Why I Named It What I Did........

After almost a year, I realized I never explained why I named the ol' blog "In The Wheatfields". When we travel, I meet people along the way who ask where I hail from. Especially in the South and The East many people aren't familiar with Washington and especially my town. After explaining for awhile, I end up always saying "we live in the wheatfields, we are surrounded by them".
The best "inthewheatfields" memory was while visiting the childhood home of Abraham Lincoln while travelling through Indiana. There I met two very nice men who took their love of being historians to a new level. They acted the part, dressed the part believed they lived in that time. I guess that is what happens to a person when they are stuck in an isolated cabin all day....let's just say I kept my distance. I fielded their questions politely and entered their world the best I could.
"young lady" said one while checking out my flip flops, "What kinda disease do you have there on your toes?!" They were looking at my blue painted toenails. They looked concerned. "It's just polishitis"I said. They wanted to know how I kept termites away if I don't grow tobacco. They tried to comb my hair with something that looked like a medevil torture device. They taught me how to name different types of squash. I learned that when it is time to move my family across the US of A in a covered wagon it would be my job to bring the heirloom seeds. "Gotcha" I said. Then finally Jeff saved me. He talked about Washington, we said we lived among wheatfields... not to disclose where we really lived. They wanted to know how many bushels of wheat the Palouse produced. They were intrigued. While Jeff spoke I slowly backed out of the cabin. My chance to escape. Then I saw an elementry school class coming our way for a field trip. "I'm outta here" I whispered. "Godspeed" I thought as the poor kids trooped by....... So there you go. A very long story for a little question.

In other news. We are feeling better and our baby turns one this Friday....More on that soon :)

Another Good Day With My Sewing Machine...

Today I was going to take the kids to the orchard to pick up some apples and pears. Jeff said he could take them for me since I am still not up to it. While the three of them napped, I grabbed LOTS of tea and headed to the sewing machine. I thought it would be cute to make Greta a "orchard dress" which I am pretty proud of.
I am not a very good seamstress but trying. I had no idea what I was doing with the interfacing and pretty sure I got the decorations all wrong but it came together. It was a size too big but I did some tweaking. That is the wonderful thing about homemade. You can adjust everything to fit.

After, I made this quick little number out of corduroy. I was very happy to find that she had two matching shirts and some tights that will go with this.

I didn't sew anything for this little guy but thought this was cute. Standing WHILE stacking blocks...such a big boy.

How Shitty I Feel.....

Greta is doing much better but the flu caught up with me. It's been awhile since I've had it, especially with little kids in my midst. Here's my morning:

Very Early: Greta comes in to wake me up. "you're o.k." she says,"I am right here at the side of your bed" She is talking to me like I am incoherent which, I guess I kinda am. "I'm fine Gret" I say. "I'm right here" she says as she flings herself over the top of me. She adds a few seconds for drama and then she's off. "See ya, I am going to go play with daddy". Geez, does anyone have an oscar for this girl? She has the deathbed act down...

A few dramatic minutes later: I head to the shower. I tell it how shitty I feel. It doesn't care. I look around for shampoo and find some of the kids stuff. The bottle reads"Helps calm restless babies at bedtime" What about a whiny adult acting like a baby? I try it, what can it hurt.

Then they holler to tell me my food is ready: Breakfast. I gingerly walk up the stairs to the kitchen. Greta jumps out of nowhere with a toy catalog. She shoves it in my nose. "Look mommy, I need a new tea set, or maybe this pink piano". The rest I blanked out...The baby is throwing pieces of food off his high chair. drop. "uh oh". drop. "uh oh" drop. "uh oh". His favorite word.

A day in bed might not be too bad even if I do feel shitty and recovering from yesterday. I need to post about yesterday so when I THINK I am having a bad day, I can read about yesterday and say "today is quite good, really.."
Yesterday while Jeff drove home from Seattle to help me in my flu hazziness he had a tire blow out. While he changed his tire, in the dark, he was bitten at least 150 times by mosquitos. (no exaggeration here) Oh, and he is allergic to mosquitos. He is all swollen. After fixing the tire about a hour later his muffler fell off his truck. He wasn't able to get home until 10 p.m. In the meantime, I was layed up with a 101-102 fever, with horrible muscle aches and wearing a mask so I didn't infect the baby..I know it probably doesn't work but made me feel like I was trying, plus he like to pull it. Luckily I have WONDERFUL kids, that either played together or independently and made my day pretty easy. At one point when I was at my worst the baby played for 3 hours not far from me by himself while Greta played at the kitchen table and brought me juice boxes. I love you kids. Right now daddy is buying them special toys for taking care of me yesterday and some sort of potion for his bites.... Wish us luck everyone.

Hello Autumn

The house smells like homemade applesauce and baked squash. No better way to celebrate the first day of Autumn.

Greta is on the upswing. The best indication of this is that she is getting her sense of humor back. If I ask/tell her to do something she replies "whatever you say boss." Each time I laugh. I can't help it. She has the perfect" disgruntled office worker replying to their boss at 5 p.m. while trying to escape their cubicle" tone. I say"I thought you were the boss?". "Noooo" she says,"you're bigger, you're the boss". Well anyway, we all know the REAL truth.

Fieldin spent his first day of autumn in total determination mode. Pulling himself up, standing solo, pushing things around and walking behind it, then crying because it goes to fast for him and he is trying to keep up and doesn't know how to stop. No surprise he went to bed early tonight.

Hope you all enjoyed the start of the new season. Halloween, Turkey day, Fall Foliage straight ahead!

The Flu

It has been a somber day around the house. Miss Greta has the flu. Sadly, we think it is the bad flu, not just the seasonal sort. She is doing good, very good. She doesn't stay down long. Needless to say there was some MAJOR cleaning going on around here, four long hours worth and from the almost empty orange juice aisle at the store, I am guessing the flu is still going around town like wildfire. The littlest fellow in the house is NOT happy with this turn of events.

Sick Greta= No Play buddy, No kissies, No hugs and no playing chase.

This morning before the big clean, I sewed three new skirts for Greta to cheer her up. They turned out well. My favorite is what we are calling the"what came first the chicken or the egg skirt" hanging on the end. The pic is of Fieldin saying"uh Oh" because mommy is hanging stuff on his safety gate again.
Since there wasn't ANYONE fun to play with today..... The babe decided it was a good day to start standing AND climbing stairs.

AND cheering at the football game and dancing. He realized he can get his groove on even easier while standing up.

Lots of news today. Wish me luck!!!

Being Crafty With Things Around The House

A Little pipe cleaner bling......
This was a skirt my friend Sara made for Miss Greta this summer. Sadly, she outgrew it but I couldn't part with it. I loved the seahorse fabric and the fact that Sara made it. I turned it into an ocean bag. Miss Greta, or maybe me :), can use it as a purse or a bag to hold our ocean treasures. The elastic waistband is perfect for keeping everything safe inside. I added a sturdy bamboo handle that Greta can easily hang over her shoulder. I love this.

Today was crafty day so I had the girls make Autumn pouches. An easy pouch to wear on a hike or taking a Fall walk. Little girls love picking up leaves, pinecones and rocks to save. I made it with sturdy cardstock so as long as they aren't picking up soggy leaves we should be ok. I could have made this with sewn fabric but wanted something the girls could glue silk leaves to.

A second crafty day project..folding memory books. A little cardboard, fabric and cleverly folded cardstock and Ta Dah!Perfect for the girls to take on trips to write notes, attach found goodies and stickers, etc.

I also took an old dress of Greta's and turned it into a cute little play/baking apron for her since she is outgrowing the Thomas the Train one I made her last year. I tried to take a picture of her wearing the apron but she was spinning around so much in it I couldn't catch her on camera.

Now that I got warmed up a bit, on to bigger projects....

This And That

Greta and her coloring that won a prize at the fair. She was very excited and won bubbles, books and a cd.
Fieldin has tamed the wild zebra in the playroom. He loves this.

Greta "holding" her brother. He is almost as big as she is...

My roses are telling me autumn is here. Greta and I were out caring for them today and noticed that they have been nipped. The mornings are cooler. Greta's eating all the dried cranberries we bought for Fall baking. And me, I am getting my Fall crafty bug. I pulled out unfinished knitting projects from last Spring and getting the sewing machine out. I have lots of projects in my head floating around. If I find time to do them, well that's another story....

mmm..mwah!

you'll need to tilt your head for this one....

A Special Day

No Birthdays. No Holiday. Just a special ordinary day and one I will remember. The day my kids became play buddies and friends. Not just genetically linked siblings. They have always adored each other but there has been some distance lately. Greta was not quite ready to make Fieldin her play bud, since he was just "the baby". Her door has been kept closed a lot lately to keep brother "out". Today he won her over. I heard him get an open invitation to her room, with one condition ...of course, there always is. "Keep away from my princess shoes. You can come into play". Shortly later she said "Fieldy, lets play cars". He's been slowly breaking her down lately by blowing her kisses,"mmmm..mwah" whenever she walks in the room and dragging over the Fischer Price Christmas catalog over to her so they can whisper about what to ask Santa for this year ( I overheard, sounds like the Bat Cave). They get into trouble and each say"uh, oh" in unison and she has been giving him LOTs of hugs, Setting him on her lap, wanting to set next to him at the table, the list goes on. The big breakthrough moment came this morning when they were looking at a book about sharks. Fieldin would work hard to get his pointer finger working(his new trick), point to a shark and say "Nay Nay"(our poor fish). They both said "ooohhh" while turning the pages and looking at the sharks and Fieldin attacked Greta's arm like a shark and said "arggh". They laughed, they talked, he was in like flin. It has been a cool day watching them. Another brother bonus, he is quite the whistler. A talent Greta hasn't mastered.

I love you two, even though you are already ganging up on me. It's o.k. I am just so happy you are friends...and to see Greta's door open again.

Friday in Pictures

Today was fun. Like every day, really, just a little more exciting. I actually ran out of upload space for this blog post so there were many great more pics of the day. You will have to check them out on flickr..just click to your right. We spent the morning at the science center. Greta had fun playing with her neighbor friend and learning about whales. She is happy to tell everyone now that a "whale is a mammal, not a fish!!" She also made a whale puppet with blowhole..very cute. Then home for food, nap and off to the county fair. Good times...As most of you know from reading this blog that Greta is FEARLESS!! ha ha you say, No! Listen she is FEARLESS..it is a bit scary. Nerves of steele. I was amazed. She was begging to go on the very fast high rides..Thank heavens she wasn't tall enough or we would have never gotten her off them.
Fair first timer. He did very well and sad he couldn't go on the big kid rides.

An introduction to the funnel cake. A happy moment in everyone's lives.

Only my girl could get me on this very high ferris wheel. Greta was over the moon excited. Looking around, shaking the seat to laugh at poor mommy even more. It was like a kiddy ride to her, I actually think she was getting bored. Me on the other hand, I had a DEATH GRIP on our bar and very sweaty palms...I hate heights.

Petting the cute animals and then being chased by mommy with a purell bottle...

I love Fridays.

Pudger's Morning

Fieldin 11 mths
Originally uploaded by inthewheatfields

I wrote about a Greta morning a few(?) days back so I thought I would write about pudgies morning, Today Sept 9th:
Woke up at 2 a.m., woke up officially after 7 a.m., cried eveytime "dada" left his sight, ate some cheerios, dropped some on the floor for later, cried because "dada" went to work, refused breakfast, so decided to sit and watch Greta instead, finally ate, played with a bell, ran away from "mama" because she was going to dress him, ventured into big sisters room...then was told to leave by Greta, quick playtime, trip in the car to storytime, sit and stares at the big kids ( no kids his age today) and looks terrified when mommy does the washing machine dance with him, is not excited about ring around the rosie..., into the car again and sucks on fish toy, sits in stroller and checks out the ladies at big sisters dance class, new teeth start to hurt so sucks on mommys shirt and tries biting her arm, squeals while peeking in window and seeing Greta dance, falls asleep, wakes up for carride home and stares at Greta the WHOLE time, is let down to crawl and crawls directly to dropped cheerios from the morning and starts eating them until mommy intervenes, eats nectarine and is happy to see daddy home for lunch.

Fieldin at 11 mths

Us
Originally uploaded by inthewheatfields

I've been a tired mommy lately and a bit behind on this blogpost. Fieldy turned 11 mths on September 2nd and he has been busy. Like usual, here is what I know about Fieldin at 11 mths:
His favorite thing right now is a small tidetable book, He is Fast especially when he is trying ot hide something from us, He can pull himself up if he wants to but he doesn't feel like walking yet, He is getting in his two front teeth and an eye tooth, He LOVES cheerios, He likes wearing capes, He puts everything in his mouth..so gross:), he likes to eat crumbs off the floor, he likes making BIG messes, He says "whoo,whoo" when he plays with trains, he says"tree" when he see one, He waves at people and squeals in delight if they smile at him, he says "Hi", He stacks blocks, He is very good at playing, He hands over a toy to share, smiles, and grabs it back if you don't share back, He still is a horrible sleeper, He doesn't like broccoli, He feeds himself with his hands and starting to practice with his spoon, He likes birds, He likes to eat the newspaper, He is funny, He loves Thomas the Train...so much, He puts blocks in any box, container etc he can find, He likes to play kitchen and pirates, He says "uh oh", He has quick fingers, He likes to get into the fridge and pantry and Greta's room, He's a good traveller, He likes people now :), He's stubborn, He LOVES sourdough bread, He loves large cities, He can see out the window in the back seat of the car and squeals at passing cars, He doesn't like having his picture taken, He "reads" us books upside down and laughs hysterically when he's done and he still likes the ladies.....

Hello September

It's September 1st. Today was the start of another pre-school year for Greta. She was SO excited. The day was enjoyed somewhat like a holiday around here, with a special written message for my girl and a surprise waiting for her when she got home. She was very proud of herself for picking out her own outfit and getting dressed all by herself for the 1st day of school.
(Greta by her cubby in her new classroom)
She loves her new teacher and classmates. She introduced herself to a new friend while waiting for the classroom door to open. She is a social butterfly and was excited to meet new classmates.

Once inside her class she had me put her name tag on (which she told me to do quickly), found her cubby and stuffed it full of her stuff and ran over to play in the kitchen area with new friends. When we said goodbye she was playing and surrounded by 4-5 new friends.

She spent her day mostly doing art projects and imaginative play( no surprise there :)) and already has a boyfriend which we find terrifying. Jeff has asked Greta if her boyfriend has lofty goals and aspirations. She just giggled and said" He can play leapfrog".....

As for little brother, he did fine. I said to Fieldin in the car on the way to school, "We aren't going to cry when we drop Greta off, are we?" And he gave us a long head shake no, which Greta loved. I am so happy that you love school Greta. We are so proud of you.