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Friday, December 1, 2017

Why Was Six Afraid of Seven? Because Seven Ate Nine!


That's actually a misleading title for this blog post- because this post is sharing photos from Adeline's eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh months- but for some reason that silly kids joke kept running through my head.  


Maybe because I feel like the months have eaten each-other- surely time has done something funny and sped up, or moments were skipped?  


But I guess that's part of parenting, time moves in weird ways. When you are in the grocery store with a screaming kid but you can't leave or there will be nothing for dinner- time moves extra slow, each second takes at least three. But when you are trying to make sure you write blog posts, or finish your to do lists, or simply just want your baby to stay a baby- then each second must speed by like it's only a quarter of a second. 


I've kep up taking these monthly photos- some of them really near the end of the month,  but all more or less on time, but I never could quite make it to publishing them. At eight months Adeline could pull herself up to stand and would walk about while holding on to the couch. She had two teeth and loved to bit. 


At nine months Adeline she could say "Mama, Dada, Nana" and "cat". 


She had a strong distrust for strangers, and never smiled at people who talked to her when we were out and about.  But Cordelia made her laugh and giggle like crazy. 


She started being able to stand on her own, without holding on to anything. 


She loved every food she tried- but preferred to feed herself.


and still did not sleep through the night. 


At ten months Adeline started to walk! 


and fall down a lot. When I took these photos she had a big bump on one side of her head from the sidewalk, a small scrape on the other side from a toy house, and rug burn on her nose from the hallway outside of our apartment. 


At ten months Adeline had two teeth, four words, and two signs. 


She still loves food, hates strangers, and isn't so impressed by sleeping in her crib, or sleeping through the night. 


but she loves playing with other kids, 


and she shares my obsession with cats. 


That brings us up to date at eleven months. 


Adeline finally sleeps in her crib, and sometimes even in her crib in her bedroom- and sometimes if we are extra lucky and she is super tired, she even sleeps all night long!


She can say "mama, dada, na-na, cat, hi" and "no". She knows the signs  for water, more, all done, and eat. She especially loves goldfish and likes to share them with our cat Ninja while she watches Sesame Street. 


She dances whenever she hears music! She also claps, waves, blows kisses and raspberries, and roars like a lion. She makes more noises than any other kid I have met. 


and she stands up to her sister when she pushes her around. (Adeline screams at Cordelia or bites her on the hand, or roars at her, which is kind of funny)


Strangers still do not amuse her. 


She has seven teeth (all of a sudden)! She can walk from the car to the apartment, but often wants to walk in the direction she wants and not where we want her to go. She doesn't run yet, but she is getting fast!  She fills our lives with adventure and happiness every day. 



Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Pumpkin Picking


Over the past six years we haven't created much of a tradition about where we buy pumpkins- we have picked them up at the grocery store, farm stands on the way home from Granddad's, pumpkin patches- all over the place, but we do have a tradition of buying pumpkins. 


Pumpkins are one of the more labor intensive traditions I have forced on my family- mostly labor intensive for me because I do 90% of the pumpkin carving and gutting (except Cordelia actually carved her own this year!). However, I really love the non permanent art that is pumpkin carving, and I find pumpkins just as fun to carve as it is to watch the squirrels eat them.  


This year my sister Shauna took the girls and I out to Larriland Farm to pick our pumpkins, and while we were there we picked apples and broccoli. 


Of course I took this opportunity to dress the girls in the matching shirts my mom gave them! 




Adeline enjoyed crawling in the dirt, putting everything in her mouth, and being dubious about the pumpkin cart.



Cordelia enjoyed picking everyone else's pumpkins, huffing,  


squishing her sister, 


and playing with the slugs. She has always really enjoyed slugs. 





Adeline was perplexed by the fact that we wanted her to take the apples off the trees when she could just as easily pick the apples up off the ground (this is a tree apple not a rotten ground apple, for the record).


Cordelia is concerned that there will be more pictures of Adeline than there are of her- so she really likes to jump in Adeline's pictures. 


By the end of our trip both girls were perplexed that we didn't just pick apples out of these buckets! Fruit and veggie picking is hard work! 


Does your family have a pumpkin picking tradition? If you are curious about how we carved our pumpkins (this year and in years past) check out the hashtag #tocknellpumpkins on instagram. 

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Going Batty


Throughout Cordelia's life it has become apparent that I believe all children should wear clothing with animal ears on them- I honestly think it is the cutest thing ever. I was particularity excited when Hayley of Mouse House Creations released a sneak peak of her latest pattern- The Dress Up Hoodie, and put out a tester call.


I knew that even if I didn't get accepted to test this was a pattern I needed to have because there were soo many options! And I absolutely love giving novelty hoodies to kids for birthday gifts.  


The Dress Up Hoodie comes in sizes 6 months to 12 years and gives you the options of making a plain raglan hoodie, or making a dinosaur, horse, unicorn, bunny, cat, mouse, shark, bat, owl, or a butterfly. You can also mix and match any of the pieces to create whatever animal your imagination comes up with. 


I made Cordelia a size 7 bat. The pattern goes together in a very straight forward way, the instructions make sense and all of the pieces fit together well. The fit of the base hoodie is really great too, it's the perfect length for Cordelia, and the hood is nice and large. However, if I were to make this hoodie out of a bulkier fabric I might grade out the forearms a bit more so she could still fit layers underneath. That said, they are the perfect size in this material- which is actually a cut up unisex sweatshirt (size xl, and the pink is a second sweatshirt).


This pattern gives you the base of every animal, but it is up to you to embellish it the way you want. For example, the butterfly markings are for you to put your mark on, and fabrics are suggested for the animal accessories, but there is a lot of leeway for personal interpretation- for the horse mane you could use fake fur, or yarn, or cut fleece. If you aren't sure what materials you want to use, take a look at all the tester photos- it was fun and inspiring to see all the different combinations. I think the pattern is written well for this and I think it really lets your creativity run wild, which I love. 

 I differed from the regular wing construction by lining my wings (so you could get the flash of pink) and I used the split back piece so the wings were attached in the center. I also choose to add pink stitching to mimic the bone structure in a bat's wing. 


I used the same pink stitching on the arms, hood, and pocket. 



The inside of her ears I used the inside of the sweatshirt fabric so they would be fuzzy, and I used very stiff interfacing to help them stand up well. 


Cordelia is so dramatic she was all about this project- and when she wore it to school I was so happy I made a black animal because it didn't show as much dirt as all of her pink and blue sweatshirts! 


This was a fun make, and a good pattern- and I even have three more cut out on my desk now that Halloween sewing is done! 

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Happy Halloween


Halloween is hands down my favorite holiday- and for me, Halloween with kids is the best. I'm not big on parties, or drinking, so I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself on Halloween before we had Cordelia. I was always dressed up with no where to go. 


Now it's almost like we have too many places to go! This year we attended: a new friend's Halloween party, trunk or treat at church, a Girl Scouts Haunted house, The school Halloween party, and we will be trick or treating tonight! And I'm not complaining, I absolutely love it- and it forced me to finish the girl's Halloween Costumes early! 


This is Adeline's first Halloween and Cordelia and I agreed that coordinating sister costumes were a must- so Cordelia is a lion tamer, and Adeline is her lion! 


One of the nice mom's at the bus stop suggested that perhaps it should have worked the other way around- Cordelia should have been the lion, and Adeline the tamer since Adeline is so much more mellow than Cordelia! I had to laugh, because that's the total truth from someone who hasn't even known them very long. 


Adeline's hood was lovingly made by my sister Shauna, and I went simple and just dressed her in "lion" colored clothing she already had.  


It was Shauna's idea to add a tail- and I think it adds to the cuteness! 


It does however confuse Cordelia when people ask about our baby boy...but then again, boy lions have manes- not girl lions! But girl lions in baby costume form kind of just look like cats, so I'm ok with the gender confusion. 


My feisty Cordelia asked to wear eyeliner, and I think I should have said no- she looks too grown up!


Cordelia's jacket is actually the pirate jacket Shauna made our nephew about 15 years ago when he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween! I added the gold trim and epaulettes to make it look more showy like a circus performer. I also made her red dress, which is her favorite part of the costume! Her hat is from Michael's Arts & Crafts, and her socks are from Target.  


I had big plans for Mime and Magician (or maybe even a strong man or clown) costumes for us parents- but I was working on a pattern test, and some commissions, and honestly I decided I'd rather sleep! And I'm ok with that! I think Halloween stressed me out less this year, I've been able to enjoy the season more, and I really love that.  I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!