DIYnot

Happy Mother's Day

diynotkelly — Sun, 12 May 2013 13:52:00 -0700

This cool guy makes me smile 500 times a day and I am privileged to be his Mom. So happy Mother’s Day to *you*, my sweet little one!
Love, Mommy

p.s. This hairstyle was done at daycare. One of the teachers likes to do pigtails on the girls, and on this particular day, Emmett got to join in the fun with a sort of pigtail fauxhawk. I love it!

11 months

diynotkelly — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:26:51 -0700

My little boy is getting so big! He can’t walk yet, but his balance is improving. He crawls very fast and keeps us chasing him all over the house. Emmett’s first birthday is just a few weeks away!

Kelly

Symbiotic relationship: baby and dog

diynotkelly — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:52:00 -0700

Baby is entertained by dogs. He giggles as they run and play. He gets to pet them and ride them (sort of).

Dog scavenges around baby’s high chair. At Max’s recent vet checkup, I found out he had gained a few pounds, so we may need to limit the scavenging.

10 months!

diynotkelly — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:22:54 -0700

Yes, life is exciting and wonderful with this 10 month old boy. He is having so much exploring his world.

Here are his 9 and 10 month photos:

And here are some other recent activities. This kid loves to crawl into dog crates. Is this normal?

Trying on Auntie Coco’s hat:

Sumo baby! I use a Snappi (meant to hold traditional cloth diapers in place without safety pins) to keep a towel on Emmett for “naked time” while containing any potential mess. He looks like a sumo wrestler.

An orange makes a pretty good toy.

I have zillions of pictures, and I will post more later. Have a great week!

-Kelly

I’ve seen you laugh at nothing at all I’ve seen you...

diynotkelly — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:17:00 -0800

I’ve seen you laugh at nothing at all

I’ve seen you sadly weeping

The sweetest thing I ever saw

Was you asleep and dreaming

Well you may not be beautiful

But it’s not for me to judge

I don’t know if you’re beautiful

Because I love you too much

-Magnetic Fields, “Asleep and Dreaming,” 69 Love Songs

…except I’m pretty sure Emmett is beautiful.

-Kelly

8 months

diynotkelly — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:46:05 -0800

I hope raising a baby counts as a DIY project, because otherwise we’re way off course with this blog. But can you blame me? Look at that face and tell me you’d rather see a picture of the rustic shelves Matt built to hold all our stuff in the garage. OK, I will tell Matt to post a picture of the shelves too.

Emmett was 8 months old last week. Without further ado, please enjoy his 7 month and 8 month photos:

As you can see, his two bottom teeth are in full effect (and have been for a few months) and he is now proficient at sitting. Emmett can do some other cool things lately:

Eating (from a mesh feeder):

Being a burrito:

Lying on a dog:

Riding a dog:

Riding a llama:

Listening to music:

Loving bath time as much as ever:

He is really into using his index fingers. He wants to touch every little thing. If there is a piece of lint on the floor, he touches it. If there is a screw on a piece of furniture, or a hole in a wheel, or anything small like that, he really focuses his attention there and touches it deliberately with his little pointer finger. We fed him some puffs the other day, and while he can and usually does grasp them between thumb and finger, there was one that he touched with the index finger of each hand and then picked it up off the tray that way! Babies are so entertaining.

-Kelly

Happy Holidays! (MLK Day and Presidents' Day?)

diynotkelly — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:00:25 -0800

My attempt at a Christmas-themed photo shoot with Emmett, Sonny and Max. Ultimately we decided none of the shots were worthy of printing (not the best lighting), but I they still make me smile. My three sweeties. Posting very late, but come on, how cute are my baby and pups?

I love how Emmett was moving all around and the dogs stayed in exactly the same positions the whole time like statues.

-Kelly

Label Baby Junior

diynotkelly — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:10:00 -0800

When Emmett started daycare, I knew I needed to label a lot of things. Everything he takes to daycare - clothes, blankets, pacifiers, bottles, food - is supposed to be labeled with his first and last name, plus the date in the case of bottles and refrigerated food. They’re not strict about clothing, though you run the risk of losing items if they lack labels, but they are pretty serious about the bottles and food. Of course my first inclination was low tech DIY: just write his name on everything with a Sharpie. Unfortunately, my friends with older kids in daycare told me the Sharpie wears off the bottles and you have to keep writing it over and over. One friend gave me a couple sheets of freezer labels that can be printed at home. I printed them up, with varying results. Maybe my printer malfunctioned or was not the right type for these labels, but some were smudgy. They have held up well though, going through the dishwasher and fridge (and occasionally freezer) over the past five months. A few bled even more the first time through the dishwasher, even though I waited at least a day after putting the labels on. Some are like the one on the left, some are like the one in the center. Even the bad ones are readable, so I’m leaving them alone.

I have two labels on each bottle: a permanent one with Emmett’s name, and a LabelOnce erasable label on which I write the date (daycare requires this), the quantity (to facilitate my own OCD record keeping), and the date I pumped it (for my own info so I know how fresh it is). These labels are neat: you write on them with a Sharpie and then you can erase it later. They stay on really well through the dishwasher, fridge and freezer, and the writing stays on about as well as it does on anything else - it gradually wears off after a few times through the dishwasher. Going through the dishwasher doesn’t seem to affect the erasability, which you can do with any soft, white eraser like the Magic Rub. I don’t know if they’re that much easier than using masking tape, which is what other people seem to use for the date, but it works well for me. One note: it’s very difficult to write on the LabelOnce labels when they are cold and/or wet with condensation, so it’s best to write before they go into the fridge or freezer.

The bottle lids and rings are too small for the printed freezer labels, so at first I wrote on them with Sharpie. Sure enough, it was barely legible after a few passes through the dishwasher. Meanwhile, my special fabric Sharpie worked well on the paper-like tags of clothing, but on some fabric tags it bled so much it just turned into a black blob, and I hated writing on tagless items.

Another friend had told me about Name Bubbles, and I decided I’d spent as much time going the DIY route as I was willing to, so it was time to give in and buy some. I chose the smallest possible labels: Bitty Clothing Labels for clothes and Mini Labels for bottles. They’ve worked really well. For the bottle lids and rings, I cut them down to size so they’d fit on the side. They definitely look nicer than the freezer labels. If I ever need to put fresh labels on the bottle parts, I will use the Name Bubbles. I’m also applying them to the reusable baby food containers we use when we make our own purees.

Name Bubbles is having a 20% off sale that ends today, so I thought I’d share my experience with them. If you miss today (1/22/13), they have periodic sales and will tell you about them if you sign up for their email list. I just ordered some more of the Bitty Clothing Labels. They stay on well through laundering and peel off nicely if/when you want to pass along the item to someone else.

Note: I’m not being compensated in any way for this post. I like the LabelOnce and Name Bubbles labels, so I wanted to share the info with other parents who may also be wondering if there’s an easier way to label everything.

-Kelly

p.s. Do you know what the title of this post references? I’ll give you a hint: Tim Whatley regifted it.

One resolution

diynotkelly — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:57:00 -0800

While Matt has a long list of new year resolutions, I have but one. OK, maybe I have a few other things I’m planning to try to do better this year, but I’m focusing on one very important resolution. If/when I am successful with this one, it should make it possible for me to tackle other things. Sleep. Specifically, Emmett’s sleep. More specifically, my goal is to be able to put Emmett in his crib and have him go to sleep and stay asleep or go back to sleep on his own without needing to nurse so frequently.

Our current routine involves me nursing Emmett to sleep in my bed and then either staying in bed with him (I read books, catch up on email or internet on my phone, listen to podcasts, or catch some ZZZs myself) or sneaking out of bed and folding some laundry in the bedroom. I used to be able to sneak out of the room and go do other things for a couple hours while listening to the baby monitor, but ever since Emmett learned to roll over, I haven’t been able to leave the room for more than a moment. Now that he can crawl, I can’t even leave for a few seconds because he can wake up and as quickly and silently as a ninja, he can be at the edge of the bed. A barrier of pillows is no obstacle for him. So as much as I’ve enjoyed snuggling my sleeping baby and the forced relaxation time for myself, I’ve decided it’s time for Emmett to learn to sleep in his crib. Since I can’t really get into the crib to nurse him and then sneak away, I need to be able to place him there, either already asleep without waking, or awake with the ability to go to sleep on his own. My past attempts to nurse him down and then move him have failed; he always wakes up.

The crib is set up in our room. I’ve read several books and I have a plan in mind, subject to trial and error. My hope is that in a few weeks (?), Emmett will have a new life skill and I’ll have reclaimed some autonomy. Wish us luck!

-Kelly

2013 Not Resolutions

greenthumbmatt — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 08:30:00 -0800

Restart GTD Hipster Pocket Book
Cook for leftovers
Workout
Go to bed < 12:30
Dog healing and crisp response to known commands
Bookkeeping up-to-date
Track work activities
Balance volunteer commitments— no laurel resting, skating
Post to DIYnot weekly
Send photos and interesting things to grandparents
Write letters to entities that need to improve something
Take a class
Backup digital information

-Matt

Quick and dirty DIYs: sewing for baby edition

diynotkelly — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:04:00 -0800

Lately I’ve been doing a little bit of sewing, which makes me happy. I have a medium-sized sewing project to share with you when it’s finished, which will be soon I hope. In the meantime, I’ve done a couple of super quick “sewing” projects. I say “sewing” because technically I did very little sewing on one and no sewing on the other, but they involve fabric and sewing tools.

I mentioned in a post about our diaper changing station that when we are at home, instead of disposable wipes, we use cloth ones wet with plain water and stored in our wipe warmer. Trial and error showed us which materials we like best for wipes. My favorite cloth wipes are ones I cut from an old pair of sweatpants, even though they roll up in the dryer. Next best are terry cloth. The worst are ones I cut from old T shirts; they’re just too thin. I don’t have any more sweatpants lying around, but I do have more baby towels than we can possibly use, thanks to gifts, hand-me-downs, and freecycle. There were a couple of towels received via freecycle bags-‘o-baby-stuff that had seen better days, so I cut one up into washcloths. It only took a couple minutes using my rotary cutter and mat. 6 inches by about 4.5 inches fit nicely into the wipe warmer. Bam, done. Always nice to accomplish something so quickly. We’ve been using these for over a month and the edges don’t fray, so there’s no need to finish them.

Next up, some strap protectors for the Ergo carrier. We really like the Ergo. Emmett likes it too. Like any baby, everything that comes near his mouth immediately goes in and gets all slobbery. See the wet spot on the strap:

The Ergo can be washed, but they recommend against washing it a lot. Hence the existence of “sucking pads” on Amazon, “drool catchers” on Etsy, and a variety of similar products available to purchase online for around $20. That seems a little expensive for something I could make in 5 minutes, albeit not as attractive, but still quite functional. I have a whole pile of Bumkins prefold cloth diapers that I use for burp cloths and mainly to catch the milk that always seems to dribble out the corner of Emmett’s mouth when he nurses. I thought one of these cut in half would be perfect. So I cut it, sewed a zigzag along the cut edges, and used iron-on velcro patches. Bam, done.

They work very well, except one of the velcro patches didn’t adhere completely so I’ll have to iron it on again. The same thing could be done to make another set to use as strap covers for the car seat. I don’t worry about it for short trips, but on longer trips I’m always trying to tuck the sides of Emmett’s bib between his neck and the straps so they don’t cut in too much. Maybe I’ll go ahead and do that when I fix the other one.

Next up, I took a freecycled minky baby blanket with some ink stains on one corner, and made a quick cover for the diaper changing pad. I just draped the blanket over the pad, pinned corner darts where it seemed appropriate, and sewed it. It’s not perfect, but it took about 10 minutes and cost $0. It actually stays on the changing pad pretty well just with a few darts around the edges and no elastic.

I love mini projects that are quick and easy. It’s nice to get the finished result right away and move on. Sometimes when I’ve been feeling stuck or overwhelmed, just getting something - anything - DONE gives me enough momentum to tackle something bigger. I’ll show you the bigger project soon!

-Kelly

Emmett crawling

diynotkelly — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:50:19 -0800

Emmett crawling

Emmett in motion

diynotkelly — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:49:58 -0800

Emmett in motion

6 months!

diynotkelly — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:56:00 -0800

Emmett is eating food, mastering an army crawl, and gaining other motor skills day by day. He is very interested in small details and faces, and he often uses his pointer finger to touch a specific part of an object or drawing. His pinchers are getting pretty good too. He can almost sit unassisted, but falls over after a few seconds.

I have continued to take his monthly photos. He is so big and mature compared to the first four months!

5 months:

6 months:

At his 6-month checkup, Emmett weighed 18 lbs, 4 oz (65 %ile) and was 28.5 inches long (98 %ile!) He wears 9-12 month size clothing already and he is just about to grow out of his infant car seat. We can’t believe how fast he’s growing and changing. It seems like every day he makes a new sound or executes a new movement that he has never done before.

And such a happy boy!

-Kelly

Emmett's latest adventures

diynotkelly — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 13:59:00 -0700

Petting the dog for the first time of his own accord:

Flying:

Seeing the world from new perspectives:

Grabbing his feet:

Looking out the window:

Tummy time fun time:

Knows something is up with cameras and looks right at them:

I’m amazed that starting at just a couple months of age, he really does pay attention to books when you read to him. Here is one of our favorite bedtime books:

I found this picture from a fundraiser dinner at our P-patch community garden August 1 (Emmett was 2 months and a week old), and I can’t believe how different he was then:

For one thing, I don’t know if he’d fall asleep in our arms during dinner like that now. And of course he is so much bigger now. It’s a cliche, but it’s true: it goes by fast!

-Kelly

Matt loves the t-shirts his cousin block printed a few years ago...

diynotkelly — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:09:00 -0700

Matt loves the t-shirts his cousin block printed a few years ago for a family gathering, Seafood Fest 2009. On the back is a crab. He loves it so much that he has four of them, having collected mine, his mom’s, and maybe his grandma’s in addition to his original one. Matt works from home a lot of the time, so he can get away with wearing a t-shirt, but he just realized that with four of the same shirt in rotation, Emmett’s daycare teachers probably think he is just wearing the same shirt over and over again. Frankly, I’m not sure the real explanation is all that much better. -Kelly

My handsome little man and my handsome big man!

diynotkelly — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 17:06:40 -0700

My handsome little man and my handsome big man!

Sometimes Emmett kicks his feet right out of his footy pajamas....

diynotkelly — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:47:24 -0700

Sometimes Emmett kicks his feet right out of his footy pajamas. At first I thought Matt was not snapping the bottom snaps, but I put his feet in, snapped all snaps, and a minute later a foot was out again.

It's never too early to start gardening

diynotkelly — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 11:38:15 -0700

Emmett checks out the backyard garden.

Bean harvest and a few tomatoes.

Often, when it’s Matt’s turn to watch Emmett for a while, they walk to the P-patch and make a few loops in the stroller until Emmett dozes off and Matt gets a little gardening done. A few other times, they have gardened together in the back yard. Emmett already knows where his food comes from (mommy!), and now he’s starting to learn how real food is grown. It’s never too early!

-Kelly

Happy 4 month birthday Emmett!

diynotkelly — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:07:50 -0700

My how you’ve grown, little one!

Big apologies for our absence on the blog lately. A month ago I started working again, and shortly thereafter Emmett started going to daycare. It’s been an adjustment, but we’re finally settling in to the new routine. Of course there are still kinks to be worked out, but I feel like we have it mostly figured out.

I did somehow manage to get it together enough to take photos of Emmett on or near his birthday each month. It is amazing to see him grow physically, mentally, and socially every day. He concentrates so hard when he wants to grab an object. And the smiles just melt our hearts.

Emmett’s growth so far:

Birth

Weight: 8 lbs, 4 oz. Length: 20 inches. Full head of hair. Skills: none.

1 month

Weight: 11 lbs (approx). Hair falling out. Skills: tracking moving objects with eyes.

2 months

Weight: 13 lbs, 5 oz. Length: 24 inches. Mostly bald. Skills: lifting head up when lying on tummy or upright, batting at objects, social smiles (occasionally), jumping (with daddy’s help).

3 months

Weight and height: unknown, but most 3-month sized clothing is too small for him. Hair growing back. Skills: head control, sucking on hands, playing piano with feet (sort of), lots of social smiles, batting at objects and trying to grab them.

4 months

Weight: 16 lbs. Length: 27 inches. Hair growing in nicely. Skills: standing and sitting up with support, grabbing objects and holding on, interacting with other babies, TONS of smiling, some laughing, squealing, babbling. Sometimes taking a decent nap at daycare. Starting to be able to sooth self back to sleep when semi-awakened.

That’s the quick recap of our sweet little boy’s first four months. He is the happiest, sweetest baby and we are having a wonderful time.

-Kelly