In command

Friday was a big day for Captain Husband; he assumed command of a battery of just over a hundred soldiers.  He's been waiting a long time for this and I couldn't be more proud of him--I just know he's going to do a wonderful job.

This was my first time attending a military ceremony (and Sammy's too), so I wasn't quite sure what to expect; fortunately it was held outdoors, so Sammy plopped himself down in the dirt and spent the entire time quietly playing with some of his matchbox cars.  The ceremony itself was short, sweet and to the point, with the outgoing commander passing the unit guidon (or flag for those of you new to military speak) to CH in a symbolic transfer of power.

CH then led the battery in formation and then it was time to break for some refreshments.  It was one of those situations where I didn't know a single person, but everyone seemed to know who I was and kept coming up to introduce themselves to me--it's going to take me a while to learn all of these new faces and names!  Sammy had a blast running around and many of the soldiers were more than happy to indulge him in little games of chase and tickle monster; I was worried that he might get confused by all of the people in uniform and start calling random dudes daddy, but fortunately, that never happened.

Part of the ceremony included a presentation of roses to the outgoing commander's wife and to me; they're really quite lovely although Sandy seems to be under the impression that they're meant for her...to eat.

Twenty-two month update (a few days late)

Sammy turned twenty-two months old on Monday and I totally let that slip by without an update of any kind somehow.  Sammy has grown so much both physically and mentally since the last update that it's kind of crazy.  I honestly think he's shot up about an inch in the last month (which may explain his need to sleep from 4 pm until 6 am the next morning earlier this week and him waking up from his naps saying, "Ow!" over and over again) and his vocabulary has been expanding by at least two words a day.   Sammy's wearing 3T tops and bottoms and size 8 shoes; I'm not quite sure of the whole molar situation, but if you'd like to stick your finger in his mouth to find out, be my guest--I'm once bitten, twice shy.

  

He's gotten really good at following instructions and will put his toys away with only a little prompting and at our last play date he actually willingly SHARED a toy with one of his friends; of course, Sammy's far from perfect and can throw a tantrum with the best of them.  However, he has picked up this somewhat adorable habit of saying, "I'm sorry," after he's finished wailing and flailing, which makes my resulting desire to punt him through the window diminish by at least half.

New tricks: Going up and down the stairs all by himself with alarming speed, making up songs and singing to himself, identifying numbers and letters wherever we go (this comes in handy when we're waiting in line at the store and I'll ask him to find me a particular letter--it buys me at least another 5 minutes of good/distracted behavior), saying "Hi" and "Bye" to nearly everyone we meet, "reading" to himself, and identifying several of his friends by name.

New words/sentences: "I see it/you", "Where did it/he go?", "What's that sound?", house, home, space, sun, rocket, car, chair, cycle (for motorcycle/bicycle), big, down, "Oh my!", star, water, cookie, cracker...and a whole bunch of other words that I just can't think of at the moment.  Sammy's recall is nothing short of amazing--when he hears someone say a new word, he'll repeat it a few times and will use it accurately a few days later, usually to my surprise.

Texture Thursday: Pins and needles

I've been spending a lot of time in my guest room/craft room these days; between the little projects that I'm trying to complete around the house, I also have two baby showers coming up soon.  To that end, I decided that I was going to make all, if not most, of my gifts for my expectant friends.  Clearly the heat wave that we in El Paso are experiencing has completely fried my brain.  (It was 98 degrees yesterday...yeah, yeah, there's no humidity to speak of, but that's still pretty freakin' hot for APRIL.)  I haven't been able to post any photos of the things I've been working on because they both read my blog and I'd like for them to be somewhat surprised, but if you follow me on Instagram (I'm @bicyclebandit), I've been posting photos here and there of the work in progress.  So what have you been working on lately?

Wordless{ish} Wednesday: The beginnings of a vintage bassinet makeover

{I've been rather absent from the online world lately and that's mostly due to the new project that I found for myself over the weekend--refurbishing a vintage bassinet that I discovered at a new-to-me thrift store.}  

{The bassinet was structurally sound but needed some help in the aesthetics department.  I stripped the bassinet down to its bare bones and fixed a minor split in the wood trim and then tried to figure out what to do next.}

{Looking at the dingy and somewhat tattered vinyl liner, I had my eureka moment--I could cut the liner along its seams and use those pieces to create a pattern for a custom fabric liner.  It seemed like a pretty straightforward idea so I figured what the heck and started cutting away.}

{Thankfully I had a helper kitty to offer me assistance in the deconstruction of the original liner.}

{Last week I had found some gorgeous teal and green printed fabric at a different thrift store and bought it figuring that I could easily find some use for it.  Turns out I had just enough of it to piece together a new liner for the bassinet!  And the icing on the cake is that I was able to find complementary polka dotted fabric at the Hobby Lobby, so I bought enough of that to try my hand at putting together a skirt for the bassinet, as well as some lovely teal batiste for making some fitted sheets for bassinet mattress.}

{I pinned the old pieces of the vinyl liner to my fabric and started cutting--I added an additional 3" to the height of each piece so that I would hopefully have enough lining to fold over the edge of the bassinet.   With some trepidation I started sewing everything together, beginning with sewing the side panels to the bottom panel, followed up by sewing up the sides.}

{I've never attempted anything like this before, so I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the new liner not only fits but it actually looks pretty darn good if I may say so myself.  I plan to add some bias trim to the edge of the liner and I still have some ways to go with the skirt, but so far this transformation has me tickled pink.}

Winner, winner!

I had meant to post this yesterday, but the day was filled with play dates, shopping excursions, and long drives all over El Paso.  So without any further ado, here's the winner of the one-of-a-kind tote bag:

That would be Clara, aka Maeve's Mama!  When you have a moment, please email me (at eltothethird at gmail dot com) your mailing address and I'll be sure to have the bag in the mail to you by the end of the week.  Congrats to Clara and thanks to all who entered!

Breaking records

Sammy and I participated in the second annual Great Cloth Diaper Change this past Saturday; we had joined in on the fun last year when we went home to visit my family in Pennsylvania over Easter, so when I heard that there was going to be an El Paso location, I quickly signed the two of us up.

It also helps that the change was taking place at Jungle Jaks, a huge indoor playground on the east side of El Paso--all of the participants were allowed to play for free following the event, which totally sweetened the deal.  Sammy had been there once before, so I knew he would have a good time running around and playing with all of the other cloth-diapered kiddos.

The turnout this year was a bit more than I expected, which is pretty awesome because it means the word is getting out about the benefits of cloth diapering (or perhaps everyone wanted that free play pass).  The El Paso location had thirty two kids participating last year, whereas this year there were a whopping sixty four kids involved.  The changing quarters were a bit cramped, but everyone was excited to be there in the hopes of breaking the Guinness record that was set last year for the most cloth diapers changed simultaneously.

Afterwards Sammy ran around and played while I chatted with some of the other parents in attendance about the different cloth diapering systems everyone uses; it was nice getting to talk shop with some experienced fluff fanatics (and I'm sure Captain Husband appreciated the break from my recent non-stop diaper talk).  There were also raffles and prizes for the attendees and I was very surprised when I won two of the door prizes--a free month of classes at Gymboree and two dozen jars of Earth's Best baby food, which will come in handy when my nephew, Hank, comes to visit in a few weeks.  All in all it was a great way to spend the day--plus Sammy napped for several hours once we made it back to the house.  So how did you spend your Earth Day weekend?

Baby got back

A few weeks ago, Sammy started soaking through his diapers in a record amount of time.  I was at a loss, but I knew one thing for sure--I was getting really tired of mopping pee off of the floor several times a day.  I was getting so desperate for a solution that I almost resorted to disposables, but Sammy managed to flood through those in less than a half an hour (surely that has to be a record of some sort).  I talked to a few cloth-diapering friends who informed me that my beloved Fuzzi Bunz tend to max out once the wearer nears thirty pounds.  Crap.  Now what?  I had a few fitteds and prefolds left over from Sammy's old night-time routine so I tried a few different combos and struck gold with the following:

I've had to buy some additional components like more fitteds and covers, but I've gotten really lucky on eBay and Spot's Corner, so it hasn't been too expensive (contrary to what Captain Husband thinks); I also just ordered some wool wrap covers by Imse Vimse in the hopes that they will make this new system even more awesome.  Sammy can now go about an hour and a half to two hours between changes, as opposed to once every 30 minutes when he was in his Fuzzi Bunz (and a hemp doubler--my kid has the bladder of a race horse). 

The only downfall to my new super soaker combination is that it's a bit bulky and I may have to size up Sammy's shorts to 4T just so I can pull them over his giant butt.  He may look a little funny with that big bottom of his, but anything is better than dealing with the constant diaper changes and whatnot.  Since I've made the switch I've managed to cut way back on the amount of laundry I had to do thanks to all of Sammy's leaks.

And as you can see, the added bulk hasn't impeded Sammy's flexibility one bit. Have a great Earth Day Weekend everyone!

GTL

From the Urban Dictionary:  GTL stands for "gym, tan, laundry."  Must be done everyday to achieve maximum potential.  Side effects may include fist pumping.

Eh, close enough!

Wordless{ish} Wednesday: Sew crazy (and a giveaway!)

{I've been bit by the sewing bug, big time.  It helps that I've been having some incredibly great luck out thrifting--a few weeks ago, I came across some beautiful light turquoise pre-quilted fabric that was only $1.99, so I bought it with the hopes of eventually turning it into a toddler-sized blanket for Sammy.  Sammy and I went to the fabric store on Sunday--I had some coupons burning a hole in my pocket--and he picked out some awesome Hello Kitty fabric that went with the pre-quited fabric perfectly.  I managed to sew it all together Monday night after Sammy went to bed so I was able to surprise him with it first thing Tuesday morning; he promptly grabbed it and curled up on the sofa with it.  I think that means he likes it.}

{Speaking of thrifting and sewing, I had recently come across a great tutorial over at The Sewing Dork on how to turn two pillow cases into a cute tote.  Armed with this information, I soon found some adorable vintage pillowcases at my local thrift store that would be perfect for this little project, which brings us to today's giveaway:}

{Your very own, one-of-a-kind tote bag! After I finished sewing everything together, I decided that the bag was missing a little something something on the strap; I came across a tutorial over at Mom 4 Real on how to make fabric rosettes and voila--I had my something something.  (Don't worry--it's affixed using an alligator clip, so you can remove it to wash the bag or wear it in your hair if you're feeling fancy.)  The bag measures approximately 12" wide by 10" high (not including the strap)--just the right size for a quick trip to the store; there's even a little pocket in the interior where you can stash your keys or your chapstick.  Disclaimer: I'm definitely a novice when it comes to sewing, so the bag isn't perfect, but that's just one of the quirks of handmade, right?}

{Okay, so here's the nitty gritty on how to enter:

Mandatory entry: You must be a follower of my blog. Just leave me a comment telling me you are.

{Optional entries--please leave a separate comment for each entry}
1. Answer this question: What will you carry in your new bag?
2. Like my blog on Facebook.
3. Tweet, Facebook, Google+ or blog about this giveaway (include the link in your comment, please).

This giveaway will end Sunday, April 22nd at 11:59 PM MST and the winner will be contacted via email, so please make sure that I have a way of contacting you.  Good luck everyone!}

This giveaway is open to all of my readers and is sponsored by L to the third (me!).