On the Needles and In the Oven

Things are settling back into our normal routine again and I'm pretty happy about it.  I enjoyed the break and visits with family, but now I'm enjoying our regular routine again.   I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

Little G was happy to go back to school yesterday.  He chattered about his friends (we caught a couple of their names, including the teachers) and was in a great mood when we told him it was a school day.  When I picked him up after lunch he was grinning from ear to ear and didn't want to leave!  He was also as proud as a peacock because he had two stickers on his shirt from using the toilet twice.  The teachers made a big deal of it and he was literally running in circles with his chest puffed out, he was so proud of himself!  I was proud too, since we've been using the toilet successfully at home for a very long time, but he'd been making a liar of me with his preschool teachers. :) 

Showing off his stickers!

In more mundane news, I've been doing a little bread making and knitting.  I attempted the challah bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I ran into a couple of problems with the bread, but they were my doing, so I'll give it another shot. 

The first loaf I made, I didn't photograph, and it was an apple strudel bread I found at the authors' website.  I allowed it to rise too long and it sort of exploded out of the pan in the oven.  That didn't affect the taste though and we still ate some of it.  It wasn't what I was going for as far as the filling, so I decided to try another variation when the mood strikes me again. 

I still had a few pounds of the dough in the fridge after the apple bread.  Since it only lasts five days (due to the sugar I speeding up fermentation, I think) I needed to use it more quickly than I do when I make the standard artisan bread recipe.  I waited until the sixth day and I think that is partially to blame for the lack of spectacular results on those efforts.  I made caramel pecan sticky buns and a loaf of regular challah bread (both recipes in the book).  I did remember to take pictures of those.

The sticky buns were pretty good, but I think they would have been better with fresher dough.  They had a bit too much tang for my taste.  The challah didn't rise quite as much as I'd have liked, but again I'm sure it was from the dough being past its prime. 

I ended up using the challah to make french toast sticks to freeze for Little G.  I sliced it normally and then sliced the pieces in half and soaked them in the usual egg, milk, cinnamon sugar mixture to which I also added pureed butternut squash baby food.  Then I baked them on a cookie sheet, turning halfway through.  They turned out pretty good and froze well.  You could make them with regular bread too.  I did a few pieces that way to use up the rest of the egg mixture, actually.  Here is where I must confess that Gabriel hasn't eaten any of this yet, but I've had it for breakfast twice.  I'm pretty sure he'll like it too. 

On the crafting front, I've been knitting a scarf for myself.  I found a very simple lace pattern on Ravelry that seemed simple and it has turned out to be just what I was looking for.  I'm an extremely slow knitter so I don't like projects that are too big or complicated.  I usually make baby hats, but wanted to make something for myself this time.  I used yarn from my stash and I think it will wear well and it's a pretty color. 

Now the question is whether it will be done in time to wear this winter or next.

Whew!

Well, the past two months have flown by in the blink of an eye!  I had every intention of posting regularly and even thought about posts I would like to compose.  Alas, my sidekick and life in general have conspired against the blog. 

It is hard to believe we are only a few days away from Christmas.  In fact, we've already celebrated with my side of the family, who came up to visit and exchange gifts last weekend.  It was a lot of fun seeing them and Little G loved seeing KK, Pops and Aunt Sessa (Sarah).  They brought him (and us!) some fun loot too! 

I've made a few crafty projects in the past couple of months.  Most recently I made some felt jumbo crayon and notepad wallets for Little G's five preschool classmates.  I need to make a couple more for the cousins.  They turned out pretty cute and weren't difficult to make.  I'm a slow cutter and sewist and I could make one in 20 minutes or so.  The materials are also inexpensive, with the costliest item being the crayons.  I had a difficult time finding the jumbo crayons in stock and ended up paying $3.99 per package, which was annoying since I bought the last ones on clearance for fifty cents.  I was happy to find them though, so I ponied up the cash.  I'll post a pic when I make the next batch, since I forgot to do that before giving away all the others. 

The other project that I'm still working to complete is those darn training pants.  I have ten pairs completely cut out and all are at least partially sewn, but I still have a way to go to complete them.  They are the project that won't end.  I counted the number of pieces in each pair and when multiplied by ten I realized that I've cut out 150 separate pieces to make the 10 pairs of pants.  No wonder I'm tired of them! 

Since I'm loaning a few pairs to my sister in law when she trains her daughter and she's starting next week, I've got to buckle down and finish. 

G is doing pretty well with training too.  He sometimes stays dry for multiple hours now, but not consistently enough that I can just put him in underwear anytime.  He never makes a dirty diaper, which is wonderful!

I've done a little cooking since the last post.  Nothing too exciting, but I recently made my usual cranberry orange nut bread for a little Christmas treat for our friends and neighbors.  I also tried a recipe for microwave peanut brittle I saw over at Made that turned out great!  It has been raining since the day after I made my initial batch, so I haven't made more yet. 

Back to the salt mines sewing room so I can get some stuff accomplished while my little boss is asleep!

Ladder Hill Designs Tinkle Time Trainer Pants Pattern Review

You've no doubt been waiting with baited breath for the update on the training pants I've been making for Little G.  Well, the wait is over and without further ado here is the finished product:

I think they are cute, although the more astute among you (you know who you are), will notice that the print is upside down on the front and right side up on the back.  I'm going to blame that on the one year old who was "helping" me while I tried to get the pieces for these pants cut.  He helped by hanging off of my body, yelling and in general doing whatever he could do to transfer my attention from the fabric to himself.  I guess I should really just be appreciative that it's only upside down!

They have adjustable side snaps so they can grow a little as he does and they can pull on/off OR snap on/off in case of accidents.  There is an absorbant lining between the inner and out layers of cotton knit, as well as a layer of waterproof fabric inside so that wet accidents are somewhat contained. 

Little G's verdict is.... drumroll please........

He likes them!! I tried them on and they fit him and he didn't want to take them off!  I'm hoping it's a positive sign.  Now to work on the courage to put them on him without a diaper underneath. 

Here's a random pic of our crazy guy being his goofy little self.

Here is the pattern I used.  It is the Tinkle Time Trainer by Ladder Hill Designs and I recommend it.  There are several pieces to cut out, but the directions are very detailed and there are several choices on style, materials, etc. 

I also purchased a new pair of snap pliers and some snaps from Kam Snaps and they made all the difference in applying the snaps.  At no point did I want to throw them out the window or yell and gnash my teeth. 

I'm temporarily declaring these a success.  I'll withhold final judgement until we actually use them!

Tool of the Devil

My old snap pliers are dead to me.  I normally would donate something like this that wasn't broken and hadn't been used that much.  In this case, I've decided not to inflict the frustration of using them onto an unsuspecting person just trying to score a good deal at the thrift store. 

They are going in the garbage!  I'm currently debating whether or not to hold some sort of destruction party before throwing them away. 

For your own information and so you never accidently purchase these, they are Dritz brand and I bought them at JoAnn several years ago.  They are difficult to use and the finished product isn't great in my opinion. 

I'm not saying I blame them for the training pants flop, but they definitely didn't help.  On that note, I have good news about my second attempt at training pants for Gabriel.  More on that next time...

Training Pants

So, Little G has been using the toilet for months, but not 100% of the time.  He goes through periods where he consistently never has a dirty diaper because he reliably uses the toilet.  He also has weeks that he doesn't.  We don't stress about it since he's so young, but we are glad he got comfortable with the toilet before he even turned one so it isn't a big concept we are just introducing.  Sitting on the toilet is just part of daily life for him.

I started looking around for training pants for him to wear in the (hopefully) near future and was a little surprised to find that traditional training pants aren't as common as they used to.  I suppose it's due to the popularity of pull-ups disposable training pants, but I'd prefer some that give him the feeling of being wet when he's wet so he'll learn what that means. 

This is my very roundabout way of saying that I decided to try to make some water resistant pull up/down OR snap on/off training pants.  There are tons of patterns available and I decided to start with a free pattern to test the waters.  Here is the one I used.  I took Little G's measurements and decided on the M/L sized pants.  They are similar to a cloth diaper, but have a lot less padding.  They are polyurethane laminated fabric (PUL) on the outside, microfiber in the middle and flannel on the inside and bound with foldover elastic (FOE).  The lady at JoAnn was very curious about what in the world I was making when I bought these supplies!  I could tell she thought I was crazy. Ha!

Here is the final product:

Cute, huh?  The only problem is that I inserted the sockets for the snaps backwards and it would have to be worn inside out.  Oh, and they are enormous on him.  These won't work at all, of course, so this pair is a bust.

I won't be bested by a pair of training pants so I'm going to try again!  I'll keep you posted.