A Name for the Wall

I've been debating about what to hang in the space over Lily's bed since she was born. I know... I tend to over-think things! I obviously didn't want to put anything heavy that might fall on her, and then after we got her crib tent there was only so much space there - and would she or we really look through to see whatever it was? It was kind of awkward --so it got put off even more... Now with her little low toddler bed the blank spot on the wall could no longer be ignored! I have a couple of designs in the works for wall quilts I really want to do, but I decided to start with my easiest idea first. (So something would be done!) So I made paper mache letters to spell Lily's name. It doesn't really fill up the wall the way I wanted to, but better than nothing!! I can always move them around if I ever do get a wall quilt or something else done. I am excited to have something up all the time with Lily's name on it so she can learn to recognize it.

My plan was to make paper mache letters and then decoupage the front of them with fabric to match Lily's bed quilt, and just paint the sides. I made the letters with cardboard:

Covered that in paper:

  Sanded them slightly, and got a little help from Lily to paint the sides.

When I dug around in my scrap bag I realized I didn't have enough fabric left over from her quilt to cover the fronts. I really didn't want to spend money on this for goodness sake - so I scanned in the fabric scraps, collaged them in photoshop - just the right size for each letter (so as not to waste any ink) - and printed it out. Easier and better looking than it would have been otherwise, I am sure! A little Elmer's glue and spray finish and they were good to go!

I cut some holes in the back and stuck broken crayons through them to help me mark spots on the wall to hammer the nails as I hung them up. Just above where Lily can reach.

It's not perfect. I might still move them around because I kind of liked them better at odd angles... but I think it turned out pretty good! 

 Lily had fun with it too :)

A little this, a little that - Two and a half

 

 A little smarty

A little sweetheart

A little cheesy

A little cutie

A little bit particular

(she must have the bigger spoon!)

A little attitude

A little independent

A little silly

 Did I mention silly?

 A little bit adventurous

 A little uncooperative

A little mischievous

A little stubborn

A little angel

 A little expressive

A little dramatic

A little disgruntled

A little bit excited

A little shy

A little playful

A little serious

A little goofy

A little sick

A little tired

 (seconds after)

A little helper

A little character

A little darling

A little too grown-up

A lot of fun!

 A pure joy!

Silly Lily

Sitting in the backseat:

"Da-ad! What are you do-ing?"

MIKE: "What?"

LILY: "Why're you wearing your hat backwards!" >>giggling<<

MIKE: "Because I'm cool!"

LILY: "No! -- you can't be cool!"

MIKE: "What!? Why not?"

LILY: "You have to be the Daddy!"

>>All of us laughing<<

Then Lily wanted to wear the hat, which covered her whole face. She pipes up from the back with a little salute:

"Reporting for duty!" 

--"Hello, Doody!"

Where does she get this stuff!?

Crazy Crazy

A couple weeks ago Lily wanted me to get out the crazy quilt I made for my kids before she was born. She was acting silly and pretending to be a baby again, probably because she remembered that was the last time we'd pulled it out!

The quilt was sort of a collaboration between Mike's mom Elsie and me. She is amazing at embroidery and had made 2 twin size quilts for her boys when they were little - both of which Mike ended up with. One had animals, and one had Indian designs. They were sewn together with alternating blocks of brown fabric that had become stained and torn. They were getting pretty worn, but I loved the embroidered designs and hated the idea of just throwing them away, or letting them be used to wrap around our furniture any time we moved. We had so many quilts and so little space Mike just wouldn't let me keep all of them! I thought it would be cool to save and preserve them by combining them into 1 smaller baby quilt that all our kids could use. Mike's grandma loves making crazy quilts, and I thought with all the colors and the variety of designs that would be a fitting way to put them all together. I cut out the designs and tried to match the colors with some solid fabrics in a crazy diamond block pattern. I even did a little embroidery to finish some designs that weren't quite done, and signed it made with love by me and Mike's mom. It was cool to be able to look at her work as I tried my hand at embroidery. It turned out pretty crazy, but I love it - and more importantly Lily loves it! Plenty of visual stimulation here - perfect for tummy time! It was fun when Lily would start to point out the different animals she recognized in the quilt as she was learning to talk. I think it's cool that Lily and any other future kids we have can share something their dad used and loved when he was a little boy.

Anyway, as Lily laid down on the quilt I remembered a picture I'd taken of her on it as a baby, so I had to grab my camera and take another. I realized later one was at 3 months, and the other at 30 months! Isn't it crazy how much she's changed and how fast kids grow!?

3 months

30 months

Baby Girl

Big Girl

We Love to Read

Lily has loved reading with us since she was pretty little. She will just keep going as long as your voice holds out if you let her! At first it was just a few simple board books over and over until we got so tired of them we had to buy more... but Lily still had her favorites. She loved this book Mike bought her called The Escape of Marvin the Ape:

I have this video from last April of Lily at the zoo watching the ape - Mike told her it was Marvin. He was like her celebrity crush! :)

That's a fun book because as you keep reading it you start to notice there are little things hidden in every picture. You can usually find Marvin and the police, but there is a black cat and an ostrich hidden in every picture - and they are often pretty tough to spot! I like that they don't mention it so it becomes like your own special secret discovery (Now you're in the know!).

I'm really excited now that Lily is getting interested in books that I remember loving as a kid! You know how some books just capture your imagination and stick with you? Lily was 'reading' The Little Red Hen Sunday morning so I caught a clip on video. It was so cute to hear the phrases she most remembered from reading it, and at some parts actually doing different voices for each of the animals! I wish I'd gotten more.  (Edited for excessive page turning)

Lily also loves the Frances books. She got a collection of them for Christmas - we already had two not in the collection so when she opened it she was all excited -"Frances!". I loved Bread and Jam for Frances when I was a kid! (I was a picky eater too),

and Bedtime for Frances - though the illustration of that bathrobe on the chair did look menacing! I love how these books teach different lessons in a natural, non-threatening way so that it's just part of the story, and I love how much

Scary Bathrobe (this doesn't so it justice)

Frances with her made up songs is like a real little kid. Her parents are pretty true-to-life too! I can read those books over and over again, and I am. I need to search out some more of my old favorites to add to our collection...like Morris' Disappearing Bag, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Frederick, and so many more. It's so fun to share these things with Lily! And let's face it - I don't get to read many books of my own choosing these days! Mike reads to Lily most nights, too. Reading aloud is such a fun way to spend time together - I wish we did it even more. We read some Harry Potter and other good read-aloud books together before Lily was born. I like to do voices. Mike is pretty good at them too -- but he has to be really into the book. I hope someday our teenagers will be cool enough to enjoy reading aloud with their parents!