Crabby Mama

1. “I fall down on my bum bums.”

2. “I a-solutely foalin’ (floating)!”

3. “I really really sorry.” (said over and over from time out)

I finished the second dress! Mom walked me through all of the steps, so hopefully I will be able to repeat them for Erin’s dress. Here is the front:

Can you tell how it is gathered all around the skirt part? I learned how to do gathers! The bodice (top part above the skirt) is lined so that Leah can’t feel the seams and the straps on the inside. Here is the back:

I need to buy a hook-and-eye to attach the top. Mom and I were SURE the 9 inch zippers were too long, so we only bought the 7 in. Needless to say, the pattern was correct. Imagine that? And yes, I did put in a zipper. So that is another lesson learned for future clothes. Here is a close up of the back:

I sewed two buttonholes and two buttons too! My machine is really freaking amazing. It makes everything pretty easy. I also hemmed the bottom.

Now on to my little smock dress. It will look like Leah’s first dress, but in black with cherries on it. I plan to wear it when I am huge this summer. Then I have to make Erin’s smock dress to match Leah’s. We had to buy more fabric for it, so it will have a seam on each side instead of just one in the back. THEN I will make Erin’s 4th of July dress. Hopefully I won’t have forgotten everything by then.

This week has been about ballet. Tuesday night we had rehearsal for about an hour at the studio. Then Thursday we had to go to the auditorium in costume for a 20 minute stage & practice. I took this picture that night to make a scrapbooked framed photo for the teacher.

At that rehearsal, they ran through the dance twice. This was the first one. (We were not allowed to videotape or take photos of the actual performance.)

During the second one, Leah switched up some moves because she wasn’t watching the teacher in the corner. It wouldn’t have mattered except one of the moves she switched was a partner move and she dragged the other little girl along with her. So we had a talk afterward about paying attention to Ms. Sydni (her teacher).

Friday night we had to be at the auditorium for a full dress rehearsal at 7:30pm. My poor baby was SO tired. When they finally got onstage, it was a bit of a disaster. Leah bossed the little girl next to her the entire time. She was so busy bossing, she missed half of the moves. AND during the whole class gallop, one little girl fell down and everyone stopped to help her up. I am SO glad that was not the actual performance. I have a video of that and may show it eventually, but I wanted you to see what it was supposed to look like first. Leah and I had a talk that night (and several times the next day) about how to just worry about yourself. At one point, she saw the older girls practicing and she said, “They are only worried about themselves,” so I know she was getting it. Anyway, we didn’t leave rehearsal until after 10pm and Leah was in bed at 11 that night. Still got up at 7:30am on Saturday though. We were also able to pick up our ballet pictures that day. Here are ours.

On the day of the recital, we had to be at the auditorium at 1:30 for a 2pm performance. Our class had hired some babysitters to sit with the girls during the performance since they had to stay backstage the entire time. I am SO glad we did. I was able to sit in the audience and actually watch and not worry about Leah. We brought Ian, thinking he would want to stay to see Leah and be ready to go. Mike was going to bring him home when he was ready and come back. BUT he enjoyed the show so much, he watched ALL 2 1/2 hours of it from our laps.

When Leah tiptoed her way on the stage (leading her class), I started crying. She did everything perfectly. She watched the teacher, did all the moves at the right time, and did not boss once. Okay, she did tell the same little girl when to come forward to end the dance, but it was very subtle. She probably couldn’t help it. Can you tell she is MY daughter? I was crying the whole time and started really sobbing after they tiptoed their way off stage. I was laughing at my efforts not to make too much noise because it was really ridiculous. But I was SO proud of her.

Sometime before the end of the show, I popped backstage to check on Leah and tell her how proud I was. I said to her, “You did such a great job!” And she replied, “I know, some lady already told me.” Ha ha!

At the end of the recital, all the girls were onstage to receive trophies. I had not breathed a word to Leah about trophies. As we were arriving earlier that afternoon, she saw someone with a trophy in the hall and started asking all kinds of questions. She wanted to know where she got it and what it was for. I said I had no idea, because I wanted hers to be a surprise. So when they started calling names, Leah was called second. She had no idea what was going on. She eventually stood up when they continued to call her name, but didn’t know what to do. She kept hearing other names called too, so she asked in a loud clear voice, “Is there one for Leah?” Her teacher finally went over and led her to the trophy table. As she walked back across the stage with the trophy, she held it up in one hand to the audience. It totally looked like an “I’d like to thank the Academy” moment. This was her face when we finally got down to the stage to see her.

Daddy had brought her flowers and she liked them. But she ADORED her trophy. She carried it everywhere and kissed it. She told all of us she got it because of her great dancing. I am surprised she isn’t sleeping with it right now.

We also brought a bouquet for Leah’s teacher, Ms. Sydni. She was unbelievable with those girls this year and had the patience of a saint. I love this picture of them. My mom got Leah a frame that says dance and has a pair of ballet shoes on it. I think this is the picture we will put in it.

It was totally fabulous and I am SO glad Leah took ballet this year. Can’t wait to see what she is capable of in the future. I love you, Leah!

The plan was that when my mom came to visit, she would teach me how to use the sewing machine she gave me for Christmas. Well, she arrived on Saturday, so on Sunday we went to Wal-Mart to pick out fabric. They just happened to have the kind of fabric you see in the pic below in a variety of patterns and lengths. It took less than no time to complete Leah’s first dress. We had underestimated the amount of fabric we would need to make both of the girls dresses, so Mom had to go back tonight to get another length to make Erin hers.

I was super excited to start on the next dress tonight. We have bought 4th of July fabric for each girl and we started with Leah’s because she needed it bigger and we would have to cut down the pattern for Erin. So tonight in about 2 hours we finished the bodice (top above the skirt part). Of course we were not without our issues. First, I broke a pin with the needle. Second, we had to turn the straps right side out. They are TINY little tubes and it took like ten minutes to work the fabric into itself. Third and the biggest pain in the rear was when I sewed the wrong sides together in the wrong places. I had to rip out all the stitches and start that part over. BUT so far so good. I hope we get to finish the dress before Mom leaves, because then I will feel confident enough to do Erin’s on my own.

As you know if you have been reading my blog regularly, I LOVE to be busy. Sitting around the house for weeks on end is NOT something I enjoy. In fact, I kinda go into a depression. So I am excited to announce that our summer looks like this:

5/23-5/31 Grammy visits
5/30 Leah’s ballet recital
6/13-6/18 PawPaw & Mimi visit
6/15-6/18 Leah’s Music and Drama camp
6/18-6/22 Hive in Melbourne
6/30 Grammy arrives to watch the kids
7/1 Mike & I fly to N.O.
7/2-7/6 cruise to Cozumel with the Theriots
7/6 Fly home
7/7 Grammy goes home
7/10 Mike’s birthday
7/13-7/16 Leah’s Gymnastics camp
8/3-8/7 Preschool camp (9am-1pm) for BOTH KIDS!!!
8/7-8/12 Possible trip to Clearwater for me & kids
8/13 Erin’s 2nd birthday

Now, what am I going to do for the 2nd half of July and the 2nd half of August? I guess I will have to fill it with playdates with our playgroup.

Leah’s stats from her 4 year old check up:

Weight – 35.5 lbs (70%)
Height – 38.25 in (20%)

Erin also got on the scale for fun. She was 29.2 lbs which is in the 90%. Holy cow she is a bruiser!

Anyway, everything looks good. Slight amount of fluid in her ear and doc (not our usual doctor, she is on maternity leave) gave us a prescription for antibiotics for it. I didn’t even fill it because Leah has not had an issue with the ear.

They gave us a questionnaire to fill out about her abilities. It required me to ask her a few questions. She liked answering them so she kept asking me to ask her questions while the dr was in with us. So the dr said, “Okay, what is your first and last name?”

Leah says, “G-A-L-L-E-R-S, Gallers.” So I say, “That’s your last name. What is your first name?”

She whispers to me, “Mama, what is my first name?”

I laughed at that. I was like, “Um, Leah?”

Anyway, good visit. No shots until her 5 yr old appt. The dr did suggest an eye exam called Diopsys which can detect many childhood issues that can lead to vision problems in the future. She said that some insurances don’t cover it yet. Our insurance is kinda crappy right now about that kind of stuff so I asked her to remind us at Leah’s appt next year.

That is all.

What characteristics do you think define a best friend? Is a best friend someone you talk to daily or can you just talk to them every once in a while? Do you trust a best friend with every major issue or are there things you share with no one? If there are things you hold back, does that mean they are not truly your best friend? I mean, it seems like with someone who is your true best friend, there would be no need to hold back.

How many of you out there feel like you have a best friend? Not your spouse (I know people will say that), someone else. Do you hold back parts of yourself from them? Do you feel like it is difficult to have a best friend as an adult? Do you think it is something important to have or something not necessary at this point in your life?

PS Please don’t forget to log in every once in a while to see what else is on here.

Our Evenflo Whisper Connect monitor has finally bitten the dust. We have had this kind of monitor ever since Leah was a baby. It had great range and perfect sound. We were extremely happy with it. Before this one, we had a Fisher-Price one that made a low buzzing sound all night long. I could not stand it, so it became our back-up and the Evenflo became our primary very early on. The Evenflo just stopped connecting the base to the handset right before Erin was born. So we got a Graco iMonitor specifically because it claimed to have some ridiculous range and it was not supposed to get interference from cordless phones. Once we got it all set up, it had NO range. So we ended up with another Whisper Connect. And it has been great. But now the same thing has happened. It just stops sending signal from the base to the handset.

So we are on a monitor hunt again. Anyone out there have a monitor they LOVE? We are looking for range and clarity of sound and a long life. Any advice would be appreciated.

Leah had a wonderful pajama party tonight. First everyone arrived and the kids sat down and made bracelets with Twizzlers pull-n-peels as the string, and cut up cereal straws and Cheerios as the charms. The kiddies liked making them and IMMEDIATELY ate them. Then the kids played in the playroom until the food was all ready.

We had a “sushi” theme with the hot dog sushi, PB&J sushi, and real California rolls (mostly for the adults, but Landon and Ian ate them too). After “dinner” Mike led the kids in a game of Charades. Each kid got the opportunity to pick a cloud shape from a pillowcase. Then Mike had to whisper what the clue was in his/her ear. Some of the kids were not that good at acting out the clue (Mike assisted) but they all LOVED guessing. Landon was hilarious. His clue was putting on your shoes and he walked like a zombie to demonstrate it. We laughed SO hard.

The cake was next. You can see for yourself how it came out.

Leah was adorable while we sang happy birthday.

We had given the kids glow bracelets earlier and after cake, they ALL went into the bathroom to play with the glow them. It was so funny to have the entire party in the bathroom. Mike was shouting, “Hey, let your sister in the bathroom!” while Erin cried outside. Then we did presents.

After opening each present, Leah presented the giver with a medal saying something nice about the giver’s pajamas. One said “most strawberries,” another said “purplest PJs,” etc. It went over well. The kids were thanking Leah instead of her thanking them! It was funny.

We were totally exhausted of course but it was worth it. Now tomorrow we have actual birthday day with presents from us and grandparents. We promised Leah we would do what she wanted and she said she wanted to go skating. I know how that will go (5 seconds of actual skating) so I am hoping she forgets.