Pacifier Update

Well, the pacifier weaning seems to be going well. So far, my little one has slept through every night without it, and has come to accept the fact that it is "broken" for good. I say "without," although that's kind of an untruth. She isn't putting it in her mouth, but she still wants it with her at bedtime. Honestly, that's okay with me, since I'm looking at it from a purely orthodontia related perspective. The only unfortunate side effect of no pacifier is that it seems to have taken away her ability to sleep in. For the last three days she's gotten up at 6:30 like clockwork instead of her usual 7:45. I suppose that's not a terrible thing, since I've been able to get up and get an early morning walk in before it gets too darned hot around here. I just have to remember to get to bed at a reasonable time myself. That's a little difficult for me sometimes, because my personal preference is to go to bed late and rise late. I know it doesn't make me healthy, wealthy, or wise, but that's how I like to do it. Anyway...

I guess the next step will be moving up to big-girl cups. She doesn't drink out of "sippy" cups per se, but they are non-leak cups with straws. I think she can manage drinking out of a big-girl cup, but I admit I like the convenience of a non-spill cup, and she likes having her "cuppa juice" (her words) with her. It is a detriment to potty training, though. We haven't officially started that yet, but I want to before she's three. I've already purchased a potty chair, and she's started to show interest in it, so I need to get on switching cups now. So much to do!

Well...

Today I bit the bullet and decided it was time to wean my 2 1/2 year-old off the pacifier. For nearly a year now she's only been using it for sleeping, but it really needs to go entirely. I was hoping she'd decide for herself that she was done with it, much like she did with both breast-feeding and the bottle. That doesn't seem to be the case this time. It's a bittersweet thing for me, because once she's done with it, I'll have one less thing to remember on roadtrips, plus there I'll no longer have to deal with occasional nighttime pacifier hunts, but it means she really isn't a baby anymore. At any rate, I've decided now is the time to do it, because it gives me two weeks to get her off it before we have to go down to SC for my cousin's wedding.

I read about some tricks to try to help your child lose interest, and one said to cut a hole in the pacifier, because once it can't hold suction anymore, it no longer serves its purpose and the kid will be more likely to give it up. I tried that today, and immediately my little one noticed the difference. She said, "Oh no, my pacifier not working anymore." Then she attempted to find the missing piece so I could fix it. When I told her that her pacifier couldn't be fixed, she said to me, "I not a little baby, I don't need it." I then offered to hold it for her so she could nap without it, but she ultimately decided she still wanted it with her. She did put it in her mouth, but now that she can't suck on it, she doesn't seem to like to put it in her mouth as much. It was interesting to see her thought process on whether she was really ready to let it go. Right now it's nap time, and though she hasn't fallen asleep yet, she doesn't seem upset. I can also see on our video monitor that she is just holding her pacifier as opposed to putting it in her mouth, so this is good.

I'm praying the transistion will be simple, because I don't do well without sleep :). 

Oh, boy! Oh, boy!

A baby tomato! My first one of the season! Yippee! It's so cute and small. I showed it to my little one this morning and she was in awe. I love gardening with my daughter. Here's hoping plenty more where this came from!

Eco Action

Today I did a little project that was good for the environment. The home my husband and I are currently renting is a single-wide, early nineties model mobile home. I don't know how much you guys know about mobile homes, but they're notorious for not exactly being the most energy-efficient homes on the planet, and the older they are, the worse they are about their wastefulness. So it goes with our home. The closets, although they are on exterior walls, don't seem to be insulated at all, and there's a very noticeable temperature difference when you open the doors. There's also a very large gap between the bottom of the closet doors and the floor. When I say large, I'm talking, like, four inches or so. So yeah, all that summer heat is just billowing from the closets into the bedrooms, and our poor AC is having enough of a time trying to keep up with the NC summer. (We're not even in the hottest part of the year yet, yikes!) I figured I'd help out our AC and, hopefully, the utility bill by making a draft blocker. This will help year-round to keep things an even temperature. These are pretty eco-friendly projects in general, but mine is extra green because of what it's made of. You can tell from the picture that it's denim. This is actually a pant leg from one of my old pairs of jeans that got a hole in a place that's not stylish. The cool thing is I stuffed it with packing peanuts that I had from a package that was mailed to me two Christmases ago. I hate styrofoam, and throwing it in the trash makes me cry because I know it will just sit in a landfill for eons (or however long it takes to finally break down). So yeah, hooray for no styrofoam in landfills! Styrofoam has pretty good insulation properties, so I'm sure it will help my draft blocker do its job well. That's my environmentally good deed for the day. Did you do anything good for the Earth today? If so, I'd love to hear about it!

So I realized...

...that I talk a lot about things I'm planning to do, ideas that I have about stuff to make, but rarely do I post anything about what I've actually made. So I'm going to post some pictures of projects I'm taking on and things I've finished lately, so you guys can see that I'm not all just talk.

Remember the canvas I decoupaged with green tissue paper? I finally decided what I wanted to do with it, and so I'm posting a picture of the finished product. I will be posting this for sale on Etsy when I open my shop again. It needs a couple more coats of sealer, but other than that, it's ready to go. I wanted to keep it for myself, but I really don't have the wall space in our new house for it, and it doesn't really match the current decor either. Our place is a rental, so I have to work with what I'm given. I hope this piece finds a home with someone who loves it.

Another of the projects I've finished is on display in my home. This sign means "welcome" in Gaelic, and since both my husband and I have a little Irish in us, I thought it would be a fun way to greet visitors. I might also sell things like this on Etsy if I can find some more slate plaques. Even if I can't, I may make them out of wood, but I just think the stone has a nice touch to it. 

I've also been working on a patio garden on tomatoes. The first three pictures are three different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and the last is a tomatillo plant. I hope they perform well so can make some salsa!

Well, that's what I've been up to, aside from just moving in. Today I also finished a scrapbook page (the first one in ages), and I'm excited to get more done. Maybe one day I'll get caught up on all the scrapbooks I should have finished by now. That's all for now folks, so ciao!





Ugh...

Still unpacking. We got all our stuff back from NY and contacted a realtor about selling our NY home. Now I'm dealing with all the unpacking and paperwork associated with those things. Meanwhile there's a crap ton of things I need to get for the new house, but there isn't enough time or money for those things. I have my fingers crossed that we will sell the NY house very soon, because this mortgage payment is preventing us from doing a lot with our money.

In the meantime, I'm getting into couponing. I have always used coupons, but not as efficiently as I could be. I don't mean to go all Extreme Couponing any time soon, but cutting my grocery bill will help our financial situation until we can get the house sold. I do alright when I put my mind to it. The other day I lowered my total from $105 to $68. I'm also visiting the nearby bread outlets and paying just 89 cents a loaf for my bread now.

I made the self-proclaimed deadline of opening my Etsy shop again by July, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. Half of my craft stuff is still packed up, and the rest of it is so unorganized that I can't find any of my supplies. I feel a little overwhelmed at this point.  I need to meditate or something. I'm so out of focus.