Mood Sand Sensory Box!

Because the Caveman is always in want of something, always a tad frustrated that he is not a little bit older and bigger, and is, therefore, always in need of a little calm quiet time; I decided that it was necessary to grow our sensory bin collection consisting of one sensory rice box into two.  We decided to create a box of moon dough sand, and what a wonderfully perfect idea! 

The Caveman and I headed to the store and purchased a gigantic bag of flour, a giant vat of vegetable oil, and a cheap plastic shoebox bin approximately 24" long x 16" wide x 6" deep. We worked as a team to measure and dump 48 cups of flour into the bin. We then added 6 cups of vegetable oil and used our hands to thoroughly and evenly combine the two ingredients. 

The Caveman was amazed by the soft firmness of the resulting dough and full of giggles as he buried his fingers in his box and squeezed the dough into shapes before crushing and crumbling his work! 

He was overjoyed to share his new box with his sister upon her return from school that afternoon, and the two played peacefully together in the moon sand, digging tunnels and caverns, and  reinventing the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff by creating a bridge with safari animal characters. 

This bin provides endless possibilities for texture play, calming of flaring tempers, and opportunities to teach citizenship by requiring little hands to sweep up rogue clumps of dough after playtime. I highly recommend creating one at home! 

Fair!

It was that time of year again for the county fair, and a certain first grader was wetting her pants to attend. The Dreamer had never been to a fair prior to this year, and when her aunt and uncle, my brother and sister, called her after school last week to extend an invitation, she was over the moon! 

When my brother pulled into our driveway at a quarter past four, he was greeted by an excited 6-yr-old sitting in her booster seat in the front lawn. They put their newest passenger on board and honked away. Fair or bust!  

Upon arrival at their destination--the fair-- they parked in a field and walked to the front gates while a suspicious Dreamer insisted that they must be mistaken because "this is NOT the fair".  Apparently, she felt that she was a component of some elaborate hoax, at least until she spotted the dangling bench seats of a Ferris wheel in the distance.  

The fair, in all of its glory, fulfilled and surpassed all of her expectations. She was able to visit and pet pigs, sheep, chickens, and a dairy cow; eat a corn dog and cotton candy; and ride carnival rides and play carnival games to her heart's content! 

She arrived back home late, filthy, and overflowing with stories of her outing, all the while ignoring a very obvious full bladder preventing her from standing still.  

I coaxed her into the house and into the tub as she spoke nonstop of being inside of a pigpen, riding a roller coaster, and  popping a balloon with a dart.

As I steered her toward her room for bed, she remarked, "The Caveman HAS to go to the fair, he would LOVE it!" 

Underpants!

The Caveman is now officially a potty animal! I couldn't be more thrilled to rid my home of percolating cloth diaper smell and celebrate the triumph of my little boy.  

On a bright Saturday morning a few weeks ago, the Caveman approached me in the early morning hours with an old pink pair of training panties once belonging to the Dreamer clutched in his fist. He begged to wear them and is still using the potty today! Success! 

There existed only one problem--nighttime underpants.  Now that he, the Caveman, was used to feeling like a big shot, he began to complain and outright refuse to wear a diaper by night; but a twelve hour sleeping episode is something that calls for some type of absorbancy reinforcement for a novice potty person, thus, "nighttime unders" were created! 

The Caveman is opposed to the pull-up style disposable and to his cloth diapers of old. This presented a problem for me because the cost of one pair of the ideal underwear creature--a pocket style waterproof elastic waist underpant on amazon.com, was exorbitant (in my opinion).  After consulting with some sewers, I decided to create my own pattern using that original pair of pink training panties as my guide. 

I created my pattern by tracing the panties onto a brown paper bag. I made the pieces a bit wider and longer to allow for seams. 

 

In all I created 2 pattern templates. A soaker and a side. 

I bought 1 yd cotton knit fabric, 1 yd PUL fabric, and boutique elastic all for the same EXACT price as one of those ideal underpants I mentioned. My purchases were enough to sew 6 pairs! 

For the soaker, I cut 2 pieces of knit and  1 piece of PUL 

I cut out 2 side pieces

Using a serger, I first attached the outer soaker piece to the PUL piece.  

I next sewed the sides onto one end of the soaker piece with the seam facing in

To attach the inside knit soaker piece and form the pocket I sewed the knit onto the seam from the attachment of the sides so that this seam would be inside the pocket of the finished pants. I folded down the knit one half inch from the top. 

 

Folded end

 I then sewed the other end sides onto the other side of the soaker and attached the knit pocket layer inside out. 

The last step was to attach the elastic. I measured by wrapping elastic around the Caveman's legs and waist and attached by stretching as I serged making certain to leave the folded down side of the soaker open at the waistband. We are thrilled with the results! Fully operational underwear that can accommodate our old cloth diaper inserts! 

Diaper insert pocket

Inside out

Whimsical Woven Fairy Web!

The Dreamer was moping about with a severe case of boredom when we stumbled upon a forked stick in our yard... A spark of magic... 

Time for twig weaving--an instantaneous cure for her ailment.

 

We began by weaving yarn in a serpentine pattern between the two projecting sides of the branch creating a fairy treasure web.  

  

The Caveman attempted a successful wrap because he lacks the motor skills needed for weaving a serpentine pattern. 

Time to decorate with found and natural objects, flowers, grass, leaves, twigs, colored wool roving...

Neighbor boy experienced a wealth of trouble and resorted to wadding as opposed to weaving.

The finished web on display in the Dreamer's room to bring her fairy magic and luck