THIRY-SIX

She overcame her fear and has fallen madly in love with the trampoline.

2014 week thirty-six

Labor Day fun and helping around the house. 

She will stop whining if she can sit where she can make sure I'm really not doing anything fun without her. 

Swimming at the pool park with Papa and cousins. Despite the look on her face, she was loving it. 

Fresh Basil Pine Nut Bread. I wish I could post a link to this recipe, but it came out of a cookbook. It had the most perfect crispy crumbly (parmesan sprinkled) crust. We ate a whole loaf that day. 

Helping wash herself in the bubble bath.

Helping to encourage Sam to cut down on screen time. 

Helping us all enjoy the cheetah hunt with a very spirited hunting dance.

Helping to wash the dishes and not pouring water on the floor at all. 

Best homemade dress yet. Now that I've taken a photo I can see it's not perfect but I'm still so proud. 

Vera is at the age of being so wonderfully curious that she wants to be involved in anything that I'm up to. Which roughly translates to, if mama is in the sewing room, I better have free reign of the pin cushion and all the pins or I will make sewing as unimaginably miserable as I can (try to imagine you actually like sewing, ok? And then try to imagine someone trying on purpose to ruin it, and then imagine that someone is not actually capable of purposeful malice). I try to allow her to hand me pins when I need them but if I don't need them fast enough she pokes me with them and shouts "I did it!", which you probably would hear as "Idideh!" I let her sit on my lap while I sew even if she repeatedly unthreads my needle and tries to poke her chubby fingers into the needle, but if I have a quick seam to sew and I don't let her sit on my lap she whines short little gasping whines until I turn to her with the sweetest of expressions and stroke her hair out of her face and say, "Oh dearest darling girl, you must wait only one minute please." I want her to be involved and learn all the things I do and am interested in. But after an hour of fielding whines I want her to go away for a minute or ten. When I have nothing to do? She plays so happily in a little corner babbling to herself or pretending to read. Good work V.

 Now, this dress. I wish I could give you a tutorial. But I honestly was making it up as I went, after I searched forever for a helpful tutorial. This is what I did: I took a dress that's a bit big for V and used it as a base for a pattern to try to copy this

Source

Not a perfect reproduction, I know, but close enough to the look I was going for without shelling out for shipping from France. Ok, the more I look at the photo of mine the more I think it looks homemade (read crappy). Oh well. Keep trying, right. Someday I want someone to come up to me and say, "Where did you get that adorable dress/shirt/whatever?" And I will be able to say, "Oh, I made it." And they wont believe me. Sigh. A little prideful probably, but that would be living the dream.