Tie Shirts & No Sew Bow

On Wednesday, I went to a crafty meetup where we made tie shirts. I intended to make them for the boys, but on a whim I bought some fabric scraps and a girl's t-shirt, just in case I decided to make Miss L one as well.
Here are the boys' shirts:

 here is Miss L's:

Here is the tutorial: http://www.crapivemade.com/2009/03/appliqued-tie-onesie.html 

They ended up being very affordable. I bought a 5 pack of white t-shirts for less than $5 and Miss L's shirt was only $3. I spent $7 on fabric, and have a ton leftover, and the other fabric and materials were provided by the hostess of the meetup.

Now, I decided to make Miss L a bow to go with her tie shirt, to girl it up a bit. I was torn between making a flower or a rosette, so I made a combo with my own modifications. Best of all, no sewing involved and I didn't have to buy a thing! Trust me when I say, if *I* can make this, then *YOU* can make this!

You'll need:
A little bit of fabric, even scraps. I used 3 coordinating fabrics. One was the fabric in Miss L's tie, and the other two were coordinating. I used one for petals and one for the rosette in the middle.
A hot glue gun
A small piece of felt
Scissors
3 different sizes of circle to trace (I used 2 different size cups and a small lid for the smallest circles)
A clip so it will clip on your child's hair. You could add a pin instead and make a pin to wear.

First, cut out a small circle of felt and 6 large circles of fabric. 

 Make sure your glue gun is ready. Fold a circle in half.

 Then, fold it in half again, making  a triangle. Glue each triangle onto the felt the circle as you go.

Leave a small space in the center for a rosette or button center of your flower. Glue all 6 triangles onto the felt circle. (this one shows 4 glued on)

Next, you'll make your rosette. If you want to have a button center, you can just glue one of those on instead.
For the rosette, you need a thin strip of fabric, about 14 inches long and about an inch or inch and a half wide. It doesn't need to be perfect, and frayed edges are fine.

Simply roll it up with the fabric sort of folded in half. I twisted it along the way, to make it more interesting. You can re-do this part until you like it. When you like it, put a drop of glue on the end (where my thumb is in the picture) to hold it together.

Next, glue it in the center of your flower.

 

I could have been done at this point, but I thought it needed more, so I cut 4 smaller size circles out of the same fabric as the tie, folded them the same way as the larger circles, and glued those on as well. 

I was still unsatisfied, so I cut out 4 more circles in an even smaller size to finish it up. I didn't fold these, I just sort of put a dab of glue and used a pen to push them down between the other petals.

The whole thing was really short. Cutting the circles took the most time, and you can make your bow smaller or larger depending on what 3 sizes of circles you decide to use. My biggest circle was a regular drinking glass size, for reference.

Finished product:

Surgery recap

Miss L's hernia surgery was scheduled for Friday morning at 6AM. On Thursday afternoon it dawned on me that maybe she had an ear infection - she had been up a lot the night before and pulling and poking at her ears. She has had so many, I just had a feeling. I was worried that it might change things about her surgery, so I took her in and sure enough she did have an ear infection. However, we called the surgeon and he said as long as she had no fever and could breathe well, we would still go ahead.
That was mostly a relief, I'd been dreading the day for so long I'm not sure I would have wanted to put it off any longer!
(Side note, she meets the ENT Wednesday. Here we come, tubes!)

I had trouble sleeping Thursday night, complete with ridiculous nightmares and lots of tossing and turning. I woke before the 5:10 alarm went off and we were out the door by 5:35. We got to the hospital by 6, checked in and waited. And waited some more.

The nurses and staff in Pediatrics are always the best. I don't know how they are behind the scenes, but when they talk to me or Miss L, they are always extra friendly with a smile on their face. I felt very well taken care of.

A few things I really liked:
- EVERY person who entered the room (and there were a lot) asked if she was allergic to anything. She's not, but if she WERE, I imagine it would be comforting to know that everyone was concerned about it.

- They had Disney on the TV, she was allowed to keep her lovey and paci - HUGE - and toys were even offered.

- The waiting room had a large TV screen that showed each patients' number, and you could see what room they were in. So, when I wondered if she was done yet I just had to look up at the screen and see that she was still in the OR.

- There was a Starbucks just a few steps away. I wouldn't have gone all the way to the cafeteria, because I knew the surgery would be less than an hour (it was about 45 minutes) and I would have been nervous to leave. Side note: this is the same hospital, just a few floors down, from where I had all 4 of my babies. Where was the Starbucks then? 


The only thing I had really hoped for that didn't happen, was that I hoped I would be allowed to come back until she was under with gas, and then leave. (They do gas first, then when she was under they do the IV anesthesia.) They had to take her away while she was fully awake and although she did OK, seeing her cry made me cry too.
I didn't really EXPECT to be allowed to come back, but I had definitely hoped for it. I can tell they had a hard time with the IV too, because she has 3 different spots where they tried to get it in and her little hands are all bruised up. I'm so glad she was not awake for that! (Also, that I wasn't there for it.)

Once she started to wake up they let one of us come back (me, of course) and hold her. To say she was upset would be a gigantic understatement. She was possessed. I knew what to expect and it still surprised me.
After 20-30 minutes, we still couldn't get her to drink anything and they decided to go ahead and move us to recovery and then D got to come back too. It was easier to handle her then.  She was especially ticked off about the IV in her hand. Once she finally agreed to drink something, and got the IV out, she settled down a little bit.  She cried every time one of the nurses even looked her way, after that. Once we were able to leave she perked up quite a bit, knowing we were leaving. haha
She fell right to sleep in the car.

The recovery has been good. She was very mellow once we got home and napped, and sat around with me on the couch for several hours. I can't remember the last time she did that; probably before she could walk.

I haven't seen the incision yet, because the bandage can't come off until Wednesday. It should just be a small one, right above her belly button.  It doesn't seem to bother her unless you touch it. I can tell it still hurts a bit, but she's mostly back to normal!

Raincloud, 30, surgery & "swimming"

I have been walking around with a raincloud over my head for months now, and it's starting to really get to me. I don't know why I can't shake this funk that I'm in but everything just seems too much to handle.

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Every day for weeks I've had either a horrible headache or frustrating nausea or indigestion. I can't pinpoint the reason for the headaches, although I've always been prone to them. The headaches have actually been going on since late May, so quite awhile. The nausea is fairly new. It started about 3 weeks ago and although I absolutely knew that I COULD NOT BE pregnant, I took a pregnancy test anyway (3) because I felt just like I do in early pregnancy. (Negative x 3, thank gawd.) Now, I've noticed that I feel sick anytime I eat tomatoes, avocados give me a headache and make me itch and sugar makes me feel yucky. I am starting to feel like my mother, who cannot eat anything because it "doesn't agree with her." *sigh*
It sucks to never really feel good. I'm not SICK, I just don't feel GOOD.
I keep thinking it's just because I need to lose weight but that has also been wildly unsuccessful for the past 2 weeks. I know, I know, I KNOW that I should just suck it up and find a doctor and go for a check up but it is so much easier said than done. I should make this my 30th birthday present to myself.

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d has had 4 loose teeth for MONTHS. How long does it take those suckers to finally fall out?!

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There are 2 days of swimming lessons left. d and O had to miss today because they had their yearly check up. (yes, I make my kids go all the time even though I am too chicken to go myself.)
d is doing all sorts of things in the water. He can do the back stroke, breast stroke and side stroke (um... I can't even do that.) and he can dive under for rings, although he doesn't like the water in his face that much.
O is just as scared as day 1, and was extremely thrilled to miss his lesson today. In fact, even though he had to get a couple of the 4 year old shots, he seemed to think it was an acceptable trade off.
C is brave in the water, and willing to do what the instructor asks him, but he is not a good swimmer. He just really kind of stinks at it. Granted, he's only 3, but it doesn't seem to come naturally to him in the least. It's really rather comical. (Sorry, Future C, if you are reading this. However, it is true that at 3 you stunk at swimming. Don't worry, I'm quite certain you get a lot better.)

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Miss L's surgery is Friday. Agh.
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Are you on Pinterest? If you're not, you definitely should be!

paint & swimming

The boys are all in swimming lessons this week, and next too. Today was the second day and d is already swimming on his own! He just needed someone to properly show him how, apparently. C is trying all the things his instructor asks him to, and he's doing very well.
O... is terrified. I've known for awhile that he's been scared of the water.
That's not technically true... he loves the water as long as he is in TOTAL control. He will not let you hold him in the water, or take him off the steps.
I've been proud of him for agreeing to take swimming lessons, and for actually getting IN the water with a bunch of little kids and a few grown up strangers. He even *almost* put his head in the water. However, he spends most of the 30 minutes crying and refusing to do the things the teachers asks. I hope he starts to get a little better. I don't want to force this on him, so I'm unsure how much to make him try. The teachers are very good, and don't make them do anything they are really scared of, but they do push them a little bit, which I think is good.
By the way, spending an hour and a half at the pool with 4 kids (but mostly Lila - who is pure mischevious energy!) every morning is wiping me out! We also have VBS this week, and the late nights and busy mornings are already making the kids overtired and grumpy. Do you think they will learn to sleep in?

Yeah, me either.

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We painted d & O's room this weekend. It was still the flat off-white builder's paint and after 3.5 years of messy boy fingers, and other disgusting stuff, it really needed it. d's favorite color is red, and O's is blue, so we let them pick colors and help us decide how to paint.

Before:

After:

Quilts & doctors

I've been saving special baby clothes since my first was born. I saved their "coming home" outfit, special gifts, and outfits that I just particularly liked. I have always planned to get them made into a quilt, someday. I had bought Groupons for The Campus Quilt Co, and needed to use them up so that's what got me in gear!
I wanted a 9 square quilt, but with baby clothes I needed four items of clothing per square, so that meant I needed 36 pieces of clothing. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard, and with Miss L's clothes, well... I probably could have easily had two quilts made for her.

The quilts turned out so great, that I actually tear up when I look at them. I can't say enough good things about the company either. They were great to work with and I highly recommend them! They are absolutely gorgeous memory quilts!

This is C's quilt. Each one is a different color and has their first and middle name and birth date on the back.

________________

I've been feeling so weird this month. I've had a headache almost every day, and although I've always been prone to headaches this is going a bit too far. It's starting to really annoy me and it certainly doesn't make the day to day living easier.
Additionally, the past couple of days I've felt nauseous (TY spell check because I can never spell this) and it's quite a head scratcher. What the heck is going on with me?!  I know I need to find a doctor, and just go for a check up or something. However, I have yet to do this.

Speaking of doctors, Miss L has had a little bump on her stomach, just above her belly button, since she was about 14-15 months old. I meant to ask the pediatrician about it at her 15 month check up, but it slipped my mind because we were in the midst of the cortisol testing and, in the back of my mind, I figured it was probably nothing. However, it didn't go away and as she slimmed down it became more noticeable. So, at her 18 month appointment I mentioned it briefly to her pediatrician, thinking it was probably no big deal.
He took one look at it and referred us to a pediatric surgeon. (Whoops.)
We saw the surgeon last Thursday, and about 13 seconds into the diagnosis, he said she had an epigastric hernia and would need surgery. I was so shocked (I thought it was probably an umbilical hernia and she would grow out of it.) that I couldn't think of any questions to ask, and just said, "Uhhhh..."
Smooth.

Anyway, the surgery isn't until the 22nd and it's only a day surgery, and she won't have a big wound or any exterior stitches and I'm just saying all this to reassure myself that everything will be fine, when in fact, I am scared. Sure, it might be a routine surgery and the practical side of my brain says everything will be fine, but the rest of me is worried about anesthesia, and recovery, and something going wrong,  and watching her be whisked away by nurses - crying - especially since she's in the throes of separation anxiety right now.

When Swistle recently wrote about a very similar topic - the day after I found out Miss L was to have surgery, in fact - she hit the nail on the head when she said NOTHING CAN HAPPEN TO HER, is the thing!
And it's so true. Nothing can happen to her.

Please.