it?

Yesterday morning when Randy's alarm sounded at 6 AM, I sat up abruptly.  Oh, no!  I was late!  What happened to my 5:30 alarm?  What day is it?  No time to ponder, must get in shower so I'll have time for breakfast before leaving for EK's.  Just before I stepped under the spray, I remembered...the day before I had washed sheets and taken them to dry at E's.  Therefore today must be Saturday!  No wonder my alarm didn't ring; I hadn't set it.  Those first few minutes were truly disorienting.  It's a good thing I have a routine, changing our sheets each Friday.

I checked off several items on my to-do list with such an early start to my day.

Quiet house

Here I am, sitting at the kitchen/dining room table, with ec asleep in the pack'n'play five feet across the room.  Since he now rolls over from back to stomach easily, he often sleeps on his tummy.  I probably have about thirty minutes to myself with es at school today.  Before I left home I washed our sheets and mattress pad, so I'm using the dryer here.  As I transferred items to and from the dryer, ec lay on the tile floor looking around and chatting.  But now he's napping.

Last night Randy had a session meeting at church, so I watched the Thomas Lynley mystery on PBS and worked on the black and white striped binding on the Soul Searching quilt.  I'm more than half-way and hope to finish it this weekend.

The house is quiet, just the sound of the dryer tumbling.

Shopping, stars, sheets

Sunday afternoon E and I went shopping for a mother-of-the-bride dress.  I tried on quite a few lovely dresses at Macy's and Nordstrom.  The only one that fit OK and looked passable was a lovely teal, lacy sheath, so I bought it.  But I will continue to look for something else.  I might decide to wear the gray lacy set I wore for E's wedding.

Monday es began "school," as she calls it, and apparently did just fine.  I found that watching only ec did not automatically give me hours of free time; he took very short naps and wanted to be held a lot. But I did take him for a thirty-minute walk through the neighborhood.  Pushing him in the small stroller is much easier than both children in the huge double stroller.

Tuesday E and family watched the Fourth of July parade with some friends.  Marching bands and groups of horses kept es entertained for two hours.  She enjoyed the candy and other things thrown out by parade participants.  Last night she began sleeping in her new bed, a twin mattress on the floor.    The Winnie the Pooh sheets made the change attractive.  Her old crib is now in EK's room for ec, and the pack'n'play is downstairs for his naps and a safe place in the kitchen.

Today ec was in his third set of clothes by noon.  Honest, I do try to fit his diapers as tightly as possible!  While I always place him on his back on the floor, before long he rolls over to his tummy.  Then he pushes with his toes and scoots forward.

San Diego

Friday night I flew down to San Diego so I could attend a bridal shower for Sarah Saturday afternoon.  The hostess of the party, who is the maid of honor, also arrived Friday night from Santa Monica, so we spent quite a bit of time Saturday morning talking about wedding details.  What fun!

The seven of us met at 1:30 at Brockton Villa, a restaurant on the beach in La Jolla.  Our table was on the veranda, open to the fresh air and seal cries.  Leanna and Sarah chose a delicious menu for us.  Appetizers included Pistachio Crusted Brie, Lump Blue Crab Cakes and Artichoke-Tomato Bruschetta.  Several "Brocktails" were available; I had ice tea.  For the entree I chose the salmon BLT; others chose the taco or chicken salad.  These may sound mundane, but they were presented beautifully and tasted great. Creme Brûlée rounded out the meal.  Our wait person never hurried us.

We played three games, spread throughout the meal.  Wed-Lib, a version of Mad-Libs, made us laugh as we heard stories of the proposal and shopping for the dress.  Telephone Pictionary also led to groans and cheers.  Then the always popular quiz game; Leanna had asked Erik some questions, and Sarah had to guess how he answered.  Finally, Leanna had asked invitees to each make a short video with memories of or advice for Sarah.  She edited them into a lovely presentation that surprised and touched Sarah.

And, of course, the bride-to-be opened presents.  We left at 4:45, took some pictures on the walk by the beach, then I went directly to the airport for my trip home.  I'm so glad I went.