Competitive Mothering

After a very bothersome conversation with a mother, I have been thinking about this issue of competitive mothering as I call it. Does becoming a mother inevitably mean we will compare our kids to others and make efforts to "keep up with the Joneses"? Is it something we all do by default? Are we supposed to have a rebuttal to every statement made about ones kids and are we built to brag about our kids to other mothers? This may be offensive to some but its quite curious to me when other mothers compare everything from what size diaper your baby wears at what age to who can count to 100 the fastest! I understand..I get it..I have two of them and I love them dearly but I really hope I don't make others feel less in conversation by constantly comparing kids..especially when the kids themselves don't care! They will have more than enough time to succumb to the pressures and expectations of academia and life but for now is it okay to let them be kids?
Earlier this summer when I asked my little one if she wanted to do swimming lessons, she responded "Sure, as long as I don't have to listen to instructions!" I find that really funny only because thats her personality..she 3 1/2, so should I be forcing her to do all these extracurricular activities now or else she'll be destined for mediocrity? It's great to have schedules for the kids and expose them to as much as possible but I think theres a limit to it and if they want to sit around and play with sand one day then let it be. The mom I'm referring to snickered and replied that her child could swim when he/she was two when I told her I was happy Arielle would take swimming lessons for the summer ! Lets face it, if your kid is going to be the next Gabby Douglas, Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt, they probably already have it in their DNA and all they need is your support for what they show interest in and if they miss the class for a day because they want to play in grass or attend a family event then its ok? No? 

Petit Maison: Part I

Day 1: House after a few hours of prep and a trip to the craft store

I like the idea of making things, this is one of the things architects do all day, the work involved in actually designing, sketching, cutting and assembling an object from scratch is fun for me so I decided to make a small play house for Arielle. Initially, she really wanted one large enough for her and her cousins to hide out in but there isn't anyway I can do that so we decided to make one large enough for her dolls. I am not really interested in making a dollhouse in the traditional sense of the word and I certainly don't have the time to do so either but I can handle a simple design so thats what I sketched up; A simple two story house with a pitched roof. It is very hard for me to keep it simple and not go into real design mode, start sizing beams and calculation stair risers! 

   

Anyway, we started by going to the craft store to buy supplies. I decided to base the house on the largest piece of birch plywood I could find in the store which turned out to be 12"x24"x1/8". Here's what we bought: (2) -12"x24"x1/8" birch plywood, (10) -4"x24"x1/8" basswood, (4) -4"x24"x3/32" basswood and a mix of miscellaneous wood dowels. I also got out my X-acto knife, blades, Sobo glue, architectural scale, pencils, chopper, cutting mat and metal ruler. 

After a quick sketch to figure out what rooms we wanted, we started building.

Because the birch plywood is so hard, I used 1/8" basswood strips for the exterior walls laminated to museum board. The was good for two reason; it gave the wall thickness ( stability) and made it so that I could have a wood finish on one side and white on the other. Arielle enjoyed covering the entire 22x30" board with glue. We then laid each sheet of basswood carefully onto the board and piled magazines atop to keep it flat while it dried. We did this twice, one sheet for the front and back walls and then another for the long side wall.

While that was drying, I measured and cut 4 dowels to use as the edges for the floor slabs. I cut (4) 24" pieces and (4) 12" peices-less the thickness of the dowels. I then glues these onto the bottome of the (2) 12"x24"x1/8" birch plywood sheets and set those aside to dry.

Once the laminated wood and museum boards were dry, I drew out the profiles for the front and back sides and the side and began to cut them out using the x-acto knife and a metal ruler.

As I finished cutting them out I decided to try to assmeble the house to see if things fit together properly. Its important to do this before you glue anything together so you can adjust and trim where needed. If I was using a laser cutter, I wouldn't worry but because I am manually cutting this out by hand, I need to make things line up properly. I did this by basically using anything I could find to hold the walls up with and masking tape.

Two picture frames are holding up the second floor and I taped the walls together at the corners.

It took me a few hours to do all this only because I had a 3 year old helper and a 6 week old strapped to me in a Moby wrap but really its a quick process from start to finish. The next step will be to design and cut out the fenestration and interior walls.

After doing this, we took another trip to the craft store to get more board and pick out wall paper to decorate the house with. Arielle picked out this Dalmatian figure and the lady at the checkout forgot to ring it up until after I had paid up. I promised we'd be back to get it another time but a young lady behind us actually asked her to ring it up with her stuff and gave it to Arie...I had no idea people like this still existed..but it really made Aries day! So now we have a pet for our house.

Next Post: Fenestration and interior walls....

Socks

A while back when I had 40 days to my due date, I decided to try to write something each day that I was appreciative of no matter how little it seemed. Well here's another one..SOCKS! I love socks, maybe because I dislike feet but there's something about socks that I really enjoy. I really appreciate a good pair of socks, that are  warm, fuzzy and quirky. I received quite a few boxes of the baby socks that look like shoes and gave them away mainly because something about the idea doesn't sit well with me - it plays a weird game with my mind especially when you see grown men wearing them..I digress! Anyway, since I saw these from Etiquette clothier, I fell in love- first off, they aren't pink, they're coral, they incorporate three things I like, gray, stripes and polka dots and they are made from the finest Italian combed cotton! I'm pretty sure if they turned up in my daughters room, the husband will have a fit as they are a whopping $30/box. oh and by the way..they have blue too..

6 Weeks Old

Evie at six weeks old is quite a joy. She's still sleeping well, only waking up for a mid-night feeding (at 4:00am) and taking long naps during the day. She stays up more now during the day so we get to actually see her big brown eyes wide open. She can definitely see a bit further now because she stares at the mobile hanging over her crib and the black and white baby art by her changing table which her sister made. Leaving the house takes a while but when we do it pretty smooth, she sleeps although she does not like the car seat once the car stops moving so my weekly Target run requires a little less lingering. 

She is a champion eater and she's got the signature rolls and chubby cheeks to prove it. We have been trying to introduce the bottle once a day which is slightly problematic because she seems to have a preference for that natural feeding methods..She's also showing a preference to cuddling instead of sleeping in her crib which is fine with me, I could sit and cuddle her all day thats only going to make it hard on the person who has to watch her when I return to work or just try to leave without her. She's making some expressive sounds which is fun because Arielle thinks she's talking to her and love its. So I guess I could go on forever about this little warm bundle but I'll just say she melts my heart.