Squeal!

So you know how I said I was still trying to decide which machine to get?

Well on a sewing FB group I'm on someone asked if people recommended singers over brother, or vice versa...pretty much everyone said brother.

I remembered looking at Big W (like Walmart) online and Target.  One sold Brothers and one sold Singers.  So out of curiosity I had a look again just to see who sold what.  Target was the one stocking brothers, but it only listed 2 and neither were one that I has seen at Target when I went on the weekend (and the one I saw didn't have a price).  So I was a bit confused.

A lot of stores here don't have a very good online versus in-store matchup, if that's the right word.  Anyways, I decided I might just call many local target and ask what one they had in stock and how much it was.  When I went to look up the phone number, there was a flyer on the website, so I quickly looked at that and guess what, in the flyer there was a brother sewing machine on sale from $350 down to $150.  It wasn't on the online store AND I was pretty sure it was the one I saw in store AND today was the last day of the sale.

I called right away and they still had a few so I got one put aside just in case.  After naptime I whipped together some pizza dough to let it rise and the kids and I were off.  When we got to Target we also got a $10 off coupon, so in total I saved $210!

It's probably still not as good as some of the other machines I was recommended, but I would have had to wait for those to go on sale, and this one had some good reviews online.

So excited!

Sewing

When I get something in my head, I go for it (for the most part) - I learn as much as I can.  It becomes an obsession until I know what I need to know about it.

Right now I have sewing on the brain.

I have wanted to learn how to sew since grade 8.  For "applied skills" you get a one term sample of your 4 options to choose for the following years: cooking, sewing, drafting, and computer keyboarding/programming.

Sewing was the only one I had any interest in, so for grade 9 I signed up, but there weren't enough students registered, so off to cooking I went (I had to choose an alternative in case I didn't get into sewing, the others held even less interest for me than cooking)

Anyone who's known me for longer than a few years knows how terribly picky I am/was...especially back then.  Every year of high school I was put into cooking class, every year my teacher just shook her head and rolled her eyes.  I wouldn't say I was bad at it, and actually I didn't so much mind DOING the cooking/baking...it's just the eating (and sometimes even just smelling) it part that I didn't like!

Anyways, after high school it was until a few years later that I got interested in sewing again (kind of wrote about it here), but being the transients that we are, I never got around to learning because I never wanted to invest in a sewing machine just to have to sell it or give it away in a year.  But now I'm determined.

I'm still deciding what sewing machine I want (either get one that's reg $150 from target or big W now, or wait until a better one goes on sale for that price, probably around Christmas...I don't think I have the patience for the latter option!) but last weekend I went to a local fabric store to start buying some of the other odds and ends I will need (scissors, cutting mat, thread, etc), except I was way too overwhelmed by everything and bought nothing - Gah!

I got home and posted about it on Facebook and got several replies from people IN CANADA saying they would love to help me...but obviously that's not gonna happen! Haha.  Even another homeschooling mom on the other side of Melbourne offered, but that's too difficult...then I remembered a friend who lives about 10-15 minutes away who sews! Eureka!

I emailed her and asked if I could tag along the next time she goes shopping, hoping to not be a nuisance, and even offered home made cheesecake as payment for maybe a short tutorial - luckily she's actually excited to have a sewing buddy and she very enthusiastically said she would show me the ropes!

So this weekend I'll meet her at the store, and she said she'll give me some tips, maybe help me make a simple skirt for Elle.

I'm so excited!  I signed up for Pinterest when I was just getting into babywearing so I could pin video tutorials of different carries and stuff... I haven't gone on since.  Then last night I thought of a few simple things I would like to make (one for myself, and then a couple gifts) so I hit up Pinterest again and found exactly what I was looking for.

I'll do blog posts for things that I make for anyone who cares. (Although maybe not the ones that are gifts, in case the recipients read this!)

"Kids are expensive"

I've personally never really bought into that phrase.  Yes, there are added costs of having kids, but you sacrifice in some areas, and you gain a lot in others!

Anyways, that's not REALLY the point of this post.  I'm now going to vent my frustrations at having children in one country and then moving to another.

Generally the first kid is the most expensive to buy for.  You need to get EVERYTHING...but then with the next kid, you hardly have to buy a thing.  Go gender neutral and you're set.  Unless you then move away and don't ship anything and then have to buy it all again for the second child....and then again for the third child.

I buy most things used as it is so I save money that way, and a lot of things I was able to sell to someone else when I was done with it, but it's still frustrating to have to buy the EXACT SAME bath seat 3 times (well, Finns was blue, and Elle's was white, but same seat...and Thea's is just like Finns too). 

And clothes.  With Finn I was given a lot, and bought a lot second hand for great prices.  Then with Elle I was pretty much set for her first 18 months of life with hand-me-downs from my niece. I had to by a few odds and ends just to be able to make sets, but otherwise I hardly bought a thing.  Poor Thea though, I didn't bring any of Elle's clothes that didn't fit her anymore, I sold them all because we weren't shipping stuff and were tight in space...plus I suppose it was mostly all the wrong season anyways.  So she pretty much lives in sleepers and two sets of Carter's outfits I got at Costco.  She has outgrown all the gift clothes she got, and is in between sizes for some clothes mom had bought for her.

Anyways, back to saving clothes.  I DID save a few special things.  Like a couple sleepers of Finns (even though the seasons never really worked out with Elle and Thea, I did put them in them a few times just because!), the dress that Elle was baptised in (and then Thea was also baptized in it), and some adidas pants of Finns.  His Auntie Megan has bought him a jacket and pant set.  They were great and even though they were worn a lot, you wouldn't even know it.  I went to wash them one last time to store them, but I  must have closed the dryer door with the zipper in it, and it broke the zipper on the jacket.  I was so sad, but at least I still had the pants.

And today, Elle got to wear them as hand-me-downs! haha.  Watch me never have another boy, but these pants WILL get re-used!

Upset baby

It's not quite 9:30pm and Thea's woken up twice crying and upset. And I have NO idea what to do for her when she's like that!

I don't know if it's teething or gas or something completely different.  The second time she woke up I just fed her again, even though she ate less than 2 hours before.  Holding her didn't really seem to make her any happier, but I eventually got her calmed down and put her back in bed.  Worst thing that could happen was I'd have to pick her up again.  Which I did...so I did it again and she fussed a bit but did fall asleep.

Poor baby...she's just always so happy and only ever really cries when she's hungry or tired.  To which I feed her and she's instantly happy, or I put her in her bed and she falls right asleep.  I have no clue what to do when those don't work...we've only ever had one other night "like this" (but so far this ones better because I actually got her back asleep in bed for the time being) and that resulted in me "sleeping" on the couch with her until 5am.

Hopefully tonight doesn't go that way!  Going to bed right now just in care!

Hobbies, homeschooling, and more

I have 4 topics I want to talk about.  Two of them tie in together, and the other two tie in together.

Making it 2 posts will be too long, but I'm having trouble deciding how to start them and keep each separate.  So once my brain can figure that out, I'll have a few blog posts coming up.

I think I might have to just sit one night, write all four, edit and tweak them, and then set them to post.

Right now it's dull and raining out, I banged my elbow on my bedroom door really hard and I can hardly straighten it, and I would love to just sit and ice it but Thea had a very short afternoon nap and now doesn't want to be put down.

Seriously it's been raining for almost 24 hours straight...other than maybe an hour this afternoon.  Are we back in Vamcouver again?

*Here's Elle doing some dolly-babywearing...it's called a "torso carry" if anyone cares ;)

Gar!

Thea is just falling asleep and I wrote a big long post that was just about done, and then my iPhone bugged out on me and I lost the post, and I have no desire to type it all out again at the moment, hopefully the thought strikes again another time!

Anyways, hello, here's a couple pictures from Sunday.  We went to little Max's baptism, so the kids were all cute and dressed up and obliged a little picture time on the couch.

Slingmeet

Today the kids and I went to a "slingmeet" (or babywearing meet)... people come with all their wraps and carriers and all their questions and we all chat babywearing and everyone thinks we're crazy :)

This isn't mine...and I wish I hadn't tried it, because now I want it! haha
It's made of a woven wrap, it the style of a "mei tei".  It was soo easy to put on, and soo soo soft.
After trying that one I decided I wouldn't even touch any other wraps because I didn't want to get jealous!

I had one at my place a couple months ago because I was getting my second wrap and a lady was going to cut it and hem it to a smaller size for me (I couldn't find any short wraps in a color/style that I liked, AND they were all more expensive for this long wrap anyways, so she cut and hemmed it for me and kept the leftovers, which people make a lot of fun things with).  Anyways, I couldn't decide if I wanted it cut to a size 2 or size 3 so we decided to just make it a big slingmeet and I could then try her 2 and 3 and decide what I wanted.  And I could meet some other people that way, and people could try different things, yada yada.

Getting help with the back carry

Anyways, I've been trying a couple back carries at home with Thea, but I didn't feel like I was getting it tight enough and wanted someone to show me the tricks and see if/where my issues were.  There was one today about 30 minutes from our place with a nice park, so off we went.

A basic Ruck carry

When I got there Thea SHOULD have had a sleep in the car but she didn't so I knew she was going to be grumpy, so I tried a back carry with some help (and it went really well!) and then got her wrapped on my front like she usually likes so she could sleep.  Then there wasn't much point staying around the wraps so the kids and I went to the playground there.

She didn't mind it as long as I was moving a bit - but she was tired

Off to the park - Finn made a new friend

And played in a castle

There was a third slide beside these two - they made friends with a little boy and all three of them would go down at the same time

After Thea had her nap on me, she had a quick feed and then played on the blanket for a bit while I wrangled the kids to get home :)

Update: Home Sweet Home

I thought it might be fun to do a bit of an update (more for myself than anyone else!) of what our place looks like now, from what it looked like when we first moved in.  We've definitely accumulated more stuff!

When I was younger, I used to always take pictures of my bedroom.  What I had up on my walls, what things were on my shelves.  I like to look back at those, I don't know why.  Just typing this out makes me feel weird...am I the only one that does this?!  Anyways moving on...

Here's the post from last year "Home Sweet Home"

and pictures from now...

Garden!  There's strawberries under the netting.

Bathroom.
This room frustrates me because there's only one kind of child proofing I could find that didn't involve screwing anything in, and Elle can get into is - so that ONE cupboard is basically useless.  Conor keeps his stuff up on the window sill much to my dismay!

Much more furniture than before!
Obviously the rug - and then the gliding chair (that I bought for rocking and nursing Thea, and didn't even need it for her! but it's nice to have anyways), bookshelf with toys (previously I had said that we'd keep the toys in the kids rooms, that I didn't want it clogging up the living room - HA!), right behind the rocking chair is the new desk, and then the change table.

desk and change table.  Conor wants to get a piano/keyborad someday.  I can only see it going there, but then where would the desk go?!

White stained couch that gets covered with a cheap couch cover when guests come over ;)

"storage" in the laundry room.

Spare room - aka "Grandmas room"
The kids play in here all the time, they usually have some sort of fort set up, and Finn has his nap/quiet time in there.

Finn and Elle's room.  There was a train table where the little black table is, but we got rid of it.  The kids just didn't play with it, and it took up so much room and was so heavy so it couldn't be easily moved.

Elle's crib - super cheap bunting banner just because I wanted SOMETHING on the walls in there!

Finn's side, with his own equally cheap bunting banners ;)

Master bedroom
I'm so glad we decided to go with a playpen and bassinet for Thea.  She's still in the bassinet for now, so at night I have the whole thing right up beside my bed and I don't have to get out to pick her up to feed her.  There's also a pocket on that end where I keep a change pad, wipes and diapers in case I have to change her diaper at night.
During the day it stays where it is in the picture and she has her naps like that.

I never put up pictures of the kitchen in the other post, but this is the dining area in the kitchen.  It would never be big enough for us to sit and eat at, so I guess it will be the craft area for now.../homeschool area.  Unfortunately there's no wall outlet there so we couldn't put a computer desk or keyboard or anything there.

Kitchen

Hallway
That dresser has all of Finn and Elle's clothes in it (their nice clothes are in the closet in the spare room)
Their "cars" are usually parked in there as well.

Well that's that.  Haha, I know, totally boring post for anyone else, but I like to have these things to look back on!

Oh, and this is kind of a "for real Friday" post because I didn't clean up any rooms for those pictures!!

Thea - Five Months Old

This girl is just the sweetest most darling little baby.  She's always got big smiles for us (especially Elle it seems!)

So last month the update was all about the rolling.  This month... moving backwards!  Seriously this kid.  1.  She does NOT stay on her back for long unless you have a pillow or blanket rolled up beside her to stop her.  2. She does "push-ups" and then keeps going backwards and backwards.  Sometimes straight, sometimes at an angle.  So sometimes she will move across the room in less than a minute, other times she'll have done the same distance but in circles so she ends up where she began!

I was watching her on my bed the other day, can't leave her there unattended first because of the rolling, but then because she'll go backwards right off the bed fairly quickly!

I think she's almost ready for solids, but we'll wait until she's closer to 6 months and sitting up a bit better.  The other day I was holding onto a slice of apple and she grabbed my hand and brought it up to her mouth - and she liked it and tried it again!  Getting excited for the next phase!

She continues to be a pretty consistent night sleeper.  Even with the time change and her room being bright when I put her down, she still falls asleep pretty quickly.  I usually breastfeed her in the living room and then get her changed and swaddle her, lay her down, sometimes I'll have to give her the soother again, but she falls asleep without rocking, patting, shushing...it's amazing!  She woke up twice to feed last night, but normally it's just once.  Lately she's needing 4 naps a day because she won't get past that 45 minute mark.  But because she goes down so easily I'm not complaining too much.  I would love if her afternoon nap was just one long one though, so that I could get a longer rest.

She has NOT being liking car rides so much, which is so frustrating.  I can't stand hearing her cry, and Finn and Elle get really upset when she's upset in the car, especially if they are tired as well.  Hopefully she grows out of that phase soon.

She's getting better at holding onto, and playing with, small toys for longer, so that could be a good car distraction soon.

She's just such a great addition to our family.  The kids love her (although I wonder if Elle is starting to go through a little baby regression or something... being REALLY whiny lately, and talking like a baby... but she does the same thing when she's being a kitty, so who knows)

Speaking of time changes.  We had burgers for dinner and then its still bright out! So Conor took the kids to see the ducks while I get some quiet time :)

so behind

Gah it's already 5 days past Thea's 5 month milestone!  I hope to at least take the pictures today sometime, then maybe I'll do up the blog post tonight or tomorrow night.

The time "sprung ahead" on Sunday - it hasn't been all that pleasant! haha.  I should have done the incremental adjustment (like moving up dinner, bedtime, etc by 15 minutes a day leading up to Sunday).

Elle normally wakes up between 6-630am.  With the time change we then hoped that she would, for at least a week, wake up between 7-730.

Saturday night they went to bed at their regular 7:30PM time, then Elle woke up at 6:30...new time...so 530 really.  Ugh!  Then the next night we put them to bed at 7:30 new time, took Elle over an hour to fall asleep... and woke up again between 6-630.  This morning she woke up at 6:30.  I don't know how she does it.

Anyways, so far Thea has thankfully fallen asleep almost as quickly and easily as normal, even though her room isn't dark.  We have very large awkward windows in our bedroom.  I thought of getting blackout blinds, but I don't want to fork out hundreds of dollars on a rental house, because if we ever move out of this place the blinds will likely not work in the next place.  We'll see.  I know it's only going to continue to be bright longer into the evenings and earlier in the mornings.

It's been a rough week with all the kids - and now we all have colds - but we're pushing through.

Editting to add: I had to stop writing because Thea started crying a lot - I looked over and she was completely under the coffee table! It reminded me of the time that Elle was yelling for me from the living room, but when I went in there I couldn't see her, I even looked behind the couches...but she was underneath one of the couches!

And because I hate posting without at least one picture - here are the first strawberries from our garden! (At least the first ones WE got to before the birds - thank you Conor for putting up bird netting!)