Nursery Preparations

For each of our kids I've tried to personalize their nursery. They each get their own space and I'm pretty meticulous about picking it out. I have this commitment to making sure that they each come into this world surrounded by a room filled with love and many homemade things that they'll appreciate, I hope, years down the road.

This time wasn't any different. I took to picking out baby ninja's nursery decor at about 25 weeks and have been working to slowly get it ready for her arrival. And, true to nesting form, as I typically do, I've bitten off a bit more than I can chew.  This time it was an afghan, a curtain, a quit and a bunting banner. So far, we have the curtain and afghan ready to go, and I've started the quilt. This time I hope to finish it long before her second birthday (which for the record, is when I finished Owen's -- I started his before he was born too!).

Here's the progress so far. We're finding our way to making it a happy place.
I especially lover her birdie mobile and the mirror that I'm sure, once she's big enough, she'll admire herself in.

 We're still working on table top stuff- eventually I'm sure there will be a video monitor on this dresser and a small lap to go below her ABC print (which I scounted on minted.com until I have a big enough coupon to get it cheap).

 Here's the ruffle valance I made. It uses the same fabric as her bedding (which I had made and ordered, I'm not that crazy to take on bedding too).

 Eventually she'll have a bunting over her crib with her name on, but since we aren't sharing her name just yet I'm not putting it up.

And here's the Etsy birdie mobile I love so much and her mirror. Across the room is her changing table and rocker, but I haven't worked much on that side yet, so more updates with all the pictures when its finally finished.

Loose Tooth!

Some things in childhood you really have no control over. Loosing teeth is one of those things. Collin has been asking for almost a year now about when he will lose a tooth. The other kids in his class have been loosing teeth for a whole year- some in Kindergarten and Collin has been waiting patiently. Every so often I ask if he has any lose teeth and he says no. It was a ritual of ours.

Until one day he said yes.

I happened to be away in Florida at the time and during facetime he shared his news. A loose tooth! A new world. A transition out of early childhood.

And here it is, still just loose.

I couldn’t recall how long it takes for a tooth to go from newly loose to ready to fall out. It turns out for Collin its pretty long, because its still only partially loose and we’re about a month since its started to really wiggle. Maybe that means sometime in April it will fall out.

Enter the tooth fairy. A whole new world for us.  What does the tooth fairy do you ask? I’m not really sure. What does she bring? I’m not quite sure about that either. We’ll have to wait and see.

For now, we’ll mark down the first wiggle: February 24^th, 2016.

Wiggles are on our way though, through one of the many doors into becoming a big kid and losing more than teeth, moving away from the little bits of early childhood bright eyed excitement. And so, he loses a tooth and I lose a little bit of the baby left in him.

Collin's First Grade Winter Concert

We live in a time when no holidays that have religious connections are celebrated in schools. It makes me sort of sad that my boys don’t really get the chance to enjoy the magic of various faiths in celebration at school. We’re not even religious, so its not a religion in schools plug. Instead it’s a celebrate diversity in learning about others plug. Instead of worrying about not offending anyone and therefore celebrating nothing, I wish they celebrated everything. I wish the could experience Hanukah, Christmas, Divali, Kwanza, Ramadan, Chinese New year, all the bigs of all the faiths and denominations. I think it always helps open their eyes to the magic that is stored in tradition and heritage.  But, they don’t. Instead they do this “winter concert” thing where they sing a few songs and sorta pay homage to a few cultures.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the concert itself because the kids are so excited to be able to show off the songs they have been working on for months. They stand in the risers, a tiny bit nervous, waving at us sitting in the seats just ahead. They steel themselves for their masterpiece performance where they try their best, even if that is just humming along

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This year they sang a African folk song, a few Spanish songs, a French song, and a few standard American fares. At first grade they are adorable- enough independence to take pride in what they are doing, enough playful joy to trumpet on, even if they are out of tune.

They sang the Ants go Marching and were so enveloped in their own pace they left the recording behind, which made for a sort of double layered version of song and tune. Again, adorable and so full of inspiration about what it is to be committed to a task, that for them, meant pushing forward with or without their accompaniment.

In the end, we really enjoyed the concert and I found myself thinking- do I really have a first grader standing in those risers? How did we get here? And you know what, it turns out there was a song for nearly every season of our lives.

When the boys were little we sang our share of nursery tunes, a fan favorite was the wheels on the bus during lunch time. I made up songs that made no sense to introduce vocabulary, I sang about making lunch, making beds, changing diapers. You name it, there was a song. We did music together and I still find myself humming the hello and goodbye songs from those groups.

In toddlerhood the songs became a mix of soothing remedies and purposeful ballads. The clean up song entered our repertoire, and soon behind were the Daniel Tiger varieties of “Try new foods, they might taste good” and “If you are feeling mad and you want to roar, take a deep breath and count to four.”

The preschool welcomed us, and we were still singing songs, this time to finger plays, adventures in books, and many more. Character profiles appeared in our world and suddenly songs from Disney movie’s we’d never seen were attractive to the boys. The Lion King soundtrack ran often, even though we’ve still never watched the movie.  Pandora also entered their lives, and a whole new world of children’s music, classic music, and “momma’s music” opened up.

And so, the winter concert reminded me that for every tradition, moment and adventure in our lives, season to season there is a song. I hope it continues, as when I hear those songs now, I’m transported back to those moments. I hope someday, when I hear the Ants Go Marching I’ll be transported back to first grade, where my oldest shared a piece of his heart on the risers in his elementary school with us.