Today during naptime I was sitting at the table working on a few things and enjoying the peace and quiet in the house. The sun was shining, all the daycare children were sleeping and one of my favorite CDs was playing quietly in the background. I could hear Z-Man bumping and thumping around in his room above me, but I wasn’t concerned – he usually plays for a while before getting tired and crawling into bed to sleep.

Suddenly I felt a presence next to me. I turned my head and there was Z-Man! “I awake, I not want to nap” he announced, grinning. I was dumbfounded! How did he get out of his room? We’d had a problem with him climbing up the baby gate to get out months ago, so we bought a solid gate with no footholds for him. Then I remembered that he’d just discovered over the weekend that if he pushed a chair up to the gate he could climb over. But there was no chair in his room, just the 2 beds, 2 dressers and toys.

I took him back to his room amid protests of ” I not want to nap! I not tired! I stay downstairs!” When I reached his room I discovered what a clever boy he is – he dumped the dirty clothes out of the hamper, Jo-Bear’s swords out of the plastic trash can that they live in, and the Imaginext out of the large bin where they live. Then he turned them each upside-down to make steps leading to the gate! I was equally impressed and horrified, is this the end of my quiet nap times? How would I get the 3 children who nap downstairs to sleep if Z-Man is bopping around?!

I put him back into bed (Jo-Bear’s bed – Z-Man only sleeps in his bed at night), raised the gate a couple of inches and took the hamper and garbage can out of his room. With a stern “Stay in your room!” and a kiss I went back downstairs, hoping for the best.

It’s now quiet upstairs. The question is… did he fall alseep or is he into more mischief???

Update: He did fall asleep, thank heavens! And he’s only done it one other time – that time I caught him because I heard him running around upstairs. I told him he had to stay in his room so the other children could sleep. So far so good…

Little Guy went to the doctor for his four month check-up today. He was such a cutie, smiling his wide-open-mouth at Shannon and all the nurses! He’s doing great – 75% in weight and height. Yea for Mommy Milk! Shannon raved over how well he’s doing, what a cutie he is, how he was smiling and talking to her, etc. It’s always great to see Shannon because she has such a positive attitude. Here’s a photo I snapped after the appointment…

In other doctor news, my grandma (Mom’s mom) is going in to have a lump in her breast checked out. We don’t have a history of breast cancer, but it’s still scary. My mom says that she doesn’t think Grandma will do anything about it since she’s 87 and has been preparing to join Grandpa for several years. I’m hoping that won’t happen for a while yet! She’s still in good health, has good energy and makes sense most of the time, LOL. We’ll have to wait and see what the tests show.

I finished the LilyPad Landing diapers last night. Teacher held Little Guy for an hour and a half so I could get them done. I had to rush to get them posted this morning because of the doctor appointment – note to self: next time don’t make it on a Thursday morning! Today I plan to work on Miriam’s order, most of the appliques are done so my goal is to finish the other appliques. Hopefully I can start the new orders on Monday!

I’m so happy – I finally had a chance to sew for myself! I took the week between Christmas and New Year off from the daycare and decided that was the time to sew my new diaper bag and Mei Tai.

It took me a whole day to do the MT (Mei Tai) – because of interruptions and because I was making up the pattern. I’d taken ideas from a couple of different online patterns and MTs I’d seen for sale on a few sites to come up with my own MT. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! I used 3 layers in the construction so the places where the straps are sewn on wouldn’t show. I also added bamboo velour to the inside where Little Guy’s head would be, and did the bottom strap as one long piece. The only thing I’d change is to add a pocket in the inside that I could stuff the MT into when I’m not using it. I plan to make a bag with the wavy fabric for this one, and try a pocket on the next one.

Front and Back – with bamboo velour

The diaper bag took two days, but if I’d had a whole day to sew and had a pattern with directions I could have done it in one day. To make the patern I searched out directions for backpacks and looked at lots and lots of diaper bags for detail and accessory ideas. I wanted a backpack style like the one I was replacing, but since we usually slung the bag from one shoulder I decided to do a single strap instead of the traditional two. I think it turned out great! I did a drawstring closure at the top, and still need to get a magnetic snap for the flap.

Front and Back – the strap has touchtape to make it adjustable

Inside… yep, I accidentally did the lining with the zebras upside-down. Oops!

I made matching accessories too: A changing pad with sherpa inside – it’s supposed to tie shut with a black ribbon, but I can’t find it.. A wet bag – the zipper turned out so awesome that I had to take a close-up of it, and A wipes case that will also get a black bow decoration when I find that ribbon.

I’m planning to add MTs to my product line in the future, but am still deciding about the bag. It was fun to make, but was realy labor-intensive too.

I’m going to list all the patterns and directions that I found during my search in my Make Your Own… resources when I have time.