Good Mornings

I love waking Little Bit up, even when he says, "No- Daddy!" as soon as I open the door. I never know what will happen! Yesterday, he pretended he had wings and ran around the living room, then convinced me to do the same. He grabbed some fabric coasters and held them to his back, making his circuit around the couch.

This morning, he'd ended up on his sleeping bag beside the toddler bed. Our dog, a six year old terrier mix, followed me into his room, and as I knelt down beside him, she decided it was time to play. She licked his face in her "play with me" stance, tail whirling like a helicopter. He woke up, tucked his face into his elbow, and cried, "Monster!"

So apparently he has a pretty low "monster" bar. I don't know if that translates in to more nightmares or fewer.

Rocky Spring

Bitty danced to my beatboxing in the bathtub Monday night. I'm glad someone around here appreciates my talents.

I spent the weekend working while the guys had a great weekend with the Alabama grandparents. Beautiful weather and lots of cruising on the boat. I know because I received lots of lovely pictures as I sat at my computer.

Here at home, he's decided that the gravel that funnels to the end of the driveway when it rains is Blue Mountain Quarry. After our walks (if we can get him to walk, since he passes the quarry en route), he'll bury his trains in the rocks and announce that they are in trouble. Rocky the Rescue Crane, played by my husband or me, can help them out, but often they go right back in. It's pretty depressing being a rescue engine on the Island of Sodor.  

Drama

I don't  know where Little Bit gets his flair for the dramatic.

On Thursday, I got home before the guys did. When Bitty comes in from daycare, it's his practice to call out for the parent who didn't pick him up, who is then supposed to come running and give him a hug. Not a bad life, being his parent.

So I went to the kitchen and yelled, "Baby!" with my arms wide when I heard them come in. Bitty gets through the pet gate and says, "No, no, no," and pushes me back to the middle of the room. He then goes back to the corner by the kitchen, turns, and says, "Mommy!" and runs to me for a hug. He just wanted that movie-grade run made for slow motion.

It was every bit as good as these:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/nikerunning/10-most-inspirational-runs-in-film-47ic

Recycling with style

I had such a good Saturday, despite some tough moments since Little Bit didn't get much of a nap. We first went to an estate sale, where Bitty zoned in on a little black and silver train on a table covered with odds and ends. My husband and I hadn't even noticed it. When we got it back home and replaced it's battery, it rolled and made chugging noises- a good surprise!

I found these earrings- surely I can use these for some fun craft. The clip on backs came off fairly easily with a small hammer tapped onto a wedged screwdriver.

After lunch, we tried to get our toddler to rest. Every time I try to get Bitty to take an early nap, he resists as if I'm trying to trick him somehow. So I ended up carrying him half-asleep into the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center yesterday to paint on some old credit cards covered in gesso.

It was so much fun! The leader tried to get him to wash his brush between different colors of paint, but he ended up making his own stripy formulations to smear on the cards. Then she had us mount them on card stock with velcro, so that the receiver can take them off and display them- such a good idea! The craft kept his attention for a good thirty minutes, which is pretty amazing.

Shelby Bottoms had flowers and fish and painting, while Little Bit had no nap. That equals dragging a shrieking, squirming toddler back to the car one-handed with wet paintings in the other. Olympic sports have nothing on that.

My little Picasso

I spent the day with Little Bit on Monday, and we had a great time! We started the day with a walk through our neighborhood with the dog. It only produced one scrape, but it was over his eyebrow when he took a pretty big spill, so he spent the rest of the day looking like a prize fighter.

We made our first appearance at story time at the Richland Park Library.

http://www.library.nashville.org/locations/loc_richlandpk.asp

It featured a selection of children's books on family, and the storyteller interspersed songs and rhymes and encouraged participation. None of the books mentioned trains, so I took over Bitty's participation role as he gazed at his trains on the floor. He did enjoy the park slides however.

I think Little Bit really enjoyed his painting before lunch. It involved an old piece of cardboard, cheap brushes and paints in yogurt cups, and a plastic sheet from the dry cleaner. But he had a blast.

Spring Looming

It is wonderful now that the weather matches the calendar! Another harbinger of Spring is all the graduation celebration, which I took part in this weekend with the medical school graduation of my little brother. So proud of him! He's now a doctor of osteopathic medicine, which is such an interesting and creative practice. I wish him and all the other Spring grads the best!

I was hard at work in my free time this weekend, as my husband and Bitty didn't make the trip. It was a long car ride followed by two hours of ceremony, then back in a quick trip. I empathized as I watched Bitty's peers squirm and shriek in the auditorium. I threw my Spring feeling into my projects, and began with one that I had worked before off this video: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi94cU5dtJY

I wasn't happy with my first try, but I kept at it and got progressively better. I think this one is quite cute!

I used acrylic baby sport yarn for the body, doubled the strands since it was lighter weight, and used a "two-over-one" e-wrap method to make it a little stronger for the polyfill. I also used my flower loom for a garden of cute bobby pins. I love that I can use the last scraps of my yarn for these!

 

Racing through the Week

One of our favorite parts of Spring is the 7:00 PM light, enabling us to walk around the neighborhood with Little Bit and our dog. It gets progressively more exciting as Bitty gets older and the dog gets crankier.

 Our dog is a pretty opinionated little terrier mix that viciously barks when she wants to play with a passing dog. Truly, if given the chance to meet another dog, her tail whirls like a helicopter as they touch noses. We have a few new neighbors with dogs of their own, and they'll quit avoiding us one day, I'm sure.

In the Fall and the first weeks of Spring, Little Bit had a habit of going up to houses and trying to explore around the parked cars. Thankfully, that's been replaced by racing his daddy. He got scraped knees as a result of the races today, but he didn't quit. 

On the last half of our walk, I run ahead about ten to twenty yards and stop. Then, each time, he announces the race to my husband, who agrees to race. They take off, sometimes with Bitty calling back to his daddy, others with his tongue sticking out, concentrating. He always wins and he's always ready for more.  

Prehistoric Craft Template

On Sunday, as Bitty napped, I put together a craft that has been in the queue for awhile. I had found the template for an easy triceratops at the site below. Bonus: it's made with hearts:

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/valentines/mhearttriceratops.htm

I cut out felt shapes and stitched them onto a felt backing using contrasting green thread.

Then I added the eyes and the horns in a light blue thread.

I haven't decided whether it's going to be a pillow- it would be a small one- or part of a bag for him to carry his toys in. But I was having so much fun, one of the scraps became a frog for his felt picture. 

Hooray for stress-free crafts that don't have to look like anything in particular!

Colorful weekend

Little Bit learned this morning that, if you are a ticklish person, wearing a shirt is of upmost importance.

We also played with some paintings I have in the craft room. He loves to take my used palettes and pretend that he is painting with a dry brush. We had a great time lightly brushing a picture of a snowy barn; I didn't do it, so it's pretty good. It made me excited to try to paint with him tomorrow, if the weather will clear up. At Plaza Art, the teacher had us painting on cardboard, and I have several sizable pieces saved.

We had a great time yesterday with my parents and siblings, despite the fact that his nose was alternately runny and crusty. He had a big time at O'Charley's and tried to get the attention of a younger boy sitting behind him. However, then he threw up a bit, causing us to duck into the bathroom for a costume change. I think it was less his cold and more the yeast roll he was trying to gulp down in one bite. 

After they left and he napped, we drew pictures and colored, which Bitty engages in only rarely. But he  was enthusiastic about my picture of Thomas! 

Hunting like a Yuppie

I don't know what's in store for this weekend, but Bitty had a blast last Saturday "tracking" at the Bass Pro shop. We went for the huge fish tank in the middle, where the normal kids congregated. But when Little Bit saw that a deer had been shopping and made prints in the concrete, he took off, crashing through groups of people looking at the middle aisle bins. Everyone took it in stride, and some thought it was pretty funny. He kept murmuring, "Tracks!" as he went, head down and determined.

The tracks ran out when the deer went to look for camo shirts. That deer was thinking ahead!