Crib is Finished!

Slowly but surely we're making some progress in the nursery. I finished the crib skirt last week, and finally got around to taking a few photos (thank goodness for preschool, and a little alone time for mommy!).

I just did a very simple skirt - no pleats (since I didn't think you'd even notice them once on the bed, with the way the rails are) and no ruffles (it's a boy, and I'm already using a floral fabric...figured I shouldn't girly-it-up any more than it already is). This made it a very easy project to sew - I was able to complete it in the time Avery was at school one morning, so in about 2 hours or so).

Here's a little closeup of the fabric again.

I need to start on those curtains now, but I tell ya, I'm having a hard time gathering up the motivation to start. The fact that I have to do blackout lining on the curtains is really daunting to me for some reason. I'm sure once I start I'll find out that it's not as hard as I made it out to be in my head. That seems to always be the way it goes. Anyway, I need to pick up a few more things at Joann's before I can start that project...hopefully this weekend I'll make some headway there. I'll post more pics of the nursery as soon as more progress is made!

I love Fall

This is absolutely my favorite time of the year. I love so much about the fall - from college football, to Halloween, to picking pumpkins, to the cooler weather, to this fun activity we did over the weekend:

In case you can't tell from the picture, Avery's holding an apple in her hand, and we're standing in an apple orchard. We went to Bob Lynd's Fruit Farm this Saturday, which we've been doing since before Avery was born, to pick apples.

This year we picked Golden Delicious and Jonathon apples, which are both good for pies and applesauce (both of which I planned on making). My favorite is Honeycrisp, but apparently those are picked pretty early, and we missed them already.

I don't know why I like going apple picking so much, but there's just something about being outside, on a farm, without the distractions of the computer, TV, movies or any other electronics, that is just fun.

Once we filled our bag with apples, we bought a few tickets for Avery to ride this barrel train ride...which she loved.

And I of course had to get her picture next to this adorable sign (this is the first time I've seen it here, but I can see this becoming a yearly tradition. It'll be fun to see how she grows from year to year):

So much fun. If I didn't have enough apples to last us another two months, I would go again this fall!

I made the apple pie on Saturday when we got back and it is delish! Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle the applesauce. Mmmm :)

Crib Bumpers are Finished!

Well, here they are! I completed the crib bumpers last week, and we just put together the crib this weekend so I could see how they looked inside. I'm really happy with how they turned out, especially given my lack of sewing skills.
Here's a closer look at the fabric on the inside of the bumpers. I found all the fabric at Joann's - this stripe (and the diamond pattern on the outside of the bumpers) is from Nautica. I like the subtle change in blue color with every other stripe.

Here's a closer look at the piping. I had never done piping before, but found it not to be too difficult. My only struggle was trying to get the stitching as close to the cord as possible. I never got it as close as I'd prefer (I think they have special piping feet that can be used on the sewing maching for this purpose - I was just using a zipper foot), but I'm still happy with the result. This floral fabric is by Better Homes and Gardens. I'm going to be using it for the curtains in the room as well as in the crib skirt (which I kind of forgot I would have to make, and now need to go and get more fabric...oops!).

And here's a closeup of the ties. I think I had to make 32 of these total. The most time consuming part was turning them inside out after they were sewn. And getting them sewn into the bumper was more difficult as well, because it got pretty bulky when there were two ties, piping, plus the front and back fabric. I had to hand sew those parts, but it didn't really take me all that long to do.

I'm thrilled with how these turned out, and can't wait to get the crib skirt completed and curtains done as well (not sure when that will happen!), so the room will feel more complete. Then...it's on to painting the walls!

First day of Preschool

I can't believe my little girl is off to school already. It's just crazy how fast the time goes. She's only going for two days a week, 2 1/2 hours in the morning. Not much time in the grand scheme, but it's still a big step for her, especially since she spends so little time away from me.

We've been talking about school with Avery for a long time now. She hasn't been excited about it at all. Whenever we bring it up she says "not me!" Like, "I'm not going!" Her biggest concern was, of course, that she would be at school without us, and that made her uncomfortable. I realized that this was a whole new world for her, and she had no real understanding of what school meant, so I was hoping that once she got there and met her teachers and the other kids, and realized they were all very nice, that she would be ok with it all.

I took her shoppping for a new outfit yesterday, in an effort to get her excited about getting to wear some new clothes and going to school. I made sure to include tights in the new outfit, since she loves to wear tights. This seemed to work somewhat, and she was happy to get dressed this morning. When I told her I wanted to go out on the porch and take a picture of her with her new backpack, however, her mood shifted. She was starting to realize that we were going to be leaving soon and she wasn't happy about that.
She didn't want anything to do with her backpack, but did seem interested in taking her Tinkerbell lunchbox to school (which she doesn't need at all at school since they don't eat lunch there, but who cares!). So I said great, let's take a picture with your lunchbox, and she stood very somber on the front porch.
We were able to get a little smile to peek through though.

And were soon able to make her laugh.

Abe then pretended he was going to wear her backpack, and that motivated her to put it on herself.

And she finally gave me a pose with her backpack on.

As we drove to school she asked me several times where we were going, and was getting more nervous the closer we got. Little tears were welling up in her eyes, and she said "not now, mommy." It broke my heart. I tried my best to ease her fears and explain all the fun things she was going to get to do.

When we arrived, she didn't want to get out of the car, but somehow gathered up the courage anyway and got out without a tantrum (thank goodness! I was preparing for a meltdown). I brought her to her classroom and started showing her around.

Her mood lightened when she saw all of the fun things in the classroom.

She was especially excited to see that they had stuffed animals. The girl loves stuffed animal dogs. She didn't let go of that black dog the whole time she was there!

Then she found the puzzles on the desks and started playing with those. I stayed for about fifteen minutes and then the parents were supposed to go and hang out in the cafeteria for a little while until it was time to pick them up (the first day was only going to last an hour). I told Avery it was time for me to leave and that I would be back soon to pick her up. She had a little panicky moment and ran after me, grabbing on to my leg. Her teacher came over and explained that it was time for me to go, and to give one last big hug. She did, and then her tears started to flow. Her teacher had to pick her up (because she was trying to leave the room with me) and as I left she was crying and holding her hands out to me. So sad :( I knew that's exactly how it would be when I dropped her off, but it's hard to watch nonetheless. While we were sitting in the cafeteria, the school director came around to let us know that she had checked in to the room and all the kids were doing fine...no crying. So that made me feel much better.

When I went back to pick her up, she had a smile on her face and I could tell that she hadn't been crying in a while. Her teacher said she only cried for a little bit and then found a puzzle that she liked and was able to calm down.

Avery mentioned several times to me "you came back to pick me up!" as if she was surprised that I did. I think she was really worried that I wouldn't come back for her, poor thing.

On the way home she told me "that was fun at school," so I think overall it was a good experience for her and she enjoyed it once she gave it a chance. I hope that she continues to give it a chance and that we can quickly get to a point where we're tear free when I drop her off. We'll see! Friday is her first full day (which is really just a couple hours), so we'll see how that goes.