Neglected.

I've got a confession to make. 

With all the sewing I do, my poor niece and nephew have been terribly neglected and suffered from a terrible lack of handmade auntie goods. 

Until recently that is.  I've been sewing little things here and there for them for months, and then finally at the end of April I got my butt in gear and had a week-long sew-a-thon. 

 
The products of that sewing.

I've been wanting to post this for awhile, but I had to wait til they got it, and then I just kept forgetting.  They got it the other week, and here are a couple action pics, just because I've got the cutest niece and nephew in the whole wide world.

 

Oh, and does this look familiar to anyone?
 
Let me refresh your memory.....

(from the post Cousins.)

I missed a day!

I missed a day for my 365 project!  January 23rd. :(  I didn't even realize I missed a day until I went to upload the new pics and didn't have one for that day.  Oh well.  I'm sure I'm bound to miss a few more before the year is up.

I sewed this dress yesterday, this was my first attempt at this style of dress.  I'm not especially pleased with the way it came out, mainly because I don't think I really like the A-Line look, and the top-stitching isn't very good either.  Luckily for me though, my sister loves it, which is good because its actually for her daughter.  Oh, and another note- making bias tape by hand SUCKS.  I hand ironed the bias tape for this dress and it has made me realize just how fantastic an actual bias tape maker would be.  Adding that to my wishlist.



I've also been working with these....

They will be featured in their own blog post in the near future.  Nothing fancy, but I'm excited about it.

and then just because shes cute, and I'm thrilled that after almost two years she finally has enough hair for me to do this....



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Edited to add- OOPS!  I completely forgot to include where I got the pattern for the dress from.  It is the Snappy  Toddler Top over at Prudent Baby.  http://prudentbaby.com/

Snag!

The other day my mom was telling me about how when we were little, my sisters and I would play a game to sneak drinks off her soda.  One of us would go out and distract the adults with a song or dance or something along those lines, while the other would steal a drink.  Then, the other would go out and sing or dance while the first stole a drink.  Apparently this is an inborn genetic trait, because my girl and her cousin have already got it down.

I was having a chicken caesar salad for dinner the other night and Minna was having some split pea soup.  Sami being the piglet she is kept trying to go after Minnas dinner.  Baby+hot bowl of soup=not good.  So, I was trying to occupy her and keep her from mauling Minna.  We were all sitting on the bed, Sami next to me, Mercy sitting in front of me.  I had given the kids some bread and lettuce to munch on, but Mercy kept half heartedly trying to grab from my plate, and Sami kept trying to crawl for Minna and her soup.  At one point time I got distracted by the tv and then Sami made a run for Minna again, I grabbed her, pulled her back, look back forward, and Mercy had leaned forward and grabbed two handfuls of my salad and was shoving them in her mouth!

These kids are too smart for my own good. Just look at them! Plotting against me.

And a special shoutout to Miss Jenfly for motivating me to get off my butt and write at least 1 of these entries I've had floating in my head for the past couple days!

Cousins

Sami loves to give kisses.  Kisses all over mommy, kisses all over auntie, and today, kisses all over Mercy.  Mercy was pretty tolerant the first five or so minutes of Sami grabbing her head and pulling it towards her open mouth.  At one point Sami had hold of both of Mercy's ears and was using them as handles.  A good mom would have stopped it and freed her from her cousins grasp.  I stood back and laughed.  We kept trying and trying to get a picture of it but they'd stop as soon as we got the camera out.

We finally gave up and continued our shopping.  Then after checkout as we were waiting for our food from the Costco concessions Sami felt lovey again.  So she lunged at Mercy and was pulling her head in all ready to give it the proper loving, Mercy started screeching.  Once again, instead of  being a good mom and separating them, I grabbed my camera.  So if you happened to be Costco today, and heard two infants screeching and hollering, I apologize.  But this picture was totally worth it.

Aloha!

Mistress Mercy and I are in Hawaii!  We left the 7th for a nice vacation to come visit my sister and her sweet little girl Sami.  I'm so excited to be here and finally meet my niece.

It is so much fun to watch them interact together.  They are always smilin and talking to each other, reaching for each other two.  Mercy thinks Sami makes a great tool for leverage.  She is always trying to put her hands on Sams head and push up to standing.  Sams a pretty good sport about it.   They like to whack one another and poke the other in the eye and pull on ears.  They love to listen to each other.  Sam will be cooing and babbling and Mercy will just start LAUGHING at her, or Mercy will be talking and Sam will turn and start giggling at her and talking it back, its hilarious.

Mercy is kind of a bully though.  I sat them down to eat some fruit the other morning.  I gave Sam a piece of cantaloupe and Mercy a slice of apple because shes teething.  Mercy sucked on her apple a little bit, then crawled over to Sam and stole the cantaloupe! I gave it back to Sam and got Mercy her own piece.  Sam wasn't much interested in the melon so I gave her a baby rice cake instead.  I finish heating up my own food, get back to the living room, and Mercy is sitting there, eating the rice cake!  She also likes to take toys from Sam, and tries to steal her bottle too.  Its cute, but at the same time makes me wonder about when shes older.  Am I going to be getting called in to the principals office because Mercy kept taking toys from the other kids or wouldn't share her crayons? 

Its also so great to be with my sister.  We have so much fun together.  I feel like all the time we're together we are joking and in hysterics.  We randomly break out into song.  Usually Disney songs.  Sophie the Giraffes new name is Nacho.  I was telling her about the teething toys Canned Pie and Sophie, she wanted to know what they were. I explained they were teething toys that squeak and are made out of natural rubber.  Except she heard Nacho Rubber and was wondering what the hell that is.  Four days later and I'm still laughing at that.

Although, for all the fun we have together I have reason to believe she is trying to kill me.  On more than one occasion in the 4 days Ive been here, as soon as I take a drink or a bite of food, she will say something funny and I start laughing and trying not to choke. It might be payback for me repeatedly referring to our babies as reptiles. The other day-

me: "Its so funny watching them crawl all over each other.  Kind of like snakes. In a snake pit."

her: "uh....."

me: "don't like that one?  okay.  how about like kittens?"

or tonight, at dinner.  Sami was eating a piece of bagel, and Minna was sharing how she will eat most of things fine, and then try shove the last bites in her mouth at once, opening her mouth really wide.  My response was "Kind of like a snake, dislocating its jaw to eat animals whole."

Maybe I deserve it.  Choking to death from laughter while eating would be an interesting way to go.