Pajama Christening

Time for a little sewing.

I keep finding that Ru has no pajamas and he keeps going to bed in an undershirt and a diaper. Its getting a little bit chilly for these sorts of shenanigans. Today I was moping a little about how I just spent a good bit of money on curtains so I shouldn't go buy pajamas and I was just moaning to A about how overtaxed I feel about running all over kingdom come all the time and therefore never being home or staying caught up on day to day maintenance. Ahem. Yes...that is the reason why I stayed home today and sent A off with the car so that I'd be grounded here. But, a boy needs warm bed clothes...what's a mommy to do?
Remember her sewing machine of course! Silly me!  I'd been thinking a while back that I'd love to try to make some simple elastic waist pajama pants for the boys anyhow, just for the experience of seeing how it would work...and then here I was with a genuine need for some!

It was my first little project in the Sunroom Studio that is going to be our creative space. This means its been christened and will forthwith be a place to dream and cut and paint with great abandon.That's a pleasant kind of milestone to mark off.

I just meant to make a couple for Ru but of course Dee couldn't resist chiming in and asking for a pair of his own and what mommy could resist eager pleas for some pants of one's own. Pajama pants all round!

 

I made three very serviceable  pairs, some of which were personally designed by the wearers, and hopefully, here ends The Great Pajama Drought.

We Arrived!

Well, here it is...officially, technically Saturday but, I'm still calling it Friday in order to say that I posted my five consecutive weekdays. I think that counts, don't you?

We made it. It was a long flight (two layovers and three different airports) but, one pair of wet pants, two crying sessions, a squished pear and an almost battery-less phone later...we're all tucked into bed at our hotel in Medford. I have tried to explain to Ru that we're in Oregon even though we're "going" to California for vacation. That was a little hard to get across. All that powering through security screening, chatting up stewardesses and living with all the wrong picture books that Mommy picked out to bring and we're not even in California now? The lower lip began to tremble and I gave right up and erased the whole idea with a bright smile and told him, no worries. California. I promise. K?

We're all super bushed and have started to slightly lose our minds a bit. Its amazing how wearing it is psychologically to travel with two small ones on airplanes. I wonder if we'll be brave enough to do it with three kids. Whew. Sounds intimidating. By the time we were in our last flight, Dee insisted that A read the flight safety information card to him, over and over, and over...I heard four rounds before I fell asleep. A was a hero though, it was the only thing that would keep him from screaming. My picture is a little blurry but, I think you can catch a glimpse of how intent and serious he was about the whole thing. Such a silly little engineer of a boy.

The other thing that was really a huge hit was the in-flight headphones for listening to the ambient music seemingly pumped into the arm of your seat. So cool. Dee was hooked and asked immediately for his headphones to be hooked up and propped on his head before he was even actually seated. Yet another silly thing that stopped tears well. Its all about learning to read your kid.

We stopped for diapers and a few breakfast items on our way from airport to hotel just now (love those 24hr groceries) and A picked up our first batch of strawberries. We plan to taste strawberries wherever they show up and tempt us all the way down the coast. These are gigantic, priced at a dollar a pound and grown right in California! Its like the first real taste of summer! Breakfast will be good.

Packing Everything, But The Diapers.

Well, folks....it feels amazingly good to be able to tell you that I met my goal of potty-training Dee before we left for California. Tomorrow we take off in a plane bound for the "other coast" and in our suitcase will be a lot of training pants and 2T underwear but just enough diapers to serve us at nighttime. Boy, is victory sweet!

I am so very proud of myself. I think I was a much more level-headed and kind potty training coach this time around although I'm not sure how much of that I can take credit for and how much of it is just his personality versus Ru's. He's less confrontationally stubborn and I feel like he is easier to work with. That said, I know I've grown and become a better mommy since I went through this stage with his big brother. How can you not grow? For one thing, I'm just older and more mature and for another, experience of course, is a wise teacher. There were not tears on my part this time. There were very few floor messes and there have been no meltdown shouting matches over "sitting right down on that potty young man, right now!" Whew.

It is positively mind stutter inducing to pack bags for our first trip with two potty trained children. I keep looking at their suitcase and alternately thinking "What's missing?" and "Where will I put all the diapers though?"  Then I catch myself and have one more good laugh about it and give myself a mental slap on the back. Nothing like reliving your own glorious success accidentally!

I have even stopped putting him in diapers at naptime because he doesn't want one on and most of the time manages to stay dry anyhow! I'm so proud of him I could bust! What a big boy! And can you believe my extreme luck? I will have only the baby in diapers in a month or so! WOOHOO!!!!

Tomorrow, our plane flies out and we'll haul all those triaining pants (and of course everything else we're bringing to the check-in desk) and head to Medford, Oregon where to adventure begins. I am bringing the laptop and plan to photograph and blog our way down the coast, thus to stay in touch (like a good blogger) and more clearly remember our exciting journey. I'll see you on the other side, wherever I get a chance to sit down with the keyboard and unload in the next 24 hrs.

Bon Voyage to us!!