Applique and Independence

I love my children. I really do. I know that every mother says this! They are growing up so quickly, sometimes it feels like too quickly. Some days their behavior says otherwise but we are headed in the right direction. Moving forward. Growing up. The push and pull of the independence they want is constant and then a moment later they are too scared to walk into a dark room.  As parents we must roll with it.  Recently my husband and I were commenting on how wonderful it is that our son still wants to hold my hand all the time. My daughter used to do that too. Now she pulls away when I reach for her hand. I understand this. I am always learning from these two precious beings. I am learning when to swoop in and when to back away and respect the independence that they are both budding with.

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Yesterday my girl got off the bus, got her snow gear on and went to play with her brother in the yard. I started to get some chores done inside when I peeked out and noticed they were lurking on the edge of the woods, staring down into our neighbor’s yard. There happens to be an older boy who lives there, and my kids are completely enchanted with him. He is a sweet kid. He was coming over to play after school. Once he got here and they had run around in the snow for a while, they came in and asked if they could walk to his house (next door, behind all the trees) to get a snow toy. I knew this would be fine for my girl. She is newly seven and needs some independence. My newly-four-year-old is not there yet. But I knew it would devastate him to be left behind, even if it was a quick errand. I said yes. I watched them all walk through the snow and woods, and watched for their red and pink jackets through the trees until I could no longer see them. Then I panicked. I went through every possible scenario that could happen to my son. Was their pool covered up? (it’s 32 degrees out-yes, it is covered) What about the garage door slamming down on him? Every single paranoid thought hit me and I went to crazy town. I bounced from window to window, opened the back door a few times to listen for horrible shouting (yes, I am crazy), and put together a solid plan for how quickly I could have my snow boots on and get through the snow to the neighbor’s house. Then I took a deep breath, told myself to relax and saw their little red and pink jackets coming back to me through the trees. Big steps for me and baby steps for them. I am always working on the balance in this parenting journey. Discovering what works for us as a family but also finding ways to encourage their growth and independence, even if its just a walk through the woods to the neighbor’s house.

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This Friday at school my daughter has a class Valentines Day party. This is what prompted me to make them each a V-Day shirt. I had a navy tee for my son and a white tee for my daughter. I drew the design (for him ‘love arrows’ and for her ‘hearts’) on the tees with a fabric pencil, and placed a piece of cardboard inside the shirt while I was drawing. I took remnants from my scrap stash and pinned a piece underneath each penciled in area (for example, with the hearts tee I drew the hearts on the outside of the tee and under each heart, inside the tee, I pinned a piece of fabric). I used a very narrow zigzag stitch and sewed where I had drawn. Then I cut out the area inside each drawing. After that, I turned each tee inside out and and trimmed all of the excess fabric and ironed a piece of Pellon SF 101 to cover the design.

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And YAY we have Valentine T-shirts for my two loves!

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