Mama Squirrel

Sick Day

At 2:27 Friday morning I awoke to the Little Tiger's cry of "Mama! Mama!"  I rushed into her room to find my poor dear flushed and crying with a 102.1 fever.  No school for either of us.  

When we woke up again at a more friendly hour, the day started very slowly.  Little Tiger wanted to "watch something" so I, tucked her into her blankets on the couch and  put in one of her favorites, "The Wizard of Oz."    Apparently Lisa was feeling under the weather too.  When I returned from getting Little Tiger some milk, I found the dog under the covers too.

As the morning wore on, Little Tiger started to feel better.  She was especially excited to see that the amaryllis Grammy gave her for Christmas was blooming.  She was, however, still feverish and went upstairs for a nap after lunch.  While she napped, I watched:
The icicles dripping from the gutters.  I listened to:Our canary, Mr. Peepers, who is one happy bird as long as he has his place in the front window.  And I worked on:
A project for next week that is becoming more and more addictive/consuming.  I hope your weekend is going well and that all of you are staying healthy.

Sew Perfect

Last year, when Holcombs and Borders Outlet both went out of business, I bought some basic sewing kits for future use with Little Tiger.  The one from Holcombs was really basic with precut holes so that making the pencil holder, change purse and handbag was really more a matter of assembling and lacing.  I gave it to Little Tiger this Christmas since she expressed an interest in sewing after watching me make various little felt animals all fall.  It was the one gift that she wanted to use immediately.  We opened it and there, in our pjs on Christmas morning, we put together a pencil holder for Grammy and a change purse for Cousin Eileen.   About a quarter of the way through the handbag, Little Tiger lost interest.  She wanted to do some REAL sewing where SHE made the holes in the material with the needle.  The kit from Borders Outlet was for making small felt teddy bears and did not have any precut holes, so we started in on that.  

Her first project from that kit was a pink and purple bear that she is going to give her little sister for her third birthday.  She came up with this idea all by herself and was very excited that she could make a gift and give it to The Milk Belly Princess.  Little Tiger sewed this bear with her own little hands, but insisted on keeping me very close in case she made a mistake.  

Her next project from the kit was a small brown bear for herself.  During the construction of the second teddy bear, she asked me to hover over her less and less.  I started to work on projects of my own and she called me over only occasionally when she was having trouble.  

On Wednesday, after the diagnosis of a double ear infection, The Mister and I asked Little Tiger how she wanted to spend the evening.    Did she want to go to bed early?  Cuddle on the couch and read?  Play a game?  Her response was "I think I would just like to relax and sew."  So here she is doing just that:  And here is the finished project, introducing Blossom Bear!

Winter Goals of The Milk Belly Princess

After school,  I was able to get into The Milk Belly Princess' room to get pictures of her winter goals.  These were taken in the late afternoon in the middle of winter, so I had to use a flash that, unfortunately, reflected off the back of the dresser.  When she dictated the first goal, there was a BIG emphasis on the parties being HERE, at our house.  At the time, we were gearing up for a pre-Christmas crafting play date with some little friends and TMBP was REALLY excited about this.  Both girls had a blast.  My amazing friend Laura came over with her niece, Miss P, to help with games and face painting which TMBP LOVED.   Here she is getting a snowflake painted on her cheek...the only kind of body art her mama will ever approve of for her:
 And here are the rest of her goals:

We've been doing this for a year and, so far, "Get ice cream from ice cream places" has been a goal for EVERY season...a girl after my own heart.

Meal Misadventures

This post was supposed to be about the winter goals of The Milk Belly Princess.  I was going to take pictures of her goals neatly printed on eight happy snowmen, upload them and post them here...right after she took a bath.  But dinner didn't go so well and it was all downhill from there.  

 
I think it was Jean Shepherd as the narrator in "A Christmas Story" who began a rant about his little brother with "Every family has a kid who won't eat..."  In our house that kid is The Milk Belly Princess.  True to her name, she loves milk, but solid non-snack, non-treat good old-fashioned family mealtime food?  Uh uh, not happening.  

The Mister made my favorite home-cooked dinner tonight (chicken and noodles, thanks for asking). After working hard at our respective schools,  The Mister, Little Tiger and I all enjoyed this immensely...but not The Milk Belly Princess. She saw my demands of eating at least two noodles and three pieces of chicken as unreasonable and refused to participate.

This is not from tonight, but here is the face that I most often see at the dinner table when it is suggested that she take a bite of chicken or eat a noodle:  Then , when I become more insistent, she openly mocks the food by running around the kitchen and doing something like this:I dearly, dearly LOVE this little girl, but her challenges with food and potty training make me feel relieved that somehow, small children are programmed to go to bed at least a couple of hours earlier than their parents.  

The Milk Belly Princess is sound asleep upstairs and it is dark so I will try again tomorrow to take pictures of her goals...and maybe finally get around to writing my own.

Little Tiger's Winter Goals

About a year ago I decided that, four times a year, all of us should set some goals we would like to achieve in the upcoming season.  There are a couple of rules.  First, the goals can only be set by the person who plans to reach them.   So, as much as I would LOVE IT (loveitloveitloveit) I cannot suggest that one of The Milk Belly Princess' goals should be "Become Totally Potty Trained."  I have to wait until she sets this as a goal for herself.  

Second, as the adult who started this,  I try to make my goals a blend of work and play.  "Finish Shrug" involves knitting (fun), but it also involves seeing a project through to completion which is NOT one of my strengths.  (OMG I finally said it!)

Both girls naturally set goals for themselves that are a combination of work and fun.  For example, one of The Milk Belly Princess' fall goals was "Play With Friends At School."  On the surface, this seems like 100% fun, but for this little girl there is some work involved.  She's not quite three and her play borders between parallel play and actually interacting with other children.   She's comfortable engaging in imaginary play with her sister at home, but she still needs to feel brave and move past her comfort zone when asking a friend at school to play with her.  

The girls dictated their winter goals to me on the first day of winter.  I wrote them onto the shapes they requested (snow angels for LT and snow men for TMBP). TMBP came up with 8 so her older sister, not to be outdone, decided on 8 as well.  Here is what Little Tiger wants to accomplish before the end of this season:  Toto and Lisa are stuffed animals.  Toto is a Beanie Baby that I had when I was young, but Lisa is a full size rottweiler that was given to Little Tiger as a gift along with some of the Carl books by Alexandra Day when she was a baby.  

Lisa needs to go up and down the stairs at least three times a day.  She also needs her own space in Little Tiger's bed.  Anyway, I digress.  Here are the rest of her goals:
Did she mention that she really enjoys making snow angels?

Metamorphosis

Awhile back I posted a picture of one of the Evelyn Inchworm toys that I made from this book by Hilary Lang.  In addition to the 24 adorable patterns in her book, she has some great things for sale in her store over at Wee Wonderfuls that are worth checking out.  Since I enjoy hand sewing, I bought myself this so I could make more creatures similar to little Evelyn.  It seemed logical to me that a butterfly should follow an inchworm (because it LOOKS like a caterpillar?) so this is my first project from the pattern card set:  She was really fun to make.  I especially like how the fabric from Evelyn's babushka is the inside of her wings, sandwiched in between two layers of felt.  I would like to try one of these next, but I'm going to need to take a break from hand sewing to finish a project that I started for The Milk Belly Princess' third birthday.  I can't believe that this little one is about to turn THREE!
It really does seem like this picture was taken just a little while ago.  Now she uses the blanket that she is wrapped in here to wrap up her baby dolls when she puts them to bed.

Miss Gertrude

In the spring of 2009 Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess lost their beloved Grammy Mary Rose.  When The Mister and his siblings were going through her possessions, it was decided that, since Little Tiger and The Milk Belly princess really like dolls, Miss Gertrude should come to live with us.  I'm not sure how Grammy Mary Rose acquired Miss Gertrude, but they were together for a very long time.  The Mister said that he remembers getting letters written by Miss Gertrude when he was away at college and he's....well...old enough to have been out of college for awhile.  

I've written in other posts about how I believe that toys are meant to be played with, so Miss Gertrude, along with the dolls from my side of the family are well loved by both of the girls.  I'm fine with this.  But sometimes I wonder what The Mister's siblings think when they come over and see  Miss Gertrude with her hair all messed up and only wearing a diaper.  Then I start to feel sheepish.  What if their expectations for family heirloom toys are different than mine?  They might not like to see their mother's beloved doll in this lowly state.

So, I want to assure everyone that, despite the fact that Miss Gertrude's life is a little more...er...rustic since she came to live with us, she has some good times too.  She's always an honored guest at tea parties: She gets along famously with all of the other guests, although she does find Baby Beth's 1970s Jimmy Carter-era political views to be a bit tiresome.  Sometimes she can be a bit of a daredevil:
 However, like I said in my last post, we DO have a doctor in the house.  Besides, it's that daredevil spirit that gives Miss Gertrude the courage to embark on adventures that other dolls would never dream of:
My Friend Mandy and Baby Come Back would NEVER try this.  Do you have a Miss Gertrude in your life?  

Imaginary Play

This winter we're making a conscious effort to be less busy than we were in the fall.  We've consolidated Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princesses' extra-curricular activities into two weeknights so we can stay in on the other three.  Both girls go to gymnastics and Little Tiger just started learning how to ice skate.  In the spring, we may make more of an effort to venture out more frequently, but for now we enjoy watching the world go by from the comfy couch near the living room window.  Well, I do anyway.  The girls can watch the snow for a little while, but they prefer to lose themselves in their imaginary play.  Here is their latest game:  Little Tiger calls this "Fairy Princess Doctor."  To clear up any confusion, her wings and tulle-skirted gown are UNDERNEATH the lab coat.  She is BOTH a fairy princess and an MD focused on treating her poor little fairy/ballet dancer patient.  I'm going to assume that this next shot is of "there, there" head patting instead of hair pulling:
My favorite part of this kind of play is sitting back, watching and noticing how, despite their petty sibling squabbles (which are HOURLY...at least) they genuinely love each other and want to be together.  

I'm an only child so, before The Milk Belly Princess was born,  this kind of sibling love was completely foreign to me.  For most of my childhood, I was friends with girls who had older sibs that either ignored or tortured them and younger ones who trailed after them whining incessantly.  I knew that my friends cared for their sibs on some level.  I mean, they would criticize their brothers and sisters ad nauseum, but when I agreed?  I'd get the stink eye...which was totally confusing to me since I didn't have any brothers or sister of my own to defend from non-family members.  But now I get it.  The Milk Belly Princess can destroy Little Tiger's block towers and run away with the best baby doll, but if someone else tries that with her big sis?  Watch out!

Temptation

Four months into my experiment, I'm pleased to say that I have not caved.  I have not bought a toy for either of my two children.  For the most part, it has been smooth sailing. In fact, I've noticed that, since I've stopped spending my leisure time sipping Pinot Grigio and trolling the internet for The Next Big Thing for Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess, I have a bit more of a discretionary income.  Most of this I save because, sadly, preschool is not free.  However, instead of buying THINGS for the girls, I've become more interested in exposing them to a variety of different experiences.  

Last month Little Tiger attended a one day pony camp at Rocky River Stables.  She was assigned a horse named Oreo that she learned to clean and brush.  After grooming time was over, she and a helper led Oreo out into the ring and she spent a solid 45 minutes riding her pony. Here they are getting ready to ride:  Total non-sequitur, but the boots she is wearing were purchased for her uncle 50 years ago and have been worn by every child in the family at one time or another.  To my knowledge, this is the closest they've ever come to any real cowboy-type action.  

Anyway, Little Tiger LOVED it.  Se loved it so much that she's already signed up to do it again.  She loved it so much that, ever since that adventure, one of her favorite kinds of imaginary play features her smaller stuffed animals going horseback riding on the larger ones.  

So a few days ago I was browsing around Pat Catan's for some craft supplies and my eye landed on a small teddy bear-sized English riding helmet priced at a reasonable fifty cents. I thought nothing of picking it up and tossing it into my shopping basket.  I knew that Little Tiger would love it.  It would make her horseback riding play so much more authentic if her little animals had the proper head gear.  

I made it to the end of the aisle before I realized that this was a TOY.  Buying it would violate my contract with myself almost a full year before it ends. I returned it to the shelf, startled at how, for just a minute, I completely forgot myself.  I wasn't angry or disappointed, just really startled.  I don't DEFINE MYSELF as The Woman Who Does Not Buy Toys For Her Children, but this experiment is really important to me and I found it strange that it suddenly and temporarily seemed to just slip my mind.  

Children's Book Exchange

Little Tiger has reached an age where she really enjoys writing her own stories.  For Thanksgiving, she wrote a story called "Help the Turkey Cross the Finish Line" where the protagonist, a turkey named Sarah Lynn, was in some kind of race.  I'm not sure which part of Little Tiger's stories I enjoy more, the stories themselves, or the accompanying illustrations. Either way, her first written and illustrated work was MUCH more optimistic than my first book.  

When I was only slightly older than Little Tiger I authored and illustrated "The Cat Who Popped Her Stitches" about, oh yes, my pet Molokai and the medical misadventure she went through after being spayed.  With full color illustrations.  Of everything.  Fortunately for me, Mrs. Kristoff, my first grade teacher, was more amused than grossed out and she sent me to the Young Author's Conference where I met Ezra Jack Keats and had him sign my copy of "The Snowy Day."

Earlier this week, I was really excited to read that Annie over at Bird and Little Bird is hosting her third Children's Book Exchange.  Each child is matched with another child of the same age and they write and mail a story to one another.  This time the deadline for mailing is March first.  Little Tiger did this over the summer and was matched with a little girl who mailed her a hilarious and creatively illustrated tale that she still has on her book shelf.  So we're doing it again.  Would anyone care to join me?  It doesn't matter how long or...umm...coherent the story is (let's face it preschoolers RAMBLE!)  The most important thing is to sign up ASAP and to make sure that you meet the mailing deadline of March 1st.