Wordless Wednesday (late) - Car magazines

A fellow faculty member recycled some of his old car magazines our way...

Tam's fascinated

New crafter blogger love

Oh, I found a new blog to follow...

Made

This lady has sons and makes BOY crafts and clothes :-) Yeah! I've just seen so many tutorials for cute little girl things like skirts, and ruffled pants, and tu-tus, that I was absolutely thrilled to find this blog. The tutorials look relatively easy to follow and I can't wait to try out a new project called the 90-minute shirt (I'll add it to my growing list). This is because I am ready to throw down some cute new shirts for Tam that have some crazy freezer-paper stencils on them. Hmmm...maybe I'll keep with the science-theme, or perhaps make some with trucks, which are his current mad obsession.

List of projects:
90-minute shirt for Tam out of recycled T-shirts of mine
Curtain for around the bathroom sink to hide the pipes
Pillow-cases out of spring fabric, including a try at a ruffled case
Book racks for Tam's room but I'm not sure which style I like better: gutter shelves or narrow space rack Or maybe just rails for artwork
Quick pants for Tam with re-enforced knees; He doesn't need pants yet, so this might wait
Alphabet bean-bags to use my spare scraps of fabric
Spare wet diaper bag; ours is looking pretty rough
Re-purposed end table to play kitchen
Re-purposed coffee table into play table
Quiet book...sigh, I'll never get this one done (no patience)

I just need more time in the day! Or at least another day added to the weekends.

First attempts at drawing

I have gotten out the crayons Tam received for Christmas this week. These are the new-fangled ones that are triangular so they don't roll and are easier to grip by small hands. Tam was quite intrigued. I showed him how to make marks on the paper with the crayons as he watched, fascinated and drooling.

He had no problems grabbing the crayons, but never put much pressure on them to actually mark the paper. With a couple of tries, he did manage a few stray marks.

He did keep trying to "color" with the white crayon on the white paper, which was just a set up for failure.

After a few moments, he decided to give the crayons a taste. Sigh. I wonder why there is this universal notion to look at a colored crayon and think... "yeah, I think I want to eat that." No matter that there is this inquisitiveness, I am highly discouraging the gnawing on them, if for no other reason than the colored ring around the mouth that they create.

Oh, and for all of you that remember Sesame street, here's the video of how crayons are made :-)

Tam's latest tricks

1. Kisses

Tam comes tumbling toward you at full tilt, mouth gaping, laughing hysterically, drool falling, only to jump into your lap and plant a huge, wet, open mouth, kiss somewhere on the face. Did I mention how wet this experience is? And they seem to come out of no where with no warning. Sweet but wet.

2. Signing help

Talking English and not Martian-Baby is not a skill Tam has mastered too much yet. We still only get the words Mama, Dada, and Moo. However, he is nearly constantly babbling gibberish at us. Since he was, oh, 4 months old, we've been trying to teach Tam a few signs to help with communication. We were successful with signing milk (looks like you are milking a cow). He will sign this if we ask him if he is thirsty or if he wants milk.

Once we started solid foods, I attempted to teach him signs for thirsty and hungry (looks like you sip from a cup and feed your mouth respectively). When making the signs, I would always say the words and then make sound effects to help with understanding. Currently, Tam does not distinguish between thirsty and milk, with both being meant with the milk sign. With signing hungry, he's given up making the sign and only makes the lip-smacking sound effect.

Lately, I have begun trying to show Tam how to sign for more and help. We have made no progress with more...but this week Tam started signing help! We are using a simplified version of the sign (patting both hands against the chest). I mostly ask Tam if he wants help with doing tasks like getting up on the couch, or pulling his blanket out of the crib. Now, Tam will sign help and then look at Brian or me for assistance. This is SO much better than when he just wailed if he couldn't do something on his own.

3. Temper-tantrums

The above accomplishment is hard on the heels of this latest milestone. Tam's individual personality is definitely showing more and more. If he doesn't get his way, or if we try to take something he wants away from him, he has begun to throw mini-fits. These aren't too bad and both Brian and I are really good at ignoring them. He starts marching in place really fast as his head tilts back and he lets out loud wails. I usually have to try hard to respect his feelings and not to laugh at him. This results with me at least snickering behind my hand while I let him yell in frustration. Good thing he's overall still very good natured and these tantrums don't come out too often in our house.

Wordless Wednesday - "Puff" Daddy

Puff cereal, baggy pants, and Brian's hat...

Smiles :-)

And the world goes all soft

One of my favorite authors is Terry Pratchett, who is a gentleman who writes fantasy-fiction centered in the disc-world, which rides on the back of four elephants atop a turtle traveling through space. I highly recommend his books to all age groups look for a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, with a bit of trolls and witches thrown in for comic amusement.

Anyways, one of his latest book was "Thud!". In this book, the main character is a watchman (Sam Vimes) who has a newly born son (Young Sam). Even though many events in his daily life keep the main character hopping, he ALWAYS is home in time to read his favorite book to his son at his bedtime. By the way, the favorite book he reads is "Where's my cow?" and yes, we've got it in our collection too.

Here's an excerpt:

"This moment in time was just for the Sams. Young Sam pulled himself up against the cot's rails, and said 'Da!'

The world went soft.

Vimes stroked his son's hair. It was funny really. He spent the day yelling and shouting and talking and bellowing . . .but here, in this quiet time smelling of soap, he never knew what to say. He was tongue-tied in the presence of this fourteen-month-old baby. All the things he thought of saying, like 'Who's Daddy's litle boy, then?' sounded so horribly false, as though he'd got them from a book. There was nothing to say nor, in this soft pastel room, anything that needed to be said."

This is the crux of it. Pratchett nailed it right on the head.

When I come home from work, Tam and Brian greet me at the door with smiles and "Dah!'s"

The world goes soft.

Or when Tam curls up in my lap with his favorite book of the day, smelling of soap and goodness...

The world goes soft.

Or when I gather Tam into my arms for a soft lullaby before bed, and he pulls his arms around my neck for a goodnight hug...

The world goes soft.

Life is good.