Chloeisms from the babysitter.

We are lucky. Really lucky. We have to work (and I like to work aside from that) but it's hard to leave our amazing kid. Taking her to someone who genuinely loves and appreciates her makes it easier. Wub loves her weekday sitter Terie and her brood.

To prove a point, a week or two ago Terie had a family emergency and Wub spent the day with her cousin Andie and Andie's wonderous ginger haired boy. Although she had a great time, when we came to pick her up she cried a little because she wanted to see...that's right Terie.

Every day that we don't send Chloe off to big box daycare I am thrilled that I have the luxury of knowing that that she is being truly cared for.

Terie-Wouldn't it be funny if your name was Cock-a-doodle doo? Then everyone would call you Cock-a-doodle doo instead of Chloe.
Chloe-No it wouldn't.
Terie-Why not?
Chloe-Because I don't speak Spanish.
(and who can argue with that?)

Terie-What is the moon made of?
Chloe-Wood...glowing wood.
Terie-And how did it get there?
Chloe-The aliens made it.
(of course)

First Concert

We took her to see Bob Dylan. Which either makes us crazy or cool. Maybe both.

I was a little worried. Wub doesn't like loud noises and concerts are, well, usually pretty loud. I had a back up plan though. If she had freaked out I was going to have Erin come and get her.

Leon Russell opened. It was rollicking, bluesy, fun and funky and Wub responded by standing up on her seat, dancing around, waving her arms in the air and shouting things in my ear. (I never could catch what she was saying.)

All in all a good sign.

At intermission we got her a drink and waited for Mr. Zimmerman to take the stage. When the lights went down, we were positioned perfectly to watch Bob Dylan take the stage. I pointed him out to her as he was walking up the stage stairs.

Then they took the stage. Rainy Day Woman. Wub danced around happily. Yay! Then It's All Over Now Baby Blue a little less enthusiastic but still dancing...Things Have Changed....Why yes, they have. Wub climbed up on my lap and leaned her head on my shoulder. The song ended she looks up at me and says "Is it over now?"  "No."  "Are you kidding?"  "No baby I'm not."

This scene repeated itself after every song. "Is it over now?" "No." "Are you kidding?" "No baby I'm not." She never got out of hand and sat quietly on my lap through most of it. She just wanted to leave. Poor baby.

When the band left the stage she was visibly relieved.  "Is it over now?" "No." "Are you kidding?" "No baby I'm not."  and I tried to explain encore to her whilst clapping madly.
The band took the stage again and began to play Like a Rolling Stone. Wub perks up a little and bounces and claps a little. I'm happy because the concert is ending on a better note for her. Then, then, they start All Along the Watchtower. Wub Jumps up and begins to dance and bounce and clap enthusiastically. She is a joy filled happy baby and although I entertain vague fears of her falling down the bleachers, I'm thrilled that it's ending up this way. They finished up with Blowin' In the Wind. All in all a pretty amazing experience which she won't really remember.

Little Miss Firecracker

We had a very nice Fourth full of picnic foods and fireworks and one really cute dress.

She will either...

Roll her eyes and say.
"The very first concert my parents took me too was Bob Dylan"
Implication..."You see now why I am so screwed up?"

or...

Smile and say.
"The first concert I ever went to? My parents took  me to see Bob Dylan when I was three."
Implication..."Yes, I am a dork and so are my parents but still...pretty cool too."

I'm expecting the former but hoping for the latter.

From the mouths of babes...

Sunday morning I made Wub a reversible halter top to wear to Dad's memorial service. I put it on her and she immediately began tugging at the bottom ruffle.

Chloe-"Where's the rest of it?"
Mommy-"It's a shirt sweetheart. It doesn't have a skirt."
Chloe-(Still tugging at the rufflle.)"But where's the rest of it?'
Mommy-"Honey, I don't know what you mean. What rest of it?"
Chloe-"Where's the part that covers my belly button?"

I promptly explained to her that it was supposed to be short like that. She seemed mostly ok although I did see her tugging at it occasionally.

Later that evening I sewed up a super quick sun dress for her. When I tried it on her...

Mommy-"Do you like it?"
Chloe-"Yes it's very pretty..." Smooths down the front of the dress... "and it protects my belly"

Two, two, two posts in one!

What do you get when you take a perfectly toasted marshmallow and smoosh it between two chocolate digestives?

Mmmmmmmmmm, happy Wubby.

Daddy liked them too.

Now for the sewing...

I wanted to make Wub a maxi dress. I had this beautiful polka dotted batik fabric in 8 different colors and no clear plan of what to do with it. So....

 I used the red to make bias trim for the straps, the pink to make the bodice, orange lime, teal, blue and purple to form the tiers of the skirt and more red bias to finish the skirt. Visible in the next pic...

the brown I used for the bodice lining. I really think I'm going to stick with black to stitch in cme labels. I like it better though I don't hate the red for this.

I used the halter sundress from IndieTutes for the bodice. I know I've been going on and on about IndieTutes but there is a good reason for it. I did make one minor variation from the tutorial by topstitching all around the top edge. I just like the way it looked.                                               

I'm not 100% happy with the cme sprout tag placement. I lined it up straight with the orange strip but I should have aligned it to the bodice. It comes across a bit wonky.  But again, I don't hate either. The skirt is basically a twirl skirt of which there are roughly half a million tutorials out there for. I probably used a bit of all of them for the construction. For me a tutorial on gathering was the most helpful thing. Because I had a limited amount of fabric, I modified the normal formula of each tier being 1.5 times longer than the last and used 1.33 instead. (If you decide to try something like this you most likely won't have limitations like all of your fabric is in fat quarter form so you can just ignore that 1.33 if you want)

There are a few things I would do differently next time. I would remember at some point before the skirt was halfway constructed, that the seams from where I sewed the strips together really should have been zigzagged. I also will  most likely trim the seams where the skirt tiers come together just to remove some of the weight from the skirt. Very happy with it though.

And so was Wub.

The end...

P.S. When we were dyeing yarn to make dryer balls we made beautiful rainbow yarn which Chloe named Neighbours. This is a very neighbourly dress.



Chloe Quotes

Chloe-"Okay, we need to pretend we have a drawing desk..." Picks up her Magna-Doodle which she calls her drawing desk..."Okay we'll just have to pretend that this is a pretend drawing desk."

Chloe-"Okay, I'll be Goldilocks and you can be the seven bears."

Chloe-"Daddy you pretend to be the pretend daddy, Mommy you be the pretend mommy and I'll be the babysitter."