That time we were sick and Scarlett learned a bunch of stuff

During August we were hit with a plague.  The girls were going through boxes of tissues.  One day Siena's nose was running, she pointed to her nose and said "tiss honk honk" I know it seems small but it's real progress!  I was doing dishes and I looked over at the twirls and they were just laying on the floor/highchair!  haha!  Poor girls were so sick!  Scarlett even took a nap!

Then I caught strep throat.  I cannot believe how miserable I was.  I couldn't move/sleep/eat all weekend.  I finally went in to the doctor and they gave me pain meds - RELIEF!  (remember I cannot have NSAIDS and Tylenol just doesn't work on everything).

Well, while I was antibiotics and recovering from the worst of the strep Jake worked from home.  He took the girls outside to play a lot but the best part was he would take Scarlett outside during the twirls' nap time.  During the week of illness Scarlett learned two new tricks from her father....

First:  How to pump her legs on the swing.  She can now walk over to the swing, get on, start pumping, and swing to her delight - all by herself.  This is monumental to us.  For some reason standing and pushing them on the swing is one of the most tedious playground parent tasks.  We might be wimps, or maybe our kids just have a super crazy endurance for swinging cause pushing them is a twenty minute sentence minimum!  These pictures are blurry cause I was sitting on the deck - oh happy day!  (PS - for some reason in the second picture she looks like a twirl!)

Second: Jake taught Scarlett to ride a two-wheel bicycle!  Jake is always helping our girls move forward into new adventures - I would have never thought to try taking her training wheels off this young.  She picked it up in one afternoon!  I think we can credit some of that to her time on our little balance bike, and some to her determined spirit!  Look at her go!

Here's the video evidence:

  

Whether you're riding a bike or sitting on dad's shoulders, we take helmet & elbow/knee pad safety very seriously.

This video is crazy!  Leave it to Jake to start teaching Scarlett bike tricks days after she mastered the two-wheels.  Those two.... He's taken her twice to a dirt trail by our house to go riding.  They have a ton of fun together!

Apparently Jake has the magical teaching power.  I think I need to get "sick" again so he can potty train the twirls!

Here's Jaide carrying her bikes.  Not sure why... but hey, that girl's got some muscle!  And she's getting the hang of the balance bike.  Siena has tried it a few times but she's a lot more timid when it comes to physical activities.

Usually when I am stuck in bed and can't work on projects I go stir crazy.  This GSD gal doesn't idle well.  (remember Jake called my super power GSD: Get Shiz Done).  Anyways, since I couldn't actually do anything I spent my time planning new projects.  It's in these moments that I usually come up with some totally random, quick project that I can start/finish right when I'm feeling better.  The first day I felt well enough I escaped to Hobby Lobby for supplies.  The hair bow situation has been getting out of control in our house.  I had ribbon in Scarlett's room but I didn't like how flimsy and unorganized it looked.  And all the twirls' bow were in little drawers in their room.  I wanted all the bows together and in a clean and organized fashion.

I found tons of ideas on Pinterest, but nothing was quite right.  So I came up with this idea.  I took blank canvases and weaved ribbon across the front.  I used Jake's staple gun to staple the ribbon to the wood.  I used 2" grosgrain so that it would hold the bow and not be too slippery.  I made 3 boards - in each of their colors (they were seriously so excited to see their colors.  They each collected the scraps that belonged to them.  Maybe we've taken the color thing a little far... haha!).  I used white for the cross color that way if the white canvas showed through you wouldn't really notice it.  I didn't want the colors to be too crazy cause the bows would get lost.

I hung them with command strips, cause well, they're the best.  I actually had to staple one side of the command velcro strips to the canvas cause it wouldn't stick, but it works great.  Then I hung little command hooks for their jewelry underneath.  I love the way it looks and the girls love picking out their hair bows!  Side note: I think I might need to cut back on the hair bow buying/making for a little while... or maybe not... I still have one canvas left over!  ;-)