Expecting Too Little

We've all heard it before: you can't expect too much from a little child. Don't try to give them too many responsibilities or explain things too much to them. What if the problem isn't that we are expecting too much from our children, but rather too little.

As I was taking a shower this morning, the kid came in the bathroom and told me he had to go pee. Of course let me tell you that the kid is now 2.5 but is very strong-willed and is not going to use the potty unless he feels like it. Which is never. Though he does like to sit on the toilet and "read" magazines like daddy. And the bathroom that I was taking a shower in doesn't have a working toilet right now. So I had two choices. I could climb out of my nice warm shower to run the kid to the other bathroom which would result in him sitting on the toilet,  pushing his penis down, nothing coming out, him getting bored and jumping off the toilet, then him peeing on the floor two minutes later. Or I could pull him in the shower with me and he could just pee in the water and it would go down the drain (what? pee is sterile).

Then a lightbulb went off and I grabbed the metal bowl out of the tub (he likes to make cakes when he is taking his bath) and told him to pee in that. He of course proceeded to sit down on the floor and try to figure out how he was going to pee in the bowl. So I told him to stand up and hold his penis like daddy and pee in the bowl. After three attempts to push the pee out, he finally did it. And might I add that he has pretty good aim.


He was so proud of himself and I was so proud of him! Why had I not tried getting him to pee standing up before? Because everyone says that that is messy and little boys can't aim and I would end up with pee all over my bathroom. And I barely clean my bathroom as it is, I don't need pee on the walls.

So what does this silly story of penises and pee have to do with expecting too little? Well, nobody expects little boys to be able to aim, so I listened to them and have been making my son sit because I didn't expect much out of him. Today he showed me that I was wrong. Actually, he likes showing me that I am wrong. Whenever I tell him to let me do something because I know he can't (I mean, I don't literally say "you can't do it"), he says "No! Yeah-Ye!" (Yeah-Ye is how he says his name, btw) and then he does it.

So perhaps instead of lowering the bar for our young children, we should raise it up a little higher? 

New Old Outfit

Early Wednesday morning we had major thunderstorms in the area so the husband and I woke up around 1:30 (though my waking probably had to do more with peeing every 30 minutes right now) and about an hour later he decided that there was just no going back to sleep. So he got up and got ready to go to work. I could have gone back to sleep, but I decided that since I was already wide awake that I would just get up and go to my sewing room. Four t-shirts for the kid later I emerged.

To go with the upcycled shorts I made a plain white t-shirt out of, what else, a plain white adult t-shirt that I had. I then took the scraps from the shorts and made two rough looking stripes, inspired by this shirt on Make It and Love It. And yes, I really did intend on them looking this rough :)

And just because the kid is so cute, here are a few more pictures from yesterday afternoon :)

Like I said, the shorts are a little on the skinny side. But I still think they work and the husband liked the outfit too. And I think the kid liked it as well!

10 minute upcycled shorts

This is my first contribution to the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. So I obviously did not spend an hour making them, but I say organizing and sorting my fabric counts towards that hour. And I definitely spent at least an hour doing that!

These shorts take no time to make and can be made with few cuts or seams. I used an old pair of women's shorts to make these but if you are making them for a child older than a toddler, I would say that a pair of men's shorts would be best since they are longer. 

For this project you will need a pair of  knit athletic shorts with an elastic waistband and a pair of shorts that currently fit your child. 

Fold each pair of shorts in half and lay the children's shorts on top of the adult shorts, making sure to line up the front seams.

Cut the adult shorts to the size of the children's shorts leaving a small seam allowance. Only make two straight cuts - do not cut in the curve. You could also cut these to the length you want at this point but I decided to leave them the current length.

Now you have two pieces that look like one dimensional shorts.

Pin the right sides of the adult shorts together (Yes, you are correct - I pinned these the wrong way. I only noticed after sewing one side together.) and sew both sides. Nothing complicated. We are talking straight seams here. 

Now pin the crotch together, making sure to line the hems and the center of the crotch up. Sew this together.

 Clip strings then turn right side out. Hem at this point if needed. Then admire your work!

Kids Week Clothes Challenge

I am joining this a little late but "better late than never" right? As I was reading through my Google Reader last night I saw a post with adorable little boy pants and a mention of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge (KCWC). Since I mentioned last week that the kid is in desperate need of new clothes, I figured this was a great challenge to get in on! The basic premise is that you work on kids clothing for an hour everyday for a week. This hour can include pattern making, seam ripping, fabric cutting, knitting, crocheting, etc. 

Although I am not technically "announcing" my joining the challenge until today, I really did start yesterday. I will be back later with the first fruits of my labor!

New Shirts From Old Shirts

The kid is growing so that only means one thing - he is in need of new clothes! I bought him some new shoes over the weekend and got a couple of shorts on cheap clearance at Target for him. But I couldn't find any shirts in his size that I was willing to spend the $$ they wanted for them. So instead I got busy making him some shirts. 

I don't do real patterns, my mind just doesn't work that way, so I always draft my own and put together whatever I am sewing how it makes sense in my head (which is why I am only a so-so seamstress and don't do anything extremely hard).

To draft your own pattern all you need is a current shirt that fits (or even is just a little small) and some kind of paper to trace it on (I use brown paper bags from the grocery store that I get when I forget my reusable bags). In case you aren't sure how to go about this Made has a tutorial showing you how...it is for a lap tee but the basic idea applies to any t-shirt and she even shows you how to make a pattern from a smaller shirt.

After I cut out the pieces I simply sewed them together the way a shirt should go together. Make sense? If not, maybe I'll get around to making a tutorial one day. If you're lucky ;)

There is nothing fancy about these shirts but they fit and are cute. But do you know what the best part is? They cost me absolutely nothing (other than the gas to drive to my mom's to use her sewing maching since mine is acting up again)! I used a couple of old t-shirts of mine to make the blue and grey one and a polo that the husband didn't like the collar on to make the other one. This is what we call repurposing and upcycling.

I really like using old shirts to make shirts for the kid because 1) it saves me money,  2) it gives new life to something that would have otherwise been thrown out, and 3) I cut it out so I can use the shirt's existing hems. I hate hemming! 

If you have any kind of sewing skills,  you could whip one of these up in no time!

Teach By Example

Children are so...impressionable. They are very observant and though they definitely have personalities all their owns, their actions can be easy to shape as they must watch the people around them to try to figure out what is right and wrong.

Take the kid for example. He really likes to open the refrigerator and stand in front of it, surverying its contents while he decides what he wants to eat. Even though his options are generally fruit and cheese so it isn't very hard; I guess maybe he thinks I'm holding out on something else. Anyway. Of course this behavior is not allowed as we try to discourage having the refrigerator open needlessly and remind him to shut the refrigerator door.

Well last night I opened the refrigerator door to get the kid some grapes and left it, including the produce door, wide open while I got them ready. Well the kid was having none of that. He knew exactly what to do and walked up, shut the produce and  refrigerator doors, then looked at me with a big smile, waiting for approval. He definitely got it.

He has actually done this before but it never really dawned on me that he is watching me. He is watching my moves and my choices so he can make his. He is not quite two so he is still trying to figure the world out a little more than, say, a 10 year old would be, but the idea is the same. If there is a behavior you would like to implement or change, let the first change be in yourself. Whether that be eating a better alternative or not using plastic bags at the grocery store, sometimes the best way to teach is to simply act. To teach by example.