First, a sleep update: Bean woke up twice last night, but settled fast both times. Not quite as miraculous as Friday night, but still a vast improvement over the status quo. I’ve been cleaning the house and I found a lot of mold, so I called the experts from mold remediation houston to get rid of it.
We (mostly Sugar) are doing some home improvement this weekend, including hanging some more kid-friendly art in the Bean’s room. Poor dear has mostly been making due with the things relegated to that room when it was the office: things I didn’t want dinner guests staring directly at (i.e., naked pictures of me) and things I didn’t want to look at while falling asleep (i.e., work that is overtly about death). And, over his crib, a very nice print of a cheerful looking photographer, smoking. If you are looking to do some improvements to your home, consider getting a floor remodeling from https://carpettogo.com/2018/04/how-to-clean-your-area-rug-in-seven-simple-steps/!
Everybody’s got to go to therapy about something; I want the Bean to get his money’s worth.
Some of that is still up — don’t want him to be disoriented — but we’ve added:
An Eric Carle fold-out book of tails above the door, in place of the print Sugar’s dad made, of the woman waiting at the door to death.
A scissor-tailed flycatcher painted by Sugar, in place of the smoking photographer.
Over the changing table, in place of the map of our park the Bean has now ripped down, some letter cards Sugar has been making:
The handy thing about those is that they are digital files (made partly from scanned drawings Sugar made by hand, partly with photoshop), so when he tears them down we can just print anew. For a while there, his changing table said “O.G.,” which I rather loved.
By the way, when she’s got a whole alphabet of these, Sugar plans to put it up as a PDF on Etsy, suitable for printing at home on photo paper. The next letter will be R (to complete the Bean’s initials), but if you’d be interested in buying a single letter or set of initials, let us know and she could do those letters next.
Meanwhile, I made hot pepper jelly for a brunch today (that we will get to eventually, except the Bean suddenly needed a nap and then wouldn’t fall asleep and then needed a diaper change and then, as soon as we gave up and dressed him for the party, clearly wanted to sleep first….). It didn’t turn out very hot, even after I doubled the hot peppers, and I ignored my own notes on the recipe (based on comments on the site I got it from) and forgot about doubling the pectin, then promptly ran out of pectin (which is stupidly hard to find in stores here), so that required making the jelly and then reprocessing it after cooking it down to just shy of rock candy. Plus I couldn’t properly can it because I forgot that our stock pot I used for that croaked, but ANYWAY:
And Sugar made a patch for the threadbare section of our couch cover (which we also made, but not recently). I rather like it:
January 15, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Wow! Sugar is quite the artist!! The painting of the scissor-tailed flycatcher is stunning!
January 16, 2012 at 12:12 am
I adore the letters. And the patch 🙂 When we move I think I will make a cover for our couch! Also, meant to comment the other day, but I get you on the sleep thing. I adore all of your homemade things. It really make me want to dig in and be more creative once we have our own house.
January 16, 2012 at 12:53 am
Love the cards! Is the K for Kestral? How about A, L, and J next? The kid needs more gorgeous letters in her life. 🙂
January 16, 2012 at 1:14 am
kingfisher, darling: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Belted_Kingfisher/id/ac
hang out long enough on the bridge over the water near the audubon center in prospect park, and you’ll likely see one. (what a run of prepositions that was.)
A, L, and J sure are some nice letters….
January 16, 2012 at 2:17 am
Wow, I’m amazed at Sugar’s talent and industry. Yours too. Hot pepper jelly? Yum!
January 16, 2012 at 8:29 am
You two are like the perfect crafty mamas. I bet the Bean is going to be a fingerpainting virtuoso. 🙂
January 16, 2012 at 1:09 pm
ha! thank you for reminding me of the time i decided to make my own finger paint, in 5th grade or so. i had a recipe in a kids’ cookbook; it’s basically cornstarch, water, and food coloring.
mine came out really…sandy. i used it anyway, but it looked weird. later, some adult told me that cornstarch isn’t actually the same thing as cornmeal.
reading comprehension, ftw.
January 16, 2012 at 6:25 pm
Oooo, such BEAUTY. Love the letter cards in particular, and look forward to seeing them emerge. I also love the idea of planting one’s ASS on a nice big heart.
January 16, 2012 at 6:57 pm
wow, those letters are BEAUTIFUL. I cant wait to see the set!
January 16, 2012 at 8:15 pm
Good job, baby. (I hate it when people say “He’s a good baby.” NO. He’s a baby. They’re all good. Frustrating, occasionally painful, adorable, yes. Not bad.)
I would totally buy Sugar’s artwork if I had any money. Adorable!
January 16, 2012 at 11:21 pm
Guess how much I like it when people ask how the Bean sleeps, then announce that their poop-angel sleeps SO WELL and follow up with, “He’s so good.” Stabby McStabberson.
Part of the appeal of the PDF-model is that it can be sold fairly cheaply, but yeah, I feel you. We don’t have any extra money, either, and there’s so much nice stuff out there.
January 16, 2012 at 11:11 pm
Sugar is TALENTED. Lucky you. Lucky baby.
January 17, 2012 at 1:03 am
Wow, so many pretty things!
I think the art that can be printed out again is a fabulous idea. When our son is cranky about being put in his room for a nap, he will scoot his crib across the floor, pull the lovely carefully-chosen artwork off the walls and either throw it on the floor or tear it up.
January 20, 2012 at 7:11 am
I love the Bean’s room, and the art is truly fabulous. Must be nice to have a partner who can make with ze art 🙂 . Mine does not. Not one bit!
g
January 27, 2012 at 6:36 pm
I am truly, madly, deeply in love with the alphabet series. I’ll be haunting the etsy shop waiting for the full alphabet to become available.