Expectations

A couple friends and I were talking yesterday about the expectaitions that we have for our children. One friend felt that she might have too high of expectations and the other felt that she had too low of expectations. This got me thinking and I pretty much have no expectations of my son. Which leads me to something else my friend said, which is that if you don't let them help out around the house when they are young and want to help they are not going to want to helpwhen they get older. So I am going to try to let/make my son helpout more around the house. I started by having him hand me hangers while I put away his clothes, and had him put stuff away in the drawers that he could reach, then I let him take the towels out of the dryer. He did really well with both of these tasks and I made sure to give him alot of praise. The next challenge will be to start teaching him to pick up his toys. I just need to remember to give him the time and to not get frustrated.

In quilting, I got all of the borders on my stars over time and have started to quilt it. I am looking forward to completing another ufo. Yeah!

A comparison

My mother was comparing the photos of my two smiling babies so I thought that I would post them here for all to see. The top photo is of little girl taken on October 23, 2006. The bottom photo is of silly boy taken November 18, 2004. This makes them roughly the same age in these photos.

More pictures

Here is a picture of little girl smiling. There is nothing better than a baby's first smiles.

The quilt pictures are from a Nimble Thimbles challenge called "Stars over Time". The challenge was that you got a yard of fabric and the patterns for all the stars. You had to use some of the challenge fabric in each of the stars. I have had these blocks done for a while but didn't know how to set them. I finally decided that done was better than perfect and just set them with sashing with cornerstones. I want a wider border, but don't have enough of the wizard fabric so I think I will do a second inner border of the green fabric. I have it on the design wall and am living with it for a few days before I make a final decision.

Some pictures

These are pictures of me and my friends with our kids at the Desert Botanical Garden. Twice a year they have a butterfly exhibt, the fall exhibit is the monarch butterflies. Silly boy was much more interested in playing with his car in the dirt. A car that he had smuggled in in the pocket of his pants. I didn't think about checking his pants pockets because these are the first pants that have had pockets. Didn't take him long to figure that one out!

Today we went out to Schnepf farms for their pumpkin festival. Silly boy had a great time riding the train, he didn't want to get off. I will post some more pictures in another post.

Sugar

I love sugar, I love sugar like a smoker loves their ciggarettes. I know it is bad for me, I know it is a major reason why nearly four years ago I had gastric bypass. I know that if I ever want to get back to the weight I was before I had my son that I need to give up the sugar. It doesn't make it any easier. I have been suspecting for a few days that my sugar intake is causing little girl to be gassy and fussy so yesterday I avoided sugar as much as possible. Last night she slept very well and didn't spend two hours after her 5 am feeding farting and moaning. This evening she was in a great mood and didn't fuss all evening. I actually got alot of sewing done. Does this make me want sugar less, no. As a mater of fact I have had a raging sugar withdrawl headache all day and have spent the whole day thinking that some candy corn would fix the headache. I did give in and had a piece of ghirradelli chocolate on my way home from walmart, but that was a reward for putting back the two bags of halloween candy that I had in my cart. Got to go someone is hungry.

A conversation with God

Dear God,

I would really like to know what it is I have done that you felt that I needed to be punished for. Whatever it is I think that I have been punished enough! Really haven't I cleaned up enough poop? I know that today was my fault because I did not PIN his clothes on him before I put him down for a nap, but he was asleep and I was hopeful. Please, please let me know what it is I have done to tick you off. I will eagerly appologise to avoid cleaning up any more poop.

Sincerly,

Tired of poop in AZ

Some Quilty Finishes

I have been geting some sewing done durring my son's nap time and in the evening after he goes to bed. Little girl has been cooperating with me and often will nap for an hour or so at a time so I can get some things done. The first thing that I finished is a trick or treat bag for my son based on the designs from the Art to Heart Acorn Hollow book. The second finish is a Christmas stocking for little girl to match the ones that I made for the rest of the family the year that my son was born. Her stocking is not exactly like the others since I have run out of some of the fabrics, but it is similar enough that she should not feel left out. Now I have started on the block of the month from Quilter's Delight.

The other picture is of my son with a train that he got for his birthday. This one has a button that you push and it makes train sounds. The funny thing is that he can imitate the train whistle sound perfectly.