Thrifty break

My mom's on spring break (from teaching) and so yesterday the three of us (Mom, me + the boy) all headed up to the (hands down) best thrift store in the Pacific Northwest. With the boy in the back doing his melt-your-heart hand motions to Twinkle, Twinkle, Mom sitting next to me singing along with The Rainbow Connection and with a few great finds, it was just about the perfect spring break morning. T doesn't really get defined breaks so I don't either now. We get Christmas Day instead of Winter Break, and here and there we get your national holiday three day weekend. I decided yesterday that you take a spring break where you can get it and the morning was the very essence of what a break should be. Things were a bit lighter, happier and it was all just so out of our normal daily routine. Very fun.

I came back with the standard daycare explosion variety plastic toys I always seem to find at this store. They're always in fantastic shape, always for about $1 and they're dirty (I've already mentioned my insanely bizarre cleaning process so I won't rehash that!). It's so handy to have some variety around here in the toy department (ha!-- That's what it'll really look like soon if I don't purge a bit: an actual toy department). In my experience kids the boy's age seem to love playing with things like empty boxes, Tupperware and they love to do things like empty an entire drawer of clothing or cupboard of pots and pans. This is fun, important work. Pushing buttons on a crazy/loud hunk of plastic isn't the same as nesting all of the mixing bowls back together. However, the right mix of extras really breaks up what can be a lot of time here in our 700-800 square foot abode and yesterday I found things like the most darling little play house for the boy's Little People and a little barn (we're going to have to find some farm animals!). I think really, in the back of my mind, there's a small idea of wanting to provide everything to the boy on a very limited income and feeling like I want the boy to have the variety and fun of my childhood (though my mom and dad provided all of that variety and fun with a limited income too, and it was a wonderful and enriched childhood). Anyhow, I know daycare variety explosion toys aren't necessary but a few are fun.

There's a dress that's been hanging right out in the open for $4 for months at this store. I always stop and eye it and want it, though I have no earthly idea where I'd wear it (we don't do nice, semi-fancy white dress-type events around here). It was there again, and I decided I had to just get it. With the boy's waning patience I didn't have it in me to try it on but it looked big. It is big for me on top, and it's too snug around my, er, big bottom. This is not the best combo (too big on top, too snug on bottom) for my self-image. It may have to go to my (tall, skinny, beautiful) sister. It's handmade and really gorgeous in person with the most amazing fabric.

So this all brings me to what I've put off for months (and months). Our jogging stroller, which hurt me to buy in the first place (I hate spending loads of money, you know), was left under a very covered front porch-type area for a few days in the rainy fall. It was completely covered, mind you, but it grew a nasty black mold on the straps and a bit on the seat too. I googled solutions and all of these people were saying you had to throw it away. My friend said I should just wash it with bleach water and call it good. So here's the question: If I wash and scrub and just use it am I a bad mother, putting her child at risk for a nasty something or other? Do I buy a new one (I've been scanning Craigslist for months to no avail)? Would you replace the straps (that's the part I worry about-- what if he put them in his mouth?) somehow? How would I go about doing that?

So that's the current excuse for why my bottom is too big. Convenient that I've done nothing about the stroller for months and months so, oops!, I can't run.

Mom figured I should take some different pictures of Henry + Olivia to show how big they really are. I like the two of them sitting on the little chair together! I tried to find more vintage angora and lamb's wool fabric at the thrift store again but there wasn't any. Go figure.

Smiling exhaustion

Birds are singing, sun is shining... joy radiates. I have no idea what the weather's like outside right now but inside things are looking good. Just look at what my mother-in-law gave me when the boy and I stopped by for a visit yesterday.

Wait. Did you see it all? Look!

There's a whole stack of vintage fabric she and my father-in-law found in Portland last weekend, and then there's a gigantic stack of fabric cut out to make yo-yos. Imagine the possibilities! Needless to say I have a wonderful mother-in-law. And father-in-law. My brother- and sister-in-law aren't too shabby either.

I bruised my right hip from all of the dancing the boy and I have done through his illness. He insists on turning on jazz and dancing on the rug. He'll be sad about something and he runs over to the rug in the middle of the living room; he stamps his feet and points urgently at the ground while shaking his head like Ray saying, "Na na na na!" (his favorite nighttime music has a "na na" song where all of the "words" are "na na"). This isn't dancing. It means, "Mama! Pick me up and you dance." We're slowly venturing out though he's getting tired quickly and has a short fuse (note the "outrage" discussion in my last post). I'm a bit exhausted, but I'm still smiling. Hmmm... That's not right. I'm truly exhausted, but I'm still smiling. Yep. That's it.

Is it strange to be obsessively dreaming about vacations? We never go on "holiday" and it's never much of an issue but I'm dreaming constantly of heading to the beach.

I'm also daydreaming about spending time with my guy (the older one). We've been so busy lately and get caught up in the "Did you do the...? Should we pay the...? Could you...? The boy needs..." and I miss looking up from my coffee and The New Yorker in a cafe on a weekend morning, smiling at T across the table. I can look over at him on his laptop over there from my laptop here, but there's laundry blocking the view, there are dishes piled in the sink, the ironing board is to my right, bills are stacked behind the computer screen and I have a white face mask on. It's not the same.

Thrifting, playing, and a googa

My sister and I are thinking alike, which happens more often than not. I had this picture sitting in iPhoto waiting for the weekend, and she has a beautiful picture of thread over on her site.

Things have been busy around here, in a good way. We've been having fun as a family, visiting the zoo and having milkshakes in one of our favorite little places (if you're ever in Tacoma, try the espresso milkshake). I used a jig saw, drill, table saw, skill saw, electric sander and hammer yesterday. Can you guess what I'm making? I can't wait to paint it and to make the curtains (and find the Duktig). Ever since watching yesterday the boy keeps banging his hands on things and saying, "Bam, bam, bam, bam."

T & the boy with the "baby beluga"
or "googa," if you're the boy.

Tacoma's also the home of my new, favorite thrift store. I spent an hour finding lots of treasures including a baby quilt (I'm going to save it from bleeding red, recut & repurpose) and a gigantic, beautiful sweater dress of angora and lamb's wool (for little animals). Did I mention it's angora and lamb's wool? With an absurd amount of fabric? For $3? I remember standing outside a thrift store when I was little but old enough to be too worried about what others thought about me, refusing to go in and being absolutely mortified about looking for clothes inside. I've changed a bit! Among other myriad treasures (for $30 total-- oh, my goodness) I found many "daycare explosion" variety toys for the boy. At $1 a piece I can't pass up little goodies that can make a rainy afternoon pass more quickly. I hide them away and bring them out when I'm desperate. Before they are allowed in the house, however, I have this elaborate system of cleaning and sanitizing and making them ours. Are other people this neurotic about such things? There's bleach, laundry soap, scrubbing with toothbrushes... It's elaborate. But once I'm done I'm confident that even my little guy could put the item in his mouth and it'd be clean. That's what it takes to make it "ours!"

Via Moonstitches I found this wonderful pattern for a doll. Have you found this? Funny, as I'd just been cutting out lambs and chickens from another Martha pattern. We aren't really into dolls around here right now, but we always could be at some point. It's good to have a good doll pattern handy.

I have a few orders to get ready today to mail out tomorrow and I couldn't be happier about it all! Splat mats covering the kitchen floors of the world...

Love the sun

There was sun shining in our kitchen and a wee little corner of the living room this morning. C went over to the wee corner and put his head down on a cushion right in the sun and he was so beautiful. I miss that sun! I also miss the snow though, and didn't want to post because I want that amazing bit of Japanese maple to pop up every time I see the blog. I have nothing beautiful to replace it with!

Frustrations abound. Yesterday was a rough, rough day and T was gone 'til midnight. We headed over to the boy's grandparents' for dinner though, and it saved the day really. It was so nice to be around people who think he's as brilliant and fascinating as I do, and it was just so comforting. Their house has never really been my home as they moved there after I was gone and off to college, but it's still like home in a way because my parents are there. It makes me think about the other day when the boy was saying "home, home, home" over and over. He takes new words he learns and repeats them over and over and over... You get the idea. The boys were in the kitchen and T asked C to say "Mama" and he said "home" instead. T said something like, "Mama is our home, isn't she?" and it made me feel so nice and warm inside.

I think the frustrations mostly center on transitions again, which I always struggle with. Change seems especially hard for me and though I'm generally happy with the change once it's settled and not new any more, I dread it coming up and I fight it while it's happening. The boy is hitting his stride in so many ways and is so very capable now. I don't need to "hover" as much as I had to (hardwood floors with a little baby are tough stuff) and when we're off places he runs away to explore just like I want him to. We're at a new place again, in a way, and I haven't found my way to run away and explore yet. It'll happen, I know, but I'm always a person who wants it to have happened yesterday. It's: ideas, ideas, ideas, passion, why isn't it done yet? The moms I know with kids the relatively same age seem to be having similar transitions. Some are heading back to work, others are having Baby #2. I'm so not ready for either of those yet and neither is T. Anyhow, I'll find my way.

I just found this little blog, celebrating its first birthday. It's almost our boy's blog's birthday too but I don't think I'll craft an amazing banner to celebrate! Her sentiment about being inspired to craft and being appreciated for what she puts out there in the world is what I yearn for! It's always fun to visit my favorites and to sit down for a moment in the sun to write, coffee in hand.

The most creative thing I did yesterday was to save some cute little Pumas from their scuff; they were passed on to us and look new and darling yet again. The secret without the right color of shoe polish? Rub permanent marker in a darker color than the shoe on your finger, then rub the finger on the scuffed area. It works every time. We must have done this when I was little-- Where would I have come up with that one?

Getting away

Yesterday I went shopping with my sister. I always say I hate to shop but I think, when it comes right down to it, I just hate to spend money. I'm so stingy (I hope not when it comes to others but definitely when it comes to spending money on myself) and I agonize over purchases before, during and after. It was fun though, and I really enjoyed hanging out with B. We hit the mall for several things but it didn't open until 11 a.m. on Sunday (go figure?) so we went to a nearby thrift store first and found so many, many wonderful things. I didn't buy them all (back to the stingy thing) but did find a great backpack for the boy (to carry him, not for him to wear!) and we've been looking for one for ages and ages. I've resolved to go back there often as it's really a thrift store with prices like a thrift store. Here where we live you can't find anything "reasonable," and most things I always see and think, "I could buy that at Target on sale for less, NEW!"

It was the longest I've been away from the boy aside from the day I had the flu. He's 15 months old, for goodness sakes, and it was so strange to be away from him. I saw babies and little boys EVERYwhere and wondered what he and T were up to. They had a great time together, of course, and C didn't seem to miss me a bit. This is how I want him to feel if I've been away. I want him to be secure in us, his mom and dad, and to not see an absence as anything to fret about. I want him to know we'll always be right back. I did also want a little hug or kiss or "Mama" too, but I got that from T and all is good.

I've been having fun with a little free-form embroidery. The bunnies (more, with cats too, on the way!) inspired me to pick up the thread and needle and it's very peaceful. T and I have been reading out loud to each other from a series of books and it's so relaxing to sit, listen, sew a bit and have some wine or tea. Maybe I'll end up putting some things in the shop, which desperately needs an update. I think it'll take a few months for me to find a niche with the shop and to know how I want to focus my making time with what I want to put out there to sell.

Isn't this little fluff of moss beautiful? It was sitting with its little hat of snow in a nook on a Japanese maple in our yard last week. I miss the snow and am dreading all of the rain again, but it was nice to take a long walk into town with T and the boy on Saturday. It was sunny and not too cold. T and I shared an Americano (a big-time treat in our budget these days) and we stopped by the toy store for a little fun for the boy. We saw lots of these little baby toys there and the prices were god-awful. I respect the process, the history, and the beautiful fabrics, but I get a little mad about the prohibitive prices on toys. I can do better for less!

Getting away, even for a few hours, made me appreciate home even more.

Now, off to playgroup!