Dino Pancakes

Doug made these for Kate.



Apparently ricotta cheese is the secret ingredient that helps them keep their shape. There was a little left in the fridge that needed to be used up, so Doug added it to the pancake batter. Kate ate them up, so I guess they were good!

Andy at 36 weeks

(More catch-up!) Taken September 5.



At this point Andy had been tummy-crawling all over the place for quite a while, but was just starting to get up on his knees. He'd push up and then rock back and forth, and drop his head down and look at his knees. It was like he knew what the next step was but just hadn't quite gotten all the parts coordinated.




Compare Kate at 36 weeks (these are cute).

Digi Dots

It's National Digital Scrapbook Day! (Or International. One of those.)



To celebrate, I'm sharing some polka-dot patterns that I made recently. Click here to download. This is a PAT file for Photoshop, with four different patterns in it. If you unzip the folder and then drag the PAT file into Photoshop, it should load automatically. (The icon looks like this:)



And here are some fun things that you can do with patterns!



Create a pattern fill layer (under Layer > Layer Style > Pattern Overlay, or click the "create new fill or adjustment layer" icon in the layers palette). Choose the pattern you want, and then adjust the scale to change the size of the dots. These patterns have black dots on a transparent background, so I added a white layer underneath.

I hardly ever use pattern layers, myself. (They do seem kind of boring.) The really cool thing is that once you have a pattern loaded, you can use it as a texture in the brushes palette.



Click on the brushes palette and go to "texture." Choose the pattern and adjust the size. I put my mode on "subtract" and checked "texture every tip." You can play around with the different modes and see what they do.



You can paint with polka dots!



Or try this: use a distressed brush, pick two colors, and in the brushes palette (under "color dynamics") set the foreground/background jitter to 100. I also increased the brush spacing (under "brush tip shape") and added an angle jitter (under "shape dynamics").

If you want to switch to another brush and keep your settings, click on the lock icons in the brushes palette. (Don't forget to unlock them when you're done!)

I'm using CS3, but I think most of this is basically the same in Photoshop Elements.

Autumn Dress

Over the summer I ran across the Dharma Trading Co. site. They have lots of white clothes and accessories for dyeing/painting/decorating (some very cool stuff there), including a couple of little girl's dresses with crocheted tops and fabric skirts (like this one). When I saw these, I thought, "Huh, I could do that!" And it would solve my problem of not being able to sew button holes.

Actually, my inability to do button holes is not the only thing standing in the way of my turning out beautiful dresses for Kate. The fact that my sewing machine (an old one that Scott had lying around) needs to be cleaned and adjusted is also a major drawback. But the principle is sound, and I was eager to give it a try. I made the top and asked Jill Tracy if she could put the skirt together for me. She did a beautiful job. Kate wore the dress to church this last Sunday, and we got some pictures afterward.



She spent most of the time huddling because she was cold, but I did get her to stand up for me and do an action rhyme about falling leaves that she got from her Highlights High Five magazine.




The fabric is from a dress that I made for me years ago. It was rather potato-sacky and I figured I wasn't likely to wear it again, but I really liked the fabric so I was glad to be able to use it for this.

It took me a while to find a thread color that I liked. I ended up ordering from Elmore Pisgah (color "fudge"), and then I ran out and had to order some more. (It says it's a size 10 thread, but I think it's a bit thinner than other size 10 threads I've used. It does work up nicely, and Kate apparently had no issues with the texture.) Then, when I took the top over to Jill and she attatched the skirt, we realized that it was just too short, so she took it apart and I added a few more inches onto the bodice. Seasonal projects can be risky, even if you start well in advance. At least I finished it while it's still fall!





I think this would work better for baby dresses, with a short yoke and poofy skirt. It took me quite a while to do all those rows and rows of single crochet. (I watched a lot of hulu.) I do love how it turned out!

(I might put some kind of edging around the neckline. Haven't decided yet.)

Marker Board Maestro

I wanted to share some more of Kate's drawings. These are all from August and September. (Our homemade marker board is getting rather frayed around the edges.)



Hippo



Dog



This is a pterodactyl, an iguanadon (see his thumb spikes?) and Kate says the thing at the bottom is a chicken.



Girl with dog (Kate says this is her and Clifford)



Crab (with eyelashes)

Kate's been drawing up a storm lately. (I can't really say "going through every sheet of paper in the house," because I do have quite a lot of paper that isn't the sort of thing I want her drawing on.) It's so fun to see what she comes up with.

Jack o' (late) Lanterns

We once again did not make it to a pumpkin patch, but I did go to Tacoma Boys and get two little pumpkins for Kate and Andy. We were so busy on the 30th and 31st that we just ran out of time, but I'd told Kate we were going to carve them (she seemed very interested in the idea of cutting holes in the pumpkins to make faces--apparently she didn't remember our previous pumpkin carving experience two years ago). So we went ahead and did it on November 1st. (Now see, you never would have known if I hadn't just admitted it in public.)



We bundled Andy up and took his travel crib outside, so he could watch the proceedings. He thought this was very cool. (Doug was on camera duty, and he didn't think he could hold Andy and take pictures at the same time. Having done this, I would have to agree that it is kind of tricky.)




Kate drew the face on her pumpkin. I believe this was her first experience using a writing utensil on a vegetable. (Okay, actually a fruit.)




I added centers to the eyes, but everything else is just the way Kate drew it.





Kate drew on Andy's pumpkin too, but she ended up with something that I couldn't really carve, so I just improvised.



Ta da!

It's Halloween!

I remembered to get a picture of Andy with the "Baby's First Halloween" bib!

We were prepared with candy, but didn't see any trick-or-treaters before we left at 6:00 to go to the Halloween party at the church.



Kate wore her dragon costume again. I kept asking her if she wanted a different costume, but nope, she just wanted to be a dragon.



Doug and I both ended up going the non-costume costume route. I think Doug would have dressed up, but we had a bit of miscommunication about exactly when the party started and we were running late, so he just grabbed his German hat on the way out and said he was a World Traveler. He was already wearing his Welsh T-shirt, so that worked out okay. This is a shirt that he had made at Cafe Press a couple of weeks ago, that says on it, in Welsh: "I went to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio-
gogogoch and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." (Side note: Doug once asked Kate if she could say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogery- chwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, and she said, "No, I'm too sick.")

I went as an MWAC. (Pronounced "em-wack," this stands for "Mom With A Camera.") Oddly enough, no one asked me what I was.



There was trick-or-treating around the (spookily decorated) classrooms, and a few booths with games in the gym. Kate was intrigued by the fishing game.



"I caught a pencil!" (very exciting.)



There was also a chili cook-off. Andy thought that part was pretty exciting.



I was remembering the cute picture of Kate bear-crawling at the Halloween party when she was this age. Andy's getting around all over the place, but I haven't seen him bear-crawling at all. Perhaps he's got better calluses on his knees, or something.



He did seem to enjoy all the costumes and colors.




Kate kept going back to the fishing booth over and over (I don't even know how many times--fifteen? Twenty?) and came home with six pencils, these three little finger puppets, and assorted geegaws.



Larry Golden (who took our six month photo shoots this summer) had a room set up to take photos, with studio lights. When I took Kate in, he put the hot shoe attachment on my camera to trigger the lights, and took one for me. Pretty cool!

Pumpkin Hats (take two)

I said that my goal was to get caught up so I wasn't posting Halloween pictures in December. I'm still not caught up, but I'm just going to post them now!

I discovered that Kate's pumpkin hat from last year was too small, so I put it on Andy and made a larger one for Kate. (I think it turned out a little too big and floppy, but it's okay, I guess.)










Right after this Kate lay down on some damp leaves and got wet splotches all over her shirt, so that was the end of the photos.

I had visions of taking my cute little pumpkins to a pumpkin patch in their hats, but that didn't happen. Maybe next year!

Andy at 35 weeks

Taken August 31 (which was a Monday. Oops. Saturday was full of mishaps, and I totally forgot about it on Sunday).



This was a tricky one, with Mister Wiggly. I tried several different things--inside, outside, sitting, tummy.









Escape!

Today

Catching up continues slowly. I'm having a hard time getting anything done because Andy requires constant supervision, whether to keep him away from the computer cords or to keep Kate from whacking him on the head. He follows her around like a little shadow. I think it's endearing. Kate, not so much.

We haven't been able to really enjoy the season, being cooped up inside with various illnesses. Kate's on day nine of an antibiotic for ear infections (we had one really bad day when I thought she might have the flu, but that apparently was not the case). Her hearing seems to be affected, and we're constantly getting her attention and repeating ourselves. On top of everything Doug has nearly lost his voice (thankfully his only symptom, though it's certainly a difficult one, what with him being a teacher and all). So Doug can't talk and Kate can't hear--you can imagine the ensuing comedy of errors.

Today is the first anniversary of Doug's dad's passing. Doug wore his boots.

Togetherness

The plan: get a picture of Kate and Andy together, looking like they're both happy about it, on a nice overcast day (no harsh shadows), when the grass is dry.

Out of this I hope to get not just one usable photo, but three.

Sound possible?

I have this vision for the wall above my computer desk, involving three square photos in a row (because, you know, things look better in threes). This adds an additional complication--I have to get three photos in which Kate and Andy's faces are close enough together that they can be cropped into a square.

When my overcast, dry-grass day finally materialized (August 28), I was home alone with the kids, (and Kate's purple shirt that had originally been part of my vision was in the laundry) but I decided to seize the moment. Assembled kids, blanket, camera, and bribed Kate with the promise of a cookie if she cooperated.



Kate is impressed by Andy's prodigious amounts of drool.





I'm quite sure that Kate is too young to be making this expression.



Andy yakked on the blanket (hugely) so we tried it without the blanket, but he didn't like the prickly grass.




Further attempts quickly deteriorated.



Can't you just feel the love?



Tipping... tipping... Aaaaaaagh!

I did get three that I'm planning to use. Not quite what I hoped for, but they'll work.

I think I'm going to get them printed 14"x14" mounted on foam board, at WHCC. (That's White House Custom Color.) I started an account with them years ago, but never got around to sending in my test files. I finally got that taken care of and got them back a few days ago, and was quite alarmed to see how far off my monitor apparently is. The prints are much redder than what I see on my screen. I need to get a new monitor anyway (mine has a case of the intermittent fuzzies, though it's been clear for several days now), but I guess I'll be looking into calibration devices, too. So now I'm second-guessing my color editing. I have no idea what these really look like.

Dancing Animals

I've mentioned this book that my sister Barb got for us: Easy Crafts for Kids (Great for School, Home and Parties). There's some fun stuff in here, with varying degrees of difficulty. Hardly anything that a four-year-old can create completely by herself.



Kate had been eyeing these dancing animals for quite a while. "Look! We can make a dancing dog! And a dancing crocodile! And put them in a box!" I kept putting her off with "maybe later"s, until one day she asked for some cardboard and a marker, and got busy drawing her own.



"I will draw it on the cardboard and then you cut it out," she said. She drew the pieces separately. Kate knows all about this sort of thing from our foam animals, but I don't think she had ever tried to do it herself before. You can see she wasn't quite clear on some of the proportions, or exactly how the parts fit together, but she wasn't letting that stop her.



After I had all the pieces cut out, Kate painted them.



I had some wire that I donated to the cause.



They don't really "dance" that much (perhaps a thinner gauge wire would work better?) but they're cute, and Kate had fun making them. She's getting to be very artistic. I have lots of creations of hers to post.

Andy at 34 weeks

Taken August 22.



Outside again, with so many other interesting things to look at besides Mom's camera!





Awww!

Noodles!

Chuseok has come and gone, along with Canadian Thanksgiving (so what's with us Americans having our harvest holiday at the end of November, anyway?). We've never actually done anything for chuseok. Usually I don't know when it is till it's past. This time I did know, but we still didn't do anything.

We did, however, go out for Korean food for my home-from-mission-day on August 18th. Doug had jap chae and I had naeng myun. Love those cold noodles on a hot day. Yum.






Kate is nowhere close to figuring out chopsticks, but she always has to have her own pair anyway.

Andy at 33 weeks

Taken August 15.







Many moods--always cute!