A Fig in Sweden Portland

10 days of old friends and new ones ...

... plus Denver sunshine, San Antonio sunburn, grandma hugs, cousin fun, awesome boat ride, yummy fajitas and a new cow hat.

 

wettest day of the year = puddle jumping!

It's so nice to be able to say "go ahead" when she looks back at me with that grin on her face. 

 

rainy day therapy

Through rain, sleet or snow, we're playing outside every day this week!

It's part of a campaign by Polarn O. Pyret, my favorite Swedish brand of kids' clothes.They want families to commit to getting outside this week. No matter what the weather is.

And while getting out is kind of the norm in our house, I have to admit that the fall rain does make me reach for the car keys a bit more if we have somewhere to go. 

But not yesterday. Instead of driving to Sophie's ballet class, we walked. I put Mathis in the Ergo, and dressed Sophie in her new super-cute cupcake rainboots and waterproof jacket.

I know that getting out with the kids is supposed to be for their benefit, but I've been realizing lately that I feel better every time I'm outside, too. With an infant attached to my hip all day, it gives me  a chance to breathe a little deeper, get perspective and say hi to people in the neighborhood.

And just like working out for 10 or 20 minutes is better than zero minutes, I'd like to think that getting outside for 10 or 20 minutes a day is good, too. For everyone. 

the yummiest dinner ever (and it tasted pretty good too)

I find that I am at my most stressed-out right before Lewis gets home, as I am dealing with a cranky post-nap toddler, a hungry/needy infant, a hungry dog, dirty dishes and figuring out what to make for dinner. So when a recipe for butternut squash gnocchi landed in my inbox yesterday, I had an idea to kill three of those birds with one stone: Sophie would help me make dinner. (What was the third bird? Mathis was entertained by the whole thing.)

Last week, we moved our IKEA HEMNES TV bench up into the little room off our kitchen. It was just supposed to be a temporary spot. But, as you can see, it turned out to be a great little workbench for Sophie. So it's staying. I'm going to try to find ways for Sophie to help me with dinner more often because it was a huge hit on so many levels: no stress for me, a happy kid, a yummy dinner and a picky toddler who licked her plate clean because she made it.

a swedish sewing machine was not fried in the making of this pennant banner

I have been slightly petrified by all the bare walls in our newly finished basement. Like it's so intimidating to have a blank canvas that it's hard to know where or how to start. But my sadness over Sophie's boring off-white room pushed me over the edge. Two tacks have now been hammered into the wall to hold up this handmade fabric pennant banner!

The idea started after I made Mathis a baby quilt a couple of weeks ago (thanks to parental guilt for not making him a darn thing) with my sewing machine from Sweden. It survived. The transformer seemed to do its thing without blowing up the machine. And the IKEA fabric I used for Mathis' quilt lent itself well to a fabric pennant banner, which I have wanted to make/get for Sophie for a while.

I found this DIY page with great instructions, spent Saturday afternoon cutting triangles and sewed it all together Sunday morning.

Two little tacks have broken the ice ... just in time for the little man to move into his sister's room (!!!).

they could be twins

Sophie at 8 months; Mathis at 3. At about the same height and weight (!!!).