First trip to the ER

Eric had his first trip to the ER today. He is fine. It was just me, overreacting.
He fell and hit his face on Lily's metal bed and busted his lip. There was alot of blood and I got scared. I thought that he had opened up the roof of his mouth too, but apparently it was just that there was alot of blood and I'm a wuss.
He is fine, they told me to give him some tylenol for the pain and that is it.
I feel kinda dumb and now that we are home, I'm worried for the bill.
I hate that money is so much the factor in things.
Last month we had to spend my entire month's salary on a diagnostic mammogram because I found a lump. Turns out it was nothing, but given my family history, I didn't want to take a chance. When they told me how much it was going to cost, if I didn't have the family history that I do, I wouldn't have gotten it done!
I am totally thankful that both mine and Eric's trips to the hospital weren't necessary, just sucks that it is going to be yet another year without a vacation because of it.

First day of School

I just dropped Lily off at her first day of Pre-K.
I'm a sobbing mess.
I worry so much about her because she is so shy. I remember how painful it is to be shy and in a new place. I wish I could better prepare her so that she doesn't feel that.
She is so cute because she was so excited for school that she woke up extra extra early and got herself dressed right away (even her shoes & socks!) and was eating breakfast by the time I woke up at 7:15. This is the same kids that will sleep past 9 if we let her.
The morning went all good, she was still excited and happy for school until we were ready to walk out the door. I gave her her bag and told her I wanted to take a picture and she started to cry. I asked her why and she said she was missing me. It was so hard for me not to burst into tears too but I knew I needed to calm her down and my tears wouldn't have helped.
In the car we listened to music real loud and sang along so she would cheer up. I went over some last minute things with her, (like making sure that she knew to ask to go to the bathroom if she needed to rather than trying to hold it) and asked her if she remembered her teacher's names. She responded with this meek little whisper. I'm absolutely positive that she will not utter a word to anyone today.
She was really tough when we got to the classroom. She didn't cry but she was wringing her hands and holding her head down. After I signed her in, I peeked back in the room and she wasn't crying, but she was just standing around all alone in the middle, not playing or anything. I know that this is going to help her with her shyness, but watching it, knowing how hard it is for her is just so painful.
I'm excited to hear all about her day this afternoon.
So right now the house is quiet with just me and Eric, I'm gonna go try and teach him to talk to fix that problem.

(If you want a copy of either of these pictures, just email me for a copy rather than copying them from here, I blacked out the name of her school from her shirt to be web-safe)

For Sale: Sold to Grandad

Lately I've been making these stuffed animals called Bed Fellows. I sell them online and have been getting them into some local shops and have a show next month. So, basically, I've been cranking these out.
I make them by embroidering the faces first. Lily watches and pays very close attention. She made one the other day and sold it to me for $4.50. My dad heard about this and commissioned her to make one for him. I use a disappearing ink marker to draw out the face before I stitch it. Lily did the exact same thing. I stitched one of the eyes for her because she refused to go to bed until it was finished and I can sew faster than her.
The next step is to stitch the faces onto either fur or fleece. I've got a video of this too.. just haven't charged the camera enough to upload it (oops). She is a fabulous stitcher. She totally flew solo on this.
I used to make her only stitch using the handwheel because I was afraid that she would sew her fingers. She has been obsessed with sewing for so long that I gave up and let her use the foot pedal. She isn't tall enough to sit in the chair and reach the pedal, so we have to use a box for an extension.


The next steps I didn't get pictures. I take the fabric that has a face on it and draw a shape with legs on the backside then sandwich it to another piece of fabric and sew it up. Lily did this herself also. My bed fellows don't have arms but Lily drew arms on hers. But, when she was sewing, she forgot to go on the outside and sewed over her armholes.
She turned it out herself. I had to help with getting the feet completely out.

She stuffed it and stitched up the hole by hand. Even tied the knot! This is the finished product.
Lily watches everything... she insisted on taking the photos of her creature herself. I took the one above, she took the one below.

The one she made for me, she set the price herself at $4.50, so I asked her how much Grandad was going to have to pay for this one and she casually said 20. I asked "20 what?"
"20 dollars" she said.
I laughed and asked her what she would say if Grandad thought that was too much and she said "well, he is just gonna have to save up"

I'm so proud.

oops...

I just logged in here to put up a post about the project Lily and I have been working on and realized that I never posted about Eric's birthday!

I'm a terrible mom.

no, I don't really believe that, I'm just too much of a busy body.

We had a great BBQ and everyone had a great time. Everyone but Eric that is.

Eric was annoyed with all the people in the house and spent the entire time in his highchair. I've discovered that he feels safe there and unless I was holding him or he was in his chair, he screamed. He didn't even eat his cake!

I have pictures and even video but they are on the other computer and I haven't edited them so I'll have to post later. Hopefully sometime before Christmas. ;)