Every now and then, the Johns Hopkins Child Development Lab calls us up to ask us to participate in a quick study. They're usually fun studies for the kids to do, they have nice toys to play with in their waiting room, and they get a free prize in the end, so I've never said no. Today we were scheduled to go down again. I was told Melinda and Jacob were both the right age for different studies. Great!
Well, it wasn't so great. They changed parking locations since the last time we went, and I got lost on the way there. Well, not lost lost, but I did miss a turn and have to go a number of blocks before I found a non one-way street to turn around on, and then had to adjust the directions in my head to accommodate the different way I was coming in. I ended up being 10 minutes late, and they have someone waiting there for you 5 minutes early. So I kept the poor girl standing and waiting for 15 minutes. I felt so bad about that. :(
And then we had to walk a sizable distance from the parking spots to their lab. Which would have normally been fine, because it is an absolutely gorgeous day outside today - 63 degrees (and sunny!!) by the time we got home! But Jacob absolutely did not want to walk - I had to carry him. Which, you can probably imagine, is incredible difficult and straining to do when you're nearly 37 weeks pregnant. So I started getting grumpy. Even though he was going on and on about exciting things like the wind blowing a leaf across the sidewalk, or the "circles" (manhole covers) that he could see, or the pockets in his jacket. Normally all that would be cute. But not when I'm struggling to walk with my big ol' self (I broke 200 pounds, people!), and having to carry a heavy 2.5 year old on top of it all.
When we finally get in, the kids played with the toys eagerly while I filled out a couple pieces of paperwork. And they informed me that the person who called me thought that Melinda was eligible for a study, but she had actually done that particular one over the summer. So she didn't have a "game" to play, which was a bit sad. After the paperwork was done, they were ready to have Jacob do his study. Just a simple one we've done before with Melinda, and a younger variation with Jacob, too. They have 2 computer screens set up, each with a single object pictured on the screen. They ask the child to point to the motorcycle, for instance, when a motorcycle is pictured on one side, with a paperclip on the other, etc. Eventually they introduce really odd looking objects along with a normal object, and ask the child to point to the "glark", or other strange name. The idea is, at the end, they show all the strange objects together, and try to see if the child can remember any of the object names that they hopefully learned by deduction. Jacob sat in the little green chair at the little table, grinning, and happily pointed to the correct pictures during the very short practice session.
Then the real thing started, and the girl running the study went behind a curtain to begin the program. That was a really bad idea. As soon as Jacob saw that she went behind a curtain, he absolutely had to discover what was on the other side. The study started, pictures started appearing, and Jacob had absolutely zero interest in looking at the computer screens, let alone pointing to the pictures when prompted. All he wanted to do was run behind that curtain. And the girl stayed back there, the study continued on relentlessly, and I found myself on the floor trying desperately, and vainly, to keep him interested enough that they would be able to gain some usable data from the study. He was locked in my arms, straining against me to get to those curtains, not even looking at the screens.
You would think, when working with kids in the 2 year old range, study developers would take into account this very keen curiosity that the children develop. And they already have the mobility and the absolutely unshakable willpower factors down pat, so they turn pretty unstoppable without something more interesting to take over. You would think they would be able to do something as simple as have an extra person already behind the curtain, ready to run the program, so that a child wouldn't have to actually see someone go behind them.
At any rate, it was all over quickly. We spent maybe 10-15 minutes inside, after a 20 minute drive. Then we collected a prize, a couple certificates, and had to return to our car. Of course, neither of the kids actually wanted to leave the room full of interesting toys. But we needed to free up the lab workers, and get home and have lunch, as well. After I finally convinced them to leave, I had to repeat the process of the walk in - Jacob absolutely insisted on being carried. I tried putting him off, which only resulted in him dropping to his knees in the middle of a courtyard, sulking with all his energy, refusing to move until I picked him up. I was beyond annoyed at this point. He had already managed to waste a whole trip down (I'm sure they won't be able to learn anything from Jacob's study today), and I really just wanted to get to the car without killing myself. But I couldn't think of anything to get him to move, so I ended up picking him up again.
And we finally made it to the car, and finally back home. An outing totaling almost 2 hours, for pretty much nothing. On a beautiful day where that time could have been spent in much nicer ways.
Oh, and did I mention that Melinda and Jacob have been staying awake until almost 10:30pm lately? I think I'm going to have to start cutting back on Jacob's naptimes - every time he naps several days in a row, he suddenly won't fall asleep easily at night. And no quiet time at night makes mommy very easily lose her temper. Sad, isn't it? But when you go to bed annoyed that you lost your evening quiet time, and then follow it up with a morning like this one, you find yourself wishing you could just throw your kids in a box and send them to the grandparents for a couple months, just so you can enjoy some peace and quiet.
Maybe I'll get some peace and quiet in another 20 years or so. If I can manage to hold out that long!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Baby blanket
Phew! After a few nights and afternoons, I've knocked another item off of my to-do list. Baby blanket #2 is finished! This was the tougher of the two. The first blanket I did was just a simple piece of fleece with a satin binding sewn on. Blanket #2 is a patchwork quilt.
Naturally, I had to first decide on a pattern. So I spent a few hours browsing some free quilt pattern websites before I found one that would be easy and work well with the fabrics I already had. Then, the cutting began. Thank goodness for the rotary cutter, board and ruler that Jesse gave me for Christmas! This job took a couple hours, with breaks, compared to the couple days it would have taken to mark out lines with measuring tape, and then cut each line with scissors. Here's my progress at the end of the evening: The barnyard print, cut into 32 6x6 squares, and 3 coordinating colors sewed into 31 6x6 squares.
The next afternoon, I ironed all the seams on the color-coordinating blocks. And after the kids were in bed, I sewed all the blocks into their appropriate rows.
That part was a little unpleasant. The pattern assumed a multi- directional print (which mine is not - everything has a "right side up"), and I didn't pay close enough attention - which resulted in me having to unpick 2 rows and reverse the barnyard print so that the whole quilt would have the prints facing the same direction. It wasn't awful, just annoying.
The next day was Saturday, so I went ahead and worked some more while Jesse was home. I sewed the rows together to make the quilt top. This is the nicest it looks, here. Everything all nice and flat and perfectly pressed. Once you wash it, since my fabrics were flannel, things get all pilly and a bit puckered, which is endearing, and how a loved flannel blanket should end up looking.... but it just doesn't look as crisp.
After I had finished the top, my plans changed a little. I had been thinking, up till then, that I would just sew the top and a backing together, and skip the batting for a lighter blanket. But, I ended up deciding it didn't look "puffy" enough, and wanted to do some backing. It was already 10:30 pm, though, and I had no batting. I called JoAnn's to see if they were still open so I could run over, but nobody ever answered. And I really hated the idea of leaving the project untouched until Monday when I could go shopping, so I compromised. I dug around in my closet, and came up with a piece of (leftover) white polar fleece big enough to serve as batting. And since polar fleece is also fluffy and very warm, I decided it would work perfectly. So the rest of my Saturday evening was spent cutting the fleece and pinning all the 3 layers together.
Sunday afternoon I treated myself to finishing the blanket. (I do love a good completed project!!!) I ironed and pinned the backing to form the binding, sewed it up, and bam! Things looked complete, and very nice to my eye. But, of course, I needed to quilt all three layers together. This is where I still need a lot more practice. My three layers were just uneven enough to make for a bit more puckering issues, which I kind of expected. So I skipped the pattern suggestion of quilting diagonally across the quilt (ultimately, criss-crossed like x's), and decided to quilt in squares around the "outlined" looking barnyard blocks. The spacing would end up right, that way, and the shape of a square would leave more room for error than trying to do a straight line all the way across a somewhat loose layer of flannel (which I've tried in the past, and only ended up creating huge folds and puckers in several different spots, yuck!). Anyway, I think it ended up working out pretty well. When it was all finished, I threw it in the washer and dryer so I could see the real finished blanket. And here it is:
The quilted squares on back (poor picture taking on my part, sorry):
And, just because, here's a picture of my hand next to the barnyard print, for an idea of scale. It's a standard "crib" sized quilt.
So my to-do list is now down to these items:
And if you read everything this far (hope I didn't bore you to death!), I'll share a bit more: Today, in Primary, the Relief Society folder was passed around, and it included a sign-up sheet for Enrichment night this month, which is, of course, the Relief Society dinner and birthday celebration. It's on the 18th- just about a week before my due date. I went ahead and signed up to bring my Potato Soup. I grinned inwardly, thinking how clever I am: Either I will have one of my most favorite soups to enjoy that night, or I just jinxed myself by signing up for something so close to my due date, and end up having a baby instead. A win-win situation, no matter how you look at it. :)
Naturally, I had to first decide on a pattern. So I spent a few hours browsing some free quilt pattern websites before I found one that would be easy and work well with the fabrics I already had. Then, the cutting began. Thank goodness for the rotary cutter, board and ruler that Jesse gave me for Christmas! This job took a couple hours, with breaks, compared to the couple days it would have taken to mark out lines with measuring tape, and then cut each line with scissors. Here's my progress at the end of the evening: The barnyard print, cut into 32 6x6 squares, and 3 coordinating colors sewed into 31 6x6 squares.
The next afternoon, I ironed all the seams on the color-coordinating blocks. And after the kids were in bed, I sewed all the blocks into their appropriate rows.
That part was a little unpleasant. The pattern assumed a multi- directional print (which mine is not - everything has a "right side up"), and I didn't pay close enough attention - which resulted in me having to unpick 2 rows and reverse the barnyard print so that the whole quilt would have the prints facing the same direction. It wasn't awful, just annoying.
The next day was Saturday, so I went ahead and worked some more while Jesse was home. I sewed the rows together to make the quilt top. This is the nicest it looks, here. Everything all nice and flat and perfectly pressed. Once you wash it, since my fabrics were flannel, things get all pilly and a bit puckered, which is endearing, and how a loved flannel blanket should end up looking.... but it just doesn't look as crisp.
After I had finished the top, my plans changed a little. I had been thinking, up till then, that I would just sew the top and a backing together, and skip the batting for a lighter blanket. But, I ended up deciding it didn't look "puffy" enough, and wanted to do some backing. It was already 10:30 pm, though, and I had no batting. I called JoAnn's to see if they were still open so I could run over, but nobody ever answered. And I really hated the idea of leaving the project untouched until Monday when I could go shopping, so I compromised. I dug around in my closet, and came up with a piece of (leftover) white polar fleece big enough to serve as batting. And since polar fleece is also fluffy and very warm, I decided it would work perfectly. So the rest of my Saturday evening was spent cutting the fleece and pinning all the 3 layers together.
Sunday afternoon I treated myself to finishing the blanket. (I do love a good completed project!!!) I ironed and pinned the backing to form the binding, sewed it up, and bam! Things looked complete, and very nice to my eye. But, of course, I needed to quilt all three layers together. This is where I still need a lot more practice. My three layers were just uneven enough to make for a bit more puckering issues, which I kind of expected. So I skipped the pattern suggestion of quilting diagonally across the quilt (ultimately, criss-crossed like x's), and decided to quilt in squares around the "outlined" looking barnyard blocks. The spacing would end up right, that way, and the shape of a square would leave more room for error than trying to do a straight line all the way across a somewhat loose layer of flannel (which I've tried in the past, and only ended up creating huge folds and puckers in several different spots, yuck!). Anyway, I think it ended up working out pretty well. When it was all finished, I threw it in the washer and dryer so I could see the real finished blanket. And here it is:
The quilted squares on back (poor picture taking on my part, sorry):
And, just because, here's a picture of my hand next to the barnyard print, for an idea of scale. It's a standard "crib" sized quilt.
So my to-do list is now down to these items:
- Wash Ergo carrier and Ring Sling.
- Wash car seat cover.
- Clean out the fridge/freezer. (We were supposed to that yesterday, but ran out of time - next week, I guess!)
- Sew Boppy slip cover.
- Sew DIAPERS!!
- Sew at least 1 pair of baby moc's (est time: 2 hours tops).
- Review Bradley Method techniques with Jesse. (Not to mention- put myself back into a mental and emotional state of being prepared to go through labor again without panicking!)
- Pull out the co-sleeper set it up next to the bed. (Heck, I could wait till I'm in labor to do that part!)
And if you read everything this far (hope I didn't bore you to death!), I'll share a bit more: Today, in Primary, the Relief Society folder was passed around, and it included a sign-up sheet for Enrichment night this month, which is, of course, the Relief Society dinner and birthday celebration. It's on the 18th- just about a week before my due date. I went ahead and signed up to bring my Potato Soup. I grinned inwardly, thinking how clever I am: Either I will have one of my most favorite soups to enjoy that night, or I just jinxed myself by signing up for something so close to my due date, and end up having a baby instead. A win-win situation, no matter how you look at it. :)
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Fabrics I want
This is totally random. For a blog post, I mean.
But there are some super cute fabrics out there, and I want them! I don't even know what I would do with them. I only know that I love them!
Take for instance, the utter cuteness of these Japanese owl prints:
Or, maybe hedgehogs might be your thing!
Cute little woodland animals:
Lovely blossoms, on pink! So vibrant, it makes me eager for spring!
Awww, the cute wittle pandas!!
What do they all have in common? Only that they're Japanese fabrics. And that they're totally cute. And of course, that I want them for no rational reason. *shrug* But I felt like sharing, so there you have it!
But there are some super cute fabrics out there, and I want them! I don't even know what I would do with them. I only know that I love them!
Take for instance, the utter cuteness of these Japanese owl prints:
Or, maybe hedgehogs might be your thing!
Cute little woodland animals:
Lovely blossoms, on pink! So vibrant, it makes me eager for spring!
Awww, the cute wittle pandas!!
What do they all have in common? Only that they're Japanese fabrics. And that they're totally cute. And of course, that I want them for no rational reason. *shrug* But I felt like sharing, so there you have it!
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