New School Year for Jazmine (Photo Update)

My daughter is back in school and starting 1st grade this year!

She has learned so much so quickly in just a few short years! It's heart wrenching...hahaha! She has grown up so fast. 

I feel like at her age we didn't learn as much in schools as kids do now. They seem so much more advanced. My daughter can read so well. I remember struggling with reading and I think I was so much older then her. 

It is amazing and fun to watch her learn and grow. Joshua will have a great role model to learn from as he grows up. 

Although I love having Jazmine around it is nice that she is back in school. I feel since Josh is young and needs alot of attention that it was hard for her to enjoy time with me, so now she can make new friends and have other things to focus on. 

It is boring at times being a stay at home mom. I don't know alot of other adults my age with kids my age. And the ones I do know live very far away. 

I am hoping to make new friends. I am try to be more open to adults at parks and the library, but it's hard to break out of my shell. Hahaha!

I am working on trying to crochet during Josh's naps and get my business going again. Trying to bring in some money. It's hard to stay focused and motivated. 

All in all it has been an amazing 6 years watching my daughter grow. She is smart, fun and so creative and her imagination is just soaring no stop. 

Are your kids far apart in age? 

What was the most fun thing about watching your kids grow up?

What age was your favorite for them growing up?

K4 she was 4 1/2yo and first grade she is 6 1/2yo. Time Flys!

No Sew Barbie Doll Clothes

As you all know, I have a 6 year old daughter. 

This I something I have been meaning to do...make Barbie doll clothes. 

I do have a sewing machine. But I hate getting it out. It atm is blocking an outlet that protects josh from getting to it and pulling the plug on our AC. 

So anyways. Yes finally I have made time to create some quick and simple Barbie doll clothes that don't make my daughters Barbies look like "sluts" yes I hate all the modern clothes. I like my Barbies to look well dressed. Hahaha!

I did want to crochet them as well. Just like my mom used to do for us as kids. But that also takes up much time and my son would be like a cat...acting my yarn. I wanted to beable to do this while he was out and about. No needles and thread and all that. Just something basic. 

So below you will see some pictures. And explanation of each dress for the most part. On the silver dress I did see but you don't have to. There are other ways. 

Anyways on with the No Sew

This dress is one be cut out rectangle with two holes. 

You can cut the top part in a scope shape. The holes I just cut a lil niche and pulled and then rounded out the corners

Here is how to put the dress on

You wrap the holes over the arm further away. Or you crisscross it I suppose. 

The silver dress is a lil more work. 

I cut out a long triangular shape. Widest part being at her chest. 

From there I folded the fabric in half long way. And cut niches into 3/4 of the way down. I then folded it wrong way in half long ways and tied the niches together

Tied up niches/knotted 

The back looks like this which isn't that noticeable once the dress is on your Barbie. 

For the front I cut a small hole and a long stripe of the same fabric(old shirt scrapes I cut up for this whole thing) 

This next picture is to show how I made the loop. I pulled the long piece through as shown. 

Pulled tight 

To look like that in the front. If that doesn't show in the front then you just have to put the loop in the left side and pull to the strands in to the left. Hope that makes sense. 

For the back part you could just tie a knot or bow in the back where my finger is. Or you could do shoulder straps (easier to get dress on and off) to do the this I sewed it because I cut my straps to short. But for the "no sew" you can cut holes and put straps threw and knot it. Then Done!!!

Last but not least. The skirt. 

Up this was easy since this Barbie had a painted in top. 

I cut the sleeve of a shirt leaving the original hem on. 

Where my fingers are I put two holes just enough to go through one layer of the hem. 

Now I then used a bobby pin (you could also use a safety pin. I didn't have one)

And tie elastic to that and pub through one hole and make your way around and exit out the other hole. Slip Barbie into, now bunched up skirt, pull tight enough that it fits loose around waist (so when you go to take it off the elastic will stretch over Barbies hips and thighs) tie a double knot and Done!

Bunch dress and tuck knot into hole to hide. Here I pull bunching put if you bunch it back up you don't even see the elastic!!! Great huh?!

Well that's all!!! You can make the skirt longer or shorter or into a long maxi dress just pull up over her chest and cut enough length for the body. Also use a thinner sleeve, so to not have to much bunching. 

Tell me what you think!

Do you have any no sew ideas?

Any websites?

Would love to see what you come up with. 

Enjoy and have a lovely day! Until next time!

NEMO and other fish talk (photo update)

So...Life with kids is fun. You can watch Disney/Pixar movies all day and go to the park and snack when they snack. Yeah you loose a lot of sleep the first year of you new babies life. But It is worth it in the end to me!

As of late my son has been cruising and crawling all over the place. He has an adorable first tooth growing. And the only thing that stops him in his tracks is -----> FINDING NEMO!

He adores this movie so much that he giggles through a good bit of it!

As you sort of may know we also have two Fresh water fish tanks in our lil' apartment.

Josh and Jazmine as most kids and even a good bit of adults love sitting and admiring fish swim all calm in their tanks.

It is lovely and amazing seeing a child be come engrossed in something so simple.

But in other news...Simple doesn't really cut it when it comes to caring for fish.

Especially one with live plants.

It is a lot of work. Keeping it clean, making sure the fish are healthy (so you don't have to explain a dead missing fish to your kids) And lose money to dead fish...some fish can be rather costly, And that each fish is suited to live with other fish that won't bully and kill each other.

So recently my boyfriend has been adding teas to the water that help heal fish and keep them in a good healthy balanced water. Brightens colors and keeps stress levels down. He had researched that adding dried leaves from I think oak trees was good and on one of our walks we collected some. Sadly these leaves must have had something unsafe on them and we lost a whole school of fish (6 fish) and two bottom eaters called otocinclus.

It was a sad sad three days of watching fish get flushed.

We were able to find a brood-range antibiotic to put in the tank and everything is back to normal. And we can continue to enjoy watching our fish swim about.

Here are some photos of our tank.

Most of the photo are older from when the tank life was new and young. I will def. Have to update photos.

Let me know what you think about our tanks.

What are your kids favorite movies?

What kind of pets do you own?

PHOTO UPDATE!

Yoyarn Creations! Back in business!

I am crocheting again!

I mostly do custom orders. Just send me  a request and I will take on your challenge. 

I do hats, blankets and toys. Infants, kids and adults. 

So check me out at

www.facebook.com/yoyarncreations

Message me there for orders or questions and pricing

Here are just a few things I have made. 

Sleep Training update

It has been a few weeks since I started sleep training Josh. 

So far it has made a big difference. He has been doing really well. The first three days were pretty tuff. And the following two days after were kinda bumpy. 

Then he was doing great. We would only have to check on him twice. Not much crying just light fussing. 

Then a week later he was super fussy. Even with his Aunt. So Just outta curiosity I checked his gums which I hadn't checked in a while. Low and behold he had a tooth cutting. 

Poor guy. So he has been grumpy and back to having to be checked up on more often during his naps. He is still doing pretty well. But it's been hard on him. 

We do step in and rock him a bit until he calms down and then try to let him still fall asleep on his own. Get him drowsy pretty much. 

All in all we have a combo of cry it out (CIO) and comfort. Gradually we let him CIO 5,10,15,20,25mins. And so on. Usually he is a sleep within an hour. 

Justin is doing better with it. He caves more then I do. But for the most part he is on the same page as me. As we work together to teach Joshy to soothe himself. 

Sleep Training

WOW!

Yup! Me...I am sleep training my 8 month old baby boy.

I never thought I would have to or even want to.

I personally thought it seemed so crazy to let you child Cry-it-Out (CIO)

I never had to do this with Jazmine. She was a good sleeper from the gate. I think naps were a struggle but only when she was teething or sick.

I had to set alarms to wake up and nurse her or feed her (I didn't nurse her very long)

Anyways

This is sorta Day 2 of sleep training.

Last night is when I started. After getting reassuring words from a friend and then coming home and researching it a bit more as well as reading how wonderful it was not to rock,sing,swing, swaddle and then start all over after he falls sleep in your arms and you set him down only for him to pop his head up again. I was finally willing to give it a shot.

So last night between 7-8pm I started with a big feeding. 2oz of peaches and then potty time then a dry diaper. I nursed him then read him a story.

I kissed him and said, "Ok buddy, it is bedtime. This is our new routine. No more carrier and bouncer with music for 10-20mins or more. I love you buddy. I will be back to check on you in 5mins."

I laid in down and rubbed his back and head and then walked outta the room closing the door behind me.

I have video baby monitor (Nextstep IP-best baby monitor ever!) that I watched while I waited in the other room for 5mins while reading success stories to keep me from going in there and cradling him in my arms.

So 5mins passed (felt so much longer) I walked in and said, "It's bedtime buddy, go to sleep." laid him down gave him binky and rubbed  his head and back and walked out closing the door behind me again.

I then waited 10mins and did the above mentioned again. Keeping it brief but assuring him that I was still just right in the next room.

After 10mins I did 15mins, to 20mins. Kinda caved and swaddled him and rocked him for a bit then laid him back down. Then checked on him about 10mins later. It was around 7:45pm when he started doing the "Mantra" cry. I went in the room one last time. Did the above mentioned again. By 8:07pm josh was just lighty whimpering every now and then and right before Justin got home Josh was finally asleep.

I was so nice. It was ruff but nice. I felt so excited.

Around 9:15pm I went in and dreamfeed him.

He sleep stirred as usual for his night feedings half  asleep no biggie.

Around 3am-4am he was wide awake. So I kind had an early CIO nap session it only lasted 25mins. I only checked on him 2 times.

Then after he officially woke up at 6am I feed him yams and nursed him and pottied him. Watched Sesame Street. He started rubbing his eyes around 7am. So I put a dry diaper on him and put him in his crib with the same process as the above mentioned around 7:30am.

This first nap did not go well at all. Mostly because Justin was still in the room sleeping and moving around and I think maybe it was still a little earlier to try a nap. He CIO until 8:30am Then we scooped him up went to market and tried again after we came home.

The second try we both put him in his crib and told him it was nap time and to get some sleep.

I let him CIO for 10mins checked on him and did the aboved mentioned and he stayed laying down and fell asleep.

He has been sleep since 9:30am it is almost 11am.

I am very happy and hoping the rest of his naps go well today.

Wish me luck!

Here are some links I used to help me get a grasp on CIO methods and Sleep training methods.

I just combined what I knew would work best for me and went from there. It does take a lot will power not to rush in and pick you crying baby up. But it is worth for both of you and family or babysitters.

Like my friend said, "We train/teach kids many things, walking and potty etc, why not sleep?"

When you have your first one it is easy to say, "Oh I don't mind rocking him to sleep." But when you have your second one you won't have that kind of time. You will be juggling both your kids and working and cleaning and dinner.

Your lil one needs to learn to self soothe.

I now think it is good to learn. Not right from newborn age but in my opionion around 3 months old. After the "Forth trimester"

Read Here First

How to Successfully teach a baby to sleep <---Read this!!! definitely a must read!

How to Sleep Train without CIO

Dream feeding prevents nightwaking

Kiddos!

Wow! Summer vacation! School went by so fast my Jazmine.

All year it was difficult getting her outta bed to get ready school and just then other day she said, "Summer is going to take forever, I wanna keep on learning." 

She just graduated from Kindergarten less then a week ago!

She received awards for being Advanced in reading and in math!!! Wow! When I was her age I don't think I even knew all of what she learned in the past two years until 2nd grade. 

She is so smart and loves learning!

She reads out loud so fast and so well and loves reading to her baby brother. 

It's amazing. 

Children grow up so quickly. It's so amazing how fast time flies. 

Josh is already 7months old. Teething and trying to crawl and already trying to stand. He does a lil army crawl so far. He just about sitting up on his own. And about two days ago started saying...Mama!!!! Woohoo!!!! Hahaha!

Both the kids are so content and so great and friendly. (So far josh is ha!)

Jazmine is creative and a fast learner. And quiet the dancer. 

It puts me in awe to see how much Jazmine has grown and changed, especially when I look back on photos of her. 

6 years have past! SIX! 

I have journals for both my kids that I write in. Trying to jot down memories and milestones. I feel like I never get a chance to sit down and write it all. It all comes and goes so quickly and there is so much. 

What do you do to keep memories?

When do you find time?

What is your favorite memory so far?