First she built up the base around a jar.

We added red food colouring, a few drops of dish soap, and some vinegar into the jar. Then she spooned in some baking soda…

And was thrilled to see the “lava” explode out immediately afterwards.

She had a blast playing with the “lava”, spreading it around, watching it soak into the dirt and mud. She noticed that it always went in one direction only, and thought that might be because the jar was a little crooked. She then scooped everything out of the jar and we did it again. I think this instantly became one of her favourite experiments we have done. Definitely one we will be trying again. It reminds me of this project which we have done twice now, and I think will be repeated again this summer for sure too.

Life is moving along right now. It’s busy as we prepare not only for a new baby, but for a new gardening season. Also, it seems that the local home learner’s group is much slower in the winter, and then picks up over the spring and summer, rather than the other way around like the public school system.

One of the newest highlights has been our latest venture: beekeeping. I’ve written a lot more about that on our other blog though, as well as updates on our garden and will be writing some new posts about our chickens and ducks as well.

Meredith recently participated in an art project and then a totem pole walk with a local home learning cooperative group, where she discovered a love of (and affinity for) mapping. We may wander around and map our neighbourhood or look into geocaching or something, as she really wants to do more mapping and similar-type activities. While Meredith was in the art studio (they were doing a Mother’s Day project so I wasn’t “allowed” to know what they did), Fiona and I walked around downtown and found a spot In a park with lots of ants and flowers, and Fiona had a great time just watching the ants working. Afterwards, we all walked to a nearby playground and played until the kids were exhausted.

We also organized a co-op with the local home learning group to get some caterpillars to watch grow into butterflies, that we picked up this past week. Meredith spent the first day drawing pictures of how they look, and looking up what to expect in the chrysalis and butterfly stages and drawing those as well. They’re not very exciting yet, but Meredith does make sure to check on them every day and see if they’ve changed, and is looking forward to the butterflies.

We signed up for a 30×30 nature challenge, and so far have been able to get out every day. We do try to get out every day all year, but sometimes we forget to stop and look around us and see the nature even in busy places (like the ants Fiona found in the middle of a small city park), so I’m hoping it will give us some new ideas and motivation to get out even on not so nice days.

I thought I’d post some of my steps, though this isn’t a whole tutorial, since there are lots out there, more just how I changed it to account for the smaller size of the wearer. I didn’t find much information about making a mei tai specifically for an older sibling to wear a real baby. I used a conglomeration of several tutorials, plus my experience making previous ones, but mostly the Scandi mei tai tutorial and the Hobo Mama tutorial. Click any pictures to see them larger.

Once I had the fabric, the tricky part was deciding on dimensions. The straps were pretty easy. I knew the ones on mine were far too long. I tried on our doll mei tais. The one I recently made for Fiona had straps that were 44” long, and trying that on they worked but were a bit on the short side. The twill my mom had was 60” across, which I decided was the perfect length. I decided on three inches wide, so needed to cut them 7” wide to take into account a 1/2” seam allowance. I folded it selvage to selvage, and then over once more, and used my new rotary cutter and mat (thanks Mom!) to cut three straps. So much nicer than ripping the fabric all the way across and hoping for the best!

I decided to try Hobo Mama’s way of sewing the straps, which is to fold the seams in 1/2” and iron them, then fold the straps in half, and then just top stitch around it after tucking the padding in. I’m not sure whether I like this way or just sewing them normally and then turning them better. It’s definitely a pain to get the padding in and get them turned properly the second way, but turning down each side 1/2” took quite a while too. There are probably more efficient ways than the way I did it though.

I have to say though, that this way definitely made nice, sharp angled corners. I just folded the end corners into the middle and ironed them, and so no need to try and be poking the corners out perfectly after sewing and turning. Sorry for the blurry second picture. I did this on one end of each shoulder strap and on both ends of the waist straps.

For the padding, I cut 10”x10” squares of fleece, folded them in half, then in half the same way again, so I ended up with rectangles 2.5”x10”. I think if I were to make another, I might only do three layers of padding, or maybe make the padding slightly narrower. I tucked the padding into the shoulder straps about 4” from the straight ends, then pinned it all along and top stitched the entire strap. I started with the angled corners to make sure they stayed nice and lined up. I sewed two lines down the just padding section to keep the padding in place, plus I like how it looks. I usually like how top stitching looks and would top stitch the folded edge the whole way too, but I’d read that some people find that creates more pressure points, so I decided not to for now. I can always go back and do that if I change my mind later.

For the body, I wanted it small enough that it would fit Meredith well, but large enough I could reinforce it properly and it would hold a small baby well. I searched around online and got some advice from the Babywearer forums online and a local Facebook group, as well as just holding up some mei tais I already had to Meredith and eye balling what might work. I decided to go with 12” across and a lightly padded waist so we could cinch it if need be. We ended up with it being about 16” tall though I hadn’t decided that until it was almost all put together (as I just made the panels that long with the plan to cut them shorter if I thought it necessary). We looked around at mei tais online, and she decided she wanted the body to be square-ish, and that she wanted the panels to be framed by the pink fabric. I made the panels first, and their finished dimensions are 13”x16.5” or so, to allow for seam allowances. I wasn’t very exact with the height since I knew I might cut them shorter, but did try to get the width right.

I then cut out a piece of heavy canvas to the same dimensions to use as a heavy inner panel. I held it up to Meredith and eye balled the angle for the straps. Many mei tai tutorials advise a 45° angle, but that seemed like it would be too wide, so I went with a 60° angle (from horizontal), which was still easy as I have markings for that on my cutting mat. They probably could have even been a little closer together than that, but it would have been harder to get them even. I made sure they were even and sewed them onto the heavy canvas with x-boxes. Sorry for the super blurry photo. There are much better photos of this on other tutorials. I purposely didn’t sew over the same lines when I needed to go across again. I have read mixed things on whether sewing in the same place more than once could weaken the fabrics (more holes poked along it), so opted for two lines a short distance apart instead to be safe.

I didn’t take any pictures of putting the whole thing together, but there are lots of great tutorials on how to do so, including the ones I linked above. I made the hood based on the Scandi hood but with smaller dimensions. I don’t actually think it needed the hood, as I doubt Meredith will ever want to carry the baby long enough for him/her to fall asleep, but she really wanted one. I haven’t put loops on the straps for the hood ties to go through as I figure I’ll wait until baby is here so I can get them in the right spot. It’s possible tucking the hood straps under the mei tai straps will be good enough anyway. I decided not to cut the body shorter, after trying out a long-ish doll in the mei tai and seeing where it’s head ended up. I know that is not perfect, but it can be rolled at the bottom if needed for smaller babies. I made the padding in the waist quite light, just two layers instead of four, so that we could cinch it if needed, since I prefer legs out carries if possible. I sewed along the waist padding every 1/2” after top stitching the strap, for looks as well as to reinforce it and make sure it could bear weight. I just moved my needle over to the left and lined up the last row of stitching with the other side of the presser foot and it made a perfect 1/2” spacing.

I will report back once the baby is born and we see how well it fits. In the meantime, she wanted to try it out carrying Fiona, who is only 10 pounds and 6-8” smaller than her, plus obviously too long for a mei tai made for a newborn. But it easily held her weight, and Meredith claimed it was comfortable and even carried her around for a short time in it.

I can’t wait to see Meredith carrying her new little sibling around in it too.

My sweet Fiona turned three this week. Kris always takes their birthday off and for Meredith we have done things like gone to Saltspring Island, but the weather isn’t nearly as predictable in March. She originally said she wanted to ride a pony, but there are no places that have pony rides that we could find that are open. So we gave her a “rain check” for a pony ride that we will do in April one weekend. A few of her choices just weren’t open for the season yet so we ended up at gymnastics, and later she went to Meredith’s music class with her and the teacher let her stay after and play with and explore all the instruments, which she was thrilled about too.

It is hard to believe my baby is three. She is such a fun kid and I love the stage she is in. She has gone through some huge developmental leaps in the past couple of months and can count to 12, spell and write her name, recognizes Meredith’s name, has a huge vocabulary and loves to use it, and so much more. She is incredibly thoughtful and sweet, and one of her very favourite phrases seems to be “I have a good idea!” as she attempts to come up with solutions for any problem that may come up. She is, generally, quick to share with others and loves to make other people happy. She also loves to stress her independence and definitely has a cheeky side to her personality. She loves babies and is really excited to be a big sister soon. She also really loves dolls, so her main gifts this year involved a doll I made for her, a high chair Kris made, and a dress, diaper, wipes, and doll blanket made by me, Meredith, and her nana (my mom).

The doll and high chair made by Kris and I. She loved them and they have been played with almost nonstop by both girls since her birthday.

The blanket made by my mom that matches her own baby blanket (also made by my mom), and the diaper and wipes made by Meredith. She even did the cutting of the pattern/fabric, ironing, and everything. She did ask for help going around the curves of the diaper.

We will likely make a few more diapers and some outfits for the doll, as Fiona loves to dress them up and changes this ones diaper a lot. I think I didn’t use a big enough seam allowance so she’s wider than she probably should be, so maybe some knit clothes next time.

Like all of my kids’ birthdays, it was a bittersweet day. So neat watching them grow and move on to new stages, and sad to know they’ve left old ones behind. But I always seem to like the next ones even more than the last, so I am looking forward to seeing what comes.

Lately we’ve been doing lots of sewing. Fiona brought me some fabric from my stash and asked if I would make a mei tai for her, so of course I did. I used this tutorial though I changed the measurements somewhat since she is still pretty tiny.

Meredith really wanted to learn how to sew, so I showed her hot to make baby wipes and she took to sewing quite quickly. She has made quite a few on her own now, many with me in another room cooking or helping Fiona, and not needing much help.

I have also made a doll for Fiona’s birthday this week, along with some clothes and diapers, and Meredith made some small wipes for her. Kris made a little doll high chair for her too. I will post pictures of those and more details after her birthday though.

I made a super easy twirly dress for Meredith using a thrift store t-shirt and this tutorial. She loves it! I just zigzagged the bottom hem for now. One day I’ll hem it properly, maybe. I do plan to make more before summer though. She loves twirly dresses.

I’ve said this many times before, but there are so many things I want to document and remember, that I really want to start blogging regularly again. I’m going to try and make some time weekly to write something about our week and what we have done and our plans and just generally how life is progressing. Both girls are going through some pretty neat developmental jumps, and we have been going on walks and meeting friends and doing science experiments and building and sewing and just generally doing all sorts of things I’d love to look back on one day with them! We will see if I can manage to actually stick to it this time.

Meredith started Highland Dancing this year, and has been really enjoying it. Fiona has asked if she can do it too, so after Christmas we might put her in the younger class and see how she does. She tends to be a little less confident about doing things without me, so in the end she may not be ready yet, which is fine of course. Fiona does love to watch her big sister dance though.

She also goes to a music class regularly. She is learning to play marimba. She also loves to play around with the piano at home. She learned a song on the marimba and came home and figured out (on her own) how to play the same song on the piano. She then taught herself how to play it on the melodica too. Her music teacher told me it’s obvious already that she has an ear for music.

We went to Las Vegas for two weeks in October and that was a blast. I will post more about it later maybe, but we toured around Nevada and Arizona with my dad and saw all sorts of cool things.

Other than that, we spend our time visiting friends, doing lots of arts and crafts, going for walks, playing with toys and each other (they love to play “baby”, which is basically like house, Meredith is the mom and Fiona is the baby)), and lots more. I think we are going to start going to Young Naturalist’s Club meet ups too.

One of Meredith’s favourite activities lately has been to “do fractions”. She will come and ask me, and I will give her little verbal problems (1/2 + 1/2; 1/4+1/2; etc) and she will figure out the answer. She initiated it originally and thinks it’s great fun, so we go with it. I’ve always kept the problems fairly simple, only two fractions and generally the answer is a whole or less.Well the other day we were cooking fish and there were only two pieces left. She asked if she could have a whole one and I pointed out that there were three of us wanting some and only two pieces of fish. She said, without missing a beat, “Okay, how about I have half plus a quarter, and Fiona gets three quarters too, and then you can have half. Would that work Mama?” She figured out 3/4+3/4+1/2=2 wholes in her head! I just love watching her learn and figure this stuff out.

There are six in total this time.

This little guy is about half the size of the rest and has fuzzy feet, so I assume our Silkie rooster has managed to fertilize some of our eggs finally. There is one other with fuzzy feet too (though he’s bigger, so obviously got the hen’s size). The rest would be Ameraucana crosses from our other rooster.

The girls like the little yellow one the best. I think because that’s classically what they look like in their stories and such. (The classic white Leghorn hen starts out as a yellow chick.)

It will be neat to watch them grow and see how they feather out. I love baby chicks!

We took care of a broody hen and were rewarded today with new baby chicks. (I’ll update with pictures as soon as she decides to show them off to us.)

We attended the local Not-Back-to-School Picnic.

We rode our bikes..

We baked and discussed fractions and played with Cuisenaire rods. Some of Meredith’s favourite things right now. She is constantly asking to “do” fractions. And she makes up these pictures from her head. The left is an abacus and the right one is an apple tree.

We planned and hosted a party at a park.

And visited a nature center.

We found crayfish in the creek behind our house, and rescued a snake and a frog (on two different days) from our cat and chickens.

We wrote letters to friends and family.

And created monsters on our refrigerator.

So in short, we didn’t change a thing.

The kids were thrilled (and tired!)

It took about a yard and a half of sand to fill it this much! They won’t run out any time soon though. We still need to get seats and build little diggers for it too.

The swing set is a little wobbly still. We are going to anchor it to the trees somehow and then it should be perfect.

There is room for a third swing on there. Meredith wants one she can stand up on. We need to move the see saw and the trampoline down to this area, and it will be done for now. Though there is still lots to do (a pirate ship play house, a tree house, some balancing equipment, a rope swing of some sort, etc).

I’ve started watching a friend’s son two days a week and the situation is pretty ideal. They live close, her schedule is flexible, and the little boy is just the sweetest, mellowest little kid. I was worried since he is only just barely a year old that he might be a lot of work, and he is (he’s very busy), but he’s also very calm and happy pretty much all the time. Meredith adores him and asks when he will be coming back again.

Otherwise, not much new. The ducks are around 4 weeks old now, and entering the teen years where their adult feathers are starting to come in, so they look pretty funny. They are super sweet though. They came down to where we were building the sand box to check it out (they have been free ranging with the hens now during the day), and walked right up to us. One even crawled onto Meredith’s lap for a worm. They come right up to us when we are outside and aren’t skittish in the least. They are very messy though. I can’t wait until they are outside full time!

If we didn’t already have so many chickens I would be seriously debating just having ducks and foregoing the chickens altogether. I guess we will see once they start laying how their eggs are. Some people don’t notice a difference, and others find they taste fishy (and think it’s because of all the slugs they eat). We have lots of slugs and I’m hoping they will eat them, so we may not get yummy eggs from them.