Well today was my Patricia’s first day of daycare! I was a nervous wreck the last few nights, and I haven’t slept thinking about people who may or may not be vaccinated taking care of my baby during the pandemic. If you’ll remember for Julius’ first daycare drop off I had no prior nightmares or anything, but I did burst out crying. When we actually got to the daycare center I managed to hold it together and didn’t interrogate the staff or break down crying and take her back home with me. I will admit I did cry a little bit on the way, explaining to her that she was going to get to play with some babies.
Poor thing had a bit of a rough day. She ate all her beans and corn (read: an entire ear of corn off the cob, and an entire can of beans) for lunch, but she only napped a single nap of 45 minutes, and took only one 7 oz bottle. I hope the little lady does better tomorrow.
Poor Patricia being the second baby has a lot less attention doted on her. The first couple weeks she was born we used to joke that she would get super excited when you’d look at her because no one ever paid any attention to the little lady. Well the little lady took matters into her own hands and crawled at 7 months, meaning we HAD to pay attention to her! She has such a silly personality too. She’s curious and FAST. You’ll turn around for 15 seconds and she’ll be on the other side of the room trying to jump off the side of the couch. I call her my wild thing. She loves baths, and snuggles. And she especially loves her brother! Yesterday Julius had a fever so we kept Patricia and Julius separate just in case. Patricia cried every time she saw Julius and was taken away from him. Julius cried when he heard Patricia crying.
The funniest thing Patricia does now is blows fart noises on your arm. Every night while I’m getting her ready for bed I’ll blow on her belly, and she retaliates and blows farts on my arm. And she looks at me afterwards and laughs because she knows she’s hilarious. It is my current favorite thing. She also GROWLS. Like a full on growl. It’s not just when she’s mad, she’ll just be sitting there and will growl at her toys. It is very startling and hilarious. Will thinks she’s part bear and Julius thinks she’s part tiger. I just think she’s 100% adorable.
So today’s pattern is a slight modification of a previous pattern that I’ve made a dozen times by now. It’s a portable utensil holder. We take these with us everywhere to prevent having to use plastic utensils. Well that was before the pandemic. Now that we’ve gotten a bit braver, we have been using them all the time again. We take them on road trips and on picnics and we bring them with us to Davis Farmland. I’ve found now, more than the before times, people are really trying to push the plastic utensils on you when you purchase a meal. Unfortunately our portable utensil kits lacked a couple of additions. Julius, when he was slightly younger, always wanted a straw for his drinks. Mandy got us some neat reusable straws from her company that are GREAT for kids! Unfortunately they never fit in our little portable kits, so they stick out the side. We also thought that sometimes it is nice to have chop sticks in your kit. You know, for when you do ramen or sushi to go… :D
Upgraded Reusable Utensil Holder
What you’ll need:
- Heavyweight scrap fabric such as denim, upholstery weight velvet, canvas etc.
- Lightweight scrap fabric to be used as contrast/lining
- Single fold bias tape .5″ wide
- Size 16 dritz snap
- Pattern here
- Cut out pattern pieces as directed.
- Pin lining fabric to outer fabric for both pieces.
- Along the flat surface of the pocket fabric, open out the bias tape and place along the unfinished edge, outer fabric to right side of bias tape, pining along the bias tape fold line. Stitch along the fold line.
- Fold bias tape over unfinished edge, pin in place and stitch close to the first set of stitching, enclosing the entire edge.
- Lay pocket on top of backing, with lining material on the inside. (Match the marks on the backing with the top of the pocket.)
- Open out bias tape as you did in step 3 with the fold 1/2″ from the edge, with unfinished edges parallel to one another. Fold over the starting edge of the bias tape so the seam looks finished. Pin all around the perimeter in this fashion, overlapping the start of the tape by half an inch.
- Stitch.
- Trim the seam to 1/8″.
- Fold the bias tape over the unfinished edge, pin in place and stitch close to the first set of stitching, enclosing the entire edge.
- Insert utensils into pouch and fold flap down over them so it holds utensils in snuggly. Mark location for snap.
- Insert snap following manufacturer’s instructions with the male end on the pocket and female end on the back of the flap so it will snap together when the flap is closed.
- Toss in your lunch bag and save the planet!
