January

Hey guys! It's been a while, but I love sharing my life with you, and I'm looking for an alternative to Facebook. Hopefully I'll find this to be a better way of sharing my life with my family and friends.

Here are some pictures from January:

Big L did a science project to see what size balloon has the most potential energy. He hypothesized that the biggest ones would have the most energy.

We used the balloons to propel a straw along a string and measured how far they went. The big ones went the furthest, just like he hypothesized!

I've had to cut short little L's naps ever since our dear carpooling friend moved away. He used to wake up as soon as I opened the door to his room, but you see that he's still soundly sleeping even though I turned on the light as well. We've worked it out so he gets more sleep now, but there were a couple weeks where his naps didn't work out so well.

Little L figured out how to open up our doors! Since the knobs are an unusual shape, I had to make the knob covers myself. I found some examples of crochet ones, made up a pattern, and whipped out a few during a movie with Austin (Ant Man and the Wasp). This photo comes to you courtesy of C, who loves to take pictures with my phone anytime he can.

Big L recently started the gifted program at his school. On his first day, they made "brain focals!"

Eating frozen blueberries makes him look like a monster!

Sitting in the toy box

A was asleep, so the boys got a hold of his glasses

Lots of cuteness ensued!

Beginner's crochet headband for infants

Guys. I had NO idea headbands were so easy to make! Even a beginner can whip this one up in an hour or less (I think for me it's about 30 minutes), and it hardly takes up any yarn at all. Awesome, right?? So since I came up with the pattern myself, I thought I'd write it down and share it with you all. Here goes!

Materials:
-2 different colors of yarn, worsted weight (that's the kind that you usually think of when you think of yarn. It'll say on the package, though, if you're worried.)
-Size K hook (You could probably do it all with size H, but I'll explain in a minute why I included two sizes)
-Size H hook
-Scissors

Band:
In color 1 using size K hook, chain 50, turn, skip one, single crochet to end. You're done!
*note: I estimate that this combination will make the band to fit most babies 4 months and younger. If you use a size H hook, I recommend making the band a bit longer, since your stitches will be smaller. If you want this to fit a larger head, just add more stitches.

Flower:
Change color to color 2 and use size H hook. Chain 15. Turn, skip one, single crochet (sc) to end, chain one, turn, stitch 2 sc in each stitch to the end. Switch colors to color 1; slip stitch in each stitch until the end; tie off, leaving a long end to use in sewing up flower (it's nice to have a long tail of both colors, so when you cut the other color, try to leave several inches for sewing).
Curl up into swirly flower; sew the flower in place so it stays where you want it.

Finishing touches:
Sew button on to one end of band. Crochet is nice and hole-y so you don't need to worry about button holes. This makes the headband nice and adjustable, which is great for babies! Sew the flower on to desired position on band, and voila! You're done. I added some fabric glue to the flower to help along my debatable sewing skills.

Look what I did!!!

I finally finished it!

It took soooooo long, but I finally finished it, border and all :) I love that it's a wave and not the sharper zig-zag pattern.

I just had to share. Now on to smaller projects that I'll be able to finish in a few days, instead of years (because I get tired of them in the middle and take year (or more) long breaks). No more blankets for me! Unless of course it's a baby blanket; then I might consider it.