13 January 2012

Outdoor Play: Kite Flying

It's kite festival weekend in India. Earlier this week Mike's office had a little warm-up party after work one day. I brought Muffin to see her first kites (she was too young for last year's festival). She loved watching them but felt betrayed when she got bonked on the head a couple times. By the end of the afternoon she'd shown that kite who was boss.

We're going to the park this weekend to run around and watch more kite flying.


Outdoor Play is hosted by Greening Sam and Avery and Mama Pea Pod.

12 January 2012

Bento: Chicken and Cheese, Please

Back in my nine-to-five working days I packed my lunch most of the time and I got into bento boxes. In the Bay Area I had easy access to Japanese "dollar" stores so my collections of boxes and other supplies grew, and I actually used them. Being gluten-free it always helps to have my own snacks on-hand for traveling aside from workday lunches. And when I was pregnant and eating everything in site, many days were a two-bento day, plus lunch.

But then I stopped working and didn't need them as much. Recently, though, I rediscovered bento boxes as a way to thrill a hungry toddler on the go. She doesn't care how attractive they look, although she does enjoy the cute pictures on the outsides. She mostly just wants yummy food, and she wants it now.

Here is the first official bento I've made in a long time.


On Thursdays Muffin has a toddler music class. (It's adorable!) That means she has an early lunch, goes down for a nap as soon as we get home, and wakes up famished for an early dinner. On this Thursday, however, we planned to go to Mike's office for the afternoon so the early dinner had to be packed up for the car.

It's not pretty or fancy, but it's filled with some of her current favorite foods and at this age I think that's what matters. I packed it up while she was napping so we could grab it and run out the door as soon as she woke up.

We had a roast chicken so I pulled off a leg and picked off some dark meat. (I threw in a little skin for texture and flavor. She picks at it and tastes it but rarely eats it.) I broke up some Chebe breadsticks that we'd made the night before (easier for her to bite if they're already broken into smaller bits). I chopped half a pear and a bit of cheddar cheese. With a bottle of milk and an apple juice box Muffin had a few hours' worth of fuel.


I remembered my old trick of tying a cloth napkin around the bento box to keep it from popping open in my bag. Now I need to get crafty and make a tote bag that isn't much bigger than the purse I already carry but can accommodate a bento box and a beverage or two. I hate bags that are too big and I hate carrying more than one bag.

I ate the leftover half a pear while I was preparing the bento and Muffin hardly touched the bread so I ate that on the ride home. Muffin chowed down on the rest.

08 January 2012

Crafty: Pillowcase Dress


I'd been reading about the pillowcase dress for a couple weeks and I decided to find out what it was all about. A quick Google search and a few pins on Pinterest later, and I had my first pillowcase dress for Muffin complete.

I used the tutorial from Naptime Crafts. For this first one I did not use an actual pillowcase, but I might for the next one. Rather than do side seams, I kept the fabric folded in half from the first cut and made the one seam a center back seam. I like to be able to tell the back from the front easily. I used grosgrain ribbon to finish the armhole edges rather than folding the edges. You could also use bias tape. Since the fabric had a finished border edge, there was no hemming involved!
Center back seam
Eyelet border
I love this quick, easy dress. Since the shoulder ties are adjustable, this will grow with Muffin into a top as she gets taller.

I could easily sew up all my scrap fabric into a whole collection of them. But I'm going to restrain myself. I'll make a few, to experiment with different lengths and trims. There are plenty of different patterns to make with my scraps. (I received more patterns in the mail Friday and already started cutting out a few things!)

06 January 2012

Outdoor Play: Sidewalk Chalk

On New Year's Day we took a walk around the neighborhood to see the colorful rangoli, or chalk drawings, that adorn the front walks of Hindi households to welcome the spirits. On holidays they are a bit fancier than usual. Ours paled in comparison, but Muffin had fun scribbling for a bit.





Outdoor Play is hosted by Greening Sam and Avery and Mama Pea Pod.

Crafty: Christmas Dress

I've got my sew on again, after months (years?) of laying dormant. I made Christmas dresses for Muffin and myself.

I had several parameters for these dresses. I wanted them to match, but not be exactly the same. I wanted to sew with fabrics I already had, so that limited my colors away from red and green. (Too literal for Christmas dresses, anyway.) My inspiration became "Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes," from The Sound of Music song, "My Favorite Things."



Muffin's is McCall's 6015. It's made from white and blue cotton shirtings and lined with the white cotton shirting. Mine is an older McCall's that I think is OOP now, 4581. It's white linen lined with white rayon.

31 December 2011

Outdoor Play: Winter Holiday

We took a short holiday this week to get out of the city and show Muffin some nature. It was chillier than she's ever experienced, having lived her whole life in South India. But we think she had fun. We went to Shillong, Meghalaya, in North East India, that little part of India that sticks out between Bangladesh and Bhutan. It was amazing there. I'll be posting more about it on my other blog, Where in the World Am I? this weekend, but for now, some of our outdoor highlights.





Outdoor Play is hosted by Greening Sam and Avery.

16 December 2011

Outdoor Play: The Dirt Bar

We have a small patch of grass outside of our house with an even smaller raised garden around two sides of it. I've left one part of the garden free of plants so that Muffin has a place to dig in the dirt. I call it the Dirt Bar. It took several months for her to learn to play with the dirt rather than eat it, but now she's an expert. She bellies up to the bar with a shovel in each hand and goes to work.



Outdoor Play is hosted by Greening Sam and Avery.

04 December 2011

Outdoor Play: Scooter Practice

I'm a little late with my Friday postings this week. I had a work project that took up most of my time. But on Saturday afternoon we carved out some outdoor time. After a family walk, Mike reminded me that I still haven't learned to ride my scooter yet. Both cars were out at the mechanic's so the driveway was empty and the sun was in just the right spot so the driveway was shady. Perfect for scooter practice.

I'm afraid to ride my scooter in India although I'd like to ride it somewhere, someday. I'm trying to be brave and do new things so that Muffin learns to be brave too, rather than a 'fraidy cat like me. She loves scooters and I know she will love the day we eventually let her ride one for real. This is her practicing:

She and Mike explored the plants and slimy water on the side of the driveway while I practiced starting the scooter and putting it in gear. (All done very, very carefully with Muffin clear out of the way.) 

It's good for her to see me trying new things.

Outdoor Play is hosted by Greening Sam and Avery.

26 November 2011

Outdoor Play: Chasing the Big Kids

Muffin had a blast chasing the big kids around the yard after Thanksgiving dinner.

Outdoor Play is hosted by Greening Sam & Avery.

07 May 2011

The Sleeping Chronicles

Our Muffin has had a complicated relationship with sleep. As a newborn she had day-night confusion, sleeping all day and partying like a rock star all night long. She wasn't colicky, she just didn't want to sleep at night. Then, the more she ate, the more she spit up, especially when she was laying down, so we got in the habit of holding her upright for about thirty minutes after she ate to reduce the spitting up. She still yorped all over everything, especially my side of the bed, but she oh-so-angelically slept on my shoulder, allowing me to sleep for short periods of time as well. We had to keep her upright though. Every time we laid her down, whether in her crib or in the bed next to us, she'd wake up. We were dreading years and years of her sleeping on top of us, but we were too tired to argue with the fact that all three of us were sleeping better for the time being.

We read books. We talked to other parents. We were waiting for her to be six weeks old, then three months old, then four months old, waiting for some sort of pattern to establish itself. Then we moved to India, living in hotels for a week along the way. Before the move we'd decided that we wouldn't give any kind of sleep training a try until we were settled in our new home. Too many new environmental factors to deal with, including thirty hours of travel.

Then jet lag happened. I really think this is what set up Muffin to be a sleeper. She was still sleeping on top of me in bed, but she was sleeping for five or six hours straight. Her crib arrived a few days after we did and she seemed too tired to care that she was sleeping in it instead of on top of me, at least during the night. Most nights she was going solid from about eleven until nearly seven the next morning. We still had to feed and cuddle her to sleep. She still wanted no part of crib napping during the day. But those hours at night gave us hope.

By the time Muffin was five months old, we had settled into our permanent house. She had her own room and she was actually sleeping in it at night. She hated napping during the day but I could usually coax her into a snooze if I let her sleep on top of me. Every day was the same pattern though: She'd feed for a bit, doze off, I'd burp her, put her in the crib, and she'd wake up screaming within minutes. We would do this over and over again until we were both exhausted and fell asleep together on the couch, around about the time Frasier reruns would come on and I couldn't risk reaching for the remote to change the channel without waking her. She seemed to prefer being on her stomach and being extremely warm, which all the baby books cautioned against... but it was hard to put her on her back in a cold room knowing she'd wake up in a few minutes. At least when she was on top of me I could see that she was sleeping fine.

Eventually I started to see a pattern to her sleeping habits and I was so happy. So many people had asked me about her schedule that I was beginning to feel inferior, like I was raising some sort of wild, spoiled, untamed monster child. I wasn't happy that I was finally satisfying the schedulers, though. I was happy that Muffin's schedule finally allowed me some freedom. I could say "yes" to eleven o'clock coffee breaks with the other moms in the neighborhood. I had several solid hours where I could go grocery shopping with a happy kid instead of a cranky one. I could take a shower during her morning nap and look forward to a quiet lunch by myself once she was down for an afternoon nap. I felt like I was finally becoming myself again.

The last hurdle was getting her to fall asleep on her own. Because of the spitting up and burping, she'd gotten in the habit of being held until she fell asleep. She is a gassy baby, and as much as we wanted to try crying it out, that doesn't work when the reason she's crying is gas pain rather than something psychological. Most nights, the screaming would be relieved after we picked her up and she burped; she'd fall right to sleep. I really feel like we had no choice but to wait for her digestive system to develop enough to cause her less pain after those bedtime feedings.

Mike does bedtime with Muffin and the nightly routine of soothing her to sleep was really wearing on him. While he was out of town a couple weeks ago I decided to see if Muffin was ready to fall asleep on her own. We had a couple afternoons of me crying on my bed while Muffin cried in hers, but I knew she was crying from being over tired (we both were), not from needing to be burped, so I'd give her five minutes, then ten, then fifteen, then thirty. By the time Mike came home, we had a successful sleeper. She celebrated ten months old this week, along with a full week of falling asleep on her own for both naps and bedtime.

Not every sleepy time is easy. She learned to sit up on her own this week, so she practices that for several minutes by herself before realizing we're not there to cheer her on. Sometimes she gets bored and falls asleep, other times she cries for us. We play it by ear if we're going to go in and soothe her more or let her fuss for another few minutes to see what happens. She often wakes up an hour or two after going to bed at night, but knowing that all she needs is a good burp, it's easy to go in and help her with that.

We know we are lucky right now compared to other babies. And we know that some are better sleepers earlier on than Muffin. I'm going to take the sleep while I can get it and not worry about other babies though. Following Muffin's lead is what worked for us.

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